[All Africa] After many months of upheaval, the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... is set for yet another year of political struggle and internal conflict. Current President Joseph Kabila remains the main cause of the unrest. He reached the end of his final term in December 2016 yet refuses to step down. His government continues to find reasons to delay elections which ought to have been held shortly after the conclusion of Kabila's term.
The latest election date has been set for December 2018, although it is doubtful that the government will hold the poll. It has already pointed to apparent logistical and financial obstacles to a December election. This has become an ongoing excuse to keep Kabila in power.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shootout, Butch cautiously raised his hat over the edge of the horse trough on the end of a stick...... DRC citizens are increasingly unsatisfied with the government. They have repeatedly taken to the streets of the capital city Kinshasa to call for elections and Kabila's resignation. Security forces continue to quell those protests and crack down on political activists. State operatives have on several occasions shut down the internet.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2018 00:00 ||
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[All Africa] Lawmakers in Zim-bob-we are preparing to summon ex-president Bob Muggsy Mugabe Nonagenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case. Dumped in November 2017 when the Missus decided she wanted to be president, and opposed heer might against Crocodile Mnangawa Important safety tip: If your opponent goes by the name Crocodile andf your title is Shopper in Chief let him win.... to answer for his management of the diamond sector, which he nationalized in 2016.
Mugabe announced the state seizure two years ago on Zim-bob-we state TV, saying, "There has been a lot of secrecy ... and we have been blinded. We have not received much from the diamond industry at all."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2018 00:00 ||
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h/t instapundit
...In 2007, The Quad (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue), at the behest of Japan, held its first informal meeting. The Quad's membership roll sends a diplomatic message: Japan, Australia, America and India. Japan pointed out all four nations regarded China as disruptive actor in the Indo-Pacific; they had common interests. Delhi downplayed the meeting, attempting to avoid the appearance of actively "countering China."
No more. The Quad nations now conduct naval exercises and sometimes include a quint, Singapore.
[news.au.com] DISTRACTION is one of the leading causes of fatal road crashes in Australia but new hi-tech cameras that detect drivers using their mobile phones without them even knowing could soon change everything.
A New South Wales Police spokesman told news.com.au that officers currently "use a variety of methods to detect drivers using their phones while driving".
"Line-of-site, by trained officers is the primary method of detection, however, long-ranged cameras have been used with success, and helmet cameras in motorcycle police continue to be used," the spokesman said.
But that technology could soon be replaced by stationary cameras that automatically issue an infringement notice without the driver even realising they’ve been sprung.
NSW Police Highway Patrol boss, Assistant Commissioner Mick Corboy, told the Nine News there were "emerging technologies coming out".
"So the way we are going to defeat this is by video evidence, by photographic evidence and we are looking at everything possible around the world at the moment and we think we’ll get something in place fairly quickly," Mr Corboy said.
His comments came after NSW Minister for Roads Melinda Pavey put out a call on Tuesday for potential providers to present "practical, technology-based solutions to address the problem" of mobile phone use in cars.
#1
Should produce a windfall of hundreds of millions in fines if implemented in Georgia. Two or more cell phone moving violations should result in a automatic doubling of insurance premiums.
#3
In the U.S. red-light cameras, a similar technology, have become cash cows and tick everyone off. It may be that red-light cameras also increase the incidence of rear-end collisions.
#6
They can tell when a vehicle is moving and when a phone is in use, then fine both the vehicle and phone owners, regardless of whether the driver is the one using the phone. Sort of like gun control law logic.
#7
This work if you are using the wireless earpiece or the Bluetooth connected car speakerphone? No? Then why worry? Stop being a troglodyte and step in to the 21st if you want to talk on your mobile whilst driving.
[AP]A Hungarian magazine published Thursday the names of more than 200 people it claimed Prime Minister Viktor Orban had in mind when he alleged U.S.-Hungarian billionaire George Soros paid “mercenaries” to topple the government and open the country to immigrants.
#1
Under the proposal written by Draper, “Cal” would consist of a much smaller area of land comprising densely packed areas including Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey and San Benito counties.
Of all those counties, the only one that is densely packed is Los Angeles and it would dominate the hell out of the others. Mrs. Uluque and I love to visit the wineries in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties and I get the distinct impression the majority of those people would hate their association with LA.
SoCal looks good though. Anything that gets me out from under Moonbeam, Newsome, Pelosi, Feinstein, Villaraigosa, Cedillo and all those other jackasses would be a wonderful thing.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/13/2018 12:05 Comments ||
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#2
I think the best thing to do with Los Angeles County would be to let it become its own little state. Same thing for the Bay Area. Without those two you might find the rest of the state to be a lot more reasonable.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/13/2018 12:09 Comments ||
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#3
...sort of like Melilla and Ceuta or Lichtenstein and San Marino. We could deal with that.
#5
be nice to split Washington State in Half too, or just King, Pierce, Snohomish and Thurston counties. might have to make San Juan its wn mini archipelego Nation too, half Canuk and half whatever they call themselves.....
#10
NY should split from the 5 boroughs. There are lots of areas that are ripe for a peaceful division. Get the contractors out, the Senate is gonna need more seats.
[Breitbart] Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) on Thursday made news after repeatedly demanding to know CIA Director Mike Pompeo’s views on gay sex at his confirmation hearing to become Secretary of State.
Booker cited a speech Pompeo gave as a congressman in 2015 at a church, in which he quoted words a pastor had once delivered before the Kansas State Legislature.
"America had worshipped other Gods and called it multiculturalism. We’d endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle," Pompeo had said.
Booker then repeatedly asked Pompeo: "Is being gay a perversion?"
Pompeo responded that as a politician he had a "very clear view" on whether it was appropriate for two same sex persons to get married. "I stand by that," he said.
"So you do not think it is appropriate for two gay people to marry?" Booker said.
Pompeo responded, "Senator, I continue to hold that view."
#1
Methinks Booker's interested in some gay sex on his own. I stole a tube of Vaseline from the South Shore Hospital yesterday; maybe I'll mail it to him!
[IsraelTimes] Violent attacks on Jews worldwide dropped in 2017 despite a rise in other forms of anti-Semitism, researchers report , in a year characterized by normalization and mainstreaming of anti-Semitism not seen in Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... since World War II.
Researchers at Tel Aviv University say assaults specifically targeting Jews fell 9 percent last year. They record 327 cases compared to 361 in 2016, which had already been the lowest number in a decade.
But they note attacks were far more brazen. Most dramatic were a pair of cases in La Belle France, where a Jewish woman was thrown to her death out of her apartment window and a Holocaust survivor was stabbed and burned to death in her Gay Paree home.
Threats, harassment and insults have also driven thousands of French Jews to relocate.
Tel Aviv University’s Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry releases the report every year on the eve of Israel’s Holocaust memorial day, which began Wednesday at sundown.
Increased security measures are credited with reducing violence, but it may be masking a trend of anti-Semitism becoming more mainstream and acceptable, particularly in European politics. The report describes a toxic triangle made up of the rise of the extreme right, radical Islamism and a heated anti-Zionist discourse on the left accompanied by anti-Semitic expressions.
Not just in Europe, of course. A good deal more on the subject, including the American situation, can be read at:
[TheDrive] The Joint Program Office has been watering down the software requirements for years already, too, securing an interim, limited capability Block 3i software suite to meet some early test objectives and avoid even more embarrassing delays. Before that, the baseline Block 3 was supposed to represent a fully functional package, a requirement the initial iterations of the supposedly "final" Block 3F code failed to meet, as well.
It could also otherwise impede the ability of the aircraft’s various complex systems to properly share and display information to the pilot, other F-35s and different aircraft, or throughout ground-based networks. There are other ongoing occupational hazards, as well, including worrying reports of incidents of hypoxia-like symptoms among pilots flying Air Force F-35As.
Marine and Navy F-35 pilots have reported a "green glow" in their helmet’s display that can dangerously obscure their vision at night, especially during attempts to land on aircraft carriers and amphibious ships, as well. Lockheed Martin has only recently begun to implement fixes for that problem across the B and C model fleets.
#1
It will take Skynet to actually fly this thing in combat: ...It could also otherwise impede the ability of the aircraft’s various complex systems to properly share and display information to the pilot, other F-35s and different aircraft, or throughout ground-based networks.
So in a future battlefield you want a Network-Centric device that can be hacked by some Cyberwarfare nerd on the other side of the planet. Idiocy on steroids.
Why have an onboard pilot? Just make it a drone and fly it from a base in the continental US if you are going to try and make it a single-seat aircraft that will bury the pilot in an information overload. *Madness*
#4
#3 Ever lowered standards to pass. -AlanC
Exactly. Soon this plane will take to the sky and defeat all comers with its groundbreaking WiFI HotSpot-ness. Beware our L33t Skill5 !!
#3
In Peking, they're sounding her death knell.
Miss Liberty leaves the condemned cell.
"Well, thanks for your help.
Please, a few final selfies?
I'm ready now. All's well that end's well!"
#4
China doesn't worry so much about false positives in arresting people.
It makes AI a lot easier in cases like this.
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/13/2018 8:56 Comments ||
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#5
They are pretty good at this sort of thing. For years they have been working on stuff to track cars, so they generally can find out where you have been if they feel like it, and also as a result there is not much need for traffic cops: If you mess up they have it on camera. They also have some kind of RFID thing going on, but not exactly sure what that is yet, maybe just commercial vehicles. This is just the next step. It's not really a horrible idea. There is no privacy here anyway with so many people.
#9
The Future, where face recognition
Will satisfy modest ambition --
Stand out from the crowd,
But not more than allowed --
As it fixes your social position!
[FoxNews] A nun fighting Katy Perry's purchase of a former convent is fired up and reaching out to a higher authority -- Pope Francis himself -- to intervene in the case that has brought the "Roar" singer a rash of negative publicity.
"They’ll have to kill me first if they want to keep me quiet," Sister Rita Callanan, 80, told Fox News this week, referring to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which she said wrongly sold the property to Perry. "I am asking Pope Francis to intercede."
Callanan and her attorneys hope the pontiff will review the case and speak to the Signatora, the highest court in Rome. "It’s like the U.S. Supreme Court," according to Callanan.
The nun says the death last month of Sister Catherine Rose Holzman - a close friend and ally in the fight over the sale of their order’s convent on eight acres in the Los Feliz area - has motivated her to stay in the battle, despite urgings by doctors and friends to drop the matter for health reasons.
Callanan and Holzman, who was 89, vowed they would fight to the end for the property the Sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary owned for more than 40 years. That ended when, as the nuns tell it, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles forced them out.
Callanan said she, Holzman and other nuns who lived at the property had seen it as their "Motherhouse," where they would grow old together, and look after one another.
The letter to Pope Francis, in which Callanan also appeals for a meeting with the pontiff, says the nuns "were promised that we would always be taken care of by the archdiocese and that we would live out the rest of our lives at our convent. After we are all gone, the Archbishop would inherit our property ... Archbishop Gomez has broken these promises to us."
"He tried to sell our convent without our approval to a person whom we do not support. It is the pop star Katy Perry," the letter reads. "We do not agree with her lifestyle that has strayed far from any faith ... At the end of our lives, we find ourselves fighting for justice and for what is right."
The archdiocese sold the property to Perry for $14.5 million, but the Vatican must give its approval before the deal is considered final.
Archdiocese officials deny they broke any agreement with the nuns, and say they have acted with their best interests in mind.
"The main concern of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is and has always been the care and well-being of all the ... sisters," Adrian M. Alarcon, director of media relations for the archdiocese, told Fox News on Wednesday. Alarcon said the property has been vacant since 2011 "because it became too costly for the five remaining sisters to maintain and no longer accommodated their physical needs."
Holzman died on March 9 after collapsing in a courtroom for a hearing related to the case. She signed the letter to the pope before she died.
The two nuns had wanted a friend and entrepreneur, Dana Hollister, to buy the property instead of Perry, trusting that Hollister would honor the spirit of their former homestead. But a judge last year voided the sale to Hollister and ruled the archdiocese, and not the nuns, had the right to sell the property.
"Two days before she had this heart attack she called me and said ’You know, Rita, this stress the archbishop is putting Dana through is just killing me,’" Callanan recalled. "In court she was in front me and during recess she said ’My chest hurts,’ and she collapsed on my lap, right on my lap." Continues.
As the Holy See motto seems to be, of late, "Super omnia Politica," I doubt the "Nun" (more likely a Sister) will be persuasive. Also, if title has passed, local zoning has the ball. Historical Landmark status?
I believe Sister is the title given to nuns. The LA Times reported a few years ago that the nuns haven’t lived there since 2011, and it appears they did not act to find a buyer until some of the four or five remaining nuns decided they disliked the buyer the archdiocese had found.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
04/13/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Spanking has never done anything for me, in any sense, at any stage of life. However...
Ms. Perry's a nuisance. Who'll school her?
I hope you won't think me peculiar:
I'd love to see Sister
Uplifting this blister
On Main St., at noon, with a ruler.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka 
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
