Trump hates women

Jan 27th, 2017 3:28 pm | By

The theocrats marching to demand a restoration of forced pregnancy got a boost from the Trumpists today.

Abortion opponents gathered on Friday in Washington for their annual march, which has taken place every year since 1974 to protest the Supreme Court’s 44-year-old Roe v. Wade decision from 1973.

■ Vice President Mike Pence, the highest-ranking official to ever speak in person at the march, told the crowd that “life is winning.”

■ Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump, also addressed the crowd.

■ The march drew thousands of activists.

They want to make sure women go back to being victims of their own bodies.

In previous years, no president or vice president has ever addressed the march in person. This

Read the rest


Dropping in

Jan 27th, 2017 11:45 am | By

The Trump-May meeting from the BBC’s point of view.

Prime Minister Theresa May is holding talks at the White House with US President Donald Trump.

They posed for photographs in front of a bust of Sir Winston Churchill – which Mr Trump pointed to, saying it was “a great honour” to have it back.

The new president had the bust restored to the Oval Office after it was removed by former president Barack Obama.

Mrs May smiled and told him: “Thank you, we were very pleased that you accepted it back.”

Sigh. A Fox News talking point. That whole fraudulent fuss about Churchill’s bust was a racist dogwhistle back in the early days of Obama’s tenure. Oh oh oh, … Read the rest



The biggest lie

Jan 27th, 2017 10:48 am | By

The White House has put out a statement in the name of Trump that’s titled On International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

It is with a heavy heart and somber mind that we remember and honor the victims, survivors, heroes of the Holocaust. It is impossible to fully fathom the depravity and horror inflicted on innocent people by Nazi terror.

Yet, we know that in the darkest hours of humanity, light shines the brightest.‎ As we remember those who died, we are deeply grateful to those who risked their lives to save the innocent.

In the name of the perished, I pledge to do everything in my power throughout my Presidency, and my life, to ensure that the forces of evil never

Read the rest


Hastily upgrading

Jan 26th, 2017 4:58 pm | By

PBS News has a startling little item:

The @POTUS twitter account, one of the White House’s main social media accounts, appears to be controlled by a user with a personal gmail account, the PBS NewsHour has confirmed.

They took a screen shot:

Oh well. It’s only the president.

The Next Web first reported on the apparent vulnerability of several accounts associated with the new White House earlier today. The finding was widely shared on Twitter by technology journalists.

In addition to being linked to a personal gmail account, the Twitter account appeared to have the lowest possible level of security, foregoing settings that would require a user to enter additional personal information to reset the password on the

Read the rest


Part of a crackdown

Jan 26th, 2017 1:53 pm | By

More on the silencing of the EPA:

The Trump administration is examining the website of the Environmental Protection Agency to determine which information will remain, underscoring concerns that climate change and other scientific data might be removed.

EPA employees have also been instructed not to release press releases, publish blog posts or post anything on social media. It’s part of a crackdown by the new administration that seems to be especially felt at the EPA and the Interior Department, leaving some employees “terrified.”

EPA spokesperson Doug Erickson said the objective of the website review is to have an agency page that reflects the new administration’s policies.

But the science is what it is, regardless of policies.

Asked if climate

Read the rest


Press are directed to the Press Office, which is also silenced

Jan 26th, 2017 1:42 pm | By

Obviously I can’t vouch for this, because it’s anonymous, so keep that in mind – but for what it’s worth, this is being passed around on Facebook:

From an EPA staffer:
“So I work at the EPA and yeah it’s as bad as you are hearing:
The entire agency is under lockdown, the website, facebook, twitter, you name it is static and can’t be updated. All reports, findings, permits and studies are frozen and not to be released. No presentations or meetings with outside groups are to be scheduled.
Any Press contacting us are to be directed to the Press Office which is also silenced and will give no response.
All grants and contracts are frozen from the

Read the rest


“They don’t understand this country.”

Jan 26th, 2017 1:33 pm | By

It’s only the first week of the Trump putsch and already we’re miles deep into Nazi territory.

The New York Times talked to Steve Bannon yesterday, and what he said is blood-chilling. He could be reading from a volume of collected rants by Goebbels. It would be gross if he were just the Breitbart guy, but he’s now at the center of the executive branch.

“The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for awhile,” Mr. Bannon said during a telephone call.

“I want you to quote this,” Mr. Bannon added. “The media here is the opposition party. They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is

Read the rest


Hey gang, let’s re-open the black sites!

Jan 26th, 2017 12:45 pm | By

One of the little items he’s trying to hustle through while no one is looking –

[T]he draft of a Trump administration executive order that spilled into public view early Wednesday — a document that raised the prospect of reviving C.I.A. “black site” prisons like those where terrorism suspects were once detained and tortured — has the potential to further fracture a national security team already divided over one of the most controversial policies of the post-9/11 era.

The White House disclaimed the document, which was leaked to The New York Times and other news organizations, but three administration officials said the White House had circulated it among National Security Council staff members for review on Tuesday morning. And many

Read the rest


Choice

Jan 26th, 2017 12:12 pm | By

Trump complains that the media choose unflattering photos of him – he complained about it in that interview with David Muir of ABC – yet he chose this photo to tweet:

 … Read the rest



Big boy now

Jan 26th, 2017 11:18 am | By

You know how tv news shows use a photo to signal a break for commercials, right? Last night CNN used this one for the purpose, causing me to laugh myself breathless:

Well chosen.… Read the rest



Already

Jan 26th, 2017 10:57 am | By


Rick Baldwin… Read the rest



The biggest standing ovation since Peyton Manning

Jan 26th, 2017 10:27 am | By

Aaron Blake at the Post does another annotated transcript, this time of the interview Trump did yesterday with ABC News, his first interview from Inside The House. It is, of course, astonishing. I saw a few clips of it last night, and was duly astonished.

This is one choice bit:

DAVID MUIR: Let me just ask you, you did win. You’re the president. You’re sitting …

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s true.

DAVID MUIR: … across from me right now.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s true.

DAVID MUIR: Do you think that your words matter more now?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes, very much.

DAVID MUIR: Do you think that that talking about millions of illegal votes is dangerous to this country without presenting the evidence?

Read the rest


Oh well, it’s only the State Department

Jan 26th, 2017 9:26 am | By

Breaking news – senior people flee the State Department leaving it empty at the top.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s job running the State Department just got considerably more difficult. The entire senior level of management officials resigned Wednesday, part of an ongoing mass exodus of senior foreign service officers who don’t want to stick around for the Trump era.

Tillerson was actually inside the State Department’s headquarters in Foggy Bottom on Wednesday, taking meetings and getting the lay of the land. I reported Wednesday morning that the Trump team was narrowing its search for his No. 2, and that it was looking to replace the State Department’s long-serving undersecretary for management, Patrick Kennedy. Kennedy, who has been in that

Read the rest


Coral reefs and sandstone formations

Jan 25th, 2017 5:45 pm | By

And then there’s BadHombreNPS. (There’s a long list of them. Long and growing.)

Read the rest


Redwoods and internees

Jan 25th, 2017 5:32 pm | By

More rogues on Twitter:

Read the rest



Ka-ching ka-ching

Jan 25th, 2017 5:12 pm | By

Lying corrupt president announces plans to exploit his office to expand his business.

Only days after Donald Trump took the oath of office, the head of his hotel-management company outlined hopes for an ambitious expansion across the U.S., raising new questions about potential conflicts between his business and the presidency.

Trump Hotels Chief Executive Officer Eric Danziger suggested the company’s broad U.S. ambitions while saying it shelved plans for expansion in China, where the president’s comments have already led to rocky diplomatic relations.

“There are 26 major metropolitan areas in the U.S., and we’re in five,” Danziger said after a panel discussion Tuesday at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit in Los Angeles. “I don’t see any reason that we

Read the rest


Nope

Jan 25th, 2017 4:39 pm | By

The maquis is forming. There is a growing list of rogue Twitter accounts to do what the official ones can’t. The AltUSNatParkService one for instance:

The Unofficial “Resistance” team of U.S. National Park Service. Not taxpayer subsidised! Come for rugged scenery, fossil beds, 89 million acres of landscape

Read the rest


Welcome to our new, terrifying reality

Jan 25th, 2017 12:00 pm | By

Phil Plait on Trump’s censorship of the science agencies:

Welcome to our new, terrifying reality: According to reports, President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered a media blackout of people who work at the Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Department of Agriculture.

He adds that he wants to be careful, and that this could be just a transitional move while the new administration gets sorted.

This may be true. BuzzFeed and the Associated Press, however, obtained internal emails from the EPA and USDA that indicate the new administration is gagging people at the two government agencies, forbidding them [to tweet], going on any social media, or issuing press releases about their science. The only news they are allowed

Read the rest


Maybe they will, maybe they won’t

Jan 25th, 2017 11:13 am | By

In newer news – the Jaipur Literary Festival says it has not decided not to invite Taslima in future. It’s hedging. It hasn’t decided not to, it hasn’t decided not to not to – it hasn’t decided. Good that it hasn’t, I suppose, but really it shouldn’t be hedging. It should have told the “protesters” to take a hike.

Late on Monday evening, Festival producer Sanjoy Roy said in a statement: “They expressed their anger… I heard them out. Explained we supported minorities in every way. Underscored that we are a platform for all points of view. Agreed that we should consider their request not to reinvite them (Taslima Nasrin and Salman Rushdie).”

This led to speculation on the

Read the rest


Taslima resists

Jan 25th, 2017 10:56 am | By

India Today has more detail on Taslima and the Jaipur Literary Festival.

After Bangladeshi writer and activist Taslima Nasreen’s impromptu session at the Jaipur Literature Festival drew a minor protest here, festival organisers said they will consider the protestors’ request of not reinviting her, a statement said.

“They expressed their anger…. I heard them out. Explained we supported minorities in every way. Underscored that we are a platform for all points of view. Agreed that we should consider their request not to reinvite them,” Sanjoy K Roy, Producer of JLF, said.

Protesting organisations including Rajasthan Muslim Forum, All India Milli Council, Jamaat-e-Islami and Muslim Personal Law Board, had said yesterday that the writer, who has been living in exile

Read the rest