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Syrian division commander dies in Raqqa debacle
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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Britain
Spengler misses
Note: The dispatch below from England appeared May 5 in Asia Times, but remains timely. Britain will back away from Brexit because the British have become risk-averse in their dotage.

...Britain will vote to remain in the European Union on June 23. The annoyance of remaining in Europe is not too onerous to bear, and the risk of something going pear-shaped during a British exit ("Brexit") is incalculable. Besides, Europe is gradually falling apart on its own, which means that the British have no urgent need to exit at the moment.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/24/2016 03:34 || Comments || Link || [336073 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The money people love their status quo, even if it is horrible.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 06/24/2016 6:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Supposing two years from now, everyone realizes Britain did the right thing? Suppose their economy flourishes and the Pound strengthens? What will happen then to the rest of the Union?

That may be what had everyone worried yesterday, and panicked today.
Posted by: Bobby || 06/24/2016 7:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Spot on Bobby! If one leaves the flock and survives, others may follow.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/24/2016 7:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Europe is gradually falling apart on its own, which means that the British have no urgent need to exit at the moment "Needs" & "Wants" need to be distinguished. Spengler's reasoning seems to advocate remaining on the doomed Titanic, since it was already sinking on its own.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 06/24/2016 8:37 Comments || Top||

#5  The key to this is Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty.

(Article 50): "Any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements."

As I understand it there is an up to 2 year process that occurs allowing for the negotiation of all the issues that leaving raises.

This is going to be a long process.

Posted by: AlanC || 06/24/2016 9:22 Comments || Top||

#6  A lot of money will be spent trying to keep Europe afloat. Let that be German money as they have the most historical guilt to launder away and that's what the EU has always been about more than anything. Most English realized that they really need not feel all that liberal guilt about their past, they got it right far more often than they got it wrong.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 06/24/2016 11:02 Comments || Top||


Brexit Vote Has Huge Ramifications for U.S. Politics
News flash: The revolt against elites is real in the UK and America and it's only getting started. Maybe there will always be an England.

In a surprise, Leave won the Brexit referendum on whether to stay in the European Union by an equally surprising amount. British sovereignty won. David Cameron lost. Jeremy Corbyn lost. The EU lost. Bureaucrats lost. Angela Merkel lost. Barack Obama lost. Globalism lost. Authority figures almost everywhere lost. And, most of all, unlimited immigration lost.

...Earth to elites: Citizens of truly democratic countries don't want unlimited immigration into their countries by people who couldn't be less interested in democracy. They also don't want to be governed by the rules and regulations of faceless bureaucrats whose not-so-hidden goals are power and riches for themselves and their friends. Simple, isn't it?
p.s. From Obama to Kuntzman, what exactly makes them elites?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/24/2016 03:27 || Comments || Link || [336072 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Once again in a close election the media lies about poll results. Yesterday it was all Remain on every channel.



Posted by: Airandee || 06/24/2016 6:19 Comments || Top||

#2  ...I'm guessing that the White House had convinced itself that all would be well - but that also means they're in cornered-animal mode this morning. If the disciplined, compliant, by-the-law Brits can do something like this, you gotta believe that there's flat-out, pants-wetting fear in the West Wing (and Malificent's campaign HQ) right now over what we might be capable of.

They'll do something remarkably stupid. Mark it.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 06/24/2016 7:00 Comments || Top||

#3  They'll do something remarkably stupid. Mark it. Mike

My fear as well. I hope it has nothing to do with China or Russia.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/24/2016 7:48 Comments || Top||

#4  ...(and Malificent's campaign HQ) - Love it, Mike.

And 'elites' self-define, as they feel no one else has the wit to recognize their obvious superiority. Gag.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 06/24/2016 8:58 Comments || Top||

#5  But will the politicos in Washington, and their supporters the MSM get this or will they keep their heads in the sand and keep on with the same ole same ole?
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/24/2016 9:21 Comments || Top||

#6  Is Donald Trump our "Brexit"?
Posted by: AlanC || 06/24/2016 9:25 Comments || Top||

#7  To bad calling the Pro-independence racist has no bite anymore because the race card was used up long before the Islamic rape gangs were discovered in the midlands.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 06/24/2016 11:03 Comments || Top||

#8  Is Donald Trump our "Brexit"?

Yes. Great Britain has a long and proud tradition of choosing freedom and independence over fear and tyranny. This is all about globalism vs. nationalism. The Brits just chose nationalism because they don't trust the Germans, Greeks, French, Italians, Spanish and Portugese. The Brits trust themselves and for the past several hundred years that trust has served them well. They don't want a one world government. They don't want open borders because that means they lose their homes and their freedom. Hopefully in November Americans will do the same.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 06/24/2016 12:09 Comments || Top||

#9  BTW, does this guy remind you of anybody?

Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 06/24/2016 12:11 Comments || Top||

#10  #7 Is Donald Trump our "Brexit"?

Somehow "USexIT" sounds too Hollywood.
Posted by: Skidmark || 06/24/2016 14:58 Comments || Top||


Alone
The rebellion is real.

The New York Times reports that Britain has voted to leave the European Union by a 52 to 48 margin. The significance of the event can hardly be overstated. The biggest political project of the post-Cold War world, involving an economy collectively as large as the United States, has suddenly been thrown into reverse.

...For the second time in 80 years that little Island has bought the world a space in which others could rediscover their own hardihood. And rediscover it doubtless they will, as the New World did of old. Today the Brexit rebellion showed that daring could prevail against bullying, truth could win against prestige, plain speech could trump celebrity and long odds were vincible provided you never, never gave in.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/24/2016 03:22 || Comments || Link || [336098 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The biggest political project of the post-Cold War world... has suddenly been thrown into reverse.
Where have you been all this time? Politics in the West has been moving in reverse for some decades now.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 06/24/2016 8:50 Comments || Top||

#2  The biggest attack on nations by collectivism socialist ideal is now dieing in the streets of London! God bless them. It's about time.
Posted by: 49 pan || 06/24/2016 11:46 Comments || Top||

#3  @#2: London not so much: Londoners call for capital to break away from the rest of Britain following Brexit vote

"More than 2.2million London voters backed Remain compared to 1.5million in favour of Leave.

The Leave vote hit the City of London particularly hard as a day of horror saw billions wiped off FTSE 100 shares.

Frustrated Londoners have now taken to social media to ask London mayor Sadiq Khan to declare the city independent from the rest of the UK and stay in the EU."
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 06/24/2016 12:45 Comments || Top||

#4  theres the gist of the problem right there!
Entitled urbnanites imagining that their "world" is the only and biggest "world" on earth, therefore they can tell us all what to do as if from a lofty pulpit. the reality is a bit further from their imagined ideal, for instance, starbucks doest work without product from the rural environs, ie : coffee beans and wheat for all those expensive and absolutely necessary eatables, that all the others seem to be having, urban sheeple are on the way outit seems while real people are on their way back in.
Posted by: 746 || 06/24/2016 13:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Break Free
Posted by: Dale || 06/24/2016 17:17 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Funds for madressah
[DAWN] DOLING out public funds to forward political agendas is a well-established practice in Pakistain. Out of many such instances, one particular political donation has been in the news of late. According to reports, the PTI-led KP government has put aside Rs300m for Darul Uloom Haqqania
...an Islamic seminary located in Akora Khattak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The seminary propagates the Deobandi trend of Sunni Islam and is headed by Maulana Samiul Haq, known as the Godfather of the Taliban. It has been dubbed The University of Jihad due to the methods and content of instruction along with the future occupations of its alumni....
, located in Akora Khattak, from the recently passed provincial budget. Party and government officials have defended the ’donation’ in the name of bringing the seminary -- overseen by Maulana Samiul Haq
...the Godfather of the Taliban, leader of his own faction of the JUI. Known as Mullah Sandwich for his habit of having two young boys at a time...
, who runs his own faction of the Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam
...the political wing of the Pak Taliban...
-- into the mainstream. Apparently, the funds will be spent on construction and repairs at the seminary. However,
some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go...
this ’donation’ has raised hackles, as questions of propriety and conflict of interest arise.

For one thing, the madressah is a private institution. Critics are right to ask why a private set-up is receiving a large amount of public funds. After all, the KP budget is financed by the taxpayer; it is not the funds of the PTI that are being provided to the Darul Uloom, but of the people of the province. Also, if the KP administration justifies providing government funds to a private madressah, what of the other private institutions in the province; will they also be entitled to financial support from the state? Even if the seminary did not have links to hard-line circles -- as it very much does -- it would be difficult to justify this transfer of funds. Moreover, the Darul Uloom is a highly political seminary, a veritable arm of the JUI-S. Samiul Haq is also a rival of the JUI faction led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, who in turn has a toxic rivalry with the PTI. So the financial support can be seen as supporting the ’enemy’ of the KP government’s ’enemy’, while the madressah is located in district Nowshera, the home district of the KP chief minister, which raises issues of conflict of interest. The decision to grant the seminary state funds should be revisited as it sets a negative precedent and politicises public funds.
Posted by: Fred || 06/24/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336070 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Sabri’s murder
[DAWN] THE stirring baritone of Amjad Sabri, one of this country’s most renowned qawwals and an iconic cultural symbol, has been stilled forever. With him died a glorious intergenerational heritage of devotional music that embodied the benign inclusivity of Sufism. And the manner of his death on Wednesday afternoon struck another grievous blow at the already fragile sense of security in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
. Attacked in his car by two gunnies on a cycle of violence as he drove with a friend in one of the most crowded areas of the metropolis, Amjad Sabri was killed instantly in the hail of bullets aimed at him. Although a splinter group of the banned TTP has grabbed credit, police are still trying to establish the perpetrators’ identity and their motive.

Over the past year in particular, law-enforcement agencies have claimed comprehensive success in tackling serious crime in Pakistain’s largest city since the operation to restore law and order in Karachi began in late 2013. There is, no doubt, a considerable degree of truth to this: statistics show that terrorism is down by 80pc and assassination'>assassination
s by around 50pc in the metropolis. However,
there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly...
any sense of complacency on this score has been shattered by the events of the last few days. On Tuesday, just 48 hours before Amjad Sabri’s murder, the Sindh High Court chief justice’s son Awais Ali Shah was kidnapped in broad daylight in an upscale, high-security Karachi locality. Last week, an Ahmadi doctor was rubbed out in his clinic, the second member of the community to have been killed within a month. It is pertinent, however, to point out that even when the threat of terrorism, assassination'>assassinations and extortion seemed to have somewhat receded in Karachi, the runaway levels of street crime in the city mean that a perpetual sense of insecurity prevails among its residents. According to official data, street crime, especially mobile theft and cycle of violence snatching, increased sharply in the first 10 days of Ramazan and claimed four lives.

Even though the TTP’s claim -- whose veracity is difficult to establish -- did include the allegation of ’blasphemy’, it is worth asking where the law and order operation in Karachi is going wrong. Successfully tackling militancy involves across-the-board, even-handed action against criminals of all shades. Have the law-enforcement authorities taken their eye off the ball by focusing too selectively on a certain category of criminals? Such an approach could well have emboldened other outlaw elements in the city -- specifically religious holy warrior groups, or sleeper cells of such groups -- who are once again exploiting the space they have found to carry out their agenda. Nevertheless, the spirit of this complex, tumultuous city endures ‐ and it showed its resilience in the thousands who turned out to say farewell to the maestro of qawwali, yet another bright light snuffed out in the killing fields of Karachi.
Posted by: Fred || 06/24/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336076 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies

#1  To "true Muslims", Sufism borders on apostasy and blasphemy.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansur_Al-Hallaj
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 06/24/2016 8:53 Comments || Top||

#2  But Sufism has been around since the 9th/10th century, and was prominent with the Ottomans, among others. So it is just as mainstream and traditional as those "true Muslims".
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/24/2016 13:06 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
42[untagged]
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4Boko Haram
3Taliban
3Govt of Pakistain Proxies
2Govt of Syria
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2Govt of Pakistan
1Haqqani Network
1Houthis
1al-Qaeda
1Lashkar e-Jhangvi
1Lashkar e-Taiba
1al-Nusra
1Thai Insurgency

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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2016-06-24
  Syrian division commander dies in Raqqa debacle
Thu 2016-06-23
  Singer Amjad Sabri gunned down in Karachi
Wed 2016-06-22
  ISIS counter-attack pushes Syrian forces out of Raqqa province
Tue 2016-06-21
  IS group launches counterattacks on US-backed forces and Syrian army
Mon 2016-06-20
  Syrian forces advance on IS-held Taqba air base
Sun 2016-06-19
  Iraqi army seizes hospital, jails as military ops continue in Fallujah
Sat 2016-06-18
  Reports: 'Fierce Clashes' between Hizbullah, Regime Forces in Aleppo
Fri 2016-06-17
  Seven killed in latest Kashmir fighting
Thu 2016-06-16
  British Labour Mp Jo Cox Dead: Fatally Stabbed And Gunned Down Outside Birstall Library
Wed 2016-06-15
  Bodies of 42 fishermen kidnapped by Boko Haram found in lake
Tue 2016-06-14
  Man ‘claiming IS allegiance’ kills cop, woman in Paris
Mon 2016-06-13
  Orlando Terrorist Worked For Firm with DHS Contracts
Sun 2016-06-12
  Approx 20 50 dead inside Florida gay nightclub after mass shooting - possible Islamic connection
Sat 2016-06-11
  Libya unity forces bombard ISIS in bastion Sirte
Fri 2016-06-10
  Rumour: Iraqi news site indicates IS supremo may have been hit by coalition force strike

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