[American Thinker] Heh US Attorney John Durham is running an investigation into the Russia hoax that has been almost airtight. A fragment of information on his activities, however, comes our way via Australian media.
Alexander Downer’s meeting with George Papadopoulos at the Kensington Wine Rooms in 2016 played a key role in providing a rationale for an FBI investigation of the Trump campaign, including FISA warrants allowing wiretapping. At the time, Downer was the Australian High Commissioner (ambassador) to the UK, and had been Australia’s foreign minister earlier, a very senior diplomat to be entertaining a young Trump campaign volunteer.
The meeting, also attended by Aussie diplomat Erika Thompson, elicited the information from Papadopoulos that he had been told by mysterious Maltese Professor Joseph Mifsud that the Russians had a trove of Hillary Clinton’s missing emails. When that information was duly passed along and reached the US, it became justification for investigating "collusion with Russia."
Over last weekend, Downer sat for an interview with Sky News of Australia, and via paywalled News Corp newspapers, we learn:
Former Australian foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer has reportedly told a US investigator he did not try to bring down Donald Trump during the 2016 US presidential election.
"Try to bring down" is language to could hide a lot of other activity.
US Attorney John Durham, tasked with investigating the origins of the probe into Russian influence in the election, is understood to have interviewed Mr Downer in London last month and reviewed a confidential Australian diplomatic cable to clarify Australia’s role, The Australian reports.
Mr Durham is also believed to have interviewed Australian diplomat Erika Thompson, who arranged and attended the Downer-Papadopoulos meeting.
He is understood to have asked Mr Downer whether he knew Joseph Mifsud, the Maltese academic who told Mr Papadopoulos the Russian government had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/12/2019
14:34 ||
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[ZDNET] Though often overshadowed by larger countries, Israel has one of the world's hottest tech scenes. Companies like Waze (an Israeli export acquired by Google) and Mobileye (an autonomous driving company acquired by Intel for a whopping $15.3 billion) have made big headlines, but it's the country's startup culture that's really driving a massive innovation economy, one that's set to shape several technology sectors in the 2020s.
There are many drivers of the industry, but education turns out to be one of the major factors for Israeli's surging technology economy. The country's Council for Higher Education (CHE), the official authority for higher education in Israel, just released data on the segmentation of undergraduate students in the 2018-19 academic year supporting that thesis. For the second consecutive year, engineering studies have the highest enrollment (35,041 students, representing 18.4 percent of the total).
The country has been promoting engineering among prospective students through a number of initiatives, and the results are striking. Over the past ten years, Israel has seen an increase of 80 percent in the number of computer science students.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/12/2019
10:47 ||
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#1
Meanwhile America has a huge lead in the LGBTHXYZ Studies area.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/12/2019 12:41
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#2
And the Common Core implementation.
Don't forget Obamath.
#3
Actually, Skid, k-12 math program in Israel is horrible. It produces people who can solve standard exercises but have no understanding of the underlying principles.
[Jpost] Islamic Jihad commander Bahaa Abu al-Atta has been in the IDF’s crosshairs for a long time; his assassination considered over a year ago, and finally decided, together with Prime Minister and then-defense minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to do it 10 days ago. And while the IDF’s considerations were apparently free of politics, there will likely be political reverberations to the actions taken in the middle of the government-forming period.
...Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. Blue and White leader Benny Gantz has eight days left until his deadline to form a government, and President Reuven Rivlin cannot legally give him an extension.
In a video addressed to the citizens of Israel, Gantz reassured the public that the strike on Gaza was not political and had to be done even in the difficult political timing.
"For the sake of Israel's security, the political and security echelons are often tasked with making difficult decisions, while taking into account the potential ramifications," he said. "Such was the decision to execute last night's operation, on which I was briefed ahead of time. This was an appropriate decision, both politically and operationally.
...Those accusing Netanyahu of allowing the operation to move forward now for political reasons ‐ like the Joint List and some MKs in Labor-Gesher and Democratic Union ‐ might point to Avigdor Liberman’s remarks in an interview on Walla! News in which he said that he wanted the assassination to happen last year, when he was defense minister, but Netanyahu blocked his decision. Then, Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin all but confirmed it’s true by responding to a question from Channel 12 about the comment by saying he’s surprised Liberman would reveal classified contents of a Security Cabinet meeting.
It must be said, though, that if Netanyahu was doing this for political reasons, he could have picked better timing. Blue and White leader Benny Gantz currently has the mandate to form a government. If this suddenly inspires Likud and Blue and White to put their differences aside and form a unity government, then Gantz would legally be prime minister first, which is not what Netanyahu wants.
If the IDF had its eye on al-Atta for so long, the ideal political timing for Netanyahu could have been three weeks ago, when he still had the mandate, or even in May, when he was struggling to convince Liberman to join a right-wing coalition.
...There is one political option that has come up in recent weeks that could be taken totally off the table due to the latest events, and that is the possibility of Gantz forming a minority government supported from the outside by the Joint List.
If some in Blue and White were willing to ignore the deep differences between them and the Joint List for a shared goal, getting rid of Netanyahu, that will be much harder to do now. The fact that Arabs are for it, should've clued you jerks
Gantz may have said "this action will have no impact on the political advances taking place," but it is almost guaranteed to narrow his options and rid him of what little leverage he had in negotiations with Netanyahu.
Hamas official Ismail Radwan: “We say to the occupation: If you want to single out the Al-Quds Brigades, we say today that the Qassam Brigades and the Al-Quds Brigades are twin brothers standing together. Your blood is our blood."
Success has many fathers
[Jpost] Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman claimed in an interview to Walla that he wanted to target kill top Islamic Jihad commander Bahaa Abu al-Ata a year ago, when serving as Defense Minister, and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the one who resisted and prevented it.
"I claimed a year ago that we should have looked for a targeted killing of [al-Ata], then it was the prime minister who forcefully prevented it. It doesn't matter why, he just did, but it's better late than never," Liberman said.
President Reuven Rivlin and politicians from across the political spectrum came out in support of the IDF operation Tuesday morning which killed top Islamic Jihad commander Bahaa Abu Al-Atta in the Gaza Strip earlier in the day.
"We stand behind the security forces, who have been working for the success of this morning's operations for a long time," Rivlin said in a statement. "I know that they, and the Israeli government that approved the operation, have Israel's security, and only that, in their minds.
"This is no time for political squabbles, and those who do so bring no credit to themselves. It is the time to stop such statements immediately. Israeli citizens – please listen to the life-saving instructions of the IDF Home Front Command and take good care of yourselves."
Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, a former IDF chief of staff, praised the military for the successful operation and said it was the "right decision." He said that he had been updated about the strike before it was carried out.
"Blue and White will support any justified action taken to keep Israel safe and we place the security of our residents above politics," Gantz said.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/12/2019
08:21 ||
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#1
Avigdor been claiming a lot of things lately - he's political career being over and all.
#4
Oh ! I used to think he was hard on islamists and critical of Netanyahu's softer stance. Thanks for the info. Orthodox jews ? I can't see what harm they're doing to anyone.
Or just a smoke screen to cover the trail? (Daily Beast, so take cum grano salis)
There is little doubt the victims were targeted, but the question remains: Why? Was the issue drug trafficking—or could it have been water?
In April of 2018, more than 100 members of El Barzón invaded the LeBaron family ranch at La Mora to protest the diminished water table.
Shared psychotic disorders can also happen in groups of people who are closely involved with a person who has a psychotic disorder (called folie à plusiers, or "the madness of many"). For instance, this could happen in a cult if the leader is psychotic and his or her followers take on their delusions.
Experts don’t know why it happens. But they believe that stress and social isolation play a role in its development.
#2
Hmmm... I don't see this ending in anything but rivers of blood. No China expert but I can't imagine the ChiComs will allow this to go on much longer without sending in units of the PLA. This a dagger aimed at the heart of Communist rule.
#4
Given
a) PRC is telling it's citizens to get out of Taiwan before the elections
b) there's nothing like a little war to paper over the subjects' discontent, and
c) PRC likely sees all the theater in DC as meaning the US gov't is paralyzed,
[MIL.com] Army officers bucking for a battalion command will soon have to go through a five-day assessment course aimed at evaluating their mental and physical potential for the sought-after assignment. Nicely done. Yet another quota gate.
Beginning in January, officers selected from the lieutenant colonel centralized selection list will attend the Battalion Commander Assessment Program (BCAP) at Fort Knox, Kentucky, according to a recent Army news release.
Until now, battalion commanders have been selected by a board review of personnel files. Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) knows best. Please get with the program.
"We spend more time and more money on selecting a private to be in [75th] Ranger Regiment than we do selecting what I would argue is one of the most consequential leadership positions in the Army, our battalion commanders," Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said in October at the Association of the United States Army's annual meeting, according to the release.
#1
LTC command selection is the great winnowing for officers in the Army. There are usually 4-6 officers competing per open slot. If you manage to get a LTC promotion, but never get a command you are retired.
Generally, most of the incompetent commanders are weeded out at this point. Some get through of course, but generally they are pretty good at this level for the combat arms units.
#2
Promotion boards have been mucked up for so long.
Assemble a board team TDY. Then each board member gets less than a minute to look over the personnel files. With that little time, they're just looking for excuses to pass over anyone and fill quotas.
#5
So now it will be a PT test and an ass kissing competition at Ft Leavenworth??? This will really turn into academics running battalions. Some LTC that has spent all of his gate years at Leavenworth, West Point, or Benning teaching doctrine will now be the above the center and take command. Right now they have issue with PERSCOM boards picking favorites, just you wait. The coveted Major position will be boot licking at Leavenworth to the COL on the board... Dumb fucking idea brainiacs!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/12/2019 14:08
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#6
I remember back in the late 70s a new commander (also carried the title of Deputy Commander TRADOC) arrived at Ft Leavenworth. One of the first things he did was have the AG screen all the officer personnel files for those who had been there for more than 5 years. It was time for a new duty assignment for homesteaders.
I believed Congress should have allowed above the limitation on the number of officers on active duty a Pensioners Battalion of retired and purple heart holders to fill the instructor positions in most schools. You are already paying at least half pay anyway. That way you get experience leaders at half the price of existing instructors and freeing up the healthy and younger to fill billets (which seldom are at 100% manning).
Multiple sources are confirming to me that Israel may have carried out another surgical strike, this one in Syria, shortly after the assassination of Abu Atta in Gaza. As per initial reports, a PIJ meeting may have been targeted in Damascus near Lebanon embassy. pic.twitter.com/C0GV6MbXZV
VIDEO: One of the best views yet of the likely meteor that burned up in the skies over St. Charles County, west of St. Louis, tonight. David Vergel says he was watching an @EarthCam camera when he saw this! Wow! pic.twitter.com/obAjIeFONN
"The data involved in the initiative encompasses lab results, doctor diagnoses and hospitalization records, among other categories, and amounts to a complete health history, including patient names and dates of birth."https://t.co/RdD3vVfozg
#2
Grant every citizen perpetual copyright of their personal information that can not be legally waivered. Then, like minimum wage, let the legislative bodies set the rate those who use or gather or sell the information pay the copyright holder for it.
#6
I don't see how this is not a huge HIPAA violation.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/12/2019 10:12
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#7
It’ll make single payer Medicaid for all soooo much easier. “You are taking more than your fair share of treatment, you are not productive enough to spend money on— so sorry, here is an aspirin to help you feel better.”
#10
If these shitty oligarch-wannabes get hold of our medical info, we are well and truly f---ed as a nation.
Personal liberty will have no meaning at all.
These people and their companies literally profit from selling every piece of your behavioral information they can get their eyes upon. This is far more disturbing than anything happening in the Swamp.
#13
Google et al exist upon a little commodity called electricity. Cut it and cut them. Doesn't seem to be too far off for those in Calimexico. Nice grid you have there, terrible is something happened to it. Blame climate change. Heh.
#14
Ah, the fresh voice of a contrarian
(not Erb!)
Epic, Cerner, McKesson, Press Gainey, et. al., are all monolithic legacy EHR mgmt systems built through acquisition and glueware. Founded on the cashflow premise that efficient successful medicine comes from streamlining workflows.
There is not a REAL 2 sigma median statistical patient. Any chronic illness treatment MUST integrate co-morbidities. If Google can BIGDATA tens of millions of medical records, maybe we can get patient centric medicine instead of managing the institutional ADT and LOS reimbursement cycles.
#15
OK, Skid, then let Google manage the unified database as a contractor to a newly-created public utility that will maintain a strict separation of all health data from all commercial use by Google or anyone else of that database and its contents.
I hear you re the Shitshow that is management of medical data, but this is a problem of TRUST.
There is utterly no reason that we can or should trust Google with such sensitive data-- unless we create Ft. Knox-quality trust, privacy and security around this data and keep Google from figuring out ways to make $$$$ off of the data itself.
They can earn a management fee, I suppose. But no use of the data whatsoever by Google.
#16
There is not a REAL 2 sigma median statistical patient. Any chronic illness treatment MUST integrate co-morbidities. If Google can BIGDATA tens of millions of medical records, maybe we can get patient centric medicine instead of managing the institutional ADT and LOS reimbursement cycles.
I’m sure that was someone’s bright idea in the beginning. But Google has built up such a legacy of distrust, and there are those within the company and without who would choose to be untrustworthy with the data, that it will be hard for them to do only the good thing without giving in to the temptation to organize the peasants for their own good...as they already do with their search algorithms.
He was raised in Chicago by Weather Underground leaders Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn before studying law at Yale. He later won a Rhodes Scholarship and worked for Venezuela’s now-deceased socialist President Hugo Chávez before coming to San Francisco.https://t.co/iCrDiYMbNq
He was raised in Chicago by Weather Underground leaders Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn before studying law at Yale. He later won a Rhodes Scholarship and worked for Venezuela’s now-deceased socialist President Hugo Chávez before coming to San Francisco.
#1
Someone needs to organize a "pee-in" in front of City Hall
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
11/12/2019 11:23
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#2
Cop-killer's son, an equally vicious cop-hater, admirer of Hugo Chavez and leader of "F--- the Cops!" chanting mobs, wins District Attorney election. Also a grad of one of the country's most elite universities. Feted by the media.
#3
Boudin has stated he will, upon taking office, issue a 'no arrest' policy for public urination, drunkeness, prostitution, soliciting and a few other 'life style' issues.
I'm sure the tourism board is thinking real hard about their job just now.
Posted by: lord garth ||
11/12/2019 12:45
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#4
So Yale and Rhodes Scholar are now a meatball prize.
#5
Kathy Boudin coupled with David Gilbert and had a spawn. Because Kathy and David were convicted cop-killers and in prison, their off-spring was raised by Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn (chums and neighbors of community organizer BHO). The child later became DA in San Francisco without ever having tried a case.
#8
Here's the supposed "injustice" that the red diaper baby's baby seeks to rectify:
Trials and sentencing
Gilbert, Weems, and Clark were the first of the Brink's robbers to go to trial. Because the BLA was known for attempting to break their members out of prison (as in the case of Assata Shakur), massive security precautions were undertaken, turning the courthouse in Goshen, New York into a heavily armed compound. The job of presiding over what was expected to be an arduous and potentially dangerous trial was assigned to Judge David S. Ritter who tried to balance ensuring the rights of the unpopular defendants with keeping the peace in the courtroom while they used unconventional approaches to making their case. All three defendants declined assistance from defense lawyers and chose to represent themselves.
Their contention was that since they did not recognize the authority of the United States, the government had no right to put them on trial. Throughout the trial, they repeatedly disrupted the proceedings by shouting anti-US slogans, proclaiming to be "at war" with the government and refusing to respect any aspect of the US legal system. They called the robbery an "expropriation" of funds that were needed to form a new country in a few select southern states that ideally would be populated only by African Americans.
When it came time for the defendants to present their case, they called only one witness, Nathaniel Burns (Sekou Odinga), who had already been convicted of multiple bank robberies. He said that his organization was "fighting for the liberation and self-determination of black people in this country." Burns testified that the killings were suitable because the three victims had interfered with the "expropriation." In his view, the theft of money was morally justified because those funds "were robbed through the slave labor that was forced on them and their ancestors." After his testimony, he was praised by the defendants and led out of the courtroom to serve his 40-year federal prison sentence.
The jury was not convinced by Burns' reasoning and at the end of the trial, it took the jury only four hours of deliberation to return a verdict convicting all three defendants of armed robbery and three counts of murder. When the verdict was announced, Clark, Gilbert and Weems refused to appear in court. They remained in the basement holding cells, drinking coffee and railing against, what they perceived to be, a racist court system. "I don't think any interest is served by forcing them to be here," said Judge Ritter.
Rockland County D.A. Kenneth Gribetz told reporters: "Our goal is to see that these people, who have contempt for society and have shown no remorse, will never see the streets of society again!" Judge Ritter apparently agreed. On October 6, 1983, he sentenced each defendant to three consecutive twenty-five year-to-life sentences, making them eligible for parole in the year 2058.
After the trial, Weems claimed, "As to the seventy five years in prison, I am not really worried, not only because I am in the habit of not completing sentences or waiting on parole or any of that nonsense but also because the State simply isn't going to last seventy five or even fifty years." He died in prison from AIDS in 1986.
Gilbert and Clark remain in prison. In September 2006, Clark was granted a new trial by a judge in a district court on grounds that she had no representation at trial. On January 3, 2008, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in a unanimous decision, reversed the district court's judgment granting a new trial. The Second Circuit panel noted that she chose to represent herself and defaulted any claim by failing to appeal until after the time for appeals had expired.
Unlike their fellow robbers, Boudin and Brown attempted to mount a legal defense. Boudin hired Leonard Weinglass to defend her. Weinglass, a law partner of Boudin's father, arranged for a plea bargain and Boudin pled guilty to one count of felony murder and robbery, in exchange for a single twenty year-to-life sentence.
She was paroled in 2003. However, Brown was unable to reach any deal that would spare him a life sentence. Since he had nothing to lose by going to trial, he decided to have one. At his trial, he claimed to have only had a minor participation in the robbery and had not fired a weapon at anyone. The jury was not convinced. In addition to being caught in the escape attempt with the other robbers, witnesses identified him as a participant in both shootouts. He was sentenced to 75 years to life in prison. ...
Legacy
In 2004, the Nyack post office was officially renamed after the two police officers and the Brink's guard who were killed in the shootout.
In 2008, Kathy Boudin was appointed as an adjunct professor at Columbia University School of Social Work, prompting a 2013 governmental condemnation of the university's action and a call for her termination as professor.
Buck was later convicted of multiple charges related to the Brink's robbery and other crimes and sentenced to 50 years in a federal prison. She was released from prison in July, 2010, and died of cancer in August, 2010. Williams (Shakur), the alleged ringleader of the group, was the last one to go on trial on charges related to the robbery. In 1988, he received a 60-year prison sentence. He has a parole release date of 2016.
Legacy
In 2004, the Nyack post office was officially renamed after the two police officers and the Brink's guard who were killed in the shootout.
In 2008, Kathy Boudin was appointed as an adjunct professor at Columbia University School of Social Work, prompting a 2013 governmental condemnation of the university's action and a call for her termination as professor.
PIJ has rebuffed Egyptian efforts to calm the situation, sources in Gaza say Hamas is being drawn in, and there will be significant escalation later today.
[New York Post] In December 1978, a bizarre theater company headed by an actress from the "Slaughterhouse-Five" film was run out of San Francisco.
Members of Sharon Gans’ so-called Theater of All Possibilities had come forward to claim they were pressured into arranged marriages, beaten if they didn’t sell tickets and had gone broke paying for classes ‐ while Gans and her husband lived in a tony home in the posh neighborhood of Pacific Heights.
With the police asking questions and the ex-members’ claims splashed across the pages of local papers, the actress and her theater group closed up shop and seemingly disappeared from public view.
But they never really went away.
A new group sprang up in the 1980s in New York under the name Odyssey Study Group and has been operating here quietly ever since ‐ still led by the washed-up actress, now 84, who reigns from a $8.5 million apartment at Manhattan’s Plaza Hotel that was mostly paid for by devotees, according to public records.
A dozen former members have spoken out to The Post ‐ telling similar stories to those shared more than four decades ago, including claims they forked over huge sums to Odyssey while being emotionally abused and exploited.
"In my 30 years of working in this field, this is one of the most secretive groups I’ve encountered," said cult expert Rick Ross, a key witness in the recent Brooklyn trial of upstate sex cult Nxivm who tried unsuccessfully to stage an intervention for a member in the early 2000s.
Early 2007 saw a string of financial contributions from NXIVM participants to Hillary Clinton's first presidential campaign, with over a dozen participants donating the maximum allowable figure of $2,300. The contributions totalled $29,900. NXIVM associates also gave $31,600 to the state Republican Senate Campaign Committee and provided $34,763 worth of air transportation, totaling $66,363
h/t Instapundit
[PJMedia] On Saturday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) claimed that fighting "white supremacy" is a fundamental part of combatting climate change. She also attacked "consultants" who would encourage climate activists to focus on solar panels more than social justice.
[LegalInsurrection] Jeffrey Epstein was accused of being a serial sexual predator who ran a rape ring that included some of the world’s richest and most powerful men and victimized underaged girls.
Everything about Epstein’s supposed suicide stinks to high heaven. From the time he was mysteriously and inexplicably left alone, to the autopsy report.
According to the New York Times, "roughly 15 employees at the Metropolitan Correctional Center where Jeffrey Epstein killed himself in his jail cell have been subpoenaed as the criminal investigation into the events around his suicide intensifies." Epstein's "suicide" might be the last straw?
The final verdict will be that Epstein was murdered by "person or persons unknown."
As for the jailers:
There will be disciplinary action, firings, criminal prosecutions. Some will go to prison for a couple of years.
All of them will stay silent as they and their families will be extremely generously compensated engage in extremely profitable business in the futures market.
#3
March 4, 2018 - Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia Skripal near fatal poisoning in Salisbury, England, with a Novichok nerve agent known as A-234.... or was it ?
.......Writing in the Moscow daily Komsomolskaya Pravda, Viktor Baranets, a former Russian Defense Ministry official, stated that the Ministry of the Interior knew that any normal riot control agent, such as pepper spray or tear gas, would allow the Chechens time to harm the hostages. They decided to use the strongest agent available. The paper identified the material as a KGB-developed "psycho-chemical gas" known as Kolokol-1, and reported that "the gas had such an influence on [Chechen siege leader Movsar] Barayev that he couldn't get up from [his] desk" Wiki link.
#5
I think money is a much safer incapacitating agent in this case. No chemical traces.
Epstein was an extremely unsympathetic character and if the rumors and reports are true it is not a stretch to estimate that all interested parties who want this to go away would spend a nine figure sum to make it go away.
Epstein had the potential to devastate the private lives of scores of people for whom a couple of millions of $ is nothing.
#11
Where were the men? My spouse rarely goes 20 miles to the grocery without me, and we have paved roads and AAA.
When Mr. Wife was busied arranging our transfer back from Brussels, I took the trailing daughters and ran back to Frankfurt to say goodbye to everyone there. It was our only opportunity — he was told of the transfer nineteen days before it was to take effect. I’m not normally a keen driver, but I have female friends and relations who regularly pack the kids in the car to drive a couple hours to visit the grandparents sans husband.
[Jpost] Is Israel a democracy? Yes, essentially, but there are major flaws in its political and electoral systems. For example, votes of parties that do not pass the threshold are discarded, and members of Knesset are not accountable to voters. This explains why so many Israelis (roughly one-third) don’t bother to vote.
When I immigrated to Israel 40 years ago and was going to vote for the first time, I was told: "No matter whom you vote for, you get Shimon Peres." Israeli elections, one concludes, are meaningless because they are about personalities, not policies; they are superficial, not substantial. The real government is run by the "deep state," bureaucrats such as directors general of ministries and professionals who provide continuity and expertise, but are unaccountable. Politicians who become ministers are usually not experts in the subject of their position; they rely on an experienced staff. The carrier bureaucrat - both incompetent, and "liberal" - cancer is pervasive.
Many Israelis believe that judicial institutions, such as the High Court and the Prosecutor’s Office, are not responsive to the people and represent a left-wing elite. This is apparent in the "judicial revolution" engineered by former chief justice Aharon Barak that gave the High Court virtually unlimited power to intervene in any government decision. It was also apparent when one of Israel’s finest legal experts, Prof. Ruth Gavison, was rejected as a candidate for the court because she was considered "too independent." Black robed tyrants are the same everywhere.
In a democracy, institutions are meant to serve the people and provide social cohesion. That is the basis of national identity and national unity. Since Israeli voters have no direct access to Knesset members, they have little or no way of influencing the system and creating a truly representative democracy. As long as Israel’s flawed system exists, elections will end in stalemates, preventing stability and undermining national cohesion.
Recently, the Blue and White Party has promoted legislation that would require the prime minister to resign if indicted. This cheap political maneuver seeks to empower the left-dominated Prosecutor’s Office to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu without a trial. It’s an example of the "deep state" corruption that we face. The never ending investigations launched be the prosecutor office against Bibi are the main reason for the current electoral deadlock.
The decline in voter participation is due to many factors. It began when Israel’s economy liberalized and its private sector expanded tremendously. When public companies were sold off, the Labor Party, which had ruled Israel since its inception, lost access to sources of patronage and power. Those who no longer received jobs had less incentive to vote for it. The arrival of millions of immigrants from Russia, the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia, and the growth of the Arab population (which votes in smaller proportions compared to Jews), are also factors. A major reason, undoubtedly, is the loss of confidence in politicians and parties as a result of corruption scandals involving public officials.
The problem in Israel’s electoral system is that votes for smaller parties which do not pass the threshold are discarded, regardless of whether they agree to transfer their votes to larger parties or not. Although all votes are counted, only votes of parties that pass the threshold count.
Even if smaller parties pass the threshold but do not sign agreements with larger parties, their votes are meaningless unless they become part of the ruling coalition. Israeli law does not say what happens to votes of parties that do not pass the threshold. The law could require votes to be transferred to other parties by prior agreement, which would prevent those votes from being discarded. Presently, it does not. Of course, in non-proportional representation systems, 49% of the votes are discarded.
[Jpost] Israel will likely need to attack Iran directly to stop it from developing nuclear weapons and a "ring of fire" around Israel, ex-national security council chief Maj. Gen. Yaakov Amidror said on Monday.
Speaking at the INSS conference in Tel Aviv, Amidror said, "there might come a situation where we will have to act directly in Iran to stop the Iranians. The world is not ready to act...not NATO, not the US...they prefer to close their eyes."
"It might be costly, it might be problematic, it’s not going to be easy," but when it comes to ensuring Israel’s security, he said he did not see any alternative.
Amidror said that, "there is a strong connection between a nuclear Iran and the ring of fire around Israel. With a nuclear umbrella, Iran would be free to build a ring of fire around Israel" at which point, it would be too late for Jerusalem to stop either the nuclear program or Iran’s destabilizing behavior in the region.
The former national security council chief described the "ring of fire" as Iran’s mobilization of forces, who can attack Israel in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran with a land-bridge to move advanced weapons directly through those areas.
He also warned that if the world did not stop Iran from going nuclear, Saudi Arabia and Turkey would also go nuclear and multiple Middle East countries would eventually have weapons, which could potentially devastate Moscow, Berlin and Washington DC. In Washington DC they're more concerned with overthrowing an elected President and protecting the rights of the courageous col Vindman
Posted by: g(r)omgoru ||
11/12/2019
02:25 ||
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[11 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[IsraelTimes] The Paleostinian Health Ministry on Monday said IDF troops shot and killed a 22-year old West Bank man during festivities between Paleostinians and Israeli soldiers in the al-Arroub refugee camp north of Hebron.
Omar al-Badawi, a resident of the camp, was apparently not involved in the fighting between Israeli troops and Paleostinian marchers commemorating the 15th anniversary of the death of PLO chairman and Paleostinian Authority president Yasser Arafat.
Witnesses told the Haaretz daily that al-Badawi was targeted when he left his house to extinguish a fire caused by a Molotov cocktail that landed on the building. Video footage purporting to show the incident showed a young man carefully approaching the fire before falling down. Two men who appeared to be journalists were standing nearby.
The IDF has not yet responded to the PA ministry’s statement.
Late last month, 13 Paleostinians were arrested in a "wide-scale operation" in the al-Arroub camp, which the UN Paleostinian refugee agency UNRWA says "has one of the highest numbers of incursions of all refugee camps in the West Bank." The army said the arrests came in response to an uptick in stone-throwing and firekabooms on Israeli vehicles traveling on nearby Route 60.
"For the past few weeks, our patrols have been trying to halt daily attempts to attack commuters on Route 60 as part of their work securing the residents of the Etzion bloc," the army said at the time. The IDF said that troops found and confiscated an M16 rifle and ammunition during searches of al-Arroub.
[AccuWeather] Old Man Winter is a man ahead of his time as he's dealing another round of wintry weather to a huge portion of the country more than 40 days before his season officially begins.
Icy conditions and accumulating snow will spread across the northeastern United States early this week as a potent snowstorm pushes through the region.
The storm that brought snow to the Rockies and High Plains on Sunday will continue to sink south into the beginning of the week. This storm will bring some snow and Arctic cold to parts of the southern Plains.
After strengthening early on Monday, the storm shifted east and sent it snow from Missouri into the western Great Lakes.
[Washington Examiner] House Democrats conducted their impeachment interviews in secret, but Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman still emerged as star of the show. Appearing at his Oct. 29 deposition in full dress uniform, the decorated Army officer, now a White House National Security Council Ukraine expert, was the first witness who had actually listened to the phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that is at the heart of the Democratic impeachment campaign. Even though lawmakers were forbidden to discuss his testimony in public, Vindman's leaked opening statement that "I did not think it was proper [for Trump] to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen" exploded on news reports.
Vindman has not yet been scheduled to appear before the Democrats' public impeachment hearings. When that happens, he will undoubtedly again play a prominent role. But there will be a difference. The public now has a transcript of Vindman's deposition. And those who have taken the trouble to read the 340-page document will have a different picture of Vindman's testimony than the one presented in early media reports.
Yes, Vindman testified repeatedly that he "thought it was wrong" for Trump, speaking with Zelensky, to bring up the 2016 election and allegations of Ukraine-related corruption on the part of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. But the Vindman transcript also showed a witness whose testimony was filled with opinion, with impressions, who had little new to offer, who withheld important information from the committee, who was steeped in a bureaucracy that has often been hostile to the president, and whose lawyer, presumably with Vindman's approval, expressed unmistakable disdain, verging on contempt, for members of Congress who asked inconvenient questions. In short, Vindman's testimony was not the slam-dunk hit Democrats portrayed it to be. And that raises questions about how it will play when Vindman goes before the world in a public impeachment hearing.
Here are four problems with the Vindman testimony:
#4
One of the most ludicrous assertions to come out of The Shitshow is the day-is-night, up-is-down, barking mad notion that Trump is doing Putin's bidding in Poland and Ukraine. In reality it was Zero who promised Putin & Medvedev, in person, in March 2012 that he would not sell Patriot missiles to Poland as promised.
Here's our self-labeled "most knowledgeable" Ukraine "expert's" less-than-expert testimony about the history of Javelin anti-tank missile sales to Ukraine - from the article:
Vindman had other blind spots, as well. One important example concerned U.S. provision of so-called lethal aid to Ukraine, specifically anti-tank missiles known as Javelins. The Obama administration famously refused to provide Javelins or other lethal aid to Ukraine, while the Trump administration reversed that policy, sending a shipment of missiles in 2018. On the Trump-Zelensky call, the two leaders discussed another shipment in the future.
"Both those parts of the call, the request for investigation of Crowd Strike and those issues, and the request for investigation of the Bidens, both of those discussions followed the Ukraine president saying they were ready to buy more Javelins. Is that right?" asked Schiff.
"Yes," said Vindman.
"There was a prior shipment of Javelins to Ukraine, wasn't there?" said Schiff.
"So that was, I believe — I apologize if the timing is incorrect — under the previous administration, there was a — I'm aware of the transfer of a fairly significant number of Javelins, yes," Vindman said.
Vindman's timing was incorrect. Part of the entire Trump-Ukraine story is the fact that Trump sent the missiles while Obama did not. The top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council did not seem to know that.
#5
^ The Deep State, famous for its pseudo-experts' shallowness and unbelievable ignorance about anything outside the Beltway or unrelated to insider politics
Israel switches Baha Abu Al-Atta off. Cancels His Ticket Spectacularly.
Comments in yellow and images are courtesy of Dron66046, who submitted another article on the same story.
[Jpost] Israel came under heavy rocket fire Tuesday morning after the Air Force bombed a building in the Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
In addition to al-Ata’s killing, Syrian media reported that another senior PIJ commander, Akram al-Ajouri along with his wife and daughter were killed in an airstrike in Damascus overnight by an Israeli strike.
Strip in a targeted strike which killed Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
See that smoke ? That's the end of BA3's carbon emitting days. I'm sure wails could be heard in the actual scene.
(PIJ) Leader Bahaa Abu al-Ata. Rocket sirens sounded in Israeli towns surrounding the Gaza Strip including Ashkelon, Ashdod and Gedera as two different barrages of rockets slammed into Israel.
#3
p.s. Accusation that the action was politically motivated - reminding Gantz why he can't form a ruling coalition with Arab "Israeli" support in 5..4..3
#13
According to a theory recently proposed here at the 'Burg, if y'all would just withdraw completely from Muslim lands, everyone could live in peace.
P.S. You also need to throw yourselves into the Med.
#14
You also have to legalize narcotics and all derivatives, SteveS. Without that the brilliant theory is incomplete. You wouldn't want them to make that excuse later, right ? Say it was a sound plan, but you didn't do it all the way ?
#16
Deliberately misstating positions so that they sound terrible and are easily countered. Gosh, what a surprise. This is called "strawmanning" and is one of the weakest forms of argument. Instead, use "steelmanning" and restate your opponent's arguments in the best possible terms, and make counter-arguments for those.
I said it would be a war-winning move for America. You know, America First? The country that we love? Let's win the war for us.
Israel is heavily armed and can defend itself quite well. We give them billions in subsidies every year for some reason, even though they are a wealthy First World country. Let them spend their own treasury and offer up their own young men to die. None of this has anything to do with America. America First. We're not here to make you happy. We're not going to do that.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
11/12/2019 12:23
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#18
Hope this represent a successful tryout a new technique, rather than just luck.
I saw a write-up a couple years back on a neural network anomaly detector that had been trained to watch the entrance of a hotel. It could distinguish between normal arrival and departure of guests vs a carload of armed men zooming up to the entrance and jumping out. I can see where something like that could come in handy around Gaza.
#19
at least they weren't goatherders, right tool, Herb?
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/12/2019 13:52
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#20
I'm not the one who said it was OK to murder innocent civilians with drones as long as they were goatherders. You people did.
At what point do you realize by advocating murdering the innocent that you're the villains? And have a "my God, what have I done?" moment?
And if "murdering innocent people is wrong" doesn't sway you (Jesus Christ why would it not), realize that killing innocents is precisely what gets highlighted in every jihadi propaganda and raises numerous warriors for Islam.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
11/12/2019 14:19
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#21
murdering the innocent
According to the goats, they are all guilty of rape.
#23
Whataboutism is a propaganda technique first used by the Soviet Union, in its dealings with the Western world.[1] When Cold War criticisms were levelled at the Soviet Union, the response would be "What about..." followed by the naming of an event in the Western world.[2][3] It represents a case of tu quoque (appeal to hypocrisy),[4] a logical fallacy that attempts to discredit the opponent's position by asserting the opponent's failure to act consistently in accordance with that position, without directly refuting or disproving the opponent's initial argument.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
My argument is that murdering innocents is wrong, and does nothing but add fuel to the fire. It literally creates terrorists like the one in your disgusting picture. You did nothing to refute or even address the point. I'm used to doing battle with the Left, who do the same shit but occasionally you'll get someone who makes real arguments. People on this website are terrible at arguing. All you have are a bunch of strong emotions.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
11/12/2019 15:26
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#25
Nobody is sending up drones, directing them to 'target the largest group of innocents you see from up there and let 'em have it !'
What, really? You don't know this? Any gathering of military-aged men is assumed to be a terrorist meeting and is a valid target. It's considered a target of opportunity.
You know what happens when people come to help the injured afterwards? Another strike. It's called a "double tap". How do you people not know this?
“They came here to bring security but they kill our children, they kill our brothers and they kill our people,” said Haji Ghullam Rasoul, whose cousins died in the attack. “We’ve had enough.”
The US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has stressed that civilian casualties undermine American efforts to pacify the country by inflaming popular opposition."
Also interviewed was Gula Jan, who had brought the bodies of his two young sisters to the Bost Hospital in Lashkar Gah. Their house had also been fired upon by the US-led forces. “My two little sisters were martyred by the foreigners’ rocket,” he said, “and I will not reconcile with the infidels until I can avenge my sisters.”
Ahmad’s father was shot dead by occupation troops when he left his home to get food. “The body of my father was left inside our home for two days because the foreigners did not let us out to bury the body in the cemetery,” he said. “We were scared of being killed. They are cruel and the infidels have no sympathy for us.”
https://www.countercurrents.org/auken230210.htm This was back in 2010. You'd think we'd have won the war by now. But no. We're no closer to winning than we were back then.
How do you not see that murdering civilians is wrong and that by doing so we are only creating more terrorists? It's not only morally wrong, it's tactically foolish.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
11/12/2019 15:45
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#26
We're not here to make you happy. We're not going to do that.
#31
It was here on Rantburg, a few weeks ago, where murdering Afghan civilians was defended, as they were only goat herders. Because that makes it OK somehow. Didja forget? In the America where I grew up, people are equal no matter what their occupation. Just because someone works in agriculture doesn't mean that they're evil people who deserve death. That's the Left's viewpoint.
Where'd you get the idea I support Obama? Certainly not from any of my comments. He was the most divisive president of my lifetime. He made us fight with one another with his hateful racial statements. His cabinet was appointed for him by Citigroup. And citing evidence that he was in favor of murdering civilians isn't disproving my argument.
You people are just really, really bad at arguing.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
11/12/2019 16:43
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#32
You people are just really, really bad at arguing.
Yep, we are more interested in exchanging ideas and arriving at conclusions than in winning an argument.
Herb's either just bugging you all for fun, or he's really one o' those amazing people they show you in horror movies. The kind who stop their cars to see if the tall man with a machete needs their help.
#35
#33: the next-to-lowest level of the pyramid of debate, ad hominem. Attacks the characteristics or authority of the writer without addressing the substance of the argument.
I mean, you literally invented that part about the horror film. You made it up, assigned it to me, and criticized me for what you made up. This is literally strawmanning.
You don't have any arguments because I don't think there are any. Murdering innocents is always wrong, and people who advocate for the murder of innocents are evil people. Hopefully you can have a "heel realization" and come to understand this, and turn around and get better. Few things are more crushing than realizing that you're one of the bad guys.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
11/12/2019 19:15
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#36
Oh yeah, we're "the bad guys". Wonder why you're so disliked, you smarmy lil defeatist troll? Exhibit one
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/12/2019 19:55
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#37
So the "herb" part of his name is for the pot he's constantly smoking? Explains a lot.
Herb, you're the one on the side that claims every group of military-aged males moving around a war zone after dark is just a bunch of goat herders, and that every time a pack of idiots fires on an aircraft and gets what they deserve it was just a wedding with the "traditional" gun sex. Stop believing the lies pushed by the enemies of civilization, and maybe you'll encounter less hostility.
(The point of the "goat herders" line is that they obviously weren't. You don't need a dozen men, ages 15-30, out at night to tend to goats. In fact, any sane goat farmer brings their flock in for security, especially in a fricking war zone. Occam strongly suggests that the group of men were actually combatants, but for some reason some people will buy the most transparent lies if it makes the US look bad.
And, yes, you ARE a tool of the anti-Americans. You're just hiding behind "America First" as a fig leaf, unwilling to admit Islam declared war on us from day one of our founding.)
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/12/2019 20:07
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#38
I suppose Herb will not be buying pizza for IDF?
Posted by: European Conservative ||
11/12/2019 20:11
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#39
"Murdering innocents is always wrong, and people who advocate for the murder of innocents are evil people."
Except the "goat herders" weren't innocents. They were combatants, likely unlawful ones. The people around here have been following these stories for 20+ years -- we've seen it all, and know better than to call for it.
Making fun of your naivete (real or feigned) isn't calling for the murder of innocents. It's making fun of the way some people fall for the most transparent propaganda. I bet you just break into tears when you see a pristine stuffed animal propped up bombed-out Hamas command post, er, "home".
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/12/2019 20:12
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#40
Remember the "baby milk factories"?
Posted by: European Conservative ||
11/12/2019 20:36
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#41
Poor Herb believes every word that comes out of the enemies mouth gospel. If they said we killed women and children, it must be the truth Herb.
No chance that those bombs came from the other side, only to blame America for it?
[Townhall] There was a time when any candidate for any office with a background in law enforcement would proudly talk about their record and make it a cornerstone of their campaign. In the last few years, however, the Democratic Party has not only moved away from this former truth, but they’ve actually embraced an anti-police hatred that is dangerous and destructive.
It started on a large scale in Ferguson, Missouri, with Michael Brown. This was the guy, who all the evidence showed was the aggressor who went after officer Darren Wilson, who was shot and killed while charging the officer for round two. The death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland, sped up the process. From there, no incident involving police was too insignificant to make national news, as long as the "victim" was black. White or Hispanic confrontations with police, regardless of fault, don’t register.
From this, the "police are racist and hunting young black men" mantra was born. And the birth of a liberal narrative is the only birth they don’t want to abort.
It led to the "Ferguson Effect"; police doing the bare minimum required of their job because they know if things go sideways, even if it’s not their fault, politicians and the media will demonize them if the circumstances fit their narrative.
This caused countless lives to be damaged, as police defensively ignored obvious signs of crimes because they weren’t called in to dispatch. But it’s not the only damage liberal policies and attitudes have done.
"Confronting" police ‐ which is the polite way of pointing out people being complete a-holes to cops ‐ is now a point of pride on the left. Why not? When you’ve been told police are racist monsters who start their shifts hoping to be able to harass minorities, why wouldn’t you view them as the enemy?
#2
Beginning to feel like 1972 again. Unbelievable that a major political party is throwing in its lot with cop-killers and people chanting F--- the police
2020 election is just 12 months away.
Will 1972 repeat itself? Will the Silent Majority re-elect the president in a landslide?
[KhaamaPress] A group of four ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... gunnies including a foreign national surrendered 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.
The Special Operations Corps said in a statement the gunnies surrendered to Afghan Special Forces ...established in 2007 with the intent of taking one conventional infantry kandak (battalion) from each of the regional ANA corps, giving them special training and equipment, and reorganizing based on the U.S. Army Rangers. Each battalion is assigned to one of the six regional corps. The commandos comprise 7% of the Afghan National Security Forces but conduct 70% to 80% of the fighting... in Achin district of Nangarhar.
The statement further added that the foreign member of the group originally hails from Pakistain who surrendered to Special Forces together with his wife and four children.
The ISIS sympathizers have not commented regarding the surrender of ISIS gunnies so far.
This comes as counter-terrorism operations are underway against ISIS and other groups in the restive parts of Nangarhar province.
The acting minister of interior Massoud on Sunday told news hounds that the security forces have defeated ISIS gunnies in Nangarhar province.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/12/2019
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[DAILYSABAH] Around the world, most people graduate from university between the ages 21 and 25; however, 9-year-old Laurent Simons is about to graduate from Eindhoven Technical University's Department of Electronics Engineering in couple of months. Simons will also break the world record as the youngest university graduate, a title previously held by Michael Kearney who graduated from the University of Alabama at the age of 10.
Born in Belgium, Simons' parents understood he was extraordinary at an early age. With an IQ of 145,
...is 145 special? Perhaps there is something else going on...
the 9-year-old started high school at the age of 6. According to an article published by the BBC, bored at school, he began to participate in certain projects at the Medical School at the University of Amsterdam and after graduating from high school, enrolled in Eindhoven University. Managing to finish the three-year program in only one year, Simons also has a photographic memory.
When he is asked what he wants to focus on later in his life, Simons said he wants to be a heart surgeon to find ways to prevent all kinds of heart illnesses. He said he also wants to work on projects to prolong the human lifespan.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2019
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#1
145 not THAT unusual... Went to school with several folks over that. Highest was 165 known to one and all as "Docile John - World's Dullest Genius"
#4
“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”
Hardening targets is important when one is a potential target. This is something America’s churches should look into, too.
[Jpost] The Secure Community Network (SCN) has teamed up with the US Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) to offer training on threat assessment and prevention of violence against America's Jewish community.
The event, to be held on Wednesday in Memphis, Tennessee, will bring together law enforcement agencies, school officials, mental health professionals and local corporations to advise Jewish community leaders on how best to mitigate against the threat of attack.
"Recognizing potential threats is critical to preventing attacks at our schools, synagogues and community centers," said Michael Masters, national director and CEO of SCN. "We are grateful to partner with the Secret Service NTAC to provide uniform, accurate training so that we can improve the safety of our community."
The training comes just over a year after the attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, in which eleven people were killed and seven injured, making it the deadliest antisemitic attack on American soil.
"It is critically important for our leaders to recognize potential threats and know how to respond," said Stuart Frisch, the Memphis community’s regional security advisor with NTAC.
"We take security training seriously and are proud to partner with the United States Secret Service to make sure our community is safe and prepared," he added.
The Secure Community Network was founded in 2004 as a national initiative dedicated to providing homeland security initiatives for America's Jewish community.
#3
So Federal Law Enforcement has given up on reinforcing local law enforcement and is empowering groups of special interest vigilantes on how best to mitigate against the threat of attack.?
Something more than a Citizen's Police Auxillary.
Maybe it's all about hardening infrastructure.
#4
Well, if NY muslims can have their own patrol cars I don't see why other communities cannot enforce their own space.
Maybe have some nihang sikhs with their funny swords and discs roaming around. or those Teravada Buddhists. Muslims just stay away from wherever they are. There are some in Nihangs in Texas and Wyoming. These people, although Asian are the embodiment of the very idea behind the second amendment.
#5
So Federal Law Enforcement has given up on reinforcing local law enforcement and is empowering groups of special interest vigilantes on how best to mitigate against the threat of attack.?
This has been going on for a couple of years, Skidmark — as I recall the previous round was with Homeland. This is just the next stage.
[KhaamaPress] An explosion triggered by an improvised bomb killed four Pak holy warriors in South-eastern Paktiya province of Afghanistan.
According to a statement released by provincial government, a kaboom went off among Pak holy warriors in Andar area of Samkanai district on Sunday evening, killing four bully boys.
The statement further added that the holy warriors were busy planting a roadside kaboom in the area when the explosives went off prematurely.
Talibs and other bully boy groups often use improvised bomb to target the security forces and government officials.
However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... majority of such attacks inflict casualties on ordinary civilians.
#1
And now they await final roll call in limbo where an elder council of past arrivals, the Jamiat e Ghabia will decide whether they may get one ugly virgin each, one ugly virgin but no organs, organs but no virgins... what.
#3
I once saw an IED with all blue wires. Another time it was all black wires. Yet another had soldered an arming switch directly to the detonator. Most sleeper cells, especially Paki trained ones don't have access to russian grenade fuses and use improvised mercury switches. This one guy had made it so, the device actually fried it's own wiring prior to the detonator phase. But the look on his face at interrogation was like; 'Yo ! I'm the Mahdi of Mayhem.'
The VA has 377,805 employees, so they’ve dealt with the worst 2%, but it’s definitely a start. It seems reasonable to assume that other departments across the executive branch have done the same.
[Breitbar] President Donald Trump ...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat The Smartest Woman in the World in the general election... has relieved over 8,000 Veterans Affairs employees for failing their duty since becoming the president, according to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie.
"The standard is if you don’t live up to your oath if you don’t live up to the standards that our veterans expect, that you will be asked to leave," Wilkie told news hounds in a presser on Friday. "This is a transformational moment in our history."
Wilkie said accountability was a signature promise from President Trump, particularly after the Veterans Affairs scandals in Phoenix in 2014 and 2015.
Under Trump, he said, VA employees as high as network directors down to the lowest employees were removed for not performing their job to the proper standards.
"This is, I think, one of the strongest statements that we can make: That it is a new day at VA," Wilkie said.
#2
Make the Veteran’s Administration great. It will of course also contribute positively to the moral of the good employees who will no longer have to deal with the slugs.
#6
$1.6B new facility $1B over budget in Denver, 4 years late. Zero, zilch, none, not a one, Medical employee added to staff. (confirmed by a MD who is overworked). Wait times same as before but they are better now at pawning you off on another department, after a minimum of another 30 days wait. Conversations with staff, biggest problem IS lack of accountability.
WASHINGTON (AP) ‐ Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday that an Army officer has no reason to fear retribution for testifying before Congress in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.
Esper was asked about potential retribution for Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman during a trip to New York City. The defense secretary said the Pentagon "has protections for whistleblowers" who report waste, fraud or abuse.
He said Vindman or any other whistleblower "shouldn’t have any fear of retaliation," according to a transcript of the exchange released by online publication Defense One.
Vindman is the Ukraine specialist at the White House’s National Security Council who was on the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy. Vindman testified about concerns that Trump was delaying military aid to the Eastern European country while pressing the country to investigate his political rivals.
That phone call, and Trump’s request for a "favor" from Ukraine are the basis of the impeachment inquiry.
According to the Defense One transcript, Esper was asked what he would tell service members who might wonder if Vindman’s career is in jeopardy and whether their own careers would be at risk if they blew the whistle on waste, fraud or abuse.
Esper responded by saying the Pentagon "has protections for whistleblowers -- they’re guaranteed in law. And he shouldn’t have any fear of retaliation. That’s DoD’s position," referring to the Department of Defense.
#1
This 'protection for whistleblowers' thing. Isn't it something detrimental to military or intelligence directives ? Does it even extend to the relationship between an O-5 and the CinC ?
#4
Unless it is something new, the military does not have a "whisleblower" program, per se. The correct venue for issues of concern is the 'chain of command,' Inspector General, Waste Fraud & Abuse Hotline, or Staff Judge Advocate (SJA).
Again, unless something has changed in the past 20 years, which is entirely possible.
#6
Insubordination. Give him the MacArthur treatment.
Posted by: Lemuel Prince of the Platypi5893 ||
11/12/2019 5:48
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#7
Vindman has nothing to fear for being a whistleblower. However, he is not a whistleblower. He is an officer who disobeyed a legal order. For that alone he should be courtmartialed.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/12/2019 8:33
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#9
Retaliation, no. But personally I'd like a word or two on exactly how and why he somehow does not have to work within the chain of command, you know like EVERYBODY else in uniform.
#11
He's in a position now where anything he doesn't like about his treatment by the Army or DoD will be seen as "harassment" or "retaliation." The military better figure out how to prevent an entire class of guys like this or next thing you know they will be running the place.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/12/2019 10:17
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#12
REMFs are a serious problem in any military, MM.
#13
Pentagon will not retaliate. They will follow the UCMJ and nail him for being a criminal...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/12/2019 13:59
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#14
Vindman decided to become a whistleblower because he disagreed with Trump's policy. Vindman does not make foreign policy. You could say he tried to usurp the Constitutional authority of the President. He ought to be brought up on charges.
#18
How about " Ekalaka Mini-Mutes Radar Site, Carter County, Montana, 45.6667°N -104.3669°W " ...
A friend once told me that Alaska is a "hardship post with double points..." so why not find some place in the CONUS where you have to drive 50+ miles to buy a beer?
[ToloNews] A reliable source within the Afghan government confirmed that a Pak delegation led by Gen. Faiz Hameed, head of the Inter-Services Intelligence ...the Pak military intelligence agency that controls the military -- heads of ISI typically get promoted into the Chief of Army Staff position. It serves as a general command center for favored turban groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, tries to influence the politix of neighboring countries, and carries out a (usually) low-level war against India in Kashmir... , or ISI, is in Kabul to meet with Afghan officials.
Two deputies of Pakistain’s Foreign Ministry are also accompanying the Pak spy chief, the source said.
The source added that the Pak delegation will "apologize" to Afghan officials over the harassment of Afghanistan’s ambassador in Islamabad.
Neither the Afghan nor Pak government has confirmed the report so far.
On Nov. 4, Pakistain’s Foreign Affairs Ministry in a statement said the Afghan charge d'affaires in Pakistain was summoned over reports of harassment of Pak diplomats in Kabul.
However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... according to reports from the Afghan side, the Afghan charge d'affaires was himself "harassed" by Pakistain’s ISI.
The Afghan Foreign Ministry said the issue will be investigated and the government is committed to "ensuring safety" of its foreign diplomats.
[Jpost] The Netherlands must actively help repatriate the children of women who joined 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.... in Syria, a court in The Hague ruled on Monday.
The mothers themselves do not need to be accepted back in the Netherlands, the court said.
A practical stance.
Lawyers for 23 women who joined Islamic State from the Netherlands had asked a judge on Friday to order the state to repatriate them and their 56 young children from camps in Syria.
The women and kiddies were living in "deplorable conditions" in the al-Hol camp in Northern Syria, their lawyer had argued.
Around 68,000 defeated fighters of Islamic State and their families are being held in the camp, according to the Red Thingy. They were held under the custody of Syrian Kurdish forces after they took the jihadist group's last enclave.
According to figures from the Dutch intelligence Agency, as of Oct. 1 there were 55 Islamic State holy warriors who traveled from the Netherlands and at least 90 children with Dutch parents, or parents who had lived for a considerable time in the Netherlands, in Northern Syria.
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[Al Jazeera] The Gambia ... The Gambia is actually surrounded by The Senegal on all sides but its west coast. It has a population of about 1.7 million. The difference between the two is that in colonial days Senegal was ruled by La Belle France and The Gambia (so-called because there's only one of it, unlike Guinea, of which there are the Republic of Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, New Guinea, the English coin in circulation between 1663 and 1813, and Guyana, which sounds like it should be another one) was ruled by Britain... has filed a case at the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... ' top court accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against the Rohingya minority.
Lawyers for The Gambia said in a statement on Monday that the case also asks the International Court of Justice to urgently order measures "to stop Myanmar's genocidal conduct immediately".
The Gambia filed the case on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
Myanmar's military unleashed a brutal campaign against the Rohingya in August 2017 in response to attacks by an gang. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh to escape what has been called an ethnic cleansing campaign involving mass rapes, killings and burning of their homes. So what actually happened was that, rather than spend years fighting an Islamic insurgency kicked off by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army and a few clones, the Burmese just dumped the entire Rohingya population, which they considered invasive in the first place.
Ah. So ethnic cleansing instead of genocide. That’s a comfort.
The head of a UN fact-finding mission on Myanmar warned last month that "there is a serious risk of genocide recurring".
The mission also said in its final report in September that Myanmar should be held responsible in international legal forums for alleged genocide against the Rohingya, a majority-Moslem ethnic group that has long faced persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Myanmar's UN ambassador Hau Do Suan last month called the UN fact-finding mission "one-sided" and based on "misleading information and secondary sources". He said Myanmar's government took accountability seriously and that perpetrators of all human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... violations "causing the large outflow of displaced persons to Bangladesh must be held accountable".
North-Press reporters: Two car explosions in Qamishli, 1st near the Chaldean Church, 2nd in central market in Qamishli Followed by a third explosion in a car likely to be a civilian explosion caused by one of the other explosions#syria#Kurd#SDF#US#Turkeypic.twitter.com/qM9HWENTsl
[Rudaw] Three explosions rocked the center of the northeast Syrian city of Qamishli, killing at least six people and injuring 47 others, according to a local health authority.
The first two explosions took place in front of a hotel in quick succession, according to an eyewitness.
“When the explosion took place, I jumped into a shop. There was about five minutes between both explosions. When the first one took place, we came out to see if there were any injuries,” the witness told Rudaw reporter Viviyan Fatah at the scene.
“When we arrived there the second explosion took place. Then, we all dispersed. I took hold of the hand of one of the injured and took him,” he continued.
The hotel suffered 'great material damage' in the two blasts, Fatah reported.
Qamishli is a predominantly Kurdish city in northeast Syria, governed by both local Kurdish forces and the Syrian government.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had been in control of the city for nearly a decade until they withdrew as part of a Russia-brokered deal with Turkey, which launched Operation Peace Spring against the SDF in early October.
In the latest available figures, the Jazira canton's Health Committee put the death toll at 6, with 47 injured.
Local media initially reported three people died and five were injured in the blasts.
The first two explosions were carried out using car bombs, according to Fatah, who also heard a third of currently unidentified origin.
A large number of security forces had been deployed to the city since Monday morning, signaling that the forces may have had intelligence about the explosions, Fatah added.
SDF spokesperson Mustafa Bali tweeted a video purportedly showing the immediate aftermath of the explosions.
"The fight to exterminate Kurdish rights and existence is continuing. Carried out by the same power with different names. TFSA [Turkey Free Syrian Army], ISIS, Turkey are a de-facto coalition of anti-Kurdish campaign."
Bali's use of the TFSA acronym refers to the Free Syrian Army, with T for Turkey added to the commonly used FSA.
As of yet, no one has claimed responsibility for the explosions.
Kanaan Barakat, co-chair of interior committee for the Jazira Region which includes Qamishli, told Rudaw that they suspect Islamic State (ISIS) to be behind the attack, adding that the group wants to “seek revenge on civilians” for the recent death of leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Barakat added the “remotely-controlled car bombs” suspected to have been used in the blasts were primarily targeting civilians, though security force members are among the injured.
Investigations are underway to find more about the explosions, according to the local official.
Rojava Information Center, a monitoring group run by local volunteers, said a “smaller” explosion on Monday took place outside a Chaldean Catholic church.
The Syriac Military Council, a Christian group affiliated to the SDF, confirmed in a tweet that one of the explosions took place near the church.
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Assassination of Armenian Catholic priest Hanna Ibrahim from Qamishli & his father Ibrahim Hanna Bido, nicknamed Father Hosib, by gunmen on road btwn Deir ez-Zor & Hasakah
While were heading to oversee restoration of Armenian Catholic Church in Deir ez-Zor. pic.twitter.com/13Y76yaGa7
[Rudaw] The Islamic State ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... _technical.jpg" title="Islamic State" valign=top style='float:right;;padding:5px;border:0px solid silver;' />...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....
group (ISIS) on Monday grabbed credit for the gunning down of an Armenian Catholic Priest and his father in the northeast Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor, just hours after the shooting took place.
ISIS claimed Monday afternoon via its Telegram channels to have killed "two Christian priests" in al-Zir village, in the al-Busayrah sub-district of Deir ez-Zor.
Syrian state TV SANA reported the "martyrdom" of Priest Housib Abraham Bidoyan, head of the Armenian Catholic Church in Qamishli, and his father. The two were killed by unidentified button men, SANA said, as they travelled southbound from Hasaka province to Deir ez-Zor.
The Armenian community in Syria, whose current numbers are unknown, are the survivors of the Ottoman genocide of the Armenians in the early twentieth century. Driven into Syria by the notorious "death marches", many eventually ended up settling in the country.
A church and memorial named the Armenian Genocide Martyrs’ Memorial stands in Deir ez-Zor. The church was blown up in 2014. Though its perpetrators were never identified, some blamed ISIS, who held control of most of the province at the time, for the attack. Others have levelled blame at Jabhat al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... , a former affiliate of al-Qaeda in Syria. Such attacks endangered already vulnerable Christian communities, forcing many to seek refuge abroad.
The al-Busayrah area has seen ISIS sleeper cells ramp up their activities against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and their local allies as of late.
The increase mirrors an uptick in ISIS activity across northern Syria in recent months, particularly since The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor... and Ottoman Turkish-backed forces launched Operation Peace Spring ‐ targeting the SDF and their local allies ‐ early last month.
Turkey began the land phase of its invasion into Kurdish-held territories in northern Syria on October 9. The attack redirected Kurdish force focus from their operations against ISIS sleeper cells in northern Syria ‐ as had been warned by Kurdish leaders in the months before the operation commenced.
According to the Rojava Information Center, ISIS has claimed 30 attacks in the first ten days of November alone - a 300 percent increase from its activity levels prior to the Ottoman Turkish invasion.
As of late, US troops, who had initially been pulled out from most SDF-controlled areas, have returned to Deir ez-Zor to protect its oilfields from the reach of ISIS.
With things being calmer on the frontlines since two ceasefire deals - one between Turkey and the US, and another between Turkey and Russia - the SDF has resumed its anti-ISIS operations in the area.
On Monday, DeirEzzor 24, a local news outlet covering the province, reported an SDF-led "extensive security campaign", backed by the International Coalition, began on November in the town of al-Hawaij, to the south of Busayrah.
According to the local outlet, an ISIS Emir named Hamam al-Laffi, also known as Abi al-Hareth, was arrested in a dawn raid on November 10 alongside some former group members.
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[DAILYSABAH] An indictment on the Gülenist Terror Group's (FETÖ) scheme to plant its members into the Foreign Ministry has concluded and been referred to the court by prosecutors. Prosecutors are asking for prison terms up to 42 years for dozens of suspects accused of cheating their way into several posts in the Turkish diplomatic services.
Expert reports included in the indictment say members of the terrorist group committed fraud on admission exams for Foreign Ministry civil servant posts. Suspects were identified by their use of ByLock, an encrypted messaging app developed and exclusively used by FETÖ members, and their contacts with FETÖ handlers via payphones, a common method employed by the terrorist group for secretive communications. Good idea. Use an encrypted messaging app used only by you. No one will suspect a thing!
FETÖ is accused of carrying out the July 15, 2016 coup attempt that killed 251 people and injured nearly 2,200 others. It has faced increased scrutiny since the coup attempt.
The Chief Prosecutor's Office in the capital Ankara has launched an investigation into the cases of cheating on a string of exams for Foreign Ministry employment last year. The investigation discovered collective cheating on exams for the lowest-level civil servant posts in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. FETÖ is accused of obtaining questions and answers of exams beforehand and distributing them to their followers. This follows a similar pattern to the terrorist group's efforts to infiltrate any institution they wanted to. Earlier investigations have revealed that between 2009 and 2014 – the year it was designated a national security threat – FETÖ stole questions and answers to exams for academic promotions, for the public sector as well as for rank promotions in law enforcement, the judiciary and bureaucracy. The group then supplied the answers to its members, effectively running an infiltration scheme to further its clout, dating back to the 1980s. Several members of the terrorist group were already convicted of mass cheating on a nationwide exam for civil servants.
Authorities have identified 246 suspects who passed the exams thanks to FETÖ's cheating scheme and were employed at the ministry. Four suspects who were members of a committee in charge of ministry's employment were also charged in the investigation. Arrest warrants were issued for 250 suspects in May and so far 105 suspects were detained, while the rest either remain at large or are imprisoned under other FETÖ-related cases.
[AnNahar] The Islamic State ...formerly ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... 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.... group's Afghan branch has been "defeated" in one of the key eastern provinces where it first sought to establish a stronghold, a top Afghan security official said Sunday.
The claim comes after the jihadists first burst into Afghanistan's conflict in 2015, when they overran large parts 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.. and Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... s, near the Pakistain border.
In the years since, they have grabbed credit for a string of horrific bombings across Afghanistan, including at a wedding hall in Kabul, and have been continually attacked by US, Afghan and even Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... forces.
IS "were defeated in Nangarhar, their centers were destroyed," acting interior minister Massoud Andarabi told news hounds in Jalalabad, the Nangarhar historic provincial capital, amid ongoing operations against the jihadists.
"We will soon destroy their last centers. With the people's help, we will completely eliminate them. Some of their smaller groups are surrendering, other small groups will be eliminated in other provinces."
He went on to say that IS were being "completely defeated" in Afghanistan.
US Forces-Afghanistan, which closely monitors the IS footprint in Afghanistan, declined to comment, referring a query back to the Interior Ministry.
Attaullah Khogyani, the front man for Nangarhar's governor, said 32 IS fighters surrendered to government forces on Saturday.
"They are coming in big numbers," he told AFP.
IS have suffered a string of major defeats in recent months, including the collapse of their self-proclaimed "caliphate" in Syria and the death of the group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed in a US raid in Syria last month.
Connections between Baghdadi and the IS affiliate in Afghanistan, better known as IS in the Khorasan, or IS-K, have always been murky.
But Khogyani said Baghdadi's death had disrupted IS-K's command and control structure.
"It has affected the fighters on the ground here, they are either surrendering to the government or going back to their ordinary lives," he said.
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[AlAhram] Political talks to agree an urgently needed Lebanese government are still deadlocked, three senior sources said on Sunday, as the powerful Shi'ite group Hezbollah indicated it would not be forced into concessions.
The latest failure to break Leb's political impasse will worsen pressures on an economy gripped by its deepest crisis since the 1975-90 civil war, amid protests against a political establishment widely regarded as corrupt and inept.
Since reopening a week ago, commercial banks have been seeking to stave off capital flight by blocking most transfers abroad and imposing curbs on hard-currency withdrawals, though the central bank has announced no formal capital controls.
A big part of Leb's economic crisis stems from a slowdown of capital inflows
Why has this slowed?
which has led to a scarcity of U.S. dollars and spawned a black market where the Lebanese pound has weakened below its official pegged rate.
A meeting on Saturday evening between caretaker Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri and bigwigs from Hezbollah and its Shi'ite ally Amal failed to yield any breakthrough towards forming the new cabinet, the sources said.
"The crisis is deepening," one source familiar with Hariri's position said. A senior source familiar with the view of Hezbollah and Amal said: "Nothing has changed. So far the road is completely blocked." A third senior source said the situation was still deadlocked.
Hariri quit on Oct. 29 in the face of unprecedented protests fuelled by poverty, joblessness and lack of basic services like electricity.
Hariri wants to lead a technocratic government devoid of other politicians, while Amal, Hezbollah and its Christian ally the Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... want a government mixing technocrats and politicians.
"NOTHING HAS CHANGED"
The source familiar with Hariri's views has said he believes a cabinet composed of both technocrats and politicians would not be able to secure Western assistance and would also anger protesters who want to see a change of leadership.
Hariri reiterated his position in the meeting with caretaker Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil of Amal and top Hezbollah official Hussein Khalil, the senior source familiar with Hezbollah and Amal's view said.
Both Hezbollah and Amal communicated their view -- that Hariri should return as premier of a new 'technopolitical' cabinet -- at the meeting. Hariri said he would only agree to head a technocratic cabinet.
"Practically, what he wants is a government devoid of Hezbollah," the senior source said. "After 10 days have passed, matters must be decided."
The source familiar with Hariri's position said he believed Hezbollah, Amal and the FPM were seeking the inclusion in the cabinet of politicians rejected by the protesters.
These include FPM leader Gebran Bassil, foreign minister in the outgoing cabinet and a son-in-law of President Michel Aoun ...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... "If these faces return to government we will have pushed the street to return to protest in a greater way," the source familiar with Hariri's position said.
One dollar was buying 1,800 pounds or more on Friday compared to 1,740 on Thursday, two market sources said. The pegged rate is 1,507.5 pounds.
In a statement apparently referring to the deadlock and to Hezbollah's loss of fighters in various conflicts, Hezbollah politician Mohammad Raad said: "Our arms will not be twisted nor can we be neutralised from achieving the goals of the deaders."
Leb's highest Christian authority urged the president to hasten the appointment of a prime minister and the formation of a government that meets protesters' demands.
"The country's situation cannot withstand another day of delays," Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai said.
[FoxNews] The long-running battle over the Trump administration’s bid to end the Obama-era program for young undocumented immigrants colonists known as "Dreamers" will land before the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
And with a ruling expected in the midst of a presidential election year, the case puts the high court at the center of one of the most politically charged issues since the start of President Trump’s term.
For the administration and Dreamers alike, it all comes down to the Supreme Court, where Trump picks Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch now sit. Federal appeals courts across the country have rejected efforts to phase out the Obama-era program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, but the administration has looked to the high court for support.
"The administration has basically chalked up the fact that they are going to lose a lot of these cases in the lower courts," said Thomas Dupree, a former top Bush Justice Department official and now an appellate attorney.
"But they're playing the long game. I think that there are those in the White House and the Justice Department who have made a calculation saying, ’Look we can absorb all these losses in the lower courts because we are going to win the endgame when this case gets into the Supreme Court.’"
It remains to be seen how the court will rule, however, on this complicated issue -- which concerns the limits of one president trying to rescind the policies of his predecessor.
Created under executive order, DACA gives some undocumented immigrants colonists brought to the United States as children the opportunity to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and become eligible for a work permit.
"The reason the [Trump administration] gave was their belief that it was illegal to have such a program that gives protected status to a group of people who are not here legally," said Paul Smith, a Georgetown Law professor who has argued cases before the Supreme Court. "They were caught between the political reality that they didn't want to dump on the Dreamers, but they still wanted to get rid of DACA as Obama's policy."
An estimated 700,000 young adults currently in the DACA program could be affected, with a ruling for the administration potentially putting them at risk for deportation once again.
The Trump administration announced its plan to phase out the program in 2017, only for the federal courts to rule that it could not apply retroactively and that DACA should be restarted in full. The White House fought back on those decisions, saying the president has broad authority over immigration enforcement policy.
DACA proponents have argued that Trump’s planned termination violates federal law requiring adequate notice-and-comment periods before certain federal rules are changed, as well as other constitutional equal protection and due process guarantees.
The Supreme Court took the unusual step of taking up the cases before they had been fully heard at the lower court level. Those federal courts have issued nationwide injunctions, blocking the administration's plans, at least for now.
#2
Or the Supreme Court could logically surmise one executive order to create DACA can be overwritten by another Executive Order. But do not hold your breath on logic as the Supreme Court thinks the Executive and his motives some how matter more than the law.
#4
Is there any other civilized, advanced nation on this planet that grants repeated amnesties to millions of foreigners who illegally entered the country?
[NYPOST] A new public sculpture in Downtown Brooklyn of a massive arm with the index finger pointed skyward is drawing a wide range of interpretations as to its meaning ‐ with some observers even noting its similarity to an infamous ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... gesture.
The towering bronze piece, called "Unity," was funded by the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and lowered by crane on Saturday to a median at the intersection of Tillary and Adams streets on the approach to the Brooklyn Bridge.
"The 22.5 foot sculpture echoes the Statue of Liberty’s iconic gesture & captures the unique spirit of Brooklyn as a place of uplift & ambition," the agency wrote in a tweet about the unveiling.
But Todd Fine, a city preservation activist, noted that the work bears a striking resemblance to an Islamic hand gesture for the concept of Tawhid ‐ the oneness of God ‐ which has been co-opted as a signal by international terror group ISIS.
"Given the sculpture’s title and design, viewers will inevitably see the Moslem gesture representing Tawhid and the unity of God," said Fine of the $284,000, publicly-funded sculpture. "This gesture became a core propaganda symbol for ISIS, but it has roots that are much deeper in Islam and monotheistic religion."
New Yorkers taking in the work on Sunday, however, had far more innocent interpretations of the larger-than-life limb.
"[It] looks like a sports statue," said Joel Shapiro, 66. "Like we are number one. Seems positive, at least."
Netta Crawford, 32, opined that it was a symbol of Kings County pride, saying, "Maybe [it’s] letting the world know that Brooklyn is number one!"
But Fine wasn’t alone in his belief that the work could conjure images of bloodthirsty ISIS terror fiends.
"There are these various sectarian associations one could make, whether it’s ISIS or the iconography of Michelangelo: the image of God and Adam with their outstretched index fingers," said Michele Bogart, art history professor at Stony Brook University.
"Right now [with] the associations with ISIS Death Eaters, I don’t think that’s an ideal kind of association to put in Downtown Brooklyn."
One person who agreed was Staten Island City Councilman Joe Borelli.
"How can one administration make so many errors on seemingly the most innocuous of tasks?" he asked. They work pretty hard at it.
"Seems like it would have been a nice spot for a non-controversial Mother Cabrini statue," the Republican quipped, in reference to another recent questionable call by Mayor Bill de Blasio ...cryptocommie mayor of New York and for some reason a Dem candidate for president in 2020. Corrupt and incompetent, his qualifications for office seem to consist of being married to a black woman, with whom he honeymooned in Cuba. He has a preppy-looking son named Dante, whose Divine Comedy involved getting his back hair up when a police car drove past him slowly... ’s Cultural Affairs Department. In Noo Yawk, if it ain't controversial, it ain't worth doing.
A panel led by de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, simply ignored the results of a public poll calling for the installation of a statue of Italian-American and Catholic icon Mother Cabrini. "Feh! Whadda they know?"
Actor Chazz Palminteri called McCray a "racist" for the snub and Gov. Andrew Sonny Cuomo offered state funds to build the Cabrini monument anyway.
"Unity" was designed by artist Hank Willis Thomas, who raised eyebrows in September when he proposed replacing male sculptures in Central Park ‐ including one of Christopher Columbus ‐ with monuments to women. Good idea. Nekkid wimmin! Venus de Milo and September Morn and Stormy Daniels and stuff like that. Except for Mother Cabrini. That would be nasty.
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#1
A monument to the coming Wakanda and a finger from the bygone Osama.
[AmGreatness] For a variety of reasons, the 2020 election is going to be a referendum beyond Donald Trump’s record and his Democratic opposition.
The furor that Trump has incurred, and the radical antithesis to his agenda and first term, have redefined the looming election. It is becoming a stark choice between a revolutionary future versus American traditionalism. What kind of revolutionaries promote class stratification?
The choice in reductionist terms will be one between a growing, statist Panopticon, fueled by social media, a media-progressive nexus, and an electronic posse. Online trolls and government bureaucrats seek to know everything about us, in Big Brother fashion to monitor our very thoughts to ferret out incorrect ideas, and then to regiment and indoctrinate us to ensure elite visions of mandated equality and correct behavior‐or else!
In other words, the personality quirks of a Trump or an Elizabeth Warren or a Bernie Sanders will become mostly irrelevant given the existential choice between two quite antithetical ideas of future America. In 2020 we will witness the penultimate manifestation of what radical progressivism has in store for us all‐and the furious, often desperate, and unfettered pushback against it.
...the Democratic Party as we have known it, is extinct for now. It has been replaced since 2016 by a radical progressive revolutionary movement that serves as a touchstone for a variety of auxiliary extremist causes, agendas, and cliques‐almost all of them radically leftwing and nihilistic, and largely without majority popular support.
...If the leading Democratic presidential candidates openly embrace the Green New Deal, reparations, abolishing the Electoral College, welfare for illegal aliens, open borders, amnesties, wealth taxes, a 70-90 percent income tax code, Medicare for all, and legal infanticide‐what is the alternative vision and who stands between all that and a targeted traditional America?
...Our universities effectively have eroded the First Amendment and the due process protections of the Fifth in matters of sexual assault allegations. Higher education is now controlled by a revolutionary clique. It institutionalizes racially segregated dorms and safe spaces, matter of factly promotes censorship, and either cannot or will not prevent students from disrupting lecturers with whom they disagree. What or who exactly say not to all that? Who would dare say that America in its third century is not going to change its use of English pronouns or decide that there are not three and more biological genders?
...On the national level, what or who created a landscape in which the highest echelons of the FBI, CIA, and Justice Department sought to surveil American citizens, undermine a presidential campaign, and abort a presidential transition and then a presidency? If Hillary Clinton had won in 2016, would anyone have objected? Do any object today that she hired a foreign national to work with foreign sources to discredit and smear her political opponent?
Who or what is behind the constant remonstrations that the American people are racist, sexist, homophobic, nativist, xenophobic, and oppressing the transgendered? Who lodges such charges? Who believes them to be true?
...Like it or not, 2020 is going to be a plebiscite on an American version of Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty-Four. One side advocates a complete transformation not just of the American present but of the past as well. The Left is quite eager to change our very vocabulary and monitor our private behavior to ensure we are not just guilty of incorrect behavior but thought as well.
The other side believes America is far better than the alternative, that it never had to be perfect to be good, and that, all and all, its flawed past is a story of a moral nation’s constant struggle for moral improvement.
One side will say, "Just give us more power and we will create heaven on earth." The other says "Why would anyone wish to take their road to an Orwellian nightmare?" The 2020 election is that simple.
#1
Americans will always have their Guns. That essentially is what they are FOR. And then, there is always the military. The US Marines take an Oath directly to the President and to the Constitution.
Go on, Laugh.
#3
Most of the combat units in the military lean heavily republican/libertarian in their political makeup. They would support the legally elected president.
National guard units are different. Most would support their state and go with what side their state did.
[Jpost] The founder of an organization that trained the Syrian "White Helmets" emergency response group has died in Istanbul, his neighbor and a diplomat said on Monday.
James Le Mesurier, founder of the Mayday Rescue group, was found dead early on Monday near his home in central Istanbul's Beyoglu district, the neighbor said. The diplomat said the circumstances around his death were unclear.
The White Helmets, known officially as Syria Civil Defence, have been credited with saving thousands of people in rebel-held areas during years of bombing by Syrian government and Russian forces in the country's civil war.
Mayday Rescue is a not-for-profit organization with offices in Amsterdam and Istanbul whose projects have been funded by the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... and various governments. Mayday Rescue did not immediately respond to an emailed query about Le Mesurier.
A former British army officer and military contractor who founded the shadowy 'White Helmets' has been found dead near his home in Istanbul, days after he was accused by Russia of being a spy with "connections to terrorist groups."
The body of 43-year-old James Le Mesurier was found Monday in the Beyoglu district of the city, with state-run Anadolu news agency reporting that he may have fallen to his death.
The White Helmets, a roughly 3,000 member NGO formally known as the Syrian Civil Defense, was established in Turkey in "late 2012 - early 2013" Le Mesurier trained an initial group of 20 Syrians. The group then received funding from Le Mesurier's Netherlands-based non-profit group, Mayday Rescue - which is in turn funded by grants from the Dutch, British, Danish and German governments.
According to reporter and author Max Blumenthal, the White Helmets received at least $55 million from the British Foreign Office and $23 million from the Agency for International Development. They have also received millions from Qatar, which has backed several extremist groups in Syria including Al Qaeda. Max Blumenthal is a Dem conspiracy, anti-semite crank
The US has provided at least $32 million to the group - around 1/3 of their total funding - through a USAID scheme orchestrated by the Obama State Department and routed overseas using a Washington D.C. contractor participating in USAID's Syria regional program, Chemonics.
[DAILYSABAH] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor... on Monday reiterated a vow to defend its rights in the Eastern Mediterranean, as a response to the Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an Union's plans for restrictive measures against Ankara.
"Turkey will not give up to defend its rights under international law in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and the interests of the Ottoman Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus [TRNC] despite all of the inconsiderate steps of the EU," the Foreign Ministry said in a written statement.
On Monday, the EU Foreign Affairs Council adopted a framework for restrictive measures against Turkey over its drilling activities in the Eastern Mediterranean.
"It is a futile expectation to hope that our country will step back from its rights on the Eastern Mediterranean by yielding to the threats," the ministry stressed.
"Nobody should doubt that Turkey will continue search and drilling activities in the Eastern Mediterranean," it added.
Turkey has consistently contested the Greek Cypriot administration's unilateral drilling in the Eastern Mediterranean, asserting that the Ottoman Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus also has rights to the resources in the area. The unilaterally declared that the boundaries of the Exclusive Economic Zone that the Greek Cypriot administration claims to control violates part of Turkey's continental shelf, particularly in Blocks 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7.
The Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an Union Council adopted a framework for restrictive measures in response to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... 's drilling activities in the Eastern Mediterranean, calling them "unauthorized," the council announced on Monday."The framework will make it possible to sanction individuals or entities responsible for or involved in unauthorized drilling activities of hydrocarbons in the Eastern Mediterranean," the statement read.
Turkey, as a guarantor nation for the Ottoman Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is currently carrying out hydrocarbon exploration activities in the Eastern Mediterranean with two drilling vessels, Fatih and Yavuz, along with Oruc Reis and Barbaros Hayrettin Pasa seismic vessels in the same region.
[DAILYSABAH] Hundreds of protesters, including leftist social organizations and the Bolivian community living in Argentina ...a country located on the other side of the Deep South. It is covered with Pampers and inhabited by Grouchos, who dance the Tangle. They used to have some islands called the Malvinas located where the Falklands are now. They're not supposed to cry for Evita... marched to the Bolivian Consulate in Buenos Aires on Monday in support of Bolivian President Evo Morales.
The protestors who carried out Argentinian and Bolivian flags along with "wiphala," a seven-colored flag that represents the indigenous communities in the Andean region organized the march amid growing tensions in Bolivia after Morales’ resignation on Sunday.
Supporters of the country’s first indigenous leader explained that they see the resignation of the president as a result of a coup d’etat, as Morales himself has also declared on his social media accounts.
Previously on early Monday, Juan Grabois, chairman of the Workers Confederation of the Popular Economy (CTEP) in Argentina, shared a statement on his Twitter account, calling for people to unite against this "new Condor Plan" toward Latin American countries, referring to Operation Candor that was launched by the right dictatorships in Latin America with the support of the CIA in the 1970s.
[DAILYSABAH] Bolivia's interim president-in-waiting pledged Monday to call fresh elections amid protests over political uncertainty caused by President Evo Morales' resignation.
The deputy senate speaker, Jeanine Anez -- constitutionally in line to become interim president following Morales' resignation — said there will be "an electoral process that reflects the will of all Bolivians."
Supporters of the socialist leader set barricades ablaze to block some roads leading to the country's main airport as tension gripped the nation. Looting and fires were reported overnight in La Paz, but few soldiers were seen in the streets, broadcaster Todo Noticias reported.
"We want to protect citizens" from further violence, a young man who was manning a roadblock told Todo Noticias. Both sides, supporters of Morales and the opposition, blamed the other for the violence.
Morales made the announcement on Sunday after weeks of protests and rioting against alleged fraud in the November 20 elections, in which the leftist president took an outright victory against his centre-right challenger, Carlos Mesa.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Having spent years in Latin America I once thought that Argentina contained more stupid people than any place on earth. It was followed by Bolivia. However, witnessing the Democrat Party debates I am now not so sure.
[DAILYSABAH] 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 begun enriching uranium at its underground Fordow site in the latest breach of its deal with major powers, the U.N. nuclear watchdog confirmed on Monday, adding that Tehran's enriched uranium stock has continued to grow.
Iran is breaching the deal's limits on its nuclear activities step by step in response to Washington's withdrawal from the accord last year and its renewed sanctions on Tehran. Tehran says it can quickly undo those breaches if Washington lifts its sanctions.
In a quarterly report, the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency policing the deal said Iran's reserve of enriched uranium and the purity to which it refines uranium remain above the deal's limits. Tehran is also enriching with more advanced centrifuges and enriching at Fordow, which the deal forbids.
[CaspianReport] Relevant now that France is questioning NATO. A lot of things here I didn't know. Who knew that the France was still around? Who knew that France lends these countries their own money?
France has never given up feeling responsible for their former colonies. They’ve quietly spent blood and treasure trying to keep those countries out of trouble — inasmuch as Al Qaeda in North Africa is controlled in Mali, for instance, it is due to French interference and organization of the locals.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
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#2
Despite hysterical and stupid sloganeering by halfwits like Jonah Goldberg, in reality the French are among the least PC nations in Europe.
The un-PC French:
- are unapologetic about nuclear power (unlike the Germans)
- are unapologetic about refusing to allow any negotiations re. their nuclear arsenal (unlike the anti-nuke British, German etc publics)
- are unapologetic about their people's hostility to gay marriage (unlike most of Western Europe)
- are unapologetic about not just their historical but their actual present-day colonialism (unlike everyone in the West)
- are unapologetic about enforcing their border, opposing multiculturalism including demanding that citizens speak the national language and respect the Republic's norms and values (unlike America's idiot political class)
You can find much to agree with on that list. Plenty we could learn from the French.
#6
I believe most of those Arabs were Algerian (at the time, Algeria was not a foreign country or even a colony, but an actual voting province, so not subject to any immigration or migration controls at all). Not saying that it turned out well, but legally they had limited options, unlike the Germans, who literally went out of their way to invite the Turks in just to save themselves the bother of having kids or paying even higher wages.
#7
"They’ve quietly spent blood and treasure trying to keep those countries out of trouble"
Did you watch the video? The French take these countries' wealth and lend it back to them. They aren't spending their own blood and treasure. If anything they are doing nothing more than self-interest, like a farmer keeping foxes out of his henhouse.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
11/12/2019 13:50
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#8
Everyone has greedy self-interests, except our Sooper Patriot
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/12/2019 13:54
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#9
The French take these countries' wealth and lend it back to them.
That's just payment for sex slaves and cocaine trafficing.
[Jpost] Thousands marched through Gay Paree on Sunday in an anti-Islamophobia ...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do... demonstration that has divided La Belle France's political class.
Organizers said they had called the rally in a sign of support two weeks after a man with far-right connections fired shots in a mosque in the southwestern city of Bayonne, injuring two elderly men.
Members of hard-left parties took part in the march - though some others in the center stayed away saying it threatened La Belle France's tradition of secularism, and far right leader Marine Le Pen said the event had been organized by Islamists.
Crowds walked through the capital waving banners marked with the messages "Stop all racism" and "Islamophobia is not an opinion but a crime" at the event organized by the Collectif Contre l'Islamophobie en La Belle France.
"It's up to us to demonstrate after an event like Bayonne to ensure the freedom of religion and thought that goes with it," the head of the far left La Belle France Unbowed party, Jean-Luc Melenchon, told journalists.
But the state secretary in charge of fighting discrimination, Marlene Schiappa, had said the demonstration was a protest against secularism "under the disguise of fighting discrimination."
More than 40% of Moslems said they had felt religious discrimination in La Belle France, according to a survey by Ifop earlier this month.
Islam is the second biggest religion in La Belle France, which has the biggest Moslem minority in Western Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... Last month, a member of Le Pen's National Rally party fueled an ongoing debate about the position of Moslems and Moslem symbols in La Belle France by publicly telling a woman to remove her headscarf.
[Al Jazeera] When in early October Joseph Salio received a phone call from a group of Arab students based in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq asking him to help organise a demonstration in solidarity with the protests in Baghdad and Basra, he did not hesitate to say yes. The 56-year-old member of the Communist Party of Kurdistan saw what was happening in the south as legitimate, rightful and timely.
But, shortly after he set up an event on Facebook and invited friends and media outlets, he says he received a phone call from the Kurdish intelligence regarding the planned demonstration. The same day his coorganisers tried but failed to obtain official written permission from the authorities.
Perceiving that the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) was not supportive of the event, Salio decided to cancel. When asked about this case, the KRG front man Jutyar Adil said he had no information about it.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Al Jazeera] For weeks, protesters in Baghdad and a host of southern Iraqi cities have been relentlessly taking to the streets to demand the departure of the country's ruling elite and an overhaul of the political system that was established in the wake of the 2003 US-led invasion.
Driven by anger over official corruption, high unemployment and poor public services, the protesters have dismissed government pledges to enact limited economic reforms, pressing instead for the removal of the entire political class.
The leaderless protests have been met with extreme violence, with more than 300 people killed by security forces since the demonstrations began on October 1.
Amid the mounting calls for political change, the United States, a main ally of the Iraqi government, urged on Sunday the country's authorities to halt the violence against protesters "and fulfil President [Barham] Salih's promise to pass electoral reform and hold early elections".
But on Monday, protesters in Baghdad insisted that a snap poll was not the solution to the country's problems.
"If they agree to hold early elections, the same faces will return ... They'll just be reshuffled," Thawrah al-Ezzawi told Al Jazeera from Baghdad's Tahrir Square, the hub of the protest movement in the Iraqi capital.
Al-Ezzawi said early elections "would not work" for the Iraqi people who are still waiting on "real change".
"It's like a game of chess," the 49-year old public employee, said, adding that the people would end up paying the price.
"The system needs to change completely, and the people in power need to be held accountable ... They can't think that they can simply leave, that's not enough," she said. "Iraqi families are living under the poverty line in a country that has so much to offer."
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Al Jazeera] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... has deported a US national who is a member of ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... , according to a Ottoman Turkish official, as Ankara said it started repatriating captured fighters belonging to the gang.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) ‐ A Utah death-row inmate who killed his brother’s wife and her toddler because of his strong polygamist beliefs in a case made famous by the book "Under the Banner of Heaven" has died of natural causes, prison officials said Monday.
Ron Lafferty, 78, died at the state prison in the Salt Lake City suburb of Draper, Utah Department of Corrections spokeswoman Kaitlin Felsted said.
The state attorney general’s office had expected him to be executed next year and become the first American put to death by firing squad in nearly a decade.
Lafferty’s case became well-known after it was featured in Jon Krakauer’s 2003 book about radical offshoots of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Krakauer also wrote "Into Thin Air" and "Into the Wild."
Clearly the man is fond of prepositions.
Lafferty claimed he had received a revelation from God to kill the mother and child in 1984 because of the sister-in-law’s resistance to his fundamentalist belief in polygamy. Lafferty carried out the killlngs with his brother, Dan Lafferty, who received a life sentence.
Did anyone ever check him for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder?
Brenda Lafferty was beaten and strangled with a vacuum cleaner cord. She and her 15-month-old daughter, Erica, died after their throats were slashed.
#1
Few things say Biblical retribution the way a vacuum cleaner cord does. Not to be too Jesuitical, but did the Lord God command an Electrolux or go for broke with a Kirby?
#2
I hate such bastards in my soul. Handling the word of God deceitfully, wolves posing as shepherds. Sons of Belial. Because of them, modern society lost the tenuous link to righteous living through the Word of God. Because of them, the leftist can mock God and joke about the Bible and Christ, insult the honest and the God fearing. These fuckers are the Left's stereotype for christians.
We became 'fringe christianity' because we did not conform to organized church bureaucracies and kept to ourselves, not smoking or drinking or fucking around. And these pretenders, these judas-fuckin, blaspheming cockroaches... they got to be bandied about as examples of 'what you'll become if you think about God and the Bible too much.'
[LEGIT.NG] Editor's note: Dan Abakpa from Imperial College, London analyses the operation of the Nigerian Army under the leadership of the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai against insurgents in the northeast region. Abakpa said Shekau has become an inevitable history in Boko Haram terrorism since President Buhari assumed office.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Legit.ng. Your own opinion articles are welcome at info@corp.legit.ng— drop an email telling us what you want to write about and why.
In September 2014, the Jonathan Presidency served a pyrrhic victory to Nigerians over claims that it has killed Boko Haram
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Optimistic news out of Nigeria. Interesting read.
[DAWN] As swarms of locusts descended upon Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... and spread from Malir and Korangi areas to other parts of the city on Monday, the federal and provincial authorities, while ruling out any damage, termed the recent activity as part of the creature’s migration process.
It all began on Sunday afternoon when photos and videos of locusts were shared over social media by different individuals, who claimed that the Malir and Korangi areas had come under a locust attack.
The authorities confirmed the movement of swarms of locusts but denied that any attack on the crops in the city’s rural parts took place.
Sindh Agriculture Minister Ismail Rahu held a meeting and decided to send experts with a fumigation team to the affected areas.
"The sudden emergence of locust is in fact their migratory process," the minister said in a statement. "The people of Karachi should not worry as it is a harmless activity and has almost come to an end. A team of the Sindh agriculture department with experts is monitoring the situation and so far nothing damaging has been reported in any part of the city."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#4
It seems like everything happens in Karachi. Floods, locusts, fires, famines, earthquakes. Just waiting for Godzilla/flying saucers to appear at this point.
Our reporter: Turkish-backed armed opposition groups shelling Syrian government forces' checkpoints & positions on M4, at Sharakrak village, 10km east of Ein Isa After arrival of reinforcements for Turkey's armed groups in the area#syria#Kurd#SDF#US#Turkeypic.twitter.com/GAHNGjZ6Oe
h/t Instapundit
[NextBigFuture] France’s nuclear energy spending was 60% of what Germany spent on renewables. France gets about 400 Terawatt hour per year from nuclear but Germany gets 226 Terawatt-hours each year. 45 Terawatt-hours of Germany’s renewable power comes from burning biomass which generates air pollution.
Germany’s solar farms will have to be rebuilt every 15-25 years. The wind farms will need to be rebuilt every 20-25 years. Nuclear plants can last 40-80+ years. This means that it guaranteed that the solar and wind farms will have to be rebuilt in 15-25 years. The maintenance costs will increase as wind turbines or solar panels are replaced. The old turbines and solar panels will need to be replaced.
France completed construction on 76% of its current 58 reactors at an inflation-adjusted cost of $330 billion (€290 billion). The complete buildout of the 58 reactors was less €400 billion. Germany has spent about €500 billion over the last 20 years to get to 35% renewables. 7% of this is burning biomass. France gets almost double the TWh from nuclear than Germany gets from renewables (solar, wind, biomass, hydro). France has gotten about 400 TWh per year from nuclear while all of Germany’s renewables (solar, wind and biomass) amounts to about 220 TWh.
#2
Going to predict that by the time the Cherman solar and wind infrastructure needs refreshed, there will not even be funds to decommission and safely remove the worn out stuff.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
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The details of this case are simply horrifying. One woman tried for years to conceive a child, but couldn’t. When she finally consulted a fertility specialist, she discovered, according to the Virginian-Pilot, that her “Fallopian tubes had been burned down to nubs, making it impossible to conceive naturally.” It turned out that her physician, Dr. Javaid Perwaiz of Chesapeake, Virginia, had tied her tubes without telling her was doing it or obtaining her consent. And she was by no means the only woman whom Dr. Perwaiz victimized in this way.
Dr. Perwaiz’s website is the soul of helpfulness, noting that he has “practiced in the Chesapeake region for over 30 years, providing expert and individualized care to his patients."
About the good doctor we are told that he was “educated abroad,” with no hint as to where – it was actually in his native Pakistan, as the Virginian-Pilot notes: “Perwaiz has had a medical license since at least 1980, according to state records, having attended medical school in his native Pakistan and completed a residency at Charleston Area Medical Center.”
Not all those whom he welcomed came away the better for it. Dr. Perwaiz was placed under arrest Friday and faces trial on charges of health care fraud and “making false statements relating to health care matters.” He became the subject of an FBI investigation fourteen months ago, when an employee at a local hospital tipped off the feds to suspicions that he was performing surgeries that weren’t necessary on patients who didn’t know what procedures they were undergoing. According to the Virginian-Pilot, “the employee told investigators Perwaiz’s patients advised hospital staff they were there for their ‘annual clean outs,’ according to an affidavit signed by FBI Special Agent Desiree Maxwell.”
These “annual clean outs” consisted of “hysterectomies, cystectomies, myomectomies, tubal ligation and dilation & curettage,” and more. He was busy, too: “From January 2014 to August 2018, he performed a surgical procedure on 40 percent of his Medicaid patients — 510 in all. Of those, 42 percent underwent two or more surgeries.”
#1
We encountered one gynecologist in west Bengal who did the same. In fact she use to abort babies after delivering them, a la PPhood. And the chinese offed an entire clinic full some years ago, run by a closet muslim lady quack.
It's a very real tactic. Another 'technical support' level assist to their jihadi 'extremist' brethren. Moderate muslims, educated muslims, doctors, engineers and lawyers... all loyal Allan cultists.
[MEMRI] Many Twitter users referred to the invasion in religious terms. All the tweets in this report included the hashtag #OperationPeaceFountain, indicating that they were in reference to the invasion, and they are here categorized loosely into those that mention jihad, martyrdom, unbelievers, President Erdogan as caliph, and the Ottoman Turkish army as mujahideen, "the Army of Muhammad," and "the army of Islam," though many of the tweets used more than one of these terms. While many tweets were entirely original, others quoted various sources, including: Koran verses, hadiths, religious scholars, companions of Muhammad, historical figures such as 11th century Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan, 12th century sultan Saladin, 13th century founder of the Mongol Empire Genghis Khan, and 15th century Ottoman sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, and Ottoman Turkish poets such as Yahya Kemal, Arif Nihat Asya, and Ekrem Sama.
"if Allah grants it we will make you sultan, we will establish the Ottoman [state] and make you the caliph."
While most of the images in the tweets are of Ottoman Turkish soldiers, sometimes praying and sometimes in combat, other images include: a Ottoman Turkish flag modified to include Koran verses about conquest; and a map of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... expanded to include within Turkey's borders much of what is now northern Syria and Iraq, as well as Greece, Bulgaria, Armenia, Georgia, and Cyprus. Another image used in the tweets showed Turkmen fighters from the Syrian National Army using a Ottoman Turkish nationalist hand gesture. Some tweets had Ottoman themes, including an image of the Ottoman coat of arms, a flag used by the Committee of Union and Progress, references to an Ottoman marching song, and a message to President Erdogan from one user that "if Allah grants it we will make you sultan, we will establish the Ottoman [state] and make you the caliph."
#3
Or you could view this incursion as Lebensraum redux and equate those tweets to the letters to the editor in favor of der Furher when the Nazis overran the Sudetenland. Word of warning, Yip-yip and cronies, don't expect a run thru Poland when the Bear decides to take notice of you, 'cause guess what? Given you aren't acting like an ally, NATO isn't going to come to your rescue.
[AlAhram] A rights group in Iraq says four protesters have been killed and some 130 maimed in festivities between security forces and protesters in Nasriyah in the south of the country.
The semi-official Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights described on Monday the previous day's incidents in the city of Nasiryah as ``regrettable,'' adding that some of the maimed are at death's doors.
At least 320 protesters have been killed by security forces since the protests and unrest over living conditions began last month.
The Nasiriyah casualties occurred during confrontations outside the education directorate as security forces tear-gassed protesters trying to block employees from reaching the building in the city center.
[DAILYSABAH] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund... and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) discussed Monday voluntary repatriation of Syrians to their home country, according to Turkey's Foreign Ministry.
"Discussions took place today (11 November) in Geneva on the voluntary repatriation of Syrians between the respective teams of Turkey and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) [...]," the ministry said in a written statement.
It added that the meeting held under the auspices of Turkey's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Yavuz Selim Kiran and Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Gillian Triggs.
The ministry noted that follow-up discussions will be held in Turkey, without specifying a date.
"Turkey, hosting the largest refugee population in the world, remains committed to working with UNHCR on all refugee matters, including durable solutions for Syrians," it added.
[KhaamaPress] The security forces conducted Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in five provinces of Afghanistan in the past 24 hours killing at least 20 Talibs, the military officials said.
The officials further added an airstrike in Chak-e Wardak district of Wardak province killed four Talibs.
Another airstrike in Zurmat district of Paktiya killed two Talibs, the officials said, adding that a similar airstrike in Shinkai district of Zabul killed three Talibs.
The officials also added that an airstrike in Maruf district of Kandahar killed 9 Talibs while an air raid in Nad Ali district of Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... killed two Talibs.
The Taliban ...Arabic for students... group has not commented regarding the airstrikes so far.
[Al Jazeera] Hong Kong police opened fire and maimed at least one protester during a fracas broadcast live on Facebook, as chaos erupted across China's self-governing territory during rush hour on Monday.
Footage showed a police officer drawing his weapon in the eastern district of Sai Wan Ho as he tried to detain a masked man at a road junction that had been blocked by protesters.
Another masked man then approached the officer and appeared to get shot in the chest area, falling to the ground, clutching his left side. He was later admitted to hospital where he was reported to be at death's door.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[DAILYSABAH] AOttoman Turkish aid agency is continuing to coordinate the distribution of food, water, personal care items, blankets, and toys to civilians in parts of northern Syria that were liberated in the Ottoman Turkish military operation launched last month.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor... 's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said on Monday that it continues to distribute humanitarian aid from the Ottoman TurkishRed Islamic Thingy and other NGOs to the area of Operation Peace Spring.
The aid to civilians in northern Syria includes 5,921 food parcels, 131,500 kilograms of flour, 80,900 loaves of bread, 26,253 other food materials, 20,466 bottles of water, 2,726 bottles of other drinks, 2,475 personal care sets, 1,990 blankets and 1,500 toys for children.
On Oct. 9 Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring to eliminate People's Protections Units (YPG)/PKK bully boyz from northern Syria in order to secure Turkey's borders, aid in the safe return of Syrian refugees, and ensure Syria's territorial integrity.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[AmGreatness] Fox News is reporting that a former fundraiser for Barack Obama repeatedly misused funds from his non-profit organization for both political and personal use before the organization went bankrupt.
Dixon Slingerland is accused of taking the funds from the California-based non-profit, the Youth Policy Institute, and spending them on a "lavish" lifestyle and "partisan political contributions" before the YPI filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
In the filing, YPI asked Slingerland to repay approximately $1.7 million back, which the organization says is an amount that was gradually stolen over the course of five years. He worked for YPI for 23 years and earned roughly $400,000 per year before he was fired from the organization.
Slingerland's fundraising efforts have included the 2013 campaign of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, a broad donation to Democratic congressional candidates in 2018, and raising $743,000 for Barack Obama between both the 2008 and 2012 election cycles.
Slingerland called the accusations "extremely misleading," and claimed that he has "made several attempts to meet with YPI leadership to resolve any and all issues," but that "YPI has refused to engage in discussions" regarding the allegations. He did admit to "a handful of expenditures mistakenly made" with his business credit card at YPI, but did not elaborate further.
#5
Dixon Slingerland is accused of taking the funds from the California-based non-profit, the Youth Policy Institute, and spending them on a "lavish" lifestyle and "partisan political contributions" before the YPI filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Laundering AmeriCorps money ($40m per year) thru a non-profit? How innovative.
AmeriCorps is a voluntary civil society program supported by the U.S. federal government, foundations, corporations, and other donors engaging adults in public service work with a goal of helping others and meeting critical needs in the community.""
YPI (the children) is one venue. I hate to ask, but could there possibly be others ?
#8
I wouldn't want to be the CPA's who did the audit on this 'non-profit' - failing (or otherwise) to detect a seven figure fraud will not redound well to them - goodbye professional CPA licenses, at a bare minimum.
[Jpost] Iran’s 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... traveled to the city of Yazd on Sunday to deliver a speech about Iran’s economy, the oil sector and to express sympathy with earthquake victims. He also revealed massive allegations of corruption.
In a rare rebuke, the president attacked the oil minister and demanded to know where $700 million in funds have gone, and slammed the judiciary and the Central Bank over a separate $2 billion corruption case.
Continued on Page 49
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.
[New York Post] In December 1978, a bizarre theater company headed by an actress from the "Slaughterhouse-Five" film was run out of San Francisco.
From the NXIVM Wiki link:
...embracing their inner Islamic Brute...
[DAILYSABAH] Around the world, most people graduate from university between the ages 21 and 25; however, 9-year-old Laurent Simons is about to graduate from Eindhoven Technical University's Department of Electronics Engineering in couple of months. Simons will also break the world record as the youngest university graduate, a title previously held by Michael Kearney who graduated from the University of Alabama at the age of 10.
[KhaamaPress] An explosion triggered by an improvised 
...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat 
WASHINGTON (AP) ‐ Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday that an Army officer has no reason to fear retribution for testifying before Congress in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.
...formerly 
[Al Jazeera] The 
[DAILYSABAH] An indictment on the Gülenist Terror Group's (FETÖ) scheme to plant its members into the Foreign Ministry has concluded and been referred to the court by prosecutors. Prosecutors are asking for prison terms up to 42 years for dozens of suspects accused of cheating their way into several posts in the Turkish diplomatic services.
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
[FoxNews] The long-running battle over the Trump administration’s bid to end the Obama-era program for young undocumented im
[NYPOST] A new public sculpture in Downtown Brooklyn of a massive arm with the index finger pointed skyward is drawing a wide range of interpretations as to its meaning ‐ with some observers even noting its similarity to an infamous 
"Given the sculpture’s title and design, viewers will inevitably see the 
...cryptocommie mayor of New York and for some reason a Dem candidate for president in 2020. Corrupt and incompetent, his qualifications for office seem to consist of being married to a black woman, with whom he honeymooned in Cuba. He has a preppy-looking son named Dante, whose Divine Comedy involved getting his back hair up when a police car drove past him slowly...
...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor...
social organizations and the Bolivian community living in 
...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 
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
The details of this case are simply horrifying. One woman tried for years to conceive a child, but couldn’t. When she finally consulted a fertility specialist, she discovered, according to the Virginian-Pilot, that her “Fallopian tubes had been burned down to nubs, making it impossible to conceive naturally.” It turned out that her physician, Dr. Javaid Perwaiz of Chesapeake, Virginia, had tied her tubes without telling her was doing it or obtaining her consent. And she was by no means the only woman whom Dr. Perwaiz victimized in this way.
[MEMRI] Many Twitter users referred to the invasion in religious terms. All the tweets in this report included the hashtag #OperationPeaceFountain, indicating that they were in reference to the invasion, and they are here categorized loosely into those that mention jihad, martyrdom, unbelievers, President Erdogan as caliph, and the 
...
[AmGreatness] Fox News is reporting that a former fundraiser for Barack Obama repeatedly misused funds from his non-profit organization for both political and personal use before the organization went bankrupt.
