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Lobbyists, in Strategy Session, Conclude That Refugee Crisis “Helps Us” Defeat Regulations

In an audio recording of a strategy session obtained by The Intercept, major trade association lobbyists discussed how the refugee crisis has changed the political dynamics in Washington to their advantage.

In the conference call held last week, lobbyists representing a number of high-polluting industries agreed that the battle between Congress and President Obama on refugee policy will give them the cover they need to attach a legislative rider to the omnibus budget bill that rolls back newly expanded clean water regulation.

“I think that probably helps us,” one participant said, referring to the coming confrontation over refugee policy.

[...] “We’re suddenly not the big issue,” said one call participant. “I mean, this is all going to turn on refugees.”

“I think that helps us,” said another call participant. “I think it helps us with the White House being on defense,” another legislative strategist on the call said.

The remarks were made during a political strategy call hosted last week by energy utility industry lobbyists. A recording was sent to The Intercept by someone on the call.

Coal CEO Thanks Lamar Smith, Asks Him to Expand Probe of Climate Scientists

Koch "Alliance" on Criminal Justice Reform Exposed as Trojan Horse

How the Gates Foundation Reflects the Good and the Bad of "Hacker Philanthropy"

Over the years, I've used a number of monitors. My first monitor was rather small - maybe 12 or 13 inches. Black and white CRT thing, just like an ancient black and white television. I resisted upgrading to a color monitor, but the wife insisted, and we got something about 15 inches. All was good, for a long time. Then, I needed a decent monitor in a place where there was really no room to put a huge ass monitor. Enter the first LED screen. Wow - I saw colors on that LED that I didn't know existed. So, I was good for years with a nice 15" LED monitor. Then, I inherited a 19" Dell monitor. When I plugged it in, things got easier to read, so I used it. Then, I got the bright idea of using BOTH monitors! I can do whatever I'm doing on the big monitor, and keep my email and system monitors on the smaller screen. That worked nicely for quite a long while. It never bothered me that the videos and movies I might watch were cramped into half the space they were intended to fill.

Well - now the larger monitor started showing signs of age. Strange phenomenon that were never meant to happen convinced me that it might be wise to upgrade, before the monitor just crapped out. Talked to my kid, and he told me what to look for. Dithered for a couple weeks over the size I wanted. Finally went with a screen that supports 1080p. And, bearing in mind that two screens are nice, I bought two of them.

Alright, they aren't "state of the art". I wasn't willing to spend a thousand dollars on monitors, after all. But, HOLY SHIT! I can have two browsers open, all my system monitors, a file manager, qbittorrent, a calculator, email, and still have lots of room on the desktop! The movies? Hell, I can see the texture of people's skin! Pretty awesome.

It's a whole new world on my computer.

If you read the news you often read about the incredible cruelty shown towards the homeless, for example about "police sweeps" in which - just a couple weeks ago - 150 people were tossed out of their tent camp in Vancouver, Washington, followed by a bulldozer "cleaning up" what were once their possessions.

But in my actual experience the kindness shown towards homeless people such as myself is far, far more common than is the cruelty. It's just that the cruelty gets more press.

I often hang out at all-night restaurants as I prefer to sleep during the day - during the day there are day centers for the homeless but at night one must either brave the cold, or find a restaurant that will permit one to hang out all night long in return for purchasing one single coffee.

The restaurant I'm at right now gives me my coffee absolutely free of charge. I tell them they don't have to do that, they I sing on the street for tips and so have the means to pay.

"You should accept help when it is offered to you," pointed out one of the waitresses. Just now she asked me if I wanted breakfast.

This isn't the first time, a while back the manager of a Carl's Jr. bought me breakfast, also the owner of a Burger King bought me lunch.

I finally applied for Social Security Disability Insurance, as a result of my Aphasia (not my mental illness). The clerk who took my application was confident it would be approved but there is some problem with my tax records that I expect I can straighten out.

When one's SSDI is approved one's first check is backdated to the lesser of one year before one's application or the date one became disabled. For me that would be quite a lot of money.

I am not dead certain but I contemplate donating all that money to the charities that look after people like me.

So, here's the recent happenings on twitter in as few words as possible:

Kotaku: Fuck gamers

Bethesda: Fuck Kotaku

Kotaku: Help us, gamers!

Gamers: LOL

SJW: BUT ETHICS!!!

Black Friday 2015

Laptops

• $99: 11.6 inch Chromebook, Best Buy
• $300: Core i3, 15.6 inch, Best Buy
• $140: Celeron, 15.6 inch, Best Buy

Storage

• $100: 4 TB Western Digital My Book external hard drive, Best Buy
• $100: 4 TB Toshiba Canvio external hard drive, Office Max and Office Depot
• $120: 5 TB Seagate external hard drive, Costco
• $120: 5 TB Toshiba Canvio external hard drive, Office Max and Office Depot
• $40: 1 TB Seagate portable hard drive, Staples
• $200: SanDisk Ultra II 2.5" SSD 960GB, Newegg

Consoles

• $300: Dell Home & Office Black Friday: Xbox One Gears of War: Ultimate Edition Bundle Plus Fallout 4 & Extra Controller
• $300: Target Black Friday: 500GB Xbox One Console w/ Gears of War Digital Download Code + $60 Target Gift Card

Categories

• Blank Media (CDs, DVDs)
• USB Flash Drives
• Hard Drives

Articles

Best Laptops: Holiday 2015
Best SSDs: Holiday 2015

irc.anonops.com/6697

Haven't been on IRC for quite a long while - looking around in #opisis and #opparis - as expected, it's rather dead in there. #opparis seems to be hunting and reporting twitter accounts, and I'm wondering if it's worth opening an account.

Expounding on what I feel ban-worthy as linked in a recent story I subbed...

These are my opinions not site policy. That said, they are also my minimum requirements to remain on staff.

Over-the-top spam: This means dozens of spam comments to a single story, automated or not. Anything less can and should be dealt with by simply modding the comments as Spam.

Gross/repeated illegal activity: Linking to copyrighted works and other illegality of the minor variety that we notice should be resolved by editing the comment in the database and letting the user know why their comment was edited in a reply. Bans should be reserved for things such as illegal and credible threats or multiple instances of minor illegal activity that was not ceased when notified that it should be.

Opinions, truly held or of a trollish nature: Absolutely never should this be criteria for a ban.

The meaning of "site bans": Banning an account or IP address from posting to the website. I don't have as much issue with IRC bans, it's a secondary means of communication for us not our primary one.

Any further clarification or other questions, feel free to ask.

Didn't watch this time. Ben Carson sure is popular isn't he?

Wikipedia
Fireworks Fly In Unruly Third GOP Presidential Debate
Four Republicans Battle For Attention At Undercard Debate
PolitiFact

Bizarre, campy song explains China's 13th 5-year plan
Song (low information content)

Five-year plans of China
Timeline

I've been singing on the street for tips. I don't make a whole lot, I'm doing pretty good if I can pay for a Starbucks at the end of the day. Sometimes I can buy a bag of rice and a couple cans of beans to cook on my campstove.

Today wasn't looking so good. I wasn't into it mentally and was not making any tips but even so I persisted as I knew that, at the low rate I generally get tipped that random fluctuations are significant.

Then just now, behind Powells City of Books at 11th and Couch in Portland's Pearl District, some joker heckled me the ENTIRE time I was singing - all the way through all eight of my songs.

What he didn't realize is that I am from Kuro5hin.

Right then I earned nine bucks in tips; all day before that I only made $1.35. As we parted I waved my cash in his face then said "Learn to sing Sir, and we could be a duet".