All entries by this author

Oops, missed a bit

Dec 2nd, 2016 10:25 am | By

The Independent reports another study that finds global warming is happening faster than thought because researchers hadn’t taken into account the carbon in soil.

The report, by an exhaustive list of researchers and published in the Nature journal, assembled data from 49 field experiments over the last 20 years in North America, Europe and Asia.

It found that the majority of the Earth’s terrestrial store of carbon was in soil, and that as the atmosphere warms up, increasing amounts are emitted in what is a vicious cycle of “positive feedbacks”.

The study found that 55bn tonnes in carbon, not previously accounted for by scientists, will be emitted into the atmosphere by 2050.

“As the climate warms,

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The Nazi on the road

Dec 2nd, 2016 8:50 am | By

The Führer tweeted an action shot.

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Product placement comes to the Oval Office

Dec 1st, 2016 5:35 pm | By

Last July the Independent went to Macy’s in New York to look at Ivanka Trump’s line of clothes.

One of the people at the Republican National Convention who received praise from all corners was Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka.

People liked her sharp comments, and admired her stylish line of clothes, which she highlighted during her performances. When she tweeted a link the morning after delivering a speech about how her father would fight for America, the $139 (£106) pink dress she had worn sold out online.

Ok wait, she what? She promoted her clothes during her “performances” – meaning her appearances at a political convention which nominated her father as a candidate for president? She flogged her … Read the rest



And he’s gonna make the faucets run ice cream, too

Dec 1st, 2016 5:11 pm | By

Trump says he’s going to “punish” companies that move their factories to places with lower wages. Yeah sure he is – right after he sells all that he has and gives to the poor.

Trump’s remarks came as he triumphantly celebrated a decision by the heating and air conditioning company Carrier to reverse its plans to close a furnace plant here and move to Mexico, helping keep 1,100 jobs in Indianapolis. About that many Carrier positions at that plant and another facility in the area will still be cut, however.

Plus Trump bribed them with tax breaks, thus providing an incentive for all other companies to threaten to run away from home unless Trump bribes them too.

In remarks delivered

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To the dogs

Dec 1st, 2016 11:26 am | By

Some people in Saudi Arabia think a woman who goes outside with naked hair should be killed. Killed.

A woman in Saudi Arabia pictured without a hijab is facing calls for her execution.

Some social media users reacted with outrage after the emergence of the image taken in capital city Riyadh, with one man calling for the state to “kill her and throw her corpse to the dogs”.

Not for murder or torture or abuse or otherwise harming others – but for not wearing a black tent that conceals everything but her eyes.

An unnamed student who reposted the image told the website that Ms Al Shehri had announced she was going out to breakfast without either a hijab

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Amazing work which is visible in every way

Dec 1st, 2016 10:29 am | By

Nawaz Sharif phoned Trump yesterday, and Trump responded by flinging himself down belly-up and squirming.

Donald Trump has heaped praise on Pakistan, traditionally a troublesome US ally, saying it is a “fantastic country, fantastic place of fantastic people” according to an official statement released by Islamabad.

The US president-elect made his effusive comments in a phone conversation on Wednesday with Nawaz Sharif, prime minister of the nuclear-armed state, whom Trump hailed as a “terrific guy”.

He had no idea who Sharif was, did he. He couldn’t remember what Pakistan was. He had no clue. He was vamping in place.

The statement by the government’s Press Information Department quoted Trump saying: “As I am talking to you prime minister,

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How’s that for standing up to corporate greed?

Dec 1st, 2016 7:04 am | By

Bernie Sanders points out that Trump has just signaled to every corporation in the US that it can get big tax benefits and incentives if it threatens to go offshore.

In exchange for allowing United Technologies to continue to offshore more than 1,000 jobs, Trump will reportedly give the company tax and regulatory favors that the corporation has sought. Just a short few months ago, Trump was pledging to force United Technologies to “pay a damn tax.” He was insisting on very steep tariffs for companies like Carrier that left the United States and wanted to sell their foreign-made products back in the United States. Instead of a damn tax, the company will be rewarded with

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System One wallops System Two

Nov 30th, 2016 4:49 pm | By

AC Grayling notes that the hijackers of Brexit and the Trump win may be using the research of Daniel Kahneman and others to grab public opinion.

What Kahneman and other researchers have empirically confirmed in their work is that the majority of people are ‘System One’ or ‘quick’ thinkers in that they make decisions on impulse, feeling, emotion, and first impressions, rather than ‘System Two’ or ‘slow’ thinkers who seek information, analyse it, and weigh arguments in order to come to decisions. System One thinkers can be captured by slogans, statements dramatised to the point of falsehood, and even downright lies, because they will not check the validity of what is said, but instead will mistrust System Two thinkers whose

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Hotcha

Nov 30th, 2016 3:46 pm | By

A little break from Trumpnews:

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8 for men, 0 for women

Nov 30th, 2016 3:31 pm | By

Again with the push to erase women and delete them from all places and movements and discussions.

Why in Portland—one of the most LGBTQ-friendly cities in America, and home to the nation’s first bisexual governor and its first lesbian House speaker—is there no lesbian nightlife?

It’s been six years since the Egyptian Club, better known as the E-Room, lowered its rainbow flag in Southeast Portland, and in that time no brick-and-mortar lesbian bar has emerged to fill its space. (By contrast, Portland has eight gay bars for men.)

Moreover, the city doesn’t have a single dance night or recurring party that caters exclusively to women seeking women.

So what happened?

Genders multiplied and proliferated until there were 97 varieties, but … Read the rest



How to manipulate Donnie from Queens

Nov 30th, 2016 11:24 am | By

William Saletan has advice on how to deal with the pathetic needy narcissist that is Trump.

To understand Trump, you have to set aside the scripted speeches he gave before his election and the canned videos he has released since. You also have to set aside the caricature of him as a Klan-loving, Nazi-sympathizing woman hater who will deport every immigrant he can find. Instead, look at the four interviews he has given since his election: to the Wall Street Journal, 60 Minutes, the New York Times, and a group of TV anchors and executives. In these exchanges, all of them conducted outside the behavior-warping context of the campaign, you’ll see how squishy he is. Trump did

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Puffing the name

Nov 30th, 2016 10:53 am | By

Damn, I missed one. Too busy documenting his tweets, no doubt. Ten days ago he met with three business partners from India, who tweeted a photo of the four of them thumbs-upping.

President-elect Donald J. Trump met in the last week in his office at Trump Tower with three Indian business partners who are building a Trump-branded luxury apartment complex south of Mumbai, raising new questions about how he will separate his business dealings from the work of the government once he is in the White House.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Trump described the meeting as a courtesy call by the three Indian real estate executives, who flew from India to congratulate Mr. Trump on his election victory. In

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Trump vows to cover his ass

Nov 30th, 2016 9:06 am | By

The Times has another cruel headline about Trump, although this one won’t bother him because he won’t get it.

Trump Vows Steps to Avoid Appearance of Business Conflicts

Precisely. He’s throwing a damp kleenex over his business conflicts, but not, of course, actually terminating them. He’s hoping to conceal them; he’s not in the least hoping to do away with them.

The headline is pretty funny, really, despite the horror of the reality behind it. Trump promises to try to hide how corrupt he is. Cool, bro, thanks.

President-elect Donald J. Trump on Wednesday said he would take steps to separate himself from his vast, global business empire in the hopes of preventing the appearance of a conflict of

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Inspired by Trump

Nov 30th, 2016 8:27 am | By

In Florida:

A white Florida man has been charged with battery after he was accused of punching an Hispanic man in the back of the head “for Donald Trump.”

It happened in a parking lot behind a grocery store in Gainesville.

According to a police report obtained by Egberto Willies, Caleb Joseph Illig arrived at the parking lot at around 1:10 a.m. and began punching Pablo Echevarria in the back of the head.

The report said that Illig shouted, “Let’s Trump down,” as he punched Echevarria. When Echevarria asked why he was being attacked, Illig reportedly replied, “This is for Donald Trump.”

Trump the warrior against political correctness. Now that political correctness has been defeated, it’s cool for … Read the rest



To address any issues

Nov 30th, 2016 8:16 am | By

Trump is going to be in violation of his lease with the GSA the minute he becomes president.

The new Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., is in a historic federal building. A government agency called the General Services Administration, or GSA, negotiated the lease with the Trump Organization. And that lease includes this language: No elected official shall be admitted to any share or part of this lease or to any benefit that may arise there from.

Steven Schooner is a professor of government procurement law at George Washington University Law School; he read the lease and says it means what the words say.

I think that the only logical or reasonable reading of that language

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The Fascist rallies start tomorrow

Nov 30th, 2016 7:34 am | By

Trump’s Triumph of the Will tour has a shiny pretty logo.

https://twitter.com/DanScavino/status/803632991767408640… Read the rest



Democratic deconsolidation

Nov 29th, 2016 5:58 pm | By

A disquieting bit of research via the NY Times: democracies may not be as good at building in their own stability as we thought.

Political scientists have a theory called “democratic consolidation,” which holds that once countries develop democratic institutions, a robust civil society and a certain level of wealth, their democracy is secure.

For decades, global events seemed to support that idea. Data from Freedom House, a watchdog organization that measures democracy and freedom around the world, shows that the number of countries classified as “free” rose steadily from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s. Many Latin American countries transitioned from military rule to democracy; after the end of the Cold War, much of Eastern Europe followed suit.

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Monitoring

Nov 29th, 2016 3:58 pm | By

Aaron Blake at the Washington Post also says no we shouldn’t ignore Trump’s tweets.

Undergirding the idea that Trump’s tweets shouldn’t be big news is the theory that he’s manipulating the media into focusing on small things to cover up less sexy but more important things — conflicts of interests and possible corruption, in particular.

I’m skeptical any such plan exists, given that Trump’s thin-skinned tweeting is pretty indiscriminate. But this idea has returned with a vengeance given the latest tweetstorm, and it’s likely to perk up again after Trump on Tuesday morning suggested revoking the citizenship or jailing of people who burn the American flag.

What we’re basically talking about here is treating Trump like

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A fire lit to hypnotize us

Nov 29th, 2016 3:14 pm | By

Rex Huppke at the Chicago Tribune also called Trump a liar.

On Sunday, the man who will soon lead this country tweeted a lie — a big, fiery one. It read: “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”

That statement is based on nothing. Actually, it’s based on less than nothing. Its origin is, roughly, this: A nobody Republican with zero credibility or evidence tweeted that 3 million people voted illegally; a conspiracy theory website reported on that tweet, taking it as fact; the president-elect, in need of a distraction, tweeted that information as fact with no citation, not that a

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Trump v the Constitution

Nov 29th, 2016 1:10 pm | By

The Times also reports on Trump’s jolly tweet about how he’d like to punish people who burn flags.

“Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag — if they do, there must be consequences — perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!” Mr. Trump wrote in a 6:55 a.m. Twitter post.

Mr. Trump wrote the post shortly after Fox News aired a segment about a dispute at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, which removed the American flag from its campus flagpole after protests over his election victory; during one demonstration, someone burned a flag.

Ah, so that’s what he’s doing – watching Fox News and blurting out tweets in response to what he sees.

Even if Mr.

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