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Iraqi forces recapture more of Tal Afar, the last refuge
Today's Headlines
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Page 4: Opinion
4 20:39 Iblis [1] 
2 21:14 Lone Ranger [1] 
1 14:00 trailing wife [] 
3 18:50 Glenmore [4] 
8 15:34 Spereth Trotsky4095 [2] 
10 18:02 Rambler in Virginia [3] 
1 07:01 Procopius2k [1] 
4 23:42 Elmavimp Untervehr1384 [3] 
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Page 2: WoT Background
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7 18:25 Seeking cure for ignorance [3]
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17 21:29 Besoeker [5]
4 18:21 Seeking cure for ignorance [1]
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Page 6: Politix
11 23:14 Skidmark [4]
7 18:13 newc [4]
4 10:45 g(r)omgoru [6]
13 15:51 Spereth Trotsky4095 [3]
1 07:13 Frank G [4]
-Short Attention Span Theater-
To Be Or To Do – A Naval Career In The Wake Of The USS Fitzgerald & McCain
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 08/24/2017 14:12 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  John Konrad of gCaptain lays out the forks in the road for doing what is right for this issue of the collisions of the USS Fitzgerald and the USS John S. McCain. But it goes farther than that. Whether you are in govt or the military, John Boyd laid it all out as a simple fork in the road. RTWT.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 08/24/2017 14:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Nasty, brutish and short ?????
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 08/24/2017 21:14 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
How American Anarchy Parallels China’s Cultural Revolution
[THEFEDERALIST] Both movements started on college campuses, with students who wanted to re-make history according to their own ideology.
Posted by: Fred || 08/24/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gee, notice just now? Rantburgers noticed during the Mizzou ruckus and the Trump primary run that the Red Guard had already arrived.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/24/2017 7:00 Comments || Top||

#2 
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 08/24/2017 13:08 Comments || Top||

#3  This is a little overwrought. Communists were inquisitors to the nth power. They never learned to disagree without being disagreeable. Both factions involved in the Cultural Revolution were Communist zealots duking it out over who could demonstrate greater loyalty to Mao aka the Great Helmsman. If there is a historical parallel to be drawn to the Cultural Revolution, it's to Byzantines fighting over the number of angels that could stand on the head of a pin.
Posted by: Jolulet Jung4725 || 08/24/2017 17:38 Comments || Top||

#4  I think maybe we're not quite there yet.



Posted by: Elmavimp Untervehr1384 || 08/24/2017 23:42 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Which Republicans Helped This Oppo Research Firm Investigate Trump?
[Daily Caller] One of the biggest mysteries looming over the Trump-Russia saga is the identity of the political donors who hired opposition research firm Fusion GPS to investigate Donald Trump.

Almost no information has been provided in press reports about a Hillary Clinton ally who, last June, reportedly hired Fusion GPS to investigate the former real estate magnate. Fusion would go on to hire former British spy Christopher Steele to carry out that investigation. He compiled a 35-page dossier of uncorroborated allegations about Trump’s activities in Russia that BuzzFeed News published in January.

Some clues have been released regarding a Republican who reportedly hired Fusion GPS. According to news reports, that client is a major GOP donor who was adamantly opposed to Trump. They reportedly hired Fusion GPS in Sept. 2015 and paid the Washington, D.C.-based firm nearly $1 million to investigate Trump.

Determining the identity of the donors has proved difficult. Glenn Simpson, the co-founder of Fusion GPS and a former Wall Street Journal reporter, isn’t saying. During a 10-hour interview with the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Simpson declined to identify any of his clients, citing confidentiality agreements.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/24/2017 15:18 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, there is this senator with a malignant brain tumor......, but he's a democrat. Can't be him.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/24/2017 15:24 Comments || Top||

#2  "There's this malignant Senator with a brain tumor" works, too.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 08/24/2017 15:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Byron York at the Washington Examiner recently had an interesting story on this topic.
Posted by: eltoroverde || 08/24/2017 16:26 Comments || Top||

#4  When we learn the names, I doubt there will be many surprises.
Posted by: Iblis || 08/24/2017 20:39 Comments || Top||


Trump is Winning The Battle Against Do Nothing McConnell in Kentucky...By A lot
[Townhall] The battle between President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell keeps escalating, with the two leaders reportedly getting into heated phone calls earlier this month about how to move a successful Republican agenda on Capitol Hill. Now, they aren't speaking.

The relationship between President Trump and Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, has disintegrated to the point that they have not spoken to each other in weeks, and Mr. McConnell has privately expressed uncertainty that Mr. Trump will be able to salvage his administration after a series of summer crises.

What was once an uneasy governing alliance has curdled into a feud of mutual resentment and sometimes outright hostility, complicated by the position of Mr. McConnell’s wife, Elaine L. Chao, in Mr. Trump’s cabinet, according to more than a dozen people briefed on their imperiled partnership. Angry phone calls and private badmouthing have devolved into open conflict, with the president threatening to oppose Republican senators who cross him, and Mr. McConnell mobilizing to their defense.

But according to new polling, Trump is trouncing McConnell in his home state of Kentucky and overwhelmingly beats the majority leader on approval from voters.

A Public Policy Polling survey found just 18 percent of respondents approve of the job McConnell is doing, compared with 74 percent who disapprove.

President Trump has an approval rating of 60 percent in Kentucky. Slightly more than one-third of respondents, 36 percent, disapprove of the job the president is doing.
During a town hall meeting in the Blue Grass State at the start of the August recess, McConnell said Trump had "excessive expectations" about how quickly legislation should move after an Obamacare repeal bill failed in the Senate by a single vote.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/24/2017 00:10 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He better because trump screwed up so bad with luther strange. What an idiot trump is sometimes.

It's really Mark Levin that is making this work. Trump was useless in this race.

Useless.
Posted by: newc || 08/24/2017 0:33 Comments || Top||

#2  McConnell is on my shit list for trying to make a Sitting President fail, and more for not being hot nor cold, but luke warm.

He sucks and needs to resign or thrown out.

He is the Kapernick of politicians.
Posted by: newc || 08/24/2017 1:28 Comments || Top||

#3  It's uncertain that Mr. McConnell will be able to salvage his Senate seat.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 08/24/2017 11:36 Comments || Top||

#4  McConnell is a creature of the swamp and needs to be drained.
Posted by: DarthVader || 08/24/2017 12:15 Comments || Top||

#5  Bingo Darth Vader - Term limits too.
Posted by: warthogswife || 08/24/2017 12:30 Comments || Top||

#6  President Trump is fighting

  • Demoncrats

  • RINO republicans

  • holdover bureaucrats

  • deep state

  • One worlders like you know who with an S


People like McConnell and Paul Ryan had absolutely no intention to work with the President. They are part of the Great Tumor of Washington, DC.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 08/24/2017 14:29 Comments || Top||

#7  Is there a credible primary challenger in sight?
Posted by: Angoling Smith6489 || 08/24/2017 14:38 Comments || Top||

#8  McConnell isn't running for reelection until 2020 so he doesn't give a crap about Trump retaliating. By then Trump will retire or be neck deep in his own reelection campaign.
Posted by: Spereth Trotsky4095 || 08/24/2017 15:34 Comments || Top||


LTG (Ret) Keith Kellogg: Trump as Commander in Chief, Making the Hard Decisions
[Breitbart] I have seen the devastation of war. I have witnessed the final moments of young men in distant lands, far from all they love and hold dear. I have watched my daughter deploy to combat in Afghanistan and soon might my son. I recognize the personal courage required to make difficult decisions. I know the cost of war. More importantly, I know the price of freedom.

Monday night President Trump announced to the Nation the recommitment of America’s will, military, and diplomatic might to the fight in Afghanistan. He signaled to all that this Nation will not back away from hard sacrifice to ensure our safety. Undoubtedly, you will hear the hue and cry from the President’s detractors recalling a need to withdraw from Afghanistan and their rallying cries of failed campaign promises and abandonment of America First. Do not listen to them.

Make no mistake, I have been with the President since nearly the beginning, well before he was the Republican Presidential nominee. I wrote on the campaign trail that he was the leader who will take us forward and I still deeply believe that today. In the less than 24 hours since President’s Trump speech, there have been dozens of articles and opinion pieces touting that this is more of the same. They could not be more mistaken. They are overlooking the most important difference: President Donald J. Trump is the Commander in Chief.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/24/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hard decisions have been pretty much rare in the previous 8 years, other than those need for self serving political theater.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/24/2017 7:01 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
California Shia imam: ISIS or Daesh 'is the production of Israeli Intelligence'
Whatever, dood. You keep looking under your bed for thr Mossad, and out your window for American spy squirrels.
[Breitbart] The Shia imam of a Muslim congregation in California has suggested that the so-called Islamic State (also known as ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh) "is the production of the Israeli intelligence."

In a June 23 sermon, Dr. Sayed Moustafa al-Qazwini, founder and director of the Islamic Education Center of Orange County, spewed the conspiracy theory that Israel was responsible for propping up the Islamic State after he explained that the terrorist organization was "anti-Islamic."

Al-Qazwini’s statements about Israel were delivered during a lecture he gave at the center titled, "Islamic Shari’ah Means Tolerance and Goodness to Others." The sermon was translated into English by The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

"Most of you -- all of you -- know who established ISIS, Al Qaeda and all these terrorist organizations," al-Qazwini said. "You know very well. You know who paid for them, who financed them, who helped them, who purchased weapons for them, who even trained them, who protected them. You know that."
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/24/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Islam is a creation of Satan.

That is all.
Posted by: newc || 08/24/2017 0:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Satan and Islam are cousins.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 08/24/2017 0:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Sayed needs to be deported,
Posted by: gorb || 08/24/2017 0:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Mahamed is a synonym for satan
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 08/24/2017 7:41 Comments || Top||

#5  who paid for them, who financed them, who helped them, who purchased weapons for them, who even trained them?

ARE very good questions...
and I'm looking at the 5eyes and Turkey and others who support the "white helmets" Daesh group.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 08/24/2017 7:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Juice are responsible for everything!!!!

Actually, it was more Obama and the CIA that helped create ISIS dude. Your fellow mooselimb.
Posted by: DarthVader || 08/24/2017 9:17 Comments || Top||

#7  The Islamic Education Center of Orange County issued a statement in response to public backlash against Imam al-Qazwini’s lecture, saying he had ben “misunderstood and mischaracterized.”

The center goes on to state that Imam al-Qazwini was merely “quoting information that was relayed to him directly by Iraqi government and military sources who have been leading efforts in the fight against ISIS… Imam al-Qazwini’s comments were not intended in any way, shape, or form to criticize the adherents of the Jewish faith.”

Imam al-Qazwini, whose interfaith work has earned him a good relationship with several prominent members of the Democratic Party, is not the first Muslim leader from the Golden State to come under fire for statements perceived as being anti-Israel or antisemitic.
Posted by: Pappy || 08/24/2017 12:59 Comments || Top||

#8  Suppose ISIS gets offended and offs him?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/24/2017 13:04 Comments || Top||

#9  Suppose ISIS gets offended and offs him?

I would laugh my ass off.
Posted by: DarthVader || 08/24/2017 17:48 Comments || Top||

#10  g(r)om, they'll only off him if Mossad gives the order.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 08/24/2017 18:02 Comments || Top||


Government
National Security Cover-Ups, Missteps, and Miscalculations
[American Thinker] The Muslim Brotherhood has penetrated every one of our national security agencies, including our intelligence agencies, according to retired Navy admiral James "Ace" Lyons, former commander of the U.S. Pacific fleet. Adm. Lyons made this startling declaration Jan. 16, 2015 during a conference sponsored by the Center for Security Policy, a conservative Washington, D.C. think-tank.

In the two years since, no action has been taken to reverse this dangerous situation. Empowerment of individuals of questionable loyalties within our intelligence community continues unabated, as does a counterfactual view of Islam and thwarting of terrorist investigations. Our government routinely targets and cashiers productive, legitimate counter-terrorism experts and fails to label terrorist organizations as such. U.S. intelligence failures and feckless politicization have gone on for years, rendering our protections against terrorism ineffectual and putting our country at grave risk.

Post-9/11 Infiltration of the FBI

The terrorist attacks of 9/11 paradoxically led to major infiltration, according to Paul Sperry, author of Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington. After 9/11, the FBI sought to rapidly hire more Arabic-speaking translators, Perry writes in his 2005 book. Arabic-speaking Jews applied, many of them retired linguists formerly with Israeli radio and the Israeli army, but only one was ever hired. Then-FBI director Robert Mueller, who had mandated Muslim sensitivity classes for agents, confirmed that the hires were blocked by misgivings over "dual loyalty" and concerns for Arab Muslims who might be offended to work with Jews.

Further, Mueller onerously screened Jewish applicants but expedited Arab Muslim candidates, hiring some without full background checks. One Pakistani woman earned a top-secret clearance despite a prior FBI investigation of her father's Taliban and al-Qaeda ties. Once hired, she proselytized, led prayer groups, and lobbied for separate bathrooms for Muslim translators. Six months later, the FBI discovered its radio frequencies leaked to Pakistan. Even more astonishing, the woman's sons were later hired to translate classified material.

Sperry's book details how Mueller allowed thousands of potential terrorists to apply by seeking translators from CAIR, ISNA, and the American Muslim Council, an organization founded by convicted terrorist Abdurahman Alamoudi.

Indeed, some Arab Muslim translators who were hired went on to warn individuals under government investigation, failed to translate large sections of surveillance log conversations, and created a backlog by translating slowly. Translators also accepted gifts from foreign targets and had romantic ties to terrorists.
And on it goes.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/24/2017 05:39 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Then-FBI director Robert Mueller, who had mandated Muslim sensitivity classes for agents, confirmed that the hires were blocked by misgivings over "dual loyalty" and concerns for Arab Muslims who might be offended to work with Jews.

I remember that vividly, though I'd forgotten who was then in charge. Kindle sample downloaded for reading when I get home. President Trump has his work cut out for him.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/24/2017 14:00 Comments || Top||


Mr. President: Don't negotiate with the swamp. Drain it.
[American Thinker] What we saw emerging in Charlottesville was the violent wing of the unholy alliance that exists in tandem with what is called "the swamp." Democrats and even some renegade Republicans have their tentacles deep into our duly elected president's administration with a malign purpose: to bring him down.

The ultimate aim is to overturn President Trump's election victory over Hillary Clinton and usher in a pervasive, debilitating socialist and statist regime in America.

A friend and fellow journalist who lives in Charlottesville called me and pointed out that Virginia's Democrat governor, Terry McAuliffe, has much to answer for with respect to the violence that ensued in his state and in Charlottesville.

According to my friend, the governor had deliberately chosen to spend the night in Charlottesville before the violence broke out. He had stayed at the city's Boar's Head Inn.

Certainly, eyewitnesses and reporters agree that while the violence was instigated by neo-Nazis, it was met with bloody counterattacks by left-wingers and black-shirted anarchists wearing masks. Indeed, Antifa ‐ short for "anti-fascist" ‐ protesters came armed with pepper spray, bricks, clubs, and worse.

The most compelling question my friend asked was this: "Does the Democrat governor and mayor's failure to secure the streets make them morally or legally responsible?" Indeed, McAuliffe had allegedly claimed that the white nationalists who streamed into Charlottesville that weekend hid weapons throughout the town.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/24/2017 05:37 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In draining the Swamp, Trump might have someone take a look at those funding the chaos and unrest as well as fellow travelers.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/24/2017 13:53 Comments || Top||

#2  President Trump better look at the funding part of chaos and unrest. I am VERY concerned that it has not happened yet. The FBI is compromised at the top. Are there any inroads to cleaning this up. This is one fetid swamp. A superfund site.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 08/24/2017 14:25 Comments || Top||

#3  violence was instigated by neo-Nazis
if by 'instigated' you mean by being there with flags & stuff.
Posted by: Glenmore || 08/24/2017 18:50 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
22[untagged]
9Islamic State
5Moslem Colonists
4Taliban
3Govt of Pakistan
3Govt of Iran
2Commies
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Boko Haram (ISIS)
1Palestinian Authority
1Salafists
1Sublime Porte
1Arab Spring
1Govt of Iran Proxies
1Govt of Syria

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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.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2017-08-24
  Iraqi forces recapture more of Tal Afar, the last refuge
Wed 2017-08-23
  Yemen: At least 30 dead as air strike hits hotel
Tue 2017-08-22
  Somali extremist group confirms killing of senior commander
Mon 2017-08-21
  It's over-ish: Las Ramblas van terrorist shot dead wearing explosive belt 'and screaming Allahu Akbar' west of Barcelona
Sun 2017-08-20
  Kenya Says Police Killed Most Wanted Al Shabaab Commander
Sat 2017-08-19
  War crimes suspect Mahmoud Warfali arrested on Hafter’s orders
Fri 2017-08-18
  Finland attack – ‘Several people injured after multiple knifemen rampage through city of Turku' amid reports of shots fired
Thu 2017-08-17
  Breaking: Barcelona Van Attack on Pedestrians.
Wed 2017-08-16
  Tunisia says IS plot to seize territory foiled
Tue 2017-08-15
  Russia foils two ISIS suicide bombers who planned to blow themselves up on the subway in Moscow
Mon 2017-08-14
  At least 17 killed in attack on restaurant in Burkina Faso
Sun 2017-08-13
  IS executes its Legal Judge in Hawija for attempting to secede
Sat 2017-08-12
  30 Taliban insurgents killed as suicide vests explodes in Farah gathering
Fri 2017-08-11
  Theft and kidnapping ravages north Aleppo as Erdogan’s Syrian caliphate experiment fails
Thu 2017-08-10
  Gang convicted of sex offences against vulnerable girls in England


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