Thread for obviously newsworthy stuff

[Uncle Sparky]

Actually, if Trump did spend the last week+ in the WH, the government saved money on not putting his security team up at Mar del Lago... If Marlene and baby Trump were in Florida, a smaller security team would be assigned.

[Aeson]

Has it cut back on government spending at Trump properties?

[spambot]

Trump’s shutdown has paralyzed immigration courts. Oh, the irony.

IN THE name of securing the border and keeping out illegal immigrants, President Trump has opted for a partial government shutdown. Irony of ironies, that shutdown has paralyzed the nation’s immigration courts, shuttering many of them and allowing several hundred undocumented immigrants to dodge deportation orders each day the shutdown continues. They are among many hundreds of others whose cases will be postponed for years — or, in effect, indefinitely — for every day the closure lasts.

Those are among the more perverse effects of the Trump shutdown, which has resulted in many of the nation’s roughly 400 immigration judges receiving furlough orders, barring them from coming to work or hearing cases. (Judges who handle cases involving detained migrants in Department of Homeland Security custody remain at work, but not those handling non-detained migrants, whose cases are more numerous.)

The immigration courts are already massively jammed: The backlog is now 1.1 million cases. That means in the 11 days of the shutdown so far, thousands of cases have already been postponed.

Technically, those cases will be rescheduled for three or four years from now. In fact, the backlog has reached such gargantuan proportions that judges are already double- and triple-booking future court dates, like an airline overbooking flights, meaning that many cases on the docket will inevitably be postponed repeatedly. The dysfunction calls to mind the famous New Yorker cartoon in which an executive suggests: “No, Thursday’s out. How about never—is never good for you?”

In many instances, a postponement’s effects are more than administrative; they may impose real hardships. Take the example of undocumented immigrants with clean records who have been in the United States for more than a decade. An immigration judge may exempt such immigrants from the risk of deportation if they can show it would result in exceptional hardship for a spouse, parent or minor child who is a citizen or legal permanent resident. But that chance of relief is lost if, owing to a case’s postponement, the immigrant’s child turns 21, or the parent or spouse dies.

Mr. Trump has poured scorn on the immigration courts, variously suggesting that newly hired judges would be crooked and that immigrants routinely fail to appear for court hearings. In fact, there is zero evidence for the former, and the latter claim has been debunked: While many respondents do not show up for hearings, a sizable majority of them do, especially those represented by lawyers.

What distinguishes the Trump shutdown is that it contravenes the president’s own long-standing insistence on a more rational and efficient immigration system, as he himself defines it. A president who attacks “catch and release ” now embraces a policy that ensures indefinite release. A president hungry for ever more deportations now ensures that thousands of would-be deportees get reprieves. And a president who conjures migrant no-shows in courts manages to close the courts entirely.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-shutdown-has-paralyzed-immigration-courts-oh-the-irony/2019/01/01/4e9c8682-0d46-11e9-8938-5898adc28fa2_story.html?utm_term=.e3eda7b0941e

own goal?

[Broken_Erika]

US Strategic Command, which oversees America's nuclear arsenal, has apologised for a tweet that said it was ready to "drop something much, much bigger" than New York's Times Square ball.

The message, posted on New Year's Eve, was accompanied by a video showing a B-2 bomber dropping weapons.

Strategic Command later deleted the tweet, saying it was "in poor taste", and replaced it with an apology.

The incident sparked outrage online.

The previous tweet read:

"#TimesSquare tradition rings in the #NewYear by dropping the big ball...if ever needed, we are #ready to drop something much, much bigger."
......
Critics were quick to condemn Strategic Command's take on the event.

Former head of the US Office of Government Ethics, Walter M Shaub Jr, tweeted: "What kind of maniacs are running this country?"

Joe Cirincione, author of 'Nuclear Nightmares, Securing the World before it is too late', said: "At first, I did not believe this could be real. But it is. It is an industry ad doubling as a sick, bragging joke by our Strategic Command. Disgraceful."

US Strategic Command is one of 10 unified commands in the US Department of Defense. It is based at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. The command slogan is "Peace is Our Profession", which was also used in hashtag form in the controversial tweet.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46727991

and

Kentucky police mourn doughnut truck fire

Police in Kentucky have posted a tweet mourning the loss of a doughnut truck, which was destroyed after catching fire.

The driver of the Krispy Kreme Doughnuts vehicle noticed smoke billowing from the back as he drove through Lexington.

While no one was hurt in the fire, all the doughnuts in the back were reportedly destroyed.

It proved too much to bear for the local police.

Lexington Police Department posted images online of heartbroken officers at the scene of the fire in the south-east of the city, near the corner of Man O' War Boulevard and Pink Pigeon Parkway.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46728111

https://twitter.com/lexkypolice/stat...230016/photo/1

[Proteus_MST]

Another Biologist theorizes, that they actually didn't mean to hitch a ride, but rather were trying to perform a gang bang with the snake

https://twitter.com/jodirowley/statu...39595296317440

[Aeson]

Finally a hyperloop design that works!

[Dinner]

It is the reason the organizers stated.

[Dinner]

The snake is just saving them for later.

Actually, aren't cane toads poisonous? I guess the snake knows that and won't touch them.

[Broken_Erika]

Australian cane toads hitch a lift on python's back after storm
Some called it the Outback Uber - 10 cane toads have been caught riding a python.

Paul Mock, of Kununurra in the far north of Western Australia, filmed the bizarre sight after a heavy thunderstorm on Sunday night.

The animals were trying to escape an overflowing dam on the Mocks' property when the toads came up with the novel form of transport.

Mr Mock sent the images to his brother Andrew, who then posted them online.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Mock explains he had ventured out after a bad thunderstorm that dropped close to 7cm (2.7in) of rain on Kununurra in the space of an hour.

"I went out and the lake had overflowed," he says, and realised the toads, who nested around its edge, were fleeing the rising waters.

"Thousands of toads were all trying to find somewhere to go," he says. "And then I saw Monty our local python with a bunch of hitchhikers on his back."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46720029

https://twitter.com/MrMeMock/status/1079448894981828608/photo/1

[-Jrabbit]

My BS detector says that's not the real reason.

[Dinner]

Two sections of the treaty were suspended when Trump pulled out but all of the original treaty is still there. Many heads of state have out right said they expect the US to rejoin as soon as Trump gets flushed down the toilet.

[Dinner]

https://www.newsweek.com/california-womens-march-cancelled-over-fears-participants-would-be-1274756?amp=1

Dems have really lost their way with this identity politics crap. Organizers in California cancel their women's march because they feared too many white people would show up. Yes, you read that correctly.

[BeBMan]

I'm fed up with CNN. Instead of Kid they selected some doctor guy as CNN hero, just because he helped ppl or something...

https://edition.cnn.com/specials/cnn-heroes

[Proteus_MST]

Dinner is referring to Cthulhu, of course ... Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

[ZEE]

That is CNN talk.