What stupid shit has Trump done today?

[not-bono-ever]

America is facing an epistemic crisis

This is a jolly read for those withy an interest in the Recent events

 

[Tankus]

Its already happening, isnt it ! how manytimes has the attorney general changed his deposition on oath to congress due to increasing clarity of memory ....

and is a "person of interest" in the investigation ...for want of a better word ...of treason

...and hes still in the job ...not even suspended

 

[CRI]

It's worth watching the video of that speech. I don't think it's hyperbolic on this occasion to say that he looks and sounds like a complete fucking psycho while delivering those threats. I bet he had an erection the sadist. I've read reports - I'm not sure how reliable - that the translation into Japanese made the comments sound even worse.

He's been furtherly bizarre today I believe, but I haven't seen the actual press conference - taking Abe's questions and the like.

He's only a day or so in and he's got other cultures to negotiate yet!

I was going to say that adult nappies will ruin the cut of a suit, but that would be childish and offensive so I won't.

And, it's not very important I suppose, but does it not bother you that he it appears that he can barely read? I've seen him in a court deposition - in which he was being dishonest and evasive would you believe?!?! - claim that he couldn't read some text because he didn't have his glasses with him so perhaps that's an issue, but, damn!

This bothers me quite a lot, whether he can't read because he can't see and refuses to wear glasses, because he actually has poor literacy skills or because he has a degenerative brain condition. I would suggest that all are very risky reasons for the leader of the US to be unable to read/comprehend text. Of course there are plenty other things to worry about this fucker in addition to reading comprehension.

I won't to to the adult nappies comment, but I do have a feeling he probably smells pretty bad. His hair often looks greasy, his clothes unkempt. You can sometimes see a certain "look" on the faces of people near him in videos. I see a picture of him, and I get a distinct smell in my mind. Like who is going to tell him he needs to have a wash, and if they did, would he listen?

 

[MightyTibberton]

I do honestly wonder to what extent he is being "managed" some way.

For all his whining I don't think he really cares very much about any of his policies beyond personal enrichment and personal praise - rallies, USAF bases, tax cuts, Saudi deals, Russian deals. The only consistent belief I've been able to find is: they're all laughing at us, I can make it better. I think as long as he's allowed to believe he's doing that then he's probably completely uninterested in any details of policy and the like and, in any case, incapable of comprehending most of them.

 

[MightyTibberton]

Well, it turns out that the Koi poisoning is, to some extent:

FAKE NEWS!

Abe throws in his box of food first and then El Trumpo follows suit:

https://theslot.jezebel.com/1820171741

I do wish the media, or social media, or whatever wouldn't creatively edit stuff in that way, it just gives more legitimacy to the Alternative Facts brigade.

 

[CRI]

Well, it turns out that the Koi poisoning is, to some extent:

FAKE NEWS!

Abe throws in his box of food first and then El Trumpo follows suit:

https://theslot.jezebel.com/1820171741

I do wish the media, or social media, or whatever wouldn't creatively edit stuff in that way, it just gives more legitimacy to the Alternative Facts brigade.

With respect, I don't think misleading pictures of feeding fish are the biggest of our worries at the moment. The horse bolted long ago with all social media and mainstream media producing misleading images and other content.

 

[CRI]

America is facing an epistemic crisis

This is a jolly read for those withy an interest in the Recent events

I'm bookmarking that because as much as I hate to say it, when/if it comes true, at least I can look back and say a few people called it.

I've often said that because Christian fundamentalists (a big chunk of the GOP base) are accustomed to believing preposterous things, they find Trump/GOP lies surprisingly easy to swallow either if they are told to or they believe the eventual outcome will be something in their interests. Once upon a time, facts, truth, evidence actually mattered. These things still DO matter to people in control, which is why they spend so much damned time trying to suppress and "alter" them, and so much effort convincing their supporters to only listen to what they say, nothing else.

Bush kind of started that trend of glory in being gormless, quite literally of "simple values" being more important than expertise. Michael Gove, bless is cotton socks, regurgitated that line during the European referendum with the, "people are tired of experts" line. At the time, people laughed, but unfortunately, I think he was right. I don't understand why, but I genuinely think a lot of people just want to be told where to stand, what to say, what to do and not to do, etc. so they can just get on with things. Well, by people, I mean the people who have the least to lose under a despotic government, who are already pretty sure that no matter how deep the shit gets for some people, they'll still be okay.

I also find it worrying that this seems to be happening among many who are left of centre on the US political continuum. Although the baloney spouted by Donna Brazile and Elizabeth Warren a couple days ago about the Democratic Party nomination being "rigged" has been flatly disproved with actual facts, it's not just Trump fans and mainstream media that keep repeating the lies. It's like there's an epidemic of, "The truth is what I believe it to be."

Meanwhile, there still seem to be a lot of people in America who still have faith in the Constitution and its legal institutions. Even after a year, they still can't believe what's happening. But, it's happening.

Mainstream scholars do not think that Trump will be able to get away with simply ignoring Mueller’s findings or pardoning everyone involved. As Andy Wright, a law professor at Savannah Law School, put it, “with each abnormal, unbecoming, or dishonorable act, President Trump makes it harder for his appointees to defend him, harder for traditional Republicans to maintain their uneasy power alliance with him, and easier for Democrats to take the moral high ground and secure political advantage."

But if there’s one thing non-experts like me have learned over the last few decades of watching US politics, it’s that experts are frequently caught flat-footed by the growing intensity of partisanship and the destruction of norms it has wrought.

They are operating based on certain assumptions that it simply doesn’t occur to them that a politician can ignore. But politicians can. Mitch McConnell can simply refuse to hold a vote on a Supreme Court nominee. There’s no explicit rule or law that says he can’t, so he can, and he did.

That one shocked and flabbergasted experts too, but just like all the other perverse steps down this road to illiberal lawlessness, they eventually took it on board and normalized it.

Now they’re sure Donald Trump can’t simply brazen his way out of an indictment. What if they’re wrong about that?

 

[MightyTibberton]

I do agree, but I also sort of disagree.

There was a link to a good article on the Alt-Right thread about the systematic undermining of faith in any fact-based media.

America is facing an epistemic crisis

I've encountered people online who are exactly like this: you cannot prove anything to them because no source ("The BBC - ha, ha don't make me laugh!", I even had the Wall Street Journal dismissed as a left wing rag!) that provides any information they don't like is to be trusted.

Apparently this idea that there is no real truth and nothing is to be trusted is a big thing in Putin's Russia. You can see Trump playing this game all the time, with the help of Fox and a whole new host of online actors. A tweet reporting on the fish feeding thing from Associated Press is now being used to discredit the organisation.

Yes, what he says or does about DPRK is much more important, but it's also a big problem if about a third of America just refuses to accept anything Mueller says because it's on CNN or in the Guardian or whatever and everything is a lie.

That's what's so worrying about Trump to an outside observer (I'm in the UK). He is so obviously unfit and incompetent and dishonest and stupid and vindictive... I had little interest in American politics before last November to be honest, and it took me about 10 minutes Googling to find out that he was a terrible business man, had long-standing links to the Mafia, was probably in hock to Russian organised crime, was personally repulsive, and couldn't talk for more than about 10 seconds without telling an obvious and often pointless lie. And yet a sizable portion of American voters just decided that was all made up by a biased media.

Ah! A small rant... Sorry... Maybe it is more inconsequential than I thought but I see people picking up and running with this particular ball all the time. . .

 

[DotCommunist]

was the purge of sanders supporters in key DNC psoitions last month fake news as well? is it ignorant gun loving god fearing christians off to one side, the loony left over there (getting run down by actual nazis) while the centrists of sanity hold the pant suited flame of real truth. Do me a favour.

 

[CRI]

Sod it, deleted it because can't be arsed with the petty fighting on here.

 

[CRI]

Depressingly, this academic specialising in authoritarianism has been pretty much spot on about everything that's happened in the past 18 months. So . . .

 

[DotCommunist]

there goes that ignore button failing you again

Unity Is a One-Way Street

 

[MightyTibberton]

Ha! Yes, that's the article.

was the purge of sanders supporters in key DNC psoitions last month fake news as well? is it ignorant gun loving god fearing christians off to one side, the loony left over there (getting run down by actual nazis) while the centrists of sanity hold the pant suited flame of real truth. Do me a favour.

And I've - not knowing American politics very well - had my head done in by that too...

First I'm told it the Dem primary was - in no uncertain terms - "rigged" and El Trumpo and Fox et al run with that (and will keep running and running...).

Then I'm told that it's all rubbish and DB is missing out lots of relevant information about the fund-raising agreements and so on...

And now there's a push back that says, yes, the original "rigging" story is correct and the response is essentially corrupt. (I saw this in The Intercept yesterday for example.)

I understand and expect there to be a partisan bias of some sort in pretty much all media, but there is no so much hyper partisan stuff that you can pick your own side and your own set of facts if you want.

 

[CRI]

Ha! Yes, that's the article.



And I've - not knowing American politics very well - had my head done in by that too...

First I'm told it the Dem primary was - in no uncertain terms - "rigged" and El Trumpo and Fox et al run with that (and will keep running and running...).

Then I'm told that it's all rubbish and DB is missing out lots of relevant information about the fund-raising agreements and so on...

And now there's a push back that says, yes, the original "rigging" story is correct and the response is essentially corrupt. (I saw this in The Intercept yesterday for example.)

I understand and expect there to be a partisan bias of some sort in pretty much all media, but there is no so much hyper partisan stuff that you can pick your own side and your own set of facts if you want.

There's a pretty clear explanation of the so-called "rigging" in this twitter feed from the other day, storified here.

The Hillary Victory Fund, Or why reporters suck at their jobs.
byHumorless Fem

Is it that attention spans have become so short that anything longer than a tweet just doesn't sink in?

With the "push back" you mention above, it seems to be goal post shifting. Once the rigging story was disproved, then the response was either, "how dare they be so snotty to us for not checking facts before going berserk," or "okay, maybe the rigging story wasn't true, but we're sure Clinton did something equally odious because, you know, reasons."

(edited to include appropriate gif)

 

[CRI]

Well this is shitty!

Perspective | She flipped off President Trump — and got fired from her government contracting job

On Halloween, after Briskman gave her bosses at Akima LLC, a government contracting firm, a heads-up that she was the unidentified cyclist in the photo, they took her into a room and fired her, she said, escorting her out of the building with a box of her things.

“I wasn’t even at work when I did that,” Briskman said. “But they told me I violated the code of conduct policy.”

Her bosses at Akima, who have not returned emails and calls requesting comment, showed her the blue-highlighted section 4.3 of their social media policy when they canned her.

What it has to do with a Social Media policy though?

However . . .

Because Briskman was in charge of the firm’s social media presence during her six-month tenure there, she recently flagged something that did link her company to some pretty ugly stuff.

As she was monitoring Facebook this summer, she found a public comment by a senior director at the company in an otherwise civil discussion by one of his employees about Black Lives Matter.

“You’re a f------ Libtard a------,” the director injected, using his profile that clearly and repeatedly identifies himself as an employee of the firm.

So Briskman flagged the exchange to senior management.

Did the man, a middle-aged executive who had been with the company for seven years, get the old “section 4.3” boot?

Nope. He cleaned up the comment, spit-shined his public profile and kept on trucking at work.

But the single mother of two teens who made an impulsive gesture while on her bike, on her day off?

Adios, amiga.

 

[chandlerp]

Donald Trump to global leaders: “I never knew we had so many countries.”

 

[CRI]

Donald Trump to global leaders: “I never knew we had so many countries.”

 

[teqniq]

...Although the baloney spouted by Donna Brazile and Elizabeth Warren a couple days ago about the Democratic Party nomination being "rigged" has been flatly disproved with actual facts, it's not just Trump fans and mainstream media that keep repeating the lies. It's like there's an epidemic of, "The truth is what I believe it to be."..

Please provide evidence for these claims, and not the sort of evidence that comes from journalists that support the democratic party because I've seen that already ta.

 

[CRI]

Please provide evidence for these claims, and not the sort of evidence that comes from journalists that support the democratic party because I've seen that already ta.

I already provided this link. It also includes a link to the accounts for the fund so you can see where the money went. It's a very detailed explanation of you care to read it.

The Hillary Victory Fund (with images, tweets) · ahumorlessfem

You could also search online for other primary sources of you are genuinely interested.

If you're looking for a totally unbiased source for any information, you're out of luck. None of them are. Mainstream media outlets certainly aren't. At least independent journalists are open about the political context from which they write. Mainstream sources deny bias but they produce what makes money through clicks, ad sales, sponsorship or whatever they think will give them access to political leaders. (With Trump, than means non-critical, even flattering coverage so they won't be frozen out.)

I've found independent journalists tend to provide more robust sources for evidence. Whether or not I agree with the interpretations of some independent journalists, I appreciate when they don't just 'publish and be damned.'

Most mainstream media outlets parrot one another, often running with unverified information, often almost word for word. If pressed, they'll issue quiet, small retractions if they got it badly wrong. By then the hares are already running and no one's listening to the correction. Mainstream media outlets seem to have forgotten what journalism is.

 

[MightyTibberton]

The "memo" itself has been published:

Clinton Campaign Had Additional Signed Agreement With DNC In 2015

Also by NBC I think - I saw a link on Twitter from a lawyer who was very much in the "rigged" camp.

Not sure if the agreement Bernie had has been published and I'm not sure if this, in fact, the full fund-raising agreement (which would surely be much longer?).

 

[J Ed]

By her own admissions, and her lost job at CNN, Donna Brazile helped rig the primary for Clinton so I would think that she would know what she was talking about.

 

[teqniq]

...I've found independent journalists tend to provide more robust sources for evidence. Whether or not I agree with the interpretations of some independent journalists, I appreciate when they don't just 'publish and be damned.'

Most mainstream media outlets parrot one another, often running with unverified information, often almost word for word. If pressed, they'll issue quiet, small retractions if they got it badly wrong. By then the hares are already running and no one's listening to the correction. Mainstream media outlets seem to have forgotten what journalism is.

with this in mind

Four Viral Claims Spread by Journalists on Twitter in the Last Week Alone That Are False

 

[J Ed]

with this in mind

Four Viral Claims Spread by Journalists on Twitter in the Last Week Alone That Are False

CRI is in the specific filter bubble in which anything that contradicts the fake news she accepts as fact is itself labelled fake news.

 

[teqniq]

Yeah I kinda guessed that.

 

[CRI]

with this in mind

Four Viral Claims Spread by Journalists on Twitter in the Last Week Alone That Are False

Glenn Greenwald? Are you serious?

Did you read the piece I linked? Which of the points or sources cited do you dispute?

 

[MightyTibberton]

Glenn seriously overstates his case on the "false" with some of those claims.

 

[teqniq]

Glenn Greenwald? Are you serious?

Is that it? Don't like the source so dismiss it out of hand?

 

[J Ed]

Russian agent. Fake news.

 

[J Ed]

On the funding thing you'd have to be a fool to believe a word that comes out of the mouth of a Clinton or anyone in their inner circle, however we all know that 1) the DNC are oligated to be neutral during the primaries 2) they were not. These two facts are uncontested, from that point onwards you are just arguing over the extent to which the primary was rigged.

 

[MightyTibberton]

On the funding thing you'd have to be a fool to believe a word that comes out of the mouth of a Clinton or anyone in their inner circle, however we all know that 1) the DNC are oligated to be neutral during the primaries 2) they were not. These two facts are uncontested, from that point onwards you are just arguing over the extent to which the primary was rigged.

Oh well, that's all sorted then.