COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Sunday, June 26, 2016

How Did The CIA Program to Arm Syrian Rebels Work Out ?( The video is two years old)

C.I.A. Arms for Syrian Rebels Supplied Black Market, Officials Say


The funeral in Rimoun, Jordan, for Anwar Abu Zaid, a police captain who was killed after he attacked a police training center in November. American and Jordanian officials said they believed that the weapons he used had been meant for a program to train Syrian rebels. Nasser Nasser/Associated Press 


AMMAN, Jordan — Weapons shipped into Jordan by the Central Intelligence Agency and Saudi Arabia intended for Syrian rebels have been systematically stolen by Jordanian intelligence operatives and sold to arms merchants on the black market, according to American and Jordanian officials.

Some of the stolen weapons were used in a shooting in November that killed two Americans and three others at a police training facility in Amman, F.B.I. officials believe after months of investigating the attack, according to people familiar with the investigation.

The existence of the weapons theft, which ended only months ago after complaints by the American and Saudi governments, is being reported for the first time after a joint investigation by The New York Times and Al Jazeera. The theft, involving millions of dollars of weapons, highlights the messy, unplanned consequences of programs to arm and train rebels — the kind of program the C.I.A. and Pentagon have conducted for decades — even after the Obama administration had hoped to keep the training program in Jordan under tight control.

The Jordanian officers who were part of the scheme reaped a windfall from the weapons sales, using the money to buy expensive SUVs, iPhones and other luxury items, Jordanian officials said.

The theft and resale of the arms — including Kalashnikov assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades — have led to a flood of new weapons available on the black arms market. Investigators do not know what became of most of them, but a disparate collection of groups, including criminal networks and rural Jordanian tribes, use the arms bazaars to build their arsenals. Weapons smugglers also buy weapons in the arms bazaars to ship outside the country.


The F.B.I. investigation into the Amman shooting, run by the bureau’s Washington field office, is continuing. But American and Jordanian officials said the investigators believed that the weapons a Jordanian police captain, Anwar Abu Zaid, used to gun down two American contractors, two Jordanians and one South African had originally arrived in Jordan intended for the Syrian rebel-training program.

The officials said this finding had come from tracing the serial numbers of the weapons.

Mohammad H. al-Momani, Jordan’s minister of state for media affairs, said allegations that Jordanian intelligence officers had been involved in any weapons thefts were “absolutely incorrect.”

“Weapons of our security institutions are concretely tracked, with the highest discipline,” he said. He called the powerful Jordanian intelligence service, known as the General Intelligence Directorate, or G.I.D., “a world-class, reputable institution known for its professional conduct and high degree of cooperation among security agencies.” In Jordan, the head of the G.I.D. is considered the second most important man after the king.

Representatives of the C.I.A. and F.B.I. declined to comment.

The State Department did not address the allegations directly, but a spokesman said America’s relationship with Jordan remained solid.

“The United States deeply values the long history of cooperation and friendship with Jordan,” said John Kirby, the spokesman. “We are committed to the security of Jordan and to partnering closely with Jordan to meet common security challenges.”

The training program, which in 2013 began directly arming the rebels under the code name Timber Sycamore, is run by the C.I.A. and several Arab intelligence services and aimed at building up forces opposing President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. The United States and Saudi Arabia are the biggest contributors, with the Saudis contributing both weapons and large sums of money, and with C.I.A. paramilitary operatives taking the lead in training the rebels to use Kalashnikovs, mortars, antitank guided missiles and other weapons.

The existence of the program is classified, as are all details about its budget. American officials say that the C.I.A. has trained thousands of rebels in the past three years, and that the fighters made substantial advances on the battlefield against Syrian government forces until Russian military forces — launched last year in support of Mr. Assad — compelled them to retreat.


Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in March at a Jordanian-American military training center in Zarqa, Jordan. Jordan Pix/Getty Images 


The training program is based in Jordan because of the country’s proximity to the Syrian battlefields. From the beginning, the C.I.A. and the Arab intelligence agencies relied on Jordanian security services to transport the weapons, many bought in bulk in the Balkans and elsewhere around Eastern Europe.


The program is separate from one that the Pentagon set up to train rebels to combat Islamic State fighters, rather than the Syrian military. That program was shut down after it managed to train only a handful of Syrian rebels.

Jordanian and American officials described the weapons theft and subsequent investigation on the condition of anonymity because the Syrian rebel training is classified in the United States and is a government secret in Jordan.

News of the weapons theft and eventual crackdown has been circulating inside Jordan’s government for several months. Husam Abdallat, a senior aide to several past Jordanian prime ministers, said he had heard about the scheme from current Jordanian officials. The G.I.D. has some corrupt officers in its ranks, Mr. Abdallat said, but added that the institution as a whole is not corrupt. “The majority of its officers are patriotic and proud Jordanians who are the country’s first line of defense,” he said.

Jordanian officials who described the operation said it had been run by a group of G.I.D. logistics officers with direct access to the weapons once they reached Jordan. The officers regularly siphoned truckloads of the weapons from the stocks, before delivering the rest of the weapons to designated drop-off points.
Then the officers sold the weapons at several large arms markets in Jordan. The main arms bazaars in Jordan are in Ma’an, in the southern part of the country; in Sahab, outside Amman; and in the Jordan Valley.

65 comments:

  1. Clinton has problems:

    Democrat Hillary Clinton holds a five-point advantage over Republican Donald Trump after becoming her party's presumptive presidential nominee, according to the latest national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

    Forty-six percent of registered voters back Clinton, versus 41 percent who support Trump — slightly up from Clinton's three-point lead in May, 46 percent to 43 percent.


    With all of Trump's foibles, and 5% being her lead in Jume, Trump is in good shape.

    ReplyDelete

  2. QuirkSun Jun 26, 07:10:00 PM EDT
    .


    The Government makes accurate statistics impossible.

    :o)


    Yet, you and your bros are perfectly willing to accept them without question and cite them loudly to make broad claims if it reinforces your confirmation bias.

    And on the other hand when your numbers prove bogus and you are offered opposing data from Pew Research, and various universities and think tanks, summarized and printed in the WaPo you and the Trumpettes refuse to even look at it, continuing your broad generalizations while citing anecdotal knowledge of a certain area in a certain state while your MENSA buddy bays false laughter in desperation and frustration and refuses to even look at the opposing data because it was summarized in a paper that rightly calls Trump what he is, a racist, misogynist, nitwit. Or at least that is his excuse.

    The real truth is you guys are close minded little twerps who refuse to indulge in objective conversation, refuse to entertain the thought that there might be another side to an argument, search for the lowest common denominator in any discussion, and stoop to name-calling in place of rational argument.

    .

    DougSun Jun 26, 08:22:00 PM EDT

    I learned how it is made impossible in the reading I did.

    You, on the other hand refuse to educate yourself by reading VDH's on the ground reporting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Idaho BobSun Jun 26, 09:30:00 PM EDT

      Trump is not a racist, nor a misogynist much less a nitwit.

      He was putting women in high positions earlier than anyone, has hired more minorities than you can count, and is a very intelligent man.

      And he was right about the Mexican judge. Go read about it..

      You are a quirk, Quirk.

      Delete
    2. .

      More nitwittery from the resident nit.

      After I put up an article de-bunking those numbers you posted on immigrant crime, you came back with a statement that prompted my comment above. Then dropping the statistics you offered up anecdotal information by you and Victor Davis Hanson indicating that certain areas in California have gone to hell due to immigrants. You also offered up the factoid that the hit and run rate in LA had gone up by 50% because of Canadian immigrants (I think that's what you were saying, not quite sure).

      At the time you initially made these comments you couldn't be bothered to provide any link supporting either of them. So I responded that I already had wasted enough time reading the Breitbard article you referenced and then checking out the numbers before putting up the fact-checked article in response de-bunking them. Since I had already spent a minimum of 1/2 hour (probably more like 45 minutes) checking out your bogus numbers I wasn't going to spend more time trying to track down these latest assertions.

      First, your assertion on the hit and runs...

      Or that LA's 50 percent hit and run rate is caused by Immigrants from Canada?

      I honestly don't know what that means. I assumed you meant the rate increased due to Canadian immigrants since the only alternative seemed to be that 50% of LA's accidents were hit and runs and...well, looking at it again, that doesn't even make sense either. You tell me what it means.

      Anyway the charge sounds counterintuitive, in fact, truly bizarre given the population of LA and what I assume is probably a pretty big auto accident rate and the fact that I didn't realize Canadians were that bad of drivers. Now if I am wrong and the number of incidents is small, say 3 with 1 of them being Canadian I could see it. Or perhaps, there is a big influx of Canadians sneaking into the country to play in the LA comedy clubs. Anyway, if you have a link for the charge I would follow it. In fact, I would gladly follow it. That would be an interesting factoid to have to hand. However, am I going to go searching for it myself? Of course not.

      Second Victor Davis Hanson...

      You make a brief comment about Victor Davis Hanson and I give you the same statement as with the hit and run driver rate. Then to change the subject from the bogus stats you put up you charge me with refusing to read the VDH article.

      More nitwittery. You initially mentioned VDH and his general view that he didn't like what was happening in the Central Valley of California. But at the time, you didn't provide any link to the article.

      VDH writes articles all the time in various places like RCP and a number of them have been on California. The most recent I have seen was on the droughts there but I have read others. Yet you accuse me of not reading the article even though you are too damn lazy to tie a link to it.

      The next day, when I took a look at the posts that followed from the night before I saw that you had put up a good portion of the VDH article. It was posted 1/2 hour AFTER I had made my comment about not looking it up.

      And by the way I did read it. And I was a little surprised to see that it talked not about major crimes not even about hit and run accidents the things we had started off talking about but about dumping by 'immigrants' he had witnessed. There is no doubt that dumping is a crime and a terrible thing but IMO it doesn't scale with the crimes we were talking about earlier.

      .





      Delete

  3. Poll: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton in tight races in battleground states



    Battleground states are called battlegrounds for a reason: They're often close, and 2016 looks like no exception.

    Hillary Clinton holds narrow leads over Donald Trump across a number of key states ...
    Florida (up three points, 44 to 41 percent);
    Colorado (Clinton 40 percent, Trump 39 percent);
    Wisconsin (Clinton up 41 percent to 36 percent)
    North Carolina, which has flipped back and forth between the parties in the last two elections, where it's Clinton 44 percent and Trump 42 percent.


    ReplyDelete
  4. Meanwhile, ABC/Wash. Post, widely considered the most accurate pollster (#1 in the 2012 cycle) released their new numbers, today:

    Hillary Clinton 51

    Donald Trump 39


    Poll

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ABC/Wash. Post found that Hillary is Up 24 in the states that Obama won in 2012.

      This pollster contacts 65% through cellphone, 35% landline.

      Delete
    2. RCP has it Hillary +6.7

      and, Huffpost has it Hillary 6.8

      Delete
    3. I follow this Reuters Ipsos Poll, because it updates twice/week, and I can follow the breaking trends.

      Reuters Ipsos Poll

      Delete
    4. This is the most interesting part of this race. The Republican is supposed to carry this cohort (college educated whites) by about 7 or 8 points, but, so far, they've been all over the map.

      College Educated Whites

      Delete
    5. Hmm, the education level didn't go through. You have to go to personal, and click on college, and above college.

      Delete
    6. The poll cited also had a bias of about 10% or more in favor of the Democrats.

      If you poll more democrats you are, aha !, going to be getting more votes for Hillary.

      (It's an old trick, Rufus)

      An NBC/WSJ poll in the same period had Hillary up by three and only one if the minor candidates were included.

      You and perhaps Smirk are the only two here that would actually vote for the world class criminal.

      Delete
  5. Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has played down the impact of the Brexit vote on Australia, while invoking the resulting uncertainty in his big pitch for the upcoming Federal Election.

    ...

    “The shock waves of the past 48 hours from Britain’s vote to leave the European Union are a sharp reminder of the volatility in the global economy. Always expect the unexpected,” he said.
    “Our clear economic plan is more essential than ever as we enter this period of uncertainty in global markets following the British vote to leave the European Union.”

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jack HawkinsSun Jun 26, 12:19:00 PM EDT

    PANAMA CITY — A 984-foot Chinese container ship slowly plodded Sunday into the new massive locks of the Panama Canal, becoming the first ship to officially use the expanded canal and sparking a new dawn for Panama and global shipping.
    ===
    There are a couple of articles saying that Panama screwed up by taking the lowest bid by a Spanish company, weak concrete, gates too close together, Tugboats that only steer properly in reverse (!) Tugboats instead of the reliable electric locomotives of the old canal, etc.

    The boat that went through isn't as big as the full size neo-Panamax ships.

    We shall see.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Somewhere between 2 and 4 percent of voters are lgbt. Guess which candidate marched in a gay pride parade, today?

    Like I said, "the republicans might beat her,

    but they'll be too damned tired to celebrate."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Trump is on record as of 20 years ago that he couldn't give a damn about a person being gay, all he cared about is whether or not they were the best person for the job.

      This was way before Hillary recently changed her view on 'gay marriage', pandering to 3% of the vote.

      And The Donald isn't dumb enough to go marching in a gay parade and alienate his support with the Evangelicals.

      Besides those gay parades are rather sordid, with all the display.

      I can't see why anyone would want to attend one, even when pandering for votes.

      Delete
  8. I think the FBI is going to beat her. Therefore she will have beaten herself.

    Most Americans still don't much like world class fraud and criminality, and won't overlook it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. At least I hope we haven't yet gotten to the place where we'd elect someone from, call it, the international mafia.

      Delete
  9. Joe Biden looks a little confused and out of place in that picture.

    ReplyDelete
  10. NBC/WSJ Poll

    Hillary 39
    Trump 38
    Johnson 7.8
    Stein 6

    ReplyDelete
  11. Pope Francis said Sunday that Christians owe apologies to gays and others who have been offended or exploited by the church, remarks that some Catholics hailed as a breakthrough in the church's tone toward homosexuality.

    ...

    As is often the case, the Pope's press conference encompassed a number of controversial questions. Here are the Pope's answers about Brexit, former Pope Benedict XVI and why he used the word "genocide" to describe the murder of more than 1 million Armenians in the early 20th century.

    "For me, unity is always superior to conflict, but there are different forms of unity and also brotherhood. and here I come to the EU -- brotherhood is better than enmity or distance and bridges are better than walls.

    ...

    Pope Francis said that while Turkey has, "a right to protest," he has always used the word genocide, since his time in Argentina, and again last year quoting John Paul II so "it would have sounded very strange," he said, not to use it again.


    Gay People

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And the gay pedophile priests owe apologies to their victims as well.

      Apologies are in order all round.

      Delete
    2. The gays should apologize for holding such disgusting parades.

      They make themselves look like freaks, and most aren't.

      I've had four gay tenants recently, all good people. Not a fist hole in the walls.

      Hell of a lot better than the U of I football players. 27 fist holes in the walls.

      Delete
    3. Luckily for you, your gays would much rather be fisting other things than walls.

      Delete
    4. In the rental community here there's a term for the football players.....'testosterone challenged'....I didn't know it, and couldn't believe it when my lawyer first told me, but there is a clause in Idaho law allowing a landlord to discriminate against football players as a group. Not white black or green football players, or gay football players, but the entire group of them.

      Whether this would pass constitutional muster these days I have no idea.

      I don't know whether it's ever been challenged.

      I sued 4 of them, cause they caused me 10k of damage....the walls were just part of it.

      3 out of the 4 have escaped by moving and disappearing.

      One guy, who I was inches away from in California, got traded to Dallas right before we were going to attach his wages, and Texas law makes it really hard to collect.

      If I ever get down there maybe I will try to sell the judgement to some bill collector.

      He can easily pay the bill, as he has an $8.3 million dollar contract with Dallas.

      :)

      :(

      Delete
  12. .

    DougSun Jun 26, 08:22:00 PM EDT

    I learned how it is made impossible in the reading I did.

    You, on the other hand refuse to educate yourself by reading VDH's on the ground reporting.



    I see you moved you post from the last stream so I moved my response here.

    More nitwittery from the resident nit.

    After I put up an article de-bunking those numbers you posted on immigrant crime, you came back with a statement that prompted my comment above. Then dropping the statistics you offered up anecdotal information by you and Victor Davis Hanson indicating that certain areas in California have gone to hell due to immigrants. You also offered up the factoid that the hit and run rate in LA had gone up by 50% because of Canadian immigrants (I think that's what you were saying, not quite sure).

    At the time you initially made these comments you couldn't be bothered to provide any link supporting either of them. So I responded that I already had wasted enough time reading the Breitbard article you lined to and then checking out the numbers before putting up the fact-checked article in response de-bunking them. Since I had already spent a minimum of 1/2 hour (probably more like 45 minutes) checking out your bogus numbers I wasn't going to spend more time trying to track down these latest assertions.

    First, your assertion on the hit and runs...

    Or that LA's 50 percent hit and run rate is caused by Immigrants from Canada?

    I honestly don't know what that means. I assumed you meant the rate increased due to Canadian immigrants since the only alternative seemed to be that 50% of LA's accidents were hit and runs and...well no, looking at it again, that doesn't make sense either. You tell me what the statement means.

    Anyway the charge sounds counterintuitive, in fact, truly bizarre given the population of LA and what I assume is probably a pretty big auto accident rate and my not knowing Canadians were that bad of drivers. Now, if I am wrong and the number of incidents is small, say 3 with 1 of them being Canadian I could see it. Or perhaps, there is a big influx of Canadians sneaking into the country to play in the LA comedy clubs. Anyway, if you have a link for the charge I would follow it. In fact, I would gladly follow it. That would be an interesting factoid to have to hand. However, am I going to go searching for it myself? Of course not.

    Second Victor Davis Hanson...

    You make a brief comment about Victor Davis Hanson and I gave you the same statement as with the hit and run driver rate. Then to change the subject from the bogus stats you charge me with refusing to read the VDH article.

    More nitwittery. You initially mentioned VDH and his general view that he didn't like what was happening in the Central Valley of California. But at the time, you didn't provide any link to the article.

    VDH writes articles all the time in various places like RCP and a number of them have been on California. The most recent I have seen was on the droughts there but I have read others. Yet, you accuse me of not reading the article even though you are too damn lazy to tie a link to it.

    The next day, when I took a look at the posts that followed from the night before I saw that you had put up a good portion of the VDH article.

    It was posted 1/2 hour AFTER I had made my comment about refusing to look it up.

    And by the way I did read it. And I was a little surprised to see that it talked not about major crimes not even about hit and run accidents the things we had started off talking about but about dumping by 'immigrants' he had witnessed. There is no doubt that dumping is a crime and a terrible thing for the environment and may contain safety issues but IMO it doesn't scale with the crimes we were talking about earlier.

    .



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. At the time you initially made these comments you couldn't be bothered to provide any link supporting either of them. So I responded that I already had wasted enough time reading the Breitbard article you lined to and then checking out the numbers before putting up the fact-checked article in response de-bunking them. Since I had already spent a minimum of 1/2 hour (probably more like 45 minutes) checking out your bogus numbers I wasn't going to spend more time trying to track down these latest assertions.

      :):)

      heh time time time

      So, here you are again wasting even more of your precious time, and everyone else's too, rambling on and on basically about nothing, as is your way....

      You're a gas, the blog's best most humorous nitwit....er, quirk....

      Delete
    2. .

      Sorry about the nitwittery comment. I'm trying to be a good boy but old habits are hard to break.

      .

      Delete
    3. For me, I just don't want you to waste your time.

      Idle hands being the Devil's workshop, as my wife always says.

      Delete
  13. Elizabeth Warren with a little observation about Donald Trump.

    He Calls Me "Pocahontas," Because

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He did indeed make an error there.

      The correct term for her is Fauxcahontas.

      Got a free ride through college by lying on her application about her race, she did.

      Not even Vice-Presidential material.

      Delete
    2. Another House dem went down the other day on big time corruption charges, guilty on all counts, did you notice ?

      Can't think of his name though....

      Delete
    3. Didn't she get her job that way also?

      Delete
  14. Donald Trump Would Push Debt To Highest Level In U.S. History, Report Says

    Making America great again — by running up huge IOUs.

    Donald Trump’s policy agenda would quickly push the national debt to its highest level in history, according to a new report.

    The analysis, which the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget published Sunday evening, represents one of the first serious efforts to assess how electing Trump or his chief rival for the presidency, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, might affect federal finances over time.

    Rather than focusing on individual policy initiatives — like Trump’s call to abolish the estate tax, or Clinton’s pledge to help working parents pay for child care — this new analysis takes into account all of the candidates’ proposals to date, in order to assess how they would alter the federal budget and, ultimately, the amount of debt that the public holds.

    It was not an easy task for the committee’s researchers, because Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, barely talks about policy. When he does, he’s frequently vague or inconsistent. But the few proposals that Trump has actually described publicly made it possible to construct a rough analysis and compare his agenda with the more detailed proposals from Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

    The resulting contrast was stark. As the report demonstrates, the election doesn’t simply present Americans with a choice between a politician who disparages entire ethnic and religious groups and a politician who preaches the virtues of diversity. It also offers a choice between a candidate who’d create vast new deficits for the sake of some highly questionable tax cuts — and one proposing a more modest agenda of expanded government programs, with added revenue that would cover nearly all of their cost.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The centerpiece of Trump’s agenda is a series of proposed tax cuts, including new breaks for businesses and reductions in individual rates, that past studies have shown would disproportionately benefit wealthy Americans. The committee’s researchers, working from estimates by the (also nonpartisan) Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, determined that, taken together, the tax cuts would add something like $9.25 trillion in new debt over the next 10 years. (For these and other projections, committee researchers produced three separate estimates to generate a range of possibilities and then used the one in the middle for their main analysis.)

      Other items on Trump’s agenda, including his promises to overhaul veteran services and repeal the Affordable Care Act, would add a few hundred billion dollars to that total. With no significant new revenues or spending cuts to offset these costs, and with the higher interest payments that so much new borrowing would require, the cumulative impact of Trump’s agenda would probably be around $11.5 trillion in additional federal debt over 10 years, the committee’s researchers found.

      The number . . . .

      Huffpost

      Delete
  15. Mitch McConnell Won’t Say Whether Donald Trump Is Qualified To Be President

    He got two opportunities to say “yes,” but he didn’t take them.

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is supporting Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump for president — but he isn’t saying, at least for now, whether he thinks the business mogul is actually up to the job.

    McConnell twice declined on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday to say straight out that Trump is qualified to be president.

    “Look, that will be up to the American people to decide,” McConnell said. “He won the Republican nomination fair and square. He got more votes than anybody else against a whole lot of well-qualified candidates. So our primary voters have made their decision as to who they want to be the nominee. The American people will be able to make that decision in the fall.”

    Sixty-four percent of Americans believe Trump is not qualified to be president, versus 37 percent who say Democratic presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton is not qualified, according to a Washington Post-ABC poll released Sunday.

    It’s been difficult to nail down Republicans’ positions on that question, particularly as many of them have distanced themselves from Trump amid his numerous controversial statements — which have included saying he . . . . .

    Oop

    ReplyDelete
  16. These are the migrants I have true sympathy for, getting away from totalitarianism -


    Cuban migrants come ashore in Hollywood, Key Biscayne

    Ann Keil


    DORAL, FLA. (WSVN) - Two groups of Cuban migrants reached South Florida shores after nearly two weeks at sea, bringing their journey to freedom to an emotional end in front of dozens of beachgoers.

    Officials said nine men and one woman came ashore in Hollywood, Saturday afternoon. Fish and Wildlife, Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies, the U.S. Coast Guard, Florida Fish and Hollywood Police responded to the scene between John Lloyd State Park and the Dania Beach Pier.

    Cellphone video captured the migrants jumping out of their 10-foot wooden rowboat and setting foot on American soil as onlookers cheered them on. Some of them were seen kissing the sand.

    Nearly 100 beachgoers witnessed the migrants’ arrival. “This is crazy, this is amazing, like, they actually made it all the way to the shore,” said witness Courtney Chipman.

    A video posted on Instagram showed the group on the water, earlier on Saturday.

    Witness Nora Wolf marveled at the migrants’ resilience and determination. “I think it’s amazing that these guys came across the ocean, from Cuba, in a rowboat, and made it to land,” she said.

    However, the landing led to tense moments that were also caught on camera. Moments after the migrants arrived on the beach, police officers were seen detaining them. In the video, a witness is heard saying, “Let them go.”

    Officials said they had tried and failed to intercept the tiny boat. “What I understand, every time law enforcement tried to approach and get near them, they were threatening [to hurt] themselves,” said FWC Officer Tyson Matthew. “There were knives on board and several weapons.”

    Witness Tammy Perez witnessed the migrants’ confrontation with authorities. “They had some machetes, apparently, and they were threatening to kill themselves or something,” she said. “They wanted to get ashore, obviously.”

    Officials said the migrants feared getting sent back, and one man was tased by a Hollywood Police officer who believed he posed a threat.

    One migrant stabbed himself in the abdomen. He was transported to Broward Health Medical Center as a trauma alert.

    The others walked in handcuffs from the beach to ambulances and were taken to Memorial Regional Hospital to be checked out. “They just look like they’re exhausted,” said Matthew. “They’ve been in the sun.”

    The migrants who arrived in Hollywood were actually the second group that came ashore. Another group touched U.S. soil on Key Biscayne, Saturday morning. An onlooker captured their green boat on cellphone video.

    One of those migrants, Yoel Diaz-Hernandez, spoke to 7News in Doral outside Church World Services. “I left my wife and my 1-year-old child to work, and that’s it,” he said through as translator.

    The man said he was looking for his brother-in-law, who he claims was in the boat that had arrived in Hollywood. He’d have to wait to be reunited.

    Leo Martinez, a Cuban man in the Czech Republic, told 7News he believes one of the men who came ashore in Hollywood is his brother. “I saw the video online where I can see his physique. I am sure that’s my brother,” he said in Spanish while speaking on the phone.

    “I feel good for them, you know?” said a beachgoer in Hollywood. “They traveled so long to get here so, I mean, they deserve it.”

    Officials told 7News the migrants will be able to stay once they are released from the hospital and processed by U.S. Customs.

    http://wsvn.com/news/local/10-cuban-migrants-come-ashore-near-dania-beach-pier/


    There's a special law for Cubans. You make it to shore, you're free. And I don't think we should be intercepting them at sea.

    We all know this has been going on for decades now, sixty+ years of it....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wonder, if one had a boat, and went out and helped them to shore, if one would be violating any US law ?

      Delete
    2. Defense: Saving lives of those in danger of death at sea

      Delete
    3. Idaho 'my name is hypocrisy' Bob

      Delete
  17. Dance is also likely to be severely affected. Alistair Spalding, the artistic director of Sadler’s Wells Theater, a major dance house in London, said the theater had received about $550,000 from the European Union program over the past five years.

    ...

    In a recent interview, Nicholas Serota, the director of the Tate art museums, mentioned that he, too, was worried about the impact that a withdrawal from the European Union might have on the Tate’s ability to employ the best curators from all over Europe.

    “It is too early to say how the result of the referendum will affect Tate,” he said in a statement on Friday. “However, our mission remains unaffected, and Tate has a responsibility to promote public interest in modern and contemporary art from across the world.”

    ReplyDelete
  18. The story of India as told by a humble street snack

    By Justin Rowlatt


    You may think of the samosa as a humble street snack but it is much, much more than that.

    It is an historic artefact - as well as delectable evidence that there is nothing new about the process of globalisation.

    Bite into a samosa and the notion that identity is defined by the boundaries of a nation state should shatter like the deep-fried crust.

    These days it is considered a quintessentially Indian delicacy, but its history is far more complex and cosmopolitan than that.

    Savour the sensation as your teeth sink into the soft, yielding centre. Let the flavours flow into your mouth.

    What you are tasting is the story of India itself - the product of the fluid forces of the great migrations and interactions that shaped this country.

    The samosa's origins actually lie thousands of miles away in the ancient empires that rose up in the Iranian plateau at the dawn of civilization itself.

    We don't know for certain when the first cooks shaped pastry into the now-familiar triangular shape but we do know that the origins of the name are Persian - "sanbosag".

    The samosa is first mentioned in literature by the Persian historian Abul-Fazl Beyhaqi, writing in the 11th Century.

    He describes a dainty delicacy, served as a snack in the great courts of the mighty Ghaznavid empire. The fine pastry was filled with minced meats, nuts and dried fruit and then fried till the pastry was crisp.

    But the samosa was to be transformed as it followed the epic journey made by successive waves of migrants into India.

    It was brought to India along the route the Aryans had taken more than 2,000 years earlier - through Central Asia and then over the great mountains in what is now Afghanistan, before descending down into the fertile plains of the great rivers of India.

    The great armies of the Mamluks, Tamerlane and the Mughals later made the same journey, helping build the great sub-continental empire we now know as India.

    And, just as India was reshaped by these waves of migrants, the samosa also underwent a transformation.

    Initially it metamorphosed into something much less refined.

    By the time it reached what is now Tajikistan and Uzbekistan it had become what Professor Pushpesh Pant, one of the world's experts on Indian food, describes as "a crude peasant dish".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The courtly titbit was now a high-calorie staple, a much bigger and heartier dish - the sort of thing a shepherd would take out into the pastures with him.

      It retained its distinctive shape and was still fried, but the exotic nuts and fruits were gone - the savoury pastry was now filled with coarsely chopped goat or lamb eked out with onions and flavoured simply with salt.

      Over the following centuries the samosa made its way over the icy passes of the Hindu Kush and into the Indian subcontinent.

      What happened along the way explains why Professor Pant regards the samosa as the ultimate "syncretic dish" - the ultimate fusion of cultures.

      The calorie-conscious may prefer their samosas baked

      "I think the samosa tells you how influences, culinary and otherwise, have come across to us," he says, "and how India has adopted them, adapted them to its own requirements and milieu, and transformed them totally."

      Once in India the samosa was taken up and tailored to local tastes, becoming the world's first fast food.

      The samosa is endlessly adaptable and India introduced its own spices - adding coriander, pepper, caraway seeds, ginger and more.

      The filling changed, too, with vegetables often replacing meat.

      Later still it was to become the vehicle for other much more novel foodstuffs, because the modern Indian samosa is the product of yet another great historical upheaval - the discovery of the New World.

      These days most samosas are filled with potato and flavoured with green chillies, ingredients only introduced from the New World by Portuguese traders in the 16th Century.

      And the samosa has continued to evolve since then.

      Everywhere you go in India it is different.

      Samosas vary from region to region, and even from shop to shop as samosa-makers compete for custom.

      Sometimes they are monsters, an entire meal in a single crisp pastry casing.

      Elsewhere they have re-emerged as a courtly treat - samosas are served as cocktail canapés at weddings and modish Delhi parties.

      Delete
    2. Even the wafer-thin pastry packed with mince and peas that the Moroccan traveller Ibn Batuta describes being served at the lavish banquets of the court of Mohammad bin Tughlaq in 14th Century Delhi, lives on in the "lukhmi" of Hyderabad.

      Meanwhile in Punjab no samosa is complete without the addition of paneer - fresh Indian cheese - though elsewhere in India this is considered an aberration.

      Not all samosas are savoury these days - at least one Delhi restaurant serves a delicious chocolate samosa.

      And even the cooking techniques can vary.

      The classic samosa is still fried to a crisp, golden finish, but you can sometimes find baked samosas for the calorie-conscious.

      Some chefs have experimented with steamed samosas - a mistake, says Professor Pant. He argues that without the oil the flavours simply don't emerge properly.

      And, of course, the samosa's journey did not end in India. After centuries of refinement and reworking here it followed new routes back out into the world.


      Stuffed samosas from Jodhpur in Rajasthan, north-west IndiaImage copyright Getty Images
      Image caption
      These stuffed samosas come from Jodhpur in Rajasthan, north-west India

      The British loved the samosa and spread the now uniquely Indian innovation across their vast empire - along with shampoo, bungalows, verandas and pyjamas.

      And, as the Indian diaspora has spread around the globe in the last few centuries, they too took samosas with them.

      Which is why what began as a tasty titbit for ancient Persian emperors is now enjoyed in virtually every country on Earth.

      So as you savour this delicious snack remember this, wherever your samosa was prepared and however it was filled it embodies the essence of India - adaptable, inventive, tolerant and heterogeneous.

      And many of the country's other delicious street foods have similarly fascinating stories.

      As the BBC's South Asia correspondent I have the privilege to travel across India and as I go I intend to explore the incredible culinary history of this great nation through its street food.

      So if there are any street foods that particularly tickle your palate - or you think will tickle mine - do please contact me and tell me what they are and where the best examples can be found and I'll do my best to get out there and taste them.

      Message me via Twitter @BBCJustinR

      http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36548445

      Delete
  19. "Q"Nit: Idaho, continued -

    Jihad Watch

    Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

    Idaho Muslim migrant sex assault case: Obama-appointed prosecutor threatens community

    June 26, 2016 11:36 am By Robert Spencer 153 Comments


    “The Obama-appointed U.S. attorney for Idaho has taken the highly unusual step of intervening in a local criminal case involving an alleged sexual assault by juvenile Muslim migrants and threatened the community and media with federal prosecution if they ‘spread false information or inflammatory statements about the perpetrators.'”

    In what other sex assault case has the prosecutor shown such solicitude for the perpetrators? This is clear evidence that a coverup is in full swing, and that Idaho and federal authorities are deeply embarrassed about this case for what it reveals about their suicidal policies regarding Muslim migrants......

    https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/06/idaho-muslim-migrant-sex-assault-case-obama-appointed-prosecutor-threatens-community

    ReplyDelete
  20. Report: Illegal Drivers Behind High Hit-And-Run Rate In LA

    "an estimated 750,000 illegal immigrants live in the L.A. area"

    (I thought you might figure out "Canadians" was a joke.)

    ...since the subject was Hispanic Immigrants.

    ...and that a hit and run rate of 50 percent referred to half of all accidents in LA, versus 11 percent nationwide.

    ===

    Here's the Hanson article. If you read it and conclude that the worst thing it refers to is trash, I have nothing else to say.

    http://www.nationalreview.com/article/255320/two-californias-victor-davis-hanson

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. San Bernardino Latino population is 61 Percent

      http://www.towncharts.com/California/Demographics/San-Bernardino-city-CA-Demographics-data.html


      San Bernardino's rising homicide rate troubles cops, residents

      Almost 90% of the homicides in San Bernardino are the result of gang activity or the narcotics trade, Lawhead said. At least two of the homicides this month were gang-related.

      (Canadians again, of course.)

      http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-san-bernardino-homicides-20140729-story.html

      Delete
    2. Here's the Hit and Run Article:

      http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/10/11/report-illegal-drivers-behind-high-hit-and-run-rate-in-la/

      Delete
    3. You have put Quirk back into his cage.

      Delete
    4. .

      (I thought you might figure out "Canadians" was a joke.)

      Really?

      I wasn't even able to figure out what the sentence meant. The explanation you give here
      is one I couldn't decipher from your original sentence.

      However, I was serious. That is pretty interesting. Its still seems hard to believe that half the accidents in s city the size of LA turn into hit and runs. Quite amazing.

      I glad you clarified it even if it took a few days.

      .

      Delete
    5. .

      As for the VDH article, I assumed that if you posted a good chunk of the article what you put up was an example of the point you were trying to make.

      What you put up wasn't interesting enough to get me to read the entire article.

      Good effort. No cigar.

      .

      Delete
    6. Wouldn't want the facts to get in the way with your false beliefs.

      If I were you, I'd be telling you your claims of crimes in Detroit were bullshit.

      (As to my post, I had merely copied and pasted it from my blogger stash, posted to another audience less interested in denying the obvious.)

      Delete
    7. .

      Oh, come on Doug.

      1. How can you blame me for sentences you put up that defy interpretation?

      2. How can you blame me for your humor that is way to subtle for me especially in a sentence that defies interpretation?

      3. How can you blame me for not reading an article you haven't even linked to and the only clue you offer is 'if you don't believe VDH'?

      4. How can you blame me for being skeptical about a sentence I misinterpreted and which was impossible understand except by 'another audience less interested in denying the obvious?'

      5. How can you say that a fact like 50% of LA's accidents end up being hit and runs is 'obvious'?

      6. How can you be so defensive as to say I said you and VDH were lying when in fact I didn't?


      All I can say is you might want to take a little time in proofreading your posts before putting them up assuring that they are clear even to this audience. Sorry about missing your humor on the Canadian joke. It must be me because frankly I don't get half the stuff you put up here.

      .

      Delete


  21. Illegal immigrants can get driver's licenses under new California law

    Sharon Bernstein

    October 3, 2013

    By Sharon Bernstein

    SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - Illegal immigrants living in California will be eligible to apply for driver's licenses under a law signed on Thursday by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, in the latest action to expand privileges for such immigrants in the most populous U.S. state.

    The legislation marks a major victory for Latino and other immigration rights activists, who have fought for decades for such a law. The state says it is expected to spur 1.4 million people to apply for licenses over three years.

    The law, passed with substantial Republican support, marks a significant departure from past policy in California, which will join at least nine other states that allow undocumented immigrants to drive legally when the law takes effect in 2015.

    "Millions of immigrant families have been looking forward to this day," said Democratic Assemblyman Luis Alejo, who sponsored the bill. "It will allow them to go to work, go to school, take their kids to a doctor's appointment without fear that they are going to have their car taken away from them, or worse, be put into immigration proceedings."

    The law is part of a broader effort to expand immigrant rights in strongly Democratic California, where 2.6 million people - most of them Latino - lack legal status, according to a recent study by the University of Southern California.

    About 38 percent of California's population of 38 million is of Hispanic descent, state figures show, representing a potentially enormous number of voters with an interest in immigrant issues.

    The move by California stands in stark contrast to policy in states like neighboring Arizona, long at odds with Washington over immigration reform. Earlier this month, Arizona widened its ban on licenses for illegal immigrants, including those granted temporary relief from deportation.

    California, where two decades ago voters sought to bar illegal immigrants from public services including education, now allows college students brought to the United States as children to pay in-state tuition at California public universities to help defray the costs of higher education....

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/illegal-immigrants-drivers-licenses-under-california-law-012921086.html?ref=gs


    Insane.

    Will they be allowed to vote with these Driver's Licenses as ID ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As I recall, the will of the voters was overturned in court.

      Sealing the fate of a once-great state.

      Delete
    2. Good Lord, you're right -

      Napolitano: California to allow illegal immigrants to vote in the next Presidential election
      Video


      http://dailycaller.com/2015/10/13/napolitano-california-to-allow-illegal-immigrants-to-vote-for-the-next-president-video/

      We are committing suicide as a nation.

      Delete
    3. Napolitano says the court made a great big basic mistake.

      Delete
    4. .

      Illegal immigrants can get driver's licenses under new California law


      Well, it should cut down on all those hit and run accidents in LA.

      .

      Delete
    5. Smart arse.

      *************

      Saudis Kept Two Jihad Terror Groups Tied to Huma Abedin Off U.S. List Unconscionable. This is the malignant influence that another Clinton presidency would allow to continue to assert itself in the White House. It has to end. The Saudi/Muslim Brotherhood power over U.S. policymaking must be confronted, rejected and defeated. “Saudis Kept Two Terror Groups Off U.S. List,” by Matthew Vadum, FrontPage, June 20, 2016: The Saudi […] -

      http://pamelageller.com/2016/06/saudis-kept-two-jihad-terror-groups-tied-to-huma-abedin-off-u-s-list.html/

      You and WiO keep the local reprobates under control tomorrow, Doug.

      I'm on the road.

      Cheers !

      out

      Delete
  22. Quirk:
    "Its still seems hard to believe that half the accidents in A city the size of LA turn into hit and runs. Quite amazing."
    ===

    Here's your answer:

    "an estimated 750,000 illegal immigrants live in the L.A. area"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They Illegals flee, the LAPD says Fuck You to the victims:

      L.A.'s Bloody Hit-and-Run Epidemic

      Another Weekly request for basic information — specifically, the number of hit-and-run arrests made in L.A. since 2010 — took three weeks for the LAPD Discovery Section to process. When LAPD finally produced the data, they were incomplete and did not reveal how many arrests had been made during the time period.

      In fact, it appears that the best data on the massive scope of L.A. felony hit-and-runs — "felony" generally meaning somebody was seriously injured or killed — were dug up not by city leaders or law enforcement but by well-known bicycling advocate Alex Thompson, founder of the now-defunct website Bikeside L.A.

      The state numbers obtained by Thompson showed that some 4,000 felony hit-and-runs occur yearly in the city of L.A., including cases from LAPD, CHP and the sheriff.

      http://www.laweekly.com/news/las-bloody-hit-and-run-epidemic-2612282

      Delete
  23. MexAmerica is a Done Deal:


    Census Data: Most Common Age For Whites Is 56, 9 For Hispanics

    http://dailycaller.com/2016/06/26/census-data-average-age-of-whites-is-56-9-for-hispanics/#ixzz4ClzwPC2W

    ReplyDelete