It’s not the first time. Reuters February 2016:

Presidential candidate Donald Trump admires the late Douglas MacArthur and George Patton, both World War Two generals. They were winners, unpredictable, and not especially nice guys, he says in campaign speeches. But Trump’s pledge to imitate their styles sets modern-day military experts on edge.

…

The candidate’s spokeswoman Hope Hicks said Trump made a habit of citing the two World War Two figures to “emphasize the need to strengthen the U.S. military, talk less and do more to protect America.”

Talk less! Nobody talks more than Trump. Trump literally never shuts up.

But hey – the movie.

There are scholar presidents, and presidents who don’t read much, and then there is President-elect Donald Trump, who has said he has no time for books at all. But he does enjoy a few historically themed movies—one of which is Patton, George C. Scott’s 1970 embodiment of the World War II general. Patton is one of the very few role models Trump held up during his campaign; he frequently rued the fact that the military lacked modern-day Pattons, and when he picked retired Marine Gen. James Mattis as his defense secretary, Trump proclaimed Mattis “the closest thing we have to Gen. George Patton.”

In other words he looks more like George C. Scott than any of the others.

Speaking of Scott, that’s who really should be Trump’s ideal general – General Buck Turgidson.

How about this one? Do we agree that this is fascist?

McArthur and Patton…what is it that they have in common? Oh yes – being busted.

Let’s hear some praise for Lieutenant Calley now, and how about that fabulous General Dyer?

The worship of STRENGTH is fascism.

Tim Murphy at Mother Jones says Minneapolis is Trump’s campaign dream.

Rioters in the city were “THUGS,” he wrote, and he proposed sending in the National Guard to “get the job done right.” In a tweet so depraved that Twitter appended a disclaimer, he quoted an infamous 1960s Miami cop: “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

Trump’s comments weren’t just those of a head of state addressing unrest in a major city. They were also the words of a candidate for reelection who believes that what happens in Minnesota could make or break his chances this fall. The president has made repeated campaign stops in the state over the last four years; in threatening violence against protesters, he was sticking to a longstanding strategy. Trump believes that by attacking the state’s largest city and casting its residents as radical refugees and “thugs”—by driving a huge racist wedge between the Twin Cities and all the rest—he can flip the state he lost by the smallest of margins in 2016.

And, bonus, he really loves doing it. It’s cynical and fun; win win!

Trump’s campaign in Minnesota, now as ever, is rooted in white grievance and fear and what he calls “law and order,” by which he means targeting immigrants and people of color for abuse—by pinning all that’s gone wrong on blue cities and the people who live there.

The campaign is going to be an absolute nightmare.

So Nicola Spurling deleted that defamatory tweet, and then reiterated the ideology.

“Children must be accepted for who they are, not told that who they are is wrong.”

But who is it that actually tells children that who they are is wrong? Who is it that refuses to accept them for who they are?

Spurling of course is claiming that it’s people who don’t believe the trans ideology, but that relies on a very peculiar understanding of the phrase “who they are.” It relies on taking fantasy as the truth of who people are, while treating the physical reality of who they are as an illusion.

In short it flips everything.

When I was a child I projected myself into a great many fictional characters from books and movies and tv shows. I would live my life while pretending to be other people for much of the time, while always knowing perfectly well it was pretending. Imagine if the adults had asked me who I was at that moment and then said that was who I really was – imagine the traffic jam.

There is no magical spiritual “who we are” that is not just separate from but the opposite of what our bodies determine we are. We are our bodies; our bodies are we. We are also our histories and our social situations. If we were born white and middle class we don’t get to say that who we really are is black and working class. We can say we feel more affinity for the black working class than the while middle class, but we can’t then try to leverage that into mandatory acceptance from the black working class. It’s funny how woke people would instantly agree to that while still feeling so very empowered to tell women the opposite.

Or, more succinctly –

Merkel says no, she’s not going to Trump’s party.

“The federal chancellor thanks President Trump for his invitation to the G7 summit at the end of June in Washington. As of today, considering the overall pandemic situation, she cannot agree to her personal participation, to a journey to Washington,” German government spokesman Steffen Seibert told POLITICO Friday.

…

Merkel’s refusal to attend the summit in person risks scuppering Trump’s attempts to present the gathering as a landmark moment drawing a line under the lockdowns and travel bans imposed to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

You know what else risks scuppering that? The coronavirus pandemic. It hasn’t gone anywhere, so drawing a line under the lockdowns and travel bans would be incredibly stupid.

Trump canceled the summit in March due to the crisis and said he would host a videconference instead. But in a tweet on May 20, he said he might reschedule the summit, proclaiming, “It would be a great sign to all — normalization!”

But, again, the pandemic hasn’t gone anywhere, so normalization isn’t possible. He can say the word all he likes, but it doesn’t change the reality.

“The president thinks no greater example of reopening in this transition to greatness would be the G7, and G7 happening here,” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Tuesday. “We will protect world leaders who come here, just like we protect people in the White House,” McEnany added. “So we want to see it happen. We think it will happen. And, so far, foreign leaders are very much on board with the idea.”

Except they don’t protect people in the White House.

But Merkel, who is a research scientist by professional training, has said that she believes June is still too soon to hold large gatherings given that the virus is still circulating, and experts are urging continued vigilance and social distancing, even as economies begin to open up again.

Officials aware of the transatlantic discussions said Trump was furious over Merkel’s reluctance to attend the summit and on Thursday he phoned French President Emmanuel Macron in a pique.

He doesn’t do pique. He does full-on rage tantrum, not pique.

Trump didn’t say a word about George Floyd at his “press conference” (the one at which he took no questions) today, but he did say he was yanking the US out of the WHO.

US President Donald Trump has announced that he is terminating the country’s relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO). The president has accused the WHO of failing to hold Beijing to account over the coronavirus pandemic. “China has total control over the World Health Organization,” the president said while announcing measures aimed at punishing Beijing.

…

More than 102,000 people in the US have lost their lives to Covid-19 – by far the biggest death toll in the world.

And that’s…the WHO’s fault.

A couple of thoughts related to the police murder of George Floyd and the protests in response:

Both women are former prosecutors.

Originally a comment by Seth on As a fact not as a statement.

This is the real Doublespeak, of course; not a statement meant to instill contradictory beliefs in the speaker’s mind and thus induce a fugue of passive acceptance of Big Brother, but rather an obvious smokescreen meant to gaslight anyone who takes the plain reading seriously. I foresaw this excuse immediately when I glanced at your previous post. The interpretation being in this case that Trump is a very poor and disorganized speaker who obviously meant that when looting (or really any kind of civil disobedience) occurs, violence often follows (by and upon the looters/disobeyers themselves, obviously), and the government should step in to prevent the looters/disobeyers from harming one another. Of course, even this interpretation is fascist and implicitly racist, not to mention supremely insulting to Trump besides, but it’s rather different from an explicit threat to unleash the violence of the state on peaceful protesters, and this interpretive gap is precisely large enough to drive trollish outrage which Trump’s people will now take.

The cycle is quite simple, and doubtless obvious to you, but it bears spelling out explicitly: Say something horrendous but which could, when interpreted very generously, be taken not-quite-as-offensively; dare anyone to take offence; scream to high heaven how you’re being persecuted and misconstrued when offence is indeed taken; claim persecution and victimhood; feel smugly superior; repeat.

They will do this every time. And every time you do not give them the benefit of every doubt, every time you do not extend them the most generous interpretation imaginable, they will insist it’s because you’re an insipid knave who has had it out for them from the start and they shouldn’t have to listen to the likes of you.

Ah now comes the backtrack.

Time stamp is 11:20. He was scheduled to do a press conference starting at 11.

What does “It was spoken as a fact, not as a statement” mean? Was he trying to say he was describing what happens as opposed to making a threat? Poor confused wannabe fascist.

Anyway – do we believe his afterthought?

No.

Maybe casual libel isn’t such a good idea after all.

Also in the Post’s live updates:

Hours after Twitter said a tweet by President Trump violated its rules for glorifying violence, the White House posted his same comments about the unrest in Minneapolis on its official account Friday morning.

“These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen,” the White House tweet said, quoting Trump’s words referring to the man who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck. “Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”

The White House did that, so it’s no longer the personal murderous outburst of Donald Trump, it’s an official murderous outburst from the Trump administration. The executive branch of our government is telling us it will murder us on sight for crimes against property.

Reichstag fire.

More on that arrest of the CNN reporter and crew as they were reporting:

CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez and his camera crew were arrested on air early Friday as they reported on the protests.

A Minnesota State Police officer said the journalists were arrested because they were told to move and didn’t, according to CNN. Jimenez is seen and heard on camera before his arrest identifying himself and his crew as reporters and saying, “We’re getting out of your way” and “put us back where you want us. Just let us know.”

…

The arrest, which happened during CNN’s “New Day,” shocked hosts Alysin Camerota and John Berman. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” Berman said.

…

CNN political reporter Abby Phillip noted that her other colleague on the scene, who is white, was not arrested.

“He just reported that police approached him, asked him who he was with, he said CNN,” Phillip said via Twitter. “And they say “ok, you’re good.” This is minutes after Omar, who is black and Latino, was arrested nearby.”

Totally not connected, I’m sure. (His name is calculated to piss Trump off, isn’t it. Omar Jiminez – hoo boy. Might as well be named Barack Obama.)

Do we really have to soften Trump’s homicidal fascist screams of rage even now, when he’s literally saying he’s going to have people shot in the street?

Washington Post headline:

CNN crew arrested as fires rage in Minneapolis; Trump calls protesters ‘THUGS,’ suggests looting will lead to ‘shooting’

He didn’t “suggest”! He flat-out said it! His words: “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” How is that in any way a “suggestion”? It’s a flat unqualified announcement. He announced his intention to have people murdered for property crimes.

President Trump called the protesters “THUGS,” while suggesting military intervention and warning in a tweet that there could be additional violence if the chaos continued. “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” the president wrote. Trump’s tweet was later flagged by Twitter for “glorifying violence.”

Again – he didn’t “warn” and he didn’t “suggest.” He said. He didn’t say “if,” he said “when.”

A CNN crew was arrested early Friday while reporting on the protests in Minnesota. CNN said in a statement that the three journalists were arrested “for doing their jobs, despite identifying themselves.” Correspondent Omar Jimenez was released from custody and back on the air a short time later.

For now.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) condemned Trump for tweets that he said have contributed to the “angry cycle” of violence in Minneapolis. “Calling people thugs and calling on people to get shot stems from the same sort of attitude that resulted in the death of George Floyd,” Ellison said on “CBS This Morning.”

And they weren’t “suggestions.”

And there’s this.

Very Reichstag fire today.

But last night Trump finally did push it hard enough that Twitter semi-removed one of his tweets. They’ve veiled it behind the message

This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible. Learn more

and there’s a view button next to it.

What does it say? Oh nothing much, just that he wants “the Military” to shoot people who are “looting” in Minneapolis.

….These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!

Yes he really cares passionately about the memory of George Floyd.

Nah, he just wants to order “the Military” to shoot black people.

He preceded the “shooting starts” tweet with another hello this is literal fascism one:

Another day another horror show.

Wisdom:

Such a good idea to politicize wearing masks during a lethal pandemic.

Trump reading from the words written down on the paper in front of him.

He sounds both congested and slobbery, as if he had both snot and spit surging out of control in his nose and mouth and throat. It’s gross.

He is barely able to read. He has to guide himself down the page with his hands. He ad libs while looking at the camera, telegraphing the fact that he’s ad libbing, which looks pretty dopy given how fiercely he has to stare at the script in order to read it. He thought “shadow” and “ban” were two of the things Twitter is doing to stifle his freespeech.

He spells the “fact” in “fact check” for us, because he was so congested and slobbery when he read it.

He considers it “censorship” to fact check.

The Associated Press/The Guardian does a crap job of reporting on the Title IX ruling.

A subhead:

Ruling calls policy a violation of civil rights of ‘female athletes’

What’s with the scare quotes? Have we decided female athletes don’t exist now? Are they all an illusion? Are they a product of lies and public relations?

Connecticut’s policy allowing transgender girls to compete as girls in high school sports violates the civil rights of athletes who have always identified as female, the US Education Department has determined in a decision that could force the state to change course to keep federal funding and influence others to do the same.

It’s interesting how the boys who claim to be girls are called transgender girls, no scare quotes, while girls are called “athletes who have always identified as female.” How insulting is that? And how fantasy-privileging, and reality-scorning? Let’s get this straight. It’s the boys who are claiming to be something they are not, and it’s the girls who are what they are as well as what they say they are. Furthermore, it’s the boys who have a large physical advantage over the girls, not the other way around. It’s also journalistically bizarre that everyone simply assumes that the boys really do “identify as” girls as opposed to pretending to for a few years in order to win races and maybe athletic scholarships.

A letter from the department’s civil rights office, a copy of which was obtained Thursday by the Associated Press, came in response to a complaint filed last year by several cisgender female track athletes who argued that two transgender female runners had an unfair physical advantage.

Again. They’re not “cisgender female track athletes,” they’re just female track athletes. They don’t need an extra label to denote that they’re not lying or pretending or fantasizing about being female, and it’s insulting to slap that label on them.

“All that today’s finding represents is yet another attack from the Trump administration on transgender students,” said Chase Strangio, who leads transgender justice initiatives for the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT and HIV Project.

It’s not an attack. Not letting boys who say they are girls compete on the girls’ team is not attacking those boys – they can compete on the boys’ team. The attack is from the other direction: letting boys who say they “identify as” girls compete against girls attacks the right of girls to fair competition. It would be nice if all these putative progressives gave a damn about that.

“Trans students belong in our schools, including on sports teams, and we aren’t backing down from this fight,” Strangio said.

Nobody is trying to keep trans students out of schools or off sports teams.

It still amazes me how suddenly and swiftly women’s rights stopped mattering.

Trump has duly staged his tantrum disguised as an “executive order.”

President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aimed at limiting the broad legal protections enjoyed by social media companies, just two days after Trump tore into Twitter for fact-checking two of the president’s tweets.

…

Legal observers described the action as “political theater,” arguing that the order does not change existing federal law and will have no bearing on federal courts.

The president’s latest confrontation with Twitter was set off after the tech company placed fact-checking warnings on two of his tweets that claimed, without evidence, that casting ballots by mail allows for voter fraud.

See? There’s that “without evidence” signal again, which is the ass-covering way of saying he lied.

Trump lashed out at Twitter, comparing the fact-checking labels to censorship and accusing social media giant of stifling conservative voices, though the president did not provide any examples to back up that claim.

That’s another one of those “he lied” euphemisms. Fact-checking of course is not censorship, it’s fact-checking. Trump visibly makes shit up constantly; he does it while we watch him.

Legal experts greeted the order with heavy skepticism, saying, [in the absence of] a new law passed by Congress, the order would not be legally binding.

“It flies in the face of 25 years of judicial precedent, that has been federal precedent in almost every circuit court,” said Kate Klonick, a law professor at St. John’s University School of Law in New York. “It’s not the role of the president to interpret federal law.”

And in his case, how could he if he wanted to? He doesn’t know anything about anything, so how could he interpret federal law?