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Today: 57 articles and 147 comments as of 11:15.
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Gunmen raid Burkina Faso church, kill four
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Page 6: Politix
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7 17:47 ed in texas [1] 
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 4: Opinion
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
A legal war begins. (No not Trump - SpaceX vs AF)
[CNBC] Just revealed SpaceX lawsuit alleges Air Force ‘wrongly awarded’ billions to rocket competitors

KEY POINTS
  • The full SpaceX complaint alleges that the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center “wrongly awarded” the funds “to a portfolio of three unproven rockets based on unstated metrics.”

  • The Air Force awarded $2.3 billion in rocket development contracts last year to competitors Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman and United Launch Alliance.

  • SpaceX alleges that the Air Force “determined that SpaceX’s one development launch vehicle,” or Starship, “rendered the entire SpaceX portfolio” as “high risk.”

Posted by: 3dc || 05/27/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Jury is out on Blue Origin, though their engine seems to be progressing through development well. Northrop Grumman and ULA have a track record, so I think it's safe to say Vulcan and whatever else they are working on will fly no problem. Whether it's cost effective is totally unknown at this point. I'm pretty sure USAF has been directed by congress to avoid having only one vendor, so that's going to happen, short of a change in congress' thinking on the matter regardless of what Elon Musk would like to see.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/27/2019 9:55 Comments || Top||

#2  And I'd ad, the deeply beloved Augustine Commission said Constellation would be late and over budget. Never said it couldn't fly. And it was a Bath House operation, which the lovers should consider.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/27/2019 13:26 Comments || Top||

#3  United Launch Alliance has no proven track record of any kind. They are nothing more than a government subsidy program. Blue Origin seems to be progressing nicely, but they are definitely behind Space X by a large distance. Either of them winning contracts instead of Space X is a sign of corruption. No idea what Northrup Grumman has been doing recently, but have they gotten anything to fly yet? If not, they too are far behind Space X (and Blue Origin, for that matter).
Posted by: Vernal Hatrick || 05/27/2019 14:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Atlas V launches 78 successful of 79 launches. Delta launch rate 95% success rate. No. No track record at all at ULA.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/27/2019 16:00 Comments || Top||

#5  I nominate Vernal Hatrick to be the Herb McCoy of rocket science at Rantburg.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/27/2019 16:04 Comments || Top||

#6  Ow!
Posted by: Lyzette Sphigmomanometer1176 || 05/27/2019 16:20 Comments || Top||

#7  The Atlas V is ancient, all current projects are extremely late and overbudget, and you know what? I wouldn't call using imported Russian technology a great idea. So no. No points should be awarded for the Atlas V's existence. Especially since it is too underpowered to be of any actual use in next-gen projects.
Posted by: Vernal Hatrick || 05/27/2019 18:07 Comments || Top||

#8  Also, 79 launches since it started launching in 2002? Really? That is completely pathetic by itself. Less than 5 a year. That number by itself should be evidence of incompetence.
Posted by: Vernal Hatrick || 05/27/2019 18:09 Comments || Top||



-Short Attention Span Theater-
CNN Lays Off Almost Entire Division
[Daily Caller] CNN laid off almost all of its health care coverage division Tuesday, in a move the network called a “crazy rumor” less than three weeks ago.

While Dr. Sanjay Gupta is expected to keep his job, most of the rest of the division, based out of Atlanta, were released.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/27/2019 07:58 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, I mean, since AOC and Bill Nye both say "we're all gonna die" in exactly 11 years, 10 months, five days and 47 hours, it seems like sound management.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/27/2019 9:49 Comments || Top||

#2  and since all they talk about is impeaching trump, why do they need it anyway.Evidently they are finding out how many ppl are tired of their left wing bullshit and the ratings are hurting badly.
Posted by: chris || 05/27/2019 9:57 Comments || Top||

#3  CNN Lays Off Almost Entire Obamacare Disinformation Division.

There, fixed it.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/27/2019 9:59 Comments || Top||

#4  As long as they keep their "pants of fire" team they'll be able to continue as usually.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 05/27/2019 10:31 Comments || Top||

#5  and since all they talk about is impeaching trump, why do they need it anyway.

Fire them all. I could write a bot to spit out impeachment drivel all day. But I learned to code.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/27/2019 10:40 Comments || Top||

#6  only 7 or 8 people in that division
Posted by: lord garth || 05/27/2019 11:20 Comments || Top||

#7  Only 2 left now. Who's gonna write their fake news/DNC agitprop?
Posted by: Frank G || 05/27/2019 11:46 Comments || Top||

#8  Who's gonna write their fake news/DNC agitprop?

The janitor could write it, but he or she probably voted for Trump...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/27/2019 11:54 Comments || Top||

#9  #7....the DNC writes the talking points, CNN be simply the sock puppets [allusion to a certain sexual activity appropriate].
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/27/2019 11:59 Comments || Top||

#10  Hey watch how you use that term!
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 05/27/2019 12:06 Comments || Top||

#11  Is Ted Turner still alive?
Posted by: Angairong Flavigum3253 || 05/27/2019 13:45 Comments || Top||

#12  Fox News' Neil Cavuto has taken over as leftist healthcare champion it seems.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/27/2019 15:13 Comments || Top||

#13  That's a start.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/27/2019 17:39 Comments || Top||

#14  Well they are pretty sick. Would absolutely not like to see it happen but one can only imagine former CNN staff bring an AR to work.

But now never Trumper RINOs like Cavuto have no ship to jump to. Or is "he" Jane Fonda". They do oddly resemble each other.
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/27/2019 17:50 Comments || Top||

#15  Isn't a Division like 50,000 troops?
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/27/2019 19:44 Comments || Top||

#16  ...or fake Facebook accounts.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/27/2019 20:45 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Amid feud with Trump, Washington Post offers timely piece declaring Nancy Pelosi a ‘fashion icon’
[BIZPACREVIEW] With Speaker Nancy Pelosi locking horns with President Donald Trump in a battle that is getting increasingly personal, the Washington Post is out with a timely piece calling the 79-year-old California Democrat a “fashion icon.”

Describing Pelosi as “a recipe for stylish feminine authority with a healthy dose of attitude,” fashion journalist Christina Binkley doesn’t even try to hide her adulation for the Democrat leader.

In the article, Binkley props up Pelosi as a master effortlessly manipulating Trump back in December under the guise of writing about the red wool coat she had on.

“Pelosi also stayed largely mum when her clothes drew attention in December,” she wrote. “As she strode out of the White House looking victorious in a brick-red wool coat and sunglasses, having baited President Trump into taking responsibility for the coming government shutdown, she tipped her sunglasses. Her swagger went viral. So did the coat.”
Posted by: Fred || 05/27/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yes, like the wookie's "toned arms, this is Important Stuff™
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/27/2019 9:46 Comments || Top||

#2  In my day, the chain of command frowned upon a healthy does of attitude.
Posted by: Cesare || 05/27/2019 9:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh please.

A fashion icon?

Anything to get a pro democrap article out there.

Perchance they could find a never Trumper out in the midst of the interior design world to write about (a twofer, gay and anti-Trump)
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 05/27/2019 12:40 Comments || Top||

#4  To these people Malia Obama is a rockstar.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/27/2019 15:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Can't wait til "bad girl" lives up to her name and the media has to go into overtime explaining a DUI is a "lifestyle choice" or shoplifting is "alternative shopping,"
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/27/2019 15:49 Comments || Top||

#6  In her defense, I have always thought that Nancy P. did dress very nicely; very elegant, understated suits, properly fitted and nicely accessorized - always suitable for the occasion. It's practically the only nice thing I do have to say for her, however. Always did wish that Michelle O. could have taken fashion advice from San Fran Nan, or whoever was her wardrobe adviser/ personal shopper. Fashion-wise, Michelle was a disaster, and no amount of flattery from Vogue and that ilk could make her into anything else.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 05/27/2019 15:56 Comments || Top||

#7  So, are we going to start seeing Nan on the Amazon home page? (The way we've been treated to Oprah and Michelle O in the recent past.)
Posted by: ed in texas || 05/27/2019 17:47 Comments || Top||


Trump’s Targeting of Intelligence Agencies Gains a Harder Edge
[MSN] President Trump tried somewhat clumsily last year to revoke the security clearance of the former C.I.A. director who played a role in opening the Russia investigation. He then wanted to release classified documents to prove he was the target of a "witch hunt."

Both attempts petered out, hampered by aides who slow-rolled the president and by Justice Department officials who fought Mr. Trump, warning he was jeopardizing national security.

But this week, Attorney General William P. Barr engineered a new approach. At Mr. Barr’s urging, Mr. Trump granted him new authorities to examine the start of the Russia investigation, demonstrating a new level of sophistication for an old line of attack. Unlike Mr. Trump’s hollow threats and name-calling, Mr. Barr’s examination of how the intelligence community investigated the Trump campaign could offer a more effective blueprint for the president to take aim at his perceived political enemies.

Posted by: Fred || 05/27/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The White House said a month later that the president was ordering the revocation of Mr. Brennan’s clearance. But the White House never followed through with the complex bureaucratic work it would have taken to strip the clearance, according to a person familiar with the process.

"Complex bureaucratic work".... total nonsense! Brennan's continued access is a clear indication of who is really in charge.

I'd wager the Hildebeest and Kerry still hold clearances.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/27/2019 9:43 Comments || Top||

#2  a clear indication of who is really in charge.

I don't know about that, but it is a bargaining chip. Whether it's a good one or worth the cost of allowing it to continue, that is the question.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/27/2019 10:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Here is one of the problems with permitting this fellow to retains his access:

Former CIA chief Brennan to brief Dems on Iran

The sitting Director should be the voice briefing members of congress, dem or pub.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/27/2019 10:19 Comments || Top||

#4  Brennan will tell them what they want to hear, so they can "Harumph!" in concert
Posted by: Frank G || 05/27/2019 10:23 Comments || Top||

#5  As The Clash said - Give 'em enough rope...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/27/2019 10:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Once out of a position you should lose your clearance. What is the justification for continued clearance?
Posted by: rjschwarz || 05/27/2019 10:31 Comments || Top||

#7  Where is Brennan's "need to know"? There isn't any. So debrief him and "move on".

Same goes for Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell, or any other former office or rank holders regardless of party or position.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 05/27/2019 16:21 Comments || Top||

#8  Just a guess, but I suspect Brennan has been hired (unreported) as a mentor or adviser, by some beltway defense contractor who is holding his clearance.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/27/2019 17:18 Comments || Top||

#9  IMHO, Brennan ought to be in the Graybar Hotel.

It's the NYTs.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/27/2019 17:55 Comments || Top||


The T-Word...
...Our friends across the aisle tend to fling this word about with joyous abandon when we disagree with them about something. Well, finally one of our own has used it, and - IMHO - actual legal justification. Look carefully at the ones who scream the loudest about this...because I suspect there we shall find the guiltiest consciences.
[FoxNews] Liz Cheney: Strzok-Page texts sound ’like a coup,’ could be ’treason’

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo, said in an interview that aired Sunday that text messages between former FBI investigators Peter Strzok and Lisa Page "sound an awful lot like a coup" and could even be treason.

"I think what is really crucially important to remember here is that you had Strzok and Page who were in charge of launching this investigation and they were saying things like, 'We must stop this president, we need an insurance policy against this president,'" she said on ABC News' "This Week."

"In my view when you have people that are in the highest echelons of the law enforcement of this nation saying things like that, that sounds an awful lot like a coup -- and it could well be treason and I think we need to know more," she said.

Cheney was referring to the anti-Trump texts uncovered last year by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz. Both Strzok and Page were involved in the FBI’s initial counterintelligence investigation into Russian meddling and potential collusion with Trump campaign associates during the 2016 election, and later served on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team.

In an August 2016 text message exchange, they talked about Trump’s chance of being elected president.

"[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!" Page texted Strzok.

"No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it," Strzok responded.

In another text the two talked of an "insurance policy" against the election of then-candidate Trump. Page essentially confirmed in an interview with lawmakers that this referred to the Russia investigation.

She also explained that officials were proceeding with caution, concerned about the implications of the case while not wanting to go at "total breakneck speed" and risk burning sources as they presumed Trump wouldn't be elected anyway.

Horowitz, who was investigating the bureau’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state, is now investigating alleged surveillance abuses during the 2016 campaign.

Trump on Thursday issued a memo giving Attorney General William Barr the authority to declassify any documents related to surveillance of the Trump campaign in 2016.

"We want to be very transparent, so as you know, I declassified everything," Trump told reporters Friday. "We are exposing everything."
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 05/27/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Not a Liz Cheney fan, so I wish this message could have come via a different messenger. That said, I doubt that Jesus at His Second Coming saying it would convince those on the other side, so it's a wash. In any case, the message is sound.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/27/2019 10:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Left is seriously pushing back on the Treason claims. They know they will be exposed and are starting to fight the firing squad hoping instead of losing their pensions or something that will enable them to live as darlings of the left until the end.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 05/27/2019 10:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Yes, there is a technical argument against using the T-word (and, given the alleged Hildabeast/DNC collusion with Steele & the Russians, an argument for it as well.) But, as with the Supreme Court justice discussing pr0n, "I know it when I see it."

I just hope that AG Barr will uncover enough evidence to send the coup plotters to a SuperMax for forever and a day.
Posted by: PBMcL || 05/27/2019 15:33 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Under CIA Chief Gina Haspel, an Intelligence Service Returns to the Shadows
Isn't that where it was supposed to be?
[WSJ] At a gala dinner in February to raise funds for the families of Central Intelligence Agency officers killed in the line of duty, CIA Director Gina Haspel surprised her audience by delving into details of spycraft the agency has used to run agents on the streets of Moscow. But the crowd’s astonishment at the unusual revelation quickly evaporated when the spy chief confided that the material came from a journalist’s book.

After a year atop the CIA, Ms. Haspel is giving away few secrets. With a 35-year career in clandestine operations and a U.S. president who pounces when his spy chiefs contradict him publicly, she and her agency have adopted their lowest public profile in decades.

“She’s gone to ground,” said Mark Lowenthal, a former CIA official and staff director of the House Intelligence Committee. “It’s not going to be any good for her to be out there attracting lightning bolts.”

Interviews with nearly 20 current and former U.S. intelligence officials reveal a portrait of a CIA director who has been warmly received by the workforce she has spent her life among.

The CIA’s first female director since its 1947 founding, she has put in place her own leadership team—which also includes many women—and so far has avoided having President Trump’s political allies embedded in the agency’s senior ranks.

But if Ms. Haspel’s primary mission is overseeing a global spy agency charged with addressing threats ranging from terrorism to climate change, it sometimes seems her second priority is protecting the agency she has devoted her life to from the domestic threat of a toxic U.S. political culture.

“I think that she’s adopting a strategy much like [FBI Director] Chris Wray of keeping a lower profile, avoiding situations where she’s put in the position of publicly contradicting the president,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, which oversees the CIA.
Posted by: Fred || 05/27/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The CIA’s first female director since its 1947 founding, she has put in place her own leadership team—which also includes many women—and so far has avoided having President Trump’s political allies embedded in the agency’s senior ranks.

Total horseshi*!
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/27/2019 9:56 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't understand why they ever came out of the shadows.

The CIA was politicized under Clinton and polluted under Zerobama (I prefer to call him an empty suit as he was just a marionette for the Deep State).

BTW, why does Brennan still have a clearance?

When I had a security clearance in excess of Top Secret (I think that some levels of clearance are classified as I remember), I was reassigned to a unit that did not require such a high-fluting clearance and the oh my God galactic overlord clearance was revoked.

So if that ugly putz with the prayer rug and the COMINTERN membership card is no long DCI, why does he still have a clearance???
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 05/27/2019 12:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Just wondering if you were the subject of a high profile investigation covering actions and behaviors and documentary talk/decisions/operations as the highest level of classified material, could you be questioned without wing able to discuss matters bearing on the issue or research answers without a clearance? As a suspect or material witness would you need the freedom and protections to feel able to participate?
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 05/27/2019 17:01 Comments || Top||

#4  #2 BTW, why does Brennan still have a clearance?

I'm guessing that might be fake news.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/27/2019 17:38 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
32[untagged]
5Taliban
5Islamic State
2Houthis
2Govt of Iran
1Govt of Pakistan
1Govt of Syria
1Hamas
1Hezbollah
1al-Nusra
1Moslem Colonists
1Muslim Brotherhood
1Narcos
1Commies
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Govt of Iraq

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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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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2019-05-27
  Gunmen raid Burkina Faso church, kill four
Sun 2019-05-26
  Sri Lanka Troops Launch Major Hunt for Islamists Linked to Suicide Attacks
Sat 2019-05-25
  3 killed, 19 wounded in blast inside Quetta mosque ahead of Friday prayers
Fri 2019-05-24
  Emir of Al-Qaeda allied Ansar Ghazwatul Hind, Zakir Musa, has been officially killed
Thu 2019-05-23
  Algeria Army Chief Says Has ‘No Political’ Ambition
Wed 2019-05-22
   'American Taliban' released
Tue 2019-05-21
  8-10 Somali Teens Armed With Hammers Attack Bystanders at East Bank Rail Station in MN
Mon 2019-05-20
  Houthi's launch IRBM at Mecca!
Sun 2019-05-19
  Islamic State in West Africa Forming ‘Jihadist Proto-State’ in Nigeria
Sat 2019-05-18
  Drone strike kills notorious ISIS leader and his fighters in East of Afghanistan
Fri 2019-05-17
  Fighting grips Hodeidah port, complicates peace moves
Thu 2019-05-16
  F-16 with live ordinance crashes in Riverside CA.
Wed 2019-05-15
  Iranian ballistic missile platforms in Basra city directed towards the Gulf, Exxon evacuating, German mil. trainers evacuating
Tue 2019-05-14
  The Latest: Norwegian Tanker's Hull Punctured off UAE Coast
Mon 2019-05-13
  Gunmen kill six during Catholic mass in Burkina Faso

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