Wow, Really? U.S. Treasury Designates Taliban Liason To Al Qaeda: To Make Sure All Profits The TALIBAN Received From NARCOTICS Are Shared

June 26, 2015

The Long War Journal:

by Thomas Joscelyn

H/T We The People: “To be filed under you can’t make this stuff up department.  

“Only a department, in this case, the U.S. Treasury Department would be assigned a liaison from the Taliban to make sure agreed to share all profits the Taliban received from narcotics trade and commercial fuel convoy taxation in two districts in southwestern Afghanistan to support Taliban operations.”

“One minute we are trying to kill them the next we are going into the heroine business with them.  You got to love Obama’s war strategy; perhaps he’s trying to bring down the deficit.

“Do we live in a great country or what?” 

The Long War Journal:

The Treasury Department has added a senior Taliban leader, Maulawi Abdul Rashid Baluch, to the US government’s list of specially designated global terrorists. As of mid-2013, Rashid “served as a Taliban liaison officer to al Qaeda and was responsible for planning meetings between Taliban senior leadership and AQ members in Karachi, Pakistan.”

“Today’s action highlights the Taliban’s continuing ties to al Qaeda in Pakistan, its destabilizing criminal activity in Afghanistan, and its continued efforts to undermine US interests and harm US personnel in Afghanistan,” Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Adam J. Szubin was quoted as saying in Treasury’s press release.

Szubin continued: “Maulawi Abdul Rashid Baluch has been closely involved in violent attacks and illicit activities. We will continue to target Taliban leaders like Rashid to disrupt the Taliban’s terrorist operations and its ability to raise, move, and store funds.”

The short biography Treasury provides for Rashid highlights the multiple roles he played prior to his arrest by Afghan security forces in July 2014, from waging guerrilla warfare against NATO and Afghan forces to narcotics trafficking.

“Rashid served in leadership, logistical, and financial support roles for the group since at least 2007 and was the Taliban’s Provincial Shadow Governor of Nimruz Province, Afghanistan, from early 2008 until late 2012,” Treasury states.

Rashid has been tied to various specific attacks against US and Aghan forces. In 2013, a US soldier was killed by an IED that Rashid had ordered implanted in Nimruz Province. He “transported IEDs to Afghanistan that were used by the Taliban to target Coalition Forces.” And, in early 2008, Rashid and “a Taliban associate facilitated the movement of three suicide bombers for attacks in Nimruz Province.”

Rashid has also helped deploy “suicide bombers to conduct vehicle-borne IED attacks on senior Afghan government officials and non-governmental organization workers.”

More at The Long War Journal

Disclaimer: This article was not written by Lorra B.

2016 ELECTION – IT’S THE CORRUPTION, STUPID

June 22, 2015

Socialism Is Not The Answer: H/T We The People

Family Security Matters

LAWRENCE SELLIN, PHD

There is a potential winning coalition in America, one including Democrats and Republicans, men and women, and all racial and ethnic groups, who believe in one simple proposition – honest, representative government.

We do not have either.

What we do have is a political-media system representing the interests of an oligarchy, a form of government in which all power is vested in a dominant class.  It is composed of financiers and their political and media whores, who finance their avarice by using the tax revenues squeezed from hard-working Americans as a personal hedge fund.

The present American political system is a “totalitarian democracy“, one in which “lawfully” elected representatives rule a nation state whose citizens, although granted the right to vote, have little or no participation in the decision-making process of government, nor whose views are ever seriously considered except when they parallel the interests of the oligarchy.

The United States may have traveled too far down the road to perdition to be saved, but if there is to be salvation, the American people must recognize and directly address the single, most important issue facing the country; the hopeless corruption of our political-media culture.

American politicians, collectively, both Democrat and Republican, do not believe in representative government and care nothing about the Constitution or the rule of law, but in the pursuit of personal power and profit through the use of unconstitutional executive power, a warped legislative process and a constant stream of guaranteed taxpayer revenues. Both parties use campaign deception, practice political expediency, engage in crony capitalism and, when necessary, promote voter fraud to sustain the corrupt status quo.

The media support the oligarchy by preserving the illusion of democracy, enabling tyranny by misinforming or manipulating Americans and, thereby, facilitating the very corruption the people’s “watchdog” was meant to prevent.

We have developed into something akin to what Sheldon S. Wolin called a “managed democracy,” where a governmental cartel stages elections every few years to obtain voter acquiescence in a:

“country where citizens are politically uninterested and submissive–and where elites are eager to keep them that way.”

In Commentaries on the Constitution (1833), Joseph Story wrote:

“Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capacity, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence.”

To paraphrase Christopher Hitchens, the vacant servitude to an oligarchy requires a society to lose any sense of its own history and traditions. Subjected to media deception and leftist historical revisionism, the low-information voter will submit to tyranny through a combination of governmental coercion and the hedonist nihilism of the painless, amusement-sodden, and stress-free consensus managed by the all-intrusive nanny-state.

The Administration of Barack Obama has stripped away any pretense regarding the depth of government corruption, the extent of media complicity or the willingness of Republicans to defend the vested interests of the oligarchy.

Obama’s extreme leftist beliefs and his love for, if not strict adherence to Islam, lead him to embrace policies not in the best interest of the United States; while his arrogance and narcissism prevent him from admitting failure and changing course.

Nevertheless, the Republican Party has consistently joined Obama and the Democrats to pass legislation and enact policies opposed by a majority of Americans.

I would like to think that it was all just incompetence, a befuddled political leadership offering unworkable solutions for misunderstood problems executed by ignoramuses.

Unfortunately, it is far more sinister. We have met the enemy and he is government.

Read more: Family Security Matters

Disclaimer: This article was not written by Lorra B.

Senate Deceptions Advance Trade Maneuver To Give Obama New Power in TPP Trade Deal…

May 23, 2015

Once again The last Refuge is spot on and hits it out of the park on this one. It appears that we have two sides of the Senate who are batting for one side, and it doesn’t appear it is for We The People’s team…

Tell me again what benefit there was to re-electing Mitch McConnell, or giving Republicans the victory in the Senate?

Trade Promotion Authority or TPA contains fast-track provisions [that] would allow Congress, under strict timelines, to consider trade deals with a simple up-or-down vote without any amendments or requirements of a Senate super-majority to end debate.

This would grant new power to the executive branch and reduce congressional ability to modify of block the TPP bill itself.  Obviously this would help Obama complete the final details of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), with the other 11 nations, a bloc that represents about 40 percent of the global economy.

(Via Washington Post)  President Obama won a big victory for his trade agenda Friday with the Senate’s approval of fast-track legislation that could make it easier for him to complete a wide-ranging trade deal that would include 11 Pacific Rim nations.

A coalition of 48 Senate Republicans and 14 Democrats voted for Trade Promotion Authority late Friday, sending the legislation to a difficult fight in the House, where it faces more entrenched opposition from Democrats.

The Senate coalition fought off several attempts by opponents to undermine the legislation, defeating amendments that were politically popular but potentially poisonous to Obama’s bid to secure the trade deal.

“This is an important bill, likely the most important bill we will pass this year. It’s important to President Obama,” Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and primary author of the bill, said at the close of debate. (more)

They have to pass the trade bill, before we are allowed to actually see the trade bill.

The actual trade deal itself is being kept secret, classified, and cloaked in darkness.

[…]  Senators are forced to go into a classified viewing room in order to read the full text of the document, but are not allowed to bring in key staff or take notes on what is included in the bill text.  Not only this, but as you would assume for classified documents, elected officials are unable to speak to anyone without proper security clearance about the specific details of the trade negotiations without suffering potential criminal legal ramifications.

This becomes a serious issue when dealing with complicated and technical negotiations regarding the largest trade deal in American history.  It also raises serious questions about the legislative process and democracy generally when the public is unable to view the content of a bill introduced in Congress, but foreign government officials and private corporations are.(link)

Speaker of the House John Boehner is praising the Senate’s passage of the trade bill and calling on Democrats to join with Republicans to pass the law in the House.

With trade promotion authority, we’ll be able to hold President Obama accountable so America’s workers can get the best agreements. Without it, our workers will fall further behind as China writes the rules of the global economy (link)

More at The last Refuge

Permission was given by  The last Refuge to Lorra B. to post articles in their entirety.

Disclaimer: This was not written by Lorra B.

HILLARY’S EMAILS AREN’T GONE…THEY’RE JUST ….ER….RESTING

May 1, 2015

Desert Musings:

If we have learned anything at all this week, it’s that your emails never, ever go away. Regardless how well you scrub your server. Regardless how well you dent your hard drive. Regardless how many crimes you’ve committed and talked about in your emails to all your friends, family, and co-conspirators. It ain’t dead. It’s just resting.

Don’t believe me? Just ask Lois Lerner!

Oh, she thought she was in the clear. She thought there would never be a way to find those emails that were “missing and feared gone forever”. She thought it was a done deal and she could live out retirement in peace. And then an IG from the IRS decided to do something dastardly. He actually drove down to Virginia to where the IRS keeps the tapes of their backed up emails, and he got the tapes. And voila! There were a BUNCH of emails everyone thought had been gone forever!

And thus, Hillary Clinton is going to face the same thing. Just because you use your own private server doesn’t mean those emails are gone for good. It just requires a little looking. I know that’s something the government isn’t used to doing, but a little investigation actually turns up a lot of stuff. And Hillary will be in the same boat.

Meanwhile, the Democrats added another player to the presidential politics wheel…as Jim Webb…the former Senator from Virginia threw his hat into the ring. And while he didn’t really come out and spar with Hillary by name, it’s obvious he sees the impending storm surrounding her is not going to go away. We’re all just waiting for Martin O’Malley and Elizabeth Warren to get into the fray. Hillary may have all the money in the world…but money doesn’t buy happiness and money can’t buy trust. She’s really lacking both right now.

I’m more convinced than ever that Hillary Clinton is not going to be the next president of the United States. There. I’ve said it. She’s not trustworthy. America knows she’s slipperier than Bill, and will do anything to achieve her ends. When you’ve got 51% of the people saying you’re not trustworthy, and 77% saying you sold out when you were Secretary of State, that doesn’t bode well. And if Hillary thinks she’s going to wave her arms and say, “It’s old news” when the general campaign rolls around, think again.

What’s exciting about all of this is the GOP isn’t behind any of the stuff. You’ve got a right-wing author whose book isn’t even released until next Tuesday chewing up more airtime than Hillary can. You’ve got Democrats tip-toeing away from her and hoping someone else…ANYBODY else…gets into the race so they’ve got a chance in the general…and Hillary calling all of it a distraction, knowing that when the shit hits the fan (and it always does), she’s toast. She just hopes she can win the election before all that happens. Otherwise, we’re going to see what Hillary looks like in a striped pantsuit.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Permission was given by Desert Musings to Lorra B. to post articles in their entirety. 

Baltimore State Attorney In Charge Of Prosecuting LOOTERS Is Married To The Councilman Who Facilitated The Looting…

(Screenshot credit, The Last Refuge)

April 30, 2015

The Last Refuge: by sundance

Recent media stories within Baltimore are highlighting that many of the looter/rioters arebeing released without charges.

The Head Baltimore Prosecutor in charge of making those decisions is Marilyn Mosby.

Marilyn Mosby is Baltimore City’s newly elected State’s Attorney. She is the youngest chief prosecutor of any major city in America. 

[…]  As an active member in her profession and community, Marilyn has served in a number of leadership positions on several committees and boards including: the Peer Review Committee of the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission (2012), the Judicial Nomination Committee for the Monumental Bar Association, the NAACP (Baltimore Branch) Criminal Justice Committee. (link)

Now, you might also remember when the riots and looting broke out on Monday there was a City Councilman who told the police to move back from their positions. When the police did what the Councilman requested, the stores in the immediate area were looted.

See video at 02:10 where Councilman Nick Mosby told the police to back off.

Yes, the State Attorney in charge of prosecuting the looters, Marilyn Mosby, is married to the Councilman, Nick Mosby, who facilitated the looting….

….. And the looters will not be prosecuted.

Go Figure!

Baltimore, the ultimate Potemkin Village !

(Hat Tip Nation)

Disclaimer: This was not written by Lorra B.

SAN FRANCISCO SHOWS WHY YOU CAN NEVER TRUST A LIBERAL

April 29, 2015

Desert Musings:

I’m a big consistency nut. I think that if you’re going to have a belief in anything, that’s fine, and frankly, I don’t care what side of the equation you’re on…just be consistent with it in your life. As I’ve said here before…I can’t get how a person can be against the death penalty for someone who’s committed murder…but be for aborting a fetus. That makes no sense. You’re willing to spare the life of a condemned and convicted killer, but you’re also willing to kill an innocent yet-to-be-born baby? Where are your ethics?

So it’s with that in mind that I take you to the city by the bay…the city that never sleeps….(sorry…a throwback to Jefferson Starship days). San Francisco. As most of you probably know, and if you live in California you certainly know, they have a bit of a water problem out there. And Governor Moon Beam has thrown some extreme measures to save water. Like, everybody has to cut their water usage by 25%. That’s a lot.

Well, tell that to San Francisco. The uber-socialist enclave has continued to use DRINKING WATER to heat City Hall. Yes… in a time that they are in a severe drought situation, the city of San Francisco takes drinking water…heats it up to boiling, and uses the steam to heat City Hall. They then take the used water that’s been heated and turned to steam, and send it right down the sewer. And apparently, in the midst of people not being able to take showers or wash their clothes, this is acceptable.

They figure it to be about 250,000 gallons of water a day. That’s 1.75 MILLION gallons of water a week. I don’t care how you slice it, that’s a lot of wasted water!

And what does Tyrone Jue, who’s with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission have to say about it? “The system has been set up in the city for many decades, as far as this steam loop. It doesn’t rely on fossil fuels or natural gas to heat these buildings. So in that sense it’s good!” Huh?

Ty, buddy….we’re talking about water here…not fossil fuels. We’re talking about your city wasting almost 2 million gallons of water a week and THAT is your response? Tell the farmers just outside your city that grow some of the best grapes in the world that you’re wasting 2 million gallons of water a week and see if they give a rat’s rear end that you’re not using fossil fuel. My hunch is you’d get lynched.

And that, my friends is why you can never trust a liberal. Consistency doesn’t mean anything to these people. If it did, they wouldn’t be backing Hillary Clinton for president.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

More at Desert Musings

Permission was given by Desert Musings to Lorra B. to post articles in their entirety.

BREAKING: LORETTA LYNCH CONFIRMED AS ATTORNEY GENERAL

April 23, 2015

FoxNews.com:

Comment by Jim Campbell, Citizen Journalist, Oath Keeper and Patriot.

“Loretta Lynch, President Obama’s nominee for attorney general, was facing questions about why she let multiple bank employees who funneled millions of dollars to the Iranian government, Middle Eastern terrorists and Mexican drug cartels walk away without criminal prosecution.

Sen. David Vitter, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee,  launched an investigation into the matter. He cited the concern as a reason to delay Senate confirmation of Lynch, who was nominated to replace Eric Holder as the chief law enforcement officer in the United States.

“If Loretta Lynch and [the Justice Department] swept under the rug a serious money laundering scheme involving Mexican drug cartels and terrorist organizations, we need to know a heck of a lot more about it,” Vitter told The Daily Signal.

Of course this was swept under the rug, did you hear or see it any other place?”

Ten Republicans voted for her.

Senator Kelly Ayotte, a New Hampshire Republican who faces re-election next year, was among those in her party who voted for Ms. Lynch. “Ms. Lynch is a well-respected U.S. attorney with a proven record and significant experience handling difficult cases,” Ms. Ayotte said in a prepared statement. “After meeting with her and reviewing her qualifications, I believe she is clearly qualified and has the necessary experience to serve as Attorney General.”

Another Republican running for re-election, Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, also gave Ms. Lynch a thumbs-up.

Ms. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and, Angus King and Susan Collins did the same.

When the final names are released it will be time to mount a serious attack in upcoming elections against the five yet unknowns.

Serious consideration should be given by the Republican controlled House of Representatives at refusing to fund any projects in the states of those senators voting aye.

FoxNews.com

Published April 23, 2015

FILE: Dec. 2, 2014: Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C.

DEVELOPING … 

The Senate has voted to confirm Loretta Lynch as attorney general, ending a months-long delay. 

Lynch was confirmed on a 56-43 vote. 

Complete list of Republicans will be provided, at the time of this posting it appears to be a closely guarded secret.

More at FoxNews.com

Disclaimer: This was not written by Lorra B.

“RIDE THE THUNDER” : A VIETNAM WAR STORY OF VICTORY AND BETRAYAL

April 17, 2015

WND

Chelsea Schilling

Comment by Jim Campbell, Citizen Journalist, Oath Keeper and Patriot.

“One could certainly challenge the tactics used by the military leadership, and most who died might have lived had we fought with the equipment and tactics used in the Middle East and on the African Continent.

We can certainly hope this film will set the record straight for those who served, and their loved ones.

There are over 58,000 men an women whose names are carved into the wall of the Vietnam Memorial who paid the ultimate sacrifice, may they rest in peace with God watching their souls.”

WND

Chelsea Schilling

It’s is a vividly accurate, cutting-edge film about one of the most shockingly misunderstood wars in American history – and it took Westminster, California, by storm when it premiered there this month, selling more than $30,000 in tickets in just three days during its limited release at a single movie theater.

The film profits will support four charities: Semper Fi Fund, Agape International Missions, Field of Dreams and Allegiant Giving.

“I’ve been waiting 40 years for this film!” was a common refrain among the Vietnam War veterans and the South Vietnamese Americans – most with tears streaming down their faces – who gathered to witness their powerful story finally making it onto the big screen at the wildly popular premiere of “Ride the Thunder: A Vietnam War Story of Victory and Betrayal.”

Some South Vietnamese attendees recalled their own heart-wrenching memories of more than a decade of starvation and torture in prison camps after they fought to keep their country free of communism. Separated from their wives and children, they saw friends and loved ones brutally murdered by North Vietnamese guards during their communist “re-education.”

And 40 years after the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, U.S. Marine and Army veterans remembered harrowing fire fights alongside their South Vietnamese brothers in arms – and their return to a nation that turned its back on its own freedom fighters.

But the momentous event wasn’t about re-opening old wounds.

Instead, it was a heartfelt celebration of brotherhood, a long overdue welcome home and a chance to finally tell the incredible story of unparalleled sacrifice that most Americans have never heard.

“The film record of the Vietnam War is what will determine history 10, 20, 50 years from now when all the Vietnam veterans are gone,” Richard Botkin, executive producer of “Ride the Thunder,” told WND at the red-carpet event.

Many popular films dealing with Vietnam – such as “Apocalypse Now,” “The Deer Hunter,” “Platoon,” “Good Morning, Vietnam,” “Rambo” and “Full Metal Jacket” – serve as great entertainment, Botkin said, but they often grossly distort the reality of the warriors who fought courageously to stop the spread of communism.

“Those films portray our troops as victims, as dupes,” he said. “It marginalizes them, shows them very unfavorably and the leadership unfavorably. It shows our Vietnamese allies as even worse. Our film is an effort to begin to turn the tide against that so that, in the future, people will realize that America was right to fight in Vietnam, to stop communism, and that our South Vietnamese allies were worthy of our sacrifice and that they fought well also.”

The main character of the film is South Vietnamese Marine commander Le Ba Binh, who was a prime example of enduring courage in a battle of David and Goliath proportions as his battalion of only 700 men held 20,000 communist invaders in Dong Ha.

Binh, a man with few equals in the war-fighting profession, served 13 years in heavy combat (1962-1975) and another 11 years in communist prison camps. Despite numerous battle wounds and lost comrades, he showed unwavering courage in the face of extreme hardship.

“Americans, when they went to Vietnam, if they were a Marine, they went 13 months for one tour. If they were in the Army, 12 months. Some men went two or three times, but very few,” Botkin explained.

“The Vietnamese generally had one tour that ended with death or dismemberment, so they fought forever. My main character, Binh, fought forever – 13 years, wounded nine times. At the end of the war, the communists put him in prison – they called it euphemistically ‘re-education camp’ – for 11 years. He comes to the U.S. because he’ll never get ahead in Vietnam. He comes to the U.S. with nothing and prospers. That’s the Vietnamese story in America – suffering, hardship, come to America, work hard and succeed. It’s a great story.”

More at WND

Disclaimer: This was not written by Lorra B.

ALERT: Obama Has Shocking Declaration About YOUR Bank Account

April 16, 2015

Mad World News:

The Obama administration may no longer have to simply just impose high taxes on everything you do to get your cash for the government to frivolously spend. There is sincere interest in following the lead of other countries by claiming your bank account is in fact not yours, but the government’s. If you want all your savings, you can’t keep it all, if King Obama gets his way, allowing him to seize what he believes is rightfully his.

According to Western Journalism, the money you once thought was guarded and protected by a bank, safely behind vault doors, is no longer safeguarded now that the United States regards your bank account as an asset that belongs to the bank, which means essentially the government can come debiting at will, to pay bank debts and obligations, through heavy taxation.

The seemingly unconstitutional idea comes after being inspired by the “bail in” plan that Cyprus, Greece employed, which locked out citizens from their own hard-earned cash without notice in March 2013 to save a bank from complete collapse. President Obama quickly embraced the idea, especially after Australia jumped on the bandwagon, when he caught wind of it from economic leaders at the G-20 summit last November in Brisbane, Australia.

What Americans can potentially experience is not only being taxed on your earned income and taxed again when you spend and invest it, but also when you save it.  You will pay the bank a fee and the government a tax, just for the honor of having a high-risk bank account that pays you nothing after everything is said and done. This is after you have already been robbed through inflation, only to get a return in interest that is under the amount you lost, and had no control over, Swiss America reported.

Although the novel idea will be sold to Americans as a tax on banks to protect them from collapse and prevent another financial crisis in the future, the actual cost will be passed on to consumers through higher fees or lower interest paid on their accounts.

What it boils down to is that spendaholic politicians will loot whatever pools of public or private money they can through legal loopholes our government creates. Don’t let them have it, invest in gold.

h/t: [WesternJournalism]

More at Mad World News

Disclaimer: This article was not written by Lorra B.

Hillary Clinton Delivers Insult To Everyday Americans: ‘Suck It’

April 16, 2015

Mad World News:

There’s no doubt that Hillary Clinton is a snob and an elitist that believes We the People are not worthy of her time, but unfortunately, she needs our pesky votes for her 2016 intentions. In order to do that, she’s been seen amid the people, but she’s been waving a big middle finger around the entire time.

First, Mad World News reported that Hillary stopped for lunch at a Chipotle restaurant in Toledo, Ohio and was terribly embarrassed on account of not being recognized by a single person. However, new reports indicate that Hillary did something that wasn’t so proper.

The issue was first pointed out by Rush Libaugh on Tuesday, who, after pointing out her unusual etiquette, then questioned:

I would like to know if she left anything in the tip jar, because that would be an indication that she understands the average, ordinary, everyman that she seeks to represent. I mean, that’s where the people that work at Chipotle, that’s where they make a little extra, in the tip jar, and I haven’t heard a word about whether or not she visited the tip jar, whether she put anything in it or not.

In a big “suck it” to everyday Americans everywhere, Bloomberg Politics reports that she didn’t tip.

“Her bill was $20 and some change, and they paid with $21 and left,” explained Chipotle manager Charles Wright, saying she put nothing in the tip jar. Of course, they only learned that after going back and watching the surveillance camera footage, since they didn’t recognize her when she was actually in the restaurant.

He then said that tipping is common practice among patrons, saying, “We get a bunch of tips. If we’re doing our job right, people tip.” In another not-so-shocking admission, apparently Hillary couldn’t be bothered to pay for herself either, as Wright went on to point out, “The other lady paid the bill. Clinton didn’t pay.”

More at Mad World News:

Disclaimer: This article was not written by Lorra B.