GOP-Chartered Amtrak Train Crashes; Corruption Charges Against Bob Menendez Dropped; Trey Gowdy, Bob Brady Announce Retirements From Congress: P.M. Links

• 

  Senate

  One person is dead after an Amtrak train chartered to carry Republican senators and congressmen to a retreat collided with a truck in Virginia.

• Federal prosecutors are dropping the corruption case against Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) after failing to secure a conviction at trial.
• The director of the Centers for Disease Control, Brenda Fitzgerald, resigned in the wake of a report she had purchased tobacco stock after taking the position.
• Reps. Trey Gowdy (R–S.C.) and Bob Brady (D-Pa.) are the latest members of the House to announce they won't be seeking re-election.
• The FBI said it had "grave concerns" about the potential release of a Republican memo alleging abuse of surveillance power by…the FBI.
• The government of Australia sold off a locked filing cabinet that contained hundreds of secret documents to a secondhand store.
• A killer whale named Wikie is the first to mimic human speech.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

...an Amtrak train chartered to carry Republican senators and congressmen to a retreat collided with a truck in Virginia.

Mass transit doesn't like the GOP any more than the GOP likes mass transit.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

"Acela Hu Akbar!"

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

One person is dead after an Amtrak train chartered to carry Republican senators and congressmen to a retreat collided with a truck in Virginia.

That person knew too much.
-Alex Jones

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

The gay frogs greased the tracks.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Weapon X is a lot stranger in real life compared to the comics version.

[mad.casual]

That person knew too much.
-Alex Jones

It was probably a botched mugging.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Federal prosecutors are dropping the corruption case against Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) after failing to secure a conviction at trial.

And the Iran deal went through anyway.

[Entropy Drehmaschine Void]

Federal prosecutors are dropping the corruption case against Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) after failing to secure a conviction at trial.

Underage Dominican Hookers Hardest Hit.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

Proving once and for all that practice does indeed make perfect.

[Citizen X - #6]

One person is dead after an Amtrak train chartered to carry Republican senators and congressmen to a retreat collided with a truck in Virginia.

It is past time to have a conversation about common sense train control.

[Rhywun]

It is amazing how many vehicles wind up on the tracks, in between the gates and flashing signals, like that.

[BestUsedCarSales]

That's already happening after the accident up here in Seattle.

Sadly, I am serious 100% of the time

[Griffin3]

House bill would require train-stopping technology, following Washington Amtrak derailment

Like ... brakes? They have to have a law to require train to have emergency brakes?

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

Naw, they'll just make it illegal to stop in over 100 feet.

[Drave Robber]

This is proof Trump ain't no Mussolini.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

The director of the Centers for Disease Control, Brenda Fitzgerald, resigned in the wake of a report she had purchased tobacco stock after taking the position.

I'd understand if this was the FDA but I don't understand how she affects it as head of the CDC?

[Red Tony]

CDC runs anti-tobacco campaigns. No this is not a lie. No, I don't know why either.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

So presumably her goal was to tune down those anti-smoking campaigns? Those campaigns are about as effective as Russian Facebook ads.

[Red Tony]

Yeah, some of those ads make me want to smoke. Like the one where they say "because convenience stores sell cigarettes, and because they're more frequently seen in down-market neighborhoods, and because down-market neighborhoods frequently have a bunch of minorities, cigarette companies are doing racial profiling!" Uh, no, they're just selling their product where the market is. The whole "people who smoke on average make $10,000 less a year" (which is the basis of another ad) isn't because smoking makes you poorer; it's because poor people smoke more. It's just intentionally mistaking correlation for causation. It's annoying, it's stupid, and it's a complete lie. Somebody should take the Ad Council to court over truth in advertising, because they are lying their asses off.

/rant

[damikesc]

Never had the heart to tell those ad makers that if the product wasn't bought, the stores would stop carrying it and they'd cease to exist.

[BYODB]

Those 'Truth' campaigns would indeed be in violation of the law if it wasn't the law making the campaigns.

I know I say it a lot, but it bears repeating:

The State has no interest in regulating itself.

[Last of the Shitlords]

Those ads are the worst.

[NoVaNick]

Tobacco sales are paying the salaries of the people who make these commercials per the 1998 master settlement. They also benefit from the ever increasing tobacco taxes. Thus, there has long been a conflict of interest.

[CatoTheChipper]

She had between $1 and $15K in the tobacco stock from what I've read and comparable amounts in pharma stocks. It's not like she owned a tobacco farm like Al Gore. There is nothing she could have done as CDC director that would materially affect the value of her stock holdings.

This is as bogus as the complaint about the "corruption" of the Clinton-era Postmaster General who owned a small amount of Coca Cola stock at the time he awarded the company the concession to put Coke machines in post offices.

It really is ridiculous to complain about supposed conflicts of interest that have negligible effect on a person's net worth.

[Citizen X - #6]

Mission Creep ain't just Crusty's nickname in college.

[Ska]

It's his current nickname in San Fran.

[Rhywun]

"one of the very drugs she is supposed to be leading the crusade against."

It's CNN-town, it's not supposed to make sense.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The director of the Centers for Disease Control, Brenda Fitzgerald, resigned in the wake of a report she had purchased tobacco stock after taking the position.

Looks like this bureaucrat's career...

[dons sunglasses]

...went up in smoke.

[mad.casual]

Go tobacco where you came from!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Your Italian is nearly perfect.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Now all he needs is to lob a bottle of his own piss at someone's head and he'll be a perfect Philadelphian.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

+1.5 cents per ounce.

[Rhywun]

Butt out of my life!

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

This thread has burley started and I already want to cavendish it.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Reps. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and Bob Brady (D-Pa.) are the latest members of the House to announce they won't be seeking re-election.

LIKE RATS FROM A SINKING SHIP

[Entropy Drehmaschine Void]

... heard Gowdy was up for a DOJ appointment ...

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

More like rats from a crashing train, amirite?

[Fist of Etiquette]

[crickets]

(Too soon.)

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Has anyone ever contemplated that perhaps crickets have a great sense of humor?

[Red Tony]

If they were laughing at your joke, they do not.

If they were using your joke to get laid, they do not.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The FBI said it had "grave concerns" about the potential release of a Republican memo alleging abuse of surveillance power by... the FBI.

ELLIPSIS = INNUENDO

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Don't ever let Crusty trick you into playing "Complete The Ellipsis."

[Radioactive]

it will end up INNUENDO...

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

The FBI said it had "grave concerns" about the potential release of a Republican memo alleging abuse of surveillance power by... the FBI.

Did the redactor run out of ink? How did you boys let this happen?

[Fist of Etiquette]

The government of Australia sold off a locked filing cabinet that contained hundreds of secret documents to a secondhand store.

A list of all Aussies who refuse to drink Fosters.

[Citizen X - #6]

From what i've heard, that's most of them. Foster's is considered garbage beer in Australia, which is why they were the first Aussie beer brand to really go in for exports.

[Red Tony]

So maybe it's a list containing all the Aussies who agree to drink Foster's!

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Wait till you ask the Aussies their opinion on IPAs. Hint: Zeb is banned from Australia.

[Zeb]

Foster's is considered garbage beer in Australia

Which doesn't necessarily mean they don't drink it. Plenty of garbage beer is made and consumed in the US. Keystone is a thing.

[Zeb]

Oh, and let me save you some trouble since I mentioned beer:

"Hurr Durr, IPAs suck. Your mom."

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

You are too late, my friend.

[Crusty Juggler]

You leave your mom out of this, Zeb.

[BestUsedCarSales]

She is just a wonderful lady.

[Zeb]

She really is.

[Pro Libertate]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. It's all part of a massive rebranding campaign over the last couple of decades.

[Crusty Juggler]

Keystone is a thing.

A glorious, wonderful thing.

[Zeb]

Now I'm really going to start taking your beer criticism seriously.

[Crusty Juggler]

Finally.

[BestUsedCarSales]

I will stand by my Miller High Life and Budweiser. I still think they're better than people say.

There are only two beers that are too cheap for me: The Beast, and Natty.

Maybe I can't be trusted, as as recently as a week ago I was drinking MD 20/20

[Last of the Shitlords]

I remember illegaly purchasing generic beer in the 80's. They cost $2.99 per case. That was some shitty beer.

[BYODB]

Foster's is the way Australia decided to get back at the rest of the world for marooning them on that giant murder island.

[Pro Libertate]

It's the precursor to Salusa Secundus. Australia, I mean, not Foster's.

[NoVaNick]

Kind of like how Stella Artois and Heineken are considered white trash beers in Europe-but we 'Mericans think they are high class.

[Pro Libertate]

I liked Stella Artois, because of A Streetcar Named Desire.

[Don't look at me.]

Stella!

[Unicorn Abattoir]

At least it wasn't classified data stored in an unsecured server in someone's bathroom. Nobody's stupid enough to do that.

[Don't look at me.]

Well, not in Australia, to be sure.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A killer whale named Wikie is the first to mimic human speech.

And it was speaking GERMAN!

[MarkLastname]

Do you know who else, um... something?

[Rich]

"Killah vial!"

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Did it squeak "Die, Bart, Die"?

[Red Tony]

The, Bart, The?

[Timrekgrun]

No one who speaks German could be bad.

[gaoxiaen]

It has the Spongebob Squarepants accent.

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

So I guess it's from the alternate reality where America didn't liberate Whalia from the Nazis?

[Fist of Etiquette]

It said they needed to annex Seadetenland.

[Red Tony]

Do the links look all messed up to you guys too, or is it just my computer?

[Entropy Drehmaschine Void]

BRITCHES!!!

[Entropy Drehmaschine Void]

It was Britches' first attempt at Alt-Text so he stole Ed's byline in case something got fucked up.

[Red Tony]

Son of a Britch!

[CharlesWT]

Apparently, Ed ran out of bullets.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Tuccille convinced him he needed to start hoarding them.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

I want 2chili to do a round of PM links. You know how that would go.

[Don't look at me.]

You think those things grow on trees or something?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Rep. Trey Gowdy, Who Gained Attention With Benghazi Hearings, To Retire

NPR

Will Boy Howdy repay taxpayers for the money he wasted on his Benghazi witch-hunt?

[Don't look at me.]

Still willing to blow the guys who are out of office? You won't get promoted that way.

[MarkLastname]

IT WAS HER TURN DAMNIT!!! SHE WAITED SO LONG FOR IT!!!

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

"IT'S HER TURN" would be a funny sign to put up in North Carolina. On the door of the men's room.

[AlmightyJB]

What good is power and influence if you can't sell it?

[Rich]

Was Joe Kennedy drooling?

He wants the Presidency so bad he can taste it!

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

One man's drool is another man's gruel.

[Libertymike]

I noticed that last night thinking that it looked like he left some toothpaste residue. Hey, it happens to most of us - just the other day my wife chastised me for it.

[Radioactive]

...just had some ice cream...

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

I know this joke's been made ten thousand times, but really, they staged him in front of a car wreck?

[Rich]

Federal prosecutors are dropping the corruption case against Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) after failing to secure a conviction

The Feds can't secure a border, either.

*** ducks ***

[Jerryskids]

How bad a prosecutor do you gotta be if you can't even get a corruption conviction against a New Jersey pol?

[Zeb]

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this man was elected to public office by the people of New Jersey. I rest my case"

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

I posit that the opposite is true, since the jury has probably been brined.

[Pro Libertate]

Brined? I must've missed that episode of Good Eats.

[Don't look at me.]

Nothing better than a nice roasted jury that has been properly brined.

[Radioactive]

they sleep with the fishes?

[Adam330]

When I said the GOP was a train wreck, I didn't expect them to take it literally.

[Vernon Depner]

If this had happened in the US, a SWAT team would have burned down the second-hand shop and shot any dogs in the vicinity.

[Pro Libertate]

I have a question. If all fauna in Australia are friggin' lethal, why does that not seem to be the case as much in New Zealand? Other than the orcs, I mean.

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

What're you talkin' about? They got orcs, uruks, goblin-men, the children of Ungoliant, feral Serkises, dragons with British Villain accents...

[mad.casual]

If all fauna in Australia are friggin' lethal, why does that not seem to be the case as much in New Zealand?

Isn't it because St. Patrick led the snakes to Australia?

[Zeb]

Because New Zealand was never connected to another continental land mass, so the best they could do was giant birds.

And Maori are bad ass and killed all the giant birds and stuff.

[Pro Libertate]

Never? Is that your final answer?

[Zeb]

Well, the continent of Zealandia was at some point. But the current land mass of New Zealand I'm pretty sure hasn't. I may well be wrong, but I think that the land that presently exists is of more recent origin.

[Pro Libertate]

Never is a long time, Zebulon. Since the Third Age might be correct.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Don't forget the giant eagles that probably mistook a few Maoris for moas.

[Juice]

Damn, chalk up one more death from the Trump Train.

[Crusty Juggler]

The profitable business of selling to the hard-up

"Over the last five years a new Dollar General opened every four-and-a-half hours," says Garrick Brown at Cushman & Wakefield, a property agent. The chain's profits have risen like a helium balloon since the recession, to more than double those of Macy's, one of the most famous brands in retail, in the past fiscal year. Its market value is a whopping $28bn.

Fuckin' capitalism, man.

[BestUsedCarSales]

It's the only place that still sells me Shasta.

[Crusty Juggler]

Jake Busey's 4th best work.

[Crusty Juggler]

Sex Hurts. Help!

It is a relatively common myth that penises can be too large.

As a professional, I can assure you they generally are not.

Don't be afraid of me, single and/or married women, and also desperate young men. Also, those of you who are confused.

Don't be scared.

[Don't look at me.]

Dream on.

[Crusty Juggler]

The best show from HBO's glory years.

If I've said it once I've said it 1,000 times - Brian Benben is our most underappreciated actor.

[Juice]

Yes, but what about Ben Brianbrian? He's no slouch.

[Radioactive]

dobe dobe do...

[Crusty Juggler]

Hipster Culture and Instagram Are Responsible for a Good Thing

On newly influential social media platforms, corporate brands increasingly sought to associate their products with meaningful experiences. Colossal's murals fostered on-the-street engagement, which often spilled over to the Instagram page. Today, the brand is no longer tied to that Bushwick warehouse aesthetic. Recent clients include Adidas, Coca-Cola and the Gagosian Gallery.

STOP EMPLOYING HIPSTERS, CAPITALISM!

[Crusty Juggler]

Gallery removes naked nymphs painting to 'prompt conversation'

It is a painting that shows pubescent, naked nymphs tempting a handsome young man to his doom, but is it an erotic Victorian fantasy too far, and one which, in the current climate, is unsuitable and offensive to modern audiences?

Manchester Art Gallery has asked the question after removing John William Waterhouse's Hylas and the Nymphs, one of the most recognisable of the pre-Raphaelite paintings, from its walls. Postcards of the painting will be removed from sale in the shop.

The painting was taken down on Friday and replaced with a notice explaining that a temporary space had been left "to prompt conversations about how we display and interpret artworks in Manchester's public collection". Members of the public have stuck Post-it notes around the notice giving their reaction.

I say we all send them dick pics - WHO IS WITH ME?!?!?

[Don't look at me.]

If you are offended by something from the Victorian era, you might have a problem.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

So we're at the point where the Victorians are too scandalous for us progressive modern folk.

[Tony]

You'd think someone like Trey Gowdy who loves investigating stuff so much would stick around for all this Russia business.

[Ecoli]

Actually, I would expect the opposite.

[MarkLastname]

"You'd think..."
I doubt you would.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

One person is dead after an Amtrak train chartered to carry Republican senators and congressmen to a retreat collided with a truck in Virginia.

Nancy Pelosi seen exiting the truck after it parked on the tracks...

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

A killer whale named Wikie is the first to mimic human speech.

Hopefully whatever controls they're using to interpret this are better than Koko the gorilla's so-called sign-language amazements.

[Pro Libertate]

Koko kiss. Paul kiss. Koko's ass.

[lap83]

You know who else had "grave concerns"?

[Crusty Juggler]

Mark Calaway?

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

The American Cemeterial Liberties Union?

[Red Tony]

Alice Cooper?

[AlmightyJB]

Really fun concert back in the early 80s.

[Rockabilly]

Yoga and the Roots of Cultural Appropriation

To the so many white people who practice yoga, please don't stop, but please do take a moment to look outside of yourself and understand how the history of yoga practice in the United States is intimately linked to some of the larger forces of white supremacy.

http://www.kzoo.edu/praxis/yoga/

[BestUsedCarSales]

One of the major reasons that Klan was so able to work their federal convictions was due to their yogi-level flexibility.

[AlmightyJB]

I hope no one paid her for writing that. Although honestly I really can't tell derp from parody anymore. The left has gone so far off into fantasy they really have zero relevancy.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Yoga contributes to our economic system, but never forget this system is one built upon exploitation and commodification of labor, often the labor of black people and people of the global south.

Well global south is a new name to me. Also, when will China, Mexico, Brazil, and India stop being infantalized. These cultural study people always include them in this sad group of broken individuals, when each is actually a industrial powerhouse. Are they just sad that in certain places it looks different from how it looks in Europe?

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

"Global south" is one of those fun words that are used exclusively by white supremacists human biodiversity movement researchers and cultural Marxists social justice advocates.

They're just so different from each other, y'know?

[BestUsedCarSales]

How is it not considered bald faced racism to conflate people from as varied places as, China, India, South Africa, Chile, and Morocco, as onesame "Brown people"?

[lap83]

those global south people are all the same....victims of racism *shifty eyes*

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

Well, the HBD folks aren't exactly worried about that accusation, since they, y'know, are racists (openly). The latter, meanwhile, are incapable of being racist because their ideology is based on blaming white people (QED, they're anti-racists). Simple enough really.

[Radioactive]

BAND NAME!

[Dick Puller, Attorney at Law]

Interesting discussion of libertarianism.

[BestUsedCarSales]

I'm pretty sure I'm going to be flagged for opening that at work.

[Vernon Depner]

You're not worried about opening Reason at work?

[Pro Libertate]

Caption: What, me worry?