Palmyra....

Backed by Russian airstrikes, Syrian government forces pushed into the ancient town of Palmyra that has been held by the Islamic State group since May, state TV reported.
Iraqi military spokesman announced the start of a long-awaited military operation to recapture the northern city of Mosul from IS militants.

The advance on Palmyra, a UNESCO world heritage site, came after the troops managed this week to capture several hills and high ground around the town, famed for its priceless archaeological site and Roman ruins. Syrian troops have been on the offensive for days in an attempt to capture the town.

The fall of Palmyra to IS militants last year had raised concerns world over, and the destruction the extremists subsequently embarked upon sent shock waves through archaeological circles and beyond. It was also a big blow to the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad whose forces pulled out with apparently little fighting.

May be the key here is to support the Syrian Gov.   Less migrants, Less Destruction, less hate, and less war in the middle east.                    Just a thought.

Bogus...

Laurent Ponsot, the proprietor of Domaine Ponsot, took a seat at one of the restaurant’s tables. He had traveled to New York to prevent the sale of all 97 Ponsot bottles on offer that night because he believed most of them were counterfeits.

The consignment included one bottle of 1929 Ponsot Clos de la Roche, a grand cru (Burgundy’s highest designation) that the domaine did not produce under its own label until 1934. There were also 38 bottles of another Ponsot grand cru, Clos Saint-Denis, from the years 1945 through 1971. But the winery had not started making Clos Saint-Denis until the 1980s. Something was very wrong.

But just before the moment arrived, it was announced to the audience that all of the Ponsot bottles had been withdrawn. 

Kurniawan [The seller] was arrested by F.B.I.  and charged with multiple counts of wire and mail fraud, notably in connection with the attempted sale of the bogus Ponsots.

When agents entered Kurniawan’s house, they discovered a counterfeiting factory, with scores of bottles being converted to knockoffs and thousands of fake labels for the most prestigious wines from Burgundy and Bordeaux. It appears now that Kurniawan may have sold millions of dollars’ worth of counterfeit wines and scammed some of the world’s biggest collectors. He was convicted, sentenced to 10 years in jail. To be deported after as he was illegal in USA.
Just a thought. 

The harder they fall

One activist investor sold 20 million shares in Mondelez which would yield $834 million at current prices.   William Ackman’s hedge fund is selling down his biggest investment, as a disastrous bet on Valeant Pharmaceuticals  tears a hole in its portfolio.

The move followed a rout that  recently cut shares of Valeant in half. The drop followed a disappointing forecast from the drug maker and a warning that it could face a debt default because it hadn’t filed annual results in time. Valeant is one of Mr. Ackman’s largest holdings. He doubled down on the stock last fall, buying more shares after questions about its accounting sent his position in the company deeply into the red.

In a sign of the current damage to Pershing Square, the value of its publicly traded portfolio slumped 8.9% in just the past week, bringing its year-to-date loss to 26%.

Losses Pershing Square has suffered on Valeant and other investments have raised questions about whether its investors will stick with it. So far they appear to be doing so.

 Many of big investors lost a lot of money in the Market, so don't get greedy.                Just a thought.

Light...!

 

Police have arrested four people suspected of planning an “imminent” terror attack in central Paris, according to French media reports. Two of the suspects were French brothers of Tunisian origin.

The arrests took place this morning in the 18th arrondissement the location of an attack on a police station in early January, and the 93rd – the department of Saint-Denis, where a long siege ended in the death of the Paris attacks “mastermind” last year.

The French capital remains on high alert after jihadists massacred 130 people in November 2015, in a number of suicide bombings and mass shooting at cafes, restaurants and the Bataclan concert hall near Place de la République.

A house search was conducted in Forest, in Belgium,"  Three of six police officers were shot at as they tried to enter the apartment, and were slightly injured.

An officer neutralized one of the suspects who was about to shoot. His body was later found inside the apartment next to a Kalashnikov rifle, 11 battery chargers,  an Algerian national.

Let them in?  Just a thought.

Pancakes.??.

 

"The competition between the Saudis and the Iranians feeds proxy wars and chaos in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. This requires us to say that they need to find an effective way to share the neighborhood and institute some sort of cold peace," Obama told The Atlantic.

He also put a share of the blame for the crisis in Libya on Washington's European allies. Libya is embroiled in political chaos after its 2011 uprising and facing a security vacuum.

"You have countries that are failing to provide prosperity and opportunity for their people. You've got a violent, extremist ideology, or ideologies, that are turbocharged through social media," he said. " Countries that have very few civic traditions, so that as autocratic regimes start fraying, the only organizing principles are sectarian."

On Syria, now in its fifth year of civil war, Obama defended his decision not to launch strikes there in 2013, despite concerns over President Bashar al-Assad's use of weapons. 

It is time for Saudi and Iran to find a way for peace. Or use the diminished oil revenues to beat the hill out of each other. The outcome is Pancakes.         Just a thought.

Desperate...!

Addressing a luncheon of Republican governors and donors, Rove warned that Donald J. Trump’s increasingly likely nomination would be catastrophic, dooming the party in November. But he insisted it was not too late. Since then, Mr. Trump has only gotten stronger.

In public,  calls for the party to unite behind a single candidate. In dozens of interviews, elected officials, political strategists and donors described a frantic, last-ditch campaign to block Mr. Trump  and the agonizing reasons that many of them have become convinced it will fail. Behind the scenes, a desperate mission to save the party sputtered and stalled at every turn.

Despite all the forces arrayed against Mr. Trump, the interviews show, the party has been gripped by a nearly incapacitating leadership vacuum and a paralytic sense of indecision and despair, as he has won smashing victories in South Carolina and Nevada. Donors have dreaded the consequences of clashing with Mr. Trump directly. Elected officials have balked at attacking him out of concern that they might unintentionally fuel his populist revolt. And Republicans have lacked someone from outside the presidential race who could help set the terms of debate from afar.

The endorsement by Mr. Christie, a not unblemished but still highly regarded figure within the party’s elite — he is a former chairman of the Republican Governors Association — landed Friday with crippling force. It was by far the most important defection.

Opposing Trump means opposing the will of millions of Republicans who voted for him and who are angry at the Republican establishment and Media. 

Opposing him will fuel more anger and more success for Trump. So Let it Go. 

Enjoy the song of James Bay.    

Bottom-Up

Exit poll results from South Carolina showed more than half of voters felt "betrayed" by the Republican Party. RNC Chairman Priebus argued that it was not reflective of his party, but instead of more widespread anger at the federal government and politics in general.

The party would be ready to support Donald Trump if he won the nomination, despite his past support of Democrats and many liberal positions.

Trump has emerged as the front-runner by winning over roughly a third of Republicans in the early voting states and in preference polls, packing his rallies with men and women, evangelical Christians and military veterans, blue-collar workers and wealthy retirees. 

Voters give Trump the best marks for competence and decisiveness, which were important to more than 9 out of 10 Republican voters.

Ed McMullen, a Trump co-chairman in SC, rejected the impression that Trump's supporters are only a bunch of "lower-income, angry white men" and "rednecks," pointing to a series of campaign events in recent days at exclusive golf resorts and gated communities in South Carolina that attracted wealthy retirees and business leaders.

The party is changing from the bottom up.  Just a thought.

Meaning!!

Donald Trump now owns the Republican party. The only question left is whether what’s left of the GOP establishment can winnow the field fast enough to take it back.

What Trump has established, though, cannot and should not be ignored. He has mocked, taunted and threatened the party establishment on his way to his undisputed front-runner status.

He has called his opponents corrupt, unstable, low-energy liars and losers. He said President George W. Bush lied about the Iraq War and called Pope Francis “disgraceful” for questioning his faith.

Despite all that – and maybe because of it – Trump romped in Saturday’s South Carolina primary.

He’s done it by bringing the party along to his positions. Exit polls show three-fourths of South Carolina voters supporting a visas ban entering the United States.

He again managed to split the evangelical vote, despite coming in last among voters who preferred a candidate who “shares my values.” He ran strong across income levels, among independents as well as Republicans, and among voters who saw immigration, jobs and terrorism as the top issues.

Even if Jeb Bush and Ben Carson bow out soon, John Kasich’s staying in through the Midwestern states that vote in early March.   Rubio and Cruz are too busy feuding to think about getting out of the way of the other. In the meantime, Trump will accumulate delegates as the realization grows that, yes, he could actually be the Republican nominee.    [Rick Klein]

Just a thought.

It all began here

Images from Syria

Russia denied its warplanes carried out strikes on a Syrian hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders, as Syrian government forces and a Kurdish-led coalition advanced in the country's north.

Syria's ambassador to Russia said the hospital was destroyed by the U.S. -led coalition which is carrying out strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria.

In recent weeks Syrian government troops backed by Russian airstrikes have been advancing on Western-backed rebels and other insurgents, hoping to seal off rebel-held parts of Aleppo city. 

U.S.-allied Kurdish forces, mainly battled the Islamic State group, have been advancing in the same region, battling Syrian rebels and other insurgents in a bid to expand a nearby enclave.

Dignitaries from northern Aleppo are trying to negotiate an agreement whereby the insurgents would surrender Marea in exchange for a safe corridor to the town of Azaz, near the border with Turkey.

Turkey views the Syrian Kurdish fighters as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against Ankara. Turkey no plans to unilaterally send ground troops into Syria to fight ISIL.

Opinion: US should not participate in the war in Syria on behalf of Turkey or Saudi Arabia who started the civil war, created and supported ISIS. The outcome is a Refuge Chaos which will trouble Europe and USA for a long time to come. We have seen that already in France and Belgium.                                    Just a thought.

The Bushy.

In private and among friends, Bush and his wife, Laura, express amazement at an election season that has been hijacked by Donald Trump. 

On Monday, Presidents’ Day, Bush try to help Jeb do just that. After deliberately avoiding politics throughout his post- presidency, Bush is stepping back into the arena for an evening rally in North Charleston with his brother.

Bush’s appearance is an urgent mission to energize Jeb’s struggling candidacy ahead of next Saturday’s South Carolina primary. But it also will firmly put the stamp of the last Republican to occupy the White House on the GOP contest at a moment of deep division.

The former president has been troubled by a Republican electorate that  so far, at least prioritizes Trump’s anger and projected strength over Jeb’s qualifications and experience.

George W. Bush is popular among Republicans here, especially members of the military services. 
The former president’s approval rating among South Carolina Republicans stands at 84 percent.

However, George Bush will bring back troubles of the past. The war in Iraq, thousands of American military lost their lives, thousands injured, disintegration of the area and the rise of fundamentalism. All will not be good for his brother's run.                Just a thought.