This may be the worst photo of Trump as prez that I’ve seen so far – it’s like something out of a nightmare.
Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
It’s interesting and I think meaningful that there are so many photos of him of that kind. It’s interesting that his face so readily and often takes up that enraged hostile belligerent expression – that hideous anti-human hate-engorged snarl.
That’s not a good human being.
Sasha Abramsky at The Nation thinks Trump is not quite but almost plagiarizing Hitler.
n September 30, 1942, shortly after the death camps began gassing Jews, Hitler declared, “In Germany too the Jews once laughed at my prophecies. I don’t know whether they are still laughing, or whether they have already lost the inclination to laugh, but I can assure you that everywhere they will stop laughing. With these prophecies I shall prove to be right.”
Five weeks later, he declared, “Today countless numbers of those who laughed at that time, laugh no longer. Those who are still laughing now, also will perhaps laugh no longer after a while.”
On June 1, 2017, Donald Trump announced that he was pulling America out of the Paris climate accord. “At what point does America get demeaned? At what point do they start laughing at us as a country? We want fair treatment for its citizens and we want fair treatment for our taxpayers. We don’t want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore, and they won’t be. They won’t be.”
It’s not a direct quote from Hitler, but it’s perilously close.
Is it though? Really? I don’t think so. It’s a very common trope, “they’re laughing at us.” “Who’s laughing now?” is almost as common. I don’t think it’s convincing to say Trump is almost quoting Hitler just because he says we don’t want other countries laughing at us anymore. That thought is nowhere near arcane or obscure enough to be copyright Hitler. And “they won’t be, they won’t be” sounds to me more like one of Trump’s stupid ad libs than a steal from Hitler.
That Trump essentially used the Rose Garden podium yesterday to give a giant “Fuck you” to the rest of the world is bad enough. But that he paraphrased Hitler in so doing raises a stench that even the cretins who head the Republican Party ought to blanch at. Trump will, I am sure, deny any intended overlap with Hitlerian language. But, as a longtime journalist I know that my editors would red-flag an unattributed quote like this…
I don’t believe that. I don’t believe editors red-flag commonplace thoughts like “other countries laugh at us” as theft. If they did how would they get anything else done, and how would stories ever get published?
Especially since “other countries” is hardly the same kind of designated enemy as “the Jews.”
…and as a lecturer in journalism, I know that were a student of mine to try to pass such words off as original, they would be flying perilously close to a plagiarism citation.
I hope that’s not true, because it seems grotesque.
We already know that Trump is very like Hitler in many ways, including much of his “thinking.” There will naturally be some echoes, but that doesn’t mean they’re deliberate liftings. Abramsky mentions a rumor that Trump keeps a book of Hitler’s speeches on his bedside table, but come on. One, Trump doesn’t read books. Two, he doesn’t remember what he reads. Three, why would he read Hitler when he can read Bannon or, better yet, just watch Fox?
Nope, I think that’s one Hitler too many.
The Beeb on Trump’s horrific behavior:
Mr Trump’s attacks on Mr Khan have drawn condemnation from both sides of the Atlantic.
His critics have accused him of being insensitive and twisting the mayor’s words.
Politicians in the UK on Monday called on the prime minister to withdraw the invitation for Mr Trump’s state visit later this year.
The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron, said: “This is a man insulting our national values at a time of introspection and mourning.”
Over the weekend, Prime Minister Theresa May refused to criticise Mr Trump, simply saying that Mr Khan was doing a “good job”.
I suppose she doesn’t want to inspire him to start insulting her on Twitter. You know he would.
“Try to imagine the UK prime minister attacking the Mayor of NYC the day after 9/11,” said European Parliament cabinet member Simon O’Connor.
The US Conference of Mayors, representing more than 1,400 American cities, backed Mr Khan.
“He has risen above this crisis of death and destruction, as mayors continue to do, to alleviate fear, to bring comfort to his people of London”, the mayors wrote in a statement on Sunday.
Trump shames us.
Trump three hours ago:
Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his "no reason to be alarmed" statement. MSM is working hard to sell it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2017
People who are not Trump:
The response from emergency services, law enforcement & officials in Ldn–as well as ordinary Londoners–has been extraordinary. – LLukens 2/3
— U.S. Embassy London (@USAinUK) June 4, 2017
I commend the strong leadership of the @MayorofLondon as he leads the city forward after this heinous attack. – LLukens 3/3 https://t.co/p4dDZuCpyO
— U.S. Embassy London (@USAinUK) June 4, 2017
Mayor Sadiq Khan is doing an extraordinary job supporting Londoners in a time of pain. President Trump's attack on him is unacceptable.
— Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) June 5, 2017
London Mayor Sadiq Khan's message of support following last year's shootings in Orlando. https://t.co/OR1CiJObHO
— Elliott Lusztig (@ezlusztig) June 5, 2017
Goddam immigrants, right?
A Romanian chef thought on his feet when he hit an attacker over the head with a crate and let 20 terrified people into the bakery where he works during the terror attack on Borough Market.
Florin Morariu has been hailed on social media as a hero after taking in the people and apprehending the attacker.
The baker, who works at the Bread Ahead bakery in the market, told The Associated Press: “We were looking out of the window because we saw that everyone was agitated, everyone was running, people, women… they were fainting, falling and we went outside to see what was happening.”
He said when he went outside and saw two people stabbing others, he at first “froze” and didn’t know what to do. But then he went and hit one of the attackers on the head with a crate.
“There was a car with a loudspeaker saying ‘go, go’ and they (police) threw a grenade…. and then I ran.”
He added that when he saw that “people were desperate,” he let about 20 people into the bakery and pulled the shutters down.
Well, yeh, ok, he did all that, but he’s still a bloody foreigner, right?
Goddam political correctness.
Chris Cillizza on Trump’s non-presidential quality in light of his grotesque tweets last night and this morning.
Trump tweeting things to forward his own agenda in the wake of terrorist attacks is nothing new. Following shootings in an Orlando nightclub that left 49 people dead, Trump offered this: “Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don’t want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!” After an incident of a knife-wielding man at the Louvre Museum in Paris, Trump tweeted: “A new radical Islamic terrorist has just attacked in Louvre Museum in Paris. Tourists were locked down. France on edge again. GET SMART U.S.”
In short, the tweetstorm following the London attacks isn’t the exception, it’s the rule for Trump. Using these attacks to prove his political point is his default position not a one-time popping off.
Trump’s responses are the latest example of how he is radically altering the idea of what it means to be “presidential.” During the 2016 campaign, Trump’s attacks on John McCain’s war hero status, his savaging of a Gold Star family, his wild exaggerations about his wealth and his seeming disinterest in the truth were all taken, at one point or another, as signs that he simply wasn’t “presidential” enough to actually win anything.
That he wasn’t “presidential” enough because he wasn’t adult enough, or thoughtful enough, or decent enough. That he wasn’t “presidential” enough because he was deficient on every criterion you could think of – literally every single one. He was and is reckless instead of responsible, rude instead of civil, hostile instead of affable, ignorant instead of informed, belligerent instead of restrained…I could go on this way all night. Every moral and intellectual quality needed for the job, he has the opposite of, up to and including mere appearance – that godawful nightmare hair.
And Trump has never stopped. His quintet of tweets on London are not only something that no previous American president would ever have said, they’re also statements that it’s hard to imagine any other leader in any other democracy around the world saying.
They are more the statements of a conservative talk radio show host than they are of what we have come to think of as a president — bombastic, over the top and out of context. They are, by traditional standards, anti-presidential.
Which, come to think of it, is a good way to describe Trump. He is sort of an anti-president — at least in terms of how we have always defined those terms. Trump’s attitude and approach in office is closer to Jerry Springer than to Gerald Ford. He’s more Limbaugh than Lincoln.
And he, of all people, is in that chair.
Philip Rucker at the Post underlines how disgustingly out of control and malevolent Trump is.
A traditional president would have reacted carefully to the London Bridge terrorist attack by instilling calm, being judicious about facts and appealing to the country’s better angels.
Donald Trump, of course, is no traditional president. He reacted impulsively to Saturday night’s carnage by stoking panic and fear, being indiscreet with details of the event and capitalizing on it to advocate for one of his more polarizing policies and to advance a personal feud.
He started by retweeting a brainless headline from the Drudge Report.
Before offering his condolences to the British people, the victims of three gruesome attacks in as many months, Trump pecked out a second tweet. “We need to be smart, vigilant and tough,” the president wrote, calling on U.S. courts to affirm his administration’s “travel ban” on people from six majority-Muslim nations.
After that he sent a “God bless!” But he took it back after a night’s sleep.
On Sunday morning, however, once the breadth of the horror in London was clear, Trump was back on Twitter. He criticized the city’s mayor — Sadiq Khan, a liberal Muslim and an old Trump foil — for not being tough enough protecting his citizens.
“At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is ‘no reason to be alarmed!’” Trump tweeted.
Trump took Khan’s quote out of context. The mayor had urged Londoners, in a BBC interview that was replayed, not to be “alarmed” by an increased police presence in the city. He said that after condemning the “deliberate and cowardly attack” as “barbaric.”
That’s how our president helps out after a hideous terror attack – by lying about the mayor in order to attack him for not doing enough.
White House officials did not respond to questions about Trump’s response on Sunday.
With Trump spending another day at his private golf club in Sterling, Va., the White House’s social media director, Dan Scavino, revived an old Trump-Khan feud on Twitter and scolded the mayor to “WAKE UP!!!!”
Yes, he really did.
.@MayorofLondon– refer to below tweet 13 months ago, after you criticized … now President @realDonaldTrump — and WAKE UP!!!! https://t.co/RzGOHny37L
— Dan Scavino Jr. (@Scavino45) June 4, 2017
These people are the worst. They’re like drunken frat boys who have taken Sadism pills.
Chris Lu, who served as White House Cabinet secretary under President Obama, was aghast.
“The fact that the White House social media director is commenting before the national security leadership has spoken is yet another example of Trump’s ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ attitude towards handling international incidents,” Lu said.
Historian Robert Dallek said Trump is exhibiting an entirely new style of presidential leadership. “Trump rubs everything raw,” he said. “He makes it more acerbic, more contentious.”
Dallek, who has studied former president Franklin D. Roosevelt, who steered the country through Pearl Harbor, was unsparing in his critique of Trump’s response to the London attack.
“There’s something so petty about this man,” Dallek said. “What we’re dealing with is someone who is, and I think this is the best term, an egomaniac. Everything has to revolve around him — he knows better, he’s right, he one-ups everything.”
And it’s not because he’s “insecure” or has “low self-esteem.” It’s because he’s far too secure and has way too much self-esteem. Some people just are mean shits, and Donald Trump is one of them.
Trump of course made everything worse by being an asshole on Twitter.
At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is "no reason to be alarmed!"
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2017
Not what a decent head of state is supposed to do.
Naturally people in the UK – once our closest ally, would you believe it?! – are not much pleased.
Donald Trump has sparked fury after hitting out at Sadiq Khan over his response to the London terror attack.
…
Following the atrocity, Sadiq Khan said he was “grieving” for the victims and said the terrorists “would not win”.
But the US President slammed that response on Twitter, saying: “At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is ‘no reason to be alarmed!’”
He caused confusion with a further tweet, saying: “Do you notice we are not having a gun debate right now? That’s because they used knives and a truck!”
Tottenham MP David Lammy told him: “Stop commenting on what has happened in my city. Put your phone down.”
Funny coincidence, I told him the same thing early this morning when I read his stinking tweets.
“As an international politician, he should know better than taking cheap and unwarranted shots at the people actually on the ground,” a follower agreed.
He should know better and, even more basically, he should be a minimally decent enough human being not to take cheap and unwarranted shots at the people actually on the ground. He has a repulsive instinct for doing the nastiest thing possible in any given situation.
Mr Khan’s statement appeared to have been taken out of context by Mr Trump. The Mayor had said this morning: “Londoners will see an increased police presence today and over the course of the next few days.
“There’s no reason to be alarmed.”
A spokesman for Mr Khan later branded Mr Trump’s comment “ill-informed” and said the president had deliberately taken out of context remarks made by the mayor to reassure people about the increased police presence in the wake of the attack.
He said: “The mayor is busy working with the police, emergency services and the Government to co-ordinate the response to this horrific and cowardly terrorist attack and provide leadership and reassurance to Londoners and visitors to our city.
“He has more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump’s ill-informed tweet that deliberately takes out of context his remarks urging Londoners not to be alarmed when they saw more police – including armed officers – on the streets.”
But our ugly squalid malevolent president has nothing better to do than insult the mayor of the city dealing with the attack.
We apologize to Sadiq Khan, to the people of London, to the world.
The NY Times has a lot of first-person accounts.
It was a warm, drizzly Saturday night, and the bars at Borough Market here were packed, as usual. Tucked below an offramp of London Bridge, near the banks of the Thames, the market is a warren of narrow streets populated with trendy bars and restaurants, where some people had just finished watching the Champions League soccer final.
Then came the loud bang of a crashing van. Then came three men slashing at patrons with knives. Then screams, sirens, chaos — and, finally, gunfire as arriving police officers shot the three assailants dead.
“A huge group of people started running towards us,” said Graham Forester, who was in a taxi arriving at Borough Market as the attack unfolded. “One woman screamed at my cabby, telling him to turn around. One guy fell over really badly, while he was running, and I saw a pool of blood on the pavement.
“A group of young girls, dolled up for the night, were running in their high heels, crying.”
That’ll be what the killers wanted. Allah hates women.
“We heard a massive bang,” another witness, Andrew, told the LBC news channel late Saturday night. He had been standing under an umbrella outside a bar when the attackers rushed in. “I turned around on the right, and there was a guy with a big knife, I mean a big knife.”
Andrew said he jumped over a small fence, ran a distance and then hid behind a bush. “There was already a dead guy laying on the floor,” he said. He set out running again, shouting at people to flee. “I told every bar and restaurant on the way: ‘Get out of here! Everybody, out! Out! Out!’”
…
Helicopters hovered over the Borough Market area as crowds of people continued to evacuate. Witnesses described scenes of horror as ambulances rushed to treat the wounded and people fled in panic.
Les Hunter, 33, was among the crowds that had managed to get away. Mr. Hunter, from Liverpool, was visiting a friend in London and stepped out of a pub about 10:15 p.m. He saw people fleeing and heard gunshots.
“We went back into the pub and people starting running in telling us to get down and hide,” he said. “I ran up to the gents and hid, but when I looked out the window, I saw a guy with blood all over his face and T-shirt.”
Gods hate human beings.
24:19
A security guard who oversees a number of pubs in the area has told the BBC he saw four people stabbed by three attackers.
The man, who was deeply shocked and asked not to be named, said he was at the Market Porter pub when a colleague at another bar said there was a stabbing at the Borough Bistro pub nearby.
He said he went towards this pub and saw that “everybody started running” and there was screaming.
The eyewitness added that he saw three attackers, one of whom had a long knife and stabbing people, including a girl in her early 20s.
24:14
Natalie and Ben were coming up to the entrance of the underground on Borough High Street when they saw lots of people running.
The married couple witnessed someone being stabbed.
Ben said: “I saw a man in red with quite a large blade, I don’t know the measurement I guess maybe 10 inches. He was stabbing a man…he stabbed him about three times fairly calmly.
“It looked the man had maybe been trying to intervene but there wasn’t much that he could do he was being stabbed quite coldly and he slumped to the ground.
The attacker and another man walked off quite “boldly”.
“A table was thrown, a bottle was thrown at the individual with the knife and then we heard three gunshots and we ran,” he added.
(These things never do get better, do they. It never turns out “just some bumps and bruises but everyone ok.” No. Deaths being reported now.)
23:51
The BBC’s Nick Quraishi at the scene says he is now able to corroborate earlier reports of gunshots being fired.
Reports suggest it may have been more than one incident:
– A van hitting people at London Bridge and three people then jumping out of the vehicle and attacking members of the public;
– A separate incident at Borough Market
– Police have now said they are responding to a third incident in Vauxhall
It is understood that police are looking for three suspects who may be armed.
23:47
An eyewitness told LBC radio what he saw tonight.
The taxi driver said: “A van came from London Bridge itself, went between the traffic light system and rammed it towards the steps. It knocked loads of people down.
“Then three men got out with long blades, 12 inches long and went randomly along Borough High Street stabbing people at random.”
Via Twitter:
As well as #LondonBridge officers have also responsed to an incident in #BoroughMarket. We have armed police at the scenes.
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) June 3, 2017
Via the Beeb.
23:47
An eyewitness told LBC radio what he saw tonight.
The taxi driver said: “A van came from London Bridge itself, went between the traffic light system and rammed it towards the steps. It knocked loads of people down.
“Then three men got out with long blades, 12 inches long and went randomly along Borough High Street stabbing people at random.”
23:33
Will Orton was at a pub nearby when the incident happened.
The 25-year-old said: “Lots of people came running inside, we didn’t really know what was going on.
“We thought maybe there was a fight or something outside. And then there were almost hundreds of people coming inside.
“The bouncers did a really good job, they shut the doors and locked everyone in,” he added.
“There was panic – it seemed like it was literally outside the door.
“People were coming inside and saying they had witnessed people being stabbed.
“It seemed like it was happening immediately outside the entrance.”
Police are searching for three suspects – reports
Posted at
23:27
Police are now searching for three suspects, a BBC reporter at the scene says.He says there are also reports that some people have been stabbed.
The priority for the police is now to get people – many whom where enjoying a nightout in central London – out of the area.
The police cordon is being moved further and further out, our reporter adds.
Pedestrians have reportedly been hit by a van on London Bridge in Central London.
An eyewitness told the BBC several people were injured.
Armed police officers and paramedics are now working at the scene, in what Transport for London describes as a “major police incident”.
Vehicle ‘mounted pavement’
23:01
BBC reporter Holly Jones, who was on the bridge at the time of the incident, said the van was driven by a man and was “probably travelling at about 50 miles an hour”.About five people were being treated for injuries after the vehicle mounted the pavement and hit them, she said.
She said the van, which was travelling from the direction of central London, headed towards the south side of the river.
Ms Jones later reported seeing a man being arrested by police. She said he was handcuffed and had his shirt off.
Please follow @metpoliceuk for updates. The emergency services are dealing with the incident at London Bridge. #LondonBridge https://t.co/JGwzw5f6IE
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) June 3, 2017
Police boats ‘searching river’
23:07
The BBC’s Holly Jones spoke to a French woman who had been injured in the incident.She told Ms Jones: “I don’t know where those other two people are. So the police are checking the Thames.
“They were right near the edge of the bridge. It looks potentially they could have been thrown over.”
‘Run as fast as you can’ – police advice to public
23:21
Police are reported to be treating injured people and carrying them away at the end Thrale Street, near London Bridge.Members of the public were told by police to “run as fast as they could” westbound.
Nick Archer, who was in the London Bridge area, told Sky News: “We came out (of a bar) on to the road and looked and looked to my left and there is a guy, I thought he was just drinking but he was lying on the floor.
“And then a couple of seconds later, about three police vans flew past. “He looked in a bad way.”
Trump doesn’t have time to fill vacancies at FEMA and NOAA because he’s so dang busy planning things like a “Pittsburgh not Paris” rally in Lafayette Park. (Wait, Lafayette? Isn’t that some damn frog name? Couldn’t they have found a good Murikan-name park to hold a rally at?)
President Donald Trump’s campaign announced a “Pittsburgh, not Paris” rally across from the White House on Saturday to celebrate the United States’ withdrawal from a global climate agreement.
The Fairfax County Republican Committee and the Republican Party of Virginia are sponsoring the rally in Lafayette Square, which is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Saturday, according to an announcement from the Trump campaign.
Yeeah! And while we’re at it, Detroit not Dijon, Buffalo not Berlin, Milwaukee not Milan, Akron not Athens. Those stinking Yurrupeeans got nothing to teach us.
“As you know, the President has been under siege from the mainstream media and the Democrats, especially now that he put American jobs first by withdrawing from the Paris Accord. Therefore, we are organizing a group to demonstrate our support for President Trump and his fearless leadership,” the invitation reads.
Liars. Informed word is that the Paris Accord and the efforts to improve energy technology will result in more jobs, not fewer. It’s only if you think that mining coal is good for its own sake that you object to this transition.
Trump didn’t even go to the rally outside his back door. He went – you’ll never guess – golfing.
While Trump is at his golf club, the “Pittsburgh, not Paris” rally has kicked off with “dozens” of Trump supporters who gathered to express their support for Trump’s decision to pull out of the landmark Paris Agreement.
Whole entire dozens.
Dozens gathering to support President Trump at WH. Shouts of, Pittsburgh Not Paris! pic.twitter.com/8HqFvMnkbt
— Tom Vanden Brook (@tvandenbrook) June 3, 2017
Here’s a fun idea – let’s cut funding and stop hiring for agencies that deal with weather disasters at a time when weather disasters are more frequent every year. That should work out well.
This year, key federal agencies that state and local governments and the public depend on still don’t have leaders. Nearly five months after Donald Trump was sworn in as president, NOAA, the agency that oversees the government’s weather forecasting, is still without an administrator, as is the agency that responds to disasters, FEMA.
Well, Donnie’s been very busy. All that golf, all those tweets, all those fascist rallies, all that phoning up dictators to tell them where the subs are at the moment – that eats up the time.
FEMA’s last director, Craig Fugate, who stepped down in January, says day-to-day operations at the agency are in good hands, so he is not concerned about a temporary vacuum at the top. He says, “The bigger challenge is longer term, is setting the tone and direction of the agency; being able to represent the agency in the policy discussions at the highest level of government.”
With no permanent administrator in place for those discussions, FEMA is one of the agencies that have been targeted for significant cuts under the budget the president submitted to Congress. Under that budget, a program that helps states and communities take long-term measures to reduce losses from disasters, the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program, has been cut by more than 60 percent. The budget also eliminates funding for an ongoing effort to improve and redraw the nation’s flood maps.
“This is a very harmful approach that’s essentially saying that states are on their own, communities are on their own in terms of responding and recovering from these disasters,” says Rachel Cleetus, a climate policy expert with the Union of Concerned Scientists. “And the reality is, states just don’t have the budgets.”
And disasters are increasing.
Mind you, the good news is that Congress probably won’t approve the cuts. The bad news is that Trump thinks they’re a good plan.
Oh christ. Donnie has given himself a new cover photo on Twitter. It betrays what a vain self-absorbed idiot he is.
As if the whole point of being president is flying around in the big blue plane to work up crowds of people.
Every day we learn afresh what a child he is.
There’s always the old “what daft thing can someone suggest women stick up themselves to make everything dryer and tighter” standby. Jen Gunter found one suggesting oak galls.
Sometimes to distract myself from the hot mess in the White House I Google unusual vaginal therapies and today’s BINGO comes from that gynecological gem that is Etsy, purveyor of not only vaginal herb balls but also of balls of wasp detritus and bark meant for the vagina.
What, you ask, are oak galls? Well my friend they are balls of bark and wasp excreta that once nurtured a wasp larva (so I suppose there may also be wasp larval residue, not sure what that might be but an image of saliva dripping from the Alien Queen comes to mind).
It’s an astringent. Astringents have their uses, Dr Jen points out, but vaginal improvement is not one of them.
This product follows the same dangerous pathway of other “traditional” vaginal practices, meaning tightening and drying the vagina which is both medically and sexually (for women anyway) undesirable. Drying the vaginal mucosa increases the risk of abrasions during sex (not good) and destroys the protective mucous layer (not good). It could also wreak havoc with the good bacteria. In addition to causing pain during sex it can increase the risk of HIV transmission. This is a dangerous practice with real potential to harm.
Why the hell would anybody think vaginas are supposed to be dry? Do people think throats are supposed to be dry? Eyes? Arteries? Body interiors in general?
GYNO Etsy seems all about dry tight vaginas. I’m thinking they should back away from the medicinal products, you know? It’s promoting a both a bad sexual ideal, that something must be wrong if your vagina is damp, and a dangerous practice. While many women won’t buy this product it’s just one more bullshit message about vaginal health. It’s no wonder there are so many useless and/or harmful products on drugstore shelves designed to dry and clean vulvas and vaginas.
Sometimes everything seems to be about dry tight vaginas and/or vagina-substitutes. Can’t the tech sector come up with one so that women can be allowed to have the ones they were issued?
Trump has found another Obama action to reverse.
President Trump is considering reversing major pieces of the Obama administration’s opening with Cuba and reinstating limits on travel and commerce, citing human rights abuses by the Castro government as justification for a more punitive approach.
That’s funny, because just the other day he was telling the Saudis that he wasn’t there to “tell them how to live” – by which he meant, to tell them not to imprison, flog, or kill people for being atheist, or to tell them not to treat women as helpless brainless children, or to tell them not to treat foreigners like so much garbage. He went on to all but crawl into their arms and dribble. In short he made it very clear that he doesn’t give a flying fuck about human rights abuses. Of course we knew that anyway, since he’s so indifferent to them right here in the US of A.
In seeking to justify his changes on human rights grounds, Mr. Trump would be taking an approach far different from the one he has applied to other parts of the world, where he and his advisers have viewed human rights considerations as an impediment to trade and partnerships that create jobs in the United States.
“Given their complete lack of concern for human rights around the world, it would be a tragic irony if the Trump administration uses that to justify policies that harm the Cuban people and restrict the freedom of Americans to travel and do business where they please,” said Benjamin Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser to Mr. Obama who negotiated the 2014 announcement. “It’s clear that the Cuban and American people want to move forward, and nothing can change that reality.”
Yes but Obama.
Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug on A classic post-truth policy.
The orange incarnation of infinite stupidity and evil certainly deserves all the hate and contempt in the known universe and beyond, but let’s not talk as if everyone else were suddenly performing admirably on the climate issue. The truth of the matter is that there are no good guys in this story (or, if they exist, they’re as marginalized and on the fringe as you can possibly get).
If actions speak louder than words there is practically a universal consensus across the industrialized parts of the world that we are definitely going to emit more – a lot more – carbon than even the most optimistic scientific assessments deem compatible with the goal of limiting global warming to 2 °C. We are still going to reach the target, however, and the way that is going to happen is that the laws of physics are going to grant us a special dispensation for the sake of the economy. Of course nobody is going to come out and say that, but that’s what the prevailing view amounts to in practice.
I mentioned the other day I don’t like Kathy Griffin’s severed head photo. I don’t like threatening imagery of that kind, no matter who’s doing it and no matter who’s the target. (On the other hand if she’d released it yesterday right after the Rose Garden announcement, instead of Tuesday, I might have lost sight of that dislike.) But that doesn’t mean outrage from Trump and co is anything other than bullshit.
Disgusting but not surprising. This is the left today. They consider this acceptable. Imagine a conservative did this to Obama as POTUS? https://t.co/QdghcbIjS7
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 30, 2017
Imagine? Imagine??! We don’t have to imagine, lots of people did that to Obama. Donald Junior’s own father spent years publicly lying about Obama’s citizenship. Donald Junior’s own father demanded the execution of the Central Park 5, and he insisted they were guilty after DNA evidence had shown they were not. Donald Junior’s own father in other words called for the murder of five non-white teenagers. That’s a good deal worse than Kathy Griffin’s photo.
Central European University announced Tuesday that it will remain in Budapest for the 2017-18 academic year, amid hope that it will be able to do so for the long run as well.
The university, founded in 1991, has American and Hungarian accreditation and offers graduate education in the social sciences and various professional fields. The university has won international praise for the quality of its academic programs. But a law passed in Hungary in April has endangered the university by requiring that it offer programs in New York State, where it is chartered but does not offer programs. The law has been condemned by academics worldwide as an attack on the university…While the exact motives are unclear, many say that the Hungarian government is trying to attack George Soros, the financier and philanthropist who founded the university.)
Andrew Cuomo has authorized negotiations with the Hungarian government to allow CEU to keep operating in Hungary. (Maybe a hologram CEU in Albany or Syracuse while the real one continues in Budapest?)
But seriously, that seems to be good news.
More bogus “suspense” from the Trump camp. Will he invoke “executive privilege” to stop Comey testifying, or won’t he? Stay tuned to find out.
Legal experts say Trump could invoke a doctrine called executive privilege to try to stop Comey from testifying. But such a maneuver would likely draw a backlash and could be challenged in court, they said.
Just a tad. What would that look like? Trump fires FBI director to prevent him from investigating Trump’s ties to Putin, then invokes “executive privilege” to prevent him from testifying. Self-incriminating much?
Also, checks and balances. What checks and balances are there if a Trump can hide behind executive privilege to protect the very crimes that need to be investigated?
