[Ynet] Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", may have given up the Gazoo administrative committee, but it will keep running the strip. The announcement, which was used as bait to bring the PA delegation to Cairo, will allow Abbas to lift the sanctions and renew the economic aid to Gazoo. This is an Israeli interest too.
To be sure, if the PA lifts sanctions, it will go back to paying Gaza's debts to Israeli suppliers. Or rather, as I understand it Israel will take out from the taxes it collects on the PA's behalf -- sales taxes on Palestinian goods sold in Israel, for instance -- balances due for electricity and fuel Israel is currently supplying Gaza as a humanitarian gesture without recompense.
The most fascinating part of Hamas’ "strategic turnabout" is the marionette theater: The elegant ease with which the director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate, General Khaled Fawzy, is leading the Paleostinian wooden puppets. With his right hand, he’s entertaining himself with Hamas’ political bureau, and with his left hand, he’s pulling the strings of the Paleostinian Authority delegation.
The general is not alone. The entire department in the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate dealing with the mater is fussing over the Paleostinian marionettes, isolating them from other centers of power in the Arab world, making sure they don’t disrupt Maestro Fawzy’s efforts to run the marionette theater as he sees fit.
A much more in depth look at the proposed budget cuts for Lugansk and Donetsk which I revealed a week ago. Placed in Opinion because of the source, but a lot of good information, including confirmation in my story that the Russian government has been paying pensions in Donetsk.
In case you are wondering why the accounting matters, consider this to be Russian president Vladimir Putin's Soviet style signal he is ready to toss Donetsk and Lugansk overboard in exchange for Crimea.
Fortunately for us, we have a president who plays the Long Game as well.
[EuromaidanPress] The Russian government intends to stop the “humanitarian assistance to certain territories” in favor of financing projects in Crimea and Kaliningrad, with “certain territories” meaning the “Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics” in Ukraine’s Donbas, the Russian outlet RBK reported on 15 September citing its sources close to the Kremlin.
RBK wrote that according to a verified protocol of a meeting held with Russia’s Deputy Prime minister Dmitri Kozak on 1 September, Russia’s Finance Ministry was instructed to exclude “to exclude humanitarian assistance to certain territories in 2019–2020 from the draft federal budget for 2018,” “certain territories” being a codename for the “Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics,” (“LNR” and “DNR”) two proxy statelets set up with Russian assistance in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
According to the protocol, at the beginning of August on a trip to occupied Crimea, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev instructed to provide funding for the “unconditional implementation” of measures for the social-economic development and ensuring transport and information security of Crimea and Kaliningrad, a Russian city exclave sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland. Particularly, an additional RUB 85 bn ($1.5 mn) is needed for Crimea during 2018-2020 (of which $1 mn should be provided over 2019-2020) to build healthcare and educational facilities, road and waterline repairs etc.
In all, the Russian government needs to find RUB 165 bn ($2.87 mn) for financing its projects in Crimea and Kaliningrad over three years.
Crimea “is ours” and Donbas is not
According to political analyst Aleksei Makarkin, funds are to be distributed in the favor of those regions that Russia does not intend to give away, and Russia is not sure of the future status of the Donbas “republics,” RBK wrote. Director of the Progressive Policy Foundation Oleg Bondarenko told RBK that Crimea needs colossal assistance from Russia and the development of Crimea is a matter of reputation for the Kremlin; like Kaliningrad, the Russian authorities intend to make it a “showcase” for the West. “There are territories of Russia that need active development, and self-proclaimed republics are not the territory of Russia,” argued Bondarenko. However, he was not aware of the reduction in spending on the “LNR” and “DNR.”
The supposed exclusion of “humanitarian assistance” for Donbas from the budget is only one possible source of securing funding for Crimea and Kaliningrad; others include a possible increase in excise taxes on gasoline, reducing railway subsidies and other measures. Therefore, it’s not possible to estimate how much the Kremlin spends now on Donbas from this document. Apart from that, RBK’s sources in the Russian Parliament and Government stress that even if the authorities decide to stop the “humanitarian assistance” to Donbas, that doesn’t mean Russia will stop providing funds to the proxy states. Funding for the “LNR” and “DNR” is totally classified and is described by secret orders and budget lines and “humanitarian assistance” is likely to be one of many channels of funding the “republics.”
Another source of RBK familiar with the document said that at the start of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the Russian government approved targeted subsidies to restore the damaged infrastructure of Donbas (energy, roads, and railways) and construct buildings in a secret government decree, calling them “humanitarian assistance to certain territories of Ukraine.” According to the source, these “humanitarian subsidies” passed through a reserve fund of the government formed annually to finance activities on the decision of the government. The source assumes, but cannot be sure, that it is these subsidies that will be canceled.
Responding to RBK’s article, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov responded that there will be a “certain redistrubution” of funds, but the Kremlin still intended to “take care” of the inhabitants of Donbas. Read the rest at the link, s'il vous plait, especially the part in which the Russian "Lend-Lease" program of heavy equipment (T-72Bs and not the crap T-72Ms they sell to Arab mobocracies) may come to a halt before too long.
[Huffpoo] GLENWOOD, Ga. ― If you want to watch a rural community die, kill its hospital.
After the Lower Oconee Community Hospital shut down in June 2014, other mainstays of the community followed. The bank and the pharmacy in the small town of Glenwood shuttered. Then the only grocery store in all of Wheeler County closed in the middle of August this year.
On Glenwood’s main street, building after building is now for sale, closing, falling apart or infested with weeds growing through the foundation’s cracks.
Opportunity has been dying in Wheeler County for the last 20 years. Agriculture was once the primary employer, but the Wheeler Correctional Facility, a privately run prison, is now the biggest source of jobs. With 39 percent of the central Georgia county’s population living in poverty, there aren’t enough patients with good insurance to keep a hospital from losing money.
The hospital’s closure eliminated the county’s biggest health care provider and dispatched yet another major employer. Glenwood’s mayor of 34 years, G.M. Joiner, doubts that the town will ever recover.
"It’s been devastating," the 72-year-old mayor said, leaning on one of the counters in Glenwood’s one-room city hall. "I tell folks that move here, ’This is a beautiful place to live, but you better have brought money, because you can’t make any here.’"
#1
But it's not just the hospitals, it's all businesses and services.
I have always loved trains. While I was working in D.C. years ago, I drove out to Manassas, VA and took the AMTRAC to Atlanta. It was a very slow train the stopped often, but the interesting thing about the trip was that it took you through the underside of dozens of small towns with scores of closed down businesses and factories. The trip's final destination was the crowded circa 1918 train station in Atlanta, which was, perhaps by design, miles from any MARTA stop.
Every politician in Washington should be required to make this trip and view what the gov't has permitted Chinese imports to do to this country.
The 'urbanization of America' into large, gov't dependent voting blocks is nearly complete. Small town doctors and clinics are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. They have been replaced by huge medical complexes more suited to the implementation of gov't medicine, exploitation by big pharma and the insurance companies.
#2
I won't go so far as to say that "Chinese imports" are the problem in rural America. Chinese imports did not ruin Detroit. Detroit ruined Detroit (auto industry metaphor). At all levels of government, we are our worst enemy.
#3
Whilst AMTRAC line from Manassass to Atlanta does not go through Detroit, still a good point clem. The term 'foreign import trade imbalance' should have been used.
#6
Since 2010, 82 rural hospitals have closed nationwide. As many as 700 more are at risk of closing within the next 10 years, according to Alan Morgan, the CEO of the National Rural Health Association, a nonprofit professional organization that lobbies on rural health issues.
Never mention the true underlying issue. Bumblecare was designed to destroy rural American healthcare
#7
Government always ignores small business(look what O did to small communities alone stopping coal production). Build a bypass and the mom and pops die off. Happens every time. The only choice for them is to relocate nearer the traffic flow. Most don't have the money to invest in such an enterprise. No assistance. No buyout. Before Rt95, before 495, before 695, before Rt.70 or Rt 68 and then 270. I remember when 270 was built mechanics road tested cars because there was no traffic. Dulles was a white elephant. So all the old roads were less traveled. Then the small business died off. Now with influx of so many things begin to renew. When they do away with personnel vehicle transportation the Government doesn't care who is displaced. Yes, Uber is just the beginning. The freedom to come and go as you please will soon be ending.
#8
but the interesting thing about the trip was that it took you through the underside of dozens of small towns with scores of closed down businesses and factories.
#11
Newest daughter comes from a small town in the wilds of rural Indiana. The small jewel of a local hospital was and continues to be the gift of the richest family in town. As far as I can tell, the locals are otherwise farmers, shop clerks, and Amazon workers.
[DAWN] LAST week’s exposure of a terrorist hive inside Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... University (KU) prompted a remediation proposal by the chairman of the Higher Education Commission. His solution: if parents "switch off TV and internet early at night and send children off to bed", university students could be shunted away from terrorism. (The reference to adult students as bachas [children] is not unusual ‐ university-going adults are generally considered kids incapable of independent thought.)
If flippant, this proposal trivialises terrorism. But if meant seriously, one fears for the future. HEC’s current counterterrorism strategy is to establish a "directorate of students" within universities so that challenges faced by "students and staff would be registered, analysed and resolved". Extracurricular activities ‐ football and cricket chiefly ‐ will supposedly keep students away from guns and bombs. Should one laugh or cry?
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11131 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Maybe after Pakistan does it, we can copy the procedure in the U.S.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/25/2017 8:39 Comments ||
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h/t Instapundit
...There used to be a thing called "conservatism," and I knew it pretty well since I was part of it for about a third of a century. But conservatism changed, becoming less about principles (though the wusscons never shut up about them) and more about money-grubbing navel gazing and intellectual onanism. Actual Republican voters, actual normal Americans? Well, they became kind of beside the point in the tumbler-klinking world of the John Boehnercons, and to the corporate-friendly compassioncons who put the interests of everyone else (including the act of lovers) ahead of the GOP voters who voted the establishment in.
Conservativism forgot about the real world conservatives we expected to line up behind us. While we were talking about free trade, we were ignoring that GOP voter who fought in Fallujah, came home, got a job building air conditioners, raised a family, and then one day watched the video of the oh-so-sorry CEO ‐ who looked remarkably like Mitt Romney, because all these guys look remarkably like Mitt Romney ‐ sadly informing his beloved employees that their jobs were getting shipped to Oaxaca. And our response to the 58-year old Republican voter who asked us how he was going to keep paying for his mortgage and his kid in college? Pretty much, "Well, that’s how free enterprise works. Read some Milton Freidman and go learn coding."
...How about the guy who wanted to be a roofer in Fontana but he couldn’t because the contractors were only hiring illegals? What was our answer to him? "Oh well, the big corporate donors need their serfs, and if some pack of tatted-up MS-13 dreamers gang-rapes your daughter that’s just a price we’re willing to pay!"
They try to crush our religion and Conservative, Inc., cowers because Apple’s CEO might say mean things. "Just bake the cake," they say ‐ it’s not worth the fight! They demand our tax money to kill babies and Conservative, Inc., passes the spending bills ‐ "Gosh, we can’t risk the WaPo saying we’re mean!" They diss our National Anthem, we react, and Conservative, Inc., wags its soft, spindly fingers ‐ "So, so very unpresidential! My word!"
Conservatism has become a racket, and everything happening now is a result of its members hoping to wait out Trump and the demand for change he represents. Maybe if they do nothing, but say all the right things, we normals will get tired and go back to our jobs and keep providing those votes and renting those cruise cabins. But that’s not happening. We aren’t going away; business as usual is over. We aren’t just giving up, tossing away our country, and submitting to the ruling caste. We were nice with the Tea Party. Trump’s not as nice. What’s coming after is going to be much, much less nice.
What’s coming after is militant normalacy, the not-so-polite demand that the lackwits and failures who style themselves as our betters stop dumping on us normal Americans who work hard and play by the rules (Gosh that sounds familiar, like it used to be a winning electoral recipe, if only I could remember where I heard it before).
Who are the normals? The Americans who built this country, and defended it. When you eat, it’s because a normal grew the food and another normal trucked it to you. When you aren’t murdered in the street or don’t speak German, it’s because a normal with a gun made those things not happen. We normals don’t want to rule over others. We don’t obsess about how you live your life, but also we don’t want to be compelled to signal our approval or pick up the tab. We are every color and creed ‐ though when someone who is incidentally a member of some other group aligns with normals, he/she/xe loses that identity. The left drums normals who are black out of its definition of "black," just as normal women get drummed out of womanhood and normal gays get drummed out gayhood. In a way, the left is making E pluribus unum a reality again ‐ to choose to be normal is to choose to reject silly identity group identification and unite. Instead of saying "normal Americans," you can just say "Americans."
...That’s why the shameful abdication of Conservative, Inc., in the cultural fight is both important and irrelevant. It demonstrates that the first loyalty of many folks in the conservaracket is to the ruling caste to which they belong, and it also demonstrates that these wimps’ absence from the battle means nothing.
We’ll fight this fight ourselves, thanks.
...we’re not giving up, and we’re not going to sit back and just take it. Militant normalcy is the result of normal people roused to anger and refusing to be pushed around anymore. We prefer a free society based on personal liberty and mutual respect. But if you leftists veto that option, that leaves us either a society where you rule and oppress us, or one where we hold the power. So let me break this down, both for the left and for their fussy Fredocon enablers: You don’t get to win.
There is a very good reason why most elected Republicans call themselves "conservative." They do it to get elected. Once elected, they promptly swing left, way left in some cases. This phenomenon is not a failure of conservative principles. Those principles remain sound. Rather, it is a failure of enforcement at the ballot box, especially in primary elections.
[Defense Watch] Dereliction of duty is a specific offense under United States Code Title 10, Section 892, Article 92 and applies to all branches of the US military. A service member who is derelict has willfully refused to perform his duties (or follow a given order) or has incapacitated himself in such a way that he cannot perform his duties. Article 92 also applies to service members whose acts or omissions rise to the level of criminally negligent behavior.
The US military is in Deep Kimchi. The US military is a non-military, military in 2017.
Since late 1991, the military has been attacked by leftists and militant feminists who were determined to transform the last bastion of masculinity in American society. With the help of traitorous enablers in the military and civilian government officials, their efforts have been more successful than their wildest dreams.
A Maoist cultural revolution has slowly engulfed the military, with the results that today’s US armed forces are totally feminized, led by perfumed princes, focused on things that have nothing to do with war fighting and in many regards, ill-prepared for combat on the high seas, on land and in the air.
The US military in 2017 is being largely run by senior leaders who believe the military is no different than a corporation, except the military has cool uniforms and high explosives. Hollywood values are now the norm and the spirit of the bayonet is no longer, kill, kill, kill; but, diversity.
Sure, we have cool technology, predator drones and nukes. Yes, the SEALs, when they’re not selling juicers or video games, are still eating glass and urinating napalm. Yes, there are still motivated troopers, and good NCO’s; but as a composite, competent, effective and lethal instrument of death to our enemies, the military is a shadow of its former greatness during the Cold War and in Desert Storm. This is not the military that Tom Clancy idolized and wrote about. It’s the military Claudia Kennedy and Patricia Schroeder wanted...and got.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
09/25/2017 2:46 Comments ||
Top||
#4
During the 1990’s Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, was a vocal advocate for women to serve in combat positions in the army, although she herself had never been near any shot and shell. Kennedy’s most famous quote and one which still reverberates through the tattered army today was ‘this is not your father’s army.’
I remember a retirement ceremony at Forces Command (FORSCOM) Fort McPherson, GA. where Kennedy, assigned to the FORSCOM G2 at the time, had to ask an enlisted man to help her assemble her Load Bearing Equipment (LBE) for the ceremony. As a major, she had evidently never been required to learn or practice these basic skills.
Kennedy punched her 'troop leading' ticket at FORSCOM and went on to become a general officer with eventual assignment in D.C. There she was made famous by her 'girly' coffee and mentoring sessions, along with the forced early retirement of a totally clueless male major general IG (Inspector General) colleague. The IG had made the mistake of giving her a congratulatory peck on the cheek in a pentagon meeting. The phrase 'WTF could he have been thinking' echoed through the army intelligence community at the time.
#5
One PT test for everyone, that is the one required of all infantry. Bulge, Tet, 507th, at some point, everyone is infantry regardless of 'specialty'. Bring back the auxiliary designation for those who can't, preferably for those 'profiled' due to combat/line of duty injuries.
#6
Reality hit for me in the halls of Bldg. 4, United States Army Infantry School Fort Benning, GA. (now called something else) Seeing highly decorated Vietnam combat veterans get their "Reduction in Force" (RIF) papers (pink slip and 90 day notice) at the Infantry Advanced Course, while at the same time, going back and forth to Martin Army Hospital getting treatments for war wounds.
#8
And don't forget the female Naval Aviators that died trying to learn how to fly around the boat; rather than fail them, flight instructors were forced to keep on it till they get it.
But Tailhook didn't do the enlisted any favors either. our fault the JO's were dicks.
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.
