House Votes for More Snooping, California Mudslides Kill, Ecuador Grants Assange Citizenship: P.M. Links

• 

  W8Media / MEGA / Newscom

  The House voted today to renew and expand the snooping powers of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) amendments, giving permission for the feds to use it in some cases domestically, for the next six years. It heads to the Senate, where Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) threaten a filibuster unless it has stricter warrant requirements.

• The death toll for the recent mudslides in Southern California stands at 17. There are eight people still missing.
• Ecuador has granted citizenship to Wikileaks' Julian Assange in a bid to try to get him out of the Ecuadorean embassy in London he's been stuck in since 2012 avoiding arrest by British police and possible extradition.
• Two Reuters reporters who have been covering the crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar are being prosecuted by the government and may face 14 years in prison.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin claims opposition leader Alexei Navalny is who the United States would like to have as president there, and that's why the U.S. has criticized Navalny being barred from running.
• Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who announced this week he would not be attempting to keep his seat in Congress this year, may end up running in a neighboring district if Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) resigns.
• Peter Thiel helped kill Gawker. Now he wants to buy it.

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Comments

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

House Votes for More Snooping

As long as it's not on them, right?

[Citizen X - #6]

You think you're joking, but you're not.

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

^

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

"Ecuador has granted citizenship to Wikileaks' Julian Assange in a bid to try to get him out of the Ecuadorean embassy in London he's been stuck in since 2012 avoiding arrest by British police and possible extradition."

Here. Take it. You're now Ekwadorian. Now just get the fuck out already.

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

Call them Ewoks.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

I think he would love to leave, Rufus dear.

[Rufus The Monocled]

And come to Canada?

/licks maple syrup from popsicle stick.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

[Looks at Rufus leaning against a sugar maple, licking his popsicle stick.]

I'd like to tap that.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Now he wants to buy it.

I didn't realize there was anything left to buy.

[GILMORE?]

most of the non-Gawker-branded websites were farmed out

as the article states,

""Most of its assets, including its sister pages Deadspin, a sports site, and Jezebel, a feminist blog, were bought in 2016 for $135 million by media company Univision Holdings Inc""

he's bidding on:

" its remaining assets, including its domain names and nearly 200,000 archived articles."

I can only assume the purpose is 'because he can'.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Who owns Dipshitspin and Jezashrill now?

[BestUsedCarSales]

I don't know the first one, but Jezabel is owned by Gizmondo now.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

WHO COMES UP WITH THESE NAMES?!!

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Jezebel comes from the Bible and has come to mean over the years a rebellious woman.

[BestUsedCarSales]

I'd admonish you for not knowing that, Paul. But I am aware that God never made it to Seattle.

[DiegoF]

Jesse Helms, taking the floor after a particularly vociferous speech by Ted Kennedy, during an acrimonious debate in 1993: "Allow me to adjust my hearing aid. It could not accommodate the decibels of the Senator from Massachusetts. I can't match him in decibels, or Jezebels, or anything else apparently."

[SIV]

Jesse Helms was one of the best Senators of the 21st Century.

[SIV]

"20th"

[DiegoF]

INB4 cosmos say "19th"

[DiegoF]

Univision. Univision owns everything.

Fusion Media Group is Univision's online, English language media division. It includes The Root, the AV Club, ClickHole, The Onion, and the non-Gawker former Gawker Group sites, now called the Gizmodo Group (Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Jezebel, Lifehacker, Kotaku, and io9). All the FMG sites now have been put on "Kinja," the extraordinarily unpleasant platform shared by the now-Gizmodo group. And, of course, all suck.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Gizmodo Group (Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Jezebel, Lifehacker, Kotaku, and io9)

That is a lot of shitty websites. Don't know Jalponik, so apologies to them.

[DiegoF]

You are in the motor vehicle business and you don't follow Jalopnik? So much the worse for them, I guess, but I'd say they're the least worthless of the Gizmodo sites. (Lifehacker is mostly just neutral.)

[Citizen X - #6]

The death toll for the recent mudslides in Southern California stands at 17. There are eight people still missing.

I got lost for a while after the last time i had mudslides, too.

[Jimbo]

I puked in my carport the last time I had a bunch of mudslides. That was about 23 years, 2 months, 9 days, 4 hours and 23 minutes ago. Approximately.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...may end up running in a neighboring district if Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) resigns.

He wants to resign to spend more time with this other district.

[Citizen X - #6]

Peter Thiel helped kill Gawker. Now he wants to buy it.

Maybe he'll have more luck than Gawker's former editors did.

[The Last American Hero]

He should just turn it into a Hulk Hogan fanboy page.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Ecuador has granted citizenship to Wikileaks' Julian Assange in a bid to try to get him out of the Ecuadorean embassy in London...

Let him stink up the homeland for a while.

[Citizen X - #6]

"Please take him. He won't stop playing Credit Check with everybody here."

[TrickyVic (old school)]

If Julian leaves the embassy, I give it a week before he's thrown in an unmarked van and ends up in camp X-ray.

[DiegoF]

If they're dumb enough to use a windowed van I hope he does the Vanunu thing. That would be boss.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

The US got pretty good at kidnapping and rendition, so I doubt they would make that mistake.

But yeah, that would be great.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Russian President Vladimir Putin claims opposition leader Alexei Navalny is who the United States would like to have as president there, and that's why the U.S. has criticized Navalny being barred from running.

NOT SO FUN HAVING SOMEONE MEDDLE IN YOUR ELECTIONS, IS IT???

[Rich]

It heads to the Senate, where Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) threaten a filibuster unless it has stricter warrant requirements.

"As an example of this snooping, I will now read aloud a few days' worth of so-called metadata."

[Citizen X - #6]

That's actually a really good idea.

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

Rich wins today.

[Citizen X - #6]

Of course, a few days' worth of collected metadata would probably take several weeks to read.

[Pro Libertate]

He should spend the time Bitcoin mining.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

It's down to 13gs, he should hurry up.

[Pro Libertate]

He could read pi into the Congressional Record.

[DiegoF]

If I was trying to block a bill sponsored by one of the Indiana senators I would totally do that shit.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Do it, Rand. And wear a Stadium Buddy this time.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

Can Rand and Wyden tag team on the filibuster?

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

As long as they don't share Stadium Buddies.

[DaveSs]

Yes and no

If we are talking about a legit, standing and yacking filibuster here is what they can do.

One of them takes the floor.

Whichever one of them takes the floor must remain in the chambers at their desk, and remain standing the entire time. No bathroom breaks, no taking five on the chair. Do anything like that and you yield the floor.

You can give a buddy time to talk by yielding for a question without yielding the floor, but mostly your pal will go on his own exposition for a while to give you a break from speaking before finally asking his own question.

[DiegoF]

There hasn't been a real talky filibuster since 1970 to my knowledge. It's steadily become a completely obsolete practice.

[Rhywun]

Stadium Buddy

Ugh... that's what I think it is, isn't it.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

"""As an example of this snooping, I will now read aloud a few days' worth of so-called metadata."""

Would be great if it was metadata belonging to other members of the Senate and House.

[GILMORE?]

Peter Thiel helped kill Gawker. Now he wants to buy it

Short of nuking it from space, its the only way to be sure it stays dead.

Also, lolz.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Come on, Thiel. We want ocean cities, not clickbait.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Don't speak for me.

[Ska]

Alt-alt text: "Hey Al Franken - am I doing it right?"

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Or, "The first thing I am gonna do when I get outta here is to get my tits done."

[Rebel Scum]

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who announced this week he would not be attempting to keep his seat in Congress this year, may end up running in a neighboring district if Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) resigns.

Does this count as carpetbagging?

[DiegoF]

Well, he better not come here to New York! We hate that shit.

[Rebel Scum]

Russian President Vladimir Putin claims opposition leader Alexei Navalny is who the United States would like to have as president there, and that's why the U.S. has criticized Navalny being barred from running.

#NotMyPresident

[Rebel Scum]

Two Reuters reporters who have been covering the crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar are being prosecuted by the government and may face 14 years in prison.

Reporters Without Borders could not be reached for comment.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

lol there's too much going on today for me to link to it all

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

Deets of the supposed immigration deal were leaked and look awesome, and now reportedly Trump asked why people from shithole countries are coming here. Nancy Pelosi is doubling down on the tax bill being EVIL, in response to more companies giving out 'tax-cut-bonuses' and WalMart raising its starting wage to $11.

Okay maybe not that much, but without reasonable I'm getting impatient with the manual < a href > nonsense.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Now that Reasonable is gone I barely want to be a libertarian anymore.

[Entropy Drehmaschine Void]

*SIGH*

What happened to Reasonable?

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

What a pussy

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

What was this whole thing I heard about Feinstein saying that she was pressured, then a minute later saying she wasn't pressured, then blamed the whole thing on cough medicine?

[Libertymike]

Good reason to mandate that all cough medicine must be procured by means of a prescription, if not by a panel of ACA bureaucrats.

[SIV]

Fake News, or MAGA?

President Trump on Wednesday balked at an immigration deal that would include protections for people from Haiti and African countries, demanding to know at a White House meeting why he should accept immigrants from "shithole countries" rather than people from places like Norway, according to people with direct knowledge of the conversation.

[Libertymike]

What do you think?

[SIV]

If true, and if Trump means why allow poor and unskilled diversity and chain migrants in a quota system at the expense of skilled/educated/English speaking/ prosperous immigrants then MAGA

[Calidissident]

You know the diversity system was put in place to allow more Irish immigrants, right? It's also far from the hoops-free system the Trump crowd makes it out to be.

I don't really understand why the federal government needs to centrally plan labor markets, personally.

[DiegoF]

True, but that just shows that the suggestion that eliminating it is part of Trump's #Racist agenda is as nonsensical as suggesting that UKIP is racist, and should be dismissed from serious discussion.

The current "diversity" system is not per se beneficial to minority-race immigrants; that's a myth. So why give underqualified Irishmen a leg up on anyone else? If Ireland does indeed produce lots of immigrants ready to contribute to the economy without public assistance then they'll do just fine on a more meritocratic system too. Why oppose that change?

[Agammamon]

You know who doesn't have a lot of reason to immigrate? People who are doing well under the system at home.

[DiegoF]

You know who doesn't have a lot of reason to immigrate?

Hitler, 1913?

[SIV]

You know who makes the best immigrants? People who are doing OK at home but have higher ambitions.

[chemjeff]

"poor and unskilled diversity and chain migrants"

Because everyone from Haiti and Africa is poor and unskilled. Amirite?

[TrickyVic (old school)]

Well according to people that think Meritocracy excludes people of color, you're probably right.

[BigT]

Dems keep saying don't send them back to those shitholes. So they must consider those places rather poorly.

[esteve7]

On a place trip to Europe, sitting next to me was an educated Irish citizen who was working in the US and had to go home. She loved it here and couldn't wait to get another visa to come back (or whatever it's called).

So people like her who are a net benefit to the country need to be sent away, yet people from the 3rd world some come in and stay forever.

Right

[DiegoF]

As the president, Mr. Trump has ordered a broad immigration crackdown while privately railing against immigrants from predominantly black countries and has repeatedly stoked racial divisions, denouncing "both sides" for violence after a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., and singling out black athletes for failing to stand for the national anthem before their games.

This language is being used in the news section, not the opinion.

Nonetheless, I am with Mia Love. Of course Haiti is, objectively speaking, a shithole, and the hyperbolic and demagoguic language of terrorist-supporting Rep. Gutierrez is ridiculous, and I overall think nothing could be more helpful in practically every way than a president who does not act "presidential." But here is where I really would go so far as to say, "he really shouldn't say that."

[Palin's Buttplug]

Walmart to shutter 63 Sam's Club locations

Walmart to shutter some of its Sam's Club locations Walmart to shutter some of its Sam's Club locations
2 Hours Ago | 00:58
Walmart is shuttering 63 of its Sam's Club locations across the U.S., with several stores closing their doors as early as Thursday, a company spokesperson told CNBC.

That compares with a total of five wholesale club stores the company has closed since fiscal 2013, securities filings show.

MAGA!

[OpenBordersLiberal-tarian]

You tell 'em, Mr. Buttplug! The economy is a disaster, and it's all Drumpf's fault! Krugman was right!

[Sevo]

Palin's Buttplug|1.11.18 @ 6:26PM|#
"Walmart to shutter 63 Sam's Club locations
[...]
MAGA!"

I was just gonna link an OT from AP regarding this story and the part that turd left out:
"Some Walmart employees get raises, others to lose their jobs
NEW YORK (AP) ? For some Walmart employees, the day brought news of a pay raise. Others learned they were out of a job. Walmart said Thursday that it is boosting its starting salary for U.S. workers and handing out bonuses. The announcement came as the company also confirmed it is closing dozens of Sam's Club warehouse stores ? a move that a union-backed group estimated could cost thousands of jobs."

So turd is concerned about a business distributing costs and benefits as the market suggests it going to return the best benefits and that scumbag turd claims to be some sort of 'classical liberal'?
Hey, turd? Go fuck your daddy.

[Agammamon]

Is there some point here?

So a store is closing some locations. Happens. Its a quasi-wholesaler chain anyway - the *point* of them is not to have a ton of retail locations for convenience but to sell in bulk from a limited number of places. You only need one of these every 30+ miles because you're not going there every week like a regular grocery store.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

""Walmart to shutter 63 Sam's Club locations""

Funny, two articles about Walmart circulating at the same time, and when people talk about only one, it shows their bias. People are just making assumptions on why they are being closed. Perhaps they are losing money at these stores. They are converting a dozen of them into online fulfillment centers, which suggests they are having to transform to meet the way people shop today.

Walmart also raised their wage to $11 and hour, gave out bonus up to $1000 and expanded their parental and maternity leave policies.

[tanyawagner445]

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