Suite 1, 2 Richardson Street: Fill & Download for Free

Oh, good God, how long do you have?Do you want just Supreme Court blockbusters that are well-known, or do you want subtle cases in arbitration and administrative law that are virtually unknown outside of specific legal areas but that have a massive influence on how state and federal government is run? Are circuit court opinions all right? State court? I mean, we could really be here a while depending on how broadly you want to go.Here’s just some highlights from law school. I could go on like this for days. Months. I am not being facetious here. I promise I’m not going to just dump my law school outlines. That could get really long. Just my Constitutional Law outline was 40 pages.Constitutional Law - PowersJudicial ReviewMarbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803). Establishes the concept of judicial review as part of the United States judicial powers.Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee, 14 U.S. 304 (1816). Extends judicial review to being able to overrule state decisions if they conflict with the Federal Constitution.Enumerated PowersNecessary and Proper ClauseMcCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316 (1819). Defines the scope of the Necessary and Proper Clause of the Constitution to essentially turbocharge all enumerated Federal powers. “Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the Constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the Constitution, are constitutional.”The Commerce ClauseGibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1 (1824). The Federal government has the plenary power under the Commerce Clause to regulate “channels of commerce,” including waterways, roads, and railroads.Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905), decides that the freedom to contract is a fundamental right that the Federal government may not infringe upon by petty regulations like prohibiting bakeries from forcing bakers to work more than 60 hours a week or 10 hours a day.Hammer v. Dagenhart, (I’m getting lazy and I’m going to stop putting in the Bluebook cites,) (1918) key case of the “Lochner Era,” where the Court viewed itself as a sort of super-legislature and overrode Congress frequently where they didn’t think Congress made good policy. The Court decided that manufacturing is not “commerce” and struck down child labor laws.Carter v. Carter Coal (1936), decides manufacturing and labor rights are local issues, strikes down labor laws as an invalid exercise of the tax and spend clause.West Coast Hotel v. Parrish (1937), generally accepted as the end of the Lochner Era. Upheld a minimum wage requirement in Washington.Wickard v. Filburn (1942), upholds New Deal price controls on wheat, establishes the concept that economic activity can be viewed in the aggregate to see if there is a “substantial impact” on interstate commerce, which gives Congress the power to regulate activity under the Commerce Clause. The Court will not strike down another Congressional act based on the Commerce Clause for more than fifty years.Heart of Atlanta v. United States (1964), held that the movement of people is always considered commerce; upholds nondiscrimination laws barring segregation.Katzenbach v. McClung (1964), holds that refusing to serve black people at a restaurant has a substantial effect on interstate commerce because it’s connected to interstate commerce through interstate interactions - suppliers bring in things from out of state. Viewed in the aggregate, this has a substantial effect on interstate commerce and so Congress can regulate it.Lopez v. United States (1994), strikes down federal gun-free school zones because Congress did not sufficiently research or articulate how guns in schools are related to commerce. First time the Court strikes down a law passed pursuant to the Commerce Clause since before Filburn.United States v. Morrison (2000), after Lopez, Congress does a LOT of fact-finding when making laws pursuant to the commerce clause. Makes a ton of factual findings when passing the Violence Against Women Act about how violence against women impacts commerce in the aggregate; women who aren’t safe don’t buy things, have jobs, and so forth. The Court looks at it and goes, “ehhhhhhhh… ok, new rule - if it’s not inherently economic activity, then you can’t aggregate it.” They decide that individual violence against women isn’t economic activity, so it can’t be aggregated, and therefore, can’t be regulated under the Commerce Clause.Gonzales v. Raich (2005), decides that things that could end up in the marketplace (any commodity and the manufacture or growing of such commodity) is economic activity, can be regulated, and upholds the use of the Controlled Substances Act to slap a California grandmother growing small amounts of marijuana in her basement for personal use with a Federal crime.Sibelius v. NFIB (2012) Part I: The Attack of the Roberts Court, holds that non-participation in the market is not commerce and can’t be regulated; people cannot be forced into the marketplace.The Tax and Spend ClauseSouth Dakota v. Dole (1987) held that it’s perfectly fine to spend federal funds to dictate policy to the States, so long as it’s an unambiguous national interest (here, preventing drunk driving accidents on the federal interstate highway system,) and it’s not coercive (can’t compel the state to adopt the policy). Withholding federal highway funds from any state that didn’t raise the drinking age to 21 was not coercive enough.Sibelius v. NFIB, Part II: The Revenge of the Tax and Spend Clause; Roberts decides that the mandatory ACA Medicare expansion was coercive because it would have taken away all Medicare funding from any non-complying state, but also holds that the individual mandate was OK under the tax and spend clause, because the penalty for not having health insurance was a tax, collected by the IRS, and spent on paying off the assholes who show up at the ER without insurance and no money that the rest of us pay for through our premiums.Treaty PowersMissouri v. Holland (1920). Height of the Lochner Era, mass extinction-level hunting of migratory birds going on. The Court keeps striking down all sorts of Federal regulations on migratory birds under the Commerce Clause; birds and hunting are not commerce according to the Court. But, Woodrow Wilson got Canada to sign on to a treaty regarding migratory birds in 1916. The Court finds that valid, and regulations passed pursuant to that treaty are valid under the Necessary and Proper Clause.Executive AuthorityYoungstown Sheet and Tube (1952); Truman’s attempt to seize steel mills and nationalize the steel industry failed because Congress told him no, you can’t do that. Special concurrence by Justice Jackson establishes various “zones” of presidential powers.Constitutional Law - LibertiesFundamental Rights - Substantive Due ProcessBarron v. Baltimore (1833), decides that the Federal Constitution and particularly the Bill of Rights doesn’t apply to the states unless it explicitly says so. States and municipalities can seize property without compensation to their hearts’ delights.Lochner v. New York (1905) - decides that there is a fundamental right to contract, and that the more important a right is that is infringed upon, the more the Court should insist upon a close fit between the means of governmental intrusion and the ends.Palko v. Connecticut (1937) establishes that to find a fundamental right, it must be “deeply rooted in the traditional conscience,” and “essential to our notions of ordered liberty.” Fundamental if no potential system of justice would be complete without it.United States v. Carolene Products (1938), “magic footnote four” establishes the idea that infringement upon certain rights should be granted a higher level of scrutiny, significantly clarifies the notion laid out in Lochner.Duncan v. Louisiana (1968) refines Palko, must be necessary specifically to American scheme of justice. Starts the road of “incorporation,” which applies the Constitution to the States through the 14th Amendment. Starts with “strong selective” incorporation, generally assuming that the Bill of Rights applies, but still only on a case-by-case basis.Meyer v. Nebraska (1923), fundamental right to parent your children as you see fit, no legitimate end in prohibiting teaching of German language.Buck v. Bell (1927), Oliver Wendell Holmes decides that forced sterilization of mentally ill patients is just fine because, and I quote, “three generations of imbeciles is enough.” This has never been overruled.Skinner v. Oklahoma ex rel Williamson (1942), strikes down forced sterilization of prison inmates and establishes the concept of bodily autonomy and integrity for the first time in U.S. jurisprudence. Recognizes that there may be fundamental rights to marriage and procreation.Rochin v. California (1952), strikes down conviction for drugs after police forcibly pumped the man’s stomach to retrieve them; upholds idea of bodily integrity.Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), finds a fundamental right to personal medical privacy under the “penumbra” of the Bill of Rights; strikes down Connecticut statute prohibiting contraception or aiding someone in obtaining it. Establishes the idea that government does not belong in the bedroom, sets the stage for a huge abortion fight that will last at least the next 55 years.Loving v. Virginia (1967); holds that marriage is a fundamental right and strikes down anti-miscegenation laws nationwide.Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972), finds that the right to choose whether to procreate or not is fundamental, covering married people using contraception only in this case. Applies strict scrutiny; while preventing adultery is a legitimate governmental interest, it is not served here. If the right to sexual privacy is to mean anything, the Court reasons, it must be an individual one.Roe v. Wade (1973). Probably the biggest landmark decision affecting U.S. politics as a matter of fundamental rights ever. The Court applied the lines of cases stretching back to the beginning of fundamental rights, bodily integrity, sexual and medical privacy, and found that the right to an abortion falls under these rights. The Court holds that a fetus is not a person by definition of the Constitution.Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) found that there was no specific right to engage in sodomy in the Constitution.Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) ditches the rigid trimester framework that Roe came up with in favor of the “undue burden standard” and drawing the line when government can fully regulate or ban abortion at viability (then generally accepted at 24 weeks.)Also established a framework for when to overrule precedence, requiring balancing four factors: 1) how unworkable the previous standard has become, 2) the amount of reliance on the previous decision there has been, 3) whether the previous decision has been undermined or evolved, and 4) factual developments since the previous decision. This has a great deal of impact on our politics by providing lawmakers the criteria needed to undermine prior decisions and develop a factual basis to overrule prior cases.Lawrence v. Texas (2003), while there is no specific right to homosexual sodomy in the Constitution, consensual sex in the privacy of one’s own home is a fundamental right and discrimination against homosexuals is not a legitimate state interest.Obergefell v. Hodges (2015); extended fundamental right to marry found in Loving to same-sex marriages.Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstadt (2016); struck down admitting privileges and other various TRAP laws as violating the undue burden standard laid out in Casey; reaffirmed Casey and Roe’s essential holdings.Equal ProtectionFrontiero v. Richardson (1973). Laid out the criteria for finding suspect classifications under the Equal Protection Clause. Suspect classifications get strict scrutiny. These are politically protected classes of people.Korematsu v. United States (1944). One of the most infamous decisions of the 20th century; established national security as a compelling state interest, allows facially racial discrimination. (Overruled since.)Brown v. Board of Education (1954), struck down racially segregated schools as a matter of equal protection. Overruled Plessy v Ferguson (1896) that upheld Jim Crow laws as “separate but equal”.Fisher v. University of Texas (2013, 2016), upheld affirmative action programs on a narrow basis, so long as race is only one factor among others and there is no other race-neutral alternative to achieve diversity.Also, states themselves can prohibit affirmative action programs after Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action (2014). This is affecting US politics on a state level as legislatures are pushing to ban affirmative action programs.Voting RightsBaker v. Carr (1962). Allowed the Court to intervene in redistricting at all; it had generally been viewed as a political question outside of judicial review prior to this.This case literally broke two justices. Justice Frankfurter had a stroke because of it and was forced to retire, and led to a psychological breakdown of Justice Whittaker, who never recovered and retired from the Court without a decision on Carr.Reynolds v. Sims (1964), established the “one person, one vote” principle.Kramer v. Union Free School District (1969), the right to vote is a fundamental right and requires strict scrutiny review. This is still impacting politics today as various politicians try to find ways around it, notably felon disenfranchisement.Nixon and his cabinet were furious about this decision and it was a piece of the reason for the War on Drugs; if they couldn’t simply undo the voting rights act and couldn’t restore Jim Crow, they’d basically have to find a way to criminalize being black. The War on Drugs specifically targeted drugs favored by the black community with greater enforcement. This is still a problem today.Bush v. Gore (2000), held that the right to a uniform process outweighed the individual’s right to have their vote counted because the electoral college operated on a deadline. This decision gave the election to George W. Bush.Evenwel v. Abbot (2015), after a naked attempt by Texas to reduce the influence of districts with a high population of non-citizen immigrants, the Court decided that districts should be drawn based on total population, not just eligible voters. The Court noted that this was explicitly debated and considered in the drafting of the Constitution and the people who wrote it explicitly went with total population.This is currently impacting the 2020 Census as the Trump Administration has been actively trying to get a citizenship question on the census for the first time in 70+ years for the purpose of trying to get undocumented immigrants not to answer the census, thus undercounting the number of people in those areas and decreasing representation for those districts.Free SpeechNew York Times v. United States (1971), ruling that even where the government has a compelling interest to restrict speech as a prior restraint (prevent someone from speaking,) it can’t be a pretense and the Court will really look at whether that compelling interest is real or not.Buckley v. Valeo (1976), held that money is the same as speech and struck down spending limits by campaigns. Upheld individual contribution limits.Central Hudson Gas and Electric v. Public Service Commission (1980). Held that commercial speech (advertising) is able to be regulated by law with a lesser degree of scrutiny.Texas v. Johnson (1989), burning the U.S. flag is protected by the First Amendment, and conservatives have been fucking pissed about this ruling ever since, including proposing actual constitutional amendments to overrule the Court.Citizens United v. FEC (2009). Struck down corporate contribution limits to campaigns, allows disclaimer and disclosure requirements, but severely weakened the FEC’s ability to regulate electioneering. Allows corporations to donate unlimited amounts of money to campaigns.McCutcheon v. FEC (2014), struck down aggregate limits on contributions as impermissible abridgement of First Amendment rights. People can now donate up to the individual limits to every candidate they want, and if you’re the Koch Brothers, you can now use corporations to get around individual limits.This also severely restricted the definition of quid-pro-quo corruption to require basically an explicit bribe-for-performance.Free PressBranzburg v. Hayes (1972), can try to protect your sources all you want, but if a grand jury calls you up, reporters get no special exemption. If they ask you and you refuse, that’s contempt.Florida Star v. B.J.F. (1989); you can publish information gathered illegally by others so long as you didn’t gather it illegally yourself. And you can publish public records all you’d like.So, if someone wants to send a copy of the Mueller Report on over to the Times…Freedom of Religion and Establishment ClauseReynolds v. United States (1878), the government has no right to compel you to believe anything or punish your religious beliefs. Congress cannot do anything about your “mere opinion.”Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe (2000), a prayer before sporting events, even if the students are the ones who brought it up and led it, is an impermissible government endorsement of religion.Again, conservatives have been losing their shit about this every since, and it’s become something of a hidden litmus test for Supreme Court nominees for conservatives ever since, even though the case was decided with a conservative-dominated Court.Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (2014), held that closely held corporations (such as a family-owned business,) have religious free exercise rights.This has been a political hot button lately with the ACA.ArbitrationYou have no idea how much these cases affect everything you do, including your politics.Southland Corp. v. Keating (1984). The Federal Arbitration Act pre-empts damned near everything. State laws trying to get around it are null and void.Mitsubishi Motors Corp. v. Soler Chrysler-Plymouth, Inc. (1987), even if you have a statutory claim that would let you bring a case in open court, if you signed an arbitration agreement, say, in the process of buying car, you get stuck in arbitration.Buckeye Check Cashing (2006). Even if the entire contract is illegal, the arbitrator gets to decide whether or not it’s valid.Hall Street v. Mattel (2008). The only grounds to get an arbitration award vacated is in the FAA, and it more or less requires “manifest disregard” of the law. The arbitrator can make “silly, even improvident” findings of fact or conclusions of law, but as long as the arbitrator doesn’t say, “Well, I know that law says that, but I’m ignoring it!” you are stuck with whatever the arbitrator decides.AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion (2014); even if a company is cheating millions of people out of small amounts of money such that they make billions of dollars and nobody would bother going to arbitration individually over $30 when if they lose, they could be forced to pay for the entire arbitration, class action waivers in “adhesion contracts,” (think, clicking “I agree” on your phone to literally anything,) class action waivers are enforceable.Administrative LawChevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council (1984). Courts should defer to an agency’s interpretation of a statute if it’s at all ambiguous and so long as it’s not arbitrary and capricious.The conservative-dominated Supreme Court developed this deference during the Reagan Administration. During the Obama Administration, when the President starting using agency action because Congress preferred to sit on its hands and do jack shit nothing just to spite him, suddenly the still-conservative-dominated Supreme Court had a change of heart, as will be discussed momentarily.Ironically, folks irritated with the sudden lack of deference to the executive should be hoping for the Court to continue that lack of deference right now.Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe (1971). Agencies can change course or undertake rulemaking actions, so long as they aren’t arbitrary and capricious.The Trump administration can’t seem to either hire a lawyer that understands this or just plain won’t listen to them, which is why a metric shit ton of their attempts to create or undo various administrative agency rules keep getting rejected by the courts.Bowles v. Seminole Rock and Sand Co. (1945). Courts should defer to an agency’s interpretation of its own regulations if there’s a dispute over it.Auer v. Robbins (1987). Courts should really, really defer to an agency’s interpretation of its own rules if there’s a dispute over it.Kisor v. Wilkie (2019). Not yet decided, but conservatives who suddenly got really itchy all over about agency deference under Obama and liberals who suddenly got really itchy all over about agency deference under Trump are suddenly really hoping that the Supreme Court will ditch Seminole Rock and Auer and stop letting agencies have their way.Criminal Law and ProcedureMapp v. Ohio (1961) established the exclusionary rule; if police violate your constitutional rights, the evidence they gain from that can be excluded.This impacts our politics still today, because in the push to be “tough on crime” and for “law and order,” especially in a post-9/11 world, police are more and more frequently using tools that massively invade on personal privacy. Add to it that we now basically carry much of our essential information, our “papers” if you will, on a little slab in our pockets.Miranda v. Arizona (1966). This was an enormous shift in how police had to treat suspects, and it still affects our politics today.TortsYou think civil suits can’t affect public policy? Think again! Products liability has had a huge impact on our politics over the years.MacPherson v. Buick (1916). A wheel fell off a guy’s car, and for the first time, the court allowed the victim to sue the manufacturer and not just the retailer, for a manufacturing defect rather than just faulty installation.Leichtamer v. AMC (Ohio 1982). While the manufacturers aren’t on the hook to design totally crash-proof cars, unreasonably dangerous product designs or defective designs can still make them liable even where the victims were idiots.Knitz v. Minster Machine Co. (Ohio 1982). Safety features shouldn’t be optional add-ons. *Ahem, cough, Boeing, cough, cough.*New York Times v. Sullivan (1964). This case raises the bar for recovery for public figures; they have to show that a false statement was published with “actual malice.” This is the reason that Trump doesn’t actually sue anyone for defamation.Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants (1994). This is the infamous “hot coffee” case. Stella Liebeck was a) not driving, b) in a car that had pulled into a parking stall, c) did not suffer little tiny burns from some spilled coffee, but third degree burns over pretty much her entire downstairs region, d) after McDonald’s had been repeatedly cited for storing their coffee as much as 30 degrees above the maximum safe limit and settled literally hundreds of cases where people had suffered serious burns from this practice, and e) Liebeck was only trying to get McDonald’s to cover her medical bills after they offered her $800 to just go away.It was the jury that imposed a 2.5 million fine on the company as punitive damages for actions that “shocked the conscience.” That number is equivalent to two days’ worth of coffee sales to the corporation.Business lobbies have been trying to make this into a frivolous case ever since by reducing it to “woman burned with hot coffee, duh.” This case has been the front case for 25 years by these pro-business lobbies to enact tort reform to try to block suits like this, even though it was completely legitimate.It is still repeatedly brought up by politicians trying to make cases sound frivolous by comparing a case to Liebeck’s.I could go on like this forever. We haven’t even touched on contract law, civil procedure, or secured transactions. These are just highlights. There are literally thousands of cases, big and small, that continue to have large impacts on our national and local level politics.You read all the way this far, and deserve a reward. Here’s a kitten.Thanks for the A2A.Mostly Standard Addendum and Disclaimer: read this before you comment.I welcome rational, reasoned debate on the merits with reliable, credible sources.But coming on here and calling me names, pissing and moaning about how biased I am, et cetera and so forth, will result in a swift one-way frogmarch out the airlock. Doing the same to others will result in the same treatment.Essentially, act like an adult and don’t be a dick about it.Getting cute with me about my commenting rules and how my answer doesn’t follow my rules and blah, blah, whine, blah is getting old. I’m ornery enough today to not put up with it. Stay on topic or you’ll get to watch the debate from the outside.If you want to argue and you’re not sure how to not be a dick about it, just post a picture of a cute baby animal instead, all right? Your displeasure and disagreement will be duly noted. Pinkie swear.I’m done with warnings. If you have to consider whether or not you’re over the line, the answer is most likely yes. I’ll just delete your comment and probably block you, and frankly, I won’t lose a minute of sleep over it.Debate responsibly.

The world’s technology depends on the DR Congo because it has 80% of the world’s coltan (mineral that helps advance the technology of the world)DR Congo is the largest country in Africa.. equivalent to the size of Western Europe.DR Congo has the biggest rainforest in the continent of Africa and the 2nd largest in the world after the Amazon.DR Congo is the richest country in the world in natural resources.DR Congo is the first black African country to participate in the FIFA World Cup.DR Congo has hosted the most historical boxing fight the world... Rumble In The Jungle (Muhammad Ali vs George Edward Foreman)Papa Wemba of DR Congo is the first Black african to have (Album called “Emotion”)Grand Kalle of DR Congo is the first Black African in history to own a record label and sign artists.Koffi Olomide of DR Congo remains the only artist in the World to sellout 3 of Paris legendary venues in the just 9 months; Olympia, Zenith and BercyThe Queen mother (Angela Evelyn Bassett) in Marvel Studio’s ‘Black Panther’ wearing a costume inspired by the DR Congo (Mangbetu Tribe)Congo River is one of the most important natural resources. Local Congolese have long used the river for food, transportation and electricity.DR Congo hydroelectric potential could supply all of sub-Saharan Africa; Congolese agriculture has the potential to feed a large part of African continent.DR Congo have one of the most advanced and ranks among the most famous kingdoms of sub-Saharan Africa, known as the Kingdom of Kongo.Congolese were the first to organise fishing expeditions 90,000 years ago. At Katanda, a region in northeastern Zaïre (now Congo), was recovered a finely wrought series of harpoon points, all elaborately polished and barbed. Also uncovered was a tool, equally well crafted, believed to be a dagger. The discoveries suggested the existence of an early aquatic or fishing based culture.Congolese are good in sports, music, dance, healthy, culture everything. But then again they are the heart of Africa.Congolese pioneered basic arithmetic 25,000 years ago. The Ishango bone is a tool handle with notches carved into it found in the Ishango region of Zaïre (now called Congo) near Lake Edward. The bone tool was originally thought to have been over 8,000 years old, but a more sensitive recent dating has given dates of 25,000 years old. On the tool are 3 rows of notches. Row 1 shows three notches carved next to six, four carved next to eight, ten carved next to two fives and finally a seven. The 3 and 6, 4 and 8, and 10 and 5, represent the process of doubling. Row 2 shows eleven notches carved next to twenty-one notches, and nineteen notches carved next to nine notches. This represents 10 + 1, 20 + 1, 20 - 1 and 10 - 1. Finally, Row 3 shows eleven notches, thirteen notches, seventeen notches and nineteen notches. 11, 13, 17 and 19 are the prime numbers between 10 and 20.Nyiragongo of DR Congo As it turns out, lava lakes can be pretty deadly, and at Nyiragongo, it makes it one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. is found at a maximum elevation of 3250m (pre-disaster), inside a 3465m tall stratovolcano; the lava lake has an estimated depth of 600m and contains one of the most fluid lavas on Earth.1. Music is its biggest exportThe country’s biggest stars — musicians such as Koffi Olomide, Papa Wemba, Fally Ipupa, Franco Luambo, Ferré Gola, Le Grand Kallé, Nico Kasanda, Pépé Kallé, Kanda Bongo Man, M’bilia Bel, Tshala Muana, JB Mpiana, Baloji (rapper), Jean Bosco Mwenda, Maître Gims, Damso, Innoss’B, Mohombi, Awilo Longomba, Lokua_Kanza, Madilu System, Henri Bowane, KeBlack, Naza_(rapper), Dadju, Ya Levis Dalwear, Gaz Mawete, etc., — can fill the biggest clubs from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Paris as fast as Justin Bieber.The principle styles of music, known as Congolese rumba, Soukous, and Ndombolo, are all accompanied by particular dances.Known as the “father of rumba,” Wendo Kolosoy began a seven-decades long career singing while working on the barges that ply the Congo River.Including the megahit “Marie-Louise,” his songs inspired millions of couples across the continent to take to the dance floor. These days the younger set has moved on to the more provocative, suggestive and energetic moves of ndombolo. It’s loud, some would say crass, and it’s extremely popular.Followers of the biggest names in the business are as fanatical as supporters of European football clubs, and sometimes as violent, with fights now and then breaking out at concerts between rival fans. The musicians have also spawned a well-dressed segment of society known as sapeurs. For sapeurs, it’s mandatory to wear the best European-cut suits, matching Italian leather shoes and sunglasses, even at night.If you see a yellow Ferrari on the streets of Kinshasa, a sapeur who has made it to the top is likely at the wheels.2. The Concorde was a regular visitor to Congolese jungleThe airport in Gbadolite was built to accommodate the Concorde. And the now-retired plane visited frequently.The white elephants in GbadolitePresident Mobutu’s Hometown GbadoliteDictator Mobutu Sese Seko built one of the longest airstrips in Africa in the middle of nowhere, so that the sleek supersonic jet could land at the imitation French town he had carved out of the jungle near the banks of the Oubangui River.Gbadolite could qualify as the weirdest town in the world.Built in the 1960s, close to Mobutu’s birthplace, wide boulevards were cut out of the tropical rainforest, following a design taken directly from small-town France.Even the street signs were the same as you'd see in Paris, Marseille or a village near the Belgian border. Dominating the town were two palaces, one in the form of a gigantic complex of Chinese pagodas.Always concerned with security, Mobutu had what was at the time the largest bunker in Africa built in case of nuclear attack. A 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) tunnel leading to the Oubangui River provided an escape route to the neighboring Central African Republic.There’s not much left of Gbadolite these days —it’s been looted several times since Mobutu fled advancing rebel forces in 1997, and the jungle is quickly reclaiming lost ground.3. The Congo played role in World War IIThe uranium used in the Manhattan Project, the top secret mission that led to the construction of the atomic bomb in World War II, came from the Shinkolobwe Mine in Katanga Province.Production at the mine would continue throughout the war, with several hundred tons being shipped monthly to the various Manhattan Project sites. Most of the uranium used during World War II was from the Congolese mines, and the “Little Boy” bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 used Congolese uranium.The U.S. military reopened Shinkolobwe after it had been closed in 1939.Once army engineers got the place going again, Col. Kenneth Nichols arranged for the purchase of more than 4,000 tons of uranium ore from the mine, transporting a quarter of it to a warehouse on Staten Island for use in the project. About 30,000 tons were sold to the Americans before the war came to an end.Shinkolobwe has been officially closed since 2004, but as is the case all over the Congo, private miners still try to eke out a meager existence from what they can extract on their own.Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, the first nuclear reactor built in Africa can still be found in Kinshasa.4. The wildlife is phenomenalThe rare Okapi is one of 1,500 animal species endemic to the Congo. It makes its home in the remote Ituri Forest in the northeastern part of the country.Built more like a deer with stripes similar to a zebra's, this forest giraffe measures 6 feet at the head and 5 feet at the shoulder.The okapi is an endangered animal, and the Okapi Wildlife Reserve was established in 1992 to protect the remaining animal population as well as the habitat of the Mbuti pygmies, one of the continent's last forest-dwelling peoples.On the Epulu River, the reserve, about 1.5 times the size of Yellowstone National Park, is home to 5,000 Okapis, 4,000 elephants and 2,000 leopards as well as many other species. Successive civil wars have taken a heavy toll on the human and animal population, but for the past few years the reserve has been largely free of the armed groups that caused the insecurity.The Okapi Conservation Project manages the reserve and its tourism facilities, which have recently been rebuilt.5. Potential to be tourist paradiseSadly, these days the eastern part of the country is probably best known for its warlords, rebel groups and mineral conflicts.But before the 1990s, when it was largely stable, the region was a prime tourist destination.Both Goma and Bukavu, the provincial capitals of North and South Kivu, respectively, are on the banks of Lake Kivu.Surrounded by the Virunga Mountains, the area around Goma bears a beautiful resemblance to alpine lakes in Europe.The Virunga MountainsTwo national parks are nearby—the Virunga National Park to the north and the Kahuzi-Biega National Park outside Bukavu.Virunga National ParkBoth are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The Virunga National Park encompasses numerous habitats, from lowland plains to the Rwenzori Mountains, which reach heights of 5,000 meters (more than 16,000 feet).It’s home to the world’s largest concentration of hippos and also to the continent’s most active volcanoes —the Nyiragongo and the Nyamulagira.Nyiragongo’s lava lakeThe Kahuzi Biega National Park is home to one of the last troops of eastern lowland gorillas, a subspecies indigenous to the country.Kahuzi Biega National ParkChronic instability, poaching and absence of funding have made park management difficult over the last two decades, but a dedicated group of Congolese rangers in both parks continue to do their best.6. Hotel sector is decent, growing and expensiveUntil 10 years ago, Kinshasa only had two hotels of any international standing, the Memling and the Grand Hotel, which had once been an Intercontinental.Pullman Kinshasa Grand HotelThe Memling is owned by the SN Brussels Airlines Group, and the Grand Hotel is partially owned by the Congolese government.Following Mobutu’s overthrow in 1997, and during the subsequent war between 1998-2002, the Grand Hotel also was home to government ministers and the upper ranks of the Angolan, Namibian and Zimbabwean armies, which had been sent to defend the government of Laurent Kabila.During that time, it wasn’t uncommon to see antelopes running through hotel corridors.Today the Grand Hotel is in the final phases of a much needed face-lift, and its occupants tend to come from the business sector. In the meantime, as international business people flock to the country, at least six other decent hotels have been built in the capital, and many more are in the works, ranging from luxurious to basic. Travelers looking for a bargain will likely be disappointed.The average hotel room in Kinshasa goes from $150-$200 a night, with rooms in the high-end hotels costing upward of $300.The same is true for accommodation in the copper-mining capital, Lubumbashi. The eastern cities of Goma and Bukavu also have a fair number of hotels, some of which are nice, with most having spectacular views of Lake Kivu. Prices there start around $100.The rest of the cities in the country have only limited accommodations.7. Congolese ArmyU.S. depend on congolese army to fight the communists in Angola in the mid-1970s & stop Libya’s expansionist advance in Chad in 1982. Throughout the 70s and 80s, the Congolese trained elite troops from several African countries, such as Chad, Rwanda, Burundi, & Togo. Katangan rebels based in Angola launched two invasions—Shaba I and Shaba II—into the Katanga Province to defend Angola In 1977 and 1978.General Mobutu became Mobutu Sésé Seko and forced Congolese to adopt African names and many cities were also renamed.Some of the conversions are as follows:Léopoldville became KinshasaStanleyville became KisanganiÉlisabethville became LubumbashiJadotville became LikasiAlbertville became Kalemie…During his era, the Congo also launched a number of economic projects, creating new public enterprises and a series of pharaonic enterprises such as the Inga dams and the Maluku Steel Projects.We need both to develop our resources to meet our needs and improve our lives, and then to develop our resources and engage in fair and legitimate trade that mutually benefits both producer and buyer. This requires transformation, and we believe this is best achieved as we come to the table as partners. As more than partners really. We need to recognize that our future is dependent on each other. So we say in Swahili, tukopamoja (we are together).

Russians are mocking their space program? Do any Russians remember this guy?I remember him, not from that time, but from a little later. I was too little to remember him directly. But I learned who he was. Yeah, he has no СССР on his helmet. It’s funny right? The guy on the bus had to paint the letters onto the helmet by hand. Russians should not be mocking their space program, if they are. They have no reason at all to be doing that. They have every reason to be proud. Everyone in the world should remember what that man did.Do any Americans remember this guy?I sure do. Americans have no reason to be mocking their space program either. We can remember it with plenty of pride, and so can the former Soviets. Americans are still flying to the ISS on Russian rockets.Where do people get such nonsense from? What kind of rockets are they talking about? Do they include nuclear tipped ICBMs, anti-aircraft missiles, anti-missile missiles, and shoulder launched anti-tank and anti-personnel missiles here? What about missiles that are fired from Predator drones? Or they only interested in rockets that go to space?SpaceX is a contractor for the US government.SpaceX, when designing its rockets, has access to decades worth of NASA experience in building rockets. They are not starting from ground zero.Where do these people who are mocking the Russian space program think that all of the money for SpaceX is coming from? Do they imagine that Elon Musk does all of this out of love for humanity? Why is SpaceX launching from US military launch facilities?Port Canaveral, the entire harbour, the whole construction of a deep water port there, was a US Navy project. The Spaceport is a US Air Force site. The value of SpaceX defense contracts was estimated at about $5.5 billion USD as of 2015. In aggregate that amounts to about 70% of their total funding.[1][2][3]You and I, if we are both American and both pay Federal income tax, are helping to pay for that Tesla which is now floating off towards the asteroid belt, with our tax dollars.The car was supposed to end up near Mars, but it seems that SpaceX didn’t quite achieve the right orbit, so it’s going to the asteroid belt instead. Congratulations.Can you imagine NASA ever pulling that sort of crap during a test? I guarantee you that no one would be applauding the result. They would especially not be applauding this result. The engineers would all have grim looks on their faces and they would be chewing themselves out.By the way, did anyone notice? One third of that “recoverable and re-usable” rocket, the core booster, crashed into the ocean at 300 mph, about 100 meters away from the recovery ship, spraying shrapnel all over the deck. Oh, well, that’s close enough, I guess. It’s a good thing that none of the boosters landed on anyone’s head, I suppose. Thank heaven for small mercies.Can anyone tell me who picks up the tab, the costs for property damage and any loss of life and limb in that case?Private enterprise does a better job than governments do: in a pig’s eye.NASA has, I think, very foolishly gotten out of the launch vehicle business, after terminating the shuttle program. It was a short sighted decision. But their long term interest has been in the payloads, not in the launch vehicles. We’ll all see how good a decision it was to give up control over the launch vehicles in the long run.The natural competition for SpaceX is other aerospace contractors, not governments. Specifically their current competitor is ULA which has a 50 year track record with practically no failures. There was one failure of a Delta 4 Heavy. But there have been no failures for the Atlas V which is the closest to the Falcon 9, the only SpaceX reusable launch vehicle for which anything you could really call a track record currently exists. The Falcon 9 has 49 launches and 2 failures, for about a 96% reliability rate. The recovery rate for the boosters is not 100%, and no one yet knows what the refurbishing costs will be for those boosters, or how many times they can actually be reused, when they are recovered. It is very early days yet. Don’t believe every word that comes out of SpaceX about their launch costs, long term. They are not yet known. Especially don’t believe what SpaceX says about the launch costs of their major competitors.Private contractors have been used by NASA and the DOD all along.By the way, the four major general purpose government research laboratories in the US are all operated as government contractors. That idiot, Vice President Joe Biden, thought that they should all be completely privatized.When NASA was designing and building the Hubble space telescope, they wanted some independent oversight on the design of the main mirror, because for some unaccountable reason they didn’t give the contract to Kodak. People at the top were unsure about the subcontractor. Guess who was approached to lead up the oversight team? My father, employed at BNL, that’s who. They were going to put up a couple of million to have the job done and to start some theoretical astrophysics research at BNL, too. The director of NASA had approved the funding for the next year. But then he was dumped. The new director decided they didn’t need to spend that extra money. They would have saved themselves billions on the back end by paying that two million up front. That much I can tell you. The flaw in the design of the mirror would not have been missed. That is the quality of research that is only funded by government money. It does not happen any other way.BNL used to be managed by an independent consortium of universities called AUI. AUI was a contractor to the DOE, and BNL had almost no military research associated with it. In those years BNL still did extremely good science.Since there was an utterly insignificant tritium leak from the HFBR temporary spent fuel rod storage pool at BNL, the management of the entire BNL contract was given over to the Bechtel Corporation, who were at that time sipping at the trough of the superfund cleanup of Hanford and other very badly contaminated military sites in the US. Bechtel took over the management of BNL on the orders of the idiot Secretary of Energy at the time, now Governor Bill Richardson, who I remember flew out on a fucking personal government helicopter, wearing what looked like a $5000 suit, to deliver the news that BNL was the absolute worst laboratory in the nation for safety and was therefore being stood down, and the HFBR being shut down for no good reason. It seems he got his information from Christie Brinkley, out in the Hamptons. It was total, utter bullshit. At the time, Brookhaven was by far the safest National Laboratory in the country, and what has happened since Bechtel took over was completely predictable.Bechtel added in an entire new class of upper level bureaucrats, a whole new layer of people who know no science whatsoever and who have a huge say over what gets done at BNL, which now mostly hires new administrators and computer security professionals who make it impossible for scientists to use BNL computers for anything useful at all, and who all drag down HUGE SALARIES for getting in the way.In the end BNL will consist of administrators administrating other administrators and a huge “Human Resources” department making sure that those administrators are all suitably diverse. Private industry, in the meantime, killed what was probably the best private research laboratory that there ever was in the world, which was called, for people too young to remember, Bell Laboratories.And by the way, Bell Laboratories had an intimate relationship with, you guessed it, the US government.At some point in time, I remember some idiot Federal judge broke up the “monopoly” of AT&T in order to replace it with thousands of Baby Bells, which immediately reconsolidated themselves again forming gigantic regional Bells, and making a lot of investment bankers from Wall Street rich.And just look what kind of competition we have in telecommunications now.Research that was done in large part by DARPA is what led to the internet. A physicist at CERN then invented the World Wide Web. And our idiot President wants to slash Federal budgets across the board for science. The Republican Congress goes along with that, to the tune of 25% cuts for high energy physics across the board, after years of flat funding, and to the tune of an extra $115 billion in military spending.Yeah sure, Elon Musk is going to save us all.Keep on reading Atlas Shrugged, if you can stomach it. Personally, I can’t. I’m too old for reading such crap.Footnotes[1] Elon Musk’s Subsidy Aggregation[2] Elon Musk's growing empire is fueled by $4.9 billion in government subsidies[3] SpaceX Cronyism Is Symptomatic of Defense Contracting at Its Worst