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Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Opinion        Politix   
Ruthless Henchman® of top Abu Sayyaf leader falls
Today's Headlines
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Page 6: Politix
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Tenn. Inmates Can Get a Vasectomy to Shorten Their Jail Sentences
[Free Beacon] Inmates in a Tennessee county can get time off their sentences for having a vasectomy or birth control implant, a policy that the American Civil Liberties Union calls "unconstitutional."

General Sessions Judge Sam Benningfield signed a standing order in May to give prisoners in the White County, Tenn. jail 30 days credit on their sentence if they undergo one of the procedures, NewsChannel 5 reports.

Women who participate are given Nexplanon birth control implant in their arm, which prevents pregnancy for up to four years. Men are given a vasectomy, also free, by the Tennessee Department of Health.

Judge Benningfield told NewsChannel 5 that the program was meant to encourage prisoners not to be "burdened with children" so they can "take personal responsibility."

"I hope to encourage them to take personal responsibility and give them a chance, when they do get out, to not to be burdened with children. This gives them a chance to get on their feet and make something of themselves," he said.

"I understand it won't be entirely successful but if you reach two or three people, maybe that's two or three kids not being born under the influence of drugs. I see it as a win-win," he said.

Inmates could also get two days off their sentence for completing a Neonatal Syndrome Education Program, which aims to educate would-be parents about the dangers of having children while on drugs.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/21/2017 03:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The 'burden of children.'
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/21/2017 3:51 Comments || Top||

#2  OK, where's the problem?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/21/2017 4:03 Comments || Top||

#3  The problem is it's reversible.
Posted by: no mo uro || 07/21/2017 5:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Vasectomy?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/21/2017 6:01 Comments || Top||

#5  The problem is it's reversible.

Depends on how much tubing you remove.
Posted by: gorb || 07/21/2017 8:55 Comments || Top||

#6  Apparently no one is willing or capable of doing away with the drugs, so we'll simply do away with new people.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/21/2017 8:59 Comments || Top||

#7  Birth control for women on meth/opiates...that are at risk for having Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) babies is a big deal.

The only way to deal with the drugs is to cut the cheap Mexican meth off at the border with the wall and to imprison a bunch of doctors that sell drugs legally via over-prescription.

This is the near enemy to our society that is always over looked. This is THE clear and present danger.
Posted by: Tennessee || 07/21/2017 10:37 Comments || Top||

#8  Yes, Tennessee. But we'd rather talk about the Russians.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 07/21/2017 12:10 Comments || Top||


Drug dealer arrested after calling police to report stolen cocaine
[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] David Blackmon probably won't go down in history as a criminal criminal mastermind, at least judging by the ridiculous reason for his arrest.

The 32-year-old "self-proclaimed drug pusher" stunned police in Florida when he called 911 to report his cocaine had been stolen, along with some cash.

He told Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office that "someone had entered his car while it was parked and stole $50 and about a quarter ounce of cocaine".
Posted by: Fred || 07/21/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Darwin Award is for those who take themselves out of the gene pool through their own stupidity. What kind of award does this guy get?
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/21/2017 8:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Florida Man
Posted by: M. Murcek || 07/21/2017 9:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Our next Progressive President has been picked!
Posted by: Crinegum Ulaigum2776 || 07/21/2017 17:06 Comments || Top||

#4  What kind of award does this guy get?

While in prison he won't be contributing to the gene pool, sort of a temporary Darwin's award.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/21/2017 17:53 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Teens filmed, mocked and laughed while man slowly drowned
[FoxNews] Authorities in Florida say that a group of teenagers recorded the drowning of a disabled man last week ‐ and did nothing to help as they made fun of his struggles.

Jamel Dunn, 32, of Cocoa, drowned in a retention pond July 9. His body was recovered July 14, two days after his fiancee reported him missing. Late last week, a friend of Dunn's family came across the video on social media and forwarded it to authorities in Brevard County.

In the video, which was published by the Florida Today newspaper Thursday, the teens can be heard laughing at Dunn as he splashes futilely in the water and screams for help.

"Get out the water, you gonna die," yells one, while another yells, "ain't nobody fixing to help you, you dumb (expletive)." As Dunn disappears under the water, one of the teens says, "Oh, he just died."

Investigators say none of the teens ‐ all between 14 and 16 years old ‐ called 911 to report Dunn's drowning or tried to help the man.

"They just laughed the whole time," Cocoa Police Department spokeswoman Yvonne Martinez told Florida Today. "He was just screaming ... for someone to help him."

Police said the teens were identified and questioned by detectives, but it's unlikely they will face charges, since they were not directly involved in Dunn's death.

The Brevard County State Attorney's Office called the video a "tragedy" and said the teens had "no moral justification" for not attempting to help Dunn.
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance || 07/21/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "tragedy"

No, it was a triumph of evil.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/21/2017 2:37 Comments || Top||

#2  You get what you tolerate. They never got around to install 'morality' after ripping Christianity out of the schools. And, no, Marxism isn't a substitute.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/21/2017 8:34 Comments || Top||

#3  The video has been pulled, but the audio remains.
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/21/2017 11:07 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Turkey Quake: M 6.7 - 10km SSE of Bodrum, Turkey
Karma
[Earthquake.USGS.gov] A powerful earthquake has struck off the Turkish coast, triggering a tsunami in the Mediterranean and Aegean and killing at least two.

Beachfront hotels full of British holidaymakers were flooded in the coastal city of Marmaris, while the effects of the 6.7 magnitude quake were also felt on islands such as Crete and Rhodes.

Two people have died on the party island of Kos, while dozens are injured as rescue crews work through the night to dig people out from under the rubble of buildings.

Eyewitnesses posted videos of staff and patients at Bodrum State Hospital cowering for cover, while the devastation caused a large electrical fire to break out in the city after a power pylon came crashing to the ground.

Tourists were forced to flee their rooms and gather anxiously in the street, and now face a sleepless night by the roadside or on beaches after they were evacuated from hotels.
another tourism "bonus!"
Posted by: Frank G || 07/21/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It does say not to put frozen ones in the deep fryer!
Posted by: Crinegum Ulaigum2776 || 07/21/2017 16:55 Comments || Top||


Burundi Robotics Team Vanishes After U.S. Competition
[NYTIMES] The police were searching on Thursday for six African teenagers who were reported missing from an international robotics competition in Washington. Two of them were said to have been seen crossing into Canada, law enforcement officials said.

Police officials here confirmed that two members of the robotics team from Burundi, Don Ingabire, 16, and Audrey Mwamikazi, 17, were seen entering Canada, but their destination and current location remained unknown.

It was unclear where the remaining team members were. They were identified as Aristide Irambona, 18; Nice Munezero, 17; Kevin Sabumukiza, 17; and Richard Irakoze, 18.

The six teenagers were last seen in Washington on Tuesday night near the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall, where the robotics competition took place. The team’s mentor, Canesius Bindaba, reported their disappearance after he returned to the dormitories where they were staying, assuming the teenagers had taken a different shuttle bus after the closing ceremony.

It appears the students left of their own accord, event officials said in a statement. Their dorm keys were left in their mentor’s bag and they took their clothes from their rooms. No foul play is suspected, said Aquita Brown, a spokeswoman for the Police Department.
Continue reading the main story

Joe Sestak, a former Pennsylvania congressman and retired Navy admiral who is president of First Global, the nonprofit group that organized the competition, made the initial call to the police shortly after midnight, officials said. The authorities began sharing photographs and descriptions of the teenagers on missing persons fliers on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred || 07/21/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So they got that cloaking thing to work after all, eh?
Posted by: SteveS || 07/21/2017 13:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Surprised only one team disappeared.
Posted by: Captain Slavick9664 || 07/21/2017 15:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Robotic vibrates Peg has it!
Posted by: Crinegum Ulaigum2776 || 07/21/2017 16:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Cool Runnings 3: Roborundi!
Posted by: charger || 07/21/2017 19:48 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Afghanistan includes ‘Bacha Baazi’ sexual abuse of children in revised penal code
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghan government has included the sexual abuse of children ’Bacha Baazi’ crime in its revised penal code.
That is, diddling boys...
The Minister of Justice Abdul Basir Anwar informed regarding the inclusion of the crime in the penal code during a presser in Kabul today.

He said the sexual abuse of children ’Bach Baazi’ is one of the main crimes included in the revised version of the penal code.

Anwar further added that the revised law has been registered after it was passed by the cabinet of ministers and signed by President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
during the period of around nine months.

The minister of justice also added that reviewing the judicial and criminal code and laws was one of the main commitments made by the government of national unity in London summit on Afghanistan.

The Afghan government for the first time finalized a law to criminalize the bullying and sexual abuse of children ’Bacha Baazi’ late in February this year.

This comes as numerous reports emerged during the recent years regarding the worsening situation of the children subjected to abuse and bullying.

The issue attracted attention of the global human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
activists as there are concerns regarding the health and mental condition of the victims of the stigma.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission also expressed concern
...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended...
s regarding the mental situation of the victims, saying the majority of the children kept as slave are repeatedly raped.

On the other hand, the international human rights activists are saying that in majority of cases the victims become perpetrators which help the stigma to further continue after they become adults and keep other children as their slaves.

Posted by: Fred || 07/21/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well now, that's going to bugger their Thursday nights.
Posted by: Classer || 07/21/2017 3:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Expect an uptick in goat abuse.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/21/2017 9:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Expect an uptick in goat abuse.

No kidding.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/21/2017 9:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Product of goat abuse
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/21/2017 14:42 Comments || Top||

#5  I truly hope that's a photoshop of some sort, Skidmark. Otherwise the level of inbreeding required to get that level of goat dysfunction is terrifying.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/21/2017 18:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Goat? Thought it was the minister of Ghazni.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 07/21/2017 18:29 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Saudi prince arrested over videos showing abuse
[DAWN] A Saudi prince was tossed in the calaboose
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
on Thursday on Saudi King Salman
...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Cutodian of the Two Holy Mosquesand Lord of Most of the Arabians....
's order, a state-run broadcaster reported, as outrage grew on social media over videos appearing to show him abusing members of the public.

Salman issued a warrant for "the immediate arrest ... and imprisonment" of Prince Saud, a descendant of Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
's founder, along with a group of men who appeared in the videos uploaded to YouTube, al-Ikhbariya television reported.

A video circulating on social media showed police escorting the young prince -- one of the thousands of members of the royal family -- out of a house in handcuffs.

The arrest came after the prince, whose face can clearly be seen in some of the videos shared via Twitter Wednesday, unleashed a wave of verbal and physical abuse on Saudis and foreigners.

In a video, a man moaning and clutching his head is led out of a house with an automatic rifle pointed at his back.

Another clip, viewed more than 760,000 times, also shows 18 bottles of whisky displayed on a table and a wad of cash. The sale and consumption of alcohol in Saudi Arabia is forbidden.

Video clips also show a man sitting in a car, bleeding and being cursed at for parking in front of a house and, what appears to be the prince punching and slapping a man who is sitting on a chair.

The prince also pummels a man cowering in a chair who waits for him to pause and insists, "Honest to God, I didn't do anything. I swear to God." The videos have sparked anger on social media, with users identifying as Saudi citizens calling for the prince to be put on trial.

"No matter who you are -- prince, minister, citizen -- no one is above the law," read one tweet.

The victims in the videos will be called to testify in court, according to a royal decree carried by al-Ikhbariya. Saudi Arabia has one of the world's highest rates of execution and widely imposes harsh sentences for criminal offences.

In a highly unusual case, the kingdom last year executed a prince convicted of murder.
They have a substantial surfeit of princelings, and expenses considerably exceed income. Darwin is going to feast until balance is achieved, the alternative being tumbrels depositing their loads at the foot of the Saudi version of Madame de la Guillotine.
Posted by: Fred || 07/21/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia

#1  He lost his head.
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/21/2017 11:11 Comments || Top||

#2  I would think, the king, his sons and his grandchildren would be in the royal line, cut off being the great-grand children whose sole support would be their parents or themselves. Exceptions is whomever becomes king at which point the royal line starts over from there. Rest of family would just have to earn their way.
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance || 07/21/2017 16:09 Comments || Top||

#3  I would think, the king, his sons and his grandchildren would be in the royal line, cut off being the great-grand children whose sole support would be their parents or themselves.

For quite some time the various brothers of the king passed the succession from one to the next, as I recall. Salman is, I think, the first in a while to bring his son into the immediate succession, and also the first to make sure that son has the work experience to be more or less prepared for the job at a fairly young age instead of being slotted in where his interrests and schooling met the needs of the kingdom.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/21/2017 18:42 Comments || Top||


Britain
50 foot dead parrot in London
Pining for the fjords
[FastCompany] The Monty Python reunion in London began on July 1, and after a 10-day break, picks up again tonight at the O2 Arena for the final five nights that will see Eric Idle, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin on the same stage together, doing silly things one more time. Of course, it’s not all silliness–the first five-night run of the performance raised more than £20,000 for five different charities chosen by the Python members, by giving those charities the opportunity to auction off the right to perform in a sketch alongside the cast.
Video of the klassik Monty Python routine at the link
Posted by: badanov || 07/21/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A 50 foot fiberglass parrot in the park? In another parrot story, A foul-mouthed parrot to testify in Michigan murder trial? The parrot witnessed the murder of a man and is talking. "Don’t (expletive) shoot me,” the foul-mouthed parrot reportedly squawked on a video. The accused murderer, the man's wife, probably thinks this foul-mouthed parrot is bigger than 50 ft. tall.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/21/2017 9:14 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Here's the Chain Reaction Trump Could Set Off by Trying to Fire Mueller
President Donald Trump’s interview with the New York Times on Wednesday has stirred speculation he may consider firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller for investigating Trump’s business dealings as part of the Russia probe.

But Trump can’t fire Mueller directly, according to the law that authorizes Mueller’s probe. If he tried, he could set off a chain-reaction that would throw the Justice Department into upheaval.

Only the person acting as attorney general, currently Rod Rosenstein on matters related to the probe, can fire Mueller, and he’s said he won’t do it without "good cause." So Trump would first have to purge the upper ranks of the Justice Department until he finds someone willing to follow his orders and dismiss the special counsel.

He’d almost certainly begin by dismissing Rosenstein, whose political loyalties Trump questioned in the Times interview on Wednesday in which he also warned Mueller against broadening his investigation. Such a scenario would parallel President Richard Nixon’s 1973 "Saturday Night Massacre," when Nixon forced out the top two officials in the Justice Department in order to oust the Watergate special counsel.

"I don’t think that’s politically survivable, and it’s not clear how much collateral damage he has to do to in order to put himself into a position to have somebody fire Mueller," said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island. More at the site.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/21/2017 10:30 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  a chain-reaction that would throw the Justice Department into upheaval

Like that's a bad thing?
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/21/2017 10:48 Comments || Top||

#2  If Mueller is gambling the nation on the idea he can go on fishing expeditions to bring down the constitutionally elected President, then the man has to go. Let the fireworks begin. Senators conspired to bring down Caesar too. All perished in the aftermath.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/21/2017 11:09 Comments || Top||

#3  He can't find anything, so he is going fishing and filling the staff with Obumble and Crooked Hillary supporters.

Fuck him and let the fireworks begin!
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/21/2017 11:29 Comments || Top||

#4  I think Congress could step in and "supervise" the probe.
Posted by: Iblis || 07/21/2017 13:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Better idea. A petition, signed by citizens, refusing to accept the findings - whatever they may be -- of the flawed and partisan Mueller probe.
Posted by: Iblis || 07/21/2017 15:00 Comments || Top||

#6  A back order at the toilet mint factory and smelly bathrooms fuck it!
Posted by: Crinegum Ulaigum2776 || 07/21/2017 16:54 Comments || Top||

#7  Trump should actually double down and initiate the appointment of more Special Counsels to investigate Lynch, Clinton, Comey, Obama, Holder, Koskinen etc. for Fast and Furious, IRSgate, EmailGate, potential obstruction of justice, collusion with Iran&Russia ...

All of these cases involve allegations of systematic misconduct committed by groups entrenched within executive bureaucracies, so the appointment of an independent unbiased investigator would be warranted and necessary.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant. No one could reasonably object to more transparency.

Also all secret stipulations of the Iran deal should be declassified and published.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 07/21/2017 18:05 Comments || Top||

#8  Ditto at #7. Beltway solicitors will relish the feeding.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/21/2017 18:29 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Rape suspect's death in police custody sparks riots in India
[DAWN] A man accused of the gang rape and murder of a girl in northern India has been killed in police custody, an official said Thursday, sparking angry riots in the usually tranquil Himalayan region.

Hundreds of protesters furious over the police handling of the case chanted "we want justice" in the popular tourist hill resort of Shimla, with businesses remaining closed in some parts of Himachal Pradesh state.

There have been vigils and strikes across the region since the 16-year-old victim was found naked and mutilated in a forest, with many accusing police of bungling the investigation.

Tensions escalated further after a suspect held for the gruesome crime was killed in his cell by another inmate during a scuffle.

The head of the suspect, Nepalese national Suraj Singh, was struck against a wall, and he "was taken to hospital where he was declared dead," said Z.H. Zaidi, the police inspector general.

News of his death triggered fury, with rioters torching a cop shoppe and vehicles.

The brutality of the crime shocked residents in Himachal Pradesh, a Himalayan state with some of India's lowest rates of sexual violence, and prompted calls for a swift investigation.

An autopsy confirmed the girl was gang raped and strangled. She sustained severe injuries in the assault, including a broken leg.

Six men were enjugged
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
but those calling for swift justice accused police of bungling the case, saying the main culprits were still on the lam.

"The main accused is roaming free. How can anyone die in police custody?" one protester in Shimla told Indian broadcaster NDTV on Thursday.

India has a gruesome record on rape. Nearly 40,000 rape cases are reported every year but the real number is thought to be much higher, with victims wary of how their complaints will be handled.

Nearly 2,200 rapes were registered in 2015 in the Indian capital New Delhi -- an average of six per day. Himachal Pradesh recorded 244 rapes that same year, among the lowest rates in India.

Posted by: Fred || 07/21/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Science & Technology
Toxic Air From T-45 Engine May Be Poisoning U.S. Navy Pilots
[Aviation Week] In the search for the root cause of a recent spike in hypoxialike cockpit incidents that leave student pilots disoriented and short of breath, the U.S. Navy is beginning to look more closely at the quality of the air that comes off the McDonnel Douglas T-45 Goshawk’s engine and feeds into the oxygen generator system. Fleets across the Navy and U.S. Air Force have been plagued by a sharp increase in these so-called physiological episodes in recent months, where pilots experience ...
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/21/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You're not supposed to breathe exhaust. There is a reason people don't build fart inhalers.
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/21/2017 0:03 Comments || Top||

#2  So, we know that just because we're subscribers to Avation Week, that not everyone else is and we're going to be blocked from viewing this article?
Posted by: Phusomble Ebbereting1774 || 07/21/2017 6:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Wonder if L3 engineered a maintenance solution with low bid reactive hoses.
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/21/2017 8:39 Comments || Top||

#4  Must be an engineer from the State Department who designed that part.
Posted by: gorb || 07/21/2017 16:37 Comments || Top||


Government
President Trump's legal team looking to investigate Mueller aides
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump’s legal team is evaluating potential conflicts of interest among members of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative team, three people with knowledge of the matter said Thursday. The revelations come as Mueller’s investigation appears likely to probe some of the Trump family’s business ties.

Attorney Jay Sekulow, a member of the president’s external legal team, told The Associated Press that the lawyers "will consistently evaluate the issue of conflicts and raise them in the appropriate venue."

Two people with knowledge of that process say those efforts include probing the political affiliations of Mueller’s investigators and their past work history. Trump himself has publicly challenged Mueller, declaring this week that the former FBI director would be crossing a line if he investigated the president’s personal business ties.

Mueller and congressional committees are investigating whether the president’s campaign coordinated with Russia during the 2016 election. While Trump has assailed the probes as a partisan "witch hunt," the investigations have increasingly ensnared his family and close advisers, including son Donald Trump Jr. and son-in-law and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner.

As the investigations intensify, Trump’s legal team is also undergoing a shakeup. New York-based attorney Marc Kasowitz, whose unconventional style has irked some White House aides, is seen as a diminishing presence in the operation, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/21/2017 02:58 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Punch back twice as hard.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/21/2017 3:14 Comments || Top||

#2  But far more — 73 percent — say they’re concerned that the Russia probes have caused Congress to lose focus on the issues important to them. That figure encompasses 81 percent of Republicans, 74 percent of independents and 68 percent of Democrats. Here.

At some point, these investigations may bring pressure on CongressCritters up for re-election to make them disappear.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/21/2017 9:21 Comments || Top||


Dr. Ben Carson's HUD To 'Reinterpret' Affirmative Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule
[Powerline] I’ve been critical of President Trump today. But few days go by without me being happy he defeated Hillary Clinton.

Here’s a reminder of why. Yesterday, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson announced that his agency will "reinterpret" the ultra-instrusive Obama housing rule known as Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH). The rule was designed by the Obama administration to seize federal control over local zoning for the purpose of creating neighborhoods that comply with the left’s race-based vision of where people should live. We discussed it here, among other places.

Secretary Carson didn’t say exactly how he plans to "reinterpret" AFFH. However, he told the Washington Examiner that he doesn’t believe in the "manipulation" associated with the rule or with the burdens it imposes on local communities. As a candidate for president, he called it "a doomed-to-fail attempt to "legislate racial equality."
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/21/2017 02:46 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A quiet professional going about the work of 'Making America Great Again.' More men and women like Dr. Carson are urgently needed.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/21/2017 2:52 Comments || Top||

#2  What is there to reinterpret? Just rip it out by its roots.
Posted by: Hupeart Thaitch2372 || 07/21/2017 5:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Try reinterpreting the zoning rules into the Hamptons, Malibu, ....
Posted by: Airandee || 07/21/2017 6:14 Comments || Top||

#4  A majority in Congress and they won't repeal the rule, even in face of its abuse by those in power. The Trunks were never the party of 'smaller government', just ineffectual and incompetent.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/21/2017 8:32 Comments || Top||

#5  ^ I'm pretty it's regulation, not legislation. Just ignore it / don't enforce it.
Posted by: Raj || 07/21/2017 13:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Just ignore it / don't enforce it.

Secretary Carson is giving everyone fair warning that the rule will be changed, allowing local communities to prepare to resist attempts at continued enforcement by HUD's very deep state. And Dr. Carson's successes running HUD will bolster future runs for office -- I think the Senate rather than the presidency, as he's shown he hasn't the temperament for a modern presidential campaign -- or subsequent assignments heading other departments.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/21/2017 18:58 Comments || Top||


Man builds stairs in park for $550, embarrassing city that had $65,000+ estimate. City blocks off stairs as
[CTV News] A Toronto man who spent $550 building a set of stairs in his community park says he has no regrets, despite the city’s insistence that he should have waited for a $65,000 city project to handle the problem. The city is now threatening to tear down the stairs because they were not built to regulation standards.
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/21/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's a so-called "conservative" mayor making those a$$hole comments.
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 07/21/2017 2:00 Comments || Top||

#2  The mayor is pissed because that's $64450 that didn't make it to his and his cronies pockets.
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance || 07/21/2017 2:08 Comments || Top||

#3  And he didn't use union labor either, I bet.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/21/2017 6:00 Comments || Top||

#4  To quote Insty, where's the graft in that?
Posted by: AlanC || 07/21/2017 7:59 Comments || Top||

#5  See - Trump, skating rink, NYC.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/21/2017 8:35 Comments || Top||

#6  Building codes set minimum safety standards and, if a municipality adopts a building code, the code is required to be followed.

I would be surprised if Toronto did not adopt the "edicts" of the International Code Council and, looking at the pix, I can assure you that the stairs and handrails do not meet ICC minimum safety requirements.

$65k is crazy stupid for this small project but, that aside, the stairs must not present injury suit potential for the municipality.

I can assure you that Mr. Trump's skating rink met code.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspriacy || 07/21/2017 9:02 Comments || Top||

#7  ...but not adherence to the bureaucracy and its mother may I dictates.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/21/2017 11:11 Comments || Top||

#8  I learned by accident my city's building codes mandate single family housing have a 2-car garage, even though most of the single family lots in town are rather small. Up until this was enacted the vast majority of homes in town have 1 car garages or none at all. This results in (1) giant structures on small lots looking weird and (2) jacking up the minimum expense of all new housing from this point onward.
Habitat for Humanity tangled with the city on this issue. Their standards of construction mandate a 1-car (NOT a 2-car) garage, since HFH regards 2-car garage as luxuries (I agree on this). City and HFH negotiated a forbearance on enforcement of the building code to allow HFH to carry out their plans.
There is more than a little bit of rent-seeking in the establishment of building codes. It is not just about "quality", but more importantly about "cronies".
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 07/21/2017 15:40 Comments || Top||

#9  My city's regulation standards also dictate I can't pitch my own tent in my own yard, nor can I sleep in it. This of course is widely violated during summer months when kids out of school are entertained at home.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 07/21/2017 15:41 Comments || Top||

#10  Unless you live in some kind of strangely empowered municipality, due notice is given regarding the adoption or changing of building (including mechanical, plumbing and electrical) and Property Maintenance codes.

Tents are not buildings and, therefore, probably found in your property maintenance / code compliance division. If you check into it, you will probably find your municipal board found or got wind of some bozo living in, on a permanent basis, an effing tent. Where was this person cooking? Crapping? If you want to live, actually live, in a tent, move to the sticks. Anyway, the board had a meeting, undoubtedly announced to the public, and voted a "No livin' in tents, Festus" ordinance. From that time forth, until it is repealed, it lives on and gives your municipal officials a way to get rid of encampments, both actual and potential.

A code official enforcing the code preventing your kids and/or you spending the night "roughing it" would, after getting a "Joe, come into my office. Someone complained about some sort of tent thing?" from his boss, would be contacting you with a "Sorry, I screwed up." call. Btw, small kids playing in a tent without a barrier (fence) could wind up long gone before someone got around to checking on them.

The single/double-stall garage thing is, of course, about property values, but should be able to be applied with some flexibility for small lots. Guess the city fathers didn't take that into consideration. As an aside, my municipality had to write an ordinance allowing one of the more affluent areas of town up to 4-stalls. And, I often get calls from residents inquiring as to why the hell their townhome development was allowed to be constructed with single-stall garages (40 years ago) as the newer owners have multiple vehicles. Like the townhome had 2-stall garages when it was shown to the buyer and, somehow, one of the stalls was stolen after closing. And, of course, we have an ordinance backing up the development rule against parking on the grass.

If you don't like an ordinance, replace the people who made it with people who will change it. It's pretty simple, if you think about it. Think "Representative Government."
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 07/21/2017 20:49 Comments || Top||

#11  Much earlier in my Gubbamint Engineer career, I also worked on City Buildings (Resident Engineer on the 911 Center construction, libraries, etc.). So I saw how Building Codes mandated certain features. ADA started up and mandated more. There have always been idiots, vandals, malicious and litigious dicks.. Public structures and buildings cost what they do because of design to meet all of the above. It has to meet codes, AND be virtually indestructible by your fellow citizens, who will try their best to prove you wrong. Assholes and lawyers. What he constructed is fine in someone's back yard. It is also a lawyer's dream in public land. It doesn't meet code (from the pics), the landing at the bottom is stupid, and the handrail will be gone in a couple weeks. Good luck
Posted by: Frank G || 07/21/2017 21:13 Comments || Top||



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Fri 2017-07-21
  Ruthless Henchman® of top Abu Sayyaf leader falls
Thu 2017-07-20
  ISIS militants refuse to surrender in Marawi as Philippine Army unleashes final assault
Wed 2017-07-19
  Kenyan police foil Al-Shabaab attack in Lamu
Tue 2017-07-18
  Deadly blast hits mosque in Nigeria's Maiduguri
Mon 2017-07-17
  Leader Of ISIS In Afghanistan Killed By US Forces 3 Months After Assuming Command
Sun 2017-07-16
  400 rebels killed by the Syrian Army during east Damascus offensive
Sat 2017-07-15
  Islamic State's Afghan 'emir' killed in raid, US says
Fri 2017-07-14
  19 give up the ghost in suicide kaboom at checkpoint in Anbar
Thu 2017-07-13
  ISIS declares Tal Afar as a separate kalifate
Wed 2017-07-12
  Amnesty: All sides violated international law in Mosul
Tue 2017-07-11
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Mon 2017-07-10
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Sun 2017-07-09
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Sat 2017-07-08
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