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I’m exhausted and clearly ineffective tonight… and Fred (thank you, Fred!) has the key stories covered for Israel. I’ll pick up again tomorrow. trailing wife- 05/23/2025 02:03 |
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What would we lose? Nothing Frank G- 05/20/2025 06:42 |
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Are we purging the -scourge- now? Skidmark- 05/19/2025 09:53 |
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Noted, with thanks. trailing wife- 05/16/2025 23:10 |
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The story on delegations leaving Istanbul is set for Sunday. badanov- 05/16/2025 17:12 |
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Kth. :-) trailing wife- 05/15/2025 22:39 |
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Yes, It is not time sensitive badanov- 05/15/2025 21:40 |
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badanov: just checking that you meant this to be for Saturday rather than tomorrow. trailing wife- 05/15/2025 20:42 |
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Definitely time for a bit of supervised exercises, Fred. My mother was an OT, so I have a soft spot for both of them, pitiless darlings that they all are. trailing wife- 05/15/2025 20:10 |
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Just falling three times in a week. Fred- 05/12/2025 12:39 |
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Enjoy the dear little OTs and PTs, Fred. I swear, you have more lives than a cat — what happened this time? trailing wife- 05/11/2025 19:26 |
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Get well! Frank G- 05/11/2025 15:24 |
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My participation will be limited for the next couple weeks. I'm in rehab again. Fred- 05/11/2025 15:18 |
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Good catch. The passage was translated: he was also wounded, which is a correct and direct translation. But a different translation changed the phrase to: who also was wounded. You'd figure the web translation thing I use would be identical to their Google translate page. It wasn't. badanov- 05/07/2025 20:05 |
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badanov: please check the translation here. The sentence that concerns me is bolded and in italics. trailing wife- 05/07/2025 18:36 |
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Six paragraphs is perfect for short paragraphs, Fred. But for a piece with long paragraphs, that might approach 1000 words. Is something on the order of six line breaks or 500 words, whichever is less too complex? trailing wife- 05/06/2025 22:59 |
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Looks fine to me, Fred, badanov- 05/06/2025 20:26 |
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... or maybe six, disregarding blank lines? Fred- 05/06/2025 19:22 |
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Before I actually do this, let me have your opinions. I want to set it up so that front page only shows six paragraphs. Hitting the Link link (I know. Redundant.) opens the full text on poparticle.php. That way super-long articles are automatically condensed. Does that make sense? Is the cutoff (six line breaks) about right? Too short? Fred- 05/06/2025 19:19 |
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You are a joy and a wonder, Fred Pruitt. Truly, you’ve given us a wonderful toy to play with. trailing wife- 05/05/2025 16:20 |
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I've got an idea how to do it better and faster. Let me give it a try tomorrow. Fred- 05/05/2025 01:38 |
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P.49 can be edited only from Poster and Editor, NOT from Rantburg.com. In Poster or Editor, click on Continued on Page 49. This will give you a new tab: Continued. You can make changes in the scrollable top section, while the fixed bottom section shows the original text. HOWEVER, the various editing buttons don’t work, so whatever you want to add will have to be typed manually or a copy pasted from elsewhere. Subtracting is done in the usual way. When done, click on the UPDATE button, which does work beautifully. trailing wife- 05/04/2025 23:28 |
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Getting an error like that usually means I'm missing something that's staring me in the face. Fred- 05/04/2025 23:03 |
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I'm getting a real stupid error message from Firefox's debugger. The code's pretty antique. Fred- 05/04/2025 22:55 |
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Let me take a look at it. It's been so long since I wrote it I can barely follow the coade. Fred- 05/04/2025 21:19 |
| Amy Coney Barrett ensures religious school fight fails in Supreme Court |
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[NBC via MSN] A recusal by conservative Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett has ensured that Oklahoma taxpayers will not have to pay for a religious public charter school. Coney Barrett would have broken the 4-4 deadlock reached by the Court Thursday. Although she did not give a reason for her recusal, The New York Times speculated that the justice's "close friendship with Nicole Stelle Garnett, a professor at Notre Dame Law School who was an early adviser for St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, the school involved in the dispute," may have contributed. "The decision by the evenly divided court means that a ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court that said the proposal to launch St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School violates both the federal Constitution and state law remains in place," NBC News reported. Want more breaking political news? Click for the latest headlines at Raw Story. Coney Barrett is an extremely conservative and religious justice who analysts expected would have supported the school's case. The lack of a majority vote means the court did not issue a written decision. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2025-05-23 16:43 Edit Publish Page 47 Preview 179 words Top ePoster |
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| Army unveils new fitness test with tougher standards ‐ could you pass it? | |
"Army Strong" is more than just a tagline — for soldiers, it’s a requirement for duty. The U.S. Army requires that all active-duty soldiers prove their physical prowess by passing a rigorous fitness test. There have been multiple versions of the test over the years — and the Army recently announced that a new version has been adopted. On June 1, 2025, the military branch will roll out its new Army Fitness Test (AFT) as a replacement for the current Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT). The new test — based on "18 months of data analysis and feedback from thousands of test iterations" — will introduce updated scoring standards that emphasize "readiness and combat effectiveness," according to an Army press release. Soldiers will have until Jan. 1, 2026, to meet the new AFT requirements without facing "adverse actions." AFT scores are recorded during basic training for soldiers and initial training for officers, the Army states on its website. Active-duty soldiers are required to complete the test twice a year, while soldiers in the Army Reserve and Army National Guard must record scores once a year. 5 COMPONENTS OF THE TEST The AFT consists of the following five events, as described on the Army’s website. 1. Three-repetition maximum deadlift In this challenge, the soldier must lift the maximum weight possible three times using a 60-pound hex bar and plates. 2. Hand-release push-up The soldier must complete as many hand-release push-ups as possible in two minutes, using proper technique. 3. Sprint-drag-carry With the sprint-drag-carry (SDC), the soldier is tasked with completing five 50-meter shuttles (sprint, drag, lateral, carry, sprint) as quickly as possible, using two 40-pound kettlebells and a 90-pound sled. 4. Plank The soldier must maintain a proper plank position for as long as possible, testing muscular endurance and balance. 5. Two-mile run The soldier must complete a timed two-mile run on a flat outdoor course in a test of aerobic endurance. The standing power throw event, which was part of the previous version of the test, is no longer included as a requirement. | |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-05-24 00:00 Edit Publish Page 47 Preview 369 words Top ePoster | |
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| Former DR Congo president Kabila loses immunity over alleged M23 rebel ties |
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[RFI.FR] On Thursday, 88 senators voted in favour of lifting Joseph Kabila's immunity; five opposed and three abstained. Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi alleges Kabila conspired with the Rwanda-backed M23, whose recent offensive has intensified the more than three-decade-long conflict in the east of the country. Kabila, who has been outside the country since 2023, was not present in the chamber at the time of the vote. By the vote, "the Senate authorises the prosecution and lifting of Joseph Kabila's immunity," declared the upper house's speaker Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde. Kabila now faces the prospect of being tried in military courts for "treason, war crimes, crimes against humanity and participation in an insurrectionary movement". Related: Felix Tshisekedi 02/28/2025 DRC: deadly explosion at M23 rally wounds dozens, rebel leaders say Felix Tshisekedi 12/26/2024 DRC: Kinshasa's Archbishop delivers politically loaded Christmas message Felix Tshisekedi 10/05/2024 Deadly Marburg virus outbreak in Rwanda has health officials on high alert Related: Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde 02/23/2024 DR Congo government dissolved after prime minister resigns Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde 07/09/2021 Fresh Impetus to Fight Violence in Eastern DR Congo Related: Joseph Kabila 01/31/2025 Bloody Mineral: With Trump's Arrival, Africa is on the Brink of a New War Joseph Kabila 05/28/2024 Ex-Mossad chief 'threatened' ICC prosecutor to drop Israel investigation - report Joseph Kabila 05/24/2024 DRC: Ally of President Tshisekedi elected head of parliament |
| Posted by: Fred 2025-05-24 00:00 Edit Publish Page 47 Preview 215 words Top Poster |
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| Pakistanis are now top asylum seeking nationality in UK |
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[GEO.TV] Pak was the top nationality among asylum applicants in 2024-25 in the United Kingdom, according to figures published by the Home Office. Paks accounted for 11,048 people or 10.1% of the total asylum applicants in the last year, the Home Office said. A total of 109,343 people applied for asylum in the year to March 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001. The number is up 17% from 93,150 in the year ending March 2024, according to figures published by the Home Office. In 2023-24, Pak was the third most common nationality (7.5% of the total) and in that year 7,003 applied for asylum. The previous record was 108,138 in the 12 months to December 2024. The number of asylum applications in the UK has hit a new high, though the backlog of cases waiting for a decision has fallen to its lowest level since 2021. Migrants who arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel in small boats accounted for 33% of the total number of people claiming asylum in the year to March. "Afghan" was the second most common nationality among people claiming asylum in the year to March (8,069 people, 7.4% of the total), down from 9,738 (10.5%) in 2023-24 when it was the most common nationality. Along with Pakistain, the largest increase in asylum claims in 2024-25 came from Syrian nationals, which stood at 6,175 (5.6% of the total), up from 4,232 (4.5%) in 2023-24. Related: Asylum 05/22/2025 Germany busts far-right group for planning attacks on political opponents Asylum 05/21/2025 European Union has completely lifted economic sanctions against Syria Asylum 05/20/2025 Making progress: Germany detains and deports five Afghans at Polish Border |
| Posted by: Fred 2025-05-24 00:00 Edit Publish Page 47 Preview 275 words Top Poster |
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| Trump threatens 25% tariff on iPhones, 50% tariff on EU goods amid trade tensions |
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[FoxBusiness] President Donald Trump is demanding that iPhone production takes place in America and accuses European Union of $250B trade deficit President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to impose fresh tariffs on both Apple and the European Union, saying that the iPhone manufacturer and the trading bloc have not heeded to his previous demands. In two quick-fire posts on Truth Social, Trump warned he would slap a 25% tariff on imported iPhones if Apple refuses to make the smartphones in the U.S. The move comes after Trump met with Apple CEO Tim Cook at the White House on Wednesday, Fox confirmed. Trump also threatened the EU with a straight 50% tariff, writing that the bloc has been very difficult to deal with in trade negotiations. "I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhones that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else," Trump wrote. "If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" Bringing back manufacturing jobs to the U.S. is a cornerstone of Trump’s "America First" agenda, with Trump also calling out Cook last week in Qatar, saying that he had a "little problem" with the tech giant using facilities in India to make iPhones for sale in the U.S. Apple has been turning to India for more future production of phones destined for the American market to try to reduce its dependence on China for manufacturing and deal with tariffs, according to Bloomberg. Meanwhile, Trump accused the EU of exploiting the U.S. through trade barriers, taxes, penalties and lawsuits. He said the U.S. has a trade deficit of more than $250 billion and that current trade negotiations are "going nowhere." Trump is proposing a 50% tariff on all EU goods starting June 1, unless they are made in the U.S. "The European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on TRADE, has been very difficult to deal with," Trump wrote. "Their powerful trade barriers, vat taxes, ridiculous corporate penalties, non-monetary trade barriers, monetary manipulations, unfair and unjustified lawsuits against American companies, and more, have led to a trade deficit with the U.S. of more than $250,000,000 a year, a number which is totally unacceptable. "There is no tariff if the product is built or manufactured in the United States. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-05-24 00:00 Edit Publish Page 47 Preview 471 words Top ePoster |
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| Russia and NATO clash in skies as jets intercept SU-24 bomber performing 'dangerous maneuvers' | |
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[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A Russian Su-24 tactical bomber was intercepted by the Polish Air Force over the Baltic Sea last night, Poland's defence minister revealed today. Wladysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said that a pair of Polish jets were scrambled after the joint operational command for NATO forces in Europe issued the order to intercept.
'The Russian Federation's Su-24 aircraft was performing dangerous manoueuvres,' Kosiniak-Kamysz told reporters. He said such manoueuvres 'show what the intentions of this action are, that this is not an accidental action, but an intentional action'. He added that 'such incidents have already taken place in recent weeks'. Earlier this week, Poland said a sanctioned Russian ship was performing 'suspicious manoueuvres' in the Baltic Sea near the power cable connecting Poland and Sweden. NATO troops were this week conducting training exercises on the strategic Baltic island of Gotland, itself considered for remilitarisation to face down the perceived Russian threat. Related: Baltic Sea: 2025-05-23 Polish PM Donald Tusk: Baltic Sea could become a place of confrontation between Russia and the West Baltic Sea: 2025-05-20 Lessons for the West and Kyiv: Don't forget that Russia can fight for a long time Baltic Sea: 2025-05-16 Russian and NATO fighter jets clash as allied forces try to board Moscow oil tanker in high-stakes naval showdown off the coast of Europe | |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-05-24 00:00 Edit Publish Page 47 Preview 271 words Top ePoster | |
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| France to build supermax prison to isolate drug lords and Islamists in Amazon |
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[RFI.FR] La Belle France plans to build a maximum-security prison wing for narcos and radicalised Islamists near a former penal colony in its overseas department of French Guiana, sparking outcry among residents and local officials. Kids! Kids! Devil's Island is coming back! The wing will form part of a $450 million prison announced in 2017, which is expected to be completed by 2028 and hold 500 inmates. The prison is to be built in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, a town bordering Suriname that once received prisoners shipped by Napoleon III in the 1800s, some of whom were sent to the notorious Devil's Island off the coast of French Guiana. French Justice Minister G rald Darmanin announced plans to build the high-security wing during an official visit to French Guiana on Saturday, saying: "I have decided to establish La Belle France's third high-security prison in Guiana." DRUG TRAFFICKING Darmanin was quoted by French weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche as saying that the prison also aims to keep suspected narcos from having any contact with their criminal networks. French prison attack probe shifts from terrorism to narco gangs ''We are seeing more and more drug trafficking networks,'' he told news hounds. "My strategy is simple — hit organised crime at all levels. Here in Guiana, at the start of the drug trafficking route. In mainland La Belle France, by neutralising the network leaders. And all the way to consumers. This prison will be a safeguard in the war against narcotrafficking." Darmanin, who forged a reputation for a tough stance on drugs in his previous role as interior minister, added that the prison's location "will serve to permanently isolate the heads of drug trafficking networks" since "they will no longer be able to contact their criminal networks". He also said in a Facebook post that 15 of the wing's 60 spaces would be reserved for Islamic murderous Moslems. French media, quoting the Justice ministry, reported that people from French Guiana and French Caribbean territories would be sent in priority to the new prison. |
| Posted by: Fred 2025-05-24 00:00 Edit Publish Page 47 Preview 396 words Top Poster |
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| At least 12 injured in knife attack at Hamburg train station: emergency services |
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[GEO.TV] A knife attack at the main station in the German city of Hamburg left at least 12 people injured with some of them in a life-threatening condition, local emergency services said. "According to initial information, a person injured several people with a knife at the main train station," Hamburg police said in a post on X. "The suspect was apprehended by the responding forces." A front man for the Hamburg fire department told AFP that 12 people had been injured in the attack. Among them were "six people with life-threatening injuries", the front man said. Some of the victims were being treated in trains, according to the German daily Bild. Germany has been rocked by a series of On Sunday, four people were maimed in a stabbing at a bar in the city of Bielefeld. The investigation into the attack had been handed over to federal prosecutors after the suspect in the attack told the coppers who arrested him that he had murderous Moslem beliefs. |
| Posted by: Fred 2025-05-24 00:00 Edit Publish Page 47 Preview 181 words Top Poster |
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| Canada's energy-rich province signals to Trump it's ready for new pipelines, partnership |
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[JustTheNews] Top oil and gas executives in Canada and the United States confirmed Alberta's top industry companies would love to get past any tariff issues and begin building pipelines. Amid high-stakes U.S. trade negotiations and internal secession rumblings, Canada's energy-rich province of Alberta is signaling to President Donald Trump it is ready to move further from China and embrace new partnerships and pipelines with America. "It turns out that China is not developing the way we thought," Alberta Premier Danielle Smith told Just the News in an exclusive interview Thursday night. "They're not becoming a more democratic jurisdiction, and they're using capitalism against us to hollow out our various industries. So I think that there has been a lot of re-calibration that has had to happen about our relationship with China, and certainly the U.S. president is causing us to have that rethink," she added. Smith is Canada's most prominent conservative after liberal Mark Carney won the election last month to become its new prime minister. During a wide-ranging interview with the Just the News, No Noise TV show, she addressed the impact of Trump's tariffs, the growing movement within her province to hold a vote on seceding from Canada and its more liberal provinces, and the disappointment and harm former President Joe Biden created when he canceled the Keystone pipeline that ran between the two nations. She said she believed it was possible for Alberta to strike a new energy partnership and build new pipelines to the United States even in the midst of a tariff dispute between the U.S. and Canada so that both countries could capitalize on the energy-thirsty Artificial Intelligence revolution and to expand North America's booming liquefied natural gas exports to Europe. "We're looking to see if we can normalize our partnership, so that we can get into talking about what those new pipelines might look like," Smith said of the relationship with Trump. "Not only would we be able to have, I think, a bitumen heavy oil pipeline that would link our heavy oil to the heavy oil refining capacity in the US Gulf Coast, but also the opportunity for us to continue to provide additional supply of gas so that it can feed some of the European markets." Top oil and gas executives in Canada and the United States confirmed Alberta's top industry would love to get past any tariff issues and begin building pipelines southward. "It's being talked about behind the scenes," Mike Rose, the CEO of Tourmaline Oil, told Just the News when asked about new oil and gas pipelines that would traverse Canada and the United States. "We can increase our exports of natural gas, certainly, and Canada is just about to enter the world LNG market," Rose explained. "We've been shipping gas to the Gulf Coast for over two years now, to the liquefaction complex down there, and then AI on both sides of the border is an added sleeve of demand that, to be fair, I don't think you know really, most of us on the producing side were thinking about two years ago." Brendan McCracken, CEO of the natural gas company Ovintiv, said Americans are uniquely positioned to further grow their ties to Alberta because they are allowed to buy Canadian oil and natural gas at a huge discount compared to other countries. "Looking over the past several years, the interconnectedness of our energy systems has meant that the U.S. gets Canadian oil at about a 20% discount and Canadian natural gas at up to a 60% discount to global prices," he said. "So it's been a really powerful part of the economic engine for Americans." Pete Hoekstra, the new U.S. ambassador to Canada, said while much work needs to be done with Carney to get a deal, he is optimistic one will be reached, in part because the Alberta-American energy alliance makes so much sense. "For much of the last four or five months, the only thing that you've heard in Canada is people being very critical of the United States and not talking about the economic strength of the relationship benefiting both countries," Hoekstra said, praising Smith's focus on the benefits of the US-Canada relationship. "Prosperity for our people and confronting the threat from China — it's an important message for all Americans to hear, but also for all Canadians to hear," he said. Smith signaled one advantage Trump and his energy-friendly policies hold with Alberta: many in her province chafed at the impact of liberal policies over the last decade, from Biden canceling the Keystone pipeline to ex-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's climate agenda holding back energy production. "There's been a lot of damaging policies that have come in that have chased away tens of billions, indeed hundreds of billions of dollars worth of investment," she noted, saying such economic repression has driven a growing number of Albertans to seek a vote to secede from Canada. “America's production has grown dramatically, whereas Alberta has stayed stagnant, and that's because of the policies of the federal government,” she continued. "... So I think that that is at the heart of some of the frustration that you're seeing. I believe that we can make Canada work. That's what I'm working towards." |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-05-24 00:00 Edit Publish Page 47 Preview 859 words Top ePoster |
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| Friday morning Kunstler-superb encapsulation of the last 20 years of Presidential politics | |
A central mystery is how the news media made itself the enemy of the people, and this conundrum is not at all explained by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson in their book Original Sin. It’s actually just another hustle with overtones of hoax, like everything else in the evil cavalcade of narratives spun out in the news media’s war on reality. Tapper and Marshall want you to believe that a faceless collective they call “the White House” managed to conceal “Joe Biden’s” well-advanced disintegration from the voting public, and that was. . . that. The media wuz fooled! Goll-lee! Of course, that fails to explain a whole lot — such as: how come anybody watching daily video clips of “Joe Biden” in action, could not fail to see the broken old puppet he is. Alex Thompson, receiving his “award for excellence” from the White House Correspondents’ Association weeks ago said, “We just missed it.” Yeah, sure. . . . They also apparently missed the programmatic devastation to American society that was carried out in the old stumblebum’s name. | |
| Posted by: NoMoreBS 2025-05-24 00:00 Edit Publish Preview 281 words Top ePoster | |
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| Thar's Gold In Them Thar NGOs! |
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[HotAir] You'll remember one of the biggest drop-mic revelations was the $20B slush fund new Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin, along with Musk's DOGE waste-huntin' hounds found stashed in a sketchy secret Citibank account. That money was allocated to just eight climate-related NGOs in last-minute 'awards' from the Biden administration as they shoveled bucks out the door like a steam-driven locomotive's fireman flings coal. The most egregious of which was an earmarked $2B award to a Stacey Abrams-connected NGO called 'Power Forward Communities,' which was only a little over a year old and had less than $100 in the bank. The Washington Free Beacon reports that the Biden EPA awarded a group linked to Stacey Abrams with no real track record a 2 billion dollar environmental grant in 2024. Everyone has been dying to know more as Zeldin turned to clawing back the money. In the meantime, other folks started digging into the Power Forward Communities (PFC) NGO, and one of them uncovered the web of deep money progressive tentacles that run all through these seemingly humanitarian organizations. Sadly, they are, in fact, usually only money laundering schemes for progressive elites and their foot soldiers. Integral to the PFC story is a fellow named Shaun Donovan, who cut his political progressive teeth as the Commissioner of the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development. He left the city to become, first, Obama's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and then his director of the Office of Budget Management. When Obama left, Donovan knew he needed a new gig, so he slid on over to the Ford Foundation, which lobbies the federal government using Henry Ford's fortune. Eventually, through all his connections, he became the new CEO of Enterprise Community Partners (ECP). The previous CEO of this non-profit NGO - one wealthy enough to boast about investing $72B for a million energy efficient homes - earned $900K a year, which is quite a chunk for a charity, you'd think. But, according to Mr Chavous' research, the co-CEO pulled down a cool $800K, and the NGO spent over 27% of all its considerable income on salaries. What does this have to do with Power Forward Communities (PFC)? For one thing, the well-compensated and connected CEO of ECP, Mr Donovan, is the one who then formed that NGO and bragged about scoring the $2B award for his umbrella organization. Small, incestuous, lucrative world, these NGOs, aren't they? It also explains what went down in Lee Zeldin's testimony to Congress yesterday about the specifics that they have been finding about the proposal that came with PFC's grant paperwork. What was in the documents required to meet the 'eligibility requirements' for the federal handouts was so outrageous, it blew even the Biden administration EPA staff's mind. To the point where, when they were screening the paperwork, as internal documents have subsequently revealed, they wrote notes and memorandums about it to cover their own asterisks. One staff member reviewing the proposed salary structure thought they were so out of whack that they worried it might look bad should the public catch a glimpse. But, if you look at the mothership, ECP, that's where they all are as far as numbers go. On 12 May, PFC filed a status report with the D.C. district court claiming 'irreparable harm,' as they still could not access their Citbank funds because of mean old Lee Zeldin. Related: Lee Zeldin 05/15/2025 Texas mom purchased ammunition and tactical gear for son as he planned 'mass violence' at school Lee Zeldin 04/23/2025 Court orders Trump to restore funding to Voice of America Lee Zeldin 04/22/2025 Mexican sewage gushing into Navy SEAL training waters is US' 'next Camp Lejeune,' vets warn; UPDATE: EPA sect’y Lee Zeldin flies out to handle it Related: Power Forward Communities: 2025-04-19 DC Circuit Court of Appeals Blocks Judge Chutkan''s Order Requiring Citibank to Disburse $Billions From Biden''s Climate Slush Fund Power Forward Communities: 2025-03-09 Stacey Abrams-linked Group Got $2 Billion in 'Gold Bars' Scheme to Greenwash Appliances Power Forward Communities: 2025-03-05 Zeldin: EPA Working with DOJ, FBI on NGO Corruption After Eight Groups Tied to 'Gold Bars' Scheme Related: Shaun Donovan 03/25/2021 Poll: Dem primary for NYC mayor wide open, half of voters still undecided Shaun Donovan 07/15/2016 Final Budget Deficit Under Obama Projected At $600b Shaun Donovan 09/27/2013 White House to announce $300M in aid to Detroit |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-05-24 00:00 Edit Publish Page 47 Preview 717 words Top ePoster |
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| ActBlue officials decline to testify, Congress threatens subpoenas in foreign donations probe |
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[JustTheNews] The witnesses initially agreed to voluntary interviews but pulled back after President Donald Trump signed an order instructing the Justice Department to probe ActBlue, correspondence shows. The chairmen of three powerful House committees on Thursday threatened to issue subpoenas after several current and former top officials of the Democrat online fund-raising platform ActBlue declined to testify in a probe into possible foreign and fraudulent political donations, according to correspondence obtained by Just the News. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., revealed in the letters that several of the witnesses initially agreed to voluntary, transcribed interviews, then pulled back through their lawyer earlier this month after President Donald Trump signed an order instructing the Justice Department to probe the platform. “As we have explained, the Committees are examining allegations that ActBlue, a leading political fundraising organization, allowed bad actors, including foreign actors, to exploit the company’s online platform to make fraudulent political donations,” the chairmen wrote in letters to the witnesses, which were sent to a lawyer representing them, Danny Onorato. "Fraudulent political donations corrupt American elections could amount to interstate criminal conduct," the letters also state. The letters laid out the testimony flip-flops for each of the witnesses, including ActBlue’s former chief revenue officer, Peter Slutsky. “On April 21, Mr. Onorato indicated that you had agreed to appear for a voluntary transcribed interview and began the process of scheduling your appearance. However, on May 7, Mr. Onorato notified the Committee that you had changed course and now would not appear for a voluntary transcribed interview,” the chairmen stated. “He cited a reported Executive Branch investigation into ‘the unlawful use of online fundraising platforms to make ‘straw’ or ‘dummy’ contributions or foreign contributions to political candidates and committees’ as the basis for your refusal to cooperate voluntarily with the Committees,” the letter to Slutsky and Onorato also states. You can read that letter here: Similar language was used for nearly all the witnesses who got the letters, which told the witnesses that an ongoing DOJ probe wasn’t a valid excuse for refusing to testify to Congress. “The relevant precedent is clear that the mere existence of state or federal law enforcement investigations has no bearing on Congress’s oversight power,” the lawmakers wrote. “As such, an Executive Branch investigation into matters related to versight by the Committees is not a legitimate basis on which you may decline our request.” The letters demanded each witness schedule their interview by no later than May 29 or risk facing a subpoena. “The Committees are prepared to resort to compulsory process, if necessary, to obtain compliance with our requests,” the lawmakers warned. The committees have been probing ActBlue over lax security measures and whether those vulnerabilities allowed foreign entities to donate to U.S. political campaigns, which is illegal. In October, Steil and Sen. Ron Johnson, a fellow Wisconsin Republican, wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines about concerns that four U.S. adversaries may have donated through the platform. “We write to you to raise an urgent concern regarding potential illicit election funding by foreign actors,” the lawmakers wrote Yellen in a letter dated Thursday. “CHA has been investigating claims that foreign actors, primarily from Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and China, may be using ActBlue to launder illicit money into U.S. political campaigns.” They also said: “Our investigation has indicated that these actors may be exploiting existing U.S. donors by making straw donations without their knowledge.” The lawmakers specifically demanded access to any Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) related to money passing through the fundraising platform generated by any U.S. financial institution as part of their anti-money-laundering activities. Congress has been pouring through those SARs in recent days after gaining access to them under the Trump administration. ActBlue has acknowledged to Congress that it has updated its donor verification policy to automatically reject donations that “use foreign prepaid/gift cards, domestic gift cards, are from high-risk/sanctioned countries, and have the highest level of risk as determined,” by its solution provider, Sift. The change occurred just three days after Steil introduced the Secure Handling of Internet Electronic Donations (SHIELD) Act, on Sept. 6, 2024, to ensure foreign money stayed out of online political fundraising. Before the change, Steil said, donations made with foreign gift cards were not automatically rejected by ActBlue before the change, Just the News reported. ActBlue has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and says that it is fully cooperating with ongoing investigations. "Democratic and progressive campaigns have trusted ActBlue’s two-decade-long track record of innovation and dependability to deliver during big fundraising moments," the firm said in a statement in June 2024 celebrating its 20th anniversary in business. According to internal company documents reviewed by the committees, during the 2024 campaign cycle, ActBlue issued new standards encouraging staff to “look for reasons to accept contributions.” Before the policy change, the platform already failed to require CVV numbers for credit card transactions, increasing fraud risks. An internal assessment by the company determined the policy change led to “between 14 and 28 additional fraudulent contributions each month,” the committees said. The documents also show the platform began monitoring potential fraudulent donations from several foreign sources, including hundreds of donations from Brazil, Colombia, India, Iraq, the Philippines and Saudi Arabia, and other countries. The lawmakers and Trump have both asked DOJ to probe ActBlue for possible criminal conduct. Related: ActBlue 04/23/2025 FBI claims alleged neo-Nazi killed parents as part of Trump assassination attempt ActBlue 04/20/2025 Congresswoman Maxine Dexter (D-OR) announces she will travel to El Salvador to 'demand the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia' ActBlue 04/11/2025 FEC Opens Probe of Rep. Jasmine Crockett Donations Related: Suspicious Activity Report: 2025-03-17 501c4 charities being given dark money to fund anti-Tesla protests Suspicious Activity Report: 2025-03-16 James Carville Says He's 'Telling' Dem Donors That Party Needs To Stop Pulling 'Stunts' Against Trump Suspicious Activity Report: 2025-03-14 Rep. James Comer and the FBI to bring CRIMINAL CHARGES against those behind ActBlue |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-05-24 00:00 Edit Publish Page 47 Preview 994 words Top ePoster |
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| Parade! US Army visits DC |
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. Military parades are hallmarks of authoritarian regimes. The voice of experience... Washington is preparing for a major military parade to mark the 250th anniversary of the US Army. Preparations for a massive military parade in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army on June 14, which also happens to be President Donald J. Trump’s 79th birthday, are in full swing this week at Fort Cavazos in Killeen, Texas. Soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division, 3rd Armored Corps were seen loading 28 M1126 Strykers armored personnel carriers, 28 M2A3 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, 28 M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams tanks, and seven M109A7 Paladin self-propelled howitzers onto rail cars at Fort Cavazos bound for Washington. Next month’s parade in D.C. is expected to be the largest and most expensive military parade in the nation’s capital since the June 8, 1991, National Victory Day celebration that marked the end of the Gulf War, with the cost estimate for the parade ranging from $35 million to $45 million, according to Pentagon officials. The parade will also be the first in decades to feature tracked armored vehicles like tanks on the streets of Washington, D.C., with the Defense Department promising to place steel plates on the roads and equip the vehicles with rubber boots to prevent damage to roads and bridges along the parade route, one of the main concerns raised by city officials in both Washington and Arlington, Va Lucky dogs! I was told at the time that planning norms for the 1970s was that CONUS armored units expected only half the tanks (M-60A1) to make it to the railhead. |
| Posted by: badanov 2025-05-24 00:00 Edit Publish Page 47 Preview 277 words Top Poster |
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| Judge blocks Trump admin from revoking Harvard enrollment of foreign students | |
[GEO.TV] A US judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from revoking Harvard University's ability to enroll foreign students, a move that ratcheted up White House efforts to conform practices in academia to President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...'s policies. US District Judge Allison Burroughs' order provides temporary relief to the thousands of international students who were faced with being forced to transfer under a policy that the Ivy League school called part of the administration's broader effort to retaliate against it for refusing to "surrender its academic independence." The Trump administration may appeal Burroughs' ruling. Spokespeople for the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In a lawsuit filed in Boston federal court earlier on Friday, Harvard called the revocation a "blatant violation" of the US Constitution and other federal laws, and had an "immediate and devastating effect" on the university and more than 7,000 visa holders. "Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard," the 389-year-old school said in the lawsuit filed in Boston federal court.
The termination of Harvard's Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, effective with the 2025-2026 academic year, was announced on Thursday by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Related: Allison Burrough 05/14/2025 Harvard expands lawsuit after Trump terminates another $450 million in grants Allison Burrough 02/05/2023 Kenyan citizen among those sentence in US for 7 years in jail in a love scandal case | |
| Posted by: Fred 2025-05-24 00:00 Edit Publish Page 47 Preview 324 words Top Poster | |
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| Pakistan extends airspace ban for Indian aircraft till June 24 |
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[GEO.TV] Pakistain extended its airspace closure for all Indian-owned or Indian-operated airlines until 4:59 am local time on June 24, the Pakistain Airports Authority said in a statement on Friday. The restriction applies to "all aircraft registered, operated, owned, or leased by India" and includes Indian military aircraft, the authority said in a statement. Meanwhile, ...back at the abandoned silver mine, there was another explosion... India also extended airspace closure for Pakistain or Pakistain-operated airlines till June 23. The move extends restrictions first imposed last month amid continuing tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours following the Pahalgam attack in April, which resulted in the deaths of 26 tourists in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and 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.... (IIOJK). India had unilaterally closed its airspace to Pak flights on April 23, prompting a reciprocal ban from Islamabad the next day. India then took several other measures against Pakistain. Later, on May 6-7, India launched unprovoked attacks on multiple Pak cities. In response, the armed forces of Pakistain launched a large-scale retaliatory military action, named "Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos", and targeted several Indian military installations across multiple regions on May 10. |
| Posted by: Fred 2025-05-24 00:00 Edit Publish Page 47 Preview 285 words Top Poster |
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| Israeli strikes kill Palestinians protecting Gaza aid trucks, Hamas says |
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[GEO.TV] Israeli ... KABOOM!... s killed at least six Paleostinians guarding aid trucks against looters, Hamas  ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...officials said on Friday, underlining the problems hindering supplies from reaching hungry people in 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 a rusty iron fist by Hamas with 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 oppressionand disproportionate response... following Israel's 11-week-long blockade. An umbrella network of Paleostinian aid groups said 119 aid trucks have entered Gaza since Israel eased its blockade on Monday in the face of an international outcry. But distribution has been hampered by looting by groups of men, some of them armed, near the city of Khan Younis, the network said. "They stole food meant for children and families suffering from severe hunger," the network said in a statement, which also condemned Israeli airstrikes on security teams protecting the trucks. |
| Posted by: Fred 2025-05-24 00:00 Edit Publish Page 47 Preview 243 words Top Poster |
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| Mysterious 18th-century warship unearthed at [9/11] Ground Zero site gets new home |
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[FoxNews] Revolutionary War vessel was studied for 14 years before New York State Museum exhibition A lost Revolutionary War-era ship that was unearthed at the site of the World Trade Center will finally be exhibited in a museum over a decade after it was found. The New York State Museum announced in a mid-May press release that the ship will be housed in its Albany headquarters. The 18th-century vessel was found during an excavation of Ground Zero in July 2010. But details about the boat have perplexed historians until now – just in time for America's 250th anniversary. With help from Texas A&M University historical preservationists, experts have been working for 14 years to gather facts about the ship while preserving it carefully. The ship, which measures 50 feet long and 18 feet wide, has been identified as a "rare" American-built gunboat. The vessel was likely built in the Philadelphia area in the 1770s. It was used during the Revolutionary War but was decommissioned after roughly two decades. "[B]y the 1790s, the ship was out of commission and repurposed as landfill to expand New York City, ultimately ending up beneath what would become the World Trade Center," the New York State Museum said. "Today, it stands as one of the few American-built Revolutionary War ships to be identified, studied and preserved in New York State." In total, 600 pieces of wood and roughly 2,000 artifacts were found at the site, including musketballs. After years of carefully preserving each piece of wood and artifact, the preservation team began the process of reconstructing the vessel at the New York State Museum on May 14. In a statement, New York State Historian Devin Lander said, "We’re not just unveiling a ship – we’re resurrecting a lost relic of the American Revolution, right before your eyes," Lander said. "New York stood at the epicenter of our fight for freedom, and this gunboat is a physical reminder of that courage and grit." The historian added, "To watch it rise again, plank by plank, is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to witness the intersection of archaeology, storytelling and national identity." |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-05-24 00:00 Edit Publish Page 47 Preview 343 words Top ePoster |
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| Jihadists Launch Deadly Attack On Russian Airbase On Syria's Coast |
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(ZeroHedge] In another clear indicator of just how drastically everything has changed in Syria in the wake of Bashar al-Assad's ouster in December last year, a militant group attempted to storm Russia's Hmeimim air base on Syria’s coast on Wednesday. Already the future of the base is uncertain, but Russia has still been maintaining it - given also Hmeimim is Moscow's only airbase on the Mediterranean. "Militants attacked a Russian air base in Syria, killing two soldiers, a Syrian government official and a local activist said Wednesday," according to The Associated Press. Russian statements, which offered little detail, did not indicate if the slain were Russian soldiers or possibly foreign nationals who were contractors. At least two militants were killed during their assault on the airbase. They are being widely reported as foreign Islamist fighters affiliated with the new Syrian government's military under President Sharaa (Jolani). The Jolani/HTS government has tried to distance itself from the attack, as it is still seeking diplomatic normalization with Russia and a reset in relations: The government official said the two militants who were killed were foreign nationals who had worked as military trainers at a naval college that was training members of the new government’s military. He said they had acted on their own in attacking the base and were not officially affiliated with any faction. Damascus has on Thursday deployed additional forces in an effort to stabilize the security situation in villages near the airbase. "The city of Jableh and the villages surrounding the Russian Hmeimim air base in the Jableh countryside are witnessing a security alert. Heavy deployment of public security forces has been observed in the villages of Al-Sharashir and Al-Qubaisa, both close to the base," the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) says. SOHR had further described "clashes in which medium and heavy machine guns were used, coinciding with the sounding of alarm sirens inside the base" - when the incident unfolded. One regional outlet has said Russian soldiers were killed, and that it was Uzbek terrorists behind the assault: According to a report by the Erem outlet, the 20 May attack resulted in the killing of three Russian soldiers and the injury of at least six others. The report says the attack was carried out by an Uzbek-led faction, which afterwards began to mobilize in the village of Al-Sharashir, just two kilometers from the base.
This coastal area near Latakia has for months seen attacks and massacres conducted by Islamic militant factions against the minority Alawite community of Syria. Christians and Druze have also been targeted. Thousands of Alawites have been reported killed, and while the Jolani government has formally condemned the killings, eyewitnesses have consistently said the attacks had the involvement of HTS (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham) fighters, which remains the ruling faction in Damascus. During the height of the sectarian killings, Alawite families sought refuge at Hmeimim air base in large numbers. Many thousands have been camped out on the base tarmac, with at times Russian troops seen handing out food and water and necessities of survival. Back in March, Alawites expressed their distrust of HTS provided "security"... HTS AlQaeda reps try to convince Syrian Alawi refugees to leave the Russian Hmeimim air base and go home. "Trust us now, mistakes happen, things got out of control". pic.twitter.com/JIpzSHpAB0 — tim anderson (@timand2037) March 18, 2025 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier this week expressed particular concern about the chaotic situation in Syria, where he said extremist militant groups are carrying out "real ethnic cleansing and mass killings based on ethnic and sectarian identity". He blasted what he called the West’s "stunning" indifference to mass killings acts of terrorism. The strong comments followed in the wake of President Trump meeting with Syria's Sharaa while in Saudi Arabia earlier this month. This stunned even some Washington officials, given that Sharaa/Jolani has long been a US-designated terrorist. Trump has said he wants to give Syria a fresh start, and also announced the US will drop sanctions. Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week told a Senate hearing that Syria could collapse within just weeks; however, he didn't acknowledge in the testimony that it was the CIA's Operation Timber Sycamore which served to weaken and destabilize the country in the first place. Related: Hmeimim: 2025-04-13 Israel will need to get used to Turkey’s growing footprint in Syria Hmeimim: 2025-03-14 Russia confirms sheltering 8,000 Syrians at Hmeimim Airbase Hmeimim: 2024-12-29 Syrian forces surround Russian base in search of Assad loyalists Related: Uzbek 05/14/2025 'The Stalin Affair': How Borders Were Drawn Along Former Russian Outskirts Uzbek 05/13/2025 Homeland Security subpoenas California for possible cash benefits to illegals Uzbek 05/07/2025 Gandapur stresses talks not off table, distances PTI from militants |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-05-24 00:00 Edit Publish Page 47 Preview 851 words Top ePoster |
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