Zeroisanumber posted:

At home nursing bruises and cracked teeth after their boyfriends saw them glance out the window and accidentally catch sight of another man.

quote:

"Hearing that story today was the first I'd heard of it," Pence said, adding that he "fully" supported "the decision that President Trump made to ask for General Flynn's resignation."

But Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent Pence a letter on November 18 requesting more information about the potential conflicts of interest posed by Flynn's lobbying work.

Cummings sent the letter four days after both The Daily Caller and Politico reported that Flynn's consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group Inc., had been hired to lobby for Turkish interests.

"Recent news reports have revealed that Lt. Gen. Flynn was receiving classified briefings during the presidential campaign while his consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group, Inc., was being paid to lobby the U.S. Government on behalf of a foreign government's interests," Cummings wrote.

"Lt. Gen. Flynn's General Counsel and Principal, Robert Kelley, confirmed that they were hired by a foreign company to lobby for Turkish interests, stating: 'They want to keep posted on what we all want to be informed of: the present situation, the transition between President Obama and President-Elect Trump.' When asked whether the firm had been hired because of Lt. Gen. Flynn's close ties to President-elect Trump, Mr. Kelley responded, 'I hope so.'"

Pence's office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Rep. Cummings told Business Insider through his office that he believes "the problems that have occurred with Lt. General Flynn" could have been avoided had Pence heeded his warnings.

“In addition to being in the press, I warned the Vice President directly three months ago about the conflicts created by Lt. General Flynn’s company lobbying on behalf of Turkish interests," Cummings said.

"If the Vice President had heeded my warnings, it’s clear now he could have prevented the problems that occurred with Lt. General Flynn. Republicans in Congress are doing a disservice to the White House and our national security interests by not conducting rigorous and serious oversight of the administration, especially to help catch issues early and address them.”

facialimpediment posted:

.... hot Fox News on Gateway Pundit (basically, a right-wing hoax bullshit site) action here: https://twitter.com/Carrasquillo/status/840267571664412674

Hot Karl Marx posted:

https://twitter.com/MahirZeynalov/status/839613372261941248

I loving love turkey lol

facialimpediment posted:

That article makes me want off this reality.

Also comical is Donnie canning all the U.S. prosecutors. Not REALLY out of the ordinary, though 7 weeks into an administration is odd, but just a few weeks ago he told one of them HEY STAY ON AND BE MY DUDE now it's unclear if Donnie wants that guy gone too.

https://twitter.com/ericgeller/status/840321371662090240

KildarX posted:

Is Deep State code for lizard people?

Hot Karl Marx posted:

turkey continues to be awesome

https://twitter.com/CBCAlerts/status/840610121269014528

facialimpediment posted:

Everyone on twitter thinks they're Nihilist Arby's.

https://twitter.com/chicagotribune/status/840595004024377344

Pre-Trump, Bannon was basically a ghost: https://www.washingtonpost.com/inve...m=.1e9d13ae32ec

quote:

At the same time Bannon said he was living with his ex-wife, she was under investigation for involvement in a plot to smuggle drugs and a cellphone into a Miami jail, a law enforcement document obtained by The Post shows.

WAR CRIME SYNDICAT posted:

All I got from that is that Poland has a political party called the Piss Party.

quote:

Deadly fungal infection that doctors have been fearing now reported in U.S.

Nearly three dozen people in the United States have been diagnosed with a deadly and highly drug-resistant fungal infection since federal health officials first warned U.S. clinicians last June to be on the lookout for the emerging pathogen that has been spreading around the world.

The fungus, a strain of a kind of yeast known as Candida auris, has been reported in a dozen countries on five continents starting in 2009, when it was found in an ear infection in a patient in Japan. Since then, the fungus has been reported in Colombia, India, Israel, Kenya, Kuwait, Pakistan, South Korea, Venezuela and the United Kingdom.

Unlike garden variety yeast infections, this one causes serious bloodstream infections, spreads easily from person to person in health-care settings, and survives for months on skin and for weeks on bed rails, chairs and other hospital equipment. Some strains are resistant to all three major classes of antifungal drugs. Based on information from a limited number of patients, up to 60 percent of people with these infection have died. Many of them also had other serious underlying illnesses.

Those at greatest risk are individuals who have been in intensive care for a long time or who are on ventilators or have central line catheters inserted into a large vein.

In the United States, the largest number of infections has been reported in New York, with at least 28 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infections have also been reported in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Last June, the CDC sent an urgent alert to clinicians to start looking for the infections, which are difficult to identify with standard laboratory methods.

“As soon as we put out that alert, we started to get information about cases and now we know more about how it spreads and how it’s acting,” Tom Chiller, the CDC’s top fungal expert, said in an interview Thursday. The CDC now tracks the number of infections, updating the case count every few weeks.

In addition to the 35 infected patients, an additional 18 were carrying the organism but weren't sickened by it.

The microbe is among a group of newly emerging drug-resistant threats, health officials said.

“These pathogens are increasing, they’re new, they’re scary and they’re very difficult to combat,” said Anne Schuchat, CDC’s acting director, during a briefing in Washington this week about the growing danger from antimicrobial resistance.

The World Health Organization published a list naming 12 superbugs that pose the greatest threat to human health on Feb. 27, in a push for more research and drug development to fight these pathogens. (WHO via AP)

The World Health Organization published a list naming 12 superbugs that pose the greatest threat to human health on Feb. 27, in a push for more research and drug development to fight these pathogens. The World Health Organization published a list naming 12 superbugs that pose the greatest threat to human health on Feb. 27. (WHO via AP)

Of the first seven cases that were reported to the CDC last fall, four patients had bloodstream infections and died during the weeks to months after the pathogen was identified. Officials said they couldn't be sure whether the deaths were caused by the infection because all the individuals had other serious medical conditions. Five patients had the fungus initially isolated from blood, one from urine, and one from the ear.

The infection is still relatively rare. “It's really hitting the sickest of the sick,” Chiller said.

So far, the fungus doesn't seem to be evolving into new strains within the United States. Because the country doesn't yet have any “homegrown” strains of the deadly fungus, “it gives us a better opportunity to contain it and stop it from spreading,” Chiller said.

In other countries, infections have been resistant to all three major types of antifungal drugs, but so far the U.S. cases have been treatable with existing drugs.

Because invasive bloodstream infections with Candida are common in hospitalized patients in the United States, health officials are concerned that this deadly strain could “get into that mix,” Chiller said. Unlike Candida infections in the mouth, throat or vagina (which are typically called yeast infections), invasive yeast infections can affect the blood, heart, brain, eyes, bones and other parts of the body and are more dangerous.

Among infectious disease clinicians and laboratory personnel, infections involving fungi don't typically ring the same kind of alarm bells as antibiotic-resistant bacteria — until now.

“This is a paradigm shift, because Candida is not generally thought of as highly resistant or passed person to person,” Chiller said.

Since the CDC issued its alert in June, the agency has provided funds and additional expertise to help regional laboratories and hospitals identify the organism.

A Handed Missus posted:

These two will meet on Tuesday.

A Handed Missus posted:

I don't remember any of this happening when he met with Theresa May, but then she also really wanted to be his ~special friend~

quote:

The sheriff said Lloyd's mental health will be evaluated and the state attorney's office will decide if this was a hate crime.

quote:

Richard Lloyd told deputies he wanted to "run the Arabs out of our country" so he pushed a dumpster in front of the Port St. Lucie store and set the contents on fire, Mascara said in a news release posted on Facebook.

quote:

The annual Foal Eagle military drills between the US and South Korea will include some heavy hitters this year — the Navy SEAL team that took out Osama bin Laden, Army Special Forces, and F-35s — South Korea's Joon Gang Daily reports.

South Korean news outlets report that the SEALs, who will join the exercise for the first time, will simulate a "decapitation attack," or a strike to remove North Korea's leadership.

Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Gary Ross later told Business Insider that the US military "does not train for decapitation missions" of any kind.

Yet a decapitation force would fit with a March 1 Wall Street Journal report that the White House is considering military action against the Kim regime.

The SEALs boarded the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and should arrive in South Korea on Wednesday, Joon Gang Daily reports.

South Korea has also made efforts toward a decapitation force, and international calls for action have increased in intensity after North Korea's latest missile test, which simulated a saturation attack to defeat US and allied missile defenses.

“It will send a very strong message to North Korea, which is constantly carrying out military provocations,” a ministry official told Joon Gang Daily.

The Foal Eagle exercise includes 3,600 US troops, in addition to the 28,000 US troops permanently stationed in South Korea. The drills include air, land, and sea operations designed to prepare the joint forces in case of a conflict with North Korea.

This year's exercise also integrates preparation for the deployment of US missile defenses to South Korea.

Additionally, the US's newest combat aircraft, the F-35, will fly in to simulate attacks on North Korea's missile infrastructure, Joon Gang Daily reports. The F-35 will accompany many of the US's highest-end platforms, like F-22s and a nuclear-powered submarine.

"A bigger number of and more diverse US special operation forces will take part in this year's Foal Eagle and Key Resolve exercises to practice missions to infiltrate into the North, remove the North's war command and demolition of its key military facilities," the an unnamed military official told South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.

facialimpediment posted:

From a gazillion rumor sources, it looks like the pain train arrives at 4pm EST.

https://twitter.com/jdawsey1/status/841365298527764482

quote:

WASHINGTON (AP) — A year ago, the U.S. government was campaigning for an international ban on shipments of rechargeable batteries on passenger planes because the batteries can self-ignite, creating intense fires capable of destroying an airliner.

"The risk is immediate and urgent," Angela Stubblefield, a U.S. aviation official, declared then.

Today, that urgency has evaporated as safety regulations stall under President Donald Trump's push to ease what he sees as red tape holding back the economy.

The International Civil Aviation Organization, a U.N. agency that sets global aviation safety standards, decided last year to ban bulk shipments of lithium-ion batteries on international passenger flights. On cargo flights, the batteries can be charged to no more than 30 percent, a level that may reduce the likelihood of fires.

As a result, countries around the world have been adopting the new international standard for domestic flights as well. The Obama administration also looked to do so, submitting rules for publication that makes them binding. But after Trump took office on Jan. 20, he signed an executive order freezing the publication of new regulations. That means airlines and cargo operators remain free to ignore the standard for domestic flights.

The Obama administration had considered the change so urgent that it was fast-tracked in the rulemaking process. Trump's executive order says urgent safety rules can be exempted from the freeze, but the new administration isn't invoking that exemption for battery shipments.

"This is part of our ongoing regulatory review," the Transportation Department said in a statement. "The safe movement of hazardous materials remains a priority. We will provide updates as soon as decisions are made with regard to these and other issues at hand." No time frame was provided.

Rechargeable batteries are used in consumer products ranging from cellphones and laptops to electric cars. Manufacturers like them because they pack more energy into smaller packages, but the batteries can self-ignite if they have a manufacturing flaw, are damaged, exposed to excessive heat, overcharged or packed too closely together. The fires can burn up to 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit, close to the melting point of the aluminum used in aircraft construction.

Since 2006, three cargo jets have been destroyed and four pilots killed by in-flight fires that investigators say were either started by batteries or made more severe by their proximity.

Most passenger carriers and some cargo operators are voluntarily abiding by the international standard for their domestic operations for the time being. Trade associations for the U.S. and international airline industries, as well as the Air Line Pilots Association, say they support extending the standard to domestic flights.

But lobbyists for the battery industry, which opposed the international standard when it was adopted last year, are urging administration officials to make changes that would allow certain batteries to continue to be shipped on passenger flights. The U.N. agency standard already allows for limited exemptions, but lobbyists are asking for blanket exemptions for medical-device batteries and shipments to remote locations and other changes.

The position of U.S. negotiators last year was that medical-device batteries were no less dangerous than other kinds.

Extending the international ban to domestic flights is "a matter of life and death," said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., the House transportation committee's senior Democrat and an advocate of banning air shipments of batteries.

"If we don't start following the ICAO guidelines and stop stuffing giant boxes of lithium batteries that are fully charged into passenger aircraft, sooner or later we're going to kill a lot of people," he said. "When something is this critical that it will take down an airplane, voluntary compliance with a non-existent rule is not adequate."

But Bob Richard, a battery industry lobbyist, said people living in the Alaskan outback, for example, might not be able to receive batteries for their backup heaters or emergency beacons if the international standard is extended to domestic flights.

Under Trump, "regulators are going to be held more accountable for understanding the impacts of their rules," Richard said. "I think that will cause agencies to take a closer look at the implications."

Battery makers and electronics companies say the problem is mostly limited to manufacturers in China that make substandard batteries and don't follow hazardous materials shipping regulations. They say greater enforcement of the previous, less stringent shipping rules is the better solution. But a study by Canadian safety authorities found that the problem of battery shippers not following regulations was widespread and not limited to China.

Congress directed the Transportation Department last year to adopt the international standard for domestic flights. But it's not uncommon for federal agencies to ignore congressional directives or delay compliance, especially if they disagree with them.

Without harmonization, the U.S. also can't enforce the U.N. agency standard for international passenger and cargo flights to and from the United States. The U.S. is the world's largest aviation market.

Safety concerns about rechargeable batteries increased after FAA tests in 2014 showed gases emitted by overheated batteries can build up in cargo containers, leading to explosions capable of disabling aircraft fire suppression systems. An organization representing aircraft manufacturers said in 2015 that airliners aren't designed to withstand lithium battery fires and continuing to accept battery shipments is "an unacceptable risk."

shyduck posted:

How reliable is Louise Mensch?

facialimpediment posted:

l o fuckin l the white house's internal projections of Trumpcare were even worse than CBO'S

https://twitter.com/blakehounshell/status/841464203064029184

shyduck posted:

I think the WH knows the bill is going fail, so this is them not just throwing Ryan directly under the bus, but telling everybody that he jumped
No, I think they're on script, it's just that Bannon is the one writing it

ded posted:

Other than saying how great it is and how he will insure everyone

A Handed Missus posted:

This is your life now, Mattis.

quote:

“Trump figures things out pretty quickly and I think he’s figuring out this situation, how the House Republicans did him a disservice,” said Christopher Ruddy, a longtime Trump friend. “President Trump is a big picture, pragmatic Republican and unfortunately the Ryan Republican plan doesn’t capture his worldview.”

Two Finger posted:

so this isn't the big slam dunk news we're hoping for, right?

TBeats posted:

Two Finger posted:

so this is breadcrumbs at best

facialimpediment posted:

Hey, we know more than we did before. Next up, 11:30 FBI press conference.

brand engager posted:

Trump start any new wars yet?