DOVER, Del. — Incumbent Tom Carper won Thursday’s Democratic US Senate primary in Delaware, easily fending off a challenge from a political newcomer who had hoped to become the latest liberal candidate to score an upset against a powerful legislator.
Carper’s victory sets up a November race against Rob Arlett, President Trump’s former campaign chairman in this heavily Democratic state. Arlett defeated former PayPal executive Gene Truono in the Republican primary.
Just going to have to spin the Diehl, I guess.
Carper, 71, won by nearly 2-to-1 against Kerry Evelyn Harris, who was part of a wave of young activists emboldened by the 2016 presidential campaign of US Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Harris, a black, gay Air Force veteran and former auto body mechanic, ran on a platform including government-paid health care for all, a $15-an-hour minimum wage, and abolition of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. She tried to paint Carper as an out-of-touch, career politician beholden to corporations and their political action committees.
Republican voters also chose businessman Scott Walker as their nominee for Delaware’s lone US House seat. Walker, a business owner and landlord, ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Democrat two years ago.
"The 67-year-old Walker defeated actor and retired railroad industry worker Lee Murphy on Thursday and will face incumbent Democrat Lisa Blunt Rochester in November.
Blunt Rochester easily won a six-way Democratic primary for Congress in 2016. Walker finished fifth in that race with less than 5 percent of the vote.
Walker's political fortunes changed after he switched parties. During the campaign, Walker stressed the need to improve the nation's defense, economy and health care system. He also noted that he recently became very religious, and that he has God on his side to help conquer every problem."
Why did the web version exorcise that?
--more--"
Related:
With God On Our Side
Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side.
Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.
Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I's made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.
Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.
When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.
I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.
But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.
In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.
So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war.
Dylan now born again, and I'm going to have the temerity to add my own verse:
It was a September morning
When the towers they fell
Then on to Iraq
And straight into Hell
The wars were forever
All based on lies
For we had to defeat ISIS
With God on our side
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Thus it was that I saw this headline and my heart dropped in my chest:
"Trump approves indefinite US presence inside Syria" by Karen DeYoung Washington Post September 07, 2018
That's it then.
WASHINGTON — President Trump, who just five months ago said he wanted ‘‘to get out’’ of Syria and bring US troops home soon, has approved a new strategy for an indefinitely extended military, diplomatic, and economic effort there, according to senior State Department officials.
Meaning the SAME OLD STRATEGY of REGIME CHANGE has been extended.
This is discouraging and disheartening news on several fronts. What it shows is that there is no chance of ever having an anti-interventionist president.
That doesn't make him a saint, but when you look back at what his instincts are and what he has tried to do, it's been to disengage.
He wanted out of Afghanistan and had to be reluctantly dragged into a troop increase by the since departed McMaster.
He wanted a rapprochement with Russia, and you have seen how that has gone.
He wanted out of Syria, and now has been turned around on it. Worse yet, this position is exactly what Israel wanted. You add it to the position he has taken regarding the Palestinians, and one wonders how soon it will be before we attack Iran.
Now you look at what is going on with the New York Times and Bo$ton Globe, and you have to wonder if all this turmoil is to distract Trump even more as he focuses on the midterm elections.
Even the actions he has taken, missile strikes, money being lavished on the war machine, the space force, I see as red meat being thrown at the ravenous psychopaths so that they will stay off his back. What he really wants is an honest and deserved Peace Prize (unlike the last mass-murdering war criminal), and I don't care what the reason. If it's to feed his ego, fine. As long as he keeps us out of wars.
Although the military campaign against the Islamic State has been nearly completed, the administration has redefined its goals to include the exit of all Iranian military and proxy forces from Syria, and establishment of a stable, nonthreatening government acceptable to all Syrians and the international community.
Yup, regime change, same as it has always been, and that is a very interesting position regarding Iran and their proxies, and I will tell you why:
The Iranians and Russians have BEEN INVITED IN by the LEGITIMATE and RECOGNIZED GOVERNMENT of SYRIA!
The U.S. has NOT BEEN INVITED, and therefore is THERE ILLEGALLY! The occupational umbrella in Idlib is protecting the terrorists!
As for the proxies, the problem is that Hezbollah and its political allies expanded their share of seats in Lebanon’s Parliament, increasing their political clout at the expense of the country’s Western-backed prime minister, a victory for “the Iranian axis” that would change Israel’s calculus should it wage a new war against the militant group."
Meanwhile, "in a separate development Monday, the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah says the militant group is ready to withdraw its forces from Iraq once the government in Baghdad declares victory against the Islamic State. Hassan Nasrallah said that Hezbollah’s mission in Iraq has been accomplished with the Islamic State’’s defeat. Hezbollah has maintained advisers and commanders in Iraq, assisting Shi’ite militias in their war against ISIS. The group has also sent thousands of its fighters to neighboring Syria to shore up President Bashar Assad’s forces. ‘‘If there is no need for them in Iraq anymore, we will withdraw them and send them to areas where they are needed,’’ he said.
That would mean Saudi Arabia, who once held sway in Lebanon, has been forced out but I won't elaborate any further because Lebanon’s gay pride week brought a halt to it all.
Looks like they might have to go back into Iraq to help get the power back on and calm things down (looks like another CIA destabilization campaign).
Also see:
"In Lebanon, Syrian refugees have begun building lives in similar camps intended to be temporary way-stations. Turkey remains the country with the largest number of Syrian refugees, but tiny Lebanon holds the highest concentration per capita of refugees in the world...."
Is that counting Palestinians, too, because if not the concentration will zoom.
Much of the motivation for the change, officials said, stems from growing doubts about whether Russia, which Trump has said could be a partner, is able and willing to help eject Iran. Russia and Iran have together been Syrian President Bashar Assad’s principal allies in obliterating a years-long effort by domestic rebels to oust the Syrian leader.
Well, Putin has insisted that the terrorists inside Idlib have to be removed, and the U.S. is getting ready to stage a phony or false flag chemical weapons attack to justify military action yet again.
The obvious question is: why would Assad do something so foolish in front of U.S. forces when he has already taken back the rest of the country?
The answer is he wouldn't -- if he ever even did.
CUI BONO?
Related: "The government is openly boasting about its victories, and there is no shortage of posters and billboards for the triumphant message after almost seven and a half years of war and about 400,000 deaths....."
And for what?
A failed effort at regime change?
‘‘The new policy is we’re no longer pulling out by the end of the year,’’ said James Jeffrey, a retired senior Foreign Service officer who last month was named Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s ‘‘representative for Syria engagement.’’ About 2,200 US troops are serving in Syria, virtually all of them devoted to the war against the Islamic State in the eastern third of the country.
Jeffrey said US forces are to remain in the country to ensure an Iranian departure and the ‘‘enduring defeat’’ of the Islamic State.
‘‘That means we are not in a hurry,’’ he said. Asked whether Trump had signed off on what he called ‘‘a more active approach,’’ Jeffrey said, ‘‘I am confident the president is on board with this.’’
You mean he might not be?
Jeffrey declined to describe any new military mission, but he emphasized what he said would be a ‘‘major diplomatic initiative’’ in the United Nations and elsewhere, and the use of economic tools, presumably including more sanctions on Iran and Russia and the stated US refusal to fund reconstruction in Assad-controlled Syria, but the more activist policies he outlined, and only in vague terms, could increase the likelihood of a direct confrontation with Iran, and potentially with Russia.
It will be WWIII and the fulfillment of prophecy!
Jeffrey’s description of a much broader US role follows years of criticism from lawmakers and analysts that neither Trump nor his predecessor, Barack Obama, had a coherent strategy for Syria. Trump, like Obama, insisted that US interests were focused on defeating the Islamic State, and he resisted significant involvement in the civil war against Assad raging in the rest of the country, even as both Iran and Russia increased their influence.
Jeffrey and retired Army Colonel Joel Rayburn, who transferred to the State Department from the National Security Council last month to become ‘‘special envoy for Syria,’’ were brought in to try to create a coherent blueprint that would prevent a repeat of what the administration sees as the mistakes of Iraq — where a precipitous US pullout left the field open for Iran, and for a resurgence of Sunni militants that gave birth to the Islamic State.
Except "in a risky alliance, the US military is now training, sharing intelligence, and planning missions with former members of Iranian-backed militias that once fought and killed Americans."
--more--"
Related:
"Syria’s war could be entering more dangerous phase" by Liz Sly Washington Post August 11, 2018
BEIRUT — As Syria’s war enters what could be its last and most dangerous stretch, the Syrian government and its allies will have to contend for the first time with foreign troops in the quest to bring the rest of the country back under President Bashar al-Assad’s control.
The government’s recent defeat of rebels in the southwest of Syria has put Assad unassailably in control of a majority of the country, his hold on power now facing no discernible military or diplomatic threat, but at least one-third of Syria remains outside government control, and those areas are occupied both by Turkish and American troops.
Thus they must be expelled.
Turkey has deployed soldiers in the northwest, in parts of the rebel-held province of Aleppo and in Idlib, which Assad has identified as the next target of an offensive. About 2000 US Special Forces hold sway in the northeast, in support of their Kurdish allies fighting against the Islamic State.
The Kurds have finally come to their senses.
Iran has meanwhile entrenched its forces and allied militias alongside loyalist Syrian troops across government-held territory, stirring deep concern for Israel.
Another War for the Jews!
Even as the war enters its final stages, the risk that it could ignite a wider conflict has not passed, analysts say.
It will fall to Russia to steer Syria through the pitfalls ahead, as the only outside power to enjoy good relations with all the countries that have a stake in the Syrian war, including Israel and Iran.
Oh, so now it is ALL RUSSIA'S RESPONSIBILITY?
SAYS WHO?
After intervening in the conflict in 2015 to save the Assad regime, Moscow has largely succeeded in balancing the competing interests of the various players, tamping down fears that the conflict could ignite a regional conflagration, but Russia’s capacity to manage these competing concerns is limited and will be tested by the coming battles, said Riad Khawija, who heads the Dubai-based Inegma defense consultancy.
‘‘Russia is not as much in control as it likes to appear,’’ he said, citing the apparent failure of recent Russian diplomacy aimed at addressing Israel’s concerns about Iran’s presence.
See: UN peacekeepers back on Golan Heights-Syria frontier
Israel acknowledged a return to normalcy along the frontier.
‘‘Iran has invested so much in Syria, it’s not going to leave now, if ever,’’ he said. ‘‘So with Iran refusing to get its forces out of Syria and the Israel insistence that it leave, eventually there is going to be a clash.’’
Russia’s priorities for now are to stabilize the areas already recaptured by Syrian forces, bring back at least some of the 6 million refugees who fled the country, rebuild the Syrian army, kick-start reconstruction and secure international recognition for Russian efforts through a peace settlement, said Kamal Alam of the London-based Royal United Services Institute, who was recently in Damascus.
I will bet they don't even care about that last one.
‘‘The Russians are aware that the areas that have been retaken are ticking time bombs and they want to make sure there are no large-scale revenge attacks,’’ he said. ‘‘The war isn’t quite over but now is the time to stabilize the country and in reality the hard work has been done.’’
The immediate priority for the Syrian government, however, is to regain the remaining territories outside its control, starting with the province of Idlib, according to recent statements by Assad and his allies.
Syrian troops that have been freed up after pacifying the south have been redeploying to the north in anticipation of an offensive in Idlib.
At the same time, Turkey has been reinforcing its observation posts in the province, which were established under an agreement with the Russians.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called Idlib a ‘‘red line’’ and vowed to defend any attempt to reclaim the province from Turkey’s sphere of influence, raising the risk of a showdown between his country, which is a NATO ally, and Syria, Russia, and Iran.
The Turks are tough, but they are going to lose that one.
A fight for Idlib could be more devastating than any of the previous battles. As Syrian forces recaptured other pockets of territory, the battles were settled by evacuating rebels to Idlib, which now contains up to 70,000 fighters.
Everyone knows the US is harboring terrorists.
That is the biggest concentration of opposition fighters yet assembled. A significant number of those are extremists belonging to Al Qaeda affiliates in Syria. There are also an estimated 3 million civilians in Idlib, many of whom took refuge there after fleeing fighting elsewhere in the country. An assault on Idlib could trigger Syria’s largest humanitarian crisis yet and a prompt a new exodus of refugees to Turkey and perhaps to Europe, analysts say.
Russian officials have made it clear they would prefer a negotiated solution for Idlib, along the lines of the one that ended the recent battle for southwestern Syria — a relatively bloodless outcome compared with bloodbaths elsewhere.
Others do not, cui bono?
In the southwest, most of the rebel groups agreed to reconcile with the Syrian government in return for local control, and some joined loyalist troops to fight for a last pocket controlled by the Islamic State.
They must have read a leaflet.
Russia’s special envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, told the Russian news agency Tass that Russia hopes to use southwestern Syria as a model for Idlib.
--more--"
The hopes were blown up the very next day by Israeli jets and Islamic State bombings, and the deaths are piling up.
Related:
Air strikes kill 23 in ISIS-held territory in Syria
Airstrike in southern Syria kills families hiding in shelter from offensive
US-led coalition caused many civilian deaths in fight for Raqqa
What if it turns out Trump was right about Syria?
"US, three other nations back Britain over Russian role in former spy’s poisoning" by Karla Adam Washington Post September 06, 2018
LONDON — Moscow strongly denies involvement in the attack, and Russian officials said they didn’t recognize the suspects.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, called the accusations leveled against Putin and the Russian government ‘‘unacceptable.’’
‘‘Neither the Russian leadership nor its representatives have anything to do with the events in Salisbury,’’ he said.
Peskov also said that Russia ‘‘has no reasons’’ to investigate the two individuals charged on Wednesday because Britain has not asked for legal assistance in the case.
Britain has said it is not going to seek the men’s extradition because Russian law does not allow for the extradition of its nationals to be tried abroad.
Russian officials have been vehemently denying the fresh accusations. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova went on national television Wednesday evening, claiming that the security camera footage of the two suspects arriving at Gatwick Airport released by the British authorities has been doctored because it shows them at the same time in the same place. A closer look, however, shows that the men were walking in different gate corridors.
I'm not surprised at all that it's a false charge and fakery.
What surprise me is how sloppy MI6 has become.
Zakharova on Thursday accused Britain of ‘‘concealing the evidence,’’ and demanded that Britain share the suspects’ fingerprints and other data, but there is limited appetite among Britain’s European allies for further sanctions against Moscow.
How about a war then?
The reason there is no appetite for sanctions is because they are hurting the allies more than the Russians!
Britain planned to press its case against Russia at the UN Security Council later on Thursday.
--more--"
The point of that absurd item is to make the link in the readers mind that Russia would use chemical weapons, and thus wouldn't stop Syria from doing so even though Syria has no chemical weapons, at least not since 2014. OPCW verified it and everything, and of course, if claims of chemical weapons being used again makes it Russia's failure as noted in the earlier article above.
Btw, whatever happened to that arms control deal?
Time to head to Asia:
"A powerful earthquake Thursday on Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido triggered dozens of landslides that crushed houses under torrents of dirt, rocks, and timber, prompting frantic efforts to unearth any survivors. At least nine people were killed, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said. At least 366 were injured, five of them seriously, and about 30 people were unaccounted for after the magnitude 6.7 earthquake jolted residents from their beds at 3:08 a.m. Nearly 3 million households were left without power by the quake, the latest in an exhausting run of natural disasters for Japan. It paralyzed normal business on the island, as blackouts cut off water to homes, immobilized trains and airports, and shut down phone systems. In the town of Atsuma, where entire hillsides collapsed, rescuers used small backhoes and shovels to search for survivors under the tons of earth that tumbled down steep mountainsides, burying houses. The area’s deep green hills were marred by reddish-brown gashes where the soil tore loose under the violent tremors."
Comes just after a typhoon hit.
"Police in Thailand have arrested 12 people who shared a Facebook post about a British tourist’s allegation that police had refused to accept her rape complaint. A lawyer for the 12 Thai men said Thursday they were arrested in several different provinces this week on charges of violating the Computer Crime Act. They could face up to five years in prison and fines if convicted of spreading false information and damaging national security. Police deny turning away the British woman and say their investigation determined that her claim of being raped on the island of Koh Tao in June was false. The Computer Crime Act has been used to prosecute people for posting about the country’s monarchy or political issues but rarely for purely criminal cases. The 19-year-old woman, who has since returned to England, has told journalists she believes she was drugged by someone who spiked her drink, and woke up on a beach to find that she had been raped and robbed. ‘‘From our initial investigation, we concluded and reported to our police commissioner that at the moment there is no evidence or witnesses to prove that the incident has happened, not on a drug claim or a rape claim,’’ Deputy Tourist Police chief Major General Surachet Hakpan said at a news conference Thursday."
Is that where we are headed, America?
"A Philippine senator who has taken refuge in the Senate building to avoid an arrest order asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to declare the order illegal and called on the army to defy it. Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, Duterte’s fiercest critic in Congress, told the high court in a petition that Duterte’s proclamation voiding his 2011 amnesty for links to failed coup attempts and ordering his arrest was baseless. ‘‘Their basis for this proclamation is a big lie,’’ Trillanes told reporters in the Senate building, where he has remained since Duterte’s order was made public Tuesday. Duterte has openly expressed anger at Trillanes, who has accused him of corruption and involvement in illegal drugs. The standoff has unfolded while Duterte is on a visit to Israel and Jordan. He is scheduled to fly home Sunday. The Department of Justice said Duterte voided Trillanes’s amnesty because the senator did not file a formal amnesty application and admit guilt for his role in past coup attempts. Trillanes, however, has presented documents, showing he applied for the amnesty and acknowledged his role in three military uprisings between 2003 and 2007."
That was of primary concern to my paper.
So was this:
"Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia on Thursday criticized the public caning of two Muslim women for attempting to have sex, saying it tarnished Islam’s reputation as a merciful and compassionate religion. Mahathir made the comment after the rare caning of the two women in an Islamic court on Monday, which was witnessed by more than 100 people. Lawmakers and rights groups criticized the punishment as a form of torture. Mahathir said the Cabinet in a meeting Thursday felt the caning did not reflect the justice or compassion of Islam. He said the women could have been given a lighter sentence and counseling since it was their first offense. ‘‘It gives a bad image to Islam,’’ Mahathir said in a video posted on social media. ‘‘It is important for us to show that Islam is not a vicious religion that likes to punish and humiliate people.’’ The women, aged 22 and 32, were arrested in April and pleaded guilty in an Islamic court. They were given six strokes by a light rattan cane on their covered backs by female prison officers in a Shariah court in northeast Terengganu."
How Trumpian of them, if my pre$$ is to be believed.
"Kim Jong Un says he wants denuclearization before Trump’s current term ends" by Choe Sang-Hun September 06, 2018
SEOUL — Offering an olive branch to President Trump, Kim Jong Un told a South Korean envoy that he wanted to denuclearize North Korea before the US president’s current term ends in early 2021, the envoy said Thursday.
Expressing frustration over what he called Washington’s failure to negotiate in good faith, Kim told the envoy, Chung Eui-yong, that he still had confidence in Trump. He said he had never spoken badly of the US leader, even to his closest aides, since the two met in Singapore on June 12, according to Chung.
Yes, what we are seeing here is, once again, the Deep State undermining the president and it is pretty clear to me that this is making Kim Jong Un nervous. Once Trump is gone, he is back where he was with the U.S.
The president responded on Twitter early Thursday, expressing appreciation for Kim’s “unwavering faith in President Trump.” He added, “We will get it done together!”
Maybe he should give him a job at the White House.
Then there would be at least one person he could trust.
Chung was sent by President Moon Jae-in of South Korea to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, on Wednesday in hopes of reviving the stalled talks between the North and the United States over how to denuclearize North Korea. Moon plans to go to Pyongyang on Sept. 18 to meet with Kim and discuss improving the Koreas’ relationship, including potential economic cooperation.
Yeah, the Koreans are moving on this thing whether we like it or not.
How long before South Korea request that we leave, or will they overthrow or assassinate Moon before then?
At a televised news conference in Seoul, Chung said Kim had voiced frustration that his commitment to nuclear disarmament, which he expressed when he met with Moon in April and with Trump in June, was not taken seriously by much of the world. Kim said that while North Korea had already taken important steps toward denuclearization, Washington was not doing enough in return, Chung said.
That I believe. He's destroyed a few sites, sent back KIA remains, not testing any missiles, etc, etc, and the U.S. won't even sign a treaty to end the war.
“He strongly expressed his will to take more active steps for denuclearization if the actions North Korea has already taken are matched by corresponding measures” from the United States, Chung said.
“He made it clear that his trust in President Trump remains — and will remain — unchanged, even though there have recently been some difficulties in negotiations between the North and the United States,” Chung said. “He said he wished he could eliminate 70 years of hostile history with the United States, improve North Korea-US relations, and realize denuclearization within the first term of President Trump.”
Chung said Kim gave him messages to relay to Washington, which officials said were being sent to his US counterpart, John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser. Chung did not reveal their contents, except to say that Kim wanted Washington’s assurances that he had not made a mistake when he committed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Taken at face value, Kim’s remarks, as relayed by the South Korean envoy, signaled that North Korea was willing to strike a denuclearization deal personally with Trump, who has been more eager to engage North Korea than any of his predecessors. They also suggested Kim could accept the rapid denuclearization the Trump administration has sought — for the right incentives.
This guy is doing all he can to help Trump right now!
The Singapore meeting made Trump the first sitting US president to meet with a North Korean leader. He has since boasted of his “warm” relationship with the dictator, who has test-launched missiles capable of reaching the continental United States and been accused of gruesome human rights abuses, including the summary executions of his uncle and other political enemies.
Trump can fantasize, can't he?
Analysts said Kim was wooing Trump in hopes of dividing him from his hard-line advisers, in order to prevent the president from returning to the threats of military action that he made last year.
“Kim Jong Un is buying time,” said Lee Byong-chul, a senior fellow at the Institute for Peace and Cooperation in Seoul. “He probably saw that there was nothing good in provoking Trump,” especially when the US president “faces deepening legal trouble at home and disarray in his administration.”
He not only is not provoking him, he is appeasing him!!
The most immediate reciprocal step North Korea wants from Washington is to declare an end to the Korean War, which was halted with an armistice in 1953, but US officials fear that once such a declaration is made, North Korea will demand that the United States stop conducting joint military exercises with South Korea and withdraw its tens of thousands of troops based there.
Yeah, Trump asked Mattis why we even need them there and this is another example of the guy's instinct for anti-interventionism!
Kim dismissed such concerns, saying that the declaration would “have nothing to do with” the South Korean-US alliance or any withdrawal of US troops, Chung said.....
Still not good enough for the AmeriKan Empire.
--more--"
"US charges North Korean in Sony hack, WannaCry attack" by David E. Sanger, Katie Benner and Adam Goldman New York Times September 07, 2018
Readers, this does make me WannaCry.
On the very day Kim is reaching out in peace I get this companion piece to it!
I'm crying so hard that I'm laughing!
WASHINGTON — A North Korean spy was charged in the hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2014, the Justice Department announced Thursday, accusing the North of orchestrating a broad conspiracy that caused hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of economic damage over five years in the United States and around the world.
This guy the same as the Russian patsies in Salisbury?
The suspect, Park Jin Hyok, charged with computer fraud and wire fraud, was part of attacks on film companies and distributors, including Sony Pictures, financial institutions, and defense contractors, law enforcement officials said. He was also accused of being part of the development of the WannaCry 2.0 ransomware attack, which infected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide and crippled the British health care system last year.
Or did the CIA just finger him for it?
Park appeared to work for North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau, the country’s closest equivalent to the CIA, according to US intelligence officials. The same agency is believed to be behind the WannaCry attack and thefts from the Bangladeshi central bank that reaped tens of millions of dollars for the North.
They would have escaped with more save for the typo.
“The North Korean government, through a state-sponsored group, robbed a central bank and citizens of other nations, retaliated against free speech in order to chill it half a world away, and created disruptive malware that indiscriminately affected victims in more than 150 other countries, causing hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars’ worth of damage,” said John C. Demers, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, in a statement.
Looks more like Israel than North Korea.
“These charges will send a message that we will track down malicious actors no matter how or where they hide,” he added.
Park, who also went by the alias Pak Jin Hek, is unlikely to ever see the inside of a US courtroom. The United States has no direct, formal relations with North Korea and did not communicate with its reclusive government ahead of the charges.
Almost as if they wished to sabotage the president and piss off Kim.
Hours before the Justice Department was set to act, President Trump seemed to praise North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying on Twitter that he “proclaims ‘unwavering faith in President Trump.’ Thank you to Chairman Kim. We will get it done together.”
It was unclear whether Trump knew about the forthcoming charges. Asked whether the White House was briefed on the complaint before it was released, a Justice Department official would say only that it was standard practice to brief relevant parts of the executive branch.
Oh, it is the DoJ and the Deep State again!!!
Also Thursday, the Treasury Department announced it had added Park’s name to its sanctions list, which means that no financial institution that does business in the United States can also do business with or provide accounts to Park or Chosun Expo Joint Venture, also known as KEJV.
“We will not allow North Korea to undermine global cybersecurity to advance its interests and generate illicit revenues in violation of our sanctions,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
The sanctions are unlikely to have much effect on Park and are a less powerful tool than criminal charges in ensuring that Park cannot travel far outside of North Korea.
The government mapped out a yearslong, complex scheme to undermine institutions around the world and steal millions of dollars.
All coming from the most technologically inferior nation on the planet, with only something like 2,000 servers in the whole country!
Why do you think the guy is wanting to negotiate and denuke?
The attack on Sony Pictures alone wiped out 70 percent of the studio’s computer capability, erasing all the data on about half of the company’s personal computers and more than half of its servers, and was done in retaliation for the company’s production of a comedic film, “The Interview,” that mocked Kim and depicted a plot to assassinate him.
I would say that we would not find that funny here; however, I'm sure the pre$$ and the Deep State would be celebrating the certain removal of a certain president not named Kim.
The November 2014 hack shocked Sony Pictures’ 7,000 employees, who were greeted with macabre images of studio chief Michael Lynton’s severed head when they turned on their computers. Sony shut down all of its computer systems, leaving the company without voice mail, e-mail, or production systems.
The crime underscored how vulnerable the United States had become to cyber criminals and how malicious actors far away could cripple US corporations. Hackers from China, Russia, and elsewhere would soon infiltrate other high-profile targets, including the Office of Personnel Management, the White House e-mail system, and the IRS.
Yeah, who was president at that time?
--more--"
Maybe this will convince you that Korea needs regime change:
"Modern slavery is most prevalent in North Korea and other repressive regimes, but developed nations also bear responsibility for it because they import $350 billion worth of goods that are produced under suspicious circumstances, according to research released Thursday. The Global Slavery Index estimates that 40.3 million people worldwide were subjected to modern slavery in 2016, with the highest concentration in North Korea, where one in 10 people lived under such conditions. The report was compiled by the Walk Free Foundation, an antislavery group founded by Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest. The goal of the index is to pressure governments and companies to do more to end modern slavery. ‘‘By unraveling the trade flows and focusing on products at risk of modern slavery that are imported by the top economies, it becomes clear that even the wealthiest countries have a clear and immediate responsibility for responding to modern slavery both domestically and beyond their borders,’’ the report said. The index lists Eritrea, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Mauritania, South Sudan, Pakistan, Cambodia, and Iran as the next worst offenders."
I didn't know Korea had an undocumented illegal labor problem, did you?
Time to say a prayer and pay your respects:
"Arlington Cemetery opens new section with Civil War burials" AP September 07, 2018
ARLINGTON, Va. — Arlington National Cemetery returned to its roots as a resting place for the Civil War dead with a burial Thursday of two unknown Union soldiers.
The burials marked the dedication of an $87 million expansion of the cemetery that officials hope will extend the cemetery’s life by up to 10 years.
Kind of sick hope when you think about it.
The war dead will never stop coming, and they need more space.
The so-called Millennium expansion adds 27 acres and more than 27,000 spaces for burials and cremated remains to a cemetery where more than 400,000 are already interred.
Without the Millennium project, Arlington would run out of gravesites as soon as 15 years from now. The expansion should extend the cemetery’s lifespan into the early 2040s, said David Fedroff, deputy chief of engineering at Arlington.
Well, then we would just have to SHUT DOWN the WARS and COME HOME, huh?
Another expansion in planning stages is hoped to extend the cemetery’s life beyond 2050.
Endless wars, just what Cheney and Bush wanted.
The two Union soldiers buried Thursday at Arlington with full military honors were recently discovered at Manassas National Battlefield in what appeared to be a surgeon’s pit filled with severed limbs from 11 other soldiers. When the National Park Service announced the discovery in June, officials said it was the first time that a surgeon’s pit at a Civil War battlefield had been excavated and studied.
And you thought a M.A.S.H unit was bad.
The decision was made at the time to bury the two complete sets of remains at Arlington. While the soldiers could not be completely identified, experts determined from the location of the pit and from items found inside that the two soldiers were Union Army members who died at the Second Battle of Bull Run in 1862.
Did the Confederates win that one?
--more--"
Related:
A Trip Through Arlington
Sobering, isn't it?
I AIN'T MARCHING ANYMORE
Oh I marched to the battle of New Orleans
At the end of the early British war
The young land started growing
The young blood started flowing
But I ain't marchin' anymore
For I've killed my share of Indians
In a thousand different fights
I was there at the Little Big Horn
I heard many men lying
I saw many more dying
But I ain't marchin' anymore
It's always the old to lead us to the war
It's always the young to fall
Now look at all we've won with the saber and the gun
Tell me is it worth it all
For I stole California from the Mexican land
Fought in the bloody Civil War
Yes I even killed my brother
And so many others
And I ain't marchin' anymore
For I marched to the battles of the German trench
In a war that was bound to end all wars
Oh I must have killed a million men
And now they want me back again
But I ain't marchin' anymore
It's always the old to lead us to the war
It's always the young to fall
Now look at all we've won with the saber and the gun
Tell me is it worth it all
For I flew the final mission in the Japanese sky
Set off the mighty mushroom roar
When I saw the cities burning
I knew that I was learning
That I ain't marchin' anymore
Now the labor leader's screamin' when they close the missile plants,
United Fruit screams at the Cuban shore,
Call it "Peace" or call it "Treason, "
Call it "Love" or call it "Reason, "
But I ain't marchin' any more."
Silent Running
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
Take the children and yourself
And hide out in the cellar
By now the fighting will be close at hand
Don't believe the church and state
And everything they tell you
Believe in me, I'm with the high command
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
There's a gun and ammunition
Just inside the doorway
Use it only in emergency
Better you should pray to God
The Father and the Spirit
Will guide you and protect from up here
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
Swear allegiance to the flag
Whatever flag they offer
Never hint at what you really feel
Teach the children quietly
For some day sons and daughters
Will rise up and fight while we stood still
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
Can you hear me running (can you hear me calling you?)
(Can you hear me) hear me calling you?
(Can you hear me running) hear me running babe?
(Can you hear me running) hear me running?
Calling you, calling you
