What stupid shit has Trump done today?

[Supine]

The Dalai Lama is now trolling Trump on twitter. Let that sink in. He's being trolled by the Lama

 

[Wilf]

Voters have the ultimate say in political outcomes. Politicians do indeed take legal bribes from moneyed interests and make policy accordingly. But there are a lot more of us (average people) than them (moneyed interests). Those who don't vote chose not to hold those politicians accountable for their corrupt behavior. IOW, I think there is hope in at least partially overcoming the power of money in politics.

'Non-persons, losers, people who wrote themselves off' - is this the best way to encourage people to vote? Or does it just reinforce the gap between the political class and those who feel too alienated to vote (or don't vote for whatever reason)? Equally, what does it say about the relationship between the working class and the main parties? And isn't all that a major component in why someone as absurd as trump won anyway? And all of that is regardless of whether Clinton represented any kind of 'alternative'. Fucking hell, if you ever wanted an example of not learning your lessons, this is it.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

I've said it before, that we should be paying greater attention to voter suppression efforts. Low turnout is really no accident. Remember the words of Paul Weywich:



If people like Weywich don't want me to vote, that's reason enough to go vote. Voting doesn't preclude me from doing other organizing. I don't know where people get the idea that its an either/or proposition. We should be throwing everything that has a thread of a chance of working at these bastards.

I also found this article on James McGill Buckanan. He's where many of the more destructive ideas circulating in the US came from. The right knows full-well that to impose their vision, they'll have to thwart the will of the majority:

When the Supreme Court decided, in the 1954 case of Brown vs. Board of Education, that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, Tennessee-born economist James McGill Buchanan was horrified. Over the course of the next few decades, the libertarian thinker found comfortable homes at a series of research universities and spent his time articulating a new grand vision of American society, a country in which government would be close to nonexistent, and would have no obligation to provide education—or health care, or old-age support, or food, or housing—to anyone.

....

So this is a challenge for the left because some of our categories, I think, are not very supple, and are also driven by the political world in which we operate. So for example, as we try to think about what’s going on with these voter suppression measures, the only thing that’s actionable is racial discrimination. Right? And so people think of voter suppression efforts as being motivated by racism. These are these good old boys who hate black people and that’s why they’re doing this.

I think actually what’s going on is that these people are extremely shrewd and calculating, and they understand that African Americans, because of their historical experience and their political savvy, understand politics and government better, in a lot of ways, than a lot of white Americans. And they are a threat to this project because they will not vote for it. So they want to keep them from the polls.

....

The most important thing I want readers to take from this book is an understanding that the Koch network and all of these people are doing what they’re doing because they understand that their ideas make them a permanent minority. They cannot win if they are honest about what they’re doing. That’s why they’re doing things in the deceitful and frightening ways that they are.

What Is the Far Right’s Endgame? A Society That Suppresses the Majority.

 

[phillm]

The Fire and Fury complete in pdf format.

Google has wized up so I'm afraid it's now torrents or buy a copy.

 

[ska invita]

Google has wized up so I'm afraid it's now torrents or buy a copy.

link

 

[phillm]

link

ta i'm 75 pages in - it's an easy read.

 

[maomao]

Voting doesn't preclude me from doing other organizing

I wasn't attacking the act of voting itself. I shat my pants and voted Labour in 2015. Even if I hadn't done that I would have turned up to spoil my ballot. I was attacking TomUS 's faith in the democratic party as the only possible source of change.

 

[maomao]

And I've got it on epub and mobi if people don't want to give money to the kind of journalist who attends dinner parties with Trump and Murdoch.

 

[YouSir]

And I've got it on epub and mobi if people don't want to give money to the kind of journalist who attends dinner parties with Trump and Murdoch.

epub would be good if you could throw/email it my way, not sure I trust the Google Drive one to last.

 

[krtek a houby]

Donald Trump mocked for appearing to stumble his way through national anthem

 

[hipipol]

I'm saying voting matters and it matters who wins, even given the immense power of moneyed interests. I'm not willing to surrender to the cynicism of 'don't bother to vote because the fat cats run everything.'

Hard to convince people of the importance of voting when Trump lost the popular vote but won the Presidency via the idiotic electoral college system which in effect Gerrymanders the whole system in favour of the Reps

 

[TomUS]

Hard to convince people of the importance of voting when Trump lost the popular vote but won the Presidency via the idiotic electoral college system which in effect Gerrymanders the whole system in favour of the Reps

Yes, the electoral college is crap but a few more votes in the right states for Hillary and the orange clown and his party wouldn't be turning back the clock.

 

[MightyTibberton]

I see he's done what we in the UK call, Doing a Redwood (though, at least Redwood had the excuse of not speaking the language he was faking!).

 

[bendeus]

I see he's done what we in the UK call, Doing a Redwood (though, at least Redwood had the excuse of not speaking the language he was faking!).

Here's that mighty moment again for your pleasure and delectation:

 

[teqniq]

Trump named top “press oppressor” alongside world’s most brutal dictators

 

[MightyTibberton]

If you can read 300+ pages, Senator Feinstein has released the testimony of Fusion GPS man.

Fusion GPS testimony | Classified Information | Justice

I'm sure it's been reported everywhere, and I'm not sure it adds much. I have read this has more to do with the dispute on the committee between Dems and Reps and the Republicans threats to this witness.

 

[CRI]

If you can read 300+ pages, Senator Feinstein has released the testimony of Fusion GPS man.

Fusion GPS testimony | Classified Information | Justice

I'm sure it's been reported everywhere, and I'm not sure it adds much. I have read this has more to do with the dispute on the committee between Dems and Reps and the Republicans threats to this witness.

Don't think it's quite so benign as a tiff within the committee. The GOP definitely didn't want the testimony to be public, period.

For those not wanting the long read, there are brief nuggets on What the Fuck Just Happened Today.

This bit is interesting. Steele informed the FBI of his findings, and briefed media including New York Times about his concerns. A month later, and less than a fortnight before the election, NYT ran with a splash saying the FBI had found no evidence of a Trump/Russia link. In the same time frame, they gave max coverage to FBI reopening investigations into Clinton's emails, which turned out to be a genuine nothingburger days before the election. NYT continues to have it's tongue so far up Trump's orange ass I'm sure they can lick his eyeballs from inside.




For a more in depth commentary, try Wonkette's blog.

LO UNTO US A FUSION GPS TRANSCRIPT IS GIVEN!

Happy New Year everyone!

 

[CRI]

And in other shit Trump's done lately . . .

US to loosen nuclear weapons constraints and develop more 'usable' warheads

The Trump administration plans to loosen constraints on the use of nuclear weapons and develop a new low-yield nuclear warhead for US Trident missiles, according to a former official who has seen the most recent draft of a policy review.

The new nuclear policy is significantly more hawkish that the posture adopted by the Obama administration, which sought to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in US defence.

Arms control advocates have voiced alarm at the new proposal to make smaller, more “usable” nuclear weapons, arguing it makes a nuclear war more likely, especially in view of what they see as Donald Trump’s volatility and readiness to brandish the US arsenal in showdowns with the nation’s adversaries.

Ah, Trump the Dove, eh?

The 2020 census will be run by a Republican who has defended gerrymandering and voter suppression

The deputy director of the Census Bureau has historically been a nonpartisan career civil servant. Brunell, a registered Republican, has no prior government experience and a deeply partisan background. He has testified or produced expert reports for Republicans in more than a dozen redistricting cases and has defended new voting restrictions passed by Republicans. His 2008 book, Redistricting and Representation: Why Competitive Elections Are Bad for America, argued that extreme partisan gerrymandering should be the norm because, he claimed, ultra-safe blue or red districts offered better representation for voters than competitive ones.

Interior puts grants worth hundreds of millions of dollars through political review

The Interior Department has adopted a new screening process for the discretionary grants it makes to outside groups, instructing staff to ensure those awards “promote the priorities” of the Trump administration.

“This grant approval process looks like a backdoor way to stop funds going to legitimate scientific and environmental projects,” he said. “Using the federal grant process to punish scientists doing important work because they disagree with that philosophy is unacceptable, and there’s good reason to think that’s what’s really happening here.”

Interior has ordered the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to halt two studies that conflict with the administration’s goal of expanding domestic fossil fuel production.

And what's with Senator Lindsey Graham, once one of Trump's fiercest critics on the GOP side, doing a sudden about face and praising him like the Lord?

Senator: If Trump Doesn't Call Himself a Genius 'Nobody Else Will'

On a more positive note - Kamala Harris and Cory Booker Just Became the First Black Lawmakers on Senate Judiciary Committee This Century

And seeing plenty of grass roots candidates throwing their hats into the state and national rings for 2018, and voter registration drives already kicking into gear.

 

[CRI]

 

[2hats]

Has any other single human being in the history of the world been as trolled as much?

 

[CRI]

Must have some damn juicy dirt on Graham.

Graham: Meeting with Trump 'most fascinating' in 20 years of politics

 

[MightyTibberton]

A bit off topic, but this parody of former UK Conservative Party "blue-sky-thinking" wanker Steve Hilton (currently sucking Trump's wig on Fox News I believe) is very funny.

Cheese weekly: Steve Hilton talks exclusively to us about cheese, Obama and Crooked Hillary.

 

[MightyTibberton]

And, back in the real world of ENORMOUS CORRUPTION:

 

[chandlerp]

Any sign the awards are going ahead later? No? Thought not.

 

[hegley]

Any sign the awards are going ahead later? No? Thought not.

Wrong Wednesday.

 

[chandlerp]

Ah, cheers

 

[chandlerp]

Still...they probably won't happen. He thinks (not really) that everyone else has a short attention span and will have forgotten by then.

 

[ruffneck23]

Donald Trump criticises 'broken and unfair' U.S. court system

 

[BemusedbyLife]

Donald Trump criticises 'broken and unfair' U.S. court system

The concept of having an independent judicial system is lost on this guy isn't it?

 

[Joe Reilly]

Yes, the electoral college is crap but a few more votes in the right states for Hillary and the orange clown and his party wouldn't be turning back the clock.

Would these be the 'right states' Hilary was simply too snooty to campaign in?