[Babylon Bee] ATLANTA, GA‐Churchgoer Jack Wilson shot and killed a mass shooter at West Freeway Church of Christ, preventing what could have been a much worse shooting.
But CNN reported on the event with the headline and caption "Trump voter shot a mentally ill man in a Texas church," causing some to question whether CNN might be a biased source of news.
"Once again we see that Trump voters are hopelessly wicked," said one somber anchor as footage came in of a shooting in a Texas church. "There is nothing they won't do to attack the oppressed, mentally ill community. All this man wanted to do was express his true identity and live out who he really is, and he was stopped by yet another psychotic Trump voter."
CNN hosts called for Texas to designate their churches "gun-free zones," so that the mentally ill can do whatever they please without being stopped by deranged conservatives.
#4
It is so close to true I was believing it. But alas the Bee stung me again.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/03/2020 11:43 Comments ||
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#5
Got me, too. I have noticed a trend to include the perpetrator as part of the total victim count of KIA's ... as if the killer's weapon was the sole cause of the slaughter and all the killed were innocent bystanders.
Is it live or is it Memorex?
[BabylonBee] WASHINGTON, D.C.‐At a press conference held on Capitol Hill Friday, mourning Democrat leaders called for flags to be flown half-mast to honor the death of Qasem Soleimani.
Flags were spotted flying at half-mast around the country, notably at The Washington Post, The New York Times, and in front of several celebrities' homes. The celebrities went out and bought an American flag for the first time just to fly it at half-mast for this important time of grief.
"The grieving process is painful but necessary," said Rep. Ilhan Omar. "As a nation, we need to stop and grieve this great, austere, revered religious scholar. He was one of the good ones."
#5
The state of Mexicalifornia issued 'due out refunds' to tax filers one year recently. Said they couldn't be used to pay in part the next year's taxes.
#6
Yes, and like tax policy, monetary policy is politically distorted until the unintended consequences far outweigh the legitimate goals. Leftists call this "capitalism'" and blame it for all society's ills.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/03/2020 7:47 Comments ||
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#7
if you refinance your house and get a 'cash out' at settlement, you and the financing institutions have created money
that's just one example of how difficult it is to understand and quantify what is happening in the economy
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/03/2020 8:10 Comments ||
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#8
Piper warned us all already They Live a saint he should be on stained glass windows!
#10
Value Vs. Money anecdote: A Vietnam Vet (AF Base Security) told me that he had discovered that South Vietnamese paper money made decent toilet paper (crumple it, wet and then let dry in the sun). The Mama-san at the local whorehouse was very appreciative if you showed up with soap and other toiletries bought at the Base PX -- that is VALUE and the local currency was just MONEY.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Many Iraqis call Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes "the de-facto Prime Minister of Iraq" even though he is a designated terrorist who commands Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia whose bases were bombed by US warplanes in Iraq and Syria this week.
Two days after that bombing, on New Year’s Eve, al-Mohandes walked into the heavily protected Green Zone in central Baghdad unopposed with a mob of Iran’s proxy militia fighters and set fire to the US Embassy.
[Asia Times] - US President Donald Trump’s decision to humiliate Iran with the assassination of a national hero on Jan. 2 is a calculated gamble and probably represents the best of a set of bad alternatives.
Trump inherited a weak hand after the George W. Bush Administration destroyed the century-old balance of power between Sunni and Shia in Western Asia, by replacing Saddam Hussein’s Sunni minority regime with a sectarian Shia government allied to Iran. Bush’s belief in majority rule and nation-building, lauded by his neoconservative advisers, handed Iran an opportunity to dominate the region. Trump pushed back with economic sanctions, which have not dissuaded Iran from extending its reach.
Iran provoked the United States by attacking its embassy in Baghdad after the US launched airstrikes against Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. Iran’s attack on the embassy sought to humble the United States. Trump decided to escalate rather than matching Iran tit-for-tat. Both actions involved high-risk gambles, and require an explanation. Iran crossed a red line by backing a militia attack on the US embassy and Trump crossed a red line by killing General Qasem Soleimani. Nations don’t take actions of this sort capriciously.
...Persia as such is a declining power. Its strategic position, as I have argued in the past, resembles France on the eve of the First World War. Today Iran has five workers of prime-age (25-64 years) for every citizen over 65. By 2050 the ratio will crash to just 1.8 working-age Iranians per retiree, assuming constant fertility. Iran’s economy will crash. Its pension systems already are bankrupt. Iran’s only hope of maintaining regional hegemony is to expand the Shia presence in Mesopotamia and the Levant, through militias like Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the 80,000-strong mercenary militias it supports in Syria, staffed mainly by Afghan and Pakistani Shia.
...Without attempting to read the minds of Iran’s leaders, one may conjecture that Iran badly needed a moral victory to show that it was not cowed by massive Israeli airstrikes in Syria, nor, indeed, by a deteriorating economy at home. In November, the Iranian regime ruthlessly suppressed anti-regime protests, killing up to 1,000 demonstrators. After the US struck five bases of Iran-backed militias in Iraq on Dec. 30, Iran decided that its credibility required a demonstration of power, and ordered the attack on the US embassy.
...That left Trump with few good choices. After 5,000 dead, 50,000 wounded and trillions of dollars in expenditures in Iraq, the US had succeeded in turning a former counterweight to Iranian ambitions into an Iranian satrapy. The embassy attack was intended by Iran as a public act of ritual humiliation, and the United States had no choice but to respond. Trump chose to respond by subjecting Iran to an even more poignant form of humiliation, by assassinating a national hero, Gen. Qassam Sulemaini. It is easy to criticize the US president, but harder to recommend an alternative course of action. US airpower has limited effectiveness in constraining the diffuse Iranian-backed militias.
...Neither Iran nor the US has good choices here. Iran must respond or its credibility will collapse. The question is how. An Iranian attack on an American ally like Israel or Saudi Arabia would not suffice, now that Washington has acted in its own name against a key Iranian leader. The indicated course of action is to attack an American asset. In the extreme case, Iran could use a combination of intermediate-range missiles, cruise missiles and drones to attack the Doha base.
...If Iran were to attack Doha, America’s response likely would be devastating. Two dozen missiles or bombing sorties could wipe out Iran’s economy in a matter of hours. Fewer than a dozen power plants generate 60% of Iran’s electricity, and eight refineries produce 80% of its distillates. A single missile strike could disable each of these facilities, and bunker-buster bombs of the kind that Israel used last month in Lebanon would entirely destroy them. Without much effort, the US could destroy the Port of Kharg from which Iran exports 90% of its hydrocarbons.
...It seems clear that Iran was taken aback by the ferocity of America’s response to the embassy attack. If it anticipated this sort of attack, Gen. Sulemaini never would have appeared in person at the Baghdad Airport. Iran now has to devise a response whose outcome is extremely difficult to calculate. There is a significant probability of a major escalation.
Iran well may decide on a limited, symbolic action that fails to restore its credibility after the Sulemaini assassination. If it chooses restraint, its power in the region will diminish, and Trump’s gamble will pay off.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru ||
01/03/2020 13:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[14 views]
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#1
So Trump had to unravel the Boosh x Soetoro mistakes or take the blame for letting the situation fester. He chose to take the blame for what he did rather than for what he didn't do. I like that.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/03/2020 13:23 Comments ||
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#2
...It seems clear that Iran was taken aback by the ferocity of America’s response to the embassy attack.
As P2K commented in another thread, this is a very Jacksonian response. This is the second time Iran has attacked a US embassy.
I have not read Trump's The Art of the Deal yet, but I'm told there is a section were Trump says that if someone *bleep*s you in a deal, you need to *bleep* them back. I wonder if the book is published in Persian.
#3
So far nobody is talking about the Iranians attacking one of the many warshipsin the gulf. I would think that is a pretty high probabilty in the Iranians' thought processes. Of course after that the entire country (returns) to dust and sand.
#4
I'm pretty sure every US agent/serviceman/operation is on high alert for some time in the future
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/03/2020 14:33 Comments ||
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#5
I'm sure they have a plan or two for a Beruit Marine Barracks attack, and with all their proxies, they may opt for a number of simultaneous attacks to stretch our ability to respond.
#9
Escalations as they may be, there haven't been any civilian casualties yet so if Iran's next move is to kill innocent victims It's a whole new ball game.
Posted by: Bob Glomock4627 ||
01/03/2020 15:59 Comments ||
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[JPost's take] Hajj Qasem, the "shadow commander," Israel's "most dangerous enemy," has been killed in Iraq alongside his key disciple Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. An airstrike near or at Baghdad International Airport targeted a motorcade with the men in it just days after their followers stormed the US Embassy compound and scrawled "Soleimani is our leader" on its walls. US President Donald Trump approved the airstrike. The Pentagon confirmed the US killed the Iranian Quds Force leader. The US said Iran was responsible for killing 608 US troops during the Iraq war.
The unthinkable has happened. The man behind Iran's drive for regional hegemony, who commanded the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has been targeted. Unlike all the previous times when he got away, this time, he has met his end.
Reports emerged after four in the morning, Iraqi time. A mysterious airstrike near the airport had led to rumors of its closure hours earlier. Two flights were inbound at the time. A Pegasus and Iraq airways flight. Three or four rockets impacted near the airport. US helicopters were reported buzzing in the distance.
It appears a cryptic tweet from US Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced the US policy to begin pre-emptive strikes against Iranian adversaries or their proxies. "To Iran and its proxy militias: We will not accept the continued attacks against our personnel and forces in the region. Attacks against us will be met with responses in the time, manner and place of our choosing. We urge the Iranian regime to end malign activities."
It is not known if the US acted alone or who else may be responsible for the airstrike. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had called Middle East leaders in the last days to firm up support and discuss strategy. He called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in Saudi Arabia. He also phoned Iraqi leaders and Qatar. He warned Muhandis as well as Qais Khazali, a Shi'ite militia leader the US had sanctioned. He then warned the leaders of the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Units, Hadi al-Amiri and Faleh al-Fayed.
Muhandis was responsible for the attack on US forces at K-1 on December 27 that resulted in a US contractor death. He has been responsible for attacks on Americans since the 1980s. Qais Khazali has also been responsible for attacks, and was held at Camp Cropper in 2007. But it is Muhandis who was always the head of the powerful Iranian support for a network of militias in the region that helped guide this policy. Muhandis was key to supporting Hezbollah and worked closely with Imad Mughniyeh of Hezbollah in the past. Mughniyeh was killed in 2008.
It is difficult to estimate Iran's response but the regime will want to respond not only to this attack but also the initial US attack on December 29 that killed two dozen members of Kataib Hezbollah. That series of five airstrikes in Iraq and Syria is now overshadowed but it was important because it showed the US would act against Iran's attacks. Since May of 2019, Iran has been attacking not only the US but also Israel, Saudi Arabia and oil tankers in the region. It downed a US drone and sent proxies inn Iraq to fire rockets at least 12 times at US bases. These rocket attacks targeted key facilities including the Green Zone, Camp Taji, Assad and Balad base and Qayarrah. Iran also fired rockets at Israel in January, September and November of 2019. It attacked Iran's Abqaiq facility in September with a drone swarm. It also sent Kataib Hezbollah to attack Saudi Arabia in May and to establish bases and arms trafficking networks across Iraq. In Syria Iran built a new base called Imam Ali at the Syrian border with Iraq.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/03/2020 04:23 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[14 views]
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#1
The En-Laws, 1979.
[On working for the CIA]
Peter Falk as Vince Ricardo : Are you interested in joining? The benefits are terrific. The trick is not to get killed. That's really the key to the benefit program.
[JPost] - Tensions are going into overdrive between Israel, Iran and the US, and Tehran has been creeping closer to a nuclear weapon since it started violating the 2015 nuclear deal in May 2019. Not in 2015?
If "judgment day" comes in late 2020, and Israel believes it must preemptively strike the Islamic republic’s nuclear facilities to prevent Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from having nuclear weapons, will it be able to effectively do so alone?
Or would Israel need either direct US involvement or at least a transfer of key US weaponry that Israel still does not possess?
As of late 2016, and likely at least until Israel’s F-35 aircraft became operational in December 2017, Israel did not have a full answer to striking Iran’s nuclear facilities.
A survey of top Israeli officials and some US officials by The Jerusalem Post about how far Israel’s capabilities have advanced by 2020 did not give a definite answer ‐ though at the very least there are question marks about what Israel can do going it alone.
As of late 2016, former prime minister Ehud Barak was still criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to get "bunker buster" bombs from the US, which would enable an Israeli solo attack on Iran’s key underground nuclear facility of Fordow. Think outside the box, for the Name's sake!
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.
[Babylon Bee] ATLANTA, GA‐Churchgoer Jack Wilson shot and killed a mass shooter at West Freeway Church of Christ, preventing what could have been a much worse shooting.
