[NYP] A man arrested in California has been charged with impersonating a police officer after pulling over a driver who turned out to be a real off-duty cop, Visalia authorities said.
The off-duty sergeant was driving in Tulare around 11:45 p.m. Monday when the suspect, identified as Brandon Freeman, 29, flashed red lights on his 2008 white Buick sedan and signaled the sergeant to pull over, the Fresno Bee reported.
Instead, the sergeant continued to drive and communicated with on-duty officers to instead stop Freeman’s car, the newspaper reported.
Freeman also faces other unspecified charges, the report said.
A passenger in Freeman’s car was also arrested on outstanding felony warrants.
BLUF:
[BBC] The investigative reporter Julian Rademeyer spotted a news report about the arrests and started delving deeper, eventually publishing the landmark study Diplomats and Deceit.
When I visited Rademeyer in Johannesburg, I was shocked to hear about the extent of North Korea’s involvement in the trade as he had detailed in his report.
"A number of North Korea’s African embassies form a nexus of illicit trade in rhino horn, cigarettes and minerals," he wrote.
Rademeyer explains further "that the diplomats are working under the auspices of Bureau 38, a shadowy government department whose sole purpose is to accrue hard currency".
He also predicted that: "Increasingly stringent economic sanctions designed to cripple North Korea’s nuclear weapons capabilities will likely fuel the expansion of the regime’s illicit activities and state-sponsored criminal networks."
Moving down a bit:
South Africa’s Kruger National Park and the private game reserves that surround it have militarised their anti-poaching units - equipping them with aircraft, drones and sophisticated weaponry.
You can follow them on Twitter. Burly, heavily armed men in baseball caps, sunglasses and army fatigues post pictures of their captives with captions like “Gotcha!”. Some experts now fear an arms race is developing between poachers and gamekeepers.
[IsraelTimes] Newsweek report on Andrew 'Weev' Auernheimer, who has called to kill the Jews, marks first time a family member has confirmed his background.
The mother of a neo-Nazi who co-runs the white supremacist website Daily Stormer and said Jewish children "deserve to die" has Jewish relatives on both sides of his family.
Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer’s mother, Alyse, confirmed to Newsweek magazine in an article published Wednesday that her son comes from a "large, mixed race family" with Native American heritage, and that he has Jewish lineage "on both sides of his family." His Jewish heritage was first reported by Gawker in 2012 when he volunteered the information to a news hound, but this is the first time a family member has confirmed his background.
Auernheimer, who runs the technical side of the Daily Stormer, with its more well-known editor Andrew Anglin, is believed to be in Ukraine, where he has lived since serving jail time in the United States on a computer hacking charge. He has been estranged from his mother for over a decade, she told Newsweek.
#2
Well George Soros is 'a Jew'. In fact he used to accompany his adopted father to confiscate Jewish property for the Nazi's. He's still so very proud of that time.
#3
"Well George Soros is 'a Jew'. In fact he used to accompany his adopted father to confiscate Jewish property for the Nazi's. He's still so very proud of that time."
Beware of those that call themselves Jews yet are not.
They end up as ravenous wolves.
#6
There's a lot of 'pure' blood in some of those back washes where everyone marries their cousins, nephews and nieces. Keeping it in the family so to speak. The genetic consequences are not healthy.
#7
I'm happy to announce that I'm a pure blooded mongrel and I defy you to prove differently.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/05/2018 8:53 Comments ||
Top||
#8
@ed in texas
I come from a mixed family with VERY little history. My folks did one of those genetic tests... and the results were: NO SURPRISES! The ancient legends were 100% accurate. (Half British, half Ashkenazi, nothing else.) It was very boring and anti-climactic. We were all hoping for some interesting discovery, but no luck.
[PJ] The Detroit area is dealing with a significant Hepatitis A outbreak. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) reports 630 known cases in Southeast Michigan in 2017, twenty of them resulting in death. There were 150 cases diagnosed in the city of Detroit alone last year. Public health officials are especially troubled by the number of food handlers who have been infected with the disease.
The Detroit Health Department has been sending out alerts, warning the public about restaurants with infected food handlers. On October 30 they announced they were investigating two separate cases of Hepatitis A, one at the Firewater Bar and Grill and a second at a Little Caesars restaurant.
"The Detroit Health Department is conducting a thorough investigation of both establishments to ensure appropriate food handing [sic] and cleaning protocols are being followed," the alert said. "The Detroit Health Department has notified both establishments that infected employees are not to return to work until approved by their doctor. Both employees stopped working at the establishments once the diagnosis was confirmed. Both establishments have been cooperative with the investigation."
The old rule is still valid when flying aircraft:
AVIATE, NAVIGATE, COMMUNICATE. [TIMESOFINDIA.INDIATIMES] Jet Airways has grounded two of its senior commanders for fighting inside the cockpit of a London-Mumbai flight on January 1. We seen dis movie...
The commander flying as co-pilot allegedly slapped the lady commander mid-flight after which she left the cockpit in tears. Shirley you jest...
After great persuation, the lady pilot went back to the cockpit but reportedly came out in a huff shortly afterwards. This time, a frightened cabin crew, fearing for everyone's safety, requested her to go back to the controls and operate the flight to its destination. Luckily, the plane landed safely.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has suspended the licence of the male co-pilot and ordered a probe into the entire episode.
This unprecedented cockpit fight happened on 9W 119 soon after Jet's Boeing 777 took off for its 9-hour journey to Mumbai with 324 passengers and 14 crew members on board on New Year's Day at 10am (UK time).
Both the pilots of this flight were commanders and the lady was captaining 9W 119 while the other was the co-pilot for this sector.
"Shortly after the plane took off, the two pilots had a fight. The co-pilot slapped the lady commander and she left the cockpit in tears. She stood in the galley sobbing. The cabin crew tried to comfort her and send her back to the cockpit, but in vain. The co-pilot also kept buzzing (calling from the intercom in the cockpit) the crew, asking them to send the second pilot back," said sources.
When the cabin crew could not do so, the co-pilot reportedly came out of the cockpit, leaving the cockpit unmanned in gross violation of safety rules; and persuaded the commander to return with him to the controls.
"However, they had a fight for the second time following which she came out again. This time, the cabin crew was quite afraid of the fight happening in the cockpit. They requested her to go to the cockpit and fly the plane safely to its destination," said sources. Realizing the fear factor among everyone, she returned to the cockpit and the plane landed safely in Mumbai just after midnight of January 1-2.
Confirming this fight, a Jet Airways spokesman said: "A misunderstanding occurred between the cockpit crew of Jet Airways flight 9W 119, London - Mumbai of January 01, 2018. However, the same was quickly resolved amicably and the flight with 324 guests including 2 infants and 14 crew continued its journey to Mumbai, landing safely. The airline has reported the incident to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the concerned crew have been derostered pending an internal investigation that has since been initiated. At Jet Airways, safety of guests, crew and assets is of paramount importance and the airline has zero tolerance for any action of its employees that compromises safety."'
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/05/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Don’t call me Shirley.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/05/2018 10:53 Comments ||
Top||
#2
It's a good thing they didn't have three seats in the cockpit. They already had Moe and Curly up there... Luckily, the plane landed safely. Wooo.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/05/2018 11:25 Comments ||
Top||
#3
"Look, we're lost. Let's stop and ask for directions"
"Absolutely not!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/05/2018 12:05 Comments ||
Top||
#4
"AVIATE, NAVIGATE, COMMUNICATE."
Well, I guess a whack across the mush is a form of communication.
[Hot Air] With the arrival of the new year, states across the nation are seeing the enactment of a new batch of laws. This annual tradition almost always brings some news of the bizarre sort and what better place to look than Oregon? The home of Keep Portland Weird woke up to a brave new world where people will be allowed (in some limited circumstances) to pull into a service station, get out of their vehicle and, horror of horrors... pump their own gasoline. Needless to say, this news was received with the same level of calm, reasoned discourse that you’d see at the dawn of the zombie apocalypse. (Washington Post)
[All Africa] Accused of plotting to overthrow President Mugabe's government using Twitter, Martha O'Donovan has been granted bail by the High Court of Zimbabwe. Her arrest was the first since the appointment of a minister for cybersecurity a few weeks ago. The move came under severe criticism from activists who said it was an attempt to gag social media users.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11124 views]
Top|| File under:
[AA.TR] More than half of the Conservative Party members support the death penalty for serious crimes, a latest poll revealed.
The study, undertaken by political activists at the Queen Mary University of London, found that members of the Tory party possess a "higher level of authoritarianism" than other party backers, with 54 percent in favor of the death penalty, compared to 23 percent of the SNP supporters, 9 percent of Labour activists and 8 percent of Liberal Democrats backers.
With the issue of education, 84 percent of Tory members believed that children should be taught to obey authority, while 38 percent of Liberal Democrats and the SNP members and 31 percent of Labour members held the same belief.
On Brexit, 25 percent of Conservatives said that the U.K. should remain in the single market, compared to 87 percent of Labour members, 96 percent of Liberal Democrats and 95 percent of the SNP members.
Furthermore, a mere 14 percent of Tory supporters said that there should be a second referendum on the final outcome of the Brexit deal, while the figure for Labour stood at 78 percent, Liberal Democrats at 91 percent and the SNP at 87 percent.
These figures show a stark contrast between members of the Tory party and those in the Labour, Liberal Democrats and the SNP parties.
"Britannia's party members are the lifeblood and the foot soldiers of our democracy. But that doesn't necessarily mean they look like or think like their parties' voters - or, indeed, look or think like each other," Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said.
"The Tory grassroots in particular are something of a "breed apart" from their Labour, Lib Dem and SNP counterparts," he added.
The study also revealed that just 28 percent of Tories believe they have a significant say on policy, compared to three quarters of Liberal Democrats and the SNP members and 61 percent of Labour members.
The study, titled ’Grassroots: Britannia’s Party Members’, polled 4,117 members of the four main parties shortly after the 2017 General Election.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under:
[Wash Times] The commander of some 30,000 U.S. troops based in South Korea warned Thursday that North Korea may be trying to drive a wedge between Washington and Seoul by making sudden overtures toward diplomacy with the South.
While the Pentagon said Thursday that it will delay joint exercises with South Korea until after next month’s Winter Olympics, Gen. Vincent Brooks, who heads U.S. Forces Korea, said it’s vital for Washington and Seoul to maintain an "ironclad and razor sharp" alliance and joint combat readiness.
The seemingly mixed messages from the U.S. military come amid a wave of peace overtures that Pyongyang has made toward Seoul. The gestures began with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s New Year’s Day proposal for immediate talks with the South and statement that his country seeks to join the Winter Olympics.
Gen. Brooks took a cautious posture toward the situation Thursday.
"We can be generally pleased by the recent overtures that happened. But we must keep our expectations at the appropriate level," he said at a lecture in Seoul, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
The agency noted that Pyongyang’s sudden openness to direct talks with Seoul could be part of a North Korean strategy to keep apart five countries ‐ South Korea, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia ‐ with the goal of weakening their collective power to influence the North’s behavior.
#2
I'll repeat from yesterday. I was there during the Summer Olympics in '88. No exercises, no major movements, basically confined to posts so as not to upset the 'guests' attending the ceremonies and games during a 60 day period. We could attend, but only in civilian clothes. So what's new?
[HotAir] What happens when a North Korean ballistic missile test fails in flight and explodes in a populated area? It goes BOOM.
On April 28, 2017, North Korea launched a single Hwasong-12/KN17 intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) from Pukchang Airfield in South Pyongan Province. That missile failed shortly after launch and crashed in the North Korean city of Tokchon, causing considerable damage to a complex of industrial or Tree bark storage area agricultural buildings.
According to a U.S. government source with knowledge of North Korea’s weapons programs who spoke to The Diplomat, the missile’s first stage engines failed after approximately one minute of powered flight, resulting in catastrophic failure. The missile never flew higher than approximately 70 kilometers. The location of the missile’s eventual impact was revealed exclusively to The Diplomat and evidence of the incident can be independently corroborated in commercially available satellite imagery from April and May 2017.
The April 28 failure merits close analysis, especially as North Korea continues to carry out flight-testing of its various ballistic missile platforms from a range of new test sites. In 2017, North Korea has introduced new sites for missile testing, arguably to demonstrate the flexibility of its Strategic Rocket Force. It has even carried out ballistic missile launches from a restricted area at Pyongyang’s Sunan Airport, which also serves as the country’s primary civil aviation facility and the entrypoint for most non-Chinese foreign visitors to North Korea. The potential for similar accidents occurring over Pyongyang, the country’s capital, or other populated regions remains high, especially with untested systems.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/05/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11124 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
#1
Maybe in the future they can NUKE themselves? Would solve a LOT of problems? OR not.
[Townhall] Although the Trump administration and Congress have struggled to fully repeal Obamacare, while putting a good dent in the law by repealing the individual mandate through tax reform, officials are finding new ways to lower costs and expand coverage to consumers.
On Thursday, the Department of Labor announced a new rule proposal that opens the door to allowing insurance companies to sell plans and coverage across state lines. From Insurance News Net:
#1
They will have to repeal McCarran-Ferguson first, that's the legislation that took insurance out of interstate commerce and gave it over to the states.
#2
They will have to repeal McCarran-Ferguson first
Maybe they're going the DACA route, which is essentially to use executive orders to override legislation. Obama really opened up a can of worms there. At this rate, the president will pretty much make law until judges get hold of it. The problem is that judges are by default liberal, which means a liberal president will get most anything he wants from the court, and a conservative president will get peanuts.
#3
This should have been done on day one of the "Republican Majority".
It should have been step one of any reform and it should have been Executive Order #1
[NYT] WASHINGTON ‐ The Trump administration said Thursday it would allow new offshore oil and gas drilling in nearly all United States coastal waters, giving energy companies access to leases off California for the first time in decades and opening more than a billion acres in the Arctic and along the Eastern Seaboard.
The proposal lifts a ban on such drilling imposed by President Barack Obama near the end of his term and would deal a serious blow to his environmental legacy. It would also signal that the Trump administration is not done unraveling environmental restrictions in an effort to promote energy production.
While the plan puts the administration squarely on the side of the energy industry and against environmental groups, it also puts the White House at odds with a number of coastal states that oppose offshore drilling. Some of those states are led by Republicans, like Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, where the tourism industry was hit hard by the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster in 2010 that killed 11 people and spilled millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Governor Scott vowed on Thursday to protect his state’s coast from drilling, saying he would raise the issue with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
"I have asked to immediately meet with Secretary Zinke to discuss the concerns I have with this plan and the crucial need to remove Florida from consideration," he said in a statement. "My top priority is to ensure that Florida’s natural resources are protected."
The governors of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, California, Oregon and Washington have all opposed offshore drilling plans. Virginia’s governor-elect, Ralph S. Northam, a Democrat, said in a statement Thursday that expanding drilling would jeopardize his state’s tourism and fishing industries, as well as military installations. Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, also a Democrat, called drilling a "critical threat" to his state’s economy. Drilling and production revenues (royalties) are paid to the land owner. Yes, that would be the U.S. government - MAGA.
[IsraelTimes] Opposition party, women's rights groups force religious affairs directorate to remove post on Islamic law apparently giving green light to child marriage.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s religious affairs state agency came under heavy criticism on Thursday from the main opposition party after it said girls as young as nine could marry under Islamic law.
The Diyanet religious affairs directorate said on Tuesday the minimum age for girls to marry was nine, while for boys it was 12, according to Ottoman Turkish media including the Hurriyet daily quoting the agency’s official website.
The post, which took the form of an explanatory statement on Islamic law, has since been taken down, after a backlash from the opposition and women’s rights groups.
The head of the High Commission of Religious Affairs Ekrem Keles on Thursday told Hurriyet that the earliest age for a girl to marry is 17 and 18 for a boy.
"Forget a nine or a 10 year old child marrying, a child at 15 should not marry and should not be married," he said.
The legal age to get married in Turkey is 18.
But Ottoman Turkish law says that in an extraordinary circumstance, a judge can give permission for a male and female aged 16 to marry.
The controversy touched a nerve in Turkey, where child marriages are not uncommon and the fight continues to raise girls’ level of education.
Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) politician Gaye Usluer accused the government of being "more interested in how to marry children at a young age when there needs to be talk on children’s education, health."
Meanwhile CHP politician Murat Bakan on Twitter said child marriages "violates children’s rights, women’s rights and human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... ." adding that the party had called for a parliamentary investigation into child marriages.
Women’s rights groups also criticized the agency, which is similar to a religious affairs ministry, accusing it of trying to legitimize child abuse and urging Diyanet to "get their hands off our children."
The ministry said it had "never and will never approve early marriages" in a statement, saying it was only defining Islamic law.
"Forcing girls to marry before psychological and biological maturity, and before they obtain the responsibility to become a mother and form a family is not compatible with Islam which says will and consent are conditions for marriage," it added.
Women’s groups as well as Usluer raised concern over Diyanet’s move coming after Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... approved a controversial law in November allowing state-approved holy mans to conduct marriage ceremonies.
"When we said ’if you give muftis [holy mans employed by Diyanet] the power to conduct marriages, the issue of child brides will increase,’ this is what we meant," she said, according to CHP’s website.
Opponents often claim that Erdogan and his Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party are attacking the republic’s secular foundations, claims dismissed by the government.
In 2016, the government was forced to throw out a bill that could have pardoned men convicted of child-sex assault after a public outcry.
#1
Would it be too harsh to say that anyone practicing Islam is an idiot in many ways???
I have never seen a religion that was more backward, odious, or wanting to live in the past than Islam.
I've spent a lot of time in the ME and other Moslem heavy areas and although the people seem like genuinely nice people, they can turn on a dime and do some of the most backward and logic defying things.
[GEO.TV] A 12-year-old girl was married off to a 35-year-old married man in an apparent case of Vani, upon the orders of a panchayat (village council), in Punjab’s Vehari district.
According to police, a man named Farooq from Vehari’s town 97/WB married a girl of his choice, who lived in 101/WB.
The couple married five days ago, following which a village council session was held under Union Council In-charge Nazim Raja Fida.
In the session, it was ordered that Farooq’s 12-year-old sister be married to his wife’s 35-year-old brother Sadiq.
Police said four suspects have been arrested, whereas, a case has been registered against eight suspects.
A search is also underway to arrest the remaining suspects in the case.
Police added that the minor girl’s father was also a part of the village council.
The girl’s father has also been arrested, who claimed that he accepted the decision under duress.
Panchayats formed of local elders are a traditional means of settling disputes in Pakistan's rural areas, where courts and lawyers are not always accessible or trusted.
The legal standing of the decisions taken by these locally formed courts is often considered controversial and disputed.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11122 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Technology.Inquirer.net] An Australian expert in the field of euthanasia, who lives in the Netherlands, has developed a special machine designed for a painless suicide.
Nicknamed "Dr. Death," 70-year-old Dr. Philip Nitschke developed the Sarco suicide machine together with engineer Alexander Bannick, reports Daily Mail.
Dr. Nitschke says the Sarco offers a "peaceful and I would even say an elegant death."
Once fully tested, plans for the Sarco will be placed online through Dr. Nitschke’s non-profit organization Exit International. Through these plans, people around the world would be able to 3D-print and assemble their own suicide machine.
However, potential users would first be asked to complete an online mental questionnaire. This will assess their mental competency before being provided with a four-digit access code to activate the Sarco capsule.
Inside, the procedure could be started through a button press or voice commands for paralyzed individuals. Happy Anniversary, Babe!
The process begins when liquid nitrogen starts to fill the Sarco capsule. Death comes in minutes as oxygen within the capsule drops and users quietly fall unconscious.
While assisted suicide has been made legal in some parts of the world including certain states in the US, the Netherland, Germany and Japan, pro-life groups and individuals fear that the Sarco could lead to an increase in the number of suicides.
One nurse said that Dr. Nitschke’s Sarco was "glamorizing and normalizing suicide."
Dr. Nitschke insists suicide is a human right and believes "any rational adult should have the right to die." I suspect my last words in using this device would be "To Infinity...and Beyond!"
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
01/05/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11133 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sitting in a capsule as it fills with liquid Nitrogen at -195C might not be as peaceful or elegant as Dr Nitchke imagines.
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.
[IsraelTimes] Newsweek report on Andrew 'Weev' Auernheimer, who has called to kill the Jews, marks first time a family member has confirmed his background.
[PJ] The Detroit area is dealing with a significant Hepatitis A outbreak. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) reports 630 known cases in Southeast Michigan in 2017, twenty of them resulting in death. There were 150 cases diagnosed in the city of Detroit alone last year. Public health officials are especially troubled by the number of food handlers who have been infected with the disease.
[TIMESOFINDIA.INDIATIMES] Jet Airways has grounded two of its senior commanders for fighting inside the cockpit of a London-Mumbai flight on January 1.
[Hot Air] With the arrival of the new year, states across the nation are seeing the enactment of a new batch of laws. This annual tradition almost always brings some news of the bizarre sort and what better place to look than Oregon? The home of Keep Portland Weird woke up to a brave new world where people will be allowed (in some limited circumstances) to pull into a service station, get out of their vehicle and, horror of horrors... pump their own gasoline. Needless to say, this news was received with the same level of calm, reasoned discourse that you’d see at the dawn of the zombie apocalypse.
[Wash Times] The commander of some 30,000 U.S. troops based in South Korea warned Thursday that North Korea may be trying to drive a wedge between Washington and Seoul by making sudden overtures toward diplomacy with the South.
[NYT] WASHINGTON ‐ The Trump administration said Thursday it would allow new offshore oil and gas drilling in nearly all United States coastal waters, giving energy companies access to leases off California for the first time in decades and opening more than a billion acres in the Arctic and along the Eastern Seaboard.
[IsraelTimes] Opposition party, women's rights groups force religious affairs directorate to remove post on Islamic law apparently giving green light to child marriage.
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
