Octopus Overlords

Kraken wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2019 3:11 pm Quibble: the Vanity Fair story casually calls Christian Reformed "Reformed," but that's inaccurate. The Reformed Church in America (in which I was raised) is a small, somewhat more liberal offshoot of the much stricter Christian Reformed Church. The RCA allowed dancing and watching movies, for example, whereas the CRC shunned them as "graven images" (but TV was fine, for some reason, except on Sundays). Anyway, us Reformed types took umbrage at being called Christian Reformed because we had reformed from them!

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Wed Dec 07, 2016 8:24 pm All the cool kids are drinking hexavalent chromium these days.

A bright greenish-yellow liquid gushed onto the side of a Michigan highway Friday, prompting a multiagency investigation that discovered the mystery substance was probably a chemical that is known to cause cancer.

The hexavalent chromium-contaminated water that rushed from a retaining wall onto Interstate 696 in the Detroit suburb of Madison Heights appeared to come from a shuttered electroplating business, said Jill Greenberg, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.

The department forced the business, Electro-Plating Services, to close in 2016 after inspectors found hundreds of containers of hazardous waste at the site. The owner, Gary Sayers, is serving a year in federal prison after pleading guilty to illegally storing the waste.

Hexavalent chromium is usually created by an industrial process like plating or welding, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It is toxic and particularly harmful to the respiratory system, kidneys, liver, skin and eyes.

Unagi wrote: ↑Mon Dec 23, 2019 1:25 pm Was this mis-posted? or am I missing something...

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Thursday said the coronavirus outbreak in China could help bring jobs to America, a remark that was quickly criticized as insensitive to China’s plight.

“The fact is, it does give businesses another thing to consider when they do a review of their supply chains,” Mr. Ross said Thursday morning on Fox Business. “I think it will help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America, some to U.S., probably some to Mexico as well.”

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Thu Jan 30, 2020 2:51 pm Haven't used this thread in a while, let's check in with Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross:

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Thursday said the coronavirus outbreak in China could help bring jobs to America, a remark that was quickly criticized as insensitive to China’s plight.

“The fact is, it does give businesses another thing to consider when they do a review of their supply chains,” Mr. Ross said Thursday morning on Fox Business. “I think it will help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America, some to U.S., probably some to Mexico as well.”

Wow.

Veterans Affairs Department Deputy Secretary James Byrne was fired Monday, amid controversy over how the department handled a sexual assault allegation by a House staffer visiting a VA facility last year.

VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said he dismissed Byrne just five months after he was confirmed by the Senate “due to loss of confidence in Mr. Byrne’s ability to carry out his duties.”

Wilkie gave no further details of why ousted he Byrne, a 55-year-old Naval Academy graduate and former Marine infantry officer.

President Donald Trump announced Friday night that acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney would be replaced by Republican Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina.

The US education secretary, Betsy DeVos, has issued new rules on sexual assault in schools and colleges, handing more protections to those accused of assault and further reversing Obama-era guidance designed to protect college students.

The regulations, due to take effect in August, require colleges to hold live hearings, where victims and the accused can be cross-examined, in a move that equal rights groups argued “tips the scales in favor” of abusers. Schools will also be able to choose two different standards of evidence when assessing assault cases.

Victim rights groups condemned the new rules, saying they would reduce the rights of survivors of sexual assault. DeVos’s regulations are expected to be challenged in court.
...
The National Women’s Law Center said it planned to sue the Department of Education over the new rules.

In a federal lawsuit filed Monday, conservation groups allege the Trump administration's continued use of temporary appointees to lead large federal lands agencies is a violation of federal law and the Constitution's "advice and consent" clause.

The suit, filed by the Washington, D.C.-based Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility or PEER and the Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project, takes aim at the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service. Neither agency has had permanent, Senate-confirmed directors during the entire Trump presidency...

...Jenkins says the administration is circumventing federal law by continually extending the temporary appointments of David Vela at NPS and William Perry Pendley at the BLM. If either were actually named as 'acting' directors, Jenkins says, the Federal Vacancies Reform Act would bar them from serving more than 210 days. Both men have been at the helm of their respective agencies longer.

Unreal. Bill Barr’s DOJ has dropped its insider trading investigations into Kelly Loeffler and other Senators. No charges will be filed.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Tue May 26, 2020 9:25 pm

Unreal. Bill Barr’s DOJ has dropped its insider trading investigations into Kelly Loeffler and other Senators. No charges will be filed.

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Tue May 26, 2020 10:08 pm

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Tue May 26, 2020 9:25 pm

Unreal. Bill Barr’s DOJ has dropped its insider trading investigations into Kelly Loeffler and other Senators. No charges will be filed.

All that this tells me is that they must have some ironclad shit on Burr.

LawBeefaroni wrote:Well, they ended the investigation into Feinstein too. Maybe that's just convenient cover though.

Pyperkub wrote: ↑Wed May 27, 2020 1:15 am

LawBeefaroni wrote:Well, they ended the investigation into Feinstein too. Maybe that's just convenient cover though.

You'll have to make the case that * selling * biotesh stock was somehow an unethical trade based on insider information to get Feinstein.

Tough to do, IMHO.

Loeffler on the other hand...

hepcat wrote: ↑Wed May 27, 2020 11:34 am Welp, it's Wednesday. Anyone have a bet on who the new IG will be this week?

NEW story: We found more conspiracy and inflammatory tweets from Anthony Tata – the White Houses' pick to be the third ranking official at the Pentagon. Including sharing a conspiracy Obama was "Manchurian candidate" trying to take down America.

U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr joined today's #BackTheBlue rally in McLean, Virginia!

Alefroth wrote: ↑Fri Aug 07, 2020 2:41 pm Do those people think they are minorities?

El Guapo wrote: ↑Fri Aug 07, 2020 2:57 pm

Alefroth wrote: ↑Fri Aug 07, 2020 2:41 pm Do those people think they are minorities?

The guy to Barr's left *might* be Hispanic. Or that might just be the lighting.

Maybe some of them have met someone who they think supports Trump.

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Fri Aug 07, 2020 3:26 pm

El Guapo wrote: ↑Fri Aug 07, 2020 2:57 pm

Alefroth wrote: ↑Fri Aug 07, 2020 2:41 pm Do those people think they are minorities?

The guy to Barr's left *might* be Hispanic. Or that might just be the lighting.

Maybe some of them have met someone who they think supports Trump.

The one guy holding the minorities sign is mostly blocked by Barr. It's probable that he's a minority. No one else has similar signs, they have pro-police signs or flags.

malchior wrote: ↑Sun Aug 09, 2020 7:36 pm This seems like an appropriate statement by an AG. It's also an amazing bit of Trumpian projection.

They're interested in total victory

"They're not interested in compromise. They're not interested in [a] dialectic exchange of views. They're interested in total victory...It's a substitute for religion."