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Nancy does Taipei
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 6: Politix
8 19:20 Anomalous Sources [2] 
5 17:49 magpie [10] 
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4 16:46 Skidmark [4] 
8 20:30 Rambler in Virginia [7] 
8 17:45 swksvolFF [8] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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China-Japan-Koreas
Kirby Says U.S. Doesn't ‘Support Taiwan Independence' as China Threatens Pelosi ahead of Expected Taiwan Trip
[NATIONALREVIEW] National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Monday that the U.S. does not "support Taiwan independence," amid heightened threats from China about Nancy Pelosi’s reported trip to the island."Nothing has changed about our ’One China Policy,'" Kirby said. "We have repeatedly said that we oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side. We have said that we do not support Taiwan independence, and we have said that we expect cross-straight differences to be resolved by peaceful means."

President Joe Biden issued a similar statement to Chinese president Xi Jinping on Thursday, saying the U.S. stands firmly behind its "One China Policy."

Chinese foreign minister Zhao Lijian has issued repeated, direct threats to Pelosi and the U.S. telling her to not visit Taiwan, saying China would take "resolute responses and strong countermeasures to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity."

Kirby said China has been escalating its military presence in the region, conducting a "live fire exercise" over the weekend.

"China appears to be positioning itself to potentially take further steps in the coming days and, perhaps, over longer time horizons," Kirby added, noting the potential steps from China could include military provocations, "operations that break historical norms," air or naval activities, and military exercises.

The Chinese military posted a video Monday showing the military conducting exercises with warships and fighter planes and sending missiles into the sky.

Pelosi, who third in line for the presidency after Biden and Kamala Harris, would be the highest-ranking official to visit Taiwan since former speaker Newt Gingrich in 1997.Pelosi’s office confirmed Sunday that she would be leading a delegation to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, and Japan. Her office did not say whether she would be visiting Taiwan, however, two sources briefed on the matter, told Reuters that she is "set to visit Taiwan on Tuesday."

Kirby said Pelosi can make her own decisions about the trip and that "Congress is an independent branch of government." Biden has not issued a public statement condemning her trip, saying "the military thinks [the trip is] not a good idea right now."
Posted by: 746 || 08/02/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  We have said that we do not support Taiwan independence,

Here it comes. All of this was kabuki to favour China. What filthy scoundrels.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 08/02/2022 0:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Biden's deal with China has already been planned. We simply watch the show.
Posted by: Dale || 08/02/2022 3:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Hey! They brought back out the old Obama bus to throw people under!
Posted by: DarthVader || 08/02/2022 8:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Ever since the Afghanistan withdrawal, whenever Kirby comes on the TV I turn it off or change the channel. Can't stand the sight of him let alone the lies he gets paid to tell.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 08/02/2022 13:01 Comments || Top||

#5  BTW, did he have plastic surgery on his upper lip or is he trying to grow a mustache?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 08/02/2022 13:01 Comments || Top||

#6  Heads: We do support Taiwan independence.

Tails: We do not support Taiwan independence.

The coin came up tails last night.
Posted by: Tom || 08/02/2022 16:08 Comments || Top||

#7  “We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty”
-- John F. Kennedy
Posted by: SteveS || 08/02/2022 16:20 Comments || Top||

#8  Reconquista!
Posted by: swksvolFF || 08/02/2022 17:45 Comments || Top||


Government Corruption
First Capitol rioter to stand trial gets seven years - the longest sentence yet: Texas far-right militia member 'egged crowd on' and warned his kids not to turn him in to FBI because 'traitors get shot'
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • Guy Reffitt, 49, a member of the far-right group the Three Percenters got 7.25 years behind bars and ordered to pay $2000 in restitution

  • He was convicted in March on five felony counts, including bringing a gun onto the Capitol grounds

  • During the sentencing he called himself an 'idiot' and said he was done with extremist groups

  • He was recorded on video outside the Capitol during the January 6 riot and later threatened his wife and children if they turned him in

  • His son, Jackson Reffitt, said he was in contact with the FBI after the DC riot on January 6

  • The son testified in court that that his father told him 'If you turn me in, you're a traitor and traitor's get shot'

  • Under federal sentencing guidelines, Reffitt Sr. faces up to 11 years at his sentencing on Monday

  • Federal prosecutors are asking for 15 years behind bars for his crimes

Fox News has more here.
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/02/2022 00:20 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Mob Rule

#1  "Egged on" the crowd. Like Ray Epps.
Posted by: Bobby || 08/02/2022 7:53 Comments || Top||

#2  The differences between intent, saying, and actually doing seem to be lost here.

Maybe one day, we will get to the bottom of J6.

Posted by: JohnQC || 08/02/2022 9:42 Comments || Top||

#3  'If you turn me in, you're a traitor and traitor's get shot'

Snitches end up in ditches.

Wonderful father.
Posted by: DarthVader || 08/02/2022 13:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Curious that it took them over a year to bring him to trial.
Posted by: ruprecht || 08/02/2022 13:22 Comments || Top||

#5  Timing is everything. Didn't take the DC jury long, I bet.
Posted by: Bobby || 08/02/2022 16:31 Comments || Top||

#6  The son testified in court that that his father told him 'If you turn me in, you're a traitor and traitor's get shot'

Aiiii... tarnation!
Posted by: Ann the Apoplectic Aster || 08/02/2022 16:47 Comments || Top||

#7  Lèse-majesté is still a crime in the US? Did he raid Pelosi's Ben & Jerry ice cream stash?
Posted by: magpie || 08/02/2022 17:51 Comments || Top||

#8  It is my understanding that the Feebs wired up the kid who then engaged his dad in "controversial" discussions.

The kid is on Twitter looking to sell some of his "art" so he can bug out.

I doubt it will help.

Tragic.
Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 08/02/2022 19:20 Comments || Top||


Couple from Medicaid firm awarded millions in NY contracts delivered over $300K in donations to Hochul, Cuomo
[NYPOST] A couple with ties to a firm that’s been awarded hundreds of millions in Medicaid transportation contracts over the years has driven more than $300,000 combined into the campaign coffers of former Gov. Andrew Sonny Cuomo
...former Dem dynastic governor of Noo Yawk, the son and heir of the late Mario Cuoma and formerly married to a Kennedy. Acclaimed for his leadership during the COVID epidemic, he managed the nation's highest corpse count while successfully hiding the returns and writing a book praising himself. Among the nation's horniest politicians, he had about a dozen allegations of sexual harrassment and groping against him when he resigned...
and current Gov. Kathy Hochul, records reviewed by The Post reveal.

Critics say the donations are a textbook case of Albany’s pay-to-play culture that allows bidders and contractors to give massive campaign contributions to the governor whose agencies oversee them. By comparison, New York City law limits donations from bidders and contractors to the mayor and have business Big Apple agencies to $400.

The firm, Medical Answering Services, founded by president Russ Maxwell in 2004, was awarded eight contracts totaling $403.7 million by the state Health Department from 2011 through 2018. Four of the contracts don’t expire until next year.

Maxwell and his spouse, Morgan McDole, dropped $236,000 into Cuomo’s campaign coffers over those years.

The couple has also dumped more than $100,000 combined into the campaign coffers of Hochul, as governor and lieutenant governor under Cuomo — and the Hochul-controlled state Democratic Committee.

McDole, for instance, gave three contributions totaling $52,600 to Hochul over the past year — $22,600 on Jan. 8, 2021, $10,000 on Sept. 9, 2021 shortly after she became governor and $20,000 on April 24 of this year.

McDole donated another $20,000 to the Hochul-influenced state Democratic Party on April 27 of this year.

Meanwhile,
...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter wished he had a cup of coffee. Even instant would do...
Maxwell has donated $32,100 to Hochul since 2018 and $176,000 to Cuomo during his tenure. McDole donated another $60,000 to Cuomo.

"It’s a perfect example that shows how lax state campaign finance laws are," said John Kaehny, director of the government watchdog group Reinvent Albany.
Posted by: Fred || 08/02/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney's use of campaign funds for ex 'body man' raises ethics questions
[NYPOST] Ethics experts are questioning whether the head of congressional Democrats’ campaign arm, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, used his House and campaign cash for "personal services" with the hiring of an aide — who told The Post his role was to serve as the politician’s "body man."

Maloney (D-NY) — who in 2020 became chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — hired lifelong Floridian Harold Leath, for whom Maloney’s campaign forked over the money for the move north, in 2014, records show.

The "unusual" and "strange" description of Leath’s role and his whereabouts raised numerous "red flags," that may be worth a probe, political spending experts and federal ethics watchdogs told The Post.

Leath — who, when he first moved to New York, registered to vote at the Putnam County house where Maloney and his husband lived — began his tenure with the congressman that spring as an "executive assistant" in his government office, House spending records show. He then was classified by expenditure reports as a part-time employee and campaign worker.

Reps for Maloney maintained to The Post that there was no wrongdoing by Maloney or the campaign in connection with Leath’s hiring and role.

Leath recently explained his job as a "body man" for the politician.
Posted by: Fred || 08/02/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Obama had some guy who he called his body man. I was always scared to look up what that meant. It was sumebody other than Michelle.
Posted by: Super Hose || 08/02/2022 8:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Obama's "Body Man" was the ironically named Reggie Love
Posted by: Frank G || 08/02/2022 15:38 Comments || Top||

#3  That was the dude. I wonder who McLovin is bodying these days.
Posted by: Super Hose || 08/02/2022 15:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Barney Frank and the Male Prostitute – 1989
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/02/2022 16:46 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Maloney, Nadler tied while Patel surges in House primary race: poll
Ohio is holding the second half of their primaries today...
[NYPOST] The epic Democratic primary fight between veteran New York Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler is a toss-up, according to a new internal poll from challenger Suraj Patel — which shows him surging.

The survey released by the Patel campaign Monday shows septuagenarians Maloney and Nadler tied with 31% of the vote apiece. Patel’s support, meanwhile, rose to 25% from 19% in June, with 13% of Democrats still undecided ahead of the Aug. 23 primary.

The Democrats’ gerrymandering debacle ended up pitting Maloney and Nadler — longtime allies who’ve served in the House of Representatives together since 1993 — against each other.

Judges knocked out the Democrat-drawn maps — which Republicans derided as the "Hochulmander" because Gov. Kathy Hochul approved them — finding them unconstitutional.

As a result, a court-ordered special master merged Maloney’s East Side turf with Nadler’s West Side base, setting up a battle royal in the new 12th Congressional District.

The Patel campaign survey was conducted by Whitman Insight Strategies, whose founders have polled for former Mayor Mike Bloomberg
...Billionaire former Republican mayor and nanny of New York, Dem candidate for president in 2020. Wants to rid the country of assault weapons, other kinds of guns, and 32-ounce soft drinks. That's why he's so popular...
and ex-President Bill Clinton
...former Democratic president of the U.S. Bill was the second U.S. president to be impeached, the first to deny that oral sex was sex, the first to have difficulty with the definition of the word is...
Posted by: Fred || 08/02/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A three-way slugfest among the Dems.

What's not to like?

Posted by: Bobby || 08/02/2022 10:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Imagine the smoke coming out of their ears while they try to decide how to cheat in their own primary.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/02/2022 10:39 Comments || Top||

#3  FYI - the new generation. Suraj Patel
Born December 20, 1983 (age 38)
Mississippi, USA
Stanford University (BA)
Cambridge University (M. Phil)
New York University (JD)
Political party Democratic
Posted by: Bobby || 08/02/2022 11:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Pity they can't all lose, as was aid about the Iran-Iraq War.
Posted by: magpie || 08/02/2022 17:48 Comments || Top||

#5  /\
Pity they can't all lose, as was said about the Iran-Iraq War.
Posted by: magpie || 08/02/2022 17:49 Comments || Top||


Strategic Petroleum Reserve falls to lowest level in 37 years.
[MarketScreener] The U.S. emergency crude oil stockpile fell by 4.6 million barrels last week to its lowest level since May 1985, according to the Department of Energy on Monday.

Crude held in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) dropped to 469.9 million barrels for the week ended July 29, according to DOE data, in the smallest weekly withdrawal since May.

U.S. President Joe Biden in March set a plan to release 1 million barrels per day (bpd) over six months from the SPR to tackle high fuel prices contributing to soaring inflation.

The SPR held about 618 million barrels last September and its stocks have declined due to sales from congressional mandates and Biden's price initiative. U.S. gasoline prices are about 40 cents a gallon lower than what they would have been without the sales, the White House said last week https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/07/26/fact-sheet-department-of-energy-releases-new-notice-of-sale-as-gasoline-prices-continue-to-fall.

Since May, releases have averaged 880,000 bpd, not meeting the 1 million bpd plan. A DOE spokesperson said the slowdown had occurred because the July 4 holiday and use of an additive to cool crude for transportation had affected some deliveries.

The oil is sold to accredited oil companies via online auctions and prices are set using a five-day average bracketing the date of delivery.

Oil companies have not always bought all the crude on offer during the Biden administration's release. For instance, the department said that only about 39 million barrels had been bought in a round in which it had offered 45 million barrels.

The Energy department has proposed to replenish the SPR by allowing it to enter contracts to purchase oil in future years at fixed, preset prices. The administration said it believes the plan would help boost domestic oil production.

Refiner Valero Energy's chief commercial officer, Gary Simmons, last week said he expected lower volumes to be released from the SPR in the future, as demand forecasts had been lowered. (Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar in Houston and Timothy Gardner in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Bradley Perrett)
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 08/02/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yes. Plus Amazon just laid off 100,000 employees.
Posted by: Phons Omert2327 || 08/02/2022 0:13 Comments || Top||


#3  Related: China Strategic Oil Reserves highest level in 37 years!
(Not an actual article but you get the drift...)
Posted by: CrazyFool || 08/02/2022 0:37 Comments || Top||

#4  it is because of all the petroleum jelly they are handing out at the food banks c'mon people of UMERIKA take those washington broom sticks dry YOU voted for it and protect it we have yard work so inconsiderate!
Posted by: Cholutle Thrans9751 || 08/02/2022 9:53 Comments || Top||

#5  i don't think you'll find many people here "who voted for it".
Posted by: Chris || 08/02/2022 11:05 Comments || Top||

#6  Talking to the 3 am spambots?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 08/02/2022 12:54 Comments || Top||

#7  It appears more than just the amount of oil is of concern: ‘Major Problems Down The Road’: Biden Drains Petroleum Reserves Of Crucial Type Of Crude
Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 08/02/2022 19:39 Comments || Top||

#8  Anomalous, but that's the kind that China needs right now.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 08/02/2022 20:30 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
28[untagged]
7Commies
4Govt of Iran Proxies
3Govt of Iran
3Mob Rule
3Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
3Islamic State
3Sublime Porte
2Antifa/BLM
2al-Qaeda
1[untagged]
1Govt of Iraq
1Govt of Pakistan
1Hamas
1Hezbollah
1Migrants/Illegal Immigrants
1Ottoman Proxies
1Pak Taliban (TTP)
1Palestinian Islamic Jihad

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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2022-08-02
  Nancy does Taipei
Mon 2022-08-01
  US takes out Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri in 'successful' Afghanistan counterterrorism operation
Sun 2022-07-31
  Zelenskyy ordered the evacuation of the city of Donetsk
Sat 2022-07-30
  Yale study shows sanctions are crippling Russia's economy
Fri 2022-07-29
  Ethiopia says over 209 Al-Shabab fighters killed after failed incursion
Thu 2022-07-28
  GDP Shrank 0.9% in Q2, Marking Second Consecutive Quarter of U.S. Economy Contraction
Wed 2022-07-27
  US Seeks Life Sentence For Canadian ISIS Propagandist
Tue 2022-07-26
  Syria’s Autonomous Administration hands over 146 of Tajik ISIS children and women
Mon 2022-07-25
  Ethiopian security forces arrest 454 terror suspects in capital city
Sun 2022-07-24
  Biden Expects Bad Econ News This Week
Sat 2022-07-23
  Extremists have attacked Mali’s Kati military base on the outskirts of the capital city Bamako
Fri 2022-07-22
  White House says Russia planning to annex large swaths of Ukraine
Thu 2022-07-21
  Heavy clashes between armed groups in Libya capital Tripoli.
Wed 2022-07-20
  Fitch downgrades Pakistan's outlook from stable to negative
Tue 2022-07-19
  Iran brags it has the 'technical means' to produce nuclear bomb'


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