[Babylon Bee] NEW YORK‐In a tragic occurrence, the footage of Epstein's suicide attempt was found hanging in its cell Friday in an apparent suicide.
The footage reportedly strung itself up with a strip of cloth, hanged itself from the ceiling, and then shot itself three times in the back of the cassette. Shocked security guards found the footage strung up, saying they would have kept an eye on it but were distracted by large bags of cash handed to them by a mysterious cloaked man.
"You hate to see this kind of thing, but sometimes, footage just doesn't have the will to live any longer," said Metropolitan Correctional Center Chief of Security Paul Bugs, after pulling up in his new Bentley. "That's the way life goes."
Footage of the footage hanging itself has also been found dead, apparently running itself over with a steamroller and then burning itself alive.
[PJ] When two shooters killed three people at a kosher grocery store in Jersey City last year, a member of the Jersey City Board of Education attacked calls for "faith and hope" in solidarity with the Jewish victims and instead urged locals to be "brave enough to explore the answer to [the shooters'] message." She also referred to Jewish people as "brutes." While local leaders initially condemned her, the local Democratic black caucus rallied around her and some even hailed her as a modern "Rosa Parks." She has yet to resign and will likely serve until the end of this year. I didn't know Rosa Parks hated Joooos?
The board member, Joan Terrell-Paige, responded to an article in Insider NJ titled, "Faith and Hope to Fight Hate." She commented on Facebook, "Where was all this faith and hope when Black homeowners were threatened, intimidated, and harassed by I WANT TO BUY YOUR HOUSE brutes of the jewish community?"
Terrell-Paige claimed that Jews harassed black people. She referenced a case from 2009 in which a Jewish man named Solomon Dwek pleaded guilty to participating with rabbis in a scheme involving the illegal sale of kidneys.
[The Federalist] Shortly after Inspector General Michael Horowitz released his report detailing the government’s egregious abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Rosemary M. Collyer, the presiding judge of the FISA court, issued a rare public order demanding answers.
Today is the deadline Collyer set for the government to "inform the Court in a sworn written submission of what it has done, and plans to do, to ensure that the statement of facts in each FBI application accurately and completely reflects information possessed by the FBI that is material to any issue presented by the application."
The Department of Justice’s response will surely promise amends, as it should; the FISA abuse was inexcusable. Collyer was rightfully outrageous at the government’s misconduct because, as her order stressed, the FISA court assesses whether probable cause exists to justify a surveillance order based solely on the information provided by the government. But that the DOJ swore out four fraudulent FISA applications does not excuse the FISA court for its own culpability‐and from the IG report’s analysis, it appears that the secret court is far from blameless.
THE FISA COURT IS COMPLICIT IN THE ABUSE
While the IG’s 478-page report includes many damning details, the following passage indicates that the FISA court abdicated its responsibility of providing "an external check on executive branch decisions to conduct surveillance" in order "’to protect the fourth amendment rights of U.S. persons." This paragraph describes how the government described their sources to the FISA court:
#3
It's like Dice Clay said about screwing a fat woman "You can't tell where the t*ts end and the belly begins. It's just one continuous lump of..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/11/2020 5:59 Comments ||
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#4
So who does DoJ appoint to work the matter with the FISA court? Why the very man who disparaged Rep. Devin Nunes in his exposure of the FBI’s misconduct. It's all a kabuki show.
[H&R 999 Sportsman] This gun is a beautiful little time piece 98+%, Everything is tight on it and no pitting. Very few marks. Retains almost all of its blueing. Has been maintained and cared for.
[Daily Wire] The Sultan of Oman, Qaboos bin Said al Said, died on Friday at the age of 79 after a recent battle with health problems, according to Oman state media.
The New York Times reported that Qaboos had championed an independent and non-alignment foreign policy agenda, which "gave Oman a role akin to a Middle Eastern Switzerland, where foes battling each other elsewhere could meet for quiet talks."
"He became a rare leader who maintained ties with a wide range of powers that hated one another, including Iran, Israel, the United States, Saudi Arabia and the Houthi rebels in Yemen," The Times reported. "A few years [after 2011], he brought the two foes together again by hosting covert talks between Iran and the Obama administration that paved the way for an international agreement over Iran's nuclear program."
Reuters reported that a "1996 statute says the ruling family will choose a successor within three days of the throne becoming vacant" and that if the ruling family fails then "council of military and security officials, supreme court chiefs and heads of the two consultative assemblies will put in power the person whose name has been secretly written by the sultan in a sealed letter."
Journalist Yashar Ali noted the significance of Qaboos' death, writing on Twitter, "One week after the death of Qasem Suleimani…this is a significant event. Both Iranian and American leaders will be at his funeral. This is a major event because Oman has been an island (not literally) of tranquility in the Middle-East and the Sultan was one of the few people who could mediate between the US and Iran."
Oman announced Saturday culture minister Haitham bin Tariq Al Said as the new ruler of the Gulf Arab country, ending speculation over the mystery of who would succeed longtime ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said.
The announcement on Omani state television was read over footage showing thousands gathered in the capital, Muscat, for the funeral of Sultan Qaboos who ruled the country for 50 years and did not have any children. His choice of successor was a closely guarded secret believed to have been known only to the sultan.
The new sultan vowed in an address carried on Omani state TV to continue the foreign policy approach of Qaboos, one that he said is based on peaceful coexistence between nations and on non-interference.
The new sultan was selected in an intricate process that was broadcast on state TV. The country’s Defense Council, in the presence of the Royal Family Council, was shown cutting open a sealed letter in which Sultan Qaboos names his choice for successor. The Defense Council then read the contents of the letter aloud before all those present in the meeting, announcing Haitham bin Tariq Al Said as the dynasty’s heir.
According to Oman’s succession laws, the letter is to be opened if the Royal Family Council cannot agree on a successor within three days. The Al Said family has ruled Oman since the eighteenth century, and once ruled over Zanzibar too.
Details of the new sultan’s resumé can be read at the link.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/11/2020 06:25 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11123 views]
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#1
A recent battle with being old and worn out. Neil Peart died yesterday too. He will actually be missed.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/11/2020 7:15 Comments ||
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#2
...Not too worried about this - Oman is pretty stable for that part of the world, and I have no doubt that everybody is coming to the meeting knowing exactly what is going to happen.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/11/2020 7:37 Comments ||
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#3
Oh, man
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 ||
01/11/2020 7:53 Comments ||
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[New York Post] President Trump has weighed-in on the "Megxit" scandal ‐ saying he felt "sad" that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle decided to step back from their royal roles.
Trump expressed disappointment with the bombshell decision from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and had plenty of sympathy for the Queen, in an upcoming Friday night interview on "The Ingraham Angle" on Fox News.
"I think it’s sad. I do. I think it’s sad. She’s a great woman," Trump said, referring to Queen Elizabeth II.
"She’s never made a mistake if you look. I mean, she’s had like a flawless time."
When asked by host Laura Ingrahram if he thought the rogue royals should return to Buckingham Palace, Trump replied: "I just have such respect for the Queen, I don’t think this should be happening to her."
It is sad. First one of her sons, Prince Andrew, at loose ends since Prince William replaced him as second in line to the throne, and now her grandson, Prince Harry, sees no reason to stick to the family business of pointlessly opening village fairs and christening barges around the empire when he and his clever little wife could go off and do anything at all else.
Besides it's not like they'll stop taking the allowance, the security or the titles. All they're doing is publicly burning a 'white privilege card' to join the global woke cult, maybe launch Meghan's fashion line and film career. Now Harry can be known for 'the great man that he is, not because of some crown his family gave him.' Yeah, that's probably how the conversation went. Anyway, ZFG for British royalty.
#5
Surprised? What has been surprising is that the late old Queen Mum and Elizabeth have been the sane ones in a inbred sea of crazy aristocracy. They are the exception to the rule, not the standard.
#6
No royalist I, but the Queen is quite the individual. She is in a position thrust upon her father and subsequently her and has demonstrated enormous devotion to duty over a hyper visible life. To this day she gets a daily briefing from the PM, something she has done since well before my birth.
#7
An anti nation establisment is a cancer upon its country and needs to be crushed. Hopefully queeny understands her families easy gig depends on this
I wonder if being a crazy, American B-list actress has a genetic component. I can see that it might - take some genes for beauty, mix in a little schizophrenia, a big dollop of attention-whore and a touch of cat-lady and BLAM!, there you go!
I feel bad for Queenie too. It's hard having nutty children.
#20
I just read that Meghan has flown to Canada, with the baby, and without Harry. Weird.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
01/11/2020 14:11 Comments ||
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#21
The first thing I noticed about every photo op of them was her eyes always always shifting to the center of the press corps grouping and moving to face it when possible. The second thing was she was always talking, often leading the conversation. When I heard the first use of the term racism to explain their frustration with the traditional Brit press co stage I was clear. She wants to be a woke celeb and ride the royal title to coverage of her predictable blathering. Harry should ha e kept flying helicopters. Now he’s just another footnote in royal clowns in obscurity, Windsor edition.
Yes, but her uncle was a playboy who flirted with Hitler.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/11/2020 15:18 Comments ||
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#25
The queen recently announced a mass pruning of titles and “grace and favour” privileges of those further from the direct line of descent, long overdue in my opinion. I honestly don’t blame Harry for seeking independence, now that he no longer needs to be available as the back-up to his brother — and if his wife becomes the primary income until he figures out what to do next, so what?
This could easily be fixed if his mother let him go back to active military, though I suppose his duchess wouldn’t be keen on that unless it lead to glamorous foreign assignments — governor of Bermuda and that kind of thing.
#27
Meghan is already going her bit to refresh her resuméhavi g done a Disney voice over recently, but it looks like this was a negotiating tactic, as Prince Charles and the queen work to finalize details for a negotiation that’s dragged on for some time. Link
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/11/2020 17:17 Comments ||
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#30
...if his wife becomes the primary income until he figures out what to do next, so what?
Recalls a time in the latter half of the 19th Century when nouveau riche Americans were known to marry some European with a title and usually no real money.
[brucewildes blog] It is far easier to believe the five favorite financial myths of our time when you are rolling in dough and flush with cash. Due to a slug of freshly printed liquidity being pumped into the global financial system stock markets are making new highs and asset bubbles continue to expand. An increase in liquidity results in people feeling comfortable to take on more risk and this tends to swell leverage. During such a time true price discovery has a way of being diminished.
Whether it is a question of people generally just being too lazy to question what they see or lacking the imagination to pull back the curtain to reveal the truth they often choose to accept what is presented to them as reality rather than go to the effort to seek the truth. A myth is often defined as any invented story, idea, or concept, an imaginary or fictitious thing, or an unproved or false collective belief that is used to justify a social institution. The entertainment industry has flourished as society seeks any diversion to pull our attention away from the sharp edges of reality and into the soft comfort of escape. This may be the result of past experiences where we have learned reality can be hard to face and we can't handle the truth! In some ways, it could be said that our culture has become obsessed with avoiding what is real.
To say the system has been stoked by the actions of central banks is an understatement. In just the last few months nearly a trillion dollars of new stimulus has been poured into the markets. It comes in the form of repo injections, new infrastructure programs, and things like slashing bank reserve requirements. A desperate attempt by central banks to keep the wheels from coming off the bus has been interpreted by many as confirmation the current trend of never-ending growth will continue. Rather than considering it is time for a reality check it is both easier and more comforting to adopt an "all is well" attitude and ignore the signs of danger lurking around the corner.
[Gatestone] "Five years after the killings at Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher, France has learned to live with the Islamist threat," wrote Yves Thréard, deputy editor at the daily newspaper Le Figaro.
"Not a month goes by... without a murderous attack with the cry of 'Allahu Akbar' taking place on our soil.... But what is the point of fighting the effects of Islamism if we do not tackle the origins of this ideology of death? On that front, however, denial continues to compete with naiveté. Nothing has changed in the last five years. On the contrary.
"In the name of diversity, non-discrimination and human rights, France has accepted a number of blows to its culture and history... Islamists are a hot-button issue. They continue the fight which, even without weapons, has all the allure of a war of civilizations. Is the famous 'Charlie spirit', which some people thought was blowing after the January 2015 attacks, just an illusion?"
France has been marking the fifth anniversary of the deadly jihadist attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which took place on January 7, 2015. Last month, French Senator Nathalie Goulet warned that more attacks were likely. "In France we have a serious problem and we need to do more to prevent extremists from acting. As it stands, there will be more attacks," said Goulet said.
There are believed to be 12,000 radical Islamists on France's terror watch-list, "however only a dozen are thought to be under 24-hour surveillance."
This week was marked by yet a new string of Islamist terror attacks: police injured a knife-wielding man on a street in the northeastern city of Metz, two days after a suspected Islamist radical in the Paris suburb of Villejuif stabbed a man to death, an act that prosecutors are treating as a terror attack. In both incidents, the assailants shouted "Allahu Akbar." This type of attack was dubbed "ordinary jihad" in a Le Figaro editorial this week.
#1
So what would happen if the DGSI simply killed these 12,000 people ? Daylight shootouts, executions, renditions to black sites and carcass disposal. Announce later they were islamofascist swine plotting to attack the country and we killed them.
Do any minds ever entertain this possibility, or is it like they can't even go there ?
[Caroline Glick] For the past 40-odd years, two narratives have guided American Middle East policy. Both were invented by the Carter administration. One relates to Iran. One relates to Israel.
Both narratives reject reality as the basis for foreign policy decision-making in favor of delusion. Over the past two months, President Donald Trump has rejected and disavowed them both. His opponents are apoplectic.
So rather than admit the truth, Carter accepted the absurd fiction spun by the regime that Khomeini was an innocent bystander who, try as he might, couldn’t get a bunch of "students" in central Tehran to free the hostages.
So too, as Smith noted, the Carter administration was propelled by guilt. The worldviews of many members of the administration had been shaped on radical university campuses in the 1960s. They agreed with the Iranian revolutionaries who cursed Americans as imperialists. They perceived Khomeini and his followers as "authentic" Third World actors who were giving the Americans their comeuppance.
Khomeini and his "Death to America" shouting followers got the message. They understood that Washington had given them a green light to attack Americans in moderate and, as Smith put it, "plausibly deniable" doses. it. For the next 40 years, Iran maintained its aggression against America. And from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama, every president since Carter accepted and kept faith with Carter’s decision not to hold the Iranian regime responsible for the acts of aggression and war it carried out against America through proxies.
During the Iraq War from 2003-2011, Iran’s aggression reached new heights. Iran organized the Shiite militias that waged war against the US forces in Iraq. It also supported Al-Qaida in Iraq which organized in Iran and used Iran as its logistical base for operations.
More than six hundred American forces were killed and thousands were wounded in attacks carried out with Iranian-made improvised explosive devices, (IADs). Yet rather than confront Iran for its aggression and take action against it, the Bush administration tried to make a deal with the mullahs.
Under Obama, reaching an accord with Iran was the singular goal of US foreign policy. Every other goal was subordinated to Obama’s burning desire to appease Iran at the expense of Israel and the US’s Sunni Arab allies.
[RedState] -You know you’ve won the battle BIGLY, when one of the major mouthpieces of the DNC, The Washington Post, publishes an opinion piece entitled: Trump wins his standoff with Iran
Although the author, Mark Thiessen is a Republican who worked for President George W. Bush, that this particular,piece still graced the pages of WaPo, is telling.
Here’s the lede, emphasis, mine
Democrats warned that President Trump’s decision to take out Iranian terrorist mastermind Qasem Soleimani had put the United States on the path toward a cataclysmic war with Iran. They were dead wrong. Trump won his standoff with Iran.
President Trump is a whole lot smarter and self aware than most people give him credit for. By redefining "proportionality," in his use of force calculations, he has introduced uncertainty into Iranian assessment of risk when considering attacks on U.S. and Allied interests. Heretofore, the Iranians (and a few other international bad actors) would make an internal risk assessment when contemplating some sort of action contrary to U.S. interests and /or harm to U.S. citizens.
Until this last Friday, such an assessment was that there was little if any risk of any American action, beyond strong language at the U. N. and perhaps a few economic sanctions. Further assessment told the Iranians that in the worst case, if the U.S. used any kind of force, it would be "proportional" to the the Iranian action. Needless to say, that kind of predictability serves as no deterrent whatsoever.
Enter Donald J. Trump. President Trump understands the art of negotiation and in the case of nation-states, the effective and proper use of force to achieve the just ends of these United States‐in most cases, to modify the behavior of bad state actors. He also understands people. He has figured out the mullahs too. He knows that they are corrupt, living large while their people live in penury. They are very good at encouraging martyrdom, but they certainly don’t want to personally participate. Soleimani is the first indicator that the times, they are a changin’.
The left however, insists on asking, "So what did the United States get out of doing this? What’s the benefit?" My answer: What we got is a whole new way of thinking by the Iranians. Heretofore, it was their bottom feeders who took the casualties. We are now messaging their leadership that they will be held personally accountable for bad acts against America and her allies. In other words, Trump have shown MM that Great Satan is not too proud to learn from Little Satan
#2
Over at ZH, some maroon commented "The iranians have 40,000 generals commanding their million man army!" (never mind the absurdity of the numbers) I replied, "You are touting that as a positive?" That reply was downvoted heavily by the hate Murica always crowd...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/11/2020 6:28 Comments ||
Top||
#3
..I think the Persian leader Darius had similar numbers. Another Orange Man Bad moment.
#4
"The iranians have 40,000 generals commanding their million man army!"
According to Wikipedia’ United States Armed Forces page, M. Murcek
Total active duty strength as of February 28, 2019, was 1,359,685 servicemembers, with an additional 799,845 people in the seven reserve components.[31] Civilian Department of Defense Employees numbered at 744,005 in December 2018. The Department of Defense is the largest employer in the world[32]
Apparently ours is the third largest military organization in the world, behind China and India in numbers. The question of relative effectiveness was not addressed. ;-) Also, that says nothing about the unorganized militia as defined by the Constitution.
Someone at Quora posted as answer to the question about the number of American Army generals:
The U.S. Army has 315 General Officers. Generals (O-7 to O-10) comprise 0.06% of the Army. There is 1 General for every 1600 Soldiers.
The number of Generals is limited by US Code. See 10 U.S. Code § 526 - Authorized strength: general and flag officers on active duty. The Army is authorized a total of 231 Generals. Additionally the Secretary of Defense can authorize an additional 310 Generals or Flag Officers to serve in Joint assignments. These slots are split between uniformed services
We don’t need as many generals because our corporals and sergeants regularly make decisions that require field grade officers in Third World armies.
[News with Views] You know that scene in The Princess Bride where Vizzini keeps saying the same word, and Montoya says, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."?
One of the basic strategies for restructuring society norms is to redefine words. But there’s no public statement of the "new definition"; it’s a subtle shift that eventuates into a takeover of the language and turns black to white and red to green, etc.
Being a writer, words matter. Words convey ideas, and if the word choice changes, the meaning can change. I strive to find the precise words I need to convey my ideas. I try to leave no room for ambiguity on what I’m saying. Ambiguity fosters misunderstanding and misinterpretation ‐ a whole other set of problems. It is two different things to disagree and to misunderstand.
It’s like how "racist" gets thrown around.
It becomes a catch-all phrase that strays far from its original meaning, and can now become whatever the writer (or voice) says it means. This can only lead to confusion, accusation, misunderstanding, etc.
Before long, the actual identifying definition of the word shifts to a new cultural connotation, which lends to all kinds of gray area and fuzzy interpretations. This is done both deliberately and ignorantly. Talking heads steal a narrative and coin a word but with their new slanted definition, and then ignorant listeners repeat it ad nauseam until the original meaning is obfuscated.
This is why we have two schools of thought on President Trump being a "racist". But who’s defining racist?
A cultural step to bringing order back where there is chaos, is to return to the original meaning of words. Why? Because it brings common ground back where there was confusion and division. It encourages understanding where there was misunderstanding. Remember, disagreement and misunderstanding are different things. There’s a good percentage of time that we’re misunderstanding one another, rather than disagreeing.
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.
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.
[The Federalist] Shortly after Inspector General Michael Horowitz released his report detailing the government’s egregious abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Rosemary M. Collyer, the presiding judge of the FISA court, issued a rare public order demanding answers.
[H&R 999 Sportsman] This gun is a beautiful little time piece 98+%, Everything is tight on it and no pitting. Very few marks. Retains almost all of its blueing. Has been maintained and cared for.
[Daily Wire] The Sultan of Oman, Qaboos bin Said al Said, died on Friday at the age of 79 after a recent battle with health problems, according to Oman state media.
[brucewildes blog] It is far easier to believe the five favorite financial myths of our time when you are rolling in dough and flush with cash. Due to a slug of freshly printed liquidity being pumped into the global financial system stock markets are making new highs and asset bubbles continue to expand. An increase in liquidity results in people feeling comfortable to take on more risk and this tends to swell leverage. During such a time true price discovery has a way of being diminished.
[Gatestone] "Five years after the killings at Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher, France has learned to live with the Islamist threat," wrote Yves Thréard, deputy editor at the daily newspaper Le Figaro.
[Caroline Glick] For the past 40-odd years, two narratives have guided American Middle East policy. Both were invented by the Carter administration. One relates to Iran. One relates to Israel.
[News with Views] You know that scene in The Princess Bride where Vizzini keeps saying the same word, and Montoya says, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."?
