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Egyptian court sentences Mufti of Al-Qaeda affiliate 'Al-Nusra Front' to life in prison
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
8 16:50 Omolung Juns5303 [13] 
6 13:21 M. Murcek [5] 
7 11:01 M. Murcek [6] 
5 14:46 swksvolFF [13] 
1 03:53 Woodrow [9] 
5 10:40 M. Murcek [10] 
6 15:32 Besoeker [5] 
8 15:27 Glenmore [7] 
13 12:32 M. Murcek [6] 
1 09:28 Procopius2k [6] 
3 13:28 M. Murcek [10] 
7 14:12 Dale [11] 
4 09:06 DarthVader [6] 
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1 15:45 Skidmark [4] 
2 05:49 M. Murcek [7] 
8 10:54 Bobby [9] 
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13 15:35 Glenmore [7] 
1 04:01 Woodrow [5] 
18 14:17 Dale [5] 
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4 09:35 Procopius2k [6]
6 16:26 swksvolFF [12]
6 11:55 irish rage boy [11]
10 20:55 Merrick Ferret [13]
1 04:10 Woodrow [6]
1 03:47 Sheter the Lesser9291 [11]
9 15:17 Merrick Ferret [10]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Carjackings soar by up to 510% in major [Demo] US cities: Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and New Orleans are all experiencing 'disturbing' spikes in crime
[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] ODD
  • Critics are blaming a rise in violent car takeovers on lax punishment for offenders, and Covid-era changes in driving habits

  • Carjackings are the upswing across the nation, with some cities recording triple-digit spikes in the crime

  • More than 1,800 cases were reported in Chicago last year, while another 510 cases were logged in New York City

  • Last November, Chicago's top cop revealed that an 11-year-old boy is believed to have committed several of the vehicular hijackings

  • Chicago Alderman Ray Lopez blamed rising crime on lax punishment for offenders, calling it 'the perfect storm' for criminals

  • Philadelphia's top said she was troubled by the trend, which she said could be related to a shift in driving habits in the food delivery and curbside pickup era
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/24/2022 02:09 || Comments || Link || [13 views] Top|| File under: Mob Rule

#1  Where I'm at the major city hasn't suffered any soaring number, mainly because they were high before the current events. As for the others, its a local solution to problems with parts to the supply chain mess.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/24/2022 9:22 Comments || Top||

#2  We can end carjackings if we ban personal automobiles in our major urban centers and force everyone to ride mass transit. There, wasn't that easy!
Posted by: SteveS || 01/24/2022 10:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Drive a stick shift.
Posted by: Tom || 01/24/2022 11:50 Comments || Top||

#4  ^ Right. Such an alien thing. Voice commands in Chinese.
Posted by: Dale || 01/24/2022 14:10 Comments || Top||

#5  Grandmaster Flash's The Message was supposed to be a warning, not a list of goals.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/24/2022 14:46 Comments || Top||


FBI searches Center for COVID Control headquarters amid investigations into multi-million dollar testing business
[USA Today] CHICAGO — The FBI on Saturday searched the headquarters of a nationwide string of coronavirus testing sites known as the Center for COVID Control.

The company and its main lab, which has been reimbursed more than $124 million from the federal government for coronavirus testing, are under investigation by state and federal officials. The company and lab are registered at the same address in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.

"The FBI was conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity in Rolling Meadows yesterday," Siobhan Johnson, a spokesperson for the FBI's Chicago office, told USA TODAY Sunday.

A Center for COVID Control spokesperson did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Asked about the law enforcement activity, Annie Thompson, a spokesperson for the Illinois Attorney General's Office, said the attorney general "is absolutely committed to protecting residents from those who attempt to profit off of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic."
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/24/2022 01:57 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The FBI was conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity

Like FISA?
Posted by: Woodrow || 01/24/2022 3:53 Comments || Top||


VIDEO: Four-Year-Old Found Bludgeoned, Mother Killed Hours After Dialing 911
[Breitbart] A man faces charges after a woman was found dead in a bathtub and her daughter was bludgeoned and left on a bed recently in Kansas City, Missouri.

The two were found approximately 12 hours after the mother initially dialed 911, KCTV reported Tuesday.

The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office said 29-year-old Jose E. Escalante-Corchado of Kansas City, Kansas, was charged with first-degree murder, first-degree assault, two counts of armed criminal action, and first-degree endangering the welfare of a child.

The outlet continued:

According to records, KCPD officers went to the 7300 block of Wabash on the night of Jan. 15 to check on the welfare of a resident. When officers arrived, they found a young mother, 24-year-old Mackenzie Hopkins, dead in the bathtub and her 4-year-old daughter on the bed suffering from severe head trauma. Police determined the girl had been severely bludgeoned, and the girl’s mother had been killed elsewhere in the house and then placed in the bathtub, submerged in the water. There were large pools of blood and drag-marks in the house, according to police records.


The girl was transported to the hospital and listed in critical condition, the prosecutor’s office said.

Detectives learned Hopkins called 911 at approximately 6:00 a.m. that morning, almost 12 hours prior to police entering the home.

The 911 call-taker heard individuals fighting on the line, but police records did not indicate if officers responded to the initial call or how.
Posted by: Omolung Juns5303 || 01/24/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


Pastor, 55, and his wife, 56, are arrested after eight disabled people are found 'imprisoned' in the basement of their Georgia home
[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] Nobody understands gratitude anymore. /sarcasm
  • Curtis Keith Bankston, 55, and his wife Sophia Simm-Bankston, 56, were arrested for false imprisonment after eight residents were found in the basement

  • EMS arrived at their home in Griffin, Georgia, to assist a patient who had suffered a seizure at their unlicensed group home, One Step of Faith 2nd Chance

  • Authorities had to enter the basement through a window after finding the basement door to be deadbolted shut

  • EMS and the Fire Department notified the police the couple was 'imprisoning' people inside their home and controlling their finances

  • The pastor has since denied the claims and said the residents could 'come and go as they please'
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/24/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  WTF
Posted by: Woodrow || 01/24/2022 4:01 Comments || Top||


-Great Cultural Revolution
British Police Force's LGBT+ Network Unveils Creepy Cow Mascot
[Breitbart]
Posted by: Woodrow || 01/24/2022 04:26 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, when your goal is woke and press conferences to check diversity boxes, this is what you get.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/24/2022 9:05 Comments || Top||

#2  What is that fetish when they wear the leather animal-shaped masks?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/24/2022 10:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Only one I've ever heard of is Pony Boy. I'm sure there are more.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 10:05 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm sure they'll milk this for all they can.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/24/2022 10:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Cow lick meets lick sister.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 10:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Only one I've ever heard of is Pony Boy. I'm sure there are more.

Its the precursor to the Furry fetish. Real big back in 70s and early 80s at your Freddy Mercury, Frankie Goes to Hollywood type venues.

A dominatrix type deal IIUC; being used as objects, lead around on leashes and such.

What I"m getting at is the mascot isn't meant to be creepy, it is meant to be exactly what it is, and they want you to submit under violence of law.

But the normalization of sexual deviancy is just a myth.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/24/2022 10:58 Comments || Top||

#7  I'm going with a variation on Potter Stewart's comment about obscenity. "I can't define perversion, but I know it when I see it. And I'm glad I'm not a participant..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 11:01 Comments || Top||


Washington DC 'Defeat the Mandates' march calls for end to 'draconian' COVID-19 vaccine requirements
[FoxNews] Between 30,000 and 35,000 people attended the protest.

Posted by: Skidmark || 01/24/2022 01:41 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Mob Rule



#3  Israel's top immunologist: "It's time to ADMIT FAILURE":

Professor Ehud Qimron, head of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Tel Aviv University and one of the leading Israeli immunologists, has written an open letter sharply criticizing the Israeli – and indeed global – management of the coronavirus pandemic.
Posted by: Merrick Ferret || 01/24/2022 9:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Prof. Qimron of Tel Aviv U. and Dr Robert Malone, inventor of the mRNA treatment method itself, are correct: Mass experimental gene therapy (mislabeled as COVID "vaccination") is a complete fail.

Even the Israelis recognize this now -- humiliatingly, the Palestinian death rate from COVID is exactly the same as Israel's, even though the Palestinians' vaccination rate is only about 1/4th the Israeli vaccination rate.

It's undeniable now: forcing the mass population to engage in this gene therapy experiment has caused more harm than good.

Here's data from September 2021 (likely even worse now) for "vaccination," infection, and fatality rates for Israel and for the Palestinians in the Territories:

% Population receiving 2 Doses – Fully Vaccinated COVID:
Israel 61%
Palestinians 17%

% Population infected with COVID:
Israel 12.3%
Palestinians 7.7%

COVID fatality rate (% of overall population):
Israel 0.079% (7,261 out of 9.2m pop.)
Palestinians 0.079% (4,048 out of 5.1 pop.(
Posted by: Merrick Ferret || 01/24/2022 9:18 Comments || Top||

#5  Anyone who paid attention in 10th grade biology understood that there was little chance of "eradicating" a virus.
Posted by: Vespasian Ebboting9735 || 01/24/2022 9:41 Comments || Top||

#6  What if only about 10% of the time the gas you pumped into your car would burn in the engine in the intended manner? There'd be lawsuits aplenty.

How bout this: If the gummint wants to make pharma immune from lawsuits, then cut out the prescription nonsense and let anyone have any medication they wish, with the understanding it's "at your own risk."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 10:04 Comments || Top||

#7  Criminal incompetence
Posted by: Merrick Ferret || 01/24/2022 10:09 Comments || Top||

#8  Especially one collecting 8 weeks of frequent flyer miles before educating the world's Average Joe in the principles of Mopp Suit overnight using a series of government PSAs.

So we have learned and solidified all the wrong actions and conclusions while burning all credibility.

Bravo. Brav - O.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/24/2022 10:11 Comments || Top||

#9 
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 10:22 Comments || Top||

#10  How do we halt this madness?
Posted by: Merrick Ferret || 01/24/2022 11:53 Comments || Top||

#11  You don't. You ride the tiger until it gets tired or hungry.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 11:57 Comments || Top||

#12  ^ What does that mean?
We're now like Europe's Jews in the 1930s. Where can we go? How do we protect our children from these insane sick mofos?
Posted by: Merrick Ferret || 01/24/2022 12:29 Comments || Top||

#13  Sometimes there is no good outcome, Merrick. That's just How it is.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 12:32 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Taxpayers face overloaded IRS as filing season opens Monday
[FoxBusinessNews] The IRS is dealing with a worker shortage, an enormous workload and stalled funding.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/24/2022 01:53 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats

#1  Auditing and human involvement auditing activities I can full understand.

But it should not effect E-Filers that make up (90.48%) of all returns now.
Posted by: NN2N1 || 01/24/2022 3:29 Comments || Top||

#2  These fucking clowns are offering data entry positions at $11 / hr; no wonder they're 'understaffed'.
Posted by: Raj || 01/24/2022 9:05 Comments || Top||

#3  You can make more than that at Mcdonalds now.
Posted by: Chris || 01/24/2022 9:36 Comments || Top||

#4  I sent a penalty waiver request in back in late November; they're gonna get back to me on it sometime in mid-April.
Posted by: Raj || 01/24/2022 10:35 Comments || Top||

#5  I turn my stuff in as soon as I collect the last reports from my investment accounts. I trust my accountant to work it through the schedule as she sees fit to do.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 10:40 Comments || Top||


Texas woman allegedly tries to buy infant at Walmart for $500,000: report
[FoxNews]
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/24/2022 01:44 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under: Human Trafficking

#1  Was that in Housewares?
Posted by: Woodrow || 01/24/2022 3:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Inflation is hitting Walmart too. I remember when you could buy a Walmart baby for $5,000.
Posted by: Omolung Juns5303 || 01/24/2022 6:43 Comments || Top||

#3  /\ Let's not give the Biden administration any ideas.

Human trafficking is already a beltway core competency.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/24/2022 7:08 Comments || Top||

#4  The trouble starts at the checkout trying to find the bar scan code. Should have done it by the pound in the produce section. It is organic. Mom and Dad can honestly say they found you in the turnip patch.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/24/2022 9:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Its like the printer racket; sell you the machine cheap and get you on toner/ink.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/24/2022 11:03 Comments || Top||

#6 
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 11:05 Comments || Top||

#7  $50,000 bond. She could've got off cheaper driving over someone...
Posted by: Bobby || 01/24/2022 11:16 Comments || Top||

#8  Wow! Must have been a blue-eyed blonde MENSA boy to come anywhere close to that price. If you aren't picky I should think ten grand would suffice.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/24/2022 15:27 Comments || Top||


-War on Police-
The huge drum magazine that carried 40 EXTRA bullets on gun that killed NYC cop was banned in US until 2004 after Stockton School massacre - but is now legal in 41 states
[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News]
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/24/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  While deeply sorry for the loss of any LEO.

It was NOT the Gun, Mag, or Ammo that caused the murder of the police officer. It was the A-wipe that decided to murder the officer.

In ways, the article to me reads like a gun control article using reverse phyc attempt.
Posted by: NN2N1 || 01/24/2022 1:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Shows, proves intent?
Posted by: Woodrow || 01/24/2022 3:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh, the gun killed the cop! I thought it was the Lashawn that did it.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 01/24/2022 5:53 Comments || Top||

#4  So roughly 150.48 million US Citizen Firearm Owners should be considered future Murders?
BTw: Even the Liberalized Center for Disease Control estimates 2.5 million defensive gun incidents per year. Warning, display, to aiming & actual discharge. The Firearm is the means, not the reason.


OBTW: Remarkably in 2019, 334 criminal suspects were killed by private citizens and a bit higher than killed by police (340), the FBI report said.
Posted by: NN2N1 || 01/24/2022 5:54 Comments || Top||

#5  A lot of murders could be prevented if cities searched and frisked for illegal weapons.

But I doubt any big cities do this. The reason is that almost all the people arrested would be black and this would get the police in trouble with the woke.
Posted by: Lord Garth || 01/24/2022 8:45 Comments || Top||

#6  Dude shot down two officers, but let's talk about legal equipment.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/24/2022 10:13 Comments || Top||

#7  I see the problem here. 9 states have infringed our constitutional right to carry whatever mag we want.
Posted by: Angstrom || 01/24/2022 10:49 Comments || Top||

#8  Lefties are talisman obsessed. Mask=all powerful and good. Gun=all powerful and bad.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 10:54 Comments || Top||

#9  A lot of murders could be prevented if cities searched and frisked for illegal weapons.

A lot of crimes, including murders, would be prevented if the 10% of the population that commits 80-90% of the crimes were quickly arrested, convicted, and jailed instead of i mediately put back on the streets Progressive prosecutors.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/24/2022 12:25 Comments || Top||

#10  There's an old line of thinking that if about 25 people were assassinated suddenly off the count in America, life would change for the better quickly.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 12:36 Comments || Top||

#11  Groundhog Day. Bratton and Giuliani showed the world how NYC could reduce murders and violent crime by 90% through aggressive policing, Compustat data-driven force allocation, stepped-up incarceration and cracking down on "lifestyle" crimes per JQ Wilson's "broken windows" thesis. Annual murders fell from 3,000+ to around 250 -- in less than a decade.

It's not complicated, really. The spike we're seeing now is so easily, obviously predictable that it can only be happening by design.

= Anarcho-Tyranny
Posted by: Merrick Ferret || 01/24/2022 13:13 Comments || Top||

#12  It is your right to be a criminal. It is not your right to be immune from crime.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 13:16 Comments || Top||

#13  Still banned in NYC and surrounding states.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/24/2022 15:35 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Abuja Policemen Torture Man To Death Inside Cell
Posted by: badanov || 01/24/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


How Police, DSS Mobilised Armed Thugs To Infiltrate IPOB Supporters During Nnamdi Kanus Trial
Posted by: badanov || 01/24/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  the Department of State Service recruited armed thugs to infiltrate the supporters

Ah, the DC January model.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/24/2022 15:45 Comments || Top||


Britain
Orwell's novel 1984 is flagged as shock content in the UK
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[REGNUM] On January 22, The Mail on Sunday reported that staff at the University of Northampton had issued a warning that George Orwell's novel 1984 contained shock content.

According to Krasnaya Vesna news agency, the warning about shock content was issued on the basis that this book contains "explicit materials" that some students may find "offensive and upsetting."

In addition to the literature of George Orwell, scholars highlight several other works in the module that could potentially be "offensive and upsetting". This module also includes Samuel Beckett's play Endgame, Allan Moore's graphic novel V for Vendetta, and more.

Posted by: badanov || 01/24/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Because it reads like "Here what is going on now" Guide Book.
Posted by: NN2N1 || 01/24/2022 6:52 Comments || Top||

#2  The book of Genesis 18-20 I believe it is, refers to the evils of the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. There are reportedly some 20 additional references throughout the book. The precise details can be debated, but most scholars believe something calamitous at least happened there.

Orwell's 1984 is becoming less and less debated.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/24/2022 7:24 Comments || Top||

#3  The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah might have been due to a meteor.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 01/24/2022 8:45 Comments || Top||

#4  1984 has been moved from fiction into current events.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/24/2022 9:06 Comments || Top||


Linlithgow campaigners fight against renaming of Black Bitch
[Guardian] No visitor to Linlithgow can miss the prominent lettering across the gable end of the 17th-century tavern at the top of the high street: Black Bitch.

"There will be people who are offended and they have a right to their opinion," said Alistair Old. He is leading an energetic campaign to retain the pub’s name after its owner, Greene King, announced last month it would be rebranded as the Black Hound in line with its diversity policy. "But the people of Linlithgow wouldn’t have tolerated it if the name had racist connotations," Old added.

Local people are by no means oblivious to the force of these words, and most tell of incidents with visitors to the birthplace of Mary, Queen of Scots where some hasty explanation has been required.

Legend has it that a black female greyhound would swim across Linlithgow loch to bring food to her master, who was sentenced to starve to death on an island. The town and its residents are steeped in the tale, which dates back to the 13th century. Children learn about loyalty at primary school, the faithful dog is on Linlithgow’s coat of arms and those who were born there are proud to use the moniker.

Into this local context comes Greene King, the UK’s biggest pub owner, a company that has publicly apologised for its founder’s links to transatlantic slavery and has already changed the names of two pubs called the Black Boy, as well as another called the Black’s Head. It also runs an award-winning diversity strategy titled Calling Time on Racism.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/24/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There's a Ho's in Glasgow. Just saying...

Posted by: Dron66046 || 01/24/2022 5:43 Comments || Top||

#2  We should just offer all the officiously guilt-ridden euthanasia.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 5:49 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Taiwan detects 39 Chinese warplanes, scrambles jets
[DW] Dozens of Chinese jets entered Taiwan's air defense zone, the island's officials said. Taiwan responded by scrambling its own fighter jets and activating missile defense systems.

Taiwan reported on Sunday that 39 Chinese warplanes, including a bomber, were detected in the south-western Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). The island's ADIZ is not the same as territorial airspace but instead is self-declared airspace that is monitored for national security purposes.

There was no immediate comment from Beijing on the latest developments.

WHAT HAS TAIWAN REPORTED?
The island's ministry of defense said 34 fighter aircraft and an H-6 bomber were among the aircraft involved in the incursion.

According to flight paths the ministry officials posted online, Chinese aircraft flew to the northeast of the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Island.

In response, Taiwan scrambled its own fighter aircraft and broadcast radio warnings while air defense missile systems were deployed to monitor the activity, the ministry said in a statement posted on Twitter.

WHAT IS THE US STANCE?
“Hey — ice cream girl! Tell them President Joe is ready for his ice cream RIGHT NOW!!”
“Sorry, Mr. Deutsche Welle Journalist. We’ll get back to you in about half an hour, unless he falls asleep in the meantime.”
Sunday's alleged incursion was the largest since October 2021, when 56 aircraft were recorded entering the ADIZ.

In November, Taiwan again scrambled its own fighter jets after 27 Chinese aircraft entered the ADIZ.

Taiwan has complained for months of incursions into its ADIZ by China's air force, usually in the southwestern part near the Pratas Islands, which it controls.

The island's defense chiefs have accused Beijing of employing "gray zone" tactics to increase pressure on the Taiwanese military.

The US officially follows the "One China" policy and recognizes Taiwan as a part of China. However,
today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday...
Washington is also committed by law to ensure Taiwan can defend itself and to treat all threats toward it as matters of grave concern.

Beijing's military activity in the region has has led to growing tensions with Washington, who in turn has increased its military presence in the Indo-Pacific.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/24/2022 00:18 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Hunter unavailable for comment.
Posted by: Woodrow || 01/24/2022 4:02 Comments || Top||

#2  The more interesting thing the article left out is the EW and ELINT planes with the package. When Taiwan turned on its air defense radars, they were plotting them, the frequencies to jam and locations for missiles. It was a recon mission.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/24/2022 13:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Taiwan helped develop some of that EW stuff. I'd imagine the chinkese collected data was a mixed bag.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 13:28 Comments || Top||


China's Censors Ban Hollywood Films As Beijing Builds Its Own "Movie Empire"
[Zero Hedge via Rantingly] Boot lickers get the boot.
Despite the franchises popularity with Chinese consumers, China's censors blocked all four of Disney's Marvel movies released last year from being shown in the Chinese market. The films contained nothing that would obviously anger China's censors (no references to Taiwan as an independent country were included in any of the four films), but as Axios points out, they were banned because of what they didn't include: mass messaging that would subtly support the CCP's long-term political aims.

According to Axios, the CCP leadership and President Xi have set an ambitious goal of making China a "strong film power" by 2035. In the title of its post, Axios also described it as a "movie empire". And how could they accomplish this goal if domestic films don't dominate in their own backyard? Clearly, US films pose a serious threat to this.

So instead, China's censors were given "the nudge" to raise objections about the films' unacceptable "political" overtones - despite the fact that these movies all take place in a fantasy universe with little bearing on humanity's reality.

This CCP-ordered crackdown doesn't bode well for Hollywood, which has long treated China like a critical growth market. "It's a real turning away from the global entertainment industry," said Rebecca Davis, China bureau chief for Variety, who was quoted by Axios.
Posted by: Omolung Juns5303 || 01/24/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Hollywood: the endless source of useful idiots.

It warms my heart to know that they finlandized, they censored their own films without even being asked, and now they're getting the traitor's reward they deserve.
Posted by: Sheter the Lesser9291 || 01/24/2022 3:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Go woke, go broke. Heh(tm)
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/24/2022 9:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Boot lickers get the boot.

Love it!
Posted by: Vespasian Ebboting9735 || 01/24/2022 9:43 Comments || Top||

#4  You look at the stupid excess of Hollyweird (and pro sports, and famous for being famous and influencers) salaries and then you think about every time you hear about a teacher having to buy paper and pencils out of pocket, and you may wish for a command structured economy. But emperical results show that,s no better and often worse. At the end of the day, if the people paying LeBron's and Kim Kardashian's salaries (not actually salaries, I know) and buying their overpriced stuff just made better decisions individually, there would be a lot less of the "inequity" that the lefties hit us all over the heads with all the time.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 10:00 Comments || Top||

#5  As any casual observer of China films over the last 5-10 years could have told you.

If you walked out of Midway thinking it was a pro-America film instead of and Anti-Japanese film defeated by stereotypical booze swinging Americans barely walking upright, you weren't paying attention.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/24/2022 10:21 Comments || Top||

#6  Act like someone's bitch, you will get bitchslapped out of the way.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/24/2022 12:31 Comments || Top||

#7  Ban Chinese films.
Posted by: Dale || 01/24/2022 14:12 Comments || Top||


Economy
Bosses Lament Loss of Migrants
Above is the front-page title in Sunday's Dallas Morning News paper.
[Dallas Morning News] The pandemic hammered the U.S. economy, revealing serious labor shortages. Now economists are highlighting a major factor: disappearing immigrant workers, both unauthorized and with visas.
There's two kinds of migrants again?
Can't even process legal immigrants fast enough because of the deadly coronavirus.
"This is bad for Texas’ economy, just like it’s bad for the economy in every other part of the United States," said Alex Nowrasteh, director of policy and economic studies at the libertarian-centric Cato Institute. "People fuel economic growth and without more people, our economy is going to stagnate and eventually shrink."
Unless we all die from the deadly coronavirus first.
Nowrasteh estimates that 1.6 million to 3.2 million immigrant workers would have been added to the labor mix had the economy continued on its go-go 2016 trajectory, when a high of 1,065,000 migrants came to the U.S. from other countries, according to the Census Bureau.
That was the Obama economy, in 2016. More migrants in 2016? The legal ones, perhaps.
The bureau says net migration fell to 247,000 last year.
I bet the Border Patrol would beg to differ.
Giovanni Peri, director of the Global Migration Project at the University of California, Davis, estimates that 2 million immigrant workers are missing from the U.S. economy.
Don't worry - the Border Patrol found them.
He and other experts say the labor shortage has several causes: a decline in the legal variety ofimmigration, accelerated retirements and what many call the Great Resignation, where workers job hop for better wages or sit out the pandemic for months waiting for the next installment of free money.

All are fallout from the wallop COVID-19 has delivered on the nation.
None of it due to media spin or Bidenomics.
"This is so hard to just turn around quickly," Peri said. He believes the labor shortages will persist for 18 months to two years.
Unless we all die of the deadly coronavirus first.
Posted by: Bobby || 01/24/2022 08:40 || Comments || Link || [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  All are fallout from the wallop COVID-19 has delivered on the nation

No. It's all fallout of incompetent, duplicitous, and malicious politicians and bureaucrats.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/24/2022 9:17 Comments || Top||

#2  ^ Ditto that and as long as they have the control things will remain the same or worsen.
Posted by: Dale || 01/24/2022 14:07 Comments || Top||

#3  And now we have yet more negative efficacy data -- not just from Israel but now the U.K. Health Security Agency and Public Health Scotland have (largely) stopped trying to hide the data.

Their own data indicate with crystal clarity: the vaccine boosters cause MORE infections and as many if not MORE deaths than not being vaxxed or just having the first two jabs.

The vaccine is FAILING. Everywhere.

The German doctor "eugyppius" and his many astute commenters show the UKHSA and PHS data here:

"Unboosted Brits Infected and Dying at Higher Rates than Unvaccinated | UKHSA Vaccine Efficacy Statistics: Week 3"

Posted by: Merrick Ferret || 01/24/2022 14:29 Comments || Top||

#4  The "vaccines" are a scam. Do. Not. Work.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 14:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Their counts of the various vaxxed groups are even more screwed up because these public health authorities fail to correctly attribute within the vaxxed-but-no-boost and the vaxxed + boosters.

Sum: They are overstating the efficacy of the boosters and the vaxx -- and yet their own botched-up counts make it clear that the vaccine is ineffective.

To be precise, their attribution problem occurs because they code their cases in such a way that, for the first 14 days post-booster shot, the individual is considered "unboosted." This has the effect of always making the most recent (T minus 14 days) data look better than it actually is.

It's possible that they committed the same error when the first and second jabs occurred, i.e. attributing many of the cases that occurred within 14 days of receiving the vax to the unvaccinated instead of the vaxxed -- and then never bothering to go back and re-allocate those cases correctly.

= a data shitshow
Posted by: Merrick Ferret || 01/24/2022 14:58 Comments || Top||

#6  The essence of globalization is: labor is commoditized as mobile capital is free to roam the globe for the lowest cost labor. In contrast, labor is far less mobile, and unable to shift as fluidly and frictionlessly as capital to exploit scarcities and opportunities.

Neoliberalism--the opening of markets and borders--enables capital to effortlessly crush labor. The social democrats, in embracing open borders, have institutionalized an open immigration that shreds the scarcity value of domestic labor in favor of lower cost immigrant labor that serves capital's desire for lower costs.
Posted by: Sheter the Lesser9291 || 01/24/2022 15:43 Comments || Top||

#7  /\ Which makes borders and national sovereignty meaningless.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/24/2022 15:46 Comments || Top||

#8  2 million immigrant workers are missing from the U.S. economy.

Noi, near 30 million have made themselves unwelcome squatters.
Posted by: Omolung Juns5303 || 01/24/2022 16:50 Comments || Top||


U.S. food supply is under pressure, from plants to store shelves
[FoxBusinessNews] Weeks of workers calling in sick add to continuing supply and transportation disruptions, making store shelves harder to fill
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/24/2022 01:48 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
But why so many food shortages now and so few back in 2021?

All while we were at the height of the far deadlier C & D strains?
Posted by: NN2N1 || 01/24/2022 3:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Jusy wait until Russia and China start WW!!!.
Posted by: Woodrow || 01/24/2022 3:55 Comments || Top||

#3  If only we allowed more migrants in to help out!
Posted by: Bobby || 01/24/2022 11:20 Comments || Top||

#4  Yes. They could fertilize the crops with the stuff that caused the e. coli outbreak that lead to the bankruptcy of Chili's.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 11:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Our store has carrots, but last week it was only 'organic' and this week it is regular, but only 2 pound bags. They have not had hams or ham steaks in at least several weeks but still have lots of other pork products, and 'reasonably' priced. They have not had much cat food selection for weeks, but have had at least something (dog food factory in town....) Beer selection is sparse but adequate. More wine than I could drink in my lifetime...
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/24/2022 15:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Money saving tip:

If you need gas for your car or truck, you might want to fill'er up today. Looks like crude is headed back up to $85.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/24/2022 15:32 Comments || Top||


High fertilizer prices could mean smaller crops
[FoxBusiness] A bag of fertilizer that would’ve sold for $11 in 2021 is now going for about $19.95 in 2022.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/24/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Smaller yields. Trouble is factory farms dump to much of that shit in the first place.
Posted by: Woodrow || 01/24/2022 4:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Everything is working against the farmer. Even corporate farms. John Deer with fully automated equipment priced thru the roof. Repair costs impossible to deal with. Farmers in my area purchasing old equipment that still runs like Allis Chalmers still having many accessories. Working a job to keep the farm going now a necessity. Fuel costs sky high as well. So one major event, medical or operations will do them in now.
Posted by: Dale || 01/24/2022 4:12 Comments || Top||

#3  My hay provider will be unable to fertilize his hay field this year. He told me every other farmer he talked to said the same thing. Fertilizer went from 450 bucks a ton last year to 1000 this year. We can thank Joe Biden, the Democrats, and other world governments for the decrease in natural gas output which is the major source for fertilizer. Food production is also greatly affected and will decline. It seems they want to reduce population by starving everyone.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 01/24/2022 8:06 Comments || Top||

#4  The Bolsheviks don't grasp basic economics. Oil moves everything and is an ingredient to a wide range of basic materials in the whole system. You raise the price of it and your entire economy hits a inflationary spiral.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/24/2022 9:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Trouble is factory farms dump to much of that shit in the first place.

Bull. No one "dumps" more than they need, because no one is stupid enough to waste money on fertilizer they don't need.
Posted by: Caesar Protector of the Esquimeaux5547 || 01/24/2022 9:39 Comments || Top||

#6  It seems they want to reduce population by starving everyone.

Well, not everyone. Lee's see if Boxcar or Jerry Nadler drop a few pounds. I suspect some food will have to be confiscated to, uh. assure the continuity of essential government activities.
Posted by: Matt || 01/24/2022 9:42 Comments || Top||

#7  Food production is also greatly affected and will decline. It seems they want to reduce population by starving everyone.

Its weird that everything they have done is wrong, from a production point of view.

Dumping too much fertilizer burns the crop, if you will. The big boys are incredible efficient about fertilizer. They have local and satellite measurements of soil condition which is downloaded to the applicator and individual nozzles are controlled via computer and GPS in real time as the applicator is towed across the field.

Don't let the same people who tell you washing dishes by hand is more water efficient than using a machine, only this machine scans the dishes and adjusts how much water and detergent comes out of each nozzle, further increasing water, and detergent, efficiency.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/24/2022 10:44 Comments || Top||

#8  I'm burned out on the media telling me how dumb I am. And how dumb they think I am...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 10:46 Comments || Top||

#9  Michael Yon has been harping about pandemic-famine-war for a year or two.
Posted by: Bobby || 01/24/2022 10:57 Comments || Top||

#10  Michael Yawn. He's still around?
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 10:58 Comments || Top||

#11  DOW is down, except for Lockheed Martin. Probably don't have to explain what that might indicate.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/24/2022 11:02 Comments || Top||

#12  Yup. When did the Brandon admin say they wanted to start a war, February?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/24/2022 11:27 Comments || Top||

#13  Great opportunity for a lot of people to say (true or not) "I'm not vaccinated, I can't deploy..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 11:29 Comments || Top||

#14  After the first shot is fired, the VAX mandate in DoD will immediately go the way of the Edsel.

Watch for Draft Boards to be re-established, probably overnight.

New day, new crisis.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/24/2022 11:32 Comments || Top||

#15  ^ I don't know. That implies there are reality-based priorities at the Pentagon. Believe it when I see it.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 11:36 Comments || Top||

#16  Will there be Margaritas? I was told there would be Margaritas.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/24/2022 11:44 Comments || Top||

#17  You will be carrying Darth Lunch and General Vanilli in a tandem sedan chair to REMF camp Drag Race.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 12:09 Comments || Top||

#18  Liberals always wanted to dump human waist for fertilizer. Do they still dump it in the ocean?. So many drugs today. Think of the jokes from that idea.
Posted by: Dale || 01/24/2022 14:17 Comments || Top||


Europe
US Orders Families Of Diplomats To "Immediately" Leave Ukraine As Biden Weighs Deploying Thousands Of Troops To Eastern Europe
[ZERO] On Friday we said, half-jokingly, that it feels like a false-flaggy weekend...... and while so far luckily World War III fighting has not erupted (even if the German head of the navy lost his job for telling the truth), moments ago the US has once again done everything in its power to further inflame tensions when it ordered family members of US government workers at the US embassy in Kyiv to leave Ukraine "due to the continued threat of Russian military action," the State Department said Sunday.

"There are reports Russia is planning significant military action against Ukraine," the State Department said in the advisory. "The security conditions, particularly along Ukraine’s borders, in Russia-occupied Crimea, and in Russia-controlled eastern Ukraine, are unpredictable and can deteriorate with little notice."

The advisory also urged U.S. citizens in Ukraine to consider leaving the country now using commercial or other private travel options, while a travel advisory elevated Ukraine to "Level 4: Do Not Travel":

Posted by: Besoeker || 01/24/2022 01:35 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  IE for you non-government employees and families, you are on your own. See - Afghanistan.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/24/2022 9:28 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
The new CH-53K King Stallion
[NR] The Marine Corps continues to put the new CH-53K King Stallion helicopter through it’s paces in operational assessments at bases in California and North Carolina. The next-generation heavy-lift helicopter will eventually replace the long-serving CH-53 Super Stallion, and will transport Marines, heavy equipment, and supplies on a variety of missions.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/24/2022 05:11 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Great photos at the link.
So, why do the Marines need a heavy lift helicopter when they have the V-22 Osprey?
Posted by: Jise Elmeang4932 || 01/24/2022 10:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Same reason I have sockets and open-end wrenches in my tool box.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 10:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Please don't put a hitch on a Mustang.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/24/2022 10:33 Comments || Top||

#4 
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 10:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Ref #1: So, why do the Marines need a heavy lift helicopter when they have the V-22 Osprey?

Good question. I 'called a friend' who flew both the A and D models of the 53 and was familiar with the mission of all four airframes:

"The V-22 has speed on its side and distance/ well over the horizon capabilities. V-22 limitations is the amount of lift, cargo and troops. The V-22 took the place of the CH-46 Sea Knight helo which was a medium lift. The 53 is a heavy lift helo."
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/24/2022 13:17 Comments || Top||

#6  And, there are Sikorskis that can lift a CH-53 with a load under it.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 13:21 Comments || Top||


BIll Gates to Reboot Nuclear Power
[Black Hills Pioneer] In this sleepy Wyoming town that has relied on coal for over a century, a company founded by the man who revolutionized personal computing is launching an ambitious project to counter climate change: A nationwide reboot of nuclear energy technology.
Maybe he can pull it off, but it's ...nuclear power
Until recently, Kemmerer was little-known for anything except J.C. Penney’s first store and some 55-million-year-old fish fossils in quarries down the road.

Then in November, a company started by Bill Gates, TerraPower, announced it had chosen Kemmerer for a nontraditional, sodium-cooled nuclear reactor that will bring on workers from a local coal-fired power plant scheduled to close soon.

The demonstration project comes as many U.S. states see nuclear emerging as an answer to fill the gap as a transition away from coal, oil and natural gas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Which US states are 'thinking' about nuclear power? Starting a new meme, AP?
Many residents in Kemmerer, where the population of 2,700 is little-changed since the 1990s, see the TerraPower project as a much-needed economic boost because Rocky Mountain Power’s Naughton power plant killed by Obama/Biden will close 2025. The plant employs about 230 and a mine that supplies coal exclusively to the plant — and is also at risk of closing if it can’t find another customer — almost 300.

The U.S. nuclear industry has been at a standstill, providing a steady 20% of the nation’s power for decade amid the costly and time-consuming process of building huge conventional nuclear plants.

Only one new commercial nuclear project, the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar No. 2, has come online in the U.S. in the past 25 years.

By cooling the planned Kemmerer reactor with liquid sodium, a metal that boils at a temperature much higher than water and solidifies at well above room temperature, TerraPower says its relatively small, 345-megawatt plant, able to power about 345,000 homes, will be safe and less expensive than conventional, water-cooled nuclear plants. The company’s Natrium plant will use a simpler and less expensive system of unpressurized coolant and vents not dependent on electricity to halt fission during an emergency.

The approach isn’t new. Russia has had a commercial sodium-cooled reactor in use at full capacity since 2016 and such designs have been tested in the U.S.
Yeah, they also had Chernobyl.
Posted by: Bobby || 01/24/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That will bring a whole new meaning to the term 'Blue Screen Of Death'.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/24/2022 1:11 Comments || Top||

#2 
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/24/2022 1:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh, my. More people died in an Oldsmobile driven by a Senator from Massachusetts than at 3 Mile Island.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/24/2022 9:30 Comments || Top||

#4  lots of different groups are working on small modular reactors

NuScale is expecting to build in Idaho and another company is expecting to build in the Tennessee Valley.

There was funding in the 'infrastructure' bill for a testing site in Idaho which would try out different materials, different composite designs, etc. for the components of reactors. I don't know how that is coming.
Posted by: Lord Garth || 01/24/2022 10:22 Comments || Top||

#5  Had there not been stoppage of building and new development due to hysteria, we would be much further along. It seems the "proliferation" concerns that Jimmuah Cahtah used as an excuse to kill Clinch River have moved ahead anyway.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 10:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Gee, a medium size plant already in use and proven safe in say Sweden couldn't be, you know, just copied?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/24/2022 10:33 Comments || Top||

#7  ^ There's much of the problem. Here in the US, every plant was engineered almost from scratch, re-invent the wheel every time. For regulatory reasons, doncha know...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/24/2022 10:38 Comments || Top||

#8  And continuously re-engineered during construction, to make it even safer.
Posted by: Bobby || 01/24/2022 10:54 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2022-01-24
  Egyptian court sentences Mufti of Al-Qaeda affiliate 'Al-Nusra Front' to life in prison
Sun 2022-01-23
  56 IS terrorists killed in northeast Syria
Sat 2022-01-22
  Iran says in talks with Russia to build nuclear power units
Fri 2022-01-21
  Al Qaeda announces death of former Bin Laden associate
Thu 2022-01-20
  Indonesian Militant Linked to Bali Bombings Sentenced to 15 Years
Wed 2022-01-19
  Mohammed al-Houthi: Yemen's only goal is the end of aggression
Tue 2022-01-18
  The Houthis attack Abu Dhabi, Arabian coalition airstrikes Sanaa
Mon 2022-01-17
  Police recovers anti-aircraft guns, other arms from Karachi godown
Sun 2022-01-16
  Day 2: Armed man holding hostages at Colleyville, Texas, synagogue demands release of convicted terrorist 'sister'
Sat 2022-01-15
  Authorities in hours-long standoff at Colleyville synagogue, no injuries reported
Fri 2022-01-14
  IRGC launched solid-fuel satellite rocket into space
Thu 2022-01-13
  TTP spokesperson Muhammad Khorasani killed in axe attack
Wed 2022-01-12
  Lebanon’s currency has lost more than 15 percent of its value since the start of the year
Tue 2022-01-11
  FBI Refuses To Say How Many Informants Were Involved In Jan. 6 Violence
Mon 2022-01-10
  Turkish FM: Our Forces in Libya aren't a 'Foreign Power'


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