Trump Speaks in Poland, Federal Ethics Chief Resigns, States Sue DeVos over For-Profit College Loans: P.M. Links

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  Wojtek Laski/East News / Polaris/Newscom

  President Donald Trump spoke in Poland on several issues and sort of accepted the idea that Russia attempted to meddle with America's elections but also said "nobody really knows for sure" whether other countries were involved. He also complained about fake news and criticized North Korea. Watch his speech here.

• The director of the federal Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub Jr., announced today he was stepping down six months before his term was scheduled to end.
• Several states are suing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for delaying a federal rule making it easier for students attending for-profit colleges to seek loan forgiveness in cases when the schools have charged with predatory practices.
• More than 100 people were shot over the extended holiday weekend in Chicago.
• Sanctions against Qatar (for whatever vague reasons have been used to justify them) are probably not going to amount to much.
• In "tell me something I don't know" news of the day, a crazy plan for an elevated bus in China that would straddle traffic was a big scam.
• We've seen folks on the left stage fake hate crimes to implicate Trump supporters. Here's a Trump supporter getting caught trying to do the same thing to them with fake anti-Trump vandalism.
• Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe will not stop the execution of William Morva, 35, who is set to get a lethal injection this evening. Morva's lawyers say he is profoundly mentally ill.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe will not stop the execution of William Morva, 35, who is set to get a lethal injection this evening. Morva's lawyers say he is profoundly mentally ill.

And yet he got elected. Go figure.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

There's a lot of that going around...

[Jerry on the sea]

Unless your name is Hillary Clinton.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

But she got the popular vote!! She's the REAL president!! RUSSIANS!!!!!!!

/prog

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

That's exactly right. It's *possible* but there's no proof and there likely never will be.

Now shut the fuck up progs.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

*thunderous applause*

[Citizen X - #6]

Hey, i've been saying that since he first announced his gubernatorial candidacy.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Here's a Trump supporter getting caught trying to do the same thing to them with fake anti-Trump vandalism.

When are the libertarians going to try their hand at false flag?

[Citizen X - #6]

Hey, plenty of us vote.

[BestUsedCarSales]

If someone wrote "Free Speech is for lamers" on a wall people would just accept it as a truism.

[mattcid]

I keep seeing cars drive in extremely public areas flying large Confederate flags. Are these trolls? None of them looked like actual rednecks.

[loveconstitution1789]

Are you in the South?

If you are then Confederate flags are used for states rights, opposition of those tearing down Civil War soldiers, and for racist stuff like the KKK.

In other words, not just rednecks fly the stars and bars.

[DRM]

You ignorant slut, the Confederate Battle Flag is not the Stars and Bars.

[loveconstitution1789]

...the Dixie flag/Confederate battle flag/Stainless Banner and the stars and bars.

As DRM pointed out, Star and Bars is different than Confederate flag.

[Woodchippin' 4 Jesus]

Gee, rednecks are Scottish. Maybe that's why you're confused

[Woodchippin' 4 Jesus]

Tomorrow.

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Donald Trump spoke in Poland on several issues and sort of accepted the idea that Russia attempted to meddle with America's elections but also said "nobody really knows for sure" whether other countries were involved.

Was this run-on sentence in honor of our president?

[Citizen X - #6]

The director of the federal Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub Jr., announced today he was stepping down six months before his term was scheduled to end.

And six thousand years after the idea of "government ethics" became an obvious farce.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...a crazy plan for an elevated bus in China that would straddle traffic was a big scam.

It will just plow right through traffic.

[Palin's Buttplug]

President Trump Apparently Couldn't Find A Hotel To Book For The G20 Summit

https://goo.gl/WewDFa

[BestUsedCarSales]

Why is Saudi Arabia even there? Do we really have to put forth this much effort pretending that they are actually a real country?

[loveconstitution1789]

They really want to be so much more than a giant gas pump.

[BestUsedCarSales]

They ain't trying that hard.

[Jerry on the sea]

Pony nibbles on Queen Mother's pink posy.

[Dillinger]

effective euphemismization.

[Fist of Etiquette]

More than 100 people were shot over the extended holiday weekend in Chicago.

And this is where someone like me points out the efficacy or lack thereof of strict gun control.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Most of those were cops enforcing a new law about drinking 20 oz of water or more in public.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The director of the federal Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub Jr., announced today he was stepping down six months before his term was scheduled to end.

Does that seem right to you?

[Dillinger]

depends when his ethics probe begins

[BestUsedCarSales]

I like to imagine him in his office, looking over all of the ethics of DC. He takes a shot of whiskey, Scoresby - Very Rare. His quivering hand brings a small pistol to his mouth. He sits there in silent for an eternity. He is either trying to psyche himself up or calm himself down, the pained look on his face allows for either possibility.

Finally, after the longest moment of his life, he puts the gun down and calls in his resignation.

[Woodchippin' 4 Jesus]

You took that from The Shawshank Redemption

[Dillinger]

>>>President Donald Trump spoke in Poland on several issues

first-up: Nighttime Rocket-to-the-Sun Program.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Idiot, that could never work at night.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Several states are suing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for delaying a federal rule making it easier for students attending for-profit colleges to seek loan forgiveness in cases when the schools have charged with predatory practices.

Government suing government for being bureaucratically slow? Now I've seen everything.

[BestUsedCarSales]

What do you want? The states can either complain to the federal government, or try to deal with the problems themselves.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Sanctions against Qatar (for whatever vague reasons have been used to justify them) are probably not going to amount to much.

The sanctions should be for that missing u.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Fuck White People is Neither Racist nor Hate Speech

Any logical leaps can be done, as long as they don't have to give up on the concept of hate speech.

[Citizen X - #6]

Well, I hated it!

[BestUsedCarSales]

I'll tell you my reaction to that after you clarify which race you are.

[Woodchippin' 4 Jesus]

Did you know racecar is spelled the same way, backwards and forwards?

That's my race car

[Dillinger]

>>>Any logical leaps can be done

any chance this time it was "there is no such thing as hate speech you morons - gtfo my court"?

[BestUsedCarSales]

Haha.

[Don't look at me.]

Wait! Just what kind of fucking are we talking about?

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

If you missed it among all the other stupid shit happening this week: DPRK News Service has peaked, getting The New York Times to cite one of its tweets as an official statement from NK.

[Citizen X - #6]

Delightful! It makes you wonder, though, how many times has DPRK News Service been cited in secret Pentagon meetings?

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

Why Roman concrete still stands strong while modern version decays

Scientists have cracked the secret to Roman water-based structures' strength ? and findings could help today's builders

Their structures are still standing more than 1,500 years after the last centurion snuffed it: now the Romans' secret of durable marine concrete has finally been cracked.

The Roman recipe ? a mix of volcanic ash, lime (calcium oxide), seawater and lumps of volcanic rock ? held together piers, breakwaters and harbours. Moreover, in contrast to modern materials, the ancient water-based structures became stronger over time.

Scientists say this is the result of seawater reacting with the volcanic material in the cement and creating new minerals that reinforced the concrete.

"They spent a tremendous amount of work [on developing] this ? they were very, very intelligent people," said Marie Jackson, a geologist at the University of Utah and co-author of a study into Roman structures.

[BestUsedCarSales]

It's tragic to have seen them evolve into drunken, shirtless, loverboys whose whole livelihood is based on moving tourists around those old structures.

[Rufus The Monocled]

You haven't met the Romans I've met.

[Crusty Juggler > You]

True - he did leave out sipping espresso, chainsmoking and hitting on every woman who walks past.

[loveconstitution1789]

And the smell. Italians do not use deodorant nor shower often.

Summertime train rides in Italy, I stick my head out the window.

[pan fried wylie]

When I did the french exchange thing, I was most perplexed with how their shower smelled of BO.

[Woodchippin' 4 Jesus]

Hey, they conquered the known world 2,000'years ago. They're tired

[Dillinger]

no unions.

[Don't look at me.]

Pre mafia concrete.

[Jerryskids]

"They spent a tremendous amount of work [on developing] this ? they were very, very intelligent people,"

Trial and error, AKA brute force cracking, does take a tremendous amount of work, but it takes almost no intelligence. The first cave man that ate some rotten fruit and realized fermented grapes had some pleasurable side-effects wasn't very smart either, but as you develop a system of refining the process it almost looks like intelligence.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Yes, the ability to test and refine something is a somewhat intelligent task.

I mean, the average Roman was as intelligent as the average person now, but they probably had some people who could refine their way to good work.

[Citizen X - #6]

A momentary diversion on the road to the grave.

[Dillinger]

love. it.

[Crusty Juggler > You]

Sweet.

[Mithrandir]

North Korea is such a tricky situation right now. They don't even need any new tech to do an enormous amount of damage to the United States. All they have to do is be able to get a nuclear weapon into orbit above the United States in order to create an EMP blast that could kill several orders of magnitude more people than a ground-based nuclear blast.

That doesn't require re-entry heat shiedling, advanced targeting systems, or miniaturization of nuclear weapons.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Makes me yearn for the times that they were such a simply situation.

[Juice]

All they have to do is be able to get a nuclear weapon into orbit above the United States in order to create an EMP blast

Ha, um, no. For an EMP weapon to be effective from orbit, it would need to be thermonuclear and at least 1 MT, and even then one warhead would not take out the entire US electrical grid.

[Mithrandir]

That's not even remotely true.

"Physicists have testified at United States Congressional hearings that weapons with yields of 10 kilotons or less can produce a large EMP."

" Thermonuclear weapons are also less efficient at producing EMP because the first stage can pre-ionize the air which becomes conductive and hence rapidly shorts out the Compton currents generated by the fusion stage. Hence, small pure fission weapons with thin cases are far more efficient at causing EMP than most megaton bombs."

[pan fried wylie]

While y'all argue bomb technology, would anyone like to address how knocking out the power grid "could kill several orders of magnitude more people than a ground-based nuclear blast"?

[Mithrandir]

A high-altitude EMP blast wouldn't simply temporarily disable electronics, it would completely destroy them.

Imagine transformers being rendered totally useless. In the affected areas (which would be huge, even if it wasn't the entire country), it would take months to repair the damage.

Months without running water, AC, heating, gasoline, and internet. Urban areas in particular would be devastated with food quickly becoming scarce. It could cause mass starvation and disease very quickly.

[pan fried wylie]

I guess the part I can't imagine is where people sit around dying for months while they await repairs.

[Mithrandir]

How many legitimate ways will there be for people to get food after even a week of near nationwide outages? Food would likely run out quickly when stores stop receiving shipments.

How many people would die from diseases spread by unclean drinking water?

Humanity is no longer geared towards hunter/gatherer society-style survival.

[pan fried wylie]

Well you got me, after accepting all the unfounded premises of your scenario, then discounting the history of human ingenuity and will, we're clearly doomed. Bomb those norkers ASAP.

[Mithrandir]

List me the unfounded premises oh wise one.

[loveconstitution1789]

That one lucky nuke from North Korea would: (1) render all electrical equipment destroyed (2) that Americans would just die because we are too dumb to survive (3) would not mobilize the USA into a war footing to limit hardship for those affected.....

I could go on but you clearly have not thought this through.

EMPs from small nukes don't travel thousands of miles, so any lucky EMP blast would affect a relatively small area. The USA mobilizes huge humanitarian missions to feed and provide supplies during catastrophes.

[Mithrandir]

(1) Most, but not all. A heavy amount of shielding might only render some types of electronics temporarily unavailable, but most would be destroyed.

(2) Lots of Americans are too dumb. Sorry, but you don't have any idea what it would be like to live in a society with almost zero electrical grid presence. Rural America would be much better off than urban America though.

(3) I can't respond to this point because what you wrote is unintelligible fucking gibberish.

Your addendum is unscientific garbage. Small fission nukes with thin casing which maximizes gamma ray emission would cover a huge swath of the United States.

Try again Sparky.

[loveconstitution1789]

Misthrandir: The USA and USSR tested thousands of (bigger) nukes during the Cold War than NK has and the effects are widely know. There were less electronic devices in the 1950s and 1960s but there were not massive power grid outages.

[Mithrandir]

Again, thermonuclear bombs are actually less effective as EMPs than smaller fission bombs because they aren't as efficient at emitting gamma rays, and the first stage ionizes the air which reduces the Compton currents.

This is known.

[Mithrandir]

To add to this, a bomb designed to specifically be a high-altitude nuclear EMP today would emit as much gamma radiation as possible and would be orders of magnitude more potent than the Starfish series of experiments that affected Hawaii or the USSR thermonuclear experiments.

[loveconstitution1789]

You are really just going to double down on your gibberish, aren't you? You clearly read some big words and are putting them together like a 3- year old would.

You are not making any statements that require any rebuttal beyond basic observations.

America would not be affected by a NK nuke, except very locally. America would respond militarily to this attack and there would not be another anything coming from NK.

[Mithrandir]

America would not be affected by a NK nuke, except very locally. America would respond militarily to this attack and there would not be another anything coming from NK.

Saying something over and over again doesn't make it true, dumbass. That's all I have to say to you.

[Mithrandir]

Because let's be honest you're; you are totally scientifically illiterate. Worse than that, you don't even care if you're wrong.

You have your bullshit preconceived ideas, and even though you're totally and conpletely wrong, any evidence via Physics means nothing to you.

So please, fuck off illiterate fucktard.

[Red Rocks Baiting n Inciting]

We'll see if telling China "If NK launches a single missile in our direction, the entire country becomes a quiet neighborhood for the next 500 years" gets them to yank on Kim's chain enough to shut him up.

[Rufus The Monocled]

"Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe will not stop the execution of William Morva, 35, who is set to get a lethal injection this evening. Morva's lawyers say he is profoundly mentally ill."

HANG ON A SECOND. I thought only Republicans and Evil Trump are supposed to do shit like this!

[BestUsedCarSales]

Nah, it's a democratic tradition dating back to at least Bill Clinton.

[Uncommon sense]

Dems are not above catering to a conservative culture

[Rhywun]

He's a DINO.

[Crusty Juggler > You]

Do you know who else was profoundly mentally ill?

[BestUsedCarSales]

Ricky Ray Rector?

[Dillinger]

Patty Duke?

[Crusty Juggler > You]

Shaun King?

[loveconstitution1789]

Bill AND Hillary Clinton?

[Woodchippin' 4 Jesus]

Robbie Soave?

[Crusty Juggler > You]

Have You Asked Idris Elba About James Bond Lately?

He takes a sip of Johnnie Walker Black and Diet Coke and tilts his head to the side, never dropping his stare.

Fair question, but let's give it a shot. One approach, at least the one to understanding how Elba came to be one of Hollywood's most compelling leading men, begins with his father, Winston. Between bites of steak, flame-licked to well-done,

Scotch and coke, well-done steak...gee whiz.

[BestUsedCarSales]

They had to use the "Flame-licked" imagery to try to hide the shame of a well-done steak.

[Libertarian]

DIET coke. That's a whole other level.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

Well now he definitely can't be Bond.

[Dillinger]

we know the dude has no taste buds.

[BestUsedCarSales]

He was already British.

[pan fried wylie]

What country did he buy his teeth in then?

[Don't look at me.]

Idiot.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

The Twitter magic of the day: Yelp reviews of Vegan cafe in which the owners' toddler shows his butthole to patrons, allegedly defecates on the floor. Owners react the way you might expect from the owners of a Vegan cafe.

On the real, I eat here all the time. I still probably will bc I like to go out and there are few options available to me BUT y'all listen.

During my visit, a bare butt naked baby was running around, stood up on a table with its black theyre so dirty feet, and bent over to show me it's butthole. I wish I was exaggerating. This is like while I'm eating, and it's the owners kids? An older kid came over and started like yodeling and staring at me during my meal. I was SO uncomfortable. Like I get it's a family establishment and kids do weird things but naked baby was running around for like 15 minutes while all the workers started are just standing to the side talking and laughing over it.

I was there just two weeks ago and the same child ran naked for at least 20 mins before an adult did something. After the child deficated on the floor is actually when the adult stepped in. This establishment is disgusting and should have child protective services step in and investigate.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Sounds like the people who practice unschooling.

[Crusty Juggler > You]

Who hasn't shown their anus to strangers?

[loveconstitution1789]

They hate cause they anus!

[pan fried wylie]

I can't take seriously the opinion of someone who voluntarily patronizes a vegan establishment, much less the person who returns to one after witnessing on-site defecation.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Everyday lately I keep posting and checking for responses and posting because I have nothing better to do.

How does one's life become this way?

[Don't look at me.]

"Everyday lately". WTF?

There you go. How do you like responses now?

[BestUsedCarSales]

I just need some time to cry alone is all.

[Meh.]

Don't we all...

[Crusty Juggler > You]

Everybody hurts...sometimes.

[Crusty Juggler > You]

He's behind you! 'Big Booty Bait' video experiment show what happens if you put a curvy model in tight shorts and let her loose on the streets of London

Men are the worst.

[BestUsedCarSales]

All the men involved with the experiment were quoted as saying, "We are shocked to see anyone act like this. We couldn't have ever seen this coming."

[Meh.]

"This video was so fun to make! Just showing what kind of reactions you get when you are curvy... this outfit is obviously a bit more revealing but you see girls wearing shorts and crop tops all the time."

A little more? I think she's getting reactions you get when you are curvy confused with reactions to a half-moon. Although her quote is slightly less annoying than the "I'm so scared!" response I was expecting.

[Don't look at me.]

Wonder what would happen if they used a hot girl.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

It's England.

[pan fried wylie]

so something involving school-boy outfits and paddling, is what you're sayin?

[BestUsedCarSales]

He's making an obtuse reference to spotted dick.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Also, I really did assume it was going to be a black woman. I was very disappointed by the booty that ended up being presented.

Fuck white people.

[Libertarian]

I can't wait for Trump's G20 speech. "Ms. Merkel, build up a wall!"

[loveconstitution1789]

Yeah, cause that's the same thing as demanding the USSR tear down the Iron Curtain.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

Right or left? Either way, conventional thinking rules op/ed pages

I post this to troll:

Libertarians like Soave are often shut out because their arguments do not easily fit the left-right cookie cutter. Skeptical of foreign interventions, defenders of civil liberties and critics of post 9/11 security measures, libertarians can be lumped in with the left, even if they also believe in limiting welfare programs and reducing the scope of government in all facets of people's lives.

Soave, who lives in Washington DC, says his Washington social circle is particularly dismissive of libertarian ideas, and blames the concentration of media in urban areas for a neglect of any ideas beyond the conventional spectrum. "Everyone is in the same place, going to the same events, the same parties, socializing together," Soave says. "It's amazing to watch opinions starting to converge just for purely social reasons because of your friend circle."

[Meh.]

Aww. I miss Robby.

I thought this quote from the article is pretty accurate too: "With the collapse of local and regional media, more and more reporting and commenting manpower is concentrated in a few city centers where not only opinions, but the entire conception of reality, radically differ from what lies beyond them." Certainly helps explain why much of the media seems so out of touch.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Sometimes at night I still see him in my dreams. Feel his hair in my hands.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Libertarians like Soave are often shut out because their arguments do not easily fit the left-right cookie cutter. Skeptical of foreign interventions, defenders of civil liberties and critics of post 9/11 security measures, libertarians can be lumped in with the left, even if they also believe in limiting welfare programs and reducing the scope of government in all facets of people's lives.

Love this line too.

[Crusty Juggler > You]

I'm a huge fan of this line:

Libertarians like Soave are often shut out because their arguments do not easily fit the left-right cookie cutter. Skeptical of foreign interventions, defenders of civil liberties and critics of post 9/11 security measures, libertarians can be lumped in with the left, even if they also believe in limiting welfare programs and reducing the scope of government in all facets of people's lives.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Aww, apparently you and I are fans of the same stuff.

[Crusty Juggler > You]

Fun fact: to be sure, Soave is not a true libertarian because he is slender, doesn't know how to change a car tire, and has incredible hair.

True libertarians are fat, hairless engineers, and no, that's not a fun fact, that's just a goddamned fact.

[Woodchippin' 4 Jesus]

Libertarians call AAA to change their car tires. Yours was a trick question

[Red Rocks Baiting n Inciting]

I'm disappointed at his failure to pimp the wonders of fruit sushi. Talk about a wasted opportunity.

[Fuck You - Cut Spending]

More than 100 people were shot over the extended holiday weekend in Chicago.

If this rate keeps up eventually Mike Madigan will get shot.

[Fuck You - Cut Spending]

More than 100 people were shot over the extended holiday weekend in Chicago.

This shows how stupid Tribune reporters are. They are comparing a fake 4-day weekend to a regular 2-day weekend. 50 people shot on a 2-day weekend is about average so it is essentially non-news. Then again the Tribune is a non-newspaper now.

[OM Nullum gratuitum prandium]

Angry Volcano God not so angry after all.

A new study found adjustments made to global surface temperature readings by scientists in recent years "are totally inconsistent with published and credible U.S. and other temperature data."

"Thus, it is impossible to conclude from the three published [global average surface temperature (GAST)] data sets that recent years have been the warmest ever ? despite current claims of record setting warming," according to a study published June 27 by two scientists and a veteran statistician.

[anitagreen9656]

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