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Today: 47 articles and 156 comments as of 14:06.
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Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Opinion        Politix   
Israel Says It Destroys Hamas Tunnel Under Key Gaza Crossing
Today's Headlines
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
14 22:11 Sock Puppet of Doom [2]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Greyhound bus chased by police after 5 times deported illegal immigrant threatens passengers
[FoxNews] An illegal immigrant on a Greyhound bus who allegedly threatened to shoot and kill passengers on Friday — leading police on a chase from Wisconsin to Illinois — was deported five times, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told Fox News.

The spokesperson said on Sunday that Margarito Vargas-Rosas, 33, who faces terror charges, was in the U.S. illegally and was "removed" from the U.S. the last five times Border Patrol agents encountered him. He also had a previous DUI arrest to his name.

A judge in Illinois on Sunday ordered the suspect held without bond. Vargas-Rosas faces a fugitive-from-justice charge.

Police responded to a call around 9:40 p.m. Friday from a bus passenger who claimed there was a person threatening to kill people, Fox 6 reported, citing the Racine County Sheriff’s Department.

Vargas-Rosas, of Chicago, was reportedly pacing the aisle toward the back of the bus, and appeared to draw what passengers thought was a weapon from his waistband.

Deputies with the Milwaukee and Kenosha County Sheriff’s Offices both attempted to pull the bus over, but the driver didn’t stop the vehicle.

Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling said the bus driver “thought it was a training exercise by law enforcement, or thought he was going to stop someone.”

Passenger Patrick Todd told The Chicago Tribune the bus occupants were confused by the driver's actions and kept yelling at him to pull over.

Authorities ultimately used spike strips to flatten the vehicle’s tires, which forced it to a stop on Interstate 94 near the Illinois community of Wadsworth.

While the bus eventually stopped, the driver, according to Dodd, “didn’t stop after the first spike strip, he went on to Illinois” before hitting the second spike strip.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/15/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Send him to Minneapolis. They'll make him a cop.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 01/15/2018 8:12 Comments || Top||

#2  They ought to do a deep check on the driver's background.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/15/2018 8:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Deported 5 times and threatening to kill American citizens? Just kill him. NAOW
Posted by: Frank G || 01/15/2018 8:57 Comments || Top||

#4  Too bad for the perp that this didn't happen California. He would have been released immediately and probably not even charged.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 01/15/2018 9:40 Comments || Top||

#5  Deported 5 times and threatening to kill American citizens? Just kill him. NAOW

Certainly the penalties should get stiffer with each new violation. Maybe we need a three strikes law for repeat deportees.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 01/15/2018 10:14 Comments || Top||

#6  Vargas-Rosas faces a fugitive-from-justice charge.

I guess interstate kidnapping didn't apply to el-Margarito.

I wonder what else the driver was carrying?
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/15/2018 10:42 Comments || Top||

#7  Maybe deportations need to come with a velocity factor - first time they can step off the stopped bus, second time thrown from a moving train, and third time dropped from a flying plane. Unlikely to be a fourth time...
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/15/2018 17:42 Comments || Top||

#8  ^ July 4 launch/reentry?
Posted by: Woozle Jones3564 || 01/15/2018 18:28 Comments || Top||

#9  Just thinking a wall might've helped prevent recidivism.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/15/2018 18:29 Comments || Top||

#10  Death shows remarkable success in reducing recidivism
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/15/2018 19:18 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Tide Pod Challenge: Teenagers Are Risking Death To Film Themselves Eating Detergent
[INDEPENDENT.CO.UK]
It’s a wonderful detergent, but for cleaning fabric, not purifying idiots.
Posted by: Fred || 01/15/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If it tidies up the gene pool, I'm willing to argue it's a good thing.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/15/2018 1:15 Comments || Top||

#2  ...Darwin nods.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 01/15/2018 4:56 Comments || Top||

#3  It's a clean death.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/15/2018 11:29 Comments || Top||

#4  It's a clean death.
Posted by Skidmark


No spin.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/15/2018 13:27 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm still trying to think of something that rhymes with 'surfactant'.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/15/2018 20:10 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm still trying to think of something that rhymes with 'surfactant'.

This is a job for ZF.
Posted by: gorb || 01/15/2018 23:38 Comments || Top||


Driver crashes car into second story of California building; he was high.
... then the car was...
[FOX] A California driver escaped a dangerous crash early Sunday morning after apparently hitting a divider at such a high speed that it launched the car into the second story of a nearby building.

The driver reportedly said afterwards that he'd been using drugs at the time.

The white Nissan Altima slammed into the center divider around 5:30 a.m., prompting the sedan to soar into the air and into the second floor of a dental office in Santa Ana, Calif., the Orange County Fire Authority said.

Capt. Stephen Horner of the Orange County Fire Authority told the New York Post that the very unusual “situation” was triggered by the driver’s speed.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/15/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Question is, Was he higher than his car?
Posted by: ed in texas || 01/15/2018 13:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Don't remember. Everything is a blank after happy hour.
Posted by: Woodrow || 01/15/2018 14:39 Comments || Top||


Wahlberg's wallet is fat-shamed
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/15/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
NAACP Says MLK's Vision Can't Be Achieved Without Fighting Global Warming
[DailyCaller] Ummmm. No. Possibly the dumbest thing I've read all week. And that's saying something
Posted by: Frank G || 01/15/2018 13:29 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  OK. And you can't have a fish without a bicycle. or game over man!

Posted by: Woodrow || 01/15/2018 14:45 Comments || Top||

#2  All the world's multiple idiocies uniting to become one giant, useless force.

Actually, there is no way MLK's vision can be achieved without the Left abandoning identity politics and Hell will freeze over before that happens.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/15/2018 15:32 Comments || Top||

#3  The NAACP didn't get the memo? It's now 'climate change'. Jeez!
Posted by: Raj || 01/15/2018 15:38 Comments || Top||

#4  In MLK's day it was Ice Age, overpopulation and famine!
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 01/15/2018 18:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Just when you were beginning to think it wasn't a complete fucking fraud....
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/15/2018 20:11 Comments || Top||


‘Envy of the world’: Macron urges UNESCO to protect French baguette
[RT] President Emmanuel Macron has backed calls from bakers to put the traditional French bread – the baguette – on the list of intangible cultural treasures protected by UNESCO, calling the oblong loaf an “envy of the world.”

“The baguette is envied around the world. We must preserve its excellence and our expertise, and it is for this reason that it should be heritage-listed,” the French leader told Europe Radio 1 following a meeting with French master bakers in Paris on Friday.
Posted by: Fred || 01/15/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tasty dishes are seldom in danger of being demolished for the purposes of constructing an overpass. So I think you're safe Manney.
Posted by: Secret Master || 01/15/2018 1:27 Comments || Top||

#2  The French do have a reputation for loafing.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/15/2018 13:00 Comments || Top||

#3  "We lost the croussant at the Maginot Line, but it's Paris and baguette's or we're doomed!"
Posted by: ed in texas || 01/15/2018 13:27 Comments || Top||

#4  I Fart In Your General Direction

Posted by: Woodrow || 01/15/2018 14:27 Comments || Top||

#5  Adding,

"For po' boys and haut boys, oui oui!
Banh mi for the Indochinee!
Let the sun never set
On the Frenchman's baguette
Nor that fabulous bread of Paris!"
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 01/15/2018 15:33 Comments || Top||


New bee species found thriving in former Arctic nuke site

"We come fer yer pollen, Chuck!"
[RT] A species of bee has been discovered that is miraculously capable of surviving in the high arctic region where the Soviet Union once tested nuclear weapons for decades, according to a new study.
The ‘Bombus glacialis’ species lives on the archipelago of Novaya Zemlya, which the Soviet Union closed off decades ago to carry out scores of nuclear tests. While previously considered to be a subspecies of the B. polaris - one of the only other arctic bee types in the world - a recent study published in Polar Biology confirmed B. glacialis to be its own species.
Posted by: Fred || 01/15/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Could be a game changer for hive additions in cold areas. We typically use Italian bees here because they are gentle. Would love to try a queen depending on their behavior and honey production.
Posted by: Woodrow || 01/15/2018 2:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Mutant cold weather bees that live in the dark?
Sounds like an orbital hydroponics species to me.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/15/2018 10:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Of course they can survive in the Arctic.
They're glowing so much from radiation they give off heat.
Coming soon to an infrared seeker missile defense system way too close to you!
Posted by: ed in texas || 01/15/2018 13:22 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Fed's misconduct in Cliven Bundy case stems from Ruby Ridge
[The Hill] Federal judge Gloria Navarro slammed the FBI and Justice Department on Monday, Jan. 8, for "outrageous" abuses and "flagrant misconduct" in the prosecution of Cliven Bundy and sons, the Nevada ranchers who spurred a high-profile standoff with the FBI and Bureau of Land Management in 2014. Navarro condemned the "grossly shocking" withholding of evidence from defense counsel in a case that could have landed the Bundys in prison for the rest of their lives. Navarro, who had declared a mistrial last month, dismissed all charges against the Bundys.

Navarro was especially riled because the FBI spent three years covering up or lying about the role of their snipers in the 2014 standoff. The Bundys faced conspiracy charges because they summoned militia to defend them after claiming FBI snipers had surrounded their ranch. Justice Department lawyers scoffed at this claim but newly-released documents vindicate the Bundys. In an interview Saturday, Ammon Bundy reviled the feds: "They basically came to kill our family, they surrounded us with snipers. And then they wanted to lie about it all like none of it happened."

Many of the heavily-armed activists who flocked to the scene feared that the FBI snipers had a license to kill the Bundys. Their reaction cannot be understood without considering a landmark 1990s case that continues to shape millions of Americans' attitude towards Washington: the federal killings and coverups at Ruby Ridge.

Posted by: Besoeker || 01/15/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I knew they used a bad OPORD from somewhere.
Posted by: newc || 01/15/2018 0:47 Comments || Top||

#2  One of the 'clever' strategies from the Obama era was the arming of local jurisdictional Federal agencies. When an ineffective autocrat has a shiny new hammer he begins to perceive many nail solutions.

The bad OPORD goes well beyond Ruby Ridge to Wounded Knee(which also addressed grazing rights issues) and earlier.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/15/2018 11:00 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Saudi Arabia demands $6 billion for the release of Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal, one of the richest men in the world
[Telegraph] Authorities in Saudi Arabia are demanding $6 billion from Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal, one of the richest men in the world, in return for his release after he was arrested in an anti-corruption purge last month in Riyadh.

The prince, who is the 57th richest man in the world, was one of dozens of businessmen, royals and government officials detained last month in the capital’s Ritz Carlton hotel in a move led by the country’s crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman.

Many of the others have since been released, with reports that many have paid for their freedom, but the fee demanded for Prince Al-Waleed is believed to be one of the highest.

Allegations levelled against Prince Al-Waleed included extortion, bribery and money laundering. Prince Al-Waleed is believed to be worth some $18.7 billion, and has accrued a vast portfolio that includes holdings in Citi Bank, Disney, Twitter and London’s Savoy hotel.

But he has reportedly refused to pay any such fee for his release, claiming that paying such a fee would amount to an admission of guilt. It is also believed that the fee could lead to the dismantling of much of the business empire he has spent his life building.

A source close to the prince told The Wall Street Journal ““He wants a proper investigation. It is expected that al-Waleed will give [Prince Bin Salman] a hard time,”

The $6 billion figure was reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Last month, Prince Mutaib Bin Abdullah, the son of the late King Abdullah and head of the country’s National Guard, who was also caught up in the purge was released after paying a reported $1 billion. In total, 320 people were arrested.

In an interview with the New York Times last month, Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman said that some 10 per cent percent of government funds had been lost to corruption each year since 1980.

He said that 95 per cent of those caught up in the corruption probe had agreed to such settlements, but said: “About 1 per cent are able to prove they are clean and their case is dropped right there. About four percent say they are not corrupt and with their lawyers want to go to court.”
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/15/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It is also believed that the fee could lead to the dismantling of much of the business empire he has spent his life building.

...That's the point, Al. The new regime appears to be willing to leave you enough to retire in more-or-less comfort somewhere else as long as you keep your head down and your mouth shut.

If not...well, there's a lot of stairwells in the Ritz. Man could have an accident in any one of them.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 01/15/2018 4:49 Comments || Top||

#2  The new regime appears to be willing to leave you enough to retire in more-or-less comfort somewhere else

$12.7 billion is comfortable indeed.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/15/2018 5:04 Comments || Top||

#3  $12.7 billion is comfortable indeed
But maybe not so comfortable that they don't feel motivated to reduce their support for various Islamist groups.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/15/2018 17:46 Comments || Top||

#4  @Mike

Stairwells? Saudis will crash your helicopter as they don’t do stairwells.

I heard somewhere in Arab media that he doesn’t the six billion as we froze his assets.


Posted by: mossomo || 01/15/2018 19:07 Comments || Top||

#5  "Your helicopter needs work. Today, you take this one"
"Why is the pilot wearing a parachute"
"Safety"
Posted by: Frank G || 01/15/2018 19:38 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Putin: Communist ideology similar to Christianity, Lenin’s body like saintly relics
[RT] Russian President Vladimir Putin has likened communism to Christianity and Vladimir Lenin’s mausoleum in Moscow’s Red Square to the veneration of the relics of saints.
“Maybe I’ll say something that someone might dislike, but that’s the way I see it,” Putin said in an interview for the documentary Valaam, an excerpt of which was broadcast on Russia 1. “First of all, faith has always accompanied us, becoming stronger every time our country, our people, have been through hard times.

“There were those years of militant atheism when priests were eradicated, churches destroyed, but at the same time a new religion was being created. Communist ideology is very similar to Christianity, in fact: freedom, equality, brotherhood, justice – everything is laid out in the Holy Scripture, it’s all there. And the code of the builder of communism? This is sublimation, it’s just such a primitive excerpt from the Bible, nothing new was invented.”
Posted by: Fred || 01/15/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You are way off you Idiot and you know it.
Communism is a millstone you put around your neck.

It is a Godless ideology which is why the Mandate resides with the US instead of your version of Mexico with 10,000 nukes.

Your people told me you knew who I was. And you just blasphemed in a big way.
Posted by: newc || 01/15/2018 0:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Geez, and here I thought Communism was an economic system...like Fascism/Corporatism.
Posted by: DooDahMan || 01/15/2018 2:25 Comments || Top||

#3  I guess Vlad been on the job too long.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/15/2018 2:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Lenin’s body like saintly relics

...In fairness, that was the idea. In the mid-20's, the Revolution hadn't yet completely beaten the faith out of the masses (Lord knows they tried, but a good argument can be made that they never really did) and the leadership knew - though couldn't flatly say it - that there needed to be an icon and relics for Lenin, the same way there were for the Tsars, who always eventually became saints in the Russian Orthodox Church. So ol' Vlad rests there to this day, and likely always will.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 01/15/2018 5:52 Comments || Top||

#5  I think somewhere in the 20th Century, in less than a hundred years, the Left exceeded the death count of 'Christian' wars that took 1,500 years to accumulate.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/15/2018 8:22 Comments || Top||

#6  Communist ideology is very similar to Christianity, in fact: freedom, equality, brotherhood, justice – everything is laid out in the Holy Scripture, it’s all there

You kiss your girlfriend with that lying mouth?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/15/2018 8:54 Comments || Top||

#7  And Lucifer contended with the archangel Michael over the dead body of Moses. And the archangel Michael spoke to the mighty and powerful fallen archangel Lucifer, "God rebukes you!" and Lucifer then fled.

Satan knows that people will worship the dead body of a leader before they will worship the living God, and that is fine with him, thus God sent for the body of Moses. Communism is a humanistic worship religion of dead or soon to be dead men.
Posted by: Cheretle Angeans6218 || 01/15/2018 9:06 Comments || Top||

#8  Didn't Marx say that religion is the opium of the masses? What is Putin smoking?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 01/15/2018 9:32 Comments || Top||

#9  “Maybe I’ll say something that someone might dislike, but that’s the way I see it,”

Well, if Trump can get away with naming migrant countries of dubious value...
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/15/2018 10:23 Comments || Top||

#10  For Marx so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Lenin that whosoever believeth in Him would not prosper but have everlasting poverty.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 01/15/2018 10:23 Comments || Top||

#11  Some Christian theologians have said almost the same thing, and this goes back a century. Dostoyevsky wrote in a similar vein even earlier. Putin may be channeling his Trump-mode.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/15/2018 12:12 Comments || Top||

#12  Seems a bit obvious, and completely cracked. They created a new religion by taking a bit here and there from Christianity and from secular philosophies. The Party played the role of god, and it had devoted followers who literally made it the center of their existence. If you love your family more than the Party, you aren't worthy of the Party. Check.

OTOH, the core of Christianity is about our relationship with a creator God, not "freedom, equality, brotherhood." That's a difference in kind, not degree. Putin was doubtless busy elsewhere the day they taught that.
Posted by: james || 01/15/2018 13:51 Comments || Top||

#13  Interesting for all those that grew up worshiping Communist idols, to have them compared to their greatest enemy Christianity might just be too much. I hope there is a safe space in the facility lounges across America.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/15/2018 15:04 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
N-Kor tunneling like crazy in Punggye-ri
[38North] Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site: Significant Tunneling Underway at the West Portal

Recent commercial satellite imagery of North Korea’s Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site indicates that the North Portal, where the last five nuclear tests were conducted, remains dormant and that tunnel excavation has been stepped up at the West Portal. Throughout December 2017, mining carts and personnel were consistently present around the West Portal and there was significant expansion of the spoil pile.

On December 28, there were also a large number of personnel (~100 to 120) observed in seven different formations whose purpose is unknown in the Southern Support Area.

These activities underscore North Korea’s continued efforts to maintain the Punggye-ri site’s potential for future nuclear testing.

North Portal (Tunnel No. 2)

The North Portal remains in a dormant state, with water draining from the portal entrance.

West Portal (Tunnel No. 4)

Approximately nine mining carts are present at the West Portal, and there appear to be new rails on top of the spoil pile.

It appears that the spoil pile has been expanded significantly along its south side. There is an object on top of the spoil pile and adjacent to some tracks the might be a rock trough/screener.
Southern Support Area

At the Southern Support Area, there are approximately 100-120 people in the courtyard in seven formations. It is rare to observe personnel in this area and the purpose of their activities is unknown.
Posted by: 3dc || 01/15/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  I would assume he wants to under-ground test during the Olympics to get the last word in.
Just no rockets.
Posted by: newc || 01/15/2018 0:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Trump's respose can be delayed.
Posted by: U. White1307 || 01/15/2018 8:52 Comments || Top||


Economy
Economists Credit Trump For Booming Economy, Growth Will Continue In 2018 Thanks To Trump's Tax Bill
Moved to Page 3

[Townhall] CNBC’s economic survey released prior to Christmas showed that for the first time in over a decade a majority was optimistic about the economy, and there was a shift as to who should receive credit for the booming economy: Donald J. Trump. The economic growth for the fourth quarter was near four percent. Over 100 companies gave bonuses of at least $1,000 or more to over a million workers, even some part-timers got a piece of that action. The GOP tax bill, which the Left said was going to be a prelude to Armageddon, was exactly the opposite for the American worker, who the Democratic Party decided to bet against to try and undercut Trump. Over 90 of middle class Americans will be receiving a tax cut. The Democratic Party is going to have to explain that move, especially when this tax bill becomes more popular.

As for the economy, economists said we should expect to see unemployment continue to go down and the economy to grow in 2018. Economists credit two things: President Trump and his tax bill. For Obama, his polices received good grades for providing financial stability, though they led to anemic economic growth and job creation (via WSJ):
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/15/2018 14:07 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So, tens of thousands of people aren't going to die?
Posted by: Raj || 01/15/2018 16:37 Comments || Top||

#2  DACA can still kill then so we should be okay.
Posted by: Bangkok Bill || 01/15/2018 16:57 Comments || Top||

#3  So, tens of thousands of people aren't going to die? Posted by Raj

Only the children as depicted in the graphic.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/15/2018 16:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Economists were invented so Weathermen wouldn't look so bad.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/15/2018 17:33 Comments || Top||

#5  DACA can still kill then so we should be okay.

Don't forget those saved from MS-13 and other gang violence. That should help, too.
Posted by: gorb || 01/15/2018 23:37 Comments || Top||


Europe
Austria arrests 45 for drug deals involving migrant dreamers minors
VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian police said on Monday they had arrested 45 people for drug dealing that used underage asylum seekers to transport marijuana across the country to buyers.

Most of the suspects, who were between 15 and 48 years old, were Austrians and Afghans but others were from Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Turkey and Germany, police in the western Alpine province of Tyrol said in a statement.

"The marijuana is thought to have been bought in Vienna ... and was subsequently smuggled to Tyrol in most cases by underage (and adult) asylum seekers or (Austrian) girls traveling by train," it said.

Tens of thousands of Middle East and Asian migrants streamed into Austria, which borders eight countries, in 2015 before a clampdown on arrivals. A public backlash led to the entry of the anti-immigrant far right into Austria’s coalition government last month after a general election.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/15/2018 07:50 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists


Home Front: WoT
Worker who sent out Hawaii missile alert re-assigned
[NYPost] The Hawaii public employee who plunged the state into chaos by accidentally sending out an incoming-missile emergency alert Saturday has been re-assigned, according to reports.

The unnamed emergency-department worker will not be fired because he made an honest mistake, said Hawaii Emergency Management Agency spokesman Richard Rapoza to the Washington Post.

"Part of the problem was it was too easy ‐ for anyone ‐ to make such a big mistake," Rapoza said. "We have to make sure that we're not looking for retribution, but we should be fixing the problems in the system. … I know that it's a very, very difficult situation for him."

The agency has already put in place new safeguards to prevent such a misfire ‐ including a "cancel" button that will immediately send out corrective alerts when an erroneous warning is issued, officials said Sunday
Posted by: Frank G || 01/15/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wrong guy. The system designer needs to be reassigned.
Posted by: gorb || 01/15/2018 0:59 Comments || Top||

#2  ....On the other hand, we should at least be grateful that, officially, the Person Responsible is showing some remorse, and that there was actually some action taken. I was sure that nothing would be done because the Person Responsible was a member of an Oppressed Group or some other get-out-of-jail-free status.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 01/15/2018 4:45 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm not buying the story
Posted by: Frank G || 01/15/2018 7:35 Comments || Top||

#4  Don't they usually make those type of buttons with covers on them in order to reduce 'accidents'? You know, the kind you have to flip up or over in order to have access to the button, the 'Do you really want to do this' cover.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/15/2018 8:19 Comments || Top||

#5  The common sense "two man/person" technique escapes them. Frightened, scurrying democrats... the downside ?

Posted by: Besoeker || 01/15/2018 8:28 Comments || Top||

#6  Fire a Hawaii Gov't worker? Tapu nui loa!
Posted by: Alistaire Lumplump5242 || 01/15/2018 9:05 Comments || Top||

#7  Tapu nui loa*

* In Biden-speak, "Big F'n no-no"
Posted by: Alistaire Lumplump5242 || 01/15/2018 9:11 Comments || Top||

#8  Procopius2k, re the 'Do you really want to do this' cover, the shear ram switch on our offshore blowout preventer had a cage around it and a sign, yet an operator somehow - he never could/did say - managed to activate the rams, shear and drop the drill string, and junk the multi-million dollar well. No matter how idiot-proof we make things, we can always find a better idiot.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/15/2018 9:35 Comments || Top||

#9  Once or twice a winter I still get my finger snapped in a mouse trap.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/15/2018 10:26 Comments || Top||

#10  Remember Glenmore one of Murpy's Laws: "NOTHING IS FOOL-PROOF,BECAUSE FOOLS ARE SO INGENIOUS!"
Posted by: Eohippus Slack5175 || 01/15/2018 11:43 Comments || Top||

#11  My gut suspects the system was hacked and there is a bit of a cover-up going on about it.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/15/2018 12:07 Comments || Top||

#12  My gut feeling is that Hawaiian EMA is stuck on stupid & needs to be abolished & rebuilt. At the minimum the CEO of the Agency needs to be fired.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/15/2018 12:56 Comments || Top||

#13  Then there is that federal judge in Hawaii who keeps trying to run Trump's foreign immigration policy. Fire him too.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/15/2018 12:58 Comments || Top||

#14  In 1990 I visited Hawaii for my first & only time. Arriving air passengers were given a long printout of items they were not allowed to bring on land - like certain/all fruit from the mainland.
New arrivals were told absolutely nothing about all the sirens mounted on poles, brightly colored, which ringed each & every island. Even the sirens had little information attached to them to inform newcomers that they were the tsunami alerts, and if they started wailing, everyone was to move uphill ASAP.
Either the state EMA figured every arrival in Hawaii already knew this, or the EMA simply didn't give a damn about informing visitors of a deadly danger almost unique to Hawaii. {Neither did car rental agencies bother to pass the word.)
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/15/2018 13:16 Comments || Top||

#15  Then there is that federal judge in Hawaii who keeps trying to run Trump's foreign immigration policy. Fire him too.

Later this afternoon if possible.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/15/2018 13:24 Comments || Top||

#16  The agency has already put in place new safeguards to prevent such a misfire ‐ including a "cancel" button that will immediately send out corrective alerts when an erroneous warning is issued, officials said Sunday.

And, how long should everyone wait for a corrective alert before taking the first alert seriously?
Posted by: Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 || 01/15/2018 13:41 Comments || Top||

#17  Congrats! You just re-assigned the one person on the planet who is least likely to make *that* mistake again.

You can try to keep people from making mistakes, but humans are clever and adaptive. (idiot-proofing vs the Better Idiot). Think about that confirmation dialog that pops up when you delete a file on your computer. You've clicked OK so often that it has become part of the muscle memory used for deleting a file.

We don't think about how our systems are going to fail and how to recover from that event. This is bad because we increasingly rely on ever more complicated systems while continuing to assume they will "just work" The Northeast blackout of 2003 is an fine example of what should have been a local event cascading into widespread shutdown of the power grid.

The fact that it took 40 minutes to send out the equivalent of "Doh!" is shameful. Somebody needs a kick in the ass and it ain't the guy who pushed the wrong button.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/15/2018 16:07 Comments || Top||

#18  This is not a knock against engineers in general. BUT I had engineers work in my department who would walk up to a control panel and just start pushing every button in sight. Because. And get huffy when criticized. Screamed at, really. Serial button pushers.
Posted by: Blackbeard Bumble5724 || 01/15/2018 21:59 Comments || Top||

#19  I have an answer. From the hitchiker's guide to the galaxy.

"He reached out and pressed an invitingly large red button on a nearby panel. The panel lit up with the words Please do not press this button again."
Posted by: S. Thrith9686 || 01/15/2018 22:50 Comments || Top||

#20  Tapu nui loa!

Sounds like "Good luck with that!"
Posted by: gorb || 01/15/2018 23:41 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Four Pakistani soldiers killed in Indian fire across tense Kashmir frontier
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Four Pakistani soldiers were killed on Monday in shelling by Indian forces in the disputed Kashmir region, the Pakistani army said, the latest clash between the nuclear-armed neighbors who have also been exchanging heated challenges.

A decades-old dispute over the mostly Muslim Himalayan region of Kashmir, claimed in full but ruled in part by both Pakistan and India, has heated up in recent years after a 2003 ceasefire brought more than a decade of relative peace.

"Troops were busy in line communication maintenance when they were fired upon and hit by heavy mortar round," the Pakistani military said of the attack in which the four men were killed, in the Jandrot region.

Pakistani forces responded, killing three Indian soldiers and wounding several, it said. India’s military told Reuters that Pakistani forces fired first and no casualties were recorded on the Indian side.

On another section of the so-called Line of Control (LoC) dividing Kashmir between the two sides, India said its forces on Monday killed five member of a pro-Pakistan militant group trying to slip into Indian Kashmir.

"They crossed the Jhelum river which is de facto border in the area. We allowed them to cross the river and challenged them. All of the five who crossed the river were killed," said an Indian officer, Major General Gulab Singh Rawat.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/15/2018 08:06 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Cleric arrested for allegedly raping 14-year-old student in Karachi
Man held over alleged sexual assault of 6-year-old boy in Karachi


'No major breakthrough' as investigations enter fifth day in Zainab murder case


Man arrested for rape attempt on 12-year-old girl in DG Khan
Posted by: Fred || 01/15/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


4 Chinese nationals arrested in another ATM skimming incident in Karachi
[DAWN] Karachi police have arrested four Chinese nationals suspected of ATM skimming fraud and have recovered Rs2.3 million and 350 ATM cards from their possession, Clifton Superintendent Police (SP) Dr Asad Malhi said on Sunday.

Dr Malhi said that the police acted on information regarding suspicious activities of a group of Chinese men in Defence Phase-II area on Saturday night and arrested the three men, however, two other accomplices managed to escape.

One suspect linked with the group was later arrested on Sunday evening on information provided by the three men, DawnNews reported.

The Clifton SP said the group appears to be a part of an organised gang which employs young Chinese men for skimming frauds. The suspects were handed over to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), he added.

Posted by: Fred || 01/15/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Burning Iranian oil tanker sinks after January 6 accident
[IN.REUTERS] An Iranian oil tanker has sunk after burning for more than a week following a collision on Jan. 6 in the East China Sea, Chinese state media said on Sunday, adding that a large amount of oil was burning in the surrounding waters.


The stricken tanker, called the Sanchi (IMO:9356608), which had been adrift and on fire following the accident with the freighter CF Crystal, had “suddenly ignited” around noon (0400 GMT), China Central Television (CCTV) said.

“Currently it has already sunk,” CCTV said, citing the Shanghai maritime search and rescue centre. It showed video of a tower of billowing black smoke that it said reached as high as 1,000 metres, and flames on the surface of the water. The ship sank before 5 p.m. (0900 GMT), the broadcaster said.

China’s State Oceanic Administration said that because the hull of the ship had detonated, a large amount of oil in surrounding waters was on fire, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The Administration said it would expand the scope of its monitoring and “quickly ascertain the spread and drift of overflowing oil” from the wrecked ship.

A Chinese salvage team on Saturday recovered two bodies from the tanker. Another body, presumed to be one of the Sanchi’s sailors, was found on Monday and brought to Shanghai for identification.

The Sanchi’s crew consisted of 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis.

Iranian officials said the remaining 29 crew members and passengers of the tanker were presumed dead.
Posted by: Fred || 01/15/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Apparently, CF Crystal remains in service off of NingBo. The 'collision' damage must have been minor.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/15/2018 10:35 Comments || Top||

#2  I can't figure this out. Most tankers have double hulls and all kinds of fire suppression systems.

Drip is very volatile, we used to use it for gasoline in old flat head Ford pickup trucks in the oil fields. I hated that, my Chevy 6 pickup just wouldn't run pure drip, I had to mix it with regular gas.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 01/15/2018 22:09 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2018-01-15
  Israel Says It Destroys Hamas Tunnel Under Key Gaza Crossing
Sun 2018-01-14
  Islamic State affiliate claims Mali attack that injured 3 French soldiers
Sat 2018-01-13
  Over 100 Palestinians said injured in West Bank, Gaza clashes
Fri 2018-01-12
  Saleh Commander Presumed Dead Appears in Yemen Video
Thu 2018-01-11
  Veritas strikes again: Twitter caught doing shadow bans on conservatives through algorithm
Wed 2018-01-10
  Pakistan has suspended military and intelligence cooperation with US: defence minister
Tue 2018-01-09
  Spokesman: Senior Hamas official shot in the head
Mon 2018-01-08
  Nigeria's SSS 'Arrest Cameroon's Separatist Leaders'
Sun 2018-01-07
  SAS soldier cut head off jihadi with a SPADE after running out of ammo
Sat 2018-01-06
  U.S. freezes grant to UNRWA
Fri 2018-01-05
  13 Islamic State members killed, injured in operation, northeast of Baquba
Thu 2018-01-04
  Revolutionary Guards deployed to crush Iran demonstrations
Wed 2018-01-03
  Egypt executes four Islamist extremists over 2015 bomb attack
Tue 2018-01-02
  Pakistan plans takeover of charities run by Lashkar-e-Taiba
Mon 2018-01-01
  Nigeria: Scores Killed in Boko Haram Attacks in Borno, Yobe

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