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Assailants attack several protest camps in north and south Lebanon
Today's Headlines
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Page 4: Opinion
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7 22:40 trailing wife [16] 
7 18:39 Seeking Cure For Ignorance [14] 
1 20:03 Injun Omusoting7448 [7] 
11 13:41 Lex [5] 
2 07:02 Procopius2k [12] 
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 6: Politix
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20 15:49 Procopius2k [7]
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Old WW2 German Soldier's Advice About War (July 5, 2019 YouTube)


Amazing perspective from a brain washed German soldier of the Hitler Youth. The chaos the German soldier experienced after the Americans and British entered the war.

Posted by: Goober Tingle7365 || 12/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  On a trip through the Panama Canal I had dinner with a German Sub sailor. I made a comment about all the wrecks on the bottom of the Caribbean, I was a sub sailor. One of the comments he made was that his ship had sunk 3 American coming out of the camel. To make a long story short I asked why Hitler was elected. He stated that the choice was Hitler or a Communist and everyone hated communists.
Posted by: Injun Omusoting7448 || 12/18/2019 20:03 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
The Future of the China - Peter Zeihan
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/18/2019 09:33 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
The Hidden Hand
Scathing.
[AndMagazine] The essence of a coup, which some might refer to as covert action, is the hidden hand. One does not announce that a foreign power is overthrowing the government and installing a new government. One pulls strings as if from behind a curtain, making events that are all part of a carefully orchestrated plan appear disconnected, spontaneous and serendipitous.

As I read through the recently released IG report for the second time, as someone with a great deal of experience in military and intelligence matters, I see that hand everywhere.

Per the IG report, a single report is delivered to the FBI in the summer of 2016. It concerns a meeting between a cooperative contact of a foreign intelligence service and a junior level employee of the Trump campaign, George Papadopoulos. The report relates what are frankly very amorphous comments by Papadopoulos concerning the Russian government and its alleged possession of information on Crooked Hillary Clinton
...former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away...
On any other day this report would command no attention whatsoever. The source in question has no track record of any kind with the FBI. Papadopoulos has been employed by the Trump campaign for perhaps 90 days at this point, and there is no reason to believe he has contacts of significance in the Kremlin.

Not on this occasion. This one report from a foreign intelligence service goes directly to the top of the FBI. The Director himself, JamesThe spine of the FBI is the rule of law Comey
The disgraced, except in his own mind, former head of the FBI...
is briefed. A full investigation is launched. Multiple confidential human sources are tasked. Wiretaps are ordered. A task force is organized. Crossfire Hurricane is born.

There is a problem, though. This hand, perhaps because it is controlled by individuals who have made their bones riding desks in Washington, DC and not in the field running actual operations, is clumsy. The information regarding Papadopoulos provided the needed pretext to start an investigation, but most of the people who will now form the investigative team are not in on the plot. They will have to be led to the pre-ordained conclusion, so that it appears that they did so without outside interference.

And these Sherlocks have a pesky habit of actually doing their jobs.

Almost immediately these Sherlocks demonstrate that Papadopoulos does not have the access within the Trump campaign necessary for the suspected Russian connections. If there is a conduit, Papadopoulos cannot be it.

Suddenly, Carter Page is shoved forward as the new focus of the investigation. His contacts with Russians are long-standing and well-known. He will serve well as the new target. Human sources are mobilized. Wiretaps are ordered.

But, there is another problem. Those wielding the clumsy hidden hand have forgotten the first rule of real operational personnel. Never move against a target until you have run "traces." until you have run the individual’s name through our databases, checked the records and found out what we already know about him. Maybe the conspirators really don’t know that. Maybe they just don’t dare do so, because it will mean involving working-level personnel who are not in on the joke.

In any event, they apparently did not run "traces" and as a consequence they clearly do not know that, yes, Mr. Page has extensive Russian contacts and, yes, he has been reporting to "another government agency" for many years on those contacts. Page is a source. Our source.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  they apparently did not run "traces" and as a consequence they clearly do not know that, yes, Mr. Page has extensive Russian contacts and, yes, he has been reporting to "another government agency" for many years on those contacts. Page is a source. Our source.

= The Shitshow, defined.
Posted by: Lex || 12/18/2019 2:09 Comments || Top||

#2  If and only if the Trunks take back the House, the Constitution says Congress sets the judicial structures. They can empower tribunals above SCOTUS to address the coup and those allied with it. If Donks want to play this game for keeps, the Trunks had better be prepared to understand that in the end there can be only one.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/18/2019 7:02 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
'Under Netanyahu, Israel moved forward'
[Arutz-7] - Deputy Defense Minister Avi Dichter on Tuesday posted a response to a Facebook post by MK Yair Lapid following Dichter’s decision to support Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the primaries for the Likud leadership.

In his post, Dichter criticized Blue and White leader Benny Gantz for aspiring to serve as Prime Minister despite having no previous political experience as an MK or a government minister.

"There is no precedent in Israeli politics, where a candidate is running for Prime Minister who has been neither a minister nor a Knesset member," he wrote.

"Lapid knows full well that it is arrogant to aspire to lead a country like Israel, without having sat in the government for one day. Without any experience, Gantz is being pushed by Lapid and others to this position of Prime Minister and has no parliamentary or governmental knowledge and experience," Dichter added.

"As a concerned citizen and MK and Deputy Defense Minister, I choose to support the best candidate among the contestants," he clarified.

Dichter dismissed the claims that the indictments against Netanyahu prevent him from serving as Prime Minister, writing, "The indictments against Netanyahu will be examined in court in due course. Until it makes its decision, Netanyahu may run and serve as Israel’s Prime Minister. The way in which Lapid cites the indictment is intended to hide his position and opinions on the national issues which are not even compatible with Gantz’s. That is legitimate, but we must disclose the facts as well as the truth. Even his father, Tommy Lapid of blessed memory, who was not moderate in his criticism of Prime Ministers, said clear things about a Prime Minister who had been indicted."
What Tommy said, decades ago, was "Do you you want [un-elected bureaucrats] of Prosecutor office to decide who Israeli PM will be?"
"The truth is that under the rule of Netanyahu, the man and the experience, the State of Israel has taken huge steps forward in almost every category that can be measured," he stated.

"But it looks like the heights that Netanyahu brought us to in the past two years are unprecedented," added Dichter. "The US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moving the embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, and stating that the settlements in Judea and Samaria are legal ‐ wow, what a two-year period. Along with the US's possible recognition of the Jordan Valley as Israel's eastern border we will complete a reality that until two years ago sounded like a dream ... Mr. Lapid, these are the fruits of experience."

"That's why I decided to support Netanyahu and called not to support Gantz. I don't want someone to do his political internship on the back of the state. Did you understand that Lapid?" concluded Dichter.
The reason I put this here is because I see a lot of confusion in 'Burg about that goes in in Israel.
(a) Blue & White is not a party - the various components have nothing in common except hatred of Bibi/ambition. If elected they'll start knifing each other within a week.
(b) The so called indictment is a joke. Bibi is accused of giving a newspaper owner a 1.8 billion NIS Gov contract for positive press. To prove it in court you've to:
(i) Show positive press - I don't remember any.
(ii) Show a chain of orders passed from the newspaper owner to the writer.
(iii) If the court accepts that a positive newspaper coverage can be a bribe, then negative coverage is intimidation - any politician will be able to sue any newspaper.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/18/2019 03:57 || Comments || Link || [16 views] Top|| File under:

#1  OK, I posted it a minute ago, how the hell can it have 188 views?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/18/2019 4:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Any folks that I talk to then, who are pro-gantz are potentially your anti-nationals ? Forgive me if I see only binaries when it's about loyalty. I saw them as just snooty 'elevated thinkers', humanists jaded from soldiering, even some 'erb types. Maybe they're just selfish ambitious snobs. Careerists are everywhere but a uniform should put nation first. I know Netanyahu is the best leader you can have for Israel's development and security, but I used to think the others are honest at least. I often wondered why Bibi is targeted by his own.

OK, I posted it a minute ago, how the hell can it have 188 views?

Maybe multiple guys in the collections dept. pounced on it the same time ?

Posted by: Dron66046 || 12/18/2019 5:49 Comments || Top||

#3  226 now
Posted by: Frank G || 12/18/2019 6:36 Comments || Top||

#4  OK, I posted it a minute ago, how the hell can it have 188 views?

Interesting. Maybe bots and spiders?

If I was in the analysis business, I'd definitely have some automation crawling a few pre-defined sites looking for items of interest based on keywords. You know, like what tw does for us.

Or maybe Fred is just bad at arithmetic. /me ducks
Posted by: SteveS || 12/18/2019 13:50 Comments || Top||

#5  Spiders is everwherez. Adtech is infested widd'em
Posted by: Lex || 12/18/2019 14:01 Comments || Top||

#6  like what tw does for us.

*blush* It’s because I have such a porous memory, and forget so many details. Then having found out, it seems only fair to share with you lot — because either you’ve also forgotten, or you’ll remember and say something the next time.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/18/2019 22:30 Comments || Top||

#7  g(r)omgoru, thank you for posting the article and explanation. Politics of any sort is not my strong suite, though I’m willing to have opinions anyway.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/18/2019 22:40 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
SS, Cont'd: Media Maroons Go Insane, Interpret Army-Navy Cadets/Mids' 'Circle Game' Goofy Gesture as White Supremacist Signals
[Reason] This latest social media freakout has prompted a formal military investigation.

Young extremists in the Army and Navy? That's one possibility. The more benign explanation—and a far more likely one—is that the cadets were playing a well-known kids' game that has nothing to do with white supremacy.

Several cadets could be seen on camera making the "OK" gesture, which quickly drew the ire of progressive activists due to its recent association with white supremacy. (The hand "OK" sign is now considered an extremist symbol by the Anti-Defamation League, though only under certain circumstances.)
4Chan pranked the idiot left and they can't admit it
It's important to note that the "OK" symbol's status as a hate symbol is hotly debated. It never became a hate symbol on its own terms, but was the subject of a campaign by far-right trolls to convince everyone that touching the thumb to the index finger formed a "W" and a "P" for "white power." According to The New York Times:

It started in early 2017 as a hoax. Some users of 4chan, an anonymous and unrestricted online message board, began what they called "Operation O-KKK," to see if they could trick the wider world — and especially liberals and the mainstream media — into believing that the innocuous gesture was actually a clandestine symbol of white power.

Back to the cadets: Having carefully reviewed the video footage in question, it seems pretty likely that their gestures were even less significant—they are probably playing the circle game. What is the circle game? you ask. Well, it's pretty simple: You make a circle gesture with your hand, and if someone else looks at the circle, you get to punch that person.
Posted by: Lex || 12/18/2019 01:55 || Comments || Link || [14 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Media morons, or lunatics?
We report. You decide.
Posted by: Lex || 12/18/2019 10:43 Comments || Top||

#2  ALL OF THE ABOVE, IMO
Posted by: ranture || 12/18/2019 10:44 Comments || Top||

#3  convince everyone that touching the thumb to the index finger formed a "W" and a "P" for "white power."

Let's play along. So the midshipman in the photo has his thumb-to-index finger upside down, which transforms the "W" and a "P" (for "white power") into an "M" and a "B," which stand for...

..."MEDIA BITCHES!"

or

"MORONIC BUFFOONS"

or

"MEAT BUTTHEADS"

or...?
Posted by: Lex || 12/18/2019 10:57 Comments || Top||

#4  So what kind of racist sign is it when you curl all your fingers except the middle one - which is extended at the angle of 90% degrees to the palm?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/18/2019 12:54 Comments || Top||

#5  ^ = The White Phallocrat's Cis-gendered Hetero-normative Proto-rapist Military-Fascist Signal to Attack womynx of color
Posted by: Lex || 12/18/2019 12:59 Comments || Top||

#6  ^Well, as long as it doesn't have to be Lena Dunham.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/18/2019 13:25 Comments || Top||

#7  So does that mean that the letter "F" and the number "9" is banned from American sign language?
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 12/18/2019 18:39 Comments || Top||


'Braveheart' To Get All-Female Reboot Starring Lena Dunham
[Babylon Bee] Classic historical drama film Braveheart is receiving a reboot by Paramount Pictures next year, this time with an all-female cast. Lena Dunham will play the starring role of Willow Wallace, a "fierce Scottish she-warrior who don't need no man."

Co-stars include Melissa McCarthy, Amy Schumer, and Beyonce. The band of female fighters will go on a brave quest to topple the patriarchy in 14th-century England, attempting to establish an all-female commune in present-day Scotland.

In an inspiring speech late in the film, Dunham's character will rant about abortion rights and healthcare for all, inspiring her squad of she-soldiers to charge into battle. "Aye, fight, and you may die. Run, and you may live another day being oppressed by heteronormative gender constructs," she yells. "But dying in a concentration camp run by Mike Pence many years from now, would you trade all the days from this day to that, to come back here and tell our patriarchal oppressors that they may take our lives, but they will never take our access to abortion on demand?"

The majority of the army is, of course, slaughtered.
*snicker*
"Historical drama films about men who actually existed have been very exclusionary in the past, insisting on casting men to play the men," said director Zena Noman. "We can finally end the discrimination that women face in not being cast for male roles. It's time to break the stigma."

Paramount is hoping the film can make at least $10 at the box office, according to insiders.
Posted by: Frank G || 12/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dang, missed another one. I would have sworn this was Hollywood and not The Bee.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/18/2019 0:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Too easy. I'm up $1 today.
Posted by: Lex || 12/18/2019 1:46 Comments || Top||

#3  SteveS, the tell was Lena Dunham. She's old news.

No one would cast her in a film today. She'd be lucky to get a bit role in one of those gazillions of Netflix made-for-data-mining throwaways.
Posted by: Lex || 12/18/2019 1:47 Comments || Top||

#4 
Posted by: Angens Turkeyneck2026 || 12/18/2019 5:05 Comments || Top||

#5  "fierce Scottish she-warrior who don't need couldn't get no man."
Posted by: Mercutio || 12/18/2019 7:11 Comments || Top||

#6  "Aye, fight, and you may die. Run, and you may live another day being oppressed by heteronormative gender constructs," she yells. "

That is a brilliant line.
Posted by: ruprecht || 12/18/2019 8:05 Comments || Top||

#7  Walked in thinking Bee.

Walked out laughing still. They put up great headlines, but the brilliance is that more often than not the in-line is fantastic.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/18/2019 11:47 Comments || Top||

#8  Too easy

Not if you have been following the devolution of the Star Wars and Ghostbusters franchises. As for the "starring Lena DumbHam" part, I could totally see Obama-tainted Netflix doing this.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/18/2019 12:25 Comments || Top||

#9  maybe. But she's still a white girl.
Zero 'n' Mike would not be proud of a lead actor with so little melanin.
Posted by: Lex || 12/18/2019 12:37 Comments || Top||

#10  RE: #9

A valid point
Posted by: SteveS || 12/18/2019 13:32 Comments || Top||

#11  There is zero substance to Zero's sweetheart gig w Netflix. He's not "producing" anything that anyone would bother to watch.

His $68m contract was a straightforward payoff for 8 years of ensuring the bogus policy of "net neutrality," without which profit-less NFLX would collapse overnight.
Posted by: Lex || 12/18/2019 13:41 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
29[untagged]
8Sublime Porte
4Govt of Iraq
3Taliban
3al-Shabaab (AQ)
2Islamic State
2Hezbollah
2Govt of Pakistan
2Arab Spring
2Commies
1Human Trafficking
1Islamic Jihad (Palestian)
1Moslem Colonists
1Palestinian Authority
1Govt of Iran
1al-Nusra
1Govt of Pakistain Proxies
1Govt of Saudi Arabia
1Govt of Sudan
1Hamas

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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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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2019-12-18
  Assailants attack several protest camps in north and south Lebanon
Tue 2019-12-17
  Backer of Iraq anti-government protests killed in Baghdad
Mon 2019-12-16
  Iran claims the whole Persian Gulf. Both sides!
Sun 2019-12-15
  Attempt to assassinate the son of the political spokesman of Muqtada al-Sadr
Sat 2019-12-14
  Haftar-led Libyan Army claims new advance near Tripoli
Fri 2019-12-13
  Triumphant Boris hails landslide win gives him ‘power to get Brexit done’
Thu 2019-12-12
  AMAL, Hizbullah Supporters Try to Storm Riad al-Solh, Repelled by Tear Gas
Wed 2019-12-11
  Iraqi protesters defiantly turn out in the capital Baghdad
Tue 2019-12-10
  Jersey City shooting - possibly 6 dead at JC Kosher grocery
Mon 2019-12-09
  Al-Shabaab Militants Kill 8 On Bus In Northern Kenya
Sun 2019-12-08
  At least 10 killed in Kenya bus attack claimed by al-Shabab
Sat 2019-12-07
  Baghdad operations commander orders the Iraqi army to move in Sinak and Khilani to protect the protesters
Fri 2019-12-06
  Naval Air Station Pensacola shooter who killed 3 was Saudi aviation student
Thu 2019-12-05
  Pelosi Asks House Judiciary Committee to Proceed with Articles of Impeachment
Wed 2019-12-04
  Anti-government protesters have set fire to the Iranian consulate in Najaf for the third time in a week


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WoT Operations (22)    WoT Background (19)    Non-WoT (11)    (0)    Politix (9)