Hi there, !
Today Fri 08/17/2018 Thu 08/16/2018 Wed 08/15/2018 Tue 08/14/2018 Mon 08/13/2018 Sun 08/12/2018 Sat 08/11/2018 Archives
Rantburg
531692 articles and 1855967 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 74 articles and 241 comments as of 12:39.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
Islamic State member sentenced to death over killing security personnel in Nineveh
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
1 17:38 Jack Chaiter7913 [] 
11 23:02 trailing wife [2] 
15 23:07 KBK [2] 
3 20:22 Frank G [1] 
13 21:05 newc [3] 
12 20:49 james [2] 
4 17:49 DooDahMan [] 
1 03:35 g(r)omgoru [2] 
6 19:17 Procopius2k [] 
7 17:42 Jack Chaiter7913 [] 
7 16:21 3dc [1] 
0 [] 
1 09:48 Skidmark [1] 
3 16:23 Sock Puppet of Doom [1] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
13 19:37 trailing wife [2]
10 20:00 Zenobia Floger6220 [3]
1 08:56 Frank G [3]
7 18:59 Frank G []
0 []
0 [1]
0 []
0 [1]
2 18:57 M. Murcek []
0 [2]
0 []
0 []
2 08:10 Procopius2k []
0 []
0 [1]
0 [1]
0 []
1 08:15 Skidmark []
0 [1]
0 []
Page 2: WoT Background
8 21:18 Frank G [1]
0 []
3 15:51 Skidmark []
0 [1]
0 []
1 16:14 3dc []
1 00:08 Raj []
0 []
2 19:19 trailing wife []
0 []
1 15:53 Skidmark []
5 15:55 Skidmark []
0 []
0 []
7 13:04 trailing wife [1]
6 18:50 Frank G []
Page 3: Non-WoT
5 19:09 Procopius2k []
1 19:22 M. Murcek [2]
5 17:31 Woodrow []
6 17:32 Woodrow []
1 13:03 Clem Kadiddlehopper9000 [1]
5 23:06 trailing wife [1]
6 17:31 Jack Chaiter7913 []
1 17:33 Jack Chaiter7913 []
1 14:04 Eohippus Dribble5682 []
0 []
0 []
0 [1]
0 [1]
2 20:46 SteveS [1]
0 [1]
0 []
6 17:34 Woodrow [1]
4 18:27 Frank G [1]
4 17:36 Jack Chaiter7913 [1]
Page 6: Politix
5 18:20 M. Murcek [1]
4 17:36 Woodrow []
8 12:38 DarthVader []
10 19:38 746 [1]
13 17:52 M. Murcek [1]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Rudy Giuliani: Ex-CIA Director Behind The Entire Mueller Investigation
[Daily Caller] President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani announced on Monday evening that he believes former CIA Director John Brennan is the person responsible for the entire Mueller investigation. Giuliani made the claim during a segment of "Hannity" on Fox News.

"She got off because of that fixed investigation. A totally phony fixed investigation run by Peter Strzok who then turns around, the dossier is obtained on the day that they dropped the case against Trump ‐ against Hillary. So that case gets dropped and they had to even up the score," Giuliani stated.

"The reality is I’m going to tell you. We don’t have the time to go into it, we can do it later, I’m going to tell you who was the quarterback for all of this. It isn’t just Strzok. Strzok is a bit of a puppet. Then there’s Mueller, he’s a puppet. The people working for him, some of them are," he continued.

Hannity cut of Giuliani saying, "I have a funny feeling you are about to drop a bomb on me."

Giuliani and Hannity were discussing the firing of disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok, which happened earlier on Monday. (RELATED: ’Finally’: Trump Cheers Strzok Firing From FBI, Wants Russia Probe Dropped)

"Well the guy running it is [John] Brennan and he should be in front of a grand jury. Brennan took an affidavit ‐ a dossier, unless he’s the biggest idiot intelligence agent that ever existed, although he never did much intelligence work, it’s false. You could look at it and laugh," Giuliani stated.

Related: Fox - Ex-CIA director John Brennan should face grand jury over Russia probe handling: Giuliani
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2018 05:25 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yes, 'behind the Mueller investigation' and a whole lot more.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2018 5:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Not so sure about Giuliani anymore. But, yes, Brennan is a ripe scum bag.
Posted by: Clem || 08/14/2018 20:19 Comments || Top||

#3  I like that Brennan's being loudly called out. Cockroaches LOVE the dark
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2018 20:22 Comments || Top||


2016 Trump Tower Meeting Looks Increasingly Like a Setup by Russian and Clinton Operatives
[SARA CARTER] The June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between high-ranking members of the Republican presidential campaign staff and a Russian lawyer with Kremlin ties remains the cornerstone of claims that Donald Trump colluded with Russia to steal the election.

A growing body of evidence, however, indicates that the meeting may have been a setup ‐ part of a broad effort to tarnish the Trump campaign involving Hillary Clinton operatives employed by Kremlin-linked figures and Department of Justice officials. This view, that the real collusion may have taken place among those who arranged the meeting rather than the Trump officials who agreed to attend it, is supported by two disparate lines of evidence pulled together for the first time here: newly released records and a pattern of efforts to connect the Trump campaign to Russia.

The first line of evidence includes emails, texts, and memos recently turned over to Congress by the Department of Justice. They show how closely senior Justice Department officials and the Federal Bureau of Investigation worked with employees of Fusion GPS, a Washington-based research firm reportedly paid $1 million by Clinton operatives to dig up dirt on the Trump campaign.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This should have a master of the obvious icon attached to it.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 08/14/2018 10:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Ask and ye shall receive, dear Sock Puppet.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2018 12:51 Comments || Top||

#3  TW, I knew I could count on you to clean up the omission.

That it was a set up given the circumstances and the connections should not be a surprise.

Some of the burgers said from the beginning that the meeting had a strange aroma.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 08/14/2018 16:23 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Mayor Mashaba blames Jo'burg's inner city crime on ‘undocumented people'
[TSA] Following a spate of vicious muggings in Johannesburg’s inner-city, Mayor Herman Mashaba has singled out undocumented foreigners and a bureaucratic judicial system as the main causes for the prevailing scourge of ’petty’ crime.

In an interview with 702 Talk Radio, Mashaba sympathised with residents who had been affected by crime in Jo’burg’s central business district (CBD).

Johannesburg mugging caught on camera sparks outrage
The mayor had to face some tough questions regarding the lack of visible policing within the CBD ‐ an outcry which has intensified following amateur video footage captured the vicious mugging of a man in Small Street Mall.

The mall, which is right outside the South Gauteng High Court, was busy at the time. Onlookers did not intervene for fear of their own safety. No police officers were present in an area that is known for being a mugging hotspot.

Responding to questions posed by talk show host, Azania Mosaka, Mashaba bemoaned the fact that undocumented foreigners were able to slip through the cracks and avoid capture due to them not being on the record.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2018 02:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  South Africa to eradicate pit latrine toilets in schools
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/14/2018 9:44 Comments || Top||

#2  But the "muggings" of white farmers certainly are not perpetrated by undocumented foreigners, are they?
Posted by: DooDahMan || 08/14/2018 17:44 Comments || Top||

#3  @ #1 - "after a five-year-old pupil drowned in a toilet in March"

I suppose it's too late for the old "if it saves just one life it will have been worth it".

Sorry for the pupil's family, but I would like to see statistics on how deaths there have been over the years from falling into out-house pits.
Posted by: DooDahMan || 08/14/2018 17:47 Comments || Top||

#4  ^^^ how many deaths....
Posted by: DooDahMan || 08/14/2018 17:49 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Zeihan: Turkey’s Growing Pains
American relations with Turkey got very interesting last week.

An ongoing disagreement over the status of an American pastor, Andrew Craig Brunson, who thought it a good idea to proselytize in a country who officially, firmly, repeatedly warned him such actions were both unwelcome and unwise, has built up into a full-throated international incident. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s base is Islamist social conservatives while Donald Trump’s core coalition includes Christian social conservatives. The Turks arrested Brunson, the Trump administration wants Brunson released, the Turks said no, and here we are.

Turkey’s currency, the lira, has been struggling for years in no small part due to the political pressure Erdogan and his supporters have placed on the central bank to keep interest rates artificially low. Rising inflation peaked over the weekend when the lira fell to record lows, with Erdogan still voicing support for interest rates to remain as low as possible. (High interest rates are typically anathema to construction firms, and much of Erdogan’s political machinery has been financed in the past by large Turkish firms who have benefitted from the infrastructure and construction boom since his time in office.) Fuel was added to the fire of monetary weakness from a once unthinkable source: the United States.

On August 10 U.S. President Donald Trump announced a doubling of the United States’ tariffs on imports of Turkish steel and aluminum, expressly linking the new tariff levels to the Brunson dispute. This is hardly the first time the Americans have used economic sanctions to get their way. Sanctions against strategic rivals such as the Soviet Union or North Korea are a time-honored tradition, as are sanctions in preparation for military action such as in the months leading up to the pair of invasions of Iraq. Similarly, tariffs are a common tool in economic arguments and trade disputes.

But to my recollection, this is the first time the Americans have ever used such tools in a political dispute against an ally.

A few things come from this:

First, the American-Turkish alliance is over.

I’m not talking NATO here – NATO is already dead. I’m talking bilateral arrangements. The United States and Turkey have had a long and largely productive military relationship since the 1950s, with Turkish military bases proving central to American foreign policy goals as regards the Eastern Mediterranean, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, the former Yugoslavia, the Black Sea, and the Caucasus.

The partnership has been built on a pair of unshakable facts.
Turkey’s long history and relatively diversified, robust economy makes it the only power touching the Middle East that is capable, stable, reliable and whose assistance doesn’t generate more problems than it solves.
Turkey’s location between Europe and Asia, between the former Soviet space and the Mediterranean, makes it the central clearinghouse for any out-of-region power that seeks to project power into all four zones.
During the first Gulf War, the Turks allowed the US to use Incirlik airbase to attack Iraqi positions in exchange for financial aid. After Erdogan rose to power in 2003 and denied the Americans’ use of Incirlik due to concerns over Kurdish empowerment, the US military had to find longer, costlier workarounds to achieve their goals. Turkey lost out on the economic aid, but demonstrated its leverage. ...
Posted by: 3dc || 08/14/2018 09:49 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  The American/Turkish alliance has been dead for a while. Erdogan is going full islamic military dictatorship and state. I do disagree that the US is suddenly leaving the ME. While we might leave Turkey, I can't see our leaders giving up the rest of the area especially with Russia and Iran trying to move in again.

Turkey might bounce back, but there is no guarantee of it or it becoming a regional power. If it takes Iran's path, it will see its power diminished as it will not only be more isolated from the west, but it will be clashing with Iran and the other powers in the area for control.
Posted by: DarthVader || 08/14/2018 10:00 Comments || Top||

#2  The good pastor has been quietly tending his flock in a quiet corner of Turkey for over two decades without any significant issues until his recent arrest, if I understand correctly. He was taken up by the authorities strictly to be traded for Fethullen Gulen in the time-honoured Moslem way seen also in Iran, only President Trump is refusing to play. I suspect more Americans and other Westerners will be collected for the purpose until the president either gives in or does something drastic to demonstrate to Sultin Erdogan I that he needs to make much better choices. I would suggest destroying a public wing of his fancy new palace, though that’s not at all diplomatic.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2018 11:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Why the public wing? Private would one would be a much better target.
Posted by: 3dc || 08/14/2018 13:25 Comments || Top||

#4  First round as a warning, 3dc. We can actually threaten Erdogan’s sleeping arrangements the next time. Besides, the public spaces are seen by the public — ever so much more embarrassing.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2018 13:31 Comments || Top||

#5  The entire reason we had Turkey in NATO in the first place was to flank Russia. Thus in Operation Barbarossa Part 2 we can flank them and present them with two avenues of advance: one from NATO territory in Europe and one from Turkey into the Caucasus. Thus we avoid the mistakes of the Nazis.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 08/14/2018 13:49 Comments || Top||

#6  Anybody who invades Russia makes a mistake, Herb.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/14/2018 13:53 Comments || Top||

#7  Actually the Trump administration did play, though 'playing' was a mistake in this instance.

Brunson was supposed to be freed in exchange for Israel releasing a Turkish Hamas operative. Ms Hamas was then freed, Brunson wasn't.

Erdogan simply refused to honor his obligation. He altered the deal and told Trump to pray that he wouldn't alter it further.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 08/14/2018 14:06 Comments || Top||

#8  "America is less the bull in the china shop and more the flamethrower pointing at a house of cards."
Posted by: 3dc || 08/14/2018 17:16 Comments || Top||

#9  Turkey’s long history and relatively diversified, robust economy makes it the only power touching the Middle East that is capable, stable, reliable and whose assistance doesn’t generate more problems than it solves.

Bullshit. Jordan is a better ally, and perhaps Egypt if things keep getting better.
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2018 20:21 Comments || Top||

#10  Egypt is doing surprisingly well, all things considered. Or better than I expected, at any rate.

What I don't get is why Erdy punked Trump on the hostage swap. Sure, there is some short-term gloating, but there is a long-term downside to pissing off one of the big dogs. And what ever happened to honor among thieves?
Posted by: SteveS || 08/14/2018 20:36 Comments || Top||

#11  Actually the Trump administration did play,

You’re right and I should have remembered, Elmerert Hupens2660.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2018 23:02 Comments || Top||


Why the lira went into freefall
[ARABNEWS] The Ottoman Turkish lira has lost more than 45 percent against the dollar since the beginning of the year. Initially the reasons were manifold and interlinked: A sizeable current account deficit, the government’s undue influence over the central bank, its opposition to hiking interest rates, high inflation, geopolitical tensions and other factors.

Markets were skeptical when President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
last month appointed his son-in-law Berat Albayrak as finance minister, replacing the seasoned ex-banker Mehmet Simsek. There were some wobbles but things steadied, before all hell broke loose and the lira went into freefall.

This was exacerbated by mounting tensions between the US and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
. President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
doubled tariffs on steel and aluminum and imposed sanctions on some government members after Erdogan refused to release detained US evangelical priest Andrew Brunson. Things did not even calm down after a news conference by Albayrak, where he put forward a plan to combat the country’s economic woes. The lira continued its downward slide.

This all helped boost Turkey’s already high inflation rate. The country’s economy depends on importing energy and essential goods; the impact of the lira slide has also been felt in Turkey’s corporate sector, where companies have widely borrowed in foreign currency.

Over the weekend we saw signs of contagion. The Russian ruble, the Indonesian rupiah and the South African rand depreciated heavily. The euro lost against the yen, which makes sense because Spanish, French and Italian banks are exposed to Turkey. The Ottoman Turkish crisis will not be Greece 2.0 as far as the euro zone is concerned. However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things...
banks BBVA, UniCredit and BNP Paribas all have exposure to Turkey.

Posted by: Fred || 08/14/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  The Turkish crisis will not be Greece 2.0 as far as the euro zone is concerned.

I don't think that's how I'd place my bet, especially after you just got finished telling us that French, Spanish and Italian banks (any others, like Germany?) have exposure, which just might translate to significant exposure.
Posted by: Raj || 08/14/2018 0:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Every financial crisis has its roots in solvent institutions deciding times are so good it's OK to lend to the insolvent. It always ends the same bad way.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/14/2018 7:29 Comments || Top||

#3  The Russian ruble, the Indonesian rupiah and the South African rand depreciated heavily.

Put in is punching above his weight and you don’t land grab from your producers.
Posted by: Clem Kadiddlehopper9000 || 08/14/2018 12:46 Comments || Top||

#4  I guess what I’m trying to say is they made their own mistakes and I think it’s partially that.
Posted by: Clem Kadiddlehopper9000 || 08/14/2018 12:53 Comments || Top||

#5  Exposure yes but leading German economists say that this crisis is manageable even if Turkey defaults.
Posted by: European Conservative || 08/14/2018 15:55 Comments || Top||

#6  I think we'll find real soon now that Russia will begin buoying Turkey economically as the Syrian crisis becomes an afterthought. Why fight for access to the Med when you can just buy it?
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/14/2018 16:12 Comments || Top||

#7  It might be cheaper to base out of Turkey than to prop up Assad.
Posted by: 3dc || 08/14/2018 16:21 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Feinstein, Strzok, and the Sinister Russia Probe
h/t Instapundit
One of the salient facts to remember in the wake of the firing (finally!) of Peter Strzok is that the man was the chief of the Counterespionage Section of the FBI. That means the man in charge of counterespionage for the Unites States of America was conducting an extramarital affair with another important Justice Department employee via text messages that could easily have been hacked by a high school student.

...Now roll back five years to when it was discovered that Dianne Feinstein's chauffeur of twenty years (!) was a spy for the People's Republic of China. (Well, five years for Dianne. The rest of us found out only last week.)

How was it possible the then-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee was under such intimate covert surveillance by China for decades? Where was our counterespionage on that one? Not doing a lot of countering.

...These two events separated by just a few years demonstrate incompetence in the extreme. But they are far from alone. Michael Ledeen in an article at this site detailed a host of errors by our intelligence agencies over the years, from the complete misjudgment of the Soviet Union onward to missing 9/11, the Boston Marathon, etc.

So what does that record of malfeasance add up to? What is its twisted progeny? What else but The Russia Probe itself?

After decades of failure safely hidden by codes of bureaucratic silence, a new administration arrives -- or threatens to arrive -- with a wild card president. That immediately spells trouble for these intelligence bureaucracies. Indeed, it clearly spelled trouble before he arrived. They tried to head it off at the pass.

How better then to distract from being investigated than to launch an investigation of the person (or persons) that would normally be investigating you. In that way they would be following the normal pattern of bureaucracies as detailed in Benda's The Treason of the Intellectuals, first failing and then protecting themselves through omertà. And our intelligence agencies are nothing if not bureaucracies, bloated ones at that.


...So... a Russia Probe. How better, once again, for Brennan, Clapper, Comey, et al. to avoid being brought to justice or even being given much scrutiny for what they did? And they were doubtless aided and abetted by the previous administration, their willing collaborators and/or instigators.

Separately or together they had the solution. Bring someone else far less criminal to the dock -- like Michael Flynn, who had had the temerity to criticize their beloved Iran Deal. Let that poor sucker take the heat. Put good old Strzok in there to sink him. Then accuse a president -- who, conveniently, has a tendency toward malapropisms -- of covering up whatever (it doesn't matter -- pick anything). With any luck they can nail that president for perjury or that most heinous of sins, lying to the FBI. He could be a second Martha Stewart. Then they're really off the hook. Rabid dogs of the press and the opposition party will demand impeachment. Again, it doesn't matter for what as long as it happens. Distraction is all.

And lucky for them they have two functional eunuchs standing by, ever willing to protect the organization at the expense of the truth -- Christopher Wray and Jeff Sessions. People like that have the gift of convincing themselves that they are doing good when they are doing the opposite.

Speaking of which, Inspector General Michael Horowitz is due for a report about all this. His first, about the Clinton email scandal, was a sophisticated whitewash. The second is about a subject yet more important -- the essence of the FBI itself. Will it be a second whitewash? If it is, as Jerry Garcia once said, "Trouble ahead, trouble behind..."
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/14/2018 12:14 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Posted by: Jack Chaiter7913 || 08/14/2018 17:38 Comments || Top||


Omarosa says Mueller's office has reached out to her
[The Hill] Former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman says that she's "certainly" willing to share recordings from her time in the Trump administration with special counsel Robert Mueller, and that his office has already reached out to her.

Manigault Newman appeared Monday on MNSBC's "Hardball" as part of her ongoing press tour for her new White House memoir. Asked by host Chris Matthews if she has tapes from her time working in the Trump administration beyond the two she has shared publicly in recent days, Manigault Newman said, "I have plenty."

"Anything Mueller would like to see?" Matthews asked.

"If his office calls again ... anything they want I’ll share," Manigault Newman responded. "Anything that they want, I’ll certainly cooperate."

The ex-communications director for the White House's Office of Public Liaison did not elaborate on what her previous interactions with the special counsel may have involved.

Asked if she believes Trump will be impeached, Manigault Newman said "at this point, yes."
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2018 01:46 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As if Mueller's side doesn't already have enough crazy-ass bitches and hoes.
Posted by: SteveS || 08/14/2018 11:20 Comments || Top||

#2  She has already said they avoided her the last 8 months. I suspect they didn't exactly invite her to a whole lot of anything. If she's not careful Meuller is gonna believe her lies and put her on the stand for national embarrassment or time in jail for perjury.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 08/14/2018 12:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Reached out to her...
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/14/2018 16:08 Comments || Top||

#4  She better ask for immunity first. She committed a felony with her tape recording in a SCIF...
Posted by: 49 Pan || 08/14/2018 16:21 Comments || Top||

#5  She better ask for immunity first. She committed a felony with her tape recording in a SCIF...

Excellent idea Pan. She could be 'working' for someone else. No better way to find out.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2018 16:36 Comments || Top||

#6  This "N"-word kerfuffle is, imo, an attempt to fracture the Trump Black vote. Nothing more.

She is, at this point, in deep Nutella.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 08/14/2018 16:50 Comments || Top||

#7 
Posted by: Jack Chaiter7913 || 08/14/2018 17:42 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Vaping 'can damage vital immune system cells'
[BBC] Vaping can damage vital immune system cells and may be more harmful than previously thought, a study suggests.

Researchers found e-cigarette vapour disabled important immune cells in the lung and boosted inflammation. The researchers "caution against the widely held opinion that e-cigarettes are safe".

However, Public Health England advises they are much less harmful than smoking and people should not hesitate to use them as an aid to giving up cigarettes.

The small experimental study, led by Prof David Thickett, at the University of Birmingham, is published online in the journal Thorax.

Previous studies have focused on the chemical composition of e-cigarette liquid before it is vaped. In this study, the researchers devised a mechanical procedure to mimic vaping in the laboratory, using lung tissue samples provided by eight non-smokers.

They found vapour caused inflammation and impaired the activity of alveolar macrophages, cells that remove potentially damaging dust particles, bacteria and allergens.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2018 02:08 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The small experimental study, led by Prof David Thickett
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/14/2018 3:35 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
‘The snake’s head’ and the Khobar bombing
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The revolutionary Khomeinist movement succeeded in reviving many fundamentalist movements. After Khomeini's arrival in Tehran, Bin Laden described Khomeini as "great", wishing to achieve a similar dream in Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
Starting in the 1980s, Bin Laden gained knowledge from the experiences of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Hezbollah and Imad Mughniyah who later become an ally for assisting in bombings, including the Khobar operation in 1996.

The cooperation between Iran, its branches, affiliates and al-Qaeda is familiar to Americans. When Saudi Arabia insisted on conducting an investigation into the circumstances of the bombing, a long story unfolded, as recounted by Prince Bandar bin Sultan. He bitterly narrated the suspicious deal between the Clinton team and Iran to tamper with the investigation and kill it after leads showed Iran's explicit involvement in supporting the perpetrators of the bombings in question.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 08/14/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Alarm bells are sounding from Jordan and Egypt
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The ISIS attack on a security patrol in Fuheis in Jordan and the other ISIS attack on an Egyptian church in Shubra El Kheima in the Qalyubia Governorate bring focus again on the continuity of the battle or rather the big open war with these black groups.

Jordanian King Abdullah II said: "We will punish anyone who dares harm Jordan’s security and its citizens’ safety. We will fight the Khawarij and mercilessly strike them and with all power and decisiveness."

His statement came while heading a National Policy Council meeting at Al Husseiniya Palace to follow up on the terror attack which targeted a joint patrol of gendarmerie and general security in Fuheis and on the raid on the involved terror cell in the city of Salt and which led to the death of a number of security forces’ personnel.

The ISIS jacket wallah in Egypt, who is in his 20s, was blown up by his evil suicide belt before his devilish footsteps reached the church’s steps to attack innocent lives.

The war against ISIS has not ended, and it also did not end against al-Qaeda and the groups which branched from these devilish organizations; they are a permanent problem - not temporary. Even if they are temporary, it does not mean we should surrender to them and to their influence on the minds of some evil or deceived men, and it means that the ideological, media, political, legal and, of course, security war must go on. This war must continuously operate while extending its efforts without any laziness or delusional reliance of victory.

It’s true that 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....
of Iraq and Syria, as it calls itself, or the practical and organizational entity was deterred in its Syrian and Iraqi positions but even if it calls itself a state, it’s in the end a mutation of Islamized groups and a fruit of the Qutbist-Brotherhood Al Zaqqum Tree.

The confrontation against these groups has been ongoing for around 70 years, ever since the secret Brotherhood group carried out liquidations and kabooms during the era of King Farouk and until today.

Yes, there are regional intelligence political uses of ISIS and al-Qaeda but the origin is the fatal sick ideology.

In short, protecting public health is non-stop continuous work to shield from old and new diseases, and the same applies to the diseases of the mind and the soul.

Jordan’s and Egypt’s alarm bells alert to this.
Posted by: Fred || 08/14/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1 
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/14/2018 9:48 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Swim Caps Are Keeping Black Women Out of Pools
[Atlantic] Their limited design is yet another contributor to America’s racial disparities in swimming.

Noelle Singleton challenges any swim-cap maker who claims a swimmer’s hair won’t get wet with their caps to send her one. She’ll post a review on social media of her swimming a 100-meter individual medley in it.

Swim caps matter for Singleton, a 30-year-old black swim coach in Georgia with a thick, full-moon-shaped afro. Known on her AfroSwimmers Instagram account as Coach With the Fro, she has been offering swim lessons that target the black community for 16 years. The first question she always gets from female clients, she says, is: "What do I do with my hair?" She gives them tips, including which swim caps to buy. But, "I tell them up front: Please expect your hair to get wet," Singleton says.

Historically, swimming pools have played a murky part in racial segregation and disparity in the United States. Despite a public-pool boom in the 1950s and ’60s, generations of black people have not learned how to swim. In 2017, a report from the USA Swimming Foundation found that 64.2 percent of black adults said they had no or low swimming abilities, versus 39.7 percent of white people. Among the black parents in that group, 78 percent said their children had no or low swimming abilities, too.

Numerous factors contribute to why blacks are less likely to swim: a lack of lap pools to learn in, a lack of representation in water sports, a fear of drowning, and a lack of affordable swim lessons. But one thing that’s often overlooked is that swim caps aren’t designed to protect common hairstyles among black women, adding yet another barrier to their participation in swimming, kayaking, water polo, diving, and other aquatic activities. "It’s an epidemic," Singleton says of their exclusion.

For black women, hair is a long-standing point of pride, self-expression, status, and heritage. Some women will spend hundreds of dollars‐and sit for hours‐to get box braids or install a weave. That’s not including the hair products required for daily maintenance. All this makes swimming risky. Chlorine can damage the softness of an afro, the tightness of a box braid or sisterlock, or the clean scalp hidden under a sew-in weave. For some hairstyles, the prospect of starting over with washing, conditioning, sitting under a hair dryer, combing or picking out hair, and restyling in general is frustrating.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2018 08:30 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


#2  Another excuse masquerading a simple choice: learn to swim or keep your hairstyle. After you learn to swim, you don't need to get your hair wet.
Posted by: Bobby || 08/14/2018 9:15 Comments || Top||

#3  The endless inventiveness of the Whitey in keeping the black woman down!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/14/2018 9:20 Comments || Top||

#4  Head condoms.
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/14/2018 9:39 Comments || Top||

#5  If it’s that important, find a product designer to design a swim cap to accomodate a much larger volume of hair, set up a company to manufacture them, and rake in the dough. There are companies that manufacture special products for African-American hair, cosmetics for African-American skin tones, clothing for African-American body types and taste, magazines for African-American audiences, and musicians from and for African-American audiences, some of whom have later caught the attention of broader audiences. The black community has never waited for white folks to get around to meeting their needs before, which suggests either a certain lack of imagination now or SJW posturing on the part of this coach.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2018 12:11 Comments || Top||

#6  Yeah, and then that chlorine is gonna bleach the hair. They might end up with blond streaks in it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 08/14/2018 12:19 Comments || Top||

#7  America is a total failure and should be broken up immediately
/sarc
Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/14/2018 15:25 Comments || Top||

#8 
Posted by: Jack Chaiter7913 || 08/14/2018 17:39 Comments || Top||

#9  The hair issue doesn't explain why the black fellas don't swim so much.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 08/14/2018 17:59 Comments || Top||

#10  Crocodiles
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/14/2018 18:04 Comments || Top||

#11  "For black women, hair is a long-standing point of pride, self-expression, status, and heritage. Some women will spend hundreds of dollars‐and sit for hours‐to get box braids or install a weave."

Which way do you want it, ladies?
Posted by: DooDahMan || 08/14/2018 18:24 Comments || Top||

#12  Swim caps also don't work for people wearing Royal Regalia like the Queen of England! Lèse-majesté! Off with their heads!
Posted by: magpie || 08/14/2018 18:53 Comments || Top||

#13  In other news: Racist Flip Turns, Pool Walls Damage Black Toenails, Self-esteem
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 08/14/2018 21:58 Comments || Top||

#14  Also... take me back to childhood and tell me that I would spend the next several years swimming several thousand miles at reasonable speed with my head perfectly insulated. Now watch as I try to drown myself.
Posted by: Helmuth, Speaking for Elmerens3816 || 08/14/2018 22:05 Comments || Top||

#15  The only fair thing to do is eliminate all the swimming pools.
Posted by: KBK || 08/14/2018 23:07 Comments || Top||


Why Does It Cost So Much to Educate a Child in America?
h/t Instapundit
We've heard a lot recently about the I Promise School that LeBron James is helping to start in Akron, Ohio, and, in theory, it seems like a good idea: Gather up 240 at-risk students into a school that, in addition to academics, provides "wraparound" services like free breakfast and lunch and an extended school day and school year to keep kids off the streets.

The Akron Beacon Journal reports some staggering dollar amounts being poured into the school that will enroll 240 kids.

The school, which is public and part of Akron Public Schools, is costing the district nearly $2.9 million from its general fund to cover the cost of most salaries, benefits, supplies and other base elements of the school.

By 2023, Pendleton estimates the school will cost the district a cumulative total of $8.1 million, but he considers it a "long-term investment" that will lead to smaller class sizes in other schools, better enrollment and improved report card ratings, among other benefits.

The contributions to the school from the foundation and its partners has amounted to more than $2 million for its physical transformation, additional staffing for smaller class sizes, technology, wraparound supports and other upgrades for the first year, according to the foundation.

Peg’s Foundation is committing $2.5 million to the school over the next five years, primarily for its wraparound support services, but also for whatever the LeBron James Family Foundation deems necessary in its first few years.

Contrary to some reporting, the LeBron James Family Foundation isn't footing the bill for all of the school's operating expenses. The foundation has donated $2 million thus far for start-up costs and has committed to another $2 million a year as the school builds to capacity. Because IPS will be part of the Akron City School District, a little over 14,000 in tax dollars will be allocated for each pupil enrolled in the school‐the same as for students in every other school in the district. Add to that the millions in charity dollars that will be poured into the school every year and the cost of each child's education begins to skyrocket.

The chart below shows how education dollars are spent in each state. Note that less than half of school expenditures go to pay teacher salaries‐and that gray "other" category comes out to around 28 percent of the total amount spent.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/14/2018 03:03 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "wraparound support services" = government replacing parents.

I'm surprised nobody has pointed out how racist it is to assume that being around black parents is toxic to their children.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 08/14/2018 4:10 Comments || Top||

#2  ...Twenty-five years ago, I dealt very closely with the Akron school system as a USAF recruiter.
It was hopeless then, and I suspect it hasn't gotten any better.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 08/14/2018 4:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Who produces the administrators and educators that run this ship? The same ones who credentialed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, our universities and colleges. They all changed to paper mills in pursuit of subsidized monies.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/14/2018 8:02 Comments || Top||

#4  We always hear about how the US healthcare system is too costly and under performs. The stats are always dicey. Maybe we should switch out healthcare for public education as a more precise measure of the shortcomings of the greatest nation on earth.
Posted by: regular joe || 08/14/2018 9:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Mmmm...textbook standardization,
transportation motor pool that nobody uses,
aging/failed facilities and physical plant,
property appreciation, toxic children?
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/14/2018 9:42 Comments || Top||

#6  Oh,...and tenured instructors.
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/14/2018 11:40 Comments || Top||

#7  The Fake Indian, who made $400K for teaching one class, might be a part of the problem too. Of course, she'll tell you otherwise.
Posted by: Raj || 08/14/2018 12:15 Comments || Top||

#8  Gender, Ethnic Studies profs earn about $12k more than peers
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/14/2018 13:35 Comments || Top||

#9  The "education industry" like all others in America is about sustaining itself, nothing more.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/14/2018 17:43 Comments || Top||

#10  Stupid kids grow up to embrace common core and then teach it making them all the more stupid so it takes longer to teach them duh!
Posted by: Jack Chaiter7913 || 08/14/2018 17:48 Comments || Top||

#11  they arent educators they're aministrators
Posted by: 746 || 08/14/2018 19:40 Comments || Top||

#12  #10 - when semi-coherent and not stupidly profane or bot racism, we leave him up
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2018 19:55 Comments || Top||

#13  Who said they are being educated?
Posted by: newc || 08/14/2018 21:05 Comments || Top||


University of Birmingham 'Male & Pale' Professors assigned minders
[Victory Girls] The Social Justice Warrior cult on university campuses just got another boost. Say hello to the University of Birmingham where being a Senior Academic while male and pale means being "assigned a junior female colleague from an ethnic minority as a mentor". "Reverse Mentors"? What could go wrong?

The project’s overseer is Professor Jon Rowe. It’s not that he is directly charging his fellow penis of pallor academics of overt SIXHIRB, but he hopes these nubile, young vagina possessors will leave the seniors "feeling quite uncomfortable".
"What is understood about unconscious bias is that we have all got it, but the more you learn about it and become conscious of it, the more you can act ...

While it is well known and obvious that women and minority groups suffer setbacks to their career progression no one really understands why."

Rowe forgets that even people who have not gone to University can spot blatant question-begging. It is well known ranks up there with experts say or, the classic, studies show for fallacious assertions.

Are these white, male professors bigots? Have they been shown to engage in unlawful discrimination? Therefore, let’s be honest. These mentors are actually cultural minders. They are Big Sisters to monitor (and report) the professors’ fealty to The Cause.

Mao would proud.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2018 02:51 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why would tenured professors put up with this shit?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/14/2018 3:35 Comments || Top||

#2  If I was one of these professors, I'd file complaints against these cunts every day or every hour if necessary.
Posted by: Raj || 08/14/2018 4:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Where's the Governor? Usually the one who hands out the patronage jobs to fill the Regents seats.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/14/2018 8:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Wiki: In the military, a political commissar or political officer (or politruk, from Russian: политический руководитель, "political leader"), is a supervisory officer responsible for the political education (ideology) and organization of the unit they are assigned to, and intended to ensure civilian control of the military. From the establishment of the Red Army after 1917, these officers were almost invariably tasked to make sure the Communist Party of the respective country could count on the loyalty of the Army.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2018 9:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Why would tenured professors put up with this shit?

They don't want to teach high school?
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/14/2018 9:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Look up "tenured" Skid
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/14/2018 9:45 Comments || Top||

#7  Academic tenure

Tenure is a means of defending the principle of academic freedom, which holds that it is beneficial for society in the long run if scholars are free to hold and examine a variety of views.

It would seem the contract has been voided, Grom.
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/14/2018 10:31 Comments || Top||

#8  The point is, Skid, a tenured professor cannot be fired unless he sleeps with students. And he can sue, if fired.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/14/2018 11:45 Comments || Top||

#9  Ah, /sarcasm.
Wait, when you say 'sleep with students' do you mean, like all nighters, or just a little closet romp?
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/14/2018 16:03 Comments || Top||

#10  What are the rules on 'grade inflation nooky'?
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/14/2018 16:04 Comments || Top||

#11  a tenured professor cannot be fired unless he sleeps with students. And he can sue, if fired.

That is, indeed, the definition. But when the position no longer exists, there can be no instructor filling it, tenured or not. And if the pay and benefits are reduced enough, while the teaching requirements are substantially increased, even tenured professors will wander off to greener and less stressful pastures. This actually happened to my sister, who is now happily employed elsewhere; she is no longer carrying the entire department’s courses after the university retrenched following a serious spending spree, and all the other staff left.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2018 19:51 Comments || Top||

#12  As someone pointed out elsewhere, the interactions between male and female in close proximity have a way of turning romantic after a while.
Which might, per grom, provide opportunities to fire the palefaces.
Posted by: james || 08/14/2018 20:49 Comments || Top||


It's Not Just Confederate Monuments‐All Statues of Problematic Men Must Go
[Glamour] A year ago the deadly Charlottesville, Virginia, rally broke open the conversation about Confederate monuments and their place in our nation’s public spaces. Today women are taking that conversation another step forward.

The death of Heather Heyer, the brutal beating of DeAndre Harris and the shatter of Marcus Martin's lower leg as he pushed then fiancée Marissa Blair from the path of James Alex Fields's Dodge Charger weren't enough to stop another white supremacist rally from taking place exactly a year after the violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

On Sunday the world will watch as right-wing groups, white nationalists and neo-Nazis observe the anniversary of a deadly day in history‐this time in Washington, D.C.‐that marked a turning point in national dialogue about Confederate monuments and racism. The groups rallied on August 12, 2017, to protest Charlottesville City Council’s vote to take down a monument of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, which a 2016 petition demanded be removed from one of Charlottesville’s parks.

That petition was written by Zyahna Bryant, a Charlottesville High School senior with serious eyes and a quick wit who sliced through the rapid rhythm of her words. Bryant was just 16 when she penned the petition, inspired after watching human rights activist and artist Bree Newsome snatch the Confederate flag from atop a pole on the South Carolina Statehouse grounds in June 2015. "This flag comes down today!" Newsome shouted, clad in all black, dark brown dreads swinging beneath a helmet.

"It blew my mind," says Bryant.

Many who are taking to the streets for the Unite the Right Rally 2 would argue that there's no harm in keeping these symbols. But when is a statue more than a statue? At this moment in America's present reality, we question: Are monuments to men who rebelled against their mother country to preserve the institution of slavery appropriate in public spaces? How can a flag marked with stars and bars be a visceral symbol of shame to some, and pride to others? Women‐like Newsome and Bryant, of different ages and heritages and in every quadrant of the country‐are galvanizing efforts to remove, contextualize, and understand these symbols of who we were to help us determine who we are. But for all that we lost in Charlottesville, we gained something else too; a seismic shift in public consciousness.

Women are organizing to confront not just men of the Confederacy, but the problematic figures we've revered who used the tools of patriarchy and power to hurt women and people of color.

The message is clear. Women have had enough of bad men. And they aren't going to let them stand forever.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2018 02:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Spare the rod
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/14/2018 2:33 Comments || Top||

#2  AKA the retroactive application of political correctness.
Posted by: Raj || 08/14/2018 2:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Lenin would be proud.
Posted by: Bobby || 08/14/2018 9:18 Comments || Top||

#4  they aren't going to let them stand forever

But 30 minutes would be nice.
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/14/2018 11:42 Comments || Top||

#5  How long before they go after Jesus because of all that was done in his name and will they be assisted by the modern clergy or not?
Posted by: rjschwarz || 08/14/2018 13:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Dear Harpies Molon labe
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/14/2018 19:17 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
34[untagged]
9Islamic State
5Govt of Iran
3Moslem Colonists
3Houthis
3Taliban
2Sublime Porte
2Commies
1Govt of Pakistan
1Govt of Qatar (MB)
1Hamas
1Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (IS)
1Muslim Brotherhood
1Thai Insurgency
1al-Qaeda
1Ansar al-Sharia
1Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (IS)
1Antifa
1Arab Spring
1Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters
1Govt of Iraq

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

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
Tue 2018-08-14
  Islamic State member sentenced to death over killing security personnel in Nineveh
Mon 2018-08-13
  The FBI Finally Makes Peter Strzok Redundant
Sun 2018-08-12
  Antifa to Protest ‘Alt-Right’ in D.C.: Abolish ICE, No Borders, Close Prisons
Sat 2018-08-11
  Iraqi cleric "Tater" Sadr wins election vote recount
Fri 2018-08-10
  Report: Ceasefire reached between Israel and Hamas
Thu 2018-08-09
  Dozens dead after school bus carrying "children" in Yemen hit by airstrike
Wed 2018-08-08
  Israel pounds Hamas after 15 injured in rocket barrage
Tue 2018-08-07
  11 Children Rescued From New Mexico Compound Run by Army Muslim Extremists
Mon 2018-08-06
  Saudi Arabia declares Canadian ambassador persona non grata, orders him to leave in 24 hours
Sun 2018-08-05
  Iran protesters attack religious school in province near Tehran
Sat 2018-08-04
  Death Toll Rises To 30 In Bombings On Paktia Mosque
Fri 2018-08-03
  Jordan army clashes with Islamic State militants fleeing Syrian forces
Thu 2018-08-02
  Egypt police kill five members of terrorist group Hasm in Nile Delta shootout
Wed 2018-08-01
  Man arrested after suspected homemade explosive device found at Vereeniging, South Africa mosque
Tue 2018-07-31
  It was terrorism: Iran denies any role in deadly Tajikistan attack

Better than the average link...



Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
34.228.240.6
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (20)    WoT Background (16)    Non-WoT (19)    (0)    Politix (5)