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Nigeria: 602 Boko Haram terrorists surrender
Today's Headlines
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Economy
Germany's sex workers demand to go back to work as coronavirus ban continues
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 15:30 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under:


Good morning
De Blasio says he has ‘no
respect’ for NYPD union leadership
Friday July 17th, 2020

1902 Marie Doro 4e1410658938145dce6
Libya (GNA) denounces Egyptian president's threats
In Tunisia's caretaker government, Ennahda ministers excluded
Tanker off UAE sought by US over Iran sanctions ‘hijacked’
Unarmed city workers will replace cops to conduct traffic stops in Berkeley, California, to 'limit racial profiling'
In the past 48 hours 26 drug traffickers nabbed in separate Counter- Narcotics operations in Afghanistan
Security forces in Iran shoot live rounds to disperse protests
Oregon lawmakers consider closing
prisons due to budget shortfall: report

Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 14:26 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [27 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Doesn't own a hairbrush?
Posted by: jpal || 07/17/2020 15:58 Comments || Top||

#2  ..there was a lockdown in 1902?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/17/2020 16:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Looks kinda (19)80s... big hair n shoulder pads
Posted by: Lumpy Mussolini7603 || 07/17/2020 16:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Love the eyes, and eyebrows.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 07/17/2020 16:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Early Bellatrix Lestrange model
Posted by: Frank G || 07/17/2020 17:18 Comments || Top||

#6  Ten cents! See the Wild Girl of Helena!
A bear? Well, bare-headed. She dwelt in a
Handbasket, careless
Of looks -- but not hairless! --
And murdered her dresser and milliner.
Posted by: Spanky Thing4713 || 07/17/2020 18:32 Comments || Top||

#7  I'll take Helena Bonham Carter for 600 Alex.

Posted by: jpal || 07/17/2020 22:35 Comments || Top||

#8  Eschew you the old Merchant Ivory,
So void of all shuckin' an' jivery!
Yes, shoot those old elephants,
Damn their irrelevance,
Herd me? Yo, on to the library!
Posted by: Zorba Whoting5984 || 07/17/2020 23:29 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been undergoing chemotherapy to treat recurrence of cancer
[FoxNews] Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been undergoing chemotherapy treatment since May because of a recurrence of cancer, the justice said in a statement Friday.

"I have often said I would remain a member of the Court as long as I can do the job full steam," Ginsburg said. "I remain fully able to do that."

The announcement comes after being discharged from the hospital earlier this week for another health issue.

Her hospitalization this week was unrelated to the cancer treatment, the justice said in the statement. Tuesday's hospital stint was to remove gall stones and treat an infection, the court said. She was discharged one day later.

The liberal justice, 87, has faced a slew of health concerns in recent years. She has previously revealed several bouts with cancer including colorectal, pancreatic and lung cancers.

In Friday's statement, Ginsberg said she began chemotherapy this spring after a periodic scan followed by a biopsy revealed lesions on her liver. The chemotherapy is "yielding positive results," she said, after a July 7 scan indicated a significant reduction of the liver lesions and no new disease.

Ginsberg said she will continue to receive bi-weekly cancer treatment but is able to maintain an "active daily routine."

In May, Ginsburg was hospitalized with an infection caused by a gallstone.

In November, she was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital after experiencing chills and a fever.

In 2018, she was hospitalized with three fractured ribs after a fall at her office.
Posted by: Frank G || 07/17/2020 12:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "I have often said I would remain a member of the Court as long as I can do the job full steam," Ginsburg said. "I remain fully able to do that."

Her 'job' is keeping the seat out of Republican hands as long as humanly possible. Pity too, as by all appearances she is a very sick old lady.
Posted by: Iblis || 07/17/2020 13:08 Comments || Top||

#2  At some point (now?) this is just cruelty to a sick elderly woman.
Posted by: Tom || 07/17/2020 13:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Its sad when my first thought is that this is a false story to improve Lefty turn-out in November.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 07/17/2020 14:04 Comments || Top||

#4  So, according to the media, cancer is "an infection."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 07/17/2020 14:14 Comments || Top||

#5  She will continue to try to sit on the court until a communist is elected.

I think she will die before the November election.
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/17/2020 14:41 Comments || Top||

#6  She is certainly one tough old bird. And makes more sense than Roberts, even when I don't agree with her.
Posted by: Glenmore || 07/17/2020 17:57 Comments || Top||

#7  /\ Hear, hear.
Posted by: Clem || 07/17/2020 17:58 Comments || Top||

#8  ^^ hear hear
Posted by: KBK || 07/17/2020 18:14 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas admits naval officer spied for Israel
[JPost] Didn't they deny it?
Acknowledgment follows denial he passed information before defecting.
Why yes, yes they did
After denying such reports, Hamas has now confirmed that one of its naval commanders fled to Israel after providing it with intelligence.

Abu Mohammed, a Hamas military spokesman, told The Media Line that the defector was a junior officer in the organization's highly regarded naval unit.

The daring escape was first reported on Saturday by the Saudi news channel Al Arabiya, which said the officer and his brother escaped with a laptop and surveillance equipment as part of a 72-hour operation led by Israel's Mossad spy agency.

Hamas immediately issued a statement calling the report "fake news" benefitting Israel, and harshly criticized the news outlet.

"The aim [of the report] is to harm the Palestinian people and [damage] their confidence in the resistance and liberation project," Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said at the time. "Al Arabiya is promoting rumors that serve the occupation by destabilizing the home front in Gaza."
Posted by: Frank G || 07/17/2020 10:21 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [18 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  And now ships are burning?
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 11:27 Comments || Top||

#2  HAMAS has a navy?
Posted by: Spot || 07/17/2020 12:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Both Buda and Pest Admiral Horthy
Commanded, all shipshape and sporty:
The bridge he would waltz
To the smell of, well, schmaltz,
And the roar of his poor pianoforte.
Posted by: Flert Lumumba6913 || 07/17/2020 20:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Not a navy as such, I believe, but definitely a frogman unit that from time to time swims around the barrier between Gaza and Israeli shoreline in order to access attackable Jewish civilians.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/17/2020 21:02 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
China's Deepening Geopolitical Hole
[Project Syndicate ht Insty] The UK's decision to ban Huawei from its 5G networks is only the latest diplomatic setback for China. So, as China’s leaders ponder how to respond, they should heed the first rule of holes: when you are in one, stop digging.
They forgot that belligerence and bullying doesn't make friends
The United Kingdom's decision to ban Huawei from its 5G networks has dealt a painful blow to China. Until recently, China was still counting on the UK to stick to its earlier decision to allow the Chinese telecom giant to supply non-core equipment for the country's 5G networks.

The lack of a coordinated national response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States has predictably resulted in an unmitigated economic and public-health disaster. The problem is and always has been that those in a position to do something about such crises do not speak for most Americans.

But two recent developments made such a decision untenable. The first was the United States' escalation of its war on Huawei. The US instituted a new sanction in May banning suppliers that use American technology from providing semiconductors to Huawei. Because US technology is used to manufacture the advanced semiconductors that Huawei's products, including 5G base stations, require, the company's supply will be cut off, making production of its 5G equipment in the future nearly impossible.The prospect that a key supplier of the UK's 5G networks would no longer be able to build and maintain its system is a far more serious threat than potential Chinese snooping is. No responsible government can afford to take such a risk. So, Huawei's days were numbered as soon as the US government pulled the trigger in May. The only question was when Prime Minister Boris Johnson would tell President Xi Jinping the bad news. The second development, which made it politically easier for Johnson to embrace the Huawei ban, is China's imposition of its new national security law on Hong Kong. This draconian legislation, which was proposed in late May and passed by China's rubber-stamp parliament on June 30, has for all practical purposes ended the autonomous status of the former British colony. From the UK's perspective, China's action is a blatant violation of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong, which includes China's pledge to respect and protect the city's legal system and civil liberties for 50 years after its reversion to Chinese rule in 1997.Chinese leaders might think that the UK is too weak to fight back. Clearly, they are wrong.

The UK has decided to take a stand on Hong Kong, and Huawei is an easy and obvious target.China may be tempted to strike back, and would seem to have plenty of leverage. It can squeeze UK firms doing business in China. For example, the British banking giant HSBC is especially vulnerable to bullying, because its operations in Hong Kong account for slightly more than half of its profits and a third of its revenue. China may also want to cut down financial transactions it conducts through London and reduce the number of Chinese students it sends to UK colleges and universities.

But such retaliatory measures, however tempting, would ultimately boomerang. Driving HSBC from Hong Kong would surely ruin the city as a global financial center, because China would be unable to find another global bank to take over its vital role. Given the spiraling tensions between the US and China, it is hard to imagine that China would favor Citi or JPMorgan Chase as a successor to HSBC.

Similarly, restrictions on studying in the UK would hurt China more. Currently, about 120,000 Chinese study in the UK. The challenge for China is that there are few good alternatives if it wants to send students elsewhere. The US is considering restricting Chinese students on national-security grounds. China has threatened Australia that it will reduce the number of Chinese tourists and students. Canadian universities, which now host about 140,000 Chinese students, have limited capacity. With China and Canada embroiled in a diplomatic standoff over the extradition to the US of Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, it is unlikely that China will send more students there.This merely illustrates the daunting reality Xi now faces: China is fast losing friends just when it needs them most. In the last few months alone, China's relations with India have suffered a devastating blow after a bloody border clash left at least 20 Indian soldiers (and an unspecified number of Chinese soldiers) dead. To punish Australia for daring to call for an international investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus, China imposed tariffs on Australian barley and threatened other punitive measures. On July 14, China's foreign ministry denounced Japan's recent Defense White Paper in unusually harsh language, raising doubts about the rapprochement Xi has been trying to engineer with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Chinese leaders have only themselves to blame for their growing international isolation. With an inflated sense of their power, they have overplayed a weak hand and driven friendly or neutral countries such as the UK, Canada, India, and Australia into the arms of the US, now China's principal geopolitical adversary.
So, as China's leaders ponder how to respond to the UK's ban on Huawei, they should heed the first rule of holes: when you are in one, stop digging.
Posted by: Frank G || 07/17/2020 10:12 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [20 views] Top|| File under: Commies


-Land of the Free
Twitter Troller in Chief Trolls Puppet Master

Pres. Trump at least recognizes who is the puppet master. More than can be said for most GOP officials.
Posted by: Herb Omomosing8705 || 07/17/2020 09:41 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [19 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lets see.. the UK loved what he did to their currency. Same for asia.
Hungry his home country has lots of love for him NOT!
Deport him to Hungry.
Posted by: 3dc || 07/17/2020 15:20 Comments || Top||

#2  It's a family business. Nice to have a New Yorker in a place that recognizes that fact.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/17/2020 16:04 Comments || Top||


Britain
Navy tests the use of NETS to snare migrants in the Channel as record numbers cross illegally from France
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • Military ships worked with UK Border Force to try out tactics in May and June

  • Priti Patel revealed the scheme as she blamed Paris for the ongoing crisis

  • More than 2,750 thought to have reached the UK across the Channel this year
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 09:02 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [23 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Feeling fuel-ish? Hilarious moment baffled driver tries to fill up his Tesla at a gas station before finally realising it's an ELECTRIC car
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 08:36 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yeah don't take that thing on the road, buddy. If you don't know what you've got, and probably don't know about the dedicated Tesla power stations, you ought not to be driving anywhere too far.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 07/17/2020 15:29 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Northeast braces for a heat wave with 90% of the U.S. population expected to experience temperatures of at least 90F - and it will feel like 110F in New York on Sunday
[Daily Mail] Remember to shut off your A/C - latest Covid advice
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 08:03 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [21 views] Top|| File under:


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Oregon lawmakers consider closing prisons due to budget shortfall: report
[FoxNews]
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 07:56 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [31 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If only we could close out lawmakers and the bureaucracy that supports them to save money.
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/17/2020 15:00 Comments || Top||

#2  I imagine that they will join B!M as they can riot and loot without fear of going to jail.
Posted by: Flusorong Darling of the Faith3280 || 07/17/2020 16:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Oregon lawmakers appear to justify their dissolution as they no longer act as a legitimate government.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/17/2020 20:07 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
New Yorkers flock to bars after Cuomo announced a ‘three strikes and you're closed crackdown on bars that fail to enforce social distancing
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 07:52 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under:


Economy
And now - a coin shortage
[ClickOrlando] Coin deposits from institutions, like banks, to the Federal Reserve have declined significantly the past few months.

The U.S. mint said its production of coins has also decreased due to measures put in place to protect its employees from the coronavirus.

With Federal Reserve coin orders starting to increase as regions reopen, the coin inventory is at below normal levels.

Officials at the Federal Reserve say they're working to lessen the effects of the shortage to minimize supply constraints and maximize production.

The agency is managing how it distributes the coins it does have and is encouraging institutions to only order enough coins to meet consumer demand.

Federal Reserve officials say they’re confident the coin shortage will be resolved once more of the economy opens and coins go back to being circulated as usual.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/17/2020 07:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [22 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That pesky matter of needing to mint coinage, when you can just go to electronic debit cards or businesses that just round up every purchase. Just another way to begin making theft and bank hacking for the Chinese, Iranians, Russians and other evildoers that much more lucrative. And governments can redirect the costs of a physical monetary system to more useful programs like the Danegeld to our new elite aristocracy, whose grasp of math isn't that good to start with.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 07/17/2020 15:03 Comments || Top||

#2  ...terrible how the pols can't track literally every dime you have or spend. I'd say penny, but the pols adjusted that with inflation. At least coin has tangible value, paper (and electrons) not so much.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/17/2020 15:07 Comments || Top||

#3  People aren't out and about with pocket change, or paper money, much now around here (except the older folks like me). They're using the cards instead of the potentially 'dirty' coinage and bills and then wiping them down.

Less coinage being used = PANIC!
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 07/17/2020 15:27 Comments || Top||

#4  No coins or paper money = easier to track and control you
Posted by: Frank G || 07/17/2020 16:16 Comments || Top||

#5  /\ Big time! I read recently where they estimate 70% of the Federal Reserve Notes are overseas, mostly $100 bills. The one cool thing about US money is that is never expires whereas in Europe and elsewhere, they change their currency on occasion. And in Europe, there is some concern about the Euro (and their ideas about a digital currency so conveniently discussed during COVID-19 b.s.), so having USD (for now) is a good idea.
Posted by: Clem || 07/17/2020 16:48 Comments || Top||

#6  Took my jar of change to the bank today. I was treated like a here!

Amazing.
.
Posted by: OregonGuy || 07/17/2020 17:32 Comments || Top||

#7  I recently found a bunch of those paper coin rolls. I'm not even sure the local bank would want them since they have those coin counting machines. Even some stores have them.
Posted by: Clem || 07/17/2020 17:48 Comments || Top||

#8  This was a story briefly a month ago.

The banks are low on coinage. After reviewing the little info available, including my WSJ subscription, my conclusion is that people are hoarding cash, and the feds don’t want to publicize it.
Posted by: KBK || 07/17/2020 18:03 Comments || Top||

#9  No wonder the gov't is issuing those debit cards for the Economic Impact Payments...no need to cut checks (despite direct deposit) and an easy way to track how money is being spent.
Posted by: Clem || 07/17/2020 18:07 Comments || Top||

#10  One I heard is Michigan big stores are not giving change for cash transactions.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 07/17/2020 20:00 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Arbeit macht frei
[Twitter]
Posted by: 3dc || 07/17/2020 06:50 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Joint statement from Diane Feinstein, Chuck Shumer, and Nancy Pelosi to be released today. (/sarc)
Posted by: Clem || 07/17/2020 6:57 Comments || Top||

#2  China cuts Uighur births with IUDs, abortion, sterilization
Posted by: Herb Omomosing8705 || 07/17/2020 10:10 Comments || Top||

#3  But, but, but Uighur lives matter !
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/17/2020 10:59 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
‘I'm… At A Loss For Words': The Unraveling Narrative Behind The Atlantic's Defund-The-Police ‘Shooting' Tale
Federalist via Instapundit
When social justice activist and lawyer Derecka Purnell was just 12 years old, she and her sister watched a police officer shoot a young boy in a city recreation center because he had ignored the basketball sign-in sheet. This jarring, emotional, and deeply unsettling story was published July 6 at The Atlantic, in the section reserved for ideas, under the bold, attention-grabbing headline, "How I Became a Police Abolitionist."

Purnell’s deeply personal story of shattered innocence and shattered bones at the end of a policeman’s gun was shared widely among top journalists and activists. "I started her article thinking abolition was impossible and ending thinking it must happen," the president of a social justice think tank at Harvard wrote on Twitter, quoting his mother. "This is a beautifully written piece," the Atlantic’s constitutional law editor agreed. "Derecka is the future," an activist journalism executive declared.

There’s a major problem with Purnell’s story, however. Based on a Federalist investigation of newspaper archives and the police department records, and questions to The Atlantic, the police union, and the office of the mayor, it does not appear to have ever happened.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 04:17 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [32 views] Top|| File under:

#1  These SJWs have rich fantasy lives. So rich they seem to spend their entire life within it, and to base their activism upon it.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 07/17/2020 6:49 Comments || Top||

#2  There’s a major problem with Purnell’s story, however.

Should've been obvious after the first sentence that this story is 1,000% bullshit.
Posted by: Raj || 07/17/2020 8:53 Comments || Top||

#3  The media falls for this narrative yarn spinning again and again. And again. And again...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 07/17/2020 9:07 Comments || Top||

#4  ^ Fails? Or willing accomplices?
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/17/2020 9:36 Comments || Top||

#5  History, like the Constitution, is a living thing to these people.
Posted by: Herb Omomosing8705 || 07/17/2020 9:53 Comments || Top||

#6  One ingredient for a successful con is that the marks *want* to believe.

And apparently, one requirement to be a 'journalist' today is a complete lack of curiosity.
Posted by: SteveS || 07/17/2020 9:56 Comments || Top||

#7  Here's a five-year chart of the NYT's stock price. It was on the verge of being a single-digit midget in 2016 and now sells for $44. That's not because its investigative curiosity improved. It's because management developed a single-minded focus on providing content that it's core audience wanted to read, i.e., Orange Man Bad. Screw accuracy.
Posted by: Matt || 07/17/2020 10:52 Comments || Top||

#8  Carlos Slim, Mexican owner of Bimbo Bakery (not a joke name) figures in the decision to sell the propaganda to the intellectual elites and get even richer. The Acela corridor laps it up because it feeds their smug worldview of how things ought to be.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 07/17/2020 12:46 Comments || Top||

#9  As the story notes, anyone who has spent any time in St. Louis at all couldn't reconcile the basic geography of what she describes. You would think she would be a bit more careful or less obvious with the fabrications. But if the theme is PC, I guess you can dispense with the most basic of ordinary and easily checkable facts.

See William James' excellent book "The Will to Believe."
Posted by: Tom || 07/17/2020 13:09 Comments || Top||

#10  Just how naive and credulous is The Atlantic? Now we know.
Posted by: Tom || 07/17/2020 13:11 Comments || Top||

#11  I just wonder how Jimmy is doing.
Posted by: charger || 07/17/2020 13:17 Comments || Top||

#12  The media falls for this narrative yarn spinning again and again. And again. And again...

Naturally. It is what they want to hear.
Posted by: Gliling Munster1197 || 07/17/2020 17:15 Comments || Top||

#13  Did the media 'fall' for her story... or were they accomplishes in her fabrication and lies?
The world may never know.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 07/17/2020 19:40 Comments || Top||

#14  A poster. Riposte, one that lingers
To poke at "progressive" left-wingers:
That V's gotta go.
In its place, scrawled just so, is--
A peace sign? No. Fist, or crossed fingers.
Posted by: Greamble Ebbavique4457 || 07/17/2020 22:22 Comments || Top||

#15  Huh, wrong page. How the hell'd I do that? Maybe this'll show up over yonder...

Purnell has a story to tell!
Oh, lordy, break out the Purelle.
A helluva mess...
"Well, let's eat!" yell the press,
All unmasked and unable to smell.
Posted by: Clem Ghibelline8069 || 07/17/2020 22:30 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Obama DOD Started 'Indoctrinating Our Troops' on Racism and 'Privilege,' New Docs Show
[PJ] On Thursday, Judicial Watch obtained 1,483 pages of teaching materials from the Department of Defense (DOD) produced by the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI) during President Barack Obama’s tenure. The DOD’s "equal opportunity advisors" use the documents to train service members on diversity topics.

Among other things, the training materials attribute opposition to reparations or affirmative action to a form of racism, claim the idea that "human similarities are more important than differences" is a form of "ethnocentrism," warn against "sexual orientation privilege" and "religious privilege," and claim that those who raise religious objections to same-sex marriage are engaging in discrimination.

"These documents show that the Department of Defense has been indoctrinating our troops with anti-American and racially inflammatory ’training,'" Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. "We must protect our military servicemembers from being brainwashed by the divisive, anti-American propaganda fueling the leftist insurrectionists who are right now trying to destroy our country."
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/17/2020 02:41 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [24 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Channeling Mandela.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/17/2020 2:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Ah, they dusted off the original 'hate whitey' EEO classes from the 70s.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/17/2020 7:44 Comments || Top||

#3  /\ P2K, was that program pre-Carter 70's (i.e. Nixon/Ford and/or LBJ) or was it another Jimmy Carter Brainstorm?
Posted by: magpie || 07/17/2020 15:12 Comments || Top||


Economy
AG Barr says US now overly reliant on Chinese goods, services
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has become overly reliant on Chinese goods and services, including face masks, medical gowns and other protective equipment designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus, Attorney General William Barr said Thursday as he also cautioned American business leaders against promoting policies favorable to Beijing.

Barr asserted that China had not only dominated the market on protective gear, exposing American dependence on Beijing, but had also hoarded supplies and blocked producers from exporting to them to countries in need. He accused hackers linked to the Chinese government of targeting American universities and businesses to steal research related to vaccine development, leveling the allegation against Beijing hours after Western agencies made similar claims against Russia.

Barr’s address at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is part of a full-court press by the Trump administration to denounce China, including for its alleged economic espionage. It comes as President Donald Trump tries to fend off criticism of his handling of the coronavirus and to shift the blame back onto Beijing, and as he looks to position himself as tougher on China than Democratic rival Joe Biden.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/17/2020 02:26 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Chinese money laundering. I thought that was the plan. How else are they going to continue to buy our gummit bonds and finance our national debt ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/17/2020 2:30 Comments || Top||

#2  It was almost like it was by design. (so do I need to put a /sarc on that?)
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/17/2020 6:59 Comments || Top||

#3  O.k., who woke Barr up?
Posted by: Clem || 07/17/2020 7:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Yup, that sure was a sudden revelation, wasn't it?
Posted by: Raj || 07/17/2020 9:02 Comments || Top||


#6  ..why would they infiltrate East Germany? Certain professional courtesy there.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/17/2020 10:56 Comments || Top||

#7  Barr could have said this 20 years ago.
Posted by: Herb Omomosing8705 || 07/17/2020 11:42 Comments || Top||

#8  And then he played "Flowers of the Forest" on his bagpipes.

And then, seeing his work was done and that it was good, he toddled off to lunch.
Posted by: charger || 07/17/2020 13:23 Comments || Top||

#9  No surprise here! Especially when Harbor Freight sell better quality stuff than the big boxes.

Sad isn't it, that's what happens when you let the MBAs run the US companies. All the MBAs care about is money.
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 07/17/2020 16:52 Comments || Top||

#10  /\ ...All the MBAs care about is money.
The money in the Next fiscal Quarter(* Frown *)!! Also they only care if their chosen "metrics" (Thank-you-very-much (Not!) Robert McNamara!) tell them that everything is going well (even if it isn't in Real Life™)...
Posted by: magpie || 07/17/2020 17:13 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Man who led protest supporting Black Lives Matter arrested on child pornography charges
[Washington Examiner] A man who led Black Lives Matter protests in New Hampshire last month has been indicted on child pornography charges, according to a new report.

Chris DeVries, 37, of Jackson, New Hampshire, led a protest on June 21 dubbed "Skate Away the Hate," which encouraged participants to ride skateboards down a local highway to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

"If we divest funds from police and prison systems, we all benefit," DeVries said during the event, according to the Conway Daily Sun. "Those funds can go to local communities and social services."

DeVries has been charged with six counts of possessing child sexual abuse images, one count of possession of psilocybin mushrooms, and one of falsifying physical evidence, local police said. The child pornography charges carry a sentence of up to 15 years in prison and a $4,000 fine. The drug offenses are punishable by up to seven years in prison
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/17/2020 02:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under: Antifa/BLM

#1  He was on Epstine's flights too!?!?!?!
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/17/2020 9:42 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
The day the world changed forever: 75 years ago the first atomic bomb was detonated at dawn during a top-secret US-led nuclear test in the New Mexico desert resulting in a blast so powerful, it could have been seen from Mars
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • 'Trinity' was the code name for the secret operation that tested the nuclear bomb in the New Mexico desert before it was dropped on Japan in 1945

  • J Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Manhattan Project and physicist who designed the bomb was not confident the test would work

  • Engineers and scientists involved in the project waged bets on whether the blast would incinerate the entire planet or be a complete dud

  • Army devised contingency plans for the worse case scenario that involved death, damage to surrounding communities and evacuation of nearby residents

  • The detonation was four times larger than the expected maximum and was visible as far away as Amarillo, Texas, 280 miles away

  • Army lied to the public, issuing a fake cover story that the blast was the result of an accidental magazine explosion on base

  • Ash rained on the surrounding landscape for days afterward

  • Upon its staggering success Oppenheimer said: 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds;' the test director said: 'Now we are all sons of b***ches'

  • The atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki three weeks later, leading to Japan's unconditional surrender and the end of WWII
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 00:11 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [20 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Funny, I think exactly the say way of the day covid 19 escaped Wuhan labs.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 4:21 Comments || Top||

#2  ^say ---> same
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 4:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Grom, the A-Bomb was always for Japan.
What do you think was for Europe if the War there wasn't over by 1946?
I will give you a hint. It starts with "A" to but it's not atomic.
Posted by: 3dc || 07/17/2020 6:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Let's not forget, they nuked New Mexico first! [before more field testing in Japan]

For the Anti-American trolls, this had already occurred. You've been damn quite out there about that.
Posted by: Pro || 07/17/2020 6:51 Comments || Top||

#5  oops, that was me.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/17/2020 6:57 Comments || Top||

#6  #3 ???
Posted by: g(r)omgoru PB || 07/17/2020 7:51 Comments || Top||

#7  ...not sure but I guess this.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/17/2020 8:02 Comments || Top||

#8  I think he meant Anthrax, I think there are some islands in the UK that are no go zones were they were tested.
Posted by: Vinegar Spolusing6485 || 07/17/2020 8:06 Comments || Top||

#9  #7,8 Thanks. 3dc Anthrax doesn't reproduce - so, it's (IMO) Chemical weapon.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru PB || 07/17/2020 8:16 Comments || Top||

#10  Thank God in heaven we got the bomb first.
Posted by: Matt || 07/17/2020 9:01 Comments || Top||

#11  Thank the gods it spawned the bikini!
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/17/2020 9:03 Comments || Top||

#12  Read somewhere that Stalin thought Truman dropped the bomb on Japan as a warning to keep the Red Army out of Western Europe.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 07/17/2020 13:03 Comments || Top||

#13  I was born 14 years to the day after the second A-bomb was dropped.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 07/17/2020 13:59 Comments || Top||

#14  Dad always appreciated the bomb. He was in the 10th. They were sent home from Italy, told to get their affairs in order and if they were Catholic to get Last Rites administered.
The bomb ended the war.
In 1998 they finally declassified the 10th's plan. They were to be the expendable 3rd wave at 8 am on the docks at Yokohama.
Posted by: 3dc || 07/17/2020 15:31 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Disgraced Miss Kentucky, 29, is sentenced to two years in prison after sending naked photos to a 15-year-old student on Snapchat while she was working as a teacher
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A former Miss Kentucky has been sentenced to two years in prison after admitting to exchanging sexual photos with a teenage student when she was working as a school teacher.

Ramsey BethAnn Bearse, 29, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing material depicting minors in sexually explicit conduct in December 2019 and was sentenced Tuesday.

Authorities said the former West Virginia middle school educator admitted to exchanging photos with the student on Snapchat between August and October 2018. A parent of the male student reported finding the images on the teen's phone, news outlets said.
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 00:08 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [21 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lucky little bastard.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 4:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Prison just for forwarding photos? Did she "touch" the child? Our judicial system is a travesty.
Posted by: Clem || 07/17/2020 6:48 Comments || Top||

#3  ..you just noticed? (damn we need a font for sarcasm )
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/17/2020 7:00 Comments || Top||

#4  none of my high school teachers was particularly hot as near as I remember

it wasn't until I saw teaching assistants in college before I was smitten
Posted by: lord garth || 07/17/2020 9:14 Comments || Top||

#5  All my grammar, junior and high school teachers had white or blue hair, averaged about 100 years old (it seemed at the time) but were real teachers.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 07/17/2020 10:19 Comments || Top||

#6  lord garth, the typing teacher in 10th grade was quite hot. It was a standing joke about the number of fathers that showed up for parent teacher night in her class.

My senior English teacher was quite attractive too.

Of course this was more than 50 years ago so my memory might be playing tricks.
Posted by: AlanC || 07/17/2020 10:21 Comments || Top||

#7  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmK36qZlrng
Posted by: Thorong Grundy1520 || 07/17/2020 10:22 Comments || Top||

#8  Couldn't say offhand what I was up to in a given month twenty years later, but I recall precisely certain colors of polyester slacks that contained a certain English teacher. Wasn't even in her class... must've been substituting or something.
Posted by: Thrirong Ulurong9584 || 07/17/2020 23:57 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
City of Miami Mayor says he's considering a shutdown as ICUs reach 95% capacity and he blames young people for spreading coronavirus
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • About 95 percent of hospitals in the City of Miami have reached capacity, Mayor Francis Suarez said on Thursday

  • Suarez said hospitals will have some capacity for about four weeks if the COVID-19 growth rate stays the same

  • Suarez added that high point was 125 cases per day but now the city is down to approximately 60 cases per day

  • However the highest infection is rate is among people aged 18 to 34, a demographic that makes up 27% percent of the population

  • A survey showed 33.7 percent of people got COVID-19 from a family member

  • He's considering a shutdown but with talk with the business community first
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 00:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [24 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fauci mind rays?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 3:25 Comments || Top||


#3  Because Floridians wear masks wrong!

Image
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 15:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Lower
Posted by: KBK || 07/17/2020 18:11 Comments || Top||


Economy
Evictions loom for millions of Americans unable to pay rent during the COVID-19 pandemic as eviction moratoriums expire - and data shows 22 million fear they won't make next month's rent
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 00:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Corona Virus did not do this. 1 million out of 330 million people, that is less than 1/2 of 1% percent of the US population has been infected, but the brain dead dims shut down the entire US back when much fewer than a million were infected.

Idiots, not a virus destroyed Americans live.
Posted by: Slavique Henbane9650 || 07/17/2020 2:01 Comments || Top||

#2  I thought it was 3.6 million.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 3:31 Comments || Top||

#3  I wonder if we will ever know the true statistics, especially with reports of over- and under-reporting.

Heard one story out of Europe where an elderly person died (from old age). After the autopsy, the family was offered €150 to have COVID-19 be entered onto the death certificate. Family asked, then how about 1500 euros? Crickets.
Posted by: Clem || 07/17/2020 6:29 Comments || Top||


-PC Follies
Unarmed city workers will replace cops to conduct traffic stops in Berkeley, California, to 'limit racial profiling'
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 00:02 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [41 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Any bets on how long until one gets beaten/killed?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 3:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Even if they don't, gonna be fun when someone challenges a ticket they issued in court.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 07/17/2020 6:42 Comments || Top||

#3  ‘Unarmed’ to ‘limit racial profiling’; as if the weapon creates the profiling.

The only way this will be a successful program is if these new traffic nazis carry small plastic bags to clean up the piles of feces in the streets.
Posted by: Airandee || 07/17/2020 7:11 Comments || Top||


#5  Airandee -- they'll be the ones leaving the piles, and you can't expect them to clean up after themselves.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 07/17/2020 8:29 Comments || Top||

#6  That's mighty white of them.

Berkeley Demographics:
Black or African American: 8.07%
Posted by: Herb Omomosing8705 || 07/17/2020 9:27 Comments || Top||

#7  ^ Oakland supplies them
Posted by: Frank G || 07/17/2020 9:31 Comments || Top||

#8  Meter Maids on Patrol!
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/17/2020 10:50 Comments || Top||

#9  What if no one stops when ordered to?
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 07/17/2020 18:17 Comments || Top||

#10  #UNModel - Tersely worded letter to follow?
Posted by: Frank G || 07/17/2020 18:19 Comments || Top||

#11  Stop! Please! It's the Pacifist Police!
We insist you desist! Yes, and cease!
"To serve and look pensive
(if that's not offensive),
Smoke peacepipe, and catch-and-release."
Posted by: Cheretch Spish6822 || 07/17/2020 19:01 Comments || Top||

#12  "Unarmed city workers will replace cops to conduct traffic stops in Berzerkly"

I'll order more popcorn. And a LOT of sympathy cards for their families.
Posted by: Barbara || 07/17/2020 20:33 Comments || Top||

#13  Oh, fer Pete's sake - I don't understand the double-posting. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara || 07/17/2020 20:34 Comments || Top||

#14  Bravo, #11 CS. :-D
Posted by: Barbara || 07/17/2020 20:35 Comments || Top||

#15  Both double posts deleted.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/17/2020 21:00 Comments || Top||

#16  Know what they need.

F.A.I.L. Slips.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 07/17/2020 21:48 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Moderna COVID-19 vaccine induced adverse reactions in 'more than half' of trial participants
[Just the News] A highly anticipated clinical trial for a potential COVID-19 vaccine managed in part by the American drug company Moderna has resulted is some adverse effects in more than half of the trial's participants, with one test group reporting "severe" symptoms.

The trial, which is also being sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, administered the vaccine "as a 0.5-ml injection in the deltoid muscle" in two shots spaced about one month apart. Two separate groups received 25-microgram and 100-microgram doses, respectively. A third group with a 250-microgram dose was subsequently added.

The vaccine "induced anti—SARS-CoV-2 immune responses in all participants," the research team reported Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers said that "no trial-limiting safety concerns were identified." Yet a majority of participants still reported at least one side effect.

"Solicited adverse events that occurred in more than half the participants included fatigue, chills, headache, myalgia, and pain at the injection site," the report states. Fever, joint pain and nausea were also reported.

Side effects grew more common with more (and larger) injections, the scientists write: "Systemic adverse events were more common after the second vaccination, particularly with the highest dose, and three participants (21%) in the 250-μg dose group reported one or more severe adverse events."

Notably, every participant in the two larger-dose groups reported adverse reactions after their second injections. One study participant in the smallest-dose group, meanwhile, was removed due to having developed hives after the first round of injections.
Posted by: Herb Omomosing8705 || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [20 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe not worth while to play with mRNA. Maybe, just maybe, the saving of not developing a bacterial system to produce quantities of antigen is not a good idea?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 4:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Crumbs! Shock as immune stimulant stimulates immune system.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/17/2020 9:09 Comments || Top||


#4 
Posted by: Jiling Gravitch9209 || 07/17/2020 10:52 Comments || Top||

#5  Mandatory in 3, 2, 1....
Posted by: Iblis || 07/17/2020 13:10 Comments || Top||

#6  Well, I'm sure it's not as bad as Trump's hydroxychloroquine!

Full disclosure: I've been taking it for 13 years with no side effects.
Posted by: Bobby || 07/17/2020 15:05 Comments || Top||

#7  ^HCQ?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru PB || 07/17/2020 15:14 Comments || Top||

#8  Yes. It works on some people's osteoarthritis, including mine. Prescribed by a rheumatologist.
Posted by: Bobby || 07/17/2020 16:47 Comments || Top||

#9  #8 Interesting.
Posted by: crazyhorse || 07/17/2020 22:42 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Texas restating coronavirus statistics



Meanwhile, the Texas Department of State Health Services removed 3,484 previously reported probable cases from statewide and Bexar County case totals, an agency spokesman said Wednesday.

The San Antonio health department began separating confirmed and probable cases this week, Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the state health agency, told the American-Statesman.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under:


#2  But the paper also indicates the Rio Grande Valley (Mexico border) is a hot spot. Responding to surging hospitalizations in the Rio Grande Valley, Abbott announced Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Defense will send a medical task force and additional resources to hospitals in the area.

Austin newspaper fact checks the removals.

Antigen tests are FDA-approved rapid detection tests for the coronavirus that can detect the virus and provide results within minutes of administration. They are not the same as antibody tests, which are used to determine whether an individual was previously infected with the coronavirus.

Currently, Texas reports on all antibody testing and molecular coronavirus tests, but does not include results from antigen tests in its totals.


Posted by: Bobby || 07/17/2020 19:07 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
South Korea probing Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea's Kim Jong Un
NOT as sexy as it sounds...
[NYPost] Prosecutors in Seoul have launched an investigation into Kim Jong Un’s psychopath sister over Pyongyang’s move to blow up a liaison office last month, officials said Thursday.

Seoul Central District prosecutors received a criminal complaint against Kim Yo Jong from a Seoul-based lawyer and started the probe, a spokewoman told Agence France-Presse.

The news will likely infuriate North Korea, which has repeatedly condemned the South in recent months, including directing personal insults at President Moon Jae-in.

Pyongyang blew up a joint liasion office on its side of the border last month shortly after Kim Yo Jong — one of her brother’s closest advisers — warned that the "useless" property would soon be "completely collapsed."

Demolition of the office was ordered by Kim Jong Un, who was reportedly furious over the "dirty, insulting" depictions of his wife in an anti-Pyongyang leaflet campaign initiated by defectors in South Korea.

Lee Kyung-jae, the lawyer who filed the complaint, said the liaison office was South Korean property because it was renovated using the South’s government funds — despite being located in North Korea.

Kim "used explosives to destroy" the South’s "quasi-diplomatic mission building that served the public interest," the complaint said.
Posted by: Frank G || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Now, that's conjures an image.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 4:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Nice headline.
Posted by: Cesare || 07/17/2020 7:36 Comments || Top||

#3  I understand Amazon delivers. Oh, wait, never mind...
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/17/2020 7:46 Comments || Top||


VPN providers rethink Hong Kong servers after China’s security law
[TechCrunch] In recent decades, Hong Kong has been considered a haven for data centers given its strategic location in Asia, a legal system trusted by international businesses, and reliable internet connectivity. Many virtual private network (VPN) operators keep servers in the city, serving mainland users who want to conceal their internet activity or access websites blocked by the Chinese authority.

But some VPN providers are reevaluating the risks of keeping their servers in Hong Kong upon the enactment of the national security law, which critics warn could compromise user privacy and have a chilling effect on free speech. Under the new legal framework, internet service providers will be required to turn over user data to the authorities.

VPN services are gaining ground globally as they claim to provide better privacy from users’ internet providers and sites visited, although they could be vulnerable to attacks if not properly secured.

In response to the new security rules, TunnelBear, a Toronto-based VPN service acquired by McAfee in 2018, announced it will remove all of its Hong Kong servers "to ensure the safety" of its users.

Other popular VPN services we contacted said they will keep their servers in Hong Kong for now.

But all the VPN companies we contacted said they are closely monitoring the impact and enforcement bodies of Hong Kong’s new security law and will react accordingly to safeguard user interests.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [19 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Science & Technology
Why Sweden Succeeded In "Flattening The Curve" And New York Failed
The reason New York failed to "flatten the curve" and Sweden succeeded probably has little to do with lockdowns...

Coronavirus deaths have slowed to a crawl in Sweden. With the exception of a single death on July 13, no deaths in this nation of 10 million have been reported since July 10.

But the debate over Sweden's approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, which relied on individual responsibility instead of government coercion to maintain social distancing, is far from over.

Last week, The New York Times labeled Sweden's approach to the pandemic a "cautionary tale" for the rest of the world, claiming it "yielded a surge of deaths without sparing its economy from damage."

To be accurate, Sweden has outperformed many nations around the world with its "lighter touch" approach and was one of the few nations in Europe to see its economy grow in the first quarter of 2020.

Meanwhile, Anders Tegnell, Sweden's top infectious disease expert, continues to defend his nation's approach to the pandemic.

Sweden has become a global lightning rod, but this has less to do with the results of its policies than the nature of its policies.

While Sweden's death toll is indeed substantially higher than neighbors such as Finland, Norway, and Denmark, it's also much lower than several other European neighbors such as Belgium, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain.

Indeed, a simple comparison between Belgium and Sweden‐nations with rather similar populations‐reveals that Belgium suffered far worse than Sweden from the coronavirus.

Comparing the epidemic curve in Belgium (11.5m pop), which locked down early on 17 Mar, and Sweden (10.2m pop), with no lockdown. Chart depicts deaths by date of occurrence, with Sweden per capita adjusted. Total per million: Belgium (844); Sweden (547). pic.twitter.com/W7u5pCQ8MV
— Paul Yowell (@pwyowell) July 11, 2020


The reason Sweden is a "cautionary tale" and Belgium is not is because Belgium followed the script. Early in the pandemic, Belgian officials closed all non-essential business and enforced strict social distancing rules.
Posted by: Iblis || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [25 views] Top|| File under:



Home Front: Politix
National Association of Police Organizations endorses Trump
[NYPOST] A coalition of police unions and associations across the country is endorsing President Trump’s re-election bid, recognizing his "steadfast and very public support" of law enforcement officers.

The National Association of Police Organizations, which represents more than 1,000 police units and associations nationwide, threw its support behind Trump in a letter released Wednesday acknowledging his "continued strong support" of cops tasked to protect Americans.

"Our endorsement recognizes your steadfast and very public support for our men and women on the front lines, especially during this time of unfair and inaccurate opprobrium being directed at our members by so many," wrote the group’s president, Michael McHale.

The group also praised Trump for directing Attorney General Bill Barr to "aggressively prosecute those who attack our officers," a reference to ongoing nationwide protests against racial injustice in the aftermath of George Floyd’s police-custody death, some of which have included violence against coppers.

The endorsement by the association — which met with Trump on Monday — comes after it did not back a candidate in the 2016 election, Fox News reports. It did, however, support former President Barack Obama
That’s just how white folks will do you....
and Vice President Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden
...I had the great honor of being arrested with our UN Ambassador on the streets of Soweto, trying to get to see him on Robbens Island...
in both the 2008 and 2012 elections.
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They're discovering, like so many Christians have, he's the only thing between them and le déluge.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/17/2020 7:06 Comments || Top||

#2  If you don't want authoritarianism, vote Trump.
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/17/2020 9:04 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Man taken into custody over 1-year-old’s shooting death in Brooklyn
[NYPOST] Cops have taken into custody one person of interest in the shooting death of 1-year-old Davell Gardner in Brooklyn, a high-ranking police source said Thursday.

Deshawn Austin was picked up on Ralph Avenue near East 76th Street around 8:30 a.m. by the Regional Fugitive Task Force, the source said.

The alleged Hoolie Blood gang member is accused of fatally shooting a member of another gang on Nostrand Avenue near Herkimer Street back in March, according to the source.

He has not been charged in connection to little Davell’s death, but investigators believe he is linked to that crime as well as three non-fatal shootings, the source said.

He is being questioned at the 79th Precinct, sources said.

Davell died when two gunmen opened fire on a Bedford-Stuyvesant barbecue he was at around 11:30 p.m. Sunday.

The fugitive task force is a team made up jointly of the NYPD and US Marshals Service.

Officials at the federal agency did not immediately respond to a request for information Thursday.
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under: Narcos

#1 
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 4:02 Comments || Top||

#2  10 News:
MT. EDEN, the Bronx — Police arrested three people Thursday in connection with the shooting death of a dad gunned down as he crossed a Bronx street with his daughter.

Davon Delks, 21, Laquan Heyward, 25 and Devon Vines, 27, were all arrested on murder charges.

Anthony Robinson, 29, was holding his 6-year-old daughter's hand when he was fatally shot on July 6. Video showed Robinson, hand in hand with his 6-year-old daughter, look to his left at a Bronx intersection and cross when a car paused to let them go. The driver then pulled up and someone in the vehicle opened fire, striking Robinson repeatedly.
Posted by: Frank G || 07/17/2020 7:41 Comments || Top||

#3  if Black Lives Really Mattered, the mob would be howling for his blood.
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 || 07/17/2020 7:44 Comments || Top||

#4  Infant among 3 shot in Chicago, suspects in custody: police
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 8:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Apparently Some BLM rabble are saying it's white people blacked up going around shooting black people...
I shall look for the URL.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/17/2020 9:11 Comments || Top||


-PC Follies
African-American museum removes controversial chart linking 'whiteness' to self-reliance, decision-making
[FoxNews] The National Museum for African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) has removed its controversial chart on whiteness from one of its webpages, telling people on Thursday that it didn't contribute to a "productive conversation" about racial issues.

"Since yesterday, certain content in the 'Talking About Race' portal has been the subject of questions that we have taken seriously. We have listened to public sentiment and have removed a chart that does not contribute to the productive discussion we had intended," the museum said in a statement.

Fox News reported yesterday that some described the chart as racist since it categorized things like "decision-making" and "delayed gratification" as part of whiteness.

The museum's graphic broke the "aspects and assumptions of whiteness" into categories such as "rugged individualism" and "history." For example, under "future orientation," the graphic listed "delayed gratification" and planning for the future as ideas spread by white culture.
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thinking is next?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 3:18 Comments || Top||

#2  The Non-apology Apology
Posted by: Sonny Black || 07/17/2020 7:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Sailer hit another homer yesterday: "Imagine writing 'How to Get to the Moon by 1969' at the top of the chart and posting it in a school hallway..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 07/17/2020 7:28 Comments || Top||

#4 
Posted by: Clem || 07/17/2020 7:32 Comments || Top||

#5  ...been going up on a lot of universities and colleges this past decade.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/17/2020 7:57 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Turkey marks 46th anniversary of Cyprus peace operation
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  I understand the Russians have a pretty nice embassy there in Nicosia.
Posted by: Clem || 07/17/2020 8:30 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt can change the military scene in Libya, Sisi tells Libyan tribal leaders
[Al Ahram] Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said on Thursday he will request parliament's approval in case of intervention in Libya.
El-Sisi's statement came during his meeting with Libyan tribal chieftains who arrived in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss the crisis in conflict-torn Libya.

"Egypt is capable of changing the military scene in Libya and it has got the strongest army in the Arab world and Africa," he said.

"In case Egyptian forces enter Libya, you (the chiefs of tribes) will be on the head of the troops with the Libyan flag," he added.

Egypt's announcement came following the forces of the Government of National Accord (GNA), which are backed by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...
, carried several attacks against the Libyan National Army (LNA), backed by Egypt, Russia and United Arab Emirates, and announced that its troops will move forward towards establishing control over Sirte and Jufra, which hosts Libya's largest air base.

During the meeting, El-Sisi said that the red lines which he spoke about in his speech at Sidi Barani military base last month were an invitation for peace and an end of the conflict. The Egyptian president stressed during that speech that Sirte and al-Jufra are red lines for Egyptian national security.

He added that Egypt will not stand still in the face of actions that pose a direct and strong threat not only for the Egyptian and Libyan national security but also for the Arab, regional and international national security.

"The main objective of the Egyptian efforts towards Libya on all levels is to support the free will of the Libyan people to achieve a better future for the country and its future generations," El-Sisi told the Libyan tibes leaders.
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [24 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Shocked to find covid on death certificate of those who clearly died from Alzhiemers or other things
[Twitter] "Just dealt with the cemetery in NJ to do the gravestone for my uncle. The woman told us she had so many family members who were shocked to find covid on death certificate of those who clearly died from Alzhiemers or other things. Shocking conversation."
Posted by: Clem || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [18 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Shocked" but she'll still vote democrat.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/17/2020 3:01 Comments || Top||

#2  People don't actually die of Alzhiemers.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 3:32 Comments || Top||

#3  By that same logic they do not die of Covid then..

They die of "blood clots".
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/17/2020 3:34 Comments || Top||

#4  592,791 as of today, of various other reasons. Give up, BP, even Swedes wear masks & practice social distancing nowadays.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 3:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Sweden has less deaths than Lockdown belgium

Give it up. Lockdown was a mistake.

Save the vulnerable, by concentrating on them. Not group punishment for all.
Open the schools.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/17/2020 5:52 Comments || Top||

#6  Colombia: Marxist Rebel Groups Kill Coronavirus Lockdown Violators
https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2020/07/16/colombia-marxist-rebel-groups-kill-coronavirus-lockdown-violators/

(r), Here's a group you can join. Now shuffle on down to Colombia.
Posted by: Thimp Clusort2035 || 07/17/2020 7:18 Comments || Top||

#7  No one 'wears out' anymore. They've got to tag something on it. Death is one big pie chart. Move the lines closer on one causality only expands the area of another. There's money in that.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/17/2020 7:54 Comments || Top||

#8  #5 But a lot more than its Scandinavian neighbors. Next time be smart, compare California & Texas.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru PB || 07/17/2020 7:59 Comments || Top||

#9  Texas has a death rate from COVID lower than any flu (and those flu numbers are under-reported).
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/17/2020 9:07 Comments || Top||

#10 
Posted by: g(r)omgoru PB || 07/17/2020 9:25 Comments || Top||

#11  I'm pretty sure my Mother's death certificate said, "Alzheimer's". I don't know if kidney failure or liver failure was the last straw, but Alzheimer's is what killed her.

People with severe Alzheimer’s cannot communicate and are completely dependent on others for their care. Near the end, the person may be in bed most or all of the time as the body shuts down. NIA/NIH

So if someone is shutting down with a few days to live and "tests" positive for COVID, is the cause of death COVID, or the disease they struggled with for ten years? Eight years? Two years might be harder. So many factors, including test accuracy.
Posted by: Bobby || 07/17/2020 10:56 Comments || Top||

#12  On the other hand, even if people are fudging the numbers, it's not enough to make a difference. The CDC reported 16,000 deaths from COVID in mid-April and less than 4,000 in mid-June. CDC
Posted by: Bobby || 07/17/2020 11:00 Comments || Top||


#14  HT Clarice Feldman:
@EmeraldRobinson
·
1h
BREAKING: Sources inside Trump Administration confirm to me that CDC has been misreporting the data for coronavirus to inflate the numbers.
Posted by: Frank G || 07/17/2020 11:56 Comments || Top||

#15  Same with the UK!

Matt Hancock orders urgent review into daily coronavirus death figures in England
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/17/2020 12:28 Comments || Top||

#16  Matt Hancock has called for an urgent review into England’s coronavirus death toll, having only just realised that anyone who has ever tested positive counts in Covid statistics, regardless of the cause of their death.

In contrast to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, where daily deaths are often zero, daily Covid deaths in England remain high, and are falling slowly. Yesterday 66 were recorded.

Now, statisticians have analysed Public Health England (PHE)’s methodology and found that at least some of this is because of a counting method that means that even if someone is run over and killed, if they previously tested positive for Covid they would add to the statistics.

“No one with Covid in England is allowed to ever recover from their illness,”
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/17/2020 12:30 Comments || Top||

#17  Considering the fact there is no single national much less global standard for death BY the Wuhan virus there must be discrepancies and by definition some must be extreme. That's just what happens when the standard is 'use your best judgement'.

While it is by no means anything more than an anecdote at this point, I personally had an elder relative whose death was attributed to the Wuhan virus. He had lived in terribly reduced circumstances for some years and refused all medical attention, preferring to self medicate.

When he was literally on his last legs my cousin took him to an ER only to discover he had stage 4 cancer essentially throughout his body. The ER though he was homeless and said they didn't see people that far gone in modern times.

He developed some sort of respiratory issue in that last week and that was all it took. He lived for 6 days after being admitted. My cousin, upon seeing the cause of death asked point blank if he had been tested for the virus and was told 'there was no need'. The poor soul died of cancer, whether the liver, lung, prostate, or skull I do not know but I do know he died of cancer. An unimaginable end to an equally unimaginable life, rest in peace Christo.
Posted by: Cesare || 07/17/2020 13:29 Comments || Top||

#18  My mother died of 'Alzheimers' at 97.
My sister quit feeding her 3 days before.
When I asked what she really died of, the Mort said, "Your guess is as good as mine. She was cremated."
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 14:04 Comments || Top||

#19  (r)'s head explodes.

Sadly, no more tutoring in Humanities and Social Arts.
Posted by: Thimp Clusort2035 || 07/17/2020 22:34 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
When they’re going after the Virgin Mary, you know protest has turned to madness
[NYPOST] In yet another sign that idealistic protests have given way to mindless destruction, vandals over the weekend targeted two statues of ... the Virgin Mary.

It was graffiti in Elmhurst, Queens: "IDOL" spray-painted across her skirt in the early morning outside the Cathedral Preparatory School and Seminary on 92nd Street.

And arson in Dorchester, Mass.: a statue outside of Saint Peter’s Gay Pareeh damaged by burns to the face, hands and arms. Fr. John Currie, the pastor, was "disappointed" by the desecration, noting, "Our image of our lady is so important to us in our faith."

Maybe these are simply anti-Catholic bigots who figure they might as well join in on the attacks against monuments.

Maybe the perps pretend they’re somehow forwarding the Black Lives Matter message — after all, BLM thinker Shaun King recently said that images depicting Jesus as a "white European" should be torn down as forms of "white supremacy
...the pernicious doctrine that laws were intended to be obeyed, that society works better when people don't pour shreiking from their places of worship every Friday for a weekend of rioting over insults real or imagined; and that cannibalism, beastiality, incest, murder, theft, rape, and similar activities are bad. A Dead White European (which invalidates his opinion) philosopher once opined that societies thrive when a person's word can be relied upon, and that a society which puts individual happiness first will invariably fail. Strangely enough, other successful societies, such as China, Japan, Korea, and those kinds of places could also be lumped with white supremacist societies, since they push the same values...
" and "racist propaganda."

Whoever’s behind it, it shows that mob rule leads straight to madness.
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [27 views] Top|| File under: Antifa/BLM


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Tanker off UAE sought by US over Iran sanctions ‘hijacked’
[THEBAGHDADPOST] An oil tanker sought by the US over allegedly circumventing sanctions on 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 Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
was hijacked on July 5 off the coast of the UAE, a seafarers organization said Wednesday.

Satellite photos showed the vessel in Iranian waters on Tuesday and two of its sailors remained in the Iranian capital.

It wasn’t immediately clear what happened aboard the Dominica-flagged MT Gulf Sky, though its reported hijacking comes after months of tensions between Iran and the US.

David Hammond, the CEO of the United Kingdom-based group Human Rights at Sea, said he took a witness statement from the captain of the MT Gulf Sky, confirming the ship had been hijacked.

Hammond said that 26 of the Indian sailors on board had made it back to India, while two remained in Tehran, without elaborating.

"We are delighted to hear that the crew are safe and well, which has been our fundamental concern from the outset," Hammond told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named.

Hammond said that he had no other details about the vessel.

TankerTrackers.com, a website tracking the oil trade at sea, said it saw the vessel in satellite photos on Tuesday in Iranian waters off Hormuz Island.

Hormuz Island, near the port city of Bandar Abbas, is some 190 kilometers (120 miles) north of Khorfakkan, a city on the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates where the vessel had been for months.

The Emirati government, the US Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the US Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet did not respond to requests for comment. Iranian state media did not immediately report on the vessel and Iran’s mission to the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In May, the US Justice Department filed criminal charges against two Iranians, accusing them of trying to launder some $12 million to purchase the tanker, at that time named the MT Nautica, through a series of front companies.

The vessel then took on Iranian oil from Kharg Island to sell abroad, the US government said.

Court documents allege the scheme involved the Quds Force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which is its elite expeditionary unit, as well as Iran’s national oil and tanker companies. The two men charged, one of whom also has an Iraqi passport, remain on the lam.

"Because a US bank froze the funds related to the sale of the vessel, the seller never received payment," the Justice Department said. "As a result, the seller instituted a civil action in the UAE to recover the vessel."

That civil action was believed to be still pending, raising questions of how the tanker sailed away from the Emirates after being seized by authorities there.

Data from the MT Gulf Sky’s Automatic Identification System tracker shows it had been turned off around 4:30 a.m. on July 5, according to ship-tracking website MarineTraffic.com. Ships are supposed to keep their AIS trackers on, but Iranian vessels routinely turn theirs off to mask their movements.

Meanwhile,
...back at the precinct house, Sergeant Maloney wasn't buying it. It was just too pat. The whole thing smelled phony, kind of like a dead mackeral but without the scales...
the 28 Indian sailors on board the vessel found themselves stuck on board without pay for months, according to the International Labor Organization. It filed a report saying the vessel and its sailors had been abandoned by its owners since March off Khorfakkan. The ILO did not respond to a request for comment.

As tensions between Iran and the US heated up last year, tankers plying the waters of the Mideast became targets, particularly near the crucial Strait of Hormuz, the Arabian Gulf’s narrow mouth through which 20 percent of all oil passes. Suspected limpet mine attacks the US blamed on Iran targeted several tankers. Iran denied being involved, though it did seize several tankers.
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [26 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


'Nazrallah leads Hezb al Shaitan' Trending in Lebanon
[GatestoneInstitute] "Nasrallah has taken Lebanon hostage and accused the US of Lebanon's economic collapse," says a video clip posted on social media platforms. "Hezbollah is a major partner of the network that looted the Lebanese treasury and banks. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization running an entire country."

Several Lebanese politicians have blamed Hezbollah for the country's severe financial crisis.
Posted by: lord garth || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [20 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Washington woman, 19, is arrested after 'she was captured on a doorbell video camera raping two boys between the ages of five and nine'
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • Miah R. Lopez, 19, has been charged with two counts of rape in the first degree and obstruction of a law enforcement officer

  • As police tried to apprehend Lopez, they say that she resisted arrest by flailing her arms

  • She also told officers that it was 'just today' that the incident happened
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Iraq reports 2281 new coronavirus cases, 1695 recovery, and 90 fatalities
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under:


There are many more names on the IMIS assassins’ blacklist
[THEBAGHDADPOST] Three of Hisham al-Hashimi’s children and his distraught young wife watched as his bloodied, well perforated carcass was dragged from his car moments after masked men on cycle of violences shot him repeatedly at point-blank range. CCTV footage amply displays the cold-blooded professionalism of Hashimi’s killers, obviously experienced in what they were doing.

One of Iraq’s foremost young intellectuals, Hashimi was targeted for being a leading expert on Iran-backed militias. He had received death threats from Kata’ib Hezbollah, and had been personally threatened by its front man Hussain Mounis. As one Iraq expert, Adel Bakawan, warned: "This may be the first prominent figure killed but it won’t be the last. There are other names on this blacklist.

Hashimi had previously expressed admiration for the 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 Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
Militia in Iraq and Syria (IMIS) paramilitary movement, but he was outraged when its snipers and button men killed upwards of 500 protesters in Iraq in the last three months of 2019. Hashimi perhaps signed his own death warrant by publishing a report demonstrating how hardliners (such as Kata’ib Hezbollah) loyal to Ayatollah Khamenei had come to dominate the IMIS, pushing aside moderates loyal to Ayatollah Sistani and Iraq.

Assassination by button men on cycle of violences outside the victim’s home is a favored modus operandi for Iran-backed militias. Shiite activist and novelist Alaa Mashzub was rubbed out in Karbala in February 2019 after criticizing Ayatollah Khomeini on social media; button men murdered activists Abdul Quddus Qasim and lawyer Karar Adel in Amara in March 2020; TV correspondent Ahmad Abdelsamad and his cameraman Safaa Ghali were killed in January 2020 near a Basra cop shoppe when paramilitary button men fired on their car; photojournalist Ahmed al-Lami and Hisham Fares al-Adhami were rubbed out by snipers while covering Baghdad protests in 2019 (about 200 journalists have been killed in Iraq since 2003, many of them assassinated); a motorcyclist pumped bullets into the car of 22-year-old Iraqi social media star Tara Fares In September 2018, one of a series of murders of women including two others from the beauty industry, Rasha al-Hassan and Rafif al-Yasiri, and Basra activist Souad al-Ali — killed by a gunman as she approached her car.

These same paramilitaries were responsible for tens of thousands of deaths in post-2003 sectarian cleansing, often targeting Christian and Sunni families.

Thousands were held for ransom, then tortured and killed by their kidnappers.
Kata’ib Hezbollah accuses Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi of colluding with the Americans to murder their commander, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in the same dronezap in January this year that killed Quds Force commander Qassim Soleimani. Since Muhandis’s death, Tehran has been reorganizing Kata’ib Hezbollah as an elite terrorist force to strike Western targets; the group deliberately escalated attacks against US assets to embarrass and undermine Kadhimi.

When Kata’ib Hezbollah fired rockets into the Green Zone near the US Embassy in Baghdad, Kadhimi ordered a raid on the group’s headquarters. Troops from the Counter-Terrorism Squad arrested 14 paramilitaries who had previously attacked the Green Zone and Baghdad airport.

Immediately after the raid, a 30-vehicle armed column of paramilitaries entered the Green Zone and encircled the Counter-Terrorism Squad HQ with the aim of taking hostages until the detainees were released. As powerful IMIS advocates Nouri al-Maliki, Faleh al-Fayyadh and Hadi al-Amiri tried to mediate, the prime minister refused to comply. Instead he handed the detainees over to the IMIS security directorate, which promptly freed all but one of them — a calculated snub to Kadhimi. IMIS-aligned media outlets and politicians are aggressively denouncing the prime minister for launching the operation in the first place.

IMIS expert Fanar Haddad has stated categorically that Hisham al-Hashimi’s killing was retaliation for the raid on Kata’ib Hezbollah. Given that Hashimi was advising the prime minister on how to address IMIS militancy, it was a chillingly brazen gesture of intent. Like Kata’ib Hezbollah’s raid on the Counter-Terrorism Squad HQ, this wasn’t a hidden crime; the IMIS wants Iraqis and their leaders to cower in terror, knowing it can murder anyone at any time.

Hezbollah and Bashir al-Assad have assassinated many of 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 most respected national figures — Rafiq Hariri, Gebran Tueni, Samir Kassir, Gen. Wissam al-Hassan — because they knew they would get away with it. The recent frightening escalation in physical attacks against activists, lawyers and journalists is a warning of how easily Lebanon could revert to those dark days.
Hezbollah’s persecution of Shiite holy man, Sayyed Ali al-Amin, highlights this peril.

Amin is an inspirational role model for the enlightened, anti-sectarian face of religion, but persistent death threats after his strident criticism of Hezbollah’s "policy of oppression and domination" forced him to flee his home town of Chakra. The latest phase of this vicious campaign is a Hezbollah-backed lawsuit citing Amin’s attendance at a conference in Bahrain at which Israelis happened to be present. The lawsuit accuses him of "attacking the resistance and its deaders on a permanent basis, inciting strife between sects, sowing discord and sedition, and violating the Sharia laws." If the Lebanese court system had any semblance of backbone or independence, those leveling such baseless, libelous, evil charges against a national hero would themselves face trial.

In a state infiltrated at all levels by pro-Tehran bully boys, Prime Minister Kadhimi’s primary strength derives from the Iraqi street. Thousands of nationalist Iraqis expressed outrage at Hashimi’s death, particularly as members of the protest movement saw so many comrades murdered after denouncing the IMIS.

When militias beholden to a hostile foreign power threaten to outgun the state, it is only with active international support (the West and Arab nations) and engagement by nationalist citizens that the balance can be swung back in favor of the forces of justice, order and accountable governance. Backing down would represent a catastrophic loss of face, and proof that all-powerful Iran-backed paramilitaries can murder and pillage with impunity.

The deranged leaders of the IMIS and Hezbollah are so in thrall to their paymasters in Tehran that they can’t comprehend the courageous nationalism of their own compatriots; when they murdered 500 Iraqis, 5 million poured on the streets to denounce them.

Ultimately we are faced with the existential question of who runs Iraq and Lebanon. With the IMIS and Hezbollah emerging supreme, if citizens and their friends overseas hope to prevent an eruption of killings, terrorism and paramilitary oppression, Hashimi’s murder must be a wake-up call.

If the IMIS blacklist does indeed have many more names written on it, for Heaven’s sake let us not passively await the next CCTV video nasty or grim newspaper headlines to find out who.


Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [28 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies


-War on Police-
De Blasio says he has ‘no respect’ for NYPD union leadership
[NYPOST] Mayor Comrade Bill de Blasio
...cryptocommie mayor of New York and for some reason a Dem candidate for president in 2020. Corrupt and incompetent, his qualifications for office seem to consist of being married to a black woman, with whom he honeymooned in Cuba. He has a preppy-looking son named Dante, whose Divine Comedy involved getting his back hair up when a police car drove past him slowly. New Yorkers voted for him, so they deserve him...
says he has "no respect" for one of the most outspoken NYPD union presidents, who has repeatedly attacked the mayor — calling him a "disgrace" and a "liar.""The [Sergeants Benevolent Association] has only practiced division, they foment hatred ... they do not try to help us move forward," de Blasio said Thursday during his daily presser.

"They don’t try to create anything good. I have no respect for the leadership of the SBA."

SBA president Ed Mullins has repeatedly blasted the mayor on social media during his tenure, including once declaring "war" on City Hall — which landed him under investigation.

Most recently, Mullins had attacked de Blasio over his handling of the fallout from the George Floyd protests and the uptick in crime over the last few weeks.

Mullins welcomed de Blasio’s Thursday remarks, quipping, "This is the first time since he’s been in office that he’s told the truth."

"The City knows he hates cops and accountability, thank him for finally being honest," the union honcho added.



Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [26 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why don't you resign and let the adults take charge?
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 07/17/2020 0:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Because the voters are children?
Posted by: gorb || 07/17/2020 1:25 Comments || Top||

#3  I think the NYPD union leadership (and the rest of NYPD) have already figured it out.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 4:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Some reporter should yell at him "What crimes did you commit that you felt a need to change your name to deBlasio?".
Posted by: 3dc || 07/17/2020 6:48 Comments || Top||

#5  mayor commie vs. union commie

it's a shame they both can't lose.
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 || 07/17/2020 7:34 Comments || Top||

#6  ... or for the members!
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 07/17/2020 7:39 Comments || Top||


#8  does anyone have any respect for deblasio?
Posted by: Chris || 07/17/2020 10:04 Comments || Top||

#9  Anyone have any respect for anybody running things on both sides in NY? Or Chicago? Or any deep blue hell hole city?
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/17/2020 10:07 Comments || Top||

#10  Ummmmmmmmmm.......No
Posted by: Bobby || 07/17/2020 15:10 Comments || Top||


Britain
UK ISIS bride can return to country after leaving for Syria in 2015, says court
[American Military News] She's a terrorist enabler/camp follower. She should be tried as terrorist and UK citizenship revoked
A court in the United Kingdom ruled Thursday that a woman who left London as a teenager to join the ISIS terror group may return to the U.K. to challenge the loss of her citizenship status.

A U.K. Divisional Court ruled Shamima Begum should be permitted to return to the U.K. to make her case for renewed citizenship before a special immigration panel, according to a court summary released Thursday.

February of 2015, when she was 15-years-old. Begum, along with two friends Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana joined the Islamic State in Syria. Within 10 days of her arrival in Syira, Begum had reportedly been married off to an ISIS fighter, Yago Riedijk. Together they had three children.

Begum later turned up in a prison camp for ISIS members after the fall of the terror group’s last major territorial stronghold in Baghuz. Since 2019, Begum has been held captive in an Syrian prison camp housing other ISIS fighters and supporters. Begum has had her British citizenship suspended since February 19 of 2019.

"We accept that, in her current circumstances, [Ms Begum] cannot play any meaningful part in her appeal, and that, to that extent, the appeal will not be fair and effective," the court said of its decision, noting challenges Begum faces in presenting her appeal for citizenship from Syria.

Begum renounced her ties to the terror group in October as part of an earlier appeal to return to the U.K.
"I'm a stupid whore who left to betray my citizenship and adopted culture. I'll surely lie now to get back and get benefits"
Posted by: Frank G || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [33 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Of shameless Shamima, mom, begum,
Sing, three little seeds in a legume!
"She dropped out of school..."
"Cuz we thought it wuz cool..."
"To chase terrorist bastards and shag 'em!"

"And after a long, treacherous voyage of self-discovery, she finally got back to blighty." "And the pavements ran and smoked with-- er, she lived happily ever after." "Ulululululu!"
Posted by: Tyranysaurus Splat6092 || 07/17/2020 23:42 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
The Washington Post Proclaims Who Is Responsible for Murder Spikes, and They Are Laughably Wrong
"Mr. Fox Butterfield to the Stoopid Phone"
[Redstate] When Bari Weiss wrote in her resignation letter from The New York Times earlier in the week that editors at these liberal publications start at a narrative and work backward, she perfectly summarized everything that is wrong with the media.

The Washington Post decided to go out and prove her even more correct this morning by publishing what is one of the worst, most poorly cited articles I’ve ever read.

Americans purchased millions more guns than usual this spring, spurred in large part by racial animosity stoked by widespread protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, as well as anxiety over the effects of the covid-19 pandemic.

That gun-buying binge is associated with a significant increase in gun violence across the United States.

Perhaps the author of this piece doesn’t know what associated is? It delineates some kind of direct connection. I ate hot wings last night and live in the United States. Am I now "associated" with the recent spike in gun violence across the country?

By the standards laid forth in this article, I suppose so. In fact, what you’ll find in the piece is a bunch of nonsensical dot-connecting which doesn’t actually show the increase in legal gun purchases has anything to do with gangs killing people in Chicago and New York. Once you get down to the end, the Post finally admits that.

The authors caution that a study of this nature cannot prove causality, particularly at a time of massive social upheaval in a country dealing with an unprecedented public health crisis as well as a nationwide protest movement.

In other words, both these "studies" simply counted up total gun sales, compared them to previous years and months, and then decided that explains why people are shooting each other in liberal cities with extremely strict gun laws. There is no actual causality shown because it doesn’t exist. The guy in Arkansas buying a new rifle is not responsible for a person shooting a child in New York.

Of course, no article at the Post would be complete without overtures to blaming racism. That lead to this laughable paragraph.

"We find that states where individuals are more likely to search for racial epithets experienced larger increases in June firearm sales," they wrote, "even after adjusting for the personal security concerns that likely generated the March spikes in gun sales."

How’d they come to that conclusion? By tallying up google-searched-for racial epithets. What that’s actually a measure of is anyone’s guess, but the insinuation here is that people are buying guns because they are racists and are scared of minorities protesting.

Of course, there may be a kernel of truth to that idea, though it has nothing to do with racism. People in these states with the most upheaval are buying guns to protect themselves if necessary. It’s not because they are racist, it’s because they are smart.

In the end, the Post shows zero actual correlation between legal gun sales and the murder rate spikes in these blue cities. But they did their level best to try to frame it as connected. Welcome to journalism in 2020.




Posted by: Frank G || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [21 views] Top|| File under:

#1  and yesterday we had a China good Trump's America bad article from WAPO.

The only thing the MSM is good for is noticing what scam they're trying to pull.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/17/2020 3:24 Comments || Top||

#2  I hope the news media keeps putting out their papers, because when it's shredded it makes for great mulch.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 07/17/2020 7:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Demonstrating once again that the best way to read any story from any media outlet requires a question to be asked - how are these bastards lying to me now?
Posted by: Raj || 07/17/2020 9:11 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas bans two Saudi-owned networks from Gaza reporting
[Al Ahram] The Islamist group Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, has blocked two Saudi-owned news networks, al-Arabiya and al-Hadath, from operating in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip over allegations of false reporting, multiple sources said Thursday.

Hamas's interior ministry and al-Arabiya both confirmed the ban, which was imposed over a report saying that Hamas had arrested several of its members for collaborating with Israel.

A journalist who works with al-Arabiya, who requested anonymity, said the order bars "anyone or any business from providing services" to either network.

Al-Arabiya's office in Gaza was previously closed over a report concerning ties between Hamas and the Moslem Brüderbund.

But it and al-Hadath, which are Saudi-owned but based in Dubai, still work with freelancers in the Paleostinian enclave.

Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007, relies on substantial aid from Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
, which remains the target of a Saudi-led regional blockade.

In a statement, the Paleostinian journalists union denounced the reporting ban, saying "restrictions on press freedom and repeated shutdown of media" in Gaza were "contrary to national values and principles".

Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
IAEA Chief gives Iran until end of month to grant access to suspected sites
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [23 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Or what?
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 11:33 Comments || Top||


Iranian Spies Accidentally Leaked Videos of Themselves Hacking
[Wired] IBM's X-Force security team obtained five hours of APT35 hacking operations, showing exactly how the group steals data from email accounts—and who it's targeting.

When security researchers piece together the blow-by-blow of a state-sponsored hacking operation, they're usually following a thin trail of malicious code samples, network logs, and connections to faraway servers. That detective work gets significantly easier when hackers record what they’re doing and then upload the video to an unprotected server on the open internet. Which is precisely what researchers at IBM say a group of Iranian hackers did.

Researchers at IBM's X-Force security team revealed today that they've obtained roughly five hours of video footage that appears to have been recorded directly from the screens of hackers working for a group IBM calls ITG18, and which other security firms refer to as APT35 or Charming Kitten. It's one of the most active state-sponsored espionage teams linked to the government of Iran. The leaked videos were found among 40 gigabytes of data that the hackers had apparently stolen from victim accounts, including US and Greek military personnel. Other clues in the data suggest that the hackers targeted US State Department staff and an unnamed Iranian-American philanthropist.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [33 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran



-PC Follies
Seeing ‘Black Lives Matter’ written in chalk, one Yakima County town declares it a crime
[SEATTLETIMES] First came the warning: A police officer in the small city of Selah told a group of young people that if they continued drawing "Black Lives Matter" chalk art on the sidewalk in front of City Hall, they would be charged with a crime.Then came the pressure washer.

As the 10 protesters covered parts of their artwork with their bodies, a city worker walked between them, spraying away the exposed parts of their messages and sending tubs of chalk tumbling into the street. The young activists, wet from the washing, watched in silence and held up signs that were outside the reach of the pressure washer.

"Hate has no home in Selah," one of them said.

The standoff last week was just one of a growing series of conflicts between conservative leaders of Selah, a community with only a few dozen Black residents, and young people from a wide range of backgrounds who believe the city is long overdue for a conversation about race.

As Black Lives Matter events spread from urban centers to thousands of smaller communities around the country, town officials who saw little reason to explore percolating racial prejudices are finding themselves confronted by residents who have decided it is time to step forward.



Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [22 views] Top|| File under: Antifa/BLM

#1  Ah, I thought because of white chalk.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 4:06 Comments || Top||

#2  The writer of that story received a medal from the Junior Propaganda League.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 07/17/2020 4:18 Comments || Top||

#3  And to think we used blackboards....
Posted by: Clem || 07/17/2020 6:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Not every locality has stepped away from broken window policing.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 07/17/2020 8:43 Comments || Top||

#5  When I run across it, I erase the “v”
Posted by: KBK || 07/17/2020 18:08 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm betting only one of the protesters was actually black, if that.

And no, I did not read the article - I refuse to take down my ad blocker or subscribe for a media outlet.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 07/17/2020 19:47 Comments || Top||


Africa North
In Tunisia's caretaker government, Ennahda ministers excluded
[Al Ahram] Tunisia's caretaker Prime Minister Elyes al-Fakhfakh dismissed all ministers of the Islamist Ennahda Party Thursday, one day after he submitted his resignation to President Kais Saied.

According to the official Facebook page of the Tunisian government, the ministers who lost their posts include Minister of Youth and Sports Ahmed Gaaloul, Minister of Public Works, Housing and Spatial Planning Moncef Sliti, Minister of State for Local Affairs Lotfi Zitoun, Minister of Transportation and Logistics Anwar Marouf, Minister of Health Abdel Latif Mekky, and Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Selim al-Shoura.

Ghazi al-Shouashi, Asmaa al-Sehery, Shoukry Belhasan, Fadel Karem, al-Habib al-Kasho and Lobna al-Gerebi were appointed as ministers of housing, youth and sports, local affairs, transportation, health and higher education respectively.

One day earlier, Wednesday, al-Fakhfakh was still the North African country's head of government, voted for by parliament five months ago. But he earned caretaker status after he submitted his resignation to Saied in light of a political crisis with Ennahda.

The process of finalising the lineup of al-Fakhfakh's coalition took roughly four months after Tunisia held parliamentary elections in October 2019. al-Fakhfakh's Thursday move means that as long as no new head of government and list of ministers is agreed upon by Tunisia's political forces, and approved by parliament, Ennahda will continue to lack representation in the ruling coalition government.

Ironically, no other party has more seats than Ennahda (52 seats) in the 217-seat Tunisian parliament.

On Tuesday, Ennahda said it will push for a vote of no confidence against al-Fakhfakh after he decided to reshuffle the cabinet. Ennahda, which both al-Fakhfakh and Saied opposed, wanted consultations over selecting a new head of government and including new political forces in the coalition government, such as Qalb Tounes Party.

The Islamist party argued that Tunisia needs a better balance between its government and parliament.

But the change that Ennahda wanted in the structure of the coalition government would eventually mean less cabinet representation for anti-Islamist forces. Moreover, opposition parties did not welcome including Qalb Tounes in government as its leader and former presidential candidate Nabil Karoui has corruption allegations against him.

As a result, Ennahda announced it will seek a vote of no confidence against al-Fakhfakh. The motion against him has reportedly secured the 109 votes required for parliament to pass it. Political sources told Rooters that Saied asked al-Fakhfakh, who is also currently facing accusations of conflict of interest, to leave office.

Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [32 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood


Home Front: Politix
Former Iranian Hostage Slams Biden for Abandoning Him in Tehran
[Free Beacon] Think this'll get ANY play in MSM?
A former Iranian hostage who was tortured by the oppressive regime slammed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for abandoning him and other detainees while the Obama administration pursued the landmark nuclear deal with Tehran.
Joe: "Listen, Fat! Gotta break a few eggs.. if you wanna make IKEA Furniture."
Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese national who was detained in Iran from 2015 to 2019 on charges he spied for the United States, lashed out on Tuesday at Biden after the former vice president accused President Donald Trump of treating Egyptian president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi as his "favorite dictator."

"With all due respect Mr. Biden, I don't think you are well-positioned to comment on this subject," Zakka tweeted. "I never comment on politics but this one was too much. You left us behind in Iran. Remember? Tehran?"

Zakka was referring to the Obama administration's decision to refrain from demanding that Iran release hostages during sensitive diplomatic talks that eventually led to the nuclear agreement. The former administration was criticized for avoiding thorny topics like hostages as part of its efforts to court the Islamic Republic.

Biden sought to criticize Trump this week for what he claimed is the administration's close relationship with Egyptian leader Al-Sisi. The comments came after Egypt freed Mohamed Amashah, a medical student who had been detained for more than a year.

"Mohamed Amashah is finally home after 486 days in Egyptian prison for holding a protest sign," Biden tweeted. "Arresting, torturing, and exiling activists like Sarah Hegazy and Mohamed Soltan or threatening their families is unacceptable. No more blank checks for Trump's ‘favorite dictator.'"
Posted by: Frank G || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
The COVID-19 Panic Shows Us Why Science Needs Skeptics
The dumpster fire of COVID predictions has shown exactly why it's important to sustain and nurture skeptics, lest we blunder into scientific monoculture and groupthink. And yet the explosion of "cancel culture" intolerance of any opinion that doesn't fit a shrinking "3 x 5 card" of right-think risks destroying the very tolerance and science that sustains our civilization.

Since World War II, America has suffered two respiratory pandemics comparable to COVID-19: the 1958 "Asian flu," then the 1969 "Hong Kong flu." In neither case did we shut down the economy‐people were simply more careful. Not all that careful, of course‐Jimi Hendrix was playing at Woodstock in the middle of the 1969 pandemic, and social distancing wasn't really a thing in the "Summer of Love."

And yet COVID-19 was very different thanks to a single "buggy mess" of a computer prediction from one Neil Ferguson, a British epidemiologist given to hysterical overestimates of deaths, from mad cow to bird flu to H1N1.

For COVID-19, Ferguson predicted 3 million deaths in America unless we basically shut down the economy. Panicked policymakers took his prediction as gospel, dressed as it was in the cloak of science.

Now, long after governments plunged half the world into a Great Depression, those panicked revisions are being quietly revised down by an order of magnitude, now suggesting a final tally comparable to 1958 and 1969.

COVID-19 would have been a deadly pandemic with or without Ferguson's fantasies, but had we known the true scale and parameters of the threat we might have chosen better tailored means to both safeguard the elderly and at-risk, while sustaining the wider economy. After all, economists have long known that mass unemployment and widespread bankruptcies carry enormous health consequences that are very real to the victims suffering drained life savings, ruined businesses, broken families, widespread mental and physical health deterioration, even suicide. Decisions involve tradeoffs.

COVID-19 has illustrated the importance of free and robust inquiry. After all, panicked politicians facing media accusations of "killing grandma" aren't in a very good position to evaluate these tradeoffs, and they need intellectual ammunition. Not only to show them which path is best, but to bolster them when a left-wing media establishment attacks.

Moreover, voters need this ammunition so they can actually tell the politicians what to do. This means two things: debate that is transparent, and debate that is tolerant of skeptics.

Transparency means data and computer code open to public scrutiny as the minimum requirement for any study that is used to justify policy, from lockdowns to carbon taxes to whatever comes next. These studies must be based on verifiable facts, code that does what it says it does, and the ensuing decision-making process must be transparent and open to the public.

One former Indian bureaucrat put it well: "Emergency situations like this pandemic should require a far higher‐and not lower‐level of scrutiny," since policy choices have such tremendous impact. "This suggests a need for democracies to strengthen their critical thinking capacity by creating an independent ‘Black Hat' institution whose purpose would be to question any technical foundations of government decisions."

Even more important than transparency, debate must be tolerant of alternative opinions. This means ideas that are wrong, offensive, even dangerous, have to be tolerated, even celebrated. By all means, refute them‐most alternative hypotheses are completely wrong, so it shouldn't be hard to simply refute them without censorship. This, after all, is the essence of science‐to generate hypotheses testable by anybody, not just licensed "experts."

Whether we are faced with a new crisis, a new policy innovation, or simply designing a better mousetrap, groupthink and censorship are recipes for disaster and stagnation, while transparency and tolerance of new ideas are the very essence of progress. Indeed, it is largely this scientific tolerance that allowed us to rise up from the long, brutal darkness of poverty.

As Francis Bacon observed three hundred years ago, innovation and new knowledge do not come from prestigious "learned" insiders, rather progress comes from the questioner, the tinkerer, the skeptic.

The industry of artificers maketh some small improvement of things invented; and chance sometimes in experimenting maketh us to stumble upon somewhat which is new; but all the disputation of the learned never brought to light one effect of nature before unknown. (In Praise of Knowledge, vol. 1, [1740] 1850)

Indeed, every major scientific advance challenged the "settled science" of its day, and was often denounced as pernicious and false, even dangerous. The modern blood transfusion, for example, was developed in the late 1600s, then banned for nearly a century by a hostile medical establishment, "canceling" tens of millions of lives at the altar of groupthink and hostility to skeptics.

It's comforting to know that our problems are old ones, and also encouraging that our solution is both time-tested and simple: transparency and tolerance. After all, the very reason our culture elevates science is because it is built on a millennia-long evolutionary "battle of ideas" in which theories are constantly tested and retested in a delightfully endless search for ever better understanding.

This implies there is no such thing as "settled science"‐the phrase itself is contrary to the scientific method. In reality, science is not some billion-dollar gleaming palace in Bethesda, rather it's a gnarled mutant sewer rat that takes all comers because it's been burned, cut, run over, crushed, run through the wood chipper, and survived. That ugly beast is our salvation, not the gleaming palace where we bow down to whichever random guy has the biggest degree in the room.

Only with free inquiry for the most unpopular, offensive, dangerous, and, yes, wrong ideas imaginable does that power sustain. And if we break that, we can expect a series of rapid catastrophes that, like failed golden ages of the past, return us to the nasty, brutish, and very short lives that have been humanity's norm.

Whether pandemic, climate change, "institutional racism," or whatever new crisis they conjure next, we have a fundamental right to tenaciously defend the transparency and tolerance that constitutes science itself so that it remains among humanity's crowning achievements, and so that we preserve this golden age that would astound our ancestors.
Posted by: Clem || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [22 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bastard! Denier! He's anti-science!
Posted by: Lumpy Mussolini7603 || 07/17/2020 3:11 Comments || Top||

#2  How can they have skeptics since they've embraced Lysenkoism? /rhet question
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/17/2020 7:03 Comments || Top||

#3  That "science" needs is lots less straight A students.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru PB || 07/17/2020 8:08 Comments || Top||



-PC Follies
Here’s the leaked racist map that got Red Bull execs fired
[NYPOST] Photos surfaced on Thursday of the racist slide shown at an internal Red Bull meeting that sparked the firing of three top executives earlier this week.
"Racist" in this case meaning "funny." You can't have a senzayuma and still be antiracist.
The slide shows a distorted map from the viewpoint of an ignorant US consumer. "America!!! We’re #1!!!" is emblazoned across the United States, while an arrow pointing to the Caribbean says "cruise ships go here." Canada to the north is labeled "Uninhabited." Mexico and South America are marked "coffee comes from here I think."

Across the Atlantic, Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
is labeled "p—ies" and Africa is marked "zoo animals come from here." Farther east, the Middle East is labeled "evil doers" with an arrow pointing to the region saying "bombs go here." Russia is "Communists," while China was labeled "they make our stuff." Japan has an arrow pointing to it, saying: "TVs and cameras." Australia was labeled "kangaroos" and Antartica was "cold." An oblong landmass that could be Greenland or the Arctic Circle is labeled "Santa!"
To which I reply "Har har har!"
Employees complained to Red Bull’s human resources about the map, but nothing came of it, according to earlier reports. The leaked slide comes after more than 300 Red Bull staffers signed a June 1 letter to company leaders to protest what they called the brand’s "public silence" regarding the Black Lives Matter movement.
COMPANY POLITIX REARS ITS UGLY HEAD...
But two executives blamed internally for the leak of the June 1 letter were let go, the company has confirmed, including Stefan Kozak, chief executive of North America for the Austria-based company, and Amy Taylor, North America president and chief marketing officer. Both had lobbied in recent weeks for more diversity.
US Exec: "We Needa Hire More Black People!"
Austrian Exec: "Why?"
US Exec: "Dint you never go to college?"

Florian Klaass, the company’s head of global culture and marketing who was responsible for the offensive slide, was also fired.
"Out! Quickly! Before they burn us down!"
All three were told they were losing their jobs on Monday, Business Insider reported. Klaass, who presented the controversial slide at a meeting of Red Bull’s US culture marketing team in bankrupt, increasingly impoverished, reliably Democrat, bankrupt, increasingly impoverished, reliably Democrat, Detroit
... ruled by Democrats since 1962. A city whose Golden Age included the Purple Gang...
in February, had been warned not to do it by US colleagues.
"You don't know thesde people, Florian! They're vicious!"
"Ach! We survived an Anschluss and a world war! How bad can these guys be?"

In a statement provided to The Post on Thursday, Red Bull suggested that Klaass’ job was eliminated because it is refocusing its culture activities including "discontinuing" many them.
"Jawohl! Wir starting mit him!"
"We reject racism in every form, we always have, and we always will," the board said in a statement.
"Recently, anyway. Eidelweiss, Eidelweiss,
Every morning you greet me
Small and white
Clean and bright
You look happy to meet me..."
"Herr Direktor! Look! Torches! Pitchforks! Brownshirts!"
"Wass der Helle?"

"Red Bull has always put people and their dreams and accomplishments at its core and values the contribution of each and every person — no matter who they are. We want everyone who feels this way to be welcome in Red Bull."
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [29 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'd fire anyone supporting BLM for being a racist.

A definite risk at a company.

All Lives Matter!
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/17/2020 3:36 Comments || Top||

#2  The hilarious part is this map is clearly meant to reinforce the "stupid Americans" trope so beloved of our big city betters.

Didn't save them. The people who take offense at everything took offense at it. These America-hating assholes are now fired and unemployable. Oh, the rich, delicious taste of poetic justice.
Posted by: Thumper Grundy4208 || 07/17/2020 5:45 Comments || Top||

#3 
Posted by: 3dc || 07/17/2020 6:41 Comments || Top||

#4  there's nothing racist about this map.

'The slide shows a distorted map from the viewpoint of an ignorant US consumer. "

that's it. heavy-handed 'Merica humor.

Note to NY Post: pygmy is not a 'racist' word. you don't have to clutch your pearls and censor it.
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 || 07/17/2020 7:31 Comments || Top||

#5  What's racist about it?
oh i forgot we are talking about Marxist Racism.
Posted by: Thorong Grundy1520 || 07/17/2020 10:08 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
How a tanker and its crew that 'disappeared' for 10 days ended up in Iran
[JPost] After disappearing from the UAE anchorage, there it was, off Hormuz Island near Iran, several hundred kilometers from its last known location on July 5, where it had been for months.

Last year Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com, noticed a mysterious ship off the coast of Lavan Island near Iran, appearing to take on cargo from another ship.

It had turned off its transponder, making it harder to track. However, Madani, who runs an independent online service that tracks and reports shipments and storage of crude oil, found the ship through satellite photos on December 6, 2019.

The same ship once again pulled a disappearing act, although this time at least 28 crew disappeared with it for ten days, only for the ship to show up off the coast of Iran and for the crew to appear back in India simultaneously.

The ship in question is called "Gulf Sky" and it has been at the center of an international quest by the US government to stop Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from laundering money and breaking sanctions by using front companies to acquire ships and smuggle weapons, oil and other cargo.

The story is so complex and convoluted that it spans continents, involves human rights groups that sought to help the crew stranded on the ship, and now involves an alleged "hijacking" that took the ship from detention off the coast of the United Arab Emirates to an anchorage several kilometers off Iran’s Bandar Abbas.

To understand how we got here I spoke at length with Madani who helped piece together missing details of this tanker’s movements.

Last year, the Gulf Sky was named the MT Nautic and had recently been sold. The beneficiary owner was supposed to be a company in Oman. It had a crew of 28 and a captain from India who was ostensibly operating it for a company in India. We know this from details later released by the human rights group that was involved.
Posted by: Frank G || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


India-Pakistan
Pakistan validates licenses of 166 pilots working in foreign countries
[Al Ahram] Pakistain on Thursday validated licenses of 166 pilots working in foreign countries amid a scandal involving "dubious" flying certificates, which caused a global alert.
Pakistain's civil aviation ministry grounded 262 pilots for "dubious" qualifications last month, prompted by a preliminary report into an airliner crash in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
in May that found the pilots had failed to follow standard procedures and disregarded alarms.

That crash killed 97 passengers and crew.

The ministry had said earlier that Pakistain has a total of 860 pilots, 107 of whom work for foreign airlines, but updated on Thursday in a statement that it had received requests from 10 countries for validation of 176 pilots.

It said 166 of them have been validated by Pakistain's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) as "genuine and certified" and the remaining 10 will have their process completed by next week.

The 10 countries where these pilots are employed included United Arab Emirates, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...
, Malaysia, Vietnam, Bahrain, Æthiopia, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
and Kuwait, the ministry said. It said the validation had been conveyed to the respective countries.

Out of the 262 grounded pilots, the statement said, the licenses for 28 pilots have been cancelled, and a process of verification for another 76 was underway.

The scandal has prompted the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to suspended two Pak airlines' authorisation to fly to the bloc for six months over safety failure.

Britannia and the United States have also revoked landing rights for Pakistain International Airlines (PIA), and various global safety boards have downgraded the national carrier's rating over aviation safety risks.

Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [18 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Pakistan on Thursday validated rubber-stamped licenses of 166 pilots working in foreign countries amid a scandal involving "dubious" flying certificates
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 14:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Hardly new...(26 Sep 2018/gulfnews.com) Pakistan jails Axact boss over $140m fake diploma scam on a "phony diploma mill" based in Karachi.
Posted by: magpie || 07/17/2020 15:09 Comments || Top||


Britain
UK government's statement 'makes no sense': Russia
[AA.TR] Russian Foreign Ministry's comments come hours after British foreign secretary accused Russia of meddling in 2019 elections
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [24 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is it just me, or the more China screws the rest of the World, the more accusations against Russia we hear?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 3:46 Comments || Top||

#2  No argument there. But, after the "rousing success" of the Russian collusion in the US, I suppose it's the UK's turn to give it a whirl.
Posted by: Clem || 07/17/2020 6:39 Comments || Top||

#3  I seem to remember that "Russian collusion" was started by a former (ha) member of MI5.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru PB || 07/17/2020 8:04 Comments || Top||

#4  The “Russian vaccine hack” is a 3-for-1 deal on propaganda
Posted by: Clem || 07/17/2020 8:21 Comments || Top||


#6  The UK "security services" are probably even more rotten than the rest of the UK bureaucracy.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/17/2020 9:13 Comments || Top||

#7 
Posted by: Clem || 07/17/2020 19:21 Comments || Top||

#8  Clem - please limit pic width to 400 or 300 to not bust page width
Posted by: Frank G || 07/17/2020 19:50 Comments || Top||

#9  Fixed. Added width=500 to the HTML string.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/17/2020 20:38 Comments || Top||

#10  Is it just me, or the more China screws the rest of the World, the more accusations against Russia we hear?

You noticed that too, eh?
Posted by: SteveS || 07/17/2020 21:29 Comments || Top||

#11  Frank G., I mean no harm. I download the images to my computer and then upload them here, and I am not aware of their size. I will try and do better in the future!
Posted by: Clem || 07/17/2020 21:41 Comments || Top||

#12  Clem, this is what your post looks like inside the angle brackets after my addition:

img width=500 src=Pix/Putin_Popcorn.jpeg valign=top align=right /

Note my addition.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/17/2020 22:24 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Shoreline police fatally shoot man accused of stabbing 62-year-old walker and his dog
[SEATTLETIMES] Police detectives on Thursday morning fatally shot a man who they believe stabbed a 62-year-old man and a dog and tried to stab another person walking nearby, according to the King County Sheriff’s Office, which provides police services for the city of Shoreline. Sheriff’s spokesperson Sgt. Ryan Abbott said the victim was stabbed at least twice. He was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he is at death's door but his injuries aren’t life-threatening, said hospital spokesperson Susan Gregg.

The dog, a German shepherd, was receiving care at an animal hospital, where he was reported to be stable and alert, Abbott said.

Abbott said the man was walking his dog on North 175th Street near Shorewood High School when he noticed he was being followed by a man he had never seen before.

The suspect then stabbed the man in the back and, as the victim turned, swiped at him again before stabbing the dog and running away, Abbott said.

The victim ran into his house, where he called for help around 6 a.m., Abbott said.

A second 911 call came in at 6:22 a.m. from a man on North 179th Street who said he had just fought off a stabbing attempt by someone wearing the same clothing as the suspect was wearing, Abbott said.

In the minutes that followed, several other residents called 911 and reported seeing the suspect walking in the area, Abbott said. A K-9 team was dispatched to search for him.

Two detectives confronted the suspect, believed to be in his 20s, at 6:37 a.m. in the driveway of the Linden Highlands apartment complex, Abbott said. They saw he had a knife and ordered him to drop it, Abbott said.

The detectives broadcast that shots had been fired at 6:38 a.m. and immediately started CPR, Abbott said. Shoreline Fire medics arrived and also tried to save the suspect, but he died at the scene.
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The dog, a German shepherd

Some German shepherd.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 3:53 Comments || Top||

#2  What a strange article:

where he is at death's door but his injuries aren’t life-threatening, said hospital spokesperson Susan Gregg.

The dog, a German shepherd, was receiving care at an animal hospital, where he was reported to be stable and alert...
Posted by: Clem || 07/17/2020 6:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Fred'shumor, Clem. Substituted "at death's door" for "in serious condition\". Hold your mouse over the words and it will pop up
Posted by: Frank G || 07/17/2020 7:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Thanks for that, Frank. When I am using my tablet, I am not firing on all cylinders!
Posted by: Clem || 07/17/2020 7:47 Comments || Top||

#5  No name for the perp. Must not have been black since no new riots breaking out.
Posted by: jpal || 07/17/2020 10:53 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran reports 2,500 new coronavirus cases
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [21 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Well, at least they stopped licking shrines and drinking methanol.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 3:47 Comments || Top||

#2  p.s. No mysterious explosions today?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 3:52 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Ilhan Omar snags Pelosi endorsement, but falls behind in fundraising
[IsraelTimes] Antone Melton-Meaux, one of four challengers in the August 11 Democratic primary, has fundraised nationally in part by rebuking Omar for her anti-Israel stances.

House Speaker Nancy San Fran Nan Pelosi
Congresswoman-for-Life from the San Francisco Bay Area, born into a family of professional politicians. On-again-off-again Speaker of the House. It's not her fault when they lose, but it's her accomplishment when they win. Noted for her heavily botoxed grimace and occasional senior... uhhh... moments...
has lent her considerable political weight to the reelection bid of Rep. Ilhan Omar
...Somali-American Dem representative from Minnesota. She was apparently married to her brother and may be her own grandmaw on her mother's side...
, who has faced allegations of invoking anti-Semitism.

Meanwhile,
...back at the precinct house, Fat Tony demanded his rosco back. He didn't say please...
an opponent in the Democrat primary who has attracted the support of pro-Israel givers nationwide has outraised Omar by millions of dollars.

"Ilhan is a valued and important Member of our Caucus," Pelosi said Tuesday in a statement. "In her first term, Ilhan has already established herself as a leader on a host of issues — from child nutrition to housing to US-Africa relations."

Pelosi was among Democrats in 2019 who joined in criticizing Omar for a number of statements about pro-Israel influence that were seen as anti-Semitic. Omar apologized for some but not all of the statements.

Antone Melton-Meaux,
... a lawyer, husband to a medical professor surgeon, Progressive and pro-immigrant like Ilhan Omar, but unlike her very connected to Progressive African-American politics nationally and locally...
one of four Democrats challenging Omar in the August 11 primary for Minnesota’s 5th congressional district, has fundraised nationally in part by rebuking Omar for her stances on Israel, including support for boycotts of the Jewish state.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Tuesday that Melton-Meaux had raised $3.2 million in the last quarter while Omar had brought in $472,000.

The newspaper said he attracted money from pro-Israel groups like nonpartisan NORPAC, which held a virtual fundraiser for Melton-Meaux in May.


Posted by: trailing wife || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [22 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists


#2  Falling behind in fundraising- yep, when Omar 'the campaign' is funneling $ out of the campaign and to your husband du jour's PR firm, I do believe that would happen.
Posted by: Raj || 07/17/2020 9:15 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Dostum Promoted to Marshal in Jawzjan Ceremony
[Tolo] Abdul Rashid Dostum, the former vice president and founder of the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan party, in a ceremony on Wednesday was officially promoted to the rank of marshal at a ceremony in Jawzjan province.

Hundreds of people came to the event, including Abdullah Abdullah, head of the High Council for National Reconciliation.

On July 3, a decree by President Ashraf Ghani promoting Dostum to marshal rank was leaked to the media. The decree was signed on June 10.

Meanwhile, Dostum in his speech during the ceremony called on the Afghan political leaders to unite, to help the country pass through a sensitive situation and to defeat the Taliban.

"GIVE ME SIX MONTHS TO ELIMINATE THE TALIBAN"
In his remarks, Dostum talked about the Taliban's ongoing insurgency and said that if the Afghan government gives him six months, he will eliminate the Taliban. However, he called on the Taliban to avoid making excuses and enter the peace process.

"The Taliban will be defeated, I want to say it to General Miller, to NATO---there is no need for your bombardment and ground forces, just trust and give us a chance to prove whether we deserve the rank of a marshal or not," said Dostum, warning the Taliban.

Dostum called on the Afghan political leaders to unite against the Taliban.

"We are in a sensitive stage of history, if we are not united, if we do not trust each other, if we are not together, if we do not bear trust for each other, if one of us go towards the Stability and Convergence team (Abdullah's election campaign) and they (Ghani's team) go towards State Building Team…in that scenario, who wins the battlefield? Of course the Taliban, who are waiting there to bring their emirate," said Dostum.

In the meantime, Abdullah Abdullah, head of the High Council for National Reconciliation also criticized the Taliban for increasing attacks in various parts of the country.

"Now that the ground has been paved for the talks, I am confident that the issue of the prisoner release will be completed, so there should be no more excuses for the start of intra-Afghan talks," said Abdullah.

"If they (the Taliban) want to prolong the war or try to re-establish an emirate in Afghanistan, the era of the establishment of an emirate in Afghanistan has passed," added Dostum.

Dostum's promotion is part of the political agreement signed between President Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, head of the High Council for National Reconciliation, on May 17.

Dostum thanked Abdullah for recommending the rank of marshal for him in the political agreement with President Ashraf Ghani. He also thanked Ghani for considering the recommendation.

Dostum said that he is the marshal for all the people of Afghanistan.

He added that his military calculations are "different from others when it comes to crushing the insurgents."

Dostum also said the US should not hurry in withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan but should wait to see what the Taliban will do with the process. He says he supports the peace process and that it should be moved forward by the government.

Marshal Dostum served as Vice President of Afghanistan from 2014 to 2020.

He has married three times and has four sons and six daughters.

He is also the chairman of National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan party.

In the 2014 presidential elections, Dostum supported President Ashraf Ghani.

In 2016, former Jawzjan governor and ex-member of the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan, Ahmad Eshchi, claimed that he was also sexually assaulted by Dostum and his bodyguards – while in Dostum's ‘custody.'


After the allegations by Eshchi, Dostum was sidelined from his post as first vice president.

Eshchi claimed he was in Dostum's custody for five days and then spent 11 days in a National Directorate of Security (NDS) detention center.

He claimed that Dostum beat him up, threatened to kill him and sexually assaulted him.
"He turned me into a newt!"
Posted by: Frank G || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [27 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Give him the intelligence tools he needs and stay out of his way.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/17/2020 3:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Give him a pair of eyebrow-clippers.
Posted by: Lumpy Mussolini7603 || 07/17/2020 3:16 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Heavy Turkish aerial bombardment reported in three Zakho villages: local officials
[Rudaw] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
’s air force heavily bombarded three villages in Zakho town’s Batifa subdistrict late Wednesday, dropping dozens of bombs on the area, according to local officials.

Dlsher Abdulsattar, the mayor of Batifa subdistrict in Duhok province’s Zakho told Rudaw that Turkey has been bombing the area since midday, but the bombardment intensified during the evening. He estimates that some 50 bombs fell on the abandoned villages of Avla and Pirbla, while some 25 others hit the nearby village of Sila.

Biladi Salih, mukhtar of Avla, confirmed to Rudaw that his village was hit by Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s Wednesday.

Turkey began air and ground military operations in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq's disputed territories a month ago, with the stated aim of removing suspected Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets from the area.

A number of villages in Zakho have been abandoned and some others have been partially vacated.

Avla was abandoned on Friday after Turkey dropped 26 bombs on the village, hitting five houses. There were no casualties, with the five families residing in the houses out that day. They later opted to flee their homes.

Abdullah Osman is from Avla. He and his family of six fled their village on Friday. Now, he is staying in Zakho with his son.

Turkey "began bombarding the village in the evening [on Friday] and we all fled it," he told Rudaw on Wednesday.

The Batifa subdistrict is made up of 27 villages, and borders Turkey. At least thirteen of the villages have been affected by the recent bombardments. In Darkar, 25 of 63 villages have been subject to Ottoman Turkish bombs, according to the mayors of both areas.

Several other villages in the area have also been abandoned due to ongoing offensive in the area. Horor Bazib is one of these villages. It is home to 50 families, who haven't been able to visit their agricultural lands, fearing bombardments.

Mahmoud Ahmed is from the village. He told Rudaw Wednesday, "we cannot leave the village because we fear Turkey. We live on [the produce of our lands] on these mountains."
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [18 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Government
Navy says ship fire in San Diego is now out
[Al Ahram] The fire on the USS Bonhomme Richard in San Diego Harbor has been extinguished, ending one of the worst infernos to rip through a US warship outside of combat in recent years, the Navy announced Thursday.

``All known fires have been extinguished aboard USS Bonhomme Richard,`` Rear Adm. Philip E. Sobeck said in a statement.

Teams were continuing to check every space to make sure no fire remained and until that process was complete an official investigation into the cause of the blaze that started Sunday would not begin, he said.

``We did not know the origin of the fire. We do not know the extent of the damage. It is too early to make any predictions or promises of what the future of the ship will be,`` said Sobeck, commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 3.

The news came after the massive ship shifted during the night and listed toward the pier, prompting the Navy to pull off firefighting sailors.

The withdrawal of the roughly 30 sailors on board late Wednesday was out of an abundance of caution and there is no fear of the 840-foot (255-meter) vessel capsizing, said Lt. Cmdr. Patricia Kreuzberger. They were back on the ship within an hour.

The Navy was keeping a close eye on any movements as the ship settles after burning. The fire started in its lower armored vehicle storage area and quickly spread throughout the amphibious assault ship that is akin to a mini-aircraft carrier.

Helicopters dumped more than 1,500 buckets of water on the ship, which had been docked in San Diego harbor undergoing maintenance.

The Navy believes a spark from an unknown source first ignited heavy-duty cardboard boxes, rags and other maintenance supplies that were being stored in the lower vehicle storage area.

The fire traveled upward to the well deck _ a wide hangar type area _ and took off from there, Navy officials have said.

The fire at one point reached up to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (538 degrees Celsius), threatening to soften steel.
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [18 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...yep.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/17/2020 7:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Fantastic clip, P.
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 8:54 Comments || Top||

#3  May I suggest Fire curtains for the next version of the ship while in maintenance?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/17/2020 9:17 Comments || Top||

#4  The fire started in a trash pile deep in the ship’s vehicle storage area? You lost a billion dollar aircraft carrier and amphibious warfare ship docked in San Diego, where they have trash trucks, to a trash fire? Seriously?
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 07/17/2020 13:05 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Security forces in Iran shoot live rounds to disperse protests
[THEBAGHDADPOST] As dozens of protesters in Iran's Behbahan city have chanted against the regime, reports claimed that the Iranian security forces shot live rounds to disperse the protests.

At the same time, reports found that the Iranian authorities have stopped imminent execution of three people facing protest-related charges amid public pressure, BBC reported.

Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [22 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Bet it worked.
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 8:50 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Nigeria: 602 Boko Haram terrorists surrender
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [23 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram (ISIS)

#1  Can someone help me out here? When you go to the pic on Twitter, that looks like a rough flintlock. Please correct me.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 07/17/2020 16:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Dane gun? Crazy stuff. Maybe a Burger who's got some hanging on the wall (gotta be one) will weigh in?
Posted by: One Eyed Ometle7616 || 07/17/2020 19:59 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Libya (GNA) denounces Egyptian president's threats
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [22 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Science & Technology
Low Dose Radiation on Ventilated Covid Positive Patients
A very small scale study but the treatment is inexpensive and readily available. Only problem is that many greenies are opposed to any and all radiation since opposition to nuclear power motivates their whole life.
[MedRxIV] Conclusions: In a pilot trial of five oxygen-dependent patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, low-dose whole-lung radiation led to rapid improvement in clinical status, encephalopathy, and radiographic infiltrates without acute toxicity. Low-dose whole-lung radiation is safe, shows early promise of efficacy, and warrants further study in larger prospective trials.
Posted by: lord garth || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How is it administered? What isotope is used if any? Or is it some photonic source?
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 07/17/2020 7:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Low-dose whole-lung radiation
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 8:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Take away from Skidmark's link above: The radiation is provided by a large x-ray machine at low dose (to irradiate the entire pair of lungs at once.)

Testing seems to be limited to whether or not the irradiated patent will live for 30 days after the one time x-ray treatment.

The trail is limed to a maximum of 24 patents (16 at first with an additional 8 added later.)

No nuclear materials involved!
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 07/17/2020 17:04 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Minor girl kidnapped and raped, rapists released because they are relatives with Nineveh female MP
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [20 views] Top|| File under:


-Obits-
Dead Fort Hood soldier deemed 'deserter' reinstated to active duty, will receive military funeral
[FoxNews] The military failed him by not looking,' his mother said.

A former Fort Hood soldier declared a deserter until his remains were found near a Texas Army base will be reinstated to active duty, clearing the way for a burial with full military honors, officials said Wednesday.

Pvt. Gregory Wedel-Morales, 24, a native of Sapulpa, Okla., was last seen driving his personal vehicle outside Fort Hood in Killeen on the night of Aug. 19. His last known contact was the following day. His unit placed him on AWOL status, then declared him a deserter a month later.

He was just days away from being released from the Army when he disappeared.

His mother, Kimberley Wedel, said her son was reinstated this week after the Killeen Police Department, which serves the town adjacent to Fort Hood, found new evidence suggesting her son died before he was “dropped from rolls,” or deemed a deserter, on Sept. 21, 2019, Fox 7 Austin reported.

“The military failed him by not looking,” said Wedel in a separate interview with The Washington Post. “They just assumed the worst and let it go.”

“This is just a relief that he’s not going to be remembered as a deserter. That he gets what he deserves and what he earned,” she also told Fox 7. “His grandfather retired as a major in the military and this has really been hard on him, that the world would believe that his grandson's a deserter. None of [my children] were brought up to ever just run away from problems."

Nine months passed before the Army offered a reward – $15,000 – for information about Wedel-Morales’ disappearance. It was announced a day after Kimberly Wedel sent an email to Fort Hood demanding to know why it never offered one for her son, as they had in the case of Spc. Vanessa Guillén, who was reported missing from the base in April.

The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command increased the reward for information on Wedel-Morales to $25,000 on June 15. His skeletal remains were found four days later in a field in Killeen. Guillén’s body was found nearby about a week later, on June 30. Military officials said there is no evidence suggesting the cases were connected.

“They didn’t do any real searching until they got a lead,” Nick Wedel, Wedel-Morales’ younger brother, told the Post. “If an M16 goes missing, they shut down an entire unit to find it. Why don’t they do that for people?”

Wedel-Morales’ family said his remains will be returned to Oklahoma and laid to rest at Fort Gibson National Cemetery, where his great-uncle is buried and his grandfather plans to be interred.

The investigation into his death is ongoing.

Wedel-Morales “was out processing from the Army and was scheduled to be discharged within a couple of days when he disappeared,” III Corps and Ford Hood said in a Facebook update on June 21.

His 2018 Black KIA Rio – the same car he was last seen driving near Fort Hood in August – was recovered by authorities in January. His family saw on Carfax that someone in the Dallas-area tried to take it in for an inspection, Fox 7 Austin reported.

The Army has since said "foul play is suspected."

Wedel said she was told her son may have been shot in the face before he died but the medical examiner has not declared a cause of death, according to the Post.
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [27 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria jihadists say British-born 'aid worker' freed
[Rudaw] Syrian jihadists said they released on Wednesday a self-described aid worker stripped of his British nationality, three weeks after he was detained in the country's last major rebel bastion.

Tauqir Sharif,
...the Pakistani-Brit from east London, also known as Tox, who was stripped of British citizenship after admitting to fighting for an Al Qaeda-linked group...
33, was captured on June 22 by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
(HTS), which is dominated by Syria's former al-Qaeda affiliate.

The group's propaganda arm Ebaa said on its website that Sharif would be brought before a local court in two weeks.

Sharif "has been released from prison," his relatives wrote on Facebook, welcoming the "great news".

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britannia-based war monitor, said after his detention that Sharif was held over his alleged ties with rival jihadists.

HTS has accused him of using humanitarian aid funds to sow division in the Idlib region.

Sharif first arrived in Syria in 2012, according to the Live Updates From Syria organization he founded with his wife.

Britannia stripped him of his British nationality in 2017, accusing him of links to an al-Qaeda-aligned group it did not specify, the British press has said, but Sharif has denied the allegation.

The Idlib region is home to some three million people, a large proportion of whom have been displaced from their homes by Syria's nine-year-old war and are dependent on humanitarian aid.
Mr Sharif's detention came amid a crackdown by HTS on dissidents and defectors in areas of north-western Syria that are under its control.
Husband and wife being cute on their YouTube channel:
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [21 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


Home Front: Politix
Fox Will Keep Nick Cannon As Host Of
[DISRN] Nick Cannon on Twatter: "I want to express my gratitude to the Rabbis, community leaders and institutions who reached out to me to help enlighten me, instead of chastising me."

No apologies for what he said about Gentile Whites, though.

A bridge too far, I guess.


Posted by: charger || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Should just cancel that silly show without reason.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 07/17/2020 8:34 Comments || Top||

#2  who watches this shit? dumbest show ever aired, and that's saying alot.
Posted by: Chris || 07/17/2020 10:01 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
At least three ships are on fire at the Bushehr port in southern Iran
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [25 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Djinns
Posted by: Frank G || 07/17/2020 8:46 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't think I'd wanna fly commercial near Iran
Iranian air defense on high alert amid explosions - report
Posted by: Frank G || 07/17/2020 10:26 Comments || Top||


Britain
'Daesh girl can return to fight for UK citizenship'
[AA.TR] A British court ruled on Thursday that Shamima Begum, a woman who joined ISIS/ISIS as a teenager, should be allowed to return to the UK to challenge the government’s decision to revoke her British citizenship.Begum, now 20, was one of three London schoolgirls to leave the UK in February 2015 to join the terror group in Syria.

After spending three years in ISIS-controlled areas, she was found in February 2019 in a refugee camp in Syria.

She was nine months pregnant at the time and her child subsequently died in the camp.

Begum was stripped of her British citizenship later that month.

She launched an appeal against the decision, claiming it was illegal because it made her stateless and exposed her to a real risk of death or degrading treatment.

The Special Immigration Appeals Commission ruled that the decision was legal as Begum was a "citizen of Bangladesh by descent" and was not stateless.

Her request to come to the UK to pursue her appeal was rejected.

On Thursday, the British Court of Appeal ruled that "the only way in which she can have a fair and effective appeal is to be permitted to come into the United Kingdom to pursue her appeal."

"Fairness and justice must, on the facts of this case, outweigh the national security concerns, so that the leave to enter appeals should be allowed," read the decision.

It said the "national security concerns about her could be addressed and managed" if she returned to the UK.
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State



Fifth Column
Protester, 35, is hit with felony arson charges a month after he 'set fire to the Seattle precinct in the cop-free CHOP' after his family saw surveillance video and reported him to the police
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • Isaiah Thomas Willoughby, 35, received a federal arson charge Wednesday

  • He is believed to be the protester who set fire to the Seattle Police East Precinct on June 12 wearing a distinctive yellow hoodie

  • The precinct was then in the CHOP zone and police could not respond

  • Yet another protester followed the suspect and shared his picture online

  • Willoughby's family recognized him because in the surveillance video he was wearing a clothing brand he represents on social media

  • He allegedly told his aunt he set the fire because he was angry about his treatment during a prior arrest at the East Precinct

  • Willoughby was first arrested on June 18 and charged in a state court
Posted by: Herb Omomosing8705 || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under: Antifa/BLM

#1  his family saw surveillance video and reported him to the police

Families today.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 3:20 Comments || Top||

#2  He confused the statute of limitations with his attention span.

I'd imagine his family just adores him, too.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 07/17/2020 8:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Does this mean he has to move out of Mom's basement?
Posted by: Raj || 07/17/2020 8:49 Comments || Top||

#4  He allegedly told his aunt he set the fire because he was angry about his treatment during a prior arrest at the East Precinct

My observation - if you're not an asshole to cops, they won't be an asshole to you.
Posted by: Raj || 07/17/2020 8:51 Comments || Top||

#5  The precinct was then in the CHOP zone and police could not respond

So the establishment of CHAZ by or with the consent of the local government was a necessary element of this arson.

Why aren't the mayor and/or other local politicians responsible for enjoining the police from responding within CHAZ charged as well?

BTW since he's being charged by the federal government, was there some federal institution located in the building that was burned down?

If yes, who ordered the federal institution to vacate the premises?

Did elements of the federal government actively facilitate the establishment of CHAZ?
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 07/17/2020 11:28 Comments || Top||

#6  Arson and Federal Law

In addition to state statutes there are also federal laws. The basic federal arson statute prohibits the willful and malicious setting of fires within the maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States. This applies to any of the following:

Buildings;
Structures or vessels;
Machinery or building materials or supplies;
Military or naval stores;
Munitions of war; or
Any structural aids or appliances for navigation or shipping.

Federal arson laws also cover the attempt to start the fire or entering into a conspiracy to do so.
Posted by: Herb Omomosing8705 || 07/17/2020 11:47 Comments || Top||

#7  I duckduckgoed a definition of “special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States”.

This seems to be the relevant part for this case:

(3) Any lands reserved or acquired for the use of the United States, and under the exclusive or concurrent jurisdiction thereof, or any place purchased or otherwise acquired by the United States by consent of the legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of a fort, magazine, arsenal, dockyard, or other needful building.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 07/17/2020 14:23 Comments || Top||

#8  @#3 He probably set his Mom’s basement on fire.
Posted by: Airandee || 07/17/2020 14:24 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
In the past 48 hours 26 drug traffickers nabbed in separate Counter- Narcotics operations in Afghanistan
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [30 views] Top|| File under: Narcos

#1  That's what happens to people who don't share with upstairs?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru PB || 07/17/2020 7:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Didn't pay the "fees".
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 07/17/2020 13:04 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Turkish lawmakers condemn Armenian attacks on Azerbaijan
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  The Grand Turk intervenes in 5...4...3...
Posted by: Mercutio || 07/17/2020 5:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Turkey is replacing Iran as the Middle East and North Africa trouble-maker. Meanwhile the EU, NATO and Donald Trump remain silent.
Posted by: b || 07/17/2020 8:34 Comments || Top||

#3  gonna open up a 6 th front?
Posted by: Chris || 07/17/2020 9:53 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraq’s raid on Iran -backed militias: Is the new PM ready to rein them in?
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies


-Lurid Crime Tales-
New Jersey woman, 24, who climbed over a railing on Brooklyn Bridge and attacked NYPD cops with a cane in bloody beating is arrested and charged with assault
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • At least four officers - including the city’s highest ranking uniformed cop, Chief of Department Terence Monahan - were hurt Wednesday and 37 arrested

  • In surveillance footage a protester is seen swinging a long object down at the heads of a group of officers from a walkway as they attempt to arrest someone

  • Chanice Reyes, 24, was charged with two counts of assault on a police officer

  • She was arrested during an early morning raid near City Hall on Thursday

  • Photos of the aftermath showed a lieutenant with a bloodied face, a detective holding a bandage to his head, and an officer helping another to dress a wound
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [19 views] Top|| File under: Antifa/BLM

#1  Meh. She's probably been released already with no bail.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 07/17/2020 0:38 Comments || Top||


#3  ^ they're smart enough so far to avoid punching or assaulting the judges.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/17/2020 10:58 Comments || Top||

#4  "If the police and the courts will no longer protect people , then the people will start protecting themselves by arming them selves , forming militias , or hiring those who can actually protect them " When private armies are formed , historically it gets real nasty .
Posted by: Thaith Elmeresing6163 || 07/17/2020 13:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Juan Williams today on The Five, "There is no anarchy in our streets". When asked about the "protesters" attacking theses officers were just excerising their 1st amendment rights.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 07/17/2020 18:14 Comments || Top||

#6  Amazing what nonsense comes out of these pukes' gobs.
Posted by: Clem || 07/17/2020 19:17 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
US world’s top human rights violator,’ China says
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Bad Americans! No more single-use umbrellas for you!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/17/2020 3:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Project much?
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 07/17/2020 7:50 Comments || Top||


#4  Uyghars are only a minority in China. The institutionalized hate and purges towards whites in America covers the vast majority.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/17/2020 10:54 Comments || Top||



Christians in China ordered to renounce faith, worship communist government to receive welfare payments
Via InstaPundit
Impoverished Christians living in China who are receiving aid from the state have been ordered to renounce their faith or have their welfare benefits revoked, according to reports from Bitter Winter, a non-profit organization dedicated to religious and human rights in China.

During a government meeting in the city of Linfen near the northern province of Shanxi, officials from all villages under the city's jurisdiction were instructed to remove crosses, religious symbols, and images from the homes of Christians who receive welfare payments and replace them with images of Chairman Mao Zedong and President Xi Jinping.

For those Christians who refused to comply, the officials were told to withdraw their welfare benefits.

A member of a Three-Self Church located in one of the villages said that officials destroyed all religious symbols pertaining to Christianity within his home and posted a picture of Mao.

An official from a village administered by a city in the eastern province of Shandong invaded a home and posted portraits of Mao and Xi saying, "These are the greatest gods. If you want to worship somebody, they are the ones."
Posted by: Herb Omomosing8705 || 07/17/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [23 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  'Little Sisters of The Poor' on a grand scale.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/17/2020 3:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Biden's team come up with that one too? Asking for a friend.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/17/2020 7:52 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
37[untagged]
8Govt of Iran
6Commies
5Sublime Porte
5Antifa/BLM
2Islamic State
2Moslem Colonists
2Hamas
2Narcos
2Govt of Iran Proxies
1al-Nusra
1Govt of Pakistan
1Hezbollah
1Muslim Brotherhood
1Boko Haram (ISIS)

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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2020-07-17
  Nigeria: 602 Boko Haram terrorists surrender
Thu 2020-07-16
  Video footage from Iranian port after 7 ships caught fire
Wed 2020-07-15
  Explosion as fire breaks out at Iranian industrial complex
Tue 2020-07-14
  BLM activist claimed in ultra-viral tweet that racist messages were left on his car. Video shows he placed them there himself
Mon 2020-07-13
  Florida man crashes into Catholic Church,
sets it on fire with worshipers inside
Sun 2020-07-12
  Turkish military seizes strategic summit in Iraqi-Kurdistan
Sat 2020-07-11
  Turkey issues presidential decree to convert Hagia Sophia back into mosque
Fri 2020-07-10
  Latest explosions in Tehran reportedly hit warehouses of rockets that belong to the IRGC
Thu 2020-07-09
  Yemen's Ansarallah forces threaten to target Saudi palaces
Wed 2020-07-08
  22 Taliban militants killed, wounded on Kabul-Jalalabad highway
Tue 2020-07-07
  Iraqi security analyst Husham Al Hashimi assassinated outside his Baghdad home
Mon 2020-07-06
  Sen Tammy Duckworth in favor of tearing down George Washington Statues!
Sun 2020-07-05
  Officer draws gun on two men who beat him in the Bronx— de Blasio calls for his resignation
Sat 2020-07-04
  Happy Fourth!
Fri 2020-07-03
  MSNBC Dubs Mount Rushmore as a 'Racist' 'Symbol of White Supremacy'

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