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30 retailers that struggled, shrunk or closed for good in 2020
by: Nexstar Media Wire
FILE – In this Aug. 6, 2020, file photo, a customer leaves a Pier 1 retail store, which is going out of business, during the coronavirus pandemic in Coral Gables, Fla. The number of laid-off workers applying for unemployment aid fell below 1 million last week for the first time since the pandemic intensified five months ago, yet still remains at a high level. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
(NEXSTAR) — U.S. retailers have announced 8,400 store closures this year, according to data from Coresight Research, and the company expects 2020 to set a new record, surpassing the 9,302 closures it tracked in 2019.
In addition, about 17% of American restaurants — roughly 110,000 — have permanently closed this year, with thousands more possible, according to a recent National Restaurant Association report.
Retail and restaurants — many already in deep debt — were devastated by lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic, prompting dozens to declare bankruptcy this year. Here are 30 chains that were hard hit.
Papyrus: The seller of stationery and upscale greeting cards went out of business, resulting in the closure of more than 250 stores across the U.S. and Canada.
Bar Louie: The restaurant chain closed about half of its 90 U.S. locations and filed for Chapter 11.
Krystal: The 88-year-old Atlanta-based fast-food chain filed for bankruptcy in January then emerged in May after its sale to one of its senior lenders was approved.
Pier 1 Imports: The home goods retailer filed for bankruptcy and closed all of its locations, which once numbered more than 1,000. In July, an investment firm purchased the brand name, which will be relaunched as an online-only store.
Modell's Sporting Goods: Founded in 1889, the chain that's known for selling team jerseys and equipment for youth leagues permanently closed all 153 of its stores. The company that bought Pier 1 also bought Modell's brand name in August for an online store, according to CNN.
True Religion: The denim retailer filed for bankruptcy in April and emerged in October. Though it cut its debt, it ended up closing dozens of locations.
J.Crew Group: The retailer that operates the J.Crew and Madewell brands filed for bankruptcy protection in May and exited in September.
Neiman Marcus: The 113-year-old department store filed for bankruptcy in May and closed five stores, including its Hudson Yards stores that opened in New York City in 2019. It emerged from bankruptcy in September.
JCPenney: The 119-year-old company closed about a third of its stores. In December, the company was bought out of bankruptcy by mall owners Simon Property Group and Brookfield Asset Management.
Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes: The all-you-can-eat buffet-style restaurant chain announced the closure of all of its 97 U.S. restaurants and liquidated its assets.
Tuesday Morning: The Dallas-based discount home goods retailer filed for bankruptcy in the spring and permanently closed approximately 230 of its nearly 700 U.S. stores.
GNC: The 85-year-old vitamin and dietary supplement company filed for bankruptcy in June and closed about 1,200 stores. GNC is now being sold to a Chinese pharmaceutical company.
CEC Entertainment: The parent company of Chuck E. Cheese's and Peter Piper Pizza filed for bankruptcy in June.
Was 2020 the worst year ever? Here are a few that could be worse
NPC International: The country's second-largest franchisee — operating 1,200 Pizza Hut and 400 Wendy's restaurants throughout the U.S. — filed for bankruptcy in July and announced that up to 300 of its Pizza Hut locations would close.
Brooks Brothers: The 200-year-old menswear retailer filed for bankruptcy in July and was bought by Simon Property Group in September.
Sur La Table: The 50-year-old privately held retailer of upscale kitchenware filed for bankruptcy and closed about half of its 120 U.S. stores. In August, it was sold for $90 million to an investment firm.
Muji USA: The U.S. arm of the Japanese retailer of goods from stationery to household items entered bankruptcy and closed a "small number" of its locations.
Lucky Brand: The denim company filed for bankruptcy and announced it was immediately closing 13 of its roughly 200 North American stores. In August, it sold itself to SPARC Group, the owner of Nautica and Aéropostale.
RTW Retailwinds: The owner of women's retailer New York & Co. filed for bankruptcy in mid-July and closed hundreds of its locations.
Ascena Retail Group: The owner of such women's clothing stores as Ann Taylor, LOFT and Lane Bryant filed for bankruptcy and closed hundreds of its stores, including all of its Catherines locations, which numbered about 300. The group is selling itself to a private equity firm.
The operator of Ann Taylor and Lane Bryant filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
California Pizza Kitchen: The 35-year-old pizza chain filed for bankruptcy and closed several unprofitable locations. It emerged from bankruptcy in mid-November.
Lord & Taylor: The upscale retailer, which was acquired in 2019 for $75 million, filed for bankruptcy and announced it was ending a nearly 200-year run with the closure of all of its stores.
Tailored Brands: The brand owner of Men's Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank filed for bankruptcy after previously announcing it was closing a third of its stores and cutting 20% of corporate positions. It emerged from bankruptcy in December.
Stein Mart: The 112-year-old retailer filed for bankruptcy and closed its 300 U.S. stores. An investment firm bought the brand in December with plans to relaunch online.
Century 21: The 60-year-old discount retailer, popular in New York, closed its remaining 13 locations.
Sizzler USA: One of the first casual restaurant chains in the U.S., the 62-year-old Sizzler filed for bankruptcy and is attempting to reduce debt and renegotiate its leases.
Ruby Tuesday: The privately held restaurant chain filed for bankruptcy and over the past few years, has closed about 200 locations.
Visitors to New York's Times square walk past a Ruby Tuesday restaurant in 2016. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
Friendly's: The East Coast restaurant chain, which was founded in 1935, filed for bankruptcy for the second time in less than 10 years, during which it has closed about 270 of its original 400 locations.
Guitar Center: The 61-year-old musical instrument retailer, the largest in the country, filed for bankruptcy.
Francesca's: The woman's boutique chain filed for bankruptcy and announced the closure of about a quarter of its 700 stores.
by Ashley Michels, Nexstar Media Wire / Jan 18, 2021
DENVER (KDVR) — Over the past few days, Twitter has temporarily blocked or permanently banned tens of thousands of users, including President Donald Trump, for spreading misinformation the company says could lead to violence.
Now, many Americans are questioning why a social media site is allowed to restrict users' freedom of speech.
Plant Riverside District starts weekly job fair for on-site positions
by Jon Dowding / Jan 14, 2021
SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) - Those in need of a job have a chance to put their best foot forward with new weekly job fairs at the Plant Riverside District.
The entertainment district, located on the Savannah riverfront, is looking to fill over 80 positions and anticipates the need to fill more once other areas in the district are completed.
Airbnb cancels all DC reservations for inauguration week
by Nexstar Media Wire and Fareeha Rehman, KRON / Jan 13, 2021
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- Airbnb is canceling all reservations in the Washington, D.C., area for inauguration week.
President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration is on Jan. 20.


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Home » Context of 'Early 1981: Mossad Bombs A. Q. Khan Supplier in Germany'
Context of 'Early 1981: Mossad Bombs A. Q. Khan Supplier in Germany'
This is a scalable context timeline. It contains events related to the event Early 1981: Mossad Bombs A. Q. Khan Supplier in Germany. You can narrow or broaden the context of this timeline by adjusting the zoom level. The lower the scale, the more relevant the items on average will be, while the higher the scale, the less relevant the items, on average, will be.
Early 1981: Mossad Bombs A. Q. Khan Supplier in Germany
The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad attacks a German man named Heinz Mebus, who is part of A. Q. Khan's nuclear proliferation network. The attack is in the form of a letter bomb, sent to Mebus' home in Erlangen, West Germany. Mebus, who had helped build fluoride and uranium conversion plants for Pakistan in 1979, is not injured, but his dog is killed. This is part of a campaign by Mossad against Khan's European associates (see Early 1981), and police soon link it to another similar attack (see February 20, 1981). [Levy and Scott-Clark, 2007, pp. 87]
Entity Tags: Heinz Mebus, Israel Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks (Mossad)
Timeline Tags: A. Q. Khan's Nuclear Network
February 20, 1981: Mossad Bombs Swiss Supplier for A. Q. Khan Network
A bomb planted by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad goes off outside the home of Eduard German in Berne, Switzerland. German is the managing director of CORA engineering, which had exported a gasification and solidification unit to Pakistan in 1979 to help A. Q. Khan's efforts to build a nuclear bomb, and is soon planning to supply another such unit. The bombing is one of a series by Mossad against Khan's suppliers in Europe (see Early 1981). The company also receives an anonymous call saying it should stop trading with Pakistan, and this threat is followed by a similar one two months later. At this point the company realizes US intelligence knows everything about its operations (see April 1981), and so halts its dealings with Pakistan. [Levy and Scott-Clark, 2007, pp. 87]
Entity Tags: CORA Engineering, Israel Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks (Mossad), Eduard German
April 1981: US Knows All about Swiss Firm's Deliveries for Pakistan's Nuclear Program
The Swiss firm CORA engineering finds that US intelligence has a comprehensive file on its shipments to Pakistan to aid A. Q. Khan's nuclear weapons program. The discovery is made after the company is bombed by the Israeli intelligence service Mossad (see February 20, 1981). CORA official Rudolf Walti will comment, "When the company was cited to the Swiss government [for supplying technology to manufacture nuclear weapons to Pakistan] we discovered that the Americans had such good records of what we were doing that if we ever lost our own files we could always go and ask them to use theirs." Authors Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark will comment, "However, this information had been kept highly classified [in the US] lest it undermine the aid train that had started to leave for Pakistan." [Levy and Scott-Clark, 2007, pp. 87, 476]
Entity Tags: Rudolf Walti, CORA Engineering, Adrian Levy, Catherine Scott-Clark
May 18, 1981: Mossad Bombs A. Q. Khan Supplier in Europe
The Israeli intelligence service Mossad bombs a German company that supplies parts for A. Q. Khan's nuclear weapons program in Pakistan. The company had been doing business with Khan through one of his representatives in Paris since 1976 and had sold Pakistan lead shielding and remote-controlled equipment to maneuver radioactive substances. The bomb is part of a campaign by Mossad targeting members of Khan's nuclear proliferation network (see Early 1981). The company also receives three threatening calls, and another such call is made to the local Reuters office. However, the company continues to supply equipment to help Pakistan's nuclear weapons program. [Levy and Scott-Clark, 2007, pp. 88]
Entity Tags: Israel Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks (Mossad)
November 1981: Mossad Bombs A. Q. Khan Associate in Germany
The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad sends a letter bomb to Albrecht Migule, an associate of A. Q. Khan who had helped build fluoride and uranium conversion plants for Pakistani in 1979. It is not known whether the bomb explodes or what damage it does, but Migule survives, only to be fined by the German authorities for his dealings with Khan. The bomb is part of a campaign by Mossad targeting members of Khan's nuclear proliferation network (see Early 1981). [Levy and Scott-Clark, 2007, pp. 88, 118]
Entity Tags: Albrecht Migule, Israel Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks (Mossad)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Open Depot
Artist talk with catalog presentation
"I act loyal to the truth" – The artist Iris Häussler comes into conversation with the two curators Dr. Sintje Guericke and Dr. Marlene Gunia in the Skulpturenhof about her installation "If" and the genesis of this work: How do you create and tell a memory image in art? Together they will present the accompanying catalog of the exhibition "No One Knows Me. Iris Häussler meets Benjamine Kolbe", which is now newly published. Afterwards, Iris Häussler and Dr. Georgiana Uhlyarik, co-author of the catalog, will lead a guided tour of the exhibition in English. Special thanks go to the sponsorship and support of the Canadian Embassy, the Ilse Augustin Foundation, and the Friends of the Georg Kolbes Museum.
Iris Häussler was born in 1962 in Friedrichshafen, Germany, and studied sculpture and conceptual art with Heribert Sturm at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich from 1983 to 1990. Häussler has lived and worked in Toronto since 2001. In her installation-based works, she presents fictional characters and their artistic products and object-like artifacts. Through a long process of research, she invents and expands detailed biographies, transforming her characters from theoretical blueprints into the tactility and sensuality of their dramatic life legacies. In her participatory approach, the artist turns viewers into co-producers of her expansive installations. Interested in the fragile boundaries between fiction and reality, Häussler offers a multi-layered and finely spun web of objects and memorabilia that are as imagined as they are plausible, which in turn refer to the construct of identity and undermine reliable concepts of authenticity. In doing so, the artist lays tracks that thematize the act of remembering as a (re)constructive experience.
Georgiana Uhlyarik is an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto and York University and a research associate in modern literature and culture at Ryerson University. As a curator and writer, she focuses on the work of 20th-century women artists in Canada and the United States. Her numerous projects have featured the work of Suzy Lake, Rita Letendre, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Kenojuak Ashevak, among others, with institutional partners in Germany, the UK, the US, and Brazil. Since 2017, Uhlyarik Fredrik S. Eaton has been curator and co-head of the Indigenous and Canadian Art Department at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. The publication she co-edited, Moving the Museum: Indigenous & Canadian Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, will be published by Goose Lane Editions in Spring 2022.
Tickets können hier erworben werden.
Daily 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., closed on Tuesday


text:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Globalization;
using System.IO;
using EnvDTE80;

namespace AIT.Tools.VisualStudioTextTransform
{
    /// <summary>
    /// A default implementation of IVariableResolver returning simple paths.
    /// </summary>
    public class DefaultVariableResolver : IVariableResolver
    {
        private readonly string _projectDir;
        private readonly string _solutionDir;
        private readonly string _targetDir;

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        /// /
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        /// <param name="solutionDir"></param>
        /// <param name="targetDir"></param>
        public DefaultVariableResolver(string projectDir, string solutionDir, string targetDir)
        {
            _projectDir = projectDir;
            _solutionDir = solutionDir;
            _targetDir = targetDir;
        }

        /// <summary>
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        /// </summary>
        public string TargetDir
        {
            get
            {
                return _targetDir;
            }
        }

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        public string SolutionDir
        {
            get
            {
                return _solutionDir;
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
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        /// </summary>
        public string ProjectDir
        {
            get
            {
                return _projectDir;
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Create a default instance by fetching the paths from the solution.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="dte"></param>
        /// <param name="templateFile"></param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public static DefaultVariableResolver CreateFromDte(DTE2 dte, string templateFile)
        {
            if (dte == null)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("dte");
            }
            if (templateFile == null)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("templateFile");
            }

            var templateFileItem = dte.Solution.FindProjectItem(templateFile);
            if (templateFileItem == null)
            { // This item is not part of the solution
                throw new TemplateNotPartOfSolutionException("The template-file " + templateFile + " was not found in the given solution!");
            }
            var project = templateFileItem.ContainingProject;
            var projectDir = Path.GetDirectoryName(project.FullName);
            string outDir = project.ConfigurationManager.ActiveConfiguration
                .Properties.Item("OutputPath").Value.ToString();
            Debug.Assert(projectDir != null, "projectDir != null, did not expect project.FullName to be a root directory!");
            var targetDir = Path.GetFullPath(Path.Combine(projectDir, outDir));
            return new DefaultVariableResolver(projectDir, Path.GetDirectoryName(dte.Solution.FullName), targetDir);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Return a new instance with a changed TargetDir.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="targetDir"></param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public DefaultVariableResolver WithTargetDir(string targetDir)
        {
            return new DefaultVariableResolver(_projectDir, _solutionDir, targetDir);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// The simple resolution strategy of this instance.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="variable"></param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public string SimpleResolveVariable(string variable)
        {
            switch (variable)
            {
                case "ProjectDir":
                {
                    return _projectDir;
                }
                case "SolutionDir":
                {
                    return _solutionDir;
                }
                case "TargetDir":
                {
                    return _targetDir;
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            }
            throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(
                string.Format(CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture, "Unknown variable {0}", variable));
        }

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        public IEnumerable<string> ResolveVariable(string variable)
        {
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            {
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                if (resolved != null)
                {
                    yield return resolved + Path.DirectorySeparatorChar;
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Collins joins Black Caucus to demand education reform that addresses racism
Published: Wednesday, September 16, 2020 02:35 PM
State Senator Jacqueline Collins spoke today at Chicago State University prior to a committee hearing focused on education reform. Her remarks appear in full below.
Black history is American history and the racial reckoning confronting and challenging America today is the result of America's refusal to recognize that fact. To understand what's happening in this moment in time, one must really understand the central and profound questions of how we got here. As James Baldwin once said, History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history.
American history as taught today has been one of half-truths, marred by omissions, downright errors, and specious interpretations, particularly regarding racial issues, such as narratives emphasizing the compassion of enslavers rather than the cruelty endured by the enslaved or such as a Texas history textbook describing the Atlantic slave trade as bringing "workers from Africa" to help with chores in the field. Both narratives minimize the brutality of slavery.
When we teach our children, we should be teaching them in truth. Textbooks are supposed to teach us a common set of facts about who we are as Americans…and what stories are key to our democracy. The Black experience is part of the American experience, the human experience, and our nation's rich and complicated history and should not be taught in a vacuum.
Pedagogy has always been preeminently political. It is often said that history is written by the victors and their history books--- glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered. Or as an African proverb says "Until the lion tells his side of the story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." Even when Attorney General William Barr was asked how his involvement in Michael Flynn's pardon will be viewed in history said, "History is written by the winners, so it largely depends on who is writing the history.
For too long Black history has been a footnote to American history. It is time to close the knowledge gap for all students by integrating Black history into the American history curricula in elementary, secondary and post-secondary schools.
Thus this moment in time is a clarion call for America's redemption, not only in policy change but 2020 has been the year that a nation's myopic near-sightedness on race and historical exclusion has been exposed. Today, the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus is providing the prescription for a corrected vision.
Follow Sen. Collins
Chicago Office:
Springfield Office:
M114 Capitol
Copyright - Illinois Senate Democratic Caucus - 2022


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FAQ SCIENTOLOGY AND DIANETICS AUDITING
WHAT IS THE PURIFICATION PROGRAM?
The Purification Rundown is a detoxification program which enables an individual to rid himself of the harmful effects of drugs, toxins and other chemicals that lodge in the body and create a biochemical barrier to spiritual well-being.
We live in a chemical-oriented society. Virtually everyone is regularly subjected to an intake of food preservatives, pesticides, atmospheric poisons and the like. Add to this the panoply of medical and street drugs generally consumed and the gravity of the problem becomes obvious.
These drugs and toxins can put an individual into a condition which not only prohibits and destroys physical health, but which can prevent any stable advancement in mental or spiritual well-being.
In the 1970s, while working with cases that had previously used drugs, Mr. Hubbard's research revealed that LSD stays in the system for years after ingestion, lodging in the fatty tissues of the body. Months or even years later, a person can re-experience a "trip" as LSD residues dislodge from the fatty tissue.
Subsequent research revealed that a long list of other street drugs, chemical poisons, toxic substances and medical drugs can similarly lodge in the body and cause a person to re-experience their effects.
In answer, Mr. Hubbard developed the Purification Rundown to meet a growing threat to spiritual advancement and well-being stemming from the more and more common use of drugs and biochemical substances in the current culture.
The Purification Rundown is a tightly supervised regimen of exercise, sauna and nutrition. It is conducted in a properly ordered schedule to include sufficient rest. In combination, it results in the elimination of drug residues and other toxins from the body's fatty tissues.
The Purification Rundown and its underlying discoveries have enabled hundreds of thousands to free themselves from the harmful effects of drugs and toxins and so achieve spiritual gains.
Scientology and Dianetics Auditing
What is auditing?
What is the difference between the two Scientology paths of auditing and training?
Do all Church staff participate in auditing and training?
What do the terms preclear and auditor mean?
What is the E-Meter and how does it work?
Why does one have to wait six weeks to participate in auditing if one has been habitually using drugs?
Will taking antibiotics prevent me from participating in auditing?
Is it okay to take any sort of drugs when you are in Scientology?
What is the Purification Rundown?
How many hours a day can one participate in auditing?
Has the technology of auditing changed since the early days of Scientology?
What will I get out of auditing?
Does auditing really work in all cases?
What can auditing cure?
Can one go exterior in auditing?
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Garden of Passage — Rose Hills Memorial Park, Whittier For Sale Grave Space
3888 Workman Mill Rd, Whittier, CA 90601
Garden of Passage (Map 5), Lot 3243, Space 1
Please contact Bayer Cemetery Brokers at (760) 247-8518 for more information about property located at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier.
Rose Hills Memorial Park
Cumorah Lawn — Desert Lawn Memorial Park, Palmdale
2200 E Ave S, Palmdale, CA 93550	Details
https://bayercemeterybrokers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/A-Desert-Lawn-Palmdale-Map.pdf Cemetery Overview Map
Siesta — Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood
North Lawn L — Mt. View Mortuary & Cemetery, San Bernardino
570 E Highland Ave, San Bernardino, CA 92404	Details
https://bayercemeterybrokers.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/A-Mountain-View-Cem-SBernardino-Map.pdf Cemetery Overview Map


text:
Tag Archives: African union
SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Quagmire Pattern
Ten Years into the Iraq War, the U.S. Repeats in Syria
The Quagmire Pattern always seems to play out the same way.
There's a civil war in some country deemed by the CIA to be Of Strategic Importance (i.e., energy reserves, proximity to energy reserves, or potential pipeline route to carry energy reserves).
During this initial stage, a secular socialist dictatorship fights Muslim insurgents who want to create an Islamist theocracy. To build public support – or at least apathetic tolerance – the conflict is cast to and by the media as a struggle between tyrannical torturers and freedom-loving underdogs.
The U.S. must get involved!
If not us, who?
Alternative answers to this question – the European Union, the African Union, the United Nations, or nobody at all – what about self-determination? – are shrugged off. It is as if no one has said a word.
The Pentagon selects a rebel faction to support, typically the most radical (because they're the most fanatical fighters), and sends them money and weapons and trainers.
It works. The regime falls. Yay!
Civil war ensues. Not so yay.
The craziest religious zealots are poised to prevail in this second stage. Because they're militant and well-trained (by the U.S.). Suffering from buyers'/backers' remorse, American policymakers have a change of heart. Pivoting 180 degrees, the U.S. now decides to back the most moderate faction (because they're the most reasonable/most pro-business) among the former opposition.
Then the quagmire begins.
The trouble for Washington is, the radicals are still fanatical – and the best fighters. Minus outside intervention, they will win. So the U.S. pours in more help to their new moderate allies. More weapons. Bigger weapons. More money. Air support. Trainers. Ground troops. Whatever it takes to win an "honorable peace." And install a moderate regime before withdrawing.
If they can withdraw.
The moderates, you see, never enjoyed the support of most of their country's people. They didn't earn their stripes in the war against the former regime. Because of U.S. help, they never had to up their game militarily. So they're weak. Putting them in power isn't enough. If the U.S. leaves, they collapse.
Boy, is the U.S. in a pickle now.
Americans troops are getting offed by a determined radical insurgency. The harder the Americans try to crush the nuts, the stronger and bigger they get (because excessive force by invaders radicalizes moderate – but patriotic – fence sitters). Moreover, their puppet allies are a pain in the ass. Far from being grateful, the stooges resent the fact that the U.S. armed their enemies during the original uprising against the fallen dictatorship. The puppet-puppetmaster relationship is inherently one characterized by mistrust.
Starting with the Carter and Reagan Administrations' arming of the anti-Soviet mujahedeen in Afghanistan during the 1980s and continuing today with the ineffectual and ornery Hamid Karzai, the Quagmire Pattern is how the U.S. intervention unfolded in Afghanistan.
However, the American electorate isn't told this. They are repeatedly told that abandonment – as opposed to isolationism – is the problem. "The decisive factor in terms of the rise of the Taliban and al-Qaida was the fact that the United States and most of the international community simply walked away and left it to Pakistan and to other more extremist elements to determine Afghanistan's future in the '90s," claims James Dobbins, former U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kosovo in a standard retell of the Abandonment Narrative.
The logical implication, of course, is that the U.S. – er, the "international community" – shouldn't have left Afghanistan in the early 1990s. We ought to have remained indefinitely. The problem with this argument is that we have been over there for 12 straight years, and have little to show for our efforts. (It also ignores history. The U.S. was involved in the 1996-2001 Afghan civil war. It helped both sides: weapons to the Northern Alliance, tens of millions of dollars to the Taliban.)
The Abandonment Narrative is total bullshit – but it has the force of media propagandizers behind it.
The Quagmire Pattern has played out in Afghanistan. And in Iraq. Again in Libya, where a weak central government propped up by the Obama Administration is sitting on its hands as Islamist militias engage in genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Now the Quagmire Pattern is unfolding again, this time in Syria. When the uprising against the secular socialist government of Bashar al-Assad began two years ago, the U.S. rushed in with money, trainers and indirect arms sales. Jihadis received most of the bang-bang goodies. Now people like Dobbins are arguing in favor of weapons transfers from Pentagon arms depots to the Syrian opposition. And President Obama is considering using sketchy allegations that Assad's forces used chemical weapons – here we go again with the WMDs – as a pretext for invading Syria with ground troops.
Dobbins admits that there are "geopolitical risks," including distracting ourselves from America's other Big Possible Future War, against Iran. Yet he still wants to arm the Syrian rebels, who include members of Al Qaeda.
There is, he told NPR, "the possibility that the intervention wouldn't work and that it would look like a failure."
"Possibility"? Such interventions have never worked.
So why does he still want to give weapons to people who will probably wind up aiming them at American soldiers?
"I think the consequences of not acting and the risks of not acting are even greater."
In other words: we do what we do because that's what we do.
That's how the Quagmire Pattern works.
(Ted Rall's website is tedrall.com. His book "After We Kill You, We Will Welcome You Back As Honored Guests: Unembedded in Afghanistan" will be released in November by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.)
This entry was posted in Blog, Columns and tagged abandonment, afghanistan, African union, Al Qaeda, Bashar al-Assad, CIA, Civil War, European Union, Iraq, Islamists, James Dobbins, jimmy carter, Libya, pentagon, Quagmire, radical, Ronald Reagan, Syria, united nations, War, war on terror on March 20, 2013 by Ted Rall.
SYNDICATED COLUMN: Libya: Another War We Shouldn't Believe In
Why Won't Obama Explain His Third War?
U.S. forces fired 110 cruise missiles at Libya on the first day of the war. Each one cost $755,000 to build; $2.8 million to transport, maintain and shoot. Austerity and budget cuts abound; there's no money for NPR or teachers or firefighters. Note to union negotiators: the government has lots of money. They're spending it on war.
For people too young to remember Bosnia, this is what a violent, aggressive, militarist empire looks like under a Democratic president. Where Bush rushed, Obama moseys. No one believed ex-oil man Bush when he said he was out to get rid of the evil dictator of an oil-producing state; Obama, the former community organizer, gets a pass under identical circumstances. Over the weekend, also the eighth anniversary of the start of the Iraq quagmire, there were few protests against Obama's Libya War, all poorly attended.
I spent the weekend in New York at Leftforum, an annual gathering of anti-capitalist intellectuals. "What do you think about Libya?" people kept asking. What passes for the Left is ambivalent.
In part this waffling on Libya is due to Obama's deadpan (read: uncowboy-like) tone. Mostly, however, the tacit consent stems from televised images of ragtag anti-Qadafi opposition forces getting strafed by Libyan air force jets. We Americans like underdogs, especially when they say they want democracy.
Still, the President is not a dictator. He can't declare war. And while he might be able to lie his way into one, he and his party will pay at the polls if he fails to explain why we're attacking a nation that poses no threat to the United States.
There are a lot of questions we—and journalists—should be asking Obama. Obviously, we're broke. Our military is overextended, losing two wars against the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. How can we afford this?
1. Whom are we helping?
The U.S. and its allies are destroying Libya's air force in order to tip the balance in the civil war in favor of anti-Qadafi forces. A similar approach, aerial bombardment of Afghan government defenses, allowed Northern Alliance rebels to break through Taliban lines and enter Kabul in 2001. It could work again in Libya.
But who are these anti-Qadafi forces? Rival tribes? Radical Islamists? Royalists? What kind of government will they establish if they win? What are their ideological and religious affiliations? If anyone in the media or the White House knows, they're not telling.
Or perhaps, as in Iraq, the White House doesn't have a governance plan for post-Qadafi Libya. Which, as in Iraq, could lead to chaos. No nation should go to war without considering the long-term consequences.
Before we pick sides in a conflict, shouldn't we know for whom we are going billions of dollars further into debt?
2. Does Qadafi have the right to defend himself?
From Shea's Whiskey Rebellion to Confederacy to the Red Scares to the Black Panthers and the Weathermen, the U.S. government has violently suppressed armed rebellions. How then can the U.S. claim moral authority to prevent other governments from doing the same thing? ("The U.S. is more moral than Libya" is not an acceptable response. Obama murders and tortures more people than Qadafi.)
3. What about self-determination?
If the Libyan people rise up and overthrow Qadafi, an authoritarian despot well past his expiration date, that's great. Shouldn't that struggle be a Libyan matter, to be settled between Libyans? Isn't a government that emerges from indigenous internal struggle more likely to enjoy widespread support than one that results from outside intervention?
"Free men set themselves free," said James Oppenheim. Can a people truly feel emancipated when they owe their freedom—and later, inexorably, their oil and gas—to a foreign superpower?
4. Why are we OK with some dictators, but not others?
Since the Middle East began blowing up we've heard a lot of talk about Obama's dilemma: How do we reconcile American values with American strategic interests? In a good country—at least a non-hypocritical one—they are the same.
Obama is employing circular logic. "Why strike only Libya, when other regimes murder their citizens too?" asks Chris Good in The Atlantic Monthly. "Obama's answer seems to be: because the UN Security Council turned its attention toward Libya, and not other places." But the UN reacted in response to the U.S.
In other words: We're agreeing to a request that we made ourselves.
Ideology and policy must be consistent to be credible. If we have a policy to depose dictators, then all dictators must be targeted. We can't just take out those in countries with lots of oil. We ought to start with tyrants for which we bear responsibility: our allies and puppets. At this writing the U.S. supports or props up unpopular authoritarian regimes in Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Yemen, and elsewhere.
5. Is Libya our geostrategic business?
The United States has no substantial historical ties with, innate cultural understanding of, or geographic proximity to, Libya. Even under the imperialist doctrine of "spheres of influence" that governed international relations during the Cold War, Libya falls under the purview of other would-be interventionists. Italy, and to a lesser extent Britain and France, are former colonial masters. The Arab League and African Union have interests there. Even if you buy the sentimental argument—"Are we going to stand by and watch Qadafi slaughter his own people?"—why us? Why not the Africans or Europeans?
(Ted Rall is the author of "The Anti-American Manifesto." His website is tedrall.com.)
This entry was posted in Blog, Columns and tagged afghanistan, African union, arab league, Austerity, bosnia, Bush, cruise missiles, democracy, Dictators, Economy, England, firefighters, France, Iraq, james oppenheim, Jordan, Khadafi, khaddafi, Left, leftforum, Libya, moammar kadafi, no-fly zone, npr, qadafi, qaddafi, Saudi Arabia, self-determination, Teachers, turkmenistan, underdogs, Uzbekistan, War, war on terror, Yemen on March 22, 2011 by Ted Rall.


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States and Union Territories of India
By Antariksh AnantPublished on 14 March 2021 3:49 AM GMT
In this article, we will learn about the names and capital of states and Union territories of India. States and Union Territories of India India is the seventh-largest country in the world and also the second populous. It lies in southern Asia. It is officially known as the Republic of India. It is governed by a parliamentary form… Read More »
In this article, we will learn about the names and capital of states and Union territories of India. States and Union Territories of India India is the seventh-largest country in the world and also the second populous. It lies in southern Asia. It is officially known as the Republic of India. It is governed by a parliamentary form of government. It gets very difficult to manage a large country from one place. So the Indian Constitution gives the right to the central government to make states...
In this article, we will learn about the names and capital of states and Union territories of India.
India is the seventh-largest country in the world and also the second populous. It lies in southern Asia. It is officially known as the Republic of India. It is governed by a parliamentary form of government. It gets very difficult to manage a large country from one place. So the Indian Constitution gives the right to the central government to make states as they feel suitable.
The system of government in states closely resembles that of the Union. There are 28 states and 8 Union territories in the country. Union Territories are administered by the President through an Administrator appointed by him/her. From the largest to the smallest, each State/UT of India has a unique demography, history and culture, dress, festivals, language etc.
List of States in India
S. No. Name Name of Capital
1 Andhra Pradesh Amaravati
2 Arunachal Pradesh Itanagar
3 Assam Dispur
4 Bihar Patna
5 Chhattisgarh Raipur
6 Goa Panaji
7 Gujarat Gandhinagar
8 Haryana Chandigarh
9 Himachal Pradesh Shimla
10 Jharkhand Ranchi
11 Karnataka Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore)
12 Kerala Thiruvananthapuram
13 Madhya Pradesh Bhopal
14 Maharashtra Mumbai
15 Manipur Imphal
16 Meghalaya Shillong
17 Mizoram Aizawl
18 Nagaland Kohima
19 Odisha Bhubaneswar
20 Punjab Chandigarh
21 Rajasthan Jaipur
22 Sikkim Gangtok
23 Tamil Nadu Chennai
24 Telangana Hyderabad
25 Tripura Agartala
26 Uttar Pradesh Lucknow
27 Uttarakhand Dehradun (Winter)
Gairsain (Summer)
28 West Bengal Kolkata
List of Union Territories in India
Union Territories are ruled directly by the Central Government has a Lieutenant Governor as an administrator, who is the representative of the President of India and appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. Union Territories have no representation in the Rajya Sabha except Delhi and Puducherry.
The Administrator of each Union territory has a functional responsibility independent of his peer Administrators in other Union territories. The Union territories are further sub-divided into smaller administrative blocks for effective governance. Villages form the smallest area of administration. Each village has a representative administrative Gram Panchayat. A Gram Panchayat may have administrative control of a number of villages.
1 Andaman and Nicobar Islands Port Blair
2 Chandigarh Chandigarh
3 Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu Daman
4 The Government of NCT of Delhi Delhi
5 Jammu and Kashmir Srinagar (Summer)
Jammu (Winter)
6 Ladakh Leh
7 Lakshadweep Kavaratti
8 Puducherry Puducherry
Updated On 14 March 2021 3:49 AM GMT
Antariksh Anant
Antariksh is a Law student at RGNUL - Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law Patiala, Punjab, India.


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Who Are Those Gals? - Paola Borboni
Paola Borboni was born in Golese di Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy on January 1, 1900. She was a women with a powerful ego, a lively mind and a free spirit, the Borbonis can be considered, as one with the theater and acting, often likened to the female counterpart of Vittorio Gassman, which however was more than twenty years younger. In 1916 she made her debut in Lodi in the play of the Quintero brothers "Il fiore della vita" specially prepared by her father an opera impresario. The following year, after attending acting courses taught by Teresa Boetti Valvassura, she officially enters into the company of Alfredo De Sanctis in the drama of Salomon Asch "Il dio della vendetta".
After reciting for a year in the company of Helena Wnorowska directed by R. Calo, in 1920 with Irma Gramatica and during the illness of the illustrious actress takes over the lead role of the first lady. From 1921 to 1930 she was the first actress alongside Armando Falconi. In 1930-31 she is now with Wolves and Fishermen and, in 1932-34, the prime actress with Ruggero Ruggeri. In 1935 she undertook the capocomicato with Piero Carnabucci, before returning in 1940 to Ruggeri, having interpreted the play of Michael Galdieri "Mani in tasca naso al vento" with Odoardo Spadaro.
1942 she performs a memorable performance in "La vita che ti diedi" at the Theatre University of Rome, where she collected an extraordinary consensus of the public opinion and critical acclaim. In 1943 she founded the Compagnia pirandelliana Paola Borboni, and in 1945 the Compagnia del Dramma along with Salvo Randone. In 1947 she headed a new company Pirandello Picasso-Bourbons. In 1954 she was awarded the San Genesio prize for "La morale della signora Dulka"; in the same year Paola reveals great monologues indeed inventing a new theatrical genre and marking a major milestone in the history of the Italian theater of the twentieth century, while referring back to the tradition of Hermes Novelli.
Of these, five recitals remain as valuable recorded on two phonograph records, engraved by the Bourbons in 1959-60. The poet Mario Luzi writes 1992 for Paola Borboni; the text was to be represented at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, but the actress, for various reasons, was never able to bring the work on stage. But her passion is Pirandello, which she plays for six years, in three different companies.
Her film career began with an appearance in 1918's "Jacopo Ortis" and after 85+ films ended with an appearance in 1990's "Blue dolphin - l'avventura continua".
On 18 December 1972 she married the actor and poet Bruno Vilar [1942-1978], who was forty years younger than her. On June 23, 1978 she was involved in a tragic car accident, after which Vilar died and she was forced to use crutches the rest of her life. Paola Borboni died on April 9, 1995, in a retirement home in Varese, Italy, struck down by a stroke.
BORBONI, Paola [1/1/1900, Golese di Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy - 4/9/1995, Bodio Lomnago, Lombardy, Italy (stroke)] - stage, TV actress, married to actor Bruno Vilar [1942-1978] (1972- 1978), founded the stage company Compagnia pirandelliana Paola Borboni [1943], co-founded the stage company Compagnia del Dramma [1945].
Judge Roy Bean - 1971 (Victoria)
Burning Daylight (TV)
RIP Matilde Conesa
Who Are Those Guys? - Oleg Borisov
RIP Fred Robsahm
Bordertown (TV)
RIP Rik Battaglia
I Cycle "Hoyo a Movie Village" - Film Festival
Bootle Saddles (TV)
Who Are Those Guys? - Ernest Borgnine
Blue Mountain (TV)
Who Are Those Guys? - Sal Borgese
RIP Gregory Walcott
The Blue Hotel (TV)
Gone to Tombstone be back Monday March 23rd.
Who Are Those Guys? - Rosario Borelli
Bluehawk (TV)
Who Are Those Guys? - Michelle Borelli
Blood of the Hunter (TV Film)
RIP Luciano Ercoli
Benny and Lenny in the Wild West (TV series)
Who Are Those Guys? - Franco Borelli
Be Quiet Horse (TV Film)
Who Are Those Guys? - Miguel Bordoy
The Bad Man (TV Film)
RIP Otar Koberidze
Daylight Savings Time Begins
Aye, Aye Sheriff (TV film)
Alaska Kid (TV series)
Who Are Those Guys? - Tony Booth
Who Are Those Guys? - Julian Boote
The Adventures of Smoke Bellew (TV mini-series)
RIP Tony Norton


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Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series Now Available on PlayStation VR
VADER IMMORTAL: A STAR WARS VR SERIES
IS AVAILABLE NOW ON PLAYSTATION®VR
The Complete Series Is Available For $29.99 MSRP
August 25, 2020 – SAN FRANCISCO, CA. Today, all three episodes of Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series are available on PlayStation®VR. The series is out now as a single purchase at $29.99 MSRP, bringing the complete VR trilogy together for players and fans.
ILMxLAB also debuted an "available now" trailer, which is available here:
"Since we were kids, many of us have imagined what it must be like to hold a lightsaber in our hands. With Vader Immortal, we set out to make that dream a reality. I'm thrilled that anyone with access to a PlayStation®VR will now have the chance to feel what it is like to wield their own lightsaber, and to step inside the sights, sounds and story of a real Star Wars adventure," said Ben Snow, Director of Vader Immortal.
Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series lets you step inside your own Star Wars cinematic adventure as a smuggler operating near Mustafar, the fiery world Darth Vader calls home. When you are unexpectedly pulled out of hyperspace, you find yourself uncovering an ancient mystery at the behest of the Sith Lord himself. The series also includes the popular Lightsaber Dojo modes, where fans can spend hours honing their skills with iconic lightsabers and more in Vader's training dojo.
Created in close collaboration with the Lucasfilm Story Group, Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series is written by David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight, Blade) and directed by Ben Snow (Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire). It features Maya Rudolph (Bridesmaids, Big Mouth) as your witty droid sidekick, ZO-E3, and fan favorite Scott Lawrence (Star Wars Resistance) as Darth Vader.
Vader Immortal has been acclaimed by both press and fans. The series won Best VR/AR Game at the 2020 Game Developers' Choice Awards. Vader Immortal: Episode I won VR Experience of the Year at the 2019 VR Awards, took home the inaugural Innovation Award at the 2020 Producers Guild Awards, and was named a Finalist for Outstanding Innovation in Interactive Media at the 2019 Emmys.
ABOUT ILMxLAB
ILMxLAB is Lucasfilm's immersive entertainment studio, pioneering a new era of interactive storytelling through virtual and mixed reality experiences. Working with acclaimed creators and designers, ILMxLAB creates living worlds, inviting you to step inside and become the hero of your own personal adventure.
Based in San Francisco at the Lucasfilm headquarters, ILMxLAB is known for a wide variety of immersive projects, including Avengers: Damage Control, Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire, the award-winning Vader Immortal series, and CARNE y ARENA,the Oscar-winning VR installation directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu.
Connect with ILMxLAB on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook, or visit our website at ILMxLAB.com.
Thank you to Lucasfilm for the press release, images, and video.
All images courtesy of ILMxLAB.
ILMXLAB
Star Wars VR
Vader Immortal
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SCR to run 36 more specials for Krishna Pushkaram
VIJAYAWADA:, July 15, 2016 00:00 IST
The South Central Railway will operate 36 special trains for the Krishna Pushkaram in addition to 202 special trains already announced.
The trains are No. 08505 / 08506 Rayagada-Krishna Canal-Rayagada (8 services), No. 08507 / 08508 Visakhapatnam – Guntur – Visakhapatnam (20 services), and No. 08405 / 08406 Puri – Guntur – Puri (8 services).
All of them are special fare trains, according to an official release.
From Rayagada
Train No. 08505 Rayagada - Krishna Canal - Rayagada special will leave Rayagada at 2.30 p.m. on August 11, 16, 19, and 22, and reach Krishna Canal at 4.15 a.m. the following day.
In the return direction, train No. 08506 Krishna Canal – Rayagada special will leave Krishna Canal at 8.45 p.m. on August 12, 17, 20, and 23 and reach Rayagada at 9 a.m. the following day.
All the above special trains will stop at Parvatipuram, Sitanagaram, Bobbili, Donkinavalasa, Gajapatinagaram, Garugubilli, Vizianagaram, Kottavalasa, Simhachalam, Visakhapatnam, Duvvada, Anakapalli, Tuni, Annavaram, Samalkot, Rajahmundry, Eluru, Gunadala, and Vijayawada in both the directions.
From Vizag
Train No. 08507 Visakhapatnam – Guntur special will leave Visakhapatnam at 11 p.m. on August 11, , 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, and 22 and reach Guntur at 6.45 a.m. the following day.
Train No. 08508 Guntur - Visakhapatnam special will leave Guntur at 8.30 a.m. on August 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, and 23 and reach Visakhapatnam at 5.20 p.m. the same day.
These special trains will stop at Duvvada, Anakapalli, Tuni, Samalkot, Rajahmundry, Eluru, Gunadala, Vijayawada, Krishna Canal, and Mangalagiri in both the directions.
From Puri
Train No. 08405 Puri – Guntur special will leave Puri at 11.30 a.m. on August 11, 16, 19, and 22 and reach Guntur at 6.30 a.m. the following day.
Train No. 08406 Guntur - Puri special will leave Guntur at 7 p.m. on August 12, 17, 20, and 23 and reach Puri at 11.25 a.m. the following day.
These special trains will stop at Khurda Road, Balugaon, Brahmapur, Ichhapuram, Sompeta, Palasa, Naupada, Kotabommali, Tilaru, Srikakulam, Dusi, Ponduru, Sigadam, Cheepurupalli, Garividi, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, Duvvada, Anakapalli, Tuni, Annavaram, Samalkot, Rajahmundry, Eluru, Gunadala, Vijayawada, Krishna Canal, and Mangalagiri in both the directions.
APSRTC earns ₹144 crore revenue via Sankranti specials
APSCHE meet explores career opportunities for A.P. students in Germany
Evolve policy on hiring transgenders for govt. services, HC directs State
TTD special invitees case posted to Feb.
Cabinet ratifies PRC G.O.s, new pay for staff from Jan.
Simhachalam temple authorities studying feasibility of operating electric buses
Venkaiah Naidu calls for increasing indigenous production of crude oil
Work on 'one district - one airport' idea, CM tells officials
Cultural outfits up in arms against ban on 'Chintamani'
13 COVID-19 care centres set up in Vizag
Printable version | Jan 22, 2022 8:39:59 AM | https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Vijayawada/SCR-to-run-36-more-specials-for-Krishna-Pushkaram/article14490699.ece
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P. Samuel Jonathan


Henry has started a new build from chassis up. Here are a few photos of the Toylander S1 so far.
I bet he finishes that one before i finish mine !!!
Was going to use a zook running gear but needed something with brute power and a reasonable length wheel base.
I have just bought one built up with running gear and good batteries for £20........ only trouble......... its a jeep. Nige why did you build a jeep.
Oooh!...When is the miniture trial then ???
Tecnick wrote: I have just bought one built up with running gear and good batteries for £20........ only trouble......... its a jeep. Nige why did you build a jeep.
Paint it green and no one will notice the difference, well apart from Pam that is.
You could even put one of these stickers on just to make sure.
I built one of them (as well as the J**p) got £600 for it on ebay after the kids got to old to play in it.


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People of Faith speak out against the Federal Religious Discrimination Bill
As leading organisations representing and advocating with LGBTIQ+ People of Faith and People of Faith who support LGBTIQ+ members of our communities, we urge that the current Religious Discrimination Bill be withdrawn from Federal Parliament and a genuine participative process be established to enable widely-agreed protective, not persecuting, rights for all. As it stands, the Bill can only enflame and enable further religious-based repression, without addressing the most pressing issues of religious concern, which impact upon marginalised people like ourselves. So many of members of our religious communities are victims of religious-institution-based abuse and these experiences of abuse are a significant driver of our desire to see real safeguards for people of faith and all Australians, so that we are all able to live out our religious beliefs and other convictions without experiencing harm in our community places, where there should be safe places for all Australians. We have seen (not least in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse) how easily that safety can be lost - and how easily the true religious values of church or religious institutions are lost - when leaders exercise power without scrutiny and accountability. As LGBTIQ+ People of Faith, and People of Faith who support our LGBTIQ+ members, our participation in religious bodies takes many forms, but one central aspect is to challenge the self-serving actions of institutional leadership, and to create and push for checks and balances to the abuses of power and political influence in the hierarchies of religious bodies. We are concerned that this Bill would further embolden those who currently wield so much institutional power, to use this power to the detriment of ordinary People of Faith in religious institutions and schools, who find themselves the target of harassment and bullying for their sex, ability/disability, marital status, sexual orientation or gender identity - ordinary People of Faith who are there in every congregation and school, and who ask only to be accepted and supported in their faith journeys.. This Bill, as currently framed, would make it extraordinarily difficult for ordinary people of faith to experience this safety and acceptance; it would make it difficult for us to hold our leaders to account. LGBTIQA+ people are to be found in every faith community, and have particular need for understanding and support in contexts where they have historically been abused, misunderstood and scapegoated. LGBTIQA+ People of Faith don't just cease to exist because a particular religious faction refuses to acknowledge their presence. LGBTIQ+ People of Faith and People of Faith who support LGBTIQ+ members of our communities refuse to stop existing simply because an institution would prefer us not to exist. We are a part of our faith communities, and that we continue to offer service to our faith and our religious institutions. We ask that our basic human rights to be recognised and those of all other vulnerable people whose lives are at threat from this legislation. Signatories: Australian Catholics for Equality Equal Voices Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches Australia Progressive Christian Voice Rainbodhi LGBTQIA+ Buddhist Community Rainbow Catholic InterAgency for Ministry Spark Church Sydney Queer Muslims Uniting Network
Source: blessedimp.org


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Share this Story: Argos' receiving prospect hopes to follow path forged by Spencer
Argos' receiving prospect hopes to follow path forged by Spencer
Frank Zicarelli
Jun 15, 2020 • June 15, 2020 • 1 minute read
Diontae Spencer, a former member of the Toronto Argonauts, shown in this 2015 photo. Photo by Veronica Henri /Toronto Sun
Kent Shelby views Diontae Spencer as his little brother, a person who helped forge a football path.
At McNeese State, the two Louisiana natives first met. They often talk to each other or text.
Argos' receiving prospect hopes to follow path forged by Spencer Back to video
Spencer is with the NFL's Denver Broncos, but his first professional seasons were for the Argonauts, which isn't lost on Shelby.
"I'm going to be 2.0," said Shelby. "It's about to get nasty."
Spencer was a senior at McNeese State when Shelby first encountered the slot receiver/returner.
Shelby recalls a fall camp the two attended.
When Shelby was about to enter his freshman year, he was ruled academically ineligible.
He sat out the season, but he fondly recalls the first-team reps he took alongside Spencer.
Shelby was able to watch highlights of Spencer's days in three-down football, which also included an electrifying stint in Ottawa, when Spencer would post video on his social media feed.
"That was the first person I hit up," said Shelby of contacting Spencer when Shelby signed with the Argos.
Another CFL connection Shelby leaned on is Kerry Joseph, Shelby's receivers coach for two years at McNeese State.
Joseph was the quarterback who led Saskatchewan to its 2007 Grey Cup title at SkyDome.
His Winnipeg counterpart was Ryan Dinwiddie, the Argos' rookie head coach.
Joseph would also play for the Argos.
"It's my purpose to be a professional athlete," said Shelby, whose ultimate goal is to reach the NFL.


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Yaya Toure: Man City hope to match Barcelona and Real Madrid
Manuel Pellegrini's side have been looking ahead to Friday's International Champions Cup clash with Los Blancos in Melbourne, as preparations continue ahead of the new season
Yaya Toure believes Manchester City need to keep improving their team as they look to reach the same heights as the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid.
City have been busy in the transfer market ahead of the 2015-16 Premier League campaign, bringing in Raheem Sterling, Fabian Delph and Patrick Roberts so far.
But former Barca man Toure, who insisted he intends to see out his contract at City in a media conference on Thursday, insists the club still have work to do in the window to reach the same status as the Spanish and European powerhouses.
"I think the target of the club is to reach that kind of level," he said. "Madrid level, Barcelona level. The manager as well, the club, the chairman are working very hard. At the moment the market is not so easy.
"We are looking from far, how many outgoings, how clubs are selling those players. The most important thing is the players staying at the club as well, trying to improve, try to do their best.
"If we are doing well, some good players are going to come. The difference between Madrid and Barcelona is trophies and quality of player as well.
"Here we are a young team and we have a couple of young players coming through and what we have to do is continue to work hard.
"We believe in the chairman, that he can do something to bring quality players into the squad to try to make the squad better.
"This year is going to be a massive challenge for us, for the manager and we need to bounce back and support our fans because they have supported us through the years.
"For us its most important that we have to do well this year and try to make them proud."


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On his way out?
Chelsea star Eden Hazard will push through 'dream' move to Real Madrid this summer, claim reports in Spain
The Belgium captain has talked about his desire to move to Real Madrid in the past
By Jake Bacon
21st January 2019, 11:20 am
Updated: 21st January 2019, 11:21 am
Eden Hazard will try to push through a move to Real Madrid this summer, according to reports in Spain.
The Chelsea star has been heavily linked with an £88million move to the La Liga giants for a number of years now.
Eden Hazard has been linked with a move away from Chelsea
Spanish outlet Marca claim Hazard is now ready to join Real – but not until the end of the season.
The Belgian playmaker is said to be determined not to disrupt the Blues' season by demanding to leave in the January transfer window and is prepared to wait for his 'dream' move.
Hazard, who has played as a winger and false nine under Maurizio Sarri, has scored 12 goals and registered 10 assists this season.
Real Madrid have missed Cristiano Ronaldo's goals this season
Chelsea are doing everything to keep their star man at Stamford Bridge, but Hazard has rejected the chance to extend his contract beyond 2020.
Speaking last year, Hazard said: "Real Madrid is the best club in the world. I don't want to lie, it is my dream since I was a kid.
Steve Bruce confronted by furious Sheffield Wednesday fan amid Newcastle links
All-star XI of Crouch's former team-mates, featuring ex-Liverpool and Spurs stars
'just too good to turn down'
Why Arsenal were forced to sell Robin van Persie to Man United
Every Premier League club's last 20-goal striker – proof United's issue isn't Pogba
How Real Madrid could line-up if Gareth Bale stays
How Everton could line up against Sion in pre-season friendly with forgotten men
Liverpool transfer news live: Player joins, talks start, Coutinho offer detailed
Revealed: 'Disrespectful' Arnautovic disrupted West Ham Women training sessions
"We will see. I don't want to talk about this every day. I don't have time, but we will talk about my future soon.
"In my head, sometimes I wake up in the morning and think I want to go. Sometimes I think I want to stay. It is a hard decision. It is my future. I am 27 and I will turn 28 in January.
"It is also when you have a dream and you want to make it happen. It is like I have said a lot of times – if I leave I will be happy, I know if I stay I will be happy."


Take the No. 1 bus from the Lucerne train station and travel 12 minutes until the 'Schappe-Centre' stop.
Follow the A2 motorway and take the exit for Kriens, then continue until 'Schappe-Centre'.
From the main entrance to the Schappe Centre, take the exit for the Piazza. Our practice is located opposite the restaurant 'uno e piu'.
Park in the rear section of the garage (near the wall labelled 'Piazza'), take the exit for the Piazza and use the lift. Our practice is located directly opposite the lift for the underground garage.


text:
Q: Seo-friendly url in CodeIgniter I've created a filter method for filtering the products list. This is my URL:
localhost/myshop/products/filter?category=shirts&color=blue&page=1

But I want to show this way:
localhost/myshop/products/shirts/blue/1

How can I achieve it?

A: Assuming that Products::filter() is responsible for handling the request, you can rewrite the method to accept parameters in its signature. So, if the current logic is something like this:
class Products extends CI_Controller
{
    public function filter()
    {
        // Retrieve data from GET params
        $page     = $this->input->get('page');
        $color    = $this->input->get('color');
        $category = $this->input->get('category');

        // Do the filtering with $category, $color and $page...
    }
}

You can simply refactor it to accept parameters through URL segments:
public function filter($category, $color, $page)
{
    // Do the filtering with $category, $color and $page...
}

With this in place, your current URL is:
localhost/myshop/products/filter/shirts/blue/1

We need to get rid of that extra filter/ and we're done, right? Quoting from the docs:

Typically there is a one-to-one relationship between a URL string and its corresponding controller class/method. The segments in a URI normally follow this pattern:
example.com/class/method/param1/param2
In some instances, however, you may want to remap this relationship so that a different class/method can be called instead of the one corresponding to the URL.

OK, so we need to remap the current route. You have a few options:

*

*First, is to update your application/config/routes.php file with a new entry:
  $route['products/(:any)'] = 'products/filter/$1';

It says that if a URL starts with products/, remap it to the filter method of products class.
Here you can use wildcards and regex patterns to be even more precise about the type of parameters your method accepts.

*Another option is that you might want to implement a _remap() method in your controller in order to do the route remapping for you.

A: in routes.php file, you can write following line
    $route['products/(:any)/(:any)/(:num)'] = 'products/filter/$1/$2/$3';

and function will be like following
    public function filter($category, $color, $page)
    {
        echo $category.'
';
        echo $color.'
';
        echo $page.'
';
    }

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Den ryska dörren är en TV-film från 2010 i Sveriges Televisions satsning på filmer i Lars Molins anda, som går under samlingstiteln Molinska skrönor. Manuset är skrivet av Erik Norberg och filmen regisserades av Patrik Eklund. Filmen bygger på en verklig händelse.

Den ryska dörren handlar om Stefan (Olle Sarri) som arbetar som busschaufför mellan Norrland och Murmansk 1989. Med på resorna är den ryska tolken Jana (Saga Gärde) som han blivit förälskad i. Han är beredd att göra allt för att vinna hennes kärlek men stöter på patrull.

Källor

TV-filmer 2008
Svenska komedifilmer
Svenska TV-filmer
1980-talet i svensk film
1989 på film
Sovjetunionen på film
Filmer i regi av Patrik Eklund
Svenskspråkiga filmer

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Queues at airport 'hurt Britain's reputation', warns minister
By David Millward 27 April 2012 • 12:00am
The Border Force has agreed a series of performance targets with Heathrow setting out the maximum acceptable queuing times
Figures obtained by the Daily Telegraph, covering the first two weeks of the month, have revealed the extent of the chaos faced by people flying into Heathrow.
Immigration Minister Damian Green was told he will have account for the chaos when he appears before the Home Affairs Select Committee and explain the chronic queues that are doing "huge damage" to Britain's reputation.
There are fears that the problems are tarnishing the UK's image, particularly with the London Olympics only three months away.
The Border Force has agreed a series of performance targets with Heathrow setting out the maximum acceptable queuing times.
For passengers from outside the European Economic Area – the EU along with Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Norway – the threshold is 45 minutes.
But according to the statistics, compiled by BAA - Heathrow's operator - for Terminal 3, the Border Force missed this target on 13 out of the 15 days, with some passengers queuing for up to an hour and a half
Britons and holders of other European passport holders fared somewhat better, but on four days out of 15, the Force missed its 25 minute target for queues, with passengers left waiting of up to three quarters of an hour.
Fast Track passengers – in many cases business passengers who are considered as vital for the British economy – fared considerably worse, with the target of 30 minutes missed on nine days.
According to these figures, there was not a single day in which the Border Force met all its targets for all three categories of passenger.
Even this extended snapshot could be an underestimate of the chaos inflicted on the travelling public.
Worse problems occurred on a number of occasions last week, with Terminal Five, which is used by British Airways, reporting delays of up to two hours.
Civil service unions have predicted even longer queues if the Border Force presses ahead with plans to cut the number of staff from 8,500 in October 2010 to 7,322 by April 2015.
The Immigration Service Union has voiced fears that delays could reach more than three hours as tourists flood into Britain over the summer ahead of the Olympic Games.
Anger has been growing among airlines at the delays their passengers are facing.
"If the Government wishes to pursue more stringent immigration checks then it must adequately resource the UK's borders to be able to cope during busy holiday periods and events like the Olympic and Paralympic Games," said Steve Ridgway, Virgin Atlantic's chief executive.
The Board of Airline Representatives in the UK, representing 80 carriers, has described the immigration queues as a national embarrassment.
Theresa May, the Home Secretary is due to meet airlines within the next few weeks to discuss the delays.
Yesterday Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, announced plans to call Immigration Minister Damian Green after reports of lengthy delays to get past passport control.
Alastair Campbell, the former Downing Street communications chief who was caught up in Thursday night queues, tweeted: "If this is what Heathrow T5 border queue is like on an average Thursday, Olympic athletes should think about coming soon."
Mr Vaz said the issue was of "great concern" and needed to be addressed irrespective of the Olympics.
"Huge damage is done to our country's reputation," he said.
"The Government has a choice either to increase the number of staff at the airports or to restart the suspension of the checks."
This was disputed by a Border Force spokesman. "Our own internal monitoring for this period shows we met all our targets for EU passengers and met targets on 11 out of 15 days for non-EU passengers."
Ski holiday tracker: The latest Covid rules in ski resorts and travel advice
By Lucy Aspden 19 Jan 2022, 5:51pm
What it's like to be back on the slopes in France
By Nicola Williams 19 Jan 2022, 4:00pm
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'Masks bring a new twist to the art of bluffing in Las Vegas'
By Robert Jackman 19 Jan 2022, 2:57pm
The 20 best cruises for 2022
By Sara Macefield 19 Jan 2022, 1:04pm
Last-minute winter sun: 10 of the best destinations to visit in February
By Chris Leadbeater 19 Jan 2022, 1:04pm
Travelodge discount codes
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Hotels.com discount codes
Crystal Ski promo codes


text:
Call for proposals for the 22nd European Seminar on Extension and Education
April 28 - May 1, 2015
Conference registration: September 1, 2014
To be organized in conjunction with the conference of the Association of International Agricultural and Extension Education, which will take place on the same dates on the same location.
Conference Theme: Competence and Excellence in Extension and Education
The 22nd European Seminar on Extension and Education (ESEE) will be held in Wageningen and hosted by the Education and Competence Studies Group (ECS) of Wageningen University.
The conference will provide an opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences among university staff, private and professional personnel and others who are involved in Extension and Education. This is also an excellent opportunity to look back at the development of competencies and their impact on Extension and Education.. We would like to exchange thoughts about the development of our field and also to look forward towards the future. Whereas the input during the conference will be predominantly given by researchers and academics, professionals from extension and education practice are equally welcome. We will make an effort that practitioners will benefit from and contribute to the program.
Hof van Wageningen and Wageningen University Campus, The Netherlands
Professor Martin Mulder, martin.mulder@wur.nl
http://www.wageningenur.nl/en/Persons/Martin-prof.dr.-M-Martin-Mulder.htm
MANAGEMENT-SUPPORT TEAM
Conference organization assistants: Angela Pachua, Marissa van den Berg, Nicolette Tauecchio, Jolanda Hendriks-Ruisbroek
SCIENTIFIC STEERING COMMITTEE ESEE 2015
Worku Birru, MSc, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
Dr. Jeff Coutts, Coutts J&R, Australia
Prof. dr. Artur Fernando Arede Correia Cristovão, UTAD, Portugal
Dr. Marianne Cerf, INRA, France
Dr. Hamid Custovic, University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Prof. dr. John Dirkx, Michigan State University, USA
Assoc. Prof. Elske van de Fliert, The University of Queensland, Australia
Prof. emer. Chris Garforth, University of Reading, UK
Prof. dr. A. L. (Tom) Hammett, innovATE Director, Virginia tech, USA
Prof. dr. Volker Hoffmann, University of Hohenheim, Germany
Dr. Józef Kania, The Agricultural University of Krakow, Poland
Prof. dr. Esmail Karamidehkordi, Agriculture University of Zanjan, Iran
Dr. Mostafa Karbasioun, Shahrekord University, Iran
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Laurens Klerkx, KTI, Wageningen University, Netherlands
Dr. Andrea Knierim, University of Hohenheim, Germany
Dr. Alex Koutsouris, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece
Dr. József Kozári, Szent István University, Gödöllö, Hungary
Michael Kuegler, EU-Platform of Chambers of Agriculture, Brussels, Belgium
Dr. Pierre Labarthe, INRA, France
Dr. Lívia Madureira, UTAD, Portugal
Prof. dr. Gjergji Mero, University Fan S. Noli, Korçë, Albania
Prof. dr. Martin Mulder, ECS, Wageningen University, Netherlands
Prof. dr. Orhan Özçatalbas, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey
Angela Pachuau, ECS, Wageningen University, Netherlands
Prof. dr. Hazir Pollozhani, State University of Tetovo, Macedonia
Dr. Ricardo Ramirez, isginternational.org & University of Guelph, Canada
Dr. Kurt Richter, Associate Director OIRED, Virginia Tech, USA
Dr. Fatbardh Sallaku, Agriculture University of Tirana, Albania
Shefik Shehu, State University of Tetovo, Macedonia
Dr. Rasheed Sulaiman, CRISP, Hyderabad, India
Dr. Zeljko Vaško, University of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Dr. Eelke Wielinga, IFSA network, LINK Consult, Wageningen Academy, Netherlands
ESEE 2015
competence studies group


Jonathan is a partner in the Labor, Employment and Employee Benefits Group and the Higher Education Group. He advises clients on a broad range of employment issues, including employment and severance agreements, handbooks and policies, and terminations and layoffs. Jonathan also advises management on proper wage and hour classification. Jonathan represents clients in investigations by the Department of Labor and the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General. He has extensive experience representing management in the negotiation and litigation of employment and discrimination claims in the state and federal courts, and appears frequently before the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and represents employers in wage and hour litigation in court.
In 2003, Jonathan received the "40 under Forty" Award from the Worcester Business Journal. He received the Samuel Seder Young Leadership Award from the Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts in 1998. Jonathan has been named a Massachusetts "Super Lawyer" by Boston magazine and Law & Politics every year since 2009. Jonathan was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America ©2018 in the field of Employment Law - Management (Copyright 2018 by Woodward/White, Inc., of Aiken, SC). First listed 2013.


What comes to mind when you think of a tri-cornered hat and clean hands?
Robert St. John and his brother visit their mother's favorite city.
It's crunch time in the pre-opening phase of our new restaurant, but I peeled away to Virginia for two days.
My brother and sister-in-law invited my wife and me to join them to see Bruce Hornsby and Alison Krauss perform at an outdoor festival in Williamsburg. No one has to ask me twice when Kraus is involved.
I am a huge Alison Krauss fan. I have seen the 27-time Gammy winner in concert several times but jumped at this chance when my brother invited us.
The concert was great. I have no idea what an angel's voice sounds like — and I hope several decades pass before I find out — but if an angel's voice sounds any purer than Krauss', I will be pleasantly surprised once I pass through the pearly gates.
It has been almost 50 years since last visiting Williamsburg. I wrote about that visit in the book "Deep South Parties" (Hyperion 2006).
My mother loves all things early American and would, if given the chance, travel back to the 18th century to live in Colonial Williamsburg.
A devout member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Colonial Dames, Williamsburg is her Mecca, the center of her universe. It guides her travel, it influences her reading. It is the basis for every decorating decision she has ever made or will ever make. No matter what the problem is, the way they did it in Colonial times is the solution.
She loves Williamsburg almost as much as she hates dirty hands. She is not a rupophobe, but she watches too much television, committing every news report involving germs or dirt to memory, and within hours publishes lengthy theses on cleanliness and Godliness which she passes out— double spaced, typed, and in three-punch folders— to every member of the family.
When I was seven years old she dragged us along on one of her many pilgrimages to the Early American Promised Land. We went willingly but only based on the promise that we would also be able to visit Busch Gardens and ride the roller coaster.
"It was cooler back then, boys. Those were the days before global warming." My mother, like the colonists, was early into environmental issues.
She bought us tri-cornered hats and made us wear them. It was 1969— the year in which bell bottoms reached their largest circumference and stack shoes attained their highest elevation— but there we were, at seven and 11 years old, wearing tri-cornered hats and souvenir-shop baby-blue waistcoats with our names stitched on the chest.
Traveling back to my mother's mecca as an adult has been a great experience. As an adult, I can appreciate the sacrifices made by the early colonists and the bravery and courage it took to forge a new nation.
I can also appreciate how many pancake restaurants are located here. Williamsburg is a town of just over 15,000 people — around the size of Greenwood — yet there are dozens of pancake houses.
There is the Colonial Pancake House, the Capital Pancake House, the National Pancake House, the Southern Pancake House, the Smokey Griddle Pancake House, Sandy's Pancake House, the Old Chickahominy Pancake House, Mama Steve's House of Pancakes, Five Brothers Pancake and Steak House, Old Mill House of Pancakes — I'm not making this up, Google it — Shorty's Diner where they specialize in, you guessed it, pancakes, and my favorite name of all, The Astronomical Pancake House.
In Williamsburg, we ate pancakes. We heard great music and revisited a place that meant so much to our mother.
We came, we saw, we tried on tri-cornered hats, and we ate pancakes. Now I need to go wash my hands.
Mix dry ingredients thoroughly. Gently add liquid ingredients including a ¼ cup of butter, and stir until just incorporated.
Do not overwork the batter. The batter is thick. If you like, it can be thinned with a small amount of water or a little more buttermilk.
Cook pancakes on a lightly greased griddle. Pancakes should be turned only once. They are ready to be turned when bubbles form in the middle and the edges appear cooked.
Once pancakes are turned, use a pastry brush to spread the additional 1¼ cup of melted butter on top of the pancakes while the other side is cooking. This will keep you from having to spread cold butter on them, which will tear them. The pancakes will already be buttered once they reach the table.


text:
Nemesis Onerous Dolorous
Uncompromised Commentary and Illiberal Thoughts
The gang that couldn't think straight
Now the Senate's report on the CIA's intelligence failures is out, the pundits are all commenting on it. I haven't read the report but there are several points everyone commenting seem to agree on. One of these is that we didn't have enough "good" HUMINT [human intelligence, which one commentator equates with spies which is incorrect]; that there was a "human intelligence failure" with respect to Saddam's WMDs. For example, the Wall St Journal notes that:
"One very alarming explanation, says the report, is that the CIA had "no [human] sources collecting against weapons of mass destruction in Iraq after 1998." That's right. Not one source." [ link: http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110005342 ]
The senate report goes on to say [as quoted by the WSJ] that when asked about this, a CIA officer explained that it was because such a source was "very hard to sustain" [to put it mildly]. Let's set aside the CIA guy's comment for a moment, and reflect on the rest statement. It is the kind of thing politicians excel at; a technically correct statement that is — and this is the only semi-polite response possible — a load of crap. Here's why:
First, the senate report states that a "global intelligence failure" occurred. Their conclusion would then seem to imply that the lack of a single CIA source somehow "explains" this "failure". The report does not allege that no one had sources collecting against WMD in Iraq after 1998. What about these other intelligence agencies and their sources, and their conclusions that matched ours, and that ours we to some extent derived form? Apparently they don't matter. If the CIA used British or Israeli or Jordanian sources after 1998, it's still all their fault for not having their own. Or something… But at least the senate report's statement remains factually true.
And what about Hans Blix? He certainly was in Iraq after 1998, he was certainly collecting against WMDs, he certainly found Saddam in "material breach" on the WMD issue, and he certainly did not find any evidence that the CIA's [and everyone else's] prior intelligence assessment was wrong. Blix didn't work for the CIA so the statement above is still factually true, but so what? There certainly was HUMINT collected from Iraq on WMDs after 1998, probably from multiple sources, and it was significant. The conclusions in the senate report regarding HUMINT [as stated] reflect either criminal malfeasance, near-criminal stupidity or both. I suspect both.
Let me set one thing straight: HUMINT is not just "spies" -- it is ANY human derived intelligence. Interviews with defectors are HUMINT; reports by diplomatic personnel are HUMINT, the reports of the UN inspectors are HUMINT. But the senate report clearly means spies -- covert sources inside Iraq -- and that is clearly what the CIA guy was responding to. So what is the big deal about spies?
Let's play the spy game for a moment, shall we?
First, there's the rules -- or not. In US-USSR spy game there were rules, and sometimes they were followed. One of the rules concerned exchanging spies -- it sometimes happened. Sometimes the suspected spy was wired to a board and then fed alive, feet first, into the furnace of a crematorium. That reportedly was the fate of Lt. Col. Oleg Penkovsky [though officially he was said to have been shot], who spied for the CIA while inside Soviet military intelligence [GRU] and provided vital info to us during the Cuban Missile Crisis. But there were still rules, or the semblance of them, because the US and the USSR could exert leverage over each other; we each wanted things that made it sometimes in our interest not to hang [us] or incinerate [them] captured spies.
In Saddam's Iraq, there were no rules because there was no similar leverage and what happened to suspected spies made what happened to Col. Penkovsky seem downright cozy. Consider what Saddam did to poets and those suspected of speaking ill of him and you might get some idea, but I rather hope not. Consider the affect of this knowledge on anyone considered spying against him for us. Now let's get on with the game...
OK, so we want spies working inside in Iraq on WMD -- who do we want?
Well, weapons designers would be nice. They could tell us what they were building and how far along they were. But they wouldn't necessarily know where, or if, existing WMDs were deployed or when [or if] they were to be used. It would be better to have some Iraqi commanders for that, colonels and generals preferably. We also need to consider that our spies might be mistaken, confused, or they might be plants. we can't just tale their word of things; we should have corroborating evidence. To get this, access to suspected WMD facility would be good.
How many people could we expect to recruit for this? Given the risks, a small number: 5 or 10 well-placed sources to be generous. Let's be very generous and say 5 or 10 of each. Except when it comes to facility access, lets say 20 or 30 -- after all, this could be janitors, service and repair guys, the falafel man. Now let's think about how much info these spies could produce before they were caught; how many facilities they could search and how well...
But ... Uh-oh! I think we have a problem with our game! Didn't the UN inspectors interview dozens [not 5 or 10] of Saddam's weapon scientists? Didn't quite a number colonels and generals attest to the existence of deployed WMDs after the war? Didn't the UN search suspected Iraqi WMD facilities -- not 1 or 2, but dozens?-- for several years? Isn't it a fact that the pre-war WMD intelligence estimates were largely based on the inspector's findings, both before and after 1998?
Damn right they were! On HUMINT: military commanders, scientists, facilities searches. Exactly the kind of well-placed sources we sought for our fantasy spy game.
What else were they based on? Friendly foreign intelligence reporting -- this was a "global failure" remember? But what was that reporting largely based on? Oh yeah – HUMINT; their spies and well-placed sources.
So our prewar WMD assessment was about 90% based on what? HUMINT. And if it was all wrong, as so many believe, then all the highly placed spies in our fantasy game wouldn't have been any more right, because all the problems we associate with our real HUMINT sources also apply to our fantasy covert sources: they can be mistaken, they can be confused, they might be less than candid. So is there anything our fantasy spies might have been able to do that our current and historical HUMINT sources don't do?
Well, suppose the pre-war WMD estimate is substantially correct and Saddam destroyed, sold off, concealed and or moved his stockpiles out of the country sometime before the war. After all — and this point seems to be routinely ignored — the CIA never said there would be WMDs in Iraq after the war; they said Saddam had them before the war, but lets put a time limit on that: say after 2001 [I suspect that's about right though I haven't seen the information cut-off date on the NIE published anywhere.] If we had some highly placed spies, maybe they could tell us what happened to those WMDs — where they were moved to, or concealed, or sold, or whatever.
But, wait a minute! We do have HUMINT sources claiming exactly that. We have claims that substantial WMD components, including weapons, were moved to Syria and concealed; we have people claiming to know exactly where. It's just that no one seems to consider these claims credible. But what would make a covert source saying the same thing [or the opposite thing] more credible, just because he or she is covert? If the actual claimants are wrong or are trying to sell us a bill of goods for their own purposes, a covert source might be just the same.
The point is that HUMINT is HUMINT is HUMINT and it stands or falls on it's merit, not because it is obtained covertly or not. We are swimming in HUMINT on Saddam's WMDs and just because we achieve a covert penetration of Saddam's government or military doesn't by itself make the HUMINT obtained better — in fact, the preceding comparisons show the opposite: it is liable to be less complete, more sketchy, and a whole lot riskier to get than what we did obtain.
The "problem" with the HUMINT that was the basis for the CIA's WMD assessment isn't that it has been proven wrong; the problem is that many people don't believe it. They don't believe it because — and this is the real "problem"; the real "failure" — it fails to support the conclusions that they [in this case, the politicians] want to reach: that there were no WMDs; that there was an "intelligence failure" that they can exploit for political, ideological, and personal reasons.
So what are we to conclude? Mainly that the Senators don't understand intelligence, and that they sure as hell don't understand HUMINT. They do understand how to write polemics, how to get their names in the paper, how to dodge responsibility and how to deflect blame from themselves, and how to dishonestly exploit the intelligence community for venal purposes. They understand those things very well.
But the main thing they don't understand is how their self-serving actions endanger Americans and innocent lives everywhere.
posted by C. Owen Johnson at 2:53 AM 1 comments
The Real Intelligence failure
What is the irony of the Senate's report castigating the CIA for a "global intelligence failure"? It is that the conclusion that there was a "global intelligence failure" is based on a real, and singular intelligence failure: the work of Iraq Survey Group [ISG] run by David Kay.
The ISG investigation Dr. Kay ran is the "proof", the sole pivot on which the "no WMDs in Iraq" argument rests. It was Dr. Kay's interim report, distorted by the press, that created the "no WMDs" canard, fueled by Katy's foolish statement that he believed that no WMD stockpiles [he didn't say what a "stockpile" was] in fact existed. It now seems almost everyone, on whichever side of the war debate, believes it. But the startling fact — though it should not be — is that the failings the senators accuse the CIA of in reaching its pre-war WMD assessment were actually committed by the ISG during the botched post-war investigation.
According to an article by Frank J. Gaffney Jr., "Failures", in The Washington Times [www.washingtontimes.com]:
"The senators attributed these [the CIA's pre-war] failings to "a combination of systemic weaknesses, primarily in analytic trade craft, compounded by a lack of information-sharing, poor management and inadequate intelligence collection."
While I shall demonstrate in a future that to the extent these failings did [and do] apply to the CIA, they were imposed from outside: by the Clinton administration and by congress; they all apply to the ISG investigation to such a degree as to render its conclusion that no WMD stockpiles existed baseless and without merit. [To clarify: that is not to say that intelligence failures of the ISG prove they did exist, only that the ISG conclusions are useless in arguing that they didn't.]
The ISG investigation was ill-conceived, poorly planned, and incompetently conducted. Other authors have described this in some detail [see here, here, and here]; I will merely touch on the salient points:
The ISG had no sound methodology established when they went in Iraq. They didn't have the time or the resources for a systematic search of suspected or possible weapon sites; nor could they translate and analyze all the thousands of Iraqi documents they had access to. So they decided to interview Iraqi scientists in hopes of getting quick results. For whatever reason — naivete, ignorance, incompetence, arrogance; it hardly matters — the ISG, and Dr Kay, decided the Iraqis they were talking to were telling the truth, even when their statements did not jibe with what they'd told other investigators. The ISG should have been — must have been? — aware of this; it should have been a red flag. But to the extent they noticed these discrepancies, they appear to have assumed they were getting the truth and the other guys were not. This was a colossal blunder, especially as it has been documented that the ISG got less information in many from these scientists then UNSCOM did. ISG interviews were neither as long nor as detailed as UNSCOM interviews, and the interviewers were not as expert. If this is the way the ISG worked, I'm surprised if they don't now own a lot of Florida swamp land.
The ISG did not have the proper skills for the task. The ISG didn't correctly understand the scope of the task, and reportedly sent managers to Iraq instead of their analysts, who knew much more about Iraq's weapons. So there was, in the senate's words, a basic failure in analytic trade craft.
There was mismanagement and a lack of effective cooperation in the ISG effort. The ISG refused to get help or include the real experts on WMDs in Iraq; the UNSCOM inspectors. The ISG spent far less time on the WMD issue than UNSCOM; its personnel were far less knowledgeable. It was reported that David Kay tried to include UNSCOM people in the ISG, but he wasn't that successful. This was a critical of failure of David Kay's leadership that compromised his whole mission.
There has been a lack of effective review or oversight of the ISG findings. UNSCOM's work was reviewed and vetted by a host of experts; so far ISG has not opened its findings to outside vetting. ISG has not appropriately shared data or explained why or how it's conclusions can fly in the face of years of work by vastly better qualified inspectors, to say nothing of the considered assessment of the entire intelligence community.
Of course, the ISG was made up of elements of that same intelligence community. The CIA was involved with ISG, but not just the CIA certainly, and David Kay, who was from the CIA, must bear the brunt of the responsibility for the overall failure of the ISG. Certainly, the ISG did get some things right and did make positive contributions [mostly ignored or buried by the press], and the ISG did support important conclusions of the pre-war assessment. The ISG also supported the assessment that important WMD components, if not whole stock piles, were shipped to Syria.
But overall, the ISG investigation is an excellent example of the kind of intelligence failure that the CIA and the intelligence community as a whole has been and is being persecuted for. However, the ISG investigation was an isolated incident, involving a host of US, British, and Australian organizations that came together in a hasty and ultimately dysfunctional way. It was not typical of the pre-war intelligence situation, or of the CIA, nor of the US intelligence community as a whole.
So the central myth of our time — the global pre-war assessment of Saddam's WMDs was based on a "global intelligence failure" — is in fact the product of a genuine multinational intelligence failure. The ISG's intelligence failure is accepted only because it suits the political or ideological aims, or the malice, of the Bush administration's critics. If allowed to grow unchecked, this myth could spawn a catastrophe that will dwarf 9/11 in its proportions.
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