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PA court sentences Palestinians to 15 years hard labor for selling land to Jews
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
14:15 2 18:24 Alaska Paul [13]
14:01 5 22:56 Frank G [15]
13:53 0 [6] 
13:30 1 14:00 Herb McCoy [10]
12:15 4 13:45 Rambler in Virginia [10]
11:51 4 22:31 Lionel Spomolet1759 [9]
09:16 1 14:19 Anomalous Sources [10]
08:58 2 09:23 Frank G [10]
08:42 1 12:06 Besoeker [10]
08:42 3 13:18 Ebbavirt Clunk4147 [8]
08:25 5 17:19 Craish Splat1670 [14]
08:09 3 12:41 Herb McCoy [12]
07:19 3 23:32 Silentbrick [9]
06:52 1 11:10 newc [8]
06:48 4 18:15 Alaska Paul [13]
06:34 2 11:58 Abu Uluque [7]
05:16 8 13:13 Besoeker [8]
05:12 7 16:41 CrazyFool [10]
04:02 5 13:24 Herb McCoy [15]
03:38 2 09:02 Zenobia Bluetooth4652 [10]
03:34 7 11:30 Eohippus Dribble5682 [7]
03:25 6 16:53 swksvolFF [7]
03:02 8 18:39 Alaska Paul [11]
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00:00 4 17:01 swksvolFF [10]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
POTUS Warns: 'We May Close The Whole Border' With Mexico If Things get Uncontrollable
[grabie news] During an extended conversation with the press following a Thanksgiving call with military leadership, President Trump said he might shut down the entire southern border.

Trump said he recently shutdown the border between Tijuana and San Diego and is considering shutting down the entire southern border.

Here’s an excerpt:

REPORTER: "Mr. President, what about the idea that the military may use lethal force against these migrants?"
TRUMP: "If they have to, they’re going to to use lethal force. I’ve given the OK. If they have to, I hope they don’t have to, but you’re dealing with a minimum of 500 serious criminals. So I’m not going to let the military be taken advantage of. I have no choice. Do I want that to happen? Absolutely not, but you’re dealing with rough people. You ask the people in Tijuana, Mexico, they opened up with wide arms, just come in, come in, let me help you, let us take care of you. And within two days, now they’re going crazy to get them out. They want them out. Because things are happening, bad things are happening in Tijuana. And again, it’s not in this country because we’ve closed it up. Actually, two days ago, we closed the border. We actually just closed it. We say nobody is coming in because it was out of control. But you take a look at Tijuana, Mexico. You see what’s happening there. It’s really a bad situation."
REPORTER: "What do you mean you closed the border and nobody is coming in? What do you mean by that?"
TRUMP: "If we find that it’s uncontrollable, Josh, if we find that it’s ‐ it gets to a level where we are going to lose control or where people are going to start getting hurt, we will close entry into the country for a period of time until we can get it under control."
REPORTER: "Do you mean the entire border?" [crosstalk]
TRUMP: "The whole border. I mean the whole border. And Mexico will not be able to sell their cars into the United States where they make so many at great benefit to them ‐ not a great benefit to us, by the way. But at least now we have a good new trade deal with Mexico and with Canada. But we will close the border. And that means that Mexico is not going to be able to sell their cars into the United States until it’s open. But we’re going to either have a border or we’re not. And when they lose control of the border on the Mexico side, we just close the border. And we have a very powerful border. We built a very strong border in a very short period of time. And the military has been fantastic, the job they have done. And by the way, Border Patrol and ICE, all of the law enforcement we have involved, and we have local law enforcement, too, they have done an incredible job. And they have wanted this for you know, I’m the first president who’s done to this extent, but they wanted this for years. And some of the presidents, I guess they didn’t care or they wanted open borders. I don’t think they wanted open borders. Because most of them, if you go back to 2006, they all approved essentially a wall, a very powerful fence, which is pretty much the same thing. But in 2006, if you look, Obama, you look at Hillary Clinton, you look at Schumer, all of the people that are standing up protesting, they think it’s good for them politically. See, I think it’s bad for them politically. I think the fact that they’re weak on the border is very, very bad for them politically. But you know, I have only been a politician for three years so maybe they know better than me."



Emphasis added
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 14:15 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...I'd respectfully suggest that the minute one of those people gets within sight of the border, shut off the money transfers. I figure it'll take just a couple days for the Mexican government to end this crap muy pronto.

Mike

Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 11/22/2018 18:15 Comments || Top||

#2  You are right, Mike. In these situations, you must get the attention of the neighboring country. And you have to send a message to the countries and financiers of the marches invasions.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/22/2018 18:24 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Happy Thanksgiving from WKRP..and me


Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 11/22/2018 14:01 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I know I published this late, but it needs to be seen today — tomorrow it would not feel the same.

Hope y’all are having a good Turkey Day!
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2018 18:16 Comments || Top||

#2  As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/22/2018 18:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/22/2018 19:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Les Nesman, Buckeye Award winner!
Bailey Quarters! Oh, yes!
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 11/22/2018 19:20 Comments || Top||

#5  Had a great Thanksgiving. Hoping all had a good one as well
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2018 22:56 Comments || Top||


Thanksgiving Message From VETPAW
[FB] This THANKSGIVING, VETPAW is grateful to all our supporters who enable us to put U.S. VETERANS to work protecting rhinos, elephants and other endangered animals in South Africa, day after day. If YOU are GRATEFUL for the sacrifice our Veterans make over the holidays to protect these animals, please HELP US curtail the POACHING EPIDEMIC by putting more VETS ON THE GROUND to assist in THE FIGHT TO STOP THE KILLING OF RHINOS AND ELEPHANTS.

This Thanksgiving and Christmas WE NEED YOUR HELP! It costs VETPAW about $25,000 to train, equip and support a Post 9-11 Veteran to participate in protecting endangered rhinos, elephants and other African animals for three months and help stop the killing!

VETPAW web site.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 13:53 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:


Peter Jackson's colorized WWI documentary hits US theaters in December
[engadget] Peter Jackson's critically acclaimed World War I documentary They Shall Not Grow Old is slated to hit select theaters in the US this December. To give you a peek into what you can expect, Warner Bros. has released a trailer that shows the difference between the original footage Jackson worked with and the final product that made it into the film. They Shall Not Grow Old was met with critical acclaim when it premiered at the BFI London Film Festival, aired on BBC Two and was made available to stream via the network's iPlayer app.

Jackson and his team were mainly praised for how they handled the digital restoration and colorization of the original 100-year-old footage the BBC used for its original 1964 documentary series The Great War. In addition to recoloring the film's frames as realistically as possible, Jackson and team used computers to build interstitial frames between real ones. The technique helped get rid of twitchy movements associated with old, black-and-white footage, making the subjects feel more life-like. They also applied a moderate 3D enhancement and enlisted actors to provide voices for the film's silent subjects: British soldiers who fought in the war.

They Shall Not Grow Old will be shown in select US theaters on December 17th and 27th. You can watch its trailer below:

Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 13:30 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You should download and watch that BBC series. It is really, really good. They don't make TV like that any more.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 11/22/2018 14:00 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
French boy 'killed for not doing homework' in Mulhouse
[BBC] Four members of the same family have been arrested after a nine-year-old boy was beaten to death at his home in the eastern French city of Mulhouse.
After hearing the news, his former classmates became very attentive.
Police sources told local media that the boy had refused to do his homework and was hit with a broom handle.

The boy's elder brother, sister and stepsister were all present at the time of the incident.

Although his mother was not there, she too has been arrested and was aware of what was going on, reports say.

The boy's death in the early hours of Sunday prompted a vigil in the centre of Mulhouse among residents who rallied round his parents.

But the family's initial accounts of what had happened and the ensuing post-mortem examination prompted police to continue their investigation. Bruises were discovered on the boy's body, particularly on his feet, according to Alsace website DNA.

Although he had suffered a cardiac arrest, pathologists said the cause of death had been the blows he had suffered, DNA reported.

A police source was quoted as saying he had been struck by blunt objects.

The boy's mother had been away from home on a business trip but had actively encouraged his punishment because he did not want to do his homework, French media said.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 12:15 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Learned him good - won't do that again
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2018 12:26 Comments || Top||

#2  I need one of those krayon holders for my shooting bean bag.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 12:29 Comments || Top||

#3  At least he wasn't killed by gun violence.
Posted by: no mo uro || 11/22/2018 13:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Wow, and the nuns I had for teachers were tough!
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 11/22/2018 13:45 Comments || Top||


-Obits-
Base Jumper Dominik Loyen's last jump
[BBC] A well-known German base jumper has died during an attempted jump in Portugal, German media report.
Used GoPro for sale, some minor scratches.
Dominik Loyen's parachute did not open during Monday's jump from a 100m (330ft) cliff in the coastal town of Nazaré, police told Bild newspaper.

An investigation into the incident is under way, Bild said.

Mr Loyen, 50, had been living in Switzerland, where base jumping is allowed, and was an instructor in Spain.

Video of the incident in Nazaré, a well-known surfing destination, shows Mr Loyen jumping together with another base jumper.

However while the other jumper's parachute opens, Mr Loyen's does not and he strikes several rocks during his fall to the beach, where rescuers were unable to revive him, Bild reported.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 11:51 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ....from a 100m (330ft)

That's asking quite a lot from a reserve chute, assuming he was wearing one... which I doubt.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 11:56 Comments || Top||

#2  I'd want a compressed air drogue opener
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/22/2018 14:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Gakh.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/22/2018 17:06 Comments || Top||

#4  Base jumpers usually don't wear a reserve. That's part of the cachet
Posted by: Lionel Spomolet1759 || 11/22/2018 22:31 Comments || Top||


Government
Don't Worry, The Military At The Border Is Ignoring The White House
[Inquisitr] In a truly shocking and unprecedented turn of events, the White House authorized the use of "lethal force" at the Mexican border, per a cabinet order signed on Wednesday by Chief of Staff John Kelly, as previously reported by the Inquisitr.

This is terrifying news for those who imagine hundreds of immigrants, including women and children, being gunned down by American troops. However, that’s not going to happen ‐ despite the authorization from the White House.

U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis stated that the military police at the border don’t even have weapons. They will not be armed, and they will not have the power to carry out arrests.

"There is no armed element going on," Mattis told reporters on Wednesday, according to the BBC.

Around 3,000 immigrants, mainly from Honduras and Guatemala, are in Tijuana right now. Tijuana is a border city just outside the state of California.

The immigrants are part of a caravan that set out for the U.S. weeks ago, walking for hundreds of miles to flee gangs, drug activity, poverty, and violence in their home countries.

Donald Trump has stated that they are an invasion. Meanwhile, he has deployed around 8,000 active military and National Guard troops at the border, which has been fortified with barbed wire.

Mattis told reporters that the Department of Homeland Security did not ask for lethal force to be authorized. "Relax, don’t worry about it," he said Wednesday.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 09:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "...Department of Homeland Security did not ask for lethal force to be authorized." but, per Breitbart.

Sounds like DHS can make the call. And, if push came to shove, my research indicates that the USCG could be brought in without consideration to Posse Comitatus issues.

Interesting times indeed.
Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 11/22/2018 14:19 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Child bride auction in South Sudan goes viral, sparks anger
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) ‐ Five hundred cows, two luxury cars, $10,000, two bikes, a boat and a few cell phones made up the final price in a heated bidding war for a child bride in South Sudan that went viral after the auction was pointed out on Facebook. It is the largest dowry ever paid in the civil war-torn country, the government said.

The highest bidder was a man three times the 17-year-old's age. At least four other men in Eastern Lakes state competed, said Philips Anyang Ngong, a human rights lawyer who tried to stop the bidding last month. Among the bidders was the state's deputy governor.

"She has been reduced to a mere commodity," Ngong told The Associated Press, calling it "the biggest test of child abuse, trafficking and auctioning of a human being." Everyone involved should be held accountable, he said.

Earlier this month, Nyalong became the man's ninth wife. Photos posted on Facebook show her sitting beside the groom, wearing a lavish dress and staring despondently at the floor. The AP is using only her first name to protect her identity. The groom did not respond to requests for comment.

South Sudan has a deeply rooted cultural practice of paying dowries for brides, usually in the form of cows. It also has a long history of child marriage. Even though that practice is now illegal, 40 percent of girls still marry before age 18, according to the United Nations Population Fund. The practice "threatens girls' lives" and limits prospects for their future, said Dr. Mary Otieno, the agency's country representative.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 08:58 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Certainly wouldn't want to simply call it a SLAVE auction now would we ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 9:04 Comments || Top||

#2  She's 17. Mo would've called her an old hag
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2018 9:23 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Aid Group Says Migrants Prepared to ‘JUMP' Across Border En Masse
[Daily Caller] An aid group sympathetic to the migrant caravan currently parked in Tijuana says some members of the group are planning to scramble across the U.S. border en masse.

According to Fox News, Angels without Borders founder Sergio Tamai talked to San Diego’s Spanish-language media Telemundo 20 and said, "They have that intention. I believe that thousands could make that jump."

There are about 3,000 migrants camping out in Tijuana with many more on the way. The locals have not exactly been welcoming, with the mayor and an angry mob calling the would-be Central American refugees "an invasion" and calling them "criminals" and "freeloaders."

The Department Of Homeland Security is warning Americans that the migrants are not an innocuous collection of women and children. (RELATED: DHS: Migrant Caravan On Border Contains More Than 500 Criminals)

It is uncertain what happens next. A federal judge nixed President Donald Trump’s plans to order a temporary halt to illegal immigrants obtaining refugee status. If the migrants are allowed to apply for asylum, it could take six months to assess their claims.

But many of the migrants aren’t prepared to wait for due process and tell Telemundo that they are prepared to break-in to the United States.

This isn't new. Years before they did the mass run for the border through the southbound and northbound car lanes. The shutdown the other day was to prepare for it. Also, expect CBP to effectively shut down the crossing completely as a message to Messico that they better get their shit together: either they can be a partner or suffer the economic loss.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 08:42 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If I were a caravan organizer, that's what I would do.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 12:06 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
‘School Choice Moms' Tipped the Governor's Florida Race
h/t Instapundit
[WSJ] Believe it or not, Republican Ron DeSantis owes his victory in the Florida gubernatorial election to about 100,000 African-American women who unexpectedly chose him over the black Democratic candidate, Andrew Gillum.
Race/gender traitoresses!!!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2018 08:42 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "B*tch set me up..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/22/2018 9:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Of the roughly 650,000 black women who voted in Florida, 18% chose Mr. DeSantis, according to CNN’s exit poll of 3,108 voters. This exceeded their support for GOP U.S. Senate candidate Rick Scott (9%), Mr. DeSantis’s performance among black men (8%) and the GOP’s national average among black women (7%).

I need to get ready for Thanksgiving, so I’ll drop the headline into the Google app so I can read the rest this evening when we’re alone.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2018 9:42 Comments || Top||

#3  BLEXIT.
Posted by: Ebbavirt Clunk4147 || 11/22/2018 13:18 Comments || Top||


POTUS keeps up Justice Roberts exchange: Cites 9th Circuit as 'a complete & total disaster'
[The Hill] President Trump on Thursday continued to respond to a rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts, saying the Supreme Court justice "can say what he wants" while defending his criticism of the federal judiciary following a ruling against his administration this week.

"Justice Roberts can say what he wants, but the 9th Circuit is a complete & total disaster," Trump wrote on Twitter, calling the San Francisco-based court of appeals "out of control." He also said "there will be only bedlam, chaos, injury and death" unless law enforcement can "DO THEIR JOB."

Skipping down to the BLUF:


"Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have 'Obama judges,' and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country," he tweeted.

U.S. District Court Judge Jon Tigar on Monday had sided with opponents of the Trump administration policy prohibiting certain immigrants from claiming asylum, granting their request for a temporary restraining order.

Trump blasted the ruling the following day while not referring to the judge by name but calling him "an Obama judge."

Tigar was appointed to the federal bench by the former president in 2012.

Trump went after the judge at the White House while railing against the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases appealed by the district court in California.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 08:25 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Not to be a spoilsport, but should this be in "Opinion"?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2018 8:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Opinion?

Probably, at least until they officially change the name to the 9th Circus Court.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/22/2018 9:10 Comments || Top||

#3  I see that someone already moved it to Non-WoT.

Fascinating how President Trump leveraged a small quarrel to start a national conversation. Again.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2018 9:45 Comments || Top||

#4 
Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 11/22/2018 14:06 Comments || Top||

#5  A train, Pennsylvania to Penn;
The President stuffed the UN:
On Thanksgiving, smirky,
Don pissed off a turkey
By pardoning Mr. Gülen.
Posted by: Craish Splat1670 || 11/22/2018 17:19 Comments || Top||


American Conservative Conference Calls for Restraint in U.S. Foreign Policy, End to Unauthorized Wars
[Breitbart] Lawmakers and foreign policy experts gathered in Washington, DC, on Thursday for a day-long conference to discuss the need for a more restrained American foreign policy.
FOR SALE! Prestigious McLean address, easy access to GW Pkwy.
The conference, which took place in the Hart Senate Capitol Building, featured Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) as the keynote speaker, and panels discussing U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and East Asia, defense spending, and military readiness. It was hosted by The American Conservative magazine.

"I’m convinced that there is a majority of American people who believe as I do and as many of you do that we’ve been at war too long, and in too many places. I think there is a possibility for changing things, and I will continue to agitate for that," Paul said during his remarks.

The American Conservative Editor Jim Antle began the conference by noting that two consecutive presidents ‐ Trump and former President Barack Obama ‐ had questioned U.S. foreign policy post-9/11. Yet, he said, the same wars are still ongoing. He called for Congress to regain and reassert their constitutional powers over matters of war and peace. "Will they rein in the executive branch in this area as the constitution requires it?" he asked.

Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Ken Buck (R-CO), who spoke on a bipartisan panel, called for more members of Congress to take back control over declaring war, particularly in Yemen. The U.S. has since 2015 supported a Saudi-led coalition fighting against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 08:09 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's not the executive branch per se, it's the deep state. They're responsible for our wars. Trump tried to reign them in and they reacted violently. They will run our government's policy without anyone's input.

War, endless war until the entire globe is under a single government. That's the goal. Put the US military in every single country, including Russia and China. Sound crazy? It's not, really.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 11/22/2018 9:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Why yes, it is
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2018 9:48 Comments || Top||

#3  What is the end goal for globalists?

Why did we have obviously awful crap like the TPP? It was an intermediate step towards a global governance. It was going to overtop the Constitution, which was the entire idea.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 11/22/2018 12:41 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Trump plan would force asylum seekers to wait in Mexico as cases are processed
Feel the WaPo Butthurt. "a major break with current failed policy"
[Wash Post] Central Americans who arrive at U.S. border crossings seeking asylum in the United States will have to wait in Mexico while their claims are processed under sweeping new measures the Trump administration is preparing to implement, according to internal planning documents and three Department of Homeland Security officials familiar with the initiative.

According to DHS memos obtained by The Washington Post on Wednesday, Central American asylum seekers who cannot establish a "reasonable fear" of persecution in Mexico will not be allowed to enter the United States and would be turned around at the border.

The plan, called "Remain in Mexico," amounts to a major break with current screening procedures, which generally allow those who establish a fear of return to their home countries to avoid immediate deportation and remain in the United States until they can get a hearing with an immigration judge. Trump despises this system, which he calls "catch and release," and has vowed to end it.
Now the spin and editorializing:
Among the thousands of Central American migrants traveling by caravan across Mexico, many hope to apply for asylum due to threats of gang violence or other persecution in their home countries. They had expected to be able to stay in the United States while their claims move through immigration court. The new rules would disrupt those plans, and the hopes of other Central Americans who seek asylum in the United States each year.

Trump remains furious about the caravan and the legal setbacks his administration has suffered in federal court, demanding hard-line policy ideas from aides. Senior adviser Stephen Miller has pushed to implement the Remain in Mexico plan immediately, though other senior officials have expressed concern about implementing it amid sensitive negotiations with the Mexican government, according to two DHS officials and a White House adviser with knowledge of the plan, which was discussed at the White House on Tuesday, anonymous people familiar with the matter said.
Messico may be more eager to stop the caravans if they have to keep them indefinitely
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2018 07:19 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hill: A Mexican official told The Post that Mexican law does not allow those seeking asylum in other countries to stay in Mexico.

Whoops
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2018 7:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Putting the screws on Mexico and discouraging future asylum seekers...about damn time.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/22/2018 11:50 Comments || Top||

#3  How long before some judge says they must be released in the US? We should make them wait in Alaska, in tents. They can go home anytime they want.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 11/22/2018 23:32 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
By agreeing to Gaza ceasefire, PM showed why he is ‘King Bibi'
[Jpost] For his entire tenure, the knock on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been that he reflexively chooses the path of least resistance based exclusively on electoral calculations. Last week, the premier did the exact opposite by agreeing to a highly unpopular and potentially politically damaging ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

For seven months, the Gaza Strip’s terrorist rulers have staged violent riots along the border; launched incendiary devices into southern Israel that have ravaged the surrounding ecosystem; and intermittently fired projectiles at innocent civilians living in adjacent communities, culminating in the largest-ever barrage in a 24-hour period of nearly 500 mortars and rockets.

Nevertheless, and despite heavy pressure from within his coalition and the public at large, Netanyahu made the "tough" choice that many had concluded he was incapable of making.

While the premier might be faulted for squandering four years of relative calm since the last major conflict with Hamas to devise a comprehensive strategy to cope with the threat, there are only two long-term options for dealing with Gaza: namely, taking unilateral measures to ease the blockade with a view to empowering people who might eventually choose life over Hamas’ radical Islamic ideology of which a core element is the death of the Jewish state; or to re-occupy Gaza and its two million hostile Palestinian inhabitants through military action that likely would result in hundreds of Israeli fatalities and perhaps thousands of casualties.
Well, actually, there's a third option
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2018 06:52 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is in a hold pattern. We were really talking ground incursion. Yet in true form, Bibi decided to take a breath. And I AM happy with that for now.

There must be fundamental change in Gush Katif - and the support that goes into it.
We are not going to be doing this much longer.
Posted by: newc || 11/22/2018 11:10 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
U.N. calls on Israel to halt daily violations of Lebanese airspace
[Jpost] Israel has increased its almost daily aerial actions in Lebanese airspace by 35% from July to October 24, in response to growing IDF concern over Hezbollah missiles and Iranian activity in the country and neighboring Syria.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon "recorded 550 air violations, totaling 2,057 overflight hours," according to a report written by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, which the Security Council in New York debated behind closed doors on Wednesday without any conclusions.

"Unmanned aerial vehicles accounted for 481 of these violations (87%), with the remaining violations involving fighter jets or unidentified air crafts. UNIFIL protested all air violations to the Israel Defense Forces and urged their immediate cessation," Guterres stated.
Su madre, cabron
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2018 06:48 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  If Lebanon wanted air sovereignty, they shouldn't host a hostile terrorist group as the dominant military force. You can't claim sovereignty when you don't actually, you know, have it
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2018 8:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah, but how many of these incursions are by the nasty Juice Pigeons?
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/22/2018 9:09 Comments || Top||

#3  So we are just going to ignore ground incursions by Juice squirrels and lizards?
Posted by: SteveS || 11/22/2018 9:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Lebanon has not had sovereignty over its territory, land or air, for a number of decades.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/22/2018 18:15 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Things I Am Thankful For That Will Annoy Liberals
[Townhall] This Thanksgiving Day, there are many things that I’m thankful for, things that are a blessing in my life, and many things that are a traumatic source of pain to my enemies. Often, they are both at the same time. Now, I’m not sure if I’m doing Thanksgiving right by being thankful for the failure and misery of people who are bad, but I’m also thankful that I don’t care about such conundrums.

Anyway, here are some of the things that I’m thankful for this year...

Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2018 06:34 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It’s a good list.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2018 9:32 Comments || Top||

#2  I am thankful for politically incorrect websites.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/22/2018 11:58 Comments || Top||


Michigan College Cancels ‘The Vagina Monologues' Because ‘Not All Women Have Vaginas'
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2018 05:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/22/2018 5:23 Comments || Top||

#2  I wonder if Monty Python had a time machine?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2018 6:19 Comments || Top||

#3  I suppose it begs the question; are people with vaginas all women ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 7:23 Comments || Top||

#4  are people with vaginas all women ?

Not by the definition they use, no.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2018 9:33 Comments || Top||

#5  So, not all women have vaginas and not all vaginas have women? Help me out here -- I was born in the Deep South when Eisenhower was president.
Posted by: Matt || 11/22/2018 12:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Can one be added, or removed ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 12:11 Comments || Top||

#7  That's a troubling question, B. I just want to know who to open doors for like my parents told me. I already understand that in Manhattan whoever I open a door for is going to tell me to go screw myself. Now I see that a possible response is "Well, you have a vagina, don't you?"

Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Posted by: Matt || 11/22/2018 12:52 Comments || Top||

#8  Happy Thanksgiving to you as well Matt, and to all who visit here.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 13:13 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Ocasio-Cortez for Speaker of the House?
h/t Instapundit
[TheBlackSphere] ...Democrat socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was still celebrating her victory in New York’s 14th Congressional District Tuesday night when she was asked her thoughts on becoming speaker in the Democratic-controlled House.

The 29-year-old laughed, and told Amy Goodman of the left-wing news program Democracy Now, "I mean, I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew."

Goodman had asked Ocasio-Cortez her stance on Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) returning as House speaker.

"Who do you think needs to lead the House?," she asked. "And would you consider the possibility of being the speaker ... yourself?"

"I mean, I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew," Ocasio-Cortez laughed. "I just won my seat."

"But, you know, what I do think is that in terms of her leadership in context, we need to see what our options are," she continued. "You know, my fear is, I just wouldn’t want to see candidates running to her right, and that being our only option."
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2018 05:12 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And here I thought we reached peak stupid with Obama.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2018 6:20 Comments || Top||

#2  "I mean, I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew," Ocasio-Cortez laughed

"LOL! I mean, have you seen my teeth?"
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2018 7:48 Comments || Top||

#3  ^ "Ahhh - you got teeth like a beaver - you'll never work in this town again!"
Posted by: Raj || 11/22/2018 9:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Why, This is a great plan!
Posted by: newc || 11/22/2018 10:57 Comments || Top||

#5  Teeth and Eyes for Speaker!
Posted by: SR-71 || 11/22/2018 15:08 Comments || Top||

#6  All the republicans should vote for her. It should guarantee her winning.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 11/22/2018 16:12 Comments || Top||

#7  I thought we reached peak stupid with Obama.

There is no peak stupid. As they say, the only difference between genius and stupidity is that there s a limit to genius.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/22/2018 16:41 Comments || Top||


Arabia
The DC Establishment Gets Almost Everything Wrong About Trump's Saudi Posture
[The Federalist] Of President Donald Trump’s many disruptions to the established order, his foreign policy has been perhaps the least understood and least accepted by elites. Yesterday, President Trump resisted public pressure and declined to significantly reorient American foreign policy in light of Saudi Arabia’s brutal killing of its political opponent Jamal Khashoggi, who was also a columnist for the Washington Post.

In a statement, Trump said that what happened to Khashoggi was terrible, but that Saudi Arabia is an ally that shares our broader strategic interests in the region, while Iran remains a foe to be countered.

Trump had already imposed sanctions on 17 Saudi individuals over their alleged roles in Khashoggi’s killing. Anti-Trump journalists, Obama-era supporters of the Iran deal, and Republican supporters of Bush-era democracy-spreading wanted the United States to do much more to dramatically change its relationship with Saudi Arabia on account of the killing.

"In unusual statement disputing the CIA and filled with exclamation points, Trump backs Saudi ruler after Khashoggi killing," opined NBC News in its snarky headline for a news story on the announcement.

"The President’s and Secretary of State’s Khashoggi statements to date are inconsistent with an enduring foreign policy, with our national interest, with basic human rights, and with American greatness," asserted Utah’s newly elected Republican Sen. Mitt Romney.

It’s unclear what Romney meant by his remarks, which were a more sober version of the general outrage Trump’s statement generated. It was clear that much of elite D.C. still believes that the job of U.S. foreign policy is less to protect the country’s strategic interests and more to spread democracy and other "American values," arguments and rhetoric also used in favor of the invasion of Iraq during the George W. Bush administration.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 04:02 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The DC Establishment Gets Almost Everything Wrong About everything
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2018 8:29 Comments || Top||

#2  After decades of Saudi money making DC do pretty much whatever, no matter how inimical to US interests, the MSM decides DC will make Riyadh dance on cue.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/22/2018 9:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Yes, it's a five counties regional thing. Certain liberties with the facts can be more easily taken when your combined family income exceeds $300k per year.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 9:30 Comments || Top||

#4  You're telling me that the US government never had anybody whacked?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/22/2018 11:54 Comments || Top||

#5  They want the Saudi reformer out and the status quo restored. He's threatening their interests and must be removed.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 11/22/2018 13:24 Comments || Top||


-Obits-
Head of Russian spy agency to be questioned no further regarding British poison attacks
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The head of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency that the West has blamed for a string of brazen attacks died on Wednesday after " getting caught a serious and long illness," the Russian defense ministry said.

State news agency TASS cited the ministry as saying Igor Korobov, 62, who ran the spy agency since 2016, had been made a Hero of Russia for his service in the post, the highest state award.

Britain has accused the GRU of attempting to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter with a nerve agent in the city of Salisbury, the Netherlands has accused it of trying to hack the global chemical weapons watchdog, and U.S. intelligence agencies say it tried to hack the 2016 presidential election.

Russia denies all those allegations.

Speculation about Korobov’s fate had been growing since an unconfirmed Russian media report that he had been summoned by President Vladimir Putin after the Skripal affair and severely criticized for the operation which left the Skripals alive and the GRU a target of mockery in the Western media.

Korobov was absent from a ceremony in Moscow this month where Putin and other senior officials celebrated the centenary of the GRU, with the Russian leader praising its skill and "unique abilities."

Operatives of the agency, widely known by its old acronym of GRU, set an example for a future generation of military spies, said Putin, himself a former intelligence officer, citing their readiness to sacrifice everything "for the motherland".
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 03:38 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "...President Putin's office stated that the President sent his condolences to the family a week ago Monday."

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 11/22/2018 6:18 Comments || Top||

#2  "a serious and long illness,"... that no one ever heard about until now
Posted by: Zenobia Bluetooth4652 || 11/22/2018 9:02 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Mattis Approves 'Mission-Enhancing' Support to DHS in Response to Migrant Caravan
[PJ] WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon announced this afternoon that Defense Secretary James Mattis has approved sending active-duty troops to the border as a caravan of Central American migrants moves slowly on foot north from southern Mexico.

The statement said Mattis approved the request from Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to provide "mission-enhancing capabilities" to DHS and Customs and Border Protection "in addition to the previously authorized support to CBP's Operation Guardian Support mission."

"The DoD will provide Defense Support of Civil Authorities with planning assistance, engineering support (temporary barriers, barricades and fencing), fixed and rotary wing aviation support to move CBP personnel, medical teams to triage, treat and prepare for commercial transport of patients, command and control facilities, temporary housing for CBP personnel, and personal protective equipment for CBP personnel," the Pentagon said. "USNORTHCOM will be in the lead for the duration of the operation and is in support of Customs and Border Protection."

No other details were provided, such as how many personnel will be allocated to the mission or how much it will cost.

The caravan is still nearly 2,000 miles from the border, a journey that would take weeks on foot. It began Oct. 12 in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and only recently crossed from Guatemala into Mexico.

The growth trajectory of the caravan, estimated by the UN's International Organization for Migration at some 7,000 people on Monday, appears to be reversing due to illness and injury, groups splitting up, people returning home, and more than 1,700 migrants applying for asylum in Mexico. The Mexican government estimated Wednesday evening that 3,630 migrants were still headed on the journey north.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 03:34 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What are the ROE rules is all I want to know?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2018 5:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Do you think it would be possible to crowdfund a few JDAMs for use on invaders?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/22/2018 5:28 Comments || Top||

#3  too bad a Spooky deployment, as pictured, can’t become a real option
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 11/22/2018 9:34 Comments || Top||

#4  It would only take one pass firing into the empty desert and this bullshi* would stop.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 9:43 Comments || Top||

#5  Maybe Trump could designate a test range near the border and the spooky could have a test run.

Streamed over the interweb of course.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/22/2018 11:17 Comments || Top||

#6  The cartels are also actively deploying to protect turf so could get two-fers, USN, Ret.
Posted by: Eohippus Dribble5682 || 11/22/2018 11:21 Comments || Top||

#7  I wonder if the medical units deployed include the new DNA technology sent to the California fires? A Colorado company can get results in two hours, making for a vast database to root out criminals an solving cold cases. ANDE won a contract in 2009 to do research and development for federal agencies, and the company’s technology has been used in pilot programs for several years. Over the summer, it won FBI approval for use in accredited labs. Law enforcement agencies in Utah, New York and Miami have used the technology, as has the military.

This is the first time ANDE has helped identify victims after a natural disaster. The company has donated seven machines and about a dozen workers to the effort.
Posted by: Eohippus Dribble5682 || 11/22/2018 11:30 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Barack Obama Trashes Americans Again: They're Confused, Blind, Filled With Hate, And Maybe Racist
[Townhall] He’s not going away. We all thought Hillary Clinton had this problem because he was mostly in the basement after the 2016 election, but Barack Obama has become as insufferable as Lady Macbeth. Now, the bonus from both is that they animate Republicans. There are no other figures, besides Nancy Pelosi, that unite the GOP base. At the same time, we need to hear to their insufferable condescension about American social policy. The stench of elitism is overpowering‐and one that shows the true arrogance of this political movement. Even when they lose, it’s not them or their awful views on policy that cost them at the polls, it was that everyone else who isn’t like them (i.e. most of the country) are just out of touch. The Democratic House gains were in part due to moderate Republicans jumping ship in the suburbs. They’re traitors, but that’s for another time.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 03:25 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why must we continue to hear from this man ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 3:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Because you [Americans] elected him POTUS - not once but twice?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2018 5:06 Comments || Top||

#3  What man? Remember we also have Mommy issues. Hope and change? From the beginning I knew Obumbles is "Empty and Fluffy".
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 11/22/2018 5:08 Comments || Top||

#4  Isn’t it funny how vapid and stupid he sounds once the serious progressives like ValJar et al stop using him as a hand puppet with a TelePrompter. Instead you get the sophomoric rambling of a pothead.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 11/22/2018 11:14 Comments || Top||

#5  and the paranoid ranting of a cokehead...
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/22/2018 14:45 Comments || Top||

#6  I am a spork
I am a flount-aain.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/22/2018 16:53 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Chief Justice Roberts butthurt over POTUS 'Obama judge' comment
[BBC] US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has taken the extraordinary step of rebuking President Donald Trump's criticism of a federal judge.

Mr Trump on Tuesday called a jurist who ruled against his asylum policy an "Obama judge".

The president's gibe provoked a stern statement from the head of America's highest court.

Mr Trump has defended his comments, saying Chief Justice Roberts is wrong.

It is the first time the chief justice has spoken against Mr Trump.

"We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges," Chief Justice Roberts told the Associated Press.

"What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them."

Speaking on the eve of America's Thanksgiving holiday, he said an "independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for".

Related: American Thinker - Thanks, Judge! Caravan migrants take judicial ruling as green light to enter the U.S. illegally
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 03:02 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for".

Also nicely done, that June 2015 vote on Obamacare.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 3:18 Comments || Top||

#2  I suppose Thanks will be due when America gets an independent judiciary...

If liberal judges interpreted "shall not" in the constitution the same as they did in rape laws then there'd not be a problem.

Mind you with the recent un-ban on FGM it seems they are trying to follow the Feelzitution.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/22/2018 4:12 Comments || Top||

#3  It is independent - independent of your constitution & common sense.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2018 5:02 Comments || Top||

#4  How do you have Constitutional checks and balances if one branch is independent? How dare he threaten the power and majesty of America's aristocracy.
Posted by: P2kontheroad || 11/22/2018 7:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Roberts is just hurt that even though he is a Bush Judge everyone refers to him as an Obama Judge.
Posted by: Airandee || 11/22/2018 8:06 Comments || Top||

#6  I agree with Roberts, sort of. Hold on.

I dug into the recent SC decision on the 'Trump Travel Ban'. The majority said, 'of course the pres has the power to do it'.

The minority said, 'of course the POTUS has the power to do it, but Trump doesn't like Moslems, so the ban is unfair'. [read it and weep]

So, both trying to do their best. One group follows the Constitution, the other does what feels good. What names you assign to the two groups is trivial.
Posted by: Bobby || 11/22/2018 8:42 Comments || Top||

#7  We have good Judges and bad Judges.
You are a bad Judge, Roberts.
Posted by: newc || 11/22/2018 11:01 Comments || Top||

#8  OJ = Obama Judge
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/22/2018 18:39 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Alcohol Detox Program leaves Tri-Cities Washington Man Coming Up Short
[Breitbart] A man from Washington state severed his testicles using a pocket knife while suffering side effects from alcohol withdrawal, according to a report.

The Kennewick Police Department said Friday that its officers received a report of a man using a knife to cut up an animal, KEPR reported. When officers arrived at the man’s home, they discovered his hands and pants were "covered in blood" because he allegedly used a pocket knife to slice off his testicles.

Police say the man, who had been going through alcohol detoxification, wrapped the severed organ in a newspaper and left it in a yard.

Medics rushed the man to a local hospital, and mental health professionals were notified, the Tri-City Herald reported. His testicles had reportedly been retrieved from the yard and "given to medics."
"Ummmm...thanks. Ewwww"
It is unclear what the man’s condition was after the incident, but authorities say he has been able to speak with police officers.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 02:55 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  To Kennewick Man let us drink!
To his powerful fingers, now linked
To robust metacarpals
And wrist, but no yarbles...
Which might explain why he's extinct.
Posted by: Dino Slemble6375 || 11/22/2018 16:30 Comments || Top||

#2  " There was a young sailor named Bates who liked to fool around on ice skates. He fell on his cutlass , which rendered him nutless , and practically useless on dates . "
Posted by: Snavimble Bucket1794 || 11/22/2018 16:40 Comments || Top||

#3  There was an old miner of Wigan
Who used an odd tool, and a big 'un.
They thought he was daft
When he oiled up the shaft,
But he's twenty miles in and still friggin'.
Posted by: Pancho the Rash2215 || 11/22/2018 18:06 Comments || Top||

#4  In Wigan, a sound resounds daily;
The neighbors all groan along gaily.
A skeleton having a wank
On a plank?
Just George and his new banjolele!
Posted by: Pancho the Rash2215 || 11/22/2018 18:10 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Taliban rejects involvement in last evening’s deadly suicide attack
Words are easy...
[KhaamaPress] The Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
group in Afghanistan has rejected the involvement of the group in last evening’s deadly suicide kaboom which targeted a gathering of religious scholars on the eve of Eid Milad (Birthday of Prophet Mohammad P.B.U.H).

Taliban front man Zabiullah Mujahid issued a statement and said the group strongly condemns the attack in Oranus Hotel on the eve of Eid Milad that left a number of people dead, including some religious scholars.

Mujahid blamed ’some vicious cirlces’ for the attack and claimed that the attack has links with some small tensions among the cirlces who do not hestitate in brutally murdering Moslems.

No individual or group has so far grabbed credit behind the attack.

The security officials are saying at least 43 people have died and more than 80 others have sustained injuries in the attack but the public health officials are saying more than 50 people have been killed and at least 83 others have sustained injuries in the attack.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2018 00:36 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


The Grand Turk
Turkey sentences 74 to life in prison in post-coup case: Anadolu
[AlAhram] Seventy four people, including soldiers, were sentenced to life in prison by a Ottoman Turkish court on Wednesday for their role in an attempted coup, the state-owned Anadolu news agency said.

More than 240 people, most of them unarmed civilians, were killed on the night of July 15, 2016, when a group of rogue soldiers commandeered tanks and warplanes in a botched attempt to overthrow President Tayyip Erdogan.

The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor....
blames U.S.-based Moslem holy man Fethullah Gülen
... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world...
for the abortive putsch and has carried out a widespread crackdown on his suspected supporters, detaining some 160,000 people, including academics, soldiers and civil servants.

Of those, 77,000 have been formally charged and kept in jail during trial, according to the interior minister.

On Wednesday, the court sentenced the 74 defendants to aggregated life sentences for "attempting to disrupt the constitutional order", Anadolu said.

Aggravated life sentences are subject to a harsher regime in prison, and are not eligible for parole or general amnesty. It was not immediately clear how many soldiers were among the group sentenced.

Rights groups and Turkey's Western allies have voiced concern about the scope of the purges, saying Erdogan had used the coup as a pretext to quash dissent.

The government, however, says the measures are necessary due to the gravity of the threats it is facing.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2018 00:36 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  but, but, Khashoggi!
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2018 7:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Still believe the 'coup' was a false-flag (maybe even encouraged) operation to rid Yippy of his opponents, both real and perceived.

Reichstag fire stuff and all that.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/22/2018 9:05 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Dozens of Khogyani youths join Local Armed Forces after completing training
[KhaamaPress] Dozens of soldiers of a Local Army Unit were deployed to Khogyani district 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 after completing their training.

The provincial government media office in a statement said a ceremony was organized in 201st Silab Corps headquarters to celebrate the graduation of the soldiers in which Gen. Mohammad Zaman Waziri, director of the training of the armed forces, commander of the educational Kandak, some officers, army soldiers, and others had participated.

The Commander of 201st Silab Corps Gen. Mohammad Zaman Waziri said the former soldiers of the Afghan National Army have voluntarily joined the Afghan Local Armed forces.

Gen. Waziri further added that the soldiers completed professional studies and training and will be deployed in Khogyani district to serve the people and maintain security in their region.

The director of the educations and training of Silab Corps said the youths have been trained over a period of 12 weeks and have full resolve to maintain security in the region.

Some of the graduates of the Local Armed Forces assured the people and officials that they are mentally and physically prepared to maintain security in their region considering the previous experiences and new training they have received.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2018 00:36 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:


International-UN-NGOs
Swiss backtrack on support for UN migration pact
[AlAhram] Switzerland
...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell...
's government on Wednesday backtracked from its pledge to support a United Nations
...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
migration pact after politicians insisted they have the final say on the matter.

The United States, several European countries along with Israel and Australia have already said they would reject the compact, which seeks to open up legal migration and better manage migratory flows.

The text was agreed in July following 18 months of negotiations and is due to be adopted next month at a meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco.

"Switzerland will not attend the intergovernmental conference for the formal adoption of the global compact," the Federal Council, the country's executive branch, said in a statement.

Bern had on October 10 announced it would approve the pact in a declaration that also expressed reservations, notably that the country already applied the UN recommendations.

Parliament then intervened, insisting that politicians wanted the final say on Switzerland's ultimate adoption of the deal.

"The Federal Council believes that the United Nations Global Compact for Migration is consistent with Switzerland's interests," the statement added.

"However,
a lie repeated often enough remains a lie...
the Federal Council wishes to postpone its final decision pending conclusion of the parliamentary debates."
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2018 00:27 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Victory for Gaza resistance?
[Al Ahram] The departure of Israel’s hawkish Avigdor Lieberman as defence minister has been seen by some as a victory for Gazoo. But grand machinations continue against the entire Paleostinian cause.
The view from Egypt. Lots of blah-blah, then this key point:
However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster...
al-Masri stresses, all such talk is pointless in view of the steps that the Trump administration has already taken to implement the "deal" before unveiling it.

These steps began with the move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem, the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the annexation of the US consulate to the embassy (the US Consulate in East Jerusalem has been there since 1844, which is to say more than a hundred years before the establishment of the Israeli state), all of which were intended to eliminate the question of Jerusalem from final status negotiations.

In addition, the US has also halted its support for and called for the elimination of UNRWA, it altered the definition of refugee so as to reduce their number to only 40,000, it has suspended its support for the Paleostinian Authority (PA) apart from its security functions, and it has shuttered the PLO (Paleostine Liberation Organisation) office in Washington.

At the same time, it has pressed forward with the plan to sever the West Bank from Gazoo and to legitimise Israeli settlement expansion, which Trump claims does not hamper prospects for peace, while David Friedman warned that to dismantle a single settlement would trigger an Israeli civil war.

Many who support the deal believe that there is no reason to fear if the deal fails to win support after it is proposed since it is already being carried out on the ground and since failure would not reverse the de facto realities it has created and the fact that the Trump administration has changed the rules that have governed the political process for decades, making it impossible for any future president to turn back the clock.

One of the factors that would propel Trump to announce the deal sooner rather than later is the results of the mid-term elections in the US.

These were hardly as spectacular for the Republicans as Trump had claimed. Democratic Party control of the House will hamper Trump in legislation and accelerate action against him in the framework of the investigations into Russian tampering in the presidential elections and other scandals.

He would therefore be more inclined to use foreign policy, and specifically the Arab-Israeli conflict, as a means to score a historic achievement that would enhance his prospects in presidential elections two years from now.

In al-Masri’s opinion, regardless of whether Trump unrolls the deal now or later, or not at all, the situation of the Paleostinian cause will remain dire.

In view of Arab confusion and fragmentation, the upheaval in priorities, and the lack of an effective and unified project or mode of action, the Arabs and Paleostinians will remain unable to take advantage of any opportunities that present themselves or to repel dangers when they arise.

"Against this backdrop, in the event ’the deal’ is proposed, the Paleostinians will have to accept it or agree to negotiate on the basis of it, which is bad. If they refuse, they risk sanctions and exclusion from the political process. In other words, they would lose everything, or everything they have left. If the deal is not proposed, its implementation is still in full swing and advancing the scheme to create a new reality that makes the Israeli solution the only one available and feasible."
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2018 00:21 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  the Paleostinians will have to accept it or agree to negotiate on the basis of it, which is bad. If they refuse

Palestinians are champs at self-screwing
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2018 5:03 Comments || Top||


Europe
Italy arrests Egyptian accused of backing Islamic State
[AlAhram] Italian authorities have jugged
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
an Egyptian man accused of supporting the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
and planning go to fight himself, saying he used social media chats to spread jihadist propaganda.

Police said Wednesday that another Egyptian was ordered expelled from Italia, the latest in the more than 300 suspected jihadist sympathizers kicked out as national security threats since 2015. A third Egyptian was being sought.

Police said the suspect arrested Wednesday was 22-year-old Issam Elsayed Elsayed Abouelayem Shalabi, identified as the group's leader. He was accused of association with the aim of international terrorism and instigation of terrorist acts. Police said Shalabi, a onetime McDonald's cleaner, used the Telegram app to share IS videos and a claim of responsibility for a July IS attack in Tajikistan that killed four western cyclists.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2018 00:21 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Palestinian tries to enter settlement carrying knives, is arrested
[IsraelTimes] Police scramble to Har Gilo, outside Jerusalem, after community’s security officer notices suspect at perimeter fence

A Paleostinian man was tossed in the slammer
You have the right to remain silent...
Wednesday night when he tried to gain entry into a West Bank settlement near Jerusalem carrying a bag with knives in it, the Israel Police said.

There were no injuries in the incident, which occurred in the Har Gilo settlement, located five kilometers (three miles) south of the capital.

The settlement’s security officer alerted police when he noticed someone trying to penetrate the community’s perimeter fence.

Officers from the paramilitary Border Police quickly arrived at the scene and together with the security officer and the Har Gilo rapid response team found the suspect, who was arrested before he managed to enter the community, a police statement said.

After combing the area, officers concluded that no other suspects had entered the settlement. During the searches they found a bag, apparently belonging to the suspect, containing work tools and knives, allegedly to carry out an attack, police said.

The suspect was taken away for further questioning.

Israeli West Bank settlements often maintain a quick response team drawn from civilian residents of the community who can be scrambled in case of a security emergency.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2018 00:21 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Turkish army cracks down on dissident militants in al-Bab
[Rudaw] Ottoman Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and their Syrian proxies have launched an operation against militia groups in the Syrian city of al-Bab that are accused of disobeying Ottoman Turkish orders. It follows a similar operation in the Kurdish city of Afrin on Sunday.

Ottoman Turkish forces working with Syrian militias launched the operation against looters in al-Bab, according to DHA, media close to the Ottoman Turkish government.

It said that the operation is similar to one done in Afrin.

DHA also released a video of pro-Ottoman Turkish Death Eaters being deployed to the town. No Ottoman Turkish military vehicles or troops appear to have been involved, although DHA said the operation was supervised by the TSK.

A number of people accused of "looting and smuggling in order to harm the stability of the region" were detained.

Ottoman Turkish forces also imposed a curfew in Jarabulus, another city under control of its Syrian allies north of Aleppo. The curfew came into effect Wednesday morning in order to allow operations against "corrupt groups," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

TSK and its proxies conducted a similar operation against al-Sharqiya Martyrs group on Sunday, killing 25, according to the Britannia-based Observatory.

The group, which helped TSK and FSA seize control of the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in March 2018, was accused of "disobeying" Ottoman Turkish forces and "committing abuses," the monitor said.

Ottoman Turkish-backed Death Eaters retook al-Bab from ISIS in December 2016.

There have been several reports of in-fighting between these groups since they took control of the area, vying for influence.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


-Lurid Crime Tales-
American killed by isolated tribe on island in Andamans
Members of an isolated Indian tribe armed with bows and arrows have killed an American who encroached on their remote island, police said.

John Allen Chau, 27, is believed to have paid fishermen to ferry him to North Sentinel Island, home to a 30,000-year-old tribe known to aggressively repel outsiders.

"The fishermen in the dinghies tried to warn him it’s a risky thing," said Denis Giles, an activist for the rights of tribal groups and a journalist on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the Indian territory where the incident took place.

Indian police said a murder case had been registered against "unknown tribesmen" and seven people arrested for helping Chau reach the island.


Posted by: Herb McCoy || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [24 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...I've known several missionaries - all of them good, decent, and intelligent people who would never have pulled a stunt like this.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 11/22/2018 5:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Friendly fire? An Englishman warns after the fact? What exactly is the Denis Giles connection? Is the May Government still transporting people to the Andamans? Are the Sentinelese actually indigenous prison guards?

Could it be that the incident had nothing to with Johnny Chau or his religion at all? Could the Sentinelese actually be Pacific island environmentalists, fighting to keep plastics and man-made resins (kayaks) off their beaches.

These issues and others, must be run to ground. I recommend the budgeting of a UN Special Commission on the Andamans, and the appointment of a High Commissioner with headquarters at the Grand Millennium Hotel Kuala Lumpur. The candidate should be someone well versed in separatists movements and people who generally wish to be left the fok alone.

A ten year study should just about do it. I forgot to mention the float plane and pilot.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 7:52 Comments || Top||

#3  bad day to quit sniffing glue, but whether ‘savages’ or grizzly bears, invading their space to better ‘understand’ them usually results in a Darwin award
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 11/22/2018 9:38 Comments || Top||

#4  I'd say basically he got what he went for.
Posted by: ed in texas || 11/22/2018 9:39 Comments || Top||

#5  whether ‘savages’ or grizzly bears, invading their space to better ‘understand’ them usually results in a Darwin award

But dude, you can't judge us by our actions. It's our *intentions* that matter. Admittedly, explaining this to grizzly bears is a bit problematic. OK, savages too.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/22/2018 11:57 Comments || Top||

#6  I remember reading about them after the Boxing Day Tsunami(2004): the Indian Navy flew a helicopter over in a look-see and supposedly got pelted with "poison" arrows. It is interesting that there are still pockets resisting Modernity out there...
Posted by: magpie || 11/22/2018 12:05 Comments || Top||

#7  I remember reading about them after the Boxing Day Tsunami(2004): the Indian Navy flew a helicopter over in a look-see and supposedly got pelted with "poison" arrows.

More "interesting" yet, the helicopter pilot reportedly refused to drop below 5,000 feet AGL.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 12:10 Comments || Top||

#8  Arrow sex
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2018 12:23 Comments || Top||

#9  Kinda have to respect them for that.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/22/2018 12:32 Comments || Top||

#10  Good Dim Sum at the 'Lai Ching Yuen' and what appears to be an awesome Breakfast Buffet at 'The Mill Cafe', B.

Ten years there might not be enough.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/22/2018 14:10 Comments || Top||

#11  Islanders asserting their traditional sovereignty. Must be racis or something like that.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/22/2018 14:43 Comments || Top||

#12  'The Mill Cafe' Kuala Lumpur

Thanks Richard :-)
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 14:48 Comments || Top||

#13  Still wondering how this fool would have communicated with them, but that's just me.
Posted by: DooDahMan || 11/22/2018 20:08 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Turkish court sentences 3 to life over 2016 Ankara suicide bombing
[Rudaw] A Ottoman Turkish court sentenced three people to life in prison over a 2016 suicide kaboom that killed 36 people in Ankara, Anadolu Agency reported.

The court in Ankara on Wednesday handed Mehmet Veysi Dolasan 37 aggravated life sentences for the 36 deaths and "disrupting the unity and territorial integrity of the Ottoman Turkish state."

He was also given 10,260 years in jail for 342 attempted murders and 16 years in jail for possessing and transporting explosives.

Sebahattin Karakoc and Azamattin Karakoc were both sentenced to life in prison on the same charge of "disrupting the unity and territorial integrity" of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor....
They were also each given 16 years in jail for possessing and transporting explosives.

The March 13, 2016 boom-mobile destroyed a crowded district in the centre of the Ottoman Turkish capital. It was one of a string of bombings in Ankara since the resumption of the conflict between the Ottoman Turkish armed forces and the PKK in 2015.

The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) grabbed credit for the bombing.

TAK are an offshoot of the PKK. The group severed ties with the PKK, rejecting the parent party’s "passive struggle methods" and pledging more violence. The group said its goal is to oppose Turkey’s repression of the Kurds and avenge Kurdish deaths.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Terror Networks
The Evolution of the Salafi-Jihadist Threat
[CSIS] Current and Future Challenges from the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, and Other Groups
There is a button at the article title link to download the pdf described as follows:
Despite the Islamic State’s loss of territory in Iraq and Syria, an increasingly diffuse Salafi-jihadist movement is far from defeated. This report constructs a data set of groups and fighters from 1980 to 2018, including from the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. It finds that the number of Salafi-jihadists in 2018 declined somewhat from a high in 2016, but is still at near-peak levels since 1980. The regions with the largest number of fighters are Syria (between 43,650 and 70,550 fighters), Afghanistan (between 27,000 and 64,060), Paki­stan (between 17,900 and 39,540), Iraq (between 10,000 and 15,000), Nigeria (between 3,450 and 6,900), and Somalia (between 3,095 and 7,240). Attack data indicates that there are still high lev­els of violence in Syria and Iraq from Salafi-jihad­ist groups, along with significant violence in such countries and regions as Yemen, the Sahel, Nigeria, Afghan­istan, and So­malia.

These findings suggest that there is a large pool of Salafi-jihadist and allied fighters willing and able to use violence to achieve their goals. Every U.S. president since 9/11 has tried to move away from counterterrorism in some capacity, and it is no different today. Balancing national secu­rity priorities in today’s world needs to happen grad­ually. For the United States, the challenge is not that U.S. officials are devoting attention and resources to dealing with state adversaries like Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. These countries present legitimate threats to the United States at home and abroad. Rath­er, the mistake would be declaring victory over ter­rorism too quickly and, as a result, shifting too many resources and too much attention away from terrorist groups when the threat remains significant.
Posted by: 3dc || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under: Salafists

#1  As long as there is a Dar al Harb, we will have an enemy in islam.
Posted by: mossomo || 11/22/2018 22:22 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Reefer Madness at NASA
[TheAtlantic] The space agency has reportedly decided to review workplace culture at SpaceX and Boeing after Elon Musk smoked marijuana on a podcast.

The story of nasa’s efforts to restore the country’s ability to launch American astronauts into space from U.S. soil has just gained a rather interesting new chapter.

nasa has decided to conduct reviews of SpaceX and Boeing, the two companies the agency hired to develop astronaut-transportation systems that would allow the United States to fly crewed missions from its own launchpads for the first time since the space shuttle was retired in 2011.

The reviews, scheduled to begin next year, will assess not the companies’ technical development or their progress, but rather their workplace safety culture. Why? Reportedly, because SpaceX CEO Elon Musk smoked some weed and drank whiskey on a podcast two months ago.

The Washington Post, which first reported the upcoming assessments on Tuesday, said Musk’s behavior on the show, The Joe Rogan Experience, “rankled some at nasa’s highest levels and prompted the agency to take a close look at the culture of the companies.”

nasa declined to say whether Musk’s appearance on the show indeed prompted the reviews, but statements from the involved parties to The Atlantic strongly suggest it played some part.

In a statement, nasa said, “[The agency] will be conducting a cultural assessment study in coordination with our commercial partners to ensure the companies are meeting nasa’s requirements for workplace safety, including the adherence to a drug-free environment.”

For its part, SpaceX said it “actively promotes workplace safety and we are confident that our comprehensive drug-free workforce and workplace programs exceed all applicable contractual requirements.”

And Boeing, which is probably wondering what on earth it has to do with this, said it “does maintain a drug- and alcohol-free workplace program. We do this so that we can promote a safe, healthy, and productive work environment, and that program does meet nasa’s and the Department of Defense’s contractor requirements.” (A Boeing spokesperson said nasa did not give a reason for the review and has not provided many details on the process.)

The first test flights with astronauts—which have already been selected—are scheduled for summer 2019 at the earliest. The new review could delay the effort, which has already been set back by technical problems and overly optimistic schedules. According to The Post, the review will be a “months-long assessment that would involve hundreds of interviews designed to assess the culture of the workplaces.”

The Rogan podcast was recorded in California, where recreational use of marijuana is legal. But the federal government still considers marijuana a controlled substance, like heroin and cocaine. And nasa’s contracts with SpaceX and Boeing for the commercial crew program require both contractors to “maintain a program for achieving a drug-and alcohol-free workforce” and conduct “preemployment, reasonable suspicion, random, post-accident, and periodic recurring testing of contractor employees in sensitive positions for use, in violation of applicable law or federal regulation, of alcohol or a controlled substance.”

Scuttlebutt on Reddit suggests it is due to pressure from 6 Congressmen who hate the concept of manned commercial spacecraft. That's why Boeing is included. They complained about booze too referring to a Photo of Musk drinking wine and some top execs at Boeing having champagne.


Posted by: 3dc || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life,

#1  The Bureaucratic Veto™ being exercised -- this is just the latest excuse. I still think SpaceX should offer the Indians, and/or Japanese, space programs the chance to go orbital and tell NASA that they can: "Ride on the second Dragon after the paying customers are satisfied!"
Posted by: magpie || 11/22/2018 12:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Seize the High Ground!
Posted by: SteveS || 11/22/2018 12:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Wouldn't it be easier to watch The Right Stuff? I think 1/3rd of the movie takes place in a bar.

Musk's job is to show up at a meeting, ask, "Is it possible to have a rocket land then take off from Mars?", Yes? You, collect 5 so and so's to make this happen, I will review your progress.

It isn't like Musk and Snoop Lion are on the assembly floor playing constructor set. Not his job.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/22/2018 19:16 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
US, UN add senior Iraqi ISIS member to terror list
[Rudaw] The United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
and United States added an Iraqi aide to ISIS leader His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
...the head of ISIS, or what remains of it, and a veteran of the Abu Graib jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us. So far he has been killed at least four times, though not yet by a stake through the heart...
to their terror lists.

Hajji ’Abd al-Nasir, aged between 49 and 53, was born in Tal Afar, Iraq, according to the UN.

"Within the past five years, al-Nasir has served as an ISIS Military Amir in Syria as well as chair of the ISIS Delegated Committee, the council that reports to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and exercises administration control of the terrorist organization’s affairs," including planning military operations, the US State Department said on Tuesday.

The UN Security Council added Nasir to its sanctions list on Monday.

"ISIS is down but not out," said Ambassador Nathan Sales, the State Department’s counterterror coordinator.

"As ISIS continues to lose ground on the battlefield, we must starve it of the resources it uses to commit terrorism around the world. Today’s designation is another step towards ensuring the enduring defeat of ISIS."

Syrian Kurdish and Arabic forces of the SDF working with the US-led coalition are currently battling ISIS in their last major hold out in eastern Syria's Euphrates River valley.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  The headline would be even better if it read:

US adds UN, senior Iraqi ISIS member to terror list
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/22/2018 7:50 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
An Instant PLA: Just Add 3D Printing
[Jamestown Foundation] In the PRC, the promise of 3D printing (三维打印 or 3D打印技术) has stretched the boundaries of possible future applications. The PRC is pushing ahead with innovative ways of employing 3D printing across all sectors of its economy, from prosthetics to titanium-based aerospace parts, to a sustainably-built bus stop shelter outside Shanghai (Winsun, 2017). The PRC is also pioneering concepts and applications for 3D printing of materiel, weaponry, and munitions for use by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

Even though Western standards identify upwards of ten 3D printing methods, the PRC sources reviewed in 2015 list only six 3D printing methods (ISO, 2015; ALL3DP, 2018) [3]. The six processes include: Fused Deposition Modeling (熔融沉积成型), Selected Laser Sintering (选择性激光烧结), Selective Laser Melting (选择性激光熔融), Stereolithography Appearance (立体光刻), Electron Beam Melting (电子束熔化), and Laminated Object Manufacturing (分层实体制造) [4] [5]. This discrepancy in methods is likely because of the rapidity with which this technology has advanced since 2015. Despite the differences in the number of methodologies, 3D printing technology essentially breaks down into “what” and “how” material is added and joined. 3D printers themselves are quite intricate and include both hardware and software components. Hardware generally includes the printer assemblies, the nozzles, and the requisite mixture of feedstock required for fabrication, among other components. Meanwhile, software consists of specified supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems and large, memory-intensive blueprints required for production, known as computer-aided design files (CADs) (电脑辅助设计).

The US Department of Defense’s 2018 report to Congress on military and security developments involving the PRC points out that the collaboration between the PRC’s Ministry of Science and Technology and the PLA Central Military Commission’s Science and Technology Commission described in the 13th Five-Year Plan-Military-Civilian Fusion Science & Technology Developmental Guide make that document a “roadmap for military-civilian fusion efforts in the next five years”, one meant to benefit both the PRC economy and the PLA through a specific focus on advanced manufacturing techniques. Also, the “plan aims to develop internationally competitive leading enterprises; improve technical, equipment, and quality standards to international levels; and create a long-term industrial supply chain and perfect mass production” (Office of the Secretary of Defense, May 16, 2018) [7].
Posted by: 3dc || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Friend got a chinese 3d printer, he is happy with it. and gave the service 5 stars.
Posted by: Spanky Whuter1088 || 11/22/2018 19:01 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Pepe Escobar: Turkish President milks House of Saud's ties to the Khashoggi slaying.
[AsiaTimes] Erdogan, MBS, Islamic leadership and the price of silence
The House of Saud's ties to the Khashoggi slaying are being milked by the Turkish President for maximum benefit amid debate on leadership of the Islamic world and how the crisis may affect US and Saudi strategy in the Middle East.

The big prize: leading Islam
Now juxtapose this developing entente cordiale between the Bear and the (aspiring) Sultan with the gripping drama in Istanbul. Ibrahim Karagul – never afraid to apply a Rabelais touch – is always useful as a mirror reflecting the state of play of AKP circles around Erdogan.

For this political elite, a breakthrough in the Erdogan-conducted “Death By a Thousand Leaks” is imminent, allegedly proving that Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) directly gave the order for the killing and slaying of Jamal Khashoggi.

The consensus among the AKP leadership – confirmed by independent Left academics – is that the US-Israel-House of Saud-UAE axis is deep in negotiations to extricate MBS from any culpability.

That includes key items in the hefty Erdogan “package” dangled to the axis to essentially buy Ankara’s silence – an end of the Saudi blockade on Qatar and the extradition of Fetullah Gulen, described across the Turkish political spectrum as the leader of FETO (the Fetullah Terrorist Organization).

The Kremlin and the Russian Foreign Ministry are very much aware that the high-stakes game goes way beyond ‘Pulp Fiction’ in Istanbul and the Astana peace process on Syria – carefully micro-managed by both Putin and Erdogan alongside Iran’s Rouhani. The big prize is no less than the leadership of the Islamic world.

There is nowhere better than a few stops in select landmarks of Ottoman imperial power, or a lively conversation at Istanbul’s Old Book Bazaar, to be reminded that this was the seat of the Islamic Umma for centuries – a role usurped by those Arabian desert upstarts.

BTW there are tweets now that say Khashoggi did not have a Green Card or a H1B work permit. If he was just here on a visitor's permit for his WaPo job than going back to Saudi territory (embassy) after X-weeks and then returning for another visit on a new visa makes sense in a INS worldview. Getting a fiancée makes sense in that immigration view too.

Posted by: 3dc || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  Wonder if Erdogan's SIL who smuggled oil for ISIS will get a mention in return.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/22/2018 3:10 Comments || Top||

#2  this whole thing is driving the Saudis away from any positive relations with Turkey

which in turn will play out in various ways in Syria, Qatar, Israel, Jordan, Egypt

what is curious is that Trump has made more than a few 'I like Erdogan' type statements recently -- doubt this will last much longer
Posted by: lord garth || 11/22/2018 8:40 Comments || Top||


Europe
In A Speech Any Autocrat Would Love, French President Macron Insists The Internet Must Be Regulated
[TechDirt] At best it was the sort of speech that someone completely new to tech policy might have come up with. Someone who, upon finding an imperfect situation, presumes that they are the first to notice the issue. And then takes it upon themselves to heroically step in to address the problem, despite the fact that their proposed "solution" reflects an incomplete understanding of the matter.
Control, control, it's all about control. The Eurocrats can always make better decisions than you can do for yourself.
There are a number of ways this incomplete understanding infected his speech and undermined the quality of his recommendation. There was, for instance, his erroneous declaration that the Internet today is too much about content distributors not enough about content creators. This declaration alone suggests a very poor understanding of all the myriad ways people all over the world use the Internet to create and then disseminate their expressive works themselves. In and of itself it calls into question whether his overall suggestion is capable of being adequately protective of all this expression.

Because it appears not, and not just because of this limited understanding of how the Internet is used. It also ignores the critical countervailing concerns that have long deemed his proposed "fix" to be an unacceptable one. Because the "cure" he proposed ‐ greater regulation of the Internet ‐ is a dangerous one that would destroy all that he purports to want to protect.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats

#1  Leaving Minitel was a mistake...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/22/2018 3:51 Comments || Top||

#2  France passes Macron’s law against fake news during election campaigns
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/22/2018 4:59 Comments || Top||

#3  French fake news law ‘will curb free speech’
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/22/2018 5:00 Comments || Top||

#4  Not by you, toyboy
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2018 5:04 Comments || Top||

#5  The standard lib rejoinder to loss of privacy in cyberspace, as enunciated by Steve Case and Eric Schmidt is "If you aren't doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about."

Flip that over: "If some ideas are so bad they should fail in the light of day, you have nothing to worry about..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/22/2018 7:47 Comments || Top||

#6  Another reason and reminder why we need to keep control over our portion of the internet to keep it free.

Fuck China and the EU.
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/22/2018 11:46 Comments || Top||

#7  In my own way, I enjoy viewing the other viewpoints.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/22/2018 17:09 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Islamic State Holding on to Hajin
[JamestownFoundation] Islamic State (IS) has seen a significant decline in the past year, with its territory and operations significantly reduced to small pockets in Syria and Iraq. The group, however, is still holding strong to portions of Syria just east of the Euphrates. In fact, the group has managed to recapture some of its key territory in eastern Syria over the past several weeks. On September 10, the U.S.-backed Syrian Defense Forces (SDF) launched a major offensive against the group in the Hajin area of eastern Syria—one of IS’s last remaining and strongest holdouts—but has since lost any of the momentum it had gained.

IS has reportedly capitalized recently on multiple sandstorms and their knowledge of the terrain to launch major counteroffensives against the SDF, effectively recapturing all of the territory in Hajin that the SDF had cleared since the operation began in September. According to some estimates, IS killed as many as 68 SDF members in the past week while around 100 others have fled.

The Hajin area is one of the group’s last major strongholds and it is seemingly going to be more difficult than expected to prevent IS from regaining ground in the surrounding areas—let alone to liberate Hajin. By some estimates, IS still has thousands of fighters in the area and has constructed a network of tunnels to evade detection by aircraft and escape the offensive while simultaneously conducting suicide attacks against the SDF and allied forces
Posted by: 3dc || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  On the banks of the lovely Euphrates, what's not there to love and hold on to?
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/22/2018 9:08 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Stunning ‘erotic’ fresco unearthed in Pompeii bedroom
[RT] A “sensual” depiction of a legendary Spartan queen having sex with a swan has been unearthed in the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. Further evidence, not that it was needed, that people just love erotic pictures.
The newly discovered fresco, which captures a scene from classical mythology, was found in a bedroom in the town that was destroyed when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.

It depicts the figure of Leda being impregnated by the Roman god Jupiter, who has taken the form of a swan. The incredibly detailed artwork shows Leda protecting the swan with her cloak as he sits on her lap.

Archaeologists uncovered the, incredibly vivid, fresco on Friday during works to bolster Pompeii’s structures after rains and wear-and-tear caused some ruins to collapse, the body that oversees the ancient site said.

Depictions of Leda and Jupiter were not uncommon in Pompeii but the archaeological park’s director Massimo Osanna praised the discovery as exceptional because the skilled artist had painted it to make it appear that Leda was looking at whoever entered the bedroom.

“Leda watches the spectator with a sensuality that's absolutely pronounced,” Osanna told Italian news agency ANSA.

He noted the fresco's context in the Greek “myth of love, with an explicit sensuality in a bedroom where, obviously beside sleep, there could be other activities.”

The painting was found in an opulent house where another splendid fresco was discovered earlier this year. Osanna said one theory is that the owner was a rich merchant who wanted to display his good taste by filling his house with myth-inspired art.

Leda is an important figure in classical mythology. She was said to have borne children fathered by the god Zeus, the Greek version of Jupiter, and by a mortal king of Sparta. She is the mother of Helen of Troy and the twins Castor and Pollux.

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Click through to the pics. Two millennia under ground have NOT hurt this art -- stunning piece of work.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 11/22/2018 0:28 Comments || Top||

#2  (nudge, nudge)
Know what I mean? Know what I mean?
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 11/22/2018 5:13 Comments || Top||

#3  More "Up Pompeii" than Monty Python
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/22/2018 5:39 Comments || Top||

#4  Actually, not bad.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/22/2018 17:01 Comments || Top||


Arabia
UN Envoy in Yemen for 'Sternest' Talks as Famine Stalks
[An Nahar] The UN Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
envoy faced his "sternest test" on Wednesday as he flew into the rebel-held capital Sanaa for talks on averting all-out fighting for the lifeline port of Hodeida and widespread famine.

Under heavy Western pressure, the government and its Saudi-led military backers have largely suspended a five-month-old offensive on the Red Sea port city as UN envoy Martin Griffiths makes the biggest peace push in two years.

But a devastating all-out assault on the city's vital docks still threatens as coalition commanders scent a potentially game-changing victory in their three-and-a-half year war on the Iran-backed Huthi Iranian catspaws.

UN agencies say up to 14 million Yemenis are at risk of starvation if the port of Hodeida is closed by fighting or damage.

The city is virtually the sole gateway to the capital and rebel-held territory in the densely populated highlands, and some 80 percent of commercial food imports and virtually all UN-supervised humanitarian aid pass through its docks.

Griffiths did not comment to waiting news hounds on his arrival at Sanaa International Airport, an AFP photographer reported.

He was expected to hold afternoon talks with rebel politicians as he attempts to revive a grinding of the peace processor that collapsed in acrimony in Switzerland
...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell...
in September when the rebels failed to show up.

The Huthis have said repeatedly that they need stronger security guarantees from the international community that they will be given safe passage through the crippling air and sea blockade the coalition has enforced since March 2015.

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [20 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Iraq
Iraqi forces arrest ISIS torturer in Kirkuk
[Rudaw] Iraqi security forces incarcerated
You have the right to remain silent...
an ISIS Lion of Islam who had tortured for the terror group, the Interior Ministry announced.

"The intelligence and counter-terrorism unit in Kirkuk... on Wednesday arrested a key ISIS leader in the area of Wasit in Kirkuk province," Saad Maan, spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior, announced in a statement.

The arrested person "worked as a torturer with ISIS," he added.

The unnamed person has been referred to a court for legal proceedings.

Former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over ISIS in Iraq almost one year ago. The group remains a serious security threat, however. Security forces carry out daily raids and arrests against suspected ISIS bandidos forces of Evil and hideouts. Remnants of the group are particularly active in security gaps between Iraqi and Peshmerga forces in the disputed areas like Kirkuk.

Another ISIS member, a member of the group’s inquisitors religious police known as Hisbah, was arrested by police in djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
on Wednesday, the Ministry of Defence announced.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Give him to his victims' women.
Posted by: gorb || 11/22/2018 10:15 Comments || Top||


Arabia
The rebel coalition (Yemen) is visibly dissolving.
[Strategypage] The non-Shia tribes and groups, especially those in and around Sanaa (the rebel-occupied national capital) are losing confidence in the Shia rebels and their leaders. Over the last year, a growing number of these non-Shia leaders have defected. Although the rebels deny morale and unity problems they recently made a public call for deserters, especially Shias, to return to the fighting. Army and coalition troops have reported that a shortage of rebel fighters have become a major factor in the rebels inability to resist ground attacks as effectively as they used to. For this reason, the rebels are eager to obtain a ceasefire or truce.
Posted by: 3dc || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under: Houthis

#1  "Hudna!"
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2018 8:29 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Tom Cruise is deity ... of Scientology !
[FoxNews] “Scientologists are told that Tom Cruise is saving the world single-handedly, so he is considered a deity within Scientology. He is second to David Miscavige— the savior of the free world. Tom is even called ‘Mister Cruise’ by staff members.”
Pretty pathetic, if he is their peak godliness. Betcha he couldn’t cast darkness or level a city without the help of an entire special effects crew plus some tricky camera work. Nor that other guy, neither.

Posted by: 3dc || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under:


International-UN-NGOs
Interpol Picks S.Korea's Kim as President over Russian Rival
[An Nahar] Interpol announced Wednesday that Kim Jong-yang of South Korea had been chosen as its new president, beating a Russian official whose candidacy had unnerved Western nations.

The US-backed Kim, acting president of the global police body, was picked at a meeting of delegates from member nations in Dubai to replace Meng Hongwei, who went missing in his native China in September.

Beijing later said Meng resigned after being charged with accepting bribes.

There had been growing calls within Western nations for Interpol to reject Russian candidate Alexander Prokopchuk -- a Russian interior ministry official and current Interpol vice president -- over fears Moscow could abuse the role to target political opponents.

On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threw his weight behind Kim, who will serve out Meng's term until 2020.

"We encourage all nations and organizations that are part of Interpol and that respect the rule of law to choose a leader with integrity. We believe Mr. Kim will be just that," Pompeo told news hounds
Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Palestinians condemn gov’t demolition of East Jerusalem shops Israel says were illegal
[IsraelTimes] Paleostinian officials condemn Israel’s demolition of 21 businesses and petrol stations which authorities said were built illegally in Jerusalem’s Shuafat refugee camp.

Israeli police confirmed in a statement authorities had demolished "18 illegal businesses and three illegal molatov petrol stations" in annexed East Jerusalem’s Shuafat refugee camp, where an estimated 24,000 Paleostinians live.

Israeli authorities entered the camp with excavators to destroy the structures as police formed a security perimeter, an AFP journalist reported.

"The municipality will continue to carry out activities with the support of the police against illegal business in the different areas," the police statement said.

Ahmad Abu Holy, head of the Paleostine Liberation Organization’s refugee department, condemns the demolitions that he said were "under the illegal pretext of building without a permit."

He makes the comments to official Paleostinian news agency WAFA.

Paleostinians in East Jerusalem and in parts of the West Bank say it’s nearly impossible for them to obtain the required building permits from Israeli authorities.

Khader Dibs, an official from the camp, which is surrounded by Israel’s separation wall and is the only refugee camp within Jerusalem, also condemns the demolitions and said the shops had been built in 2007.

Shop owners said they had been given only 12 hours’ advance notice.

Shuafat camp receives little from Jerusalem’s municipality. The UN agency for Paleostinian refugees, UNRWA, operates there and provides various services to residents.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Air Defense: Cold War Quality Unsurpassed
[Strategypage] Pantsir-S1

Russia is scrambling to suppress more bad news about the performance of its Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft systems in Syria, and elsewhere. Recent Islamic terrorist use of multiple small, explosives equipped UAVs to attack the Russian controlled Hmeimim (or “Khmeimim”) airbase in Syria was described as a failure because Russian air defense systems shot down over fifty of the small UAVs that approached the base in several attacks. Unofficial reports, via the Internet, indicated that the two short-range anti-aircraft systems guarding the base performed very differently. The older Tor-M2U system used its missiles successfully to shoot down the UAVs while the more recent Pantsir-S1 missiles all missed.

Older Tor
Posted by: 3dc || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Science & Technology
Jan 7, 2019 - First test launch of SpaceX manned capsule.
This is an unmanned test fight to the ISS space station.
The first human capable US launcher to fly since the space shuttle.




A SpaceX/NASA render here. (Note the crew access "arm":


SpaceX In-Flight Abort Test: Between Demo-1 and Demo-2
SpaceX Demo-2: June 2019 (manned)

And Boeing:

Boeing Orbital Flight Test: March 2019
Boeing Pad Abort Test: Between OFT and CFT
Boeing Crew Flight Test: August 2019

The In-Flight Abort tests are between unmanned and manned flight as NASA has given both SpaceX and Boeing the option of using their first demo capsule (not the lost part that isn't recovered) as the abort demo craft.
Posted by: 3dc || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
Taiwan: no roadmap to unification
[ASPI] Amid US–China trade tensions, the international debate around China’s United Front activities and the crisis in Xinjiang, the perennial issue of Taiwan continues to simmer as a source of regional tension and as a potential flashpoint for conflict.

Beijing’s efforts to isolate Taiwan diplomatically and notable expressions of support by the US are data points signalling the current state of cross-strait relations. Writing in The Strategist, Malcolm Davis highlighted growing military asymmetry and suggested 2021, the centenary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, as a potential trigger for action against Taiwan.

Military action across the Taiwan Strait would be a catastrophe that would inevitably bring China and the US into direct conflict, the result of which would remake the international order as fully as the Korean War did nearly 70 years ago.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: 3dc || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Globalist dumbasses who only see the world through one lens.

China sees Taiwan reunifying, but in 50 years or so. They have direct cross-strait flights, free travel for Taiwanese (not so the other way around because otherwise Taiwan would be mobbed by immigrants), investment, the whole deal. They'll grow together slowly over time, when the current generation who remembers Communism dies off.

Stupid fucks like the author don't know this and can't see any other way. Military conflict my ass. I also love how he sees a big problem for the military-industrial complex if Taiwan reunifies. They'll lose a ton of money, the poor dears!
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 11/22/2018 0:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Taiwan: no roadmap to unification

Have you checked with PLA?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2018 5:07 Comments || Top||

#3  This view has proponents such as Hugh White, who argues that although it would regrettably extinguish Taiwan’s democracy, the international community should acquiesce to a PRC takeover of Taiwan to maintain peace and so validate the international order’s own liberal progress.

Better to lick the boots, right, Hugh?
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2018 7:43 Comments || Top||

#4  A mandarin, PLAN, a McCoy
(the man must own land on Quemoy!):
"Pop in for a visit.
Taiwan? You won't miss it...
Achaea's uniting with Troy."
Posted by: Shinesing Ulock1972 || 11/22/2018 14:17 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Ginsburg Gambled on Hillary - and Lost
From April, 2017, but seems relevant again, given the fake news about RBG retiring.
[The Hill] The confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court represents a huge political victory for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who gambled on blocking the nomination of Merrick Garland in the hopes of a GOP electoral victory.

It may also have been an equally huge loss for the of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who ignored increasing calls for her retirement during the Obama administration to avoid the prospect of the flipping of her seat from a liberal to a conservative member. That gamble ‐ whatever calculation ‐ could now cost a sweeping number of key cases hanging by a 5-4 margin, including much of the precedent built around Roe v. Wade, if not an outright overturning of that decision.Now Ginsburg’s gamble on Hillary Clinton being elected could have sweeping impact on precedent that she played a major role in creating. With the elimination of the filibuster, the next nominee is hardly likely to be nuanced. Without the filibuster, Republicans have no excuse to compromise on a moderate. There is nothing standing in the way to appointing someone who is openly opposed to cases like Roe v. Wade. There is no plausible deniability based on the need to get to 60. In other words, the market has changed and the stock went bust.

From the use of race in college admissions to abortion to police powers, the GOP could achieve objectives in this administration that have eluded Republican presidents for over six decades. It is not clear if Ginsberg was betting more heavily on herself or Hillary, but many may conclude that the bet was reckless given the stakes on the table. For a few years on the Court, Ginsburg risked Trump "running the table" and the odds now favor precisely such a result.
But Roberts assures us they aren't political. Just unbiased Beacons of Justice. No Obama judges, no Clinton judges, ....
Posted by: Bobby || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why do I keep having a mental image of a black suit of hi-tech armor:
Darth Ruth: "Hssss* Progressives will bring peace and order to the United States! *Hsss*""
Posted by: magpie || 11/22/2018 2:24 Comments || Top||

#2  With Roberts on the court I consider the court to be evenly split 4-4-1. Ginsburg still needs replaced.
Posted by: Airandee || 11/22/2018 3:02 Comments || Top||

#3  What does your constitution say about zombies serving on SCOTUS?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2018 6:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Maybe they'll replace her with an RBGbot and we'll never even know.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/22/2018 12:22 Comments || Top||

#5  Covertly make her office a Faraday cage
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2018 12:25 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
PA court sentences Palestinians to 15 years hard labor for selling land to Jews
[IsraelTimes] Separately, a Paleostinian who died in a car accident was barred from burial in Jerusalem over allegations he sold property to Jews, official says

A Paleostinian Authority court in Qalqilya on Wednesday sentenced two Paleostinians convicted of selling land to Israeli Jews to 15 years of hard labor.

"The court sentenced F.A.E. and A. Kh. M. from Kafr Thulth in the Qalqilya Governorate for the crime of leaking land to the enemy," a memo on the PA High Judicial Council’s website said, referring to the two convicts by their initials and using the Arabic term to allude to selling land to Israeli Jews. "The court...sentenced the convicts to 15 years of hard labor."

Qalqilya is in the northern West Bank.

Paleostinian law considers attempting to sell or selling land to Israeli Jews a punishable offense. According to the law, possible punishments for trying to sell or selling land to Israeli Jews include different degrees of hard labor and execution. However,
a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package...
the law requires that PA President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
approve any death sentence, and he has not signed off on any executions since 2006.

"The president does not approve execution sentences," Hassan al-Aouri, Abbas’s former legal adviser, said in a phone call.

The memo did not provide details on where, when and how the two Paleostinians had sold land to Israeli Jews.

Separately, in early November, the body of Ala’a Qirsh, one of six Paleostinians who died in a major road accident in the Jordan Valley, was barred from being buried in a Moslem cemetery in Jerusalem over allegations that he had sold property to Israeli Jews, an official in the Jerusalem Waqf told The Times of Israel.

"He was not permitted to be buried in Jerusalem’s cemeteries," the official, who asked to remain unnamed, said on Wednesday. "A number of young men in Jerusalem prevented his body from being buried in the cemeteries because they suspected him of selling land to Jews."

Paleostinian officials and religious leaders have long opposed selling land to Israeli Jews.

In a sermon last week at the al-Aqsa Mosque, Ekrima Sabri, former grand mufti of Jerusalem, said that any Paleostinian who sells land to Israeli Jews is a "traitor" and "a perpetrator of a crime that cannot be forgiven."

In late April, a PA court in Ramallah sentenced a Paleostinian convicted of selling land to Israeli Jews to 15 years of hard labor.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [24 views] Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority

#1  Microaggression Palestinian style
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2018 4:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Partners in Peace™
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2018 7:18 Comments || Top||

#3  possible punishments for trying to sell or selling land to Israeli Jews include different degrees of hard labor and execution

"Execute this one hard"
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2018 7:32 Comments || Top||

#4  As opposed to "lightly killed" in the Monty Python skit.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/22/2018 7:56 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Inside China’s ‘tantrum diplomacy’ at APEC
[WaPo] PORT MORESBY, PAPUA NEW GUINEA — For the first time in its 20-year history, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit ended in disarray Sunday when the 21 member countries could not reach consensus on a joint statement because of objections by one member — China. When the summit failed, to the disgust of the other diplomats, Chinese officials broke out in applause.

But that was only the final incident in a week during which China’s official delegation staged a series of aggressive, bullying, paranoid and weird stunts to try to exert dominance and pressure the host nation and everyone else into succumbing to its demands.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: 3dc || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  a senior U.S. official involved in the negotiations told me. “Them walking around like they own the place and trying to get what they want through bullying.”

Oh boy, that is rich coming from the US State Department! LOL!

He's just jealous that someone else stole the script they've been using for decades.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 11/22/2018 0:54 Comments || Top||

#2  “Them walking around like they own the place and trying to get what they want through bullying.”
they have been doing just that for thousands of years
Posted by: 746 || 11/22/2018 23:23 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Navy Developing Prompt Hyper-sonic Global Strike Weapon that Could Launch from Sub or Surface Ship
[USNI news]
Article at title link.


Posted by: 3dc || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Still playing catch-up, I see....
Posted by: Butch Hupomock9008 || 11/22/2018 9:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Still trying to see the point of this weapon, other than the Cool Factor™. AEW drones at the horizon on the threat axis and arm them with interceptor missiles... To be going this fast for any distance will mean the missile will necessarily have to get bigger and bigger and bigger until it stops being a swarm weapon and becomes a strategic weapon.
Posted by: magpie || 11/22/2018 11:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Something to do with Lockheed Martin possibly ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2018 12:01 Comments || Top||

#4  The metallurgy involved in the engine and its nosecone will be helpful in future SSTO development. But this thing will radiate enough thermal energy that any high altitude sensor can spot it in lane-of-sight, Stealthy it ain't. So get a swarm of loitering (probably stealthy as well) drones up high and just wait for the incandescent object to appear on their passive IR sensors.
Posted by: magpie || 11/22/2018 12:16 Comments || Top||

#5  true, but speed, not stealth, is it's advantage
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2018 12:24 Comments || Top||

#6  Velocity has a ferocity all its own. ;-)
Posted by: Zorba Oppressor of the Ostrogoths8656 || 11/22/2018 17:58 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Amnesty to Expand Probe of U.S.-Led Campaign in Syria's Raqqa
[An Nahar] Amnesia Amnesty International said Wednesday it is enlisting the help of thousands of online activists to speed up its investigation into the U.S.-led campaign that drove Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
bully boyz from their self-styled capital of Raqqa but left the Syrian city in ruins.

The London-based rights group said the new phase of its investigation enables thousands of online activists, using satellite imagery of the city, to map out the destruction over the four-month campaign, which ended in October 2017.

The U.N estimates that more than 10,000 buildings were destroyed‐ or 80 percent of the city. Amnesty's Strike Tracker campaign, in partnership with Airwars, would help narrow down when and where coalition air and artillery strikes destroyed buildings.

Amnesty hopes to compel the U.S-led coalition to accept greater responsibility for the destruction and conduct its own investigation into the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

The coalition says it worked to avoid civilian casualties in Raqqa. Col. Sean Ryan, a front man for the coalition, said it is "always willing to review if new evidence is reported."

In an earlier phase of Amnesty's investigation inside Raqqa, the group provided new evidence that compelled the coalition to acknowledge 77 civilian deaths. In total, the coalition has acknowledged 104 civilian deaths from the hard-fought campaign.

"With bodies still being recovered from the wreckage and mass graves more than a year later, this is just the tip of the iceberg," said Milena Marin, senior adviser on Amnesty's Crisis Response team.

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State



Who's in the News
34[untagged]
5Islamic State
4Commies
3Sublime Porte
2Houthis
1Salafists
1Taliban
1Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life,
1Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
1Hamas
1Hezbollah
1Moslem Colonists
1Palestinian Authority

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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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In no particular order...
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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2018-11-22
  PA court sentences Palestinians to 15 years hard labor for selling land to Jews
Wed 2018-11-21
  US military says strikes killed over 30 suspected militants in Somalia
Tue 2018-11-20
  Daesh suffers devastating defeat as Syrian Army liberates entire Al-Safa region
Mon 2018-11-19
  Key Taliban commanders among 7 detained by Afghan Commandos in Takhar
Sun 2018-11-18
  43 civilians killed by anti-ISIS coalition strikes in east Syria
Sat 2018-11-17
  Taliban kill 30 policemen in Farah province
Fri 2018-11-16
  Saudi Arabia will BEHEAD Khashoggi killers
Thu 2018-11-15
  Maute brothers' teen cousin surrenders in Mindanao
Wed 2018-11-14
  Ceasefire Goes Into Effect In South Following Unprecedented Rocket Barrage
Tue 2018-11-13
  Gaza factions agree to cease fire if Israel halts attack - Palestinian official
Mon 2018-11-12
  IAF have begun air strikes on Gaza.
Sun 2018-11-11
  Yemeni forces 'seize Hodeidah's main hospital' amid air raids
Sat 2018-11-10
  Yemeni forces, Saudi-led coalition launch 'vast' Hodeidah push
Fri 2018-11-09
  One dead after Melbourne knife attack being treated as terrorism - ISIS claims actions of known wolf
Thu 2018-11-08
  Syrian Man Gets Life in Prison for Making Parts in IEDs Used Against U.S.

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