[PJMedia] Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) — the controversial COVID-19 treatment touted by President Donald Trump — might be gaining new traction in the fight against the Wuhan coronavirus.
The latest positive results come from Vadodara, India, where city officials have conducted a major study involving more than 300,000 people, including “health workers and other frontline staff.”
The Indian Express reports:
The administration has analysed a sample of over 1 lakh [lakh = 100,000] residents, who were mostly close contacts of positive persons and the effect of HCQ in containing the transmission of the virus. According to the analysis, of the 48,873 close contacts of positive patients who took one dose of HCQ, 102 turned Covid-19 positive and 12 succumbed to the infection whereas 48 of the 17,776 close contacts of positive patients who took two doses of HCQ turned positive and only one died. The study also states that of the 33,563 close contacts of patients who took three HCQ doses, 43 tested positive and one died.
Local health official Dr. Devesh Patel told the paper, “It has shown positive results. We have the numbers and not one person has complained of complications. The only side effect reported is mild gastritis, which is common with administering heavy medicines and can be effectively handled.”
In other words, anyone who has taken the much more common azithromycin antibiotic for a simple sinus infection has probably suffered about the same distress — all gastric — as a subject of the Vadodara study.
Dr. Mohammad Hussain, who runs Vadodara’s Faith Hospital, told the Express, “There are conflicting studies about the use of HCQ. While initially the US studies rejected it and cited side-effects, European countries backed its prophylactic use. In Vadodara, it has shown positive results. We have been able to restrict cases in clusters. Nagarwada no longer has a huge number of cases.”
Hussain reiterated that no serious side effects were reported.
#3
The direct quote (beginning 'The administration....) includes results for about 100k people.
The narrative before that says the study involved 300k people. The Indian Express article said some people were taking two pills the first day and one after that each day which muddles the quoted section.
No links to a published paper.
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/13/2020 17:06
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#4
India doesnt have the choice of paying for Big Pharma solutions. They have to "go with what they got", and this seems to work a lot better than unobtainable solutions.
Posted by: Marilyn Tojo7566 ||
07/13/2020 23:04
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Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/13/2020 13:48
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#3
I wandered around the article’s website, followed some links, and ended up with this old thing from the New England Journal of Medicine in answer to the question how Covid-19 asymptomatic rates compare to normal influenza:
MEDICAL NEWS | PHYSICIAN'S FIRST WATCH
March 17, 2014
Most Flu Is Asymptomatic
By Joe Elia
Influenza, whether of the seasonal or pandemic variety, is asymptomatic in most people with serologically confirmed infection, according to a study in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine.
Researchers studied five successive cohorts of people in England during the 2006-2011 flu seasons. The cohorts ranged in size from 600 to 3500, and all members provided blood samples before and after each flu season. Their households were contacted weekly to identify flu-like illness and symptoms.
On average, roughly 20% of the unvaccinated had serologic evidence of influenza infection, but up to three quarters of the infected were asymptomatic. The proportions did not vary significantly between seasonal and pandemic influenzas. The pandemic H1N1 strain was associated with less severe symptoms than the seasonal H3N2 strain.
A commentator says an important unanswered question is how much the asymptomatic cases contribute to flu transmission
[NBC] Atlanta rapper Rudolph Johnson, better known as Lil Marlo, is dead, according to the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office.
The medical examiner’s office confirmed to NBC News on Sunday morning that a deceased individual by the name of Rudolph Johnson was brought in during the last 24 hours after reports surfaced of the rapper’s death. Johnson was reportedly 27, though the medical examiner’s office told NBC News he was 30.
Cause of death has yet to be determined, according to the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office.
The Atlanta Police Department confirmed that officers found a 30-year-old man who was shot in a vehicle on I-285 near the Benjamin E. Mays Drive overpass after responding to a call about an accident on Saturday night. Police did not confirm the man’s identity.
The department believed the driver was intentionally shot and the department's homicide investigators are looking into the incident.
[ToloNews] At least four security forces members were killed and 10 others were maimed in northern Baghlan province on Saturday, security sources said on Sunday.
The festivities took place in the Cheshmaye Shir and Bagh-e-Shamal areas on the Baghlan — Samangan highway after the Taliban ...Arabic for students... attacked the security forces, said sources.
"The highway was closed to traffic for several hours and four Afghan forces humvees were also damaged in the fighting," sources added.
Local security officials did not provide details on the casualties of the security forces in the festivities.
Nabiullah Nabi, a military commander in Baghlan, said that the Taliban have also suffered of casualties in the festivities but there is no exact report yet.
The Taliban has not yet commented on the festivities.
[KhaamaPress] An Improvised Explosive Device (IED) planted by Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... destroyed a civilian vehicle in South-eastern Ghazni province, killing or wounding at least 14 civilians.
According to local government officials, the earth-shattering kaboom killed at least 6 civilians and maimed at least 8 others including women and kiddies.
Wahidullah Jumazada, provincial governor’s spokesperson, confirmed the incident and said a roadside kaboom planted by Taliban destroyed a civilian mini-van in Jaghatoo district.
Jumazada further added that that the earth-shattering kaboom killed six civilians including women and kiddies and maimed at least 8 others.
He also added that the local authorities shifted the maimed civilians to the nearby hospital where they receiving medical care.
No individual or group including Taliban has so far grabbed credit for the incident.
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan National Defense and Security Forces killed at least 8 Talibs and maimed two others during separate incidents in South-eastern Ghazni province.
The 203rd Thunder Corps in a statement said a group of Talibs attacked the security posts in Mangoor Bazar area located in the outskirts of Ghazni city.
The statement further added that the security forces killed 5 Talibs and maimed 2 others during the clash.
The security forces also destroyed a vehicle and 5 cycle of violences during the clash, the 203rd Thunder Corps added in its statement.
Meanwhile, ...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck reached for the green sauce... the 203rd Thunder Corps added that the Talibs attacked the security forces in Khalo Khel area of Qarabagh district which resulted into a clash between the two sides.
The security forces killed 3 Talibs during the clash and destroyed 15 sacks of explosives, 25 rounds of 82mm rockets, 24 boxes of PKM machine gun munitions and some other military kits, the 203rd Thunder Corps said.
[Guns America] This week, we got our hands on the all-new Taurus G3C. Building on the very successful, indeed cult-like following, of the G2, the G3 series is Taurus’ latest entry to the CCW market. Can the little gun from Brazil hold up against the big dogs in the industry? With a big pile of 9mm, we set out to find that answer for ourselves.
[UNZ] Why is the media so fixated on Sweden’s coronavirus policy? What difference does it make?
Sweden settled on a policy that they thought was both sustainable and would save as many lives as possible. They weren’t trying to ‘show anyone up’ or ‘prove how smart they were’. They simply took a more traditionalist approach that avoided a full-scale lockdown. That’s all.
But that’s the problem, isn’t it? And that’s why Sweden has been so harshly criticized in the media, because they refused to do what everyone else was doing. They refused to adopt a policy that elites now universally support, a policy that scares people into cowering submission. The Swedish model is a threat to that approach because it allows people to maintain their personal freedom even in the midst of a global pandemic. Ruling class elites don’t want that, that is not in their interests. What they want is for the people to meekly accept the rules and conditions that lead to their eventual enslavement. That’s the real objective, complete social control, saving lives has nothing to do with it. Sweden opposed that approach which is why Sweden has to be destroyed. It’s that simple.
Of course, none of this has anything to do with Sweden’s fatality rate, which is higher than some and lower than others. (Sweden has 543 deaths per million, which means roughly 1 death in every 2,000 people.) But like every other country, the vast majority of Swedish fatalities are among people 70 years and older with underlying health conditions. (“90% of the country’s deaths have been among those over 70.”) Sweden was not successful in protecting the people in its elderly care facilities, so large numbers of them were wiped out following the outbreak. Sweden failed in that regard and they’ve admitted they failed. Even so, the failures of implementation do not imply that the policy is wrong. Quite the contrary. Sweden settled on a sustainable policy, that keeps the economy running, preserves an atmosphere of normality, and exposes its young, low-risk people to the infection, thus, moving the population closer to the ultimate goal of “herd immunity”.
Presently, Sweden is very close to reaching herd immunity which is a condition in which the majority have developed antibodies that will help to fend-off similar sars-covid infections in the future. Absent a vaccine, herd immunity is the best that can be hoped for. It ensures that future outbreaks will be less disruptive and less lethal. Take a look at this excerpt from an article at the Off-Guardian which helps to explain what’s really going on:
“Sweden’s health minister understood that the only chance to beat COVID-19 was to get the Swedish population to a Herd Immunity Threshold against COVID-19, and that’s exactly what they have done…
The Herd Immunity Threshold (“HIT”) for COVID-19 is between 10-20%
This fact gets less press than any other. Most people understand the basic concept of herd immunity and the math behind it. In the early days, some public health officials speculated that COVID-19’s HIT was 70%. Obviously, the difference between a HIT of 70% and a HIT of 10-20% is dramatic, and the lower the HIT, the quicker a virus will burn out as it loses the ability to infect more people, which is exactly what COVID-19 is doing everywhere, including the U.S, which is why the death curve above looks the way it looks.
Scientists from Oxford, Virginia Tech, and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, all recently explained the HIT of COVID-19 in this paper:
We searched the literature for estimates of individual variation in propensity to acquire or transmit COVID-19 or other infectious diseases and overlaid the findings as vertical lines in Figure 3. Most CV estimates are comprised between 2 and 4, a range where naturally acquired immunity to SARS-CoV-2 may place populations over the herd immunity threshold once as few as 10-20% of its individuals are immune….
Naturally acquired herd immunity to COVID-19 combined with earnest protection of the vulnerable elderly – especially nursing home and assisted living facility residents — is an eminently reasonable and practical alternative to the dubious panacea of mass compulsory vaccination against the virus.
This strategy was successfully implemented in Malmo, Sweden, which had few COVID-19 deaths by assiduously protecting its elder care homes, while “schools remained open, residents carried on drinking in bars and cafes, and the doors of hairdressers and gyms were open throughout.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/13/2020 18:24
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#8
More specifically, any post that (due to the poster's ideological orientation/personal preferences) which presents a distorted picture (usually underestimating by orders of magnitude) of the requirements for herd immunity. cf.
Dowdy, D., & D’Souza, G. (2020). Early herd immunity against COVID-19: A dangerous misconception. Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center.
#9
#7 Of course I think and feel subjectively and make mistakes. But, in this particular area I've been trained to think objectively. I'm not for lock-downs, masks, and HCQ because it satisfies my emotional needs. I'm because all my training & experience as mathematical biologist show that herd immunity is dangerous fantasy. And therefore, I'm for lock-downs, masks, and HCQ - and any other thing that'll work - because it's the only way until there is a vaccine.
#12
It means people aren't buying your disaster pr0n, G. The more you flog your Molly the less anybody buys it.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/13/2020 19:57
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#13
Based on this, g(r)om: "#6 Not every post - just the ones that are blatant & dishonest propaganda." It was a joke...Twitter, FB, YouTube, etc., deleting videos/posts from scientists/doctors if they don't toe the leftist/establishment line.
#4
IMO all vegetarians and vegans look weak anyway. So, I could have told you this for alot less.Look at Jon Ossoff in one of his ads this year, I swear he is wearing a womens coat.
Posted by: Chris ||
07/13/2020 11:28
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#5
^ His husband bought it for him
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/13/2020 11:45
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#6
@1 that is why I eat my steak cooked in grass fed butter
[KTLA-5 Los Angeles] The family of a man who was beaten and robbed inside a Lancaster grocery store last week called for unity after the arrest of two suspects on Saturday.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department arrested Damaris Wade, 22, and Tamika White, 33, in the attack of Roberto Flores Lopez inside the restroom of a Superior market the morning of July 8.
Investigators believe Wade assaulted and robbed Lopez, and that White accompanied the assailant to the store.
The attacker continued to kick the 80-year-old even after giving up his wallet, Lopez’s relatives said.
Somebody later found the victim in the restroom, bleeding on the floor, his son Francisco Ordorico told KTLA. According to authorities, the victim suffered broken ribs and injuries to his face.
Before arresting Wade and White on Saturday night, the Sheriff’s Department distributed surveillance video of the suspects.
Investigators said they did not believe the incident to be a hate crime. The Sheriff’s Department described Wade and White as Black; Lopez is Latino.
Wade and White remain in jail on $100,000 and $50,000 bail, respectively, according to county inmate records.
[NorthJersey.Com] July 15 is the new April 15 for those who still have not filed a tax return. The traditional April income tax deadline was extended this year for 2019 tax returns, due to the upheaval created by COVID-19.
The one-time extension applied for Michigan returns, too, as well as the City of Detroit returns.
Think everybody who waited owes big money? Think again. Oddly enough, experts say millions of procrastinators are likely owed a federal income tax refund for 2019.
H&R Block estimates that more than half of its clients who still need to file would receive a refund after they file. And the tax giant is running TV ads this summer highlighting the prospects of a tax refund.
[Jpost] Islamic Theocratic Republic, China, Russia, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... are 'key players' of espionage in the federal republic.
The federal German police caught a suspected spy for Iran’s terrorist Quds Force in the state of Hesse,
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/13/2020 6:35
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#2
I thought there would never be any more good spy novels after the end of the Cold War but it sounds like a good, well-connected author could get the genre started again.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/13/2020 12:38
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[Bay Today] Leaves of three, let it be. Many of us were taught this rhyme as children to keep us on the lookout for the dreaded poison ivy plant. If you think you’re seeing more of it these days, it’s probably not your imagination. It’s also likely to be larger than you’ve seen it in the past and will cause a more potent rash.
Several Manitoulin Islanders have shared their recent experiences, saying they have reacted badly this year but have never experienced the painful, itchy rash previously. Brittany from Manitowaning had to bandage most of her leg. Bill P. said the usual patches near his property had spread, and the plants were looking very healthy.
A six-year study completed by Duke University researchers found that elevated levels of carbon dioxide not only increased the growth of poison ivy but those high carbon dioxide receiving plants produced a more potent form of urushiol. That’s the oil that causes the skin inflammation, Rhus-dermatitis, in 50 to 80 per cent of humans when they come into contact with the plant (only humans and apes react to urushiol). Urushiol is poison ivy’s defense mechanism.
Researchers pumped carbon dioxide into an intact forest ecosystem; under the elevated carbon dioxide conditions, poison ivy showed increases in photosynthesis, water use efficiency, growth and biomass. They found that at carbon dioxide levels expected by the year 2050, poison ivy in the forest grew at a 70 per cent higher annual rate than at the time of the study. That 70 per cent will rise if we keep polluting the atmosphere with greenhouse gas emissions by burning fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide is considered one of the leading causes of global warming.
Growing faster and sucking up excess carbon dioxide — sounds good to me! Get a prescription of Prednisone to treat the allergic reaction, perhaps also a cortisone shot if it’s really bad. Poison ivy plants can be killed by spraying with bleach or Round Up, then cut down the vines and bag carefully for disposal. Do not add to your mulch pile, as the oil is still irritating after several years, and absolutely do not burn the stuff — the oils irritate lungs as easily as skin.
#3
Poison ivy I can handle. I'm wondering about venus flytraps. What if they start walking? Or will that happen when they eat GMO mosquitoes? Makes ya think, donit?
#5
So they over-fed the plants and they grew more.
On the other hand, Poison ivy is not all bad. It provides forage for whitetail deer, black bears and raccoons and several bird species eat the berries. During autumn when other food sources are scarce, poison ivy provides sustenance for Northern flickers, bobwhite quail, Eastern phoebes, cedar waxwings, woodpeckers, robins and other birds. Goats and other livestock can eat it as a low quality forage (urishiol won’t show up in their milk).
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/13/2020 12:12
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#7
Goats and other livestock can eat it as a low quality forage (urishiol won’t show up in their milk).
But don’t brush up against them while preparing to milk them. Goat herds can be hired to clear the landscape of all sorts of invasive plants, including Chinese and Japanese honeysuckle and eucalyptus trees. Kudzu, too, I think
poison oak is worse!
So I’ve heard.
As I recall, poison ivy berries have a high fat content, making them an ideal winter food for whatever critters can reach them. This compares to preferred summer fruits that are high in fructose for quick energy.
[Babylon Bee] Supreme Court, this time you’ve gone too far.
I stood by silently in 2014, when you allowed family-owned Hobby Lobby to provide its employees with a mere 16 out of 20 methods of birth control.
But now, here in 2020, when we are so much more enlightened, you let the Little Sisters of the Poor get away with not paying for their employee’s abortions.
I don’t want to live in a world where we can’t force nuns to kill babies.
I saw them yesterday on the courthouse steps, all wearing the same ostentatious grey habits, gleefully taunting us with their victory over women. I watched as these volunteer servants of the old, poor, and sick spouted off about religious liberty and the freedom of individual conscience.
Is this even America anymore?
What’s next, Justices? Allowing a Jewish synagogue to refuse to hire an avowed Nazi? This is a real slippery slope.
Don’t worry, Little Sisters of the Poor. We’re still out here and we’re coming for you. One day you’ll participate in killing the unborn. Or else.
[MAIL] As the wooden boards are taken down from shopfronts and studio lots grind slowly back to life, Hollywood is basking in an unseasonable heatwave.
The famous boulevards shimmer in 40C haze and warm Santa Ana winds fan the Beverly Hills mansions.
Shaken by #MeToo, paralysed by Covid-19, the $50 billion film industry is finally emerging from a four-month lockdown — only to find a new and very different world, where tension is rising as surely as the thermometer.
A revolution is under way. White actors are being fired. Edicts from studio bosses make it clear that only minorities — racial and sexual — can be given jobs.
A new wave of what has been termed by some as anti-white prejudice is causing writers, directors and producers to fear they will never work again. One described the current atmosphere as 'more toxic than Chernobyl', with leading actors afraid to speak out amid concern they will be labelled racist.
The first sign came with one of the most powerful black directors in Hollywood, Oscar-winning Jordan Peele — the man behind box office hits such as Get Out and Us — stated in public that he did not want to hire a leading man who was white.
'I don't see myself casting a white dude as the lead in my movie,' Peele said. 'Not that I don't like white dudes. But I've seen that movie before.'
As one studio executive responded privately: 'If a white director said that about hiring a black actor, their career would be over in a heartbeat.' Few doubt it.
Peele is more vocal than most about his hiring policy, but his outlook is increasingly widespread. Dozens of producers, writers and actors have spoken to The Mail on Sunday about the wave of 'reverse racism' pulsing through the industry.
For if the very public Black Lives Matter protests have polarised America, the silent fallout has now reached Hollywood.
#1
Edicts from studio bosses make it clear that only minorities — racial and sexual — can be given jobs.
The last to WOKE? Affirmative Action comes ot the big screen. Studio bosses simply following the decades old mandates and examples established by the Federal Government.
#11
I'm with Grom, I prefer Anime and tend to watch a lot of stuff produced overseas. Better writing, more interesting ideas and sometimes, an actual plot.
#12
Anime can be fascinating when you see all of those cultural artifacts that they think are "normal"... Also, I don't find being preached at by the Woke entertaining.
#14
Hollywood as we know it is done. They depend upon big budget event pictures and Movie theaters are plague vectors.
They need to figure out how to survive just TV and small screen fair. Making product specific to different races might be the answer, or might doom studios even faster.
[Politico] We’re economists, and our analysis suggests Congress is seriously underfunding efforts to combat Covid-19.
America is trapped in a health crisis. We are, once again, facing rapidly rising coronavirus infection rates, reading headlines decrying shortages of tests and personal protective equipment and witnessing government experts call for state shutdowns.
Unfortunately, Congress and the administration seem poised to return to a tired playbook which isn’t working: ramping up government spending as if we are stuck in a pure financial crisis. Financial aid, while vitally important for reducing the economic pain caused by Covid-19, will not hasten the end of the pandemic.
The only way to end our financial crisis and restore the economy is to address the pandemic itself.
By our calculations, less than 8 percent of the trillions in funding that Congress has allocated so far in response to the virus has been for solutions that would shorten or mitigate the virus itself: measures like increasing the supply of PPE, expanding testing, developing treatments, standing up contact tracing, or developing a vaccine. A case in point is the most recent House Covid-19 package. It calls for $3 trillion in spending; less than 3 percent of that total is allocated toward Covid testing. As Congress considers next steps, it’s imperative to shift priorities and direct more funding and effort toward actually ending the pandemic.
Along the same lines, it is vital that elected officials realize that stay-at-home orders, social distancing, masks and school closures are not the primary cause of our economic dislocation. Americans decreased their economic activity before those orders went into effect and will restrict their activity as long as the threat of catching Covid-19 persists. No matter how much cheerleading is done, a phased reopening of the economy is not going to lead to anything approximating full economic activity until we credibly address the pandemic.
MIT economist Ivan Werning has a useful analogy. Imagine we found out that in four months, an asteroid was going to hit the Earth. While news about the asteroid would set off financial calamity, nobody would think that the solution to the impending doom should be exclusively composed of unemployment insurance, small-business loans and other forms of stimulus. To fully address a crisis, you need to address the cause of the crisis, not just its economic fallout.
h/t Instapundit
[06 News] - On July 6th, the State Department of Health released a report, that found the spread of coronavirus in New York nursing homes was a result of infected staff members, not a controversial March policy enacted by the governor's desk. "We investigated ourselves and thoroughly cleared ourselves of any wrong-doing, bad judgement or wrongthink. We are therefore giving ourselves promotions and raises"
In response to the findings of the report, the New York State Nurses Associations released a statement, which reads in part:
"This statement does not reflect the experiences of frontline nurses of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) who throughout were pointing at critical shortages of personal protective equipment and calling for widespread testing in order to guide New York’s response to the virus since the onset of this pandemic."
The statement continues, recapping NYSNA's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, before calling for an independent investigation of the practices within nursing homes:
"New Yorkers deserve a full accounting of what happened over the past four months, and the NYSDOH nursing home report, unfortunately, does not move us forward. The need is plain for a comprehensive, independent review of nursing home practices, the role of for-profit operators, and NYSDOH oversight."
[American Thinker] Jeffrey Epstein went to (or was sent to) the grave keeping his secrets. However, Ghislaine Maxwell almost certainly shares the same secrets. The latest allegation is that she has or had videos of two "high profile" American politicians, as well as two other influential people, having sex with underage girls. If that’s true, it’s reasonable to believe that she has more than just those videos. A lot of famous people may soon be in trouble, although probably not Trump, who wised up a long time ago about Epstein.
The Sun writes that William Steel, the pseudonym for a former jewel thief, claims that Ghislaine Maxwell, whether as insurance and because she’s a very kinky person, videotaped two highly placed American politicians, as well as other powerful people, having sex with underage girls.
According to Steel, who was not paid for the interview, Ghislaine liked to show off videos of famous people engaging in illegal and immoral behavior. To that end, she tried to impress Steel with footage of "two high-profile politicians" engaging in sex with underage girls, as well as "two high society figures" in a threesome with another young girl.
Although Steel called Ghislaine a nymphomaniac, he says she wasn’t showing the videos to impress him with her sexuality. Instead, power was the ultimate turn-on:
#2
I wonder what kind of things went on at Epstein's strange temple on Little St. James Island? Most likely Maxwell and others who were there could say.
#7
swksvolFF - we have only seen the traded people who survived... Hints on twitter of hundreds if not thousands disposed of when no longer needed. Think fat sharks.
PowerLine via Instapundit
Kimberly Gardner is the St. Louis prosecutor who caused a warrant to be served on the McCloskeys, the couple that brandished, but did not fire, guns when a mob broke into their property and threatened them. Gardner has threatened to prosecute the McCloskeys for violent assault.
Gardner’s record as St. Louis Circuit Attorney is abysmal. I’m told that her conviction rate is only around 20 percent in cases tried to verdict. That’s an astoundingly low success rate given all of the advantages prosecutors have.
But Gardner operates with a handicap. Competent prosecutors don’t want to work for her.
Her office has experienced a more than 100 percent turnover in staff since she took office in 2017.
An impressive statistic...
More than 65 attorneys with a combined experience of over 460 years in prosecutorial experience have departed during this three-and-half year period. Even some of the attorneys she hand picked have since quit.
Goodness. At least she is consistent.
Gardner seems eager to prosecute a white couple for displaying firearms to deter a mob that terrorized them. Unfortunately, her enthusiasm for prosecution did not extend to rioters who terrorized St. Louis. Reportedly, she had all 36 of those arrested during the recent St. Louis riots released.
Fortunately, Gardner faces a serious challenger in next month’s Democratic primary. That challenger is Mary Pat Carl.
Carl served in the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s office for 14 years. She was its lead prosecutor in homicide cases. She worked thousands of cases and, unlike Gardner, had a record of success.
Currently, Carl is a partner in a major St. Louis law firm. Mark Arnold, our friend and a longtime Power Line reader, is also a partner there. He strongly backs Carl in this race.
Carl does not share all of my views on criminal law. If she did, she would stand no chance of winning the Democratic primary, which, for St. Louis, is the only game in town. Instead, Carl is like the Northern Virginia Democratic competent and conscientious incumbent prosecutors we backed against Soros-funded radicals.
Like those prosecutors, Carl’s positions are sensible. She wants to mend fences with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. "I think you can hold the police accountable, without going to war with the police," she says.
Carl also wants to build up the prosecutors’ office. Under Gardner, it is down to around 20 attorneys. She wants to return it to around 50.
Most importantly, Carl understands that the job of the St. Louis prosecutor is to promote community safety in St. Louis. Indeed, that’s the message at the top of her campaign website.
Kim Gardner isn’t promoting community safety, she is undermining it. Undermining it by releasing rioters, by losing a shocking percentage of her cases, and by persecuting the McCloskeys for scaring away those who threatened to harm them. On top of everything else, Gardner is crooked.
#1
I know I don't post here as often as I once did, so maybe I shouldn't say anything, but........
Why in hell is there a link to Jeff Jarvis from a site like this one? Whatever good he had to say back in 2001, he is a stark raving toxic moonbat communist.
In his own way he's worse than Charles Johnson ever was.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
07/13/2020 12:16
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#2
Broken clock - he's right on this
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/13/2020 12:50
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#3
Soros. 'Nuff said.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/13/2020 13:06
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#4
Why in hell is there a link to Jeff Jarvis from a site like this one?
#5
Her office has experienced a more than 100 percent turnover in staff since she took office in 2017.
Too bad Trump didn't have 100% turnover of the Justice and State department staffs after taking office in 2017. Would've made a huge difference but it's never too late to clean house.
[PJ] Portland prosecutors just dropped the charges against Black Lives Matter and antifa rioters who have turned downtown Portland into a hell-scape after six weeks of rioting. Rioters who are arrested are ticketed and released.
There’s an old saying from the Bible that has been adapted by management gurus: What gets rewarded gets repeated. Using that logic, Portland has just signed itself up for more riots.
KGW TV looked at the arrests and prosecutions of the 400 people caught by the Portland police at the riots. Multnomah County prosecutors dropped the charges against 59 of the protesters.
Dozens of protesters arrested during mass demonstrations in downtown Portland have had their criminal charges dropped and cases closed.
KGW analysis of police and court records shows the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office dropped charges against at least 59 of the roughly 400 protesters arrested since mass demonstrations started in Portland in late May.
The 59 freed rioters represent only 15% of the arrests.
#1
The Portland leaders are aware, as is the Marxist-dominated city and county legal system that Marxist doctrine demands that revolution is made by collective action and not individuals. Thus, there must be no living martyrs to the cause.
[YNet] - The United States begged Iran not to retaliate against US interests in response to the elimination of top commander Qassem Soleimani, Iran's deputy foreign minister claimed on Sunday, according to JPost.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru ||
07/13/2020
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[19 views]
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[Ynet] A fire broke out at a facility belonging to the Shahid Tondgooyan Petrochemical Company in southwest Iran but was quickly contained, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday, citing a local official.
The fire was caused by an oil leak but did not lead to any casualties or financial damage, Mohsen Beyranvand, the governor of Mahshahr county said, according to IRNA.
Beyranvand described the fire as minor and said it was put out in less than ten minutes.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru ||
07/13/2020
01:47 ||
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#4
Who knew the Chinavirus would mutate to attack industrial materials like the Andromeda Strain did?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/13/2020 12:04
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#5
Were any squirrels seen in the vicinity just before the fire was noticed? More importantly, were any squirrels not seen, and were the invisible squirrels named Mohammed (or some variant thereof)?
[BOSTONHERALD] A statue of the Virgin Mary was set ablaze outside a Boston church Saturday night, said police who are investigating the arson incident.Officers at 10 p.m. responded to a call for a fire in the area of 284 Bowdoin St. in Dorchester.
On arrival at St.Peter’s Gay Pareeh, officers saw that a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary had been set on fire.
Someone had lit plastic flowers on fire, which were in the hands of the Virgin Mary statue, according to members of the Boston Fire Department Fire Investigation Unit. That caused the statue’s face and upper body to get burned, according to officials.
The Rev. John Currie, pastor at St. Peter’s Gay Pareeh, said a prayer next to the Virgin Mary statue Sunday afternoon.
"This is obviously someone who’s disturbed, someone who has a troubled soul," Currie said of the unknown suspect.
"I know Our Lady in heaven is looking down at the soul, or whoever it might have been, and saying, ’I love you,’ " he said. "If you need help, come get help. We’re here for you."
A front man for the Archdiocese of Boston said in a statement, "Whoever is responsible for the desecration of the Holy Mother’s statue is clearly a troubled soul. Mary represents all that is good and pure in our world."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2020
00:58 ||
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#1
Probably a Puritan parson.
Posted by: Albert Glutch2431 ||
07/13/2020 18:44
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...the Chinese-American child of a military family, she lost both legs when the helicopter she was in the right seat of in Iraq was shot down by jihadis, the first female double amputee of the second Iraq war. She then served in the Illinois National Guard as a Lieutenant Colonel while working for the state and federal governments until she ran for Congress in 2012, where she has been ever since....
is no longer an afterthought in the Democratic veepstakes.
The Illinois senator and Purple Heart recipient has landed squarely in the conversation after a high-profile clash with Tucker Carlson last week and her advocacy against politicization of the military in the weeks prior.
The attention hasn't escaped Biden's vetting team. It has stepped up information-gathering on Duckworth recently, scrutinizing her legislative record and talking to her colleagues, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
A contingent of Duckworth-for-VP backers, including high-dollar donors and a politically active veterans group,
...which one? Odd that they don’t name it...
has intensified efforts on her behalf in the past two weeks, pushing her as the best choice for Biden’s running mate.
"I’ve been working my rear end off, trying to get Joe to look at her favorably," Joe Cotchett, a longtime friend of Biden’s and prominent West Coast Biden bundler, told POLITICO. Cotchett said Duckworth’s no-nonsense response to Carlson has further elevated her prospects.
[BIZPACREVIEW] A mail carrier in West Virginia has pleaded guilty to election fraud after admitting he altered requests for absentee voter ballots.
The 47-year-old postal carrier, Thomas Cooper, is facing prison after being charged in May for reportedly changing the political affiliation on several mail-in ballots. He pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of "Attempt to Defraud the Residents of West Virginia of a Fair Election" and one count of "Injury to the Mail," according to the Department of Justice.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2020
00:53 ||
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#1
I thought voter fraud was impossible! Because reasons.
[BIZPACREVIEW] A schizophrenic, possibly anti-religious Florida man — it’s always a Florida man — who was reportedly off his medication crashed into the Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Ocala early Saturday morning and then proceeded to set its foyer on fire.
"The trouble started about 7:30 a.m. Saturday. People were inside preparing for Mass when a man crashed his van through the front doors of the church, 6455 SW State Road 200. He then backed out of the foyer and exited the vehicle, according to a law enforcement review of the church’s security video," the Star-Banner reported.
"A man wearing a white T-shirt, jeans and a baseball cap is shown on the video entering the building and carrying large red gas cans, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The man pours gasoline on the floor, but then slips and falls. He’s seen throwing something into the room (it turned out to be a shoe) and igniting a large fire."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2020
00:50 ||
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#1
Lack of name and instant resort to insanity claim makes me suspicious.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/13/2020 5:41
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#2
In an interview with sheriff’s Detective John Lightle, suspect Steven Anthony Shields said he has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and is not taking his medication.
Shields said that what he did was “awesome,” and he smiled and laughed while he was questioned at the Sheriff’s Office, according to an arrest affidavit. Referring to himself as the “king” and saying he was on a “mission,” Shields told the detective he has problems with the Catholic Church and made reference to several Bible passages, including the Book of Revelation.
#6
Two other anti-Catholic attacks on the very same day and one that I can thaat I can recall since the Burg started. Real coincidence, ain't it?
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2020 10:35
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#7
And the leadership is looking for "disposable" muscle all the time. So...
Yes. But it could have been worse. I think that during the Obama administration this character would have found a way to get his hands on an AR-15.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/13/2020 12:43
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#8
In an interview with sheriff’s Detective John Lightle, suspect Steven Anthony Shields said he has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and is not taking his medication.
#7
According to Wikipedia, she was a one-man woman. And died in 1990 at the age of 81. Apparently she was the inspiration for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s character Rosemary Hoyt in Tender is the Night.
A protester brought a toddler to the violent gathering in downtown Portland. She walks the boy right up to federal police who are protecting the courthouse from people shouting to “burn it down.” Video by @livesmattershow: pic.twitter.com/j3sXINPs1z
Antifa & BLM supporters were calling for the federal courthouse to be shot at and burned down because of that image. Even when their hoax was exposed, they still attacked the building last night. https://t.co/43HTDox38hhttps://t.co/7p9NnGVxq6
#3
She failed at her very basic task of protecting her people. SO on a note about the political class. The local politicians ALWAYS surrenders to the attacking forces. If you look at this as an attack on America, not as a simple riot, then it only goes to play out as mayors and the politicos fold. I cant find many time in history when the locals did not fold and embrace the enemy. Now this mayor has to face the facts of her cowardice and collusion. She will forever live in the shame of what she did.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/13/2020 11:06
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#4
So, she talk to the microphone without a mask. Do they sterilize it between users?
Minnesota Dems willfully allowed Minneapolis to burn & then blamed the police whom they demonized. Now, they want the fed govt to pay the bill.
I’m introducing legislation to make local govt liable to private property owners if officials deliberately withhold police protection. https://t.co/fZZCYgekMI
#2
The usual way to manage such liability is to make potential office holder purchase a bond or insurance against the possible bad outcome. It will, by the nature of the size of the potential losses, be very expensive and contingent on their signing an agreement to take all available and necessary measures to prevent the loss.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/13/2020 7:22
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#3
I'll settle for - if you allow the barbarians to burn or loot a person's home or business, all property taxes are suspended till its rebuilt or restocked.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/13/2020 13:13
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#7
If we're doing the French Revolution again, can we skip to the part where all the current revolutionaries are killed and we get an Emperor who invades our largest neighbor? I'm sure Canada would appreciate the attention.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2020
00:07 ||
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#1
The disability racket needs to be looked at to. I know alot of ppl , especially after 2008 that went for this scam and not a damn thing wrong with them besides being sorry pieces of shit.
Posted by: Chris ||
07/13/2020 0:15
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#2
Mentally disabled, yes. I would have loved to have seen a night stick smash that pig's fat snotty face.
#3
Wow! I didn't know being fat and butt ugly was a Disability? Should I file for disability?
On a side note:
Looking at her, I feel the reason she smiling during this process is because finally a MAN has touched her the 1st time in her adult life..
#4
Those blue lives dudes would arrest you at the behest of DuhBlahzero.
Which is why you need to stage a distraction to draw off security and buy some time.
Also, it would help to automate the painting process as much as possible. Consider, if you will, a car with a dozen computer-controlled paint nozzles arranged crosswise underneath the car. Now you have a "dot matrix printer" that can create text and images simply by driving down the street.
#5
Steve - it would need to be a 70s or earlier car with no computers in it and no air-pressure transducers in the tires. Also no cellphones or net enabled anything and mud on a license plate with no RFID in the date tag.
[Al Ahram] Pope Francis ...Argentine liberation theologist, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio. He was elected pope in 2013. Rather than setting up shop in Avignon, where he belongs, the first Jesuit Pope chose to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse instead of the papal apartments. He is big on climate change, against consumerism, and in favor of throwing a blanket over homosexual activity within the clergy. He's not real sure about the Resurrection, about Christ's divinity, and a few other things that would have gotten him burned at the stake a few hundred years ago, but he's hot for a certain South American Earth Mother Goddess... said on Sunday that he is ``deeply pained'' over the decision by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor... to change the status of Hagia Sophia _ which was originally built in Istanbul as a Christian cathedral - from a museum to a mosque.
In a very brief, improvised remark, Francis, speaking from his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square, noted that the Catholic Church marked Sunday as International Day of the Sea. ``And the sea brings me a little far away with my thought: to Istanbul,'' the pontiff said. ``I am thinking of St. Sophia and I am deeply pained.''Francis said no more but was clearly referring to the move by Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... to formally convert the monumental building back into a mosque. The colossal Santa Sophia cathedral was turned into a mosque after the Ottomans conquered the city in 1453. The Ottoman Turkish secular government in 1934 decided to make it a museum.
The pope, who heads the Roman Catholic church, is adding his voice to strong objections a day earlier by the head of the Geneva-based World Council of Churches. That organization described its ``grief and dismay'' in noting that Hagia Sophia has been ``a place of openness, encounter and inspiration for people from all nations.'' The council's membership comprises Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican churches.
Erdogan declared the monument open for Moslem worship after a high court annulled the 1934 government decision.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2020
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#1
You really gonna be pained when they take over the vatican like they have the rest of Europe.
Posted by: Chris ||
07/13/2020 0:19
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Another one? Goodness, Iran’s enemies are certainly being thorough.
[ALMASDARNEWS] On Saturday, the Iranian authorities announced the killing of a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards officer named Ibrahim Asmi in Syria.
"Asmi was killed in the last few days in Syria," according to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commander, Rustam Ali Rafii .
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards did not provide more details about the death of Asmi; however, there have been reports of new attacks by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS/ISIS/IS/ISIS) in eastern Syria.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards recently commented on the news circulated about the "killing of the commander of the Air Force in the Revolutionary Guards, Ali Haji Zada, by an Israeli raid in the eastern countryside of Homs."
The IRGC denied the news about the Air Force commander, stressing that "Hajji is safe."
Iranian media also published a picture of the Iranian Quds Force Commander, Ismail Ghaani, during his visit to eastern Syria in the past few days.
"Given the existence of this organization (ISIS) under the administration of the United States and the Zionist regime (Israel), we can be confident that the conspiracies of these two criminal regimes are not over," Tasnim news agency quoted Ismail Ghaani as saying during his first visit to Syria since the death of the late commander of the Quds Force, Major-General Qassem Soleimani .
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2020
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[USAToday] Just less than two weeks after one of his most prominent corporate sponsors urged him to change the name of his football team, Washington owner Daniel Snyder plans to announce the retirement of the "Redskins" nickname and reveal a new team name Monday morning, a person with knowledge of the situation confirmed to USA TODAY Sports. Hold off, y'all. I understand the Indians name is coming open.
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement of a pending change had not been made. It's a secret, so don't tell nobody, okay?
The new name remains unknown, but Warriors, Red Wolves and Redtails have ranked among the post popular choices among fans on social media. How about the Russets? Red Peppers? Beets? I can hear the cheeers now: "Beat 'em, Beets!" Maybe "Bake 'em Russets!" Ooh! Ooh! Something Italiano? How about the Washington Iron Eyes?
Snyder has long ignored requests of Native American tribes and other organizations to change the name because some deem the term offensive, citing the fact that the dictionary classifies it as a racial slur. How about the Custers, then? No. He lost. How about a victorious general? General Crook? The Washington Crooks sounds so apropos.
In 2013, Snyder, who grew up cheering for the team and purchased it in 1999, told USA TODAY Sports that he would "NEVER" change the name. But never's such a long time. Keep the Injun theme, without the "only good one" connotation. How about the Washington Arrowheads? Go Heads!
He and the team have maintained that the name was intended to honor Native Americans. They pointed to a 2016 Washington Post survey that found that 9 of 10 Native Americans polled had no problem with the name. However, opposing Native American tribes questioned the accuracy of that research. Maybe something a little more alliterative? Washington Wampanoags, mebbe?
As the climate in the country has changed to a place of greater awareness of racial insensitivities, the Redskins name debate returned to the spotlight. A group of investors urged FedEx, Nike and Pepsi to join their fight to change the name. Meanwhile, reports surfaced that Washington’s minority owners also had encouraged Snyder to make a change. He had turned a deaf ear until FedEx, whose president and chairman Fred Smith owns a stake of the team, publicly demanded a change on July 2. Something Hispanic, perhaps? There probably wouldn't be any controversy about that. How about the Washington Goyas? They could replace the Jefferson nickle Injuns on the sides of their helmets with ears. On only one side. Think of the money it'd save?
The following day, Snyder issued a team statement that he would be conducting a thorough review of the matter. Shortly after, coach Ron Rivera told the Post that he hoped the new name could be in place by the start of the 2020 season, and revealed that he and Snyder shared a goal of honoring Native American culture and the military with the selection of the new name. Go Skins! How 'bout the Washington Foreskins?
#17
Surely someone asked some real Indians what they thought of losing the name. I thought the logo looked great, and I understand a redskin was the title for a warrior Indian. Big fear and ignorance
driven mistake in my mind.
#22
Babylon Bee already had this: The Washington Lizard People. It will make the politicians, bureaucrats, lobbyists and hangers on feel quite comfortable.
In all seriousness, the "Redtails" might work. Its after the 332nd Fighter Group, AKA Tuskegee airmen, from WW2. Mascot would be a P-51. Logo would be a WW2 airman in leather flying helmet in silhouette, and the colors could stay the same since the historical markings were primary red with yellow highlights. Cover a lot of ground: honot blacks, honor military (about time), and they only need to change the logo and 4 letters in their stuff.
Posted by: Marilyn Tojo7566 ||
07/13/2020 23:01
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[Al Ahram] The interior ministers of La Belle France and Britannia on Sunday signed an agreement creating a new joint police intelligence unit to combat migrant traffickers and reduce the "unsustainable" numbers crossing the Channel illegally.
La Belle France's new Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and his British counterpart Priti Patel met on Sunday in Calais in northern La Belle France, a region where migrants colonists have traditionally gathered in a bid to find a way to get to Britannia.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2020
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#1
Seeing as Britain and France escort those traffickers across the channel in organised convoys and there's video evidence of this... Let's just say i'm unconvinced anything will happen as the biggest people traffickers are the government.
[NYDAILYNEWS] A statue of St. Mary was spray-painted with the word "IDOL" early Friday outside Cathedral Prep School and Seminary in Queens.Staff of the Elmhurst private high school discovered the vandalism when they showed up for work Friday morning.
"Today, Cathedral Prep endured an act of hatred," said Father James Kuroly, Cathedral Prep’s rector and president. "We were victims of vandalism against a beloved statue that is dear to generations of Cathedral students."
Surveillance video shows the vandalism occurred at 3:09 a.m.
The vandal, who appears to be a white man, ran to the statue, scrawled his message in spray paint, and strolled away from the scene.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2020
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[Al Ahram] The Paleostinian Authority on Sunday imposed a night-time and weekend curfew on the occupied West Bank for the coming 14 days to try and rein in rising coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... numbers. "Attention: All riots, stone throwing, and molotov cocktailing must be done in daylight hours. That is all"
"Travel will be prohibited daily from 8:00 pm (1700 GMT) to 6:00 am in all governorates," as well as from Thursday evening to Sunday morning, Paleostinian government front man Ibrahim Melhem told a news conference.
In the addition to the general dawn-to-dusk curfew, major cities Ramallah, Hebron, Nablus and Bethlehem, will be under total lockdown until Thursday evening, he said, while travel between districts will be banned for two weeks.
Only pharmacies and bakeries will be allowed to open.
The man had attended a gathering with an infected person to test whether the coronavirus was real, said Dr. Jane Appleby, chief medical officer at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, where the man died.
Well, unlike some, he had the courage of his convictions.
#11
Man dies after COVID party? The Doctor, who witnessed his final words, offered nothing about any comorbidities? Other than terminal stupidity, of course. It's more scary if we think he was a picture of health. Oh, that's right - published in the NY Times.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/13/2020 15:59
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So all 12,000 were in contact with someone who tested positive, or someone in their unit was, but how many are actually sick — and how many are sick enough need an ICU? In other words, how many are in quarantine as a precaution?
[Al Ahram] One hilarious joke once circulating in Iraq referred to an imaginary "anti-concern" medicine named after former UN secretary-general the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon, known as much for his diplomatic clichés voicing concern over the tragic events in the country while lacking in action to stop them.
The fictional drug came in 200 mg tablets in blister packs advertised mockingly on social media as being a way to calm and pacify people in a state of trauma in the dystopian world of conflict-torn Iraq that many Iraqis blamed on UN failures in their country.
Soon the fictional drug became a political metaphor for UN dysfunction in ending the civil wars in Libya, Syria and Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... and its critical failures in addressing the Arab-Israeli conflict and the crises in Sudan, Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... and the Western Sahara.
Since 2003 when the United States invaded Iraq and triggered a geopolitical earthquake in the Middle East, more than a dozen UN envoys have tried to play the role of healer in the region’s civil wars, with none of them having any luck.
Whereas the Iraqis hoped the UN would stand by its mission of helping to turn Iraq into a functioning state following the US-led invasion in 2003, the organization did little to create the conditions for that to happen.
Instead of taking radical action to turn Iraq’s fortunes around, UN leaders said much but did little to bring about much-needed change in Iraq.
The UN has been blamed for much of the impasse in Iraq over the last 17 years, primarily for its failure in state-rebuilding efforts and the rehabilitation of an Iraqi society wrecked by the US occupation, prolonged civil conflict and governmental dysfunction.
The UN Security Council authorised the creation of a UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) in 2003 that was expected to anchor support for the country’s political transition with the strategic objective of creating genuine democracy in Iraq.
But instead of seeing the "peaceful and prosperous future" the UN was tasked to help the Iraqis to achieve, Iraq today is one of the most miserable countries in the world to live in. Eight UN diplomats have headed UNAMI since its inception, but Iraqis remember nothing tangible of what they have delivered apart from empty rhetoric.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2020
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#1
but they will
Posted by: Chris ||
07/13/2020 0:23
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#4
back in August 2003 just as the UN mission was gearing up it was attacked by a suicide truck bombing that wiped out a lot of their staff
the UN fellow in charge had ordered the US military to remove a lot of the security around the building because he wanted the UN mission to be seen as a 'friend of the people'.
Good intentions, road to hell, etc.
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/13/2020 10:11
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[JPOST] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire... ’s President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... vowed to "liberate al-Aqsa mosque" from Israel after "resurrecting Hagia Sophia" as a mosque on Friday.The decision to change the status of the ancient Hagia Sophia church, which had been transformed into a mosque in 1453 and then into a museum in 1934, was made controversially last week.
It follows an increasingly religious authoritarian agenda from Ankara that has made Turkey the world’s largest jailer of journalists, seen dissidents imprisoned for "terrorism" and witnessed increasing military invasions of neighboring countries by Turkey.
The resurrection of Hagia Sophia heralds the liberation of the al-Aqsa mosque, the Ottoman Turkish Presidency website says. "The resurrection of Hagia Sophia is the footsteps of the will of Moslems across the world to come... the resurrection of Hagia Sophia is the reignition of the fire of hope of Moslems and all oppressed, wrong, downtrodden and exploited."
The speech, which was in Ottoman Turkish, was translated slightly differently to Arabic and English, apparently as a way to hide part of Ankara’s full views on how it has linked Hagia Sophia to a wider agenda.
In Arabic the speech says that turning Hagia Sophia into a mosque is part of the "return of freedom to al-Aqsa," essentially meaning Israel should be ejected from controlling Jerusalem’s Old City where al-Aqsa is located.
Turkey’s president linked the decision to reviving Islam from Bukhara in Uzbekistan to Andalusia in Spain. This terminology, linking al-Aqsa in Jerusalem to Hagia Sophia and Spain, is a kind of coded terminology for a wider religious agenda. In the Ottoman Turkish translation the same reference to Spain does not appear to be included as in the Arabic.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2020
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#1
so far yall are fighting half ass militia groups, you realy think it's going to be that easy with Israel?
Posted by: Chris ||
07/13/2020 0:22
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#3
The hats thing for Turks is a mystery to me. Even the Janissary hats in the picture are goofy. But it shows pride in the display of the uniforms of units of enslaved Christian boys who were forceably taken and converted into slave soldiers and used as shock troops against Christian enemy’s by the Ottoman Empire, an insulting and disgusting. It seems Muslims love to use conquest imagery, symbols and even dates (9/11) against the West because we are too ignorant of our collective history to take offense.
[Al Ahram] Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation blamed a misalignment of a radar system and lack of communication between the air defence operator and his commanders for the accidental downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane in January that killed 176 people aboard.Iran's Revolutionary Guards shot down the Ukraine International Airlines flight with a ground-to-air missile on Jan. 8 shortly after the plane took off from Tehran, in what Tehran later acknowledged as a "disastrous mistake" by forces who were on high alert during a confrontation with the United States.
"A mistake in aligning the radar system had caused human error. An operator had forgotten to re-adjust the direction on the radar system after moving to a new position, an error that contributed to misreading the radar's data," an interim report on the Civil Aviation Organisation (CAO) website said.
The CAO report, which was published on late Saturday, said the missile battery that targeted the passenger plane had been relocated and "was not properly reoriented".
The downing occurred at a time of high tension between longtime foes Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and the United States. Iran was on alert for attacks after it fired missiles at Iraqi bases housing U.S. forces in retaliation for the killing on Jan. 3 of its most powerful military commander, Qassem Soleimani , in a U.S. missile strike at Baghdad airport.
"A failure occurred after the relocation of one of the air defence units of Tehran ... It occurred because of a human error," the CAO report said, adding that the plane was detected by the system as a target approaching Tehran.
The operator of the air defence system "lacked awareness of the relocation of the air defence unit", and fired the two missiles without authorisation from the command centre, the report said.
"When the first missile was fired, the passenger plane was flying at a normal altitude and trajectory," the report added.
Last month, Iran said the black boxes of the Boeing 737-800 airliner will be sent to La Belle France, to be analysed starting July 20.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2020
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#1
yeah, like shooting an anti aircraft missile at it.
Posted by: Chris ||
07/13/2020 0:21
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#2
Yea, it was an error to sell AA missiles to you primates.
[Al Ahram] Amid calls for a strike by some MPs and political moves by others to withdraw confidence from Tunisian parliament speaker Rached al-Ghannouchi, the country’s Islamist Ennahda Party, which is headed by al-Ghannouchi, is currently going through tough times.
According to al-Arabiya, a parliamentary source revealed that a number of political forces in parliament are "fed up with al-Ghannouchi’s suspicious moves and practices," including his "attempt to implement the Moslem Brüderbund’s agenda" in the North African country.
They also accused al-Ghannouchi of seeking to expand his authority by disregarding that of the president.
These Tunisian political forces believe that a conflict of interest exists between al-Ghannouchi’s roles as Ennahda’s leader and the speaker of the parliament.
As a result, they agreed to collect signatures for a vote of no confidence against al-Ghannouchi, the details of which they will officially reveal on Monday.
This step, the source said, has been undertaken by political forces including al-Kotla al-Democrateya (40 seats); Tahya Tounes (14 seats); al-Islah al-Watani (15 seats) and al-Kotla al-Wataneya (nine seats).
They are also backed by the Free Destourian Party, which has 17 seats in parliament. Awatef Koresh, a Destourian MP, told Sky News Arabia on Sunday that al-Ghannouchi represents a "threat to Tunisia’s security."
Koresh called on the rest of the political forces in the Tunisian parliament to join an open strike organised by her party against Ennahda.
However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... no other party has more seats than Ennahda (52 seats) in the Tunisian parliament. Overall, the parliament has 217 MPs.
This puts into question the chance for success of a no-confidence vote against al-Ghannouchi, especially since the anti-Ennahda forces have to—based on parliamentary regulations—secure an absolute majority (73 votes) for their bill to remove al-Ghannouchi from the top legislative post within only three weeks.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Ottoman Turkish newspaper, Hurriyet Daily, said on Saturday that at the Hagia Sophia icons and paintings of Christian mosaics will be covered with light-based technology.They explained that special curtains will be used during Islamic prayers, while carpets will be placed on the floor of the mosque, which will be lit in a certain way in order to darken the icons in the ceilings and walls.
Icons and mosaic panels are scattered in the walls and ceiling of Hagia Sophia, most of which carry Christian symbols such as the image of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary.
On Friday, Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... signed a decree to open the historic Hagia Sophia landmark to worship as a mosque as of July 24.
He published on his official Twitter account, a picture of the presidential decree that transforms the Department of Teacher Affairs, located in Istanbul, into the presidency of Ottoman Turkish religious affairs.
This came after the Ottoman Turkish Supreme Administrative Court issued a historical ruling to cancel the decision of the Ottoman Turkish government in 1934 that transformed this historic landmark from a mosque to a museum, and the new decision to characterize the Hagia Sophia as a mosque was based on the title deed.
This decision has drawn widespread criticism from Russia, Greece, the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , the United States and UNESCO.
The Hagia Sophia was built in 537 AD as the largest church in the Byzantine Empire, and after the conquest of Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) by the Ottoman Empire in 1453, it was converted into a mosque, and in 1934 the Ottoman Turkish secular government, led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, decided to turn it into a museum that would be visited by tourists from different countries of the world.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2020
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#1
Carpets?! They're retarded; that will ruin the acoustics.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/13/2020 5:39
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#2
That's OK it's nice to have a precedent for returning Mosques to civilised uses.
#5
When the Muslims first took over Constantinople they weren't offended by the Christian Icons. Otherwise such icons would have been destroyed long ago.
...USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) is on fire at San Diego. Witnesses are reporting at least one major explosion - an acquaintance of mine was a couple miles from the yard, and he felt it. It was a three alarm fire, but there are now reports that it is out of control and all firefighters have been pulled back. There were approximately 200 crew aboard when the fire started; and there are unconfirmed reports of about a dozen injuries. Pray God that's as bad as it gets.
Mike
[FoxNews] At least 21 people suffered minor injuries on Sunday after an explosion and fire broke out on the USS Bonhomme Richard at Naval Base San Diego, military officials said.
"Seventeen Sailors and four civilians are being treated for non-life-threatening injuries at a local hospital. All inport ships have been contacted and directed to provide fire parties to possibly assist with firefighting efforts," the Navy said in a statement.
The blaze was reported on the ship shortly before 9 a.m., said Krishna Jackson, the base's public information officer. As of Sunday evening, the fire had yet to be contained.
The Navy said Federal Fire San Diego is the on-scene lead for firefighting efforts on Naval Base San Diego combatting the fire.
“Currently there are two firefighting teams fighting the fire aboard the ship,” Federal Fire San Diego Division Chief Rob Bondurant said. “Federal Fire is rotating their crews aboard the ship with U.S. Navy firefighting crews from the waterfront to fight the fire in order to, find the seat of the fire and extinguish it. Also, Navy Region Southwest tugs are also continuously combatting the fire from the bay”
The origin of the fire is still unknown and is pending investigation.
Later Sunday, the Navy said two guided-missile destroyers were moved away from the Bonhomme Richard after it caught fire. One of the warships forced to switch births was the USS Fitzgerald, which had just returned to the fleet following a collision at sea off the coast of Japan three years ago that killed seven sailors.
"At approximately 1:00 p.m., USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62) shifted berths to a pier further away from the fire. USS Russell (DDG 59) moved approximately 30 minutes later," the Navy said.
U.S. Pacific Fleet Naval Surface Forces had tweeted earlier that 18 sailors "have been transferred to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries," adding that 160 were on board at the time of the explosion.
The cause of the fire was under investigation. Jackson didn't know where on the 840-foot amphibious assault vessel the explosion and the fire occurred.
Images of the fire initially showed a huge plume of smoke visible around San Diego. The city is the home port of the Bonhomme Richard, which was undergoing routine maintenance at the time of the fire.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday released a statement Sunday night, saying: "Today, we suffered a terrible tragedy aboard USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) when a fire broke out aboard the ship while in port San Diego. At this point, 17 Sailors and four civilians are being treated for non-life-threatening injuries at a local hospital. The remainder of the crew is accounted for. We are grateful for the quick and immediate response of local, base and shipboard firefighters aboard USS Bonhomme Richard. Our thoughts and prayers are with our BHR Sailors, their families and our emergency responders who continue to fight the fire. Godspeed."
USS Bonhomme Richard's bridge engulfed in flames as fire rages into the night:https://t.co/rlNl2nmJxr
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/13/2020
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#1
...An update from friends in San Diego and otherwise in the Business: the BHD is apparently totally engulfed in flames. The fire spread upwards to the island and the bridge, and God alone knows how deeply downwards in the hull. At this point, the ship is most likely a total loss. This will be the largest combatant hull (40,500 tons) ever lost for any reason by the USN.
The new America class is starting to come online (2 new ships with 9 more ordered) but there have been quiet rumors that the first two - America and Tripoli - were being shopped to South Korea. That may be on hold now if for no other reason than we can't afford to lose another big deck.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/13/2020 5:39
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Posted by: Frank G ||
07/13/2020 7:08
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#4
One wonders if it was sabotage. Where were the damage control parties. As former Navy, we all went through shipboard fire fighting. They could have broke out the OBA's, Applicators and fought this fire like it is taught in school. To lose a hull is total BS.
#5
#4 One wonders if it was sabotage. Where were the damage control parties. As former Navy, we all went through shipboard fire fighting. They could have broke out the OBA's, Applicators and fought this fire like it is taught in school. To lose a hull is total BS.
Posted by: Cloting B. Hayes6173 2020-07-13 07:26
...There were only about 200 folks aboard BHD when this took place - and most of them were shipyard workers. On top of that, I'm hearing that the firefighting foam system on the hangar deck - where this mess started - was tagged out due to the work being done. Occam's Razor tells us that the simplest explanation is almost always the accurate one, and I'm guessing that 'accident' is the explanation. A billion dollar accident that just whacked an appreciable fraction of our amphibious strike power, but an accident nevertheless.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/13/2020 7:34
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#6
Chinese and now Americans. Doesn't anybody know how to play this game?
#9
Still on fire. They are doing Helo water drops this AM
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/13/2020 9:37
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#10
Thirty miles north of the ship the air smells like an electrical fire, much different from the smell of brush fires that we get in October but no less disturbing.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/13/2020 12:10
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#11
I'm perfectly willing to assume this was an accident, but (a) we just lost a major fleet unit and (b) the Navy is having an awful lot of accidents lately (McCain, Fitzgerald, etc., and I suppose you could consider the LCS class an "accident".) Worse, if the Dems win, it's not real clear that we build another ship for a long time.
Posted by: Matt ||
07/13/2020 12:12
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#12
Worse, if the Dems win, it's not real clear that we build another ship for a long time.
#18
Seeking Cure For Ignorance commented in the O Club:
Re #4 "To lose a hull is total BS."
No it's possible for an otherwise intact hull to be a total loss. Keep in mind it's a warship and as such the hull has to use special grades of steel in order to withstand torpedos and missiles. A massive fire will weaken the steel to the point where (almost) a BB gun and shoot a pellet thru the hull, in which case, it's unsuitable to be a warship and thus be declared a total loss.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Ottoman Turkish Foreign Ministry said that the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) does not accept a ceasefire in the country, unless the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all. Actually, he is, but slowly... , withdraws from Sirte and al-Jafra, and returns to the Skhirat agreement.Ottoman Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, in an interview with the British newspaper, the Financial Times, that no ceasefire deal will be accepted until the LNA fully withdraws from Sirte and al-Jafra.
He said in the interview that the GNA is determined to continue its operations (against Haftar’s forces) unless Haftar withdraws from the coastal city of Sirte, and the al-Jafra region, which hosts a strategic air base.
Cavusoglu pointed out the danger "posed by the festivities that turned into a proxy war in Libya."
He stressed that the escalation of tension could lead to a direct conflict between foreign forces supporting the various parties in Libya.
Regarding the bombing of the al-Watiyah Airbase in western Libya, Cavusoglu confirmed that an investigation had been opened, and that those responsible for the bombing would be held accountable for their actions.
He pointed to the presence of Ottoman Turkish advisers and technicians at the al-Watiyah base, "which was liberated from Haftar forces on May 18," and that the Ottoman Turkish crew was not harmed by the bombing of the base.
Cavusoglu stated that during the visit of a delegation to Istanbul last month, Russia made a "concrete offer on the armistice with a specific date and hour for the armistice in Libya."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2020
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And there is absolutlely nothing Lebanon can do about it, which is why nyah-nyaaaah will kindly not be chanted.
[ALMASDARNEWS] On Saturday, the Lebanese army announced that Israeli warplanes and warships violated Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... ’s airspace and territorial waters several times.
A statement issued by the Lebanese Army last night said that an Israeli reconnaissance plane violated at 8:30 A.M. on Saturday morning, "Lebanese airspace over the sea west of the town of Naqqoura, up to and including Adloun.
The statement indicated that the Israeli plane "carried out a circular flight over the areas of the south, Beirut and its environs, Baabda and Aley, and then left the atmosphere at 14:35 from the sea, west of the town of Naqqoura."
"At 14:55, a similar enemy aircraft violated Lebanese airspace over the town of Kafr Kila, and carried out a circular flight over the areas of the south, then left at 16:05 hours over the aforementioned town," the statement continued.
As for the sea, the Lebanese Army indicated that two Israeli gunboats violated their territorial waters between 4:25 and 7:36 A.M. on Saturday, the Lebanese territorial waters opposite Ras al-Naqqoura, for a maximum distance of about 314 meters.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2020
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#1
Yes....And?
Posted by: Sonny Black ||
07/13/2020 7:07
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#2
What Lebanese sovereignty?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/13/2020 13:00
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Antifa rioters and people with shields try to move in closer to the entrance of the federal courthouse. They’re repelled by flashbangs and more. Rioters respond by throwing projectiles and glass bottles at police. Video by @livesmattershow: pic.twitter.com/LjMpngzsaP
Following yesterday’s attack on law enforcement at the Portland federal courthouse where an officer was hit on the head w/a hammer, a more aggressive police presence was shown tonight. When they made an arrest, the person allegedly had a seizure. #antifapic.twitter.com/GMKjO0oZB7
Portland city council woman @ChloeEudalyPDX & @OregonGovBrown blame the antifa and BLM violence last night on Donald Trump and federal police in newly released statements. They say federal police escalate conflict.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2020
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#1
I think they have a point. To wit, in order to get re-elected and found the coming One Thousand Year TrumpReich, President Trump has convinced the Democrats and their allies/stooges to go all Mad Max, toppling statues and burning American cities. This horrifies Mr & Mrs Middle America. Nobody wants to be the next Portland, even if the alternative is Trump in 2020. Five-dimensional chess. The man's a genius!
#7
These numbers should be widely publicized in Africa. You can look at the downside which is that 80 percent of them made it. But in Africa it should be emphasized that you have a 20 percent chance of dying if you make this journey.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/13/2020 12:32
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#8
Damn shame. Europe should invest in more coastal defenses.
#11
Yes, but of the less than 80% who survived (20% is the count of bodies found, not of people lost), how many were returned to Libya rather than transported to Europe? The article does not say.
[Al Ahram] A French court has sentenced to jail two former agents from the foreign intelligence service after convicting them of sharing secrets with China.
Following a trial in Gay Paree conducted in the utmost secrecy, the former officers with La Belle France's Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE) were convicted Friday of "sharing intelligence" with a foreign power.
Pierre-Marie H., 69, was handed a 12-year jail sentence while Henri M., 73, was given an eight-year term.
Pierre-Marie H.'s wife was convicted of concealment and sentenced to four years, with two suspended.
Both men, now retired, were charged and detained in December 2017, although they were allowed out on bail.
In 1997, Henri M. was appointed the DGSE's man in Beijing, where he was the second secretary at the embassy. He was recalled in 1998 after having an affair with the ambassador's Chinese interpreter.
He retired a few years later and returned to China in 2003, where he married the former interpreter, setting up a home on Hainan island in southern China.
Pierre-Marie H., who had never been posted abroad, was arrested at Zurich airport carrying cash after meeting a Chinese contact on an Indian Ocean island, according to media reports.
The DGSE has has seen a surge of interest in its work thanks to the hugely popular TV drama "Le Bureau des Legendes" (known as "Le Bureau" outside La Belle France).
The series contains some characters working for the DGSE who it turns out are sharing secrets with foreign powers.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2020
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[Al Ahram] Sudan will permit non-Moslems to consume alcohol and strengthen women's rights, including banning female genital mutilation (FGM), its justice minister said late on Saturday, in a reversal of almost four decades of hardline Islamist policies.
About 3% of Sudan's population is non-Moslem, according to the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... Alcoholic drinks have been banned since former President Jaafar Nimeiri introduced Islamic law in 1983, throwing bottles of whisky into the Nile in the capital Khartoum.
The transition government which took over after autocrat Omar al-Bashir ...Former President-for-Life of Sudan He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself head cheese. He fell out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Hee was overthrown by popular consent in 2019. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it... was toppled last year has vowed to lead Sudan to democracy, end discrimination and make peace with rebels.
Non-Moslems will no longer be criminalised for drinking alcohol in private, Justice Minister Nasredeen Abdulbari told state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
. For Moslems, the ban will remain. Offenders are typically flogged under Islamic law.
Sudan will also decriminalise apostasy and ban FGM, a practice which typically involves the partial or total removal of the external genitalia of girls and women, he said.
Women will also no longer need a permit from male members of their families to travel with their children.
Nimeiri's introduction of Islamic law was major catalyst for a 22-year-long war between Sudan's Moslem north and the mainly Christian south that led in 2011 to South Sudan's secession.
Bashir extended Islamic law after he took power in 1989.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2020
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[Telegraph] At the beginning of March, a lively debate took place about whether Britain should pursue a strategy of "herd immunity" – allowing coronavirus to spread until so many people had developed antibodies that it no longer posed a threat to public health – or place the entire country under lockdown. As is well-known, Boris Johnson initially embraced the former, saying the public needed to take the virus "on the chin", then performed a U-turn and imposed a full lockdown on March 23....
A reckoning is all very well, but what is the alternative? The gentleman now leading Labour who is busily cleaning out the occasional Jew-hater in his party?
#4
You know, recently I've been wondering.
We know that the original covid lies; it's not dangerous, there is no human transmission, hug a Chinese person, herd immunity; came from China through WHO.
What I'm wondering is
Did the subsequent "covid is hoax, lockdown is Auschwitz, masks are unconstitutional" movement developed spontaneously - like poison mushrooms growing in dark places - or it's still directed & financed from China?
[FoxNews] Tens of thousands of Russians took to the streets to protest the arrest of a regional governor, demanding both his release and President Vladimir Putin’s resignation, according to reports.
Sergei Furgal, the governor of Khabarovsk, is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, having defeated a candidate of Putin’s own United Russia party. Just days after Putin won a landslide ballot on constitutional reforms, Furgal was arrested on suspicion of multiple murders, according to the Moscow Times.
The alleged murders occurred between 2004-2005 in the Khabarovsk territory, resulting in the deaths of several businessmen while Furgal was himself involved in the timber and scrap metal trade.
[FoxNews] A federal officer in Portland, Ore., was struck in the head and shoulder with a hammer during protests outside a courthouse Friday night that resulted in several arrests, authorities said.
Several dozen protesters were gathered in the street outside the Justice Center when the demonstration turned violent, Portland police said in a news release.
An individual was trying to break down the door to the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse with a hammer when federal officers inside the building responded, police said.
The hammer-wielding suspect made a hole in the door before “deliberately” hitting a federal officer in the head and shoulder with the tool, police said. The officer's condition was not immediately available.
Federal officers used pepper spray and CS gas during the incident, police said. One arrest was made.
Police recovered the nearly 16-inch long hammer and released aerial footage from the scene near the Justice Center, which showed at least one fire lit and protesters blocking a street.
Over the course of the night, a second individual was arrested for vandalizing government property, while two others were detained for unlawfully pointing lasers into federal officers’ eyes, the department said.
Federal officers called for help around 2 a.m. because people were resisting arrest and protesters in the crowd were throwing bottles at them, police said. The crowd eventually dispersed just before 3:30 a.m.
Demonstrations against police brutality and racism in Portland continued for the 45th consecutive day Saturday, according to the Oregonian.
Businesses in downtown Portland have suffered $23 million in damage and lost business amid weeks of nightly chaotic and violent protests, Portland Deputy Police Chief Chris Davis said last week during a virtual news briefing.
More than 100 people – comprised of city employees and the public – have also sustained injuries, he said.
Portland city council woman says the Trailblazers “okay” hand poster at the courthouse is white supremacist. She demands that federal police leave Portland.
[GatewayPundit] Over $10,000 has been raised for the family of a young mother who was murdered by Black Lives Matter activists after she dared to say that "All Lives Matter."
The GoFundMe to help pay for Jessica Doty Whitaker’s funeral and take care of her young son went viral late Saturday night after kind and generous people heard the real story of her death for the first time.
Doty Whitaker was walking by the canal in Indianapolis after a Fourth of July celebration with her fiance and two friends when they were approached by a group of people saying that "Black Lives Matter."
Her family and fiance have said that when Whitaker responded that "All Lives Matter" the mob grew very aggressive and pulled a gun on them. Her fiance, Jose Ramirez, pulled one out defensively and the situation seemed to cool down. Unfortunately, he says that the group went and hid and waited for them to walk by them again. When they did, they ambushed the couple and shot Whitaker.
The national media completely ignored the story.
We don’t seem to have it, either.
Local media downplayed the shooting as "the second in the canal in a week," lumping her story in with a black teenager who was shot while attempting an armed robbery. They reported it as "according to the victim's family, the shooting started with an argument over Black Lives Matter and language." They never mentioned what that language was, the simple phrase that got her killed.
Her father, Robert Doty, confirmed to the Gateway Pundit that neither CNN nor Fox News has reached out for information about the case, despite the murderer still being on the loose.
#5
Though shame be forbidden, you'd better
Feel tons if you claim all lives matter.
"Such 'generous' creatures,"
Screech preachers and teachers,
"Must stitch... byatch... our new scarlet letter!"
[MedicalXpress] A commentary published in the journal Pediatrics, the official peer-reviewed journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, concludes that children infrequently transmit COVID-19 to each other or to adults and that many schools, provided they follow appropriate social distancing guidelines and take into account rates of transmission in their community, can and should reopen in the fall.
The authors, Benjamin Lee, M.D. and William V. Raszka, Jr., M.D., are both pediatric infectious disease specialists on the faculty of the University of Vermont's Larner College of Medicine. Dr. Raszka is an associate editor of Pediatrics.
The authors of the commentary, titled "COVID-19 Transmission and Children: The Child Is Not to Blame," base their conclusions on a new study published in the current issue of Pediatrics, "COVID-19 in Children and the Dynamics of Infection in Families," and four other recent studies that examine COVID-19 transmission by and among children.
—In the new Pediatrics study, Klara M. Posfay-Barbe, M.D., a faculty member at University of Geneva's medical school, and her colleagues studied the households of 39 Swiss children infected with COVID-19. Contact tracing revealed that in only three (8%) was a child the suspected index case, with symptom onset preceding illness in adult household contacts.
—In a recent study in China, contact tracing demonstrated that, of the 68 children with COVID-19 admitted to Qingdao Women's and Children's Hospital from January 20 to February 27, 2020, 96% were household contacts of previously infected adults. In another study of Chinese children, nine of 10 children admitted to several provincial hospitals outside Wuhan contracted COVID-19 from an adult, with only one possible child-to-child transmission, based on the timing of disease onset.
—In a French study, a boy with COVID-19 exposed over 80 classmates at three schools to the disease. None contracted it. Transmission of other respiratory diseases, including influenza transmission, was common at the schools.
—In a study in New South Wales, nine infected students and nine staff across 15 schools exposed a total of 735 students and 128 staff to COVID-19. Only two secondary infections resulted, one transmitted by an adult to a child.
"The data are striking," said Dr. Raszka. "The key takeaway is that children are not driving the pandemic. After six months, we have a wealth of accumulating data showing that children are less likely to become infected and seem less infectious; it is congregating adults who aren't following safety protocols who are responsible for driving the upward curve."
Rising cases among adults and children in Texas childcare facilities, which have seen 894 COVID-19 cases among staff members and 441 among children in 883 child care facilities across the state, have the potential to be misinterpreted, Dr. Raszka said. He has not studied the details of the outbreak.
#5
Hard to believe. What's protecting them? A better balanced immune system?
And either way there are going to be a number of immunocompromised kids especially as you go up through college age and their professors. Online attendance should be an option if parents or adult students opt for it.
[Al Ahram] Mali's opposition on Sunday rejected concessions by President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita aimed at resolving an escalating political crisis that has sparked deadly protests, saying it would be satisfied only if he resigns.
Keita announced in a speech late on Saturday he was dissolving the Constitutional Court and would move to implement recommendations made last month by regional bloc ECOWAS, which included re-running some of March's contested legislative elections.A front man for M5-RFP, a coalition of political, religious and civil society leaders that launched protests over a month ago calling for Keita to resign, rejected his proposal.
"We are not going to accept this nonsense," the front man, Nouhoum Togo, told Rooters. "We demand his resignation plain and simple."
Keita, who won a second term in 2018, has faced mounting public discontent over a perceived failure to address the country's security and economic problems. The wave of protests was sparked by a dispute over the elections. The court that Keita proposed dissolving reversed several provisional results, handing additional seats in parliament to the president's party.
Four people died in the capital Bamako on Friday during a demonstration where protesters occupied the parliament and national broadcaster, the government said. It was the third major protest organised by the M5-RFP since June 5.
[Al Ahram] Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... 's top Christian holy man stepped up criticism of the Iran-backed Shia group Hezbollah and its allies without naming them on Sunday, saying Lebanese rejected being isolated from their allies and driven into decline.Lebanon is suffering a financial meltdown which marks the biggest threat to its stability since the 1975-90 civil war.
For the second sermon in a row, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai stressed the importance of Lebanon's neutrality, implicit criticism of the heavily armed Hezbollah over its support for Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... in conflicts with Sunni-led Gulf Arab states.
Rai carries weight as the head of the Maronite church, the Christian community from which the president must be drawn in a sectarian system of government.
His last two sermons have been seen to mark a shift to a more openly critical stance against the policies of both Hezbollah and its ally President Michel Aoun ...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... Both back the government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab.
"The intervention was seen as a shift in his politics away from supporting the president and more into criticising the political position of the country, regionally and internationally," Mohanad Hage Ali of the Carnegie Middle East Center said.
Rai, in a copy of the sermon sent by email, said Lebanese "rejected any ... parliamentary majority messing with the constitution ... and Lebanon's model of civilisation, and that it isolate it from its brothers and friends ... and that it move it from abundance to want and from prosperity to decline".
Lebanon's crisis is rooted in decades of state corruption and bad governance by the sectarian ruling elite.
Hezbollah's opponents say it shoulders blame as its alliance with Iran has led Gulf Arab states that once supported Lebanon to keep their distance, closing off an important source of aid.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... has called on Lebanon to look east as it seeks help fix the economy, though he said last week this does not mean the country should cut itself from the rest of the world.
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07/13/2020
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#1
how long do yall think before he gets killed?
Posted by: Chris ||
07/13/2020 0:20
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Admiral Alexander Shertbitsky, head of the Center for Reconciliation between the Warring Parties in Syria, said on Sunday that the Russian air defenses foiled a jihadist attack on the Hmeimim Airbase along the Syrian coast.Shertbitsky said this evening: "On July 11, at about 10:30 P.M.), Russian air defense systems identified two drones approaching the area around the Russian Hmeimim Air Force Base from the northeast, and Russian airplanes destroyed the two planes from five kilometers away from the air base".
The Russian Reconciliation Center commander added that no one was hurt at the base and no material damage was reported.
According to a source in the coastal city of Jableh last night, the joint air defenses of the Syrian and Russian forces managed to foil the jihadist attack before it could do any damage to the area.
The source said the jihadist drones took off from the Latakia-Idlib axis, which has long been their launching point for these attacks.
The Syrian and Russian forces have yet to respond to this jihadist attack; however, they typically respond within 24-48 hours of these bully boy strikes.
The French gaming giant launched the probe last month after troubling allegations of sexual misconduct and a 'toxic' working environment surfaced
Chief Creative Officer Serge Hascoet, the man behind Assassin's Creed and other blockbusters, has resigned effective immediately
Vice Presidents Tommy Francois and Andrien 'Escoblades' Gbinigie have also been suspended - each man faced at least three claims of misconduct
More than 20 other employees are currently under investigation with more departures likely, reports suggest
Ashraf Ismail, the creative director of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, stepped down from the company last month amid allegations of infidelity
‘Ubisoft has fallen short in its obligation to guarantee a safe and inclusive workplace environment for its employees,’ the company said
People forget the rules of normal behaviour in a skunkworks situation — and the cleanup afterward reveals the destroyed lives. After the first year working in one such group, Mr. Wife negotiated a more normal assignment in the company; he could see where it was going, and did not want to be part of the crash at the end — despite the great strides they were making in the project itself.
#2
I would say that video games are significantly less messed up, only because of the large number of small companies in the field that manage to produce large numbers of quality, profitable, and relatively popular games each year (as opposed to most other forms of entertainment, which are dominated by just a couple giant companies).
I just like to watch the machine-human interaction. It's quite a thing, the way video games are going to be the new netflix, but will reach deeper and actually condition people.
A lot of the 'rainbow farting unicorn' crowd is bad at games, I reckon. They are trying to find an ingress into the minds who are good at games. Which will be difficult.
[Al Ahram] Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... 's Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... movement has agreed to provide the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... access to a stranded oil tanker that risks causing an environmental disaster off the coast of the war-divided country, two U.N. sources familiar with the matter said.
The U.N. earlier this week said it was extremely concerned after water entered the engine room of Safer tanker, which carries 1.1 million barrels of crude oil and has been stranded off the Red Sea oil terminal of Ras Issa for over five years.
The sources said that the Iran-aligned Houthi group, which controls the port, sent a letter approving the deployment of a U.N. technical team to the tanker.
The United Nations is also discussing with Yemen's warring parties about arranging the sale of the crude and dividing proceeds between Yemen's Saudi-backed government and the Houthi group that ousted it from power in the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014.
The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to hold a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the Safer tanker issue which has been mired in disputes over control of ports and revenues.
Yemen's oil output has collapsed since a Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 against the Houthis, who control Sanaa and most big urban centres including the main Red Sea port of Hodeidah. The Saudi-backed government holds eastern and southern areas where Yemen's oil-and-gas fields are located.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] On Saturday evening, the Libyan National Army, led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all. Actually, he is, but slowly... , issued an important statement regarding the opening of ports and oil fields in the country.
The Libyan National Army’s front man, Major General Ahmed al-Mismari, said in the recorded statement:
"Concerning its commitment to implement the orders of the Libyan people regarding ports and oil fields at a time when the General Command of the Libyan Arab Armed Forces values the Libyan people’s great confidence in their armed forces, through their mandate to negotiate with the international community to reach the just demands of the Libyan tribes and people, which they defined as conditions for the reopening of oil ports and fields."
According the Mismari, these are the stipulations that must be met before the oil fields and ports can be reopened:
First — Opening an account for a country in which oil revenues are deposited with a clear mechanism for the equitable distribution of these revenues to all Libyan people in all Libyan cities and regions, and with international guarantees.
Second — Establishing a transparent mechanism and international spending guarantees to ensure that these revenues do not go to finance terrorism and mercenaries and that the Libyan people benefit only from them and they have the right to the wealth of their country.
Third — The need to review the accounts of the Central Bank of Libya in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... to find out how and where oil revenues were spent during the past years, which the people were prevented from benefiting from, and to hold accountable those who caused their waste and misplaced their spending.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#Iraq : Saraya Thawret al-Eshrin c laim the attack on a convoy of 4 trucks carrying logistic support to the #US forces in Diwanyha-Semawa south of Iraq. It is part of a reminder to the #US forces that they should leave and that the intensity of the attacks will gradually escalate pic.twitter.com/YdX5tXGaQD
#BreakingNews : American logistics convoy was targeted on the road between Samawah and Diwaniyah, south of #Baghdad, #Iraq. These convoys are usually manned and run by local contractors and not US Forces. pic.twitter.com/G9e1Zm4WeS
This viral video purportedly shows a logistic #US military convoy, including 2 fuel tankers and a cargo truck carrying a Hummer, on fire in Al Diwaniyah city in #Iraq. There has been no word on possible casualties. pic.twitter.com/r2Gy3QdUvD
[Jpost] A video of several burning trucks on Saturday night allegedly showed an attack on a convoy transporting vehicles to a US base in Iraq, according to social media with ties to pro-Iranian militias. The attack supposedly targeted Americans in Iraq or at least was meant to.
It is part of the wider campaign to try to intimidate and threaten the US to leave Iraq. It is not the first time a convoy was targeted. In February, a supply convoy was attacked. While the US denied an attacked had taken place, Fars News in Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... reported the attack with photos, saying it happened in Diwaniyah province. An gang set fire to three US vehicles being transported by truck, a security source said. Firefighters extinguished the fire, and the Iraqi Ministry of Defense is investigating.
US helicopters were reported to be in the vicinity. Injured people, apparently civilians, were brought to a nearby hospital. The Iranian reports said the convoy was from Basra and heading to an unidentified base.
A group called Sayara Thora al-Ashrin, or SarayaAshreen Thani, grabbed credit. The same group’s name can be spelled SarayaThorat al-Ashrin. In recent months a number of new pro-Iranian groups have popped to claim attacks on the US, apparently part of a plan to distance these rogue elements from the official government paramilitary forces that includes elements of Kataib Hezbollah and pro-Iran militias. These groups have names like Usbat al-ThaireenAshab al-Kahaf or SarayaShuhadaThawarAshreen al-Thani.
The attack underpins the uncertainty in Iraq and the increasing pressure on the US to leave the country. Diwaniyah is on a road that leads from southern Iraq toward Baghdad. If one wants to transport Humvees and vehicles from US bases in Kuwait, they might take this route or nearby Route 1. al-Mayadeen and other media in the region that lean toward Iran reported the incident.
SarayaThurat al-Ashrin also claimed it had carried out a similar attack in June. Some of the video and images from the alleged July 11 attack were old, so it was not clear the extent of the attack or if it happened at all.
What is important is not necessarily whether it happened or who was in the vehicles but rather the attempt to create an atmosphere of attacks, pushed by pro-Iranian media, to pave the way for larger real attacks, such as the dozens of rockets fired at US bases in Iraq over the last year.
The creation of new groups that claim to target the US is also part of this pattern — whether these groups really exist or are just a rebranding of existing cells from Kataib Hezbollah or other groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2020
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The family of the man injured by federal police at the Portland antifa/BLM riot says they may sue. He was recorded throwing a gas canister toward police and then was shot in the head with a rubber munition. https://t.co/U7VD5OByWL
#2
Labella's Mom needs a beatdown for bringing that POS into this world?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/13/2020 6:56
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#3
Sure, let them sue. Some ambulance-chaser lawyer will be more than happy to take the case. Besides, after the travesty going on with that Missouri couple, they might as well give it a shot.
[Al Ahram] Arch-foes Armenia and Azerbaijan traded accusations of launching a military offensive using artillery fire along their shared border on Sunday, with Baku reporting two troops killed.Azerbaijan's defence ministry said Armenia's "offensive" from its northern Tavush region was met with a "counterstrike" and retreated.
"Two Azerbaijani servicemen were killed and five more maimed," it added.
Yerevan, on its part, accused Baku of "using artillery in an attack aimed at capturing (Armenian) positions."
"They were repulsed, suffering losses in manpower. There were no casualties among Armenian servicemen," Armenia's defence ministry spokeswoman, Shushan Stepanyan, said in a Facebook post.
Fighting resumed late in the night with Azerbaijani forces shelling Armenian positions from trench mortars and tanks, according to Stepanyan.
"Azerbaijan's political and military leadership will bear the responsibility for the consequences of the escalation," she said.
The two former Soviet republics have for decades been locked in a simmering conflict over Nagorny Karabakh, a breakaway territory which was at the heart of a bloody war in the 1990s.
But the Sunday festivities were far from Karabakh, and directly between the two Caucasus states, which happens rarely.
Since a fragile 1994 ceasefire, peace talks between Baku and Yerevan have been mediated by the "Minsk Group" of diplomats from La Belle France, Russia, and the United States.
- SPECTRE OF WAR -
Sunday's festivities erupted days after Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev raised the spectre of a fresh war with Armenia and denounced stalled peace talks.
On Tuesday, Aliyev threatened to withdraw from Karabakh negotiations "if they yield no results." He did not provide details.
Citing the right to self-defence enshrined in the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... Charter, he rejected the negotiators' premise that "there is no military solution to the conflict".
An all-out war between the two countries could potentially envelop the entire Caucasus, dragging in regional powers -- Armenia's military ally Russia and Azerbaijan's patron The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... -- which compete for geopolitical influence in the strategic region.
Commenting on the festivities on Sunday, Aliyev said "Armenia's military adventure is aimed at dragging into the conflict the military-political organization of which it is a member."
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The jihadist rebels launched a surprise attack in the southern countryside of the Idlib Governorate last night, targeting the Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) positions from the north.
According to the Russian Reconciliation Center, the jihadists launched the attack with more than 250 fighters, resulting in the death of eight of the bad boys.
They added that the Syrian forces repelled the attack without suffering any casualties of their own.
A source from the Syrian Army said the attack by the jihadist rebels was short-lived, as they abandoned the assault after sustaining a number of casualties along the front-lines.
On March 5, the Russian and Ottoman Turkish sides reached an agreement for a ceasefire in the Idlib Governorate, to establish a security corridor and to conduct joint patrols.
Armed groups violated the Russian-Ottoman Turkish ceasefire agreement more than once by launching attacks on Syrian Army positions, the largest of which was last May, on the village of al-Tanjara in the al-Ghaab Plain, which was accompanied by violent mostly peacefulfestivities, after which the Syrian Army withdrew, returning later to retake the area seized by the jihadist rebels.
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Rudy Giuliani blasted the Black Lives Matter movement on Friday on Hannity
'It's certainly a violent organization and I believe in the course of time it will be shown to be a terrorist organization,' Donald Trump's lawyer said
Giuliani has previous denounced the group as racist, even though it seeks to fight against racial inequality and the oppression of black people That’s certainly what the group claims. Their actions, however, show they’re a typical Black Bloc anarcho-communist front.
Giuliani slammed it for its ties to Susan Rosenberg, a radical activist who was a part of terror group M19CO (May 19th Communist Organization), which sought to overthrow the US government through armed action and a people's militia. The group was a part of the Black Power Movement and the New Communist Movement.
She was jailed in 1984 and pardoned by President Bill Clinton in 2001
Giuliani also slammed New York Mayor Bill De Blasio's commission of a Black Lives Matter mural outside Trump Tower
BLM is a network run by umbrella organization Thousand Currents, which radical activist Susan Rosenberg serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors.
#1
What the heck does it take to prove a group is a terrorist group? This group has looted, burned, destroyed, shot, beat up, raped, murdered...you name it. Many should be facing the needle.
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.
...Arabic for 
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
[KTLA-5 Los Angeles] The family of a man who was beaten and robbed inside a Lancaster grocery store last week called for unity after the arrest of two suspects on Saturday.
[Bay Today] Leaves of three, let it be. Many of us were taught this rhyme as children to keep us on the lookout for the dreaded poison ivy plant. If you think you’re seeing more of it these days, it’s probably not your imagination. It’s also likely to be larger than you’ve seen it in the past and will cause a more potent rash.
[Babylon Bee] Supreme Court, this time you’ve gone too far.
[MAIL] As the wooden boards are taken down from shopfronts and studio lots grind slowly back to life, Hollywood is basking in an unseasonable heatwave. 
[Politico] We’re economists, and our analysis suggests Congress is seriously underfunding efforts to combat Covid-19.
[American Thinker] Jeffrey Epstein went to (or was sent to) the grave keeping his secrets. However, Ghislaine Maxwell almost certainly shares the same secrets. The latest allegation is that she has or had videos of two "high profile" American politicians, as well as two other influential people, having sex with underage girls. If that’s true, it’s reasonable to believe that she has more than just those videos. A lot of famous people may soon be in trouble, although probably not Trump, who wised up a long time ago about Epstein.
[PJ] Portland prosecutors just dropped the charges against Black Lives Matter and antifa rioters who have turned downtown Portland into a hell-scape after six weeks of rioting. Rioters who are arrested are ticketed and released.
[BIZPACREVIEW] A schizophrenic, possibly anti-religious Florida man — it’s always a Florida man — who was reportedly off his medication crashed into the Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Ocala early Saturday morning and then proceeded to set its foyer on fire.
[Al Ahram] 
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
[ALMASDARNEWS] On Saturday, the Iranian authorities announced the killing of a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards officer named Ibrahim Asmi in Syria.
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
[USAToday] Just less than two weeks after one of his most prominent corporate sponsors urged him to change the name of his football team, Washington owner Daniel Snyder plans to announce the retirement of the "Redskins" nickname and reveal a new team name Monday morning, a person with knowledge of the situation confirmed to USA TODAY Sports. 
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all. Actually, he is, but slowly...
...Former President-for-Life of Sudan He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself head cheese. He fell out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to 
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
[Al Ahram] Arch-foes Armenia and Azerbaijan traded accusations of launching a military offensive using artillery fire along their shared border on Sunday, with Baku reporting two troops killed.Azerbaijan's defence ministry said Armenia's "offensive" from its northern Tavush region was met with a "counterstrike" and retreated.
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
