We need something nice FOR ONCE so here is something.

THREAD!

We'd like to tell you all a story of love, loss and big blue Ikea bags, by popular demand! It's the story of a swan, and takes place on London's famous Hampstead Heath (that's us). Back in 2016, two swans lived happily in the Heath's ponds (on the Highgate side)… pic.twitter.com/ia0TS0H5Vj

— Hampstead Heath (@CityCorpHeath) June 1, 2020

I’m just going to quote most of the rest, for ease of reading.

Swans generally mate for life – like humans, they will sometimes get “divorced”, and if one dies they will often find another partner. One day, the pair were flying together when the male swan hit a building and

… Read the rest

Trudeau says no you’re not.

Canada does not support Russia’s return to the Group of Seven, proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump over the weekend, because Moscow continues to flout international law, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday.

“Russia was excluded from the G7 after it invaded Crimea a number of years ago, and its continued disrespect and flaunting of international rules and norms is why it remains outside of the G7, and it will continue to remain out,” Trudeau said during his daily news conference.

[He means flouting. Reuters silently corrected him in its lede.]

Trump said on Saturday he would postpone a Group of Seven summit he had hoped to hold next month until at least

… Read the rest

No problem, no problem, we planned for this, it’s all part of the plan, not a problem.

About 15 cadets from the US Military Academy Class of 2020 who were brought back for graduation where President Donald Trump is scheduled to give the commencement address have tested positive for coronavirus, according to a US Army spokesperson.

That is, they were brought back because Trump demanded to give the commencement address so the class had to be brought back to satisfy the needs of his ravenous ego. If Trump hadn’t done an I wanna the class would not have returned to West Point to graduate.

“The Army and West Point have done meticulous planning to ensure the health and

… Read the rest

The Times has more on Trump’s rage-fit at the governors:

Speaking on a private conference call, audio of which was obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Trump began the conversation with an extended, angry diatribe.

“You have to dominate,” he told governors on the call. “If you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time — they’re going to run over you, you’re going to look like a bunch of jerks.”

The president continued: “You have to arrest people, and you have to try people, and they have to go jail for long periods of time.”

Mr. Trump, who has not addressed the nation since the unrest began, said he was putting Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the

… Read the rest

Oh great, apparently Trump is doing a group call with a lot of governors and telling them to use the military to crush protests.

I'm in touch with someone who's on the governors' call with President Trump right now. They and others listening in are alarmed. The president is urging governors to take back the streets, not be "weak," and use force as the nation faces growing racial unrest.

— Robert Costa (@costareports) June 1, 2020

Aides to governors say the president continues to talk. One describes it as a "rant." Says he keeps talking about the need to "dominate" the protests.

— Robert Costa (@costareports) June 1, 2020

… Read the rest

Bunker Don had his third bad night.

Multiple fires broke out near the White House late on Sunday evening, as angry protesters gathered in Washington DC for the third night in a row following the death of George Floyd.

Bunker Don’s insistence on pouring gasoline onto the fire probably hasn’t helped. If the only response to a protest against racist murder-by-cop is “WE WILL SET THE DOGS ON YOU” then people aren’t going to shrug and say ok.

There was an 11 pm curfew.

When 11pm came, the police line in front of the White House advanced with tear gas rounds across Lafayette park clearing out the protesters, with intermittent sprints.  An area of a few blocks around the

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With all that’s going on, Trump has stayed locked in with his Twitter. Not for him the address to the nation filled with compassion and a sense of justice.

That was by design. Trump and some of his advisers calculated that he should not speak to the nation because he had nothing to say, according to a senior administration official. He had no tangible policy or action to announce, nor did he feel an urgent motivation to try to bring people together. So he stayed silent.

It’s nice to know that he specifically did not feel like trying to bring people together, so decided to rage at us on Twitter instead.

The United States is visibly, painfully broken by the

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Hur hur. Misogyny? Us?? Neverrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

https://twitter.com/mockferret/status/1266406916059795457

Funny what a lot these “activists” have in common with Trump – the hatred of women, the slavering over projected violence, the contempt for women, the longing to see snarling dogs tear people to bits…… Read the rest

They all wish Trump would stop talking.

The President tweeted on Saturday that if protesters breached the White House’s fence, they would “have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen.” And he called on Democratic officials to “get MUCH tougher” or the federal government “will step in and do what has to be done, and that includes using the unlimited power of our Military and many arrests.”

On Sunday, Trump tweeted his thanks to the National Guard and the job they did in Minneapolis Saturday night before calling for the National Guard to be used in “Other Democrat run Cities and States.”

…

Elected officials on both sides of the aisle

… Read the rest

Earlier today, a number of advisers spent time telling the president not to tweet and going over why it was making things worse. Now, he’s tweeting folks using QANon slogans. https://t.co/FHBvuAsPvt

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 31, 2020

I’d love to know more about the advisers telling him why not to tweet. Anyway sure enough, he’s pouring gasoline on the fire with all the strength in his thumbs.

Congratulations to our National Guard for the great job they did immediately upon arriving in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last night. The ANTIFA led anarchists, among others, were shut down quickly. Should have been done by Mayor on first night and there would have been no trouble!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31,

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JK Rowling is easily in the top 5 worst people on this site. Her abhorrent views combined with her determination to sue any critic into silence makes her beneath contempt.

— Craig Gallagher (@CraigGaIIagher) May 30, 2020

These guys are so lucky to live at this hour – when suddenly misogyny is the most progressive thing on the menu, as long as you can shield it with the pretense of “transphobia.” Ten years ago it just would not have been cool to call a female novelist one of the 5 worst people on Twitter, but now it makes you…well it makes you a misogynist shit, but Craig Gallagher seems not to realize it.… Read the rest

Karen Tumulty in the Post yesterday:

It’s a good thing Donald Trump wasn’t president during the civil rights movement. Judging by his tweets, Trump would have been tempted to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Theophilus Eugene “Bull” Connor, the notorious Alabama public safety commissioner.

Tempted shmempted; he would have done it.

Nearly six decades later, the man who sits in the White House is channeling his inner Bull Connor, unable to contain his eagerness to see play out on his own front lawn the vile tactics that Connor employed against civil rights marchers. In a giddy tweetstorm on Saturday morning, Trump let loose about how excited he would have been to see protesters who showed up across

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Trump has given up on doing the G7 meeting in June so now his red-hot plan is to hold the G19 or something in September so that he can invite Russia. The slight problem there is that the rest of the G7 doesn’t want to invite Russia. At all.

Trump’s new plan, outlined to reporters on Saturday, is to host an expanded G7 meeting including Russia, Australia, South Korea and India, dedicated to building an alliance against China. The plan is likely to be controversial because Russia has been banned from western-led summits since Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, and is not seen as a natural ally in the defence of human rights in Hong Kong.

Or anywhere … Read the rest

The Guardian notes that Trump isn’t altogether the ideal person to be president at a moment when systemic racism is in the spotlight.

Trump, who forged his political identity in racist conspiracy theories about Barack Obama’s birthplace, has proved unable to articulate the accumulated pain of black Americans over 400 years of slavery, segregation and police brutality, now exacerbated by a pandemic that has taken a disproportionate toll on communities of colour. Instead he has resorted to a series of tweets that critics found divisive, inflammatory and self-serving.

As if it even occurred to him to try to articulate the accumulated pain of black Americans over 400 years of slavery, segregation and police brutality. Ever. In his entire life.

With

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Adding a few more because the venom dressed up as feisty girly sass is remarkable.

She is transphobic tho. https://t.co/ROR0PiK3ar

— The Second Shelf (@secondshelfbks) May 30, 2020

Can't believe we have to explain we're a bookshop, Jessie.

A bookshop that sells books by women who exist. https://t.co/3ymlx6QWQz

— The Second Shelf (@secondshelfbks) May 31, 2020

It is truly amazing when people are out there on the streets putting their lives at risk to fight for basic human rights we find our feed buried in tweets of white people very concerned for a billionaire writer who made her own choices. Get your priorities straight.

— The Second Shelf (@secondshelfbks) May 31, 2020

I particularly despise that theft of the “white … Read the rest

A Twitter account that claims to be a bookshop for women…

Oops. She blocked a bookstore of books by women. We're sure that was a mistake. pic.twitter.com/q1jWMIIhk3

— The Second Shelf (@secondshelfbks) May 29, 2020

I wonder why Rowling blocked this bookshop for women.

She doesn't believe trans people exist. Or should have the same rights. She tweeted her views on accident in a post meant for children. What if that child was trans? https://t.co/w1a6EDVjMZ

— The Second Shelf (@secondshelfbks) May 29, 2020

Oh. I guess that’s why. Claims of the “she doesn’t believe trans people should have rights” type – lies, in short. Possibly also the illiteracy – “on accident” “what if that child was trans” – two in … Read the rest

Meanwhile

President Trump moved to protect regulations issued by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos that restrict federal student loan forgiveness in a veto issued Friday night. Several veterans’ groups have argued that the rules, which make it more difficult for student borrowers to prove that a college defrauded them, will harm former service members cheated by for-profit colleges, the New York Times reports.

In other words, for-profit colleges, which are a scam to begin with, have won a victory over the students they cheat. Of course Trump is down with that: he’s one of the scammers. Remember Trump “University”? Which was in no way a university, and took people’s money for very nearly nothing?

Trump said the vetoed legislation “sought

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That’s not the only mud Harrop threw at Rowling today.

https://twitter.com/AdrianHarrop/status/1266654521888997376 https://twitter.com/AdrianHarrop/status/1266657728090570753

How insensitive.… Read the rest

Aw, poor DOCTOR Adrian Harrop has had to apologize to JK Rowling.

https://twitter.com/AdrianHarrop/status/1266812512546230275

Rowling raises an eyebrow.

‘Insensitive’.

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 30, 2020

He’s not a bully, he’s not he’s not he’s NOT. He’s just inthenthitive.

What did he say?

Replying to @StandWithMaya

Jimmy Saville was the UK’s most popular children’s entertainer at the height of his career, & one of the most famous men in the country. working with how you’re framing JKR, I suppose you’d have gladly given him unsupervised contact with your kids – or have I misunderstood you?

Sure, just insensitive, not libelous at all.… Read the rest

President Trump today as the national remains on edge: “MAGA is make America great again. By the way, they love African-American people, they love black people. MAGA loves the black people.”

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) May 30, 2020

He said that??

How to the black people pic.twitter.com/iCBXIKTI8N

— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) May 30, 2020

He said it.… Read the rest