Trump II

[Schewe]

Ooooh, this is funny!



Meet the Man Behind the Big Inflatable Trump Rat Mocking Him in New York

Donald Trump might not make it onto Mount Rushmore, but he's popped up in unflattering balloon form again.

This time, it's in his hometown in the style of the inflatable rats that union workers use to strike against construction sites employing non-union labor. This new 15-foot, unmissable Trump inflatable piece appeared at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, down the street from Trump Tower, hours before the President was scheduled to arrive on Monday.

The orange-faced, rat-human hybrid has extra voluminous ears, pursed lips, buck teeth, that unmistakable red tie, a long tail, and an extra dig: Confederate flag cufflinks. Unsurprisingly, the spectacle drew crowds and tourists for selfies.

It's all the brainchild of New York City-based BravinLee art gallery owners John Lee and his wife Karin Bravin, who view Trump as "unprepared" to lead. Inspiration came when Lee saw a grotequse looking rat on Jackson Avenue in Queens right after the election. "I was just always impressed with how grotesque the rat was as public art," he told TIME.

[Schewe]

Ouch, that's gonna leave a mark!



Gallup Daily: Trump Job Approval

President Donald Trump's job approval rating in Gallup Daily tracking is at 34% for the three-day period from Friday through Sunday -- by one point the lowest of his administration so far.

It is difficult to pinpoint the precise cause of the new low rating, but the changes were apparent on Friday, with his day-by-day ratings near 34% across Saturday and Sunday as well. Trump has consistently been in the news over the past week, including the continued focus on North Korea, even while taking a working vacation at one of his golf properties in New Jersey. The events in Charlottesville, Virginia, that resulted in the deaths of a 32-year-old woman and two Virginia State Police officers dominated news coverage on Saturday and Sunday. Trump's prior three-day low reading was 35%, registered March 26-28.

From a broader perspective, Trump's rating of 36% for the week ending Aug. 13 was also by one point his lowest on a weekly basis. The president has talked in recent days about doing well with his "base," but Republicans' latest weekly approval rating of 79% was the lowest from his own partisans so far, dropping from the previous week's 82%. Democrats gave Trump a 7% job approval rating last week, while the reading for independents was at 29%. This is the first time independents' weekly approval rating for Trump has dropped below 30%.

Maybe Gallup should rename the Poll to the Gallup Disapproval Rating?

[Peter McLennan]

The assault on Trump is going to backfire.  People aren't stupid.

Sorry, but yes, they are.  They elected him.

At the end of the day, if Trump gets things done, he'll have a list of accomplishments and the left will have empty, ad-hominin, political epithets only.

So far, other than earning the astonished derision of most of the rest of the world, running a demonstrably dysfunctional White House, failing the most basic test of any President (ie statesman-like behaviour) alienating more than half of his nation's citizens, lining the pockets of the corporations he promised to rein in and eliminating regulations protecting Americans from environmental, sociological and economic damage, what precisely constitutes his "list of accomplishments"?

C'mon, Alan.  Let's see the list.

There is no concerted, organized leftist "assault" on Trump. That's just your opinion. You cannot excuse his repetitive failures with this lame excuse. What you're seeing is a global response, not a leftist response.  Trump is his own worst enemy.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

I just clicked on my regular Google news link and got nothing this time on this NK backdown.

I think the headlines you posted tell it all.  The way they write it, so blasé.   "...Wait a Little More..." and "...appears to ease rhetoric..."   Neither liberal, anti-Trump paper used words like "Kim Backs Down", or "Trump Pressure Causes Kim to Reverse Threat."  It's the same "fake" news biased to never give Trump credit for anything.

Alan, You clearly have not been reading/paying attention to the initial news release coming from North Korea. They said that their Military would develop a plan and present it to their leader, who then would decide whether to act on the plan.

BTW, plenty of reporting on the subject (your Google is broken by your previous search patterns):
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-report-kim-idUSKCN1AV0FA

North Korea said last week it was finalizing plans to launch four missiles into the waters near the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, and its army would report the strike plan to leader Kim Jong Un and wait for his order.

Of course, Kim never had such intentions, after all, who'd want to self-destruct. But now that Trump has taken his bait, he has a better reason to continue the nuclear armament of his country, as a deterrent against aggressive nations who threaten his country with Fire and Fury.

Analysts also say that as long as Kim is in charge, there will be little reason to fear him. Only when his regime starts to fail, others will try to grasp power in a destabilized situation, which may well result in someone gaining access to the nuclear arsenal and threaten the surrounding countries. So the more Trump tries to destabilize the regime, the larger the risk becomes (and he needs a war or similar outside enemy to unite the homefront).

Trump is not causing a retreat, he is causing a disaster.

Cheers,
Bart

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

In what way do you mean, Slobodan?

I meant it as a reminder to snowflakes that we "came, we saw, we conquered" ... deal with it.
Otherwise, they be still hunting their lunch with a bow and arrow, instead of having the privilege to whine about the greatest civilization on Earth while using the very tools it created for them.

[Alan Klein]

Alan, You clearly have not been reading/paying attention to the initial news release coming from North Korea. They said that their Military would develop a plan and present it to their leader, who then would decide whether to act on the plan.

BTW, plenty of reporting on the subject (your Google is broken by your previous search patterns):
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-report-kim-idUSKCN1AV0FA Of course, Kim never had such intentions, after all, who'd want to self-destruct. But now that Trump has taken his bait, he has a better reason to continue the nuclear armament of his country, as a deterrent against aggressive nations who threaten his country with Fire and Fury.

Analysts also say that as long as Kim is in charge, there will be little reason to fear him. Only when his regime starts to fail, others will try to grasp power in a destabilized situation, which may well result in someone gaining access to the nuclear arsenal and threaten the surrounding countries. So the more Trump tries to destabilize the regime, the larger the risk becomes (and he needs a war or similar outside enemy to unite the homefront).

Trump is not causing a retreat, he is causing a disaster.

Cheers,
Bart

Sorry,  but Kim blinked.

[Schewe]

This should worry everybody...

Web firm fights DoJ on Trump protesters


Protesters linked arms in the street on Inauguration Day

A US service provider is fighting government demands for it to hand over details of millions of activists.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) wants all visitors' IP addresses - some 1.3 million - to a website that helped organise a protest on the day of President Trump's inauguration.

DreamHost is currently refusing to comply with the request and is due in court later this month.

The DoJ has not yet responded to requests for comment from the BBC.

It is unclear why it wants the internet protocol addresses of visitors to website disruptj20.org, which organised a protest against President Trump on 20 January - the day of his inauguration.

"The website was used in the development, planning, advertisement and organisation of a violent riot that occurred in Washington DC on January 20, 2017," it wrote in its motion to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, which sought to compel DreamHost to hand over the information.

It suggested that "a particular customer" was the subject of the warrant, but does not explain why it needed so much information on other visitors.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is helping DreamHost fight its case, said: "No plausible explanation exists for a search warrant of this breadth, other than to cast a digital dragnet as broadly as possible."

So is the DOJ creating an enemies list for Trump? Kinda sounds like it...

[scyth]

Has there been a history in the United States of either states or local communities removing statues unrelated to the Civil War?  I am trying to research that now.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/27/nyregion/lenin-statue-lower-east-side.html

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

This should worry everybody...

Web firm fights DoJ on Trump protesters


Protesters linked arms in the street on Inauguration Day

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is helping DreamHost fight its case, said: "No plausible explanation exists for a search warrant of this breadth, other than to cast a digital dragnet as broadly as possible."

So is the DOJ creating an enemies list for Trump? Kinda sounds like it...

Waiting for Alan or other Trumpettes to defend freedom of speech ...  ...  ...

Cheers,
Bart

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Trump hits back at CEOs over response to Virginia violence
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-virginia-protests-idUSKCN1AV0WT

QUOTE  August 15, 2017 / 12:07 PM  "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump hit back on Tuesday at business leaders who quit a presidential advisory panel in protest over his response to a rally by far-right groups that turned deadly in Virginia, calling the executives "grandstanders."

Trump has faced a storm of criticism from Democrats and members of his own Republican party over his initial response to Saturday's violence around the rally in Charlottesville.

Three business leaders quit a Trump panel in protest on Monday and on Tuesday Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, said on Twitter he was also resigning from the initiative "because it is the right thing for me to do."

Trump bowed on Monday to two days of pressure for a more forceful response to the Charlottesville violence, singling out groups behind the "Unite the Right" rally that were widely seen as stoking the disturbances, in which a woman was killed.

But he was still clearly frustrated over the reaction to his response.

"For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!" Trump said on Twitter on Tuesday.

The head of pharmaceutical company Merck & Co Inc, Kenneth Frazier, quit the president's American Manufacturing Council in protest on Monday. The CEOs of sportswear manufacturer Under Armour Inc and semiconductor chip maker Intel Corp, Kevin Plank and Brian Krzanich, followed suit later in the day."

[...]

Writing in the Financial Times on Tuesday, former U.S Treasury Secretary Larry Summers hailed Frazier for taking a stand against what Summers said had been Trump's "manifestly inadequate" response to the Charlottesville violence.

Leaders in American industry should look to the Merck executive's example, said Summers, who was treasury secretary under Democratic former President Bill Clinton.
Slideshow (4 Images)

"Every member of Mr Trump's advisory councils should wrestle with his or her conscience and ponder Edmund Burke's famous warning that 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,'" Summers wrote.



Several have preceded these latest leaders who have quit a presidential advisory panel, more will follow...

Cheers,
Bart

[Schewe]

Booyah
Screw you Donny!!!

Donald Trump Lost a 6-Year Legal Battle to a Trumpet Player


iTrump's website

The owner of Trump Tower, Trump Golf Links, and The Donald J. Trump Signature Collection can’t claim this one as his own: iTrump.

That’s because the trademark resides with a 40-year-old-engineer and amateur musician who created an iPhone app designed to teach people how to play the trumpet. This month, Tom Scharfeld prevailed in his grueling six-year legal fight against Donald Trump. And Scharfeld’s triumph is even more impressive because he succeeded without a lawyer.

Legal experts say it’s no surprise that Trump waged a fierce campaign to capture a name that he said screams DONALD TRUMP. After all, The Trump Organization has affixed the moniker to everything from real estate, vodka and golf courses to an airline, clothing and steaks. Long before Trump embarked on his run for the White House, the tycoon had sued to block upstarts from using the name, and he and his family have recently expanded their marks around the world.

“When you are representing yourself, it is almost impossible to win, so coming out a winner is one of the great long shots," said Harley Lewin, a New York lawyer not involved in the case. “Even if you are bright and perhaps right on the issues, the lack of knowledge of litigation procedure almost dooms you from the start."

Trump’s lawyers "didn’t seem to respect that I could do this," Scharfeld said. “We won all the claims and defeated those against us.”

James Weinberger, the lawyer for Trump in the iTrump case, declined to comment.

Is it wrong to enjoy it when Trump gets his just deserts?

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Trump to revoke Obama-era flood risk building standards
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-infrastructure-idUSKCN1AV1ZI

QUOTE  August 15, 2017 / 6:55 PM  "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will revoke an Obama-era executive order on Tuesday that required strict building standards for government-funded projects to reduce exposure to increased flooding from sea level rise, sources said.

[...]

Flood policy expert Eli Lehrer, president of the libertarian R Street Institute, has been critical of many Obama initiatives. But he said revoking this order was a kneejerk political reaction by the Trump administration, which will end up costing taxpayers money.

"The Trump administration is acting very rashly in part out of the desire to undo a climate measure under the Obama administration," he said. "This is an enormous mistake that is disastrous for taxpayers. The (Obama) rule would have saved billions of dollars over time."  "



Anything to further his personal causes, and screw the taxpayers.

Cheers,
Bart

[Otto Phocus]

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/27/nyregion/lenin-statue-lower-east-side.html

Thank you!

[Otto Phocus]

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is helping DreamHost fight its case, said: "No plausible explanation exists for a search warrant of this breadth, other than to cast a digital dragnet as broadly as possible."

So is the DOJ creating an enemies list for Trump? Kinda sounds like it...

The government collecting the identities of people who criticize the current administration?  What could possibly go wrong?

[Robert Roaldi]

Thing about learning from history

https://www.facebook.com/NowThisNews/videos/1548260861930699/

A belated thanks for this referral. I had kind of forgotten of the paranoia against Catholics. I think the argument was that Catholics would have greater loyalty to the Pope than to their country. When the speaker in the film was talking about returning the country to "us", or however it was phrased, I wondered, who does he mean, Quakers and Presbyterians?

[Schewe]

Scott Pruitt is dismantling EPA in secret for the same reason the GOP health care bill was secret


“So, mum’s the word, then?” AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

The New York Times had a big story on Friday about EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s propensity to operate in secret. It offers a detailed and damning review of the evidence, but it stops short of drawing the broader conclusion: namely, that the approach of serving industry under cover of secrecy is not idiosyncratic to Pruitt, nor is it distinctively Trumpian. Rather, it is the standard approach of today’s GOP, as reflected in such recent initiatives as the failed health care bill. It is, in fact, the only approach possible to advance an agenda that is unpopular and intellectually indefensible.

--snip--

An agenda that no one likes is better kept hidden

First, Pruitt operates in secrecy — by history, by habit, by instinct, and by necessity — because what he’s doing has no policy justification and very little public support, like most of the contemporary GOP agenda.

There used to be some detail in conservative arguments about environmental regulations, some nuance about which ones did and didn’t operate effectively, or pass cost-benefit, or conform to proper interpretations of statute.

But Pruitt is wielding a scythe, not a scalpel. He is dismantling rules, customs, practices, and the budget at his agency without discernment. There is no conceivable intellectual or policy argument to make on behalf of that kind of nihilism. There’s no evidence that Obama-era rules had any negative effects on the economy or overall employment, much less that every single one did. If there were any evidence, Pruitt’s every statement to the press or the public wouldn’t be packed with gobbledygook.

So why would Pruitt meet with environmentalists or conservationists or public health groups? There’s nothing to say, no policy merits to discuss, no real argument to have. His side won, so his guys, the fossil guys, get what they want. It’s not policy, it’s dominance.

And the public doesn’t support the strategy either. Large majorities in America support regulations to limit pollution (and, specifically, regulations to limit CO2). Even most Republicans support regulating greenhouse gases. Moves to weaken environmental regulations are wildly unpopular outside of the hardcore right-wing base.

So why engage with the public? Why talk with the mainstream media? Anything that draws public attention to what’s going on will only hurt Pruitt politically. He’s not going to be able to con the broad public into supporting more polluted waterways. Even a smooth talker couldn’t, and Pruitt is ... not that.

In sum, Pruitt is keeping his agenda as hidden as possible for the very same reasons Republicans in Congress tried to keep their recent health care bill a secret: Virtually no one likes it and there’s not a coherent policy case to be made for it.

Interestingly, in the case of the health care bill, GOP radicalism went so far that not even the health care industries and constituencies that fought against Obamacare supported it. Given the chance to enact a longtime policy priority, the GOP went too far and fell on its face. We’re seeing some of that crop up around Pruitt as well.

If we're not careful w'll end up with environmental problems like the Love Canal, the river in Cleveland catching fire and smog in LA like China is fighting in Beijing. This will hurt people–and potentially cause diseases and ultimately death.

Proof?

Study: Air pollution causes 200,000 early deaths each year in the U.S.

Researchers from MIT’s Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment have come out with some sobering new data on air pollution’s impact on Americans’ health.

The group tracked ground-level emissions from sources such as industrial smokestacks, vehicle tailpipes, marine and rail operations, and commercial and residential heating throughout the United States, and found that such air pollution causes about 200,000 early deaths each year. Emissions from road transportation are the most significant contributor, causing 53,000 premature deaths, followed closely by power generation, with 52,000.

Take the reigns off the EPA and it'll only get worse, not better.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

"Durham County Sheriff: We Will Identify Those Who Pulled Down Confederate Statue"

So, Jeff, outing seems to be a double-edged sword.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/27/nyregion/lenin-statue-lower-east-side.html

One down, four more to go (in the USA alone):

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_statues_of_Vladimir_Lenin

EDIT: To clarify: I am using the phrase ("down...") rhetorically, not to advocate it

[Schewe]

So, Jeff, outing seems to be a double-edged sword.

I'm fine with the people who pulled the statue down getting outed and prosecuted...it's up to the community not a mob to decide if they want to take a statue down, don't ya think?

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

I'm fine with the people who pulled the statue down getting outed and prosecuted...it's up to the community not a mob to decide if they want to take a statue down, don't ya think?

I do.