WIRED via Instapundit
This spring, a mysterious figure by the name of Quantum Bullshit Detector strolled onto the Twitter scene. Posting anonymously, they began to comment on purported breakthroughs in quantum computing‐claims that the technology will speed up artificial intelligence algorithms, manage financial risk at banks, and break all encryption. The account preferred to express its opinions with a single word: "Bullshit."
The provocations perplexed experts in the field. Because of the detector’s familiarity with jargon and the accounts it chose to follow, the person or persons behind the account seemed be part of the quantum community. Researchers were unaccustomed to such brazen trolling from someone in their own ranks. "So far it looks pretty well-calibrated, but [...] vigilante justice is a high-risk affair," physicist Scott Aaronson wrote on his blog a month after the detector’s debut. People discussed online whether to take the account’s opinions seriously.
"There is some confusion. Quantum Bullshit Detector cannot debate you. It can only detect quantum bullshit. This is why we are Quantum Bullshit Detector!" the account tweeted in response.
In the subsequent months, the account has called bullshit on statements in academic journals such as Nature and journalism publications such as Scientific American, Quanta, and yes, an article written by me in WIRED. Google’s so-called quantum supremacy demonstration? Bullshit. Andrew Yang’s tweet about Google’s quantum supremacy demonstration? Bullshit. Quantum computing pioneer Seth Lloyd accepting money from Jeffrey Epstein? Bullshit.
People now tag the detector, @BullshitQuantum, to request its take on specific articles, which the account obliges with an uncomplicated "Bullshit" or sometimes "Not bullshit." Not everyone celebrates the detector, with one physicist calling the detector "ignorant" and condemning its "lack of talent and bad taste" in response to a negative verdict on his own work. But some find that the account provides a public service in an emerging industry prone to hyperbole. "I think it does a good job of highlighting articles that are not well-written," says physicist Juani Bermejo-Vega of the University of Granada in Spain.
#1
Fine. Add CRISPR, Inhabitable planets that are light years away and considered inhabitible by very stretched inference only and of course gerbil worming and you are getting started.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2019 18:14
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[Red State] I once posted about an Obama administration official who actually had integrity, a man who noticed that something was amiss and acted. It was this man who traveled to Trump Tower on November 17, 2016, to brief then-President-elect Donald Trump that communications from the building were being tapped. He did not notify his superior, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, beforehand. This man’s name is Mike Rogers. He served as the head of the National Security Agency (NSA).
But Rogers’ role went beyond informing Trump about the surveillance being conducted at Trump Tower.
A couple of years earlier, Rogers discovered that American citizens were being spied upon and drew attention to the abuse of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by the Obama administration. According to former U.S. Attorney Joe DiGenova, Section 702 allows the government to essentially weaponize the NSA’s ability to collect data and surveil private U.S. citizens. In light of IG Horowitz’s report, this man’s story becomes even more relevant.
#1
Fortunately, we had a Naval officer cryptologist, Mike Rogers (who had integrity and was not like Brennan, clapper, Comey, and the other sleeve balls Obama selected) at NSA during the Obama administration’s corruption reign at the While Palace.
After Admiral Rogers reported the FISA violations and the ongoing wire tapping to Trump - Clapper and Ash Carter (Sec Def) tried to fire him.
It's Still impossible to share the truth due to the liberal and corrupt news agencies and the liberals who have lost their mind. Naddler and little Adam Schiff should be on the corruption and liars list soon…. Except half of the USA still hasn’t heard the truth about what did not occur.
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Interior Ministry have detained five members of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), who plotted terrorist attacks, the FSB said on Friday.
An IS cell consisting of two Russian nationals and three citizens of Central Asian countries was exposed; they "planned to carry out subversive and terrorist acts," the statement said.
Communication devices with instructions from the international terrorist organization's emissaries were seized from the suspects during an operation in Moscow, TASS reported.
"An arms cache was found, which contained a Kalashnikov rifle, a Makarov pistol, ammunition and an improvised explosive device," according to the FSB. The defendants have been taken into custody, and a criminal case has been opened, the statement added.
Posted by: Dron66046 ||
12/13/2019
12:47 ||
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#1
In other news, the FBI and Homeland Security announced "known wolf" terrorists in the US will now be eligible for unlimited candy, twinkies and rubber stamped welfare benefit packages...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2019 14:30
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#2
of all the places too be arrested plotting terror attacks, Moscow would not be the place.
Posted by: chris ||
12/13/2019 15:37
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#1
After circling northern Canada for hundreds of years, the approximate location of the magnetic north pole started moving speedily towards Siberia at around the turn of the century.
#2
The idea that GPS depends upon magnetic pole information surprised me.
I'm not an expert but once your satellite is in orbit you don't adjust that orbit except by using a ton of fuel (or because you're adjusting altitude). I don't see how magnetic field is a factor at all.
#4
Celestial navigation will remain accurate nonetheless.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2019 15:25
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#5
Re #4 - Except that, IIRC, the earth is slowly moving so that in a few thousand years or so, Polaris will no longer be the north star.
Of course, the whole "magnetic north moving" thing can be blamed on global warming. Which is all Trump's fault.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/13/2019 15:45
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#6
...yeah, our pole star Polaris was not the Egyptian pole star when they made the pyramids. Let's just say we're good for our lifetime.
#7
Will Santa have to relocate? Whaddaout the Fortress of Solitude?
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/13/2019 17:19
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#8
As we all know, magnets generate both an attractive and a repulsive force.
Rather than being attracted towards Siberia, I theorize that the movement of the pole is being driven by the ever-increasing concentrations of refrigerator magnets in the Southern United States, particularly in Texas.
[WattsUpWithThat] The sun is currently in the midst of a deep solar minimum and it is about to reach an historic milestone. So far this year the sun has been blank (i.e., no visible sunspots) for 266 days and, barring any major surprises, it’ll reach 269 days early next week which will be the quietest year in terms of sunspots since 1913 when the sun was spotless for 311 days. In fact, the current stretch of consecutive spotless days has reached 29 and for the year the sun has been blank 77% of the time. The current record-holder in the satellite era for spotless days in a given year is 2008 when the sun was blank for 268 days making the 2008-2009 solar minimum the deepest since 1913.
Solar minimum is a normal part of the 11-year sunspot cycle, but the last one and the current one have been far deeper than most. One of the consequences of a solar minimum is a reduction of solar storms and another is the intensification of cosmic rays. The just ended solar cycle 24 turned out to be one of the weakest in more than a century ‐ continuing a weakening trend that began in the 1980’s ‐ and, if the latest forecasts are correct, the next solar cycle will be the weakest in more than 200 years.
One of the natural impacts of decreasing solar activity is the weakening of the ambient solar wind and its magnetic field which, in turn, allows more and more cosmic rays to penetrate the solar system. Galactic cosmic rays are high-energy particles originating from outside the solar system that can impact the Earth’s atmosphere. Our first line of defense from cosmic rays comes from the sun as its magnetic field and the solar wind combine to create a ’shield’ that fends off cosmic rays attempting to enter the solar system. The shielding action of the sun is strongest during solar maximum and weakest during solar minimum with the weakening magnetic field and solar wind. The intensity of cosmic rays varies globally by about 15% over a solar cycle because of changes in the strength of the solar wind, which carries a weak magnetic field into the heliosphere, partially shielding Earth from low-energy galactic charged particles. Much more at the link.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/13/2019
09:50 ||
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#4
Several weeks ago, an article was posted here about a Russian scientist perfecting her model of solar output. The model fit known solar patterns over the last 400 years or more. One conclusion was the years 2030-2050 could be the coldest in 400 years.
Take that, Greta!
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/13/2019 17:16
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[Guns America Digest] As you may have heard, Virginia Democrats have promised to pass new gun-control legislation in 2020.
And as you also may have heard, this flagrant assault on the 2A rights of Virginians has created a groundswell of backlash as more than 75 of the state’s 95 counties have passed resolutions declaring themselves, "Second Amendment Sanctuaries," meaning they will not observe nor enforce any law that infringes on one’s right to keep and bear arms.
This face-off between pro-gun forces at the municipal and grassroots level and their anti-gun opposition in the Legislature raises an obvious question, who wins when the rubber meets the road? Say the Dems do pass all eight proposals (see list below), what happens when a large percentage of the population does not come to heel.
Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam said while there will not be "retaliation" there will be "consequences" for those who openly flout the law.
"There’s not going to be retaliation. That’s not what I’m about. I’m about making Virginia safer," said Northam on Wednesday.
"If we have constitutional laws on the books and law enforcement officers are not enforcing those laws on the books, then there are going to be consequences," he continued. "But I’ll cross that bridge if and when we get to it."
#1
What a maroon. Who do you think keep private arms in their own home?
What are you going to do if those members reject your illegal orders? Call Trump for federal troops? I can hear the laughter at the other end of the line.
#2
"If we have constitutional laws on the books and law enforcement officers are not enforcing those laws on the books, then there are going to be consequences," he continued."
Problem solved right there. Confiscation is patently unconstitutional. I refer you to a little known section, we the deplorables, call 2A.
#5
Always remember the instructive case of the Arizona traffic cameras. They were roundly criticized as being overly aggressive and left the ticketed driver with no legal chance for appeal.
The citizens of Arizona simply stopped paying any and all tickets that were issued by camera. Non- plussed by a revolt of the masses, the governor had his chief LEO figure out just what it would take to get them 'aire peons back on a paying basis. It was thought that it would require every LEO in the state. State, county, municipal, federal, every last one just to get the ticket racket back on line. Truly would you need to have a heart of stone not to be convulsed with mirth at the news conference with the 4 nearly tearful state troopers formerly in charge announcing the program's demise.
Moral of the story, there are more of us than there are of them.
#7
VA vote for him, they voted for this. He is not a moron, he is doing what the voters asked. The true morons in this game are the citizens of VA, they brought this jackass into power.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/13/2019 11:14
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#8
"But I’ll cross that bridge if and when we get to it."
Interesting choice of words, sir.
Posted by: Francis Smith ||
12/13/2019 11:37
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#9
Despite all the discussion of using the National Guard for law enforcement actions people see to remember that virtually all of the Guard equipment and pay comes from the Federal government. A phone call and signature by the President can federalize the Guard and remove all command and control from the states hands. Remember when George Wallace was using the Guard to resist integration and they we federalized on the spot by Eisenhower.
#14
My oldest son lives in VA...I asked him about this and he said "got it covered Dad.
I live in California so we understand the mentality of gun control morons...
#15
Damn. Revolutions are what happens in other countries, right?
Read a post awhile back that stated approximately 50% of the NG would not follow (at what levels I don't know) an order to fire upon American civilians.
#16
"If we have constitutional laws on the books and law enforcement officers are not enforcing those laws on the books, then there are going to be consequences," he continued."
You mean like not notifying ICE of apprehended illegals?
[FoxNews] Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear signed an executive order Thursday to restore voting rights to nearly 140,000 convicted felons, making good on an inaugural promise he made just days ago after being sworn in.
The order applies to Kentuckians who have committed non-violent offenses and have completed their sentences and does not include sex offenders, rapists or murderers, Beshear, a Democrat, said to a group of voting rights supporters. On the other hand -
Kentucky was just one of two states with lifetime disenfranchisement laws that barred convicted felons from voting, regardless of the crime. Currently, Iowa is the only other state left with such laws.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/13/2019
08:16 ||
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#1
Back at the start of the republic, felons hung. Resources didn't exist to house a million sociopaths. The state has no interest in providing real justice, just ritual to keep the rubes from getting too excited.
So, when are you going to get around allowing them to purchase guns too?
Again, back at the start, the right to vote was indirectly tied to gun ownership, aka skin in the game. See - the two militia acts of 1792
#2
Capital crime offenders usually were hung. A lot of petty theft was prison and a brand on the thumb.
Some felonies I'm ok with restoring all rights. The war on drugs has brought too many minor crimes into downright felon territory and there is no need for it, IMHO.
Do your time, keep your nose clean and be a productive member of society for 5-10 years after release and I welcome you back as a full citizen.
However, repeat offenders that keep going back get a trip to the gallows after so many failures.
#3
I'm cool with this. If they did their time, they get the right back. prison is time out. Plus, i highly doubt many felons are really that civic minded.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
12/13/2019 10:39
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#4
I agree with #3. The ones looking to stick it to the man are not waiting around to vote every other year.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2019 14:40
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#5
It's not hard too become a felon, I'm one and very conservative. If illegals are allowed too have more rights than me then why as a natural born citizen can't I have my right too vote?
Posted by: chris ||
12/13/2019 16:48
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[Washington Examiner] Questions about government missteps in the electronic surveillance of a onetime Trump campaign adviser had former CIA Director John Brennan pointing at the FBI.
Meet the Press host Chuck Todd pressed Brennan to open up about the Justice Department inspector general's report on the Trump-Russia investigation, which outlined several "significant" errors and omissions in the FBI's effort to obtain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants to monitor Carter Page.
"I would defer to the bureau on the FISA matter, because they’re the ones that actually initiate and then follow through on it," Brennan said Tuesday on MSNBC regarding whether he would make a determination if there should have been an approved FISA warrant application. Notice how skillfully Brennan skirts the approval process.
Brennan oversaw the CIA when the FBI began its counterintelligence investigation into members of the Trump campaign suspected of working on behalf of Russia in the summer of 2016. That inquiry, code-named Crossfire Hurricane, was later wrapped into special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, which was unable to establish criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
Todd noted that Brennan, now an MSNBC contributor, was limited in what he could say due to guidelines on classified information, but that did not stop Todd from trying to pry information from Brennan about how the CIA shared relevant information with the bureau.
#1
The use of Mr. Page (or anyone else) by United States Law Enforcement, to collect intelligence information on foreign officials (Russians in this case), falls under the purview of of the offices of the Director of Intelligence/Director CIA.
#2
Reports are that Brennan collaborated throughout with the FBI.
He should be called to testify as to when he set up his inter-agency "war room" that was designed to share info across the counterintelligence and espionage investigations.
#4
Ah yes, someone reliable, someone who has Russian contacts who could easily gain access, someone who could be monitored through some sort of legal, law enforcement process.... I believe we may have just the fellow you are looking for.
#5
^ Its now out in the open: so f---ing obvious that they knew Page was on our side and yet they tried to claim he was worth wiretapping because ... he was on the side of the Russians.
They must have known - surely they can't have been so stupid as to believe the opposite - that Trump's business never had a prayer of striking a major real estate deal in the center of Moscow.
Obviously, their goal was ever and always to nail the OrangeMan using false pretenses. They thought that the whole shitty crew held over from Obama's DOJ and FBI would protect them once Hillary took office.
Do they really think we're so stupid as to swallow their horseshit?
#12
Don't worry Mr Brennan, we will get to you in good time. Your efforts in developing the whole dossier and getting this coup started is dually noted. Please don't fret, you will get your moment in the sun just as soon as we are done with the FBI and certain congress critters and their kids. In the mean time, please "Stay Bitter".
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/13/2019 11:11
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#13
Nellie Ohr, her curious radio license in late middle age and her previous employment history before/during the GPS era keep being circled in open source reporting. Maybe John knows something about how that is a problem for him eventually now that the IG found her husbands insertion into the dossier story so interesting.
[Mil.com] Former US Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, the officer who in 2013 was convicted of war crimes, said it was "impossible to find a job" at a Walmart or Target, despite being granted a full pardon by President Donald Trump last month.
Lorance was sentenced to 19 years in military prison after he was found guilty of second-degree murder by ordering his soldiers to shoot at three unarmed men on a motorcycle in Afghanistan in 2012. Two of the men were killed by machine-gun fire and the third was wounded.
Nine of Lorance's fellow soldiers testified against him in his trial, with some of them alleging that he tried to cover up what he did. Lorance has maintained his innocence and defended his actions as protecting fellow soldiers.
"I made the best decision I could make, given the conditions on the ground," Lorance said on "The Sean Hannity Show" after his pardon in November, adding, "I would make the same exact decision again today if I was faced with that decision."
Lorance had served six years of his sentence when Trump granted him clemency in November. Trump's executive order -- which also dismissed another war-crimes case before trial and reinstated the rank of a convicted Navy chief -- cited the "long history" of presidents who "have used their authority to offer second chances to deserving individuals."
#5
Not sure why "?" even comes into it. When a big corporate insurer finds out some small fry is employing a "controversial" person, they have unlimited leeway to cancel a policy. And ask anyone who has to explain to another insurer why they were cancelled by their last one to expand upon how that's a problem.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2019 15:46
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#6
MM, Surely, you can find somebody who understands - or pressure the bastards. I mean, this guy is important. IMO, he's the symbol of all the soldiers in modern time who were told "Go and win a war, but die rather than producing negative publicity."
#7
^I mean, it's not like he marched into a a village, rounded all the men and shot them or raped the women. All he did is miscalculate the threat level - and not by much. I'm sure if you take a good look at the WoT records, you'll find plenty of examples of USA soldiers who died because they were wrong in another direction.
IMO, at most, he should've gotten a year. Maybe a discharge. Not 19!
#8
I'd be top of the list hoping insurance companies might decide to be honest brokers. I would not even be in the back of the line to bet on it, though...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2019 16:14
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#9
Not a lawyer but guessing that such insurance co. behavior might be illegal in municipalities such as SF that have laws non-discriminatory treatment of people with criminal records.
[Mil.com] The Navy has authorized a range of new clothing items, including two-piece swimsuits for male and female sailors, special pins to designate survivors and next-of-kin of fallen troops, and a thermal neck scarf for cold weather.
In a Navy administrative message Monday, officials announced that sailors have the option of wearing two pieces for their semi-annual physical readiness test, or PRT. But don't show up in a bikini; Navy officials made clear that this regulation change is for sailors who want more coverage, not less.
Full torso coverage is still required for all swimsuits worn. The new guidance makes it possible for sailors to add a pair of swim shorts to a one-piece, or a rash-guard top to swim shorts based on preference or religious conviction. Also authorized is full-body swimwear, like the "burkini" wetsuit-style option popular with Muslim women.
Robert Carroll, the head of the Navy's Uniform Matters Office, told Military.com that the change is the result of feedback from the fleet, coupled with the fact that existing swimwear guidance was ambiguous.
#1
Splendid, now they can get back to some of that doody sailor business...navigation (AROUND other vessels) and making sure the Officer of the Deck is on speaking terms with former besty Officer of the Day.
via NEO via Instapundit
[Independent] - Boris Johnson hailed a political "earthquake" which saw Labour support crumble in its heartlands, handing him a decisive majority in parliament. The Conservatives are expected to finish up on 364 seats.
Jeremy Corbyn blamed Brexit for Labour’s devastating defeat, as he announced he would stand down as leader after overseeing a "period of reflection". The party is set to take just 203 seats ‐ its worst election performance since 1935.
Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson lost her seat to the SNP and quit as party leader. Nicola Sturgeon said she had a "strengthened" mandate for a second vote on Scottish independence, as the SNP made a series of gains.
h/t Instapundit
[The Federalist] The widely discredited Steele Dossier at the heart of the Russian collusion hoax peddled an insane conspiracy theory about how Russians were convincing Jewish Americans of Russian descent to download malicious malware on American computers.
On page five in the third paragraph of the dossier, former British spy Christopher Steele wrote that agents of the FSB, the Russian Federal Security Service, were approaching Russian-Jewish-Americans who worked in the IT industry to conduct covert operations. No matter where it starts, it always comes to this.
#2
Ref #1: If the Dems through Steele and Comey were using foreign intelligence agents to enable spying on US persons, then they may well be guilty of treason.
Yes, and it could be one of the reasons AG Barr recently traveled overseas.
#5
^ that nonsense, about nefarious Jews, has the fingerprints of the Russian security services all over it. The oldest Russian state conspiracy theory of all, dating from the Romanovs' security agencies and their Protocoms of the Elders of Zion fraud.
#11
Every time I hear or see "The jews did" or "The jews control" I want to kick the speaker in the balls just to put them on the ground for followup with sledgehammer. I get seriously sick and tired of people blaming the 'jews' or 'white priviledge' or what the hell ever for problems of their own making or the fact they aren't in the 1%.
Maybe I'm just weird but I've never understood how this sort of vile thinking comes about.
Mossad must have the patience of angels to not simply kill everyone of these idiots.
Screw them, I'm tossing a pizza or something to the IDF tonight.
[Red State] The Office of Management and Budget released a memo that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention yet.
But it pokes a big hole in the impeachment claims against President Donald Trump.
One of the major claims of the Democrats behind impeachment is that the President withheld aid to the Ukrainians in exchange for them promising investigations into the Bidens. Democrats have not adduced any fact witnesses to support this claim. Indeed the witnesses all said there was no such linkage made to them by Trump. The Ukrainians also confirmed that. But that hasn’t stopped Democrats in their quest to impeach.
The memo noted that holding such aid was a routine practice while undergoing review.
[Babylon Bee] NEW YORK, NY‐At a special ceremony Thursday, Planned Parenthood posthumously awarded Herod the Great with its highest honor, the organization's coveted PPFA Margaret Sanger Award.
Planned Parenthood gives the award out to individuals who advance the pro-abortion agenda, and baby-murdering King Herod was the obvious choice.
"Herod fought bravely for women's rights by slaughtering all the male babies under two years old," said a Planned Parenthood spokesperson. "He was thousands of years ahead of his time, realizing the progressive value of destroying our kids the moment they become inconvenient millennia before it was popular. Yes, we do wish he had slaughtered the daughters too, but we're willing to overlook that as this brave women's rights warrior advanced the pro-abortion agenda significantly."
King Herod was not available to accept the award, as he is dead. But his ideological successor, Alyssa Milano, accepted it in his honor. "If Herod were here, I know exactly what he would say," Milano said in her acceptance speech. "He would remind us all that it was his kingdom, his choice." Ouch
The organization drew criticism for the selection, as other leftists pointed out that he did not have a uterus and as such should not have had an opinion on post-birth abortion.
[Aljazeera] Turkey has reacted angrily at the US Senate move to unanimously pass on Thursday a resolution recognising as a "genocide" the mass killings of Armenians a century ago.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called the vote a "political show" on social media, adding that "it is not legally binding and it has no validity whatsoever."
The historic move dealt another blow to the already problematic ties between Ankara and Washington, DC.
#2
Consider it nothing more than a strongly worded statement from the UN Security Council. Now you wouldn't have any 'in' with Eastern European energy companies or something soon around Cyprus?
[IsraelTimes] Judges say Moussa Coulibaly has shown ’little or no regret’ for assault, which came shortly after shootings at Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... , kosher supermarket.
A Gay Paree court on Thursday sentenced a jihadist to 30 years in prison over his February 2015 knife attack on three soldiers guarding a Jewish center in the Mediterranean city of Nice.
Moussa Coulibaly,
...known wolf who is probably not related to Mali-French Charlie Hebdo killer Amedy Coulibaly — Coulibaly is a common name in Mali...
now 35, staged his assault just weeks after the killing of 12 people at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper offices in Gay Paree, the beginning of a wave of terror attacks carried out in the name of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... and other jihadist groups.
In the days following that shooting, four people were killed by a jihadist gunman at Hyper Cacher, a kosher supermarket during a hostage standoff with police. The assailant also killed a policewoman in the Montrouge suburb south of Gay Paree where authorities think he may have initially been targeting a nearby Jewish school.
In issuing its ruling, the judges noted that Coulibaly had shown "little or no regret" for the attack, in which two soldiers were maimed before a third wrestled Coulibaly to the ground.
They found "an almost fanatical determination" to apply IS calls for French citizens to carry out terror attacks on home soil.
The assault sparked criticism of the government’s security efforts after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, since Coulibaly was well known to police.
A few weeks earlier, French intelligence services had been alerted to the fact that he was trying to enter The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... ‐ a key staging point for jihadists seeking to go fight in Syria ‐ and asked the country to expel him.
He was questioned upon his return but later released because of insufficient evidence to press charges.
After the Nice attack Coulibaly told Sherlocks he hated La Belle France as well as police, the military and Jews.
But in court on Thursday, Coulibaly said, "I’m now against violence. I would not do again what I did."
#2
Wonder if the French prisons have the same flavor of some American prisons, in that certain 'crimes' are punishable by the local population. I guess we'll find out.
#5
So, is he out of jail yet? I mean, in Europe, a "life" sentence means about 10 year; a 30 year sentence, with time served should mean he'll be out by Christmas, New Year's at the latest. /sarcasm
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/13/2019 8:27
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[IsraelTimes] Iranian prosecutors oppose bail for academics Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal, whose imprisonment Macron has called ‘intolerable’.
Iran may be giving up American hostages, but there are plenty more kufr wandering about the landscape, practically begging to be used for traditional Muslim purposes.
Two French academics detained in Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... for six months have lost a bid to be released on bail and their case will now go before the Revolutionary Court, Iranian media reported.
Roland Marchal, a researcher at Sciences Po in Gay Paree, was arrested in June together with Fariba Adelkhah, an academic at the same university. They are accused of espionage.
French President Emmanuel Macron had called on Tuesday for Iran to release the pair without delay, saying "their imprisonment is intolerable."
Marchal had come to Iran to visit Adelkhah and was accused of "collusion against national security," Dehghan said last month, according to ISNA.
But the lawyer said the reasons for the charges were still unknown to him.
The arrest of Adelkhah, a Franco-Iranian specialist in Shiite Islam, was confirmed on July 16 by Iran’s judicial front man Gholamhossein Esmaili, who gave no further details.
Her friends and colleagues in La Belle France have said she was accused of espionage.
Tehran, which does not recognize dual nationality, has criticized Gay Paree for "unacceptable interference" in its domestic affairs after the French government sought consular access to Adelkhah.
Adelkhah and Marchal are not the only foreign academics facing charges in Iran.
British-Iranian anthropologist Kameel Ahmady, who was released on bail last month after three months in detention, is suspected of links to foreign intelligence services.
Iran confirmed in September that Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert had been arrested for "spying for another country."
[HindustanTimes] Hafiz Saeed ...founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its false-mustache offshoot Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The United Nations declared the JuD a terrorist organization in 2008 and Hafiz Saeed a terrorist as its leader. Hafiz, JuD and LeT are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Pak intel apparatus, so that amounted to squat. He is periodically placed under house arrest so it looks like the govt is doing something. Once the heat is off they let him go.... was indicted on Wednesday by a Pak anti-terrorism court along with three of his close aides on terror financing charges.
The United States called upon Pakistain on Wednesday to follow up its long overdue indictment of Hafiz Saeed, the criminal mastermind of the 2002 Mumbai massacre, with "full prosecution" and "expeditious trial" in a sign it remains sceptical of Pakistain’s dubious counter-terrorism measures.
Continued on Page 49
[MAIL] The pound has surged to its highest level against the euro in a decade as Britain prepares to finally 'get Brexit done'.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson claimed victory in the general election last night and when the exit poll emerged, the pound rose about 2 per cent against the dollar to reach $1.3469 and was up 1.6 percent against the euro at €1.2054.
Sterling was at its highest against the euro since the immediate aftermath of the EU referendum, and its highest in more than a year against the dollar.
At 7am, the pound was up 2.1 per cent against the dollar to 1.345 and up 1.29 per cent against the euro, nudging close to 12-month and 31-month highs respectively, having hit and remained at the highs from within the first hour of the exit poll's release.
The FTSE 100 is expected to open higher on the back of Johnson's victory.
The City reacted positively as the Conservatives romped home to the biggest majority since 1987 but warned clarity was now needed on the future relationship between the UK and the EU.
Bosses and trade bodies also called on the Government to end 'arbitrary negotiating deadlines'.
[PJ] On Wednesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) dropped a bomb about FBI interference in the 2016 election while questioning Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz about his report regarding misconduct in the espionage operation against the Trump campaign in 2016.
"Is it worse to have a foreign government trying to meddle in our elections, or is it worse to have our own government meddling in the election?" asked Hawley. Referring to the report, Hawley continued: "It shows that our government, the most powerful law enforcement agency in the nation, the FBI, effectively meddled in an ongoing presidential campaign."
Hawley then called out the Democratic National Committee for instigating the whole mess.
"The DNC pays for the Steele dossier, solicits the Steele dossier, and then gets the Federal Bureau of Investigation to go get FISA warrants, surveil an American citizen, and surveil a presidential campaign all on the basis of this manufactured garbage that they paid for. I mean that’s extraordinary," he complained. "That has got to be a first time in history. In fact, let me just ask you, Mr. Horowitz, are you aware ever of another presidential campaign being targeted by the FBI like the Trump campaign was?"
[The Federalist] As part of an investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) inspector general (IG) into how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) abused protocols for obtaining warrants against a Trump campaign aide, the IG conducted more than 170 interviews involving more than 100 witnesses. Yet when asked direct questions about their behavior throughout 2016 and 2017, many key witnesses said they could not remember.
The IG report includes the phrase "not remember" 25 times and the phrase "not recall" 240 times. Here are just 10 details in the report that they claimed slipped from witnesses’ minds when asked by investigators.
[Washington Examiner] Some climate change hawks are questioning whether the brand of outraged activism trademarked by new Time "Person of the Year" Greta Thunberg will prove effective in inspiring policy to curb emissions. Magic 8-Ball says: "NO"
"I’m not sure that Time magazine elevating her further is helpful in achieving our shared goal of mitigating the most harmful effects of climate change," said Shane Skelton, who runs the consulting group S2C Pacific.
"I admire her passion and the lengths she’s gone to in promoting what is a very important cause," said Skelton, a former energy and climate policy aide to former House Speaker Paul Ryan. But he questioned whether Thunberg’s activism has produced "real-world impact."
If the point of activism is to generate attention to a cause, no one can deny Thunberg’s effectiveness, climate hawks say.
However, "translating moral outrage into policy and engineering is a long and uneven process," said Joseph Majkut, a climate scientist at the right-leaning Niskanen Center.
"I don’t have any qualms with Greta’s place in the climate debate," Majkut said. "She doesn’t mince words when she calls inaction on climate change a moral outrage. As for her influence on climate action, the jury is out."
Thunberg, the youngest person Time has picked for the yearly honor, acknowledged the relative lack of policy changes Wednesday morning, when she slammed world leaders at the United Nations climate conference in Madrid.
#6
when do we get to burn the new Joan D'Arc at the stake?
maybe these 'climate hawks' can arrange for her to be, er, sacrificed. To be done by a hetero-normative, anglo, toxic male, natch
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 ||
12/13/2019 7:50
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#7
when do we get to burn the new Joan D'Arc at the stake?
I don't even wish ill on a marxist idiot, as long as they just go away. If St. Greta is martyred, it will probably be by another angry leftist who stews over the fact that they too are angry but are not getting any attention.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2019 11:23
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#8
Since Communism leads to environmental disaster and capitalism leads to the eventual clean-up of the environment perhaps the Climate Hawks should re-evaluate their prescriptions if they want to be taken seriously.
#13
Confucius say, "Sure, we like Greta,
Though couldn't care less about weather,
'Cos pills made from bile
Of a cute gweilo child
Guaranteed to make Chinese feel better!"
[The Hill] The main indexes on Wall Street hit record highs on Thursday after the United States reached a "deal in principle" with China to resolve a trade war that has rattled markets for nearly for almost 18 months.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 220.75 points, the S&P 500 26.94 points and Nasdaq Composite 63.27 points, Reuters reports.
According to the wire service, each of the indexes hit intraday records and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted record highs at the closing bell.
Earlier this week, both the Federal Reserve and Europe’s central bank kept interests steady.
The S&P's career day pushed its growth for the year up to 26 percent, much of which has come due to interest rate cuts by the Fed.
On the day, over and 8 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, breaking the past 20-day average of 6.7 billion, Reuters says.
[Breitbart] About 72,000 United States-born children delivered every year to foreign tourists, foreign visa workers, and foreign students are rewarded birthright American citizenship, a new study reveals.
Research by the Center for Immigration Studies finds that every year, 39,000 anchor babies are born to foreign students and foreign visa workers, as well as 33,000 anchor babies born to foreign tourists every year.
This indicates that about 72,000 anchor babies are born to foreigners who are legally temporarily in the U.S. These U.S.-born children ‐ in addition to the 300,000 anchor babies born to illegal aliens every year ‐ are immediately rewarded American citizenship simply because their foreign parents delivered them in the parameters of the nation’s borders.
To date, the U.S. Supreme Court has never explicitly ruled that the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens must be granted automatic American citizenship, and a number of legal scholars dispute the idea.
Many leading conservative scholars argue the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment does not provide mandatory birthright citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens or noncitizens, as these children are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction as that language was understood when the 14th Amendment was ratified.
For a year, President Trump has signaled that he has reviewed signing an executive order to end birthright citizenship, otherwise known as the "anchor baby policy," as the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens are often referred to as "anchor babies."
Today, there are at least 4.5 million anchor babies in the U.S., exceeding the annual roughly four million American babies born every year and costing American taxpayers about $2.4 billion every year to subsidize hospital costs. Every year, about 300,000 anchor babies are born in the country, and as of June, there has been an average of about 124,000 anchor babies born this year.
#4
OK, the baby is a citizen. But unfortunately the baby can't live in the USA, he or she must live with parents, who are not entitled to live here. When the child reaches 18, we can rethink residency.
Posted by: James ||
12/13/2019 20:42
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[Jpost] Jewish worshipers are able to pray on the Temple Mount with what appears to be the tacit consent of police forces at the site, The Jerusalem Post observed during a visit there on Thursday.
Despite the insistence by Israel Police that there has been no change in the decades-old policy, Jews now pray ‐ in full view of the police ‐ in an unobtrusive and inconspicuous manner.
A senior Wakf Department official said he was unaware of any change in the status quo on the Temple Mount, but warned that any change would lead to renewed protests and spark a strong response from Arabs and Moslems.
Continued on Page 49
#2
notwithstanding Rabbi Weber, the nominative view is that, for almost all prayers, the fact is that almost all Jews have been ritually contaminated by proximity to dead bodies and therefore are prohibited from praying in the location of the temple and since we don't know for sure where the temple was on the mount, no Jew should pray there
for some prayers, e.g., portions of the passover service which were communal and where the offerings were done outside the temple, the above restriction does not apply, however, secular courts have prohibited it on other basis
this was the basis of the Chief Rabbi's 1967 ruling after the 6 day war
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/13/2019 11:39
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[Jpost] The teen has admitted to assaulting the Israeli student, but denied that he had antisemitic motivations.
Police have arrested a 17-year-old Madagascar
...Fourth World/economically undeveloped island east of the coast of sub-Saharan Africa, this former French colony is now on its fourth republic since independence in 1960. French is one of its official languages, and the population is divided into Christians, traditional native beliefs, and Islam as well as numerous tribes...
native in connection with the assault of an Israeli student speaking Hebrew on a Gay Paree subway.
The teen has admitted to assaulting the Israeli student, but denied that he had antisemitic motivations, Israel’s Kan national broadcaster reported. He has an arrest record in La Belle France.
The victim, identified as Yogev Burshtein, 30, entered the metro train at the Château d’Eau station on Monday morning and answered a phone call from his father speaking Hebrew. Two men, described as tall and of African origin, then "began to shout at him, helped by passengers who threatened him and pointed at him," according to a statement from La Belle France’s National Bureau of Vigilance Against antisemitism, or BNVCA.
One of the men attacked the student, striking him on the head, body and face. The student fainted, according to BNVCA, and was taken to a Gay Paree hospital after a fellow passenger called for assistance.
The alleged attacker escaped. He was identified though surveillance camera footage. He was arrested Wednesday evening on charges of racially motivated violence.
The police are searching for a second suspect who was on the train with the arrested teen.
BNVCA praised the arrest in a statement and said the attack should be considered a hate crime, saying "the [antisemitic] motive is clear and must be used against the attacker as an aggravating circumstance."
The antisemitism watchdog called for a harsh penalty despite the fact that the suspect is a minor.
Yogev said that after his release from the hospital, he went to police to file a complaint but was told to return in six hours. He then reached out to Meyer Habib, a prominent Jewish lawmaker in France’s National Assembly, who said he asked the interior minister to immediately order a police investigation into the incident.
“This attack is another symptom of the new ‘daily’ anti-Semitism,” Habib said, according to Channel 12 news.
The incident comes amid a spate of anti-Semitic incidents in France, many of them in the east of the country.
[AlAhram] La Belle France will help Greece tackle an ongoing migration challenge by accepting 400 asylum-seekers, the French ambassador to Athens said Thursday.
"Over the coming months, La Belle France will accept 400 persons who have arrived on Greek soil," ambassador Patrick Maisonnave told the state Athens News Agency.
[Jpost] Jeremy Corbyn was an obscure Labour backbencher whose focus was on foreign policy and, in the run-up to the 2015 party primaries, was thought not to have met the 15 percent threshold.
But when the party leadership decided to open membership to anyone with £3– in their pocket in order to break the power of the unions, the party gained half a million radical leftists who, like Mr. Corbyn, also hate Jews.
#4
Powerline:
Meanwhile, if you want to appreciate the stakes, worth seeing a long Twitter thread from Michael Doran of the Hudson Institute, which I consolidate here:
A British reader of the Times of London left this comment on a story:
From a perplexed Brit. I’m still a bit undecided about my vote direction this coming Thursday. I’ve obviously taken into consideration what I consider to be the following swaying points on the two main parties. On the one hand the Conservative Boris Johnson is a bit of a rascal with the ladies and can sometimes bend the truth a bit, he’s also a bit posh. And on the other hand.. Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn Invited two IRA members to parliament two weeks after the Brighton bombing.
Attended Bloody Sunday commemoration with bomber Brendan McKenna. Attended meeting w/Provisional IRA member Raymond McCartney. Hosted IRA linked Mitchell McLaughlin in parliament. Spoke alongside IRA terrorist Martina Anderson. Attended Sinn Fein dinner w/IRA bomber Gerry Kelly.
Chaired Irish republican event with IRA bomber Brendan MacFarlane. Attended Bobby Sands commemoration honouring IRA terrorists. Stood in minute’s silence for IRA gunmen shot dead by the SAS. Refused to condemn the IRA in Sky News interview. Refused to condemn the IRA on Question Time. Refused to condemn IRA violence in BBC radio interview. Signed EDM after IRA Poppy massacre massacre blaming Britain for the deaths. Arrested while protesting in support of Brighton bomber’s co-defendants. Lobbied government to improve visiting conditions for IRA killers.
Attended Irish republican event calling for armed conflict against Britain. Hired suspected IRA man Ronan Bennett as a parliamentary assistant. Hired another aide closely linked to several convicted IRA terrorists. Heavily involved with IRA sympathising newspaper London Labour Briefing. Put up £20,000 bail money for IRA terror suspect Roisin McAliskey. Didn’t support IRA ceasefire. Said Hamas and Hezbollah are his “friends“. Called for Hamas to be removed from terror banned list. Called Hamas “serious and hard-working”.
Attended wreath-laying at grave of Munich massacre terrorist. Attended conference with Hamas and PFLP. Photographed smiling with Hezbollah flag. Attended rally with Hezbollah and Al-Muhajiroun. Repeatedly shared platforms with PFLP plane hijacker. Hired aide who praised Hamas’ “spirit of resistance“.
Accepted £20,000 for state TV channel of terror-sponsoring Iranian regime. Opposed banning Britons from travelling to Syria to fight for ISIS. Defended rights of fighters returning from Syria. Said ISIS supporters should not be prosecuted. Compared fighters returning from Syria to Nelson Mandela. Said the death of Osama Bin Laden was a “tragedy“. Wouldn’t sanction drone strike to kill ISIS leader. Voted to allow ISIS fighters to return from Syria. Opposed shoot to kill. Attended event organised by terrorist sympathising IHRC. Signed letter defending Lockerbie bombing suspects. Wrote letter in support of conman accused of fundraising for ISIS. Spoke of “friendship” with Mo Kozbar, who called for destruction of Israel.
Attended event with Abdullah Djaballah, who called for holy war against UK. Called drone strikes against terrorists “obscene”. Boasted about “opposing anti-terror legislation”. Said laws banning jihadis from returning to Britain are “strange”. Accepted £5,000 donation from terror supporter Ted Honderich. Accepted £2,800 trip to Gaza from banned Islamist organisation Interpal.
Called Ibrahim Hewitt, extremist and chair of Interpal, a “very good friend”. Accepted two more trips from the pro-Hamas group PRC. Speaker at conference hosted by pro-Hamas group MEMO. Met Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh several times. Hosted meeting with Mousa Abu Maria of banned group Islamic Jihad. Patron of Palestine Solidarity Campaign – marches attended by Hezbollah. Compared Israel to ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah and al-Qaeda. Said we should not make “value judgements” about Britons who fight for ISIS. Received endorsement from Hamas. Attended event with Islamic extremist Suliman Gani. Chaired Stop the War, who praised “internationalism and solidarity” of ISIS. Praised Raed Salah, who was jailed for inciting violence in Israel. Signed letter defending jihadist advocacy group Cage. Met Dyab Jahjah, who praised the killing of British soldiers. Shared platform with representative of extremist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Compared ISIS to US military in interview on Russia Today. Opposed proscription of Hizb ut-Tahrir. Attended conference which called on Iraqis to kill British soldiers.
Attended Al-Quds Day demonstration in support of destruction of Israel. Supported Hamas and ISIS-linked Viva Palestina group. Attended protest with Islamic extremist Moazzam Begg. Made the “case for Iran” at event hosted by Khomeinist group. Photographed smiling with Azzam Tamimi, who backed suicide bombings. Photographed with Abdel Atwan, who sympathised with attacks on US troops. Said Hamas should “have tea with the Queen”. Attended ‘Meet the Resistance’ event with Hezbollah MP Hussein El Haj. Attended event w/Haifa Zangana, who praised Palestinian “mujahideen”.
Defended the infamous anti-Semitic Hamas supporter Stephen Sizer. Attended event with pro-Hamas and Hezbollah group Naturei Karta. Backed Holocaust denying anti-Zionist extremist Paul Eisen. Photographed with Abdul Raoof Al Shayeb, later jailed for terror offences. Mocked “anti-terror hysteria” while opposing powers for security services. Named on speakers list for conference with Hamas sympathiser Ismail Patel. Criticised drone strike that killed Jihadi John. Said the 7/7 bombers had been denied “hope and opportunity”. Said 9/11 was “manipulated” to make it look like bin Laden was responsible. Failed to unequivocally condemn the 9/11 attacks. Called Columbian terror group M-19 “comrades”. Blamed beheading of Alan Henning on Britain. Gave speech in support of Gaddafi regime.
Signed EDM spinning for Slobodan Milosevic. Blamed Tunisia terror attack on “austerity”. Voted against banning support for the IRA. Voted against the Prevention of Terrorism Act three times during the Troubles. Voted against emergency counter-terror laws after 9/11. Voted against stricter punishments for being a member of a terror group. Voted against criminalising the encouragement of terrorism. Voted against banning al-Qaeda. Voted against outlawing the glorification of terror. Voted against control orders. Voted against increased funding for the security services to combat terrorism.
So it’s a tricky one really.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2019 10:32
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[Rudaw] Protesters are said to have killed and hanged an individual who was believed to be shooting protesters in Wathba Square in Baghdad on Thursday. A seventeen year old boy who just wanted them not to protest in front of his house. This is why I don’t like mobs.
Several videos and photos circulating on Iraqi social media channels show protesters dragging a body and hanging from a traffic light pole. Hundreds of protesters can be seen filming the event.
A masked protester in Wathba Square told Rudaw that the man executed reportedly killed dozens of protesters throughout the night.
Continued on Page 49
[Rudaw] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... and 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 a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... are among the top jailers of journalists worldwide, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a special report published on Tuesday.
Continued on Page 49
[Rudaw] The US drawdown in Syria means the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group (ISIS) could re-emerge within six to 12 months, General Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned a congressional committee in Washington on Wednesday.
Milley and Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper both briefed the Armed Services Committee on US goals and plans in the Middle East to ensure national security and the enduring defeat of ISIS.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/13/2019
00:21 ||
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[ToloNews] Weapons and vehicles of the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... were also destroyed in the Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... , MoD said.
At least 12 Taliban including commander "Qari Samiullah" were killed and seven others were maimed in an "Afghan air forces targeting airstrike" in the northeast province of Badakhshan province on Wednesday night, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said in a statement on Thursday.
The airstrike took place in Nusai district at a "Taliban recruitment center," the MoD said in the statement.
"In this airstrike, some weapons and vehicles of the Taliban were also destroyed," it said.
However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... the statement did not provide further details.
[FoxNews] During a city council meeting on Tuesday, Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan broached the idea of using a cruise ship to house up to 1,000 homeless people, suggesting a ship be brought to the Port of Oakland as the region deals with skyrocketing costs of living and a shortage of affordable housing.
Homelessness has spiked in Oakland, with a 47 percent jump in two years — one of the largest surges of any California city, according to a one-night street count released in July.
The count, which used federal guidelines, showed Oakland had 4,017 homeless people, up from 2,761 in 2017. The increase has put the city's per capita homeless rate higher than neighboring San Francisco and Berkeley.
#13
I read somewhere that Oakland has fascilites for container ships, not cruise ships, so this is ignorant nonsense.
Also ships are famously expensive to upkeep. What idiot thought this would be cheaper than refurbishing a dilapidated building or two should be tarred and feathered.
#14
What idiot thought this would be cheaper than refurbishing a dilapidated building or two should be tarred and feathered.
via LA Times:
With the costs of building housing on the rise, Los Angeles City Controller Ron Galperin is recommending that some projects be reevaluated to see if their budgets can be cut to use less of the city’s $1.2-billion homeless housing bond.
In an audit that will be released Tuesday, Galperin found that more than 1,000 units of housing approved for funding through Proposition HHH could top $600,000 apiece.
#15
#13 The point is "out of sight, out of mind" + difficult to leave. As to upkeep, who told you it'll be high standard? Google imprisonment on hulks.
#18
Wouldn't a tent city out in the boondocks be cheaper and easier to maintain? Surround it by concertina wire. Sort the inmates according to their particular cases. Some will be mentally ill, others will be drug addicts or alcoholics and others will be lazy, no-good bums. Keep them incarcerated as long as the law allows and release them with a warning that repeated offenses will result in longer periods of incarceration. How could that be worse or more expensive than letting them die on the streets?
But, yes, I know that would make too much sense for a Democrat to understand.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/13/2019 12:56
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#19
Bill Burr has the right idea about cruise ships
Posted by: Regular joe ||
12/13/2019 14:23
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#20
Fire on that cruise ship and the cities homeless problem is gone and the politicians problems have only just begun.
#23
Of course, the cruise guests would be entitled to vote multiple times, even tho their "address" was not in any voting district. With a carton of cigarettes or a gallon of tokay for each vote cast...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2019 15:50
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[FOXNEWS] The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday night began the first phase of a fiery ...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob... "markup" process for the two articles of impeachment against President Trump that they have settled on, barreling toward a final floor vote even as moderate Democrats in GOP-leaning districts have floated the idea of backing down in favor of a censure resolution.
Almost immediately, the evening proceedings broke out into heated disagreement, as the panel's top Democrat declared that it would be unsafe to wait until the 2020 election to remove Trump, and another claimed Trump's actions were an "affront to the memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr." Meanwhile, ...back at the railroad tracks, Little Nell tried to kick her bound feet and scream post the snotty handkerchief Scarface Al had stuff into her mouth... the ranking Republican slammed Democrats for attacking Ukraine's leader because he had undercut their case against Trump, which has foundered in several battleground polls.
"We cannot rely on an election to solve our problems, when the president threatens the very integrity of that election," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said in his opening statement,
No, dear boy, you can’t. Because we are going to elect him by a landslide in eleven short months from now.
claiming Trump's discussions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about Joe and Hunter Biden's dealings in the country, and the White House's temporary withholding of military aid to Ukraine, constituted an "urgent" threat to national security.
"This committee now owes it to the American people to give these articles careful attention," Nadler added at the beginning of the markup for the impeachment articles, which included obstruction of Congress and abuse of power.
#6
So we're now hearing from Democrats of all persuasions - new, old, left, moderate, morons and sophisticated alike - that when it comes to OrangeMan, our Constitution is meaningless.
A Virginia (D) tells her constituents in effect that for OrangeMan there is no such thing as the Constitutional presumption of innocence.
Schifferbrains and Nodding-offer tell the nation that when it comes to OrangeMan, elections must not be tolerated.
The entire Dem establishment agrees that Constitutional provisions against entrapment, domestic spying, illegal search and seizure etc do not apply to anyone connected to the Evil OrangeMan.
Q: Where in the Constitution is this all-nullifying OrangeMan Clause?
#9
The Democratic Party sounds so ... democratic. "We must have a coup d'état against an elected President because we are afraid the voters will reelect him!"
[ALMASDARNEWS] Omsktransmash (part of Uralvagonzavod defense manufacturer within the state hi-tech corporation Rostec) has completed the delivery of upgraded T-80BVM tanks to Russian troops, the Rostec press office reported on Thursday.
“The upgrade allows enhancing the vehicle’s basic combat properties: its firepower, defense capability, mobility and crew’s control. The tanks are successfully undergoing all the trials: the gas turbine engine does not fail even in the most severe frost. It is not without reason that the T-80BVM has been dubbed ‘Arctic’ for its unique properties and the vehicle’s easy operation in low temperatures,” the press office quoted Omsktransmash CEO Igor Lobov as saying.
Before its delivery to the troops, each combat vehicle underwent a factory check of all its systems and the required trials at a testing range and its acceptance by the customer, Rostec noted.
At the first stage of the trials, the combat vehicle test-fires all its weapons. After that, it enters running tests on a track across rough terrain where steep slopes 3-7 meters high interchange with unpaved roads and rugged sections with a large number of turns, it said.
After that, Defense Ministry representatives accept combat vehicles. In the assembly workshop, specialists check the combat vehicle’s fire control system and loading mechanism, carry out necessary technical work and coating and supply it with spare parts, tools and other accessories, the Rostec press office informed.
Russia’s Northern Fleet reported in November that a tank battalion of its separate motorized infantry brigade had received a batch of 26 T-80BVM tanks.
The T-80BVM is an upgraded version of the T-80BM tank. It features an improved 125mm cannon and an enhanced 1,250 hp gas turbine engine. A multi-channel gunner sight, a mechanic-driver’s vision device and an armament stabilizer are also mounted on the upgraded tank. The combat vehicle is reinforced with slat armor and a modular active protection system.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2019
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#1
Talk about polishing a turd...
But for 3rd world countries fighting against other ex-Soviet gear, it is a good choice.
#3
The biggest problem for the Russian Military has been design standards operational procedures set by politicians.(Of course we have that problem in the US but to a lesser extent). The Russians designed their tanks to be overhauled and a depot level. For an example, if you wanted to do a major repair on the engine you had to pull the turret off at a traveling depot. They had some good engineers and techs, but they had trouble keeping them after the collapse of the economy.
Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha confirms all forces in #Tripoli are on high alert to repel any new attack by Haftar’s armed groups, saying the latter is using propaganda to claim false victories. pic.twitter.com/SHo512AdpW
Eight members of ISIS-K arrested during a clearance operation carried out by ANP in Achin district of Nangarhar. ANP recovered eight AK-47 rifles, nine hand grenades & some amount of ammunition. Read More: https://t.co/4OCdXxTCxvpic.twitter.com/yRIMWAV8Kb
Wearing khaki summer uniform despite bad weather in eastern #Libya today, warlord Khalifa Haftar orders his militia groups to advance on #Tripoli, announcing in a televised statement what he called “the last zero hour” to “liberate Tripoli”. pic.twitter.com/mtUn7dRoaV
[DAWN] Former Malir senior superintendent of police Rao Anwar claimed that United States' move to blacklist him for human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... abuses was an attempt to "divert attention from the struggle for occupied Kashmir ...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there.... In a video that surfaced on social media on Wednesday, a day after the US announced its move, the former police official ‐ known infamously as an ’encounter specialist’ and accused of involvement in nearly 200 phoney encounters ‐ said: "I was an SSP of the police force and we fight against terrorists. There were nearly 400, 500 or 440 Death Eaters [who were killed]. There is not a single complaint against me that I killed anyone out of greed or in a fake encounter.
"Even today, two years after my removal, there has been no complaint."
Anwar demanded the US government to "apologise or prove" the charges against him. He added that he would file a case in Washington against the move through his lawyer and also write a letter to the US embassy.
"Name one suspect who said that I cooperated [...] or used to do mix-ups. Forget American, [authorities] can punish me in Pakistain."
[DAWN] MINGORA: Unidentified assailants rubbed out Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz local leader Feroz Shah Advocate here on Wednesday.
According to Kanju police, Mr Shah was going home after offering Maghrib prayers that unidentified button men who were waiting on him opened fire, leaving him critically injured. His personal guard was also injured in the attack. They both were rushed to the Saidu Sharif Teaching Hospital where Shah succumbed to injuries.
The police filed a report of the incident and started searching for the culprits.
The dear departed was an active leader of the PML-N in Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... and was the candidate of National Assembly in the previous general elections. According to hospital sources, he received several bullets in his head.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The leader negotiator for the Syrian at the Astana Peace Conference, Dr. Bashar al-Ja’afari, stated at the final session of the meeting on Wednesday that The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... was transporting holy warriors from Idlib to Libya.
"Turkey is transporting holy warriors from Libya to Idlib and from Idlib to Libya," noting that "the Idlib future is linked to the future of all of Syria."
This is not the first time that Dr. Ja’afari has accused Turkey of transferring jihadists from Idlib to Libya, he previously accused Ankara of moving moving these holy warriors to the aforementioned North African country to fight the Benghazi-based government.
Dr. Ja’afari continued by saying that the Syria does not have a Kurdish issue, pointing out that Syrian Kurds are an integral part of the country. "There is no Kurdish issue in Syria and the Syrian Kurdish component is part of our history."
In regards to the U.S. forces in Syria, Dr. Ja’afari accused them of looting Syrian oil and selling it to the Ottoman Turkish authorities. "The American occupation is looting Syrian oil and selling it to the Ottoman Turkish regime."
On Wednesday, the 14th round of the Astana Peace Conference concluded with no agreement between any of the participants.
[Dhaka Tribune] Police on Thursday recovered the hanging bodies of two women, whose families claimed they were killed for failing to pay an endless dowry demanded by their husbands.
The body of Hasina Akter Pakhi, 30, was recovered from the Dakshin Rajarampur village of the Senbug upazila in Noakhali and the body of Mukhtar Parvin, 19, was recovered from the Mongolpur village of Birol upazila in Dinajpur.
Hasina's brother Yunus said: "My sister was married to Anwar Hossain 12 years ago. Anwar used to beat her often for dowry. Recently my family bought him an auto-rickshaw as he was unemployed. Two days ago we gave him Tk20,000, yet he strangled my sister to death and hung her body from a beam of his house."
Senbug cop shoppe OC Mizanur Rahman said: "Anwar is nowhere to be found in the village since the incident. Hasina's body was sent to Noakhali General Hospital morgue for an appointment with Dr. Quincy. Necessary action will be taken after a case is filed regarding the matter.
Mukhtar's younger sister, Rumi Akhter, said: "My sister was married to Mainul Hasan in March 2018. He earlier took a total of Tk4 lakh. He recently demanded a further Tk2 lakh and killed her as we failed to pay. He often used to beat her and didn't let her contact us over the phone. He hung her body from a ceiling fan to make it look like suicide. I saw injury marks on her body while she was taken for his appointment with Doctor Quincy."
Birol Police station OC Sheikh Nasim Habib said necessary action will be taken after receiving the autopsy report.
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[BreakTheMatrix] The United States was warned Wednesday by the United Nations it cannot avoid compensating poorer nations hit by climate change, despite Donald Trump honoring his election promise of leaving the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Get rekt UN.
They’re going to say that to a man who used to work with the Teamsters and even more interesting people? How adorable.
Delegates and observers at the COP25 negotiations in Madrid told AFP that Washington seeks a change to the U.N. climate convention that could release it from punitive "loss and damage" funding for developing nations which is predicted to run into the billions of dollars.
Under the bedrock U.N. climate treaty, adopted in 1992, rich nations agreed to help developing countries prepare for unavoidable future climate impacts ‐ the twin pillars of "mitigation" and "adaptation".
But there was no provision for helping countries and small island states now calling for compensation.
A new mechanism was established in 2013, but with damage estimates climbing, there is no agreement on where the money might come from or even if it should be paid, although the U.S. is constantly the target of calls for financial reparations because it is rich, successful and a dominant world economic force. Which is the entire point of the Paris Agreement in the first place. It had nothing to do with climate, it was a straight-up globalist wealth transfer from us to hostile countries who hate us.
Deport the UN.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
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#1
Have the UN Secretary impaled on the white house lawn. That should send the proper message.
#5
Under the bedrock U.N. climate treaty, adopted in 1992, rich nations agreed to help developing countries prepare for unavoidable future climate impacts ‐ the twin pillars of "mitigation" and "adaptation".
There's no problem in the world that can't be 'fixed' with tons of money from Uncle Sugar!
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) recently blocked a U.S. military convoy from passing their posts at the Qamishli Airport in northern al-Hasakah.
In a video that was captured on Thursday, the Syrian Army can be seen forcing the U.S. convoy to turn around, despite the possibility of a confrontation between the two forces.
Since the Syrian Army took over the al-Qamishli District, they have deployed their forces to several areas that were previously under the control of the U.S. Armed Forces.
While the U.S. military continues to carry out patrols in the al-Hasakah Governorate, the Syrian Army has become more aggressive in their approach when dealing with American troops in the region.
Ikar Mao, of Guelph, Ont., was originally detained by authorities in Turkey for 3 months.
RCMP charged Mao on Dec. 6 with one count of participation in activity of a terrorist group and one count of leaving Canada to participate in activity of a terrorist group.
The latter charge is a new addition to the Criminal Code, brought in in 2013, making it illegal for an individual to leave or attempt to leave the country with the intent of committing an act of terrorism. Since then, 12 people have been charged with travel-related terrorism offences: three have been convicted; four have outstanding warrants; two are awaiting trial; and one has had the charges withdrawn.
According to Public Safety Canada's 2018 report on the terrorism threat to Canada, a total of 55 people have been charged with terrorism offences under the Criminal Code since 2001.
As CBC News has previously reported, Mao and his wife were detained in Turkey for three months after they were picked up by Turkish officials near the Syrian border in July.
Huge cache of weapons & ammunition belonging to TB seized by ANP in Paktika. The cache seized in an overnight clearance operation launched in Gomal district. The cache includes 2 machine guns, 2 rocket launchers, 18 boxes of machine gun rounds, 10 mortar rounds & 5 RPG-7 rockets. pic.twitter.com/v7mIO5L31I
[ALMASDARNEWS] Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) allegedly surrounded a U.S. aircraft carrier group as it was transiting the imperative Strait of Hormuz.
According to reports, the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier group was escorted by 20 small craft from the IRGC’s Navy.
The Defence Blog reported that one of the IRGC’s small craft was at one point within 400 yards of the aircraft carrier group.
The U.S. Navy has yet to comment on these allegations; however, if true, this would not be the first time that the IRGC’s Navy has surrounded a U.S. ship and escorted it through the Strait of Hormuz.
#5
Thought experiment. What would have happened if the carrier attacked and called in a strike group on them citing hostile maneuvers and perceived threat ?
#8
It's one thing to get close to one of the destroyers/cruisers screening the carrier. It's quite another to get close to the carrier.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/13/2019 10:25
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I would consider the source. Of the report.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/13/2019 10:32
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i wouldnt be surprised if they managed to get between the escorts and carrier. from my experience, ship captains are almost too afraid to take a shit without getting permission from COMDESRON or higher. they are only there to put their 1 tour in as "Captiain" so they can check off that box box and then keep climbing the ladder pierside.
NOTHING happens without running it thru stateside first.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
12/13/2019 10:36
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400 yards from a carrier? Yeah I call bullshit. More warmongering propaganda trying to start a conflict.
America loses the moment we go kinetic with Iran. The only winning move is not to play.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
12/13/2019 16:31
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Herb, it's an Iranian news agency, I think. Iran may be acting tough for the locals, but knows better than to try a stunt like that for real.
Learn to CODE
[TheWrap] Prior to his departure, Brusk was the subject of a #ExposeCNN campaign. Steve Brusk, most recently the supervising producer of CNN Politics, left the company two weeks ago, TheWrap has learned. Brusk's resignation came about a month after he was the subject of a Project Veritas video released as part of its #ExposeCNN campaign.
CNN confirmed his departure to TheWrap on Thursday.
The #ExposeCNN operation relied on video footage taken by one person, Cary Poarch, who called himself a "CNN insider" at the propaganda's network's D.C. bureau. Which can't possibly be true as there were other videos like the one below But according to a CNN spin control spokesperson, Poarch wasn't a CNN employee and was instead a freelance satellite truck operator?
Also Read:
Network Staffers Unfazed by Project Veritas' 'Expose CNN' Campaign: We're All Drunk So Cares About This' Feeling up the intoxicated staff, not good. Some freelance editing included for clarity
[DAWN] A married Indian couple living in Moenchengladbach were sentenced by a German court on Thursday after admitting to spying on Sikh and Kashmiri communities for the Indian secret service.
The couple, who are identified only by their first name and initials according to German law, admitted to having passed on information to intelligence services in a trial which began last month.
Manmohan S. was handed a suspended prison sentence of 18 months for acting as a foreign intelligence agent, while his wife Kanwal Jit K. was fined 180 days' wages for aiding him.
According to a court statement, S. was recruited by the Indian foreign intelligence agency Research & Analysis Wing (RAW ... India's Research and Analysis Wing, Pakistain's equivalent of the Boogie Man... ) at the beginning of 2015, and asked to spy on the Kashmiri opposition movement.
An insurgency against Indian rule has been waged since 1989 in occupied Kashmir ...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there.... , claiming tens of thousands of lives.
"The accused reported on the internal affairs of the Sikh temples in Cologne ...the largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the fourth populated city in Germany.... and Frankfurt, as well as on protest events in the Sikh community," the statement said.
The 51-year-old was paid 200 euros ($223) a month for the information he provided, and attended regular meetings with an Indian intelligence officer from July 2017.
#5
"A skilful person capable of guessing the mind of others is a fraudulent disciple. Having encouraged such a spy with honour and money rewards, the minister shall tell him, Sworn to the king and myself, thou shalt inform us of whatever wickedness thou findest in others." - The Arthashastra. By Kautilya. Book I. Chapter XI - The Institution of Spies. 4th Century BC.
Posted by: John Frum ||
12/13/2019 18:26
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[FOXNEWS] A New York state trooper fatally shot a man with mental health issues after the man struck him in the head with a hatchet, according to state police.
Trooper Ryan Mousaw responded to the residence of Daniel Condon, 55, in Arietta, N.Y., after a call about a person experiencing mental health issues. Condon was allegedly threatening people with a machete on Tuesday night after accusing them of stealing his money.
As Mousaw began to ask Condon questions, he noticed that the man started showing signs of instability. The trooper told Condon he would have to detain him and take him to a hospital, at which point Condon began to resist the officer.
Mousaw tried to deploy his Taser to stop Condon but was unsuccessful. Then Mousaw felt something hit the back of his head. He stepped back and saw Condon with the hatchet. Fearing for his life, Mousaw pulled out his gun and fatally shot at Condon, according to the Times Union.
Mousaw fire seven shots, Troop G Maj. Robert Patnaude said Wednesday. With blood gushing out of his head, Mousaw immediately called for help and tried to administer first aid and revive Condon with a defibrillator, police said.
It took help 15 minutes to arrive in Arietta, a rural area in Hamilton County.
Mousaw was taken to a local hospital and was treated for the head wound and a sprained arm and wrist.
"He needed several stitches in the head after the hatchet hitting him. He’s home right now. We don’t expect him back very soon, but he’s going to be OK," Patnaude said.
Patnaude said the hatchet incident in a remote Adirondack town demonstrated the kind of life-and-death decision a police officer must make.
"We have a continuum of force, so if a person is using their hands against us, we try to use our hands or pepper spray or a taser, but when a person uses a deadly weapon, I want our troopers to use their gun," he said. "That's the way for them to protect themselves and end the situation as quickly as possible."
Patnaude said the person who made the call to report Condon’s signs of instability had given Condon a ride earlier that day when he noticed the irrational behavior. State police had never encountered Condon before, but Hamilton County police have had many dealings with Condon throughout the past year.
[Dhaka Tribune] The Anti-Terrorism Unit (ATU) of police has arrested four suspected operatives of the banned turban outfit "Allahr Dal".
...banned only last month, Allahr Dal formed in 1995 under the leadership of Matin Mehedi alias Mominul Islam. In late 2004, the outfit merged with banned murderous Moslem organization Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB)...
They were arrested in the Dilkhola area of Khulna city around 10:30pm on Wednesday.
The arrestees are -- Raja Miah alias Nur Alam, 31, joint district nayek of the turban outfit; Akejul Islam, 24, Md Ahsan Ullah alias Nirab, 27, both being assistant district nayeks; and Abdul Hamid alias Hamid, 35, a member of the organization.
ATU's Superintendent of Police (SP) (media) Md Mahiduzzaman said acting on a tip-off, they conducted a raid in the area and arrested them.
In the raid, four mobile phones and books related to extremism were also recovered from their possession, he said.
During the primary interrogation, the arrestees admitted their involvement in the turban organization, he added.
They gathered at the place to plan to kill state and religious figures and damage state property, Mahiduzzaman said.
"They believe that the democratic system prevailing in the country is the system of devil. And they use technology to implement their plans," he added.
"Legal action has been taken against them," he said.
[DAWN] Three girls and one boy — all from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — have been paralysed by poliovirus. With the new detections, the total number of polio cases in the country during the current year has reached 98.
Ironically, the total number of polio cases for KP has risen to 72, which is more than the total number of the cases reported from across Pakistan from Jan 1, 2016 to Dec 31, 2018.
According to a notification issued by the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, four new polio cases have been confirmed from KP out of which three are from Lakki Marwat district and the fourth from Tank district. An official of the NIH laboratory said a three-month boy had been infected with the poliovirus.
“The child is a resident of Sarae Naurang tehsil/ Takhti Khel union council. He did not receive any dose of polio vaccine at all. The second victim is an 11-month-old girl from the same area who was a case of refusal against polio vaccine.
“The third victim is also an 11-month-old girl belonging to Lakki Marwat tehsil/ Deratang union council. Her parents claim she had received two doses of vaccine,” said the official.
A 12-month-old girl had also been paralysed by the virus of the crippling disease, he said. The child belongs to Tank tehsil/ Waraspoon union council.
[Rudaw] Islamic State (ISIS) militants launched at least two suicide attacks on a brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), also known as Hashd al-Shaabi, in Samarra, Saladin province, late on Thursday, killing at least 11, according to security officials.
“A suicide terrorist targeted a force, affiliated to Samarra operations, causing the martyrdom of seven members of Hashd al-Shaabi’s 313th Brigade and the injury of three others,” read an earlier statement from the Iraqi Security Media Cell.
The cell later released a second statement, claiming an explosives-laden car, driven by a suicide bomber, attacked the same PMF brigade, killing another four.
The PMF confirmed the first attack in a statement, saying its forces “responded” to an attack without mentioning casualties.
ISIS has not issued a statement claiming either attack, but is known to operate in the disputed area.
The attack comes just days after ISIS militants attacked the Iran-backed PMF in Diyala province, which has also seen an uptick in violence in recent months.
ISIS attacked PMF and Iraqi Army positions in Diyala on December 1, killing one Iraqi soldier and two PMF.
Several Kurdish security forces were recently killed in the Kolajo sub-district of Garmiyan.
[THESUN.CO.UK] TRIUMPHANT Boris Johnson ...pro-Brexit British prime minister, succeeding no-Brexit Theresa May. BoJo is noted as much for his sparkling personality and his hair as for his Conservative policies.... said his stunning landslide win has given him a "powerful mandate to get Brexit done" as humiliated Jeremy Corbyn vowed to quit.
The Tory boss said work to finally get Britannia out of the EU would start later today, with the Tories on course for a majority of 86 and to take 46 per cent of the vote.
[IsraelTimes] Luciana Berger fails to win a UK Parliament seat in the heavily Jewish Finchley and Golders Green district, continuing a trend in which virtually all lawmakers who defected from the Labour Party failed to win seats in the British elections, according to UK media.
Berger, who left the Labour Party over issues related to anti-Semitism, loses to the sitting Conservative MP Mike Freer.
Freer wins with 24,162 votes with Berger taking 17,600, a rise of 25.3% for the Liberal Democrats.
In his victory speech, Freer pays tribute to his opponent and “the very difficult decision” she took to leave the Labour party and her safe seat.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Oh, sob. Maundering marm Jo Swinson chucked out.
Sweet...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2019 0:35
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#2
Now do what trump did, get the economy soaring and the people employed and prove that hostile opinions about the Conservative party are wrong.
#4
After the 2000 election Al Gore appeared at the Al Smith Dinner and he was pretty funny. His daughter wrote for Futurama and she wrote him some brilliant material and I couldn't help but think if he showed any of that likability on the campaign trail he would have won.
I think Boris' Love Actually Commercial was brilliant and showed a 'common' side of him that probably won over a ton of people. Just a theory.
[RT] India’s President Nath Kovind has signed a new hotly debated bill giving fast-track citizenship to non-Muslims. Earlier, the legislation sparked protests in some parts of India and drew condemnation from the US.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) grants citizenship to all members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities that came to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 31, 2014 fleeing from religious persecution.
But not Muslims, because Pakistan/Bangladesh were created just to give them a homeland, and Afghanistan is as close to 100% Muslim as to not matter — except for the single Jewish gentleman living in Kabul now that the other one went back Israel.
It also states that refugees from these six groups should not be treated as illegal immigrants and charges brought against them over such status should be dropped.
The act further states that any further refugees from these communities willing to acquire Indian citizenship will be required to live in the country for five years instead of 11 as it was earlier.
New Delhi says the CAB is necessary to protect persecuted minorities, but it angered Muslims in northeastern state of Assam. People started protesting earlier this week burning copies of the legislation and later turning to tires and cars. After the Wednesday night outburst, which happened in defiance of a curfew, the government in New Delhi sent troops from other parts of India. The troops restored order in the state capital, Guwahati, but protests continued on Thursday in other places.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also sought to ease tensions by explaining that it does not infringe upon the rights of Muslims living in India in any way.
It wasn’t just some parts of Indian society that were apparently angered by the bill, though. An American state-run religious freedom watchdog promptly jumped in to label the legislation discriminatory and threaten New Delhi with sanctions. India was swift to strike back as it called the US position “guided only by its prejudices and biases” as well as lacking real knowledge of the situation on the ground.
[KhaamaPress] At last 391 Afghans and 1595 Pak nationals have received Indian citizenship during the last 3 years, Union Minister of States for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai, told media on Wednesday.
Nityanand Rai has also said that 40 Afghans and 712 Pak refugees have been granted citizenship in 2019.
Rai noted that provision for capturing online citizenship data of migrants colonists from minority communities namely ‐ Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian ‐ hailing from Afghanistan, Pakistain and Bangladesh was introduced way back in 2018 and as per available data, 927 Sikhs and Hindus from Afghanistan and Pakistain have been granted Indian Citizenship since then.
This comes as that India has recently passed the citizenship law that offers fast-track citizenship to non-Moslems from neighbouring Moslem-majority countries which is a turning point in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s drive to redefine the country as a Hindu homeland.
The move marks the first time that India being officially a secular state with a religiously diverse population, has set religious criteria for citizenship.
Posted by: John Frum ||
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#1
President Nath Kovind has signed a new hotly debated bill giving fast-track citizenship to non-Muslims.
Hopefully followed to logical completion (deportation of Muslims)?
#2
Nope. India has Muslim Government Ministers, Generals, Industrialists, Scientists,Supreme Court Judges etc. There are 200 million Muslims living in India.
Posted by: John Frum ||
12/13/2019 5:18
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#3
I wasn't criticizing John. 20% of Israel's population are Muslims Arabs and we really, really enjoy having them.
#4
Muslims we can live with and entrust with positions of responsibility are usually the educated, progressive ones who break out the korans only on eid and are truly secular in their views. One of our greatest Presidents was a muslim. But he was a scientist first.
We have no problem with muslims who are secular. Or even with those who don't break the law to get here. In fact, many progressive muslims have lauded the gummint for the CAB. It's illegal muslims that will be deported. Of course, deportations will follow. Just yesterday, Tasleema Robiul a 35 year old bangladeshi illegal was ordered to be deported after a year in prison. She was caught ten years ago on illegal entry and had managed to drag out the case to live here.
It's the leftist 'diversity lovers' who are most butt-hurt about this as it gives them ammo to go after a Rightist govt, shouting 'hindu hindu hindu'. Their objective is to relegate hinduism to the sort of voiceless fringes of society that their western comrades have pushed christian conservatives to in the west.
The Left are taking their lessons in activism from the same pressure groups who support the global Left, and this is why they are so dangerous. What must be denied them are the universal human resource every globalist needs to cause 'revolution' in an otherwise stable society. Illegal immigrants.
The rightist gummint also believes an influx of ever-gratefuls will lock down chances of ensured votes their way in future generations, without endangering citizens with hordes of possible machete wielding Allan lovers.
Truth is, we aren't expecting any massive influx anyway. It's more symbolic, the legislation. As far as I'm concerned, let the muslim feel dis-empowered. Soon, we shall move for a uniform code whereby cult and communal laws will be rendered void and only the secular constitution will have primacy. They are simply going to chimp out then, the anti-national taqiyah lovers.
#5
Didn’t think you were grom. The MSM is portraying this law as something it is not. Mo Muslim is being stripped of citizenship. Muslims immigrants can become citizens just as before. I do think that by selecting non muslim illegal immigrants for special consideration, even though we all know they are the persecuted ones, this law violates article 14 of the Indian constitution and will be struck down
Posted by: John Frum ||
12/13/2019 6:57
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#6
BTW, the guy who signed this into law, Ram Nath Kovind is from the Dalit (formerly called untouchable) community. He was born in a mud hut, lost his mother in a fire that caught in the thatched roof of their hut. Walked miles barefoot to go to school. Didn’t keep him back. Became a lawyer arguing before the supreme court, a member of parliament, the governor of a state, now President of India.
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[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] House Judiciary Committee Republicans offered their first amendment to impeachment articles against Donald Trump: striking an 'abuse of power' article
After it was voted down, Rep. Matt Gaetz brought up an amendment naming Hunter Biden
He used the amendment to outline Biden's brush with the law when a crack pipe and white powder were found in his rental car
Republicans say Trump was trying to investigate Hunter Biden and Burisma and was not abusing his power
Democrats began their Thursday hearing by having a clerk read two impeachment articles against President Trump
Chairman Jerry Nadler introduced a 'substitute' amendment changing articles to impeach 'Donald John Trump,' from earlier articles naming 'Donald J. Trump'
Trump defended himself in real-time on Twitter
Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert named seven people during a Wednesday impeachment hearing who he said should be called as witnesses
One of them is widely thought to have been the Ukraine whistle-blower who launched the impeachment saga
[IsraelTimes] Arrests in Hebron area include a former Paleostinian minister, as security forces prepare for upcoming anniversary events marking founding of terror group.
Israeli forces arrested a dozen senior figures in the Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw, terror group overnight in a sweep of the West Bank city of Hebron and surrounding areas.
The arrests were a preemptive measure in preparation for coming Paleostinian celebrations over the weekend to mark the anniversary of the founding of Hamas in 1987, according to Hebrew-language reports Thursday morning citing the military.
Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to a Times of Israel request for comment.
The Hamas-linked al-Rai news site reported that unnamed "local sources" said the arrests included Issa al-Jabari, a former minister of local government for Hamas who has been in and out of Israeli prisons for years, and Abdel Khaliq al-Natsheh was identified as a Hamas leader.
Other arrested included Jamal al-Natsheh, Jawad al-Natsheh, Amr Qawasmi and Mazen al-Natsheh, according to al-Rai.
There were festivities between security forces and Paleostinians during the arrests but no injuries reported, according to Hebrew-language media.
Hamas front man Adbel Latif al-Qanou told 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... -based news site Sawa that the arrests constituted "an abortive attempt to harm [Hamas’s] young people and base and break the will of its leadership."
As part of the preparations for unrest expected over the coming days, security forces have been boosted in the West Bank and along the Gaza border area.
Hamas is the de facto ruler in the Gaza Strip, but maintains a smaller presence in the West Bank, which is ruled by rival Fatah. Israel’s security cooperation apparatus with the Fatah-dominated Paleostinian Authority often includes operations to crack down on Hamas, which is reportedly hoping to boost its presence in the West Bank via planned Paleostinian elections early next year.
[IsraelTimes] No casualties in overnight attack, the 10th since late October and days after another assault maimed six members of Iraq’s elite US-trained counterterrorism force in same camp.
Two rockets were fired at a military base near Baghdad airport housing US troops, the 10th such attack since late October, the Iraqi army said on Thursday.
There were no casualties in the overnight attack, which follows one on the same base on Monday that maimed six members of Iraq’s elite US-trained counterterrorism force, two of them critically, the army said.
Washington has expressed mounting concern about the flurry of attacks on US bases and diplomatic missions, several of which it has blamed on Shiite militia groups trained by its foe and rival for influence Tehran.
Security sources have linked at least one attack last week to Kataib Hezbollah, a powerful Shiite faction close to Tehran and blacklisted by Washington.
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 a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... holds vast sway in Iraq, especially among the more hardline elements of the Hashed al-Shaabi, a paramilitary force largely made up of Shiite militias.
A US defense official told AFP the rocket attacks made the Hashed a bigger security threat to American troops in Iraq than the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group, the jihadist movement which the US has vowed to help Baghdad wipe out.
On Friday, the United States imposed sanctions on three senior Hashed figures.
[Dhaka Tribune] Expressing its grievances over the Appellate Division order rejecting BNP Chairperson the loathesome Khaleda Zia ...Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, Pak foil, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... 's bail in Zia Charitable Trust graft case, the party has announced a countrywide demonstration program for Sunday demanding her release.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir declared the program at a presser after a meeting of the party Standing Committee members at its chairperson's Gulshan office in Dhaka on Thursday, reports UNB.
"We are aggrieved and disappointed over the court order. The nation is not only got stunned, but also angry over it," he said.
The BNP leader said people had an expectation that Khaleda Zia would get justice from the apex court, but unfortunately she was deprived of that.
Under the circumstances, Fakhrul said: "We have taken a decision at the meeting of our Standing Committee that we will stage demonstrations and take out processions across the country on Sunday, demanding Khaleda Zia's release."
In the capital, he said BNP's all thana units will hold rallies and stage demonstrations the same day to push for the same demand.
He said they will also announce other programs after Sunday to mount pressure on the government to free Khaleda from jail.
Fakhrul said they believe that people will wage a strong movement with their active participation to force the current "usurper" government to hold a fresh election under a neutral government annulling the results of the 11th parliamentary election.
Earlier in the day, the Appellate Division rejected the bail petition of the BNP chief in the graft case.
Khaleda Zia has been in jail since February 8, 2018 after she was sentenced to five years' imprisonment in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.
She is currently being treated at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU).
Her party has been accusing the government of not providing adequate treatment facilities to Khaleda.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Iraqi Security Forces announced on Thursday that their troops managed to destroy five Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS/ISIS/IS/ISIS) dens during anti-terrorist sweep.
"A joint force from the 5th Division of the Federal Police, represented by the 15th Brigade, the 18th Brigade, and the 19th Brigade, in cooperation with the Intelligence Department, the Automatic Infantry Regiment, and drones, initiated a security operation to search and clear Wadi al-Kour from Sateeh village to Tel Khadijah al-Fakhira village, al-Sallab billage, and al-Lsaan in the villages located in the valley south of the Al Rashad district, within the Kirkuk sector," they said in a statement on Facebook.
The statement added: "The operation resulted in the discovery of 5 terrorist dens, 6 bombs, and 2 remote detonating devices, as well as a cycle of violence. The nests and bombs were destroyed and burned by the explosives handling detachment," they added.
Iraqi forces continue to search and pursue the remnants of ISIS across the country, as they work to ensure that the organization and its fleeing elements do not reappear, while the Popular Mobilization Forces are stationed on the border strip with Syria to address the infiltration attempts of the terrorist organization.
[DAWN] The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday issued a show-cause notice to IHC Bar Association (IHCBA) Secretary Muhammad Umair Baloch for "professional misconduct and contempt".
The high court also suspended Baloch's licence "to practice before [IHC]" until the next hearing, which will be held on December 19.
Baloch was reported to have been forcing lawyers not to appear before judges as the high court's bar association was observing a strike against alleged offences against the legal fraternity in Lahore a day earlier.
On Wednesday, lawyers had staged a violent protest at the Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... Institute of Cardiology (PIC) apparently on a mission to avenge a group of lawyers, who had been beaten up at the PIC a few weeks ago, soon after some video clips went viral on social media showing some doctors making fun of the lawyers while recalling the incident.
The outraged attackers, mostly young faces dressed in black suits and sporting neckties, spared no one present on hospital premises, where several serious cardiac patients are under treatment at any given time. The situation worsened when a mob stormed into the emergency department, seemingly in search of some doctors. In view of the approaching danger, the doctors expeditiously departed at a goodly pace.
As the condition of some critical patients deteriorated in the absence of doctors, three PIC patients, including a girl and an elderly woman, passed away.
The court, in its notice today, noted that Baloch was "forcing the learned advocates to leave the court".
"He continued doing so when the court proceedings commenced. He was asked to refrain from disturbing the proceedings and undermining the decorum of the court," the notice read.
"In response, he came to the rostrum and in a tone unbecoming of an enrolled advocate, he stated that instead of stopping him, the judges should encourage the strike."
The court's notice further said that other IHC judges had also reported that Baloch "interfered with court proceedings".
"The aforementioned acts also amounted to depriving the litigants from the right of access to justice."
Baloch, while talking to a news hound, said that IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah had told him not to observe a strike in the high court, to which the advocate responded: "When you (the judge) observed strikes and we used to be your followers, it was acceptable. Now it is not?"
[THEFEDERALIST] Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden ...When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'... has learned nothing from the Title IX due process disaster plaguing America’s campuses. The former vice president has released a plan on his website to restore the B.O. regime’s infamous 2011 Dear Colleague letter, which Biden’s plan describes as outlining how to "fairly conduct Title IX proceedings." In reality, the Dear Colleague letter introduced a monstrously unfair process that has forced hundreds of young men to sue for their rights ‐ and reputations ‐ in federal courts.
An accused’s rights to confront his or her accuser through cross examination and to have a neutral adjudicator have long been considered the very basics of due process. In the name of protecting women, the 2011 guidance encouraged universities to abandon these well-tested pillars in favor of a single-investigator model, in which a Title IX administrator both elicits the stories from the involved parties and rules on the outcome. The Dear Colleague letter also pushed universities into lowering the standard of proof and discouraged any kind of cross examination that might probe discrepancies in an alleged victim’s story.
Cynthia Garrett is a Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, attorney and co-president of Families Advocating for Campus Equality (FACE), an organization that advocates for due process and offers resources to the falsely accused. She says she is deeply concerned that Biden appears to be unaware of the downsides of the 2011 guidance.
"It’s particularly concerning that a presidential candidate seems oblivious to the unintended repercussions of a policy he championed. Over 500 lawsuits have been filed by accused students since the 2011 Dear Colleague letter, resulting in at least 161 court decisions in these students’ favor and over 100 pre-decision settlements," Garrett said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Shitshow, Campus Edition.
Nothing shows better the stupidity and corruption of our virtue-signaling, 'woke' political class than the horrors of these Shitshow star chambers where college boys watch their lives being ruined by anonymous accusers, with no right to confront, no right to counsel, no right to cross-examine, no presumption of innocence.
Monstrous indeed.
Anyone who supports the continuation of these totalitarian procedures is not fit to hold any office.
#2
This is not stupid. This is an attempt to continue the march through the institutions. Since DJT is transforming the judiciary the Marxists have to construct an alternative court system with the type of totalitarian rules they prefer.
What you see in these campus tribunals is what they will instrument in all society as soon as they hold the power.
It's all about the power for these two bit Stalins.
#6
This is like the arguments against Sharia Law Courts in the U.S. You cannot have two systems of justice. Campuses are not special despite what occupants might think.
[DAWN] A six-year-old boy, who was admitted to the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) over three weeks ago after being brutally bitten by half-a-dozen dogs in Larkana, died on Wednesday.
The boy, Hasnain, could not receive critical treatment in Larkana or any other district nearest to his home town and was brought to Karachi at the NICH on Nov 16.
According to NICH doctors, Hasnain had been admitted for 27 days during which he was treated by a panel of experts and underwent multiple surgeries
While doctors did not confirm that he had contracted rabies, they said the boy had been fighting “massive infections” and suffered from necrotising fasciitis — a rare bacterial infection often called ‘flesh-eating bacteria’ which spreads quickly in the body and can cause death.
Posted by: Fred ||
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4 drug smugglers killed & 3 others wounded in a clash with CNPA in Ahangaran region, Firuz Koh City of Ghor. CNPA backed by AAF destroyed a vehicle loaded with illicit drugs & seized another vehicle loaded with 1,000kg of illicit drugs. Read More: https://t.co/WUx5mEXF2Ypic.twitter.com/Yv0C35DURj
[FoxNews] Sections of a park in Northern California are now closed off with warning signs posted after feral hogs invaded the area in recent months, causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage.
The city of Lafayette said Tuesday in a news release the spike in the wild pig population in recent months has prompted the city to close some nature trails and post warning signs in order to protect residents from the "dangerous species" in the Burton Valley and Lafayette Community Park areas, located about 20 miles east of San Francisco.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian military launched a new attack this afternoon to retake the abandoned battalion base in the eastern countryside of the Idlib Governorate.
Backed by Liwaa al-Quds ...the Jerusalem Brigade is a Paleostinian-Syrian pro-Government group that operates in Aleppo, formed in 2013. The group is composed of predominately Sunni Paleostinians from the al-Nayrab district as well as the former refugee camp Handarat. It is believed to be the largest Assadist auxilliary force operating in storied Aleppo.... (Paleostinian paramilitary) and the Russian Air Force, the Syrian Elite Republican Guard began their attack on Thursday by storming the abandoned battalion base’s eastern perimeter.
According to an army source near the front-lines, the Elite Republican Guard and Liwaa al-Quds are currently trying to crack the defenses of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... , while their allies from the Russian Air Force heavily target the jihadist supply line to the base.
On Wednesday, the Syrian Arab Army launched a similar attack at the abandoned battalion base; however, they were later forced to withdraw after the jihadist rebels foiled their advance.
Why are they roiled? After over a century of this kind of thing, they should be used to it.
[THEHILL] A sprawling federal investigation into lobbying, patronage and alleged corruption threatens to upend Illinois’s powerful Democratic machine as agents raid offices and interrogate witnesses from reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel... to Springfield.
Federal agents have conducted searches of at least nine homes and offices in connection to a probe of Commonwealth Edison, the state’s largest utility, and the political operation run by state House Speaker Mike Madigan, the most powerful Democrat in Illinois.
Those agents have been asking questions about Madigan, his associates and his political operation, according to two people who have sat for interviews with law enforcement.
A part of the investigation appears to focus on the army of lobbyists Commonwealth Edison and its parent company, Exelon, employ in Springfield, some of whom allegedly won contracts for no-show jobs.
The companies have publicly acknowledged receiving at least two subpoenas seeking information about their lobbying practices in Springfield and their relationship with former state Sen. Martin Sandoval (D).
Of the 23 lobbying firms Exelon paid to advocate on their behalf this year, 15 have ties to Madigan, the radio station WBEZ reported. Eight employ former top Madigan staffers. Five employ retired state Democratic politicians who served under Madigan. And two employ lawyers who worked for Madigan while also lobbying for the utility.
It is midday and hot as a firecracker in the historic town of Mount Vernon, Ill.
The sun is nearly unbearable on the asphalt parking lot of the Fairfield Inn out by the highway as a stream of people makes its way inside the lobby; spry retirees in couples; middle-aged people carefully shepherding white-haired parents in their 80s; a few younger folks.
Inside, state Rep. Brad Halbrook, one of the event’s organizers, is on damage control, ricocheting between groups of men in wide suspenders and ladies in T-shirts and slacks. He shakes hands, apologizing, explaining to the crowd spilling through the lobby that they will have to wait for a second session of the meeting they have come to attend — the meeting room is already standing room only. The July 20 event, planned for about 60 people and advertised on Facebook, seems to have drawn around 200.
Ron and Carolyn Carnell, a couple from Hartford, Ill., didn’t take any chances — they brought their own folding nylon chairs and snagged a spot inside the meeting room. Ron made Carolyn forego lunch at the Cracker Barrel so that they could arrive early. “I knew in my heart of hearts this thing was going to be packed,” he says. A former mayor of his small town, he knows a lot of people, and in his circles, the topic of today’s meeting comes up a lot, he says.
On the screen at the front of the room, the first slide of a Power Point presentation hovers: “A Plan for Splitting the State of Illinois.”
#3
..make these maga-cities, independent city states. See how long they survive. Well, they claim the collective brilliance that the low landers just don't understand. Shouldn't be a problem.
#4
make these maga-cities, independent city states.
I like the idea in theory, but in practice you just end up with a bunch of districts, like DC, wanting full representation. At the level of giving Chiraq, EllAy, Detoilet, NYC and other commie enclaves their own senators it's a complete non starter.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2019 9:52
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#5
..when I say independent, I mean separate completely. Their own little nation. See - Singapore.
#7
When even the chumbolones start to say "what's that smell?"
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2019 11:11
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#8
Can those federal agents come to California when they're done with Illinois? Please?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/13/2019 13:05
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#9
My first thought was to wonder who would take the place of the Madigan machine.
Unfortunately, Aesop was wrong: "A Fox with its tail caught was a feast for Mosquitoes. A Hedgehog offered to remove them. Fox said no; those on him were full; new would take more blood." The bloodsuckers in Chicago and Springfield are never full.
Posted by: James ||
12/13/2019 21:15
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The US military evacuated about 300 family members of gunnies of the ISIS* terrorist group from the al-Hawl camp in northern Syria to Iraq, Syrian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported on Wednesday.
"US military occupiers have taken out 300 family members of ISIS* gunnies of foreign origin from the al-Hawl camp to Iraq", the broadcaster reported.
Earlier in the month, US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper did not rule out sending additional troops to Syria despite having previously said that the total number of US troops on the ground would remain at around 600.
According to the UN, as of late November, about 69,000 people lived in the camp, of which 40 percent were Syrians, 45 percent were Iraqis and 15 percent were citizens of other countries.
The al-Hawl camp is controlled by the Arab-Kurdish troops of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. It has been in the international spotlight recently over the fact that it was overcrowded amid the escalation of violence in Syria.
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert said the alleged whistleblower Eric Ciaramella should testify in the House's impeachment proceedings.
He made the demand during the House Judiciary Committee's hearing on Wednesday night regarding the articles of impeachment against President Trump. Gohmert was railing against how the Democrats have handled the investigation and subsequent hearings, and he noted that there were several individuals he thought should testify about the situation.
"A vague abuse of power, obstruction of Congress, the very things the majority has done in preventing us from having the witnesses that could shed light on this, not opinion, but fact witnesses. We needed to hear from those witnesses," Gohmert said. "People like Sean Misko [a former National Security Council aide who joined Adam Schiff
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Is there a whistleblower ?? Been thinking that "RAT" Schiff just made it up...
[WashingtonExaminer] The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has ordained a transgender Latina, marking a first for the 4 million-member mainline Protestant denomination.
Nicole Garcia, 60, was installed earlier this month as the mission development pastor of Westview Lutheran Church in Boulder, Colorado, which describes itself as "an affirming, welcoming community."
"Nobody can question my faith, my devotion to Christ, my devotion to the church. That’s why I’m the pastor here," Garcia told NBC News. "Being trans is secondary."
Garcia, who is also a licensed professional counselor in the state of Colorado, was born into the Roman Catholic Church but left Christianity for more than 20 years because of confusion about sexuality and gender.
#2
As I sent off charitable contributions along with my Christmas cards yesterday, little did I know I'd be reading this and shaking my head, glad that I pulled the rip cord on the ELCA circus years ago.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2019 0:52
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#4
After all, there's all this stuff about trans-figuration, trans-substantiation and trans-scendance in their scripture...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2019 11:35
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#5
Tom Lehrer:
At the ecumenical council in Rome, known as Vatican II [they tried] to make the Church more commercial: introduce the vernacular into portions of the mass, replace latin, and widen somewhat the range of music permissible in the liturgy.
But if they really want to sell the product, in this secular age, they ought to redo some of the liturgical music in popular song forms. I have a modest example here. It's called "The Vatican Rag":
First you get down on your knees,
Fiddle with your rosaries,
Bow your head with great respect,
And genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!
Do whatever steps you want, if
You have cleared them with the pontiff.
Everybody say his own
Kyrie Eleison,
Doin' the VATICAN RAG!
Get in line in that processional,
Step into that small confessional,
There, the guy who's got religion'll
Tell you if your sin's original.
If it is, try playin' it safer,
Drink the wine and chew the wafer,
Two, four, six, eight, Time to transubstantiate!
So get down upon your knees,
Fiddle with your rosaries,
Bow your head with great respect,
And genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!
Make a cross on your abdomen,
When in rome do like a roman,
Ave Maria,
Gee it's good to see ya,
Gettin' ecstatic an'
Sorta dramatic an'
Doin' the VATICAN RAG!
blamed “white supremacy” for a shooting in New Jersey targeting a Jewish kosher grocery store which was carried out by a member of a black supremacist group.
Three civilians and one police officer were killed during the shooting on Tuesday, with the civilian victims later being named as members of the local Chassidic community.
The tragedy took place in a “historically black neighborhood where an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community recently has taken root,” reported the Wall Street Journal.
David Anderson was subsequently named as one of the shooters, with NBC New York reporting that he had made anti-Semitic and anti-police statements online.
[NYPOST] Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib appeared to blame the Jersey City shooting on "white supremacy" Thursday ‐ even though the attackers have been identified as members of an hard boy "anti-white and anti-Semitic" movement.
The Democratic congresswoman retweeted a photo of one of the victims of Tuesday’s shooting, 24-year-old Moshe Deutsch, an Orthodox Jew, with the caption: "This is heartbreaking. 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... Kills."
Twitter users were quick to call out Tlaib.
"Um, @RashidaTlaib the shooters were black...," wrote conservative political consultant @CalebJHull.
Shooters David Anderson and Francine Graham were followers of the Black Hebrew Israelites, a fringe religious movement, not affiliated with mainstream Judaism, that’s been labeled a hate group by experts who track snuffies in the US.
The tweet, which was posted to her personal account, had been deleted by Thursday afternoon.
#3
Rep. Rashida Tlaib Talk at Westview High School ‘Bumped’ by Poway Schools:
A day after the Council on American-Islamic Relations won approval to host a talk by controversial Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan at a Torrey Ranch-area school, permission was revoked Thursday due to a schedule conflict.
The cancellation had nothing to do with a 420-word protest letter sent by the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, said a spokeswoman for the Poway Unified School District, the venue landlord.
“The superintendent didn’t even know about the letter,” said Christine Paik of the Poway district.
Approval of the Tlaib event Dec. 21 at Westview High School was made in error, she said.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2019 9:28
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#4
“The superintendent didn’t even know about the letter,” said Christine Paik of the Poway district.
"We got a letter that you don't even want to know about. You'd better act on it immediately..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2019 11:52
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#5
"Wrongly", i.e. "intentionally" on the basis that far more people know about the original narrative than the retraction.
[FOXNEWS] The Florida man who was found partially eaten by an alligator earlier this year died from a meth overdose ‐ not a gator attack, as was speculated, according to autopsy results.
Michael Ford, 45, was found dead in a canal near Fort Meade, a city in Polk County roughly 60 miles east of Tampa, on June 27. Someone had reported seeing a piece of the man's body in a nearby alligator's mouth and called authorities.
Pieces of Michael Ford's body had been found inside this alligator's stomach in June, according to officials.
Pieces of Michael Ford's body had been found inside this alligator's stomach in June, according to officials. (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)
The Polk County Sheriff's Office and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) said they were investigating Ford's death and on Wednesday, the county medical examiner's office confirmed he died of "methamphetamine intoxication," WTSP reported.
Ford's initial apparent cause of death was drowning, pending toxicology results, and Sherlocks said he had lacerations and other injuries on his body because of the alligator.
Michael Ford's body was found floating in a canal in Polk County in June, the sheriff's office said.
Michael Ford's body was found floating in a canal in Polk County in June, the sheriff's office said. (Polk County Sheriff's Office)
After the man's body was discovered, the FWC trapped and killed the alligator. A necropsy found Ford's hand and foot inside of the reptile's stomach, but the medical examiner said it appears the alligator ‐ which reportedly weighed 450 pounds and was around 12 feet long ‐ attacked Ford after he died.
Posted by: Fred ||
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I hope the alligator wasn't hurt by meth tainted meat.
[DavidWarrenOnline] Once, I had a girlfriend who was deranged. This eccentricity was part of what appealed to me about her, at first. I became quite infatuated, until her infidelity cured me, and the apprehension of my own stupidity acquired greater emotional force. At nineteen, one’s judgement may not have matured, owing to inexperience, and hormonal "issues." (I speak only for boys, of course, and hardly for all of them.) Now I am sixty-six. I still "fall in love," but have learnt to take aspirin.
Be that as it may, my memory is still capable of retrieving the sordid moments, that gave me an earthly premonition of Hell. I should have known what I was getting into. But, faced with temptation, I had neglected to flee. My own parents had warned me against girls like that, but I was of the adolescent, romantic temper.
This preface will provide context for a political observation. While, nearly fifty years ago, I was already accused of "conservatism" by my approximate contemporaries ‐ I was, for instance, pro-American on Vietnam ‐ I had not yet abandoned various "liberal" assumptions. One was the belief that if a lot of people felt something strongly, there must be something in it. They must have a reason. Perhaps they do: but it is more likely to be a psychological reason, than the piffle they cite.
Verily, I am now so old that I can remember some history. I can recall, for instance, "Nixon Derangement Syndrome." It was manifested by my own girlfriend. Though hardly interested in politics ‐ becoming a ballet dancer was more her thing ‐ there was Watergate to contend with, just surfacing in the news. I was pro-ballet.
My views on Watergate were derived from an article in the French leftwing newspaper, Le Monde. They were, "If a French president did this, no one would bat an eye. Perhaps the Americans are incurably naïve."
Still, I did not care for Nixon myself, one way or the other. My only serious objection to him, was his apparent eagerness to cut and run from Vietnam, and consort with Red China. I also thought he looked, "Tricky."
But then my girlfriend had a breakdown. It was provoked by the mere sight of Nixon’s portrait ‐ a photo on the front page of my copy of the New York Times. She began actually frothing, and exclaiming that he was, "The most evil man in the history of the world!" She became so excited that ‐ as we were sitting in a respectable café ‐ I did whatever I could to calm her. Nothing worked.
We had never discussed "Nixton" before. The diagnostic phrase, "Nixon Derangement Syndrome," was not then available; but that is what I had been witnessing. It struck me that, in addition to knowing nearly nothing about the history of the world, she knew absolutely nothing about American politics. Her own thoughts on Nixon had been gathered from the air, the way one gets some other diseases.
Since, I have lived through "Reagan Derangement Syndrome," "Bush Derangement Syndrome," and most recently, "Trump Derangement Syndrome." They have been very much alike, although this last seems most virulent. One wonders if the equivalent of a flu shot could be designed for this, for derangements are contagious, and potentially fatal.
There were other moments when I speculated that my girlfriend could benefit from escort in buckles to a padded cell, or from therapeutic electric shocks. But this was the first such event I had to deal with. By now, I wonder if half the population is in need of such restraints.
#1
He speaks of humanists who visualize authority figures as either gods that do no wrong or scary demons that do no right. Its a scary mindset and their panic attacks are very real.
#2
And it's spreading outside USA.
In Israel we have Bibi derangement - fellow travelers in general prosecutor office redefined the law (a positive article in newspaper is a bribe*) to get him.
Soon, I expect, we shall see BoJo derangement.
And lets not forget Putin "the murderous thug**".
*As pointed out by Alan Dershowitz - if possitive coverage is a bribe, then negative coverage is an intimidation. Thus any politician will be able to sue newspapers (and blogs) for negative coverage.
**Just how many people have Putin killed compared, to say, Obama?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Red State] I once posted about an Obama administration official who actually had integrity, a man who noticed that something was amiss and acted. It was this man who traveled to Trump Tower on November 17, 2016, to brief then-President-elect Donald Trump that communications from the building were being tapped. He did not notify his superior, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, beforehand. This man’s name is Mike Rogers. He served as the head of the National Security Agency (NSA).
[Washington Examiner] Questions about government missteps in the electronic surveillance of a onetime Trump campaign adviser had former CIA Director John Brennan pointing at the FBI.
Excuse me, Carter Page who ? 
[Red State] The Office of Management and Budget released a memo that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention yet.
[Babylon Bee] NEW YORK, NY‐At a special ceremony Thursday, Planned Parenthood posthumously awarded Herod the Great with its highest honor, the organization's coveted PPFA Margaret Sanger Award.
A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...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 
[MAIL] The pound has surged to its highest level against the euro in a decade as Britain prepares to finally 'get Brexit done'.
[PJ] On Wednesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) dropped a bomb about FBI interference in the 2016 election while questioning Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz about his report regarding misconduct in the espionage operation against the Trump campaign in 2016.
[The Federalist] As part of an investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) inspector general (IG) into how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) abused protocols for obtaining warrants against a Trump campaign aide, the IG conducted more than 170 interviews involving more than 100 witnesses. Yet when asked direct questions about their behavior throughout 2016 and 2017, many key witnesses said they could not remember.
[Washington Examiner] Some climate change hawks are questioning whether the brand of outraged activism trademarked by new Time "Person of the Year" Greta Thunberg will prove effective in inspiring policy to curb emissions.
[The Hill] The main indexes on Wall Street hit record highs on Thursday after the United States reached a "deal in principle" with China to resolve a trade war that has rattled markets for nearly for almost 18 months.
[Breitbart] About 72,000 United States-born children delivered every year to foreign tourists, foreign visa workers, and foreign students are rewarded birthright American citizenship, a new study reveals.
Iceland population - 360,390
[Jpost] The teen has admitted to assaulting the Israeli student, but denied that he had antisemitic motivations.
[Rudaw] Protesters are said to have killed and hanged an individual who was believed to be shooting protesters in Wathba Square in Baghdad on Thursday.
...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 
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...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it 
[DAWN] MINGORA: Unidentified assailants 
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
[Dhaka Tribune] Police on Thursday recovered the hanging bodies of two women, whose families claimed they were killed for failing to pay an endless dowry demanded by their husbands..jpg "Kashmir")
According to a court statement, S. was recruited by the Indian foreign intelligence agency Research & Analysis Wing (
...the largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the fourth populated city in Germany....
[FOXNEWS] A New York state trooper fatally shot a man with mental health issues after the man struck him in the head with a hatchet, according to state police.
[DAWN] Three girls and one boy — all from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — have been paralysed by poliovirus. With the new detections, the total number of polio cases in the country during the current year has reached 98.
...pro-Brexit British prime minister, succeeding no-Brexit Theresa May. BoJo is noted as much for his sparkling personality and his hair as for his Conservative policies....
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, Pak foil, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
[DAWN] The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday issued a show-cause notice to IHC Bar Association (IHCBA) Secretary Muhammad Umair Baloch for "professional misconduct and contempt".
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[DAWN] A six-year-old boy, who was admitted to the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) over three weeks ago after being brutally bitten by half-a-dozen dogs in Larkana, died on Wednesday.
[FoxNews] Sections of a park in Northern California are now closed off with warning signs posted after feral hogs invaded the area in recent months, causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage.
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel...
Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert said the alleged whistleblower Eric Ciaramella should testify in the House's impeachment proceedings.
...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 
[FOXNEWS] The Florida man who was found partially eaten by an alligator earlier this year died from a meth overdose ‐ not a gator attack, as was speculated, according to autopsy results.
[DavidWarrenOnline] Once, I had a girlfriend who was deranged. This eccentricity was part of what appealed to me about her, at first. I became quite infatuated, until her infidelity cured me, and the apprehension of my own stupidity acquired greater emotional force. At nineteen, one’s judgement may not have matured, owing to inexperience, and hormonal "issues." (I speak only for boys, of course, and hardly for all of them.) Now I am sixty-six. I still "fall in love," but have learnt to take aspirin.
