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Nangarhar: Momand Dara district jacket wallah causes 160 casualties, Taliban say wasn’t them
Today's Headlines
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Britain
Skripaling Into World War III
The increasingly ludicrous three-ringed circus that is the Skripal case and the ever more hysterical, unhinged, unsubstantiated claims from Theresa "I was for Brexit before I was against it" May and the incompetent Coterie of Clucking Clowns™ that she calls a government continues apace with the charges brought against two alleged Russian GRU Super Assassins, "Alexander Petrov" and "Ruslan Boshirov" (probably not their real names), caught red-handedly Visiting Salisbury While Russian on CCTV on two occasions: The day before the Skripal assassination and the day itself.

So... they did it! As has been the case with every single previous bombastic statement of Theresa May and her government’s regarding this case in the past, not a single piece of substantiating, corroborating evidence was released. Other than the footage proving their placement near the scene of the crime.

So we’ll just take that for granted, along with all of the previous statements, just for shits and giggles and in recognition of the fact that we don’t know more about this than the British Government does, even if they know nothing at all. So, for the sake of argument and all that.

Yes, we know, national security, mustn’t let the bad guys know what we have and all that. All of it true, but surely it might be possible to redact/edit/obscure SOME sort of evidence that might be released to the public to support the government’s accusation of another government, particularly when the charge is attempted murder with nerve gas?

But no.

Also, somebody noticed something interesting about the CCTV captures that were released, these two of "Petrov" and "Boshirov" arriving at Gatwick the day before the murder attempt:
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/12/2018 15:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
WaPo Rediscovers Its Interest In Federal Deficits
These assholes and the rest of the media (but I repeat myself) may have run a handful of these columns while Obama was in office but now that Trump's in office, we'll see this theme rehashed on a weekly basis.
Then again, Congress could do something about this, something really radical, like cut spending, and that ain't happening with Paul Ryan as House speaker.

[Washington Post] - Government borrowing soars despite robust economy

The U.S. budget deficit is reaching levels that are abnormally high for a robust economy, and lawmakers from both parties are proposing ideas that would make the deficit swell even further.

The government spent $895 billion more than it brought in from taxes and other revenue sources during the past 11 months, the Congressional Budget Office said this week, a 33 percent increase from one year before.

Typically, the deficit shrinks during strong economic times, as the need for costly government support wanes and tax revenue rises. In 2000, the last time the unemployment rate was at its current level of 3.9 percent, the government ran a surplus, meaning tax revenue eclipsed all spending.
Posted by: Raj || 09/12/2018 12:32 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Shame on "conservatives" for letting this get so far out of hand.

And I would rather they talk about debt, not deficit.
Posted by: gorb || 09/12/2018 15:29 Comments || Top||

#2  They're pulling in record taxes, so it can't be collection, only spending. Last time I checked my copy of the Constitution, that power rests with Congress.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/12/2018 21:09 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Sunspot Observatory closed due to security issue
(Alamogorda Daily) SUNSPOT, NM – The Sunspot Observatory is temporarily closed due to a security issue at the facility that’s located 17 miles south of Cloudcroft in the Sacramento Mountains Friday, an Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) spokeswoman Shari Lifson said.

“The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy who manages the facility is addressing a security issue at this time,” Lifson said. “We have decided to vacate the facility at this time as precautionary measure. It was our decision to evacuate the facility.”
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 10:38 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The SUNSPOT Observatory overlooks WhiteSands missile test range and Holloman AFB.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 12:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe the Mercurians are protesting the Parker Solar probe.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 12:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe the 37th is training again.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 12:10 Comments || Top||

#4  It closed on September 6th, according to the Facebook page, and there was an official announcement on the 9th that the place has been evacuated, just as the article says. Nothng since, which is indeed odd.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 12:24 Comments || Top||

#5  Thanks for the cleanup, TW.

"The overlook can also be used for viewing rocket launches from White Sands Missile Range."
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 12:37 Comments || Top||

#6  Your mind is more subtle and suspicious than mine, Skidmark. I did not immediately grasp the implications as you did — thank you for guiding my thinking here.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 12:42 Comments || Top||

#7  Two guys in suits were seen wandering about with a flashy pen.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 09/12/2018 13:57 Comments || Top||

#8  thank you for guiding my thinking here

the taste of water
portrayed by the ocean
subtly eludes the thirst
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 14:01 Comments || Top||

#9  The red-lensed penlights are used to help retain visual acuity during nighttime observation.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 14:17 Comments || Top||

#10  My money is on Russia or Chinese spying.
Posted by: mossomo || 09/12/2018 17:30 Comments || Top||

#11  Think something else is going on. They decided to vacate a telescope as precautionary measure?

What, did the lens suddenly developed smallpox?
Posted by: Woodrow || 09/12/2018 18:36 Comments || Top||

#12  Attempt to access infowar$.¢om from facility computer?
Posted by: Woozle Unimp2242 || 09/12/2018 19:39 Comments || Top||

#13  Aliens.
Posted by: These Sinatra3854 || 09/12/2018 22:19 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Massive stockpile of bottled water found in Puerto Rico a year after Maria
[NY Post] Trump's Fault™
Hundreds of thousands of water bottles meant for victims of Hurricane Maria are still sitting at a Puerto Rico airport ‐ nearly a year after the deadly storm, according to a report.

A photo showing the bottles in boxes and covered in a blue tarp on a runway in Ceiba was shared widely on social media Tuesday evening.

"Although you don't believe it… almost a million boxes of water that were never delivered to the villages," posted Abdiel Santana, a photographer working for a Puerto Rican state police agency who took the pictures. "Is there anyone who can explain this?"

FEMA acknowledged to CBS News on Wednesday that the bottles were brought inland in 2017 in the wake of the hurricane and that they were turned over to "central government."

It is unclear where the breakdown that caused the bottles to never be distributed was caused.

Celebrity chef José Andrés, who brought a crew of volunteers to help feed victims of Maria in the wake of the storm, called for an "official independent investigation" into what happened to the stash of drinking water.

"My teams knew about it but first they will say, ‘no we can not use them,' months later water was no good for human consumption," he tweeted. "We were ‘buying' water because they wouldn't give it to us." He didn't specify who "they" was.

The revelation comes as President Trump doubled down on his administration's response to Hurricane Maria on Wednesday and lashed out at the mayor of San Juan, who has been a critic of the effort, as s Democrat "incompetent."
True, but with hip glasses
Posted by: Frank G || 09/12/2018 10:33 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Unexpectedly"™
Posted by: DarthVader || 09/12/2018 10:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Send them to the Carolinas - problem solved.
Posted by: Raj || 09/12/2018 11:14 Comments || Top||

#3  It is unclear where the breakdown that caused the bottles to never be distributed was caused.

Since Democrats are in charge there, I'm going with incompetence.
Posted by: Raj || 09/12/2018 11:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Add some malice; starving your own population is quite totalitarian; exempli gratia, African Liberation Theory.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/12/2018 11:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Unexpectedly™... Indeed. Corrupt officials discover that no one will buy their government bonds. They have to stop paying for anything that doesn't bring in the graft that keeps them in power.
...So power lines don't get repaired, infrastructure crumbles, and Disaster Relief Supplies rot in a warehouse. Unless somebody hid them their hoping to sell them later...
Posted by: magpie || 09/12/2018 14:10 Comments || Top||

#6  If I recall correctly, it was more important for the mayor of San Juan to get in front of the cameras to say nasty things about Trump than to supervise distribution of the water bottles.

Do I have the priorities right?
Posted by: Tom || 09/12/2018 14:13 Comments || Top||

#7  Has that mayor gone up for reelection since? It'll say a lot about Puerto Rico one way or the other when that happens.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 09/12/2018 14:35 Comments || Top||

#8  Who said "Loggies don't need no RFID"?
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 15:42 Comments || Top||

#9  If I recall correctly, it was more important for the mayor of San Juan to get in front of the cameras to say nasty things about Trump than to supervise distribution of the water bottles.

She had time in a hurricane to get a professionally silk-screened t-shirt and baseball cap trashing Trump
Posted by: Frank G || 09/12/2018 15:58 Comments || Top||

#10  ...in English.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/12/2018 16:07 Comments || Top||

#11  Puerto Ricans don't drink water.
Posted by: Jeasing Jeaque5937 || 09/12/2018 16:37 Comments || Top||

#12  They do drink coffee.
Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 18:29 Comments || Top||

#13  They saw what Katrina did to W, so they tried to Katrina Trump.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 09/12/2018 18:54 Comments || Top||

#14  Nobody steals free stuff. Put a sign on boxes “water $10 per box” and they will be gone in a few days.
Posted by: Airandee || 09/12/2018 20:19 Comments || Top||

#15  Since Democrats are in charge there, I'm going with incompetence.

You get two more guesses, Raj. All three together would probably be a complete answer.
Posted by: gorb || 09/12/2018 22:45 Comments || Top||


Government
Black Market Discovered in Social Security Numbers - Unexpectedly!
[WashingtonExaminer] The Immigration Reform Law Institute said that from 2012 to 2016 there were "39 million instances where names and Social Security numbers on W-2 tax forms did not match the corresponding Social Security records." The group said that there is a "thriving black market" used by illegal immigrants to get Social Security numbers needed to get a job.
This was my perception, in the D.C.area construction market, ten years ago. I said, the employers are not always to blame. Not always.
Their report draws attention to a move by former President Barack Obama to stop sending so-called "no match" letters to employers notifying them that numbers used by employees on the wage forms do not match their identity.

The change followed the president's decision to approve amnesty for some 700,000 younger immigrants let into the U.S. under his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Some of those have been dubbed "dreamers."
Posted by: Bobby || 09/12/2018 10:19 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The SSN system is broken beyond repair. Every American's SSN has already been stolen multiple times. There are no real controls over who has this information or what it is used for, and no serious consequences for losing it. Just look at what (didn't) happen to Equifax.
Posted by: Iblis || 09/12/2018 10:58 Comments || Top||

#2  This can be fixed fairly easily. When a new employee fills out a W-4 form, the employer is only required to keep a copy of it and use it for payroll tax deductions. Instead, if this form was also sent to the IRS, they could then cross-check it with the SSA to see if it's legit. The IRS / SSA cross-check is already used for various tax return verifications, such as a taxpayer receiving a 1099-R from a retirement fund (401(k), etc.) and seeing if the 10% early withdrawal penalty applies (check against your date of birth at the SSA is the cross-check). You'd also have to include the person's date of birth on that W-4 form for complete verification, but that's a minor modification. The verification process should not take more than two weeks. I'd be willing to trade the additional 200 or so IRS hacks needed to implement this against the massive multi-billion dollar fraud & abuse that's happening, not to mention identity theft.
Posted by: Raj || 09/12/2018 11:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Add a 3D biometric fingerprint to the crosschecked form?
Posted by: 3dc || 09/12/2018 12:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Add a 3D biometric fingerprint to the crosschecked form?

Put it all on the digital passport.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 15:39 Comments || Top||

#5  Cross check against voter rolls.

Note: this was an attempt at humor
Posted by: Airandee || 09/12/2018 19:56 Comments || Top||

#6  Jiji. I laughed twice. Gracias, amigx!
Posted by: Erandi || 09/12/2018 20:38 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Bernie Sanders' Son Gets Smoked In NH-1 Primary
[Daily Beast, via Drudge] - Levi Sanders, the son of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was handily defeated on Tuesday night in his bid for New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District, a perennial swing district that was vacated by retiring Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH).

Sanders was viewed as a significant underdog in the race before Tuesday. He also ran without the explicit endorsement of his father, who said in a statement this summer: "Levi has spent his life in public service to low-income and working families, and I am very proud of all that he has done. In our family, however, we do not believe in dynastic politics. Levi is running his own campaign in his own way."
Posted by: Raj || 09/12/2018 09:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Then-CIA Director John Brennan endorsed Trump dossier, Bob Woodward says
[Wash Times] Then-CIA Director John O. Brennan endorsed the Christopher Steele dossier when he acquired a copy in December 2016, saying it matched the Russia collusion charges from his sources, according to "Fear," a Bob Woodward book on the Donald Trump presidency that debuted Tuesday.

A spokesman for Mr. Brennan said he never approved of the dossier. In fact, the source said, he worked to make sure it wasn’t included in the intelligence community assessment of Russian election interference.

"It wasn’t corroborated intel," the spokesman told The Washington Times. The spokesman said one senior official wanted to include the document, which would have been a mistake.

The dossier, reviled by President Trump as a hoax, is mostly ignored by Mr. Woodward in terms of its pervasive influence on the media and FBI investigators.

The book makes no mention that the former British spy’s aim was to stop the Trump candidacy and then his presidency.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 08:03 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yes, I suppose criminal facilitation could be seen as an endorsement.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 8:05 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm still waiting for ANY of the FISA judges to make comment.
Posted by: jvalentour || 09/12/2018 21:34 Comments || Top||

#3  or Resign
Posted by: Frank G || 09/12/2018 22:03 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm still waiting for ANY of the FISA judges to make comment.

You won't - they were in on it.
Posted by: Raj || 09/12/2018 22:30 Comments || Top||

#5  Ditto #4.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 23:04 Comments || Top||


Europe
EU must grasp world role as U.S. retreats, Juncker says
STRASBOURG (Reuters) - The European Union must flex its muscles as a world power, EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker said on Wednesday, as he spoke critically of U.S. President Donald Trump’s retreat from international engagement.

In his annual State of the Union address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Juncker, who is entering his final year as president of the European Commission, urged EU states to rein in angry divisions over budgets, immigration and other issues in order to capitalize on a chance to shape the world.

"Whenever Europe speaks as one, we can impose our position on others," Juncker said, arguing that a deal he struck in July with Trump to stall a transatlantic tariff war and which won plaudits for the Commission should have come as no surprise.

"The geopolitical situation makes this Europe’s hour: the time for European sovereignty has come," he said.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 07:46 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The globalist practitioners may call it a 'retreat' if they like. I call it minding our own business.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 7:53 Comments || Top||

#2  The Age of Colonialism was so very, very good for the European Elites World, right Herr Juncker? Brings a tear from the nostalgia of it all...
Posted by: magpie || 09/12/2018 9:58 Comments || Top||

#3  AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

You idiots can't even grasp Europe and its issues.
Posted by: DarthVader || 09/12/2018 10:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Was Juncker shitfaced when he said this?
Posted by: Raj || 09/12/2018 11:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Is he ever NOT shitfaced?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 09/12/2018 12:53 Comments || Top||

#6  In part, I suspect he's trying to shame us into retreating to the status quo. Worth a try. It's been working presidents ever since WW II.
Posted by: gorb || 09/12/2018 13:38 Comments || Top||

#7  The role of the World's sugar daddy?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/12/2018 16:16 Comments || Top||

#8  The European Union must flex its muscles as a world power,

Not to be discouraging, but this is like deciding to take up mixed martial arts after lying on the couch eating Cheetos and playing videogames since 1950. I'll believe it when it happens. And no, brow-beating the Eastern Euro countries over immigration doesn't count.
Posted by: SteveS || 09/12/2018 16:48 Comments || Top||

#9  "Beginning with a submarine fleet to blockade Britian if Brexit continues."
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/12/2018 18:11 Comments || Top||

#10  A Juncker wants a Zollverein to "impose our position on others"?

Where have I heard that before?

And I thought the "hour of Europe" was back when we were bombing a safely white, small country(the only acceptable target for bombing, to be sure) back in the Nineties.

It literally was an hour.

Posted by: charger || 09/12/2018 19:21 Comments || Top||


EU claims the right to control all thought on the Net!
[BBC] Google, Facebook and Twitter must remove extremist content within an hour or face hefty fines, the European Commission's president has said.

In his annual State of the Union address to the European Parliament, Jean-Claude Juncker said an hour was a "decisive time window".

Net firms had been given three months in March to show they were acting faster to take down radical posts.

But EU regulators said too little was being done.

If authorities flag content that incites and advocates extremism, the content must be removed from the web within an hour, the proposal from the EU's lead civil servant states. Net firms that fail to comply would face fines of up to 4% of their annual global turnover.

The proposal will need backing from the countries that make up the European Union as well as the European Parliament.
Posted by: 3dc || 09/12/2018 06:21 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under: Antifa

#1  Was he drunk as usual?
Posted by: Frank G || 09/12/2018 7:33 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't know about the drunk part, but I wouldn't be surprised. The meat of this is the threat to the pocketbook of Google, et al. And what's this? "Authorities" doing the flagging of content? That's a flaw, they will get bought. Or is that a feature?

On the other hand, as much as I despise the EC, I am in favor of anything that injures GoogleFacebookTwitter, even for a short time. Drag their managing staff to the International Criminal Court when they don't knuckle under. Bolton won't like that, but I can see the bounty hunters lining up. Progressive World Gov. vs. Progressive Oligarchs. Cheering for both sides to lose big.

In my dreams anyway.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 09/12/2018 8:08 Comments || Top||

#3  The capricious nature of our lords and ladies taxing policies. Don't mistake it for anything less. It's the Willy Sutton approach to revenue. Sort of fueled more than one major rebellion in the history books. Long past to tell the EU, if they are such big boys, to defend themselves and build their own net.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/12/2018 8:22 Comments || Top||


#5  Who to root for??? EU sux, Google sux.
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 09/12/2018 10:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Google might suck but how much does EU suck if they have to censor Google?

Sounds like Juncker's been taking lessons from Xi Jinping.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 09/12/2018 12:21 Comments || Top||

#7  China says, "Hey EU! Quit stealing our moves!"
Posted by: charger || 09/12/2018 19:23 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia is suspected of attacks against diplomats in Cuba. Will US strike back?
[Stars&Stripes]
First, does anybody have a feel if Russia did this or is it just another shout of "Squirrel!"?
An NBC report quoting unidentified U.S. officials said federal agencies investigating the incidents have intercepted intelligence communications that point to Russian responsibility for the attacks, although the evidence is not conclusive enough to formally accuse Moscow.

But if a Russian role is confirmed, “that would be unprecedented. That’s never happened,” said Frank Mora, who served as deputy secretary of defense for Latin America and now heads the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University.

“Russia has meddled in the U.S. elections and has been behind the attacks on former Russian spies in England, but to provoke serious injuries to U.S. officials, that is much more complicated and the United States has to react in some way,” he added.

The NBC report said the U.S. military is working to replicate the weapon or weapons used to injure 26 employees of the State Department, the CIA and other federal agencies as well as relatives who were based in Havana. The victims suffered symptoms such as loss of hearing, cognitive problems and some experienced brain damage.

A team of doctors that investigated the incidents at the request of the U.S. government has said it’s possible the attackers used a “neuro-weapon” of directed energy that could damage the brain by causing a “cavitation” effect with ultrasonic, electromagnetic or microwaves. The U.S. Air Force research program on directed energy is participating in the investigation.
Posted by: 3dc || 09/12/2018 05:58 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  considering another attack on US citizen in China, might wanna look there.
Posted by: Mercutio || 09/12/2018 8:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Now, now. Nobody wants to talk about China.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 09/12/2018 13:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Nobody wants to talk about China.

If a million monkeys can write Shakespeare,
what can 2 billion Chinese do?

I'm thinking they don't need quantum.
Just give each of them a bit.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 15:05 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Today's Alexandria
[RedState] "The House GOP wants to add *another* $2.4 trillion in tax cuts after already cutting $2 trillion in taxes on corporations & the very rich last December," tweeted Ocasio-Cortez. "You ever notice how no one asks the GOP how *they’re* going to pay for it?"
Private property = theft
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/12/2018 05:34 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "You ever notice how no one asks the GOP how *they’re* going to pay for it?"

Same book the Socialists use to explain how they're "going to pay for it".

Note well, tax revenues are up. It's a spending problem, not a taxing problem.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/12/2018 8:25 Comments || Top||

#2  "You ever notice how no one asks the GOP how *they’re* going to pay for it?"
The Socialists never explain how the people being taxed are going to "Pay For It" either. The money magically appears in their possession, ill-gotten by nefarious means no doubt, only to be taken by the State as their "Fair Share" of taxes.
Posted by: magpie || 09/12/2018 10:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Ah'm gonna assume more revenue from more payrolls and pay checks and less give-away. Maybe that's just me.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 16:49 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
NBC: Russia Now Main Suspect Behind Cuban Embassy Sonic Attacks
[Hot Air] Did Russia chase the US diplomatic mission out of Cuba ‐ and try to do the same thing in China? According to NBC, US intel agencies believe they know who’s behind a series of bizarre and mysterious illnesses that befell diplomatic personnel in Havana starting two years ago, and which suddenly started appearing in China this year. And they’re pointing the finger at Moscow, although they don’t know yet exactly how it was done:

A couple of years ago, the possibility of Russia being behind the attacks may not have made much sense. After the brazen and obvious assassination attempt on Sergei Srkipal with the Soviet-produced Novichok, it seems anything’s possible:
Please someone, how does making US Embassy personnel sick further the goal of Russian intelligence collection.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 02:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Russian suspect on the left is aiming hand-held pocket illness device at embassy window. The Intelligence Community and NBC believe both suspects are now deceased.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 2:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Please someone, how does making US Embassy personnel sick further the goal of Russian intelligence collection.

Depends on which Embassy personnel you target.....

There's only 4 players that could do this: US, PRC, Israel, and Russia. Ivan has been at the top of list since day 1.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy || 09/12/2018 7:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Bangkok Billy - What are your thoughts on the possibility of internal counter-surveillance equipment being at fault ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 7:31 Comments || Top||

#4  ....possibility of internal counter-surveillance equipment being at fault ?

A number between zero and zero. Most (if not all) of the physical symptoms were experienced a various residential locations throughout Havana. Same with the 1 case in Guangzhou. I would venture to say any countermeasures we have are based in locations we have absolute control over...like the Chancery. These CM are constantly checked/tweeked. I doubt the CM would malfunction for a long period of time w/out someone noticing.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy || 09/12/2018 7:39 Comments || Top||

#5  Thanks! I figured you would wound know. Another of my theories debunked.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 7:42 Comments || Top||

#6  Please someone, how does making US Embassy personnel sick further the goal of Russian intelligence collection.

Regardless of how secure encrypted comms may be, audio rendition is subject to 'man-in-the-middle' interception. Can't tap the headset input but the audio induced to the ear canal is available for sampling or injection via a sufficiently sensitive sampling signal.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 10:07 Comments || Top||

#7  Ref #6: I continue to learn inspite of myself.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 10:28 Comments || Top||

#8  So would the proper response be CIA folk all over the world armed with MASERS cooking Russian Embassy folks?
Posted by: 3dc || 09/12/2018 11:29 Comments || Top||

#9  So would the proper response be

Closing embassies.
Culturally historic artifacts from the Imperial era.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 11:49 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Border Patrol in Texas nabs more than 130 illegals in just over 24 hours
[FOX] U.S. Border Patrol agents scooped up 131 illegal immigrants, including 22 unaccompanied minors, in just a little over a day in the Rio Grande Valley, officials said Tuesday.

The arrests stem from two separate incidents in a span of just over 24 hours.

Weslaco agents first arrested 66 illegals from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras on Monday. The group comprised 20 families and 11 unaccompanied minors.

Then on Tuesday, Weslaco agents arrested an additional 65 illegal immigrants from Guatemala and El Salvador. That group was made up of 25 families and 11 unaccompanied children.

Officials said in a press release that all 131 illegal immigrants were being processed by the Border Patrol.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 02:03 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Three arrested for suspected arson attack on nature reserve close to Dead Sea
[IsraelTimes] Two residents of East Jerusalem and one West Bank resident held after police chase; flames brought under control after 6 hours; fears that rare plants may have been destroyed

Police on Tuesday said they jugged
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
three people on suspicion of causing a blaze at a nature reserve close to the Dead Sea, amid reports that 500 dunams (123 acres) of vegetation had been damaged at Einot Tsukim, including rare species of plants.

According to a statement from police, they gave chase to a vehicle after officers observed it "traveling suspiciously" on Route 90 at around 2 a.m. The driver refused to stop the vehicle.

After the car was eventually stopped and searched, a strong smell of fuel was said to be emanating from the vehicle and its occupants’ clothing, and the three were arrested on suspicion of starting the fire.

Two of the suspects are residents of East Jerusalem and one is from the West Bank town of al-Azariya ‐ all are in their 20s.

Route 90 was closed Tuesday morning as firefighters battled to control the blaze. A spokesperson for the fire brigade said the fire was finally brought under control at 8:20 a.m.

The highway was blocked to drivers between the Matzuki Dragut and Kalia junctions and motorists were advised to avoid the area and find alternative routes.

According to Hebrew-language news site Ynet, 16 firefighting teams, water tankers, military firefighters, a police helicopter and firefighting planes were all deployed to the scene.

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis are expected to visit nature reserves across the country Tuesday to mark the holiday of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 01:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel briefs:Umm al Fahm man arrested for incitement, pipe bomb thrown at border police, yoot arrested for throwing stones at same, IDF tank shoots Gaza position


Umm al-Fahm resident detained on suspicion of terror incitement

[Ynet] The police detained Tuesday a 60-year-old man from Umm al-Fahm on suspicion of terror and violence incitement, as well as supporting terror organization via social media posts. The suspect was arrested following an undercover investigation and will be brought before a judge to extend his remand.

Pipe bomb explodes near a Border Police base

[Ynet] A pipe bomb was thrown Tuesday at a Border Police base in the Palestinian town of Abu Dis, east of Jerusalem. The bomb exploded outside the base , with no damage caused.

In another incident Tuesday, a 16-year-old Hebron resident was arrested on suspicion of throwing stones at a Border Police post in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem. The Palestinian boy was taken in for questioning.

Report: IDF attacks position in northern Gaza

[Ynet] According to Palestinian media, the IDF used tank fire to attack a position in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, apparently after several Palestinians crossed the border fence and returned to Gaza. No casualties were reported.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 01:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


The Grand Turk
Report: Turkey detains 56 over alleged links to 2016 coup attempt
[Jpost] Those detained were among 89 people whose detention was ordered in an investigation by Istanbul prosecutors, 'Hurriyet' newspaper reported.

Ottoman Turkish authorities detained 48 soldiers and eight others over alleged links to US-based holy man Fethullah Gülen
... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world...
, who Ankara says orchestrated a failed 2016 coup against President Tayyip Erdogan, the Hurriyet newspaper said on Monday.

Those detained were among 89 people whose detention was ordered in an investigation by Istanbul prosecutors, the newspaper reported.

Authorities have carried out such sweeps against suspected Gulen supporters on a regular basis since the failed coup of July 2016, in which 250 people were killed. Gulen denies involvement.

The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
has detained 160,000 people and dismissed nearly the same number of civil servants since the putsch attempt, the UN human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
office said in March. Of that number, more than 50,000 have been formally charged and kept in jail during their trials.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 01:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  Man, they've milked that coup attempt so long its teats must be chapped. With any luck, they'll get the Guinness record for "Longest exploitation of a contrived political event".
Posted by: SteveS || 09/12/2018 9:45 Comments || Top||

#2  "We're gonna need a bigger prison."
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 09/12/2018 10:29 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Iran ordered to pay $104.7 mln over 1996 U.S. truck bomb attack
[Jpost] Iran's permanent mission to the United Nations
...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


A federal judge in Washington, D.C. on Monday ordered Iran to pay $104.7 million to victims of a June 1996 truck bombing in Dhahran, 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...
that killed 19 US military personnel, though it is unclear when and how the plaintiffs might collect.

Chief Judge Beryl Howell entered a default judgment against Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which did not defend against claims over their alleged roles in the attack, which sheared off the front of the Khobar Towers complex.

Iran's permanent mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Howell said 15 service members who were at the complex when it was bombed could recover for assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The judge also said 24 relatives could recover for emotional distress from seeing how the bombing affected their loved ones.

Howell rejected punitive damages, saying US law did not allow them for attacks occurring before 2008.

The lawsuit sought damages under the so-called terrorism exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

"The plaintiffs are very pleased with the decision, and look forward to pursuing collections," Paul Gaston, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in an interview. "Having the court ruling gives them some measure of justice."

Thirteen members of Hezbollah were indicted in June 2001 in the federal court in Alexandria, Virginia over their alleged roles in the attack.

In December 2006, another federal judge in Washington ordered Iran to pay $254.4 million to family members and the estates of 17 Americans who died in the attack, also in a default judgment.

The US government in 2015 established the US Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund to compensate victims.

Iran was designated by the US Department of State as a state sponsor of terrorism in January 1984. (https://www.state.gov/j/ct/list/c14151.htm)

The case is Akins et al v Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran et al, US District Court, District of Columbia, No. 17-00675.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 01:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Dear Mullahs: Your account and 'payment in full' is due in 90 days.

CF: Mattis and Bolton Collection Agency.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 8:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Please send the pallet of cash to 0bumhole. He really needs it to help sway the election to try to save his pals from investigation and jail for sedition.
Posted by: gorb || 09/12/2018 9:10 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Saudi imported weapons graphic


Posted by: 3dc || 09/12/2018 01:56 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This graphic shows Lightning flash density – 12 hourly averages over the year (NASA OTD/LIS)
This shows that lightning is much more frequent in summer than in winter, and from noon to midnight compared to midnight to noon.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 2:27 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Silk purse industry under stress
h/t Instapundit
[UPI] College can be so stressful that many students think about killing themselves, and some even try, a new study suggests.

Among more than 67,000 students surveyed, over 20 percent said they experienced stressful events in the last year that were strongly associated with mental health problems, including harming themselves and suicidal thoughts or attempts, researchers found.
Like white/male supremacist instructors demanding they write in English and solve quadratic equations?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/12/2018 01:40 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  OCR Investigating ‘Financial Discrimination’ Against Men at Tulane
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/12/2018 2:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Silk purse industry under stress

Well yeah, Kate Spade died!
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 2:30 Comments || Top||


#4  Dear Parents,
If you co-sign a student loan, you are still on the hook even if junior offs herself/himself before discharge of the debt. Maybe that college track wasn't a good deal to push rather than working the oil rigs in West Texas or the strip joints nearby. Just saying.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/12/2018 8:14 Comments || Top||

#5  I know it sounds bizarre, but I wonder if anyone has given any thought to young people working their way through school ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 8:16 Comments || Top||

#6  ...or the GI bill?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/12/2018 8:33 Comments || Top||

#7  Oh, you guys are so 1960s!
Posted by: Bobby || 09/12/2018 10:29 Comments || Top||

#8  Used to you could work your way through school but the schools have been raising tuition far faster than the rate of inflation. Also they have added more useless required courses for graduation. You also get shafted on the required text books written by the Profs.
Posted by: Bugs Thud4877 || 09/12/2018 13:06 Comments || Top||

#9  Fast food is honorable work.
Posted by: gorb || 09/12/2018 13:40 Comments || Top||

#10  Penn State math course covers 'imperialism' and 'cultural intolerance'
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/12/2018 13:57 Comments || Top||

#11  I bought a math book for my daughter. I was reading the reviews while shopping, the review which sold me went something like, "If you want your child to do word problems and pass Common Core tests get (that book). If you want your child to learn math, get this book."

She may need to know, how many moles of halothene a five pound dog will need for an hour long surgery?

Or we could learn that if Timmy is leaving Chicago on a train traveling 35 mph, why is xe such a bigot for not wanting to live in the city?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/12/2018 16:24 Comments || Top||

#12  Bugs is correct. Even for state schools.
Posted by: james || 09/12/2018 22:12 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
SJW or Allan?
h/t Instapundit
[DailyCaller] California man Farzad Fazeli was arrested Tuesday for allegedly trying to stab a congressional candidate at a fair on Sunday, police said.

Local media identified the candidate as Republican Rudy Peters, who is challenging Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell in November.

Peters survived serious injury thanks to a malfunctioning switchblade, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday. The attempted stabbing was preceded by Fazeli making "disparaging remarks" about the Republican Party, according to the sheriff’s office.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/12/2018 01:36 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ooops, double posting
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/12/2018 1:53 Comments || Top||

#2  The Allan branch of SJW.
Posted by: 3dc || 09/12/2018 5:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Bingo!
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/12/2018 7:44 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Did France's Gun Control Hurt Its Resistance to the Nazis?
[NR] A new book by a prominent Second Amendment lawyer examines the history.

The French came closer to having a Second Amendment than one might imagine. Indeed, they could have had one more clearly written than ours: Just a month after the storming of the Bastille in 1789, a draft of the Declaration of Rights stated that "every citizen has the right to keep arms at home and to use them, either for the common defense or for his own defense, against any unlawful attack which may endanger the life, limb, or freedom of one or more citizens."

Alas, it was not to be. That provision did not make it into the final document, though a vague right to "resistance of oppression" did.

Renowned Second Amendment lawyer Stephen Halbrook detailed this history in a 2012 article for the Fordham Urban Law Journal. And now, in his book Gun Control in Nazi-Occupied France, he explains how French gun policy evolved over the centuries ‐ and the consequences it had under the Nazi-puppet Vichy regime during World War II. A sequel of sorts to Halbrook’s Gun Control in the Third Reich, the book drives home the important lessons that gun control is a key element of the oppressor’s toolkit, that guns are incredibly useful for those resisting oppression, and that even the most draconian gun-control measures are far from perfectly effective.

It cannot prove, of course ‐ and doesn’t purport to ‐ that a stronger French tradition of gun rights could have radically altered history, or that America’s more libertarian gun policies strike the right balance among all the relevant priorities. What it does do is force readers to entertain a simple question: When a hostile and brutal power takes over, do you want your countrymen to have guns at hand, or not? Certainly this question weighed heavily upon the minds of the American Founders, and certainly its answer counts for something.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 01:20 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A little thing called the "Commune of Paris" probably made sure such rights were not available in 1940 to the citizens of the Third Republic.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/12/2018 4:12 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
After US shuts PLO mission, Abbas said to mull severing last ties with Trump
[IsraelTimes] PA leader may cut security links with DC, said furious with US president; Abbas officials said to describe Trump as ’enemy of the Paleostinian people,’ warn of kaboom of violence.

The Paleostinian Authority is considering cutting its last ties with the US government, including crucial security cooperation, after a series of steps by the Trump administration against the Paleostinians, including shuttering the PLO office in Washington, Israel’s Channel 10 news reported Tuesday.

Officials close to PA President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
were quoted by Channel 10 saying that the American measures, which also included cutting aid to the UN refugee agency that deals with Paleostinians and funding to Paleostinian hospitals in East Jerusalem, could lead to an upsurge of violence in the region.

The Trump administration has cut all aid to the Paleostinians this year with the exception of some $42 million it gave them for ongoing security cooperation efforts.

Despite longstanding tensions with Israel, security coordination between the Paleostinian security forces and the IDF in the West Bank is very close and a key component of the relationship between the two sides.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday praised the Trump administration for its decision to shut the PLO mission.

"The US took the correct decision," Netanyahu said in a statement at the end of the Rosh Hashanah holiday. "Israel supports these actions that are meant to make it clear to the Paleostinians that refusing to negotiate and attacking Israel in international forums will not bring about peace."

Despite this, Paleostinian security officials have continued meetings with top CIA officials.

The officials also said that Abbas plans to launch a diplomatic broadside against Trump and is planning a harsh speech against him at the UN General Assembly later in the month, Channel 10 said. "He plans to call him some very undiplomatic things," the TV report quoted PA officials saying.

The Israeli TV report added that the PA has come close to severing its relations with Egypt, because of Cairo’s ostensible close ties to the Trump administration and its role in trying to broker an Israel-Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", truce regarding Gazoo.

Also Tuesday the Paleostinians denied a report
No, no! Certainly not!
in an Arabic news website Khaleej Online that the Trump administration was pushing an initiative to have Arab states grant citizenship to Paleostinian refugees living in their countries.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 01:19 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority

#1  Bye.
Posted by: Albemarle Prince of the Lichtensteiners3306 || 09/12/2018 3:39 Comments || Top||

#2  After US shuts PLO mission, Abbas said to mull severing last illusory ties with Trump

FIFY.
Posted by: gorb || 09/12/2018 3:40 Comments || Top||

#3  wretchardthecat
‏[Twitter]

America sometimes makes a deal w/ the devil to good effect. Hirohito after WW2 for example. But it requires the devil to stay bought. The problem w/ the PLO is they took the money but kept spitting in the face of the paymaster. That's not how it works.
Posted by: 3dc || 09/12/2018 6:19 Comments || Top||

#4  Please do cut the tit off, mongrels as you are.
WELL~~~!!BYE!!!!!
Posted by: ranture || 09/12/2018 9:55 Comments || Top||

#5  It's like a talking piece of dog shit telling you it's leaving.
Posted by: Woodrow || 09/12/2018 18:41 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Al-Qaeda leader: Moving embassy to Jerusalem is proof the US is enemy of Islam
[IsraelTimes] On 9/11, bin Laden’s successor Ayman al-Zawahiri calls on Moslems to wage war against the United States throughout the world

Marking the 17th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, the leader of al-Qaeda on Tuesday called on Moslems to wage war against the United States throughout the world.

In a 30-minute speech released Tuesday, Ayman al-Zawahiri
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 01:19 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda

#1  So all the attacks before were without proof?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/12/2018 1:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Now can we take the gloves off?
Posted by: SteveS || 09/12/2018 1:54 Comments || Top||

#3  You do not even know anything about Islam.
Posted by: newc || 09/12/2018 2:08 Comments || Top||

#4  He certainly does not. But he knows how it is supposed to be used.
Posted by: gorb || 09/12/2018 3:38 Comments || Top||

#5  You were one of the SOBs behind 911 so FOAD!
Posted by: 3dc || 09/12/2018 5:49 Comments || Top||

#6  Al-Qaeda leader: Moving embassy to Jerusalem is proof the US is enemy of Islam

No, we're not the enemy of Islam. But we should be.

And on 9/11 and for a little while after, I had hope that we'd finally awakened, and were ready to recognize Islam for what it is: a totalitarian murder cult.

But that illusion ended when George W. Bush started spouting his "Islam is a religion of peace" nonsense.

And we've continued to regress into even more infantile fantasies since then, with the Democratic Party and the entire progressive establishment having adopted Muslims as their latest "officially recognized poor helpless victims of Western colonialist oppression."

9/11 was a wake-up call. We responded by hitting the SNOOZE button and going right back to sleep.

I shudder to think what it would take to REALLY wake us up; in our present state, I'm not sure even getting a half-dozen of our biggest cities nuked would do it.
Posted by: Dave D. || 09/12/2018 6:44 Comments || Top||

#7  "including an appeal for Moslem unity and jihadists close ranks"

behind him, of course
Posted by: Frank G || 09/12/2018 6:54 Comments || Top||

#8  nice aiming point on his forehead there....
Posted by: Mercutio || 09/12/2018 8:41 Comments || Top||

#9  Bin Laden had two mentors, Shaykh Azzam in Saudi Arabia and then Peshawar, and Zawahiri, whose role began in the mid 1980s. Zawahiri won out (and was likely responsible for Azzam's assassination). On the defeat of the Soviets Azzam wanted the Islamists to turn their attention to Palestine. Zawahiri, an Egyptian, wanted them to attack Egypt and the West in General, and a fatwa was issued supporting that thesis in August 1988. It was not until a decade later that Zawahiri agreed with Bin Laden that their particular enemy was the USA, and a fatwa was issued in Afghanistan. For twenty years Bin Laden and Zawahiri have been issuing anathemas against the USA. This recent charge is nothing new, but is important because Zawahiri has been relatively silent for quite some time.
Posted by: Fat Bob Clavising1859 || 09/12/2018 10:40 Comments || Top||

#10  The last pronouncement from Dr. Al-Zawahiri seen in our archive was on 15 May, 2018. He was exercised about President Trump moving the embassy to Jerusalem. See here.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 13:08 Comments || Top||

#11  nice aiming point on his forehead there....

I heard somewhere you get that studying carpet lice.
Posted by: gorb || 09/12/2018 13:41 Comments || Top||

#12  No shit Sherlock. Most humans are.
Posted by: Woodrow || 09/12/2018 18:37 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
A US Senate candidate accuses PM's spokesperson of sexual assault
[Ynet] Julia Salazar, a 27-year-old woman running for the New York State Senate, says she was sexually assaulted several years ago by David Keyes, who has been a spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the past couple of years.

According to Salazar, she decided to speak about it publicly before her story is made public in an upcoming news article.

Keyes,34, said in response that "the false accusations were made by a person who has proven to be a liar in the past."
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/12/2018 01:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


#2  Sorry, Julia. It's not that easy.
Posted by: gorb || 09/12/2018 4:16 Comments || Top||

#3  During her time at Columbia, Salazar — now running as a progressive Democrat of Jewish faith who supports abortion rights and the people of Palestine — was a Christian right-to-life activist who supported Israel. While she had campaigned as a Colombian immigrant, she was born in the United States to an American mother and Colombian father. Her statements about a working class upbringing have also been called into question by statements from her brother and mother who said the family did not struggle financially.

In fact, the family owned a home next door to Mets legend Keith Hernandez — and Salazar was embroiled in a bizarre legal battle with the ballplayer and his ex-wife that included a claim of an affair, which Salazar has denied, and a libel lawsuit involving accusations of drug use, bank theft and pilfered Pottery Barn vouchers.
Posted by: 3dc || 09/12/2018 5:57 Comments || Top||

#4  State Senate, not US
Posted by: Frank G || 09/12/2018 7:20 Comments || Top||

#5  "...and pilfered Pottery Barn vouchers." She sounds insane, but the vouchers thing is beyond surreal.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 09/12/2018 7:56 Comments || Top||

#6  Ugh - eye bleach, stat!
Posted by: Raj || 09/12/2018 9:55 Comments || Top||

#7  We have a standard kit here at RB that consists of citrus cleaner and Brillo pads. I'm not sure who used it last.
Posted by: gorb || 09/12/2018 12:23 Comments || Top||

#8  While not 'freight train on a dirt road' fugly, sure ain't no Miss America.

But then again, it is said that Sailors would poke a wood pile if there was a snake in it, so evaluate the above for what its worth.....
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 09/12/2018 16:35 Comments || Top||

#9  My parents? All wet! But don't fret,
I've put that behind me. I'm set
To faithfully labor--
No, not for my neighbor,
But friends that I haven't yet met!
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 09/12/2018 19:26 Comments || Top||


Economy
U.S. job openings climb to record 6.9 million
[Market Watch] Job openings rose from 6.82 million in June, the government said Tuesday.

About 5.68 million people were hired and 5.53 million lost their jobs in July. Such a high level of what economists call "churn" is common in the huge U.S. economy.

The share of people who left jobs on their own, known as the quits rate, rose a notch to a 2.7% among private-sector employees. The record is 2.9%, set in 2001.

The quits rate was 2.4% among all workers ‐ also near a record high. The government began keeping track in 2000.

Workers who switch jobs usually get better pay than those who remain in their old ones. And more people switch when they are confident about the economy.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 01:13 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Aborted Baby Body Parts Traffickers May Be Raking In U.S. Tax Dollars
[The Federalist] A new report shows that an organization that harvests aborted baby organs for research has been charging more than what is legally reimbursable.

The 11-page report details how Advanced Bioscience Resources, Inc. (ABR), which is currently under investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ), charged universities a significantly marked-up price for the organs it harvested from aborted babies.

Federal law prohibits the sale or purchase of fetal tissue ‐ that is, human body parts harvested from pre-born or aborted babies ‐ for "valuable consideration." The law does, however, allow reimbursing baby body part suppliers for costs "associated with the transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control, or storage of human fetal tissue."

This is the very workaround that undercover videos showed abortion giant Planned Parenthood using to make money from human remains. That got it hauled into Congress for investigations but as of yet has cost PP none of its half trillion in annual federal funding.

The Center for Medical Progress released a report on Monday showing ABR charged researchers up to hundreds of dollars per harvested human organ in addition to packing and shipping fees ‐ prices that indicate the organization may have been marking up the cost of fetal tissue beyond what is legally reimbursable.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 01:10 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Remember...the "Republicans" "control" Congress.

Like the highly principled conservative Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan.
Posted by: charger || 09/12/2018 19:14 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt to transfer seized Muslim Brotherhood funds to state treasury
[AlAhram] The Egyptian state committee tasked with confiscating and managing the funds and assets of members of the Moslem Brüderbund group will transfer them to the state treasury in accordance with a new law, it said on Tuesday.

According to Article 11 of law no. 22 of this year, whenever a court verdict is final and rules on the management of assets, the committee has the right to transfer the ownership of the seized funds to the state treasury, if the committee requests permission from the relevant court.

The committee's Tuesday resolution to transfer funds applies to 1,589 individual Brotherhood members and supporters, 118 companies, 1,133 NGOs, 104 schools, 69 hospitals and 33 websites and satellite channels that are under the control of the committee, a statement read.

The Moslem Brüderbund was designated a terrorist group in December 2013.

The committee was formed in 2013 and it comprise representatives from the ministries of justice, interior, finance, social solidarity and local development, and of the Central Bank of Egypt and the National Security Apparatus.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 01:09 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood


Iraq
US blames Iran for Iraq attacks, threatens to respond ‘decisively’
Snip. Duplicate. My apologies.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 01:09 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies


Home Front: WoT
Flashback: Seven 9/11 Hijackers Overstayed Their Visas, Were Never Deported
[Breitbart] Nearly half of the September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorist hijackers who flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were able to remain in the United States, undetected, despite having overstayed their visas.

For 13 of the 19 terrorists, driver’s licenses were obtained after they arrived in the U.S. from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Lebanon.

For seven of the terrorists, they were supposed to have been deported from the U.S. at some point before they could carry out the 9/11 attacks, as they had overstayed their visas either a year before the attack or during the time of the attack.

Subsequently, none of the terrorists were deported.

Related: The FBI still hasn’t found these 9/11-era terrorists
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 00:47 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is it me, or does anyone else think the State Department's Passport and Visa offices come up a bit too often in discussion regarding terrorism ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 1:03 Comments || Top||

#2  It's just you - I had to deal with them and they were perfectly beastly.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/12/2018 1:25 Comments || Top||

#3  You're too kind, grom. Beastly isn't the word I would have used.
Posted by: gorb || 09/12/2018 3:44 Comments || Top||

#4  Yes. And Bush rushed out the Obama family. Stupid has no limits to departments.
Posted by: Woodrow || 09/12/2018 18:40 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
More Nangarhar: 10 ISIS casualties in Chaparhar district, in Khogyani district 11 Talib turbans killed and 12 tied up


Fresh operations kick off against ISIS militants in Chaparhar district

[KhaamaPress] The Afghan armed forces have launched fresh operations to eliminate the militants affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group in Chaparhar district of Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
province.

The provincial government media office in a statement said the public order police forces, national police forces, Afghan intelligence, Afghan commandos, and armed forces from the 4th brigade have taken part in the operations.

The statement further added that the operations kicked off at around 2am local time on Tuesday and a number of areas including Separi, Abdul Rahmani, Spin Jumt, Shulana, Geratik, Lalma, Sulaiman Khel, Sangina, Pul Dago, Ghulam Dak have been cleared from the presence of the militants.

The provincial government also added that five ISIS militants were killed and as many were wounded during the operations conducted with the support of the artillery fire and airstrikes.

A Ak-47, 4 magazines, and some other types of munitions were also confiscated during the same operations, the provincial government said, adding that the security forces and the local residents have not suffered any casualty during the operations so far.

The Commander of the 4th Brigade of the Afghan army Gen. Mohammad Karim Niazi who leads the operations said the operations will continue until the district is fully cleared of the militants.

He said the security forces have stepped up efforts to secure the district for the upcoming parliamentary and district council elections.

11 Killed In Govt Forces Operation In Nangarhar

[ToloNews] Local officials in Nangarhar said at least 11 people were killed and 12 others were arrested in a military operation in Khogyani district in the eastern province.

The operation was conducted in Kooz Bahar area on Thursday night, local officials said.

One member of Nangarhar Provincial Council said a Taliban commander was among those killed in the operation and that those arrested were Taliban aides.

Government officials in Kabul have not commented on the operation. However, a number of local residents said some of those killed in the operation were civilians.

Taliban has said in a statement that civilians were killed and wounded in a military operation by Afghan Special Forces in Kooz Bahar area in Khogyani district.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 00:09 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Nangarhar: Momand Dara district jacket wallah causes 160 casualties, Taliban say wasn’t them


Suicide attack targets protesters in Nangarhar

[Khaama Press] - Tue Sep 11 2018, 1:43 pm - A suicide bomber targeted a group of protesters in the vicinity of Momand Dara district of eastern Nangarhar province this afternoon.

The provincial public health directorate confirms that 30 people have died in the attack and more than 60 others have sustained injuries.

Provincial governor’s spokesman Ataullah Khogyani had earlier said at least 19 people have died and at least 57 others have sustained injuries in the attack.

He said the wounded individuals have been shifted to the hospitals in Ghani Khel district and Jalalabad city.

However, a provincial council member says at least 40 people have died and dozens more have sustained injuries in the attack.

No individual or group has so far claimed responsibility behind the incident.

Death Toll Rises To 32 In Nangarhar Explosion

[ToloNews] A suicide bomber targeted a protest in Mohmand Dara district in Nangarhar province on Tuesday afternoon.

Provincial governor’s spokesman said at least 19 people were killed and 57 others were wounded in the explosion. However, the provincial public health directorate said at least 32 people were killed and 128 others were wounded in the explosion. The deputy head of Nangarhar provincial council, Obaidullah, said over 50 people lost their lives in the incident.

The protest was held in Mohmand Dara district near Jalalabad-Torkham Highway.

He said the protestors asked for dismissal of Bilal Pacha, a commander of local police force members in Achin district, an area close to Mohmad Dara district.

Local officials said the wounded were taken to Jalalabad hospitals.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in a statement condemned the attack and said it voices its mounting concern at the pattern of attacks targeting civilians and schools.

"The majority of civilian casualties occurred in the Mohmandara district of Nangarhar when a suicide attacker detonated his explosives among a crowd which had gathered to demonstrate against an Afghan Local Police commander. At least 20 civilians were killed and more than 60 injured," UNAMA said.

The statement said that UNAMA reminds all parties to the conflict to uphold their obligations to protect civilians and calls upon them to immediately cease targeting civilians and civilian objects such as schools, in compliance with international humanitarian law.

160 dead, wounded as suicide attack targets protesters in Nangarhar

[KhaamaPress] - Tue Sep 11 2018, 6:07 pm - At least 160 people have been killed or wounded in an explosion in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan targeting the protesters in Momandara district this afternoon.

The provincial government media office in a statement said the incident took place in Dak area of Momandara district, targeting a gathering of the protesters.

The statement further added that the attack left at least 32 dead while 128 others sustained injuries.

The incident took place at around 1pm local time on Jalalabad-Torkham highway in the vicinity of Dak area as the residents of Shenwar area were protesting and a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a tent where dozens of protesters had gathered, the statement added.

The statement also added that the dead bodies of at least 32 people have been brought to the hospitals along with 128 others who sustained injuries.

Taliban rejects bombing that left 160 dead, wounded in Nangarhar

[KhaamaPress] - Tue Sep 11 2018, 8:48 pm - The Taliban militants group in Afghanistan rejected the group’s involvement in today’s deadly attack in eastern Nangarhar province that left at least 160 dead or wounded.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid in a statement said the Taliban group has no role in today’s attack in Nangarhar province.

Mujahid went on to claim that the group never attacks the civilian targets and strongly condemns attacks on ordinary civilians.

No individual or group has so far claimed responsibility behind today’s attack in Nangarhar province.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 00:09 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Sources Claim Balkh Outposts Fallen To Taliban
[ToloNews] A reliable security source told TOLOnews on Tuesday that at least four security outposts fell to the Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
in Chamtal district in Balkh province following an attack by the group on Monday.

The source said the Public Order Police outposts collapsed after troops from an army base were moved from Bargah Turkmina village to Bazarchahi village in Chamtal district.

The decision to move the troops was made by 209 Shaheen Corps Headquarters and Balkh elders, the source said.

According to the source, the four outposts - 8, 9, 10 and 11 ‐ fell to hard boyz after being left in a vulnerable position following the withdrawal of the troops.

The source said army forces evacuated the base on Monday and set fire to the facilities.

According to sources, army bases are in place to support police bases and outposts and maintain security in an area after it is cleared of bad boys.

However,
by candlelight every wench is handsome...
Sherkhan Durani, Balkh police front man, rejected the allegations and said no outpost had fallen to hard boyz in Chamtal district.

This comes after Afghan National Army forces deserted bases in parts of Faryab last month without defending themselves against Lion of Islams, sources said at the time.

In response to the news of the troops withdrawal from some bases in Faryab, the Ministry of Defense said in August that soldiers in Faryab and other parts of the country had been pulled out of some camps - in accordance with the MoD's four-year security plan that was announced last year.

This security plan was aimed at improving security force structures over the next few years. The plan included the doubling of special operations forces from 17,000 and the upgrading of what is now a division of special forces. It also included the increase in the country’s air force capabilities and better war management on the ground.

Officials said in line with this security plan, soldiers were pulled out of their posts along the Qaisar-Almar and Maimana-Jawzjan highways and stationed at other bases in district centers.

Reports on Monday meanwhile indicated that Afghan cops suffered a heavy casualty toll as fresh waves of violence gripped several regions in Sar-e-Pul
...a city and eponymous province in northern Afghanistan, population about 500,000. Demographically it is majority Tadjik and Uzbek. There are small Pashtun, Arab, and Hazara
...a grouping of Dari-speaking people of Sino-Tibetan descent inhabiting Afghanistan and Pakistain. They are predominantly Shia Moslems and not particularly warlike, which makes them favored targets...
communities, of which the Hazaras mostly don't bother anyone...

, Kunduz, Jawzjan and Samangan provinces.

Officials reported that the Taliban also suffered a heavy casualty toll.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  I hope they had the sense to put rat poison in the flour on the way out.
Posted by: gorb || 09/12/2018 3:30 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraqi Justice Ministry: death sentences against 7 IS members carried out
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi Justice Ministry has announced carrying out death sentences against seven convicts over involvement in terrorism.

In a statement by the ministry on Monday, the ministry said the sentence was carried out "after legal measures were taken and a presidential decree was issued."

The convicts, according to Haidar al-Zamli, the minister, "belonged to Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
."
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


A Saudi POV on Basra Riots.
[AAWSAT] Throughout history, early civilizations emerged on the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. Iraq never faced a dispute with other Arab Gulf countries over water. However, today, the Basra province, which lies on the banks of the Shatt al-Arab and the Tirgis and Euphrates rivers is suddenly suffering from a water shortage sparked by Iran.

Iran cut off water from the province, leaving Basra city to suffer from an unprecedented drought. Some 18,000 of its citizens have also fallen ill due to drinking contaminated water.

Who would have believed that Basra that boasts nearly 80 percent of Iraq’s oil cannot provide drinking water to its people? The simple reason is that the Iranian neighbor has closed off the sources of water and polluted the Shatt al-Arab through its chemical waste dumps.

The people rose up in anger in mid-July, not just against Tehran, but also against its allied militias that have settled in the southern province. The protests are the strongest form of Iraqi popular action against Iranian practices since it stepped into Iraq in 2003 after the collapse of the Saddam Hussein regime.

The Iraqi protesters took to the streets to condemn their poor living conditions and chanted slogans against Iran. These poor living conditions are but a natural consequence of Iranian meddling in Iraq and its impact on the citizens, who refuse to follow political powers and militias that are affiliated to the Khomeini regime. These parties and militias were able to cement their position on the ground given the absence of a central authority and rule of law, as well as the major political vacuum caused by the factions’ failure to form the largest bloc at parliament. This in turn has impeded the formation of a government that could cater to the needs of the people.
Posted by: 3dc || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Obviously a womans life was gruelling before the wimens liberation movement.
Posted by: Ebbavirt Clunk4147 || 09/12/2018 11:24 Comments || Top||

#2  A geisha of French Polynesia
Got saved and got married: "It frees ya!"
She wrote and wore clothing,
Won worship, and loathing.
At thirty-three, bye, Infelicia!
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 09/12/2018 13:19 Comments || Top||


Europe
US defense chief to visit Macedonia, concerned about Russian ‘mischief’
[ARABNEWS] US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday he would visit Macedonia before a Sept. 30 referendum on changing the country’s name, also expressing concern about suspected Russian interference in the vote, which Moscow denies.

Macedonia scheduled the referendum on the government’s deal in June with neighboring Greece to change its name to the Republic of North Macedonia which would open the door for it to join NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
and the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
"I am concerned about it... The kind of mischief that Russia has practiced from Estonia to the United States, from Ukraine and now to Macedonia, it always has adapted to the specific situation and it’s always beyond the pale," Mattis, who will visit Macedonia over the weekend, told news hounds.

Mattis said he wanted to make it clear the United States supported the Macedonian people.

NATO invited Macedonia to begin accession talks with the alliance, but said it would have to change its constitution and adopt the new name first. The EU has also said it would set a date for Macedonian accession talks pending implementation of the name deal.

Moscow’s ambassador to Skopje has criticized Macedonia’s ambitions to join NATO, saying it could become "a legitimate target" if relations between NATO and Russia deteriorate further.
Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
30,000 flee in Syria as UN fears century’s ‘worst’ crisis
[ARABNEWS]
Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra

#1  Don't worry UN, the century is just starting.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/12/2018 1:27 Comments || Top||


Europe
Europe fighting for its tolerant identity as far right marches on
[ARABNEWS] Witnessing the tens of thousands of people attending an anti-racism concert in the eastern German city of Chemnitz was heart-warming. It was as much a spontaneous occasion as it was an organized event, in response to a recent wave of violent ultra-right and neo-Nazi demonstrations after a Syrian and an Iraqi were revealed to be suspects in a fatal stabbing incident.

As encouraging as this act of defiance was against the fast-spreading xenophobic sentiment in Germany, and the event’s slogan "There are more of us," there is a disturbing trend, not only in Germany but throughout most of Europe, toward the far right, with its ultra-nationalism, xenophobia and even growing pockets of neo-Nazis. The results of the elections in Sweden are further evidence of this. We cannot and should not bury our heads in the sand any longer: The far right is on the march and, if we have learnt anything from history, it is that if we don’t react to this instantly and firmly then discord and conflict will become inevitable. That is what far-right movements thrive on.

The good people of Chemnitz were spot-on in organizing an event whose theme was "Racism cannot be allowed to run unchallenged on the streets." This should be the leitmotif for everyone, everywhere, who shares the fear that letting these kinds of movements roam the streets freely and spread their hatred can only have disastrous consequences. It will be just a matter of when and of what magnitude, not if. And who should understand this better than the German people?
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  Bonis nocet quisquis pepercerit malis
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/12/2018 1:31 Comments || Top||

#2  ...yeah, the Romans learned the hard way about uncontrolled migration aka invasion.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/12/2018 4:14 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Turkey pleads for Idlib accord as displaced people mass at border
[AsiaTimes] Turkey is seeking to avoid a repeat of 2014, when it was forced to allow in a flood of desperate Syrians who massed at its border.

Fresh Russian bombardments in northwestern Syria have sent tens of thousands of people fleeing their homes in recent days, prompting a Turkish outcry over an anticipated assault and an inevitable new wave of refugees on its border.

UN regional coordinator for Syria Panos Moumtzis on Tuesday voiced concern over an uptick in air strikes and shelling that has sent more than 30,000 people fleeing, mainly to locations within the contested province of Idlib. He said strikes on multiple healthcare facilities have compounded the crisis.

“Idlib is the last exit before the toll,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, warning an assault for the neighboring province would have disastrous consequences.

He called instead for an “international counterterrorism operation” in cooperation with Turkish-backed opposition factions to weed out groups like Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that have been blacklisted by the international community.

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff over the weekend raised the prospect of American counterterrorism operations in Idlib, though with the caveat he was “not talking about cooperating, but about using US capabilities to spot the terrorists … and take them out.”

Erdogan did not directly warn of a new wave of refugees to Europe in his op-ed, but the prospect is a common theme in the state-dominated press. In recent days, Turkey’s Daily Sabah published an infographic mapping “possible routes out of Idlib to Europe.”

Turkish columnist and Middle East expert Cengiz Candar suggests in Al-Monitor that Erdogan may be out of options to prevent the unavoidable.

“Perhaps Putin has come to the conclusion that the gap between Turkey and the West has reached an unbridgeable distance, and that he can disregard Ankara’s wishes regarding Idlib because he sees that Turkey has nowhere to go in addition to being ever-more dependent on Russia and Iran for energy,” he said.

Posted by: 3dc || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Home Front: Culture Wars
Kommies get their just deserts 31 years later
by Noemie Emery

[WashingtonExaminer] Are you happy now, Teddy Kennedy? Are you happy, Joe Biden? Are you happy now, Harry Reid? It’s due to the things that you did and said that Donald J. Trump is now naming his second Supreme Court justice in under two years in office. It is your fault that the once courtly process of Supreme Court appointments turned into the blood-and-thunder-eye-gouging drama that we hate and we live through today.

It was 31 years ago, in 1987, that Edward M. Kennedy burst on the floor of the Senate to tell us all that with Robert Bork on the Supreme Court, “women would be forced Into back-alley abortions,” blacks would eat at segregated lunch counters, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the government, and the freedom of millions would hang by a thread.

Before it was over, liberals would raise and spend over $10 million in negative ads (quite a sum at the time) and in lobbying efforts. They would threaten black witnesses with career-ending reprisals and seize and search records of video rentals for signs of blue movies that were never found.

As Steve Hayward says, “The demagogic nature of the public campaign against him made it a watershed moment in American politics, permanently deforming the nomination process as for the judiciary, with ideological battles now extending to the lower federal courts as well.” How true this was proven in 1991, when Kennedy’s office unleashed Anita Hill upon Clarence Thomas, though with less success.

And in 1992, Biden averred that if a vacancy occurred in the Supreme Court before the presidential election, the Democratic Senate should refuse to let Republican President George H.W. Bush fill it until the election was over, so that the new president (who would be Bill Clinton) could decide.

Twenty-four years later, in 2016, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died of a heart attack, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took this advice. He refused to allow a vote on a nominee picked by an exiting Democrat. Democrats fumed, but, as they expected a President Hillary Clinton, they bided their time.

Picture their rage when Trump was elected, bringing not only himself but a procession of judges whom a Republican Senate would rush to confirm. The first pick, Neil Gorsuch, did not change the court’s balance, and Democrats would have done better to put up a fight on the second one, which would. But their anger and shock knew no bounds.

In 2013, in a fit of pique at GOP opposition, Majority Leader Harry Reid had blown up the 60-vote rule for non-Supreme Court nominations, reducing the threshold to a simple majority vote. “You will regret this,” McConnell had said at the time, and he would be prescient. Democrats went to war, and McConnell went nuclear, later blowing up the 60 vote rule for Supreme Court nominations — just as Hillary Clinton’s running mate had promised to do after she won in 2016.

Now Democrats need that judicial filibuster, and it’s no longer there for them, lost in the rubble they helped to create.

Pity the Democrats. Thirty-one years of blood, sweat, and tears in which they sacrificed all to the abortion rights movement, uprooting rule after rule and norm after norm, laying waste to the rules of Supreme Court selection in the interests of what remains a fringe issue.

All that, and they ended up even further behind than they were when they started, with Trump and Mike Pence in positions of power, about to cement a conservative Supreme Court majority for who knows how many more years. One could feel sorry for them, if only they didn't so richly deserve this comeuppance.

Do you feel better, Robert Bork, now that justice has triumphed? Happy now, Kennedy; and Biden, and Reid?
Posted by: badanov || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It’s due to the things that you did and said that Donald J. Trump is now naming his second Supreme Court justice in under two years in office.

Would it be wrong for me to hope for a third?
Posted by: gorb || 09/12/2018 4:09 Comments || Top||

#2  RBG is the next logical Justice to leave (or worse). We shall see!
Posted by: Clem || 09/12/2018 23:15 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Two tribal fighters killed in Islamic State attack on Iraq’s Hawija
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) ‐ Two members of the Tribal Mobilization Forces were killed on Tuesday in an attack by a group of Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
Lions of Islam on Hawija district in Kirkuk,
... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time...
a security source was quoted as saying.

Speaking to Ayn Al Iraq news website, the source said that, "a group of IS Lions of Islam broke into a house owned by a member of the Tribal Mobilization Forces at a village in Hawija district in southwestern Kirkuk early Tuesday, leaving two tribal fighters dead and a woman injured."

The source said that the injured woman was moved to a nearby hospital for treatment.

According to the source, "The IS attackers expeditiously departed at a goodly pace into an unknown location after the attack."
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Four people wounded in bomb blast, west of Baghdad
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Four people were maimed in a kaboom, west of Baghdad, a security source said on Monday.

Speaking to Almaalomah website, the source said "a bomb, planted near a market in al-Jihad district, went off, this evening. Four people, including a women, were maimed."

Security troops, according to the source, "cordoned off the blast scene, while ambulances transferred the injured to nearby hospital for treatment."
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Anbar antics: 3 innocents and 4 cops in 2 kabooms


Bomb blast leaves civilian dead, two others wounded in Anbar

Anbar (IraqiNews.com) – An Iraqi civilian was killed and two others were wounded Monday as a bomb planted by Islamic State militants went off in Anbar governorate, a security source was quoted as saying.

“An explosive charge planted by IS militants went off in Ar-Rutbah district, west of Anbar, leaving a civilian dead and two others wounded,” the source told BasNews website.

According to the source, the pair were moved to the nearest hospital for treatment.

“The security forces rushed to the blast site and started a search for any explosives at the scene,” the source added.

Four Iraqi policemen killed, wounded in suicide bomb attack in Anbar

Anbar (IraqiNews.com) – An Iraqi policeman was killed and three others were wounded Monday after a suicide bomber targeted a hospital in Anbar, a security source was quoted as saying.

“A suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt blew himself up outside Hadithah General Hospital in Anbar governorate,” the source told Almaalomah website.

“The explosion left a policeman dead and three others wounded,” the source added.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
To boost its failing economy Lebanon considering legalizing pot.
[AsiaTimes] In Lebanon, consensus grows for cannabis legalization.

In a bid to boost its failing economy, the country may be turning to cannabis exports. Asia Times explores the issue in episode 2 of 'Deep Dives'
Posted by: 3dc || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


-War on Police-
LAPD releases video of officer being shot at point-blank range during traffic stop
[FoxNews] The Los Angeles Police Department on Monday released graphic video footage of July 28 shootout that occurred during a routine traffic stop that resulted in the injury of an officer and the death of the suspect.

The police officers seen in the video were not identified and the events leading up to the shooting appeared routine. The female officer-- who approached from the drivers' side-- worked in the gang unit and apparently knew the suspect.

The officer asked the driver to exit the car, at which point he could be seen pulling out a .380-caliber handgun and firing just inches from the officer. She could be seen falling to the ground and her partner-- who was at the passengers’ side-- returns fire, mortally wounding gang member Richard Mendoza, 32, according to Fox 11.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Mendoza was hit multiple times in his head a torso and died later at a nearby hospital.

The shooting occurred in Mission Hills in the San Fernando Valley at about 10:15 p.m., the report said. The female officer was hit in the leg. She is recovering, police said.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian regime, Hezbollah main players in Hariri’s assassination: Prosecution
[ARABNEWS] The people of Leb watched the live broadcast on Tuesday of the beginning of the third phase of the special UN tribunal into the 2005 liquidation of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, held in The Hague.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri
Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too.
attended the trial, alongside relatives of the victims of the bombing that killed his father, minister Bassel Fliehan and 21 others.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Doctor shoots himself dead while checking to see why his gun wasn't working during celebratory gunfire at Turkish wedding
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Weapon functions check gone very badly.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 7:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Obviously not a rocket surgeon.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/12/2018 11:36 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Coalition did not prevent Houthis from attending peace talks
[ARABNEWS] A Houthi
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...
delegation who failed to attend peace talks last week in Geneva, were not prevented in any way, the Arab coalition said Tuesday.

The coalition, which is supporting the internationally recognized government of Yemen, has said the Houthis were provided with all means to travel to the Swiss capital to attend UN-backed peace talks.

The Houthis were accused of ’sabotage’ by the government after they did not show for the talks. "We want the UN to be firmer in bringing the other party to the negotiations", said Yemeni Foreign Minister Khaled al-Yamani, after three days of talks with UN envoy Stephen Griffiths.

The Houthi group wanted the United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
to guarantee that the flight carrying its delegation would not be inspected by coalition forces.

"They would have like to get here, we didn’t make conditions sufficiently correct to get them here," Griffiths told a news conference, declining to elaborate.

But the government called the Houthi no-show totally irresponsible: "If they were sincere in reaching peace, they should have come, even if we were meeting in separate rooms," said al-Yamani.

The Iran-backed Houthis have fired numerous missiles into civilian areas in Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
from across the border in Yemen.
Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Assault on Idlib risks ‘scattering terrorists’ abroad: Paris
[ARABNEWS] So... Just leave them there undisturbed?
Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim’rous beastie,
O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/12/2018 5:15 Comments || Top||


Confrontations occur, as SDF announces last operation against IS, east of Euphrates
(IraqiNews.com) Syrian opponent activists have said that fierce confrontations are ongoing in east of Euphrates, as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which are backed by the U.S., progress toward Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
’s last bastion there.

According to the activists from the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, fierce festivities are ongoing in Hegeen town, which is a main Islamic State bastion in Deir Az-Zour province.

SDF gained control over the past 24 hours on the western and northern parts of the region, in addition to al-Bagouz axis, which is adjacent to the borders with Iraq.

Heavy shelling and Arclight airstrikes by the U.S.-led Coalition escort the confrontations, according to the activists, who confirmed that people from both sides were killed.

SDF lost, at least, ten members, one of whom was a field leader with Deiz Az-Zour military council, while 27 snuffies were killed during the first 24 hours of operations.

Hegeen has been almost empty of people, after most of the residents fled due to the shelling through safe exits for civilians who seek leaving, the activists added.

SDF enjugged
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
, few days ago, 29 Islamic State members and their families in Deir Az-Zour, as per the observatory.

Each of the Coalition and SDF said announced earlier today the launch operations, east of Euphrates.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Iraq
Salahuddin: 10 turbans toes up, camp in Hamrin Mtns destroyed, suicide thwarted


Two Islamic State members killed, before heading toward Iraq’s Diyala

Diyala (IraqiNews.com) The pro-government paramilitary troops have killed two Islamic State members, as they were heading toward Diyala province, a security source said on Monday.

Speaking to Almaalomah website, the source said “al-hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) managed to kill two Islamic State militants as they were trying to escape through Hamreen mountains and head toward Diyala.”

Security troops, according to the source, “are deployed along the defense lines in the western desert to repel any potential attack by the militants.”

Pro-government forces destroy Islamic State camp in Hamrin mountains

Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) – Paramilitary forces of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) destroyed on Monday an Islamic State (IS) camp in Salahuddin province.

“Troops of the 88th brigade of al-Hashd al-Shaabi launched a military operation in Hamrin Mountains, destroying the Islamic Sate’s Saad Ibn Abi Waqqas camp,” Alforat News quoted the brigade’s commander, Wanas al-Jabbarah, as saying.

“The destruction of the camp came as part of a military operation launched Sunday to liberate the Hamrin Mountains from IS militants,” he added.

Eight Islamic State members killed in security operation, north of Salahuddin

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Eight Islamic State members, including two suicide attackers, were killed, while six rest houses were destroyed, north of Salahuddin province, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said on Monday.

In a statement, Brig. Gen. Yahia Rasool, spokesperson for the ministry’s Security Media Center, said “security troops of the Salahuddin Operations Command, in collaboration with al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) and the army jets, carried out an operation in regions in Shirqat town.”

The operation, according to the statement, “left three rest houses destroyed by the army jets. Several terrorists possessing weapons were inside. Three tunnels were destroyed, while six militants were killed.”

The operation, also “left two suicide bombers killed.”

Iraqi security foil suicide bomb attack against Shia rituals sites

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – Iraqi security forces thwarted on Tuesday a suicide bomb attack that was planned to hit several Shia rituals facilities in the Shia-dominated district of al-Dujail in Salahuddin, a security source was quoted as saying.

“Dujail police, backed by forces of the Counter-Terrorism Service, arrested three suicide bombers, who were planning to attack several sites used by Shias for performing their rituals,” the source told Ayn Al Iraq news website.

According to the source, “the police forces also seized five explosive belts that were ready to be used in the bomb attack.”
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Economy
20 year olds are making 6 figure salaries in W Texas - and there still aren't enough workers
Posted by: Frozen Al || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The stripper bars are probably doing great business as a result.
Posted by: gorb || 09/12/2018 3:59 Comments || Top||

#2  I take it Army recruiters are running dry in the region. Hope HQ adjusted quotas accordingly. Nah, who am I kidding.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/12/2018 4:01 Comments || Top||

#3  It’s hard work, and.dirty; not that many young people interested in jobs like that.
Posted by: Glenmore || 09/12/2018 10:27 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
NFL Tries Offering Cheaper Concession Food To Lure Fans
Posted by: DarthVader || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Don't seem as if they understand their dwindling fan base.
Posted by: ruprecht || 09/12/2018 0:18 Comments || Top||

#2  They could ban the players and teams from Nike goods.
Posted by: 3dc || 09/12/2018 0:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Is it Halal?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/12/2018 1:54 Comments || Top||

#4  What? The shi+ sandwiches not doing the trick?
Posted by: gorb || 09/12/2018 3:56 Comments || Top||

#5  Gorb for Snark of the Day.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 09/12/2018 5:13 Comments || Top||

#6  I have an idea - ten cent beers! What could go wrong?
Posted by: Raj || 09/12/2018 9:44 Comments || Top||

#7  I have an idea - ten cent beers! What could go wrong?

Only Jack Arabs drink beer.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 10:18 Comments || Top||

#8  I'm a hoptamist. I believe everything could be just fine drinking a good beer.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 09/12/2018 11:22 Comments || Top||

#9 
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 12:43 Comments || Top||

#10  More male cheerleaders and pink uniforms/accessories - that'll fix it.
Posted by: mossomo || 09/12/2018 17:59 Comments || Top||

#11  ...Dropping the price of a beer down to say $10 or so couldn't hurt...

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 09/12/2018 21:01 Comments || Top||

#12  Cheap food alone isn't going to cut it in Detroit.
Posted by: bbrewer126 || 09/12/2018 22:17 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Air Force to roll out implanted headset device for TEETH dubbed 'molar mics' that will allow hands-free radio calls that transmit sound using the jaw bone
[MAIL] The United States Air Force will soon roll out a unique communications system that will be implanted on soldiers' back teeth.

Sonitus Technologies recently announced their $10million contract with the Department of Defense, which will allow them to continue through their second phase of developing the 'Molar Mic' for the Air Force.

'The innovative two-way, personal communication system fits a miniaturized traditional headset into a device that clips to a user's back teeth,' according to the California-based company.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  'Molar Mic' unfortunately coming a bit too late for Serena and her coach.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 1:54 Comments || Top||

#2  May circumvent the 'Cuba Effect'.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 10:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Nothing new. The old silver amalgam dental fillings created a point-contact galvanic reaction between two tooth fillings and saliva. Acted as a semiconductor of sorts.

Let you listen to Ozzie and Harriet if you lived close enough to an AM broadcast transmitter.

When we were kids, we always thought it would be pretty neat to make that a two-way communications system.

Of course, we were serious nerds.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 09/12/2018 10:40 Comments || Top||

#4  The old silver amalgam dental fillings created a point-contact galvanic reaction

HA, chewing aluminum gum wrappers.
Shocking!
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 10:52 Comments || Top||

#5  Remember the old paper half-pint cartons? Some had aluminum foil ribbon seals for fruit drinks. Hit a amalgam filling with that!
Posted by: magpie || 09/12/2018 14:13 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Why Does It have to be Snakes?
[USAToday] An Australian snake catcher captured video of two coastal carpet pythons attacking each other inside a family's spare bedroom.
Fighting over a girlfriend?
It all went down, literally, after the male snakes fell from a ceiling duct inside a home in a western Brisbane suburb.
At least they were not on a plane.
"This pair has been a bit naughty," Lana Field from Snake Catchers Brisbane said in a Facebook Live from the scene on Sunday. "They have pushed their way through from the ceiling and left a bit of a mess."
Was one named Monty?
The snakes, apparently "small" for that area, are about 5.7-feet-long, Field said, as the reptiles thrashed and wrestled near a bedroom closet. The video shows the snakes twisting around each other, and even slamming the other to the ground.
I'd really hate to see a big one.
The reason for the violent fight? A lady snake. Field explained that males tracking the scent of a female python will often duke it out to prove who is stronger, and more deserving of the mate.

"They can continue like this for hours until one is exhausted," Field said.

While these snakes were evenly matched, Field said battles between large and small snakes can end in a nasty bite. Field, who appeared feet away from the raging pythons, also assured viewers that she was watching at a safe distance and the snakes were more interested in each other than her.
I'd hate it if a snake was interested in me.
She recorded more than five minutes of video before she said she caught and relocated the pythons to a bushy creek over a mile away.

No word on the location or relationship status of the female python at the center of this love triangle.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  she caught and relocated the pythons

Did she have an apple?
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 2:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Field explained that males tracking the scent of a female python will often duke it out to prove who is stronger, and more deserving of the mate.

She needs to explain these basics to the highly credentialed creatures that inhabit our institutions of higher learning, particularly the 'Studies' departments. I'm sure they'll denounce her as an agent of the patriarchy.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/12/2018 4:05 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Australian artist who drew racist Serena Williams cartoon deletes his social media account as the Murdoch-owned newspaper he works for tries to defend it
[MAIL] The cartoonist behind a racist depiction of Serena Williams at the US Open final deleted his Twitter account on Tuesday as his Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper tried to defend the controversial illustration.
I thought it was pretty funny, but I'm an old crank.
On Tuesday, The Herald Sun ran an article titled 'Herald Sun backs Mark Knight's cartoon on Serena Wiliams' in which the newspaper's editor Damon Johnston said: 'It had nothing to do with gender or race. This was about a bad sport being mocked.'

Knight, who hit back at one Twitter critic who called him sexist but said nothing to the tens of thousands of people who labeled him racist, erased his profile after going on an Australian radio show to plead his case.

On Monday, he had shared the image proudly writing: 'My toon in today's Herald Sun.'

Within minutes, he was inundated with criticism from people all over the world who called the image 'disgustingly racist' and 'truly vile'.
That didn't take long.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A total of 17 people were killed in three days of violence that began when the gunmen opened fire at Charlie Hebdo in revenge for its past publication of satirical images of the Prophet. With demand surging for this week's edition, Charlie Hebdo planned to print up to 3 million copies, dwarfing its usual run of 60,000.

Link

Auzzie cartoon - Within minutes, he was inundated with criticism from people all over the world who called the image 'disgustingly racist' and 'truly vile'.

Could it be the same "all over the world" protestors ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 1:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Ok, offended geniuses. I challenge you to come up with. Non-racist caricature.
Posted by: gorb || 09/12/2018 4:12 Comments || Top||

#3  But sanity takes a stab at it: Newspaper doubles down with front page response to Serena Williams cartoon critics
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 09/12/2018 8:48 Comments || Top||

#4  More commentary plus more Knight cartoons.

Seemed like typical cartoon exaggeration to me. Predictably brought out the humorless scolds.
Posted by: KBK || 09/12/2018 9:48 Comments || Top||

#5  'Racism' - any time a white person goofs on a non-white person.
Posted by: Raj || 09/12/2018 9:52 Comments || Top||

#6  Ok, offended geniuses. I challenge you to come up with. Non-racist caricature.

Not sure how else to draw a full figured black woman athlete having a roid rage; perhaps as Bruce Jenner.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/12/2018 11:22 Comments || Top||

#7  Maybe he should have caricatured Rachel Dolezal in lieu of Serena. Would that be PC enough?
Posted by: gorb || 09/12/2018 12:20 Comments || Top||

#8  Never afraid to take on issues of right and wrong, Nast became the scourge of Tweed and Tammany. His influence was so great primarily because of the visual nature of his work. Most of Tweed’s constituents were illiterate, so while they couldn’t read the scathing articles written about Tweed in The New York Times, they could understand Nast’s cartoons. Legend has it that Tweed was so threatened by Nast, he gave orders to “stop them damn pictures!”
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 09/12/2018 12:50 Comments || Top||

#9  All about race or entitlement tantrums.
Nothing about being unable to recover from birth trauma.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 13:25 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Veteran and former NFL player Nate Boyer says media, fans are missing the point of player protests
[AOL] In August of 2016, then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a stand by taking a seat.

Kaepernick chose to remain seated on the bench during the playing of the national anthem prior to his team's final preseason game against the Green Bay Packers. He later explained that his actions were done in protest of police brutality and social injustices people of color face in the United States. It wasn't the first time Kaepernick had made the move, but this time, people noticed.

Nate Boyer, a U.S. Army veteran and former NFL long snapper, was one of those people.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: 746 || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hmmmm....they certainly aren't protesting highly disproportionate amounts of crime in certain communities that tend to draw law enforcement attention and depress interest in risking resources and assets in commerce.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/12/2018 3:59 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't give a shit about the point. I don't want politics and SJW shit in my football. You continue to inject them and I will continue to not watch or go to games.

So go fuck yourself.
Posted by: DarthVader || 09/12/2018 8:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Had to be the stupid fans, right ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/12/2018 8:56 Comments || Top||

#4  POINT??? ANTHEM, STAND--------PERIOD! That's the point. HONOR BY STANDING! DAMN~IT!
Posted by: ranture || 09/12/2018 10:04 Comments || Top||

#5  #2 Amen!
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 09/12/2018 11:41 Comments || Top||

#6  #2 Ditto. I don't defecate in your pool, so stop crapping your politics all over my leisure entertainment.
Posted by: magpie || 09/12/2018 12:44 Comments || Top||

#7  Shocking that the left still doesn't understand that most Americans are proud of their country.
Posted by: ruprecht || 09/12/2018 22:37 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iran opens new consulate in Iraq’s Basra after attack
[ARABNEWS] Iran’s ambassador to Iraq opened a new consulate for his country in the southern city of Basra on Tuesday, four days after its old mission building was torched by protesters.

Basra has seen a surge in deadly protests in the past week, with demonstrators angry about poor public services setting alight several key buildings.

“I’m here to inaugurate the new premises of our Iranian consulate in Basra... because we don’t want lose a single day of services for the people of Basra,” said ambassador Iraj Masjedi.

The envoy was speaking at a news conference before the Iranian flag was hoisted outside the building now operating as the Islamic republic’s consulate in the city.

Iran is one of two major powers present in neighboring Iraq, along with the United States.

Many pilgrims from Iran are expected to travel to Iraq in around 10 days for the Ashura rituals and in October for the Arbaeen commemorations.

The Iranian consulate building in Basra was torched by demonstrators on Friday, with its documents and equipment going up in smoke. None of its staff were injured.

Iran said the responsibility for any negligence over the incident lies with the Iraqi government, which announced an investigation into the security forces responsible for protecting the mission.

Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


India-Pakistan
Begum Kulsoom Nawaz passes away in London after battle with cancer
[DAWN] Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, wife of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf, then by the courts...
, passed away in London on Tuesday after a months-long battle with cancer.

She is survived by her husband and four children, Hassan, Hussain, Maryam and Asma.

PML-N Spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named that arrangements were being made to bring her body back to Pakistain for burial.

Party leader Khawaja Imran Nazeer, speaking to the media in Lahore, said Begum Kulsoom may be laid to rest in the family home at Raiwind, but clarified that all decisions will be finalised only after consultation between family members. He said in case the family decides to bury her in Pakistain, the repatriation process may take two or three days.

Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Castro Valley Man Accused Of Switchblade Assault On GOP Congressional Candidate
[SANFRANCISCO.CBSLOCAL] CASTRO VALLEY (CBS SF) – A man was tossed in the clink
I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece!
on suspicion of felony assault and other charges after allegedly attempting to stab a Republican congressional candidate with a switchblade over the weekend at in Castro Valley, according to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.

On Sunday, September 9, at approximately 3:45 p.m., deputies working at the Castro Valley Fall Festival were alerted to a possible knife attack at one of the vendor booths.

Deputies arrived at the booth and made contact with the victim, Republican candidate Rudy Peters, who is running against incumbent Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) for the 15th congressional district seat

The Castro Valley News first reported on the attack.

According to witnesses, 35-year-old Castro Valley resident Farzad Fazeli approached Peters at his booth in an aggressive manner and made disparaging, profanity-laced remarks about the Republican party and President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
During the incident, Fazeli allegedly pulled out a switchblade knife and attempted to stab Peters. The knife malfunctioned and the candidate became involved in a physical struggle with Fazeli, according to sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Kelly.

The suspect then expeditiously departed at a goodly pace, but was detained a short time later by deputies and was found in possession of a switchblade knife, Kelly said.

Fazeli was arrested for felony assault, criminal threats, brandishing a weapon and possession of a switchblade knife and booked into Santa Rita Jail.

Peters wasn’t injured. Fazeli, who lists his occupation as cashier, was booked into Santa Rita Jail in Dublin on suspicion of felony assault, criminal threats, brandishing a weapon and possession of a switchblade knife.

Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Posted by: 3dc || 09/12/2018 0:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Swalwell is a smarmy lil Dem f*ck
Posted by: Frank G || 09/12/2018 7:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Never depend on springs.
Posted by: KBK || 09/12/2018 9:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Dear Mr. Fazell is in the habit of sexual battery while under the influence, according to his arrest record. So he is breaking new ground here.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 12:38 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
95 militants killed, wounded in Paktia operations: 203 Thunder Corps
[KhaamaPress] At least 95 Lions of Islam were killed or maimed during the military operations in southeastern Paktia province of Afghanistan.

The 203rd Thunder Corps of the Afghan Military in the Southeast said the Lions of Islam were killed or maimed during the operations in Zurmat district.

According to a statement released by the 203rd Thunder Corps, the Afghan forces killed at least 35 Lions of Islam during the operations Thunder-2 in Chona area of Zurmat.

The statement further added at least 60 Lions of Islam also sustained injuries and the dead bodies of at least 8 Lions of Islam were left behind.

In the meantime, the U.S. forces based in Afghanistan carried out Arclight airstrikes in Nawa district of Ghazni province leaving at least 17 Lions of Islam dead, the statement added.

According to 203rd Thunder Corps, the airstrikes were carried out in the vicinity of Jamal village and as a result a large number of Lions of Islam were also maimed.

Paktia has been among the relatively calm provinces in southeastern parts of the country during the recent years but the security situation of the province has tanked during the recent months.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
100 Bangladeshi Nationals Apprehended near Texas Border in 3 Weeks
[Breitbart] Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents continue to lead the nation in the apprehension of Bangladeshi nationals who illegally cross the border from Mexico into Texas. More than 100 were tossed in the clink
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
in the past three weeks ‐ totaling 622 this fiscal year.

On September 7, Laredo Sector agents apprehended a group of five illegal immigrants colonists who crossed the Rio Grande River border with Mexico into the Santa Rita subdivision. The agents interviewed the group and learned that they came to the U.S. from Bangladesh, according to Laredo Sector Border Patrol officials.

The Bangladeshis consisted of two juveniles and three adults, officials stated.

The latest arrests bring the total for Fiscal Year 2018 to 622. A few weeks ago, Breitbart Texas reported on the number of arrests at 520 after agents arrested more than 20 Bangladeshi nationals over a short period of days. Since that time, more than 100 Bangladeshis were arrested in the Laredo Sector alone.

The rate of apprehensions in the Laredo Sector has accelerated over the past few months, officials reported. If the trend continues, there could be more than 700 arrested before the fiscal year ends in September.

The 622 Bangladeshis arrested in the Laredo Sector this fiscal year compares to the previous annual total of 181 (an increase of nearly 244 percent).

Laredo Sector acting Chief Patrol Agent Jason D. Owens previously told Breitbart Texas that the Laredo Sector is targeted because of the lack of a physical border barrier. He said his sector has more than 170 miles of unprotected river border without fencing or walls. He said that the Mexican cartel known as Los Zetas chooses when and where migrants colonists will cross the border and that the Bangladeshis, mostly young men between the ages of 18 and 35, pay up to $27,000 each to be smuggled into the U.S.

"They are not trying to hide or escape," the chief said about the Bangladeshis. "They walk right up to an agent and claim ’credible fear.’"
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Human Trafficking

#1  Incredible.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 10:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Are they letting all the other nationalities skate?
Posted by: Bobby || 09/12/2018 10:36 Comments || Top||

#3  "That last typhoon? We were washed downstream from our village in the Upazila, and ended up in Mexico"
Posted by: Frank G || 09/12/2018 10:55 Comments || Top||

#4  Shaddup and eat your curry, racists.
Posted by: Beldar Flairong5937 || 09/12/2018 13:28 Comments || Top||

#5  Probably some of those wonderful Rohingya we keep hearing about.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/12/2018 16:48 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
LHC accepts petition demanding cremation ground for Hindus in Lahore
[DAWN] The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday accepted a petition pertaining to the absence of a cremation ground in Lahore for Hindus to perform the last rites for their dead.
71 years, and they're just getting around to it.
Justice Ali Akber Qureshi ruled on the maintainability of Advocate Ishtiaq Chaudhry's appeal in this regard.

The court has ordered the director general of Lahore Development Authority, the secretary of local government and the deputy commissioner of Lahore to submit their replies in the matter by September 13 (Thursday).

According to the petitioner, the 1973 Constitution safeguards the rights of all citizens.

"There is no cremation ground in Lahore for Hindus to perform the last rites of their dead. The community faces great difficulty due to this." the petition said.

The petitioner moved the court to order that a cremation ground be constructed in Lahore.

Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Europe
Anonymous Post on Sweden
[The DiploMad 2.0] My three sons, who take an amazing interest in global politics, have been following the political cycles in Sweden and Germany with great care. They are much more knowledgable than I about events, but they seemed quite pleased with the election results in Sweden, as the "right-wing" Sweden Democrats (love placing the words "right wing" before the the word "Democrats") take close to 18% of the vote, up from just under 13% in the previous elections. I don't pretend to understand the ins-and-outs of Swedish politics, but it seems the country is in for some political uncertainty and very difficult horse-trading as it struggles to put together a parliamentary coalition that can govern. One of the joys of the parliamentary system.

Whatever the outcome of that negotiation, I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing the left in Europe, in America, and elsewhere lose what's left of its mind after political events in Australia, Brexit, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and, oh yes, here in the USA. The rise of the "right" in Sweden is particularly delicious for those of us with an evil, pro-Western bent, as Sweden is invariably singled out as the model for what a modern society should look like. We, in particular, are lectured incessantly about the need to adopt Swedish policies in the fields of health care and, of course, immigration, and told that Sweden, and the rest of Scandinavia, to a somewhat lesser extent, are what SOCIALISM is all about!! Malmo is our future and we should embrace it! Well, maybe not, huh?

I love the media's labelling of the Sweden Democrats as right-wing AND Neo-Nazi. Nazis are right-wing? Who knew?
..
Posted by: 3dc || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Saudi Foreign Minister reasserts the Kingdom's eagerness to unify Arab stance, revamping Arab League
[ARABNEWS] 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 Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir emphasized in Cairo on Tuesday, during the opening of the 150th ordinary session of the Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
(AL) Council, that the Kingdom remains keen to unify the Arab stance, promote the performance of the AL and revamp a Pan-Arab joint action system.

The Paleostinian cause is the top priority and interest for Saudi Arabia, which endeavors to secure the Paleostinian people their legitimate rights based on the Arab Peace Initiative: International legitimacy resolutions calling for establishing its independent state, with East al-Quds as its capital, he pointed out, reiterating absolute rejection of anything that may compromise the historical or legal status of al-Quds.

On Yemen, al-Jubeir said the Kingdom is keeping to its commitment toward Yemeni unity, illusory sovereignty, stability, security and territorial integrity, through backing the legitimate government and reiterating readiness to cooperate with the UN envoy to Yemen.

Iran-affiliated Houthis militias have never and will never positively respond to the international community’s calls to engage in the political process, he said, pointing out their absence at the latest meeting, held in Geneva.
Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia

#1  Just moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic. Until they get rid of the idea of using their common hatred of Israel as the glue that holds them together they are doomed.
Posted by: gorb || 09/12/2018 3:47 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Islamic State executes four people in Diyala: Source
Diyala (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
has executed four people in Khanaqin town in Diyala, a security source from the province said on Monday.

Speaking to Baghdad Today website, the source said "Islamic State executed four people near Youssef Bek village, west of Khanaqin town, late on Sunday."

The people "were attacked by the Death Eaters, who then executed them," according to the source, who preferred anonymity.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran atomic program ‘stronger than ever,’ nuclear chief says
[ARABNEWS] Iran increased its threat to regional security on Tuesday by boasting that its nuclear program was more advanced than ever.

Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization and vice president to Hassan Rouhani, said that if US President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
succeeded in dismantling the 2015 deal to curb the program, Tehran would resume uranium enrichment with more sophisticated equipment.

"If we have to go back and withdraw from the nuclear deal, we certainly do not go back to where we were before," he said. "We will be standing on a much, much higher position."

Iran stores centrifuges to enrich uranium at its underground Natanz facility, under surveillance by the UN nuclear watchdog, the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency. Salehi said it would build a new facility at Natanz that will produce more advanced centrifuges.

"This does not mean we are going to produce these centrifuges now," he said. "This is just a preparation. If Iran decides to start mass production of such centrifuges, we would be ready for that."

If the nuclear deal fell apart, Iran would react in stages, Salehi said. It could enrich uranium "to 20 percent, because this is our need," and could also increase its stockpile of enriched uranium.

Iran’s fragile economy is already suffering from US withdrawal from the nuclear deal and the reimposition of economic sanctions. Prices have soared, the rial has plunged in value and thousands of Iranians have taken part in street protests demanding regime change. Further sanctions in November will target Iran’s energy sector and slash its crucial oil revenues.

Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Afghanistan
Planned Taliban attacks against the Afghan, U.S. forces foiled in Kandahar
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan and U.S. Special Forces have thwarted planned Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
attacks against the security forces in southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan.

The NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
-led Resolute Support Mission in a statement said the Afghan Special Security Forces (ASSF), advised by U.S. Special Operations Forces, conducted a helicopter raid on Taliban compounds in Maywand district, Kandahar province September 4.

The statement further added that Afghan Special Security Forces killed 14 Taliban fighters, detained five, destroyed a vehicle-borne improvised bomb (VBEID), heavy weapons and a defensive fighting position.

Information recovered during the raid indicated that Taliban fighters were using Maywand district to plan attacks against U.S. and Afghan forces in the Kandarhar area, the statement added.

"By methodically uncovering then spoiling the plans of future coordinated Taliban attacks, this operation showcases the increased capability and lethality of Afghanistan’s well-known fighting force," said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Otto Liller, NATO Special Operations Component Command-Afghanistan/Special Operations Joint Task Force-Afghanistan deputy commanding general.

This comes as the security situation in southern Kandahar province has improved comparatively during the recent years but the anti-government armed holy warriors are attempting to destabilize the province as part of their ongoing efforts to increase attacks in the key southern provinces.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


The Grand Turk
Turkey says alarmed by US move to shut Palestinian mission
[DAWN] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
expressed alarm on Tuesday over the United States shuttering the Paleostinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) mission in Washington, saying it showed America could no longer be an impartial player in the grinding of the peace processor.

The State Department announced Monday it would close the mission, accusing the Paleostinians of refusing to engage with the United States or Israel and of rejecting outright a still-unseen US peace plan.

But the PLO said it was being blackmailed by a White House blatantly biased in favour of Israel.

"The decision is worrying and it is another sign that the US is not an impartial party in the Middle East grinding of the peace processor," Ottoman Turkish Foreign Ministry front man Hami Aksoy said.

Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  Because they're next?
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 2:17 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia launches biggest ever war games
[DAWN] Russia on Tuesday launched what it has called its largest ever military drills, with hundreds of thousands of Russian troops taking part along with Chinese soldiers in a massive show of force that has rattled the West.

The week-long war games dubbed "Vostok-2018" (East-2018), "have kicked off" in far eastern Russia and on the Pacific Ocean, the defence ministry said in a statement.

It released video footage of military vehicles, planes, helicopters and ships getting into position for the initial stage of the drills.

The drills, which include the Chinese and Mongolian armies, have been condemned by NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants...
as a rehearsal for "large-scale conflict".

Russia's 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...
is expected to attend Vostok-2018 after hosting an economic forum in Russia's far eastern city Vladivostok where his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping is one of the prominent guests.

The military exercises come at a time of escalating tensions between Moscow and the West over accusations of Russian interference in western affairs and ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.

Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I doubt that anyone is worried, the time that Russia could take on China is long past.
Posted by: bernardz || 09/12/2018 8:17 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Philippines’ Duterte alleges coup plot based on tip from a foreign power
[ARABNEWS] Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday revealed what he said was a plot to unseat him hatched by the opposition, Maoist rebels and a group of former soldiers who had mounted failed coups in the past.

In a conversation with his lawyer, shown on national television, Duterte said he had asked the military to "declassify" information about the plot which he said was gathered by a third country he did not identify.

"We have the evidence and we have the conversation provided by a foreign country sympathetic to us," Duterte told Salvador Panelo, presidential legal counsel, in an hour-long conversation.

He said the Communists, politicians opposed to him and a group of ex-servicemen, including a senator he wanted tossed in the clink
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
after revoking his amnesty, "were in constant communication."

Duterte said the "connection will be shown, maybe any day now."

Last week, Duterte withdrew a 2010 amnesty granted to his most vocal critic, Senator Antonio Trillanes, a former junior naval officer who led two unsuccessful coup attempts 15 years ago, and ordered his arrest.
Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies


China-Japan-Koreas
China move points to a possible end of birth limits
[DAWN] China is eliminating a trio of agencies responsible for enforcing family planning policies in a further sign the government may be planning to scrap long-standing limits on the number of children its citizens can have.

Alarmed by the rapidly aging population and shrinking workforce, China abandoned its notorious one-child policy two years ago to allow two children, producing a nearly 8 per cent increase in births in 2016, with nearly half of the babies born to couples who already had a child.
The move was part of a reorganization of the National Health Commission announced Monday that creates a new single department called the Division of Population Monitoring and Family Development responsible for "establishing and perfecting a specialised system for supporting families".

Expectations of an end to birth limits were also raised by the appearance of a postage stamp last month featuring smiling mother and father pigs with three piglets.

Alarmed by the rapidly aging population and shrinking workforce, China abandoned its notorious one-child policy two years ago to allow two children, producing a nearly 8 per cent increase in births in 2016, with nearly half of the babies born to couples who already had a child.

However,
a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package...
that appeared to have been a one-time increase, with 17.2 million births in the country last year, down from 17.9 million in 2016. Meanwhile,
...back at the abandoned silver mine, the water was up to Jack's neck and still rising. And then he smelled the smoke...
the proportion of the population aged 60 or older increased last year to 17.3pc.

Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  So much for Central Planning(tm)
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/12/2018 8:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Problem is, all the young guys who have the wherewithal (also intelligent and having skills) are moving out of the country to find suitable mates. Not enough eligible women, plus the women who are know that they're a 'precious commodity' and behave as such.

The 'One Child' policy usually resulted in a son for some 'unknown' reason ....unexpectedly.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 09/12/2018 10:49 Comments || Top||


Great White North
Oh My – Canadian Foreign Minister Left NAFTA Negotiations To Attend “President Trump is a Tyrant” Conference
[ConservativeTreehouse] Jumpin’ ju-ju bones. Hat Tip to Ezra Levant on Twitter ‐ This is going to go down in the history books of bad diplomacy. You have to watch the first 2 minutes of this video. Canadian Foreign Minister took leave during the middle of critically important trade negotiations with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to attend a Women in the World conference in Toronto.

Check out the conference introduction video (first 01:30) "Taking on the Tyrant", and the visual of Canadian trade negotiator on stage to deliver her remarks (next 30 seconds). Consider that Ms. Freeland made this decision during the most critical trade negotiations in her country’s modern history. The outcome of the U.S-Canada trade negotiation will determine the next several decades within the Canadian economy. Now Watch:



Think about the level of ideological tone-deafness here. This is simply off-the-charts echo-chamber crazy. Canada needs a positive trade outcome; their economy is already on the ropes; and Freeland considers this a good idea? Unreal.
Continues.
Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The model liberal strong woman - Gloria?
Posted by: 3dc || 09/12/2018 0:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Minor point. I can't see the picture in comment #1, my AV is screaming about an improperly configured website and flatly refuses to go there. Moody little biatch.

That said, walk away, stop the talks, and let the bastards freeze in the dark for the next decade or so. They were cheating, they got caught cheating, they are unashamed of their cheating, they think it is their right to cheat, and they are derisive of President Trump, so screw them.

Just Do It.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 09/12/2018 7:48 Comments || Top||

#3  It’s a picture of Gloria Steinem during her Playboy Bunny stage, Whiskey Mike.

Here is the image URL: http://dazedimg.dazedgroup.netdna-cdn.com/640/azure/dazed-prod/1180/6/1186707.jpg.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 7:56 Comments || Top||

#4  This is simply off-the-charts echo-chamber crazy. No, Probably just de rigueur for the left.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/12/2018 8:13 Comments || Top||

#5  In terms our northern brethren can understand:

"Icing. 30 years in the penalty box"
Posted by: Mercutio || 09/12/2018 8:46 Comments || Top||

#6 
Posted by: Frank G || 09/12/2018 8:52 Comments || Top||

#7  I wanted to ask who that squishy little guy in the middle is but then she started talking.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 09/12/2018 12:30 Comments || Top||

#8  I'm sorry. Was that a sexist remark?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 09/12/2018 12:31 Comments || Top||

#9  TBD.
Posted by: gorb || 09/12/2018 12:44 Comments || Top||

#10  Pigs.

A dish at the delicatessen:
"Hey, Hy, what's this nosh that I'm fressin'?"
"That's kasha with Masha,
Strongwoman from Russia."
"She kosher?" "I knew, I'd be Gessen."
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 09/12/2018 14:18 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Illegal caught at airport using facial biometrics
What was she doing using facial biometrics at an airport? (Who writes this stuff, anyway?)
[Fox5NY] Border security officials have caught a second impostor trying to enter the United States using a new facial comparison biometric system. It is the second time in less than three weeks since the cutting-edge technology was deployed at Dulles Washington International Airport in the Washington, D.C. area that someone has been caught.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), says a 26-year-old woman, who arrived on a flight from Ghana, presented a U.S. passport as a returning citizen. Utilizing the facial comparison technology, the CBP officer determined that the traveler was not a match to the passport and referred her for further examination which confirmed that she was a Ghanaian citizen and an impostor.

The woman’s name was not being released while the investigation continues.

Posing as someone else when attempting to enter the United States is a violation of U.S. immigration law that could result in criminal prosecution. Inadmissible criminals and other foreign nationals routinely attempt various means to enter the US including using stolen, purchased or "borrowed" passports.

CBP says its system has a match rate of 99% making it extremely difficult for criminals, hard boyz or impostors to enter the country using another person’s identification and travel documents. The 2 second scan enables increased security, faster throughput, and better efficiency, according to authorities.

In the first case, on Aug. 22, an imposter at Washington Dulles that was attempting to enter the United States using a French passport. A search revealed the man’s authentic Republic of Congo identification card concealed in his shoe.

CBP is testing biometric exit at 15 airports across the country.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...new facial comparison biometric system. It is the second time in less than three weeks since the cutting-edge technology
Before the "Old Tech" procedure called Fingerprint Comparison, remember that?, there was the Alphonse Bertillon. His system under the catchy title of his book: Signaletic Instructions Including the Theory and Practice of Anthropometrical Identification(1885). Taking precise measurements of the human body, primarily the head, and using this to identify repeat offenders. Unfortunately professional criminals soon learned to twist, crouch and otherwise boggle the measurements...

Is the 21st century system going to do any better...? Or is just another way to spend government money.
Posted by: magpie || 09/12/2018 0:42 Comments || Top||

#2  What was she doing using facial biometrics at an airport?

Maybe she works for CBP?

(Who writes this stuff, anyway?)

Ditto?
Posted by: Sneaper de Medici1680 || 09/12/2018 1:31 Comments || Top||

#3  (Who writes this stuff, anyway?)

A recent college grad?
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 09/12/2018 1:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Unfortunately professional criminals soon learned to twist, crouch and otherwise boggle the measurements...

They should try Phrenology.
Though I suppose current control methods may induce a few more lumps.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 2:15 Comments || Top||

#5  A recent college grad?

Who probably works for The New York Times now.
Posted by: gorb || 09/12/2018 3:37 Comments || Top||

#6  ...did they check their twitter account to make sure they were anti-white racist first?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/12/2018 8:09 Comments || Top||


Iraq
US warns Iran it will respond to attacks by Tehran allies in Iraq
[ARABNEWS] The US warned Iran on Tuesday it will "respond swiftly and decisively" to any attacks by Tehran’s allies in Iraq that result in injury to Americans or damage to US facilities.

The statement by the White House press secretary accused Iran of not preventing attacks in recent days on the US Consulate in Basra and the American Embassy compound in Baghdad.

"Iran did not act to stop these attacks by its proxies in Iraq, which it has supported with funding, training, and weapons," the statement said.

"The United States will hold the regime in Tehran accountable for any attack that results in injury to our personnel or damage to United States Government facilities. America will respond swiftly and decisively in defense of American lives," the statement said.

On Friday, three mortar bombs landed inside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, where the US Embassy is located, but they caused no casualties or damage, the Iraqi military said.

The mortar attack was the first such one in several years on the Green Zone, which houses parliament, government buildings and many foreign embassies.

The US Consulate in Basra is near the airport, which was attacked by rockets on Saturday. No damage or casualties were reported.

Protesters in Basra angry over political corruption ransacked and torched Iraqi government buildings last week. The Iranian consulate was set alight by demonstrators shouting condemnation of what many see as Iran’s sway over Iraq’s affairs.
Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies

#1  So the 100 Marines are mortar magnets?
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/12/2018 13:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Skid,

Given the fact that they're Marines, they're likely to catch the rounds and throw 'em back...

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 09/12/2018 17:15 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Govt allows Nawaz Sharif, Maryam to attend Kulsoom funeral in Lahore on parole
[DAWN] The government on Wednesday said it would allow incarcerated former prime minister Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf, then by the courts...
to attend the funeral of his late wife and PML-N stalwart, Kulsoom Nawaz, along with Maryam Nawaz. The father and daughter will be granted parole to attend her last rites.

According to DawnNews, Nawaz and Maryam boarded a special plane after being released from Adiala Jail in order to be taken to Jati Umra. Members of the Sharif family were also reportedly on the special plane going to Lahore.

Kulsoom passed away in London on Tuesday after a prolonged battle with lymphoma.

Rooters quoted Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry as saying: "We have just received a request from the family, and, Inshallah, we will be granting parole."

He said Nawaz and Maryam would be freed for 12 hours on the day of the funeral and burial, which is likely to take place in three to four days after the body is flown back home from London.

Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Europe
Asylum Application Rejected Because Afghan ‘Homosexual' Doesn't Watch Gay Porn
[Breitbart] Austria has rejected the asylum claim of an Afghan national who claims to be fleeing persecution for being homosexual after not being able to find any gay pornography on his mobile phone.
Some of us are not interested in watching other people get it on. Some of us don’t watch professional sports for the same reason.
The man, who sought asylum in Austria after claiming to be oppressed for his homosexuality in his native Afghanistan, was rejected by the country’s asylum authority, the Austrian Federal Office for Asylum (BFA), who deemed him not likely to be homosexual, Focus reports.

The BFA rejected the Afghan saying in a letter: "After you have a smartphone and apparently also use the internet, it is extremely unlikely that you are in actual communication with other men with no photos (resulting from chats) on your mobile phone."

"Also, it can not be understood that you can only give superficial information about your Internet usage behaviour. There should be interest here (as stated) in pornographic material of homosexuals, at least from favourited sites on the Internet," the letter continued.

The decision sparked outrage among pro-migrant groups like the organisation Fairness Asyl ("Fair Asylum") which called it a "mockery".

The case comes after two other alleged homosexual asylum seekers were rejected by the BFA, including an Iraqi who was rejected because the agency found him too "girlish" in his behaviour and an 18-year-old Afghan who was rejected for not acting gay enough in his clothing or mannerisms.

Since the formation of the conservative-populist government under Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Austria has vowed to be tougher on asylum issues with populist Freedom Party (FPÖ) Interior Minister Herbert Kickl promising to reform the system after a wave of migrant violence.

The government has also focused on increasing deportations of failed asylum seekers with figures released in June revealing a 36 percent increase in deportations compared to 2017.

Mr Kickl has also been firm in his anti-Islamisation stance, pushing for the criminalisation of those who advocate for sharia law to be implemented in Austria.


Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  This stinks like fake news.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 09/12/2018 2:19 Comments || Top||

#2  An easier test would be to feed him beans and wait to see if he farts high C or not.
Posted by: gorb || 09/12/2018 4:02 Comments || Top||

#3  "Are either of you homosexual?"

"You mean like flaming, or..."
Posted by: Raj || 09/12/2018 9:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Future career in the NFL?
Posted by: Woodrow || 09/12/2018 18:46 Comments || Top||

#5  Not fake news. While Austrian authorities might get a bit over the top with this one, this has to do with the problem that many "refugees" from Afghanistan chose to claim persecution because of homosexuality. This is a much easier way than to prove political persecution. In fact many young men who do so aren't homosexuals.
Posted by: European Conservative || 09/12/2018 19:13 Comments || Top||

#6  Thank you for clarifying, European Conservative.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/12/2018 19:48 Comments || Top||

#7  In fact many young men who do so aren't homosexuals.

Unless there's a younger dancing boy around, then Game On™
Posted by: Frank G || 09/12/2018 20:13 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Wyoming GOP Office Set On Fire Less Than Two Days After Opening
  • [DAILYCALLER] A Republican Party office in Wyoming was set on fire just two days after opening, and police believe it was intentional.

  • Local police are working with federal authorities in their investigation.

  • Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney said in response that “the future of our nation depends upon our ability to exchange ideas and viewpoints, to argue and debate, free from violence and intimidation.”
Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Posted by: 3dc || 09/12/2018 0:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Americans Spend $16.9 Billion on Target Shooting
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/12/2018 1:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney

and its only representative (which will probably stay that way as along as proportional representation included non-citizens).
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/12/2018 4:20 Comments || Top||

#4  When your slogan is “Karl Marx is my co-pilot” anything is possible.
Posted by: Jack Salami || 09/12/2018 9:35 Comments || Top||

#5  “the future of our nation depends upon our ability to exchange ideas and viewpoints, to argue and debate, free from violence and intimidation.”

The left doesn't care about free speech. They have suppressed it in just about every venue one can think of. It is a danger to our Republic.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/12/2018 10:54 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
IS ambush kills 21 regime fighters in southern Syria
[DAWN] Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
Death Eaters have killed 21 Syrian regime fighters in an ambush as the group faces separate assaults on its last desert strongholds, a war monitor said on Tuesday.

The attack late Monday in Syria's southern province of Sweida came as US-backed forces advanced against the Death Eaters on the border with Iraq, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

It also comes with Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Trampler of Homs...
's forces poised to launch an attack on the northwestern province of Idlib, the last major region in Syria still controlled by rebels and Death Eaters.

The IS ambush in Sweida's volcanic plateau of Tulul al-Safa sparked fighting that killed eight krazed killers, the Britannia-based Observatory said.

State news agency SANA reported heavy festivities with IS in the area, which lies some 100 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of Damascus, adding that government aircraft and artillery "targeted hideouts and positions" held by the group.

Government forces have been fighting IS in Sweida since Death Eaters carried out a wave of attacks in the mainly Druze province on July 25, killing 250 people according to the Observatory.

During their rampage, which targeted the thriving provincial capital as well as rural areas, the Death Eaters also seized around 30 hostages, mostly women and their children.

At least 27 are believed to still be held, according to Human Rights Watch, after IS said it had beheaded a 19-year-old man and announced an elderly woman had died.

Posted by: Fred || 09/12/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State



Who's in the News
40[untagged]
8Islamic State
4Govt of Iran
3Taliban
3Commies
3Govt of Pakistan
3Sublime Porte
2Moslem Colonists
2Hezbollah
2Govt of Iran Proxies
1Houthis
1Human Trafficking
1al-Nusra
1Muslim Brotherhood
1Palestinian Authority
1Antifa
1al-Qaeda
1Govt of Saudi Arabia
1Hamas

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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2018-09-12
  Nangarhar: Momand Dara district jacket wallah causes 160 casualties, Taliban say wasn’t them
Tue 2018-09-11
  9/11/2018: On this day, we remember
Mon 2018-09-10
  84 dead in fighting in Yemen's Hodeida after talks fail
Sun 2018-09-09
  Battle for Idlib & Hama finally begins
Sat 2018-09-08
  Syrian army advances in al-Safa, killing over 40 turbans, 1000+ trapped on volcano
Fri 2018-09-07
  Houthis fire missiles toward two southern Saudi airports, hit one
Thu 2018-09-06
  Two major Syrian Army divisions head toward Hama for upcoming offensive
Wed 2018-09-05
  Al Qaeda trying to regain primacy as Islamic State loses ground: NATO
Tue 2018-09-04
  Jalaluddin Haqqani joins the Choir Eternal
Mon 2018-09-03
  Islamists militants in northeast Nigeria kill up to 30 48 soldiers: Sources
Sun 2018-09-02
  Yemen’s army imposes full control over Saada’s Al-Zaher directorate
Sat 2018-09-01
  Dutch police shoot suspect after he stabs two people at an Amsterdam train station
Fri 2018-08-31
  ISIS leader Yasir Khurasani killed with 5 comrades in Nangarhar drone strike
Thu 2018-08-30
  Egyptian forces kill 20 militants in Sinai operation: Army
Wed 2018-08-29
  Syrian Army foils ISIL breakout attempt in east Sweida

Better than the average link...



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