… Read the restThe US first lady, Melania Trump, said she would be open to visiting the NBA superstar LeBron James’s new public school, the day after her husband questioned the Los Angeles Lakers player’s intelligence.
Donald Trump insulted James on Friday night hours after CNN re-aired an interview with the basketball player and reporter Don Lemon. “Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon,” Trump said. “He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do.”
Many, including professional athletes and the Republican governor of Ohio, were critical of Trump’s statements.
On Saturday afternoon, Melania Trump also issued a surprising, positive statement about James, but did not reference her husband.
“It looks
All entries by this author
Working to do good things
Aug 4th, 2018 6:25 pm | By Ophelia BensonNot a costume party
Aug 4th, 2018 12:09 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis is one of those times when the kind and courteous agreement to call men who have transitioned to being trans women “women” with no further qualification is not a good plan. People who go into convenience stores to swing axes at random shoppers are rarely female.
The headline: Sydney axe attack: Woman guilty of trying to kill strangers
The text:
… Read the restA woman who attacked two people with an axe in an Australian convenience store has been convicted of attempted murder.
Evie Amati, 26, carried out the unprovoked attack in Sydney last year.
After entering the 7-Eleven store, Amati used the axe to strike a man in the face and a woman in the back of the head. Both victims
Guest post: None of the traits of intelligence, and all of the traits of enormous ego
Aug 4th, 2018 11:28 am | By Ophelia BensonOriginally a comment by iknklast on Shame.
One problem Trump has is that he doesn’t recognize the limits of his knowledge. When he “knows” something, he “knows” it better than anyone else, and anyone disagreeing with him must be wrong. He sees highly intelligent people as stupid because of categories (black, Mexican, woman, Muslim) that are arbitrary in most cases, and have nothing to do with intelligence. And these highly intelligent people speak in a way he cannot understand, and call out his lies, and disagree with him, and since he (DJT) knows everything, even things no one else knows, they must be wrong; therefore, stupid.
Even if they were wrong, being wrong doesn’t equate with being stupid, but … Read the rest
Compare
Aug 4th, 2018 10:17 am | By Ophelia BensonTRUMP: Creates fake university to scam students, pays $25 million fine for fraud
LEBRON: Creates top-notch public high school for low-income students, pays college tuition for every graduate
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) August 4, 2018
To expand on the point a little, Trump’s fake “university” (yes fake AND scare quotes because it’s just that fake) charged thousands of dollars for real estate tips you could learn from a pamphlet.
… Read the restTrump University (also known as the Trump Wealth Institute and Trump Entrepreneur Initiative LLC) was an American for-profit education company that ran a real estate training program from 2005 until 2010. It was owned and operated by The Trump Organization. (A separate organization, Trump Institute, was
Green light
Aug 4th, 2018 9:49 am | By Ophelia BensonI’m seeing people say never mind what he tweets, focus on what he does – but what he says is what he does, and it’s far from mere fluff or distraction. His open shameless angry racism gives the green light to millions of other angry shameless racists, and they do things, from Charlottesville-type riots to not hiring or promoting or renting to people of Other Races to harassment and violence. The proud noisy ragey racism of the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES encourages and incites racists everywhere. This shit matters.… Read the rest
Shame
Aug 4th, 2018 9:13 am | By Ophelia BensonRacist US president is at it again.
Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do. I like Mike!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2018
James is a basketball player; Lemon is a CNN news anchor. Both are African-American. This is our president: a deeply stupid corrupt white man who likes to use his position to call influential black people stupid. (See: Maxine Waters, repeatedly.)
Funny thing: I had no clue who Don Lemon was until Trump was elected. Trump’s election prompted me to watch his show now and then, and I tell you what, he is the opposite of “dumb.” It’s because of … Read the rest
More bums in beds
Aug 3rd, 2018 4:50 pm | By Ophelia BensonWell at least this mess is good for business at Trump’s hotel in Manhattan.
The general manager of the Trump International Hotel in Manhattan had a rare bit of good news to report to investors this spring: After two years of decline, revenue from room rentals went up 13 percent in the first three months of 2018.
What caused the uptick at President Trump’s flagship hotel in New York? One major factor: “a last-minute visit to New York by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia,” wrote general manager Prince A. Sanders in a May 15 letter, which was obtained by The Washington Post.
The royals didn’t stay at Trump’s hotel because well, frankly, it’s crap, isn’t it, but they … Read the rest
Some sunny day
Aug 3rd, 2018 11:41 am | By Ophelia BensonOn the one hand CNN and the Post and the Times are The Enemy, and on the other hand…
Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action. Also, thank you for your nice letter – l look forward to seeing you soon!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2018
4,229 lies
Aug 3rd, 2018 11:18 am | By Ophelia BensonTrump is lying more than ever.
As of day 558, he’s made 4,229 Trumpian claims — an increase of 978 in just two months.
That’s an overall average of nearly 7.6 claims a day.
When we first started this project for the president’s first 100 days, he averaged 4.9 claims a day. But the average number of claims per day keeps climbing the longer Trump stays in office. In fact, in June and July, the president averaged 16 claims a day.
Put another way: In his first year as president, Trump made 2,140 false or misleading claims. Now, just six months later, he has almost doubled that total.
He loves doing it, and so far he’s gotten away … Read the rest
With each denunciation, the crowd jeered and screamed
Aug 3rd, 2018 8:38 am | By Ophelia BensonMeanwhile Trump attacked the press again at his rally last night.
President Donald Trump is renewing his campaign against the media, claiming at a Pennsylvania rally that the media is the “fake, fake disgusting news” and casting journalists as his true political opponent.
Is he enough of a Hitler-clone yet?
… Read the restTrump barnstormed Thursday night in a state that he swiped from the Democrats in 2016 and that is home to a Senate seat he is trying to place in the Republicans’ column this fall. But the race between GOP U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta and two-term incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey took a back seat to Trump’s invectives against the media, which came amid a backdrop of antagonism to journalists
Repeated attacks on the free press
Aug 3rd, 2018 8:31 am | By Ophelia BensonThe UN comments on Trump’s rhetoric attacking the press:
… Read the restUN and Inter-American experts on freedom of expression have condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on the free press and urged him and his administration to cease efforts to undermine the media’s role of holding government accountable, honest and transparent.
“His attacks are strategic, designed to undermine confidence in reporting and raise doubts about verifiable facts,” said David Kaye and Edison Lanza, the Special Rapporteurs on freedom of expression for the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, respectively.
The President has labelled the media as being the “enemy of the American people” “very dishonest” or “fake news,” and accused the press of “distorting democracy” or spreading
Step right up, only $200 k per customer
Aug 2nd, 2018 5:35 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnother nice little angle for Trump, it appears – selling tours of Air Force One. Nothing at all tacky about that, no indeed.
… Read the restFour Democratic senators are calling for an investigation into who has received Air Force One tours under the Trump administration, following reporting by BuzzFeed News that found that some members of the president’s private Florida clubs appeared to have received those tours.
In a letter to the inspectors general of the Air Force and Department of Defense, Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Tom Carper of Delaware, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island cite the BuzzFeed News report as “particularly troubling.”
“If true, these reports could mean that the President or his family
No idling
Aug 2nd, 2018 2:03 pm | By Ophelia Benson… Read the restFor the past decade, an uptown mortgage broker named George Pakenham has been predicting that the scourge of engine exhaust caused by needless automobile idling will soon become as socially unacceptable as secondhand smoke. After years of rapping on the windows of passenger cars and delivery vans, reminding drivers that the law prohibits idling for longer than three minutes within the city limits, and only occasionally being rebuffed with remarks like “Go move to China” and “You are not human,” he felt like he had reason to be optimistic. He has produced a children’s book devoted to the subject, “Big Nose, Big City,” and also a documentary, “Idle Threat,” which has
Shameful
Aug 2nd, 2018 1:06 pm | By Ophelia BensonWelllllll, this is appalling.
Here's the video. Sarah Sanders is asked multiple times if she believes the media is the enemy of the people. She refuses each time to respond. (via Yahoo) pic.twitter.com/q9jvKSzl3u
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 2, 2018
Jim Acosta apparently walked out at that point.
I walked out of the end of that briefing because I am totally saddened by what just happened. Sarah Sanders was repeatedly given a chance to say the press is not the enemy and she wouldn't do it. Shameful.
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 2, 2018
Press the BBC to catch up with the 21st century
Aug 2nd, 2018 12:45 pm | By Ophelia Benson… Read the restike most Greens, I typically jump at opportunities to go on air. Pretty much any opportunity: BBC national radio, BBC TV, Channel 4, Sky – I’ve done them all over the years, for good or ill. Even when, as is not infrequently the case, the deck is somewhat stacked against me, or the timing inadequate for anything more than a soundbite, or the question up for debate less than ideal.
But this Wednesday, when I was rung up by BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and asked to come on air to debate with a climate change denier, something in me broke, and rebelled. Really? I thought. This summer, of all times?
So, for almost
First and last appearance
Aug 2nd, 2018 12:24 pm | By Ophelia BensonSkeletor told us “At least she’s meeting with local school kids and doing her best to garden with them” – she being Melania Trump.
No, she’s not. The Post this past April:
… Read the restThus far, the Trump administration has erred on the side of silence regarding the vegetable garden, mirroring the silence in Congress around the impending farm bill deadline. In February 2017, a news release from the Office of the First Lady confirmed the White House vegetable garden would not be removed. Come April, however, there was no spring planting event such as Michelle Obama had held; instead, the secretary of agriculture announced that he would “Make School Lunches Great Again” by relaxing Obama-era HHFKA nutrition and sourcing regulations.
In Saudi Arabia there is no civic space left to shrink
Aug 2nd, 2018 11:58 am | By Ophelia BensonTrump’s BFF Saudi Arabia is not behaving well.
The UN has expressed concern over the continuing and “apparently arbitrary” crackdown on Saudi human rights activists after two more prominent female campaigners were arrested in the kingdom.
Samar Badawi, an internationally recognised activist, and Nassima al-Sadah, a co-founding member of Al-Adalah Center for Human Rights, were detained earlier this week.
At least 15 prominent activists have been held as part of a government campaign that began in the run-up to the much publicised lifting of the ban on women driving. Many other cases are thought to remain unreported.
That’s interesting – so the “run-up” to the removal of one violation of women’s rights consisted of trashing other women’s rights. How … Read the rest
Public confession of official misconduct
Aug 2nd, 2018 11:07 am | By Ophelia BensonMax Boot at the Post explains how Trump is flouting the law right out in the open where we can watch.
There’s the tweet yesterday saying Sessions “should” stop the investigation.
… Read the restTrump’s team, on cleanup duty, claimed the president is offering an opinion, not issuing a formal order. But when a boss tells a subordinate he “should” do something, it’s not just an innocent opinion like “that’s a nice shirt.” Last year, then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that the president’s tweets are “official statements.” Indeed, the president fired then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson by tweet. If Trump was just expressing a nonbinding opinion, why isn’t Tillerson still on the job?
When the president tells
Let’s get that dirt back into our god-given air
Aug 2nd, 2018 10:34 am | By Ophelia BensonThe Trump admin has been working hard for a long time on a plan to make sure we have dirtier more climate-damaging fuel economy standards. Thanks, Trump admin.
The Trump administration Thursday pushed ahead with plans to unravel the federal government’s most effective action to fight climate change — aggressive fuel economy standards aimed at getting the nation’s cars and trucks to average more than 50 miles per gallon by 2025.
After months of discussion and drafts, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration formally unveiled their plan to rewrite those rules and replace them with ones so lax even automakers are wary.
More dirt please, more smog, more carbon, more global warming.
… Read the restThe administration’s
His shameful career
Aug 2nd, 2018 9:42 am | By Ophelia BensonA former federal prosecutor tells us what it’s like to watch Jeff Sessions be the Attorney General.
… Read the restI guess I tried to put out of my mind that Jeff Sessions, the hand-picked Trump-appointed attorney general, lost his nomination for a federal judgeship in the 1980s because of racist remarks he’d made while working at the Alabama U.S. attorney’s office. And, it’s only recently that I learned of Sessions’ claim that the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP are “un-American,” and that he voted as a senator against hate crime bills, the Violence Against Women Act, and Loretta Lynch as attorney general because President Barack Obama’s nominees had “ACLU DNA.”
Against the backdrop of Sessions’ historical
