Octopus Overlords

Defiant wrote:Still more concerned as to the confusing "rules" not being followed for the middle kids.

YellowKing wrote:I can't stand shit like this. It's a bunch of holier-than-thou internet race warriors scrutizinizing every advertisement, interview, and news article so that they can point their judgmental finger and blow the whistle for the lynch mob.

Is there legitimate racist stuff out there? Sure. There's also a lot of non-racist stuff that you can skew racist if you spin it hard enough.

One asks the question - if you're so obsessed about skin color that you have to pore over every image on the internet looking for racism, who's the REAL racist?

Algae is everywhere in the southern part of the Treasure Coast, and it's spreading.

Last weekend, all public beaches in Martin County, and many in St. Lucie County, were closed as a result of blooms spreading north and south from the St. Lucie Inlet. Ocean waters turned emerald green. In some canals and private marinas, algae has begun turning blue as it dies. If that algae is consumed by bacteria, oxygen levels in the water could drop.

In other words, next up: Fish kills.

This is insane.

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Gov. Rick Scott has been virtually no help. The sugar industry's obstinacy has held up what could be the most promising long-term solution, the acquisition of land south of Lake Okeechobee for water storage.

The nation as a whole needs to hear more about this. A national spotlight needs to be shined on the likes of Scott and the sugar industry, with the clear message: in the wake of our own Love Canal, our own Three Mile Island, these people chose the status quo. And as a result, a beautiful coastal region that ought to be a national treasure has been turned into a toilet.

LordMortis wrote:Dude should have been bitching at least since 2014 when the spotlight was first shone on the national stage. And not just for "a beautiful coastal region" but for an entire ecosystem supporting a half million people.

This algae blooms from nitrogen fertilizer run off has been a growing problem for a long time.

msteelers wrote:I know they've been fighting it since I moved here 6 years ago, and it's been nonstop since 2013 when we had another bad outbreak. And some people have told me that they have been fighting it for 20 years.

Isgrimnur wrote:

Max Peck wrote:I'm guessing this is more political than not.

Iran detains 10 US sailors after vessels stopped in the Gulf

Commander fired

The Navy has fired the commander of the 10 American sailors who wandered into Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf and were captured and held by Iran for about 15 hours.

devastating new report by military investigators released Thursday found that the 10 sailors captured by Iranians in January suffered from "failed leadership" at all levels on a mission that was plagued by mistakes from beginning to end.
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The report found the crews were poorly prepared, their boats not properly maintained, communication almost entirely lacking, and their conduct after being captured by the Iranians wasn't up to military standards.
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In a stunning finding, the report said the sailors veered off course almost immediately after heading out to sea and had no idea where they were when a mechanical failure struck one of the boats.
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The report details a lax culture for U.S. Navy sailors who routinely patrol the Persian Gulf which ultimately led to a highly embarrassing incident for the U.S. military just as crippling economic sanctions were set to be lifted as part of the Iranian nuclear deal.

"The culture ... (was) characterized by informality. They conducted no patrol briefings, and missions were supported by no formal mission analysis, standard planning factors, risk assessment, or overwatch," investigators wrote.
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One of the only bright spots noted in the report was a sailor who "showed presence of mind and fighting spirit when she attempted to activate" at tracking beacon at some point during the incident.

And after the U.S. crew members were captured, more mistakes were made. The report found that during the 24 hours they were held some crew provided more information to their Iranian captors than they should have, and that they ate food while being filmed -- something they should not have done because it can be and was used as propaganda. One crew member disobeyed a direct order, the report said.

Asked by their captors how it was possible a boat like theirs could have traveled such a distance, one sailor replied, "Yeah, I wish you could tell my people that because we told them these boats don't do that" -- a statement investigators said was inappropriate.

The report concluded, however, that the Americans didn't violate international law, while the Iranians did.

"The investigation concluded that Iran violated international law by impeding the boats' innocent passage transit, and they violated our sovereign immunity by boarding, searching, and seizing the boats, and by photographing and video recording the crew," Richardson said at the news conference.

Max Peck wrote:Question 42: Racist or not racist? Show your work.

A Dallas appeals court that has already denied one attempt by Ken Paxton to do away with his three felony indictments again rejected on Thursday a request for the judges to reconsider.

The Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas denied Paxton's motion for a rehearing on one issue related to his felony charges, which allege that the Republican attorney general misled friends and fellow officials to invest in a North Texas technology firm while profiting from the recommendation. The ruling, issued by Chief Justice Carolyn Wright, did not offer any explanation.
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Almost exactly a month ago, the same Dallas court denied Paxton's appeals to have all three indictments vacated.

Defiant wrote:Given that it's July 6, shouldn't that be a 1 not 0?

Being accepted into the ranks of your government’s secret service must be an equally exciting and frustrating time. As soon as training starts you can’t tell anyone what you’re really doing because you’re trying to be a secret agent. And when you graduate? Your entire career will be one of lying to those around you about what you really do at work.

Russia trains a lot of Secret Service employees. How do we know that? Because a recent round of graduates from the Russian Secret Service school decided to make a video to celebrate graduating.

Have you spotted the mistake they made? Notably, showing their faces in the professionally produced video, which also involves the Secret Service’s fleet of Mercedes Gelandewagens.

Rival intelligence agencies around the world will be busy dissecting this video, logging all the faces shown and creating a file for each. If any of these graduates are sent to other countries in the years to come and attempt to secure positions in sensitive areas they will be flagged and kicked out, or quietly fed all the wrong information just to mess with the Russians.

Ultimately, the graduates may have rendered themselves useless to their Secret Service, or at least doomed themselves to low ranking desk jobs for the rest of their careers. And that’s if they still have careers. The Russian Federal Secret Service (FSB) has launched an investigation, and retired FSB general-major Alexander Mikhailov has publicly said the act classes as both a betrayal and treason.

Let’s have a slow clap for the masterminds behind this video.

Max Peck wrote:Маскировка

gilraen wrote:

Max Peck wrote:Маскировка

Okay, this is pretty funny...I have some Russian sites loaded in Firefox tabs, and for a moment looking at the Russian text I had to remember which site I was reading.

Kraken wrote:

gilraen wrote:

Max Peck wrote:Маскировка

Okay, this is pretty funny...I have some Russian sites loaded in Firefox tabs, and for a moment looking at the Russian text I had to remember which site I was reading.

Don't make me google it. What's macknpobka?

$iljanus wrote:

Isgrimnur wrote:CNN

Drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has been captured, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto announced Friday via Twitter.

"Mission Accomplished," the President wrote. "We have him."

Let the tunneling begin!

Enough wrote:Rumors are now circulating that the tunneling is complete and Chapo has a three-peat. It sort of seems kind of hoaxy, so I would wait for confirmation.

It would have been a great story, except that it wasn't true. Another escape for El Chapo, Mexico's most famous drug lord, would have made it a hat trick. He has already given two maximum security prisons the slip. And on Friday his name trended worldwide, with hundreds of thousands of people sharing gifs, memes and jokes about his tricksy ways and supposed third escape. But no reputable media organisation was reporting that he had got out. The story wasn't on the front pages of any of Mexico's main newspapers and none of the news agencies were reporting it. El Chapo is still behind bars in Mexico, his extradition to the US halted for now. So why has his name been trending? Spoof stories is why. Several different websites published stories saying El Chapo had escaped again. One of the websites has since apologised, but others have not. And people just kept sharing and sharing and sharing. Sometimes people don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called protesters who ran away from the hail of bullets that rained down on Downtown Dallas on Thursday night "hypocrites" during an interview Friday on Fox News.

"All those protesters last night, they turned around and ran the other way expecting the men and women in blue to protect them. What hypocrites!" an audibly emotional Patrick said.

As Gov. Greg Abbott issued on open letter calling on Texans to calmly unite and come together, Patrick took a more combative tone. He blamed Black Lives Matter protesters for the violence against police and said people "with big mouths are creating situations like we saw last night."
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Later Friday, during a CNN interview Patrick said "maybe" he chose the wrong words after "seeing a lot death in the last 12 hours." He went on to describe the protesters' expectation of police protection as an "irony of ironies."
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During a press conference Friday evening at Dallas City Hall, Abbott sidestepped questions about Patrick's remarks and encouraged Texans to focus on what good might come from the tragedy that unfolded in Downtown Dallas.

Isgrimnur wrote:Stay classy, Lt. Gov. Patrick

Isgrimnur wrote:Stay classy, Lt. Gov. Patrick

"All those protesters last night, they turned around and ran the other way expecting the men and women in blue to protect them. What hypocrites!" an audibly emotional Patrick said.

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Later Friday, during a CNN interview Patrick said "maybe" he chose the wrong words after "seeing a lot death in the last 12 hours." He went on to describe the protesters' expectation of police protection as an "irony of ironies."

The United States expelled two Russian officials on June 17 in response to an attack by a Russian policeman on an American diplomat earlier in the month, the State Department said Friday.

Defiant wrote:

The United States expelled two Russian officials on June 17 in response to an attack by a Russian policeman on an American diplomat earlier in the month, the State Department said Friday.

link

Russia has expelled two US diplomats from Moscow, after the White House said it had ordered two Russian embassy staff to leave Washington. On Friday, the US State Department said their move came after a Russian policeman attacked a US diplomat near the US embassy in Moscow. That US diplomat has now been expelled from Moscow, along with one other embassy worker. The Kremlin accused the men of being CIA agents. Russia's deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said both US embassy staff were expelled for "activities incompatible with their diplomatic status".

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas sustained “extensive second- and third-degree burns” on both legs below the knees and both feet — and may miss next week’s Republican National Convention as a result, his office said Sunday.

Spokesman Matt Hirsch said Abbott was with his family in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Thursday when he was scalded in an accident involving hot water. He declined to provide further details.

The governor was treated for several hours at nearby St. John’s Medical Center.
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Abbott has used a wheelchair since a tree fell on him while jogging in 1984, paralyzing him from the waist down. Hirsch said the governor still has functioning nerve receptors in his legs and feet, however, and that he has felt pain as they react to the shock of being burned.

Abbott has used a wheelchair since a tree fell on him while jogging in 1984, paralyzing him from the waist down.