sunnykerr

Having justice come in the form of a politician losing his job, and only because his party is now "sick of him" doesn't sound anything like justice to me. Especially when we're talking about domestic terrorism. That's white privilege for you, I guess.

Marvin's story (the boy found in the pedophile's closet) has been on the news here. It doesn't sound good, to be honest. I'm not sure how the fact that his father died, which led to his beind placed in the care of social workers, and somewhere in there he was kidnapped, all connects together, but his mother's been talking. And what she's had to say about what Marvin went through during his captivity sounds grim. But then, given how this all started, I'm not sure she's a reliable source...

Jamal Khashoggi: Saudis sentence five to death for journalist's murder So that happened. It's such a transparent attempt to sweep what happened under the rug, it's insulting. No public trial, ergo no explanations as to what happened and how. But, hey, now MSB can claim he handled the situation, as opposed to admitting he caused it and he and every other mastermind are walking away free.

canflam

Well I meant if he gets charges against him it would be justice & they are on that path of doing so I think. Thanks for that news about Jamal Khashoggi as unsurprising perhaps that it is.

sunnykerr

I still think that, if the guy wasn't white, the notion of whether there would be charges would not be such a mystery.

Someone is shooting horses to death and the number is now up to 20 I honestly thought it was a joke when I heard about this first. What kind of weirdo is so rich that they can afford to waste ammunition on shooting horses? But it seems it's real. This is the sort of story that is "only in the USA." Because other countries with a gun culture love their horses too much. The military would be involved.

Two new Epstein accusers come forward in lawsuit against his estate Considering he went to jail during his lifetime for what they're accusing him of doing, I doubt there's any doubt he was guilty as sin.

sunnykerr

'Ghost boat' containing human remains washes up on Japanese island The fact that this is such a common occurence that they know it's coming from North Korea just adds to the horror, as far as I'm concerned.

Australian craft beer brewer faces criticism over partnership with Myanmar military They're giving money to those genocidal thugs. That's a bit more than just a "partnership," wouldn't you say?

Rush-hour vehicle bomb kills dozens in Somali capital They're debating the exact number of victims, but with that many injured that number's gonna climb anyway. I don't think it can be that big of a mystery who's responsible either.

canflam

Thanks for posting about these stories. I didn't that happens regularly in Japan. I know there's been a lot going on. Speaking of the D.P.R.K., supposedly they were going to send us here in the U.S. a ''Christmas gift'', but apparently decided not to. https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pa...deadline-looms

Also, former Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin has pardoned people before leaving office & the F.B.I. is reportedly looking into it. at least 1 of those pardons was for a convicted rapist. Here's a link to more on this story: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kentuck...n-report-says/

Here's a link to a story called ''Navy SEAL pardoned by Trump labeled 'evil' by ex-comrades''. https://www.dw.com/en/navy-seal-pard...des/a-51821649

Of course Trump would pardon this man.

sunnykerr

I didn't know that either about the ghost boats. I learned about it from that article. Can you even imagine? I wonder what the original cause is. I mean, it's one thing to have random boats crashing on your shores every so often, it's another to have random boats with cadavers and human heads on them crash on your shores every so often...

U.S. strikes hit Iraqi militia blamed in contractor's death So ready to come to Israel's support in its war on Iran that even U.S. contractors aren't safe. Nice. Or maybe the world's best financed military doesn't know where its people are?

Texas church shooting: Two fatally shot before gunman killed by churchgoer Of course, the narrative will be that, if that congregation member hadn't thought it perfectly normal to bring a loaded weapon inside a church, there would have been more dead. Personally, I think it'd be more logical to rely on the law and not expect people to carry out their own justice like that.

canflam

Thanks for this news. I doubt I'd feel much safe knowing people were & allowed to have firearms during mass, that is over in Texas where they love guns more than here I think. Some sad news about missing North Plains, OR 20-year-old woman Allison Watterson that is missing. Washington County deputies has suspended the search for her. I don't know how much attention nationally this story has gotten. I did see it on Yahoo earlier & people are praying for some good news regarding this story.

sunnykerr

Well, the guy who took out the shooter is being hailed as a hero. So yay?

canflam

Yeah & that's not surprising. It's just hard for me to know how safe I'd feel being in church knowing that people are armed & it's not something that I've thought a lot about. Certainly growing up, I never thought about someone or more than 1 person having any type of gun in church.

Some news today. Trump has said that Iran will be held fully responsible for the U.S. embassy attack in Iraq. Here's a link to that story: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/31/trum...y-in-iraq.html

Allyson Watterson's parents did an interview with KOIN 6, that's pronounced like the word ''coin'', but with a K for those not around here & here's that story: https://www.koin.com/news/missing-pe...old-onto-hope/

Allyson Watterson's boyfriend has been arrested, but on unrelated charges & reportedly he has been cooperating with authorities.

sunnykerr

Any other president (well, except George W. Bush) claiming Iran was responsible for an attack on the U.S. embassy in Iraq would be credible. This one isn't.

Australia scrambles to reach thousands stranded by bushfires I realize the priority is quite naturally on the hundreds of homes being destroyed, but I would so freak out if I were stuck on a beach surrounded by fire.

canflam

Thanks for that story. So much going on. I did want to mention this article from the N.Y. Times on Tuesday titled ''In Pews of a Texas Church, Bibles and Firearms''. It mentions the Texas laws that were passed in 2017 & how parishoners are allowed to bring their own weapons into church. Here's a quote from Texas State Representative Jonathan Stickland: ''How many more would be lost if we hadn't had a good guy with a gun? We need more of them.''

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/30/u...ettlement.html

There's so much going on besides the U.S. apparently going to war with Iran without even perhaps getting the approval of congress.

Also, an Englishwoman that accused 12 Israeli men of rape has been convicted of lying. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/30/w...ish-woman.html

Plus, Sudan sentenced 29 to death for torturing & killing a protestor. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/...115743875.html

Soleimani was killed supposedly to ''stop a war'' if that makes sense to you.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/qassem-...ichael-morell/

sunnykerr

Trump moving against Soleimani is as problematic as it was predictable. Saudi Arabia and Iran have been engaged in proxy wars all over the Middle East for decades now. Also, Trump will soon be running for re-election.

So, on one hand, you have the "tit for tat" aspect where Saudi just had a super token gesture of punishing Jamal Khashoggi's murderers. We all know how meaningless that was, but they made a lot of noise of doing that. And, put simply, Qasem Soleimani was the leader of Saudi Arabia's enemies in these proxy wars. So what does the United States do? It "thanks" the Sauds by elminating their chief enemy.

Not for nothing, but we also know that Soleimani was also an enemy of Benjamin Netenyahu... Two birds, one stone, really.

Trump says it was to "stop a war"? Well, take your pick. The last decades of Middle Eastern history are full of proxy wars with allies of the United States on one side and Iran on the other. My guess is that no one in the region will be shocked that the United States didn't actually try to promote peace.

And, on the other hand, as if satisfying allies like that wasn't enough, there is the upcoming re-election campaign. As the incumbent, Trump already had the advantage. He must have felt that wasn't enough because the U.S. has a history of re-electing even unpopular leaders in times of war. So...

No-brainer, really.

canflam

I was wondering about Iranians burning U.S. & Israel flags. I guess I'm curious about why Iranians have U.S. & Israel flags if they live in Iran? Seems like that would be the opposite of what they had been taught I'm guessing. On Demand, ABC had a story that read ''There are nearly 80,000 U.S. troops in the region; Iranians burned U.S. and Israel flags in protest over general's killing.'' Maybe it's more news that they burned those flags than actually having them to begin with.

Here's an unusual missing persons story out of Idaho that I saw on my local news this morning: Authorities are searching the home of the stepfather of the missing Idaho siblings

Law enforcement officers investigating the disappearance of two missing Idaho siblings executed a search warrant Friday at a home owned by the children's stepfather.
Fremont County Sheriff Len Humphries told CNN that multiple agencies, including the FBI, arrived at the Rexburg, Idaho, home of Chad Daybell on Friday morning to serve warrants linked to the missing children and "suspicious death cases."
It's unclear what led authorities to obtain the warrants.
Police began searching for Joshua "JJ" Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 17, in November after learning that they had not been seen or heard from since September.

Investigators don't believe the children are with their mother, Lori Vallow, but they think she knows where they are or what happened to them, Rexburg Police said.
She has refused to cooperate with police and has left the state with her husband, Chad Daybell, police said in a statement on Monday.
"We publicly call on Lori Vallow/Daybell and Chad Daybell to do the right thing and come forward with the information they have about the location and welfare of Joshua and Tylee," the statement said.
An attorney for the family, Sean Bartholick, released a statement to East Idaho News on December 23 saying that while he is in contact with Vallow and her husband, Chad Daybell, he does not have information about the children.

The kids weren't reported missing for two months
Vallow married Daybell weeks after Daybell's wife Tammy was found dead in her Fremont County home on October 19. Tammy Daybell's death was initially attributed to natural causes, but authorities exhumed her remains on December 11 and now think her death was suspicious. Vallow's husband also died earlier this year, investigators said.

Police conducted a welfare check for Joshua -- Vallow's adopted son with her previous husband -- on November 26 after relatives raised concern because they hadn't heard from him. During the welfare check, both Daybell and Vallow told investigators that Joshua was staying with a family friend in Arizona. When police returned the next day to execute a search warrant, Daybell and Vallow had fled the home, according to authorities.
Earlier this week, police said they have learned that Daybell and Vallow told witnesses that Tylee had died a year before her father's death, which investigators say is not true. Daybell told another witness that Vallow had no minor children, according to police.

Police said they have not filed charges in the case yet because they are focused on finding Joshua and Tylee.
"Our primary concern at this point is simply locating Joshua and Tylee and charging decisions will be made in due course based upon the evidence available," the release said. "If we find that harm was done to these children within our jurisdiction, we will prosecute whoever caused that harm."

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/03/us/id...ant/index.html

sunnykerr

I don't understand how the burning of flags is a news story in the context of a political assassination, to be honest.

sunnykerr

Iran plane crash: Ukraine International Airline jet crashes killing 176 Given that 63 Canadians are among the dead, I don't have to tell you just how tense things were this morning. For a while there, everyone thought it was the beginning of a war. It's obviously a massive human tragedy and it adds to the tension all of us non-Iranians are feeling towards our Iranian friends who have family over there. I mean, what can you possibly say to ease their worry? There's nothing that can possibly make any of it right. The fact that it wasn't part of the beginning of a war, while calming in some respects, cannot alleviate the agony these people are going through.

Four men ordered to hang for fatal gang rape on New Delhi bus
I'm sure we all remember this digusting case. I don't support the death penalty in any instance, including this one. However, for once, I find myself appreciating that "justice," such as this is, wasn't hasty. For once. I like that India has begun to take crimes against women seriously in some instances, but I do feel like we've gone from the extreme of ignoring them (or blaming the victims) to the other of hanging the first suspect without a trial.

Storms bring relief and danger to Australian wildfires Obviously, the human tragedy is huge... but, I'll be honest, it the animals that are breaking my heart. How can they understand what's happening to them? Where can they even go to escape it?

Puerto Ricans left homeless after biggest quake in century God I hope POTUS doesn't go toss paper towels at them this time.