Federal prosecutor Mary Jo White was appointed to investigate the pardon of Marc Rich. She was later replaced by then-Republican James Comey, who found no illegality on Clinton's part.
#4
Comey found no illegality in the Mark Rich pardon because the President has, for all practical purposes, complete power to pardon.
What would make it illegal was if Comey could produce a case of bribery and this is quite difficult without an actual document that says 'I'll give you this if you do that'. Yes the pardon was disgraceful and disgusting but that is not illegal.
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/16/2018 19:18
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#5
The Pardon, itself, was legal... IIRC Susan Rich, Marc Rich's wife, was a big donor to various Clinton *cough* "charities" at the time...
[ez2url] Did you ever wonder how they did the music for The Good, the Bad & the Ugly? It is so cool to see how it was made after all these years. Some of you may not be old enough to remember this classic from the '60s'. Here it is anyway. This is fantastic. Turn it up nice and loud and enjoy. For those still caught in the '60s groove -- this is the answer to how that magnificent signature tune came about...Superb....wait till the guy whistles!
#2
Great!. The man on the far right (as you face them) is playing an acoustic bass guitar. I have both a ukelele and a ukelele banjo.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/16/2018 9:56
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#3
While the link provided is very nice, if you want to hear one of the finest renditions of this theme song outside of the original tracks, have a listen at the link provided
[Hot Air] On Friday evening there was a story at Politico which didn’t seem to gain much traction, what with all of the Trump activity going on. Congressman Elija Cummings (D-Md) is the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee and he’s demanding that committee chair Trey Gowdy issue a subpoena to the EPA over their handling of both FOIA submissions and requests from Congress for documents, saying that Scott Pruitt’s administration was "screening" requests based on political sensitivity.
These were all part of a skyrocketing number of such requests the EPA has received under the Trump administration, but we’ll have more on that below. So what was this new, secret program to allow the EPA to "screen" incoming requests?
Hot Air has received a copy of both Cummings’ letter to the EPA as well as the response sent to Cummings this weekend from Kevin Minoli, EPA’s Principal Deputy General Counsel and Designated Ethics Official. First, let’s have a look at the introductory portion of Cummings letter and what he’s clearly implying with his demand for a subpoena.
(Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N) said on Monday it won an order for 14 freight aircraft for a value of $4.7 billion, firing the opening salvo against rival Airbus SE (AIR.PA) in a contest for business on day one of the Farnborough Airshow.
Logistics group DHL placed the order for the 777 freighters and acquired purchase rights for seven more freighters, the U.S planemaker said.
Boeing and Airbus are expected to make several announcements on the first day of the July 16-22 event, as they seek to bolster their already bulging order books.
The latest order follows Boeing’s deal with FedEx Corp (FDX.N) unit FedEx Express (FDX.N) in June for 24 medium and large freighters.
While global trade tensions are escalating, the industry is counting on e-commerce continuing to soar, with more people buying products online for quick delivery.
Air freight demand is expected to increase 4 percent this year, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Last year was the best for cargo since 2010, with traffic growth more than doubling to 9 percent, three times the growth in capacity.
#1
I don't think any major commercial fleet operations chief will tell you there's any advantage in having aircraft from more than one manufacturer.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/16/2018 10:37
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#2
Airbus uses huge contact mount points made of composites or at least used to. The problem is you can't x-ray for fractures like you can metal mounts.
Remember the airbus that crashed after 9-11? Back then I checked out pilot log boards. Cargo pilots were scared of the airbus and some refused to fly them.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When it became clear that President Donald Trump was seriously considering nominating Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, the conservative judge’s former law clerks swung into action as among his most energetic public cheerleaders.
But in making the case for him in the media on issues including his stance toward abortion, healthcare and an expansive view of religious liberty, they may have opened up lines of attack on Kavanaugh by Democrats and liberal advocacy groups seeking to derail his nomination in the U.S. Senate.
Trump named Kavanaugh, 53, on July 9 to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. Before he can assume the lifetime job on the nine-member court, the Senate must vote to confirm him. No date has yet been set for the customary Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings.
Kavanaugh has served for 12 years on an influential federal appeals court in Washington. Several of the 48 lawyers who served as his clerks - a year-long job working for a judge, usually straight out of law school - appeared on cable TV shows, wrote opinion articles and spoke to reporters, often trying to shore up support among conservatives.
Their comments may have helped Kavanaugh’s cause before Trump nominated him by pushing back on complaints by some conservatives that the judge would not lean far enough to the right on social issues like abortion as well as on a conservative legal challenge to the Obamacare healthcare law.
But the chief threat to Trump’s nominee now is the Democratic campaign to block Kavanaugh’s confirmation in a Senate in which the president’s fellow Republicans hold a slim 51-49 majority.
Of the 48 clerks, 34 signed a letter calling for the Senate to confirm his appointment. Many secured prestigious Supreme Court clerkships after working for Kavanaugh and subsequently landed jobs at law firms, law schools and in government.
[The Hill] Veteran reporter Carl Bernstein on Sunday said special counsel Robert Mueller's recent indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officials proves his probe is "not a witch hunt."
"Indeed, the president’s object has been throughout to make this appear as a witch hunt," Bernstein said on CNN's "Reliable Sources."
"It is now demonstrable to all, for all to see, this is not a witch hunt," Bernstein continued.
Bernstein's comments come two days after Rosenstein announced Mueller's indictment of the Russian officials for conspiring to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Eleven of the defendants are charged with conspiring to hack into networks used by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). The other is charged with conspiring to hack into systems used to administer U.S. elections.
#1
Several others have said it is not a witch hunt. However, I'd bet that in the eyes of much of the American public, they view the investigation as a contrived, bogus witch hunt since the biggest witch has been largely ignored. The bogus investigation has been used to deflect, try to paint POTUS in a corner, and cover-up wrong-doing from the previous administration.
#3
What I find baffling in this Computer Age and expecting minimal degrees of BASIC Russian tradecraft in the spying business: How in the world could you be positive that these Russians did it and some random 'Ham Sandwich' didn't?
Mueller, show so spine: Indict Vladimir Putin!
#5
I can’t conceive a way reasonably competent Russian electronic intelligence agents could leave a trail that would identify themselves. But it is easy for them to do so intentionally- and it would make sense too. Quit bono?
#6
#5 I can’t conceive a way reasonably competent Russian electronic intelligence agents could leave a trail that would identify themselves.
I think the Russians are pretty competent when it comes to cyberspooking--little in the way of a trail left behind unless they want to.
I'd like to know about why the FBI showed so little curiosity about HRCs 30,000 missing emails, Weiner's computer, the DNC server and the flow of info out of her server to foreign entities.
As someone said, Hilda did what she did with her server because she was either incompetent and stupid or deliberate. I'd vote for deliberate. She was brazen and didn't think she would get caught. So far she has been correct.
#7
"However, I'd bet that in the eyes of much of the American public, they view the investigation as a contrived, bogus witch hunt"
I'd bet that when the subject of Mueller comes up the eyes of much of the American public glaze over.
Posted by: james ||
07/16/2018 11:15
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#8
Bernstein -- almost five decades of being used as a Deep State Mouthpiece!
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/16/2018 17:02
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#9
What a cop out political POV from Bernstein. This has so obviously been a witch hunt. Their problem is that Trump isn't the witch no matter how hard they tried to find him to be. Its pure PR BS to "indict" these Russians-they will never come to trial. But it makes news and is an empty gesture to get those in the American public who don't understand the rules to think - wow, "if there are indictments, they must be on to something". Assuming these 12 were "Russian spies" , they were simply doing what spies do. And, since it happened on Obama's watch, the blame should be there but not with our twisted media types.
On Friday ‐ three days before today’s summit meeting between President Trump and Russian President Putin ‐ the boss of Team Mueller, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, announced that a dozen Russian intelligence officers had been indicted on charges relating to Russia’s attempt to interfere in the 2016 election.
The Friday indictments publicized by Rod Rosenstein were an attempt to constrain the president’s maneuvers in today’s meeting. If they do, Team Mueller will have succeeded in interfering in our foreign policy to a far higher degree than the Russians did in interfering in the 2016 election.
In the late 18thcentury Russian Field Marshall Grigory Potemkin, then the most powerful man in Russia, supposedly had constructed several phony villages along the path that his lover, Empress Catherine, would follow in her tour of southern provinces so she could see contented, happy peasants when nearly the entire population of Russia lived in misery and slavery. His name became synonymous with falsity.
These Potemkin indictments could have been announced a month earlier or a month later. Instead they were obviously timed and intended to have an effect on the Trump-Putin meeting. Mueller has no business playing around with foreign policy. The Friday indictments were a truly despicable abuse of power.
Last February, Mueller conducted a dress rehearsal for the Friday indictments. Then, his grand jury indicted three Russian individuals and thirteen Russian companies for posing as U.S. persons, creating false U.S. personas, and operating social media pages and groups designed to attract U.S. audiences, all in furtherance of Russia’s attempt to interfere in the election.
Under our judicial system defendants can’t be tried in absentia. Individuals have to appear personally although corporations can appear by counsel. Because Russia never extradites its citizens for trial, fifteen of the sixteen February defendants were neither extradited nor chose to appear willingly in U.S. district court.
(The one corporation that did served discovery demands on Mueller immediately. Defendants are entitled to "Brady material" ‐ all the evidence that the prosecution will use in court and any exculpatory information in possession of the prosecution. A judge allowed Mueller to block that demand temporarily and keep all his information secret, delaying the trial indefinitely.)
As I wrote at the time, that indictment was a publicity stunt by Mueller because the Russian individuals and companies wouldn’t be extradited and had to voluntarily appear in a U.S. court for any trial. He could have just as effectively indicted Leonid Brezhnev or Yuri Andropov.
Mueller and Rosenstein knew that the GRU officers wouldn’t be extradited after the Friday indictments were announced. If the Friday indictments were a serious pursuit of Russian wrongdoers (which, perforce, they aren’t) they would have been handed up by the grand jury, sealed from public disclosure, and one or more of the people indicted lured to some jurisdiction where they could have been arrested and brought to the U.S. for trial.
But that wasn’t Mueller and Rosenstein’s intent. By timing the Friday indictments on the last business day before the Trump-Putin meeting, these indictments were much more than a publicity stunt. They were an improper attempt to influence what Trump does at the summit.
Whether or not the Democrats had been tipped off by Mueller or Rosenstein, they reacted with near-record speed demanding that the president cancel the Putin meeting.
Shortly after the announcement, Senate Minority Leader Chuckie Schumer said, "President Trump should cancel his meeting with Vladimir Putin until Russia takes demonstrable and transparent steps to prove that they won’t interfere in future elections. Glad-handing with Vladimir Putin on the heels of these indictments would be an insult to our democracy."
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), ranking Dem on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said much the same and just as quickly. Ailing Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) ‐ the New York Times’favorite Republican ‐ piled on, issuing a statement that said that if Trump weren’t willing to call Putin to account for the election interference, the summit meeting should be canceled.
President Trump, as he should have, refused to cancel the meeting. He said he may challenge Putin on election interference and expects Putin to deny it entirely, as he has done in the past.
The United States has to have a diplomatic relationship with Putin’s Russia. Russia’s influence challenges ours in every nation and region the Russians can reach, so diplomacy can help resolve disputes by means short of war. That relationship has to be at arm’s length and can, as it presently does, include severe economic sanctions against Russia.
On the day the most recent Mueller indictments were publicized, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said that the warning lights were blinking red on the foreign ‐ including Russian ‐ attacks on our infrastructure. Coats said that if he were meeting with Putin, he’d deliver a sharp message that we knew the Russians were responsible for a host of the cyberattacks.
Our relationship doesn’t mean that the president should just walk out of the meeting if Putin again denies interfering in our elections. But it does mean that the president should threaten Putin with appropriate responses that go far beyond Mueller’s Potemkin indictments for Russia’s future cyberattacks and interference with our elections. More sanctions are in order.
The president has, unaccountably and illogically, treated Putin with kid gloves since he began his 2016 campaign. That isn’t to say that he’s treated Russia that way. Thanks to Trump, we now have severe economic sanctions on Russia in place.
Is Trump too easy on Putin’s aggression? As I wrote in March, U.S. airpower killed more than two hundred Russian mercenaries trying to cross a bridge near Deir-Ezzor in Syria to attack U.S. allies there. He has severely condemned the alleged Russian poisonings of the Skripals in London with the nerve gas Novichok, which is made in Russia and was probably wielded by Russian FSB agents in that incident. More sanctions should be imposed because of them (and the more recent Novichok poisoning of other civilians in Britain).
Trump criticizes Russia regularly but ‐ with few exceptions such as the Skripal poisoning and Putin’s support for Assad’s chemical attacks ‐ never criticizes Putin by name. That should change but the augurs for today’s meeting aren’t good.
The biggest topic of today’s meeting will be the war in Syria. National Security Adviser John Bolton said recently that the president wanted Russian help to drive Iran out of Syria. That’s a fatuous idea. Russia and Iran are allies in Syria aiming ‐ so far successfully ‐ to keep the terrorist Assad regime in power and to establish firm footholds in Syria. It’s neither reasonable nor possible for us to expect Russian help in removing Iran’s military presence from Syria.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Putin last week seeking similar help. He didn’t get it, and he won’t. Neither will Trump.
Our allies fear that Trump may conclude an agreement with Putin to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria in exchange for some ephemeral promise to help get the Iranians out. It’s possible, given Bolton’s statement, but ‐ we hope ‐ unlikely.
The president came out of last week’s NATO "Hunger Games" in a strong position. By pounding on our NATO allies for their refusal to invest in their own defense, he had a tremendous impact on their complacency. Today, he needs to take equally strong positions with Putin on Syria, election interference, and cyberattacks. Whether he does will determine his credibility with both Putin and NATO.
Robert Mueller and Rod Rosenstein are earning a similar place in history if not our language.
KABUL (REUTERS) - Afghan President Ashraf Ghani gave his first indication on Sunday that vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum could be allowed to return from exile after days of protests by the former warlord's supporters.
Ethnic Uzbek leader Dostum was forced into exile last year over accusations of human rights abuse, settling in Turkey.
In recent days supporters of Dostum's Junbish-i Milli party have staged protests across northern Afghanistan, blocking major highways and shutting down government buildings including electoral offices.
Speaking at a news conference in Kabul, Ghani said Dostum's case was under consideration and "the possibility of his return has increased."
"His case has a legal aspect and it is with the attorney general," he said, promising more information later.
Dostum, a great survivor of Afghanistan's turbulent politics who has faced multiple accusations of human rights abuses over decades, denies accusations that he ordered his guards to kidnap, beat and sexually abuse a political rival. He has not been charged.
Kabul's international partners including the United States have demanded that Dostum face justice. Last year he flew to Turkey, ostensibly for medical treatment, and has not returned since.
However, while in exile Dostum has kept his formal title of vice president and his influence among the ethnic Uzbeks of northern Afghanistan has remained strong, fueled by growing enmity among the country's mix of different ethnic groups including Pashtuns and Persian-speaking Tajiks and Hazaras.
With parliamentary elections due in October ahead of the more important presidential vote next year, tensions have risen sharply as Afghanistan's political strongmen position themselves and the cracks in Ghani's unwieldy unity government widen.
On Saturday, a meeting of the main parties demanded that voter registrations be annulled because of concerns over electoral fraud, a demand Ghani angrily rejected, pledging the elections would go ahead as planned.
Although Dostum joined Ghani as one of two vice presidents in the national unity government formed after the disputed 2014 presidential election, he has always been an uncomfortable partner.
[American Thinker] President Trump’s diplomacy will continue to make America safe and strong, as long as he relies upon his own experience in negotiation and does not follow State Department guidance.
The majority of our 75,382 State Department employees do not support our president. Many are openly scornful. Several ambassadors, ready to retire anyway and with full pensions locked in, have resigned dramatically.
But because State Department protocols and diplomacy have failed us for decades ‐ in Libya, Syria, with the creation of ISIS, Russian expansion, and North Korean belligerence ‐ their "Resistance" has given President Trump the opportunity to do an end-run around them.
[Zero Hedge] In my last post I set out the official Government account of the events in the Skripal Case. Here I examine the credibility of this story. Next week I shall look at alternative explanations.
[WAPO] In response to Post opinion writer Paul Waldman’s essay about the current power of the minority in American politics, the American Enterprise Institute’s Norman Ornstein offered a stunning bit of data on Twitter.
In broad strokes, Ornstein is correct.
The Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service of the University of Virginia analyzed Census Bureau population projections to estimate each state’s likely population in 2040, including the expected breakdown of the population by age and gender. Although that data was released in 2016, before the bureau revised its estimates for the coming decades, we see that, in fact, the population will be heavily centered in a few states.
Eight states will have just under half of the total population of the country, 49.5 percent, according to the Weldon Cooper Center’s estimate. The next eight most populous states will account for an additional fifth of the population, up to 69.2 percent ‐ meaning that the 16 most populous states will be home to about 70 percent of Americans.
#8
Politicians in California seem to think that anybody in the whole wide world who wants to live here should be welcomed. That means sacrificing the quality of life that those of us who already live here enjoy. They are currently in the process of turning the entire state into one vast slum. The freeways are gridlocked and crumbling, we don't have enough water, schools and hospitals are vastly overcrowded and the politicians keep telling us we need more affordable housing so we can accept more people. But the more they build the higher the cost of housing rises. At the same time, people looking to escape the high taxes and the extraordinarily high cost of living are leaving the state. I can think of four families I know right now who are leaving. It all leads me to the conclusion that our politicians are either insane or crooked or both.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/16/2018 12:32
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#9
The Senate and Electoral College shall thus be even more important against popular mobs in those mostly-blue states.
Posted by: si vis pacem, para bellum ||
07/16/2018 16:26
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#10
Making predictions on trends continuing is foolish. At some point the Boomers living in NY and California are like to buy homes in red states so that their retirement money goes a lot, lot, further.
Donald Trump goes to Europe, scandalizes the Euroweenies, libs, and cruise-shilling grifters of Never Trump, and comes back victorious. He’s about to get his second SCOTUS justice confirmed ‐ all they have on Brett Kavanaugh is that he likes beer and is named "Brett." In Congress, the Democrats decided to go all in on abolishing ICE because Americans love open borders and welcome MS-13 or something. In the Mueller farce, the Dems decided that the smart play was to publicly run interference for creepy weirdo Peter Strzok when he went on national TV doing his impression of Lotion Boy from Silence of the Lambs.
...Look, I was not a Trump fan at the beginning ‐ I was anti-Trump but never Never Trump, both because I was Never Hillary and because I wasn’t a Beltway squishboy who would take his white paper and go home when my guy Ted Cruz lost. I just had no idea what to make of Trump at first because he didn’t look like any mainstream Republican I had seen in the last few decades. But then, I soon realized that he didn’t look like any mainstream Republican I had seen in the last few decades because he wasn’t a hapless loser. He was the anti-Jeb!.
...How did this guy win, and in doing so crush the avatar of the establishment, the smartest woman in the world, Felonia Milhous von Pantsuit? One of his secrets to success is really no secret at all. It is to embrace the obvious. Unlike our exhausted establishment, Trump rarely holds to bizarre, indefensible positions. You would think that would be an instinctive thing for politicians of both parties ‐ "I know! I’ll adopt stands on issues that won’t make my constituents ask ’What the hell is wrong with you?’" ‐ but it isn’t. Instead, the establishment has somehow talked itself into taking positions that are so clearly ridiculous that Normals scratch their heads, baffled at what they are being told by their betters via the lapdog liberal media.
...One of the secrets of Trump’s success is having really, really stupid enemies, enemies who are so tone-deaf and out-of-touch that they simply cannot adopt commonsense positions that resonate among normal Americans. The establishment instead insists on telling Americans that up is down, black is white, and girls can have penises. Nope. No wonder the Normals have gotten militant, and no wonder a leader like Donald Trump came along with the vision to exploit the opening the establishment left for an outsider to rise and prevail by embracing the obvious.
#4
#1 That's his skill and it takes a lot of brainpower to do that.
True, BP. But also greatly aided by the fact that the self-described "elites" (*spit*) value and promote idealogical conformity (whatever that happens to be this particular minute) over intelligence and skill.
[American Mirror] Nancy Pelosi can’t seem to find anything nice to say about anything positive that happens in the Trump era.
"June jobs numbers show what is at stake from the brewing storm of rising health costs, spiraling trade uncertainty and an economy being hollowed out to enrich big corporations and the wealthiest 1 percent," Pelosi said in a statement.
"Six months after receiving their windfall from the GOP tax scam for the rich, Corporate America is on track to spend $1 trillion on dividends and stock buybacks, while announcing tens of thousands of layoffs, refusing to give workers a raise and raising costs for families. Meanwhile, hard-working farmers, factory workers and families across the nation are reeling from retaliatory tariffs and trade uncertainty. America should be taking strong, smart and strategic action against unfair trade policies, not recklessly antagonizing our allies and inviting retaliation against the men and women of American farming and manufacturing," she said.
"The American people deserve so much better than the raw deal they are getting from the cynical Republican special interest agenda. Democrats know that the American people deserve A Better Deal, with Better Jobs, Better Wages and a Better Future. Democrats will never stop fighting for the hard-working middle class families who are the backbone of our nation."
Last month, Pelosi was equally negative about the positive economic news.
#1
The dems need to fine those workers more for being productive in order to improve their lives (and also the lives of bribable senators who direct that loot)
#2
...All I know is this: I have never worked as hard as I am now...and I've never made as much as I am now. I got a pretty substantial raise, an our customers have material pouring in for work. I'll take it.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/16/2018 5:01
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#3
she looks like a bloated triggerfish
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/16/2018 7:41
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#4
So according to her, no job growth and higher taxes are the way to go. Whoopee, that's a bandwagon to jump on. Sure-fire election winner (sarc). Keep plugging that Nancy. You're on a roll.
#11
"June jobs numbers show what is at stake...
(They are hiring non-Union, where's MY kickback!?!) from the brewing storm of rising health costs,...
(Big Pharma! Big Insurance! Yoo-Hoo! Where's my bribes PAC donations?) ...spiraling trade uncertainty
(Okay, CA seaport business taking a hit would be bad for the constituents, so give her a Pass on this one) ...and an economy being hollowed out to enrich big corporations and the wealthiest 1 percent,"...
(That Pelosi is one of those 'wealthiest 1%' is irrelevant, right? Right?) Pelosi said in a statement.
h/t Instapundit
Rich Allison is a former Marine Corps captain who was never in combat. Now he is on the front lines of the culture wars.
Mr. Allison, 47, is a key player in a movement of men’s rights activists challenging female-focused businesses, marketing strategies, educational programs and civic projects that have surged since the election of President Trump in November 2016 and the #MeToo movement.
He has been a plaintiff in 13 lawsuits, most of which cite discrimination against men in violation of California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, named for the politician Jesse Unruh, known as "Big Daddy." It outlaws discrimination against all people by any type of business establishment in the state, regardless of a person’s sex, race and other characteristics. Mr. Allison and his cohort would like to remind everyone that Unruh’s broad promise of "full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges or services" extends to men.
[Breitbart] During the Saturday MSNBC broadcast of "AM Joy," Janai Nelson, Associate Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense, argued it is "absolutely insane" that President Donald Trump is able to appoint a Supreme Court justice "when his entire authority is really suspect."
Nelson said Trump should not be able to nominate anyone while he is under investigation and the legitimacy of his presidency is in question.
"[I]t is absolutely insane to think that he can make a lifetime appointment to one of the most significant and important institutions in our democracy in this moment when his entire authority is really suspect," stated Nelson.
#3
Time to exclude the children -- Democrats -- from political power. They cannot gracefully accept losing an election, which indicates they don't really want to compete in a democratic republic but rather they want to be dictators. For their own safety, strip them of the franchise and forbid them from holding any office with more responsibility than cleaning feces off the strert.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/16/2018 7:19
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#4
The unhinged left needs to get off that dime. Nothing is suspect except the whiney babies of the left who can't accept that they were outsmarted, outworked and unable to rig the election sufficiently to put a really poor candidate in office.
[MAIL] In the dramatic footage, the CH-47 Chinook can be seen at an altitude of about 11,000 feet, hovering in the air above Mount Hood, before slowly descending to where the climbers and the rescue team are waiting for its arrival.
On its way down, the pilot spins the helicopter around, performing a 'pinnacle maneuver,' landing just the Chinook's two rear wheels on the mountain so that there's easy access to the cargo bay.
Guardsmen can be seen exiting the helicopter at a crouch, avoiding the chest-height spinning rotors, and helping to escort the climber and the rescue team inside the helicopter.
The Chinook delivered the climber to a baseball field in Welches, Oregon, after which he was transported to the hospital.
The rescue was said to have taken just 32 minutes and four seconds from the time the helicopter departed and returned to the baseball field.
#1
They had to risk their lives because of the egos of the climbers. Send them the bill. What part of "Don't do that ****" didn't they grasp? They believe they're entitled to put others at risk of life.
#3
The Chinook is probably the only aircraft in the world that could perform this at 11,000-ft.
Then again, when our family Marine was transported by these in Iraq, every person being transported was issued either a grease gun or fire extinguisher.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/16/2018 8:12
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#4
They still use these? I remember building a Revell plastic model of one when I was a kid - over 50 years ago. Shortly after my grandfather bought his Desoto.
#7
#6 Add to the B-52. These two are more than impressive. So are the people who have trained to undergo such operations.
Definitely not Nigerian "troops".
h/t Gates of Vienna
The #FreeTommy march on 14 July on Whitehall had an amazing turnout. This, despite police telling people they weren’t allowed in and some were outright lied to being told that the event had been cancelled.
A young woman whose throat was slashed inside a University of British Columbia student residence has filed a lawsuit against the school alleging negligence.
The notice of civil claim says Mary Hare was inside her room in Salish House in October 2016 when international student Thamer Almestadi entered carrying a knife.
Almestadi's trial heard he knocked on the 19-year-old's door, slit her throat and started choking her before other students pulled him off.
A court found the teen not criminally responsible because he was suffering from a psychotic episode in which he believed the Qur'an had sent him a message to kill Hare.
#3
I'm only being half snarky here. Did the students who pulled the guy off get punished?
Doesn't sound like a psychotic break. Sounds like he's been paying attention at Sunday School.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
07/16/2018 6:07
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#4
That would be "Friday School".
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/16/2018 7:29
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#5
Rabid animals are also 'not responsible' for their actions and there is a standard public health response. The insanity defense has become ... insane.
The B.C. Review Board discharged Almestadi from a psychiatric hospital earlier this year in order for him to return to his home country of Saudi Arabia, where his parents had designed a treatment plan.
Does Canada have long term psychiatric hospital care, or just emergency stabilization until the patient commits a crime that can get them sent to prison, as we do in America?
#8
tw, all I know is that Canada's health care is superior to America's. Of course, so is the UK's, Cuba's and any other country that has socialized medicine. /sarcasm
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/16/2018 22:01
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[Daily Caller] San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the streets of her city are flooded with the excrement of the homeless in an interview Friday.
Breed, a Democrat who was inaugurated as San Francisco’s mayor Wednesday, urged homeless advocacy groups that receive money from the city to teach homeless people to “clean up after themselves.”
“There is more feces on the sidewalks than I’ve ever seen growing up here,” Breed told KNTV. “That is a huge problem and we are not just talking about from dogs — we’re talking about from humans.”
The streets of San Francisco are littered with a “dangerous mix of drug needles, garbage, and feces”, KNTV’s investigative team reported in February after surveying the city’s streets.
“We see poop, we see pee, we see needles, and we see trash,” preschool teacher Adelita Orellana told KNTV. “Sometimes they ask what is it, and that’s a conversation that’s a little difficult to have with a 2-year old, but we just let them know that those things are full of germs, that they are dangerous, and they should never be touched.”
There are about 7,500 homeless people living in San Francisco according to the city, which will spend nearly $280 million this year on housing services for the homeless.
Breed said San Francisco’s high cost of living cast the city’s homeless onto the streets.
#4
Where the rubber meets the, um, when the sh*t hits the, eh...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/16/2018 7:11
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#5
"There are about 7,500 homeless people living in San Francisco according to the city, which will spend nearly $280 million this year on housing services for the homeless."
There's your problem, right there. Stop spending that money. Round them up and put them a camp, no drugs or alcohol. They get clean or they die from withdrawal. Bring back strict vagrancy laws and enforce them.,
#7
40 years ago Harvey Milk passed his signature (and only) legislation: The Pooper-Scooper Law. Admittedly aimed at dogs in the Castro, a fitting tribute to the "Saint of San Francico" would be to apply it to the current strays on city streets.
#11
$40K seems a bit much, but then there's the 'support infrastructure & personnel' costs to consider.
Cheaper for us out here in the hinterlands to just buy these folks a one-way bus ticket to either coast (~$250).
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/16/2018 12:08
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#12
They really blew it when they turned Alcatraz Island into a national park. It'd be the perfect place to incarcerate vagrants.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/16/2018 13:00
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#13
I would like to see some insights into the forces that created this situation. Not interviews of the suits but the victims of same.
How can the trillions of debt this country had forced upon us by the likes of What-Real-Estate-Bubble? Bernanke and the 2009 UN Nobel Peace Prize winner not have created a market place for workers? Obviously liberal incompetence is one answer and there are others. What a crime. My feeling is these homeless and likely oxy painkiller enthusiasts would rather be working. What a novel concept, Mr. Bernanke. You too, Mr. Transparent Administration. Meaningful work, not a government check. Not an empty and tedious speech.
But, when there are legacies to be created...universes to be properly shaped...note 'properly'.
#15
I thought SF was grossly overrated even before the latest shit storm
Posted by: Regular joe ||
07/16/2018 18:37
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#16
The dangerous health issues from germs becoming airborn with dried poop hasn't been mentioned much, along with the homeless being able to block streets not being safe to pass panhandling, I have read how many people have started taking Uber to work where they used to walk to get to work but it's too dangerous, contaminated needles, city losing money due to private businesses with vagrants outside their door & conventions going elsewhere. All under Democrat policies. What used to be common sense of decent behavior has been lost. Tents and people taking up public space should not be allowed as it infringes on the rights of all, along with all the unsafe areas they create. Not to forget that among these tented areas, terrorists could hide away with who knows what kind of armorments in these spaces dangerously close to downtown governmental buildings. Laws should be enforced to not allow this on public space. But it's not going to happen, the latest I read was SF was planning more safe free zones to shoot up drugs. So very sad, as San Francisco used to be a great city, I hope it doesn't spread to other cities, we've got to stop this and those that support this sick Democrat philosophy. Gorb suggested Portland and Eugene which is near and dear to my heart, this unhealthy sickness needs to be stopped before it continues like a cancer throughout other cities.
Posted by: Jan ||
07/16/2018 19:19
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#17
The dangerous health issues from germs becoming airborn with dried poop
We assume that is how Mr. Wife contracted amoebic dysentary in India back in 1991. He wasn’t there long enough even to have eaten or drunk something off, but ended up hospitalized over there for about ten days before the parasite specialist cured him. I’m told Mr. Wife was very lucky — had he come home before it manifested, the American doctors would not have recognized the problem, allowing it time to become chronic.
Later they kissed and made up. But before that, at that NATO summit in Brussels, President Trump let them know who’s boss.
No more rolling over...and while he was respectful to the Queen, and contrary to the habits of his predecessor, he did not bow.
He focused on Angela Merkel, since she represents them all. He schooled her for double-dealing ‐ that pipeline to Russia that puts Germany at the mercy of Putin who can turn off the energy spigot any time he wants, and then who ya gonna call? The United States, of course, which will have to come to the rescue, as usual.
Which is why the 28 heads of the EU circle around Trump like small trembling fish around a Whale. Twice before America had to put Humpty Dumpty together again.
So Merkel makes that deal with Russia and then expects the United States to continue paying most of the tab for NATO, which exists as a deterrent against Russia.
#5
To listen to the Dems and left wing media after the Trump-Putin news conference, one would wonder who I was talking about in #1. The Deepstate reacts and is sniping at Trump. Shepard Smith is also carrying water for the Deepstate on Fox at this moment. He is fairly unbalanced.
The European Union is one of America’s ’greatest foes’, President Donald Trump said Sunday, arguing that the 28-member union’s trade policies were inimical to the interests of the United States.
When asked by CBS’ Jeff Glor on Sunday what he believes is America’s "biggest foe", the president responded that the US had "a lot of foes", then proceeded to name the European Union.
"I think we have a lot of foes. I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade. Now, you wouldn't think of the European Union, but they're a foe."
Trump also named Russia as a "foe" of the US "in certain respects".
"China is certainly a foe ‐ they’re a foe."
"It means that they are competitors. They want to do well and we want to do well. And we’re starting to do well."
Turning back to the European Union, the president also cited what he claimed was the failure of many EU member states to "pay their bills" in NATO, referring to NATO’s burden-sharing benchmark, requiring member-states to spend at least 2% of their respective GDPs on defense.
The president made the comments a day before his much-anticipated summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday.
Trump has said he is going into Monday’s meeting with "low expectations", and discussed diplomatic and security issues related to the summit with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli premier told his cabinet on Sunday.
IMO, the ideology promoted by EU in 21st century is just as dangerous as Nazism and Communism they've produced in the 20th.
#3
The European Common Market was one thing... The EU is another -- a pan-European Empire, they just hide behind euphemisms, and Empires only have enemies and vassals...
#5
Our friends? We are Colonials! And if you get their Elites tipsy on champagne they will confide that we, the US, are nothing but a motley assortment of ill-bred mongrels -- the children of Losers that couldn't 'hack it' in Europe.
Although Germany's entire defense budget is $42 billion, it is as Donald Trump provocatively observed, only twice as much -- approximately $21 billion -- as it pays to Russia in gas purchases. The facts are stark. "About 35% of Germany’s gas is imported from Russia, and fracking is banned at least until 2021. A former Chancellor of Germany sits on the Gazprom board." At a time when Putin is the international bad guy it's disturbingly hard to deny that much of his bankroll originates in Europe.
Merkel is certainly intellectually aware of the facts. In light of her country's energy dependency on Russia she warned that "all of Germany's energy policies must be reconsidered." But Merkel is captive to Germany's politics, bound by its "Energiewende policy involving phasing out nuclear power by 2023 and increasing its reliance on solar and wind power." Although fracking may provide a a technical escape from dependence on Russia it is a political impossibility.
...This mirrors the broader political situation on a continent that is both energy poor and rich in environmental zeal. "The EU is the largest energy importer in the world, importing 53% of its energy, at an annual cost of around €400 billion. ... The EU has .... an emissions trading system ... to counter climate change, and a major factor in EU energy policy. " The one constrains the other. But as with Germany, the tightness of the bonds varies by locality. Poland and other eastern European countries -- probably with the memory of the Soviet era still vivid -- are more willing to rely on coal and possibly shale gas "as a higher priority than CO2 reduction."
But in Western Europe things are different. There the long shadow of the anti-nuclear movement hangs over the electorate. Even considering non-carbon energy sources, it's interesting to compare French and German nuclear energy choices. "Nuclear power is a major source of energy in France, with a 40% share of energy consumption in 2015 ... the largest source of electricity in the country, with .... 76.3% of the country's total production of 546 TWh, the highest percentage in the world". By contrast German nuclear power is in the process of assisted suicide. "Nuclear power in Germany accounted for 17.7% of national electricity supply in 2011, compared to 22.4% in 2010. ... As of 2017, the share of nuclear power in the electricity sector in the country is decreasing following the decision of a complete nuclear phase-out by the next decade."
A special report in the Economist notes the Germans bet big on solar and wind power without realizing the complications. "Wind and sunshine have two big drawbacks as sources of power. First, they are erratic. ... The second problem ... oddly, is that ... because their power is free at the margin [it] is pushing down the clearing price and bending Germany’s energy market out of shape." At the margin the two lowest bidders to supply the electric grid, to the horror of the environmentalists, are solar and lignite. Perhaps one of the most tragicomic consequences of Berlin's decision to stop coal production in 2018 was it forced them to import coal -- 25 percent of it from Russia.
Posted in the hope that someone can explain why Turkey is giving away expensive power when they are having financial problems back home.
[AnNahar] A Turkish power generating ship arrived Sunday off the Lebanese coastal town of Jiye, the National News Agency said.
"It will dock next to the Jiye power plant and will be connected to it," NNA added.
It said the ship was towed from Beirut by a specialized vessel.
Under a deal with the government, the ship will supply Lebanon with 200 additional megawatts that will be free of charge in the first three months.
For the past few years, Lebanon has been relying on two other Turkish power ships to cover some of its power generation deficit – the Fatmagül Sultan and the Orhan Bey.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/16/2018
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#1
the ship will supply Lebanon with 200 additional megawatts
nuke?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/16/2018 9:35
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#2
Wonder how many cell phones you can charge off a Turkish power ship.
#3
No nuke, they consist of 4 or more large turbines mounted on what essentially is a container ship. Karadeniz Energy out of Istanbul has fourteen of these (maybe more now) in varying output capacity that they lease out worldwide.
They'll run on either NG or fuel oil.
The Chinese and Russians have the nuke power generating vessels.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/16/2018 13:29
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[KhaamaPress] The local officials in 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 are saying at least eleven Talibs were killed or maimed during a clash with the police forces in Hesarak district. The incident took place late on Friday night in the vicinity of Hesarak district of Nangarhar province.
The provincial government media office in a statement said at least four Talibs were killed and seven others were maimed during the clash. The statement further added that the security forces and the local residents did not suffer any casualty during the clash.
The anti-government armed Lions of Islam including Talibs have not commented regarding the report so far.
Nangarhar has been among the relatively calm provinces since the fall of the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... regime in 2001 but the anti-government armed Lions of Islam have been attempting to expand their foothold in this province during the recent years. However, some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go... the Afghan armed forces are busy conducting counter-terrorism operations to suppress the myrmidon groups.
The US forces based in Afghanistan also conduct Arclight airstrike almost on routine basis to prevent the myrmidon groups expand their foothold in this province.
[KhaamaPress] The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) released its latest report regarding the civilian casualties in Afghanistan, reporting 1692 deaths during the first six months of the year.
The report by UNAMA further added that 3430 civilians have also suffered casualties during the same period, due to various incidents.
According to UNAMA, IEDs caused nearly half of all civilian casualties. Continuing trends first documented last year by UNAMA, the majority of IED casualties were caused by suicide and complex attacks, which again were responsible for record high civilian casualties, resulting in 1,413 civilian casualties (427 deaths and 986 injured), a 22 per cent increase.
UNAMA attributed 52 per cent of civilian casualties from suicide and complex attacks to Daesh/ISKP, mainly in Kabul and Nangarhar province. The Taliban were responsible for 40 per cent, the remainder were attributed to unidentified Anti-Government Elements.
Ground engagements were the second leading cause of civilian casualties, followed by targeted and deliberate killings, aerial operations, and explosive remnants of war.
The armed conflict caused 544 women casualties (157 deaths and 387 injured), with almost half from ground engagements, UNAMA said, adding that it recorded 1,355 child casualties (363 deaths and 992 injured), a 15 per cent drop compared to the same period in 2017.
UNAMA attributed 67 per cent of all civilian casualties to Anti-Government Elements, with 42 per cent attributed to the Taliban, 18 per cent to Daesh/ISKP, and seven per cent to unidentified others.
UNAMA attributed 1,047 civilian casualties to Pro-Government Forces, approximately the same as during the corresponding period in 2017. Pro-Government Forces caused 20 per cent of all civilian casualties in the first half of 2018 (17 per cent by Afghan national security forces, two per cent by international military forces, and one per cent by pro-Government armed groups).
[Al Jazeera] At least seven people have been injured in the oil-rich Iraqi city of Basra after police fired tear gas and water cannon at protesters rallying for better services and employment opportunities, police and activists have said.
In the latest in a week of daily protests against corruption and poor governance, hundreds of Iraqis gathered outside Basra's main provincial government building on Sunday, before the situation quickly turned violent and security forces began firing in the air and used tear gas and water cannon.
"Some protesters tried to storm the building," one police source told Rooters news agency.
"We prevented them by using water cannons and tear gas."
According to the source, nineteen members from the security forces were maimed by stone-throwing protesters.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2018
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#1
If they would just adopt Bernie Sanders' basic income "money for nothing" approach, stuff like this wouldn't happen...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/16/2018 7:03
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The jihadist rebels of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham are not backing down in west Daraa, despite facing an overwhelming force from the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and their air force.
Led by their elite Tiger Forces, the Syrian Army is attempting to advance in the western countryside of Daraa in a bid to force the remaining jihadist rebels to surrender the area.
However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham has repeatedly refused to surrender in this area, as they control the highest point in the western countryside of Daraa.
For Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, as long as they control the large hilltop of Tal al-Harrah, they will have fire control over a large area between the Daraa and A-Quneitra governorates.
Furthermore, as long as they can withstand the Syrian Air Force’s bombardment, they can hold out on this hilltop for quite a while.
The Syrian Army does not want to storm Tal al-Harrah and they are hoping that their heavy bombardment will ultimately convince Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham to either withdraw to al-Quneitra or leave for northern Syria.
Unlike the Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... (FSA) and the other non-jihadist rebel groups, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham is a hard-line group that the Syrian government will not reconcile with.
So when it comes to battles like this, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham has only two options: leave or fight.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2018
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[DAWN] Somali security forces rubbed out three bandidosforces of Evil wearing soldiers’ uniforms, foiling an attempted Al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... attack on the presidential palace that began with a boom-mobile exploding, police said on Saturday.
The confrontation came a week after an attack on the nearby interior ministry compound in Mogadishu killed at least nine people, again raising questions about the state of security in the most sensitive areas of Somalia’s capital.
Six people were dead in all including a suicide boom-mobileer, Capt. Mohammed Hussein said, adding the situation had calmed and security in the area was being tightened.
The midday attack began when a boom-mobile detonated near a checkpoint close to the presidential palace after security forces engaged with button men. A second boom-mobilewent kaboom! in the same area shortly afterwards, Hussein said.
"There were skirmishes between security forces and the attackers and then we had a big blast and a huge boom. The blast knocked me down," one witness, Osman Ali, said.
The Somalia-based Al-Shabaab holy warrior group, an arm of Al Qaeda, often targets high-profile places in the capital. It grabbed credit for Saturday’s attack, saying its fighters were conducting a "major operation" around the palace and nearby SYL Hotel.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2018
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[PRESSTV] Fearless Leader of the Islamic Revolution ...Iran's doddering head theocrat... Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei ...the successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the actual dictator of Iran... says European signatories to the nuclear deal with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), must provide Tehran with necessary guarantees about the continued implementation of the deal.
The Leader made the remarks in a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his cabinet in Tehran on Sunday. The meeting mostly focused on economic problems facing the country with Ayatollah Khamenei offering ways on how to overcome them.
Ayatollah Khamenei noted that drawing up a "stable economic roadmap" was needed to solve the country’s economic problems, emphasizing that solution of those problems must not be made conditional on the continuation of the JCPOA.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2018
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[PRESSTV] A British government minister has stepped down after being exposed for sending lewd social media messages to a number of women.
After the Sunday Mirror newspaper published details of his chats with two barmaids, Small business minister Andrew Griffiths, Tory Prime Minister Theresa May's former chief of staff, said he felt "deeply ashamed" and had already handed in his resignation letter on Friday.
"I am deeply ashamed at my behavior which has caused untold distress to my wife and family, to whom I owe everything, and deep embarrassment to the prime minister and the government," the disgraced MP said in a statement.
"I tendered my resignation as parliamentary under secretary of state for small business on Friday," he added.
Barmaid Imogen Treharne, 28, told the Mirror in detail how the married minister and member of parliament, whose first child was born in April, sent her over 2,000 offensive messages in just three weeks.
"I wanted him to be a nice guy, but by the end I felt dirty. I felt like I was being used for this wealthy man's gratification," she was quoted as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2018
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#1
My only surprise is that the lewd messages weren't directed at little boys.
[ATimes]
If fighting breaks out between Russia and its neighbors, the Baltic States are one of the likeliest battlegrounds. Various factors make this a tricky scenario for the NATO alliance.
Anti-NATO mood, doubts about Germany
An even greater problem for the United States is why it should fight, especially if the unfolding situation is hybrid in character, or if the local states provoke matters with the Russians, as seems potentially likely the case in the power grid controversy. Today’s mood in Washington is not too friendly to NATO or to Europeans, who have not lived up to their agreed obligations and who have diluted NATO by setting up a separate and independent European command with an unclear mandate.
Then there is, in the background. the very real problem that key NATO allies could be put out of business by only the turn of a gas valve by the Russians. Germany, as US President Donald Trump recently noted, is 70% dependent on Russian natural gas that it needs to run industries, generate electricity and heat homes. Even if Washington had an inclination to fight in Poland or the Balkans, there is a very good chance its most important strategically positioned ally, Germany, won’t.
The US cannot support the Balkans or Poland without the Germans because Germany is a vital staging ground. Nor can NATO’s Article 5 work without 100% consensus. Germany presents a real problem and President Trump has laid it bare.
Without a radical upgrade in NATO’s posture and serious allied cooperation (not just some token troops rotating in and out of the Balkans), the US may not fight the next war in Europe since: NATO won’t necessarily agree; it is likely Germany might not cooperate; and the American people may see no upside to getting into a shooting war with Russia.
#2
There are currently German NATO troops stationed in Lithuania.
And no, Germany isn't 70% dependent on Russian gas. Germany imports about 40% of its gas from Russia, but gas only accounts for about 20% of German energy consumption. Germany can certainly not be put out of business by only the turn of a gas valve by the Russians. Actually Germany could live with a total Russian gas embargo of currently 5 months without feeling any pain. And yes, even in winter.
After that, enough alternatives could be found. Russia would be a lot more affected by a gas embargo. It depends a lot more on trade with Germany than the other way round.
Btw I don't think that Russia would invade the Baltic countries. It would once again be on fiercely hostile territory and lose EU trade. Poland? Even less.
Russia has a long term strategy of destabilizing the EU and NATO.
But if Russia invades a NATO country there is no doubt that Germany would honor Article 5.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
07/16/2018 0:44
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#3
After that, enough alternatives could be found.
Build some more windmills wind turbines then - that'll work just dandy.
#14
Germany imports about 40% of its gas from Russia, but gas only accounts for about 20% of German energy consumption.
You forgot 40% of German oil imports are from Russia. Oil accounts for 33% of total German energy consumption but near zero production. That means over 20% of total German energy supplies are from Russia. Even more of the on-demand energy consumption if solar, wind and decommissioning nuclear power plants are removed.
That's quite the pretty pfennig Germans pay to Russia every year. Probably enough to warm Vlad's cold heart.
#15
Even if the numbers aren't 100%, the facts are the same.
Germany is super dependent on Russian energy sources, doesn't fund NATO well and has let their military slide to the point that it couldn't repel several grumpy cub scout troops.
England doesn't have much of a navy anymore as they had to mothball a lot of it to pay for their new carrier that still isn't operational.
The French would most likely be French and not really provide much support.
Italy is too broke to help.
Turkey is now hostile to the west.
Greece ain't doin' shit as it is pointing its guns at the Turks.
NATO is like a faberge egg. Looks pretty, but the shell is weak and there is nothing inside to hold it together. Putin is well aware of this and Trump has publicly called out the lie that was being put forth by the "elite".
That right there is the military situation in Europe.
#16
Can EC sell Europe to 'Merica?
Will Merkel look well in a burka?
Folks, tune in tomorrow,
Come joy or come sorrow...
And fire up the ol' Buna-Werke!
#17
Oil is a fungible commodity. Russia is currently the most important supplier for Germany, but only one of 23 different countries exporting oil to Germany. There are international stock exchanges for oil, which is often transported by ship. German importers could simply buy it elsewhere on the world market.
No dependency at all.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
07/16/2018 15:36
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#18
German importers could simply buy it elsewhere on the world market.
Really? Even though all of the oil produced are already sold under contracts to other buyers? How long would Germany have to wait in order to get an oil contract delivered? My guess is years, unless they are willing to outbid for an expiring existing contract.
#21
And don't forget: Russia depends a lot more on trade with Germany than the other way round.
Russia also has the reputation of being a reliable supplier. Even in the Cold War the USSR always honored its commitments.
Breaking them would be a disaster for their economy. Energy and arms is all they have to trade.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
07/16/2018 17:29
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#22
Russia cut off supply to Ukraine for non payment
just makes one wonder why Germany is allowing itself to be so dependent, while planning to shut down it's nuclear plants so there won't be any back up.
Posted by: Jan ||
07/16/2018 18:07
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[AnNahar] Syrian rebels and their relatives began evacuating the southern city of Daraa on Sunday under a deal to bring the "cradle" of the country's uprising back under government control.
The highly symbolic transfers came as Russian-backed government forces advanced in the neighboring province of Quneitra, with air strikes pounding rebel positions perilously close to the Israeli-occupied Golan heights.
After securing Damascus in May, Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Continued on Page 49
Daraa (Syria News) Syrian regime forces have intensified their shelling on Tel al-Hara area, in the western countryside of Daraa, after Tahrir al-Sham militia captured the strategic area, Enab Baladi News reported on Sunday.
The news outlet revealed that, yesterday, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham captured the strategic area of Tel al-Hara, following a settlement agreement signed between Assad forces and the opposition factions controlling the area.
[IsraelTimes] Ezra Nawi charged with violating law prohibiting Israelis from helping Paleostinian Authority security services; PA penal code calls for death for those who sell to Jewish buyers
Prosecutors filed an indictment Sunday against Israeli left-wing activist Ezra Nawi on charges of passing information to the Paleostinian Authority security service about Paleostinians who planned to sell West Bank land to Israeli Jews, thereby endangering the sellers’ lives.
The indictment, filed by state prosecutors at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, charges Nawi with violating a law that forbids Israeli citizens from working for the Paleostinian Authority’s security branches.
The trial will make Nawi the first Jew to be tried for aiding the Paleostinian Authority ‐ a crime under a clause from the 1995 Oslo Accords that subsequently entered Israeli penal law, with a sentence of up to five years in prison.
The Judea and Samaria District Police originally recommended that the prosecution charge Nawi and another activist in the left-wing Ta’ayush organization, Guy Butavia, with the far more serious crimes of contacting a foreign agent and conspiracy to commit a crime.
In May it emerged that the case against Butavia and a third figure, Paleostinian Yasser Navaja, had been closed for lack of evidence.
Nawi was tossed in the slammer Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! in January 2016 at Ben-Gurion Airport as he tried to leave the country, days after the airing of an episode of Israel TV’s investigative series "Uvda" (Fact) in which he was recorded saying he helped Paleostinian authorities track down Paleostinians who attempted to sell land to Jews.
The program used evidence collected by an undercover activist for a right-wing organization called Ad Kan (It’s Gone Far Enough), which infiltrated left-wing organizations such as Nawi’s Ta’ayush in order to expose what it saw as anti-Israel behavior.
In the investigative report, Nawi could be heard speaking about four Paleostinian real estate sellers, whom Nawi said mistook him for a Jew interested in buying their West Bank property.
"Straightaway I give their pictures and phone numbers to the Preventive Security Force," Nawi is heard saying in reference to the Paleostinian Authority’s counterintelligence arm. "The Paleostinian Authority catches them and kills them. But before it kills them, they get beat up a lot."
The broadcast sparked a political storm, with right-wing politicians and activists pointing to it as proof that left-wing groups are not interested in human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... In the Paleostinian Authority, the penal code calls for capital punishment for anyone convicted of selling land to Jews. This law, which Paleostinian officials have defended as designed to prevent takeovers by settlers, has not been implemented in Paleostinian courts, where sellers of land to Jews are usually sentenced to several years in prison.
[DAWN] Indian police said on Sunday they have jugged Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! 32 people after a man was killed by a mob in the country's latest lynching over suspicion of child kidnapping sparked by rumours on WhatsApp.
The men were arrested over the murder of Google employee Mohammad Azam who was attacked along with two friends by a 2,000-strong mob in southern Karnataka state's Bidar district late on Friday.
Azam's friends, including a Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... national, were critically injured in the assault that came days after the Facebook-owned messaging service published advertisements in Indian newspapers offering tips to curb the spread of fake information on its platform.
More than 20 people have been lynched in India after being accused of child abduction in the last two months.
Police said 27-year-old Azam and his lover companions were returning to their home in neighbouring Hyderabad city after visiting a friend in Bidar when they stopped midway and offered chocolates to local school children.
"One of them had bought chocolates from Qatar and tried to offer it to the children as a token of affection," Bidar deputy police chief V N Patil told AFP.
But one of the children started crying, alerting the elders who accused the men of being child kidnappers amid rife social media rumours about child kidnapping rings in the area, the officer said.
Patil said the three managed to flee but were attacked by a much larger mob a few kilometres (miles) ahead after locals alerted nearby villages via Whatsapp.
Their car flipped after hitting a roadblock placed by the angry mob before they were dragged out of the vehicle and beaten with sticks and stones.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A 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 ... militia court in Sanaa has handed down execution orders of three citizens from the province of Saada on charges of collaborating with the Yemeni legitimate government and coalition countries.
According to media sources affiliated with the Houthi militias, "the Criminal Court of First Instance controlled by the militias in Sanaa handed out the death penalty to Mohammed Yahya Mohammed Hajar, Abdulrahman Rabshan Hassan Amiri and Saleh Abbas Saleh Suleiman".
The same court issued death sentences on eight other Yemeni citizens last April on charges belonging to ISIS and allegedly collaborating with the countries belonging to the coalition backing the legitimate Yemeni government.
The sentences come at a time when the Saada, currently a main stronghold of the Houthis, is witnessing wide falls among the ranks of the militias as many armed Yemeni forces advance on several fronts with the participation of the province’s rustics in fighting alongside them against the militias.
Local and international human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. organizations accuse the Houthi militias of widespread abuses against their opponents, including the arbitrary use of the death penalty.
The militias, according to Yemeni activists and human rights organizations, have turned the judiciary into a tool to defeat its political opponents and issue dozens of death sentences against activists, journalists and citizens within their areas of control.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2018
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[PRESSTV] An Emirati prince has sought asylum in Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... after fleeing his country over claims that his life was in danger because of a dispute with the UAE's rulers.
According to the New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... on Sunday, Sheikh Rashid bin Hamad al-Sharqi, 31, is the second son of the emir of Fujairah and arrived in Doha on May 16.
Sheikh Rashid accuses Emirati leaders of blackmail and corruption, but does not seem to have evidence to support his claims.
Reports of the prince's defection to Qatar began to circulate in May.
He also noted that tensions were high among the UAE rulers over the country's involvement in the war against Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... and that the actual Emirati corpse count was higher than announced.
"There have been more deaths from Fujairah than anywhere else," he noted.
Last week, Amnesia Amnesty International said the UAE and its allied local militia have been torturing captives at a network of clandestine prisons in southern Yemen.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2018
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[Al Jazeera] Harith Augustus, known as Snoop the barber, was killed on Saturday, prompting clashes between police and protesters Chicago cops have released body cam footage showing that Snoopy was in fact heeled and was reaching for his roscoe when escorted from this Vale of Tears.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2018
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#1
Chicago? This is a joke, right?
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
07/16/2018 0:26
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#2
If a white cop shoots a black man for whatever reason, that's all the reason you need to 'protest'.
#6
Protest against the Man are the difference between intra- and inter- tribal warfare.
Posted by: Whinerong Prince of the Wee Folk5213 ||
07/16/2018 15:12
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#7
When was the last time they had riots after a black man was fatally shot by black criminals? I understand this kind of Chicago shooting happens on a daily basis, at least.
Posted by: si vis pacem, para bellum ||
07/16/2018 16:22
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Local tribes congregated on Sunday in Sanaa to demonstrate their support to the pro-Houthi army and willingness to fight the Saudi-led coalition for the port of Hodaidah.
Cars carrying fighters and loaded with ammunition arrived in the city, with tribesmen saying they are headed for the coast “to defeat the Saudi and American enemies.”
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2018
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[AnNahar] Researchers from half a dozen states in West Africa have joined together in a battle against what one expert calls a root crop "Ebola" -- a viral disease that could wreck the region's staple food and condemn millions to hunger.
Their enemy: cassava brown streak disease (CBSD), a virus that strikes cassava, also called manioc, which in some of the region's countries is consumed by as many as 80 percent of the population.
The root-rotting disease was first discovered in Tanzania eight decades ago and is steadily moving westward.
"In outbreaks in central Africa, it has wiped out between 90 and 100 percent of cassava production -- it's now heading towards West Africa," Justin Pita, in charge of the research programme, told AFP.
"It is a very big threat. It has to be taken very seriously."
In Uganda, 3,000 people died of hunger in the 1990s after the dreaded disease showed up, striking small farmers in particular.
"You can call it the Ebola of cassava," said Pita.
The West African Virus Epidemiology (WAVE) project, a multi-million-dollar scheme funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, aims to shield the region from the advancing peril.
Headquartered at Bingerville, on the edges of the Ivorian economic capital Abidjan, it gathers six countries from West Africa -- Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Togo -- as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Much is already known about CBSD -- the virus is generally believed to be propagated by an insect called the silverleaf whitefly, and also through cuttings taken from infected plants.
But there remain gaps in knowledge about West Africa's specific vulnerabilities to the disease.
They include understanding the susceptibility of local strains of cassava to the virus, and identifying points in the cassava trade that can help a localised outbreak of CBSD swell into an epidemic.
The scheme will also look at initiatives to help boost yield -- a key challenge in a region with surging population growth.
"The current average yield from cassava (in West Africa) is 10 to 12 tonnes per hectare (four to 4.8 tonnes per acre), but it has the potential to reach 40 tonnes a hectare," said Odile Attanasso, Benin's minister of higher education and scientific research.
"In Asia, they have yields of 22 tonnes per hectare."
#3
Just so you know there is a GMO cassava that is bred to be resistant to this virus but you know better to have people starve than plant this stuff. The process doesn't use pesticides but inserts some of the viral DNA into the plant. The plant's DNA repair code spots something fishy and stops the replication of the virus proteins. I think this was discovered with petunias when they tried to make a really dark flower by inserting mutiple copies of the gene for purple. They were surprised to see all the plants bloomed white since they managed to turn off all the genes need to make the ourple pigment. I'm sure this is same pathway used to turn off the relication of the virusp. BTW Monsanto had a potato that was engineered to be virus resistant. The potato virus makes those brown diamonds you sometimes see in the flesh. This virus is spread by aphids so the only recourse was massive spraying of insecticides. The Japanese IIRC didn't want the GMO potato so it was scuttled when a newer generation of insecticides was approved for potato.
There's a reason he's called Meathead...
Rob "Meathead" Reiner’s new film, "Shock and Awe," starring Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones and Jessica Biel about the runup to the Iraq War, earned only $41,000 at the box office this weekend:
#2
$41,000? If people vote with their dollars, this movie is a dud.
Most people get that some people think the invasion of Iraq was justified and there are those who don't.
The argument often is that Saddam had WMDs which were a threat to neighbors and the West. There are fairly good reasons to believe he might have WMDs:
1. He was developing a nuclear capability until the Israelis Operation Opera/Babylonin 1981. He had a willingness to develop such weapons and actually embarked upon such programs.
2. Saddam employed a microbiologist by the name of Rihab Rashid Taha al-Azawi, dubbed Dr. Germ who was working on biological weapons. Another female scientist, Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash was dubbed Dr. Anthrax. They were detained and released in 2005 after the Iraqi elections.
3. It was reported that Saddam used chemical weapons on the Kurds at Halabja in March 1988.
4. The New York Times reported that American troops reported finding approximately 5,000 chemical warheads, shells, or aviation bombs in the years following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The Leftwood/Hollywood seems content to parrot the message that there were no WMDs and that the U.S. should never have invaded Iraq.
#3
Everyone got paid while being allowed to throw their leftist tantrum on stage so I don't think they care it was a dud. It is all about the signaling while being paid.
#4
it went to DVD and to DirectTV last winter which is one reason for the slow box office
it also isn't a very good movie per the rotten tomato aggregates
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/16/2018 11:07
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#5
Anti-Boosh these days means normals revolted by Jeb!'s "act of love" nonsense mutterings...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/16/2018 12:42
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#6
Some Iraqi generals had said the program had ended and that there were no more munitions of the WMD nature. Lesson learned. For the future, just because they are the enemy doesn't mean they aren't telling the truth.
In hindsight too bad for nearly all concerned that we didn't listen. At least with Sadaam and his pathological sons there was a balance to Iran. As far as I have seen the munitions found were from the Iran-Iraq war, leaking, rusting, and unusable.
Having been to the SE Asia playground once upon a time, I had a feeling I was hearing a replay of a broken and scratchy record, this one entitled Chalibi[sp]. If you recall, he was instrumental in convincing Bush and friends to invade. He didn't convince me.
The rest is history and still unfolding.
A disaster of immeasurable proportions.
#8
For the future, just because they are the enemy doesn't mean they aren't telling the truth.
The New York Times finally reported on Iraq’s abandoned chemical weapons in 2014, long after repeated reports on the subject in the conservative press. But the thing is, had not Iraq been so conclusively conquered in 2003, the stocks would not have been abandoned, just as the stockpile of yellow cake was being saved against the future resumption of Iraq’s nuclear weapons program.
Bottom line, claiming that WMD weapons programs are ended when they were merely temporarily paused — that is not telling the truth.
[DAWN] A man who allegedly worked as the late Osama bin Laden ... who was laid out deader than a mackerel, right next to the mackerel... ’s bodyguard has been detained in Tunisia as part of a terrorism probe after his expulsion from Germany, a prosecution front man said on Saturday.
Known as Sami A. by German authorities and Sami Idoudi in his home country, the Tunisian "has been taken into custody following a judicial decision by the prosecutor of Tunis", said front man Sofiene Sliti.
He was wanted on "suspicion of involvement in Lion of Islam activities in Germany", following an investigation by the anti-terrorism unit, Sliti added.
Tunisian legislation allows cases to be brought against citizens accused of terrorism crimes abroad, Sliti said.
The 42-year-old suspect returned to Tunis on Friday, following a lengthy legal battle in Germany over his deportation.
Idoudi had lived in Germany for more than two decades, staying in the country despite his asylum request being denied in 2007 as courts cited the danger of torture in Tunisia.
The legal dispute is set to continue as a German court on Friday ordered Idoudi be returned to the country, after a ruling blocking the expulsion arrived once his plane was already airborne.
The court said his expulsion was illegal and accused authorities of "knowingly" defying the order by completing his transfer to authorities in Tunis.
The Tunisian authorities "have not received any official written request" for his return, said Sliti, who also represents the country’s anti-terrorism unit.
He was unable to confirm whether Tunisian authorities intended to send the detainee back to Germany.
Considered a security threat over his suspected ties to Islamist groups, Idoudi has for years had to report to police but was never charged with an offence.
He has always denied being the former bodyguard of late Al Qaeda leader Bin Laden, the criminal mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
This article starring:
Sami A.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2018
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#1
There's a surprise. I didn't see that coming (sarc).
[AlAhram] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... issued presidential decrees on Sunday reshaping key political, military and bureaucratic institutions as part of the transformation to a powerful executive presidency triggered by last month's election.
President Tayyip Erdogan was sworn in on Monday under the new system and now holds sweeping powers, allowing him to issue decrees on executive matters and appoint and remove senior civil servants.
Erdogan has said the powerful executive presidency is vital to make government more efficient, drive economic growth and ensure security. Critics decry what they say is increasing authoritarianism and a push toward one-man rule.
Among the latest changes, the General Staff was brought under the authority of the defence minister, according to state-run Anadolu news agency, a move following Erdogan's appointment of military commander Hulusi Akar as defence minister.
In total, the country's Official Gazette published seven decrees affecting many state institutions, including the secretariat of the National Security Council, the Defence Industry Directorate and the State Supervisory Council.
The changes coincide with the second anniversary of an attempted coup during which at least 250 people were killed, many of them unarmed civilians, when rogue soldiers attempted to topple Erdogan's government.
A state of emergency was imposed after the failed putsch on July 15, 2016 and is set to expire this week.
Erdogan's AK Party and its nationalist ally plan to introduce security regulations to ensure the "fight against terrorism" will continue after emergency rule ends, two sources told Rooters.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/16/2018
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#1
Remind me which idiots insisted Turkey's army be under the control of the government?
#3
Turkey has now become a thorn deeply embedded in the arse of the western democracies.
I can see a time when Turkish soldiers are going to invade Europe shouting " Alla hu Akbar.
Personally, I have been boycotting all Turkish merchandise and I refuse to fly Turkish airlines despite their attractive prices.
I don't want to finance the new "Sultan" Erdogan and I firmly believe that the only way we can deal with the situation (short of war) is to devastate the Turkish economy as a demonstration of what the west can do to fight Islamic aggression.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
07/16/2018 17:43
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[DAWN] TIMERGARA: Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... leaders on Saturday alleged that 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.... workers hurled stones at the caravan of JI chief Sirajul Haq ...current head of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami. Siraj was born in 1962 and entered politics shortly after that... on Friday night when it was passing by the house of ANP candidate for PK-16, Haji Bahadar Khan. Mr Bahadar has rejected the charge.
Speaking at a presser in Timergara Press Club, JI leader Izazul Mulk and its activists alleged that the ANP workers attacked their cycle of violence rally on Friday when it reached near the house of Mr Bahadar. They said that the motorcade of Sirajul Haq was also attacked near Mr Bahadar’s house the same night.
"It shows the attacks were preplanned and aimed at disturbing the peaceful environment," Mr Mulk said, adding that the JI chief remained unhurt while three workers were maimed on the occasion.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2018
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[KhaamaPress] President Mohammad 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. .. has confirmed the likely return of the First Vice President General Abdul Rashid 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... from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... Speaking during a presser in Kabul, President Ghani said Gen. Dostum will likely return to Afghanistan in the near future.
He said the government has also talked with the Attorney General’s Office regarding the likely return of Gen. Dostum from Turkey but did not elaborate further.
In the meantime, President Ghani said the nation will be updated as new improvements are made in this regard.
Dostum left the country for Turkey nearly a year ago amid ongoing controversies regarding his alleged involvement in the sexual abuse of his rival Ahmad Khan Ishchi.
However, the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach... the officials had earlier said that the First Vice President has left for Turkey due to health issues.
A front man for Junbish-e-Millie party Kanishka Turkistani said earlier this year said that the health condition of Gen. Dostum has improved, his medical treatment has concluded along with some other works in Turkey, and he will return to the country soon as there are no barriers available at the moment for his return.
[AnNahar] Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... jihadists overran a military base in northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... after a ferocious firefight, military and vigilante sources said Sunday, the second assault on the country's forces in two days.
The holy warriors on Saturday evening invaded a base holding hundreds of soldiers in Yobe state -- where they kidnapped over 100 girls from a school earlier this year -- in an attack that lasted for hours, a military source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"Boko Haram bully boyz attacked troops of the 81 Division Forward Brigade at Jilli village in Geidam district. The bully boyz came in huge numbers around 7:30 pm (1830 GMT) and overran the base after a fierce battle that lasted till 9:10 pm," said the military source.
"The base had 734 troops. Currently the commander of the base and 63 soldiers have made it to Geidam (60 kilometers away) while the remaining 670 are being expected," he said.
"We don't know if there were any casualties among the troops. That will be known later," he said, adding that the base was new and the troops had recently arrived from Lagos, the commercial capital.
A leader of a local anti-jihadist militia said that the soldiers sustained casualties, but was unable to give a toll, attributing the attack to the Abu-Mus'ab al-Barnawi faction of Boko Haram, which is known for targeting Nigerian forces.
"We learned that they drove from Lake Chad through Gubio (in nearby Borno state) and attacked the base," he said.
Geidam resident Fannami Gana said that Boko Haram jihadists "overwhelmed" the troops.
"We don't know the details of what happened but we learnt they were overwhelmed by hundreds of Boko Haram button men," said Gana.
The attack on the base took place just days after Boko Haram fighters ambushed a military convoy in neighboring Borno state on Friday.
23 soldiers are missing after the ambush, in which the Nigerian military also lost several vehicles.
[IsraelTimes] Al-Nayrab airbase outside Aleppo reportedly houses Iranian fighters; Syrian state media says Israeli missiles cause damage to material
Israel on Sunday night attacked a military base near Aleppo in northern Syria, the country's official news agency SANA reported, citing a military source.
SANA said there was only damage to the site, identified as the al-Nayrab airbase, adjacent to Aleppo's international airport.
"The Zionist enemy (Israel)... targeted with its missiles one of our military positions north of the Nayrab military airport, but the damage was only material," SANA said.
However, a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... there were unconfirmed reports of casualties at the site.
Al-Nayrab has in the past been linked with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps militia.
The base was reportedly previously struck by Israel on April 29 as part of a large raid that also targeted weapons depots near Hama.
There was no immediate comment from Israel, which rarely confirms such attacks.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said it had recorded a wave of blasts around Nayrab on Sunday night.
"They were caused by a missile attack, suspected to have been carried out by Israel, targeting positions held by Syria's regime and its allies at the Neirab airport and around it," the Britannia-based monitor said.
Suspected Israeli air strikes have hit Syrian army positions near Damascus and in the central provinces of Homs and Hama in the past.
However, a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... they rarely occur as far north as Aleppo.
The raid came hours before a high-stakes summit between Russian president Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... and 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... , where Syria and Iran are expected to be on the agenda.
Israel has been pushing Russia to remove Iranian-aligned militia fighters from Syria, and has vowed to stop them from getting a foothold anywhere in the country. Russia has reportedly only agreed to removing them from the Golan border region.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who met with Putin in Moscow last week, said Sunday he had discussed the issue with Trump a day earlier.
Netanyahu reportedly told Putin during their Wednesday meeting that Israel would not challenge Assad's control of Syria, in exchange for freedom to act against Iran.
On July 8, Israel was accused of carrying out an Arclight airstrike on the T-4 military base near Homs, also thought to be used by IRGC fighters.
[PRESSTV] Western countries have reportedly been scrambling to evacuate "volunteer" White Helmets from Syria, who have been accused of cooperating with Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... forces of Evil and staging false flag gas attacks.
CBS News broadcasting service reported on Saturday that White Helmets members are in danger of liquidation and in need of rescue as the Syrian army intensifies its counter-terrorism operation in the country's southern part.
The report said the issue of the White helmets' withdrawal from Syria had been raised with 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... in multiple conversations with allied countries on the sidelines of the July 11-12 NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... summit in Brussels.
The Netherlands, Britannia, La Belle France, Canada and Germany have been trying to find a way to get an estimated 1,000 White Helmets volunteers and their family members out of Syria, the report added.
British Prime Minister Theresa May brought up the issue during her meeting with Trump in the UK, and that the topic may also be discussed at Trump's upcoming summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... The White Helmets was founded in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... in 2013 by former British MI5 officer James Le Mesurier.
Since its establishment, the group has received at least $55 million from the British Foreign Office, $23 million or more from the US Office of Transition Initiatives and untold millions from Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... US officials and Western diplomats say the evacuation has not been formalized on the agenda of the July 16 Trump-Putin meeting due to uncertainty about the Russians' help in the process, The CBS News said.
"We are not there yet at all in terms of firming up the necessity to have a discussion with Putin," a Western diplomat said. "If we run out of options, and the only option left is the Russians, then it is worth pursuing."
A US government official stressed that efforts to evacuate the White Helmets from Syria is in line with the Trump administration's plans for a withdrawal from the Arab country.
"This effort says we are in the evacuation phase. It is an admission that the regime is going to regain control of the country and the White Helmets can't remain," he said. "Or else the regime will take repercussions on them."
Back in March, Trump ordered the State Department to suspend $200 million in recovery funds for Syria, including aid to the White Helmets, amid a review of the future of the US role in the war-torn country.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2018
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#1
They're coming home? Hide your wallets children...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/16/2018 10:38
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#2
meant wallets
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/16/2018 10:38
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#3
Can't we just photoshop some pix of the White Helmets being evacuated? Seems cheaper.
[PRESSTV] Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... forces of Evil have overrun a military base following a ferocious gun fight with Nigerian troops in the country's troubled northeast.
The Lions of Islam invaded the base holding hundreds of soldiers in Yobe state in an hours-long onslaught Saturday night.
"Boko Haram forces of Evil attacked troops of the 81st Division Forward Brigade at Jilli village in Geidam district. The forces of Evil came in huge numbers around 7:30 pm (1830 GMT) and overran the base after a fierce battle that lasted till 9:10 pm," AFP quoted a military source as saying.
"The base had 734 troops. Currently the commander of the base and 63 soldiers have made it to Geidam (60 kilometers away) while the remaining 670 are being expected," he said.
"We don't know if there were any casualties among the troops. That will be known later."
A leader of a local anti-militant militia attributed the attack to the Abu-Mus'ab al-Barnawi faction of Boko Haram, which is known for targeting Nigerian forces.
"We learned that they drove from Lake Chad through Gubio (in nearby Borno state) and attacked the base."
Geidam resident Fannami Gana said that Boko Haram Lions of Islam "overwhelmed" the troops. "We don't know the details of what happened but we learnt they were overwhelmed by hundreds of Boko Haram button men."
The latest attack was carried out after Boko Haram forces of Evil ambushed a military convoy in neighboring Borno state. On Friday, nearly two dozen Nigerian soldiers went missing after Lions of Islam ambushed a convoy outside Bama, leading to the loss of several military vehicles. According to a military officer, "around 100 terrorists" attacked the convoy.
Yan St-Pierre, the counter-terrorism advisor and head of the Berlin-based Modern Security Consulting Group, said that the murderous Moslem raids showed the persistent threat of Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2018
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#1
Posted by: Jack Chaiter7913 ||
07/16/2018 8:21
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#2
Currently the commander of the base and 63 soldiers have made it to Geidam
#3
so around 100 terrorists attacked and the 750 Nigerian soldier brigade fought back for a while and then ran away
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/16/2018 12:38
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#4
Supplied by the incompetents running the convoy then overran base with the captured supplies, most likely. Pathetic. Why does the press continue to call these posers soldiers?
PRESSTV must be Nigerian. Who else would say these 750 bums put up a fight?
Posted by: Otto Pholumble7741 ||
07/16/2018 13:21
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#6
What it takes to overrun 730 soldiers in a defensive position is either the biggest surprise since ma caught.... Anyway, or a lot more than 730 guys, or very heavy supporting fires. Assembling either of the latter two would be obvious to any military force paying attention.
Most charitable explanation is the commandos came in disguised as the week's shipment of twelve year old girls.
.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
07/16/2018 16:05
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Folks, IMHO this is a lot bigger than Feinstein's people are letting on. For the party to actually decline to endorse her means the inmates are well and truly running the asylum there now, and no matter how much money she has to play with she now has to go toe to toe with people who really don't like her very much. She's gonna have to fight, and she might still win...but it does not bode at all well for the Democratic Party. But then again, these days what does?
[FoxNews] California Dems snub Sen. Dianne Feinstein for longshot rival, in 'clear-eyed rejection' of party establishment
The California Democratic Party issued a stunning rebuke of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Saturday by decisively handing its official endorsement to state Sen. Kevin de Leon, her longshot Democratic challenger.
The move was the latest sign that establishment Democrats are facing something of a national insurgence, coming on the heels of last month's shock win by 28-year-old Democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over high-ranking Rep. Joe Crowley in a closely watched New York primary.
In backing de Leon, a majority of the party's 360-member executive board ignored Feinstein's calls to stay neutral in the race. Her allies had warned an endorsement would only further divide Democrats.
The final vote margin was lopsided: A total of 217 delegates voted for de Leon, of Los Angeles, or nearly 65 percent of the delegates. Meanwhile, only 22, or 7 percent, cast ballots for Feinstein and 94, or nearly 30 percent, voted for no endorsement.
The California Democratic Party had declined to endorse Feinstein's re-election bid in February, but it did not then also endorse de Leon at that time.
De Leon has long been courting party activists and appealed to those seeking a fresh face and a more progressive senator to fight against President Donald Trump.
"Today's vote is a clear-eyed rejection of politics as usual in Washington, D.C.," de Leon said in a statement after the vote. "We have presented Californians with the first real alternative to the worn-out Washington playbook in a quarter-century."
Party members and activists are typically more liberal than the wider California electorate that has sent Feinstein to Washington five times. Feinstein has turned skepticism from some party activists into an asset in her past campaigns.
The endorsement of de Leon means the state party will spend money promoting his candidacy this fall. Still, Feinstein outpaces him in name recognition and cash and has a loyal following across California. She won the June 5 primary with 44 percent of the vote compared to de Leon's 12 percent.
While it's an embarrassment for California's senior senator to lose her party's official nod, it may do little to change the trajectory of the race.
"We are confident that a large majority of California Democrats will vote to reelect Sen. Feinstein in November," Jeff Millman, her campaign manager, said Saturday night.
California runs a top-two primary system that sends the two highest primary vote-getters to the general election regardless of party. The system allowed de Leon to take the No. 2 spot by squeaking past a slew of unknown Republicans in the primary.
Six U.S. House candidates for seats considered top Democratic targets joined Feinstein's call for neutrality in a letter to members before the vote on Saturday.
"A divisive party endorsement for U.S. Senate would hurt all down-ballot candidates and our ability to turn out Democrats we desperately need to vote in November," it said.
De Leon led the state Senate until earlier this year. He is the author of California's sanctuary state law that was the target of a Trump administration lawsuit.
Feinstein was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992, when she became the first woman to serve the state in that chamber. She is the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she'll take center stage this summer during the U.S. Supreme Court nomination fight.
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/16/2018
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#1
I think that's largely right - among other races, you have three openly socialist congressional Dems in PA winning their primaries two months ago, then there's that toothy ex-barkeep in Queens for whom the media has a massive erection for (sorry about the visual!). Couple that with the extremely old guard in the upper echelons of the Dem party (Feinstein, Pelosi, Sanders, Warren, Steny Hoyer, Clyburn) are near or at 70 years old, and the fight over the political levers is gonna get ugly, and I don't have enough popcorn. One of you guys needs to bring some buffalo wings!
#4
I saw an article somewhere that the rising far-left socialists is the fallout of the Bernie fiasco.
It argued that most demoncrats were just there to skim the funds of the groups they ran for and the younger and true believers are still very butthurt that Bernie got railroaded as he did. Now they are motivated at the local level to throw the old guard out of office for hurting their Bern.
I see this going on for a couple election cycles until the demoncrats realize they are getting completely trounced and remake the party to what it was. An organized criminal organization masquerading as a political party.
#6
there's no diff. "Dumb as a box of hair" Boxer and now Di-Fi are just being replaced by a whore and a guy who doesn't even use his real name. Same Dem votes
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/16/2018 11:00
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#7
Democrats thought they could control illegal immigrants. Heh, heh.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/16/2018 11:28
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#8
Sadly, he’ll still win, thus shifting the Senate one half step further left.
They are all tranzies, the new generation is less adept at masquerade - and therefore, less dangerous.
[KhaamaPress] A former member of the Provincial Council was killed in an attack by an unidentified armed man in southeastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan, the local security authorities said Sunday. The incident took place late on Saturday evening in the vicinity of Ghazni city, the picturesque provincial capital of Ghazni province.
The provincial security commandment confirmed the incident and said both the former Provincial Council member and his murderer were killed in the incident.
A statement by the provincial security commandment stated that the tribal elder, ex-provincial council member and former mayor of Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... province Syed Obaidullah Sadat was killed in the attack on Saturday evening.
The statement further added that the assailant was rubbed out by the security forces as he was attempting to flee the area.
The assailant used a gun with a silencer to carry out the attack, the provincial security commandment said, adding that an investigation is underway to ascertain the identity of the attacker and to confirm to which group he belonged to.
No individual or group has so far grabbed credit behind the incident.
Ghazni is among the relatively volatile provinces in southeastern parts of the country where the Talibs and terrorist belonging to the other groups are actively operating in some of its districts.
[IsraelTimes] Paleostinians cite two dronezaps in Beit Hanoun area; cabinet instructs military to adopt tougher policy toward cross-border arson attacks
A group of young Paleostinians who have been launching incendiary kites and balloons into southern Israel threatened to step up their activities on Sunday, after several of their number were maimed in Israeli Arclight airstrikes earlier in the day.
The self-styled "Sons of Zouari" said they would conduct a "high-quality response" against Israel in light of the military’s increasingly forceful retaliations for the Paleostinian group’s airborne arson attacks, according to information shared on Paleostinian social media and a source, who asked to remain anonymous.
Throughout the day on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces conducted three dronezaps against Paleostinians launching incendiary kites and balloons at southern Israel, injuring three of them, Paleostinian media reported.
The first of those strikes occurred around noon, east of the Paleostinian town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gazoo Strip. According to Paleostinian media, one person was injured in the airstrike.
The Israeli military confirmed it conducted a strike, saying the Paleostinians who were targeted were members of the Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, terrorist organization, which rules the Strip.
The second came just over an hour later, in the southern Gazoo Strip. No injuries were reported.
The third occurred shortly after 5 p.m., again east of Beit Hanoun. The front man for the Hamas-run Gazoo health ministry, Ashraf al-Qidra, said two were maimed in that airstrike.
Such airborne arson attacks have sparked numerous fires throughout southern Israel since April. According to Israeli officials, the practice began on a small-scale basis and was then quickly adopted and encouraged by Hamas. The kites and balloons, some of which are boobytrapped, have wreaked havoc in the Israeli communities surrounding the Gazoo Strip, sparking fires that have scorched over 7,000 acres of land and caused millions of shekels in damage.
On Sunday, the security cabinet ordered the military to take a more aggressive stance against the arson attacks.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday reiterated that Israel would not tolerate the continued kite and balloon arson attacks that have burned tens of thousands of dunams of forests and agricultural land, including at least six fresh fires started on Sunday.
Until now, the IDF has largely refrained from firing directly at the kite flyers and balloon launchers, instead shooting near them as a warning or striking the infrastructure they use to carry out the attacks. In some cases, the military later conducted airstrikes against Hamas positions, in response to these incendiary kites and balloons.
The threats by the "Sons of Zouari" came hours after a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect, following one of the most severe exchanges of fire between Israel and Hamas since the 2014 war. Over the weekend, Paleostinian murderous Moslems fired some 200 rockets and missiles at Israeli communities near the Gazoo border. In response, the IDF struck dozens of Hamas targets in the Strip.
Netanyahu said Hamas was hit "substantially and hard" in the overnight Israeli strikes.
"Our policy is clear: Whoever hurts us, we will hit them with great strength. This is what we did yesterday," he said. "I hope that they got the message; if not, they will get it later."
The prime minister denied reports that said the ceasefire brokered by Egypt did not include the cessation of the arson attacks.
"This is incorrect. We are not prepared to accept any attacks against us and we will respond appropriately," he added.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman also warned Hamas that it would "pay a heavy price," if it did not cease hostilities.
"It’s important to emphasize that we have no intention of tolerating this ‐ not rockets, not kites, not drones ‐ nothing," he said at the start of Sunday’s cabinet meeting. "I hope that Hamas has drawn conclusions, and if they haven’t, they will need to pay a heavy price."
#7
Don't they have some sort of super skunk spray non-violent weapon agent? Yes, Skunk is already used by the IDF. Arm drones with "skunk bombs" and every time you see a kite-flyer set up --- "Bombs Awaaaaay!"
[Atimes] Pakistan’s economic crisis deepens in an election year.
Pakistan desperately needs to borrow to stave off a major economic crisis. But the IMF says it is in no position to service existing debts.
The Pakistan government to be formed after July 25 elections will inherit a record high-trade deficit of $37.7 billion, a plunging stock market that hit this year’s lowest at 39,288 points on Monday and a currency that has been devalued by over 15% in the past seven months.
The outgoing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government has been criticized for its economic policies, which have left the country with a balance of payments crisis, and a record debt, with the rupee being devalued three times since December 2017.
A recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) report on Pakistan says “risks to Pakistan’s medium-term capacity to repay have increased significantly… due to mounting external and fiscal financing needs and declining reserves.”
The report says, Pakistan’s external financing needs are expected to rise from $21.5 billion (7.1% of GDP) in 2017 to $45 billion by 2023 (9% of GDP). The figures suggest that the next government will have few options but to seek another IMF loan to reduce the current account deficit.
Finance Ministry sources told Asia Times that a recent $1 billion loan from China was agreed to in May this year. It will provide a much needed respite to the foreign currency reserves. Pakistan has received an additional $3 billion worth of loans from Chinese commercial banks in recent months in connection with the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Finance Ministry officials, however, say Chinese loans are a short-term fix and Islamabad will need a longer-term solution. “Pakistan has borrowed up to $7 billion from China over the past two years, but an IMF bailout has become a necessity. And it is the new government that will carry it out,” said Waqar Masood Khan, a former federal secretary at the Ministry of Finance.
“It was almost as if the previous government had sworn not to go to the IMF, even though they could’ve done so in January to stabilize the economy. They practiced a lot of fiscal indiscipline and are leaving behind a record deficit of 70.1% [of the GDP],” he said, adding that fixing the broken macroeconomic framework would be the biggest challenge for the next government.
While the PML-N government continued to deny it was looking for an IMF bailout during the last few months of its tenure, the then finance minister, Miftah Ismail, had talks with World Bank and IMF officials during his trip to Washington in April this year.
Diplomatic sources confirm that a major purpose of the US visit was to discuss terms of a bailout package for after the elections, which the PML-N expects to win.
A Foreign Ministry official confirmed that Islamabad has been in talks with Washington over the need for financing, maintaining that economic deterioration in the country could allow militant elements to exploit the situation.
Miftah Ismail told Asia Times that he did not meet the US over a potential bailout loan, maintaining that help from the IMF wasn’t needed right now.
“It’s for the next government to decide, but it is too soon [to ask for an IMF bailout],” he said. Even so, the former finance minister conceded that some policies during the previous five years were flawed.
“Exports [have gone] down for three years in a row, suggesting that we should have devalued the rupee [earlier]. By keeping the rupee at a nominally high rate we hurt our exports, increased our imports and we drained our reserves. We also had to borrow money resulting in the State Bank having to intervene,” he said.
However, Ismail believes that with the latest devaluation, the rupee has regained competitiveness and should help export growth. “Also, I think we’ve now reached the accurate rupee value now,” he says. Ismail also says the current debt numbers are being viewed out of context.
Posted by: 3dc ||
07/16/2018
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#1
Looking forward to more cheap rugs, or whatever the hell it is that country produces, besides foaming at the mouth jihadi assholes or IT guys like Awan...
[KhaamaPress] At least seven people were killed and nearly fifteen others sustained injuries in a suicide kaboom in Kabul late on Sunday afternoon. The incident took place close to the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development Ministry in West of Kabul city.
Hashmat Stnikzai, Kabul Security Commandment front man, confirmed the incident but added that the casualties toll could further climb.
No individual or group including Talibs has so far grabbed credit behind the incident.
The suicide attack near the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development took place hours after an kaboom left a senior officer maimed in the city.
The police chief of the 5th police district of Kabul Ghafoor Azizi sustained injuries after a magnetic bomb planted in his vehicle went off at around 6am local time in Badam Bagha area of Kabul city.
A front man for the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... group Zabiullah Mujahid issued a statement claiming that the kaboom left at least three people dead while the police chief of Police District#5 has sustained injuries.
[KhaamaPress] President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has ordered an immediate probe into the alleged misconduct by the Afghan forces after a video emerged purportedly showing armed forces beating and torturing the security personnel of Nizamuddin Qaisari.
He said any move or action by the armed forces in contradiction to the laws and regulations will not be acceptable, emphasizing such that such moves do not represent the policy of the armed and defense institutions.
The Office of the President, ARG Palace, said President Ghani has ordered an immediate and thorough investigation into the alleged misconduct during the arrest of certain individuals in Faryab as well as the alleged civilian casualties during the operations in Paktia and Nangarhar provinces.
He said the armed security and defense forces must take necessary precautions to prevent such incidents and should act as per the enforced laws and considering the human rights and Islamic values.
President Ghani said the armed security and defense forces are considered a major investment of the country and people who have managed to secure the trust of the people and international community with their bravery and it is important that the trust between the armed forces and the people should be further strengthened.
[PRESSTV] Tens of thousands erupted into the streets of Morocco's capital Rabat on Sunday, July 15, to demonstrate against the jailing of leaders of a protest movement in the predominantly Berber region of Rif.
A court in Casablanca in June sentenced 39 people, including protest leader Nasser Zefzafi, to terms of up to 20 years in jail in connection with a protest movement that shook Morocco in late 2016 and early 2017.
The protests erupted after a fishmonger was crushed inside a rubbish truck while trying to recover fish confiscated by police in the northern city of al-Hoceima in October 2016.
Detainees and their families had called for Sunday's march, which brought together Berber (Amazigh) groups, leftist opposition parties, human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... groups and the banned Islamist movement al-Adl wal-Ihsan.
The al-Hoceima demonstrations, along with protests in the mining town of Jerada in early 2018, marked the biggest unrest in Morocco since Arab Spring protests in 2011 prompted King Mohammed VI to devolve some of his powers to an elected parliament.
After the Rif protests the king dismissed three ministers and various other officials over a lack of progress in a development plan for the Rif.
Ahmed Dgherni, one of the founders of the Berber (Amazigh) movement, called the march "a popular referendum that united different political trends" to back the cause of freedom.
After last month's verdicts, a lawyer representing the state said the sentences were lenient and that some of the accused had been indicted for serious crimes including attacking law enforcement officers.
Lawyers of Rif activists say they will appeal against the sentences.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2018
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Suppose the population controlled by the piratical beys of North Africa had tried swarming into France, Italy, and Spain in 1809 or thereabouts. What would have happened to them? It probably wouldn't have been pretty, even though the French, British, Portuguese, Neapolitans, and Spanish were busy butchering each other at the time.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Thousands take the serious risk of sailing into the Mediterranean, although they know that it may be difficult to survive the journey. They take advantage of the instability in Libya, making it their starting point towards European luxury. What is strange or probably confusing is that if you ask these people about the atheistic West, they will insult, degrade and condemn it. The question is thus why do they wish to go there and risk their lives to get there? Frankly, I cannot understand this irrational and contradictory logic which is both funny and appalling.
It becomes more confusing when you hear some of the preachers of Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... as they exploit the advantages of democracy and freedoms of speech and expression ‐ and which are guaranteed to everyone there even to foreign immigrants colonists ‐ to insult atheists. When the populist right in Europe demands to stop immigration even if it requires armed force, Arabs and Moslems in Europe begin to complain and describe those making these calls as racists and intolerant. What’s really funny is that they’d also accuse the West of being undemocratic!
I don’t blame them as if I were European, I would not hesitate standing against immigration and against receiving these people whom the roots of their culture are based on hating non-Moslems.
Mohammed Al Sheikh
To be frank, I don’t blame them as if I were European, I would not hesitate standing against immigration and against receiving these people whom the roots of their culture are based on hating non-Moslems. Examples of this in our heritage are many and different, especially among those who know nothing about loyalty and kindness to those who had no enmity for them or for their religion. Unlike what the divine command of the holy Koran stipulates, they respond to the noble and humanitarian positions with arrogance and denial, and even with trying hard to destabilize and affect the security of these societies; in a way that the West cannot accept. I believe that Arabs and specially the krazed killerMoslems are totally engrossed in the culture of hatred and aversion.
These contradictory feelings , between hatred on one side and sacrificing the most precious thing any person has, which is his life, to be able to live in these societies which he hates in order to enjoy their luxury, security and stability needs a socio-psychological study. If you hate certain people and consider them enemies to your religion and identity, then why do you do your best to live among them? Some might justify this action by saying that they (the West) are racists, and they hate foreigners and hate Islam and Moslems. Fine, just to be fair and logical, put yourself in their shoes! Why do you ask others to treat you in the way you are not treating them? Don’t the ancient Arabs say: Kindness should be repaid by kindness. Where is the kindness here?
I say it out loud, the populism waves that have started to emerge in Western societies are justified as it is kind of mutual treatment, and did not emerge without reason or justification.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2018
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#1
Gee, why do you hate the people who just want to come take over your country, rape your women, destroy your culture and replicate their third-world shithole home in your country. Oh and they also want to kill or enslave you. Yeah, can't get why you'd hate and want to keep such people out.
#2
If you hate certain people and consider them enemies to your religion and identity, then why do you do your best to live among them?
I've never seen a decent rebuttal to The Project, a Muslim brotherhood publication discovered around 1984 in Switzerland. It purported an 100-year overthrow of the West. Has this been thoroughly discredited?
#4
1 They are colonists not migrants
2 They are parasitic and live on benefit jizya
3 they bring a whole extended family of parasites
4 they are generally genetically costly due to cousin marriage
5 the excess in extreme crimes
6 they bring their tribal culture with them which is not compatible with reciprocal civilized culture
#6
We have had Arab and Muslim migration for a long time. There has been, in the past, an expectation that migrants will assimilate and become a part of American culture and for the most part, and IMO it has worked up until recently. Groups pushing "Open borders" and unrestricted immigration have influenced and distorted the process.
As I recall, Fairbanks, something similar was found at a raided CAIR site in the U.S. Recall, CAIR is the public face of the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S.
[PRESSTV] Syria's Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... says the Syrian Arab Army and the allied forces are firmly resolved to defeat terrorism and liberate the entire Arab country's territory.
Assad made the remarks in a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister's Special Assistant for Political Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari and his accompanying delegation in Damascus on Sunday.
Jaberi Ansari commended the recent achievements made by the Syrian army in the battle against Lions of Islam in the southern city of Dara'a and its countryside.
The two sides emphasized that the elimination of terrorism in most of the Syrian territories has prepared an appropriate ground for putting an end to the seven-year war in Syria but the policies and preconditions set by countries that support terrorism have so far prevented it.
Since June 19, the Syrian army has been conducting the liberation operation in Dara'a, which borders Jordan and the Israeli-occupied side of Syria’s Golan Heights.
In a bid to minimize civilian casualties, both Syria and Russia have been initiating talks with turbans to make them hand back the areas they control to the government without fighting.
Dara'a was the birthplace of sedition that was born in March 2011 before morphing into a foreign-backed militancy that continues to this day.
The Syrian army on Thursday raised the national flag over the city of Dara'a as a major counter-terrorism operation nears an end, with foreign-backed turbans leaving the region in negotiated surrender deals.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2018
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The last members of a Kurdish militia pulled out on Sunday from the Syrian town of Manbij, allied Arab fighters said, under a deal reached to avoid festivities with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) led the victorious 2016 offensive to rid Manbij of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group and had kept military advisers in the town to train local forces.
It announced last month it would begin withdrawing from the town as the local Manbij Military Council was capable of holding it on its own.
"The last group of military advisers from the People’s Protection Units finished withdrawing on July 15, 2018 after completing their mission to train and develop our forces, under the deal with the international coalition," the MMC said.
The YPG forms the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish-Arab alliance that has ousted IS from swathes of Syria with help from the US-led coalition.
But the militia is considered a "terrorist" group by Ankara, which sees it as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), outlawed in Turkey.
Ankara and allied rebels overran the YPG’s northwestern bastion of Afrin in March and threatened to continue on to Manbij.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2018
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From the discussion on NASAspaceflight dot com:
So £2.5m for vertical launch at Sutherland (Lockheed Martin backed consortium, rumoured to be for Rocket Labs' Electron), along with £2m for horizontal launch at other sites.
Lockheed has made no secret of its desire to bring the Electron rocket to Scotland. Currently, this vehicle flies out of New Zealand.
A British version of the rocket would have an upper-stage developed and built at LM's UK HQ in Ampthill, Bedfordshire.
"This is a defining moment for UK Space," a spokesperson for the company told BBC News. "Lockheed Martin has been working with Britain for over 80 years and we stand ready to support the development of UK launch capability should our extensive experience in developing space infrastructure be called upon."
It looks like Newquay has been selected for horizontal launch.
There will be additional money for two new spaceports - one in Cornwall, one in Scotland - and a long-awaited commitment to build a new high-tech fighter aircraft that will eventually replace the Eurofighter Typhoon.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/16/2018 14:19
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#10
Scotland and New Zealand are only good for polar orbits, polar orbits are only good for unmanned missions. That's all fine and good, but its limited.
[KhaamaPress] A clash broke out between the anti-government armed Lions of Islam and local residents in Zazai Maidan district of Khost province ... across the border from Miranshah, within commuting distance of Haqqani hangouts such as Datta Khel and probably within sight of Mordor. Khost is populated by six different tribes of Pashtuns, the largest probably being the Khostwal, from which it takes its name... earlier today.
The local officials are saying at least ten Lions of Islam annd three civilians have bit the dust during the clash.
Provincial governor’s front man Taliba Mangal confirmed the incident and said a standoff is underway in the area and additional forces have been deployed to suppress the krazed killers.
He said a civilian has also sustained injuries during the festivities with the Lions of Islam but did not elaborate further regarding the casualties of the armed forces.
Mangal further added that festivities started after a large number of Lions of Islam equipped with light and heavy weaponry launched a coordinated attack on the district.
The anti-government armed Lions of Islam have not commented regarding the report so far.
Khost has been among the relatively calm provinces in East of Afghanistan but the security situation of the province has started to deteriorate during the recent months amid ongoing efforts by the Lions of Islam to expand their insurgency activities in eastern and southeastern provinces.
See also the Wall Street Journal's take here. It's behind the subscription paywall, so you may need to drop the headline in Google's search app to read the rest of it.
[LI] The archives showed that Iran systematically had deceived the West about its nuclear program and goals, We can now conclusively say the Iran nuke deal was induced by fraud:
We now can conclusively say the Iran Nuclear Deal was induced by fraud by the Obama administration and the Mullah regime.
As a result, Iran is just biding its time, putting all the pieces into place to launch and deliver a nuclear weapon when the deal sunsets. We know that because of the archives obtained by Mossad.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/16/2018
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#1
That's quite amazing. Can we have our cash back now?
Posted by: Matt ||
07/16/2018 9:31
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#2
I bet that was a ass-puckering moment for the Iranians
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/16/2018 10:40
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#3
Since the Juices clearly had either inside help or divine guidance, or more likely both, the prospects for a disinformation campaign are mind-blowing. I hear that Rouhani himself is a Mossad agent. Oops, I guess I shouldn't have said that.
Posted by: Matt ||
07/16/2018 10:53
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#4
It's Okay Matt, we will still have Qassem Soleimani. OOOooops!
[DAWN] At least 11 soldiers were killed when their checkpoint came under an attack by snuffies in western Afghanistan, a provincial official said on Saturday.
Mohammad Naser Mehri, front man for the Farah provincial governor, said four other soldiers were maimed in the shootout in Bala Buluk district. Mehri said nine snuffies were killed and 13 others maimed.
Mehri said a "large number" of snuffies launched an attack late on Friday night and the battle continued into early Saturday.
The Taliban ...Arabic for students... have not grabbed credit for the attack but Mehri blamed the group, which has recently stepped up assaults against Afghan cops in the province.
In southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province, meanwhile, a suicide boom-mobileer detonated his explosives at a joint army and police checkpoint, killing policeman, said Omar Zwak, front man for the provincial governor.
Zwak said 11 other soldiers and police were maimed in the attack, which took place outskirt of Lashkar Gah, the scenic provincial capital.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2018
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Hot Air] On Friday evening there was a story at Politico which didn’t seem to gain much traction, what with all of the Trump activity going on. Congressman Elija Cummings (D-Md) is the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee and he’s demanding that committee chair Trey Gowdy issue a subpoena to the EPA over their handling of both FOIA submissions and requests from Congress for documents, saying that Scott Pruitt’s administration was "screening" requests based on political sensitivity. 
(Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N) said on Monday it won an order for 14 freight aircraft for a value of $4.7 billion, firing the opening salvo against rival Airbus SE (AIR.PA) in a contest for business on day one of the Farnborough Airshow.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When it became clear that President Donald Trump was seriously considering nominating Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, the conservative judge’s former law clerks swung into action as among his most energetic public cheerleaders.
[The Hill] Veteran reporter Carl Bernstein on Sunday said special counsel Robert Mueller's recent indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officials proves his probe is "not a witch hunt."
KABUL (REUTERS) - Afghan President Ashraf Ghani gave his first indication on Sunday that vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum could be allowed to return from exile after days of protests by the former warlord's supporters.
[American Mirror] Nancy Pelosi can’t seem to find anything nice to say about anything positive that happens in the Trump era.
[MAIL] In the dramatic footage, the CH-47 Chinook can be seen at an altitude of about 11,000 feet, hovering in the air above Mount Hood, before slowly descending to where the climbers and the rescue team are waiting for its arrival. 
[Daily Caller] San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the streets of her city are flooded with the excrement of the homeless in an interview Friday.
the personification of Somali state failure...
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
...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...
[ALMASDARNEWS] Local tribes congregated on Sunday in Sanaa to demonstrate their support to the pro-Houthi army and willingness to fight the Saudi-led coalition for the port of Hodaidah.
[AlAhram] 
...current head of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami. Siraj was born in 1962 and entered politics shortly after that...
...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. ..
...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...
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed...
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
[KhaamaPress] A former member of the Provincial Council was killed in an attack by an unidentified armed man in southeastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan, the local security authorities said Sunday. The incident took place late on Saturday evening in the vicinity of Ghazni city, the 
[KhaamaPress] At least seven people were killed and nearly fifteen others sustained injuries in a 
[KhaamaPress] President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has ordered an immediate probe into the alleged misconduct by the Afghan forces after a video emerged purportedly showing armed forces beating and torturing the security personnel of Nizamuddin Qaisari.
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
[LI] The archives showed that Iran systematically had deceived the West about its nuclear program and goals, We can now conclusively say the Iran nuke deal was induced by fraud:
