Nobody Cares: PRS

[Isabeau]

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

God. Here's a photo of aftermath in Beirut, with a previous satellite map image of the location.

That's incredible.

 

[Beebo Brink]

What Caused the Beirut Explosion? What We Know

The 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that exploded are believed to have come from a Russian-owned vessel that stopped in Beirut while it was sailing in 2013 from Georgia to Mozambique. The ship was abandoned, and the cargo is believed to have been offloaded to the port’s warehouses, the site of the explosion on Tuesday.

So the ammonium nitrate has been stuffed in a warehouse in Beirut for 7 years. The only wonder is that it hasn't detonated before now.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Footage shows moment Beirut explosion hits as bride poses for photographs – video

Footage shows a bride in Beirut posing for photos moments before a massive explosion ripped through the city's port and surrounding areas on Tuesday, killing at least 100 people and injuring 4,000

www.theguardian.com

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

It's really bad. Aside from the casualties of the blast, literally hundreds of thousands of Beirut's residents are now homeless because their houses and apartments have been unliveably damaged. And I've read that Argent's mithril silos contained the majority of the country's imported grain supply which has been basically destroyed now (it's those mounds of what look like sand pouring out of the silos in that photo above) and the country - the whole country - has around like a month's supply left.

 

[danielravennest]

It's really bad. Aside from the casualties of the blast, literally hundreds of thousands of Beirut's residents are now homeless because their houses and apartments have been unliveably damaged. And I've read that Argent's mithril silos contained the majority of the country's imported grain supply which has been basically destroyed now (it's those mounds of what look like sand pouring out of the silos in that photo above) and the country - the whole country - has around like a month's supply left.

Transporting grain across the Mediterranean has been a thing since Roman times. I expect they can ship it to the nearest port that hasn't been blown up, and then truck it to the city.

 

[Free]

A couple more aftermath photos of the explosion in Beirut I discovered on imgur. Horrible.

Lesson: Don't leave explosive shit just lying around!

 

[Free]

Oh, great...

UAE: Massive fire breaks out at market in Ajman

A massive fire broke out at a fruits and vegetable market in Ajman, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Wednesday around 6

www.adaderana.lk

 

[Free]

How Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Census Power Grab Throws Rural States Under The Bus

Democratic-leaning parts of the country are not the only losers in President Trump’s anti-immigrant scheme to hijack the census. His...

talkingpointsmemo.com

His administration’s recent moves to speed up the count appear aimed at making sure Trump is still president when the Bureau’s most important task — providing the data that decides how many House seats each state gets — is finished. In doing so, Trump is also throwing under the bus rural parts of the country, census experts and demographers tell TPM.

The gambit puts at risk for rural regions not just their political representation, but their share of the $1.5 trillion in government funding that is doled out by using census data.

While immigrant communities and dense urban areas will suffer the most in a rushed census count, rural areas too face a serious threat of being undercounted.

 

[Free]

Sally Yates to testify as part of GOP probe into Russia investigation

Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates will testify next week as part of a Republican probe into the Russia investigation.Yates will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Aug. 5,…

thehill.com

 

[Free]

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Alarm over ammonium nitrate stockpiles after Beirut blast

A deadly explosion in Lebanon has reignited concerns about the stockpiling of ammonium nitrate in Australia.

www.smh.com.au

So apparently there's a bunch of these stockpiles ready to go off.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

 

[Free]

Holy moly.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Yeah I was actually right about something like this for once!

 

[Free]

It's freaking huge news. The NY AG doesn't want to just go after the NRA; she wants to dissolve it. They must have some massive scandal-level documentation on hand to make the case for that.

EDIT: Also, expect screams of bloody murder from the right. They'll tie it into the election and Trump, no doubt about it.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

The gist is, the NRA ostensibly collects money that is supposed to be used to advocate for gun ownership and rights, but in reality a large portion of that money is just used to enrich the leadership personally to a ridiculous degree.

Attorney General Letitia James is accusing the NRA of an array of “illegal conduct,” according to a press release describing the suit, including “[the] diversion of millions of dollars away from the charitable mission of the organization for personal use by senior leadership, awarding contracts to the financial gain of close associates and family, and appearing to dole out lucrative no- show contracts to former employees in order to buy their silence and continued loyalty.”
The civil lawsuit, expected to be filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Thursday, also names as defendants longtime NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre and three other NRA executives – John Frazier, Woody Phillips and Joshua Powell – and seeks their removal from their current positions and prohibition from their future service on any other New York-based nonprofit board.
Those four executives “failed to fulfill their fiduciary duty to the NRA,” James is alleging, “and used millions upon millions from NRA reserves for personal use, including trips for them and their families to the Bahamas, private jets, expensive meals, and other private travel.”
But James is demanding more than a change in leadership. The problems within the organization, she argues, are pervasive, as senior leaders “blatantly ignored” internal policies, while the board’s audit committee was “negligent” in providing oversight.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Trump's chances of re-election just went up.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Trump chooses for ambassador to Germany a racist Fox commentator who is pro-Putin and anti-Merkel

Opinion | Douglas Macgregor would be a worse ambassador to Germany than Richard Grenell - The Washington Post

Skip to main contentOpinions Editorial Board Global Opinions The Opinions Essay Election 2020 Local Opinions Cape Up Post Opinión Video Letters Opinions Trump chooses for ambassador to Germany a racis...

www.evernote.com

I can only assume that Trump is getting prompts -- directly or indirectly -- from Russia, because there's no other sensible explanation for the damage he's doing to America's international reputation and to its historic alliances.

Like Trump, Macgregor has cast doubt on the NATO alliance, saying that we should withdraw our troops in Germany and make it clear “that we are not going to be the first responder” if allies are attacked by Russia. Also like Trump, Macgregor has a disquieting tendency to echo Vladimir Putin’s propaganda. While appearing on Russia’s state-owned RT, he justified the Russian invasion of Ukraine by falsely saying that eastern and southern Ukrainians are “clearly Russian” and “should be allowed to join Russia.” By contrast, he criticized the U.S. intervention to stop the ethnic cleansing of Muslims by “Orthodox Christian Serbs in Kosovo.”

 

[Free]

I can only assume that Trump is getting prompts -- directly or indirectly -- from Russia, because there's no other sensible explanation for the damage he's doing to America's international reputation and to its historic alliances.

Stephen Miller.