jerseyhoya wrote:"I don't understand how Republicans think, what motivates them or how they make decisions, but I have my finger on the pulse of what they're setting up to do in six months despite all statements to the contrary"

jerseyhoya wrote:Anti-Semitism Rises in Europe Amid Israel-Gaza Conflict

Weird, that never happens

Rep. Pelosi called me an 'insignificant person' on the Floor of the House. I'll ponder that for a while driving to Williamsport tonight......of course I'll be driving myself, with no staff or security. And I'm just a country lawyer who worked in a bakery until he was 30...

The groups, with members of groups including Oathkeepers, Three Percenters and Patriots, began recruiting and organizing more than a month ago as national media outlets began focusing on the growing number of Central American immigrants illegally crossing the border, including more than 50,000 unaccompanied minors.

Barbie Rogers, founder of the Patriots Information Hotline, which is helping organize and recruit for the militia groups, said there are 10 "operations on the ground along the Texas border" from El Paso to Laredo to the Valley. Many of the groups are stationed on ranch land with permission from the owners, she said.

In an interview with the Express-News last month, Chris Davis, commander of the militia's Operation Secure Our Border: Laredo Sector, who is seen in some of the photos, said members would secure the border in a "legal and lawful manner."

In 21-minute YouTube video that has since been deleted, Davis said: "How? You see an illegal. You point your gun dead at him, right between his eyes, and you say, 'Get back across the border or you will be shot.'"

Davis, a 37-year-old truck driver from Von Ormy, was discharged from the Army in 2001 "under other than honorable conditions in lieu of trial by court-martial," according to a summary of his military service obtained by the Express-News.

The Texas militia's operation names, according to Rogers, are: Bolinas Border Patrol, Central Valley Militia, Independent Citizens Militia, Alpha Team, Bravo Team, FOB Harmony, Operation Secure Our Border: Laredo Sector, O'Shanessy's Team, the 77's and Camp Geronimo.

pacino wrote:Pelosi was one of the most successful speakers in the history of our nation. If she brought up a bill, it passed. She kept her party in line. She also DID actually pass the DREAM act in 2010. Marino was outright lying about her not doing anything while she was steps away from him. This actually seems like a topic that hits her for real and not just for politics, and so she reacted 'out of step'. It's out of step in US politics, and that's about it. We keep this fake civility going that doesn't actually exist. Marino is from Northeast PA, but personally, I'd rather be on her side than his.

What actually happened is the filibuster in the Senate has been used more times than at any other time in history.

Rep. Pelosi called me an 'insignificant person' on the Floor of the House. I'll ponder that for a while driving to Williamsport tonight......of course I'll be driving myself, with no staff or security. And I'm just a country lawyer who worked in a bakery until he was 30...

Yes, a 'country lawyer' who was a DA and US attorney for 20 years and the manager of a large bakery. the way he played down his own history is quite weird.

The House Intelligence Committee, led by Republicans, has concluded that there was no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama administration in the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, said Rep. Mike Thompson of St. Helena, the second-ranking Democrat on the committee.

The panel voted Thursday to declassify the report, the result of two years of investigation by the committee. U.S. intelligence agencies will have to approve making the report public.

Thompson said the report "confirms that no one was deliberately misled, no military assets were withheld and no stand-down order (to U.S. forces) was given."

That conflicts with accusations of administration wrongdoing voiced by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista (San Diego County), whose House Government Oversight and Reform Committee has held hearings on the Benghazi attack.

-- Intelligence agencies were "warned about an increased threat environment, but did not have specific tactical warning of an attack before it happened."

-- "A mixed group of individuals, including those associated with al Qaeda, (Moammar) Khadafy loyalists and other Libyan militias, participated in the attack."

-- "There was no 'stand-down order' given to American personnel attempting to offer assistance that evening, no illegal activity or illegal arms transfers occurring by U.S. personnel in Benghazi, and no American was left behind."

-- The administration's process for developing "talking points" was "flawed, but the talking points reflected the conflicting intelligence assessments in the days immediately following the crisis."

Those talking points included assertions that those who attacked the compound were angered by an obscure anti-Muhammad video posted to YouTube in the U.S. There is disagreement to this day about whether that was the case.

jerseyhoya wrote:Watching the Eclipse - Good long read on Russia from David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker and long time Russia guy. Draws a lot from talking to ex Ambassador McFaul, but also from his connections in Russia including a bunch of people who really like Putin.

As the conversation developed, McFaul realized that they were implying two things: that he was a C.I.A. agent and that the Yeltsin forces might postpone the elections. What they wanted from Washington, they made clear, was “coöperation.” If the election was postponed, they said, they wanted Washington to “hold your nose and support us.”

Finally, McFaul broke in and said, “Hey, I’m just an untenured assistant professor at Stanford.”

Igor replied, “Stop! I know who you are! I wouldn’t have brought you here if I didn’t.”

BAGHDAD — Stranded on a barren mountaintop, thousands of minority Iraqis are faced with a bleak choice: descend and risk slaughter at the hands of the encircled Sunni extremists or sit tight and risk dying of thirst.

Humanitarian agencies said Tuesday that between 10,000 and 40,000 civilians remain trapped on Mount Sinjar since being driven out of surrounding villages and the town of Sinjar two days earlier. But the mountain that had looked like a refuge is becoming a graveyard for their children.

Unable to dig deep into the rocky mountainside, displaced families said they have buried young and elderly victims of the harsh conditions in shallow graves, their bodies covered with stones. Iraqi government planes attempted to airdrop bottled water to the mountain on Monday night but reached few of those marooned
“There are children dying on the mountain, on the roads,” said Marzio Babille, the Iraq representative for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). “There is no water, there is no vegetation, they are completely cut off and surrounded by Islamic State. It’s a disaster, a total disaster.”

Most of those who fled Sinjar are from the minority Yazidi sect, which melds parts of ancient Zoroastrianism with Christianity and Islam. They are considered by the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State to be devil worshippers and apostates.

Iraqi Kurdish security forces known as pesh merga are attempting to secure a road from the mountain to the nearby city of Rabia, but the process involves clearing villages where locals are sympathetic to the militants, said Majid Shingali, another local parliamentarian, who left Sinjar on Saturday.

Kurdish factions in neighboring Syria say they are entering Iraq to assist this country’s Kurds as they face Islamic State along a 650-mile front.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), designated a terrorist organization by the United States for its armed struggle against the Turkish state, also called for all Kurdish factions to unite against the Sunni extremists.

Babille, UNICEF’s Iraq representative, said that U.N. agencies have offered the Iraqi government technical assistance with airdrops but have yet to be asked for help. At least 15 to 20 flights would be needed just to provide those stranded with enough water and supplies to survive for a week, he said

jerseyhoya wrote:Israel and Gaza - Just and Unjust War

I'm not naturally philosophical in nature I suppose, and I'm not a liberal Jewish American, but I found myself agreeing and identifying with a lot of the thinking here.