48 hour rule?
[ZH, so salt to taste] A section of Iran's sprawling Abadan oil refinery in the southwest of the country went up in flames Saturday, and state media sources reported the emergency was under control as of Sunday morning. Spokesman Chip Diller said "It's fine. Really"
State media is describing it as "a fire in a canal carrying waste from Iran's Abadan oil refinery," with Iranian official broadcaster IRIB saying, "The refinery's fire department contained the fire and prevented it from spreading to other units."
However, given the extent of the blaze captured in social media circulating videos, and especially given it comes after a tense summer of attacks on tanker and refineries ‐ notably the Sept. 14 Saudi Aramco drone and missile attack ‐ the newest Iran facility fire raises serious question.
Could the clearly massive Abadan blaze, which Iranian state sources appear ready to downplay, be the result of a Saudi revenge attack? Insh'allah Maintenance and lack of parts, more likely
Though unverified and unconfirmed, Iranian opposition sources are pointing to a potential cyber attack as a possible cause for the fire.
Again, local authorities say it's the result of an accident, and though yes the occasional oil refinery blaze does happen, it's the fact that it comes after months of unprecedented Saudi-Iran (and allies) tit-for-tat targeting of tankers and energy resources that should raise some eyebrows.
The blaze is currently subject of intense speculation online after early reports cited an initial "explosion" at the facility.
Interestingly, the Abadan refinery has been subject of major foreign investment, with a Chinese firm Sinopec signing a $1.2 billion deal with Iran's oil ministry for a major modernization project at the facility in 2016.
And earlier this year it was announced that "China's Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corporation has invested €2 billion in development projects in the refinery since 2017," as initially cited by IRNA.
However, with new US sanctions now targeting major Chinese shipping firms and entities caught importing Iranian oil, Beijing has begun pulling out of major oil and gas infrastructure projects inside Iran.
The fire is currently said to be under control, per state sources, but a definitive cause is as yet still unclear.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/21/2019
14:24 ||
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[14 views]
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h/t Instapundit
[The Washington Times] - Democratic candidate for president Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, in a widely watched Twitter-posted YouTube video, condemned the "rich, powerful" gang of elites who surround Hillary Clinton and demand Democrats either "toe the line" or stay silent.
That’s good. But it’s not exactly an "enemy of my enemy is a friend" moment; Gabbard, after all, has some far-left and outlandish views. She’s a progressive who has some serious flip-flops on policy in her background that shouldn’t be overlooked simply because she’s taking on Hillary, and hard.
Still: We can enjoy the anti-Clinton moment for a moment, yes?
Here’s what Gabbard wrote, on Twitter: "Hillary & her gang of rich, powerful elite are going after me to send a msg to YOU: ’Shut up, toe the line, or be destroyed.’ But we, the people, will NOT be silenced. Join me in taking our Democratic Party back & leading a govt of, by & for the people!"
In the accompanying video, Gabbard said that she had been warned in 2016 that her endorsement of Sen. Bernie Sanders ‐ who went against Clinton for the party’s nomination for president ‐ would "be the end" of her political career.
#3
In any healthy republic, a sane and civil opposition is necessary. She represents to me, what the Democrat party should be like. Left, liberal maybe but also deserving of a voice and not militant or insurgent like the current DNC.
#4
She seems way to honest to win Dem (or for that matter, Rep) elections. She seems consistent in what she says, and has said. She is not stupid. She is not painful to listen to (or to look at, for that matter.) Would that more candidates were like her so that we could actually have substantive discussions on policies - where I mostly disagree with her.
#5
Stopping the wars all over the world is good enough.
Not if taking Second Amendment rights away from law-abiding Americans is part of the "package deal." Not if foaming-at-the-mouth socialism is part of the "package deal."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/21/2019 15:20
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#6
Stopping the wars all over the world is good enough
How, even if one was to exterminate humanity, chimps fight wars. Ants fight wars.
#7
Fortunately we're not chimps, and there are no existential threats to our existence. We can wind down all of our wars all over the world, and make a better America instead of spending our money on worthless military adventures.
The point is that Gabbard is a sane Democrat, even if we disagree with her. She's on the same page as far as being pro-American. A rare quality in either party, frankly.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
10/21/2019 16:02
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#8
Fortunately we're not chimps, and there are no existential threats to our existence
Arrogant & delusional.
Also, "existential threats to our existence"?
#9
When we've turned away from physical conflicts with irrational misanthropes by acknowledging they're all really in our minds, we can get down to battling the real threat of a planet increasingly unable to support our whimsies. eg: watching an F1 race surrounded by tropical forest.
#10
Thank goodness we'd never act chimpy,
Form up in an impious impi,
Inhumanly feudin',
Stone throwin' or shootin'...
Those monkeys must sure think we're wimpy!
#14
OK, I'll bite: what are the threats to the existence of the continental United States?
Iranians going to put landing craft on Miami Beach?
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
10/21/2019 18:34
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#15
#7 - I'm beginning to think you're simply arguing withdrawal to the point of unilateral disarmament? Is there ANY conflict that would EVER justify US intervention in your little mind? I doubt it. Troll
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/21/2019 18:35
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#16
Nice - another F1 fan
Have nothing against it. Just stopped watching after Ayrton Senna died.
I do find the globalist facade of curbing developing economies' fuel and coal consumption in the name of saving the environment hypocritical. While motorsports must waste I don't know how much fuel.
#17
When Jimmuah Cahtah was prexident he had an aide ask the people who run the Indy 500 if they would shorten the race as a feel good gesture of saving gasoline during the oil embargo. The administration was informed that Indy cars don't burn gasoline.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/21/2019 19:08
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#18
Last election she supported Bernie Sanders and she believes only the military and cops should have weapons. The fact that she looks good compared to the rest of the Clown Car just indicates how bad they are, not how good she is.
h/t Instapundit
[Reason] As the candidate who is both furthest left in the Democratic presidential field and least favorably-inclined toward Israel in his public statements, it would not inherently be surprising that Bernie Sanders has attracted the support of far-left political figures with a history of antisemitic comments and actions, including Linda Sarsour, Ilhan Omar, and Amer Zahr. It might seem surprising, however, because Sanders is Jewish, and one might think that (a) people with a history of antisemitic comments and actions are likely antisemitic; and (b) antisemites wouldn't endorse a Jewish candidate. Indeed, supporters of these Bernie endorsers have been quick to use their endorsements as evidence that they aren't antisemitic; after all, no antisemite would endorse a Jew for president. Right?
Wrong. The problem with this reasoning, and much of the discourse around antisemitism in general and on the far left in particular, is what one might call "the Nazi standard." In other words, to only recognize antisemitism when it resembles the most virulent, murderous version of antisemitism, that of the Nazis, a version that is outspoken and proud of its antisemitism, and considers Jews subhuman, beyond redemption, and marked for extinction.
#1
Anti Israeli stuff is no more anti semitism than anti American comments are anti the people that live here.
I think Israel sucks because of the way they treat the west bank, but, I don't think Jews suck, except for the minority of Jews that do suck, like all other people groups.
#2
true Anti-Israeli stuff does not equal Anti-antisemitism but from what I can tell the crossover of the two groups is close to 90%.
Holding Israel to a different standard than you hold every other nation in the world requires some explanation if folks aren't to assume Anti-antisemitism or total ignorance (or both).
[MIL.com] The U.S. Army may do away with making sergeant promotions dependent on high Army Combat Fitness Test scores and base them on a go/no-go system instead.
Currently, sergeants trying to get promoted to staff sergeant can get 180 promotion points for maxing the Army Physical Fitness Test. Army leaders are considering changing that policy since the new ACFT, which becomes mandatory on Oct. 1, 2020, will be much harder to max.
"Right now, the APFT is extremely weighted on your promotion points -- 180 promotions points. That's a pretty big chunk," Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston told an audience of soldiers at the 2019 Association of the United States Army's annual meeting this week.
"One course of action is ... to make it go or no-go on the ACFT," he said. "That is one of the things we are going to look at."
#2
Current ACFT unfairly links physical capabilities and endurance to promotion system and combat readiness. System leaves under-performing fat boys (or whatever they are) and others behind. "Gotta leave company area NLT 1530 to pick up kids" and "my ***** hurts" sectors hit hardest.
CD Media has personally seen and obtained an immense amount of data on the story we broke last week regarding former Ukrainian Petro Poroshenko’s laundering of hundreds of millions of dollars of IMF aid money and the attempts by the Democratic Party and the Obama Administration to cover up the scandal and go after now President Trump, along with involvement by then Vice President Joe Biden, and his son Hunter Biden.
As mentioned before, we will be releasing a large number of sourcing articles, starting with this one, over the next few weeks. Another will be released later today which details how the Poroshenko money laundering actually worked.
Our source has seen the data from within the Ukrainian General Prosecutor’s Office. CD Media can confirm the prosecutor’s office is ready to cooperate with the FBI and the information has been recently provided to FBI agents.
The first thing readers must realize is that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) was an organization set up (extra-judicially) by the Obama Administration within Ukraine to help the Democrats cover up the vast corruption that had been going on, and as a tool to go after then-candidate Donald J. Trump. In fact, the initial head of the bureau engineered by the U.S. State Department in Ukraine, Artem Sytnyk, has been tried and convicted of conspiring to help presidential candidate Hillary Clinton defeat Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Sytnyk’s group was the office that released the so-called ’black ledger’ against Paul Manafort, who was then Trump’s campaign manager and now sits in jail, convicted by the Mueller investigation.
CD Media’s editor-in-chief reported on the shakiness of the black ledger evidence at the time when writing for The Washington Times.
Before we go into details of the complicated money laundering scheme in the next article later today, another intelligence source inside Ukraine would like the Biden campaign to answer the following questions:
1. What are the names of two CIA undercover officers who visited the General Prosecutor office and talked to Lutsenko Yuriy demanding that he close the cases on any of Burisma related matters?
2. Why Burisma related cases were closed at General Prosecutors’ office after that visit and were transferred to NABU and SAP (special prosecutor’s office)? What is the role of NABU and SAP in keeping the cases closed? How did George Kent influence NABU?
3. Why Burisma cases were stopped for investigation at NABU and SAP in Ukraine?
4. Why General Prosecutor office in Ukraine (led by Lutsenko Yuriy) denied to send investigative information on Zlochevskiy (beneficiary at Burisma Holdings) and Burisma to the UK Financial Fraud Office? The UK Large Financial Fraud Office released Zlochevskiy and closed the investigation. Check the link.
5. What was the name of the Latvian "shell" transaction company used by Burisma holdings to transfer the money to Rosemont Seneca Partners (owned and operated by Biden’s family, Archer, Heinz)?
As CD Media Breaks Corruption News On Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, A Convoy Of Trucks Empties His Palace Of Property, Confidants Arrested, Flee Ukrainian MP Alleges Massive Financial Corruption At US Embassy In Kyiv And Political Coordination Against Trump In Favor Of Democrats...Provides Evidence
Pulled from a comment from our own JohnQC this morning:
[Gateway Pundit] General Michael Flynn’s attorney Sidney Powell a few days ago requested that the DOJ turn over the contents of two phones related to Joseph Mifsud. We now know those phones were from the UK, the country that is more suspect than Russia ever was!
Sidney Powell on Tuesday demanded the DOJ "produce evidence that has only recently come into [the DOJ’s] possession. This evidence includes the data and metadata of the following two devices:"
We were the first to point out that there was more than one spy working to derail the Trump team back in 2015 in our post in June 2018. The President retweeted information in our post only to be ridiculed by the corrupt media ‐ to this day Wikipedia claims Trump was incorrect ‐
#2
Surprise, surprise. So it was the UK and its agents, in cahoots with CIA and DOJ, that was interfering in our election. Pay no attention to that sim card! Look! over there: RUSSKIES!
#4
Pay no attention to that sim card! Look! over there: RUSSKIES!
I'm suddenly reminded of that strange Skripov/Novichok business. No need to rehash the oddities, but suppose it was just a bit of magician's patter and misdirection to get us looking in a certain way...
[ConservativeReview] The House Judiciary Committee’s top Republican member is demanding that top Democrats allow him see investigation information that has been kept secret from other members of Congress and the American people.
In a trio of Friday afternoon letters to the Democratic chairs of the three committees conducting the House’s impeachment investigation — Intelligence, Oversight, and Foreign Affairs — House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Doug Collings, R-Ga., said that he intends to use a House rule to get access to impeachment materials that have thus far only been made available to members of those panels.
“I write to inform you of my intent to exercise my right under House Rule XI, Clause 2(e)(2)(A) to review documents and records in possession of [your committee] so that you may prepare accordingly,” the letters explain. “Please make available all records, documents, transcripts, and other materials related to or obtained in the course of the ongoing joint investigation between the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Committee on Oversight and Reform.”
According to the House rule Collins cites, “all committee records … shall be the property of the House, and each Member, Delegate, and the Resident Commissioner shall have access thereto.”
Pierre Delecto nym reads like a pron star.
[GatewayPundit] Twitter Page Show Man Obsessed with Trump Hatred and Leading GOP Resistance.
"That’s kind of what he does," Romney said with a shrug, and then got up to retrieve an iPad from his desk. He explained that he uses a secret Twitter account‐"What do they call me, a lurker?"‐to keep tabs on the political conversation. "I won’t give you the name of it," he said, but "I’m following 668 people." Swiping at his tablet, he recited some of the accounts he follows, including journalists, late-night comedians ("What’s his name, the big redhead from Boston?"), and athletes. Trump was not among them. "He tweets so much," Romney said, comparing the president to one of his nieces who overshares on Instagram. "I love her, but it’s like, Ah, it’s too much."
#1
Romney is classic eGOP. A globalist and socialist light figure just like Bush and the rest of that lot. They have lost control of the grand 'ol party and they are mad with hate against Trump for it.
#2
It's official - WaPo confirms it. Of course, it's behind the paywall.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/21/2019 8:56
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#3
Someone should run as a GOP nominee against Trump, spend the primary season calling #NeverTrumpers and Democrats Chinese Agents, and then default to Trump before the actual primary.
#7
Have you read his actual "Pierre Delecto" tweets?
Most of them involve his responding to journalists' (e.g. Jennifer Rubin) critiques of Mitt Romney for not being harsh enough against Trump. He typically smirks and hints that Romney agrees with the Trump-hater.
#16
Lex - yes, they are. All part of being a cuck.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
10/21/2019 13:57
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#17
^ makes sense, Rex.
Hard to read Pierre's tweets in response to the attacks on Willard Coward (see link to John Nokte's article, above) and not see the classic pattern of cuck behavior. "Humiliate me-- please humiliate me."
#20
"I'll tweet as a twit most respectable,
In pencil moustache, undetectable!
Oh, ain't it delectable?"
"Mitt, you're intractable!"
"Please, that's 'Pierre... Unelectable.'"
[Babylon Bee] CROCKETT'S FORT, TX‐Local man Bob Paulson always refers to his favorite sports teams in the first-person plural, though the teams are exerting themselves and playing really hard while he himself is lying on a couch and covered in a thin layer of Cheeto dust.
"We really have to get the bullpen together, or it's going to be a rough postseason," he said a few weeks ago while watching his favorite baseball team. Sure enough, his team was eliminated from contention, and Paulson was devastated. "We've always got next years," he said.
Luckily, there's still the NFL.
"Our receivers are killing us," he said, shaking his head while watching Thursday Night Football last night. "Come on, we've got to do better!"
"We had some good pickups in the draft, but they just haven't panned out like we hoped they would," he added, head in his hands, fingers smearing a fresh line of orange dust across his forehead. "We're working with what we got, but honestly, unless we make some big moves before the trade deadline, we're gonna be up a creek without a paddle."
Sadly, his favorite sports teams have never heard of him.
[CarolineGlick] The ongoing criminal probes against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhahu are reaching their climax. After conducting a marathon four-day pre-indictment hearing for Netanyahu earlier this month, Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit reportedly intends to complete his review of the state prosecution’s cases and decide whether to indict Israel’s longest-serving prime minister by the end of next month. The main charges against Netanyahu relate to his associations with media owners.
For three years, illegal leaks from the investigations have dominated the news. The key question ‐ indeed, just about the only question ‐ that has been endlessly discussed is whether or not Mandelblit will end Netanyahu’s political career by indicting him on corruption charges.
The importance of this question is self-evident. On the one hand we have a democratically elected leader. On the other hand, we have unelected state prosecutors who wish to oust him from power by indicting him.
Continued on Page 49
#5
The Israeli establishment has long sought to destroy Netanyahu, the only political leader in Israeli history who was never a member of their club and never sought their approval. They haven’t been able to defeat him at the ballot box and now they have placed their hopes in the politicized state prosecution.
Seems like I've heard that story before. But in the US, Trump is a recent phenomenon. The plan looks to be the same, however.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/21/2019 17:45
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h/t Gates of Vienna
[Breibart] - Viral footage of commuters at the Canning Town subway stop in London putting an end to a dangerous protest by Extinction Rebellion activists by dragging them off the trains they had climbed on top of receiving an overwhelmingly positive response from the general public and even some Members of Parliament, including former government minister Tobias Ellwood.
The British Transport Police (BTP) seems to have taken a different, view, decrying the commuters for
taking matters "into their own hands" and "displaying violent behaviour" in an "unacceptable" way.
They have also announced that they will be launching an investigation ‐ presumably with a view to
punishing the commuters who intervened.
#2
Maybe I'm being old-fashioned, but isn't it the job of the transit police to keep idiots from climbing on trains in the first place? You had one job...
Pull quote: "The hydro-technical facility was self-constructed and, I believe, all rules I can and cannot think of were violated,"
[BBC] At least 15 people have died and 13 others are missing after a dam collapse at a gold mine in Siberia.
The dam, on the Seiba river in the region of Krasnoyarsk, burst after heavy rain on Saturday, flooding cabins where workers lived.
Russia's health ministry said 14 miners were taken to hospital, including three with severe injuries.
A criminal investigation has been opened over allegations the dam violated safety regulations.
"The hydro-technical facility was self-constructed and, I believe, all rules I can and cannot think of were violated," Yuri Lapshin, the head of the Krasnoyarsk regional government, was quoted by RIA news agency as saying.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered officials to provide assistance and investigate the reasons behind the accident, his spokesman has said.
Several small cabins, where workers are thought to have lived, were swept away by the flood waters, the Interfax news agency reported.The mine was in a remote location about 160km (100 miles) south of the city of Krasnoyarsk, itself some 4,000km (2,500 miles) east of Moscow.
Dozens of emergency workers have been searching for the missing and have been helping the injured.
People are being evacuated from a nearby village of Kuragino because of the raised water levels from the Seiba River and local flooding, Russian media reported.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/21/2019
05:41 ||
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#1
There seems to be a certain high level of "whatevuh" in Russian engineering.
h/t Gates of Vienna
[Voice of Europe] -A huge crowd with Catalan flags has paralyzed central Barcelona as people from all across the region protested the harsh prison sentences for pro-independence leaders by the Spanish court and called for parting ways with Madrid, RT.com writes.
The police estimated that at least 525,000 turned up in the center of Barcelona, local media cited law enforcement. "Independence,""The streets will be ours" and "Freedom to political prisoners" were among the chants heard at the massive gathering.
The rally continued more or less peacefully for a few hours, but was eventually marred by more serious violence as some of the protesters started building barricades and setting garbage containers on fire. They tossed stones and other foreign objects at the riot police, who were seen firing back ‐ presumably using rubber bullets or other projectiles ‐ and charging at the rioters with batons.
[PJ Media] Journalism isn't just dead ‐ it's decomposed.
When Chris Wallace ‐ in all Deep State unctuousness ‐ asked Mick Mulvaney on Fox News Sunday to comment on a "well-connected Republican" who allegedly told Wallace there was a 20 percent chance the GOP would vote to remove the president from office, he not only was aiding in that decomposition, he was picking up a shovel and helping dig its grave.
Wallace didn't identify who this "well-connected Republican" is or what he actually said in context, just the tidbit the host wanted to tell us. What Wallace was doing was engaging in propaganda, creating a smear based on the flimsiest hearsay.
But, as we all know, he's not alone. This was only one of a myriad of cases and far from the worst. The employment of anonymous sources by media has been debated (and attacked) for years but since Trump was elected, their use has escalated into the stratosphere.
...Almost all of our leading newspapers and networks engage in this activity, some pretending to have checks and balances that are inscrutable from the outside and likely conveniently fudged from the inside.
...Trump made a mistake in labeling this "fake news." Besides being too colloquial, the term is too generic and allows for the possibility that in some cases at least this dishonesty may be an accident. People make mistakes, after all. Yes, but it's hardly ever true in these cases. It's usually quite deliberate deception. A much, much more accurate term would be disinformation, a technique frequently employed by intelligence agencies. It's a safe bet that many of these leaks arrived from ours. In that, our intelligence agencies were following in a grand tradition. The Soviets were experts at it. They wrote the book on disinformation.
...Now the disinformation that is being put out is that Trump is on the rocks with Republicans. Mitt Romney may vote to impeach. Both The Washington Post and the WSJ have new stories warning of ‐ or more properly "concern trolling" about ‐ this disaffection. The word must be out. Chris Wallace was echoing the same narrative. The newly-minted NeverTrumper Matt Drudge is linking all this.
But is it true or is it disinfo? I'll go with the latter. In fact, given Trump's popularity with the Republican rank-and-file, it would be suicidal for incumbent Republican politicians to vote him out. They'd be out themselves at the next primary. And reporters at the WaPo and WSJ know that, unless they've been living under the proverbial rock or are willfully disregarding last week's Trump rally in Dallas that had more supporters standing outside the venue than any political candidate in recent memory has had inside. (I know--the polls say he's in trouble. Have you ever done a poll yourself? I have, several, for this website years ago, and learned some interesting things. Just as freedom of the press belongs to the man who owns one, the results of a poll belong to the man who sets it up, i. e. asks the questions.)
What our media is doing is lying unabashedly as it has been doing since the outset of the Russia probe. Every one of the respected outlets listed above repeatedly reported the existence or the imminent proof of Trump-Russia collusion based on anonymous leaks. None of it ever happened. It would be interesting to know what percentage of those leaks came from members of intelligence agencies. I suspect it would be a scary number.
Those same media outlets are now making a big deal out of the Ukraine, even though Trump was obviously trying to figure out who had instigated the Russia probe in the first place. Wouldn't you?
#2
I haven't watched TV news in many years (including Fox News), except for getting the returns on Election Night. Nor do I automatically trust anything I read in any newspaper or on any website, without getting confirmation elsewhere and without waiting a generous amount of time for ALL the relevant facts to be known. Everything is suspect at first.
As far as I can tell, the reporting from the MSM is no different from what it would be if their paychecks were issued directly by the Democratic National Committee. In effect, even if not in fact, they are no more than the propaganda wing of the Democratic Party.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/21/2019 9:21
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#3
Did the left take over the schools or the media first? They seem to dominate both and it appears to be a long-term problem for the Republic.
#4
Not "propaganda" - it's profit- and ratings-driven.
Not "disinformation" - they're too clownish to merit comparison with Beria or the NKVD or KGB.
Better term: Shitshow.
= corrupt, for-profit low entertainment fueled by blatantly stupid, false, unprofessional, clownishly incompetent tall takes, fibs, fairytales and outright lies.
[Washington Examiner] A California veterans hospital reversed today its decision to cancel a visit from World War II-style volunteers. The decision came following a report by the Washington Examiner.
The group, Pin Ups for Vets, was scheduled to visit patients at the San Diego Veterans Affairs facility later this month, but the appointment was canceled over fears that the women would prompt "catcalling" from male veterans.
"After taking a closer look at this request, VA San Diego Healthcare System welcomes a visit from this group, just as the department does for many other groups throughout the year at VA facilities across the country," Christopher Menzie, spokesman for the San Diego VA healthcare system, told the Washington Examiner in a statement.
The initial cancellation came as a shock to Pin Ups for Vets, which previously visited the San Diego facility. Group members, who predominantly are female veterans, said they never have experienced harassment from patients since the group was started 14 years ago. The organization’s founder, Gina Elise, told the Washington Examiner she was glad to hear the VA reversed the decision.
"I feel so happy that they re-evaluated their decision and are going to allow our female veterans to visit their fellow veterans at the hospital," Elise said. "We are so excited for the visit, and we’re just so thankful and grateful to the hospital for allowing us to visit with the patients, and we hope to bring some joy and appreciation."
Pin Ups for Vets is a veteran support group that raises money for veterans causes, primarily through the sale of a calendar featuring female veterans in 1940s-style clothing. Elise came up with the idea by combining her interest in fashion from the era and her desire to help veterans like her late grandfather who served in World War II.
#3
Needs serious balls that course. The first three months are spent just unlearning how to do with modern contrivances. I think the Gurkha Signals have to do 8 months total.
[American Thinker] Fox News legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano, who of late has been the poster child for the increasingly leftward tilt of the network touted as "fair and balanced," and who believes that President Trump is guilty of colluding with the Russians to affect the 2016 election and of pressuring Ukraine to investigate a political opponent, insists that the inquiry by Rep. Adam Schiff is perfectly legal because there is no requirement in law that a vote to conduct such an inquiry be taken. As he states in an article in the Daily Herald:
The due process Trump seeks ‐ notice, hearing, fairness, counsel, cross-examination, confrontation, neutral judges ‐ is only relevant during a trial. The House does not conduct trials; the Senate does. There and only there ‐ if we get there ‐ will the president have his due process rights.
But, as Napolitano himself notes, the House has rules, and one of those rules says that in the absence of a clear legal guideline, House precedent should be honored. The House may not have trials, but it is capable of witch hunts and inquisitions. President Trump is entitled under House precedent to the same process, including due process, that Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton got. Until the impeachment inquiry against President Trump, the House honored the tradition of relying on precedent as a guarantor of fairness:
[The Lid] Russia expert Fiona Hill, who reportedly left the National Security Council on 19 July 2019 (i.e., six days before the Trump phone call to Ukraine on 25 July), testified in a closed-door hearing to Adam Schiff’s House Intelligence Committee this week. Hill had been brought to the NSC in the spring of 2017 as one of the staffing decisions in the transition from Michael Flynn to H.R. McMaster.
One might say that the problem with laying out Hill’s connections to the usual suspects of Spygate is knowing where to start.
But that’s not really a problem. The place to start is with Ms. Hill’s connection with Christopher Steele, which Politico reported on in a 30 September 2019 article on her. Here’s how Politico put it:
#7
There's supposed to be a vote to censure Schiff tonight. Expect the Dems to block.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/10/mitt-romney-middle-impeachment-fight/600373/
#11
Expert, maybe. Reality has a habit of humbling experts.
In 1991 I remember overhearing a conversation between postgrads commiserating about one of their fellows Bad Luck™. The unlucky one had spent years getting a International Poltical Studies PhD about Soviet Russia and was all set to parlay his Kremlinology skills into a cushy government job when... ♫ CRASH! ♫ the Berlin Wall fell.
[Right Scoop] CIA Director John Brennan testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, June 16, 2016, before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on the Islamic State. Brennan said that the Islamic State remains "formidable" and "resilient," is training and attempting to deploy operatives for further attacks on the West and will rely more on guerrilla-style tactics to compensate for its territorial losses in the Middle East. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
NBC News reported that Attorney General William Barr and Prosecutor John Durham have expanded their examination of the origins of the Trump/Russia investigation. Durham has increased the size of his staff and has pushed out his timeframe.
Durham will be interviewing former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper along with other current and former intelligence community officials. According to NBC:
While on the seldom discussed topic of accountability, would it be possible to begin the questioning by discussing intelligence failures which led to Operation Gothic Serpent and Battle of Mogadishu (Blackhawk Down), Khobar Towers, 9/11, the USS Cole, the Camp Chapman attack and suicide bomber Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, Benghazi, and Extortion-17 ?
#1
Brennan said that the Islamic State remains "formidable" and "resilient," is training and attempting to deploy operatives for further attacks on the West and will rely more on guerrilla-style tactics to compensate for its territorial losses in the Middle East.
Man can't open his mouth without recounting his achievements?
#2
Brennan said that the Islamic Deep State remains "formidable" and "resilient," is training and attempting to deploy operatives for further attacks on the West and will rely more on guerrilla-style tactics to compensate for its territorial losses in the Middle East.
[LI] Besides already reducing the number of illegal border crossings, the new construction is also environmentally protective.
This week, the U.S. Senate voted to uphold President Donald Trump’s veto of Democrat-sponsored legislation reversing his use of military base project money to pay for the U.S.-Mexico border wall.
The 53-36 vote was well short of the two-thirds required to overturn the veto. The vote mirrored ones last month and in March in which a number of Republicans broke with Trump in defending lawmakers’ power of the purse. The military projects in question included base schools and target ranges.
In February, Trump declared the security situation along the border a national emergency. That decision enabled him to take up to $3.6 billion from such projects to finance wall construction beyond the miles that lawmakers have been willing to fund.
The funding is being well-used. The Pentagon reports that about one mile of construction is completed daily at the border between the U.S. and Mexico.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
10/21/2019
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#1
At a rate of a mile a day, that wall will take 8 years to finish assuming that he wants all of it done.
[JPost] - Russian hackers piggy-backed on an Iranian cyber-espionage operation to attack government and industry organizations in dozens of countries while masquerading as attackers from the Islamic Republic, British and U.S. officials said on Monday.
The Russian group, known as "Turla" and accused by Estonian and Czech authorities of operating on behalf of Russia's FSB security service, has used Iranian tools and computer infrastructure to successfully hack in to organizations in at least 20 different countries over the last 18 months, British security officials said.
The hacking campaign, the extent of which has not been previously revealed, was most active in the Middle East but also targeted organizations in Britain, they said.
Paul Chichester, a senior official at Britain's GCHQ intelligence agency, said the operation shows state-backed hackers are working in a "very crowded space" and developing new attacks and methods to better cover their tracks.
[Breitbart] During Sunday’s broadcast of “The Cats Roundtable” on New York AM 970 radio, political commentator and former Bill Clinton adviser Dick Morris weighed in on the prospect Hillary Clinton adds her name to the crowded field of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates.
Host John Catsimatidis asked Morris if there are any candidates out there who have yet to announce a run that he could see running.
Morris said as long as Clinton has a “pulse,” there is a good chance she is going to run.
“I think it’s always possible that Hillary runs,” Morris stated. “You know, John, there’s a test you can do at home. Just put your fingers on her wrist, and if you feel a pulse, you know she’s going to run.”
Morris went on to say he believes Warren gets the nomination, which he explained would be bad news for the Democratic Party looking to take down President Donald Trump.
“I think Warren will still win. And I think Trump will still beat the daylights out of her, But this Democratic process isn’t over yet,” he advised.
#12
Yes well, they are amazingly stupid. They think they can turn Antifa into the Gestapo to deal with the horrible deplorables. Man do they have a rude awakening coming.
[DAWN] India is trying to build the world’s biggest facial recognition system to immediately detect a suspect, says an official announcement released to the international media.
The proposed database the Automated Facial Recognition System, aims to "modernise ... information gathering, criminal identification, verification and its dissemination" across the country.
India has asked IT companies across the world to send their proposals to the National Crime Record Bureau in New Delhi.
India hopes that the project would enable law enforcement agencies in its 29 states and seven union territories to access a single, centralised database.
A detailed 172-page document published by the bureau says that the system would match images from India’s growing network of CCTV cameras against a database of mug-shots of criminals, passport photos and images collected by various government agencies.
#4
As someone that has worked with and around Indians since the mid 80’s, you can drop the savant part. Only a very small percentage are decent, the rest are head waggling incompetents.
I’m in Delhi now, nothing ever gets done exactly the way it should be done, or is ever 100% finished.
[KhaamaPress] The Special Forces killed an ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... hard boy and detained 9 bandidosbandidos murderous Moslems including 2 ISIS fighters and 7 Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... during the operations in 4 provinces.
The military officials said Sunday the Special Forces arrested 4 Talibs and destroyed a small cache of weapons in Chak-e Wardak district of Wardak.
The officials further added that the Special Forces arrested 3 Talibs and destroyed a small cache of weapons in Dzadran district of Paktiya province.
The Special Forces killed an ISIS fighter, detained 2 others and destroyed a small cache of weapons in Sherzad 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 officials added.
The special Forces destroyed another small cache of weapons belonging to Taliban in Deh Yak district of Ghazni.
[Rudaw] A day after US. Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced the transfer of US troops stationed in Syria to Iraq, a large number of US troops left Raqqa towards Hasaka province, making preparations for a final withdrawal from the war-ravaged country.
Rudaw's Vivyan Fatah and Halkawt Aziz in Tal Tamr reported that they saw more than 70 American military vehicles and Humvees withdraw from Sirni military base in Raqqa, headed for Iraq.
Retreating American troops were escorted by helicopters, while 100 truck loaders entered Syria's Qamishli from Iraq in an apparent move to transfer heavy US weaponry, according to the Rudaw news hounds.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) reached a deal with the Assad regime in Damascus for national forces to deploy to the border areas, apart Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain) and Gire Spi (Tel Abyad), where festivities were ongoing. The United States then brokered a ceasefire between The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor... and the SDF that gives the SDF five days to pull out of Sari Kani and Gire Spi, hand over their heavy weapons, and move southward some 32 kilometres to the M4 highway, after which Turkey would commit to a full ceasefire. The precise details of the agreement are disputed.
Esper said on Saturday that their troops are going to western Iraq to continue the campaign against Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... bully boyz and "to help defend Iraq."
"The U.S. withdrawal continues apace from northeastern Syria... we’re talking weeks, not days," Esper told news hounds.
"The current game plan is for those forces to re-position into western Iraq," Esper said, adding that they would number about 1,000.
A senior US defense official has noted that that the situation was still fluid and things could change.
"That is the current game plan, things can change between now and whenever we complete the withdrawal but that is the game plan right now," the bigwig added, according to Rooters.
The additional US troops would add to the more than 5,000 American troops already based in the country, training Iraqi forces and helping to ensure ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... bully boyz do not regroup.
Esper said despite their withdrawal from Syria, they were still in contact with Kurdish forces and they appeared to continue to defend the prisons in areas they still controlled.
[DAWN] A defiant British government doubled down on Sunday, insisting it would leave the Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an Union in 11 days' time despite parliament forcing a reluctant prime minister to request another delay.
In a day of high drama on Saturday, MPs in the House of Commons passed up the chance to decide on the revised withdrawal agreement that Prime Minister Boris Johnson ...pro-Brexit British prime minister, succeeding no-Brexit Theresa May. BoJo is noted as much for his sparkling personality and his hair as for his Conservative policies.... had negotiated with the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... That defeat leaves Johnson under mounting pressure to find a way out of paralysing impasse on when and how Britannia would leave the EU bloc after Britons narrowly voted to exit in a 2016 referendum.
Late Saturday, Johnson reluctantly sent European Council President Donald Tusk a letter legally imposed on him by parliament requesting an extension ‐ but refused to sign it.
[DAWN] As major opposition parties, including Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz, Pakistain Peoples Party and Awami National Party founded by Abdul Wali Khan in 1986. Part of the PPP-led cabinet 2008-13. The ANP is considered left wing, advocating for secularism, democratic socialism, public sector government, and economic egalitarianism.... , have decided to join the Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...a Pak religious party. It is usually part of the govt, never part of the solution... -Fazl’s Oct 27 Azadi March in Islamabad, the government has formed a ministerial committee to propose response to possible mischief from protesters.
The decision was made during a multiparty conference at the JUI-F provincial secretariat on Saturday.
Besides others, Qaumi Watan Party, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and other political groups also attended the event, where JUI-F provincial chief Maulana Attaur Rehman was in the chair.
The participants finalised a joint strategy for the Azadi March and decided that the processions from southern districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa would proceed to Islamabad via Kohat-Fateh Jang Road on Oct 31, while marchers from Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. , Malakand, Mardan 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... divisions will enter Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... via the Grand Trunk Road.
Mr Rehman said the provincial leaders of ANP, JUI-F, PML-N, PPP, QWP and their political allies would lead processions to the federal capital.
[Operation Motorsport] Operation Motorsport is a not-for-profit organization that assists medically retiring and wounded service members with their rehabilitation and recovery through motorsport events; primarily within the International Motorsports Association (IMSA) and SRO World Challenge America.
To date, we've assisted both US Military and Canadian service members with some of them ultimately being offered employment post-military opportunities. We've helped veterans re-find their purpose, build stronger family bonds, and for some, fight to continue service in the military and return to Active Duty.
We culminate our year by participating in the Race of Remembrance in Wales, UK over Veteran's Day Weekend; November 8-10. This 12-hour endurance race brings together supporters and beneficiaries for a chance to share their stories, form new bonds, and continue their healing and rehabilitation process. Here is a link the tells the story better than my words can: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YInqjgZQR6c
We are seeking support in the form of honoring past and present military members by carrying their names aboard the Mazda MX-5 we will field. For $25, we will put the name of the service member on the hood for the duration of the event.
I've already added MSG Dan Lovell & MSG Jed Fancher to the car.
If you wish to support, please go to https://operationmotorsport.org/ and make a $25 donation and in the comments section write "Honoring Service" and add the rank/name of service member you are remembering.
Thanks for your support.
Jason Z Leach
Operation Motorsport
US Military Liaison & Program Recovery Ambassador
[Rudaw] Kurdish forces evacuated the embattled border town of Sari Kani on Sunday, according to Rudaw’s news hound in northeast Syria.
Sari Kani, which faced a fierce Ottoman Turkish offensive for 11 days, was included in a US-The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund... ceasefire agreement that stipulated the Kurdish group the People’s Protection Units (YPG) withdraw from the town.
The fighting was traumatic for residents.
"Turkey came, brought ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... on our heads, and kicked us Kurds out," a Kurdish civilian from Sari Kani who declined to give his name told Rudaw, using the Arabic name for the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS). The civilian is now heading to the safer city of Hasakah.
The Kurdistan Red Islamic Thingy started evacuating civilians on Saturday and concluded the evacuation today when Kurdish forces left the town.
The entry came after accusations by Kurdish forces that Turkey had blocked a withdrawal path for the evacuation.
Rudaw’s news hound on the ground confirmed that there was a withdrawal of Kurdish forces and the town is empty of their presence.
A thirty-year old local source based in Tel Tamr to the south of Sari Kani confirmed that a number of vehicles and ambulances did withdraw from Sari Kani, numbering up to 30.
The first three ambulances which contained injured fighters sped off towards Hasakah where there is a major hospital the source, who declined to give his name, told Rudaw.
The other vehicles withdrew at a normal pace to Tel Tamr, carrying "light arms", and are currently based in Tel Tamr, according to the source.
This evacuation led by the Kurdistan Red Islamic Thingy concludes the presence of Kurdish forces and civilians in the area.
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesperson Kino Gabriel confirmed on Sunday that all their forces left Sari Kani. The YPG leads the multi-ethnic SDF.
On Saturday, after a day of being denied entry on the day prior, the Kurdish Red Islamic Thingy was able to make into Sari Kani to evacuate injured civilians. Tens of injured people were evacuated, but some were not reachable, according to the Kurdish group.
The evacuation had to be done as Turkey's President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... has threatened to restart operations following the ceasefire n if there is no withdrawal by the Kurdish forces.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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There’s absolutely no way this could possibly have unexpected repercussions.
[Chicago Tribune] Mayor Lori "Groot" Lightfoot will propose a tax hike on all food and drinks sold in reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel... restaurants to help shrink a massive estimated $838 million shortfall in the 2020 budget.
The proposal would double the current .25% tax on food and drinks sold at retail establishments and restaurants, the mayor’s office said. Aldermen will need to approve the increase, which would kick in Jan. 1.
Lightfoot anticipates the increase brings in an extra $20 million in 2020, according to her administration.
"As part of a number of revenue solutions we are contemplating, we are asking those dining out to chip in an additional 25 cents for every $100 restaurant tab," Lightfoot said in a statement. "These and other responsible solutions will help the city secure dedicated revenues which are necessary for repairing our financial challenges in 2020 and for the long term."
The tax Lightfoot wants to raise is but a fraction of the levy Chicago diners pay every time they eat out. The sales tax in Chicago is 10.25 percent, one of the highest in the nation. The current .25 city tax is on top of that, as is a a 1% food and beverage tax for the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority that is levied at downtown restaurants as well as the two airports.
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 ||
10/21/2019 7:48
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#11
"As part of a number of revenue solutions we are contemplating, we are asking those dining out to chip in an additional 25 cents for every $100 restaurant tab,"
You're not 'asking', you're taking, ya freakin' weasel. This broad's gonna make people wish Rahm Emmanuel was back as mayor.
#13
How about a "Hair" tax. Agents could go around measuring the length of your hair and taxing it per each 1/16 of an inch. Let's hear it for bald women.
#14
Yes! And the proceeds of this Hair Tax could be put into a sacred, untouchable trust fund locksbox and used to repair the ongoing fallout from slavery and other misdeeds of the wicked wig-wearing founders, under a program called... um... um... "Government Redistribution of Weavery."
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces confirmed the withdrawal of his troops from the border town of Ras al-Ain but said that The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... has not abided by a US-brokered ceasefire.
"We withdrew all our troops from Ras al-Ain. As you know, yesterday we took a number of our maimed comrades out of the city and today all our troops have withdrawn with the rest of the injured," General Mazlum Kobani Abdi said in an interview with Al Arabiya.
"In this way, we have committed to the agreement of the withdrawal of our troops from some of the areas specified in the deal, while pullout from other areas is still ongoing. But we want to say that the Ottoman Turkish state, for its part, has not abided by the ceasefire agreement and continues to launch attacks," Abdi added.
Ras al-Ain is one of two towns on the Ottoman Turkish-Syrian border that have been the main targets of Turkey's offensive to push back Kurdish fighters and create a more than 30 km deep "safe zone" inside Syria.
During his interview with Al Arabiya, the commander denied reports of an agreement between the SDF and the Syrian government.
"So far there is no agreement between us and the Syrian regime. There are meetings between us which are ongoing, and we agreed on a joint plan to confront the Ottoman Turkish occupation," he said.
#2
Seems like all parties in that part of the world have been provided more than enough arms and training funds to win, if they actually wanted to use them for that.
[DAWN] At least six civilians and a Pak soldier were martyred as Indian troops resorted to "indiscriminate and ruthless" shelling from across the Line of Control (LoC) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir ...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there.... (AJK), officials said on Sunday.
Officials said that nine other civilians were maimed, adding that this was the highest corpse count in 2019 in a single day of Indian shelling from across the dividing line.
Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) notified through a tweet that one soldier had been martyred in the exchange of fire while two others were maimed.
ISPR added that in response to unprovoked ceasefire violations by India in Jura, Shahkot and Nauseri sectors, nine Indian soldiers were killed while several others were maimed and two Indian bunkers were destroyed.
[DAWN] Tens of thousands erupted into the streets of Leb on Saturday for a third day of anti-government protests, directing growing rage at a political elite they blame for entrenched cronyism and driving the country to the economic brink.
In central Beirut, the mood was fiery ...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob... and festive, with protesters of all ages waving flags and chanting for revolution outside upmarket retailers and banks that had their store fronts smashed in by rioters the night before.
The latest unrest was sparked by anger over the rising cost of living and new tax plans, including a fee on WhatsApp calls, which was quickly retracted after protests ‐ the biggest in decades ‐ broke out.
In an attempt to appease demonstrators, Leb’s finance minister announced following a meeting with Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri that they had agreed on a final budget that did not include any additional taxes or fees.
The protests followed a build-up in grievances over perceived government corruption, mismanagement of funds and a failure to address high unemployment.
No leader, Christian or Moslem, was spared protesters’ ire, creating a rare unity in a country riven by sectarianism.
At night, patriotic songs blared from loudspeakers in Beirut and fireworks went kaboom! over a sea of people dancing and singing, holding banners reading "unite against corrupt politicians".
Prime minister Hariri gave his government partners a 72-hour deadline on Friday to agree on reforms that could ward off economic crisis, hinting he may otherwise resign.
In a televised speech addressing the protests on Saturday, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the group was against the government resigning, and the country did not have enough time for such a move given the acute financial crisis.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) launched the Family Fraud Initiative program in April to uncover fraud among migrants saying they are family units.
The program has identified 238 fraudulent families, 50 adults falsely posing as minors, and hundreds of forged documents made in an attempt to support their claims, according to ICE.
The program has helped save migrant children being used by human smugglers and criminal organizations using them for immigration fraud.
Wasn’t there some question about whether Rep. Ilhan Omar is actually related to all the family she came to America with as a refugee?
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[DAWN] Preliminary results expected on Saturday after last month’s presidential election in Afghanistan have been delayed, the election commission said.
Officials had previously indicated that results would likely be pushed back. But in her announcement, Awa Alam Nuristani, who heads the Independent Election Commission (IEC), did not say how long the vote count will be delayed.
“Unfortunately, because of some technical issues and for transparency, we could not announce the results based on the election timetable,” she said, apologising at a press conference.
The IEC previously said that less than one-third, or about 2.7 million of Afghanistan’s 9.6 million registered voters, cast ballots in the Sept 28 first-round poll.
With fears of fraud and threats of deadly Taliban violence, it was a record low turnout.
The contest featured 18 candidates but President Ashraf Ghani, seeking a second five-year term, and Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, are the favourites.
Just two days after the election and before all votes had even arrived in Kabul for counting, Abdullah claimed victory in a move that international and local observers panned as premature.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The head of the Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... Party (LF) Samir Geagea ... Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005 ... said on Sunday that the Lebanese streets which are flooded with protesters waving the Lebanese flag are real scenes echoing "a deep crisis that has crumbled the country’s economy."
Geagea, in an interview with Al Hadath news channel, called upon all political blocs to resign from 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.... government on Sunday night.
A day earlier, Geagea announced the resignation of the Lebanese Forces Party’s four ministers from Saad Hariri’s government.
Geagea told Al Hadath the national unity government has become a failure due to the existence of "multiple opinions" and the inability to implement."
"We cannot tackle all the problems at once, let’s begin with a technocratic government," Geagea said.
"We demand a government of competence from successful personalities with clean hands," the party leader said adding that "if a government is formed different from its predecessors, the street (public) will be satisfied immediately."
"The crisis exceeded all reform proposals due to the mistrust between the people and the ruling government," he added.
In an earlier interview with local Lebanese TV Al Jadeed earlier on Sunday, Geagea said: "If we are late, I think what follows is worse, I call upon President (Saad) Hariri to approach a new cabinet."
He also added that he expects the resignation of the ministers of the Progressive Socialist Party’s bloc later in the day.
On Saturday, the Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Wally Jumblat ...Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... denied reports of his request to his party’s ministers to resign from the Lebanese government.
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Former Baltimore Mayor Thomas D’Alesandro III, the brother of House Speaker Nancy San Fran Nan Pelosi Congresswoman-for-Life from the San Francisco Bay Area, born into a family of professional politicians. On-again-off-again Speaker of the House. It's not her fault when they lose, but it's her accomplishment when they win. Noted for her heavily botoxed grimace and occasional senior... uhhh... moments... , died at 90 from complications of a stroke.
D'Alesandro served one term as mayor of Baltimore, from 1967-1971, which included thee 1968 riots, racial tension, and strikes. A Democrat Success Story™
"Tommy was the finest public servant I have ever known. His life and leadership were a tribute to the Catholic values with which we were raised: faith, family, patriotism. He profoundly believed, as did our parents, that public service was a noble calling and that we all had a responsibility to help others," Pelosi said in a statement.
"Tommy dedicated his life to our city. A champion of civil rights, he worked tirelessly for all who called Baltimore home. Tommy was a leader of dignity, compassion and extraordinary courage, whose presence radiated hope upon our city during times of struggle and conflict," it continued. "All his life, Tommy worked on the side of the angels. Now, he is with them. With his commitment to his family and public service, his life has truly blessed America."
D'Alesandro is survived by his "wife Margaret, his children Thomas, Dominic, Nicholas, Patricia and Gregory, and his grandchildren whom he adored."
[ALMASDARNEWS] Recovery works at oil and gas fields in the Syrian province of Raqqa, as well as in the "triangle" between the freed provinces of Raqqah, Hama and Homs, have begun, the head of the al-Saura field management Ali Ibrahim said.
According to Ibrahim, all oil wells and the entire infrastructure at the treatment plants of the fields were completely destroyed, while the pipelines were partially destroyed.
"The restoration of the fields will require a lot of work and the involvement of large companies," the manager added.
Ibrahim stressed that the destruction was caused by the American coalition’s Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s, which bombed territories under the control of the ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... * terrorist group and fired rockets at each well.
Nearly 6,000 barrels of oil were extracted daily at the al-Saura field before the war in Syria, which has been going on since 2011.
[DAWN] Indonesia's President Joko Widodo will kick off a fresh term on Sunday, facing a wave of crises and with Jakarta under heavy security days after hard boyz tried to assassinate his top security minister.
More than 30,000 security personnel were deployed in the capital amid fears of another attack during the inauguration of Widodo, 58, and Vice President Ma'ruf Amin, 76.
The ceremony, attended by foreign delegations and heads of state, is scheduled to start around 0730 GMT.
A crowd of several hundred supporters formed near the presidential palace on Sunday. But celebrations will likely be muted after mass demonstrations were banned as militancy continues to plague the world's biggest Moslem-majority nation.
Widodo, widely known as Jokowi, met several visiting leaders including Singapore's Lee Hsien Loong and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison before the swearing-in.
Jokowi ‐ a popular, heavy metal-loving former businessman from outside the political and military elite ‐ was hailed as Indonesia's answer to Barack Obama I am the change that you seek... when he was first elected in 2014 to lead the world's third-biggest democracy.
But his leadership is under mounting criticism after a string of challenges in recent months. These range from nationwide anti-government demonstrations in which three students died and smog-belching forest fires that sparked diplomatic tensions with Indonesia's neighbours, to deadly unrest in Papua province and a slowdown in Southeast Asia's biggest economy.
[DAWN] SUKKUR: Four newborn babies suffocated to death in their incubators after having remained without oxygen for over 12 hours at a private hospital in Thull town early on Saturday morning.
Sources in the hospital said that the babies were admitted two days ago to Israr Clinic which was run by Dr Israr Ahmed Noonari, who claimed to be a child specialist.
The four infants who were not even named yet and were sons of Miandad Bungali, Hadi Bux Jamali, Gul Hassan Sarki and Wahid Buriro were kept in incubators under the supervision of a doctor, said the sources.
In the absence of a vigilant nurse, at some point during the night the cylinder supplying them oxygen got empty and the infants suffocated to death for lack of oxygen for over 12 hours, said the sources.
When the doctor arrived in the morning, he found all the children dead, sparking furious protest by the victims’ parents and relatives, they said.
The town authorities moved into action to bring the situation under control and MPA Dr Sohrab Sarki intervened to help end the protest. He assured the aggrieved families that strict action would be taken against the persons responsible for the tragedy.
The hospital staff disappeared after the children’s deaths and the subsequent protest while the authorities sealed the clinic.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] An al-Qaeda leader was killed and another maimed during an anti-terror raid in Tunisia on Sunday, according to the country’s defense ministry.
Tunisian armed forces and national guardsmen led the operation against al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in the mountainous Kasserine region near the Algerian border, ministry front man Mohammed Zekri told AFP.
"A terrorist leader from the Okba Ibn Nafaa group was killed" and another injured in the ongoing operation, he said.
Okba Ibn Nafaa is the Tunisian branch of AQIM.
Various murderous Moslem groups are active in the rugged frontier region of Kasserine, including the ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... -affiliated Jund al-Khalifa, or "Soldiers of the Caliphate."
Security forces regularly carry out raids in the area.
Tunisia faced a rise in murderous Moslem activity after its 2011 revolution, with attacks killing dozens of security personnel, civilians and foreign tourists.
While the security situation has significantly improved since a series of deadly attacks in 2015, Tunisia has maintained a state of emergency for four years and assaults against security forces have persisted.
[ToloNews] At least three coppers were killed, and two of the governor’s security guards were maimed, in a boom-mobile in Maidan Shahr, capital of Maidan Wardak province, sources said.
The incident occurred at approximately 2:30 pm in Maidan Shahr while the provincial governor, Muzafaruddin Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... , was attending an event at the cop shoppe in the city center; however, the governor was not injured, said Mohibullah Sharifzai, a front man for the governor.
Sharifzai also said that the governor’s bodyguards were not injured, but other sources claim that two were maimed.
[DAWN] Hong Kong police fired water cannon and tear gas on Sunday as crowds held an illegal march, with hardcore protesters throwing petrol bombs and trashing businesses, capping a week of anger after the recent stabbing and beating of two pro-democracy protesters.
Authorities had forbidden the rally in Tsim Sha Tsui, a densely-packed shopping district filled with luxury boutiques and hotels, citing public safety and previous violence from hardcore protesters.
But tens of thousands joined the unsanctioned march regardless, showing the movement can still keep pressure on the city's pro-Beijing leaders after nearly five months of protests and political unrest. But LeBron and the NBA had a really difficult week
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Floods in southeast Niger have forced 23,000 people to flee their homes since early October, officials said Saturday, threatening a new humanitarian crisis in a region already wracked by Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... murderous Moslem violence.
Heavy rains have caused the Komadougou Yobe river that flows through the semi-desert Diffa region into Lake Chad to burst its banks, inundating villages, flooding fields and damaging crops.
Two villages near the city of Diffa were "completely submerged" and 2,500 households have been forced to move, according to national radio the Voice of the Sahel.
Some 400 families were sheltering in a gym in the city, it added.
"We have been fighting for days to stop the water rising, but it’s not working," Amadou Issa, a rice farmer, told AFP. "The sandbags we’ve been using to keep the water out are completely under water."
Extreme weather events are common in Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries.
Between June and September 57 people were killed and more than 130,000 affected by flooding according to government figures.
The capital Niamey was hit badly in September, with the waters of the Niger River ‐ the third biggest in Africa ‐ rising to a level not seen in more than 50 years and swamping parts of the city.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The secondary circuit of the Arak heavy-water nuclear reactor will be operational within two weeks, Ali Asghar Zarean, a special assistant to the chief of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, was quoted as saying on Sunday by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
The starting of the secondary circuit will not violate restrictions placed on Iran’s nuclear program under a landmark 2015 deal with world powers.
Last week, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ...Iran's moderate president, which he is, relative to his predecessor, which doesn't mean he's anything but a puppet of the nearest holy man... said Tehran will continue to reduce its commitments to the deal, removing curbs on its nuclear program, until Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an parties to the pact protect Iran’s economy from US penalties.
Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... has the capacity to produce up to 25 tons of heavy water per year, Zarean said, noting that the Islamic Theocratic Republic currently produces 20 tons of heavy water annually, which is exported to other countries.
Heavy water can be employed in reactors to produce plutonium, a fuel used in nuclear warheads.
Despite having nuclear technology, Iran has never pursued building or using nuclear weapons, which its religion forbids, the country’s highest political authority, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ...the actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini... , said earlier this month.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Russian military will be taking over the strategic al-Tabaqa Airport in the western countryside of the al-Raqqa Governorate, a source from the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) told al-Masdar on Sunday.
According to the source, the Russian military has already begun deploying their forces to the al-Tabaqa Airport, pointing out that a convoy of 15 Russian military vehicles entered the installation on Saturday.
The source added that the Russian military convoy was carrying several soldiers and equipment to secure the al-Tabaqa Airport and its surroundings.
Last week, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) handed over the al-Tabaqa Airport in western al-Raqqa to the Syrian Arab Army; this came just days after the two parties reached a defense pact in northern Syria.
The Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... /ISIS/IS/ISIS) captured the al-Tabaqa Airport in August 2014 after seizing several sites across northern Syria, including Raqqa city.
Following the capture of the al-Tabaqa Airport, the Islamic State carried out one of the worst massacres of the war when their turbans marched over 200 captured Syrian soldiers to a desert area near the installation; they would then summarily execute these soldiers after lining them up side-by-side.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The current protection of the Kurdish-led forces in Syria could be considered an act of war by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor... , Ottoman Turkish Presidential adviser Yasin Aktay said on Saturday.
"If the Syrian regime wants to enter Manbij, Ayn al-Arab [Kobani] and Qamishli to provide protection for the Kurdish People’s Protection Units [YPG], that will be viewed by Turkey as the declaration of war and it [Damascus] will face a relevant response," Aktay stated.
According to Aktay, if the Syrian government assures Turkey that the Kurdish-led forces will not operate along the border, Ankara may change its position on the Syrian military.’s advance in the northern part of the country.
In regards to the Ottoman Turkish military presence in northern Syria, Aktay said Turkey is not planning to keep a permanent presence in Syria, adding that Ankara is not interested in land grabbing.
"Turkey does not grab anyone’s territories," Aktay continued.
Aktay also said that Ankara has agreed with Washington to create a 444-kilometre-long (275 miles) safe zone controlled by its troops on the Syrian border.
"The depth of the created safe zone was discussed during the meeting with the US, when the Ottoman Turkish side confirmed the need to create a safe zone on the border with Syria with a depth of 32 kilometres [19 miles] and a length of 444 kilometres, which was agreed with the US delegation," Aktay said.
"The east of the Euphrates, in particular, the provinces of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, which was discussed with the United States, will be fully included in the safe zone, and we managed to reach mutual understanding on this issue. The agreement reached with the Americans is clear, the Ottoman Turkish armed forces will exercise control over the safe zone, the depth and extent of which will be determined by Turkey," Aktay added.
#2
If I was Putin and wanted to deal with 10s of centuries of trouble with the Sick Man of Europe, I couldn't ask for better actions then they are currently showing.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Indian Army has launched attacks on Pak Border Action Team (BAT) camps situated on Pak territory opposite the Tangdhar sector, killing at least 10 people.
The attack comes hours after the Indian military stated that two soldiers and one civilian had been killed as a result of an attack by the Paks on an area close to the Line of Control.
The Indian Army on Sunday mounted an artillery attack on at least four terror camps and Pakistani military positions across the Line of Control (LoC) in retaliation to ceasefire violations meant to assist infiltrators, killing at least six soldiers of the neighbouring country and inflicting heavy terrorist casualties, General Bipin Rawat said.
In the Indian firing by 155mm guns — the mainstay of the artillery firepower of the army — 6-10 Pakistani soldiers and about a dozen terrorists were killed in the Neelam Valley opposite the Tangdhar sector along the LoC, people with direct knowledge of the operation said. The artillery used in the Indian response has a range of 24-30km.
The counter-attack by India came after two Indian Army soldiers and a civilian were killed in unprovoked Pakistani firing on Saturday evening at Karnah in J&K’s Kupwara district, according to the army. Three others were also injured in the Pakistani firing that left one house, two cowsheds and a rice godown completely destroyed.
After the Indian action, Asif Ghafoor, the spokesperson for Pakistan’s armed forces, said that nine Indian soldiers were killed in its firing and two Indian bunkers were destroyed. He said that the Pakistani civilian casualties occurred in the Jura, Shahkot and Nousheri sectors, a claim rejected by India.
Pakistan’s ministry of foreign affairs also summoned Indian deputy high commissioner Gaurav Ahluwalia after the Indian Army’s retaliation.
The counter-offensive measures come weeks after multiple intelligence agencies warned the government that at least 60 terrorists have infiltrated into Jammu & Kashmir recently and another 500 are waiting to infiltrate, according to the army.
A recent document circulated among India’s intelligence agencies shows that Pakistan has eased restrictions on terror groups, including Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM). The intel shows that JeM and LeT have stepped up their recruitment drives in Pakistan’s tribal areas. The Pakistan establishment is also making efforts to deploy more Kashmiri-origin terrorists in India in a bid to show that militancy is a “local phenomenon”, according to the document. These groups are planning an attack in response to the Indian move on Article 370, intelligence suggests.
The window for infiltration of terrorists along the LoC closes with approaching winter. Sectors such as Gurez, Kargil, Machhil, Keran, Tangdhar, Uri are snowbound by November making it difficult for terrorists to cross over. And as the winter approaches, infiltrating terrorists shift their focus to the Jammu-Kathua area.
Intelligence inputs indicate that several terror launch pads across the LoC are active again. Almost seven months after the Balakot operation, JeM has revived its terror training complex in the region. Islamabad relaxed restrictions over terror groups targeting India after August 5.
Speaking about Sunday’s counter-offensive, former Director General of Military Operations Lieutenant General (retd) Vinod Bhatia said: “Besides the obvious tactical reasons of sending in terrorists, at the strategic level, Pakistan is also trying to signal to the global community that Kashmir issue is and will turn violent. It has got a breather from the FATF (Financial Action Task Force), which helps the Pakistan Army to create problems along the border.”
Lieutenant General Satish Dua (retd), who commanded the Srinagar-based Chinar Corps, said: “I think one can expect bigger misadventures from Pakistan, now that they have evaded the FATF for few months.”
#2
Is the Paki Border Action Team (BAT) the equivalent of Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)? You don't mess with the RAB or you might get caught in the crossfire.
#3
The BATs are joint teams composed of SSG (Paki special forces) officers leading jamaat recruited and LeT volunteered militants. They are deniable and practiced in infiltration and recruitment this side of the border. The BATs usually escort infiltrators and hit squads across the border, provide security to smuggling ops etc. They try to snare the occasional Indian grunt if they can, to kill and mutilate, as this earns them a great shout out from sasquatches in Kashmir and raises morale for jihadis.
The Bangladeshi RAB is a counter terrorist police unit. They are very committed and good guys really. We've had several JTEs together.
[DAWN] KARACHI: A 54-year-old woman was allegedly poisoned by a rickshaw driver in Surjani Town on Saturday, said police and rescue sources.
They added that Yasmin Shoukat was murdered inside her home in Sector 15-D near Lal Chowk.
The alleged killer, 21-year-old Sher Ali, tried to set the home on fire and attempted ’suicide’ but he was arrested by the police.
Surjani SHO Iftikhar Ahmed Qureshi said that the suspect drove a rickshaw and used to pick and drop a teenage daughter of the dear departed from her academic institute.
He added that on Saturday when the girl, aged around 18 years, arrived at home in the evening, she saw that the rickshaw driver was present there and her mother was lying unconscious.
The suspect told her that he did not do anything to her mother but had given her some "medicines" and she would gain consciousness. The girl realised something was suspicious and told him that she was going to call a doctor from a nearby clinic. She came out of the home and informed the neighbours about the situation. The officer said that after receiving information about the incident, the police rushed to the spot. In the meantime, the suspect tried to set the home on fire with the help of a cylinder. He also attempted suicide by stabbing himself. The police saved the house from burning and arrested him.
[DAWN] Thousands of Rohingya living in Bangladesh refugee camps have agreed to move to an island in the Bay of Bengal, officials said on Sunday, despite fears the site is prone to flooding.
Dhaka has long wanted to move 100,000 refugees to the muddy silt islet, saying it would take pressure off the overcrowded border camps where almost a million Rohingya live.
Some 740,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar in August 2017 in the face of a military crackdown, joining 200,000 refugees already in makeshift tent settlements at Cox's Bazar.
Bangladesh's refugee commissioner, Mahbub Alam, said officials overseeing the relocation would be posted to Bhashan Char island in the next few days.
"Approximately 6,000-7,000 refugees have already expressed their willingness to be relocated to Bhashan Char," Alam told AFP from Cox's Bazar, adding that "the number is rising".
He did not say when the refugees would be moved, but a senior Navy officer involved in building facilities on the island said it could start by December, with some 500 refugees sent daily.
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] A panel on MSNBC Live mocked Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard for not explicitly denying Crooked Hillary Clinton ...former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away... 's accusation that she is a Russian asset.
Clinton, 71, said that the Hawaii congresswoman is being groomed by Moscow to run as a third-party spoiler candidate in 2020 to help President Trump win reelection. Gabbard has since hit back at the 2016 presidential candidate.
"One thing that was interesting about Tulsi Gabbard's response, I mean she went after Hillary Clinton strong, she said she wasn't going to run as a third party candidate, she never denied being a Russian asset," Kimberly Atkins of WBUR said while beginning to laugh on the show Saturday morning. "That was the one aspect that was missing from her response, which you think that would be in the first line or two. It was not there."
#3
They are projecting their fears onto her. Everything is a Russian asset to them. It's pathetic. BUT it keeps them from having to face the truth: Hillary was an awful candidate who deserved to lose. If they had to face that truth they'd have to re-evaluate themselves and humans will do ANYTHING but that.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
10/21/2019 2:58
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#4
Modern Western "Educated" class, Island of Dr Moreau, find the differences.
[c4isrnet] OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. ‐ In 2014, "60 Minutes" made famous the 8-inch floppy disks used by one antiquated Air Force computer system that, in a crisis, could receive an order from the president to launch nuclear missiles from silos across the United States.
But no more. At long last, that system, the Strategic Automated Command and Control System or SACCS, has dumped the floppy disk, moving to a "highly-secure solid state digital storage solution" this past June, said Lt. Col. Jason Rossi, commander of the Air Force’s 595th Strategic Communications Squadron.
#11
Mullah, if you had an RP06 hanging on your wall I'd be impressed. Used to be a DEC-head and could boot a PDP with the toggle switches but that was 40 years ago......my how time flies.
#12
magpie, when I worked for Sun Micro we worked with the NSA. We sold big UNIX servers and when a board that costs as much as a ferrari went bad we wanted it back. NSA said no, until finally we set it up where they could write 0 and 1 in their chosen pattern over every rom chip on the board and confirm the pattern was indeed there (I assume a number of times). Once we provided that they were comfortable in returning the boards. So you can erase things sufficiently enough to destroy any underlying data.
#16
G(r)om - do you mean those punch card thingies? I remember having to run a box of them over to the geek building every week (Kingsbury Hall at UNH - Durham) as part of my work-study job at the Controller's office updating their fixed assets. Woe to the person who dropped those cards and got the order of them mixed up...
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/21/2019 14:31
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#19
Woe to the person who dropped those cards and got the order of them mixed up...
That's why it was smart to take a black marker and run a diagonal line across the top of the stack. You can regain a semblance of order pretty quickly just using the black line as an index. Not perfect but fast and easy insurance.
#23
Have CP/M on 8" floppies. Used to boot an Interdata 70 from a card reader after entering to the boot routine via front panel switches. OS was called BOSS and the drive 'directory' was a physical piece of paper with names and sector numbers written on it.
#24
Did the same thing here, ABH5633. 128-column and later 80-column.
Didn't help when they were improperly carried through a rain storm in a leaky bag, though.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
10/21/2019 16:35
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#25
Y'all are making me feel old. Learned Fortran in 75 in college... Keypunch cards... Infinite do loops...causing everyone to stay late 'cause I locked up the printer because 1 card was out of sequence. That was a long time ago.
#26
My dad's master's thesis was on punch cards. A cloud model. Said the computer guys hated him because his program was really too big for their computer. My brother and I turned dead cards into paper airplanes.
[FoxNews] Victor Vickery’s arrest Thursday for manslaughter concluded a lengthy investigation by Fort Lauderdale police into the July 2018 death of 57-year-old Asaad Akar, according to reports.
Novak said in the arrest report that as he was investigating the case he obtained evidence showing that Akar had been “peeping into widows” at different addresses and had a “previous history of arrests for doing the same.”
A month after Akar was killed, a woman accused Vickery of sexually assaulting her, the Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Saturday. Vickery has been out on bail in that case which is pending.
[KhaamaPress] A bad boy of ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... terrorist group hailing from Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... handed over himself to the Afghan forces in eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province.
According to a statement released by Governor’s Office of Nangarhar, the 23-year-old ISIS fighter surrendered to Afghan Border Forces in Haska Mina district.
The bad boy confessed that Abdul Ahmad Irani, one of the leaders of ISIS terrorist group recruited him to ISIS ranks in Nangarhar.
However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... he said he decided to abandon the group after realizing that the group’s activities are against all principles and regulations of Islam.
The ISIS turbans are active in some remote districts of Nangarhar province where they often attempt to carry out terrorist related activities.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shattered spaceship, Fffflirgoll the Arcturan slithered stealthily toward the control room, where the humans had barricaded themselves... the security forces regularly conduct clearance operations and Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s to prevent the terror group expand its foothold in Nangarhar and other parts of the country.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/21/2019
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) sent a large number of reinforcements to the northeastern region of Syria on Sunday amid reports about a new Ottoman Turkish attack in this part of the country.
According to a military source in the al-Hasakah Governorate, the Syrian Arab Army sent several reinforcements to the Tal Tamr, Kobane, ’Ayn ’Issa, and al-Tabaqa fronts in order to fortify their positions and prevent any future advances by the Ottoman Turkish Armed Forces and their murderous Moslem allies.
The source added that the Syrian Arab Army made the decision to send reinforcements to these fronts following an attack by the Ottoman Turkish-backed holy warriors on the town of al-Ahras near the Tal Tamr District.
The Syrian Army was able to repel the murderous Moslem attack on al-Ahras; however, the military fears these Ottoman Turkish-backed forces may try to attack other areas in a bid to land grab in northern Syria.
[DAWN] SANTIAGO Residents of Chile’s capital awoke on Saturday to a ravaged city as burned-out buses, bikes and garbage littered the streets after a day of violent protests that prompted the government to declare a state of emergency and call out soldiers to maintain order for the first time in decades.
The stunning spasm of unrest was triggered by an increase in metro fares but reflected a much broader anger over economic and social conditions, including a yawning gap between rich and poor in a country considered one of the most stable in Latin America. Hellloooo Venezuela!
“It is sad, but this destruction was people’s way of demanding they be heard. Chile was a pressure cooker, and it exploded in the worst way,” said a civil servant who gave her name only Maria, waiting to catch a bus amid the detritus of Friday’s protests.
Soldiers patrolled some parts of the city on Saturday in their first such deployment since Chile returned to democracy in 1990 after the Augusto Pinochet rightwing dictatorship.
[ALMASDARNEWS] US troops are evacuating wives of ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... * gunnies from the al-Hawl refugee camp in Syria amid the Ottoman Turkish offensive in the Arab country, Ikhbariya broadcaster reported on Sunday.
US helicopters are circling the camp in the course of the evacuation operation, the broadcaster stated.
On Monday, US media reported that the US forces failed to evacuate around 50 "high-value" ISIS detainees from Kurdish jails in northeastern Syria amid the ongoing Ottoman Turkish military operation in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/21/2019
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#1
"US troops are evacuating wives of ISIS..."
Hmm.. did Joisy Senator Menendez hitch a ride with SanFran Nan to the Mideast? Given the predilection of the Lions of Islam for 9 year old brides, the good Senator might see it as a good hunting ground.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] At least four people were killed and about 50 injured on Sunday in festivities with police in Bangladesh over a Facebook post that offended Moslems, officials said.
The festivities in the southern district of Bhola, 195 km (120 miles) from the capital Dhaka, broke out when angry crowds protested against a Facebook post in which a Hindu reportedly made derogatory remarks about Prophet Mohammad.
Police said the Facebook had actually been hacked and all the hackers were tossed into the calaboose.
"We fired blank shots in self-defense when some people started throwing stones at our officers forcing us to take shelter in a building," said Sarkar Mohammad Kaisar, Superintendent of Police in Bhola.
Four people were killed and a policeman suffered bullet wounds during the clash, he said. Border guards and additional police have been sent to Bhola.
I noticed a few years ago that the word "racist" was just a new form of "witch".
They don't make sense from a sense making perspective because they're not engaged in a sense making exercise. You cannot reason with someone who rejects the value of reason.
"God is dead and we have killed him, and there is not enough water in the world to wash away the blood."
-- Freiedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, 1882.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
10/21/2019
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[DAWN] Thousands protested on Saturday in major Croatian cities against the release of five men suspected of gang-raping a teenager, saying the judiciary had repeatedly failed to protect girls and women.Earlier this month, a judge released the suspects accused by police of repeatedly raping a 15-year-old for nearly a year in their village outlying the coastal town of Zadar.
They also allegedly filmed the abuse on smartphones and then blackmailed the girl, until she eventually told her school’s psychologist, local media reported.
Their release while the investigation is ongoing shocked many and after a week of public protests, the five were placed in jug on Thursday.
Women’s rights groups had called for protests on Saturday under the banner of #pravdazadjevojcice ("Justice for Girls" in Croatian).
The protesters numbered about 7,000 in the capital Zagreb on Saturday, according to organisers. Demonstrations were held in 15 other cities.
"Not punishing a crime is a crime" and "Women against system" were some of the banners carried by the Zagreb marchers.
"We are here since the system has again let down one of us," Petra Karmelic, of the organisers, told the crowd in a downtown Zagreb park.
"Both institutions and we as a society have failed. We cannot talk about violence against women only when such tragic events hit the headlines," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/21/2019
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Why Israel is happy to encourage the Palestinians to go to their own or elsewhere for doctoring. Video at the link.
[Jpost] A 44-year-old Arab Israeli man attacked medical personnel at Baruch Padeh Medical Center in northern Israel, formerly known as Poriya Medical Center. He was indicted on Sunday morning.
Security clips show the man hitting the ward nurse and attempting to strangle her with both hands. A 16-year-old sitting beside the events in the waiting room told the attacker off for his behavior and was consequentially attacked as well, leading to his hand being broken.
The security guards who were called to the scene were also attacked by the man.
Police came shortly after and arrested the attacker. The investigation was completed on Sunday morning after evidence was filed, leading to the indictment of the defendant in the Nazareth District Court for felony charges, as he caused serious injury, assaulted a public servant, threatened and used disorderly conduct in a public place.
#1
Israeli Arabs* are wonderful people and we're very happy to have them. You all could learn a lot from Israel about integrating Muslim immigrants in your countries.
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan forces arrested a Pak couple in the restive Kunduz province of Afghanistan, the defense officials said.
Fawad Aman, a front man for the Ministry of Defense said the security forces arrested the couple in Dasht-e Arachi district of Kunduz.
Aman further added that the couple was providing healthcare to the maimedTaliban ...Arabic for students... fighters in Kunduz.
Meanwhile, ...back at the palazzo, Don Smilzo looked for an avenue of escape. The only window opened a hundred feet above the moat. The nearest of the hired assassins hold a bloody axe.
The window was looking better all the time.... the Special Operations Corps said in a statement that the security forces arrested the couple during the clearance operations in Dasht-e Archi district.
The statement further added that the security forces also killed 12 Talibs and maimed 10 others during the same operations.
The security forces confiscated 5 Ford Ranger police vehicles, an armored personnel carrier, a Toyota Corolla, a weapon cache, suicide kaboom vests, landmines and various other types of munitions and military kits, the statement added.
The Taliban group has not commented regarding the operations so far.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire... ’s offensive in northeastern Syria falls foul of international law, Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Sunday.
"We don’t believe that an attack on Kurdish units or Kurdish militia is legitimate under international law," Heiko Maas told Germany broadcaster ZDF.
"If there is no basis in international law for such an invasion, then it can’t be in accordance with international law," he said, in his strongest comments yet on the assault.
Ankara launched a cross-border attack against Syria’s Kurds on October 9 after the United States announced a military pullout from the north of the war-torn country, to widespread international criticism.
NATO member Turkey has justified the offensive as necessary to secure its borders.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/21/2019
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#1
Tsk, international law violation. I guess that means invoking Article 5 is off the table. Not that NATO was ever going to be involved, but at least now we won't have to listen to Erdy going on about it.
#2
How many men do the Turks have in their advance invasion forces stationed in Germany now? Could we be in for a shooting war between NATO allies soon?
[ToloNews] The US Defense Secretary Mark Esper has arrived in Kabul on Sunday. This is Esper’s first trip to Afghanistan as Defense Secretary, AP reported.
Esper believes the US can reduce its force in Afghanistan to 8,600 troops without hurting the counterterrorism fight against al-Qaeda and ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... , the AP reports, but he said any withdrawal would happen as part of a peace agreement with the Taliban ...Arabic for students...
Except there never will be a peace agreement with the Taliban, so...
The US has approximately 14,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of a training and advising mission, and to conduct counterterrorism operations against krazed killers.
Recently, the US peace envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, referring to a meeting with Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that a political settlement in Afghanistan will help reduce the burden of war and protect the gains made in Afghanistan.
Khalilzad, who previously engaged in nine rounds of talks with the Taliban, also said that a political settlement in Afghanistan will help protect the United States from terrorism.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar said on Sunday that he wants to further postpone the formation of a power-sharing government, warning that rushing into the arrangement would lead to a disaster.
Machar, on a rare visit to Juba from exile in Khartoum for talks with his rival President Salva Kiir, met with a delegation from the UN Security Council which is visiting the country just three weeks before the unity government is to be formed on November 12.
The formation of the government has already been delayed once, in May, over crucial issues such as the formation of a unified army made up of rebel and government forces, and disagreements over state boundaries.
Machar warned that if the security issues were not addressed, the country would see a repeat of fighting in 2016, when an earlier peace deal collapsed, forcing him to flee the country on foot under a hail of gunfire, and worsening the conflict.
"Why do you want to repeat the same mistake?" Machar told the Security Council delegation, which is pushing for the government to go ahead, as South Sudan is currently home to the most expensive UN peacekeeping mission in the world.
Under the September 2018 peace deal, fighters from all sides are to be trained and deployed as an 83,000-strong unified army - a process that has been hampered by delays and lack of funding.
"If we don’t have a national army, police, security, how do you form the government? This morning president Kiir and I met the security chiefs and what we have found is that even in three months, we will not achieve that," Machar said.
"We have critical issues that we have to resolve, the security arrangement has to be in place. If we are not there by the 12th when Kiir insists to form the government as he had threatened, don’t blame us."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/21/2019
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The only possibility for peace is to divide South Sudan in three: Bahr al=Ghazal (Dinka) East Nile (Nuer) and Equatoria (Equatorial tribes). Otherwise they will just keep on killing one another.
[Rudaw] Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Cemil Bayik released a video on Sunday warning Syria’s Kurds not to trust the motives of the United States or Russia and to continue fighting the Ottoman Turkish invasion.
"You need to stay put. You should not leave your areas. Let them kill and wound as many as they want," Bayik said in the video, published by the PKK-affiliated ANF news agency.
The PKK has fought a decades-long war with the Ottoman Turkish state for greater Kurdish political and cultural rights for Kurds in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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PKK probably hates Russia more than us. We're only evil capitalists, the Russians are apostates.
[DAWN] Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's Lakki Marwat district on Sunday reported two new cases of polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set. Currently the disease is only found in Pakistain and Afghanistain... and Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... 's Harnai district reported one, bringing the country's total this year to 76.
The two victims from Lakki Marwat ‐ a seven-year-old girl and a 21-month-old boy ‐ are residents of the Sarai Naurang tehsil, a report released by the Emergency Operation Centre said.
According to the EOC, both affected children had not been administered the polio vaccine.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Kurdish-led forces fully withdrew on Sunday from the Ottoman Turkish-besieged Syrian border town of Ras al-Ain, an AFP news hound and a war monitor said.
AFP earlier reported that a convoy carrying maimed and fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces left the Ottoman Turkish-besieged Syrian border town of Ras al-Ain on Sunday.
The news hound saw at least 50 vehicles including ambulances leaving the town hospital and flames erupt from the medical facility shortly after their departure.
Dozens of fighters in military attire left on pickups, passing by checkpoints manned by Ankara-allied Syrian fighters, the news hound said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor with sources inside Syria, said the ambulances were transporting maimed civilians and fighters.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[CD] Developing story...
...."complicated (CIA) money laundering scheme?" 
[Babylon Bee] CROCKETT'S FORT, TX‐Local man Bob Paulson always refers to his favorite sports teams in the first-person plural, though the teams are exerting themselves and playing really hard while he himself is lying on a couch and covered in a thin layer of Cheeto dust.
[Right Scoop] CIA Director John Brennan testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, June 16, 2016, before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on the Islamic State. Brennan said that the Islamic State remains "formidable" and "resilient," is training and attempting to deploy operatives for further attacks on the West and will rely more on guerrilla-style tactics to compensate for its territorial losses in the Middle East. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Also a product of aggressive television advertising. 
[LI] Besides already reducing the number of illegal border crossings, the new construction is also environmentally protective.
[Breitbart] During Sunday’s broadcast of “The Cats Roundtable” on New York AM 970 radio, political commentator and former Bill Clinton adviser Dick Morris weighed in on the prospect Hillary Clinton adds her name to the crowded field of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates.
...embracing their inner Islamic Brute...
...embracing their inner Islamic Brute...
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
...embracing their inner Islamic Brute...
...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel...
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it 
[DAWN] Preliminary results expected on Saturday after last month’s presidential election in Afghanistan have been delayed, the election commission said.
Samir Geagea
Congresswoman-for-Life from the San Francisco Bay Area, born into a family of professional politicians. On-again-off-again Speaker of the House. It's not her fault when they lose, but it's her accomplishment when they win. Noted for her heavily botoxed grimace and occasional senior... uhhh... moments...
...embracing their inner Islamic Brute...
[DAWN] SUKKUR: Four newborn babies suffocated to death in their incubators after having remained without oxygen for over 12 hours at a private hospital in Thull town early on Saturday morning.
...embracing their inner Islamic Brute...
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor...
[DAWN] KARACHI: A 54-year-old woman was allegedly poisoned by a rickshaw driver in Surjani Town on Saturday, said police and rescue sources.
...former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as 
[FoxNews] Victor Vickery’s arrest Thursday for manslaughter concluded a lengthy investigation by Fort Lauderdale police into the July 2018 death of 57-year-old Asaad Akar, according to reports.
...embracing their inner Islamic Brute...
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] At least four people were killed and about 50 injured on Sunday in 
...Arabic for 
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set. Currently the disease is only found in Pakistain and Afghanistain...
