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The use of “technicals” by military forces to round up citizenry as part of genocide. This post looks into the role that (so called) “technicals” play in national upheavals. A “technical” is a pickup truck that has been modified into a mobile heavy weapons platform. These machines have been commonly used in just about every national conflict over the last two decades. Here, we look at the role that they have, and why there are used. As opposed to other vehicles constrained for other purposes. Summary A technical is a light improvised fighting vehicle, typically an open-backed civilian pickup truck...

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden claimed that he’s “not going nuts,” despite yet another gaffe at a campaign stop in New Hampshire. Biden, 76, was at his second campaign stop of the day, after speaking at Dartmouth College. “I want to be clear, I’m not going nuts,” Biden told the crowd after forgetting where he had just given a speech a few hours earlier. “I’m not sure whether it was the medical school or where the hell I spoke. But it was on the campus,” Biden added, according to a report from the Washington Examiner. During a previous trip to...

E Jean Carrol made headlines recently with her rather bizarre and sketchy claims of a forced sexual encounter with Donald Trump in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room two decades ago. President Trump denies even knowing who she is…. but the media, well, you know…. OrangeManBad; so anything goes. In addition to personifying an abject lack of credibility Ms. Carrol just imploded on CNN with Anderson Cooper, explaining her definition of rape is not sexual, nor doe it include sex. However, before getting to that recent development, a historic reference to Ms. Carrol is, well, weird. (h/t BAXT3R) In 1995 E....

People have been asking me hard questions. What happened to the leaders in the Trump administration, especially the attorney general, Bill Barr, who I have said was due the benefit of the doubt? How could Mr. Barr, a bright and accomplished lawyer, start channeling the president in using words like “no collusion” and F.B.I. “spying”? And downplaying acts of obstruction of justice as products of the president’s being “frustrated and angry,” something he would never say to justify the thousands of crimes prosecuted every day that are the product of frustration and anger?

Justin Amash is reconsidering his place in a party he is at odds with, isolated from Republicans that have largely bent to the will of the president. The Michigan Republican is gaining a national following as a Congressman who isn’t afraid to buck the Republican line, often going to toe to toe with the party’s biggest star, President Donald Trump. Amash is a frequent critic of the president, often slamming Trump on Twitter, accusing him of violating the constitution and attacking Trump’s character.

The remains of a previously unknown pharaoh who reigned more than 3,600 years ago have emerged from the desert sand at South Abydos in Sohag province, about 300 miles south of Cairo... The skeleton of Woseribre Senebkay, who appears to be one of the earliest kings of a forgotten Abydos Dynasty (1650–1600 B.C.) was found by a University of Pennsylvania expedition... It rested in a four-chambered tomb amidst the fragmented debris of his coffin, funerary mask and canopic chest... Senebkay's tomb dates to about 1650 B.C., during Egypt's Second Intermediate Period, when central authority collapsed, giving rise to several small...

Nebraska state Sen. Ernie Chambers on Tuesday compared the American flag with the Nazi swastika on the floor of the legislature. “I don't come here for this rag every day, and it's a rag. That's all it is to me,” said Chambers about respecting the flag. “When you show a way to persuade Jews to sanctify and worship the swastika, when you show me that I'll come up here and stand while you all hypocritically pretend that rag is something that it definitely is not.“ The comments were in response to a bill put before the Nebraska legislature that would...

After approximately eight hours perched atop the Southwest Key building, a protester finally came back to ground level and into police custody Wednesday night. The woman, who garnered national attention in July 2018 by climbing the Statue of Liberty as part of an immigration protest, was spotted in Austin on Wednesday performing another protest. Therese "Patricia" Okoumou, 44, climbed Austin's Southwest Key building surrounded by police and EMS officials. Seventy officers were on the scene throughout the day, straining police resources in the area. Southwest Key is a local contractor that houses immigrant children who are detained at the border....

Newly elected Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema refused to be sworn in on a Bible, opting, instead, to place her right hand on a book of laws, including the U.S Constitution and the Arizona Constitution. The book Sen. Sinema placed her hand on to be sworn in came from the Library of Congress, her office told the Arizona Republic.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the incoming U.S. representative from New York City, has an idea that could make voting easier: Take Columbus Day off the federal holiday list and replace it with Election Day. In a tweet Saturday, the progressive Democrat wondered why Columbus Day is a federal holiday while Election Day, when we engage in perhaps our most important civic duty, is not. Columbus Day, after all, celebrates a man who never actually set foot in what is now the United States and who certainly did not “discover” America. Daily Mail editor David Martosko tried to make a joke about Ocasio-Cortez...

Woman who claimed Justice Kavanaugh raped her now admits they’ve never even met. She’s been referred to DOJ/FBI for investigation and could soon be in serious legal trouble.

The will-she-or-won’t-she brouhaha of Ford showing up will hang over the hearings like Damocles Sword. When Democrats have complete media attention, THE. SHOW.MUST.GO.ON! Nobody should hold their breath over the weekend waiting on Professor Christine Blasey Ford’s Big Tease about showing up for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s hearings next week, because much more than their faces could turn blue. “Will she or won’t she?” has become the front page headline of the day.

EXCERPT: BRUCE (voice-over): "Despite the President questioning the timing of these allegations, Blasey Ford’s sister-in-law says coming forward at all is not easy." PETERS: "Part of what I understand is that she felt sort of emotionally derailed for a couple of years. I’m sure she’s preparing mentally to embrace her truth and kind of get past the things that have made her feel like she has to hide it and be silent."

Christine Blasey Ford's legal team has asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to agree to certain terms before she sits down for a potential interview over her accusation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her, two sources told Fox News on Thursday night. Among the terms: Only members of the committee -- no lawyers -- can question her; Kavanaugh cannot be in the room at the time; and Kavanaugh must be questioned first.

The woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault came forward with her explosive allegations on Sunday, saying the supposed attack "derailed me substantially for four or five years" and claiming that the episode rendered her "unable to have healthy relationships with men." The woman, Christine Ford, is a professor at Palo Alto University, according to The Washington Post, which published her account on Sunday. Her decision to go public caps a whirlwhind week that began when Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., sent shockwaves through Washington by releasing a statement saying she turned over information about Kavanaugh from an...

"We're going to launch our own satellite — our own damn satellite to figure out where the pollution is and how we’re going to end it," Brown told the audience at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco..."In California, with science under attack, in fact we’re under attack by a lot of people, including Donald Trump, but the climate threat still keeps growing," Brown added. "So, we want to know, what the hell is going on all over the world, all the time?"..."If Trump turns off the satellites, California will launch its own damn satellite," Brown said back in...

Politicizing the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks by comparing alleged Russian hackers to the al Qaeda hijackers who killed 3,000 Americans? For shame. Maine Senator Angus King, an Independent who votes with Democrats, made these comments this morning in Lewiston, Maine. He said that 9/11 was "the beginning of an attack that's continuing today. They used airplanes into towers, now people can use the click of a computer key in St. Petersburg, Russia."

WASHINGTON-With confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh set to start next week, a young woman with ties to Lexington is gaining attention for her activism on Capitol Hill. Reproductive justice advocate Angela Maske has been working to meet with key players for more than a month. Washington reporter Eva McKend has the details. For Angela Maske, this work is personal. “My interests in reproductive justice actually stemmed from my time living in Kentucky. In middle school in particular, we didn’t have much sex ed. In fact, in high school, we didn’t have any sex ed really. I remember...

June 29 marked the end of the Third Review Conference (RevCon) of the United Nations’ Programme of Action (PoA) on Small Arms and Light Weapons. Delegates at the conference, including representatives of the United States, worked on producing updates to the global gun-control agreement. According to the text of the latest draft of the agreement, the PoA will serve as an “international instrument to enable states to identify and trace, in a timely and reliable manner” the small arms and light weapons that are the target of the scheme. In practice, this means that the governments of member nations (including...