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Turkey asks NATO to provide air support for the operation in Idlib
Today's Headlines
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 6: Politix
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Judge Nap: Almost Any Judge In The Country Would Order A New Trial For Roger Stone
[Hot Air] Can we assume from this commentary that Judge Nap is not in fact biased against TrumpWorld due to some unknown personal grudge and instead was calling ’em as he sees ’em during the Ukraine impeachment saga? I’ve always assumed that. I’m just curious what his detractors think.

Especially one very special detractor, who quoted Napolitano approvingly for the first time in ages in a series of tweets this morning:
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/20/2020 01:30 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Almost. Except for the one that will look incompetent for allowing the circus to get this far.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/20/2020 7:04 Comments || Top||

#2  But judges are picked for the result they'll give not randomly.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/20/2020 7:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Almost. Except those judges selected via the prosecution's judge-shopping
Posted by: Lex || 02/20/2020 8:52 Comments || Top||

#4  Almost Any Judge In The Country Would Order A New Trial For Roger Stone

If so, then Mr. Stone’s lawyers will be preparing his appeal as soon as this judge hammers the case closed.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/20/2020 9:39 Comments || Top||

#5  Any non-partisan and regressive left operative judge would.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/20/2020 9:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Meh. Once Stone is sentenced, Trump should immediately pardon him. Same thing with General Flynn.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 02/20/2020 11:50 Comments || Top||

#7  The judge did not insure the trial integrity because the trial foreman was not vetted. She should never have been on the jury. There is a good chance there was a runaway jury. The judge appears biased in the extreme as well. Stone should appeal. Stone has a right to a fair trial. Trump can pardon him later if necessary.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/20/2020 16:46 Comments || Top||

#8  Any honest judge would have declared a mistrial. Poutmaster Nappy knows that.

Stopped paying attention to butt hurt Andy a year ago.
Posted by: Woodrow || 02/20/2020 17:51 Comments || Top||

#9  saw Napster got a new dye job on the pimp hair today
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2020 17:57 Comments || Top||

#10  I believe I have seen where Stone has already filed a bond for the appeal. He, his lawyers and the so-called Judge know the case will be overturned.

It's a shit show all the way.
Posted by: Deadeye Ghibelline8782 || 02/20/2020 19:01 Comments || Top||

#11  That's the SS, Jake
Posted by: Lex || 02/20/2020 19:50 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Is This Real Life? Washington Post Argues in Headline, ‘It's Time To Give the Elites a Bigger Say in Choosing the President‘
[AceOfSpades] Curiously, the author of that article is no fan of the Electoral College.

Makes ya think.

At the primary level, the method a given political party uses to choose their candidate for president can be anything they please. It certainly looks like whatever the Democrats are currently using is not working well for them. But when it comes to the main event, that pesky U.S. Constitution defines the rules..
Posted by: charger || 02/20/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's the Shitshow, charger
Posted by: Lex || 02/20/2020 0:19 Comments || Top||

#2  It's part of the lefty journalism style sheet - when they lose elections, bang out a variety of 'It's Time To ...' columns, none of which will happen even in the wettest of their wet dreams, so they can better win the next one. Since they know they're in for a forty+ state ass-whupping this time around, they may as well start getting these columns out in advance.
Posted by: Raj || 02/20/2020 8:13 Comments || Top||


#4  Let me guess - WaPo 'neglected' to mention the change in headline?

We need a far stronger word than scumbag to describe these people.
Posted by: Raj || 02/20/2020 8:45 Comments || Top||

#5  If you can't achieve a political outcome you desire, just script it
Posted by: Lex || 02/20/2020 8:54 Comments || Top||

#6  Deep State failed disinformation probing attack. Nothing more.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/20/2020 8:58 Comments || Top||

#7  ^ clarifying, thanks.
The tally since 2016 must be >10,000 such probing attacks... seems they're extremely easy to execute, low cost, little risk
Posted by: Lex || 02/20/2020 9:04 Comments || Top||

#8  Democracy dies in darkness as the WashPost smothers it with a pillow.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/20/2020 9:25 Comments || Top||

#9  I'm old enough to remember the days of smoke filled rooms. JFK only ran in a couple of primaries, party leaders made the choices.

The nominees then were certainly better than today's doofus collection. The hard part of returning to those days would be finding someplace where you could smoke a cigar.
Posted by: AlanC || 02/20/2020 10:34 Comments || Top||

#10  perhaps the Democrats should examine the way nominations were handled in the old days.
The traditional way was that each state sent delegates to the party convention, some pledged to candidates, some not, as determined by each state's rules. In many states 'a favorite son' was nominated usually with little or no chance of being chosen as candidate, which meant that the delegates could vote, ultimately, however they pleased after the first ballot. Often no candidate had a majority of votes, which required a new vote, and there often were dozens of votes before agreement on a nominee occurred. When two candidates had between them most of the votes, but neither had a majority, the rivalry could be so bitter, that ultimately after many ballots, a third, compromise candidate was chosen.
Though conventions proceded at a snails pace, they were exciting because often nobody could predict the outcome until it happened.
Lately the conventions have been useless shows in which primaries determine everything long before them.
If Bernie gets lots of votes but no majority, swhich is quite possible, this will lead to something like the old system, and if it took many ballots to determine the winner it might be good for the Democrats and not horrible, because the convention would be important and interesting instead of mere nonsense.
Posted by: daniel || 02/20/2020 13:49 Comments || Top||

#11  At the primary level, the method a given political party uses to choose their candidate for president can be anything they please.

Certainly.

I just thought it was interesting that the "Let the people decide" party with its attacks on the Electoral College have no qualms about going in the opposite direction when it gives them their preferred outcome.

Which, of course, is what this is all about.

After all, Hillary was an EC enthusiast when she thought she would lose the popular vote, while winning most high population states.

Florida and successful vote fraud gave her the exact opposite of the outcome she was expecting and so she turned on a dime, like all principled lefties.

This associate prof from Marquette is simply Hildebeest writ small.
Posted by: charger || 02/20/2020 16:17 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Notes on the First Hour of the Democrat Debate in NV
Original commentary by our own Fairbanks, which is why there’s no link.
o Sanders and Warren get the most applause

o Bloomberg gets beaten up repeatedly with significant applause, especially re stop and frisk, and according to Elizabeth possibly many sleazy non-disclosure sexual harassment agreements from his 60-odd years in business

o The moderators are anti-Bloomberg

o Going after Donald Trump began the program, and was seen in some beginnings of longer speeches and at the ends, but pales in relation to dog fight, or cat fight, or some sort of a dog-cat "trans" fight that expired

Related, but not nearly as concise, from PJ Media: Drunkblogging the Debut Dem Debate with Mini Mike
Posted by: Fairbanks || 02/20/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  heeeeeere's Bernie!
Posted by: Lex || 02/20/2020 0:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Bernie is such an obvious communist that it's hard for me to believe that anybody would vote for him.

Bloomberg actually called Bernie a communist, actually used the word, which Bernie denied but not at all convincingly.

But Bloomingbird is diminutive in stature and he has a high pitched voice. Mrs. Uluque said that doesn't matter but I think it does whether voters are conscious of it or not. Besides, he's beholden to the Chinese.

"And most Americans don't see where they fit if they've got to choose between a socialist who thinks that capitalism is the root of all evil and a billionaire that thinks money ought to be the root of all power. Let's put forward somebody who actually lives and works in a middle-class neighborhood in an industrial midwestern city. Let's put forward somebody who's actually a Democrat," Buttigieg said.


Not that I would ever vote for a Democrat, let alone the Booty Boy, but I thought that was one of the best lines of the night.

Maybe the party will split. That would be the best possible outcome.

If I had to hold my nose and choose one of them it would probably be Klobuchar. But when I look at her and listen to her I can't help remembering Hubert Humphrey so I can't believe she'll win.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 02/20/2020 11:54 Comments || Top||

#3  buttigieg had some great lines that he obviously rehearsed

however his smarmy demeanor and his attack on Klobuchar probably ruined any benefit from them

Apparently the moderators asked no questions about immigration nor about 'catch and release' of criminals nor about the AB5 disaster in California nor about why leftist cities have growing homeless populations. The next debate is scheduled for 25 Feb in SCarolina. The one after that is scheduled for 15 March in Phoenix, AZ.

Posted by: lord garth || 02/20/2020 12:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Abu, as a Minnesotan, I can tell you that if you vote for the Klob, you'll get Hillary, except without the adorable girlishness.
Posted by: Mercutio || 02/20/2020 13:48 Comments || Top||

#5  Klobuchar was like the leper with the most fingers.

No need to ask any of these candidates about immigration. They all want open borders and they don't give a damn about the Mexican gang bangers or the cartels. They are OK with legalizing all of the drugs just like in LA and San Francisco. They just want more votes, dammit. They want massive apartment blocks all across the country to accommodate the newcomers and they don't give a damn what it does to existing neighborhoods. They want health care for the newcomers and they don't give a damn what it does to our taxes.

It was fun to watch them bicker among each other but chilling to think about any of them anywhere near the White House.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 02/20/2020 15:21 Comments || Top||

#6  "Klobuchar was like the leper with the most fingers."
~ Abu Uluque

I would have hated to have missed this quote.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/20/2020 15:32 Comments || Top||

#7  That moment when I realized Bootygig was flat cribbing the Obama delivery method.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/20/2020 16:54 Comments || Top||


My 2017 Defense Of Bill Kristol Is The Worst Column I Ever Wrote
[Federalist] Bill Kristol, once a conservative icon, is now shilling for a leftist agenda. I regret ever having defended him.
Penance shall set you free

Related: Based On Tax Filings, Bill Kristol’s Been A Democrat For Years.. All sorts of left-wing donors are mentioned in the article.
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He's a neocon who hates the American people. Fuck him.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 02/20/2020 0:22 Comments || Top||

#2  No-talent swamp-spawn.
Posted by: Lex || 02/20/2020 0:26 Comments || Top||

#3  I still think that’s true, but in the last three years much has changed, and these changes are something Kristol and his faux-conservative ilk have roundly refused to recognize. It took me about a year to realize the sky wasn’t falling.

Nothing "changed" except for the writer's perceptions , it's just that this columnist was wrong about Trump's intentions all along.

At least he figured it out.

Posted by: charger || 02/20/2020 16:22 Comments || Top||


The Cruel Reality Of Life As One Of The Media's Never-Trump Waterboys
[Federalist] Media bias is an old constant. It has never and will never go away. A reporter or host can use all the proper, sanitized words he wants, but behind the scenes lie the decisions that went into which stories to pursue and which to drop; where to pull back and where to push forward; who to interview, who to skip; what is most important versus what can be buried or even cut.

And then, of course, there’s the cool kids’ club. True, it more strongly resembles grown and embittered theater kids who never quite made it, but it’s Washington, so things are not very real.

This club is a place anti-Trump conspiracies are treated with the upmost seriousness and obviously implausible pronouncements are called conventional wisdom; where Jim Acosta gets high-fives for reporting conspiracy theories and heckling Easter egg rolls; where people can be incorrect again and again to the point of irrelevance yet still maintain columns, airtime, and glowing profiles about their bravery in the face of wrong.

Every bit of this ‐ the grinding and gurgling economy of the legacy media and its temporary darlings ‐ relies on this support structure of peer approval. Doubtful? You can most clearly see it play out live on Twitter, like a Discovery Channel exploration of an ecosystem made up entirely of mosquitoes. And the cool kids’ waterboys are the anti-Trump Republicans....
Posted by: Frank G || 02/20/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ah, so I'm not the only one who sees these guys as the gimp from Pulp Fiction.
Posted by: charger || 02/20/2020 16:24 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
If Duterte Wants Us Out, Let's Go
[TakiMag] Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has just given us notice he will be terminating the Visiting Forces Agreement that governs U.S. military personnel in the islands.

His notification starts the clock running on a six-month deadline. If no new agreement is negotiated, the VFA is dissolved.

What triggered the decision?
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 02/20/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  OK, as someone that knows a little about the PI lets end the VFA. But first lets tie the VFA to USAID the pours over $100 million annually into the corrupt political elites. Lets end our economic aid programs that are outside of USAID, another $100 million a year. Lets hold the PI accountable for their failing NAIA airport. There runway is not certifiable by the FAA and has operated on waivers, pressed by the political class for decades. This will shut down all FAA carriers into Manila and will stop all PI carriers from flights into the US. They cant have their cake and eat it too. Go ahead!
Posted by: 49 Pan || 02/20/2020 12:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Ref #1: Don't suppose any of those USAID dollars are purchasing weapons and ammunition.....asking for a friend.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/20/2020 12:49 Comments || Top||

#3  About those Mexican PI money transfers....
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/20/2020 16:28 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
42[untagged]
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1Islamic Jihad (Palestian)
1Govt of Qatar (MB)
1Jamaat-e-Islami
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1Palestinian Authority
1Govt of Iran
1al-Shabaab (AQ)

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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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Two weeks of WOT
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
Sat 2020-02-08
  Khalid Haqqani and Qari Saifullah banged in Kabul
Fri 2020-02-07
  Syria says its troops enter the strategic city of Saraqib in Idlib and begins ‘combing’ its neighborhoods
Thu 2020-02-06
  Hazim Al-Halafi, a senior commander of Saraya Al-Salam dead

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