Walk away

Aug 15th, 2017 9:17 am | By

Two more CEOs quit Trump’s manufacturing council yesterday after Kenneth Frazier led the way. He just said on Twitter that he can find plenty more where they came from, but I bet he’ll find it’s not that easy. I figure a lot of CEOs, maybe even most of them, won’t want the bad publicity.

The aftermath of the violence at a neo-Nazi and white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, represents the latest break between Trump, who sold himself as a businessman president, and leaders of corporate America.

They have also loudly opposed him on immigration and his decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement.

He is a businessman president…but he’s not a CEO president. His … Read the rest

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Trump hearts Arpaio

Aug 15th, 2017 8:10 am | By

Trump. This morning. He retweeted a cartoon of a train killing a reporter. Haha. It’s one of his funny jokes, you see. Haha. If only all the reporters were dead, so that all we knew about Trump would come from his own PR team. Haha. So funny.

President Trump has retweeted a cartoon of a train bearing the Trump logo killing a CNN reporter, just days after a protester at a white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was fatally run down by a driver who participated in that rally. The cartoon reads “Fake news can’t stop the Trump train.” In July, Trump shared a GIF of himself beating the CNN logo to a pulp. Thirty minutes after promoting the cartoon

… Read the rest

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March to keep women out of Google

Aug 14th, 2017 5:31 pm | By
March to keep women out of Google

Ah yes, of course they are.

Members of the alt-right are planning to protest Google for “silencing dissenting voices.”

The #MarchOnGoogle website says protests are planned at Google headquarters on August 19 in five cities: Mountain View, Calif., New York City, Washington D.C., Austin, and Boston.

Behold: a manifesto.

It’s time to #MarchOnGoogle

Google is a monopoly, and its abusing its power to silence dissent and manipulate election results.

Their company YouTube is censoring and silencing dissenting voices by creating “ghettos” for videos questioning the dominant narrative.

We will thus be Marching on Google!

People across the country will be protesting in front of the offices of every Google office.

Protesters may also be exercising their free speech rights,

… Read the rest

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They came to hear the sound of bones being broken

Aug 14th, 2017 5:11 pm | By

Siva Vaidhyanathan wrote about Charlottesville for the Times today.

He and his wife and his friends have been discussing what to do about the Nazi rally all summer.

We could join many of our neighbors for teach-ins at the university, discussing racial history, prospects for diversity and paths toward justice. The University of Virginia had arranged a slate of public programs to give people a safe place to convene, commune and debate while armed, angry white supremacists invaded our downtown, just a mile and a half from the university.

Or we could join thousands of our neighbors who had pledged to confront the Nazis, risking broken bones, pepper-sprayed eyes, arrest or worse. We had friends and neighbors on both sides

… Read the rest

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“We polled the race stuff and it didn’t matter.”

Aug 14th, 2017 11:44 am | By

Greg Sargent at the Post talked to Eric Foner, which is a wise thing to do.

The New York Times reports that a wide range of Trump’s advisers privately urged him to call out the white nationalists directly, but he kept steering the conversation back to a breakdown of “law and order.” We’ve seen this refusal to give in to pressure to condemn racism before. Trump dragged his feet before disavowing David Duke’s support. And Joshua Green’s new book on Trump strategist Stephen K. Bannonreports that in August 2016, as Hillary Clinton elevated the issue of white nationalism to national prominence with a major speech, the Trump campaign internally decided not to go too far in renouncing it.

… Read the rest

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He finally spit it out

Aug 14th, 2017 11:27 am | By

Jennifer Rubin on Trump’s too little too late:

He had to begin with some self-congratulations on the economy — because his accomplishments are what he really cares about. He told the country, “To anyone who acted criminally in this weekend’s racist violence, you will be held fully accountable. Justice will be delivered.” He finally spit it out by calling racism “evil” and condemning the “KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups.”

He read from a teleprompter. Speaking from his heart would have been impossible, given his obvious lack of passion and willful blindness over the past couple of days. He did not mention the “alt-right,” nor did he announce he is firing Stephen K. Bannon, who once bragged

… Read the rest

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Better late than never? Nope.

Aug 14th, 2017 11:01 am | By

Trump finally, and one imagines with about 10 people pushing him just out of sight, sullenly said the thing he refused to say on Saturday. Too late, boyo.

President Donald Trump bowed to overwhelming pressure that he personally condemn white supremacists who incited bloody demonstrations in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend — labeling their racist views “evil” after two days of equivocal statements.

“Racism is evil,” Mr. Trump said. “And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the K.K.K., neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”

It’s a pity that by now we all know he doesn’t believe a word of that and didn’t … Read the rest

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Too much has been read into that

Aug 14th, 2017 7:49 am | By

Goodness, what a shameless liar Jeff Sessions is. He’s been trotting around the tv stations this morning to defend his boss, saying yes he did too so condemn white supremacy and racism and stuff.

“His initial statement on this roundly and unequivocally condemned hatred and violence and bigotry,” Sessions said of Trump on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “White supremacy was certainly included in bigotry and hatred.”

And so was anything else anyone cared to think of. That’s the problem. White supremacy didn’t need to be included, it needed to be singled out.

Pressed on Trump’s omission of any reference to such groups as neo-Nazis or the Ku Klux Klan, the attorney general said: “Too much has been

… Read the rest

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It is not some twisted, crazy view

Aug 13th, 2017 5:30 pm | By

Awesome. Peter Singer also thinks James Damore shouldn’t have been fired. He says why in the Daily News. (Shouldn’t it be David Brooks writing for the Daily News and Peter Singer writing for the Times? This arrangement seems backward to me.)

James Damore, a software engineer at Google, wrote a memo in which he argued that there are differences between men and women that may explain, in part, why there are fewer women than men in his field of work. For this, Google fired him.

Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, sent Google employees a memo saying that “much of what was in that memo is fair to debate,” but that portions of it cross a line by advancing “harmful gender

… Read the rest

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Slogans including “Beware the International Jew”

Aug 13th, 2017 12:06 pm | By

The Guardian tells us a little about that Charlottesville driver.

The man accused of murdering a woman by deliberately driving into her during protests against a far-right rally was photographed earlier in the day standing with the white supremacist, neo-Nazi group Vanguard America.

James Fields, 20, of Maumee, Ohio, allegedly killed Heather Heyer, aged 32, and injured 19 others when he rammed his car into a group peacefully protesting on Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Photographs from earlier that day appear to show Fields rallying with Vanguard America and carrying a shield bearing the group’s insignia. He wears the white polo shirt and khaki pants that are the group’s uniform.

Vanguard America were a highly visible presence at the

… Read the rest

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The sickness unto death

Aug 13th, 2017 11:20 am | By

I was this agitated about the Charleston murders. I remember feeling this sick and horrified and sad and furious. I forced myself to do a little research on the victims and write about them even though it made me cry every time. I wrote many many posts about it.

Just one of them:

Rebecca Carroll yesterday at Comment is Free.

Six black women were shot to death during a community prayer service by a young white man who allegedly declared: “You rape our women.”

These women and men welcomed a white man into their close-knit church, and likely encouraged others in their community to join and listen and pray and let God into their hearts.

I read somewhere else … Read the rest

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God bless him

Aug 13th, 2017 10:31 am | By
God bless him

Ok I took a deep breath and went to Daily Stormer, so that you wouldn’t have to.

Last night:

The reaction to Trump’s “many sides, many sides” observation.

… Read the rest

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The “of course” brigade appears

Aug 13th, 2017 9:17 am | By

Now Trump’s people are dutifully lining up to say of course he condemned the Nazis in Charlottesville, it’s obvious that he did, he was unambiguous about it.

The White House said in a statement Sunday that when President Trump condemned “all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred” that were on display in Charlottesville this weekend “of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups.”

Of course. Of coursey course.

But inclusion of Nazis wasn’t what was needed. That “and all extremist groups” at the end wasn’t and isn’t what was needed. “Everybody was to blame” isn’t what’s needed. A robust condemnation of racism and racist hatred and incitement of racist hatred is what’s needed. … Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 11 comments
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Moral idiots

Aug 13th, 2017 8:39 am | By

The Trumpists are trying to spin this as a matter of “division,” with the solution being for all of us to UNITE behind AMERICA. Trump’s idiotic point-missing xenophobic tweet yesterday sent the signal:

The others are taking the hint:

… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 4 comments
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The nadir

Aug 12th, 2017 6:04 pm | By

Vox typed up his remarks in full:

We’re closely following the terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville, Virginia. We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.

It’s been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama, this has been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America.

What is vital now is a swift restoration of law and order and the protection of innocent lives. No citizen should ever fear for their safety and security in our society. And no child should ever be afraid to go outside and play or be with their parents

… Read the rest

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He hasn’t done his job

Aug 12th, 2017 5:41 pm | By

The Times details Trump’s avoidances and lies.

President Trump on Saturday condemned thebloody protests in Charlottesville, Va., but did not specifically criticize the white nationalist rally and its neo-Nazi slogans beyond blaming “hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.’’

Mr. Trump made the comments to reporters after initially tweeting a statement in language so vague that he omitted mention of Charlottesville…

…

The president, who has spent much of the past two days threatening North Korea and congressional Republicans on Twitter and in other public statements, remained silent on the violence for most of the morning even as House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Mr. Trump’s wife, Melania, and dozens of other public figures condemned a march by

… Read the rest

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Choose

Aug 12th, 2017 4:27 pm | By

https://twitter.com/trekonomics/status/896237129235185664… Read the rest

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One dead, at least 19 injured

Aug 12th, 2017 4:10 pm | By

This country has fallen into the abyss.

Violence erupted on Saturday as hundreds of white nationalists had gathered here for a rally and clashed with counterprotesters, resulting in at least one death and prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency.

After the rally at a city park was dispersed, a car plowed into a crowd near the city’s downtown mall, killing at least one person and injuring at least 19 others, according to a spokeswoman for the University of Virginia Medical Center. The authorities did not immediately say whether the episode was related to the white nationalists’ demonstration, but several witnesses and video of the scene suggested that it might have been intentional.

Well, if you look … Read the rest

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The noise and the silence

Aug 12th, 2017 10:10 am | By

This is highly edifying.

Donald “president” Trump has not said a word about the Charlottesville rallies.… Read the rest

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NPR spreads the Brooks around

Aug 12th, 2017 9:36 am | By

NPR gave David Brooks a chance to repeat his very inept reading of James Damore’s memo yesterday.

[AUDIE] CORNISH: One last idea that came out of Silicon Valley, and this is a debate over a viral memo from a Google engineer who argued, among other things, that Google had a left bias that created a politically correct mono culture that shamed dissenters into silence. Also made some comments about men and women and biological differences. David, you argue that the person who should have been fired is Google’s CEO. How come?

BROOKS: Well, you know, all of this starts with a long debate we’ve been having for decades about evolutionary psychology and the differences between men and women. And there’s

… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 10 comments
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