[GulfTimes] The Earth's lungs are on fire. As you might have already seen reported and as you read this, thousands of fires are currently destroying the Amazon rainforest in Brazil - the most intense blazes for almost a decade. Fires in Brazil have increased by 85% in 2019, with more than half in the Amazon region, according to Brazil's space agency. The planet is losing an important carbon sink, and the fires are directly injecting carbon into the atmosphere.
As the world watches in horror...take a moment to reflect on what the main reason for the long-term destruction of the Amazon rainforest is: it's the world's global demand for meat products. Brazil is home to around 200 million cows daft animals every one of 'em
, and is the largest exporter in the world, supplying one quarter of the global beef market. The desire for new land for cattle farming has been the main driver of destruction of the Brazilian Amazon since the 1970s ‐ and it's worsening.
Scientists across the globe are now stating that the most practical solution people can adopt to help is to reduce ‐ or stop their meat intake.
Brazil remains the world's number one beef exporter, accounting for nearly 20% of global exports, and still growing. As of 2018, Brazilian beef exports reached a record 1.6 million tonnes. As a result, 80% of Amazon forest destruction is due to cattle ranching.
The reality is that every meat-eater on the planet is helping to fuel the Amazon forest fires. Fact.
I've written extensively for Arabs with digestive issues
before about how research consistently shows that drastically reducing animal food intake sic
and eating plant based foods is one of the most powerful things you can do to reduce your impact on the planet over your lifetime, in terms of energy required, land used, greenhouse gas emissions, water used and pollutants produced all this excrement and urine is drowning us, look at Seattle
- but on this occasion, the world is needs to act quickly to ensure we are doing the right thing for the future of our planet, for our future generations, our children and grandchildren.
Let me be very clear. Aah, yes... clarity.
These are not wildfires, but rather fires set by people seeking to create more space for more cattle in order to export more meat to the rest of the world. Beef is one of the most destructive foods for our planet - and claims the lives of millions of cows every year. Wat ?! No clarity ?
Just this month the UN declared that we must move away from consuming beef and instead adopt more plant-based diets if we are to fight climate catastrophe. Didn't turn out any better for Brontosaurs, did it ?
As you watch the news and witness the flames spread across South America, remember that eliminating meat is far bigger (in terms of impact) than cutting down on your flights or buying an electric car. It is the demand for animal products that are responsible for so much of this.
It's time to cut the Amazon out of your diet completely, and protect our Earth's lungs before it's too late...some scientists suggest it already is.
* The author is an expert in vegan wellbeing and health. And here is his stupid face.
[Babylon Bee] ATLANTA, GA‐CNN has apologized to Stalin and Mao after a guest compared the brutal dictators to Donald Trump.
"I am so sorry to all of Stalin and Mao's brave supporters," said Brian Stelter in an on-air apology Tuesday morning. "We never meant to associate these great men with Donald Trump. We did not intend to disparage communism in that way."
"Sometimes, you really need to make the point that Trump is a totalitarian tyrant," said Stelter. "But dragging Stalin and Mao's names through the mud in the process is not the right way to go about that. There are good ways to criticize the president and bad ways, and we're sorry for the way this one came across."
The CNN host committed to only comparing Trump to Hitler, Genghis Khan, and serial killers like Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, and Jeffrey Dahmer going forward.
The apology was followed by a 2-hour-long tribute to the "great communist men who changed the world for the better."
[MSN] In late November 2016, I was enjoying Thanksgiving break in my hometown on the Columbia River in Washington state when I received an unexpected call from Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Would I meet with President-elect Donald Trump to discuss the job of secretary of defense?
I had taken no part in the election campaign and had never met or spoken to Mr. Trump, so to say that I was surprised is an understatement. Further, I knew that, absent a congressional waiver, federal law prohibited a former military officer from serving as secretary of defense within seven years of departing military service. Given that no wavier had been authorized since Gen. George Marshall was made secretary in 1950, and I’d been out for only 3½ years, I doubted I was a viable candidate. Nonetheless, I felt I should go to Bedminster, N.J., for the interview.
I had time on the cross-country flight to ponder how to encapsulate my view of America’s role in the world. On my flight out of Denver, the flight attendant’s standard safety briefing caught my attention: If cabin pressure is lost, masks will fall...Put your own mask on first, then help others around you. In that moment, those familiar words seemed like a metaphor: To preserve our leadership role, we needed to get our own country’s act together first, especially if we were to help others.
The next day, I was driven to the Trump National Golf Club and, entering a side door, waited about 20 minutes before I was ushered into a modest conference room. I was introduced to the president-elect, the vice president-elect, the incoming White House chief of staff and a handful of others. We talked about the state of our military, where our views aligned and where they differed. Mr. Trump led the wide-ranging, 40-minute discussion, and the tone was amiable.
#1
Mattis is the latest piece of proof that service to the country does not constitute immediate sainthood. He's in the same class with Jimmuah Cahtah, Wesley Clark, Petraeus, Stavridis, Powell and far too many others to name. I sure as hell do not ask my heart surgeon for golf advice, though he's played a few rounds on his fees over the years.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/28/2019 14:11
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#3
I had time on the cross-country flight to ponder how to encapsulate my view of America’s role in the world.
America First rather than America Last. Our Constitution was never written for us to be the world's policeman. Doing so has destroyed the checks and balances of the original document and will yet destroy its prosperity. Everything you claim you wish to defend will be destroyed if this is not rectified.
#5
#1 Mattis is the latest piece of proof that service to the country does not constitute immediate sainthood.
One thing that I hope comes from the Age of Falling Masks is that a critical mass of people on the Right get over their reflexive deference toward (not to say worship of) uniforms and medals.
It's been used against us way too many times (McCain, Poppy, the Blue city polizei who arrest Trump supporters for defending themselves) and we can't afford it anymore.
#6
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You know, Berserker, I almost believed that was also him.😀 Until I remembered the news site copy-paste gimmick.
But he's right in a way. America does need to put the domestic policies in order first. The world can take care of their problems or die. Trump knows this too, it's just that the deepState has every President on his toes for all his term so he can't concentrate on what's actually important. Most of these diplomatic fiascos and aggressions can be traced back to Democrat policies and deepState bungling. Drain that Swamp, and you'll find the problems outside were mostly self-made.
Mattis is a good guy. Boy scouts are useless in war anyway. Trump just doesn't like to keep people in positions of power for too long, I think. It's his prerogative to find the 'right fit' for the jobs his Presidency depends on. If people too committed to their own selves stay in that job, we know what happens.
#7
"Put your own mask on first, then help others around you. In that moment, those familiar words seemed like a metaphor: To preserve our leadership role, we needed to get our own country’s act together first, especially if we were to help others."
That is a good analogy though
Posted by: European Conservative ||
08/28/2019 17:38
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#8
Right, put on your mask first, because if you pass out first, your three year old grandson is not gonna get the mask over your fat head. So maybe that does apply.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/28/2019 17:44
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#9
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#11
I don't see anything objectionable in what Mattis wrote here.
He disagreed with Trump on many things, and told him so, and resigned, honorably, without becoming a drama queen or going on the left-wing bloviator cable shows.
I don't think it's accurate to put him in the same class as Carter, W. Clark, Powell or Petraeus.
Mattis is a 100% straight shooter who has never, ever departed from the principle of our military's subordination to our politicians and the political process.
[AmericanThinker] Senator Kamala Harris recently said that "the bonds between the people of the United States and the people of Israel are unbreakable and we can never let anyone drive a wedge between us...Israel should never be a partisan issue." This is what George Orwell would call "doublespeak," as the major Democratic presidential candidates are fast forging that partisan wedge. When they discuss Israel, they advocate for policies that harm American interests and the American-Israeli strategic partnership.
To me, a pro-Israel presidential candidate regardless of party affiliation would adhere to at least most of the principles below. He or she would:
h/t Instapundit
[CampusReform] Stanford University is pushing a separate physics course for minorities in hopes that it will result in more diversity among physics majors.
A 2016 survey revealed Stanford’s physics department to be one of the "least diverse" departments within the institution, and the university has since embarked on a mission to resolve that supposed concern, according to a university news release.
"Creation of special curricula and support services for ethnic minority groups and women...textbook examples of unequal treatment" Tweet This
One step Stanford has taken is promoting a modified version of the standard Mechanics course, a requirement for physics majors, boasting "added support."
#2
Seriously: if only to ward off professional malpractice and liability suits, I sure as hell hope the ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) does not award these jokers engineering accreditation for their BS watered-down STEM curriculum.
Put it another way: Would you willingly drive across a bridge designed by an engineer who couldn't meet the standard for basic STEM course mastery?
#3
Yet another proof of the power of the race industry to get the institutions of western civilization to abandon principles and cower. We are so done when hard science caves....
#4
Well, that's mighty white of Stanford and racist. Employers will look at minority Standford grads as an inferior product and they will be right.
Posted by: Titus Glugum7307 ||
08/28/2019 12:19
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#5
Titus nails it.
These poor kids are the biggest losers. Stanford is just creating a time bomb here. See Clarence Thomas's furiously bitter comments about his Yale degree.
This is really despicable.
Bad all around, and also a truly terrifying trend.
#7
Would you willingly drive across a bridge walk across an pedestrian bridge in Florida designed by an engineer who couldn't meet the standard for basic STEM course mastery?
#8
The rules of physics and engineering are unforgiving. They don't care what color, gender, or anything else you are.
Someone once posted something that their daughter (a chemical engineering major) sent them. It said something to the effect that if you can't handle the math, choose a different major. Otherwise you will end up killing someone someday.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/28/2019 14:59
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#9
Will it affect their employability though ?
I think it's a good thing. It's as close to segregation as they can get without lowering their standards for normal students.
Goddamn I'm sooo racist.
#10
How many civilizations survived rewarding failure and punishing success? /rhet question
[Interesting how the Left moved from condemning the 'Bell Curve' to embracing its findings to implement these programs. If the book was racist then their actions are as well.]
The SJWs that dominate HR departments will ensure that they still get jobs and are showcased on brochures.
They just won't be given any real work to do. But they will get paid and hold a place that could have gone to a qualified person.
#11 Now for the terrifying part: it's spreading. Read Heather MacDonald's masterful survey of this truly alarming trend.
Remember when the left "fucking loved science"?
Poor nerds. All that sucking up to the poz, and now they're getting thrown under the bus for the sake of feelz and for folks higher up on the grievance pyramid.
#7 Would you willingly drive across a bridge walk across an pedestrian bridge in Florida designed by an engineer who couldn't meet the standard for basic STEM course mastery?
Failing to do so will be designated a hate crime.
Check your "not wanting to die or be seriously injured" privilege, honky.
#15
This course will not last. They can't do anything that provided metrics that go against their ideals. What they really should offer, if they actually you know, cared about people, is a prep course for them to help them take the regular course.
#18
Silentbrick, the problem is that there are people who, no matter how many prep courses they take, just don't have the mental capacity to be engineers/scientists/programmers. Those people come from all races, sexes, and countries.
I have been having this fight at work. My boss's boss says that we instructors should be able to take a Starbucks barista and turn them into a programmer - in 6-10 weeks. If they fail, it must be the instructor's fault. I've tried to point out that there is a reason that programmers make more than Starbucks baristas - it's called supply and demand. Not every one can be a programmer. Some people just will never get it.
I've stopped caring because I will be retiring in four months. I really feel sorry for my colleagues.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/28/2019 19:12
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#19
^ This
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/28/2019 19:16
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#20
.....problem is that there are people who, no matter how many prep courses they take, just don't have the mental capacity to be engineers/scientists/programmers.
h/t Instapundit
[Bloomberg] ...Weather Source has recorded 6,902 fires in Angola over the past 48 hours, compared to 3,395 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and 2,127 in Brazil. It’s not an uncommon phenomenon for Central Africa.
CNN on Tuesday announced the candidate lineup for its unprecedented prime-time event focused on the climate crisis.
Ten Democratic presidential hopefuls will appear in New York at back-to-back town halls on Wednesday, September 4, taking audience questions about their climate plans as scientists sound the alarm about global warming.
Along with the candidates, the network also announced the CNN journalists and the approximate appearance times for the presidential hopefuls during the seven-hour, live event.
Julián Castro and Andrew Yang interviewed by Wolf Blitzer
Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar by Erin Burnett
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders by Anderson Cooper
Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg by Chris Cuomo
Beto O'Rourke and Cory Booker by Don Lemon
and perhaps for fun someone will read from a 20 year old phone book
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/28/2019
09:35 ||
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#1
Normally this would cause ratings to drop through the floor, but they are already there.
[Real Clear Investigations] More than three months after President Trump granted his attorney general unprecedented power to declassify intelligence files, key U.S. intelligence agencies are still withholding documents related to the Trump-Russia affair, say people with direct knowledge of White House discussions on the subject.
The source of the logjam: the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which Trump is in the process of shaking up after the resignations last month of its director, Dan Coats, and principal deputy, Sue Gordon. "Establishment" officials in that agency are still dragging their feet, say the sources, who spoke on condition that they not be further identified.
Sources who have seen the documents generally described their contents to RealClearInvestigations. They said the material still under wraps includes:
Evidence that Prseident Obama’s CIA, FBI, and Justice Department illegally eavesdropped on the Trump campaign --- cases separate from the FBI’s disputed FISA court-approved surveillance of Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
An August 2016 briefing CIA Director John Brennan hand-delivered in a sealed envelope to Obama, containing information from what Brennan claimed was "a critical informant close to Putin." The informant is believed to have actually been a Russian source recycled from the largely debunked dossier compiled by ex-British agent Christopher Steele for the Hillary Clinton campaign.
An email exchange from December 2016 between Brennan and FBI Director James Comey, in which Brennan is said to have argued for using the dossier in early drafts of the task force’s much-hyped January 2017 intelligence assessment. That spread the narrative that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the alleged Clinton campaign hacking to steal the election for Trump.
Copies of all FBI, CIA and State Department records related to Joseph Mifsud, the mysterious Maltese professor whose statements regarding Papadopoulos allegedly triggered the original Russia-collusion probe.
Transcripts of 53 closed-door interviews of FBI and Justice Department officials and other witnesses conducted by the House Intelligence Committee. The files were sent to the agency last November.
The transcripts "demonstrate who was lying and expose the bias that existed against Trump before and after his election," said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) of the House Judiciary Committee. They also reportedly contain evidence of a Democratic National Committee attorney maintaining Russia-related contacts with the CIA during the 2016 campaign.
#2
Send a company of MPs into the DNI offices in the wee hours. Escort all DNI personnel who happen to be there to the parking lot after a nice, thorough frisking. Secure the building. Fire all of the employees. Publish the documents.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/28/2019 9:57
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[Politico] To this day, many Democratic Party officials still fume about Barack Obama’s decision to create his own political group outside of the Democratic National Committee, Organizing for Action.
Now they’ve ensured it won't happen again if a Democrat wins the White House in 2020.
The Association of State Democratic Committees announced Tuesday that every leading presidential contender has vowed not to create "any organizing or messaging infrastructure that is parallel or duplicative" to the DNC or state parties. The signed pledge also binds candidates to publicly call on their supporters not to launch outside groups on their behalf.
It's an enormous change for the party, one that will likely strengthen the DNC and state parties after what many Democrats considered neglect of the party infrastructure during the Obama years. It also throws into question the future of Our Revolution, the Bernie Sanders-created grass-roots organization, which state party leaders say would appear to violate the agreement if Sanders wins the general election.
"It's a huge shift," said Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party. The move sends two messages, she added: "You cannot create another OFA," and "the DNC is an important national infrastructure, but it's not in the states ‐ we are."
"[State parties] are never the shiny object that gets funded with all the appeals from podcasts or big donors," Kleeb added.
Organizing for Action, the political group that grew out of Obama's first presidential run, decentralized power from the DNC by building a parallel infrastructure that competed for donors. It was a move that many state party chairs loathed, and in the years since have faulted for Democrats' losses at the gubernatorial and statehouse level.
“It wasn't helpful to the political work that needs to get done in building a bench,” said Stephen Handwerk, executive director of the Louisiana Democratic Party. "We have a political tool in the state parties and the president should use them."
The pledge, signed by Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg and 16 other contenders, requires candidates to use state parties as their organizing, messaging and political arm should they become their party's nominee. Many state parties are run by full-time and unpaid chairs who are expected to recruit, train and get candidates elected. But many have few resources at their disposal, and the deal announced Tuesday is an attempt to fix that.
The agreement also mandates the eventual nominee to share all of the data he or she collects during the campaign with the DNC and state parties, which is already a requirement to get access to the party's voter file. The new agreement doesn’t require the nominee to share his or her email list, a notable concession and one that party officials hope could be revisited.
Harris was the first leading candidate to sign the pledge, drafted by the Association of State Democratic Committees, according to multiple sources. Warren had already signaled that she wanted to operate within the existing party infrastructure, donating $5,000 to each of the 50 state parties last year.
#1
"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."
#4
OFA was likely a stalking horse for Jarret, Ayers and their ilk. Soros as well, probably; maybe (indirectly) the business execs in tech and media industries who are now showering Barry & Big Mike with 8-figure sweetheart deals.
Soetoro was never more than a vehicle for these people.
Just when you thought the world was safer. Strap yourself in. Ma Barker is making sounds like she is in the wings waiting to be called for her coronation for a third time. Should this happen, it would another round of international crime and corruption on steroids. Has Freddy Krueger returned?
[AmericanThinker] Hillary Clinton, the Ma Barker of American politics, is still out hustling, still staying one step ahead of the law as she tries to weasel her way into the presidential sweepstakes. She says she isn’t running in 2020, but, as we know too well, truth is a fungible commodity to a Clinton.
The signs don’t look good. She just announced a fundraiser for the DNC at her Washington D.C. mansion with tickets as high as $50,000 (scraps for the homeless in the dumpster out back).
A couple of weekends ago she was at de Rothschild’s estate on Martha’s Vineyard -- go socialism! -- to celebrate Bill’s birthday, which included "quite an A-list cast of characters, including many Democratic party stalwarts."
Recently she and Chelsea announced they were publishing a book in October about "gutsy women," no doubt the tale of some courageous women in Arkansas who stood up to privilege and power even before the #MeToo movement. At least that’s my guess.
In any case, the subject is irrelevant. It’s the timing that matters. A book tour in the middle of the primary race? Just a not-so-subtle reminder from Madam Secretary: The air in the room belongs to me, bitches.
#11
Men seldom make last-second passes
At shades-wearing Kim Il Sung lasses
Who'd scare Kim Jong ill
And demotivate Bill...
But the grey, unwashed femine masses?
"Run, Hillary, fast as molasses!"
It looks likes serious edema to me — the lady’s health does not appear to be improving. The cross-body bag is impacting the natural fall of the fabric, which is why the queen of England and the royal duchesses generally carry clutches or handbags when seen in public, not shoulder bags.
[WND] The late historian and political philosopher Harry V. Jaffa noted the significance that the preamble to our Constitution concludes with the words "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity."
This is how the drafters of our Constitution saw its purpose.
Jaffa continues, saying, "a blessing is what is good in the eyes of God. It is a good whose possession ... belongs properly only to those who deserve it."
In light of this, let's consider a just-released Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll that appeared under the headline "Americans Have Shifted Dramatically on What Values Matter Most."
"Patriotism, religion and having children rate lower among younger generations than they did two decades ago," the headline continues.
Of all surveyed, 61 percent "cited patriotism as very important to them, down 9 percentage points from 1998, while 50 percent citied religion, down 12 points. Some 43 percent placed a high value on having children, down 16 points from 1998."
Among those ages 18-38, 42 percent cited patriotism as "very important"; less than one-third cited having children; and 30 percent cited "religion, belief in God."
The founders of the country saw the nation's existence, its faith and its posterity as a package deal. It all went together.
Now we have a young generation, our future, that dismisses the importance of all the elements of that package. What might this tell us about where we're headed?
The operative questions are: Does the country have a future, a posterity, without children? And will there be children if there is no marriage and family? And will there be marriage and family if there is no religion and God?
[Finance.Yahoo] Alphabet Inc's Google is shifting its Pixel smartphone production to Vietnam from China starting this year as it builds a cheap supply chain in Southeast Asia, the Nikkei business daily reported on Wednesday.
The move comes as labor costs are rising in China along with added pressure from spiraling tariffs due to the ongoing Sino-U.S. trade tensions.
The U.S. internet giant plans to move most of its American-bound hardware out of China, including the Pixel phones and its smart speaker Google Home, Nikkei said.
The company plans to ship about 8 million to 10 million smartphones this year, double from a year ago, making Vietnam a key part of Google's drive for growth in the smartphone market, the newspaper added.
Google will shift some production of the Pixel 3A phone to Vietnam before the end of this year, Nikkei reported citing sources.
For its smart speakers, some production is likely to be moved to Thailand but the company's new product development and initial production for its hardware lineup will still be in China, the newspaper said.
Posted by: Titus Glugum7307 ||
08/28/2019
07:45 ||
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#2
Vietnam is very unhappy with China. Vietnam has received very cheap products and clothing that causes burns to the skin. It is my understanding they welcome Americans. This Google thing is bad in my opinion as Google has had a love affair with China. Just another way to keep an eye on things in Vietnam. Google will do the bidding of China.
#3
A lot of the manufacturing leaving China is going to Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines. All countries bullied by China and have an interest in working with the US to keep China low.
#5
They have a chip design 'gChips team' in Bangalore, but no manufacturing yet. It has guys and gals who worked with Intel, freescale, motorola etc on it plus a clever little sprite, niece of yours truly.
The Govt often favors indigenous, small businesses and startups which the giants show a predatory side to. Hence it keeps hauling up google and facebook for anti-trust litigation every few months, threatening to shut down cloud servers, routinely inspecting. It's also not easy for western companies to set up plants in India without meeting very strict, insanely socialist compliance criteria which they shy away from. It's just more profitable to design here, and build in Vietnam, maybe.
Walmart in the US is selling clothing made in China that is doing the same thing.
In the mean time I am seeing more open borders victims, black and white, on the streets and homeless in the US that could be doing this if the knuckle dragging, hypocrite dims who continue to up the minimum wage that cannot be paid by businesses while importing cheap latin American labor. I am very, very surprised the US Chamber of Commerce is not importing cheap Vietnamese labor into the US … yet.
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Costco Wholesale Corp (COST.O) said it will limit the number of shoppers at its new China store after overcrowding forced the U.S. big box retailer to shut it early on the opening day.
No more than 2,000 shoppers at any given time will be allowed into the store in a Shanghai suburb, Costco’s first in China, and local police will help to improve the flow of traffic near the store, it said on Wednesday.
Large crowds had flocked to the store when it opened on Tuesday, causing traffic jams in the neighborhood.
Viral images online showed shoppers clambering to get in, jostling with others to snag roasted chickens and meat, and waiting in huge lines to check out.
"We’d like to apologize for the inconvenience caused to our members on our warehouse opening day in Shanghai," Costco said in a statement posted on WeChat, the Chinese social media platform.
It pledged to send text messages to members when the store was nearing capacity or if there are long wait times.
As predicted here at the Burg.
[France24] Shares in Johnson & Johnson rose in after-hours trading on Monday, despite the company being hit with a $572 million penalty by an Oklahoma court for contributing to the state's opioid addiction crisis. The fine was lower than had been expected, and may prompt other firms to settle similar cases. Johnson & Johnson is appealing the decision. Also today, the French president has promised to compensate businesses in Biarritz affected by the G7 summit.
[BBC] The UK's TV critics have welcomed the return of The Great British Bake Off to Channel 4 for its 10th series.
"No surprises hidden like currants in a fruit cake... No boat-rocking channel switches," said The Guardian's Chitra Ramaswamy.
Scott Bryan also sounded a cautiously optimistic note in the paper, writing: "Overall, a strong start.
"I just hope the format and its crushing need for standards doesn't suck all the fun out."
This series sees 13 amateurs (a bakers' dozen) compete to win.
The regular presenting team of comedians and broadcasters Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding, baker Paul Hollywood and writer Prue Leith have also returned.
Tuesday night's first episdode launched with an average audience of 5.7 million viewers, according to overnight figures, slightly down on the 6.1 million who watched the 2018 launch.
In his four-star review, James Jackson of The Times picked up on the show's youngest-ever line-up, which, he said, "some see as a ploy to grab youthful viewers deserting traditional TV, and potentially a race to the soggy bottom.
[Aljazeera] Increased Hamas presence on main roads of the Palestinian enclave after two bombings target security forces.
The Gaza Strip is on a "state of alert" after explosions killed three policemen in the Palestinian enclave in apparent suicide attacks.
The police officers died in "two explosions targeting police checkpoints" late on Tuesday, the interior ministry in the Hamas-controlled coastal territory said in a statement.
Such attacks on Hamas, which has the most powerful armed apparatus in the enclave, are rare.
An interior ministry spokesman, Eyad al-Bozom, said security forces were making progress in their pursuit of those behind the explosions, but he did not disclose further details.
[Aljazeera] The country's largest child sacrificial site so far was found near Huanchaco, a beachside tourist town north of Lima.
Archaeologists in Peru have discovered a grave containing the bodies of 227 children who were almost certainly killed as part of a child sacrifice ritual.
The sacrificial site was found near Huanchaco, a beachside tourist town north of Lima.
"This is the biggest site where the remains of sacrificed children have been found," chief archaeologist Feren Castillo told AFP news agency.
Castillo said the children, aged between four and 14, were sacrificed in a ritual to honour Hillary the Chimu culture's gods.
#3
The really ironic thing about the MLK quote is that PP lumps racial equality with women's "reproductive rights (to kill their babies)".
1. PP was founded by Margaret Sanger, and avowed racist who considered black people "weeds".
2. The largest group babies killed by PP are black
3. The MAJOR killer of black males is not guns, it is abortion.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/28/2019 19:29
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#4
I, for one am all for reproductive rights for African-American women. But only for them. Let them have this one privilege at least.
[Right Scoop] CBP has released footage of their new wall in San Luis, Arizona, where they’ve already built over 60 miles:
Now to be clear, while this wall is new, it is replacing what was already there. But that’s crucially important because in many cases the old wall didn’t stop people from coming though. This new wall does.
They followed up that video with this one from 2005 vs today, showing just how ineffective the old ’wall’ was at stopping illegals:
#1
Look at the picture. Lots of open land. The only thing that can stop Trump from designating the first mile inside the US and outside of incorporated areas as being a military zone is our tyrannical* judiciary.
* sitting for life, unaccountable to the people, obviously intent on assuming powers and purview never intended in the Constitution.
[Breitbart] A young woman has survived after reportedly falling 80 feet from her apartment balcony in the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon on Saturday.
College student Alexa Terrazas, 23, was practicing an extreme yoga pose while hanging over the edge of her sixth-floor apartment balcony when she fell and landed on the building’s driveway below.
A viral photo reportedly taken moments before her fall shows Terrazas hanging precariously upside down over the edge of the glass wall. Reports said she lost her balance before falling to the ground.
On Monday, Terrazas was listed in critical condition and suffered from fractures in her legs, arms, hips, and head. Doctors said she will remain in a coma for at least two weeks.
Friends and family members have asked the public for donations to help the young woman recover.
"She doesn’t need any more blood, but she does need platelets," a message on the blooders.org website said. "It’s a painful and sad life lesson," another message read.
Reports said doctors at the hospital in Nuevo Leon spent 11 hours doing reconstructive surgery on Terrazas following the tragic accident.
#4
This is what comes of following trends without knowing jack about the real thing. There's no such thing as hanging from ledges and balancing on beams in yoga. And it's the last thing for showing off.
It's like 'I'm going to practice my kata with my hands on fire ! Call it the burning fist !' For no reason.
Look for the lass to make herself into a victim, then an Instagram & Twitter sensation, then score a book contract, then become an SJW crusader against the evil patriarchy, exploitative LuluLemonLeeches-Against-Helpless-Womyn etc etc.
#6
My faith in people took a real ding this summer when I would watch people get onto lichen covered boulders with loose gravel downwind of a waterfall and make silly poses, where a fall would mean the body would be found after it plugged a golf course sprinkler in Kansas.
Not that part. The part where the picture was framed not to include the peril of the pose, but because there was a break in the trees and a mountainous background could be included. Chit, that could be done off the side of the parking lot.
BLUF:
[American Thinker] McCabe is the canary in the coal mine. Based on his future employment with CNN, all is looking well for the other conspirators in the failed coup attempt. This is in no way a prejudgment of the integrity of Attorney General William Barr or his chosen prosecutor, John Durham, but the McCabe hiring by CNN may be a glimpse into the future results of the Horowitz report and the Barr-Durham investigation. All indications point to the fact that Durham is a no-nonsense truth-seeker and Barr a man with a passion for the rule of law, but even they know that if actual justice were to be handed out in the manner that it should, the country would be torn apart.
We must never forget that the conspirators had to receive approval from someone before going forward with the coup attempt against Trump. That someone is former president Barack Obama. For any of the coup conspirators to face actual justice would mean that the DOJ would take one giant step closer to investigating and indicting a former president, which must never and will never happen. So the same folks who brought you the investigations into Benghazi, Fast and Furious, The IRS, and Hillary's private email server crime will add another show to the fall season, with perhaps better optics and arguments but the same results: no indictments. Emphasis added.
#1
...We must never forget that the conspirators had to receive approval from someone before going forward with the coup attempt against Trump. That someone is former president Barack Obama
[Washington Examiner] Joe Biden's wife Jill says that her husband's third bid for the presidency has had a surprising side benefit: It has renewed her faith in God.
The former Second Lady, 68, opened up on Tuesday about her struggles with religion after she and the former vice president, 76, lost their son Beau to cancer in 2015 at the age of 46. She was speaking at a fundraiser in Atlanta hosted by a local breast cancer physician, reflecting on a prayer service she recently attended.
"For the first time in a long time, I felt like there was a path to recovering my faith. For all the things I expected to find on this campaign, a pathway back to my faith was not one of them," the former second lady said, adding how "grateful" she was for the opportunity to meet everyday Americans, regardless of whether they supported her husband.
"People like you show up to events like this because you know that this matters," she said. "You keep believing with all your hearts that all of our voices matter. And we deserve the same values in our leaders."
#9
Latest polls show Biden regaininf double-digit lead over 2020 Dems AND crushing Trump.
I know a lot can happen in a year but that's not what toast looks to me.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
08/28/2019 16:52
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#10
I doubt few tell the pollsters anything remotely like the truth. I don't, and take every opportunity to screw with them.
I live in a 97% Dem town, and I play with them. I put up a "Warren/Harris for President bumper sticker one week, a "Harris/Abrams for President" another week, and an "Abrams/Harris for President" a week later. They look real. They are real. They just aren't from the Dem party. Rinse and repeat.
One female asked me why I switched Harris/Abrams for Abrams/Harris (some people pay attention apparently) and I said I couldn't decide who should be on top. She laughed.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
08/28/2019 17:43
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#11
One poll means little, but the average of many polls from serious pollsters usually proves to be quite accurate.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
08/28/2019 17:56
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#12
That's wicked, Whiskey mike. ☺ Also the most intelligent thing to do. If everyone did that, imagine the look of horror at the actual results of elections on those beach tanned faces. Worse than 2016.
#14
One poll means little, but the average of many polls from serious pollsters usually proves to be quite accurate.
Didn't happen last election when pretty much every poll said Trump would get his ass kicked.
To be fair, I understand the principle of what you are saying, but it relies on actual serious pollsters and not people trying to tip the playing field for their candidate. It may be different in Euro-land, but over here the pollsters tend to be quite partisan.
#15
but it relies on actual serious pollsters and not people trying to tip the playing field
Back when we still had a landline, I used to amuse myself during election season by explaining to the many, many pollsters who called (here in southwest Ohio we are considered a critical voting region), exactly how the questions they asked should have been worded to get an accurate answer from me... or at least supply one option that was true.
Polls rely on those questioned replying truthfully, and I think people no longer feel obliged to do so, especially when the questions reveal what answers the poll writers desire.
#16
SteveS, even in the US elections the numbers were quite accurate. They did get the popular vote right and most states.
I remember Hillary dropping in Michigan like a rock in the last days in the polls and I though hey this might be getting closer than I thought.
Remember how close things were in Michigan and Wisconsin. Polls can't come that close but they weren't off the mark.
Several pollsters have Biden around 30%. This isn't out of the blue. You bet both parties watch polls very closely. Bias doesn't work for long because if you are wrong you're out o business.
That said a lot can and will change in the next 12 months. I do think so that Biden has a solid base that won't erode easily.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
08/28/2019 23:02
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[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Special Forces killed 2 Taliban ...Arabic for students... and ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... murderous Moslems and detained 13 others during the operations in Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... , 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.. and Kandahar provinces.
The military officials said Tuesday that the Afghan Special Forces arrested 4 Talibs during an operation in Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand.
The officials further added that the Special Forces also destroyed a small cache of weapons during the operation.
Furthermore, the Special Forces killed a bad boy of ISIS Khurasan terror group during a raid in Deh Bala district of Nangarhar province.
The officials said the Special Forces also detained 9 ISIS murderous Moslems and destroyed a small cache of weapons.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter wished he had thought to pack sun block... the Special Forces killed a Taliban bad boy and destroyed a weapons cache during an operation in Maiwand district of Kandahar.
[KhaamaPress] An Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... killed six faceless myrmidons of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Syria Khurasan (ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... -K) in eastern 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.
The military officials said Tuesday that the security forces conducted the airstrikes in Pachir Wa Agam district of Nangarhar.
The sources further added that the airstrike killed six faceless myrmidons of the terror group.
The ISIS sympathizers have not commented regarding the airstrike so far.
[ToloNews] The IED blast targeted the vehicle of the university lecturer in which three others were maimed.
A university lecturer in Nangarhar, Massoud Nekbakht, was killed in an embedded IED kaboom in the city of Jalalabad on Tuesday, the provincial governor’s front man Attaullah Khogyani said.
Nekbakht was head of the Literature Faculty of Nangarhar University.
Mr. Khogyani said that three others were maimed in the blast.
He said that the earth-shattering kaboom targeted Nekbakht’s vehicle.
Nekbakht was the nephew of a well-known former Jihadi leader Mawlawi Khalis, Mr. Khogyani said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/28/2019
00:56 ||
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[KhaamaPress] The security forces killed at least 15 Talibs during the latest operations in Balkh province.
The 209th Shaheen Corps said in a statement the security forces conducted the operations in Sholgara district of Balkh.
The statement further added that the security forces killed 15 Talibs during the operations including Malwavi Abdul Ahad, the shadow district chief of Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... for Kant.
The Taliban group has not commented regarding the operations so far.
[ToloNews] Zabul police chief says Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... attempted many attacks in different parts of the province but were pushed back.
Army and police officials in the southern province of Zabul said the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces have succeeded to push back Talibs’ attacks in the province which began last month.
The officials said the Taliban wanted to take the control of many districts of the province, including Shahjoi, Shinkai and Shimalzai but their attacks were pushed back and the military operations by the Afghan forces are underway in different parts of the province.
Zabul Police Chief Lieut. Col. Saeed Meraj Sadat said that dozens of Talibs were killed in the operations over the past few months.
"Taliban wanted to overrun Zabul this year, but their attacks were repelled and they suffered heavy casualties," he said. "They went towards northern districts [of Zabul] including Shimalzai and Shinkai, but again they failed."
Army officials in the province said that the operations will continue against murderous Moslems in the province.
"We have conducted different operations in different districts of Zabul in which we had huge success," said Colonel Safiullah Nijrabi, an Army commander in Zabul. "Recently, we launched another operation in Shahjoi district which is near Ghazni province which was a coordination between the 203 Thunder Corps and 215 Maiwand Corps."
He assured the Zabul residents that they will provide a safe environment for the upcoming presidential election scheduled for September 28.
[KhaamaPress] The security forces conducted multiple Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in Ghor province which killed at least 66 Talibs.
The informed military sources said Tuesday that the security forces conducted the airstrikes in the vicinity of Shahrak district.
"Multiple airstrikes in Shahrak district killed 66 Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... Fighters and destroyed a large weapons cache," the sources said.
The anti-government armed turbans including Taliban have not commented regarding the airstrikes so far.
This comes as the security situation in certain parts of Ghor province has tanked during the recent months.
Talibs are active in some districts of the province and often conduct terrorist related activities.
[ToloNews] Local officials said four people, including three tribal elders, were kidnapped by the Taliban ...Arabic for students... last week.
Bodies of the three tribal elders of the northern province of Samangan were found in the northern province of Baghlan on Tuesday few days after they were kidnapped by the by Taliban, said Munir Ahmad, a front man for Baghlan police.
He said that the Taliban last week kidnapped Syed Abdul Halim Sadat, a member of Samangan Provincial Council and three tribal elders from the province.
Sadat’s body was found in Chashma-e-Shir area in Baghlan on Friday, August 22, the front man said.
#4
Sometimes it pays to do your research. Earnest Pickleford, co-inventor the "glove compartment" at Packard in the early days of the last century was most certainly racist, as presumably non-whites would not be expected to own or wear gloves.
His wife Lady Belle however requires special treatment (fortunately most of this article is now lost), as she being of a much more gentille demeanor would be more complicit in this tragedy. Thus young women of the 16-36 year range have the heaviest burden to pay for reparations in this instance.
#5
For some reason Youtube is saying file not found. Here's the video again.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
08/28/2019 4:13
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#6
This is not stupidity. This can only mean one thing. It's a concerted effort to insult, defile, utterly demoralize American cities. They are taking revenge the classical jungle way.
[Rudaw] A video featuring a group of armed, masked men has called for the expulsion of US troops and civilians from Iraq, amid alleged attacks on Iran-backed militia groups in the country.
Calling themselves "Jund al-Imam al-Hujja," the group addresses US President Donald Trump ...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat The Smartest Woman in the World in the general election... , promising to attack US civil and military sites in the country if soldiers and civilians do not leave.
"We promise to attack every single US civil and military base within Iraq if Trump does not withdraw them," the armed, masked men said in the video published to social media on Tuesday.
"The US troops are invaders of Iraq, and we will not rest until we expel the US invaders," they added.
The group claims to follow the "strategy" of the now deceased Ayatollah Muhammed Muhammed Sadiq al-Sadr, whose photo hangs in the background of the video. He is the grandfather of Shiite holy man and political kingmaker Moqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... .
An image of Moqtada al-Sadr’s father, Shiite holy man Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, can also be seen behind the men.
Moqtada al-Sadr is head of the predominantly-Shiite Sayirun alliance ‐ the largest bloc in the Iraqi parliament. He is also head of the Saraya al-Salam paramilitias, which form part of Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, known as Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic).
US troops withdrew from Iraq in 2011, but were invited back to the country in 2014 to advise and train Iraqi forces in the fight against Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... ).
The Sayirun alliance has made repeated demands for the expulsion of US troops from the country, despite insistence by Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi that they are in the country by invitation.
In the Tuesday video, Jund al-Imam al-Hujja accused the US of targeting "our" bases in Iraq ‐ likely in response to a string of alleged attacks on bases belonging to the Iran-backed, predominantly Shiite PMF.
PMF deputy head Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis blamed the earth-shattering kabooms on a US and Israeli strike effort in an August 21 statement.
Since then, the US has twice denied involvement in the earth-shattering kabooms.
"US forces did not conduct the recent attack on a convoy or any recent attacks that resulted in the earth-shattering kaboom of ammunition storage facilities in Iraq. Statements to the contrary are false, misleading, and inflammatory," Pentagon front man Jonathan R. Hoffman said in a Monday statement. Another Pentagon front man, Commander Sean Robertson, denied US involvement on Thursday.
"We support Iraqi illusory sovereignty and have repeatedly spoken out against any potential actions by external actors inciting violence in Iraq."
Blame for the attacks has for the most part been placed on Israel, known to be attacking Iranian and Iran-backed targets in neighbouring Syria.
But in a late Monday statement, Moqtada al-Sadr said he is "sure" that Israel is not behind the attacks against PMF.
"It [Israel] knows [the Iraqi] response will be seismic to its security and influence. The Zionists know their end will come from Iraq," he said.
[DAWN] A torture cell operated allegedly by the Gujjarpura station house officer (SHO) along with three constables to keep suspects in jug on the pretext of interrogation was unearthed in the historic provincial capital on Monday.
Two handcuffed and four other men were recovered from the cell established by the coppers at a local office of the forest department. The cell was unearthed by officials of the anti-corruption department, who were in the field for investigation of a case, an official told Dawn.
He said during their investigation, the anti-corruption officials heard cries, traced them to a building located right in the middle of a jungle and filmed whatever they saw. They found six locked men, including a bedridden man ‐ identified as Amjad ‐ at death's door due to apparently third-degree torture by the suspected coppers.
In the footage recorded on a mobile phone, Amjad is seen telling the officials that his backbone and hips were severely fractured and that he could not even move on the bed provided to him by the forest department employees on his repeated requests.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Islamic holy mans in Sri Lanka asked Moslem women on Tuesday to continue to avoid wearing face veils until the government clarifies whether they are once again allowed now that emergency rule has ended four months after a string of suicide kabooms.
Clerics are wary of the Moslem community being targeted again for violence, as it was in the aftermath of April’s Easter Sunday attacks that killed more than 260 people, said Fazil Farook, front man for All Ceylon Jammiyyathul Ulama, Sri Lanka’s largest group of Islamic holy mans. Two local radical Moslem groups have been blamed for the attacks.
Farook urged Moslem women not to rush into wearing their veils again. "Except you with the mustaches. Cover that sh*t up!"
"They have managed in the past and we are asking them to do it the same way," Farook said, adding that some women have refused to be seen in public without covering their faces because they had been accustomed to it.
After the Easter attacks on three churches and three tourist hotels, Sri Lanka’s government brought the country under emergency rule, giving sweeping search, arrest and detention powers to the military and police. President Maithripala Sirisena also used the emergency law to issue a decree banning covering faces in all manners, including face veils.
Emergency rule had been extended each month until last week, when Sirisena allowed the law to lapse. He issued a separate order allowing the military to maintain peace.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Actress Lori Loughlin is due in court on Tuesday for a hearing on whether the lawyers defending her against charges that she participated in a large college admissions scam have a conflict and must be disqualified.
Federal prosecutors in Boston have accused the "Full House" star and her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli of arranging to pay bribes to get her two daughters admitted to the University of Southern Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, (USC) as purported crew recruits.
They are among 51 people charged since March with participating in a vast scheme in which wealthy parents conspired to use bribery and other forms of fraud to secure admission of their children to top universities.
Prosecutors claim they did so with the help of William "Rick" Singer, a California college admissions consultant who has pleaded guilty to facilitating cheating on college admissions tests and helping bribe university sports coaches to present clients’ children as fake athletic recruits.
Loughlin and Giannulli are both represented by the law firm Latham & Watkins, which also until recently represented USC on other matters. Prosecutors contend the firm’s representation of the alleged victim is a conflict that warrants disqualification.
#2
...Good thing she's cute, 'cause she ain't too smart. The Feds gave her a chance, and of all the folks involved, her and hubby were the only ones who decided to gut it out. They're going to do real time - not much, maybe a year or two, but it's gonna sting.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/28/2019 4:24
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#3
..well, hell, it wasn't like she was involved in a conspiracy to overturn the election of 2016. No one is facing time for that.
[DAWN] The cyber crime reporting centre (CCRC) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested a man in Lahore for harassing and blackmailing a woman through her "objectionable" photos and videos, it emerged on Tuesday.
A statement issued by FIA CCRC Lahore Deputy Director Chaudhry Sarfraz said that a complaint was filed by a Sheikhupura resident that his sister was being harassed and blackmailed by a Lahore resident through pictures and videos taken of her without consent.
According to the First Information Report of the case, seen by Dawn.com, the complainant stated that his sister came into contact with the suspect and subsequently met him. During this meeting, the suspect "deceitfully captured objectionable pictures and videos of her" and also stole her cellphone, the FIR stated.
It said the suspect forced the woman to give him Rs300,000 and was now demanding Rs500,000 more through blackmail.
After registering the complaint, an investigation team was constituted by the deputy director of CCRC Lahore which carried out a raid and recovered two mobile phones from the suspect. One of these contained the objectionable content concerning the woman, the statement said.
"After recovery of alleged material and sufficient incriminating evidence, the accused person [...] was arrested and recovered mobile phones were taken into custody by FIA through seizure memo," it added.
[Rudaw] A spokesperson for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who control northeastern Syria has said the withdrawal of its personnel from the Syria-The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... border has yet to commence, despite a statement from the group announcing personnel withdrawal from the area as long ago as Saturday.
Speaking to Rudaw on Tuesday, SDF spokesperson Kino Gabriel said that the SDF had withdrawn only weaponry ‐ not forces ‐ from the Syria-Turkey border.
"Our forces have not withdrawn from the area," Gabriel told Rudaw when asked if SDF forces had withdrawn five kilometers from the border.
However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... force withdrawal from the area would eventually take place, Gabriel said.
"As for the [SDF] forces, they will be withdrawn gradually, not instantly from the entirety of the safe zone."
Gabriel’s comments come despite a statement from the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES) today which said the removal of both weaponry and personnel from buffer zone-designated areas began on Saturday, amid the ongoing removal of heavy weaponry and dismantling of their military posts close to the Ottoman Turkish border.
"The first practical steps -- in the Ras al-Ain area -- in removing some earth mounds and withdrawing a group of (Kurdish) People's Protection Units and heavy weapons have begun," according to the August 27 statement.
The SDF began removing posts and weaponry from the buffer zone designated area a few days ago, with US Central Command (CENTCOM) sharing images of force members dismantling fortifications near the Ottoman Turkish border on August 22 in accordance with the safe zone agreement.
The safe zone in northern Syria was established after a series of talks by Turkey and the US ‐ the main backer of the Kurdish-majority SDF - led to an agreement to establish a joint operations center in the Ottoman Turkish province of Sanliurfa, on the Syrian border.
With details of the buffer zone’s operation yet to be set in stone, US discussions with Turkey are taking place in "coordination and direct communication" with the SDF and the NES, Gabriel told Rudaw.
"We are confident that the safe zone will do its work and mission, which is to ensure the protection and stability of our areas. This will open the space for our forces and internal security forces to fight ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... [Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... ]," added Gabriel.
SDF officials have denied implementation of the safe zone will lead to the area being subject to a permanent Ottoman Turkish presence. Spokesperson Mustafa Bali rejected claims that Turkey will station troops or establish permanent observation points in the area.
"Ottoman Turkish forces have not yet entered by land [...] it will be restricted to joint patrols of American and Ottoman Turkish forces. This won't constitute a threat or danger to the peoples or the forces in the area," Gabriel added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/28/2019
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] An Iranian appeals court has upheld a 10-year jail sentence against British Council staffer Aras Amiri for "cultural infiltration", the judiciary front man said on Tuesday.
Amiri was "sentenced to 10 years in jail... and she is already serving her term. This verdict has been upheld by the court," front man Gholamhossein Esmaili said, quoted by the judiciary’s Mizan Online website.
"This person... was identified by us because of her cultural infiltration in society through arts and her widespread activities," he added.
Mizan Online reported Amiri’s original sentence on May 13, saying she had "made a straightforward confession."
At the time, Esmaili said she had been tasked with drawing up and managing cultural "infiltration" projects.
Amiri, a Iranian national who had been living in London, was arrested in 2018 during a trip to visit relatives in Iran.
Iranian authorities shut down the British Council’s office in Tehran more than a decade ago for what Esmaili described as "illegal activities."
[Libya Observer] Terrorist sleeper cells affiliated with Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... 's forces have been depicted in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... trying to cover for failure to enter the capital by targeting officials, journalists and bloggers inside Tripoli.
Recent actions by those sleeper cells include targeting the house of the member of Constitution Drafting Assembly Itimad al-Misillati in Ain Zara in southern Tripoli on Monday, damaging cars for her family.
This targeting was preceded by another directed by button men at a journalist and presenter at Tanasuh TV Channel in Libya's capital Mihammed Eshbeni on the coastal road at Esban Roundabout of Tajoura.
Tanasuh TV issued a statement saying four people driving two Toyota 27 cars stopped Eshbeni, verbally attacked him and threatened him.
"The button men threatened me because I work as a journalist and said I was part of Moslem Brüderbund Group and Libyan Fighting Group." Eshbeni said on his Facebook page.
On August 02, loyalists of Haftar's forces admitted to burning the car of blogger Naji al-Hajj in Tripoli.
Meanwhile, ...back at the precinct house, Fat Tony demanded his rosco back. He didn't say please... the Interior Ministry announced lately arresting terrorist sleeper cells affiliated with Haftar's forces in Tripoli that were aiming to destabilize the capital by attacking individuals and institutions.
[DAWN] The long march call given by the Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...the political wing of the Pak Taliban... -Fazl (JUI-F) received a cold response from other parties when the proposal was taken up during a meeting of the opposition’s Rehbar Committee here on Monday.
Sources told Dawn that almost all the parties expressed their concern over the unilateral announcement by JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman ...Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty... that his party had decided to hold a "decisive" long march to Islamabad in October to oust the government. However, ars longa, vita brevis... the matter was later left to be decided by their leadership in the next multi-party conference (MPC) the date of which would be announced later.
Briefing news hounds about the decisions, Rehbar Committee’s convener Akram Khan Durrani said all the parties had submitted their charters of demand and these demands would also be finalised and prioritised in the next MPC.
Mr Durrani also disclosed that the MPC which was scheduled to be held on Aug 29 had been postponed due to poor health condition of Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shahbaz Sharif ...Pak dynastic politician, brother of PM Nawaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab... and some other engagements of Pakistain Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.
#2
Most of these bastards are overweight, half-dead, dialysis ridden clergy. No surprise it was cold. Maybe if the UAE sent them some of those Segway thingies, they could all cruise to the capital. It would certainly be a sight.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Arab Coalition said that the Iranian-backed Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... militia fired a ballistic missile from the province of Amran on Tuesday, which then fell in Saada. ... which is still in Yemen.
The spokesperson of the Arab Coalition Colonel Turki al-Maliki said that the Houthis continue to violate international humanitarian law by indiscriminately firing ballistic missiles targeting civilians. [KABOOM!] "ALLAHU AKBAR!"
"The leadership of the joint coalition forces continue to take strict and deterrent measures to neutralize and destroy these ballistic capabilities to protect civilians inside 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... , and to protect regional and international security," al-Maliki said in a statement.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Hezbollah is preparing a "calculated strike" against its enemy Israel after suspected Israeli drones crashed in Beirut but it aims to avoid a new war, two sources allied to Hezbollah told Rooters on Tuesday.
A reaction "is being arranged in a way which wouldn’t lead to a war" that Hezbollah does not want, one of the sources said.
"The direction now is for a calculated strike, but how matters develop, that’s another thing."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday Hezbollah leader Sayyed His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... should "calm down" after Nasrallah said the Iranian-backed movement would respond to the crash of two drones in a Beirut suburb.
In a speech on Sunday, Nasrallah described the drones, including one that had went kaboom!, as the first Israeli attack in Leb since the two sides fought a month-long war in 2006.
"I say to the Israeli army on the border from tonight, stand guard. Wait for us one, two, three, four days," Nasrallah said.
#2
The Hezbies need to do *something* to maintain their 'street cred'. Doing nothing makes them look like Israel's bitch, but if they go to far with their newly supplied missiles and such, they risk getting stomped hard and being back to square one - in addition to being dead. It's complicated.
[NYPOST] A Washington, DC, mom says her political-consultant husband left her for Rep. Ilhan Omar ...Somali-American Dem representative from Minnesota. She is apparently married to her brother and may be her own grandmaw on her mother's side... , according to a bombshell divorce filing obtained by The Post.
Dr. Beth Mynett says her cheating spouse, Tim Mynett, told her in April that he was having an affair with the Somali-born US representative ‐ and that he even made a "shocking declaration of love" for the Minnesota congresswoman before he ditched his wife, alleges the filing, submitted in DC Superior Court on Tuesday.
The physician, 55, and her 38-year-old husband ‐ who has worked for left-wing Democrats such as Omar and her Minnesota predecessor, Keith Ellison ‐ have a 13-year-old son together.
"The parties physically separated on or about April 7, 2019, when Defendant told Plaintiff that he was romantically involved with and in love with another woman, Ilhan Omar," the court papers say.
"Defendant met Rep. Omar while working for her,’’ the document states. "Although devastated by the betrayal and deceit that preceded his abrupt declaration, Plaintiff told Defendant that she loved him, and was willing to fight for the marriage.
"Defendant, however, told her that was not an option for him’’ and moved out the next day, the papers say.
"It is clear to Plaintiff that her marriage to Defendant is over and that there is no hope of reconciliation,’’ according to the filing.
The Mynetts lived together for six years before marrying in 2012, the filing said.
Omar ‐ a member of "the Squad," a group of far left-leaning female freshman House members including Rep. Alexandria Boom Boom Ocasio-Cortez Dem represntative from da Bronx in Noo Yawk and leader of the Mean Girl Caucus in Congress. One of the Great Minds of the 21st Century, she is known as much for her innaleck as for her dance moves. She is all in favor of socialism, even though she's fuzzy on the details... (D-NY) and two others ‐ recently separated from her husband, according to reports.
The 37-year-old congresswoman and mom of three paid Tim Mynett and his E. Street Group approximately $230,000 through her campaign since 2018 for fundraising consulting, digital communications, internet advertising and travel expenses.Related:Ilhan Omar: 2019-08-23 One dead, two maimed from bomb in West Bank
Ilhan Omar: 2019-08-22 Tlaib And Omar Try To Sneak Into Israel Stacked On Top Of Each Other Inside A Trenchcoat
Ilhan Omar: 2019-08-19 Multiple Attacks Caught On Video During Antifa ...the armed wing of the Democratic Party... Demonstration In Portland
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2019
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I think it is more a case of jizzya.
Posted by: Titus Glugum7307 ||
08/28/2019 0:56
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#4
It would have been funny if this came out while she was visiting some mosque in Paleostain. Sigh .. the things that could have been, but never were ...
#9
Didn't Rantburg feature a picture of the two lovebirds having lunch last week?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/28/2019 9:27
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#10
I knew we did. It was like this but there were no insets, just the part on the left with the guy looking all spaced out. Maybe that's what she does to guys.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/28/2019 9:32
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#11
Lovebirds
"Love had nothing to do with it, dearie"
- Mae West
Follow the, uh, Benjamins. In this case the dude is the ho.
[NEWSWEEK] Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Being Native American has been part of my story since the day I was born Warren ...Dem Senatrix from Massachussetts, who traces her noble lineage all the way back to Big Chief Spouting Bull. It has been alleged that she speaks with forked tongue but she denies that. She had a DNA test to prove her lineage and it turns out she's colorless... may have apologized for taking a DNA test to prove she has Native American ancestry, but President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... could use his "Pocahontas" label for Warren to damage her as he did to defeat Crooked Hillary Clinton ...former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away... in the 2016 election, according to at least one Republican consultant.
Warren can say she never used her ethnicity‐her DNA test found she is between 1/64th and 1/1,024th Native American and backfired‐to land a job. But Trump could use it against her to question her honesty.
"If you give Trump a tool to equalize the playing field, which is what this does, he will do exactly what he did to Hillary Clinton," Republican consultant Dan Hazelwood told Politico Magazine in a piece published online Tuesday.
Hazelwood, who owns Targeted Creative Communications, said Warren has "never given the answer to the core of the Trump charge, which is: She cheated. She cheated for personal gain. She hasn't answered that part of the attack."
The consultant said "we're all kidding ourselves" to think Trump would not be able to find people including Native Americans who would admit they still think Warren's DNA test was inappropriate "and she never actually properly accounted for her misdeeds." Hazelwood cautioned Democrats to "not pretend that you can't find those people, because a presidential campaign can."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2019
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#1
Yes, to point out how much of a crook she is.
Posted by: Titus Glugum7307 ||
08/28/2019 0:59
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#2
Newspeak: "Warren can say she never used her ethnicity‐her DNA test found she is between 1/64th and 1/1,024th Native American and backfired‐to land a job."
No, she can't say that - unless she's f---ing lying through her teeth.
She claimed Cherokee ancestry to land a tenure-track job at Harvard, which claimed her as a "person of color" on the Law School faculty.
She claimed Cherokee ancestry years before, right out of law school, on her affidavit to the Bar Association.
She's a scam artist and needs to step down from politics, resign her post at Harvard and suffer the same kind of public shaming and ostracism that have destroyed the careers of people who've committed far less egregious offenses.
#3
All these people facing jail time because they allegedly bribed their kids' way into college but Fauxcahontas commits fraud to get a cushy job at Harvard and gets away with it. How about a DoJ investigation into Elizabeth Warren? Oh, right. Wait until she's nominated.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/28/2019 9:47
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#4
"We have to nominate her to find out what crimes she's committed."
- Apologies to N. Pelosi
Seems like an Honor Killing from her first husband would be in order if he wasn't also her brother....
[NY Post] A conservative watchdog group said Tuesday that it plans to file a complaint against US Rep. Ilhan Omar with the Federal Election Commission ‐ after The Post revealed allegations that she's dating one of her paid consultants.
"This arrangement where Ilhan is paying her lover consulting fees could be illegal if he's not doing the work," said National Legal and Policy Center Chairman Peter Flaherty.
"And we'll be asking the FEC for an investigation to determine the nature and level of his work product."
Earlier Tuesday, The Post reported that Beth Mynett, a DC-based doctor, filed for separation from her husband, political consultant Tim Mynett, alleging he told her April 7 that he was having an affair with Omar.
Records show that the 37-year-old Minnesota congresswoman paid Tim Mynett and his E. Street Group approximately $230,000 through her campaign since 2018 for fundraising consulting, digital communications, internet advertising and travel expenses.
More than $70,000 of that money was transferred in 14 payments to Mynett's E. Street Group LLC between April 22 and June 11, records show.
The fact that Omar's campaign committee continued to pay Tim Mynett's firm for months after his wife said he left her for the congresswoman isn't outright illegal.
A public-affairs specialist at the FEC noted that the agency's regulations include a section that says, "Salary payments to a member of a candidate's family are not considered personal use, provided that the family member is providing bona fide services to the campaign and at a rate that does not exceed fair market value of the services provided."
The question is whether that actually occurred here, Flaherty said.
He noted that six of the expenditures in Omar's filings are simply labeled "travel expenses" worth $12,673.43 ‐ and that in Beth Mynett's legal papers, she questioned whether her husband's purported work travel was all for legitimate purposes.
"On reflection Defendant's more recent travel and long work hours now appear to be more related to his affair with Rep. Omar than with his actual work commitments, averaging 12 days per month away from home over the past year," her filing reads.
Flaherty said that at the very least, the FEC should ding Omar for not being more specific when reporting Mynett's firm's travel.
"The law states that travel expenses have to be itemized, but Ilhan's campaign is just reporting large amounts for ‘travel,'" Flaherty said. "Our question is whether this was necessary travel or whether she was just bringing her boyfriend along for the company."
A statement from the E Street Group on Tuesday touted the more than $2.3 million that it said it has raised for Omar's re-election campaign in 2019 so far.
"As FEC reports show – we provide grass tops and grassroots fundraising, political and communications support for Democratic candidates, including events, digital fundraising, ad acquisition, SMS mobilization, research, video and other content collateral creation," the statement said.
"E Street Group does not comment on the personal life of either our staff or clients."
A request for comment to Omar's spokesman wasn't returned.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/28/2019
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#1
What does the good Book say about a woman who pays for fornication?
That she shtups to conquer the infidel?
Good lord, those hotbeds are everywhere in ISIS country!
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi Interior Ministry said on Tuesday that its forces destroyed a hotbed belonging to the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... terrorist group in Kirkuk province.
"Acting on intelligence information, federal police forces destroyed a hideout of the Islamic State group in the village of Hashisha, south of Kirkuk province," Iraqi news website Alghad Press quoted Maj. Gen. Saad Maan, the ministry front man, as saying in a press statement.
"The troops also seized a weapon depot at al-Nawafla village in Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... containing an Austrian-made mortar shell and two boxes full of powerful C4 explosives," the front man added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/28/2019
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More on this story about the attack on the PFLP-GC camp from yesterday.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Israeli drones bombed a Paleostinian base in eastern Leb near the border with Syria early Monday amid rising tensions in the Middle East, the Lebanese state-run National News Agency and a Paleostinian official said.
The strike came a day after an alleged Israeli drone crashed in a stronghold of the Lebanese Death Eater group Hezbollah in southern Beirut while another went kaboom! and crashed nearby.
The source added that Hamas launched a large-scale arrest campaign among members of militant groups close to ISIS, where investigators concluded that one of the suicide bombers is a member of the extremist groups and was previously arrested by Hamas. Via @Rushdibbchttps://t.co/VDJkMOiJkH
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Presidential contender Beto O’Rourke; ...Kennedyeque businessman, musician, skateboard artiste, and politician who represented Texas' 16th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2013 to 2019. Beto is a Latino nickname for people whose names end in "erto," like "Roberto" or "Alberto." He is seeking the Dem nomination for President in 2020 because he has nice hair and lots of teeth. He was born into a local political family in El Paso, Texas and is a graduate of a prep school and Columbia University, which is not in Texas. In 2005, he was elected to the El Paso City Council. He was elected to Congress in 2012 after defeating eight-term incumbent Silvestre Reyes in the Democratic primary. He declined to seek re-election in 2018, instead running for the Senate against Republican Ted Cruz, running a campaign that drew national attention because of his skateboarding skills. A few months after he lost, he announced his campaign for President... said he believes the decision to have a third-trimester child sacrifice abortion should be up to women, and not men or the government.
The 46-year-old Texas Democrat was speaking at the College of Charleston as part of the school’s "Bully Pulpit" series, and was asked a question by a man in the audience about third-trimester child sacrifice abortions.
"My question is this: I was born Sept. 8th, 1989, and I want to know if you think on Sept. 7th, 1989, my life had no value," the man inquired, referencing a previous response the former congressman had given in Ohio on the matter.
"Of course I don’t think that. And of course I’m glad that you’re here. But you referenced my answer in Ohio, and it remains the same. This is a decision that neither you, nor I, nor the United States government should be making," O’Rourke said. "That’s a decision for the woman to make."
When O’Rourke was in Cleveland, kept in touch with the world by Obamaphone, ...was ruled by a Democrat machine from 1942 through 1971. After the river caught fire during the administration of Carl Stokes they tried a Republican, then went back to being Democrats when the party hacked up Dennis Kucinich ... , Ohio, in March he was asked specifically if he supported third-trimester child sacrifice abortions where there was fetal viability and the child could be removed by cesarean section.
"So, the question is about child sacrifice abortion and reproductive rights. And my answer to you is that that should be a decision that the woman makes about her body. I trust her," O’Rourke told the crowd to applause.
#5
Beta gets all worked up over kids being separated from their so-called parents when they're caught sneaking across the border. He's absolutely outraged about that! Shocked, I tell you! But he doesn't give a rat's ass about a fetus. These Democrats are so phony it hurts.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/28/2019 9:51
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#6
This was always the end game for most of the pro-choice zealots.
The question is how many liberals truly believed in only First Term abortion back in the day and how many were lying because they knew full-term abortion was politically unacceptable.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Syrian opposition groups carried out the largest attack since the regime forces’ takeover of Khan Sheikhoun, and the northern countryside of Hama, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday.
Sixty people were killed in the heightened fighting, which included air and ground shelling, as well as fierce battles east of the Idlib province.
"Violent festivities east of the town of Khan Sheikhun broke out at dawn after krazed killer and opposition groups attacked regime positions," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
The attack was led by the al-Qaeda-linked Hurras al-Deen group and another krazed killer faction -- Ansar al-Deen -- he said.
The fighting has killed 29 regime forces and 20 opponents, including 13 krazed killers, the Observatory said.
In the southeast of the bastion, eight rebels were killed trying to sneak through frontlines towards regime positions near the Abu Duhur military airport, the monitor added.
Regime forces recaptured Khan Sheikhoun last week, and have been massing north of the town in recent days as they prepare to push on with their assault.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] More than a thousand students have rallied in the capital of Pakistain-held Kashmir ...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there.... to denounce India’s downgrading of the special status of the portion of the disputed region it controls.
The demonstrators chanted "We want freedom" and denounced human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... violations in Indian-administrated Kashmir.
Tuesday’s rally in Muzaffarabad came a day after Pak Prime Minister Imran Khan ...aka The Great Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... vowed to globally highlight the issue of Kashmir. He will address the UN General Assembly on Sept. 27.
Tensions have soared between Pakistain and India since August 5, when New Delhi revoked Moslem-majority Kashmir’s decades-old semiautonomous status, touching off anger in Indian-controlled Kashmir and in Pakistain.
[DAWN] Britannia must pay its Brexit divorce bill even if it crashes out of the bloc without a deal, the EU said on Monday, warning that future ties would be threatened if London failed to honour its commitments.
The stern rebuff from Brussels came a day after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson ...pro-Brexit British prime minister, succeeding no-Brexit Theresa May. BoJo is noted as much for his sparkling personality and his hair as for his Conservative policies.... again said that in the event of a "no-deal" Brexit on Oct 31, Britannia would be free from financial obligations to the bloc.
With the clock ticking and fears of no deal growing, Johnson and EU Council President Donald Tusk clashed at the G7 in La Belle France on Saturday, with the British leader insisting the current divorce deal must be changed.
Asked if the EU would take Britannia to court to recover the money, a spokeswoman for the Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an Commission instead stressed that a future trade deal between Britannia and the remaining 27 states could be under threat unless London paid up.
"As we have said many times before, all commitments that were taken by the 28 member states should be honoured, and this is also and especially true in a no deal scenario, where the United Kingdom would be expected to honour all commitments made during EU membership," commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said.
"Rather than going into judicial action threat, I think it is important to make clear that settling accounts is essential to starting off a new relationship on the right foot based on mutual trust." Jean-Claude Piris, who served as director of the EU Council’s legal services for more than two decades, tweeted: "If the UK refuses to pay its debts to the EU, then the EU will not accept to negotiate a trade agreement with the UK" Johnson has repeatedly said that if Britannia leaves without a deal it will not have to pay the 39 billion pound (43 billion euro, $48 billion) divorce bill agreed by his predecessor Theresa May.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2019
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#1
Good luck with that.
Britain should ask for it's share of the EUSSR items it's put money towards.
#2
The EU is just spitting mad that the UK is leaving and is not reacting rationally. They are having an emotional breakdown, and these from the people who insisted that they were the sober adults who could be trusted.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
08/28/2019 4:16
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#6
The sum agreed upon reflects the financial commitments the UK has pledged as a full member of the EU.
Failure to honor them will be interpreted as a sovereign default. Good luck with that.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
08/28/2019 15:04
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EC,
Your reasoning isn't up to its usual standard. Who exactly will refuse to lend to the UK on normal terms if the U.K., for the first time in modern history, commits a sovereign default?
Not the US or US banks.
The gulf Arabs? No way.
Who else matters in the financial markets? No one.
Here's a far better analysis than the obviously fraudulent huffing & puffing of whoever manages France's Twitter account, from one of the sharpest analysts, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard:
"For three years the EU has treated Brexit chiefly as a disciplinary issue. Brussels is learning late that Britain’s strategic realignment is just as much a bidding war, and Europe’s bid has come in too low.
"The Americans have swooped into the vacuum. They have wooed this nation with sweet whisperings. Unless the Europeans attempt some seduction themselves – and I would not count on it – Washington will steal the diplomatic prize from under their noses. ..."
You are not "free from financial obligations to the bloc" by simply walking away.
Seriously, British common sense has left the building. Even US and Arab banks are held to due diligence. Not only will a perceived sovereign default weigh the UK down, a no deal Brexit will cause economic havoc, and the chance Scotland will rebel is real. The UK might even lose Northern Ireland.
Once the deal is done, we'll see how "favorable" US conditions will be. The UK will be in a lousy position to negotiate with anyone.
It's obvious that the EU will not allow the UK to leave on favorable terms, simply pour décourager les autres.
If Boris pushes this through the price to be paid will be high.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
08/28/2019 16:41
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#9
Is it really such a 'diplomatic prize' though ? I hope American taxpayers don't end up paying the Queen's dog-grooming bills. Just saying.
#10
The purpose of these claimed commitments is not clear to me — if someone would explain, I would be grateful.
Are these owed monies for what has been done or accrued in the past, and so this is a final totting up of accounts, putting an underline on total debts and credits as of the date Britain leaves the group?
Or are these monies owed for agreements made over the course of the European Common Market — that morphed unto the EU — supporting agreements into perpetuity, agreements to which Britain will no longer be party following separation, whether to its benefit or detriment?
If the former, that is one negotiation, and I am inclined to agree with European Conservative, though I know that is not how negotiations work under changed conditions. If the latter, however — and given the punitive attitude of Brussels, Germany and France, that is what the situation feels like — then we’re looking at an attempt to force something as unfair as the Treaty of Versailles was to Germany following the first world war.
"Look, they'll have to get over the past. A lot of royal pedicures. Heating bills, travel... yes. A lot of pedicures. It won't do. A lot of pedicures."
#13
@tw
The payment includes:
1) The UK’s contribution to EU annual budgets up to 2020;
2) Payment of outstanding commitments; and
3) Financing liabilities up to the end of 2020.
The UK signed up to the EU’s budget framework when it became a member; budgets are not calculated year by year. The EU budget is a “legal act” and is over a seven year span. The last one started in 2014 and it ends in 2020. So, when Britain leaves the EU it will still be liable to pay its share for the remaining time—from November 2019 until the end of 2020.
Even if Britain leaves in 2019, if there are projects it agreed to contribute to that are meant to be completed by 2030, it would still have to pay for what it promised to fund at the time. This is the same for if a project in the UK was meant to be completed by 2030—EU members would have to continue paying the UK.
The agreed upon sum (39 bn Euros) has already been reduced because Brexit was delayed from 29 March to 31 October, So some of that money has been paid as part of the UK's normal membership contributions, which means it is no longer part of the "divorce bill".
It's not clear what will happen if the UK simply refuses to pay anything, but the EU will not begin trade negotiations before the issue of financial obligations, citizens' rights and the Irish border have been resolved.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
08/28/2019 17:09
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#14
Thank you for explaining, European Conservative. I shall have to consult Mr. Wife about how he would handle such a thing from the private sector, although he has negotiated contracts with government entities as well.
#15
The private sector would usually have contract which exactly regulate these sort of things.
A EU member leaving the EU without a deal is a novelty. But in the end it comes to "pacta sunt servanda".
Posted by: European Conservative ||
08/28/2019 18:03
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#16
Again, I cannot think of a single American bank or sovereign risk analyst working for American banks who would make a significant change to his assessment of British sovereign risk based on Britain's decision to reverse their - in retrospect, very unwise - decision to join the EU.
Especially because it appears likely that Britain will be swapping out one major trading bloc for another, US-based one that will in all probability be at least as beneficial, long-term, to the British economy.
Yes, and sometimes they're honored in the breach, as Hamlet put it. Banks, corporations, governments break contracts often. The ultimate question - which neither of us can answer now but time and events will definitely answer for us - is the relative attractiveness of British sovereign debt to the major international borrowing institutions.
Britain is in a good position, as is the US.
The rest of the world's economic sovereigns are relatively unattractive to international lenders/investors and will remain so for many years to come. Europe's growth is lame, its political prospects are poor, and it faces extreme uncertainty and risk due to demographic threats from the south and political and military threats from Russia. Britain is at least as attractive a risk as any EU nation.
China's trajectory has been halted, and is likely to reverse.
Japan is Japan.
The other major nations' economies are simply too small, their debt markets too sparse, to offer anything near the size and liquidity that Britain and the US offer.
You are seriously misreading the power balance here.
Start thinking like an investment banker at BlackRock or Citibank.
There are very few attractive investments combining low risk and decent returns available to the big funds. Britain post-Brexit is one of them.
#18
It's extremely unlikely that the U.S. could replace the EU in that regard, and even if it did, that's just swapping one dependency for another, and the UK will face stiff competition from Commonwealth nations which will flood Britain's markets.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
08/28/2019 18:42
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#19
Re the financial obligations: obviously, Britain will pay something, and the EU will have to accept a haircut.
#21
The EU, taken as a whole is the UK’s largest trading partner. In 2018, UK exports to the EU were £289 billion (46% of all UK exports). UK imports from the EU were £345 billion (54% of all UK imports).
Posted by: European Conservative ||
08/28/2019 18:47
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#22
An EU member leaving is a novelty altogether, European Conservative.
This triggered an interesting discussion at home: I read your statement to Mr, Wife, who turns out to be strongly pro-EU. He agrees with you, stating also that a lot of Britain’s pre-Brexit economic problems result from their own anti-competitive laws and the abysmal education of the working masses. Western factories no longer need many uneducated coal shovelers and broom pushers, but highly trained technicians to oversee mechanized manufacturing systems; the low paid, poorly educated workers of the Third World will do the other kind of work for much less. But also that much of the mass of laws created in Britain/EU explicitly to protect workers functions instead to incentivize companies not to hire — even in a country like Germany that is producing the highly trained workers modern manufacturing requires.
So in my opinion this is about considerably more than just how to break up the EU; it’s about entirely renegotiating the relationship between Western governments and their citizenry. Brexit is only one small part of it.
#24
@tw
Only the EU can stand up to an emerging superpower like China (and yes also to the U.S.).
28 states achieve nothing independently these days. The EU needs to be reformed thoroughly, but Britain's choice is unwise. Sure, they will survive, but the idea that they could only prosper outside the EU is foolish.
Somehow I don't think the British realize what they are doing.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
08/28/2019 19:03
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#25
Foreign trade as a % of US GDP is exceptionally low.
The US could easily increase that percentage through a free trade agreement with the U.K. that would greatly benefit both nations.
#26
Somehow I don't think the British realize what they are doing.
Posted by European Conservative
I think they know EXACTLY what they're doing. They're tired of future failed Euro Country domination by unelected/unaccountable bureaucrats and French/German bullying. Hungary, Poland, et al are following closely, and that's what the EU is most afraid of. Loss of control, prying the boot off the neck
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/28/2019 19:14
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#27
EC - the EU, like so many of the late 20c elite's neoliberal notions, was founded on several grand illusions.
In fact, nationhood and locality matter, hugely, to the citizenry.
The "global citizen" ideal is bullshit.
Military strength and the willingness to spend significant sums to continuously upgrade it also matter, hugely. The liberal notion of peaceful relations-through-economic integration is bullshit. (Even a liberal democratic Russian government would be throwing its weight around today and threatening its neighbors.)
Finally, most ominously, our technological advances will kill the EU and left/Lib global elites' fantasy of combining multicultural, "open societies" with an exceedingly generous welfare state. Can't have both. Pick one.
Britain is making the hard choices that the EU and liberal globalist elites either cannot see or see but refuse to confront honestly.
Joining the US in a free trade agreement may not be ideal but it is preferable to sticking with an EU whose strength and internal coherence are declining steadily. It's the best option facing Britain.
#28
We bailed out European banks and investment houses in the '08 collapse because they had Freddie Mae and Fannie Mae papers which were clearly not backed by the US government. It was an assumption on their part. Instead the Uniparty decided to rescue them. That debt was placed upon the American taxpayer by increasing the debt. I see no reason any of that should ever be repeated again if the EU wants to play hard ball. Go for it.
[DAWN] Considered previously to be 'comparatively’ safe, the remote Gurez sub-valley in the upper belt of the Neelum district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir ...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there.... (AJK) was heavily shelled by Indian troops from across the Line of Control (LoC) on Tuesday, leaving two civilians dead and four others maimed, local officials said.
Gurez lies beyond Kel ‐ located some 156 kilometres northeast of Muzaffarabad ‐ and is spread over 44 kilometres till Taobutt, the last village of the Neelum district.
Unlike the lower belt of the Neelum district, where the Neelum River serves as the boundary between Azad Kashmir and occupied Kashmir, the Gurez sub-valley is situated on both sides of the river and has therefore been less vulnerable to cross LoC firing.
However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... on Tuesday, this area was hit "indiscriminately" by Indian troops with mortar guns, according to Akhtar Ayub, a disaster management officer based in Athmuqam. Athmuqam is the district headquarters of Neelum valley, located some 84 kilometres northeast of Muzaffarabad.
In Halmat village, Abdul Jalil Shah, 40, son of Samad Shah, was killed after being hit by splinters from an exploding shell, Ayub said.
Three-year-old Nosheen, daughter of Muhammad Ramzan, became an indirect victim, losing her life from psychological shock as "the thunder of shells filled her with panic", he added.
The injured persons, who were admitted to a military-run health facility in Halmat, were identified as Ashfaq, son of Ghulam Muhammad Lone; Ghulam Rasool, son of Ghulam Muhammad Mir; Baggi Begum, wife of Rehman Lone; and Hajira Bibi.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Russia delivered another battery of Russian S-400 missile defenses on Tuesday, Interfax news agency cited 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... as saying.
"By the way, another delivery was made this morning," Putin told Ottoman Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who was on a visit to Russia.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... ’s Defense Ministry said that the delivery of a second battery of S-400 defense system had started as of Tuesday and that it would take around one month.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2019
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#1
And still no F-35s for Turkey.
Posted by: Titus Glugum7307 ||
08/28/2019 1:20
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#2
We ought to give the Erdogan some "special" F-35's. Some with "special" chips in the planes computers. " This is Abdul and it looks like I just bombed Istanbul.
Breaking News: A drone belonging to warlord Khalifa #Haftar destroys an ambulance for the field hospital in Aziziya region, south #Tripoli, killing its driver pic.twitter.com/v4Utw1KzDI
[Rudaw] Two Iraqi soldiers were reportedly killed by Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... ) snipers on Monday night in the Diyala province as the group appears to be regaining strength in disputed territories in the north of the country.
"Last night, ISIS snipers attacked an Iraqi army base killing two soldiers [in Sherk village] ," Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Mustafa of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces’ intelligence in Khanaqin told Rudaw on Tuesday, referring to the bad boy group by its Arabic acronym.
Since its defeat in late 2017, ISIS has carried out regular attacks against Iraqi and Kurdish security forces in the northern provinces, including in Diyala near the Iranian border. In late July, an ISIS attack on Kurdish "Asayesh" security forces left four high-ranking officers dead and eight others maimed.
On August 27 on one of its Telegram channels, ISIS claimed credit for shooting killing two Iraqi soldiers in the Khanaqin area.
Mustafa, who monitors ISIS activities in the area, says that it is difficult to estimate the number of ISIS gunnies in and around Khanaqin, but he believes there are over 40 gunnies there and in nearby Jalawla.
Khanaqin is a disputed territory claimed by both Baghdad and Erbil. It was under control of the Peshmerga from 2014 until October 16, 2017, when Kurdish forces were forced out by an Iraqi offensive following the Kurdistan independence referendum, as they were from other disputed areas in the Kirkuk and Nineveh provinces. The result was a security vacuum between Iraqi and Kurdish lines that ISIS has been able to exploit.
ISIS remnants have returned to earlier insurgency tactics of ambushing security forces, kidnapping, executing suspected informants, and extorting money from vulnerable, rural populations in the disputed territories as well as near djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... and desert areas near the Syrian border.
The Peshmerga, Iraqi army and Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, also known as Hashd al-Shaabi) have launched several raids and operations against ISIS remnants in the region, yet the turbans remain active.
As part of the fourth phase of its "Will of Victory" operation to hunt down ISIS sleeper cells in the deserts of the western Anbar province, the Iraqi Defense Ministry announced on Sunday they had killed four ISIS bully boys.
"The aim of the operation is to clean the desert of Anbar from Islamic State sleeper cells," the Iraqi Security Media Cell said in a statement on Saturday.
According to a report from the Pentagon Inspector General which covers April to late June, the US-led anti-ISIS coaliton known as Combined Joint Task Force ‐ Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) reported that ISIS in Iraq is attempting to expand its influence over populations in the Sunni-majority provinces north and west of Baghdad, including the Diyala province, and has reorganized its leadership and established safe havens in rural Sunni-majority areas.
Diyala (IraqiNews.com) – An Iraqi civilian was maimed Tuesday in a kaboom at an agricultural land in Diyala, a security source was quoted as saying.
"An explosive charge went off Tuesday at an agricultural land in al-Waqf basin, northeast of Baqubah, leaving a civilian maimed," the source told Iraqi TV channel Mawazin News.
"The maimed civilian was moved to a nearby hospital for treatment," added the source.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/28/2019
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[FORWARD] A doctor whose job offer was withdrawn after the hospital discovered her history of anti-Semitic tweets is seeking a hearing with the State Medical Board of Ohio, the Cleveland, kept in touch with the world by Obamaphone, ...was ruled by a Democrat machine from 1942 through 1971. After the river caught fire during the administration of Carl Stokes they tried a Republican, then went back to being Democrats when the party hacked up Dennis Kucinich ... Jewish News reported Monday.
An attorney for Dr. Lana Kollab confirmed that she had requested a board hearing but declined to reveal what course of action she was seeking.
Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, withdrew its job offer to Kollab in April after it determined that she had "submitted information that was false, misleading, and incomplete" during the matching process.
Kollab was forced to resign from her residency program at the Cleveland Clinic last year after the website Canary Mission, which tracks the social media of pro-Paleostinian activists, uncovered several anti-Semitic tweets that she wrote in college.
"I’ll purposely give the yahood the wrong meds," she tweeted in 2012, using the Arabic word for "Jews." The following year, she posted a picture saying, "People who support Israel should have their immune cells killed so they can see how it feels to not be able to defend yourself from foreign invaders."
A July 10 letter from medical board secretary Dr. Kim Rothemel to Kollab and her attorneys, which was acquired by the Cleveland Jewish News, stated that Kollab admitted in a deposition to having told Kern that she left the Cleveland Clinic because of a death in the family and not because of the tweets.
"Although you asserted at your June 2019 deposition that you now feel ashamed of your discriminatory comments, when asked if your tweets reflect good moral character, you admitted they do not," Rothemel wrote. She added that the board could take disciplinary action against Kollab, including which ranged from probation to revoking or limiting her medical license.
Ironically, Kollab attended medical school at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine. which describes itself on its website as being "Rooted in Jewish tradition, built on Jewish values."
[Libya Observer] The Libyan coastguards said Tuesday it had rescued 65 illegal immigrants colonists off al-Khums shores and managed to recover 5 bodies, adding that between 15 and 20 others are missing.
The coastguards said that the capsized boat was carrying about 90 illegal immigrants colonists.
They added that the five bodies were for a Moroccan woman, Moroccan man, Moroccan child, one Sudanese and one Somali man.
The coastguards said the rescue operation was carried out by "Ubari Boat" and a number of fishing boats off al-Khums shores.
Libya has become a favorite stepping stone for the illegal immigrants colonists, mostly from African countries, to use illegal sea routes to reach Italia and then go to different Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an countries.
[DAWN] US and Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... negotiators moved closer on Tuesday to a deal, the bad boy group said, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo voiced guarded hope for a deal under which Washington will withdraw large numbers of troops from Afghanistan.
The optimism came during the fifth day of talks 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... between the two sides as negotiators wrangled over individual words and phrases in a draft deal.
"We have progress in this round so we are finalising the remaining points," Taliban front man Suhail Shaheen told journalists outside the upmarket Doha members' club where the talks are taking place.
He said a deal could be expected "as soon as the remaining points are finalised".
The United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 after the September 11 attacks, toppling the Taliban from power.
Washington wants to withdraw thousands of US troops and bring an end to 18 years of war ‐ but only on the condition that the group renounces its connections to Al Qaeda and curbs attacks.
[ToloNews] US President Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons...... at a presser on the last day of G7 Summit in Biarritz, La Belle France, said there is no timeline for US forces’ withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The negotiations between the US and the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... negotiators are underway in Doha, Qatar, with the hope to reach an agreement which will enable the withdrawal of part of US forces, almost 5,000 troops, from Afghanistan.
Mr. Trump, however, said "whatever it is", there is "no rush".
"We’re there, we’re really a peacekeeping force more than anything else, frankly. We could win that war in a very short period of time, but I’m not looking to kill 10 million people, Okay?" Mr. Trump said, repeating his recent controversial comments on winning the war in Afghanistan.
The US president pointed out to his administration’s efforts in talking with both the Afghan government and the Taliban as the two sides of the war.
"And we are working along with the Taliban, with the government and other people too, we will see what happens," he said.
This comes as sources said on Monday that the US and the Taliban negotiators have made progress on establishing safe zones in parts of Afghanistan after the withdrawal of international forces from the country.
The sources said that based on the safe zone strategy, a ceasefire will be announced in every province from where US forces would leave while nationwide ceasefire will be implemented after the complete withdrawal of American forces.
A Taliban front man in Doha Suhail Shaheen in a tweet on Tuesday said the talks will resume at 11 am Kabul time to discuss and agree on the remaining points.
At the same time, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, rejected the reports which say the United States will stop funding the Afghan National Security and Defense Forces as part of a peace deal between the US and the Taliban.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2019
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Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
"These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. The Taliban must act, and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate."
George W. Bush, Statement To Joint Session Of Congress September 20th 2001
There's a reason why adversaries tend to not take American threats seriously.
Whatever sense an agreement with the Taliban might make in the Afghan context, the mere fact that there is an agreement with the Taliban seriously undermines US and Western deterrence and credibility.
A precipitous withdrawal accompanied by threats of massive strategic retaliation in case of another attack would be the much lesser evil.
#4
The mods have all they can handle just doing articles, Dron66046 — and we have data on turban casualties going back to the CIA action in 2002 that I’m sure you’d want included. But if you or someone would do that counter thingy, I’m sure Fred would find a place for it here.
[DAWN] Stone-throwing protesters in India-held Kashmir ...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there.... killed a driver of what they thought was a military truck, police said on Monday, as a crippling security lockdown entered its fourth week.
The turning of the former Himalayan kingdom of seven million people into a fortress of barricades and barbed wire has not prevented protests and festivities with security forces taking place however.
In the latest demonstration on Sunday in Anantnag district protesters hurled stones at a truck that they believed to be a military vehicle. The 42-year-old driver was struck on the head and died, police said.
The Press Trust of India news agency said two men had been arrested over the incident.
India says no civilian has died from police action since Aug 5. But residents have said three people have been killed.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pound, the little lost dog backed into the corner and showed its teeth. And what big teeth they were!... some coppers ‐ sitting outside a shopfront in Srinagar without weapons, riot gear or even clean uniforms ‐ are weighing their allegiances. Thirty Kashmiri coppers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity fearing retribution from their superiors, said they had been sidelined and in some cases disarmed by New Delhi-based authorities since the government downgraded J&K from a state into two federally administered territories.
[TAMPABAY] As the Caribbean prepared for Tropical Storm Dorian and its potential to reach hurricane-strength, a news report by Axios based on anonymous sources claimed that President Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... has repeatedly asked federal officials to explore using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes.
For his part Trump disputed the story, calling it "ridiculous."
For our part, we can’t fact-check whether or not Trump considered such a strategy since the claim is based on anonymous sources. But we can explain the science behind why nuclear bombs can’t slow down storms.
Posted by: Titus Glugum7307 ||
08/28/2019 1:14
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#3
cloud seeding the eye of a cat 3 or higher hurricane would weaken the hurricane's peak winds by 10-30% according to many numerical model simulations, depending on various assumptions regarding size, general movement, etc.
however, the decline in the overall energy of the hurricane would be much less, more like 2% to 10%, again based on the numerical model and the size of the hurricane, etc.
I don't think any numerical simulations have been done regarding the nuclear bomb issue. There are many problems doing the simulation, including the strength of the bomb, whether the explosion is above the surface, at the surface or underwater, etc. It's something of a nightmare to try to tackle this issue.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/28/2019 2:18
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#4
"We can't verify if he ever said it, but here's why he's wrong"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/28/2019 5:26
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#5
Me, I'm expecting to hear that the transit of TS Dorian past Little St James (Epstien's island) totally obliterated everything there and getting any evidence is impossible.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/28/2019 5:26
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#6
I'm sure they can come up with any mathematical model to justify what they want. The Warmongers do that regularly. The ruling class have no problems with those models (even though subsequent checking of predictions show a significant failure in any corollary).
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Three important US allies on Tuesday condemned the "repeated provocative launches" of ballistic missiles by North Korea ...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche... , saying they violate UN Security Council resolutions banning any such activity.
The United Kingdom, La Belle France, and Germany issued a joint statement after a closed council briefing by UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo that they requested because of serious concerns at the series of missile launches in recent weeks by North Korea.
The three Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an council members urged North Korea "to engage in meaningful negotiations with the US," as President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... and its leader Kim Pudge Jong-un ...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished... agreed to on June 30 at their meeting in the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas.
"Serious efforts by North Korea to re-engage diplomatically and make progress on denuclearization are the only way to guarantee security and stability on the Korean peninsula and in the region," their statement said.
The three countries stressed that "international sanctions must remain in place and be fully and strictly enforced until North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs are dismantled."
Many diplomats and analysts credit 11 rounds of increasingly tougher UN sanctions, which have sharply cut North Korea’s exports and imports, with helping promote the thaw in relations between North Korea and South Korea, and the two summits between Trump and Kim.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2019
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Top|| File under: Commies
#1
..and here I thought it was Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and Andorra. Guess the amount of their economic dealings with the North was insignificant to rationalizing a flip the finger to America.
#3
"Many diplomats and analysts credit 11 rounds of increasingly tougher UN sanctions...". Well, maybe. And maybe there IS a pony under that pile of shit.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
08/28/2019 17:46
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Pakistain’s Prime Minister Imran Khan ...aka The Great Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... is considering a complete closure of air space to India and blocking Indian land trade to Afghanistan via Pakistain, the minister for science and technology said on Twitter.
"PM is considering a complete closure of Air Space to India, a complete ban on use of Pakistain Land routes for Indian trade to Afghanistan was also suggested in cabinet meeting, legal formalities for these decisions are under consideration ... #Modi has started we’ll finish!," Fawad Chaudhry wrote.
The tweet gave no more details on why Pakistain would be considering the moves against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government now. Officials were not immediately available for comment.
Pakistain had reopened its airspace in mid-July after a nearly four-month closure imposed in February after an attack by a Pakistain-based bad boy group in Indian-controlled Kashmir ...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there.... led to festivities between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
Each country carried out Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s on the other’s territory and warplanes fought a dogfight above the disputed Kashmir region in which an Indian fighter jet was shot down.
The months of restrictions forced long detours that cost airlines millions of dollars.
Modi’s surprise move this month to withdraw the special privileges of Moslem-majority Kashmir has also increased tension with Pakistain.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Indonesia’s president announced Monday that the country’s capital will move from overcrowded, sinking and polluted Jakarta to a site in sparsely populated East Kalimantan province on Borneo island, known for rainforests and orangutans.
President Joko Widodo said intense studies over the past three years had resulted in the choice of the location on the eastern side of Borneo island.
The new capital city, which has not yet been named, will be in the middle of the vast archipelago nation and already has relatively complete infrastructure because it is near the cities of Balikpapan and Samarinda, Widodo said.
He said the burden has been become too heavy on Jakarta on Java island as the center of government, finance, business, trade and services as well as the location of the country’s largest airport and seaport.
Widodo said the decision was made not to move the capital elsewhere on Java because the country’s wealth and people are highly concentrated there and should be spread out.
#3
Having the capital city be somewhere other than the nation's biggest city is not a bad idea. That was the idea behind Washington DC as well (yes, it was completely perverted over the past century, but it worked for quite a while).
#4
(yes, it was completely perverted over the past century, but it worked for quite a while).
Washington, DC has become large, but it still is only a center for government. Financial and other centers are elsewhere, unlike so many capitols, where one city is the center for everything — government, industry, finance, education, and so forth.
Breaking: Ceasefire violation by Pak in Poonch Sector(J&K) at about 1830 hours. #Pakistan initiated ceasefire violation by firing of Small arms & shelling with Mortars. Indian Army retaliated. Firing stopped at 2000 hours. @ThePrintIndia
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] KFC will test vegetarian, plant-based chicken for one day in one restaurant in the US state of Georgia, the American fast food giant said on Monday.
Complimentary samples of the new product, which was developed in partnership with Beyond Meat and is dubbed “Beyond Fried Chicken,” will be available at the KFC in Smyrna, Georgia on Tuesday, and customers can also buy nuggets and boneless wings made from the non-meat.
“I think we’ve all heard ‘it tastes like chicken’ - well our customers are going to be amazed and say, ‘it tastes like Kentucky Fried Chicken!’” president and chief concept officer for KFC US Kevin Hochman said in a statement.
KFC’s foray into plant-based meat follows Burger King’s debut earlier this year of the Impossible Whopper, a meatless version of its signature beef hamburger developed with Impossible Foods.
The start-up is one of several competitors in the rapidly growing field of food companies catering to people who don’t eat meat.
Beyond Meat said in a statement that feedback from the test in Georgia will help KFC consider a national rollout of the meat-free chicken.
#8
Why do the vegans so desperately want meat analogues? Aren't they torturing themselves? It stinks of hypocrisy for them to want something that looks and vaguely tastes like meat.
#11
People have the right to eat swill disguised as meat if they want. Just as long as the real meat industry is not forced to shut down or switch to this shit.
The 'Trope Activism' that has replaced lobbying, healthy competition and market forces is relentless and invasive. The entire marketing industry, hollywood, schools, everybody connected through social media contributes mindlessly to set a Trope, a theme in motion - like 'cow farts'. Plugged into climate change, it snowballs into the aimed destruction of meat businesses and franchises.
That is not fair capitalism. That's just steering and being steered by the connected global corporate marketing into accepting one fantasy after another. Someone meanwhile makes a lot of undeserved money somewhere.
#12
The folks they are hoping to bring in will not like anything cooked in the same oil or with the same equipment as meat. Vegans and most Vegetarians are religious zealots and this sort of thing is non-negotiable.
#14
Just had one of these joints open up here in Quincy; beats the hell out of the KFC just a few hundred feet down the street. I checked it out today and it was pretty good.
That said, I simply ask the food industry to stop with this recent torrent of bullshit trying to pass off non-meat products as some sort of acceptable alternative; it just makes me go elsewhere.
#15
Like many, I have wondered why companies would purposefully alienate 1/3 to 1/2 of their potential customer base. The question arose in me again when I was watching a popular satire show on a channel supposedly known for comedy and the topic was a special sub set of customers pitching for special treatment (and they nailed it like a baby seal). The commercials were inundated with mega corporation advertisements, like a dog with a hydrant marking their target audience.
I thought why, why would a channel attracting such an alternative set of customers have so many commercials from The Man.
I am not in agreement with a lot in this article; the article did help me begin to formalize what I had been brewing - a set group of current and future consumers who do not seem interested in families, owning property, or really anything other than their 'social media circles'.
I get trying to capture now and long range future loyal consumers with a larger disposable income than those who save, raise a family, purchase the house and mini-van. What I do not get is why they think that sub set will remain loyal? Dang near purposefully contradictory so they can act on feelz.
I know I am just an anecdote, but the whole SJW lean in a sense gave me permission to explore other products and shopping habits. I now shave better, drink real beer and don't get sharts, re-gained 4 hours of my Sunday, am healthier for avoiding soda and a slew of fast food choices, etc. In fact, every exploration ended in a superior result, losing a once blindly loyal forever customer for hopefully a long time to come, and as my disposable income increases.
Seems a poor trade off.
So I'm guessing this has to do with internal feelz and posturing as well...which also does not make sense except to avoid rabble rousing boycotts from people...who are not customers? I mean, our razor customers are, at the best they can get, heckling rapists, so soy boys unable to shave, guys who don't shave ironic beards, and girls who don't shave to fight the patriarchy will buy their razors? So stupid it would baffle an 8000 gallons water tank.
Vegans and most Vegetarians are religious zealots and this sort of thing is non-negotiable.
That's no joke. Very picky about their restaurants and product brand. This project, as well as the burger joint trying their hand, would require a dedicated grill and equipment which does not come in contact with meat products at all. Period. Have to have an actual Kentucky Fried Veggies or Beanpatty King store.
The only angle I can see here, is if they are going the White Castle route and selling their brand at the grocery store and eating this stunt as advertising of sorts.
Sure there will be those who will try it, why not, but how many? What is that market of vegetarian curious and newly converted who still crave omnivore flavors? Compared to the number of customers who think Gahk!! when that fast food restaurant's choice is considered in the highly competitive fast food market?
#16
The key to making the KFC batter is spiced buttermilk. Once you get the pepper marinade right for your taste, you don't even need the Colonel's minions. Economical too. A medium bucket costs $6 where I live. Missus 66046 can make one large bucket from $3 worth of chicken breast.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Explosions hit two police checkpoints in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing two officers and wounding several other Palestinians, the Hamas-run interior ministry said, declaring a state of emergency after the blasts.
A spokesman for the Israeli military said he knew of no involvement by Israel in the back-to-back incidents in Gaza city at a time of simmering cross-border confrontations with Hamas, the Palestinian enclave’s ruling militant group.
The first blast destroyed a motorcycle as it passed a police checkpoint with two riders aboard, witnesses said. Two policemen were killed and a third Palestinian wounded. It was not immediately clear if the riders were among the casualties.
The second explosion, less than an hour later, wounded several people at a police checkpoint elsewhere in the city, the interior ministry said. The ministry declared a state of emergency throughout Gaza, putting security forces on alert.
[SN] WASHINGTON — A prototype of SpaceX’s next-generation launch system performed a brief test flight Aug. 27, a key step in the system’s development.
The “Starhopper” vehicle lifted off from a pad at SpaceX’s test site near Brownsville, Texas, at 6:02 p.m. Eastern. The vehicle took off vertically, translated a short distance, then landed vertically on a different pad a little less than a minute after takeoff.
The long-awaited test was intended to go to an altitude of 150 meters, although it was not immediately clear from the webcast of the flight exactly what altitude the vehicle achieved. The company provided no commentary for the webcast, and ended it shortly after the vehicle made what appeared to be a successful landing.
SpaceX attempted to fly Starhopper Aug. 26, but the attempt was scrubbed after the Raptor engine failed to ignite. SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk later tweeted that “dual redundant torch igniters” in the engine appeared to have malfunctioned and needed to be inspected before trying again.
The vehicle, powered by a single Raptor engine that uses methane and liquid oxygen propellants, made its first free flight July 25, rising several meters off the pad before landing about 10 to 15 seconds later. At the time, Musk said he expected a “hop” to an altitude of 200 meters in “a week or two.”
This flight, though, was delayed by issues amending the company’s experimental permit issued by the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation. “Need a bit more hazard analysis & should be clear to fly soon,” Musk tweeted Aug. 15.
That revised permit was issued by the FAA Aug. 23, but limited SpaceX to a single flight of the vehicle to 150 meters altitude. The permit also increased the third-party liability insurance requirement from $3 million to $100 million, reflecting the apparently greater potential damage the vehicle could do in the event of an accident.
SpaceX’s South Texas site is unusual in that people live within a few kilometers of what the company eventually plans to be an orbital spaceport, in a subdivision called Boca Chica Village that predates the site by decades. Residents of the subdivision reported on social media that they were informed by local law enforcement to stand outside of their homes during the test, in the event an explosion created a shock wave that could break windows.
While the flight appeared to be a success, SpaceX has no plans to fly Starhopper again. Musk has stated that the company will instead press ahead to flights of prototypes of Starship, designed ultimately to be the reusable upper stage flown on top of a large booster called Super Heavy. Starship, though, will be able to fly on its own and even make orbit, the company says.
Two Starship prototypes are currently under construction, one at the South Texas site and the other at an industrial site in Cocoa, Florida. The Florida version of Starship will be taken by truck and barge to Cape Canaveral for test flights.
Musk had planned to give an update on development of Starship and Super Heavy Aug. 24 at the South Texas site, but he delayed it several days before the event, saying it would be better to hold the event once the “Starship Mark 1” vehicle at the site had three Raptor engines installed, along with other components. Musk estimated that to be completed in mid-September.
Starhopper will now be used as a vertical test stand for Raptor engine tests. “It’s quite robust,” Musk said of the vehicle’s design in an Aug. 25 tweet.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Arab Coalition says it intercepted and downed a Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... drone in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... i airspace launched from Sanaa on Tuesday.
Colonel Turki al-Maliki said in a statement that "all desperate attempts by the Iranian-backed terrorist Houthi militia to launch drones are doomed to fail," adding that the coalition is taking all operational procedures and best practices of engagement in downing the drones to protect civilians.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Arab Coalition supporting the Yemeni legitimate government intercepted and downed a Houthi drone launched from the Yemeni capital Sanaa toward Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... ’s Khamis Mushait city, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Israel launched an Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... against Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... ’s Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, rulers on Tuesday after Lions of Islam in the strip fired a mortar round across the border, the army said.
Witnesses in the coastal enclave told AFP that fire from an Israeli drone hit Hamas facilities east of al-Bureij refugee camp.
No injuries were reported.
"A short while ago a mortar shell was identified as having been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory," an Israeli army statement said in English.
"In response, an Israel Defense Forces aircraft targeted a Hamas military post in the northern Gaza Strip."
Israeli media said the shell fell on open ground, causing no injuries or damage.
Tuesday’s events were the latest in a string of cross-border incidents which have raised concerns of further escalation before Israel’s September 17 elections.
On Monday Israeli warplanes hit what the military said were "terror targets in a Hamas military compound in the northern Gaza Strip, including the office of a Hamas battalion commander."
Israel also announced it was slashing by half the fuel it pipes to the strip’s main power station, meaning a cut to Gaza’s already meager electricity supply.
The measures came after three rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel on Sunday night, according to the army, which said two of them were intercepted by air defense systems.
[WND] Apparently, officials at an Iowa community college aren't comfortable with a professor threatening to "clock" President Trump with a baseball bat and "bury" evangelical Christians "deep in the ground."
Jeff Klinzman, who taught English at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, wrote he wants to "stop evangelical Christians" and "[k]ill them all and bury them deep in the ground."
"It's not pretty, and I'm not proud," he wrote, "but seeing what evangelical Christians are doing to this country and its people fills me with rage, and a desire to exact revenge."
Boasting of being a part of the often-violent, far-left group "antifa," he responded to President Trump describing antifa in a tweet as, "Radical Left Wack Jobs who go around hitting … people over the heads with baseball bats."
Klinzman reacted on Twitter, "Yeah, I know who I'd clock with a bat ..."
Now, according to Washington Examiner, he resigned after the college decided to "remove him from the classroom."
Lori Sundberg, the college's president, explained the decision had "nothing to do with the substance of his views or his right to express them."
"Rather, our decision is based solely on our commitment to fostering a safe learning environment for our students, faculty and staff," she said.
Robby Soave, an associate editor for the libertarian publication, Reason, backed Klinzman, saying the decision was "another example of campuses prioritizing nebulous safety concerns over free speech."
He argue that neither Klinzman's "support for antifa nor his stated interest in hitting someone (implied to be Trump) with a bat represents any actual threat."
#3
Colleges really want to expel profs or students who wear a MAGA hat or say 'there are two genders' or 'all lives matter'.
So they occasionally expel an egregious leftist nut job.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/28/2019 1:34
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#4
Not enough. He should be interrogated like any muslim or swastika tattooed punk who would've if they'd said the same things. This man is unhinged, he may instigate or carry out a vehicle attack on just anybody in the future.
#5
Robby Soave, an associate editor for the libertarian publication, Reason, backed Klinzman,
Another "purist" libertarian, whose mind is so open it fell out his ear
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/28/2019 4:59
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#6
"With the safety of our students, faculty and staff as our top concern, we made the decision this morning to identify an instructor who will take over the one course that Mr. Klinzman was to have taught this semester. We have spoken with Mr. Klinzman this afternoon about this matter and have accepted his resignation," KCC President Lori Sundberg said.
One course? Guess he got bored with the light load.
#10
Not to be overly snobbish (OK, to be overly snobbish), this guy is an adjunct who teaches one course at a community college in a small town in Iowa. Doesn't appear to be the next Einstein. Why should anyone care what this nut case thinks? And, more to the point, why should anyone hire him? Ever?
Posted by: Tom ||
08/28/2019 11:09
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#11
Because for every nut who's exposed, Tom, there are hundreds more who are involved one way or another in spreading this poison.
Next to Berkeley is another Panti-Fa shittyprof, a community college professor of - get this - philosophy who was identified, arrested and convicted of more than a half dozen cases of battery with a deadly weapon: his steel U-shaped bike lock, which he used again and again to smash people's skulls. It's on video.
Being in Berkeley, the judge of course gave him a 3-year suspended sentence. and being masked, this vermin is free to once again venture out and smash skulls with Panty-Fa.
Certainly, this country has hundreds of professors who dream of sallying forth, bike lock or baseball bat at the ready, to smash skulls?
How many US college profs are actually doing so right now?
[NYPOST] An executive at Hollywood’s top lobbying firm has been busted for allegedly raping and blackmailing a woman he met on a sugar daddy dating site, according to reports.
Steven Fabrizio was fired on Monday as general counsel of the Motion Picture Association of America, a trade group that represents five major film studios and Netflix, Variety reported.
The attorney, who was arrested Friday in Washington, DC, is accused of threatening the woman after paying her $400 for consensual sex on Aug. 19. She told him she didn’t want to see him again ‐ and that’s when he allegedly began blackmailing her via text message.
"I know where you live," he allegedly told her, according to a police affidavit obtained by Variety. "I know where you work. Don’t think ‐ Hospital would be happy to know that it’s young nurses are having sexual for money / Same for your landlord."
Fabrizio allegedly forced the woman into meeting a second time and having sex.
The victim called police when he sent her more texts threatening to out her to her parents if she didn’t agree to have sex with him a couple times a month.
Fabrizio was arrested Friday morning outside the woman’s apartment after setting up another tryst with her.
MPAA chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin broke the news of Fabrizio’s termination in an email to board members Monday morning. He said the lawyer was fired "for violating certain terms of employment" and named an interim replacement.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2019
00:00 ||
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[9 views]
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#1
Fabrizio's defense will be that he was upholding long established Hollywood tradition.
Posted by: Titus Glugum7307 ||
08/28/2019 1:13
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#2
They're just SO used to behaving like this.
It's very gratifying to know we were right all along about Hollywood being morally disgusting.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
08/28/2019 4:15
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#3
How is what this vermin did any different from the standard, ubiquitous Hollywood extortion technique that ends in, "Do [x] or you'll never work in this town again"?
Known and reported on since the 1920s. Not just the casting couch, but lurid descriptions of wild parties go back to the earliest days. It sounds a dreadful place, full of vile people granted unrestricted power by those who’ll do anything to be among the kool kids of show business.
It’s good that at least a few of them are suffering a little bit for it.
[Miami Herald] A Florida man has undergone three operations after contracting a flesh-eating bacteria, his family says.
David Ireland started having flu-like symptoms a week ago when doctors admitted him to an emergency room in Orlando, Florida, his brother Daniel Ireland said. Since then, doctors have had to remove more than 25% of the skin off his body, and his kidneys failed, the family said.
"He was in the ER and then all of a sudden they’ve got him in the operating room," Daniel Ireland said of his brother.
The family is not sure how the 50-year-old contracted necrotizing fasciitis, Daniel Ireland, a Beaufort County, South Carolina sheriff’s deputy, said in an interview Monday. He said his brother swims in the pool at his condo in Orlando but does not go in lakes or the ocean.
Necrotizing fasciitis is an aggressive flesh-eating disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "There are many infections that look similar to necrotizing fasciitis in the early stages, which can make diagnosis difficult," according to the CDC.
"Since necrotizing fasciitis can spread so rapidly, patients often must get surgery done very quickly," the CDC says.
#1
Flesh-eating infections, generally attack older people with compromised immune systems or young people who have experienced trauma. A little more is here from NIH:
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.
[Babylon Bee] ATLANTA, GA‐CNN has apologized to Stalin and Mao after a guest compared the brutal dictators to Donald Trump.
[Real Clear Investigations] More than three months after President Trump granted his attorney general unprecedented power to declassify intelligence files, key U.S. intelligence agencies are still withholding documents related to the Trump-Russia affair, say people with direct knowledge of White House discussions on the subject.
[Politico] To this day, many Democratic Party officials still fume about Barack Obama’s decision to create his own political group outside of the Democratic National Committee, Organizing for Action.
"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Costco Wholesale Corp (COST.O) said it will limit the number of shoppers at its new China store after overcrowding forced the U.S. big box retailer to shut it early on the opening day.
[Aljazeera] Increased Hamas presence on main roads of the Palestinian enclave after two bombings target security forces.
[Aljazeera] The country's largest child sacrificial site so far was found near Huanchaco, a beachside tourist town north of Lima.
[Right Scoop] CBP has released footage of their new wall in San Luis, Arizona, where they’ve already built over 60 miles:
[Breitbart] A young woman has survived after reportedly falling 80 feet from her apartment balcony in the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon on Saturday.
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Special Forces killed 2 
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
...
...Arabic for 
Moqtada 
[DAWN] A torture cell operated allegedly by the Gujjarpura station house officer (SHO) along with three constables to keep suspects 
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
...Deobandi holy man, known as 
...Pak dynastic politician, brother of PM Nawaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab...
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the 
...The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...
[NYPOST] A Washington, DC, mom says her political-consultant husband left her for Rep. 
Dem represntative from da Bronx in Noo Yawk and leader of the Mean Girl Caucus in Congress. One of the Great Minds of the 21st Century, she is known as much for her innaleck as for her dance moves. She is all in favor of socialism, even though she's fuzzy on the details...
...Dem Senatrix from Massachussetts, who traces her noble lineage all the way back to Big Chief Spouting Bull. It has been alleged that she speaks with forked tongue but she denies that. She had a DNA test to prove her lineage and it turns out she's colorless...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...Kennedyeque businessman, musician, skateboard artiste, and politician who represented Texas' 16th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2013 to 2019. 
...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it 
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
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...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it 
...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 only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
[FORWARD] A doctor whose job offer was withdrawn after the hospital discovered her history of anti-Semitic tweets is seeking a hearing with the State Medical Board of Ohio, the 
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
...the Pashtun equivalent of men....jpg "Kashmir")
...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it 
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Three important US allies on Tuesday condemned the "repeated provocative launches" of ballistic missiles by 
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
...
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Explosions hit two police checkpoints in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing two officers and wounding several other Palestinians, the Hamas-run interior ministry said, declaring a state of emergency after the blasts.
[SN] WASHINGTON — A prototype of SpaceX’s next-generation launch system performed a brief test flight Aug. 27, a key step in the system’s development.
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the 
...
[WND] Apparently, officials at an Iowa community college aren't comfortable with a professor threatening to "clock" President Trump with a baseball bat and "bury" evangelical Christians "deep in the ground."
[NYPOST] An executive at Hollywood’s top lobbying firm has been busted for allegedly raping and blackmailing a woman he met on a sugar daddy dating site, according to reports.
[Miami Herald] A Florida man has undergone three operations after contracting a flesh-eating bacteria, his family says.
