[FoxNews] Republicans refuse to accept the 'norm' that political news must be dominated by people who want the Republicans disparaged and then destroyed.
The 2024 presidential campaign ended pretty much where it began: loathing the never-ending presence of Donald Trump. On the day before the election, The New York Times front page displayed a gaudy editorial (badly disguised as "News Analysis") under the title "Torrent of Lies Redefines Political Norms."
Doesn't that sound like a hard-charging rerun of 2016? Nothing ever seems to change from the paper that gaudily proclaimed under Trump that "The Truth Is More Important Now Than Ever."
You can point and laugh, since The New York Times refused to admit that Hunter Biden's laptop full of corruption details was authentic until 2022, and then it acknowledged reality in a story on page A-20, in paragraph 23. It was buried, almost like an unmarked grave.
Chief White House correspondent Peter Baker's editorial bubbled over with contempt for how many lies Trump told in the first 300 seconds of an interview with Tucker Carlson on Halloween. "Public appearances by Mr. Trump throughout this year's campaign have been an Alice-in-Wonderland trip through the political looking glass, a journey into an alternate reality often belied by actual reality."
Baker thinks it's amusing that Trump will sell his administration as the greatest ever seen in American history. Baker can't imagine anyone thinks he and his journalist wife Susan Glasser and his journalist friends sound like the exact opposite. They have sold Trump's administration as the most horrendous years America has ever seen.
Every American who pays even a moment's attention to American politics knows that Trump exaggerates wildly and egotistically, selling himself like he's closing another real-estate deal. Everything is the best or the worst ever. Everyone loads that into their political calculus. But Democrat-coddling journalists act perpetually shocked, like they're all starring in "50 First Dates" and forget every night how Trump operates.
What's really shocking here is how the major media pretend that the Democrats are dramatically more honest, like 10 times more honest. Set apart on page A-16 is their New York Times analysis of candidate speeches: 64 is the number of false or misleading statements at a typical Trump rally, according to them. By contrast, six is the number of false or misleading statements at a typical rally for Kamala Harris.
The obvious joke is that Trump's rally speeches can go on for 90 minutes, while Harris is closing out the campaign with 10-minute speeches. So, what's the minute-by-minute falsehood rate?
Under these stilted numbers is "33 percent," as in the percentage of registered voters who agree with Trump's false claims that Joe Biden "did not legitimately win." The Times can't acknowledge that this fraction of voters who believe dramatic media suppression of Biden scandal news can translate into "illegitimate" victory. You can accept the result and yet protest the unfair process.
Then the partisanship is underlined by their selected expert. "No one in American politics has ever lied on this scale," said Bill Adair, a founder of PolitiFact whose new book is titled "Beyond the Big Lie." The Times left out Adair's partisan subtitle: "The Epidemic of Political Lying, Why Republicans Do It More, and How It Could Burn Down Our Democracy."
Republicans could "burn down our democracy" since they lie so much more, maybe 10 times more. Adair is quite candid about how he thinks the Republicans were aggressive liars before Trump, so put the Democrat donkey ears on his head.
Republicans refuse to accept the "norm" that political news must be dominated by people who want the Republicans disparaged and then destroyed -- as they identify themselves as nonpartisan truth-tellers. That's a very large and egotistical lie.
#6
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Watching their postmortems, the Left assumes the third condition. Yes, they're liars. The good part is that they lie about themselves.
[IsraelTimes] A part of the Shiite community is being radicalized and trained for terrorist activities. Its networks present not only a direct threat to Israel and the US but also to the stability of fragile African states.
Hezbollah, an Islamist Lebanese Shia militia and political party that controls Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... , has conducted a war of attrition against Israel since October 2023. It is a proxy of Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... in the attempt to attain hegemony in the region and to destroy Israel. Hezbollah, aligned with Iranian geopolitical interests, has extended its operations and influence beyond the Middle East into Latin America and into Africa. With Iran’s help, Hezbollah has steadily expanded its financial and operational presence across the African continent, setting up networks that could be weaponized against Western interests. Weak institutions and mostly non-existent borders facilitate the building of such an infrastructure.
Hezbollah focuses on states where there are Shiite Lebanese diasporas. Hezbollah has tapped into Lebanese communities, particularly in West and Central Africa, that had been previously in contact with the Shiite Lebanese Amal movement. Its key activities in Africa include fundraising and financing, criminal activities, procurement and transportation of weapons, and alliances with local Islamist militias. A part of the Shiite community is being radicalized and trained for terrorist activities. Its networks present not only a direct threat to Israel and the US but also to the stability of fragile African states.
Countries such as Sierra Leone, Senegal ... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees... , Gambia ... The Gambia is actually surrounded by The Senegal on all sides but its west coast. It has a population of about 1.7 million. The difference between the two is that in colonial days Senegal was ruled by La Belle France and The Gambia (so-called because there's only one of it, unlike Guinea, of which there are the Republic of Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, New Guinea, the English coin in circulation between 1663 and 1813, and Guyana, which sounds like it should be another one) was ruled by Britain... , and Ivory Coast are noted for fundraising activities for Hezbollah. Lebanese-owned businesses are approached by Hezbollah for a "donation" on a yearly or semi-annual basis whereby the amount to be contributed is a defined percentage of revenue. Those contributions are collected, generally in cash, by Hezbollah bag men who move the funds to the Middle East by courier. While some contributions are genuine voluntary donations meant for the social services offered by Hezbollah, many contributions are just extortions.
Hezbollah operatives were linked to criminal activities such as money laundering, smuggling, and narcotics trafficking in several countries. Money laundering schemes, often tied to Hezbollah-affiliated businesses, allow for the movement of funds to Lebanon. In Congo, Shiite traders in illegal diamonds were subordinated to Hezbollah men through middlemen, broadening the revenue stream to finance the organization. Hezbollah blended the illegal diamond trade with legitimate business enterprises, helping to disguise finances that supported Hezbollah activities in Lebanon.
Africa also serves as a hub for the procurement and transportation of weapons and other supplies. These end up often in the Middle East, particularly in Lebanon and Syria. Some African ports are used to ship arms illegally to Hezbollah and Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... ’s ports, along the Red Sea have always generated great interest, as they provide access to international shipping lanes. They also function as a gateway for the IRGC and Hezbollah deeper into Africa. Nowadays, the IRGC has forged close ties with General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of Sudan’s military that is engaged in a civil war. In exchange for military support, such as drones and advanced weaponry, Iran looks to set up a naval base in Port Sudan. This base would give Iran and Hezbollah a new platform from which to attack Israeli and Western targets in the region. The collaboration between the financial and logistical networks allows them to strike at US and Israeli interests in Africa while keeping plausible deniability. The IRGC and Hezbollah seek to establish a contiguous zone of influence from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, enveloping some of Africa’s fragile states.
The Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... s, an Iranian proxy in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... has been trained by Hezbollah operatives in launching Iranian missiles that are instrumental in blocking the Bab El Mandeb strait, an important international waterway. The Houthi nuisance value is a leverage against Egypt, an important African country. The Houthi location also allows for increased Iranian and Hezbollah influence in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea. Hezbollah’s presence was also documented in Mozambique and in Kenya, states along the shores of the Indian Ocean. This is another manifestation of the ambitious strategic goals of Iran and Hezbollah.
In West African countries like Guinea and Sierra Leone, Hezbollah-linked businesses have taken root, generating significant financial resources for the organization. One example of Hezbollah’s financial operations is Kassim Tajideen, a prominent businessman of Lebanese extraction who used his commercial empire in Guinea and Sierra Leone to funnel money to Hezbollah. In 2009, the US Treasury sanctioned Tajideen for his role as a Hezbollah financier, and he was later extradited to the US for money laundering activities across West Africa. His businesses were also engaged in smuggling and tax evasion.
In Gambia, the Euro-African Group, a company run by Hussein Tajideen, Kassim’s brother, took advantage of the country’s financial sector to launder money. According to US intelligence, the group worked closely with other Hezbollah financiers across West Africa to send millions of dollars to the terrorist organization.
Nigeria has also seen Hezbollah-linked cells. In 2013, Nigerian authorities discovered a Hezbollah arms cache in the northern city of Kano, intended for attacks in Nigeria and abroad. Moreover, Hezbollah-linked charities in Nigeria have raised money under the guise of supporting the Lebanese diaspora but are components of Hezbollah’s financial infrastructure. For example, the al-Qard al-Hassan Association served as a financial front for Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has strong ties to the Lebanese community in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... . US intelligence agencies have documented Hezbollah’s involvement in the illicit diamond trade, exploiting the country’s weak regulatory environment. The diamonds, once sold on the international market, provide Hezbollah with a steady stream of liquid assets and allow the group to evade international financial sanctions.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration has documented Hezbollah’s ties to South American narco mobs, using West Africa as transit for narcotics. In 2011, Ayman Joumaa, a Hezbollah operative, was indicted by the US for laundering drug money from Latin American cartels through West African countries, with the proceeds transferred to Hezbollah.
Lebanese businessman Oussama Salhab, based in Togo, was a key figure in using the African used-car market to launder drug money. Investigations revealed that Salhab’s transport company moved used cars from the US to Africa, with the revenue laundered and sent to Hezbollah. The US Treasury has imposed sanctions on Hezbollah financiers working in Africa, including Adham Tabaja, who owns businesses in Lebanon and West Africa, which have been linked to Hezbollah’s funding enterprises.
Hezbollah, with Iran’s backing, has steadily expanded its financial and operational presence across the African continent with limited opposition from local governments. As tensions between Iran, Israel, and the US continue to grow, Hezbollah could use its African networks to conduct attacks on Western interests, turning the continent into a new battleground in the broader geopolitical struggle. Addressing this threat requires a coordinated effort between the US, Israel, and African governments to disrupt Hezbollah’s financial networks and prevent its use of its Africa footholds for its future operations. The US must adopt a firmer strategy in Africa to counter Iran’s and Hezbollah’s influence.
Weakening Hezbollah and Iran is a Western strategic imperative. The US should capitalize on Israel’s war on Hezbollah to further weaken it in other arenas. The war on Hezbollah is one facet of Israel’s battle against the enemies of the West. Current attempts to impose a ceasefire, which help Hezbollah and Iran recuperate, are ill-advised. Calling for ceasefires with such organizations and hoping it will lead to stable diplomatic arrangements is a pipe dream.
[IsraelTimes] Speaking soon after his return from Netzarim Corridor, Lt. Col. Dori says he saw Hamas gunmen seize aid trucks, believes totally dismantling terror group will take a long time
Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... , though significantly weakened, is still able to initiate attacks in central Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... , a senior officer in the 14th Reserve Armored Brigade told The Times of Israel days after completing an operation in the Bureij refugee camp there.
"In general, their motivation is high to act and try to create victory images, and to create achievements," said Lt. Col. Dori, the brigade’s operations officer. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit only allowed the publication of his first name.
In the area where he was operating, Hamas button men "are still working as a system and trying to carry out attacks," Dori said, but generally avoid direct confrontation with troops.
The 14th Brigade was deployed to the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza in late August, and began a weeklong operation in Bureij in early October. The IDF announced the end of the operation on October 11 and the brigade has now left the Strip.
According to the IDF, the brigade attacked a compound in Bureij that was a school before the war. Hamas was using it as a staging point for attacks on IDF troops. "In the area of the school," said the IDF, "the forces located bandidosLions of Islam who fired anti-tank missiles from the windows of the classrooms and also located weapons and ammunition."
Dori, 47, said attacks like the anti-tank fire point to a functioning Hamas chain of command, at least in Bureij.
"Let’s do some reverse engineering," he said. "There was a squad that received instructions, ostensibly from someone higher up. The weapons apparently moved from place to place. There is someone organizing this force. This shows some ability to carry things out, but we don’t see it in large numbers."
After being hammered for over a year, Dori said, Hamas is extremely constrained in its capacity to carry out attacks, at least in the Netzarim area. Most of its attacks nowadays, he said, are done at least partly in order to create propaganda content for social media.
"They either retreat and station a sniper to search for our troops and wait until the moment our soldiers are slightly less aware, and that’s when they hope to harm us and film it," said Dori, "or they wait to mine the areas they think we will reach."
Last month, for example, the commander of the 401st Armored Brigade, Col. Ehsan Daqsa, was killed when he and other officers walked into an observation point that had been booby-trapped by Hamas.
The Hamas fighters "are not brave," said Dori. "They don’t try fighting face-to-face with IDF soldiers, because they know they will always lose."
Despite the IDF’s tactical success in Gaza, it remains unclear how the fighting will end. Israel set its war goals there as the destruction of Hamas and the return of hostages, and the IDF assessed in September that Hamas has been largely defeated militarily, and is now effectively a guerrilla terror group.
Dori believes finishing off Hamas is achievable, but not at all imminent: "We are continuing to take apart its capabilities. It takes time; it’s long and hard, no question. But it’s not endless. We strike hard in the areas where we know they are organizing, and destroy more weapons."
The crewmen of the 14th Brigade have done over 250 days of reserve service in the war that started with the Hamas attack on October 7 last year. They initially helped secure Kibbutz Mefalsim and Kibbutz Kfar Aza, both on the Gaza border, on October 8, when some of the bandidosLions of Islam who carried out the invasion and massacre were still on the lam, and then maneuvered into Gaza under the 252nd Division on October 28. In two months of intense fighting, the brigade operated in the northern Gaza Strip and captured the compound known as the Paleostine Outpost, used by Hamas as a training site for attacks.
The brigade killed hundreds of Hamas bandidosLions of Islam during its time in Gaza, losing eight soldiers with another 83 injured. Eleven soldiers were maimed in the August-October deployment in the Netzarim area.
DAILY CONVOYS
The brigade had very little contact with civilians in Netzarim, where the IDF has carved a corridor that runs across Gaza, isolating the north of the Strip from the south. There were occasional Gazooks heading south to the Muwasi humanitarian zone, but in general, said Dori, civilians knew not to approach troops.
However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... the force did facilitate humanitarian convoys almost every day.
"The reports that the Gazook population doesn’t receive food and all sorts of things are simply not true," said Dori, describing the situation in the area where he and his troops were deployed. "With my own eyes, I saw humanitarian convoys go in almost every day," with the exception of days when operational reasons precluded this. "But the next day, the amount is made up."
Israel has come under criticism over the quantity of aid reaching Gazook civilians, with the US on Monday charging that Israel was failing to meet its obligations, with potential consequences for US weapons supplies. Israel says it is not blocking aid.
Once supplies get to Gaza, humanitarian groups still face obstacles distributing them to warehouses and then to people in need.
"If there is any reason food doesn’t reach civilians, it’s because of Hamas looters that don’t allow their civilians to reach it or don’t distribute it," Dori maintained.
He said he saw Hamas button men steal aid: "They wait for trucks to come, raid them and loot them."
At the beginning of the brigade’s deployment, some soldiers asked why they were being required to facilitate aid convoys, said Dori. But, he went on, it was explained to them that for the IDF to remain in Netzarim, it needs to ensure that aid continues to flow through the area. "The Netzarim Corridor is a bone in Hamas’s throat. It’s a strategic asset for Israel — a tool for the country to reach its war goals."
Dori was adamant that the brigade’s soldiers uphold the moral and legal standards of war.
Last month, the New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... alleged that IDF troops were using Gazooks as human shields during operations in the Strip. The newspaper said it spoke with seven IDF soldiers who said the practice was "routine, commonplace, and organized."
The IDF denied the practice, telling The Times of Israel that "the orders and instructions of the IDF forbid using civilians in Gaza who were arrested in the field for military missions."
"Unequivocally, no," Dori said of the human shield allegations. "We didn’t do that, we didn’t see that, we certainly didn’t instruct anyone to do that. I didn’t come across anything like or hear about anything like that."
Dori said that if a soldier ever did something unethical or immoral with a civilian or captured soldier, they would be immediately expelled from the unit.
"The advantage of reservists is that they’re more mature and more deliberate," he added. "And they usually think twice before they do anything."
That, and the psychotic rage.
It's good we can't hear what people are saying.
[FoxNews] As thousands of wounded warriors and military veterans battle disabilities and injuries every day, the most common ailment often gets overlooked.
Tinnitus, or ringing in the ear, is the leading disability in the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), according to Dr. Tom Tedeschi, chief audiology director for Amplifon Hearing Health Care.
Utah-based Tedeschi, who is also a Vietnam-era Army veteran, shared with Fox News Digital how prevalent hearing loss and complications are among the veteran community.
About 60% of Vietnam veterans and 50% of Gulf War veterans suffer from hearing loss, according to the expert.
"It's estimated that probably one out of every three veterans has some degree of hearing loss or tinnitus," he said. "And it's just because we're around noise all the time … The military is not a quiet place."
When hearing is lost, it "doesn’t grow back," the expert cautioned — and even mild hearing loss in young veterans can become more severe with time.
"There are more people now under the age of 50 with hearing loss than over the age of 50."
CARE AND PROTECTION
"Most people who have hearing loss do not acknowledge it," he said. "It's the people around them who notice."
Tedeschi urged veterans to seek help if they experience a constant ringing in the ears, otherwise known as tinnitus, or trouble hearing while having conversations or watching TV.
"We can't cure [tinnitus] or make it completely disappear, but there are different protocols and strategies to help," he said.
This could include wearing hearing aids, which Tedeschi said are "light years ahead" of what they were a decade ago.
Tedeschi emphasized the importance of wearing proper hearing protection, like ear buds and earmuffs, both in and out of combat.
"We live in a noisy world," he said. "If you're out mowing the lawn, you should pop in some hearing protection. A lot of people love to go to concerts ... Those are loud and they can sustain damage."
Some medications, like aspirin, can cause hearing loss as a side effect, Tedeschi warned.
"If you're taking a lot of aspirin for arthritis or things like this, you need to be careful – and talk to your doctor about whether there is an alternative," he advised.
Tedeschi encouraged veterans to seek help to avoid further complications linked to hearing loss, such as cognitive decline.
"We're seeing more and more individuals with untreated hearing loss who have faster decline in their cognitive function, because the brain is working overtime to compensate," he told Fox News Digital.
"For our veterans, you need to know there's help out there for you, and there's no need to experience all the co-morbidities associated with hearing loss."
Veterans can visit their local VA center to have their hearing evaluated or connect with their counselor for a referral to a hearing loss specialist.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/10/2024 4:11 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The 'eeeeeeeeeeeee' that I hear 24/7/365 almost drowns out all conversation. It seems to get worse/louder in a noisy crowd. Naturally, nothing can be done. But no 'psychotic rage' here thankfully. I think.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
11/10/2024 6:42 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Re: #6: I received 10% for my hearing, but on a more practical level, state of the hearing aids as well as all consumables. A bigger surprise was the call to make an app’t about 5 years later; VA audiologist said I needed new units. Why, these are working fine. So new bluetooth enabled units arrived. Suspect that VA, like all gov’t agencies, has a ‘use it or lose it’ budget philosophy.
Don’t get me wrong, they gave me back what 26 years of playing with airplanes took away.
The day we ( a group of about 7) got our first units (tailored for each person’s needs) we are sitting around a table. Someone slid the attendance sheet my way to sign and I had to play with it; hadn’t realized that soft sound of the paper on the table had been missing in my world. While the 10% won’t make me rich, the hearing aids are the next best thing to not experiencing hearing loss at all.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
[Instagram] 
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
