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Algernon Moncrieff

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Member since: Sun Apr 20, 2014, 12:49 AM
Number of posts: 5,748

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Kosovo mourns a slain police officer, some Serb gunmen remain at large after a siege at a monastery

Source: ABC News

PRISTINA, Kosovo -- Kosovo on Monday observed a day of mourning for the Kosovar Albanian police officer killed by Serb gunmen in the north of the country in one of the worst confrontations since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

About 30 masked men in combat uniforms opened fire on a police patrol near the village of Banjska in the early hours of Sunday morning, killing one officer and injuring another. They then fled to a nearby Serbian Orthodox monastery, breaking down the gates with an armored personnel carrier before barricading themselves in with priests and visiting pilgrims.

The stand-off ended when most of the assailants escaped on foot under cover of darkness on Sunday evening. Three of the gunmen were shot and killed by police.

...

Flags were at half-staff on all public buildings in the capital Pristina Monday to mourn the slain officer, Afrim Bunjaku. In northern Kosovo, where most of the ethnic Serb minority lives in four municipalities around Mitrovica, police searched for the gunmen who had escaped.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/kosovo-mourns-slain-police-officer-serb-gunmen-remain-103457286



Keep your eye on Serbia/Kosovo/Albania. Putin sees Serbia as an ally and Russia generally benefits from trouble in this part of the world.
Posted by Algernon Moncrieff | Mon Sep 25, 2023, 01:38 PM (1 replies)

WAPO: Anxiety ripples through the Democratic Party over Biden

Link

Such “Washington whispers” have become far too common among “bed-wetting” Democrats, said Jim Messina, who ran Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign and recently put together a 24-slide deck aiming to calm the jitters, which he sent to prominent Democratic officeholders.

“I’m not saying that this is going to be easy and he’s fine,” Messina said in an interview. “Look, America is split right down the middle. Both parties are going to get 46 percent, and we’re fighting over the rest.”

But he said Biden is in a much stronger position than Trump and encouraged Democrats to stop their public and private agonizing. He said one senator texted him immediately after receiving his presentation, which included details on Biden’s string of early endorsements by key groups, the impact of cooling inflation and the popularity of many of the president’s achievements.


.....

Other polls are also flashing warning signs for Democrats. A CNN/SSRS survey found that Biden’s approval rating was mired at 39 percent, with nearly three-quarters of respondents saying they were concerned about his age. The poll also found that most Democrats want the party to nominate a different presidential candidate.
Posted by Algernon Moncrieff | Tue Sep 19, 2023, 10:44 AM (14 replies)

Question for older DUers - what was December 7 1966 like?

Thinking of 9-11 22 years later, I started wondering about a comparable event. I know most baby boomers/ greatest gen/ and silent gen that I know compared 9-11 to the day JFK was assinated, but in terms of loss of life and the consequent war, my thought was that the bombing of Pearl Harbor was a more apt comparison.

My question: was there a big deal made about the 25th anniversary of Pearl Harbor? Obviously there was no social media, but did TV and radio do "where were you...?" stories, and were the colors half-masted throughout the US?
Posted by Algernon Moncrieff | Tue Sep 12, 2023, 12:16 PM (41 replies)

Is there a good place to get "Lock Him Up" merch?

Bumper stickers/magnets? Shirts?
Posted by Algernon Moncrieff | Wed Aug 2, 2023, 11:17 AM (2 replies)

A New Jersey restaurant is refusing service to children 10 and under

Nettie's House of Spaghetti in Tinton Falls, NJ has made the following statement via social media:

We love kids. We really, truly, do. But lately, it’s been extremely challenging to accommodate children at Nettie’s. Between noise levels, lack of space for high chairs, cleaning up crazy messes, and the liability of kids running around the restaurant, we have decided that it’s time to take control of the situation. This wasn’t a decision that was made lightly, but some recent events have pushed us to implement this new policy. As of March 8, the day we return from our winter break, we will no longer allow children under 10 to dine in the restaurant.

We know that this is going to make some of you very upset, especially those of you with very well-behaved kids, but we believe this is the right decision for our business moving forward.

Thank you for understanding ♥️


Question: Assuming they are licensed to operate as a restaurant open to the public (as opposed to a private club) would this discriminatory based on being an arbitrary refusal of service?
Posted by Algernon Moncrieff | Fri Feb 10, 2023, 05:45 PM (123 replies)

Tanks for Ukraine: Germany to send Leopard 2s and allow others to export - reports

Source: BBC News

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has decided to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, and allow other countries to do the same, reports in Germany say.

Leopard 2s are made in Germany and Berlin needs to approve their export.

Germany has been hesitant to send its own - or allow other nations to send theirs - over concerns it could escalate the conflict with Russia.

Now, after international pressure, Mr Scholz has decided to send at least 14 Leopard 2s, German outlets say.

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64391272?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA



.webp
Posted by Algernon Moncrieff | Tue Jan 24, 2023, 05:36 PM (26 replies)

CNN: The House has a speaker. Here's what comes next

The House has a speaker. Here’s what comes next

Investigative agenda

With subpoena power and control over powerful committees, the House GOP plans to make investigations into the Biden administration a top priority. Among its targets are:

Hunter Biden. GOP Rep. James Comer, who is in line to chair the House Oversight Committee, said that “in the 118th Congress, this committee will evaluate the status of Joe Biden’s relationship with his family’s foreign partners and whether he is a President who is compromised or swayed by foreign dollars and influence.”

The heart of Comer’s investigation will be digging into more than 100 suspicious activity reports that Republicans claim banks have filed related to the president’s son Hunter Biden’s financial activities. Comer has said, “We would love to talk to people in the Biden family, specifically Hunter and Joe Biden.”

The White House said the investigations are politically motivated and a waste of time. Such reports are not conclusive and do not necessarily indicate wrongdoing.

The Department of Justice and FBI. GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, who is widely expected to chair the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland in November requesting a slew of documents on everything from the Justice Department’s alleged “targeting” of Project Veritas to the FBI search for classified documents at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

The southern border. After winning the majority, Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas telling him and other department officials to be prepared to testify.

The Afghanistan withdrawal. Biden’s decision to remove US troops from Afghanistan in 2021 led to a frantic attempt by many Afghans to flee the county, with devastating scenes of people clinging to the wings of planes as they tried to escape before the Taliban government officially assumed power. Republicans have signaled that they are eyeing potential probes into the events.

Covid-19 origins. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the top Republican on the Energy and Commerce panel, has said that “how the pandemic started, that’s probably the most important public health question that needs to be answered.” Two studies released last year both concluded that a seafood market in Wuhan, China, was most likely the epicenter for the virus.


Hunter Biden will be the new Benghazi or Whitewater. I suspect they will try to say that President Biden was derelict in his duty with respect to the Afghan withdrawal and try to instigate impeachment hearings that will go pretty much nowhere. Covid-19 origins will be to say that China, not Russia, is our real enemy and that we should get with the program, stop sending money to Ukraine, and make every American sit through Shen-Yun.
Posted by Algernon Moncrieff | Sat Jan 7, 2023, 04:41 PM (3 replies)

Rep. Kevin Hern might consider being speaker if McCarthy falls short, source says

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/house-speaker-leadership-vote-01-05-23/h_889d4bbf7010d65db66ccffaa413339b

Unlike Rep. Jim Jordan, who vehemently was publicly opposed to being speaker, a source close to Rep. Kevin Hern told CNN me that he wouldn't be opposed to being speaker if McCarthy couldn't get the votes.

"If McCarthy can’t get the votes, Hern won’t turn down a challenge. People his entire life have been telling him he can’t do something and look where he is now," the source said.

Hern, who is the head of the Republican Study Committee, has received a couple of anti-McCarthy protest votes in the eighth round of voting, but it unclear if he, or anyone, could earn a winning number of votes.


My questions:

1) At some point, do they caucus again and consider re-voting on majority leader?
2) What other names will emerge?
Posted by Algernon Moncrieff | Thu Jan 5, 2023, 04:14 PM (6 replies)

A "motion to vacate a chair" is a key demand of Republicans voting against McCarthy.

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/house-speaker-leadership-vote-01-05-23/index.html

The tactic was used by the House Freedom Caucus to frustrate and push out former House Speaker John Boehner.

Democrats, under former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, changed the rules to make it more difficult to force a vote on vacating the chair. The Pelosi rules require a majority of either party to sign on before a vote can be taken.

Now, GOP hardliners want a single member to be able to force a vote. Sensing it would be used to gum up the work of the House by the House Freedom Caucus, McCarthy had heretofore opposed changing the rules back, although he has now relented on that.

Why not just let a single member force a vote? Here's Rep. Dan Crenshaw, the Texas Republican, as quoted in a previous CNN story on the subject: “There’s a reason [the motion to vacate] already got debated. You can’t govern with a gun to your head and that is what they are asking for. It makes us highly unstable, and it lays out the potential too for Democrats to take advantage of this and create absolute chaos.”
Posted by Algernon Moncrieff | Thu Jan 5, 2023, 04:08 PM (1 replies)

Police Called to Ted Cruz's Texas Home for Teen With Self-Inflicted Wounds

Source: Daily Beast

Police and medical personnel were called to the Texas home of Sen. Ted Cruz Tuesday night after reports of a 14-year-old girl at the property suffering from self-inflicted stab wounds to her arms.

The teen was taken to the hospital shortly after. It’s unclear who the girl was—though Cruz does have two daughters: Catherine, 11, and Caroline, 14.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/police-called-to-ted-cruzs-texas-home-for-teen-girl-with-self-inflicted-wounds
Posted by Algernon Moncrieff | Wed Dec 7, 2022, 01:34 AM (57 replies)
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