BLUF: Paul and Mary are reasonably certain all the ingredients are there.
[Townhall] Of course, the parties at the center of this story declined to comment, but the root of all this‐with regards to putting the IC under the microscope‐could be traced to the Times’ own reporting on the Crossfire Hurricane, the non-spying, spying operation that the FBI ran against the Trump campaign. Yes, the FBI had sources attempt to glean information from Trump officials without them knowing who they worked for and then relayed any said information to another party, but that’s not spying or something. One of the people at the center of this operation was George Papadopoulos, the Trump campaign official who was accosted by "Azra Turk," a woman who sent to run this intelligence exercise. Stefan Halper, another known CIA asset, was also another person tasked with gleaning information from Trump folks. Papadopoulos had zero problems with the Times’ report on this 2016 rendezvous, though he fled Turk was CIA, not FBI.
[PJ] Rudy Giuliani says he "can prove" that the Biden family and a "bunch of Democrats" engaged in a money-laundering scheme and that the evidence is "with the right hands now." He wouldn't say who those people are, but it's possible it's the Department of Justice. Early reporting now confirms elephants at watering hole.
Guiliani called the money-laundering operation a seven-year-long "big Democratic scam."
Waving his iPad full of "smoking gun" documents, the former U.S. attorney, New York mayor, and President Trump's personal attorney told Fox Business Network's "Trish Regan: Primetime" that there was a huge influx of cash, $7.5 billion, given to "an institution run by former Obama aides."
He quoted from Latvian documents given to Ukraine alleging that the junior Biden received $14.6 million, "laundered" through four banks and given to Hunter Biden "disguised as loans."
[Gold Goats N'Guns] Yanis Varoufakis once described negotiating with the European Union like you’re singing the Swedish National Anthem. No matter what proposal you put in front of them, they acted like they didn’t understand and simply reiterated terms.
But, at least then they heard something. It may have been gibberish to them, but at least sound waves made it to their ears.
Today, these people are like overwhelmed autistic kids needing noise canceling headphones to blot out the unwanted stimuli. It may be therapeutic but it doesn’t solve the situation.
Now that Brexit is complete the EU has gone one step further, blocking out the very real strategic and tactical disadvantage they are in dealing with the United Kingdom in trade deal talks.
The arrogance and intractability of the EU when it comes to negotiations is supposed to be their biggest weapon. They project a strange combination of strength and indifference that can only come from people thoroughly insulated from personal accountability for their mistakes.
Lead negotiator, the revealed to be inept, Michel Barnier has laid out his negotiating stance using the same language that was thoroughly rejected by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in October, the so-called "level playing field" of "regulatory alignment" as the basis for any kind of trade deal.
Has Barnier learned nothing from his last failure? Does he really think he can cover his ears, curl up in the corner and hope this all goes away?
Because if he does then he’s catastrophically misread the state of the game board.
Moreover, he’s convinced the European Council and Parliament that the way to ultimately win is to keep doing the same things that just failed.
Since they just overwhelmingly approved Barnier’s strict negotiating demands to the U.K. further signaling that they have no idea of the hornet’s nest they’ve just whacked with a baseball bat, oblivious to the buzzing and warnings coming from the U.K.
#1
It's how they got to where they are today: by simply dictating terms and watching as the media did their work for them. They're used to it. It's a winning strategy. Why should they change?
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/15/2020 10:47 Comments ||
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#2
No worries. EC will prop the whole mess up with specious arguments and profits from dual use sales to Iran.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/15/2020 11:29 Comments ||
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#3
Having heard all my life about the French reputation for subtlety and nuance, I was surprised to learn that the only way to negotiate with a French businessman is to get in his face and scream "Give me what I want, you dumb [bleep] or I'll break your legs!" Anything more subtle is like trying to teach calculus to a pig.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/15/2020 14:15 Comments ||
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#4
"Anything more subtle is like trying to teach calculus to a pig."
You've got a better chance of teaching calculus to a pig that teaching common sense to the EU, or a DemoncRat, #3 Matt. ;-)
Posted by: Barbara ||
02/15/2020 15:48 Comments ||
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#5
"Does he really think he can cover his ears, curl up in the corner and hope this all goes away?"
Duh! >:-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
02/15/2020 15:49 Comments ||
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[Babylon Bee] U.S.‐The campaign trail is reportedly taking a toll on Bernie Sanders. The main thing that seems to be wearing him out is the extremely foreign concept of having to convince people to voluntarily hand over money.
"This just feels so wrong," Sanders told staffers. "If you know you really have a good idea how to spend that money, you just take that money from people under threat of imprisonment. Having to convince people to voluntarily hand over money just feels too much like capitalism."
Initially, to get people to give him money, Sanders would just grab people by the collar and shake them, yelling, "Give me your money!" When this didn’t work, Sanders had to change his tactics to a kinder, more sensitive approach, asking for donations. "The incentive of money made me change my behavior from what I wanted to do to what other people want," Sanders said. "I feel so dirty!"
Reportedly, to calm down after a long day of having to convince people to voluntarily do things, Sanders likes to relax by playing with some stuffed animals he can control and make all the plans for.
#1
I know it's supposed to be satire, but it reads as though it's true.
And if Bernie gets elected President (God forbid), it WILL be true. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
02/15/2020 9:47 Comments ||
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#2
Washington state primary coming up; our voter info booklets just arrived. Several of usDJT supporters will vote for bernie so The Don will have an easier go at the Big Show.
Assuming no brokered dem convention or other ‘anybody but bernie’ rule change.
Trump is only ‘pub on ballot.
[Townhall] "We’re losing our damn minds!.. (Bernie Sanders) has never been a Democrat. He's an ideologue." (James Carville, Feb. 7)
"The issue of this campaign. It is that word, socialism...Those of us like me, who grew up in the Cold War, and saw some aspects of it after visiting places like Vietnam, like I have, and seeing countries like Cuba, being there, I've seen what socialism is like and I don't like it. Okay. It's not only not free. It doesn't frickin' work." (MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, Feb.8.)
Let’s give Sanders some credit. He’s holding up a mirror to his fellow Democrats and saying: take a look! Because in praising one of the bloodiest (per-capita) and most disastrous forms of socialism known to history, many mainstream Democrat standard-bearers are in prefect lockstep with Bernie Sanders. To wit:
"Everybody was totally convinced that Castro was the worst guy in the world and all of the Cuban people were going to rise up in rebellion against Fidel Castro. They forgot that he educated their kids, gave their kids health care, totally transformed the society." (Candidate for the Democrat presidential nomination Bernie Sanders)
But Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders has many, MANY Democrat precursors in this department. To wit:
[NY Post] "Pro-Palestinian" anti-Semites at the United Nations are so determined to smear Israel that they're even willing to hurt Palestinians to do so.
That's the real takeaway from the blacklist Turtle Bay released on Wednesday of 112 companies that do business with Israeli settlements in the West Bank. These firms, the UN Human Rights Council says, have "raised particular human-rights concerns" ‐ simply because they provide services to these areas.
It's a bizarre rationale, but it's even nuttier since, as a Palestinian Media Watch report makes clear, Palestinians who work for these companies themselves may be hurt by the resulting boycotts.
And get this: Palestinians often prefer to work for Israeli companies, because they offer "better working conditions" than Palestinian ones, PMW notes: Wages are four times higher, and workers get the same health benefits, sick leave and vacation time as Israelis.
The anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement always ignores these inconvenient facts. Now, "if the UN's new BDS-flavored efforts lead to a larger boycott of these businesses, eventually they may have to let go of employees," including Palestinians, PMW observes.
Publishing the list could also hurt other non-Israelis, specifically the 18 international companies not based in Israel: Motorola, General Mills, Airbnb and others.
By the way, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights notes that the list has no legal status.
Indeed, it stands on no legal principle, either: The Human Rights Council, which ordered it, has never voiced complaints about firms in any other "occupied" area. Even the UN's own legal adviser in 2002 said firms in occupied Western Sahara prompted no human-rights issues.
Singling out Israel wasn't meant to help Palestinians or protect human rights ‐ it's just another bid to hurt the Jewish state. It's hard to think of a more apt word for that than anti-Semitism.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/15/2020 08:07 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[14 views]
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[BBC] US researchers have warned that the availability of sex robots with artificial intelligence (AI) poses a growing psychological and moral threat to individuals and society.
They say the technology is escaping oversight because agencies are too embarrassed to investigate it.
The scientists want action to prevent the unregulated use of such robots.
Dr Christine Hendren of Duke University told BBC News that "the stakes were high".
"Some robots are programmed to protest, to create a rape scenario," she said.
"Some are designed to look like children. One developer of these in Japan is a self-confessed paedophile, who says that this device is a prophylactic against him ever hurting a real child.
"But does that normalise and give people a chance to practise these behaviours that should be treated by just stamping them out?"
Dr Hendren was speaking here at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
#4
In other "news", researchers have declared vibrators to be "empowering".
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
02/15/2020 11:05 Comments ||
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#5
US researchers have warned that...
Sorry, I have reached a state of apathy ("The sky is falling!The sky is falling!") to "expert warnings". It's also the BBC, but that is another matter.
#9
Yeah, women are going to be fucked, and not in the good kind of way, by the rise of sexbots.
With their base desires sated, men will be able to look at women with eyes open. The feminist dream will be realized: Men will no longer judge women by their bodies. And that's going to destroy the only leverage women ever had over men.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/15/2020 20:40 Comments ||
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#10
Aaand... I reckon you must own one.☺ I'll admit I've always been curious about them.
#14
Yeah, yeah, whatevs. Forgive my bluntness, but the following must be said:
Those men and women who like each other and like babies are already quietly producing the next generation while the protesters of both s3xes take their wonderful selves off the market with a variety of high tech replacements for their left hands.
Two of my nieces are happily married and have produced seven sons between them; my fosterling #2 (part-time daughter) and her husband just had their third daughter. The future belongs to those willing to create descendants.
Access to descendants is the leverage women have over men, and vice versa. Access to receptacles was only ever limited by the number of sheep and/or knotholes in the vicinity.
[Ynet] As new Beirut government’s biggest supporter, Iran-backed group is facing possibility of losing its legitimacy as resistance movement; according to one expert, with so much poverty, few in Leb mention ’resistance’ to Israel Hezbies: "We'll beat and kill as many of these Lebs as we have to - until we're popular again!"
Anti-government protesters continued to take to the streets of Beirut last week, declaring their lack of confidence in new prime minister Hassan Diab and his cabinet.
Meanwhile, ...back at the game, the Babe was wondering why the baseball kept getting bigger and bigger. Finally it hit him... the new government’s biggest backer, the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement is seeing its popularity wane as it faces the possibility of losing its legitimacy as a resistance movement.
"The government failed before it even started," said Ali Amin, a Lebanese analyst and journalist who writes for the London-based al-Arab newspaper said.
He said that people were revolting against an entire political system but were given a new government with the same platform and same political powers.
"Hezbollah is a key party in forming this new government and is perhaps its primary backer, as [the government] could never have been formed without Hezbollah’s support for its leader and members," he said.
"The ongoing battle here is between the new government and the street, which rejects it and is expressing this through protests."
The protests have been taking place since mid-October when people rose up against a new tax on the use of internet-based communications programs like WhatsApp. The protests widened to express deep dissatisfaction with economic mismanagement, corruption, and sectarianism.
Under relentless pressure, Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri resigned on October 29. But since the beginning, demonstrators have vowed not to leave the streets until there is a government of experts rather than politicians who merely represent the country’s many ethnic and religious groups.
Raneem al-Ahmar, a Lebanese political activist who is a regular participant in the anti-government demonstrations, said that Hezbollah has lost popular support.
"We don’t trust Hezbollah, as it’s a partner of the current political game," Ahmar said. "They manipulated us."
Asad Bishara, who served as an adviser to former justice minister Ashraf Rifi, said that Diab’s government represents the same system that brought the country to collapse, adding that this is hurting Hezbollah.
"Hezbollah sponsors the majority of the new government. Its image as a resistance movement [against Israel and Western powers] has suffered," he said, adding, however, that the Shi’ite group also sponsored the previous cabinet.
"The formation of the new government is a sign of failure and further collapse," Bishara said.
"The ministerial platform is broad and doesn’t include a clear economic plan, a plan to stop corruption or work on Leb’s regional and international relations. It is the same old approach, just with a new government."
He said that the interests of the country’s diverse political forces conflict with the interests of Leb itself.
"Obviously, Hezbollah is working to thwart the revolution to protect a corrupt system," he said.
Charles Jabour, a journalist and head of media and communications for the Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... , a Christian party and Hezbollah foe, said that such talk would change only if the new government managed to rescue the country from its deep foreign debt.
"It can hardly achieve this," he said. "It’s not supported by the Lebanese street.
"It faces political opposition in the country and has no support from Arab countries, which means no aid money. In addition, the international community won’t offer any help without a cohesive plan [for economic recovery]."
Regarding Hezbollah, a group that has long found support due to its resistance against Israel, Leb’s neighbor to the south, Jabour said that nobody talks much about resistance nowadays.
[Hot Air] Aptos Middle School is located in San Francisco and, from the outside, appears like an ordinary school. But today the San Francisco Chronicle reports a small group of disruptive students, somewhere between 5 and 20, have turned it into something reminiscent of the Lord of the Flies. And, at least so far, school authorities seem unable to do much about it:
One of the scariest incidents at Aptos this school year occurred in September, when two girls attacked a sixth-grade girl on the schoolyard. The girls pulled the sixth-grader to the ground by her hair, pulled a chunk of it out of her skull and kicked her in the face and the back of her head...
School administrators held a "restorative justice" meeting with the families of each girl. That’s the school district’s preferred way of resolving disputes, and it centers on mediation and acknowledging harm.
"There were no apologies," [the victim’s mother] said. "When asked specifically what they would do differently, the girl said, ’Well, I guess I wouldn’t have kicked her in the face.’... Those girls have approached her multiple times since then and said, ’You better keep your mouth shut, you little bitch.’"...
"It’s kind of ’Lord of the Flies’ around here," [the mother] said.
The schools previous principal and assistant principal left recently and the new principal seems to have a different view of school discipline. It has become normal for kids (ages 11 to 14) to wander through the halls, enter classes they are not in, and direct bad language at other students and teachers.
#1
What madre won't fight like a tigre
To see her muchachxs reach G-Day?
For immigrant parents
Are fervent adherents
Of..... Fuck it, why lie? Lucha libre!
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/15/2020 7:11 Comments ||
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#3
This is the end goal of leftist politics. They value harm reduction above all, while conservatives consider harm reduction but have other values.
They are unable to think about anything but reducing harm to black kids. If they hurt other students, it is because white people made them do it. Punishing them is seen as unjust and wrong, and they will not do it.
They'll push all of America over the edge rather than compromise. They did it in so many other countries before, we're no different.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/15/2020 8:17 Comments ||
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#6
Interesting. This school's on the edge of a middle- to upper-middle class neighborhood that has winding streets and elegant old single-family houses that cost millions. It's about 40% Asian ie Chinese, 16% white.
This is a case of complete incompetence, cowardice and failure by the school's leadership.
Typical: California public schools are among the worst in the nation. Unbelievably shitty, weak, corrupt leadership explains much of this; demographics explains the rest.
[American Thinker] - tweet regarding the absurd sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone, the DOJ says it is dropping charges against Andrew McCabe, the proven liar, leaker, and hoax conspirator who was part of the coup cabal at the FBI along with Comey, Strzok, Page, et al. It seems also that Lt. Col. Vindman will not be investigated by the military.
There is one form of justice for Democrats ‐ no charges ever ‐ and a harsh form for any Republican. Roger Stone is mostly a figure of fun, a wannabe player who exaggerated his proximity to actual players. He is guilty of virtually nothing that warrants nine years in prison, but because the prosecutors, all attached to the Mueller team, had to have something to show for the $32M spent on their Russia hoax, they want him sent away to die in jail.
Is letting McCabe off the hook for lying and leaking a ploy? Are there more serious charges coming? He sure doesn't think so. He's so self-absorbed that he is complaining about what his family has been through for two years! His family! He and his cohorts have ruined numerous lives with their baseless witch hunts; the families of all of them have endured far more hardship than the weasel McCabe. Some have lost everything. It is doubtful that McCabe and his team of traitors have ever given a thought to what they have put the president and his family through except perhaps with glee. This bunch that tried to take down a candidate, then a president they decided should not hold that office are arrogant beyond belief; they're smug, elitist white-collar criminals all, and it's beginning to seem as if they are all going to get away with their treasonous crimes.
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.
[PJ] Rudy Giuliani says he "can prove" that the Biden family and a "bunch of Democrats" engaged in a money-laundering scheme and that the evidence is "with the right hands now." He wouldn't say who those people are, but it's possible it's the Department of Justice.
[Babylon Bee] U.S.‐The campaign trail is reportedly taking a toll on Bernie Sanders. The main thing that seems to be wearing him out is the extremely foreign concept of having to convince people to voluntarily hand over money.
[NY Post] "Pro-Palestinian" anti-Semites at the United Nations are so determined to smear Israel that they're even willing to hurt Palestinians to do so.
[BBC] US researchers have warned that the availability of sex robots with artificial intelligence (AI) poses a growing psychological and moral threat to individuals and society.
