The Trump presidency

[Yossarian]

Someone said the other day: Imagine the reaction if it was a woman making decisions based on emotional reaction to pictures of beautiful babies she'd seen on tv.

If it was Theresa May nobody would believe her.

 

[Libertad]

If it was Theresa May nobody would believe her.

Why's that then?

 

[Yossarian]

Why's that then?

Because like most of her predecessors, she seems like somebody who's never spoken a sincere word in her life and probably hates babies. And older children, teenagers, and 99% of adults. Didn't she just cut benefit payments to bereaved families?

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

You may recall how, a month and a half ago, pundits eagerly declared that Mr. Trump “became the president of the United States today” because he managed to read a speech off a teleprompter without going off script. Then he started tweeting again.

One might have expected that experience to serve as a lesson. But no: The U.S. fired off some missiles, and once again Mr. Trump “became president.” Aside from everything else, think about the incentives this creates. The Trump administration now knows that it can always crowd out reporting about its scandals and failures by bombing someone.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/10/...ick&contentCollection=Trending&pgtype=article

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It’s this: Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger… “The general idea is that it’s absolutely threatening to admit you’re wrong,” says political scientist Brendan Nyhan, the lead researcher on the Michigan study. The phenomenon — known as “backfire” — is “a natural defense mechanism to avoid that cognitive dissonance.”

http://www.salon.com/2015/12/23/don...and_pat_buchanan_just_explained_how_it_works/

 

[Tankus]

Price of US fracked oil has gone up

Buy up some crude futures....launch a few missiles

...it's a deal ...itsa steal...

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Via Robert Reich:

Update for Trump voters.

1. He said he wouldn’t bomb Syria. You bought it. Then he bombed Syria.

2. He said he'd build a wall along the border with Mexico. You bought it. Now his secretary of homeland security says "It’s unlikely that we will build a wall."

3. He said he’d clean the Washington swamp. You bought it. Then he brought into his administration more billionaires, CEOs, and Wall Street moguls than in any administration in history, to make laws that will enrich their businesses.

4. He said he’d repeal Obamacare and replace it with something “wonderful.” You bought it. Then he didn’t.

5. He said he’d use his business experience to whip the White House into shape. You bought it. Then he created the most chaotic, dysfunctional, back-stabbing White House in modern history, in which no one is in charge.

6. He said he’d release his tax returns, eventually. You bought it. He hasn’t, and says he never will.

7. He said he’d divest himself from his financial empire, to avoid any conflicts of interest. You bought it. He remains heavily involved in his businesses, makes money off of foreign dignitaries staying at his Washington hotel, gets China to give the Trump brand trademark and copyright rights, manipulates the stock market on a daily basis, and has more conflicts of interest than can even be counted.

8. He said Clinton was in the pockets of Goldman Sachs, and would do whatever they said. You bought it. Then he put half a dozen Goldman Sachs executives in positions of power in his administration.

9. He said he’d surround himself with all the best and smartest people. You bought it. Then he put Betsy DeVos, opponent of public education, in charge of education; Jeff Sessions, opponent of the Voting Rights Act, in charge of voting rights; Ben Carson, opponent of the Fair Housing Act, in charge of fair housing; Scott Pruitt, climate change denier, in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency; and Russian quisling Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State.

10. He said he’d faithfully execute the law. You bought it. Then he said his predecessor, Barack Obama, spied on him, without any evidence of Obama ever doing so, in order to divert attention from the FBI's investigation into collusion between his campaign and Russian operatives to win the election.

11. He said he knew more about strategy and terrorism than the generals did. You bought it. Then he promptly gave the green light to a disastrous raid in Yemen- even though all his generals said it would be a terrible idea. This raid resulted in the deaths of a Navy SEAL, an 8-year old American girl, and numerous civilians. The actual target of the raid escaped, and no useful intel was gained.

12. He called Barack Obama “the vacationer-in-Chief” and accused him of playing more rounds of golf than Tiger Woods. He promised to never be the kind of president who took cushy vacations on the taxpayer’s dime, not when there was so much important work to be done. You bought it. He has by now spent more taxpayer money on vacations than Obama did in the first 3 years of his presidency. Not to mention all the money taxpayers are spending protecting his family, including his two sons who travel all over the world on Trump business.

13. He called CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times “fake news” and said they were his enemy. You bought it. Now he gets his information from Fox News, Breitbart, Gateway Pundit, and InfoWars.

More to come.

 

[butchersapron]

He said he'd bomb the shit out of isis - and has upped the amount of daily raids on them in syria since he took over. I haven't noticed people protesting that yet.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

He's upped the bombing - everywhere. It's about time people did more protesting.

It's not just Syria. Trump is ratcheting up wars across the world | Trevor Timm

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Over the weekend, Russia warned of a “real war” in tweets asking followers whether they trusted US President Trump and UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to command.

It also asked followers what the “probable outcomes” of the G7 meeting might be, including “conventional war”, a “war of clowns” of a “mix of the above”.

Russian Embassy, UK ✔ @RussianEmbassy


If G7 ultimatum to Russia brings us to real war,what is your trust in @realDonaldTrump as a wartime leader&@BorisJohnson as his lieutenant?


3:45 AM - 9 Apr 2017




23%full confidence

9%hopeful

9%somewhat hopeful

59%appalled

Vote 9,074 votes • Final results

• 
  
• 759 759 Retweets
• 527

Russia warns of ‘real war’, trolls Trump, Johnson

 

[Buckaroo]

Russia warns of ‘real war’, trolls Trump, Johnson

No it (Russia) didn't. It was a poll on twitter which included the options "war of clowns" and "appalled" as something to vote for.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Aussie reporters peddling fake news?!

 

[CrabbedOne]

He said he'd bomb the shit out of isis - and has upped the amount of daily raids on them in syria since he took over. I haven't noticed people protesting that yet.

Actually the big uptick of strikes was in Yemen. As usual not getting much press apart from that bungled raid.

Otherwise Trump's GWOT more been about incremental expansion of existing Obama initiatives in terms of strike rates. Hits on AQ HVTs in Idlib but mainly the build up to taking Raqqa. Mosul naturally accelerated as well with a big increase in civilian casualties. That's the way with sieges. It probably has little to do with Trump. CENTCOM don't even admit to a loosening of the RoE. I don't even see his decision to hit that airbase as much more than enforcing Obama's redline on the CW agreement with a very calibrated symbolic strike.

This actually isn't the dramatic escalation implied in "bombing the shit out of IS" unless that was what Obama was doing already. He's welched there as well. But then he did promise a great deal of stupidity and not delivering may be a sign that he can take adult advice.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Deplorable:

‘One word says it all. Asian’: Airbnb host who supports Trump strands guests in dangerous storm over race

“Go ahead. I wouldn’t rent to u if you were the last person on earth,” the host wrote back to Suh. “One word says it all. Asian”

When Suh replied that she would report the host to Airbnb for being racist, the host told her to “Go ahead” and “It’s why we have trump.”

'One word says it all. Asian': Airbnb host who supports Trump strands guests in dangerous storm over race

 

[Buckaroo]

Aussie reporters peddling fake news?!

No just you.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Colin H. Kahl: The danger of war with Russia is, incredibly, more real than you’d think as U.S. wades deeper into Syria

Colin H. Kahl: The danger of war with Russia is, incredibly, more real than you'd think as U.S. wades deeper into Syria

 

[Buckaroo]

Colin H. Kahl: The danger of war with Russia is, incredibly, more real than you'd think as U.S. wades deeper into Syria

From the same rag that was founded by Conrad Black and said
"IRAN EYES BADGES FOR JEWS" accompanied by a 1935 picture of two Jews bearing Nazi-ordered yellow badges.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

In that case, I guess there is no danger of war with Russia?

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Btw: Black sold the National Post - 17 years ago.

The Post was unable to maintain momentum in the market without continuing to operate with annual budgetary deficits. At the same time, Conrad Black was becoming preoccupied by his debt-heavy media empire, Hollinger International. Black divested his Canadian media holdings, and sold the Post to CanWest Global Communications Corp, controlled by Israel "Izzy" Asper, in two stages – 50% in 2000, along with the entire Southam newspaper chain,[6] and the remaining 50% in 2001.[6] CanWest Global also owned the Global Television Network.

Izzy Asper died in October 2003, and his sons Leonard and David Asper assumed control of CanWest, the latter serving as chairman of the Post. Editor-in-chief Matthew Fraser departed in 2005 after the arrival of a new publisher, Les Pyette – the paper's seventh publisher in seven years. Fraser's deputy editor, Doug Kelly succeeded him as editor. Pyette departed seven months after his arrival, replaced by Gordon Fisher.

National Post - Wikipedia

 

[Buckaroo]

In that case, I guess there is no danger of war with Russia?

Maybe there is but over the weekend "Russia" didn't warn of a real war like you claimed or claimed someone else claimed on fucking twitter.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

In fairness, it should also be noted that the National Post ran a retraction and apology for the erroneous story.

Last Friday, the National Post ran a story prominently on the front page alleging that the Iranian parliament had passed a law that, if enacted, would require Jews and other religious minorities in Iran to wear badges that would identify them as such in public. It is now clear the story is not true. Given the seriousness of the error, I felt it necessary to explain to our readers how this happened.



The story of the alleged badge law first came to us in the form of a column by Amir Taheri. Mr. Taheri, an Iranian author and journalist, has

written widely on Iran for many major publications. In his column, Mr. Taheri wrote at length about the new law, the main purpose of which is to establish an appropriate dress code for Muslims. Mr. Taheri went on to say that under the law, “Religious minorities would have their own colour schemes. They will also have to wear special insignia, known as zonnar, to indicate their non-Islamic faith.”

This extraordinary allegation caught our attention, of course. The idea that Iran might impose such a law did not seem out of the question given that its President has denied the Holocaust and threatened to “wipe Israel off the map.” We tried to contact Mr. Taheri, but he was in transit and unreachable.

The editor who was dealing with Mr. Taheri’s column wrote to Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. The Wiesenthal Center is an international Jewish human rights organization that keeps a close watch on issues affecting the treatment of Jews around the world, and maintains contacts in many countries, including Iran. Asked about the specific allegation that Iran had passed a law requiring religious minorities to identify themselves, Rabbi Cooper replied by e-mail that the story was “absolutely true.” When a reporter spoke to Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, a short while later, Rabbi Hier said the story was true and added that the organization had sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan asking him to take up the matter. (Rabbi Hier has since said that, contrary to the understanding of the reporter, the Wiesenthal Center had not independently confirmed Mr. Taheri’s allegation.)

The reporter also spoke with two Iranian exiles in Canada — Ali Behroozian in Toronto and Shahram Golestaneh in Ottawa. Both said that they had heard the story of the badges from their contacts in Iran and they believed it to be true.

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Department did not respond to questions about the issue until after deadline, and then only to say they were looking into the matter. After several calls to the Iranian embassy in Ottawa, the reporter reached Hormoz Ghahremani, a spokesman for the embassy. Mr. Ghahremani’s response to the allegation was that he did not answer such questions.

We now had four sources — Mr. Taheri, the Wiesenthal Center and two Iranian exiles in Canada — telling us that according to their sources the Iranian law appeared to include provisions for compelling religious minorities to identify themselves in public. Iranian authorities in Canada had not denied the story. Given the sources, and given the previous statements of the Iranian President, we felt confident the story was true and decided to publish it.

The reaction was immediate and distressing. Several experts whom the reporter had tried unsuccessfully to contact the day before called to say the story was not true. The Iranian embassy put out a statement late in the day doing what it had failed to do the day before — unequivocally deny such a law had been passed.

The reporter continued to try to determine whether there was any truth to the story. Some sources said there had been some peripheral discussion in the Iranian parliament of identifying clothing for minority religions, but it became clear that the dress code bill, which was introduced on May 14 and has not yet been passed into law, does not include such provisions.

Mr. Taheri, who had written the column that sparked the story, was again unreachable on Friday. He has since put out a statement saying the National Post and others “jumped the gun” in our characterization of his column. He says he was only saying the provisions affecting minorities might happen at some point. All of the people who read the column on the first day took it to mean the measure was part of a law that had been passed. Mr. Taheri maintains the zonnar, or badges, could still be put in effect when the dress code law is implemented.

On Saturday, the National Post ran another front-page story above the fold with the Iranian denial and the comments of the experts casting doubts on the original story.

It is corporate policy for all of CanWest’s media holdings to face up to their mistakes in an honest, open fashion. It is also the right thing to do journalistically.

We acknowledge that on this story, we did not exercise sufficient caution and skepticism, and we did not check with enough sources. We should have pushed the sources we did have for more corroboration of the information they were giving us. That is not to say that we ignored basic journalistic practices or that we rushed this story into print with no thought as to the consequences. But given the seriousness of the allegations, more was required.

We apologize for the mistake and for the consternation it has caused not just National Post readers, but the broader public who read the story. We take this incident very seriously, and we are examining our procedures to try to ensure such an error does not happen again.

Iranian Law Requires Badges for Jews and Christians

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Maybe there is

So, then - your mentioning of an erroneous story that was later retracted and apologized for is relevant.... how?

 

[Buckaroo]

So, then - your mentioning of an erroneous story that was later retracted and apologized for is relevant.... how?

For the calibre of the shit source you keep quoting shit from.

eta in Comic sans ffs

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

America's big risk in Syria? War with Russia.

America's big risk in Syria? War with Russia.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Russia warns of serious consequences from U.S. strike in Syria

Russia warns of serious consequences from U.S. strike in Syria

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

What could go wrong for the U.S. in Syria? War with Russia.

Perspective | What could go wrong for the U.S. in Syria? War with Russia.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

A similar opinion appears to be shared across a spectrum of media outlets.

 

[bimble]

Not saying that it's impossible, at all, but just for the moment I prefer the Onion's take;

"WASHINGTON—After ordering the first U.S. military attack against the regime of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, President Donald Trump held a press conference Friday to express his full confidence that the airstrike had completely wiped out the lingering Russian scandal. “Based on intelligence we have received over the past several hours, the attack on the al-Shayrat air base in Homs has successfully eliminated all discussions and allegations about my administration’s ties to the Russian government..”

Trump Confident U.S. Military Strike On Syria Wiped Out Russian Scandal

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Not saying that it's impossible, at all, but just for the moment I prefer the Onion's take;

"WASHINGTON—After ordering the first U.S. military attack against the regime of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, President Donald Trump held a press conference Friday to express his full confidence that the airstrike had completely wiped out the lingering Russian scandal. “Based on intelligence we have received over the past several hours, the attack on the al-Shayrat air base in Homs has successfully eliminated all discussions and allegations about my administration’s ties to the Russian government..”

Trump Confident U.S. Military Strike On Syria Wiped Out Russian Scandal

The Onion's take is certainly to be preferred over war with Russia.

Let's hope they're right.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

More plain speaking from Spicer:

“The goal for the United States is twofold,” Spicer explained. “It’s, one, to make sure we destabilize Syria — destabilize the conflict there, reduce the threat of ISIS. But then, secondly, is create the political environment, not just within the Syrian people, but I think you can have — work with Russia in particular to make sure that they understand that Syria, backed up by Russia’s own accounting, should be held accountable for the agreements that its made with respect to its international agreements on chemical weapons alone.”

Welker pressed the press secretary about whether it was possible “to defeat ISIS with Assad still in power.”

Spicer mumbled the question back to himself before finally answering.

“Um, yes,” he said. “Sure.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/the...les-reporters-with-trumps-middle-east-policy/