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."

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

“Chaos reigns supreme in the end.”

5 ways the North Korea situation could spiral out of control

“Eventually they’ll go too far, and the situation will unravel.”

(KRT via AP Video)
The New York Times reported on Sunday that the US is redirecting several warships toward the Korean Peninsula as a show of force. The decision is a response to North Korea’s test of yet another intermediate-range missile. 
For decades, presidential administrations have tried — and failed — to curb North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. The Trump administration’s approach so far has been both aggressive and confusing. 
A week ago, for example, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson released a statement that read: “The United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment.” Does that mean negotiations are over? It’s not clear. 
Although Tillerson insists that America’s policy remains a denuclearized North Korea, not regime change, dispatching a naval armada to the region suggests we’re inching closer and closer to a potential clash. 
Yesterday, moreover, we learned that China was sending 150,000 troops to the North Korean border to prepare for the potential flood of refugees in case the United States launches a preemptive strike. Such a strike remains highly unlikely, but China’s actions are indicative of how dangerous the situation has become. 
To understand how close we are to full-scale conflict in North Korea, I reached out to Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Lewis focuses on nuclear nonproliferation, international security, and disarmament, and he is the author of Minimum Means of Reprisal: China's Search for Security in the Nuclear Age.
I asked Lewis to lay out some of the worst-case scenarios in North Korea.
Here’s what he told me.
Scenario 1: The North Koreans mistakenly believe that we are going to launch an attack on them, and Kim Jong Un does something crazy.
The big dilemma here is that, in North Korea at least, everything is organized around the fear that they will be invaded, and that Kim Jong Un will end up like Muammar Qaddafi in Libya or Saddam Hussein in Iraq. But unlike Qaddafi or Hussein, Kim has actually acquired nuclear weapons, and if you look at the missile testing they do, a lot of these are tests that have already been conducted. What they're doing, in fact, is practicing hitting airfields or other targets that the US would likely use to sustain an invasion. 
As far as we can tell, the North Korean theory is that on the first day of a potential war with America, if they just use a bunch of nuclear weapons — in South Korea, in Japan potentially — the damage will be so severe that we will be deterred from future aggression, or that the costs will be so high that a successful invasion will be impossible. But for this strategy to be effective, it means North Korea has to go nuclear first, to raise the stakes to an impossibly high level right at the beginning.
My worry is that Trump says or does something incautious or imprudent, as he often does, which North Korea interprets as deadly serious and decides to escalate immediately to deter a potential invasion. It’s easy to see how things could get out of hand in a hurry.
Scenario 2: The North Koreans stage yet another provocation, only this time it goes too far and South Korea responds.
This scenario is a little bit Trump goes crazy and a little bit South Korea goes crazy, but I'll focus on South Korea. The North Koreans like to stage provocations. In 2010, for instance, they sank a South Korean ship and they shelled an island. Last year, they put a land mine on the DMZ [demilitarized zone] and blew the legs off a South Korean soldier. And the list goes on and on and on. So they're constantly testing the limits, constantly provoking. 
The scenario here is that North Korea goes one provocation too far and South Korea finally responds in kind. It's hard to imagine how this will play out. The South Koreans are increasingly committed to their ability to respond to these provocations, but they're terrified of a nuclear strike. They're developing ballistic and cruise missiles with the express purpose of killing Kim Jong Un. The idea is that they can eliminate [Kim] so that he won't be alive to give the orders to launch nuclear weapons. But if they try and fail to take out Kim, all bets are off. 
So my concern here is that North Korea is always staging provocations, but eventually they’ll go too far, and the situation will unravel.
Scenario 3: The Trump administration talks itself into a conflict it can’t contain.
This scenario is like Iraq in 2003, except it's a much bigger fiasco. So imagine Trump being humiliated by North Korea after he insists the situation is under control: He says North Korea is contained, and then they continually defy him with one provocation after another. Eventually, the administration convinces itself that regime change is the only viable option. 
So this is a case in which Tillerson's language of not talking to North Korea gets taken literally. Trump decides he's just going to isolate North Korea to the point where we do something similar to what we did in Iraq in 2003: gather forces in the region, round up a few allies, and get some kind of dim authorization from Congress for the use of force. And then, before you know it, we're involved in a major conflict. 
What I worry about here is that the Trump administration, like the Bush administration in 2003, talks itself into believing that this will be easy, and gets embroiled in a crisis it can't contain. 
Scenario 4: North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons finally spawns an arms race with Japan, which in turn extends to other regional powers.
Right now there's an aggressive cruise missile race in Asia. Not only do the Chinese have cruise missiles but so do the South Koreans and the Taiwanese. The North Koreans have mostly ballistic missiles. The only country so far that hasn't gotten involved in this arms race is Japan. But there are indications that Japanese Prime Minister [Shinzo] Abe wants to buy Tomahawk land-attack missiles from the United States, which would be an enormous enhancement in Japan's offensive capabilities and very alarming to North Korea and the Chinese. 
So the question here is: Will the North Korea's aggressive provocations finally push Japan to militarize? This would be a predictable response by Japan to North Korea's microaggressions. But it could dramatically destabilize the region by setting off a chain of destructive consequences. 
Scenario 5: The North Korean regime collapses internally, creating a failed state.
If the government started to collapse, we'd likely see a return of the horrific things we saw in the ’90s, with famine and disease spreading over the country. But we'd also have armed factions fighting one another for power, and you can imagine a scenario in which the United States, South Korea, China, and others get sucked in. 
If North Korea does collapse, it won't be like East Germany; it'll be closer to Bosnia or Libya or Syria, and that means proxy conflicts and power vacuums. And remember: If the regime does fall, someone will have to go in there and secure those nuclear weapons, and there's no easy way to do that. 
This is probably the least likely scenario, but it is certainly possible. This is a very unstable regime, and we definitely can’t rule out a state collapse.

86 comments:

  1. Chaos was a good strategy to get Trump elected. Trump was intrigued at the possibility that he could actually win. Probably frightened as well.

    Now, we have what we were promised we would not.

    Cronyism

    Foreign intervention

    No quick fixes

    No wall

    No getting along with Russia to defeat ISIS

    No a lot of things, with the exception of one, chaos at every turn and not a glimmer of hope that it will change.

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  2. Just don't buy organic lettuce on Maui:



    Rat Lungworm

    Manilla, who teaches at the University of California at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, spent a month in the ICU and is still in the hospital undergoing intensive rehabilitation.

    "I've had several operations, two pneumonias, a blood clot. Right now, I'm dealing with a kidney issue, all of which was spurred by the ratlung," he said.

    The disease affects the brain and spinal cord. The illness is spread by a parasite that infects rats, which can pass larvae of the worm in their feces. Slugs and snails can become infected by ingesting the larvae. Humans can acquire rat lungworm by eating raw produce containing a small slug or snail, or part of one. Eating contaminated animals, including freshwater shrimp and land crabs, can also lead to infection. The risk of contracting the illness can be reduced by thoroughly inspecting and washing fresh produce.

    In 2017, there have been six confirmed cases of rat lungworm disease with ties to Maui, according to the Hawaii Department of Health. Four patients are residents and two are visitors. There are also three cases on the Big Island.


    http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/35117821/warning-from-newlyweds-who-fell-ill-after-maui-wedding




    SF couple contract brain-invading parasite on Hawaiian honeymoon

    The couple do not know how they contracted the disease, Lape said, noting the abundance of fresh fruit stands they shopped at on the island.
    “In the U.S., we often think we’re impervious to these kinds of things,” Lape said. “Who could think you could end up eating a vegetable or eating a piece of slug and end up with worms on your brain?”

    http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SF-couple-contracts-brain-invading-parasite-on-11066603.php


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  3. China has moved 150,000 troops close to its border with North Korea. One interpretation is these are for the purpose of blocking thousands of refugees trying to flee into China if real trouble comes.

    But these troops, or some of them, could also be used in the effort to take apart the Kim Regime, secure the nuclear materials, etc.

    This would be a wonderful thing, I would think. The West has for at least the last 16 years 'negotiated' with Kim in the form of aid of various kinds, fuel oil, etc. in exchange for his good word that he wouldn't be working on nukes and missiles. Already the nukes and missiles can reach Japan, perhaps Hawaii. Detroit is still, but perhaps not forever, a safe space.

    Since we know from Quirk that both The Donald and The Kim are equally crazy, I'm hoping in the end, if something does really happen, that Kim gets his, as The Donald has not threatened South Korea, Japan, Hawaii, Los Angeles....

    Always chose the crazy that doesn't threaten you over the crazy that does, grandfather used to say.

    It's probably too much to hope that the Chinese take down Kim but that's what I'm hoping for...

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  4. TRUMP: 'NOT GOING INTO SYRIA'...

    Trump: "Don't say what I'm going to do"

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  5. .


    WiO assures us that Trump's attack on a Syrian airport has scared the North Koreans shitless. As if that is a good thing.

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  6. .

    Bannon a GO GO?


    We don't yet know what Stephen K. Bannon's fate in the Trump White House is. But judging by President Trump's own words, it doesn't sound particularly good.

    In a brief exchange with the New York Post's Michael Goodwin on Tuesday, Trump seemed to deliberately place Bannon at arm's length, suggesting that his role as an adviser has been oversold and even appearing to threaten Bannon's job.

    Goodwin says he asked Trump if he still has confidence in Bannon, who is reportedly feuding with Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner. And Trump didn't exactly disabuse Goodwin of the idea that Bannon is embattled. In fact, he did quite the opposite.

    “I like Steve, but you have to remember he was not involved in my campaign until very late,” Trump said. “I had already beaten all the senators and all the governors, and I didn't know Steve. I’m my own strategist, and it wasn't like I was going to change strategies because I was facing crooked Hillary.”

    Ouch. Bannon joined the campaign in August for the lion's share of the general election, taking on the role of campaign CEO. He and Kellyanne Conway, the campaign manager, were the titular heads of the campaign. Trump then kept Bannon on as his chief political adviser in the White House, serving alongside chief of staff Reince Priebus.

    In his comments to Goodwin, Trump also nodded to the tensions that exist in the White House and appeared to place the onus on Bannon to make things right — or else.

    “Steve is a good guy, but I told them to straighten it out or I will,” Trump said.



    I said Bannon would be gone shortly after Trump or Spicer said the president has every confidence in him. That might not happen.

    - Kushner and Bannon are arguing. Kushner is family. Strike one against Bannon.

    - Bannon has pushed the non-interventionist message in the administration. Trump is now basking in the glow of good press and Congress for the most part is united behind his attack on Syria. Nothing Trump likes better than being talked up. Nothing he likes better than distracting from issues that were in the news, failed health care reform, Muslim ban locked up in court, Trump/Russia connection investigation, Nunes. Despite going against his previous promises, despite losing support with key members of the alt-right, Trump will likely pursue the current path until it bites him in the ass. Strike two against Bannon.

    - As noted above, Trump is gradually trying to diminish the perception of Bannon as a key player in the administration. Bannon is a lesson for other players who want to share power in a Trump administration, always remain in Trump's shadow as you do your work. As soon as people started calling Bannon 'Trump's Brain' or 'President Bannon', it could have been predicted that would be a big strike three against Bannon.

    I suspect Bannon will be unwilling to accept a desk over in the corner out of sight.

    .


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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. “I like Quirk, but you have to remember he was not involved at BC or here until very late,”

      Delete
    3. .

      I understand there are still laws against that in some states.

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    4. .

      Naw, it was still up. Had I known you were going to pull it, I would have made a copy.

      Now, people will simply think of me as 'mysterious'. Or nutz.

      :o)


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      Delete
  7. .

    POLAND

    “Tusk’s re-election created hope in the liberal electorate that someone can beat PiS,” said Norbert Maliszewski, a political scientist.


    WARSAW — The godfather of Polish politics’ bid to destroy the career of his hated rival Donald Tusk didn’t just fail — it turned Tusk into the main political threat to Poland’s right-wing government.
    The sight of Poland’s leaders and diplomats floundering to stop Tusk’s re-election as president of the European Council marked the government’s biggest failure since coming to power in October 2015 and sent the opposition Civic Platform party soaring in opinion polls. It also confirmed Tusk’s status as the only man who can defeat Jarosław Kaczyński, head of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) and the country’s de facto leader.

    Tusk hasn’t lost a head-to-head fight against Kaczyński in more than a decade, and last month’s reappointment for another two-and-a-half-year term as Council president turned into a fiasco for Warsaw. Despite a massive last-minute lobbying effort to undercut him, Tusk won the backing of 27 member countries, leaving only Poland voting against its countryman and former prime minister.
    An opposition boost

    Poles noticed. A recent poll by the Ibris organization had PiS at 29 percent with Civic Platform at 27 percent, a jump of 9 percentage points compared to a poll taken before Tusk’s re-election...


    Poland’s leader finds out that it’s dangerous to try to kill off your enemies, but fail.

    For those interested in Polish politics, the article makes a good read. It posit that though the right-wing Law and Order (PiS) party holds power in Poland and that some of its policies such as those on immigration are popular, it is also struggling against a pro-EU majority among the population.

    The failed effort to unseat Donald Tusk as president of the European Council not only isolated them within the EU but it was also a big boost to the opposition in Poland.

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  8. .

    Spicer's anti-Godwin Rule Godwin Rule.

    (When concentration camps become 'Holocaust Centers'.)


    That confusion bled into the daily White House briefing on Tuesday, when press secretary Sean Spicer suggested that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was worse than Adolf Hitler. “[Hitler] didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons,” he said, blundering over the millions of Jews murdered with poison gas. Spicer attempted no fewer than four clarifications, starting with the conceit that the Jews killed in “Holocaust centers” weren’t citizens (italics below are mine).

    First: “He was not using gas on his own people in the same way that Assad is doing.”

    Second: “In no way was I trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust, however, I was trying to draw a contrast of the tactic of using airplanes to drop chemical weapons on innocent people.”

    Third: “In no way was I trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust, however, I was trying to draw a contrast of the tactic of using airplanes to drop chemical weapons on population centers.

    Fourth: “In no way was I trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust. I was trying to draw a distinction of the tactic of using airplanes to drop chemical weapons on population centers. Any attack on innocent people is reprehensible and inexcusable.”


    https://newrepublic.com/article/141990/sean-spicer-perfectly-awful-spokesman-donald-trump-deserves

    You have to give Spicer some slack. In no way could this be intentional. It merely shows the fuzzy thinking you are going to get when you have a guy under pressure and having to rewrite the same stories but with different endings daily. The best thing for him would be a long vacation so that he could de-pressurize.

    Dems and other groups are calling for Spicer's removal. While I can see the Anne Frank Center and others calling for Spicer's removal, I think the Dems should insist he stays. He is probably the biggest tool (in all senses of the word) out there for those battling Trump.

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  9. The failed effort to unseat Donald Tusk as president of the European Council not only isolated them within the EU but it was also a big boost to the opposition in Poland.

    It depends on which side of 40 you are.

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    1. .

      Having spent time there, you would have a better take on this than me but from what I've read it seems there is widespread support for the PiS on certain issues, immigration policy for instance, but overall the support just isn't that deep.

      Young, Seeking Change Over Ideology, Power Right Wing in Poland

      WARSAW — Sitting quietly in the bustle of the campus cafe, Daria Zysk paused to find just the right words to explain why she had voted for a presidential candidate whose party’s right-wing policies did not match her own views.

      “Young people are completely tired of the situation in Poland,” said Ms. Zysk, a 21-year-old political science major. “This endless political war between the two main parties that never produces anything. They want change. I want change.”

      In the recent election for the Polish presidency, a largely ceremonial office, the incumbent, who was allied with the party that governed Poland during eight years of prosperity was trounced by a much more conservative and little-known opponent.

      Almost lost in the surprise was the greatest source of the right-wing challenger’s support: not Poland’s conservative, churchgoing older people, but its young population.
      About 60 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 supported the challenger, Andrzej Duda, 43, whose media-savvy, American-style campaign made the more staid approach of the incumbent Bronislaw Komorowski, 62, feel a bit creaky. Five years ago, 54 percent of young voters chose Mr. Komorowski.

      Of those who cast ballots for the first time, the great majority of whom had come of voting age since the last election five years ago, 67 percent backed Mr. Duda, according to Polish election officials.

      Coming just a week after Ireland legalized same-sex marriage and on the same day that Spain shifted sharply to the left in local and regional elections — results driven heavily by young voters — the outcome made Poland and its youth seem like cultural outliers, turning right when everyone else was going left.

      But that may be a misreading of the results, political analysts, cultural historians and many young voters say.

      Disenchanted and alienated young Poles may not have veered right so much as they embraced a trend that young voters share across much of Europe: A fierce rejection of whatever happens to be the current political order, whether left or right…


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  10. .

    Trump spokesman Spicer calls Adelson to apologize for Hitler comments

    Press secretary tells GOP mega-donor he made a ‘terrible mistake’ for saying Nazi leader never gassed his own people

    For any confused about the relationship.

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  11. .

    Daily Mail to pay Melania Trump damages for escort claim

    As part of settlement, British tabloid agrees to retract false statements, pay up to reported $3 million


    Good on Melania. I would have hoped the pain to the Daily Mail would have been more substantial.

    .

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    1. $3 million is $297 million too little, in my view.

      Delete
  12. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. Quirk spokesman calls Kim Jong un to apologize for Quirk's calling the North Korean God 'batshit crazy' and comparing him to the batshit crazy running dog capitalist pig The Donald.

      Delete
    2. He said there was a 50 percent chance that he was "MORE 'batshit crazy'" than The Donald.

      Delete
  13. Meanwhile down in Venezuela -

    Venezuelan President Maduro pelted with objects at rally
    POSTED AT 1:21 PM ON APRIL 12, 2017 BY JOHN SEXTON


    Tuesday, the unpopular socialist President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, was pelted with objects at the end of a military event. From Reuters:

    State television footage showed a crowd mobbing the vehicle that Maduro was standing on as he waved goodbye at the end of a military event in San Felix, in the south-eastern state of Bolivar. Amid the commotion, people threw objects at Maduro, who was wearing a traditional Venezuelan suit and a yellow-blue-red presidential sash, while his bodyguards scrambled.

    The state broadcaster then halted transmission.

    In a separate video shared on social media, voices yelling “Damn you!” were heard as the vehicle apparently transporting Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader, tried to make its way through the crowd.
    Here’s a video of the incident. It’s difficult to tell what is being thrown. Some reports say they were eggs. At about 40 seconds you’ll see Maduro’s guards start to get excited. One of them appears to by trying to block something being thrown. Then a moment later Maduro is rubbing the top of his head and one of the guards is climbing across the hood of the vehicle. At that point, the station cuts quickly to an image of a statue:



    All of this comes one day after government forces used tear gas to disperse protesters and apparently even shot gas rounds into a hospital. NBC News reports:

    Protesters charge that government security forces tear-gassed a hospital in eastern Caracas. Video showed an active tear gas canister inside the grounds of hospital Policlinica Las Mercedes.

    Daniel Beleli, a doctor who works at the hospital, can be seen bringing one tear gas canister up to the camera in one video. He says critically ill patients were inside the operating rooms when the gassing began and staff had to turn the air conditioners off to keep them from inhaling it.

    Another video appears to show a helicopter dropping a tear gas cannister on protesters:


    Follow
    Dip.Richard Blanco @RichardBlancoOf
    Evidenciamos con vídeo que publicamos donde nos tiran bombas lacrimógenas desde helicóptero, pido sanciones ya. #10A
    3:34 PM - 10 Apr 2017
    523 523 Retweets 122 122 likes

    Protests have escalated in Venezuela after a recent decision by the country’s Supreme Court to take over the duties of the National Assembly. That decision was reversed after several days of protests. However, last week the government announced that opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who is considered a leading opposition contender to replace Maduro in coming elections, is banned from running for office for the next 15 years. The U.S. State Department issued a statement Monday saying it had “grave concern” about the ban:

    The United States views with grave concern the Venezuelan government’s actions to bar Miranda State Governor Henrique Capriles—a prominent, democratically-elected member of Venezuela’s political opposition and former presidential candidate—from participating in the country’s public life for 15 years.

    The socialist government has already postponed state elections and canceled a referendum effort aimed at legally removing Maduro from office. There is no reason to think they are going to relinquish power through a regular democratic process.

    http://hotair.com/archives/2017/04/12/venezuelan-president-maduro-pelted-with-objects-at-rally/

    Never allow an illiterate unemployed bus driver to run a country

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  14. 'First we'll skin the Poles, then everybody else' Department

    DETROIT — A Detroit-area man who talked about attacking a church and a hospital on behalf of the Islamic State group was sentenced to five years in prison Thursday after a judge said remorse over his provocative words came “too little, too late.”

    Khalil Abu Rayyan, 23, wasn’t charged with a terrorist act. But U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh said he couldn’t ignore Rayyan’s threats and infatuation with terrorism as he sentenced him for gun-related crimes.

    Rayyan kept a beheading photo on his cellphone screen, boasted about becoming a martyr and repeatedly expressed support for Islamic State. He said he wanted to skin victims “like sheep.” The FBI learned about his online activities and used an undercover operative to reach out to him during the investigation.

    Rayyan apologized in court last week and said he didn’t actually hurt anyone. He said he’s a different man after spending more than a year in custody.

    Steeh said he hoped the remorse was genuine, but he considered it to be “too little, too late.”

    “Any prisoner in his shoes would be willing to do the same,” the judge said….

    Defence attorney Todd Shanker acknowledged that Rayyan’s statements were “terrible.” But he said Rayyan was an insecure young man who was hooked on marijuana and simply wanted to impress the undercover woman online.

    http://pamelageller.com/2017/04/detroit-skin-sheep.html/

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  15. Hugh Fitzgerald: Prester John in the Forbidden City?

    APRIL 11, 2017 7:23 AM BY HUGH FITZGERALD

    ....These are measures which, though instituted by a ruthless dictatorship, left me with mixed feelings. I found myself envious of the Chinese assault on Islam, its ruthlessness and relentlessness. The Chinese readiness to ban things outright (“abnormal” beards, burqas, names smacking too much of Islam), to publicly undermine the authority and dignity of the imams by having them dance in public, and also having them hold up signs (while assuming the kowtow position), about who their real paymasters are, all in order to humiliate them, smacked, I realized, of the Cultural Revolution’s punishments, and ought not to be something I should endorse. Yet I also recognized that the ban on labelling foodstuffs “Halal” will make it more difficult for Muslims to observe their dietary restrictions. And I was glad to learn that imams in China are banned from teaching religion to the very young, and that Muslims will now have to listen to state radio and state television, where anti-Islam information and propaganda will be broadcast. Clearly, when it comes to constraining Islam, the Chinese mean business.

    The menace of Islam, and the failure of the West to properly defend itself, have hardened my views on what are acceptable measures of self-protection by the world’s Infidels. And after moving from India to Central Asia, and thence to Ethiopia, Prester John seems finally to have come to rest in Beijing. He’s still what he always was, a mythical foreign potentate, on the other side of the Muslim lands, who stands ready to take our side in the titanic struggle between the Camp of Islam and the Camp of Unbelievers.



    https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/04/hugh-fitzgerald-prester-john-in-the-forbidden-city

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  16. History The Observer

    High Hitler: how Nazi drug abuse steered the course of history

    German writer Norman Ohler’s astonishing account of methamphetamine addiction in the Third Reich changes what we know about the second world war

    ....The book in question is The Total Rush – or, to use its superior English title, Blitzed – which reveals the astonishing and hitherto largely untold story of the Third Reich’s relationship with drugs, including cocaine, heroin, morphine and, above all, methamphetamines (aka crystal meth), and of their effect not only on Hitler’s final days – the Führer, by Ohler’s account, was an absolute junkie with ruined veins by the time he retreated to the last of his bunkers – but on the Wehrmacht’s successful invasion of France in 1940. Published in Germany last year, where it became a bestseller, it has since been translated into 18 languages, a fact that delights Ohler, but also amazes him.....

    https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/25/blitzed-norman-ohler-adolf-hitler-nazi-drug-abuse-interview

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  17. Hitler loved children.

    After 1945 Hitler was accused of every cruelty, but it was not in his nature to be cruel. He loved children. It was an entirely natural thing for him to stop his car and share his food with young cyclists along the road. Once he gave his raincoat to a derelict plodding in the rain. At midnight he would interrupt his work and prepare the food for his dog Blondi.

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    1. He could not bear to eat meat, because it meant the death of a living creature. He refused to have so much as a rabbit or a trout sacrificed to provide his food. He would allow only eggs on his table, because egg-laying meant that the hen had been spared rather than killed.

      Hitler's eating habits were a constant source of amazement to me. How could someone on such a rigorous schedule, who had taken part in tens of thousands of exhausting mass meetings from which he emerged bathed with sweat, often losing two to four pounds in the process; who slept only three to four hours a night; and who, from 1940 to 1945, carried the whole world on his shoulders while ruling over 380 million Europeans: how, I wondered, could he physically survive on just a boiled egg, a few tomatoes, two or three pancakes, and a plate of noodles? But he actually gained weight!

      He drank only water. He did not smoke and would not tolerate smoking in his presence. At one or two o'clock in the morning he would still be talking, untroubled, close to his fireplace, lively, often amusing. He never showed any sign of weariness. Dead tired his audience might be, but not Hitler.

      http://library.flawlesslogic.com/enigma.htm

      Delete
    2. At the same time Hitler was caring for his dog Blondi, little Doug was playing with his dog Blackie.

      Delete
    3. 3 am Tweeter to the End:

      "The testament he dictated with extraordinary composure on the eve of his death, at three in the morning of April 29, 1945, provides us a lasting testimony."

      Delete
    4. Hitler's most notable characteristic was ever his simplicity. The most complex of problems resolved itself in his mind into a few basic principles.

      His actions were geared to ideas and decisions that could be understood by anyone.

      he laborer from Essen, the isolated farmer, the Ruhr industrialist, and the university professor could all easily follow his line of thought. The very clarity of his reasoning made everything obvious.

      Delete
  18. He loved German Shepherds, shepherds, sheep, wool...he would often shear sheep and give the wool to the poor so they could make clothing.

    He would often milk cows and give the milk to little babies to drink.

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    1. Hitler was self-taught and made not attempt to hide the fact. The smug conceit of intellectuals, their shiny ideas packaged like so many flashlight batteries, irritated him at times. His own knowledge he had acquired through selective and unremitting study, and he knew far more than thousands of diploma-decorated academics.

      ...even English Majors, I might add.

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    2. His behavior and his lifestyle never changed even when he became the ruler of Germany. He dressed and lived frugally. During his early days in Munich, he spent no more than a mark per day for food. At no stage in his life did he spend anything on himself. Throughout his thirteen years in the chancellery he never carried a wallet or ever had money of his own.

      Delete
    3. Salvador Dali, art's unique genius, sought to penetrate the mystery in one of his most intensely dramatic paintings. Towering mountain landscapes all but fill the canvas, leaving only a few luminous meters of seashore dotted with delicately miniaturized human figures: the last witness to a dying peace. A huge telephone receiver dripping tears of blood hangs from the branch of a dead tree; and here and there hang umbrellas and bats whose portent is visibly the same. As Dali tells it, "Chamberlain's umbrella appeared in this painting in a sinister light, made evident by the bat, and it struck me when I painted it as a thing of enormous anguish."

      He then confided: "I felt this painting to be deeply prophetic. But I confess that I haven't yet figured out the Hitler enigma either. He attracted me only as an object of my mad imaginings and because I saw him as a man uniquely capable of turning things completely upside down."

      Image:
      https://www.google.com/search?q=salvador+dali+the+enigma+of+hitler+1939&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwizv_Sy8p_TAhWIilQKHW-QCNQQ_AUICCgB&biw=1200&bih=537#imgrc=RUWGJoLnhrfGMM:

      Delete
    4. https://www.flickr.com/photos/24364447@N05/19273868153

      Delete
    5. Lincoln was the same sort of 'tyrant' as Hitler, an NC legislator says

      http://www.sacbee.com/#storylink=cpy

      Delete
    6. It's almost as if you are describing Quirk here, Doug.

      So much fits, it's eerie.

      Throughout his thirteen years in the chancellery he never carried a wallet or ever had money of his own.

      Pure Quirk. When everything belongs to one, one hasn't to buy anything.

      The only difference is the Police did not recognize this in Q's case, while in the case of AH they did.

      Delete

    7. Say, you're descriptions aren't coming from that Umberto fellow, are they ?

      Now that would be ironic.

      Delete
  19. .

    Super Weapons -- You've got to love em.

    Called the Kinetic Energy Projectile, the weapon is a tungsten-based warhead launched at more than three times the speed of sound that bursts into numerous flaming, metal fragments easily capable of piercing most conventional types of armor, according to Aviation Week. The Army is looking into fitting the new super-weapon onto existing launch platforms that are capable of supplying sufficient charge to shoot the projectile at such speeds. One reason for the weapon would be to respond to Russia's pursuit of miniaturized nuclear warheads fired by tanks.

    Major General William Hix, the Army’s director of strategy, has likened the Kinetic Energy Projectile, designed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, to "a big shotgun shell" that could travel "Mach 3 to Mach 6" and tear through its targets.

    “The way that they have designed it, is quite devastating. I would not want to be around it. Not much can survive it," Hix said last month at the Booz Allen Hamilton Direct Energy Summit, according to Defense One. "If you are in a main battle tank, if you’re a crew member, you might survive but the vehicle will be non-mission capable, and everything below that...level of protection will be dead.

    That’s what I am talking about."

    http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-army-considers-super-weapon-to-counter-russia/ar-BBzLSBO?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      The only problem I see is it looks like the US is bringing a big gun to a mini-nuke fight.

      .

      Delete
  20. Trump on NATO: ‘I said it was obsolete. It is no longer obsolete.’

    http://www.sanluisobispo.com/#storylink=cpy

    ReplyDelete
  21. Costner's house and pickup.

    http://media.architecturaldigest.com/photos/58d93ca2e34bbc355f09b83a/master/w_925/costner7.jpg

    ...we had an identical green chevy, with a four speed and a granny 1st gear that would outpull a small tractor.

    http://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/kevin-costner-california-estate-for-sale

    ReplyDelete
  22. Replies
    1. I volunteer to guard Scotty. He liberated my fish pond.

      Delete
  23. China's imports from North Korea in the first quarter of 2017 rose 18.4 percent in yuan value from a year ago, while exports to North Korea jumped 54.5 percent in yuan value terms, Chinese customs said on Thursday in a press conference.

    ...

    China suspended issuing permits for importing coal from North Korea on February 18 as part of its efforts to implement United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang. ($1 = 6.8743 Chinese yuan renminbi)

    ReplyDelete
  24. "As far as we can tell, the North Korean theory is that on the first day of a potential war with America, if they just use a bunch of nuclear weapons — in South Korea, in Japan potentially — the damage will be so severe that we will be deterred from future aggression, or that the costs will be so high that a successful invasion will be impossible."

    ===

    I either yawn or get disgusted when I read shit like this.

    I refuse to go into the specifics, like what a shitty little nothing country North Korea is, 'cause I can stop with this:

    "As far as we can tell, the North Korean theory is that on the first day of a potential war with America, if they just use a bunch of nuclear weapons — in South Korea, in Japan potentially — the damage will be so severe that we will be deterred from future aggression, or that the costs will be so high that a successful invasion will be impossible. But for this strategy to be effective, it means North Korea has to go nuclear first, to raise the stakes to an impossibly high level right at the beginning."

    ===

    I'm sure that if we had a halfway sane President, and the Norks nuked Japan and South Korea, we'd need to "invade" North Korea!

    ...and I don't think little Kim is that crazy either.

    Although it would be the first time in a long time that Korea got warm all over.

    ReplyDelete

  25. Sean Illing was a medic.
    ...too many free meds.

    More likely, he's simply an idiot.

    ReplyDelete
  26. GBU 43

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GBU-43/B_Massive_Ordnance_Air_Blast

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast
      From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

      GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast
      MOAB bomb.jpg
      Type Conventional bomb
      Place of origin United States
      Service history
      In service Since 2003
      Used by United States Air Force, Royal Air Force
      Production history
      Designer Air Force Research Laboratory
      Designed 2002
      Manufacturer McAlester Army Ammunition Plant
      Produced 2003
      Specifications
      Weight 10,300 kg (22,600 lb)
      Length 9.1885 m (30 ft 1.75 in)
      Diameter 103 cm (40.5 in)
      Filling H-6
      Filling weight 8,500 kg (18,700 lb)
      Blast yield 11 tons TNT

      The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB pronounced /ˈmoʊ.æb/, commonly known as the Mother of All Bombs) is a large-yield conventional (non-nuclear) bomb, developed for the United States military by Albert L. Weimorts, Jr. of the Air Force Research Laboratory.[1] At the time of development, it was touted as the most powerful non-nuclear weapon ever designed.[2] The bomb was designed to be delivered by a C-130 Hercules, primarily the MC-130E Combat Talon I or MC-130H Combat Talon II variants.

      Since then, Russia has tested its "Father of All Bombs", which is claimed to be four times as powerful as the MOAB.[3]

      Delete
  27. May God Damn Idaho Governor'Butch' Otter to a temporary stay in Hell for vetoing the grocery tax repeal over the wishes of the overwhelmingly Republican Legislature.

    I hope they pass it over his veto. There is also talk of Court action though I don't see what it would be.

    Just who in hell does Otter think he is ?

    I'll tell you what he has proven himself to be with this veto -

    'Butch' Otter is a dick.

    (this is a term of high political art know only to the real pundits, and it is not complimentary at all, not at all)

    ReplyDelete
  28. SwedeNit of the Day: PM ANNOUNCEMENT

    Ja, vell, vat, you dink we bunch of dummmy fugs ?

    Swedish PM vows: Sweden will never go back to the days of mass immigration

    APRIL 12, 2017 10:45 AM BY CHRISTINE WILLIAMS

    SWEDEN’S prime minister vowed his country would “never go back” to the days of mass immigration after it emerged the Stockholm attacker was a failed asylum seeker.

    It’s a pity that it took an Islamic State jihadist perpetrating a carnage in Stockholm for the Swedish Prime Minister even to pay lip service to the idea of restricting immigration and not going back to “the days of mass immigration.” He should have have recognized the imminent threat long before this attack, but apparently it wasn’t enough for Stefan Löfven that a flood of Muslim migrants have turned his country into the rape capital of Europe (if not the world). Nor was it enough that violent no-go zones have sent feminists running out of Stockholm suburbs, or that nearly 100 asylum homes were torched deliberately, or that 80 percent of police are considering quitting their jobs, prompting one deputy chief of a serious crimes division to exclaim: “I’m so f***** tired. What I’m writing here isn’t politically correct. But I don’t care. Our pensioners are on their knees, the schools are a mess, healthcare is an inferno, the police is completely destroyed. Everyone knows why, but no one dares or wants to say why.”



    “Sweden will ‘NEVER GO BACK’ to mass immigration after Stockholm terror, says shocked PM”, by Vickiie Oliphant, Express, April 10, 2017:

    SWEDEN’S prime minister vowed his country would never go back to the days of mass immigration after it emerged the Stockholm attacker was a failed asylum seeker.

    During 2015 alone, Sweden received more than 160,000 asylum applications, resulting in the country closing its internal borders in an attempt to stagger the levels of migration into the country.

    And more than 3,000 migrants are still living illegally in the Swedish capital alone.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But now Stefan Löfven has pledged to change Sweden’s liberal attitudes to immigration, and insisted the massive influx would never be allowed to happen again.

      It comes after migrant Rakhmat Akilov from Uzbekistan drove a stolen 30-tonne truck into pedestrians at a busy department store in Stockholm on Friday.

      Four were killed, including Britton and father-of-two Chris Bevinton, and 15 injured in the harrowing attack, which showed clear similarities to the London terror attack last month.

      Akilov is believed to have carried out a reconnaissance of his route just days earlier.

      The failed asylum seeker had been given four weeks to leave Sweden in December after his final appeal failed.

      But he managed to evade detection simply by giving the authorities a fake address.

      Now Mr Löfven has pledged to crackdown on illegal immigration – vowing to deport migrants who’s [sic] asylum applications fail immediately.

      Speaking at the Social Democrats party conference in Gothenburg on Sunday, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said: “The situation in autumn 2015 was unsustainable. We must stand up for the right of asylum but if we don’t handle this situation so that people feel safe we will end up in a situation where people do not want to receive refugees at all.

      “The immigration legislation we had in autumn 2015 (was the result of the previous government).”

      He said the Swedish government bit off more than it could chew, and “we cannot make the same mistake again”.

      The fact the terror suspect should have been deported made the Prime Minister “frustrated”.

      He added: “If you are rejected you have to return home – otherwise we have no orderly migration.

      “We need to improve the ability to deport in an orderly way.”…..

      https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/04/swedish-pm-vows-sweden-will-never-go-back-to-the-days-of-mass-immigration


      In Europe Swedes are much dumber than Poles.

      In the USA Swedes are so much brighter than Poles.

      Everyone recognizes this truth but as of now no one has come up with a reason acceptable by all or even most as to why it is so.

      But it is so....


      Delete
  29. Anniversary of an Image

    Jewish Commentary

    MEIR Y. SOLOVEICHIK / APR. 6, 2017

    If you will it, it is no dream.


    David Rubinger’s iconic 1967 photograph

    ....In Rubinger’s photo, the emphasis is the exact opposite; what is stressed is not action but a sudden inaction. As Yossi Klein Halevi put it, the photo is stirring precisely because “at their moment of triumph, the conquerors are themselves conquered.” After achieving the most famous Jewish military victory in 2,000 years—becoming the first Jewish soldiers to hold Jerusalem since Bar Kochba’s rebellion—the soldiers stand still before the locus of Jewish longing. They suddenly seem, to paraphrase Milton Himmelfarb’s felicitous phrase, not actors but rather acted upon. Yitzchak Yifat seems awestruck at being a thoroughly ordinary person caught up in things great and inexplicable.

    Israel’s history contains grand photographic moments, such as Ben Gurion’s declaration of independence, Begin and Sadat at Camp David, the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin. Yet none of these looms as large in the public mind as Rubinger’s soldiers. Even many of the most beloved photos of Israel’s leaders show them less as statesmen than vulnerable human beings, and a great deal of them were taken by Rubinger: Golda Meir washing dishes and feeding her grandson, Menachem Begin devotedly placing a shoe on the foot of his wife Aliza. These are photos that involve juxtapositions of greatness and humility.

    This points to a dialectic at the heart of Zionism. Should Jewish achievement, one small people’s outsized impact on the world as it outlived all its enemies, be seen as a triumph of the human will, or as a miracle? Are Jews the primary actors in this story, or are they the acted upon? Which quote best captures the endurance and the achievements of the Jews—Herzl’s or Himmelfarb’s?...


    https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/anniversary-of-an-image/

    ReplyDelete
  30. Dark Matter
    A dark matter 'bridge' holding galaxies together has been captured for the first time

    Researchers at the University of Waterloo used a technique known as weak gravitational lensing to create a composite image of the bridge


    By VICTORIA WOOLLASTON
    Thursday 13 April 2017

    University of Waterloo
    The first image of a dark matter "bridge", believed to form the links between galaxies, has been captured by astrophysicists in Canada.


    Researchers at the University of Waterloo used a technique known as weak gravitational lensing to create a composite image of the bridge. Gravitational lensing is an effect that causes the images of distant galaxies to warp slightly under the influence of an unseen mass, such as a planet, a black hole, or in this case, dark matter.

    Universe's dark matter skeleton spotted for the first time

    Their composite image was made up of a combination of combined lensing images taken of more than 23,000 galaxy pairs, spotted 4.5 billion light-years away. This effect was measured from a multi-year sky survey at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope.

    READ NEXT
    This is the most detailed 'map' of dark matter ever seen


    By ABIGAIL BEALL
    These results show that the dark matter filament bridge is strongest between systems less than 40 million light years apart, and confirms predictions that galaxies across the Universe are tied together through a cosmic web of the elusive substance.

    Dark matter is a mysterious element said to make up around 84 per cent of the Universe. It's known as "dark" because it doesn't shine, absorb or reflect light, which has traditionally made it largely undetectable, except through gravity and gravitational lensing. Evidence for the existence of this form of matter comes, among other things, from the astrophysical observation of galaxies, which rotate far too rapidly to be held together only by the gravitational pull of the visible matter....

    http://www.wired.co.uk/article/dark-matter-bridge

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have lived through and into:

      The Steady State Model
      The Big Bang Oscillating Model
      The Big Bang Super Early Inflation Expanding Model
      The Big Bang Super Early Inflation Black Matter Expanding Model

      Delete
  31. "Q"Clit of the Day: Detroit, Michigan

    Detroit emergency room doctor charged with performing female genital mutilation

    POSTED:APR 13 2017 11:16AM CDT
    UPDATED:APR 13 2017 01:21PM CDT

    DETROIT (WJBK) - A Northville doctor was charged on Thursday with performing female genital mutilation on minor girls out of a Livonia medical office.

    According to the complaint filed in federal court, Dr. Jumana Nagarwala performed the procedure on girls between the ages of 6 and 8 years old. The complaint states that some members of a religion across the world have the procedure done to reduce sexual pleasure and promiscuity....

    http://www.fox32chicago.com/news/248386739-story#/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here's a pic of Dr. J -burka-ed up and ready for surgery -

      http://www.wxyz.com/news/detroit-emergency-room-doctor-charged-with-child-genital-mutilation

      Pappas ! Practice Islamophobia when choosing a Doctor for your daughters.

      Delete
    2. Mommas too ! Also guardians, designated medical providers,etc....

      Practice Islamophobia when choosing a Doctor for your daughters.

      Delete
  32. Humana, Jumana, and the "Q"Clit of the Day!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought "Q"Clit of the Day: Detroit, Michigan was good, and was very proud of myself when posting it.

      Whether it will juggle Quirk's belly I don't know, but I hope.

      Delete
  33. A former chief of the British spy agency MI6 has the name Sir Richard Dearlove.

    I find that so British and just darling.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/13/british-spies-first-to-spot-trump-team-links-russia

    ReplyDelete
  34. U.S. Air Force Is Planning Something Big in the Nevada Desert

    Unusually worded, multi-billion dollar drone services contract possibly points to a new, shadowy unmanned aircraft—and a lot of them.

    BY JOSEPH TREVITHICKAPRIL 10, 2017

    http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/9102/u-s-air-force-is-planning-something-big-in-the-nevada-desert

    Q was trying to get to the bottom of this some short years ago when he penetrated Area 51 in his Super Low Flyer Snoop Dog Ultralight.

    He promptly got his ass shot out of the air by an F-16, miraculously survived, crawled through the desert at night, shading up in the day, finally meeting me, looking like he'd gone through a meat grinder and red as a Santa suit, near Sheri's ****Four Star Ranch Brothel, outside of Pahrump, where I gave him a ride to a hospital in Vegas, where he immediately stole my car and money when I had stepped into a phone booth to make a call.

    That's the kind of guy Q is and that we all love, loathe and fear.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Snowing (again) in Truckee:

    https://hdontap.com/index.php/video/stream/downtown-truckee-california

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's nothing more exciting than the web cam at Truckee !

      Delete
  36. For Ash:

    Trump’s Syria Strike Was Constitutional

    Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/446692/trump-syria-strike-constitutional-presidents-have-broad-war-powers

    ReplyDelete
  37. What kind of scumbag would kidnap someone's dog?

    http://www.sacbee.com/entertainment/living/pets/article144491534.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I kidnapped my brother's hamster once, but he wouldn't pay me anything for it, so I gave it back.

      Delete
  38. Now that Trump attacked Syria with missiles, dispatched a nuclear strike force to North Korea and dropped the MOAB on Afghanistan, I suppose we can assume that he is no longer the stay at home, mind our own business kind a guy that he ran as. He got the taste in record time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      It's Bizarro-World on the Potomac.

      The Bull-in-Chief in this China shop known as America declares my way or the highway, in order to save the village he will destroy it, if the Dems don't come crawling to him and agree to buy into AHCA 1.1, he will consider cutting off all ACA subsidies to the poor, thus destroying the ACA, throwing up to 7 million of the poor off of health insurance, and throwing the insurance industry into turmoil.

      http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump%E2%80%99s-threat-prompts-democrats-to-play-hardball-over-obamacare-payments/ar-BBzONV7?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp

      The “cost-sharing reduction” payments are meant to subsidize out-of-pocket expenses for low-income Americans who receive insurance through ACA marketplaces, and the payments are seen as a key factor in maintaining the stability of the market for individual insurance in many states.
      House Republicans sued the administration of President Barack Obama over the payments, and they have been tied up in litigation for months as insurers have warned that the impasse could threaten coverage for many Americans.

      Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that he might hold back the payments to force Democrats to negotiate over replacing the Affordable Care Act. “I don’t want people to get hurt,” he told the paper. “What I think should happen — and will happen — is the Democrats will start calling me and negotiating.”

      Two Democratic aides familiar with the negotiations but not authorized to comment publicly on them said Trump’s remarks have now put the issue among the party’s top priorities as they negotiate a spending bill. Current federal appropriations expire April 28, and a partial government shutdown would follow if Republicans and Democrats cannot agree on how to extend funding...


      But the bizarre part...

      Trump supporter and spokesman, Jeffrey Lord (the funny looking guy with the white hair), compared Trump's threat to cut the subsidies to the poor as a tactic similar to MLK's organized protests during the civil rights struggle.

      Don't be surprised to see Trump soon comparing himself to MLK (only a little bit better).

      .

      Delete
    2. You can do better than that, Quirk.

      You compared him to Kim Jong un, who is a god.

      Try Moses, or Jesus. And he won't have to tan up for those roles, either.

      Think biggly, boy.

      Delete
  39. Steve Bannon may be on the way out the door.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What does Steve Bannon want ?

      https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/25/opinion/what-does-steve-bannon-want.html?_r=0

      I don't think he knows himself.

      Delete
  40. TALLEY: Melania best thing about Trump admin....DRUDGE

    He's got that right.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Ho Lee Fuk

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpP2S6c74Ts

    ReplyDelete
  42. Updated by Geller

    "Q"Clit of the Day: Detroit, Michigan

    Detroit: Muslim Doctor Busted for Female Genital Mutilations of Girls Across American Midwest
    By Pamela Geller - on April 13, 2017
    FGM: FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION/CLITORIDECTOMY

    A Detroit Muslim doctor was arrested by the FBI Thursday and charged with carrying out female genital mutilations (FGM) on multiple six to eight-year-old girls at her Livonia, Michigan office, just 14 miles from the Muslim capital of America, Dearborn.

    There are no women’s marches against this Muslim barbarian. No organized movement against this evil practice. On the contrary, the women’s movement is led by Linda Sarsour, a sharia-supporting anti-Israel bigot, and Rasmea Yousef Odeh, a convicted terrorist.


    The gruesome practice of female genital mutilation is at record highs and on the rise in America due to the influx of Muslim immigrants.



    The enemedia always goes out of its way to cover for and scrub Islam from any connection with this misogynistic Islamic practice. Authorities will never be able to address the problem adequately because they’re too busy going out their way to say that it is not Islamic in practice Female genital mutilation (FGM) or clitoridectomy is an Islamic tradition, rampant in the Muslim world. Dissemblers and deceivers claim that FGM is cultural phenomenon, not religious. FGM is an Islamic cultural phenomenon. FGM is found only within and adjacent to Muslim communities (source: Gerry Mackie, “Ending Footbinding and Infibulation: A Convention Account”, American Sociological Review.)

    200 Million Girls Have Undergone FGM, 70 Million More Than Previously Thought

    “In fact, genital disfigurement has become so common in America’s immigrant communities that the Department of Justice has taken to printing Arabic brochures for immigrants, encouraging them not to disfigure young girls by removing their sexual organs.”

    Now under President Trump, finally a prosecution (unlike pro-sharia President Obama).

    Look at how the millennials view this issue – their minds destroyed by leftist inculcation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MUSLIM DOCTOR BUSTED FOR FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION IN DETROIT
      By Daniel Greenfield, April 13, 2017

      It’s another glorious first for our multicultural tapestry. It’s right up there with the Muslim Ms Marvel. Except it’s real life.



      Jumana Fakhruddin Nagarwala has become the first person arrested in America for female genital mutilation. Unsurprisingly this has happened in an area with a high concentration of Muslims. And even more predictably, the media is carefully avoiding the “I” word.

      Jumana Nagarwala, an emergency room physician at Henry Ford Hospital, was arrested today for allegedly performing the procedure on victims between the ages of six and eight.

      Nagarwala, a 44-year-old graduate of Johns Hopkins University’s medical school, performed the genital mutilation surgery at a medical clinic in Livonia, a Detroit suburb. Nagarwala, investigators allege, does not work as the clinic “and there is no record of her billing for medical procedures there.”

      As detailed in a criminal complaint accusing her of multiple felonies, Nagarwala (seen above) performed mutilation surgery on a pair of girls who traveled to Michigan from Minnesota in February. One child told a forensic interviewer that she was brought to Detroit for a “special” girls trip. While there, the girl recalled, she and the other minor went to the doctor because “our tummies hurt.” While at the doctor’s office, the child added, a procedure was performed “to get the germs out.”

      The second Minnesota girl told a forensic interviewer that, “her parents told her the procedure is a secret and that she is not supposed to talk about it.” The girl added that after the procedure she “could barely walk, and that she felt pain all the way down to her ankle.”

      An FBI investigation, the complaint notes, has identified other children “who may have been victimized by Nagarwala.” Multiple Michigan girls interviewed this week told federal agents that “procedures had been performed on their genitals by Nagarwala.”

      FBI Agent Kevin Swanson reported in the affidavit that female genital mutilation is practiced by “some members of a particular religious and cultural community,” of which Nagarwala is a member. One purpose of the surgery, Swanson noted, was to “curb the sexuality of girls and women by making sex painful.”
      A “particular religious and cultural community”. Guess which one.

      Media accounts carefully stick to calling her Jumana Nagarwala. She appears to be an Indian Muslim and this makes her religion appear more ambiguous. But her full name is Jumana Fakhruddin Nagarwala. Fakrhuddin means Pride in Religion. And it isn’t the Amish religion.



      The Detroit News, which often reads like a local version of Al Jazeera, claims that FGM is a Christian, Jewish and Muslim practice. Then it mentions…

      Nagarwala was arrested Wednesday night and arraigned in federal court Thursday. She was dressed in a light-colored, matching dress and khimar, or veil that covered her head, neck and shoulders.
      The Khimar is a Muslim head-covering.

      And so we have a long series of stories about the first FGM arrest in America that never mention the “I” word. Because this is how our fake news media operates.

      http://pamelageller.com/2017/04/detroit-muslim-doctor-busted-female-genital-mutilations-girls-across-american-midwest.html/

      Delete
  43. Russia finds a new pressing legitimate national interest in Nicaragua -


    April 14, 2017
    The Russians are coming...to Nicaragua?
    By Silvio Canto, Jr.

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/04/the_russians_are_coming_to_nicaragua.html


    ReplyDelete
  44. My doctor told me I'm full of shit, but she still thinks I'm hot:

    https://www.ispot.tv/ad/AejS/movantik-franks-moment

    ReplyDelete
  45. Steve Kerr and the Islamic Jihad/Hezbollah

    Kerr was born in Beirut, Lebanon, a son of Malcolm H. Kerr, an American academic who specialized in the Middle East, and his wife Ann.[2] He has three siblings.[3] His grandfather Stanley Kerr volunteered with the Near East Relief after the Armenian Genocide and rescued women and orphans in Aleppo and Marash before eventually settling in Beirut.[4]

    Kerr spent much of his childhood in Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries. He attended Cairo American College in Egypt, the American Community School in Beirut, Lebanon, and Palisades High School (now Palisades Charter High School) in Los Angeles.

    His 52-year-old father Malcolm was murdered by the Islamic Jihad (later, elements of Islamic Jihad formed Hezbollah), on the morning of January 18, 1984, while he was serving as president of the American University of Beirut in Beirut.
    His father was shot twice in the back of his head, by gunmen using silencer-equipped revolvers, in the hallway outside his office.


    Kerr was 18 years old at the time, and a college freshman.[5]

    Steve Kerr said:
    "Before my father was killed, my life was impenetrable. Bad things happened to other people."[2]

    The Kerr family sued the Iranian government under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.[9]
    While warming up for a game at Arizona State in 1988, Kerr had to deal with a number of fans in the crowd chanting "PLO" and "your father's history".[10][11] Though teary-eyed, Kerr scored 20 points in the first half, making all six of his 3-point attempts.[11] The athletic director of Arizona State, Charles Harris, sent a letter of apology to Kerr a few days later.[12]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Kerr

    ReplyDelete
  46. MUTILATING LITTLE GIRLS IN MICHIGAN’S LITTLE PALESTINE
    A female genital mutilation horror in the Midwest.
    April 14, 2017 Daniel Greenfield

    Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam.

    Livonia, Michigan is known as Little Palestine. The Detroit suburb is famous for its anti-Israel meetings. You could go hear Mustafa Barghouthi, Omar Barghouti and Ali Abunimah without taking a long drive.

    It’s also known for its shady doctors.

    Dr. Murtaza Hussain was busted for letting unlicensed employees diagnose patients and write prescriptions. Dr. Waseem Alam and Dr. Hatem Ataya pleaded guilty in the nation’s largest Medicare fraud case totaling $712 million in false billings centering on Shahid Tahir, Muhammad Tariq and Manavar Javed’s Livonia medical firms. But what was going on at one Livonia clinic was far worse than the theft of millions. Anyone passing by at the right time could hear the screams of little girls.

    We think of horrors like female genital mutilation as a terrible thing that happens over “there.” But as the implacable tide of Muslim immigration swept across Europe, “there” became the United Kingdom.

    England recorded 5,700 cases of FGM in less than a year. France has jailed 100 people for FGM. An estimated 50,000 women in Germany have undergone FGM with a 30 percent boost due to the rise of Islamic migration in the last several years. In Sweden, it’s 38,000. And now, as American towns and cities are reshaped by Muslim migration, “there” is now right here. The terrible practice is in America.

    Sweden was the first Western country to outlaw FGM. But despite the prevalence of FGM in Sweden, there have only been a handful of convictions. The United States banned FGM in 1997. A Federal report in 2012 warned that 513,000 women and girls in the United States were at risk for FGM.

    Now after twenty years of the law’s existence, a Muslim doctor has become the first to be charged.

    Operating out of a Livonia clinic, Jumana Fakhruddin Nagarwala abused unknown numbers of little girls. The end came when law enforcement traced calls to her from a Minnesota number. Then they followed the trail to a hotel in Farmington Hills; a Michigan city at the center of an Islamic Center controversy....

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/266413/mutilating-little-girls-michigans-little-palestine-daniel-greenfield

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  47. .

    Fake News?

    The Detroit News, which often reads like a local version of Al Jazeera, claims that FGM is a Christian, Jewish and Muslim practice. Then it mentions…

    And so we have a long series of stories about the first FGM arrest in America that never mention the “I” word. Because this is how our fake news media operates.



    Fake News?

    Pamela Geller's definition of 'Fake News': Any news published that doesn't conform to the ignorant bullshit she puts out.

    The Detroit News, which often reads like a local version of Al Jazeera,

    The first piece of bullshit in Geller's post. The Detroit News is almost 150 years old and in that time the only year it didn't endorse a GOP candidate was when it endorsed the Libertarian Johnson rather than Trump on the basis that Trump was not only incompetent but possibly dangerous.

    The DT is considered the 'conservative' news paper in Detroit with the 'progressive' Detroit Free Press being its main competition. It's owned by the same media group that owns the Denver Post. Its editorial policy is strongly conservative leaning towards libertarian. The comment by Geller shows her ignorance while the highlighting of her comment shows the ignorance of the morons who follow her.

    ...claims that FGM is a Christian, Jewish and Muslim practice.

    More fake news Geller. While having breakfast, I've read the print editions of both the News and the Freep, both yesterday and today. After reading Geller's comment, I checked the online version of the News. I didn't see anything like this in either paper. Both papers indicate that FMG is practiced widely among peoples in Africa, the ME and Asia and is a cultural and religious practice. No mention of specific religions.

    In fact, most scientific studies on the subject point to the fact that the practice is based
    on cultural traditions rather than religion. Although it is practiced within Muslim, Christian, and certain Jewish sects, it is rejected by the religious leaders of all three. In fact, the practice predates both Christianity and Islam.

    And so we have a long series of stories about the first FGM arrest in America that never mention the “I” word. Because this is how our fake news media operates.

    It certainly is but not in the way Geller asserts. Geller is part of the fake news media and this story is a good example.

    The story about the Detroit doctor performing FGM should provide a caution to the dolts who buy into the claims by those bigots like Geller and Spencer et al who stoke fears of Sharia taking over America. Despite their twisted views, in this case the law seems to be working like it is supposed to. If this doctor is convicted of performing FGM on anyone, she will be facing 10 years to life.

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  48. .

    The Big Bang

    Cost calculations underpin warfare in terms of hard cash damage to economies and societies – what is called resilience.

    Which makes the use of one of the US military’s largest non-nuclear explosive devices – the MOAB – to kill 36 jihadis in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, somewhat baffling in military terms.

    Each MOAB, or massive ordinance air blast – nicknamed the “mother of all bombs” – costs $16m (£13m) out of a total programme cost of $314m which produced about 20 of the bombs.

    Crunched down – and in the most cold-blooded terms – that means the US military has expended some 5% of its stockpile of MOABs to kill three dozen Isis members at a cost of almost $450,000 per individual.


    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/14/moab-attack-isis-baffling-choice-cold-blooded-terms-cost-afghanistan


    Big bang, big show, and from what we have seen, small reward.

    Policy or PR?

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