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Last year Hezbollah received ~$700 million in funding
Today's Headlines
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5 21:42 Marilyn Tojo7566 [5] 
3 10:41 Frank G [4] 
8 20:04 Lex [11] 
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1 12:23 49 Pan [4] 
1 07:55 AlanC [7] 
11 21:05 Seeking Cure For Ignorance [8] 
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11 19:32 Lex [4]
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4 16:59 Skidmark [9]
7 23:39 JohnQC [7]
10 19:37 Lex [13]
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8 23:33 JohnQC [6]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Englewood Man, 63, Repeatedly Molested 10-Year-Old Child
[DAILYVOICE] A 63-year-old unemployed Colombian national living in Englewood repeatedly molested a 10-year-old child, authorities charged.

Luis G. Ocampo remained held Friday in the Bergen County Jail following his arrest the day before, records show.

Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said his Special Victims Unit and Englewood police investigated a report that led to Ocampo’s arrest "regarding the sexual assault of a ten year-old juvenile on multiple occasions."

Ocampo will remain held until a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack on charges of sexual assault and child endangerment, the prosecutor said.

As of Friday afternoon, ICE hadn't issued a detainer for him.

Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Send him to the prison where the two peodos were murdered. Give him their old cell.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 02/23/2020 12:23 Comments || Top||


Man Taking Pics In Bookstore Girl's Bathroom Identified, Had Child Porn
[DAILYVOICE] A man caught secretly recording females in bathroom stalls at a Barnes & Noble on Route 3 in Clifton was carrying child porn videos, authorities said.
Confession: I like girls. I like naked girls even better. Girls without boobies are "cute", not "sexually desirable." I've never had the urge to watch girls of any age poop. This guy's nasty.
Juan Mejia, 44, of Paterson, was being held Friday in the Passaic County Jail pending a detention hearing this coming Wednesday.

Mejia was arrested for secretly videotaping two separate females who were using the bathroom stalls, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes and Clifton Police Chief Mark Centurione said Friday.He was charged with separate counts of child endangerment for the videos and could face additional counts as an investigation continues, authorities said.

Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They mixed up the pictures. That doesn't look like Joe Biden.
Posted by: AlanC || 02/23/2020 7:55 Comments || Top||


They held up a Clearwater CVS. A trail of pill bottles led cops to their door
[TAMPABAY] The three men who held up a CVS Pharmacy on New Year’s Day planned their moves meticulously.The robbers hit at 5 a.m. They wore blue surgical gloves so they wouldn’t leave prints. They waved guns at employees and bound several of them with zip ties. Detectives would later review store surveillance video that showed one of the suspects casing the place the day before.

And they made off with a boatload of drugs in white garbage bags ‐ more than 10,000 pills that contained the opioids hydrocodone and oxycodone, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. It had an estimated street value of about $320,000.

But as detectives investigated the area around the store, located at 30387 U.S. 19 N, they started noticing pill bottles, according to an arrest warrant. The robbers, it appeared, had emptied the bottles as they made their getaway, then tossed them out the window of their car.

Detectives started following the pill bottles like bread crumbs, eventually leading to a house at 1045 West Ave. There, they found the same White Chrysler 200 that had been recorded on surveillance camera fleeing the scene. White cotton and a pill bottle cap lay on the ground nearby.

The deputies detained the two men inside the Chrysler: Christopher Rachell Jr. and David Dobbins, both 19. They matched the descriptions of two of the robbers seen inside the store, detectives said.

They found more evidence on Dobbins’s cellphone. He had recorded videos of the suspects in the same room as a bed strewn with pills and clear plastic baggies. Videos also showed them handling a white garbage bag near the pills ‐ the same type of bag with which the suspects were seen fleeing, reports state.

The videos helped them identify Roy Lampkin as a collaborator. The 18-year-old could be seen in the video handling a clear plastic bag that contained round white pills, reports state, and his fingerprints were found on one of the white garbage bags and on a plastic bag of opioid pills.

Though the warrant does not name Lampkin as one of the suspected robbers, it says he was captured on CVS’s surveillance video before the crime. He entered the building at about 3:52 a.m. on Jan. 1 and asked the pharmacist a question. He was arrested on Feb. 5 on charge of drug trafficking.

Rachell and Dobbins were arrested Jan. 1. Each faces one count of armed robbery, two counts of trafficking in illegal drugs and three counts of false imprisonment. Dobbins remains in the Pinellas County jail, held in lieu of $280,000 bail. Rachell, who also faces a charge of possession of oxycodone, is being held in lieu of $282,000 bail.
Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under: Narcos


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Doctors will be banned from sending unsolicited coronavirus warnings to patients under EU rules still set to become law in the UK despite Brexit
Related: NHS introduces drive-through coronavirus tests: Nurses in Hazmat suits to swab suspected carriers through rolled-down car windows
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/23/2020 09:39 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No direct marketing?
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/23/2020 10:06 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Israeli ambassador to China quarantined
[Twitter]


Some 200 Israeli students, teachers ordered into quarantine over virus fears

[IsraelTimes] Groups from Haifa, Afula and Beersheba told to remain at home after coming into contact with Korean tourists amid efforts to contain COVID-19; two say they’ve been feeling ill.

Health Ministry signals Israel could close borders over coronavirus

[IsraelTimes] Ministry erases warning in Hebrew but leaves it in English; Seoul protests Israeli decision to turn plane back after landing at Ben-Gurion airport.
Posted by: 3dc || 02/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:


Virus now shows an instance of no symptom 38 day incubation period!
[Twitter]
Posted by: 3dc || 02/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Probably got exposed a week or two ago, and not when they thought a month ago.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/23/2020 0:12 Comments || Top||


#3  ...saboteurs and wreckers at State at work.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/23/2020 0:54 Comments || Top||

#4  If we have an outbreak in America, they can blame it on Trump. And deliberately botch the response, so that can be laid at his feet, too. Think of Katrina and how Bush was blamed for it.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 02/23/2020 5:09 Comments || Top||

#5  The president became "furious" with senior advisers after learning the 14 Americans who tested positive had been put on a plane with healthy passengers, according to The Washington Post. One official told the paper that the failure to inform Trump of the decision in advance of the plane's departure was a “big operational mistake.”

Fire whoever made that decision
Posted by: Frank G || 02/23/2020 5:48 Comments || Top||

#6  “These individuals were moved in the most expeditious and safe manner to a specialized containment area on the evacuation aircraft to isolate them in accordance with standard protocol,” the State Department and Department of Health and Human Services said in a joint statement Monday.

If you knew that you weren't suppose to transport infected people why did the plane have a specialized containment area to handle all those people? Someone needs their butt shipped to Utqiagvik, AK.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/23/2020 6:17 Comments || Top||

#7  kill far more people than it needs to.


To each according to their needs.
Posted by: AlanC || 02/23/2020 7:51 Comments || Top||

#8  F*ck. Just got 24 days added to my recent 14 day quarantine after visiting Beijing. Or did I? We'll find out in the morning.d
Posted by: Beau || 02/23/2020 9:25 Comments || Top||

#9  Beau, good luck. Take care of yourself.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 02/23/2020 10:05 Comments || Top||

#10  I try for a basin next to the stool, and a bourbon hydration haze for my flu bouts, Beau.

Best wishes, but hey, reports from the field are greatly anticipated.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/23/2020 10:09 Comments || Top||

#11  That's not necessarily all bad news.

If the virus is still rapidly evolving as it adapts to humans this could be an adaption to the existing quarantine's selective pressure giving advantage to strains that work slower and cause milder symptoms.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 02/23/2020 10:31 Comments || Top||

#12  work slower and cause milder short term symptoms.

Host dies, bugs aren't multi-generational.
Host lives, strain passes on to the next.
For the moment I refuse to believe the bug has a designer survival strategy.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/23/2020 10:38 Comments || Top||

#13  So what is the over/under on this virus? 60,000 have it, 2,500 dead. 3.5-4% morbidity? 3DC do you have any statistics? Comparative analyses? Is it killing across the board at the same rate or higher at the older generations and the poor? I get the panic, I get the press but is this pandemic going to reduce a large number of humans or just make us all really sick for a period of time. The press is selling the end of the world and I'm not sure we are seeing it, I just cant believe anyone in any position of power now.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 02/23/2020 12:19 Comments || Top||

#14  Ok, in the be careful what you ask for department. I am worried. Lots of escapes from the lab in that area. Signs that this virus has markers ties to HIV. The collector that first alerted to the issue found murdered. Surviving it the first time does not insure your good to go. Catching it a second time your antibodies attack your heart and kill you. They have 85 + incinerators on site running full time. Statistics would show a greater than 10% morbidity in the population. So if we follow the rule of misinformation, 10% is accurate, I really don't know what to think.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 02/23/2020 12:43 Comments || Top||

#15  For the moment I refuse to believe the bug has a designer survival strategy.

Evolution doesn't do strategy or long term planning. Only immediate reproductive advantage counts.

Not everything is good news btw.

If fecal transmission is a relevant vector selection will favor high virulence since even a gravely ill individual will contaminate sewage and a high virus load in the excretions is the key to viral reproduction.

Ditto for transmission via arthropod vectors.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 02/23/2020 12:45 Comments || Top||

#16  Fecal odor is a transmission vector. That's in an article today.
Posted by: 3dc || 02/23/2020 13:38 Comments || Top||

#17  So if we follow the rule of misinformation, 10% is accurate, I really don't know what to think.

Be prepared, then compose yourself to calm waiting until we have more information. If it is a worst case, Black Plague situation, it will spread until it burns itself out. Still, it is supposed to be most serious for those who are unhealthy and have high ACE-2 receptors in the deep lungs, supposedly significantly more prevalent among the Chinese than other population groups. So the odds are better for fewer strong reactions to infection here, with resulting lower morbidity.

Nontheless, collect supplies for a 28-day quarantine, including bleach and alcohol wipes, wash your hands every two hours, and don’t touch your t-zone (eyes, nose, mouth) with unwashed hands. And as much as possible, avoid airports and hospitals until further notice. Whatever the virulence of this thing, we’ll do better in the West than they are in China, simply because we are healthier and the majority of us have less susceptible genomes.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/23/2020 13:40 Comments || Top||

#18  Re: the sprays the chinese were using are similar to an Unscented Febreze. It doesn't clean the floor but takes out many airborne particles.
Posted by: 3dc || 02/23/2020 13:55 Comments || Top||

#19  Chinese people are NOT more susceptible. That is nonsense.
Posted by: Herb McCoy3 || 02/23/2020 14:21 Comments || Top||

#20  They have lung issues in a larger population group than we do. They are still a heavy smoking population with a very heavy airborne pollution issue that does affect their overall health status and ability to fight viruses. Not a genetic issue, more an environmental issue.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 02/23/2020 14:46 Comments || Top||

#21  Thanks TW. Being one of them preppers, we are set.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 02/23/2020 14:47 Comments || Top||

#22  Chinese people are NOT more susceptible. That is nonsense.

Apparently Han Chinese and related peoples have a significantly higher incidence of the genetic variant that results in more ACE-2 receptors, Herb. Meaning non-Han Chinese should be less susceptible than their Han countrymen, the dreadful environmental impacts of heavily polluted air, water, and soil, and a history of poor diet and heavy smoking among the men being equal.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/23/2020 14:52 Comments || Top||

#23  "Wei Bo, ya think we'll live t'see a hundred ?"

"I'm almost there myself, Bobby."

"Wubbish. You're 47 !"

"Hell, I've felt like 99 since I was 13."

"Somethin' in our water, I reckon."

Posted by: Dron66046 || 02/23/2020 14:58 Comments || Top||

#24  LULZ, Dron
Posted by: Frank G || 02/23/2020 15:25 Comments || Top||

#25  I really don't know what to think.

Think asiatic clusters in an anglo world dying off.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/23/2020 16:51 Comments || Top||

#26  Sadly I can't avoid flying, work. But you do what you can, not touching face, shower as soon as you get home from airport with a good hard scrubbing, sitting way in the back and waiting for the thundering herd to deplane before going. I do what I can.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 02/23/2020 17:28 Comments || Top||

#27  49 Pan, try here
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 02/23/2020 18:00 Comments || Top||

#28  All the Rantburgers reading this should follow Trailing Wife's advice here.

Just working out the implications of 8 dead in Iran means that those 8 people were sick for about 9 days and asymptomatic for about 5 days. Given that as best we can tell only 2% of the infected die, that means 14 days ago 400 people were infected in Iran. If they spread the infection with an R0 of 3 for only their asymptomatic days, that means about 100,000 Iranians could be infected today.

Given the Iranian interest in Syria and a known fecal transmission route, all of the Syrian refugee camps are about to light up in the next week. That is at least a million people.

Then there are the Uyghur camps and all of Africa that we have no information about.

This thing is out of the bag. It almost certainly will come to your town at least once over the next year, and you will spend a couple weeks working from home.

Prepare now, and be kind.
Posted by: rammer || 02/23/2020 21:57 Comments || Top||


Untraceable coronavirus cells have emerged in three countries
[NY POST] “Untraceable coronavirus cells have emerged in three countries — and health officials say the elusive strands could be the first sign that the virus is spreading at an uncontrollable pace.

Doctors are unable to identify the source of coronavirus clusters in South Korea, Singapore and Iran, the World Health Organization said Saturday, urging a stricter approach to containing the virus.

“A number of spot fires occurring around the world is a sign that things are ticking along, and what we are going to have here is probably a pandemic,” said Ian Mackay, a researcher at Australia’s “
Posted by: 3dc || 02/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Space aliens are carriers.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/23/2020 0:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Meteor showers?
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/23/2020 1:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Nuke China!
Posted by: Fat Bob Javish1936 || 02/23/2020 7:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Iran = no quarantine when they evac'd their "important" people from Wuhan. Pretty simple they didn't want to inconvenience the high and mighty.

There is a thought that Iran may be the source of the Italy infections.

Korea it may have been a "super spreader" (infects multiple people, shows no signs of the illness, think "Typhoid Mary") at a specific church.

This will rip thru North Korea once it gets there, given the malnutrition and lack of modern medicine, and complete information isolation they live under. What happens when Pudge loses 6% of all his military aged men?
Posted by: Marilyn Tojo7566 || 02/23/2020 21:37 Comments || Top||

#5  "Shincheonji Church of Jesus the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony"

Apparently a "secretive" church. Ground zero for Teagu SARS-2 outbreak.
Posted by: Marilyn Tojo7566 || 02/23/2020 21:42 Comments || Top||


South Korean officials in 2 regions report at least 28 new cases of coronavirus
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Any news from North Korea?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/23/2020 9:28 Comments || Top||

#2  North Korea’s Secret Coronavirus Crisis is Crazy Scary
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/23/2020 10:30 Comments || Top||

#3  At least hunger is down!
Posted by: Frank G || 02/23/2020 10:41 Comments || Top||


Iran will close schools, universities and educational centers in two central cities to prevent a deadly coronavirus outbreak spreading, riots in Talesh city
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

Iran’s government and media lied about coronavirus outbreak, riots erupt

[Jpost] Iranians are scared and angry. Their government has been lying to them and their media was instructed not to report on the coronavirus outbreak as it rapidly spread from the religious city of Qom to other cities. On Saturday, Tehran was awash with rumors and riots occurred in the city of Talesh on the Caspian sea due to a quarantine.

"The situation inside the hospital is very scary and terrifying," one man tweeted. "Even the hospital medical staff, some of whom are infected with the coronavirus, are terrified." In Isfahan medical students protested at the local University of Medical Sciences due to lack of protective gear. Iranians are well educated and they know the risks as their government tried over seventy hours to stop the spread of information about the crises.

By Saturday evening at least six people were dead but official figures put the number of infections only in the twenties. In fact rumors were spreading that the numbers could be in the hundreds or a thousand cases. In Iraq the authorities moved to shut the border and stop Iranian pilgrims from coming from Qom. In addition Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
sought to clamp down on travel. A Lebanese woman returning from Qom tested positive in Leb. Leb’s Health Minister, who is linked to the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, said everything was in order.

In The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor...
the authorities, acting on information they received from Iran that was not available for the media, sought to monitor and interdict Iranians who might have the virus. Kuwait also expressed concern over Iranian arrivals and travel to Iran. In Iraq’s Maysan the governor decided to try to prevent Iranians from arriving. Already the virus was in Tehran, Rasht and other cities. Governments in the region, evidently aware of the crises more than Iran’s people were aware, began to seek to stop Shi’ite pilgrims from going to Iran.

Yet Iranians were urged by their government to congregate in confined spaces on Friday to vote. The regime wanted the turnout to grow beyond the 11 million who were estimated to have voted.
Yet Iranians were urged by their government to congregate in confined spaces on Friday to vote. The regime wanted the turnout to grow beyond the 11 million who were estimated to have voted. The government, seeking to censor information on the spread of the virus, likely contributed to misinformation by pushing the polls to stay open later with a national health emergency looming. Yet Fars News, Tasnim and other news outlets did not warn of the crises. The only information came later on Saturday when reports said that there was price gouging for protective medical masks. Anadolu, a Ottoman Turkish news agency, photographed dozens of people in Iran already wearing the masks. The government sought to put price controls on masks so people could afford them.

In the afternoon on Saturday officials moved to close all schools on Sunday and Monday. A mayor, named Mortaza Rahmanzeda of a district in Tehran was taken to hospital. Rumors claimed he was badly ill from the virus. Other officials appeared to be concerned they might be sick. Mohsen Rafsanjani, head of the city council of Tehran, said he was visiting a hospital. By the evening Iran’s media announced universities would close. But media still wasn’t allowed to report the reason. Educational facilities, according to Fars News, will be closed in Tehran, Alborz, Qazvin, Markzai, Qom, Hamedan, Isfahan, Gilan and Mazandaran provinces. There are thirty provinces in Iran, but there are the most central. It appears the virus may not have spread to outlying areas, such as the Kurdistan region. But the Kurdistan region of Iraq is taking no chances, quarantining people in Soran and considering to close the border. In Pakistain also some voices are calling for border closures. In Iran some expressed anger at Mahan Air and other airlines for continuing to fly pilgrims.

The Minister of Science spoke out Saturday about the coronavirus precautions. He urged people at University to visit health center "as soon as they feel symptoms of a cold, flue or the like. Take the necessary measures to treat them at the centers. In Alborz a university head encouraged most people not to wear a mask. He said that news about the virus must come only from the Ministry of Health and that people should avoid rumors. There are no cases in the province, he claimed, according to ISNA in Iran.

The lack of response by authorities and rumors have caused a tense situation in Iran. It also appears to be contributing to the spread of the virus to other countries. Iraq’s Moqtada Tater al-Sadr
...hereditary Iraqi holy man and leader of a political movement in Iraq. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah. Formerly an Iranian catspaw, though lately he's gagged over some of their more outlandish antics...
flew home to Iraq as the virus spread in Qom. Oddly he did not have to be quarantined. Iran is already on edge because of protests last year where the authorities killed 1,500 demonstrators. But the authorities continue to provide little information on the extent of the outbreak. A head of a unit at Qom University said he had received no statistics. Women at a university in Tehran protested the lack of information. In Talesh people continued to protest mysterious closures and quarantines. Tear gas was used outside at least one hospital. In Rasht fires were lit and the authorities cracked down on protests. "They resort to oppression instead of a solution to the coronavirus crises," wrote locals.

News programs in the evening in Iran gave advise on wearing masks and cleaning one’s hands. But they didn’t explain how to best prevent the spread of the virus. They gave only "comfort" one woman tweeted, complaining of the lack of information.
Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  So students will have the opportunity to protest the latest election winners.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/23/2020 8:56 Comments || Top||

#2  This is going to be awful for Iran's population.

Many people already don't have proper nutrition or take drugs intravenously or suffer from respiratory issues because of years of horrible urban air pollution.

The ones with the best immune health are in the IRGC or the religious hierarchy.
Posted by: lord garth || 02/23/2020 9:08 Comments || Top||

#3  The ones with the best immune health are in the IRGC or the religious hierarchy.

Cull the toes, the heads will fall.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/23/2020 10:40 Comments || Top||

#4  So the IRGC forces in Syria, Yemen and maybe Libya will spread it in unhealthy war zones. The Mid East might become the Mid-Empty
Posted by: 3dc || 02/23/2020 14:03 Comments || Top||

#5  Is the IRGC still in Bosnia?
Posted by: 3dc || 02/23/2020 14:04 Comments || Top||

#6  Full face veils are becoming more popular.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/23/2020 16:55 Comments || Top||

#7  Full face veils are becoming more popular.
Especially among high-level men...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/23/2020 19:43 Comments || Top||

#8  ^ Saves on face masks?
Posted by: Lex || 02/23/2020 20:04 Comments || Top||


Kuwait Airways says it will be sending a number of flights to evacuate 700 passengers from the Iranian city of Mashhad
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Therefore, pretty much guaranteeing the spread to Kuwait.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 02/23/2020 10:08 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
'100 Tons' of Pine Nuts Not Shipped to China
[ToloNews] Farmers and factory owners in the capital say they are now waiting for more than 100 tons (metric) of pine nuts to be exported to China.
The alternative being getting close to various Chinamen silently infected with coronavirus and bringing it home, whereas now they can offer their crop to those who previously bought Chinese pine nuts...
The Chamber of Commerce and Investments admitted that flights to China are suspended due to the spread of the coronavirus.

"It's been a long time since our export to China first stopped. Our warehouses are full of pine nuts," said Sher Ali Zadran, pine nut businessman.

According to companies exporting pine nuts, one kilogram of pine nuts in a Chinese market will sell for up to 2,800 Afghanis, and each kilogram of clean pine nuts in these markets can earn up 7,000 Afghanis.

"Although flights to China have declined, this has not had much impact on our exports. We are already exporting to other countries around the world," said Sayed Zaman Hashemi, the CEO of Chamber of Trade and Investment.

The pine nut export season starts every year in September and lasts for up to three months, but this year, due to delays in exports to China, bulk pine nuts that were prepared to be exported to China have remained in warehouses.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Short turpentine!
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/23/2020 17:02 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
How many people were kidnapped, tortured and murdered for your avocado? Violent Mexican cartels have realised the fashionable fruit is more profitable than drugs
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • Mexico grows almost half avocados sold globally, nicknamed as 'green gold'

  • US sales have risen almost fivefold this century and have also surged in the UK

  • Almost all of Mexico’s avocados are grown in fertile volcanic soil of Michoacán

  • About 20 gangs, including Los Viagras and Jalisco New Generation, have seized 35 per cent of the £1.9 billion sector in this state alone

  • One collective of 40 farmers is being forced to pay £500K a month to gangsters

  • Michoacán became one of the most blood-soaked parts of our planet after cartels fought to control vast profits from cocaine, heroin and cannabis

  • The price of heroin has crashed due to synthetic opioid alternatives, cannabis is legal in much of North America – and violence has surged in Mexico with a record toll of murders as gangs diversify into avocados and mining
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/23/2020 01:10 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under: Narcos

#1  The daily mail changed the names of some of the vigilantes to protect them ,unlike some other prominent news outlets.
Posted by: Bill Borgia6417 || 02/23/2020 3:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Gotta have that avocado toast while watching a bad movie on the Slave iPhone.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/23/2020 8:43 Comments || Top||

#3  If avocados are "green gold" are strawberries "red diamonds"?
Posted by: Classical_Liberal || 02/23/2020 11:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Obviously we need to legalize avocados.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/23/2020 12:14 Comments || Top||

#5  Fallbrook, CA used to be the Avacodo Capital of the world. But increasing cost of water made Fallbrook avocados too expensive.

From the San Diego Union Tribune, April 2014:

Just 10 years ago, there were nearly 30,000 acres of avocado trees growing in such places as Fallbrook, Valley Center, Bonsall and the San Pasqual and Pauma valleys.

Today that number has dwindled to between 18,000 and 22,000 acres, experts say, and the trend is expected to continue downward for the next couple years before stabilizing at around 15,000.

The big farmers — the ones with groves ranging from 40 to 800 acres — will survive as they keep investing in their business by replanting for higher density and upgrading to more efficient irrigation methods.


The good news is that some of the groves are being replaced by vineyards that produce some pretty good wine which will only get better as the vines become better established and the roots grow deeper.

Bad news is you may feel a pang of guilt as you dip your chip into your guacamole.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 02/23/2020 15:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Abu Uluque, will that change now that President Trump has ordered more water be released to the farmers?
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/23/2020 20:31 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia replaces two cosmonauts on next space station crew, citing medical reasons
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/23/2020 01:30 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No virus here.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/23/2020 16:47 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
S. Korea raises alert level to 'highest' for COVID-19
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/23/2020 09:55 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Israel to quarantine 200 South Korean tourists for coronavirus
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/23/2020 10:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Coronavirus: Venice Carnival closes as Italy imposes lockdown
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/23/2020 11:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Now Camp Walker, Daegu is in the hot zone.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/23/2020 15:48 Comments || Top||

#4  Back in the day, it was called Taegu.
Nice summer day chopper ride from Seoul of the DMZ.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/23/2020 16:46 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
U.S. Intelligence Analyst Pleads Guilty to Leaking Classified Information to Media
He leaked information about China, so moving this to P. 3: Non-WoT
.[BREITBART] U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) counterterrorism analyst Henry Kyle Frese pleaded guilty on Thursday to leaking information to the press in 2018 and 2019.

According to a DIA blurb, Frese faces up to 10 years in prison for leaking sensitive military information from five separate classified documents. Frese was employed by the DIA as either a contractor or employee from January 2017 to October 2019.

Over the course of two years, Frese illegally obtained and distributed classified military intelligence information to two journalists. But court filings state that the information was published in eight articles written by the same journalist ‐ Amanda Macias, a national security news hound for CNBC, and Frese’s girlfriend at the time.

Court documents claim Macias later asked Frese via Twitter direct messages whether he would share the information with another journalist whose identity has not yet been disclosed. Frese then "searched on a classified United States government computer system" to obtain the information requested.

"Frese violated the trust placed in him by the American people when he disclosed sensitive national security information for personal gain," Assistant Attorney-General for National Security John Demers said. "He alerted our country’s adversaries to sensitive national defense information, putting the nation’s security at risk."

In a statement released by the Department of Justice, Virginia District Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger said the case should "serve as a clear reminder" that "unilaterally disclosing such information for personal gain, or that of others, is not selfless or heroic, it is criminal."

Frese was arrested in October. He pleaded guilty to two charges of "willful transmission of national defense information" on Thursday. He will be sentenced in federal court on June 18.

Posted by: Fred || 02/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The old Russian Media honeypot ploy.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/23/2020 0:56 Comments || Top||

#2  What was it that he leaked? Where are the published stories?
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 02/23/2020 5:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Looking for some agitprop, Herb?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/23/2020 5:50 Comments || Top||

#4  What was it that he leaked? Ohh juicy !

PNTQ/9903/QCP May 3,2012

President █████ met the ████ to ██████ up some ████. By evening the president's hand was deep in the █████ of the ███████'s ██████. For a full ██████ the shameful ██████ of ████████████ the ████ has asked for the resignation of █████.


More in the same vein. It was s'pposed to be a secret I reckon.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 02/23/2020 6:05 Comments || Top||

#5  Frese faces up to 10 years in prison for leaking sensitive military information from five separate classified documents

What happened to TREASON?
Oh, yeah...set the punishment to fit the crime.
Breach of Trust is no longer a crime, I guess.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/23/2020 10:03 Comments || Top||

#6  ...but Nancy's children consider 'abuse of power' to be.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/23/2020 10:37 Comments || Top||

#7  I thought honeypot agents were supposed to be hotter than that...
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 02/23/2020 11:39 Comments || Top||

#8  All things are relative, NMBS; look at his picture and evaluate his chances with a highly attractive woman.
Posted by: Mercutio || 02/23/2020 14:10 Comments || Top||

#9  What was it that he leaked? Where are the published stories?

I pulled up the most recent related articles from our archives, Herb dear. Click on the links at the bottom of the article above.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/23/2020 15:25 Comments || Top||

#10  #8 - she "forgave" his Five-Head and weird left ear
Posted by: Frank G || 02/23/2020 15:27 Comments || Top||

#11  What was it that he leaked? Where are the published stories?

I think #4 above, posted by Dron66046, pretty much told the whole story!

I nominate Dron66046 post as a snark of the day!
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 02/23/2020 21:05 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Japan summons Israeli ambassador to protest travel ban
[JPost] - Officials in Seoul and Tokyo summoned Israeli diplomats on Sunday to protest Israel’s ban on the entry of people traveling from South Korea and Japan due to the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.

The ban on South Koreans entering Israel began on Sunday while the block on Japanese nationals will come into effect at 8 a.m. on Monday. Israel has also banned entry from people who were in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand and Singapore in recent weeks.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/23/2020 09:40 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:




Who's in the News
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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2020-02-23
  Last year Hezbollah received ~$700 million in funding
Sat 2020-02-22
   Erdogan confirms the presence of pro-Turkish Syrian fighters in Libya
Fri 2020-02-21
  Missile intercept by #Saudi forces in #Yanbu
Thu 2020-02-20
  Turkey asks NATO to provide air support for the operation in Idlib
Wed 2020-02-19
  Ashraf Ghani declared winner of Afghan presidential poll, Abdullah rejects results
Tue 2020-02-18
  LNA claims to destroy Turkish arms ship in Tripoli harbor.
Mon 2020-02-17
  24 Killed In Brutal Terror Attack On Burkina Faso Church; Local Pastor Targeted
Sun 2020-02-16
  Switzerland Thwarts Major Islamic State Terror Attack
Sat 2020-02-15
  Six Cartel Kidnappers Busted with Mexican Border City Victim in Trunk
Fri 2020-02-14
  US navy ship seizes 150 Iranian-manufactured anti-tank guided missiles after boarding a vessel in the Arabian Sea
Thu 2020-02-13
  Hafiz Saeed sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison for terror financing
Wed 2020-02-12
  Sudan will hand over Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court
Tue 2020-02-11
  Russians bomb a joint Turkish & Jihadi column
Mon 2020-02-10
  Ehsanullah Ehsan sends greetings from Turkey, thumbs nose
Sun 2020-02-09
  Multiple US troops killed during shootout in eastern Afghanistan


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