Hi there, !
Today Sun 11/24/2019 Sat 11/23/2019 Fri 11/22/2019 Thu 11/21/2019 Wed 11/20/2019 Tue 11/19/2019 Mon 11/18/2019 Archives
Rantburg
531690 articles and 1855967 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 71 articles and 251 comments as of 11:43.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Opinion        Politix   
Afghanistan’s president claims victory over IS
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
1 22:38 Dron66046 [] 
9 17:01 Lex [1] 
1 11:04 Matt [1] 
10 16:58 Pancho Snomp1274 [] 
3 22:07 Lex [] 
5 21:18 trailing wife [1] 
5 18:01 Lex [2] 
5 13:31 Skidmark [] 
2 08:02 Rambler in Virginia [] 
8 22:12 DarthVader [1] 
8 16:10 Lex [] 
1 01:35 Lex [] 
2 09:59 Lex [] 
3 18:33 jpal [1] 
1 01:06 Dron66046 [] 
11 22:19 KBK [] 
4 12:35 Rex Mundi [] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
12 20:09 Spanky Whuter1088 []
7 09:59 M. Murcek []
1 11:56 Procopius2k [1]
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 [2]
0 []
0 []
0 [1]
0 []
0 [1]
0 []
Page 2: WoT Background
4 15:12 j morrissey []
5 12:35 Abu Uluque []
0 []
11 22:07 Dron66046 [2]
0 []
0 []
14 22:10 DarthVader []
0 []
0 [1]
0 [1]
0 []
0 [1]
0 [1]
0 []
0 [2]
0 []
2 13:18 lord garth [1]
0 [1]
1 13:21 Skidmark []
0 []
1 07:47 Frank G []
0 []
0 []
3 02:54 Dron66046 []
3 13:23 Skidmark []
Page 4: Opinion
8 16:07 Lex [2]
10 22:26 Dron66046 [2]
15 20:09 Procopius2k []
2 16:00 JohnQC []
4 17:07 Daniel []
9 16:37 Bobby []
Page 6: Politix
0 []
7 15:46 JohnQC [1]
13 16:22 Lex []
5 14:09 Skidmark [1]
12 22:17 trailing wife []
7 16:25 Lex []
9 19:38 charger [1]
0 []
1 01:31 Dron66046 []
6 15:50 JohnQC []
-Lurid Crime Tales-
More Than 100,000 DACA Applicants Have Been Arrested‐Murder, Rape, DUI
[Judicial Watch] More than 100,000 illegal immigrants who requested a special Obama-era amnesty for adults who came to the U.S. as children have criminal histories, according to an alarming report released this month by the government. Offenses committed by the illegal aliens seeking protection, benefits and rights under the policy known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) include murder, rape, weapon and assault charges. DACA has shielded nearly 800,000 illegal aliens under the age of 31 from deportation and allowed them to obtain work permits and drivers licenses. Obama launched the outrageous measure through executive order in 2012 to help children who came to the U.S. "through no fault of their own." The Trump administration tried to end DACA in 2017 but open borders groups sued to keep it going and now the Supreme Court is set to decide the matter.

Regardless of how the high court may rule, the fact remains that a big chunk of DACA applicants have arrest records, according to the figures released by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the Homeland Security agency that administers the nation’s lawful immigration system. The stats show that nearly 110,000 DACA requestors out of nearly 889,000 had arrest records, accounting for 12% of applicants. "Offenses in these arrest records include assault, battery, rape, murder and driving under the influence," USCIS writes in a statement announcing the report. Here’s another disturbing fact; of approved DACA requestors with an arrest, a whopping 85% (67,861) were arrested right before the U.S. granted them amnesty. Nearly 25,000 DACA recipients with arrests had multiple arrests and 218 had more than 10 arrests. Incredibly, around one-fourth of the illegal immigrants with more than 10 arrests were approved by the government as of last month. In all, the government reveals that it has approved 79,398 DACA requestors with arrest records. Not all the delinquents are approved, the figures show. More than 100,000 with criminal arrests were denied or terminated.

Most of the arrested DACA approvals involve driving infractions and immigration related civil and criminal offenses, but thousands were granted amnesty after committing serious crimes. Nearly 8,000 illegal immigrants granted protection under DACA committed theft or larceny, the records show, and nearly 7,000 drug-related offenses. More than 4,000 were apprehended for driving under the influence, 3,421 for battery and 3,308 for assault. Thousands of others rewarded with DACA committed vandalism, burglary, offenses against children and weapons crimes. Hundreds of others were approved for DACA despite arrests for sexual abuse and rape, kidnapping or trafficking, hit and run, embezzlement and a variety of other serious offenses. Fifteen illegal aliens with murder charges got DACA as well as 15 street gang members and two arrested for child pornography. Most of the DACA candidates were arrested between the age of 19 and 22 though tens of thousands were also arrested between 23 and 26, well into adulthood. Mexicans account for the overwhelming majority of DACA recipients arrested (91,272) followed by El Salvador (4,998), Honduras (4,597) and Guatemala (4,304).
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/21/2019 02:14 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The rest of them so far avoided arrest?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/21/2019 2:24 Comments || Top||

#2  God's Children.
Posted by: Lex || 11/21/2019 9:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Since that's a higher arrest rate than the popluation as a whole it proves racism and some must be released... Title something or other of Federal regs.
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/21/2019 13:15 Comments || Top||

#4  This is my shocked face, No, really !
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 11/21/2019 17:55 Comments || Top||

#5  No more f---ing amnesties. Never again.

End this madness.
Posted by: Lex || 11/21/2019 18:01 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Three Cows Washed Away by Hurricane Dorian Show Up Weeks Later
[Gun & Garden] After Hurricane Dorian blew through the Outer Banks of North Carolina on September 6, park officials at Cape Lookout National Seashore immediately got to work assessing damages. Debris littered the beaches, cabins were battered, and new inlets were carved by the Category 1 storm. But what most perplexed the park’s spokesperson, B.G. Horvat, was the tan, skittish female cow found milling about the island.

"It’s unusual for a cow to be out there, but there was a lot going on," Horvat says. "So the cow really wasn’t a big priority."

The park’s workers continued clean-up efforts with little thought about their new four-legged friend until about three weeks later, when two more cows appeared. The park’s castaways are believed to be from nearby Cedar Island, where a nine-foot storm surge churned up by Dorian likely pulled them into the Core Sound, Horvat says. Somehow, officials believe, the cows must have swum through the sound before finding solid ground on North Core Banks, the northernmost section of Cape Lookout National Seashore‐a distance of at least three miles. Horvat isn’t sure exactly how far they traveled, but he thinks they might’ve found some reprieve from swimming by standing in the shallow areas of the sound.

"My mouth dropped," Horvat says. "Oh man, imagine the story that cow must have from surviving this traumatic episode in the water."

The cattle don’t appear to be injured and seem to be settling into their new home at Cape Lookout just fine. The park has yet to identify the cows’ owner, so officials haven’t decided whether to keep the cows on the national seashore or move them back to Cedar Island. Several other cows and horses from the island didn’t survive the storm, the Charlotte Observer reported.

For now, park visitors can see the new wild cattle that freely graze the national seashore and have become somewhat of a symbol of the Outer Banks’ resilience in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/21/2019 07:46 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So, there's still hope for Beto O'Rourke?
Posted by: Matt || 11/21/2019 11:04 Comments || Top||


PG&E begins new mass power shutoff likely to affect up to 450,000 people
  • [Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] California's largest utility's preemptive measures come as virtually a rain-less fall has left brush dangerously dry amid forecasts for low humidity and high winds

  • Gusts of 55 mph are expected which which might fling tree branches or other debris into power lines, causing sparks that could set catastrophic fires

  • One reporting station in Napa County reporting has not seen a drop of rain since September, the first time that's happened since 1905

  • The northern Sierra Nevada has seen a fraction of an inch of rain in the past two months instead of the usual 5 inches

  • 'This lack of rain is keeping the threat of fire very real, this late in the season, in many areas', says Scott Strenfel, PG&E's principal meteorologist

  • The planned shutoff would be the latest in a series of massive outages by PG&E, including one last month that affected nearly 2.5 million people.
Posted by: Fred || 11/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Shitshow, Mexifornia edition
Posted by: Lex || 11/21/2019 1:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Third world.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/21/2019 2:11 Comments || Top||

#3  And the dumb thing is that they are not really doing this to PREVENT fire. They are only doing it so that when the fires happen, they won't be liable.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 11/21/2019 8:06 Comments || Top||

#4  Funny that Sacramento always seems to have their juice flowin'.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 11/21/2019 12:35 Comments || Top||


-War on Police-
Bee or Not Bee: Hoaxer Smollett Sues Chicago for "Malicious Prosecution"
Posted by: Lex || 11/21/2019 18:53 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Not Bee. Expect anything. Expect Chicago to pay too.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/21/2019 22:38 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Some family doctors ditch insurance for simpler approach
[Med Press] Dr. Emilie Scott was only a few months into her first job when she started hearing the complaint: She was spending too much time with each patient.

Like many primary care doctors working in large medical systems, Scott was encouraged to see a new patient every 20 minutes. But that was barely enough time to talk and do a physical.

She eventually quit her job to try a new approach aimed at eliminating many of the headaches of traditional health care: tight schedules, short appointments and piles of insurance paperwork.

Instead of billing insurers, Scott now charges patients a $79 monthly fee that covers office visits, phone calls, emails, texts and certain medical tests and procedures. Scott typically sees six patients a day, down from around 30, and spends more time at each appointment. She hired two assistants to help handle paperwork compared with working with a department of billing specialists.

This approach —direct primary care—aims to leverage the extra time and money from avoiding insurance into improving care for patients.

"As far as our financial success, it does not depend upon having a team of people to figure out how to get money from the insurance company," said Scott, who co-owns a private practice in Irvine, California that serves about 900 patients. Scott said the practice has grown by word-of-mouth, without advertising.

In many ways, direct primary care is a return to a simpler time when doctors charged cash for their services. Patients say they appreciate the accessibility and simplicity of the system.

But health care researchers question its cost-effectiveness and whether it will ever be capable of serving large numbers of people.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/21/2019 06:11 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But health care researchers question its cost-effectiveness and whether it will ever be capable of serving large numbers of people.

This is how you can tell news stories are "fair and balanced": Any discussion of something that might be good *always* has a big "But..." at the end quoting unnamed experts stating how this might actually be awful.

In this particular case, if the business is not cost-effective, patients will leave and Dr Emilie will go broke. As for large numbers of people, is the goal to see and treat patients or just run them thru the system?
Posted by: SteveS || 11/21/2019 9:31 Comments || Top||

#2  This is happens when government makes something "free". The quality / value diminishes to zero, and anyone who has the means to opt out will. It doesn't even things out. It increases the divide between the haves and have nots.
Posted by: Iblis || 11/21/2019 12:23 Comments || Top||

#3  It increases the divide between the haves and have nots.

So, it works as intended?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/21/2019 12:24 Comments || Top||

#4  I joined MDVIP which costs Pts 1650/year with that covering a wellness program so their sick visits, hospitalizations, other consults are covered under insurance. There are 1200 other docs in USA affiliated who will see my patients in other towns if need be. We save Medicare +300,000,000/year by decreasing hospitalizations and other morbidities. Same day visits, 24/7 access and long office visits are thrown in on top so to speak. There IS a light at the end of the tunnel for patients and Docs! It also gives me more time for other pursuits such as being a FS with ANG.
Posted by: Titus Thud4344 || 11/21/2019 14:22 Comments || Top||

#5  Concierge medicine has been slowly growing since the turn of the millennium. I’m glad it works well for you and your patients, Dr. Titus Thud4344. Question: Are most of your patients in reasonably good health with only the common complaints? How would it work a patient with a rare, chronic condition with co-morbidities that require expensive meds/treatments? What about something difficult to diagnose? And what would happen to you and your patients if, God forbid, single payer became the law?
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/21/2019 21:18 Comments || Top||


Britain
320 ‘Bleed Control Kits' to be Given to Bars in London
[Summit] 320 ’bleed control kits’ are to be given to bars in the City of London as the UK capital’s knife crime epidemic continues to soar.

The kits will be handed out by City of London police across the 1.12 square mile center of the city at a cost of £25,000.

Authorities said they were "proud" to launch the initiative, with David Lawes, Chief Superintendent of the City of London Police, telling Sky News that the decision was a "no brainer."

"This is a really, really simply piece of kit which can make a big difference. Particularly with the most catastrophic bleeds, if you don’t get help in the first few minutes the person will almost certainly die," said Lawes.

"The kits contain tourniquets, trauma bandages, adhesive chest seals and foil blankets, and can help treat both knife and gunshot wounds. Bar staff will be trained in their use, so that victims of violent crime will not bleed out before an ambulance can reach them," writes Jack Hadfield.

Knife crime in the City of London jumped by 43% over the last year while in that same time period England saw a record high of 43,000 knife crimes across the country.

Violent crime levels show little sign of coming down as authorities refuse to tackle some of the core reasons for the bloodshed, which include broken families, weakened police powers and mass migration.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/21/2019 07:26 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Great, addressing the symptoms not the cause.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/21/2019 8:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Not Bee! Damn, lost again.
Posted by: Lex || 11/21/2019 9:21 Comments || Top||

#3  P2k, where's the graft in that?
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/21/2019 9:41 Comments || Top||

#4  No more raiding the lady's room tampon dispenser.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/21/2019 9:46 Comments || Top||

#5  Horse, barn door, lock, order as appropriate.
Posted by: AlanC || 11/21/2019 11:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Well, they are trying to solve the knife crime epidemic by banning knives.
I think that the bleed kits will be more effective. Assuming you stabbed while you're in a bar.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 11/21/2019 12:23 Comments || Top||

#7  The UK culture will eventually discover and realize long after less PC constrained cultures have already known....... the adage “The Gun Is Civilization”. I suggest those who are not familiar with this idea to search for this fundamental idea by Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret.)
Posted by: Ospas Dhahran 49 || 11/21/2019 15:28 Comments || Top||

#8  Bar staff will be trained in their use

The jukeboxes will be retrofitted with defibrillator kits, and the bartenders are to wear surgical smocks all the time. Also, drills will be conducted on how to scream and make a fuss, for all the wimmin.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/21/2019 15:44 Comments || Top||

#9  How about distributing Bleed Pre-Emption Kits?
aka heat
Posted by: Lex || 11/21/2019 16:27 Comments || Top||

#10  Two gits at the bar were disputing
The merits of stabbing v. shooting
Which led to such strife,
Not to say loss of life,
That it shuttered the Wheatsheaf in Tooting.
Posted by: Pancho Snomp1274 || 11/21/2019 16:58 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
‘Don't Let Food into the Cities': Evo Morales Caught on Tape Planning Starvation in Bolivia
long article- excerpt:
[Breitbart] On Wednesday, Minister of Government (Interior Minister) Arturo Murillo published audio of what he said was a call between Morales, currently in Mexico, and Faustino Yucra Yarwui, a rural socialist community organizer, in which Morales demanded Yucra organize blockades around the nation’s biggest cities to prevent food and basic supplies from coming in, pressuring the government to allow Morales to return to power.

Yucra is a member of one of Bolivia’s coca growers’ unions. Coca is the plant used to develop cocaine. Morales rose to power as an advocate for coca growers and used his international prominence to promote the legalization of coca leaf,

Yucra, who refers repeatedly to Morales as "brother," tells Morales that the coca leaders have organized two blockade points to prevent goods from entering, one that has attracted 4,500 people.

"You know what, brother: you don't have to have 4,500 people," Morales replies in the audio. "Divide the union into four or five groups, so it lasts longer. … If you concentrate [in one place], people give up, but if there are groups, they take turns, we can hold up the blockade."

"Brother, don't let food into the cities, we will really blockade," Morales continues. "When they expelled me from Congress in 2002, they did a blockade. And now, they kick me out of Bolivia; there is a blockade. We will win."

Murillo told reporters the call occurred "three days ago" but could not reveal how Bolivian intelligence services acquired it. He accused Morales of "terrorism" and "crimes against humanity" for helping Yucra organize violent blockades that could starve out thousands of poor Bolivians.
Posted by: Frank G || 11/21/2019 09:43 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Trotsky him.
Posted by: Lex || 11/21/2019 10:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Its always about the power, and never about the people. Always, everywhere.
Posted by: Crusader || 11/21/2019 10:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Last year I arrived early for a lunch address by Gen. Michael Hayden, who ran the National Security Agency and later the Central Intelligence Agency in the George W. Bush administration. Hayden was already there, and glad to chat. The conversation turned to Egypt, and I asked Hayden why the Republican mainstream had embraced the Muslim Brotherhood rather than the military government of President al-Sisi, an American-trained soldier who espoused a reformed Islam that would repudiate terrorism. "We were sorry that [Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed] Morsi was overthrown" in July 2013, Hayden explained. "We wanted to see what would happen when the Muslim Brotherhood had to take responsibility for picking up the garbage."

"General," I remonstrated, "when Morsi was overthrown, Egypt had three weeks of wheat supplies on hand. The country was on the brink of starvation!"

"I guess that experiment would have been tough on the ordinary Egyptian," Hayden replied, without a hint of irony.

http://www.atimes.com/trump-lacks-experience-but-his-detractors-lack-common-sense/
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 11/21/2019 14:28 Comments || Top||

#4  #2 1984: "The object of power is power."
Posted by: Lex || 11/21/2019 14:32 Comments || Top||

#5  web link in #3 returns 404.
Don't see anything that looks like the article in any of the 9 mentions of Trump on their homepage
Posted by: SteveS || 11/21/2019 14:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Found in another forum: A Funeral For A World That Never Was
Posted by: Frank G || 11/21/2019 14:49 Comments || Top||

#7  Hmm... most interesting.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/21/2019 15:19 Comments || Top||

#8  Try this
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/21/2019 15:52 Comments || Top||

#9  From Frank's link in #6 - Spengler/Goldman nails it. Worth re-posting the punch line:

By civility and bipartisanship, the Establishment refers to the policy consensus that squandered America’s dominant position in the world after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990. America had no military competitors of importance when George W. Bush took office in 2001, and an edge in high technology that made the American economy seem insuperable. Since then:

-China has taken America’s place as the leading exporter of high-tech equipment;
-America faces credible military competition from China;
-Real median household income hasn’t grown since 2000;
-The civilian labor force participation rate has fallen from 67% in 2000 to 63% today;
-Productivity growth has languished at 1% a year since the global financial crisis;
-US federal debt has between 2000 and 2018 has doubled as a share of GDP;
-The American economy became “cartelized, corrupt and anti-competitive,” dominated by a handful of tech monopolies who combined to crush competition.

Bush, supported by Senator McCain and the Republican mainstream, spent $5.6 trillion chasing the phantom of democracy in the Middle East, not to mention more than 6,700 American dead, more than 50,000 wounded and millions of lives disrupted.

That is why American voters elected Donald Trump in 2016.
Posted by: Lex || 11/21/2019 17:01 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Desperate HK protesters explore sewers in bid to escape campus
[DAWN] Among the detritus of a scorched and graffiti-sprayed concourse at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, several plastic covers ‐ some with torches placed above them ‐ betray extraordinary underground escape plans.

Protesters have removed metal manholes, some making exploratory forays into the fetid tunnels, following rumours of successful exfiltrations from a campus ringed for three days by baton-wielding police determined to arrest them.

Pockets of protesters, some with thick bandages wrapped around their knees in anticipation of a long crawl to freedom, knot the holes discussing an unlikely ‐ and highly dangerous ‐ breakout.

Reporters saw one group on their stomachs practising crawling. Another group hugged each other in consolation after apparently agreeing not to take the route down into the unknown.

"The people outside can’t help us," a protester told local television as he prepared to descend into a sewer. "So what can we do?" One protester, gas mask on, and cling film wrapped around his arms, carried a torch as he descended with his backpack down the metal rungs into the subterranean gloom.
Al Ahram adds:
Rooters witnesses said fewer than 100 protesters remained inside the Hong Kong Polytechnic University after more than 1,000 were arrested since late on Monday.

Some surrendered, while others were nabbed in escape attempts that included trying to clamber down ropes onto waiting cycle of violences. Some protesters resurfaced inside the campus after unsuccessfully probing the sewers for a way out during the night. It was unclear if any had managed to escape that way.

A fire services diver was seen entering and emerging from a campus sewer opening during the night.

"It has been a disastrous life for us spending these days in Polytechnic University, because we can't live here. The supply of food, water, electricity is going to be run out," said a student named Alesa, who said she had tried twice to escape through the sewer.

"It's in vain," she said. "I'm a bit upset, but overall, I'm peaceful. I think if a generation are destined to be criminals, who is to save the next generation?" she said.

Police searched for potential escapees during the night with spotlights rather than using the tear gas and rubber bullets that had marked festivities in recent days, heeding calls from Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam for a humane end to a siege that saw the most intense festivities since the protests escalated more than five months ago.

They also tightened barricades in the streets surrounding the university, making them secure enough to be visited late on Tuesday night by the force's new commissioner, Chris Tang, at the end of his first day on the job.

Tang earlier urged the support of all citizens to end the unrest triggered by fears that China's central government is stifling the former British colony's freedoms and extensive autonomy guaranteed in its handover to Chinese rule in 1997.

Tang is under pressure to restore police morale as well as public confidence in a force that has come in for widespread criticism for increasingly violent tactics to suppress the protests. Police deny accusations of using excessive force.

The police quietly rolled out a new, harder-edged motto on Tang's first day, replacing "We Serve with Pride and Care" with "Serving Hong Kong with Honour, Duty and Loyalty".

Police have made more than 5,000 arrests since citywide protests escalated in June.

CHINA CONDEMNS US BILL
Chinese leaders say they are committed to the "one country, two systems" formula put in place in 1997 and have accused foreign countries, including Britannia and the United States, of stirring up trouble.

In Washington, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the "Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act", which would require the secretary of state to certify at least once a year that Hong Kong retains enough autonomy to qualify for special U.S. trading consideration and would impose sanctions against officials responsible for human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
violations.

The bill must be reconciled with similar legislation approved by the House of Representatives. Senate aides said they expected it to move forward eventually as an amendment to a massive defence bill expected to pass Congress later this year.

China's foreign ministry condemned the passage of the bill, saying the United States should stop interfering in Hong Kong and Chinese affairs and move to stop the latest bills on Hong Kong from becoming law.

The Hong Kong government expressed "deep regret" over the bill's passage.

The unrest marks the most serious popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012.

Some protesters emerged as the sun rose above the Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus after a night spent sleeping on yoga mats to express a range of feelings, from defiance to uncertainty.

Others considered hiding in the maze of campus buildings, as they said a teacher had advised them to do.

"I already know where I will hide," a 19-year-old student, who gave his name only as Paul, said as he emerged in a hoodie, shorts and slippers to ask about breakfast in the canteen.

"I have enough food for at least a week and then will see what happens," he said.

Two protesters in full body armour, wielding metal rods, were going to get some sleep in the library after their night shift watching police movements outside.

"We need some energy to get ready for the big fight. Now that there's not many of us left they may want to come in," said a former student named Marc, 26.

"We know this place, it's our home and it is a maze. And we have weapons. We're not going to give up now, it's too late for that," he said.

Protesters still have stocks of petrol bombs, bows and arrows and other makeshift weapons after a weekend of fiery
...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob...
festivities.

One protester practised firing arrows at a campus tower shortly after dawn.

The university on the Kowloon peninsula is the last of five that protesters had occupied to use as bases from which to disrupt the city over the past 10 days, blocking the central Cross-Harbour Tunnel outside and other arteries.

"It's still incredible we defended it for such a long time," said Ricky, a 21-year-old student. "Since the police have taken control, many started to feel afraid and left and now many of us feel desperate and unhappy because we lost some support."
Posted by: Fred || 11/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Should be reading up on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising at this point. Sad, but yeah.

The Antifa fascists here fly the red commie flag for totalitarian rule. These Hong Kong students fly the American flag for freedom.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/21/2019 8:25 Comments || Top||

#2  ^ Can't we trade our Panty-fa for these brave students?
For that matter, can we swap San Franshitsco and Holkyweird for HK?
Posted by: Lex || 11/21/2019 9:59 Comments || Top||


Economy
Housing opportunities in and around the D.C. beltway
[Washington Business Journal] Yes, our D.C. and Northern, VA ruling class lives a bit differently, but you knew that. Long & Foster can tell you more, much more.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Your Homeland Security $$ at Work Play

Q: Why is there a tartan rug in #13? Who the hell puts tartan on the floor-- a little in-joke against the Scots?
Posted by: Lex || 11/21/2019 0:48 Comments || Top||

#2  It appears to me that the furnishings are rented fo display the purpose of the rooms — some rooms are too matched, and others not matched enough. And nobody with the taste displayed in the other rooms would put those particular rugs anywhere — they appear left over from that purple-and-green period in the 1990s.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/21/2019 1:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Intrigued by the baby grand and the harp in the marble-floored open entrance hall. Must have great acoustics there; obviously designed by someone with a deep love of fine musical experiences. Or else a whorehouse designer.

Not sure that our wannabe oligarch's family would feel safe with this feature: basement BR with kitchen for live-in help

... unless of course the owner is a Saudi sheiklet and the live-in help is actually a Filipino slave
Posted by: Lex || 11/21/2019 1:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Beautiful library, though. Too bad it doesn't have any, uh, books or bookshelves.
Posted by: Lex || 11/21/2019 1:43 Comments || Top||

#5  Old Georgetown saying, "if you can afford to live here you don't ask the price". These people have second and third homes also. 3-4 car garages also but not shown. Elevators, pools and so on. With these people money marries money.
Posted by: Dale || 11/21/2019 5:55 Comments || Top||

#6  Please don't use my name in vain...these are just awful designs and patterns.
Posted by: Antoni Gaudi || 11/21/2019 12:30 Comments || Top||

#7  Park benches?
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/21/2019 13:37 Comments || Top||

#8  Simply outrageous, what those Ukrainian oligarch-thieves did with the people's money!! Oh wait...
Posted by: Lex || 11/21/2019 16:10 Comments || Top||


Europe
On Ukraine's bleak front line, US aid saves lives and morale
AVDIIVKA, Ukraine (AP) ‐ U.S.-made medical equipment, night-vision devices and countermortar radar make a difference for Ukrainian troops fighting Kremlin-backed separatists on the front line of the standoff between Russia and the West. Sometimes, it’s the difference between life and death.

So when $400 million in U.S. military aid to Kyiv was held up this year, Ukrainians got nervous.

Every little bit of assistance helps in the World War I-style trenches of Avdiivka, where conscripts and volunteer soldiers use shovels to shore up mud walls, chop wood for makeshift stoves, and cook their own food from local vegetables and canned supplies.

Rostyslav Pokotylo shows off the American flag inside the case for his night-vision gun scope, which he credits with saving his life in 2017.

"I ended up in a combat zone ... If not for this, who knows what would have happened," he says. "With its help, I could see the enemy. I saw the enemy first, and we opened fire."

As impeachment hearings play out in Washington, Ukrainian troops at the front described their hopes and fears to The Associated Press in the five-year conflict that has taken 13,000 lives and still simmers on, sporadic gunfire punctuating the autumn calm.

In the hearings, Democrats in Congress say U.S. President Donald Trump pressured his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to investigate former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic rival, while withholding U.S. military aid to Kyiv. Trump says the aid was held up over corruption concerns.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/21/2019 07:07 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "If it wasn't for my ObamaMRE and Obamablanket™, I wouldn't have made it"
Posted by: Frank G || 11/21/2019 8:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Don't forget these. Very important for morale.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/21/2019 15:21 Comments || Top||

#3  ^ Shit[no]Show
Posted by: Lex || 11/21/2019 22:07 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Exploration of shale gas from next month: Babar
[DAWN] Prime Minister’s Special Assistant Nadeem Babar on Tuesday called for closure of the country’s existing petroleum refineries for being obsolete and said the shale gas exploration in the country would begin next month.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the Annual Technical Symposium and Exhibition of the oil and gas companies, Babar said "the existing technology being utilised in the country’s refineries is obsolete and such refineries need to be closed down entirely or phased out, rendering the current refining methods outdated".

On its part, he said the government was working towards setting up two new major refineries and ensuring upgradation of another ‐ Pakistain Refinery Ltd at Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
‐ with the support of the international investors from the Middle East and China.

Posted by: Fred || 11/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Vive Babar! et Zephyr!*

* ce n'est pas de commentaire raciste. Vraiment.

Posted by: Lex || 11/21/2019 1:35 Comments || Top||


Minor girl found dead in Kurram
[DAWN] PARACHINAR: A five-year-old girl was found dead after being subjected to alleged sexual assault by unknown accused in Peewar area of Kurram tribal district, police and family sources said here on Tuesday.

Gul Ali, 60, told mediapersons that the body of his five-year-old granddaughter was found in a pond in Peewar village. He said she was studying in a local government school.

He added that the girl did not return home from school and later they found the body in a pond in the area. He said the body was taken to the district headquarters hospital Parachinar for an appointment with Dr. Quincy.

Medical examination confirmed that the minor girl was subjected to sexual assault before she was killed. He appealed to the chief justice, army chief and police to initiate investigation and award exemplary punishment to the culprit.

Later, district police officer Kurram Rahim Shah said that police had taken into custody
Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!
two watchmen of the school for investigation into the case.

Posted by: Fred || 11/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I hate it when he does that.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/21/2019 13:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Who?
Posted by: al aSha-med || 11/21/2019 13:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Nothing in the story about him being Moslem. Could've been a Wakandan.
Posted by: jpal || 11/21/2019 18:33 Comments || Top||


Sedition case registered against Sindh University students for 'chanting anti-Pakistan slogans'
[DAWN] Jamshoro police has lodged a sedition case against some students of Sindh University, Jamshoro for allegedly chanting anti-Pakistain slogans and for being involved in wall chalking against the state, it emerged on Tuesday.

The case, registered against at least 17 students of the university, was lodged under Section 120-A (definition of criminal conspiracy), 120-B (punishment for criminal conspiracy), 123-A (condemnation of the creation of the state, and advocacy of abolition of its illusory sovereignty), 124 (assaulting president, governor, etc. with intention to compel or restrain the exercise of any lawful power) and 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) of the Pakistain Penal Code on the complaint of Inspector Ghulam Qadir Panhwar, the security head of the campus.

The complainant said that on October 31 the hostel in-charge Qamar Lashari, Niaz Buledi, and provost Shahab Ahmed Soomro had informed him that around 17 to 18 students of the Jeay Sindh group had raised slogans against Pakistain as well as against the government of the country and had been involved in wall chalking outside the boys' hostel's main gate.

Inspector Panhwar said he was informed that the students were creating lawlessness in the institution. He claimed that after receiving the information, he reached the site of the incident and found that the students were carrying flags of Jeay Sindh, were raising slogans against Pakistain, and were engaging in wall chalking against the state.

According to Panhwar, after seeing the police, the students moved towards the hostel while continuing to chant slogans such as "Sindhu Desh, Na Khapey Na Khapey Pakistain, we will break Pakistain".

The complainant said he himself and the hostel in-charge clearly identified the students involved.

Posted by: Fred || 11/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Two can play this game.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/21/2019 1:06 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
NATO vows to expand into SPACE and declares 'rumours of our death are greatly exaggerated' as the alliance responds to Emmanuel Macron's claim it is 'brain dead'
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
NATO ACTUALLY WANTS TO BE CALLED SPATO !
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/21/2019 2:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Huh. I thought this was from the Bee.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 11/21/2019 8:02 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Active shooters can be located within minutes by new software that analyzes smartphone video from the scene and can even identify the type of gun
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • VERA (Video Event Reconstruction and Analysis) is designed to locate a shooter within minutes of them firing the first shot

  • Using information from smartphones in the area of the terrible event

  • Looks at delay between shots and audio to determine the type of gun

  • It also looks at the speed of the bullet to pinpoint the exact location
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  DARPA made an acoustic sniper fire detection system called Boomerang. With input from Raytheon. This seems like a point data visualization version of it, that collates data from all nearby devices instead of one thingy using collective computing.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/21/2019 1:23 Comments || Top||

#2  An acoustic triangulation app seems doable... IF you want Big Brother using your cellphone mike without your permission. They never well, sometimes if they really needed felt like, would use it to eavesdrop, that would be unsportsmanlike.
Posted by: magpie || 11/21/2019 3:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Locate a shooter within minutes when every second counts.
Posted by: AlanC || 11/21/2019 7:31 Comments || Top||

#4  For those situations you don't want the most popular rifle in America. Instead one shot, drop, and exit stage left right.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/21/2019 8:19 Comments || Top||

#5  So maybe this...

Samsung, Pixel Users No Longer at Risk for Android Camera App Hijacking

...was a pre-release.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/21/2019 13:31 Comments || Top||


NATO likely to declare space a war zone. This is how it could pan out
[ThePrint] At an upcoming summit in early December, NATO is expected to declare space as a ‘warfighting domain’, partly in response to new developments in technology.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Whatever, just go there - it's the 21st century, motherh*mpers!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/21/2019 2:10 Comments || Top||

#2  So what's NATO going to do about it? We're a bit busy right now.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/21/2019 8:20 Comments || Top||

#3  NATO members that can't come up with their own space program.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/21/2019 9:48 Comments || Top||

#4  Usually we wait for an actual war to break out before declaring somewhere a war zone. That said, space will be a battleground if near-peer festivities break out. Remember that ChiCom ASAT test that left a *bleep*load of debris in low orbit? Satellite surveillance and comms is an essential part of our warfighting ability. An enemy would be foolish to ignore it. And we would be foolish not to prepare for it.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/21/2019 9:48 Comments || Top||

#5  And we would be foolish not to prepare for it.

Remember the 2 year robot shuttle mission?
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/21/2019 13:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Not many goatherds to zap up there. Yet...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/21/2019 15:54 Comments || Top||

#7  Schedule:
Day 1 - declare space a war zone
Day 2 - demand US pay for a NATO space Force
Posted by: Mercutio || 11/21/2019 16:09 Comments || Top||

#8  Dirty little super secret:

Space has been weaponized for 30 years or so.
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/21/2019 22:12 Comments || Top||


SpaceX MK-1 EXPLODES while being pressure tested


From the Facebook SpaceX Boca Chica group, the Moderator reports:
RUPTURE UPDATE:
Through back channels it has been revealed that MK1 suffered an accidental overpressure to failure. Fuel and oxidizer would typically be loaded to 3 Bar or 43.5 psi~ for densification purposes and flightworthy tanks may be tested to 1.5-2x that value for single time structural proofing. In the case of what happened today the story is that communications errors between the pumps/sensors and remote controls allowed the tanks to be massively and erroneously overpressured to the point of failure, leading to catastrophic rupture.

We expect SpaceX in good time to reveal the details, they may explain it was deliberate as big changes in airframe and control surfaces in the succeeding MK series variants are coming.
Posted by: 3dc || 11/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So was it RUD or RSD? :-)
Posted by: gorb || 11/21/2019 6:57 Comments || Top||

#2  And here, boys and girls, we have an example of why it is NOT a good idea to cut testing time to meet an unrealistic implementation date.
Posted by: AlanC || 11/21/2019 7:40 Comments || Top||

#3  It does appear the body stayed in one piece.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/21/2019 8:27 Comments || Top||

#4 
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/21/2019 8:38 Comments || Top||

#5  Beeg, bada boom!
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/21/2019 9:49 Comments || Top||

#6  "Hey Bob, close that red valve over there!"
"Hang on a sec. I'm nuking my soup."
*BOOM*
"Please tell me that was the microwave..."
Posted by: SteveS || 11/21/2019 9:51 Comments || Top||

#7  Desaparecido en la boca [de la] chica? Qual chica?
Posted by: Lex || 11/21/2019 10:08 Comments || Top||

#8  This is why you test.
Posted by: Iblis || 11/21/2019 12:25 Comments || Top||

#9  They didn't have one of those little jiggly weight things like I have on my pressure cooker?
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/21/2019 13:20 Comments || Top||

#10  today the story is that communications errors between the pumps/sensors and remote controls

Outsourcing without conversion normalization, imperial and metric. I've seen it a few times.

Mars Probe Lost Due to Simple Math Error
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/21/2019 13:50 Comments || Top||

#11  "I said pascals!!"

"What's a pascal?"
Posted by: KBK || 11/21/2019 22:19 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
34[untagged]
7Govt of Iran
6Govt of Iraq
4Taliban
3Arab Spring
3Houthis
3Palestinian Authority
3Govt of Iran Proxies
2Moslem Colonists
2Commies
2Govt of Pakistan
1Islamic State
1Govt of Syria

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2019-11-21
  Afghanistan’s president claims victory over IS
Wed 2019-11-20
  SpaceX Starship BLOWS UP!
Tue 2019-11-19
  Iran’s Guards threaten petrol protesters with ‘revolutionary’ response
Mon 2019-11-18
  Basra roads closed as national protests continue
Sun 2019-11-17
  Today's Hong Kong Images on Twitter -
Sat 2019-11-16
  Protests erupt across Iran, burning banks, angry over gas prices
Fri 2019-11-15
  Roger Stone found guilty by D.C. jury.
Thu 2019-11-14
  121 ISIS militants and relatives surrender to Afghan forces in Nangarhar, 300+ in past week
Wed 2019-11-13
  Live: the House’s Trump Impeachment hearings starting at 10 a.m. ET
Tue 2019-11-12
  Israel hit by rockets after killing Islamic Jihad leader Abu al-Ata in Gaza
Mon 2019-11-11
  Thanks to all the veterans on Veterans Day!
Sun 2019-11-10
  Bolivia's president announces his resignation
Sat 2019-11-09
  Will Julian Assange Die in Prison? Is that why a "dead man" data dump just took place?
Fri 2019-11-08
  WikiLeaks just dropped their databomb
Thu 2019-11-07
  Extremist outfit Allahr Dal banned in Bangladesh

Better than the average link...



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.
44.222.186.148
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (13)    WoT Background (25)    Opinion (6)    (0)    Politix (10)