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Stormy Daniels, Donald Trump, and Shark Week: ‘He made me sit and watch’ (archive)

Clickbait? Sure. But reading about the history of "Shark Week" in that context really makes something click.

Stormy Daniels describes her alleged affair with Donald Trump (w/ transcript)

"Wow, you-- you are special. You remind me of my daughter."

Yet Another American Football League: The Alliance of American Football

Another New Football League Says It Will Start Play in 2019

The N.F.L. is under pressure from falling television ratings, lawsuits over its handling of concussions, and fan opposition to player protests during the national anthem.

Yet investors keep lining up to help start new football leagues. On Tuesday, the longtime N.F.L. executive Bill Polian and the television and movie producer Charlie Ebersol became the latest entrepreneurs to join the fray when they unveiled plans for the Alliance of American Football.

There have been several short-lived football leagues before, including the United Football League, United States Football League and XFL. Like others before them, Polian and Ebersol say they have a formula for success. They have acquired investments from Silicon Valley firms that will allow their eight-team league to start playing a week after the Super Bowl in February 2019. Their partners include CBS, which will show a few games on its main channel and some on its cable network. They will also launch a smartphone app on which fans will be able to stream games and play fantasy football.

The league will also aim for two-and-a-half hour games (N.F.L. games generally last at least three hours). To achieve that, there will be no kickoffs or extra points — only 2-point plays — and a 30-second play clock, as opposed to the N.F.L.'s 45-second clock. There will also be no television timeouts, which will lead to about 60 percent fewer commercials.

Also at Variety.

Previously: As National Football League Ratings Fall, Could the "XFL" Make a Return?

So, I want to engrave some things. Most of these things are going to be iron, steel, or aluminum tools, but I'd also like to engrave some less durable items, such as plastics. I've done a couple searches, and I'm looking at engravers ranging from about $80 (US$) all the way up to about $180,000. I suppose that if I searched, I could find some cheaper, and almost certainly more expensive.

So, I'm looking - and all that I can really see, is how ignorant I am. I have almost zero idea what it is that will make a long-lasting engraver. Will one of those ultra-cheap engravers from China last for ten years of light-to-moderate use? Probably not - but what do I know? Is it necessary to spend thousands of dollars for the same thing? Newegg has a variety of engravers, for less than $400, but the biggest, most powerful among them has a disclaimer:

Engraving Material Note:
1.can engraving materials:wood,bamboo,plastic,paper,leather,bank card,rubber
2.can not engraving material:metal,stone,ceramic,shell,light-reflecting material,transparent material

Seems pretty obvious that I need something bigger, and more expensive, than a $400 engraver. Can engraving metal, dammit!

Does anyone here have experience with non-industrial laser engravers? (Industrial? Quarter million dollars entry level?) Power ratings, sizes, brands, whatever - any information is welcome!

NASA to Discuss Upcoming Launch of Next Planet Hunter

Join NASA at 1 p.m. EDT Wednesday, March 28, as astrophysics experts discuss the upcoming launch of NASA’s next planet hunter, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Reporters can attend the event in person at the James Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington or participate by phone.

The briefing will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

Scheduled to launch April 16, TESS is expected to find thousands of planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets, orbiting the nearest and brightest stars in our cosmic neighborhood. Powerful telescopes like NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope can then further study these exoplanets to search for important characteristics, like their atmospheric composition and whether they could support life.

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.

John Oliver’s Gay-Bunny Book Is Outselling the Mike Pence Book It’s Trolling

John Oliver’s Marlon Bundo Book Sells Out In A Day; Another Printing In Works

A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo

Worst Pence bashing since Trump:

“Trump thinks Pence is great,” Bannon told me. But, according to a longtime associate, Trump also likes to “let Pence know who’s boss.” A staff member from Trump’s campaign recalls him mocking Pence’s religiosity. He said that, when people met with Trump after stopping by Pence’s office, Trump would ask them, “Did Mike make you pray?” Two sources also recalled Trump needling Pence about his views on abortion and homosexuality. During a meeting with a legal scholar, Trump belittled Pence’s determination to overturn Roe v. Wade. The legal scholar had said that, if the Supreme Court did so, many states would likely legalize abortion on their own. “You see?” Trump asked Pence. “You’ve wasted all this time and energy on it, and it’s not going to end abortion anyway.” When the conversation turned to gay rights, Trump motioned toward Pence and joked, “Don’t ask that guy—he wants to hang them all!”

That's all, folks.

Isn't that what the government types keep saying?

So why is it that the head of that self-same government doesn't play by those rules? Does he think the law doesn't apply to him?

In my mind, those who are privileged to represent us should be *more* forthcoming and avoid even the hint of any conflicts of interest, illegality or lack of transparency.

Why then does our current administration fear the Mueller investigation? Let's get to the truth and let the chips fall where they may.

Which is why it seems odd that our 'fearless' leader is acting like a frightened animal:

A lawyer for President Trump called on the Justice Department on Saturday to end the special counsel investigation into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, shifting abruptly to a more adversarial stance as the inquiry appeared to be intensifying.
[...]
Mr. Dowd said at first that he was speaking on behalf of the president but later backed off that assertion. He did not elaborate on why he was calling for the end of the investigation, saying only: “Just end it on the merits in light of recent revelations.”

People close to the president were skeptical that Mr. Dowd was acting on his own. Mr. Trump has a history of using advisers to publicly test a message, giving him some distance from it. And Mr. Dowd’s comments came at a time when members of Mr. Trump’s legal team are jockeying to stay in his favor.

Hours later, the president echoed Mr. Dowd’s accusations of corruption in the theoretical “deep state” that Mr. Trump has long cast as a boogeyman working to undermine him.

”There was tremendous leaking, lying and corruption at the highest levels of the FBI, Justice & State,” he wrote on Twitter.

In the end, the truth will out. Let's hear it. Whether it's that there was no collusion with the Russians or if there was. That's actually less important than making sure we have the facts.

Short notice here. I call upon all Soylentils to submit Fine Articles to SoylentNews, but in this particular instance, any articles on the extremely embarrassing incident in the trailer park in Indiana involving White supremacist Matthew Heimback, founder of the Traditionalist Workers Party. Yours truly has submitted an entire shit-load of submissions, but for some reason they get rejected. I can only surmise that this is embarrassment by some editors who have alt-right leanings, or live in trailer parks, or have feelings for the old "Mother-in-Law".

But that is neither here, nor there. Soylentils are against censorship. Hell, we let Eth and jmorris, and Runaway post their crap, so why no report on the latest follies of the alt-right? No interest? Oh, seriously, who is not interested about a guy who lists his profession as "white nationalist", carries on an affair with the wife of his webmaster, who is also his father-in-law, and then assaults said father-in-law, and the daughter of the father-in-law, who would the the "wife" in question. Oedipus had it much easier than Matthew.

So submit away! Ten times a day, or an hour! Keep that queue full of submissions! Make the editors work!

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UPDATE! Wow, subs barely last half an hour now! Here are some more that have been, um, "declined".

Prominent US neo-Nazi arrested on domestic violence charge

And a totally unrelated, but very informative and interesting article on the source of alt-right anti-semitism.

Finally, another on the Israeli alt-right movement.

Just not of interest to Soylentils, huh? That's what they want you to think! (Not saying that there is an alt-right cabal controlling SoylentNews, but there just might be an alt-right cabal controlling SoylentNews.)

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What? No White Wakanda?
Or Antifa has succeeded?

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March 22, more declined submissions, which are actually quite interesting for the average Soylentil.
Jason Jorjani to leave the alt-right
Readership plummets for alt-right Breitbart without Bannon

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March 23!

We're sorry, your submission "Looking Under the Alt-Right Rock" was declined for the following reason:
We are not interested in the sexual habits of this individual.--JR

The editors felt it inappropriate for them to correct the issue themselves. Please feel free to correct the issue yourself and resubmit.

Such an interesting submission, Looking Under the Alt-Right, alright. Somehow I have the Idea that even if I fix it, and resubmit, it will still get rejected. But you know, despite Rhinos and K-pop, it is not about the sex.

Oh! The main thing is that janorinok is back! So nice to be denied by my favorite ed, who has safely returned from the jaws of death! Thank you, JR!

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March 25, 2018, Rejected again!
This one is good, can't remember what it is about. There are so many, so many.
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March 30!!! Oh, Noes! Crying Neo-Nazi story rejected!!!

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April 5, 2018
I have submitted several reviews, or stories about reviews, of a film that was premiered at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, "Alt-right: Age of Rage", all of which have been rejected! It as if somebody does not want Soylentils to know about this movie?
  https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=25584 Enjoy.
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April 8, 2018
Can we just link my submissions page, so anyone can see the whole sorry episode?
https://soylentnews.org/~aristarchus/submissions

In Momenti ad Mortuum Ethanol_fueledum.

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April 18, 2018

Oh, the Soylent Carnage! A week's worth of worth submissions, rejected without comment, apology, or notification! Some were quite good, like the Anglo-Saxon archeology piece, and the bit on alt-right attacking professors. Or, we could read the eds lame submissions! Ha!

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April 30, 2018
"We're sorry, your submission "De Alt-Right: te vrezen of te bestrijden? " was declined for the following reason:" And nothing follows. Our eds can't read Dutch? What are they, Austro-Spanish-Hungarian?

Word of the day: Ableist.

How I saw Stephen Hawking's death as a disabled person

• https://twitter.com/MitchellToy/status/973774076803248128
• https://twitter.com/afiqhusyairi1/status/974195115739701249
• https://twitter.com/ayfchang9021/status/974446485113729024
• https://twitter.com/DEADCLOWN45ACP/status/974368607948935168
• https://twitter.com/DJSicFanny/status/974286742571319301
• http://iignatz.tumblr.com/image/171932503530

Snapchat pulls 'awful' Chris Brown and Rihanna advert
Rihanna's Criticism Sinks Snapchat's Value by $800M

Related: Reality TV Star Wipes Out $1 Billion+ of Snap's "Value"

First on CNN: Emails show Ben, Candy Carson selected $31,000 dining set

"I Hope We Have No Crackers Here": EBF Staff Sanction Racial Slur

Queen Elsa came to Boston and pushed a police wagon out of the snow

An Unwanted Kiss on ‘American Idol’