From: david.j.worrell@gmail.com

Former Fox News Analyst Calls Network 'Destructive Propaganda Machine' http://tinyurl.com/ybdnsmuk

For 10 years, Ralph Peters regularly appeared on Fox News to offer military analysis and insight as one of the cable network’s reliably conservative commenters. But he quit in March in disgust.

Mr. Peters, who announced his departure in a blistering farewell note to his colleagues, followed up on Wednesday with another searing attack, saying that the network was “doing a great, grave disservice to our country.”

The retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Army spoke on CNN in his first television interview since his departure. “With the rise of Donald Trump, Fox did become a destructive propaganda machine,” Mr. Peters said. “And I don’t do
propaganda for anyone.”

For the decade he worked there, Mr. Peters said he believed that Fox News was a
necessary and legitimate conservative bulwark in the news media and an outlet for libertarian opinions. But under President Trump, the network shifted rightward, he said.

Its popular prime time hosts, particularly Sean Hannity, started to echo Mr. Trump’s debunked theories of a “deep state” undermining his administration. They joined the president in steadily attacking the Justice Department, the F.B.I. and other
democratic institutions, Mr. Peters said.

“I suspect Sean Hannity really believes it,” he said. “The others are smarter. They know what they’re doing. It’s bewildering to me. I mean, I wanted to just cry out and say: ‘How can you do this? How can you lie to our country?’”

On Thursday morning, Alisyn Camerota, a former Fox News anchor who now works at
CNN, said that Mr. Peters’s remarks mirrored her own experience at the network.

“I too was upset about the blurring of the lines between propaganda and journalism,” Ms. Camerota said after a clip of his remarks was played.

***

Even the Fox News analysts can see how twisted all this shit is. :)

.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: david.j.worrell@gmail.com

Anger Flares as G-7 Heads to Quebec
http://tinyurl.com/y9grx29k

Excerpts:

President Trump will skip most of the second day of a summit meeting with allies this weekend, the White House said late Thursday, as he engaged in a contentious war of words over trade on the eve of a gathering that will underscore his isolation from
the leaders of the world’s largest economies.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, announced that Mr. Trump will leave Canada at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, well before scheduled sessions on climate change, clean energy and oceans.

Earlier Thursday, President Emmanuel Macron of France and Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau of Canada lashed out at Mr. Trump for imposing tariffs on their steel and aluminum industries. They called it an illegal economic assault on their countries that is
unanimously opposed by the other leaders of the Group of 7...

“The American President may not mind being isolated, but neither do we mind signing a 6 country agreement if need be,” Mr. Macron said Thursday...

Mr. Trudeau said at a news conference with Mr. Macron that “we are going to defend our industries and our workers” and “show the U.S. president that his unacceptable actions are hurting his own citizens.”

Mr. Trump is the black sheep of this family, the estranged sibling who decided to pick fights with his relatives just before arriving to dinner. The dispute, Larry Kudlow, the president’s top economic adviser, acknowledges, is “much like a family
quarrel,” but with the potential for vast diplomatic and economic consequences for the world.

The anger of American allies, over Mr. Trump’s decision to impose tariffs, is
palpable.

“Patently absurd” is what Liam Fox, the British trade minister, called them. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said they were “illegal,” while Mr. Trudeau said they were “insulting and totally unacceptable”...

Before the summit meeting, finance ministers from the other six countries that form the Group of 7, or G-7, condemned Mr. Trump’s trade decisions in an extraordinary rebuke of a member nation’s president.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly poked his counterparts in the eye — ignoring their pleas to remain a part of the Paris climate treaty, the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact and the Iran nuclear deal, and more recently by branding
their steel and aluminum
industries threats to national security, and therefore subject to tariffs.

So when Mr. Trump disembarks Friday morning from Air Force One for a day and a half of closed-door meetings in the resort town of La Malbaie, the president can expect a subzero reception for what some observers have begun calling the “G6+1,”

The Canadians and the European Union have filed cases against the United States
at the World Trade Organization, and they have announced retaliatory tariffs in
a tit-for-tat series of economic moves that could set off an all-out trade war.

***

Trump Wants Russia Back in G-7, in Split With U.S. Allies http://tinyurl.com/yd4h5354

Excerpts:

President Trump called on the world’s leading economies on Friday to reinstate Russia to the Group of 7 nations four years after it was cast out for
annexing Crimea, once again putting him at odds with America’s leading allies
in Europe and Asia.

Russia joined the group in the 1990s after emerging from the wreckage of the Soviet Union, making it the G-8, but its armed intervention in its neighbor Ukraine in 2014 and seizure of the Crimean peninsula isolated it from other major powers. The
remaining members, led by President Barack Obama, expelled it in a sign of global resolve not to let international borders be rewritten by force.

The notion of readmitting Russia to the world’s most exclusive club reflected
the unusually friendly approach that Mr. Trump has taken to Russia since becoming president, a policy at odds with both Republicans and Democrats in Washington as well as
leaders in Europe.

American intelligence agencies have concluded that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia personally authorized an operation to intervene in the 2016 American presidential election with the goal of helping Mr. Trump win. Mr. Trump has heatedly denied any
collusion with Russia, although his son, son-in-law and campaign chairman met with Russians on the promise of receiving incriminating information about his opponent from the Russian government.

The other members of the G-7 are unlikely to go along with Mr. Trump’s suggestion...

“President Trump has placed himself on the wrong side: with the autocrats, the corrupt, and the anti-Americans, who look to Vladimir Putin as a natural ally,” said Daniel Fried, a former career diplomat who oversaw sanctions on Russia after its
Ukraine intervention. “Such language will dismay America’s friends and embolden our adversaries.”

***

The tradition at G-7 summit meetings is to conclude with a joint statement, carefully worked out to highlight the agreement and cooperation among the leaders on a broad range of topics. That seems highly unlikely this time.

In fact, Mr. Macron and Mr. Trudeau have already threatened to boycott such a joint statement unless Mr. Trump reverses his tariffs. And Mr. Macron has suggested that the six other countries could rebuke Mr. Trump by issuing their own declaration of
principles without the United States. That would be a remarkable moment that underscores the extent to which the American president has isolated himself from the country’s traditional allies.

***

Dumbo seems to think he can run around pissing off anyone and
everyone he pleases. How will this work out? To use one of his
favorite phrases... we'll see.

.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: allreadydun@gmail.com

how does that line go?

"when you're not afraid to bullshit people,
you can bullshit anyone"

who's the fool now ?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: david.j.worrell@gmail.com

On Friday, June 8, 2018 at 8:57:52 AM UTC-7, waltkowaski wrote:

how does that line go?

"when you're not afraid to bullshit people,
you can bullshit anyone"

Another line goes:

"Just because you can doesn't mean you should."

who's the fool now ?

Hmm. I give up, Chris. You tell me. Who?

.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: david.j.worrell@gmail.com

On Friday, June 8, 2018 at 11:14:30 AM UTC-7, slider wrote:

On Fri, 08 Jun 2018 19:05:14 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan
< wrote:

On Friday, June 8, 2018 at 8:57:52 AM UTC-7, waltkowaski wrote:

how does that line go?

"when you're not afraid to bullshit people,
you can bullshit anyone"

Another line goes:

"Just because you can doesn't mean you should."

who's the fool now ?

Hmm. I give up, Chris. You tell me. Who?

### - put your persecution complex away; he's referring to cc which he amusingly paraphrased :)

You speak for him now? He can't answer his own questions? I'm still
just not sure what he was trying to say. And you're just trying to
start another fight since you have nothing real to do.

.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: slider@anashram.com

On Fri, 08 Jun 2018 19:05:14 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan <david.j.worrell@gmail.com> wrote:

On Friday, June 8, 2018 at 8:57:52 AM UTC-7, waltkowaski wrote:

how does that line go?

"when you're not afraid to bullshit people,
you can bullshit anyone"

Another line goes:

"Just because you can doesn't mean you should."

who's the fool now ?

Hmm. I give up, Chris. You tell me. Who?

### - put your persecution complex away; he's referring to cc which he amusingly paraphrased :)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: slider@anashram.com

On Fri, 08 Jun 2018 19:55:28 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan <david.j.worrell@gmail.com> wrote:

On Friday, June 8, 2018 at 11:14:30 AM UTC-7, slider wrote:

On Fri, 08 Jun 2018 19:05:14 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan
< wrote:

On Friday, June 8, 2018 at 8:57:52 AM UTC-7, waltkowaski wrote:

how does that line go?

"when you're not afraid to bullshit people,
you can bullshit anyone"

Another line goes:

"Just because you can doesn't mean you should."

who's the fool now ?

Hmm. I give up, Chris. You tell me. Who?

### - put your persecution complex away; he's referring to cc which he
amusingly paraphrased :)

You speak for him now? He can't answer his own questions? I'm still
just not sure what he was trying to say. And you're just trying to
start another fight since you have nothing real to do.

### - he made an entirely innocuous + rather amusing remark (as an aside)
and you jumped on him like he might be referring to you in some kinda
snide way??

heh i wasn't starting a fight you pratt, was merely stopping you from
starting one completely unnecessarily! and this on someone who'd never
stab 'anyone' in the back no matter WHAT happens!

so how come YOU don't KNOW that already??

you actually owe him an apology haha :)

dear chris, am sorry am such a jumpy paranoid cunt, but that's just the
way it is so fuck off!

(which is about as much an apology as you'll ever get outta that prick hehehe...)

you gots NO sense of humour jeremy!

and THAT'S why you just fell over... again :)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: allreadydun@gmail.com

You speak for him now? He can't answer his own questions? I'm still
just not sure what he was trying to say. And you're just trying to
start another fight since you have nothing real to do.

relax cochise, he's right this time.
playing with shorty's "when you're not
afraid of being a fool, you can fool anyone".
same kind of psychopathology here.
both equally bonkers.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: david.j.worrell@gmail.com

On Friday, June 8, 2018 at 12:16:18 PM UTC-7, waltkowaski wrote:

You speak for him now? He can't answer his own questions? I'm still
just not sure what he was trying to say. And you're just trying to
start another fight since you have nothing real to do.

relax cochise, he's right this time.
playing with shorty's "when you're not
afraid of being a fool, you can fool anyone".
same kind of psychopathology here.
both equally bonkers.

Okay. I'm just not sure who, if anyone, is still being fooled.

***

How Trump Helps Putin
By Susan E. Rice

Ms. Rice was the national security adviser
during President Barack Obama’s second term.

June 8, 2018

Traditionally, the outgoing president writes a personal letter to his successor, offering wisdom and best wishes. President Obama duly left such a letter for President Trump, as President Bush did eight years earlier.

Imagine if Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, had also written a letter to Mr. Trump, somehow inserting it in the top drawer of the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. What advice would Mr. Putin have offered his American counterpart,
the man whom Mr.
Putin tried to help elect, according to the American intelligence community?

Mr. Putin’s objectives are plain: to restore Russia to global greatness at the expense of the United States and to divide Europe by weakening NATO and the
European Union. In Mr. Putin’s zero-sum calculus, when the United States and Europe founder,
Russia benefits. The Russian leader knows that America’s global power rests not only on our military and economic might but also on our unrivaled network of alliances from Europe to Asia. For some seven decades, our alliances have ensured that America�
�s strength and influence are magnified. Accordingly, Mr. Putin seeks to drive wedges between the United States and its closest partners, to strain and ultimately rupture its alliances.

If Mr. Putin were calling the shots, he would ensure that America’s reliability is doubted, its commitments broken, its values debased and its image tarnished. He would advise the new president to take a series of steps to
advance those aims:

First, withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade agreement the United States negotiated to bolster its economic and strategic position in the Pacific, at the expense of China (and Russia). Then, pull out of the Paris climate agreement,
becoming the only country in the world absent from this landmark accord.

Second, criticize NATO and cast doubt on America’s willingness to defend its allies on the grounds that they haven’t paid their bills (when that’s not how NATO works). Simultaneously, corrode the European Union by: lauding Brexit;
sending Stephen
Bannon to stoke European anti-establishment movements; and undermining Europe’s most powerful country, Germany, most recently through installing a right-wing flamethrower as ambassador.

Third, for the coup de grâce: start a trade war with our closest allies. Impose steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada, Mexico and the European Union with
the threat of auto tariffs to follow so that, according to reputable economists, both the United
States and its allies’ economies will suffer. Justify the penalties on the preposterous grounds that allies threaten United States national security. Do so after withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, following months of stringing our European
partners along with the hope that we might agree to augment aspects of the pact. Then threaten sanctions on European companies for abiding by the deal, which has worked as intended.

Incredulous that America would treat Europe with such disdain, the president of
the European Council, Donald Tusk, dismissed the United States, saying, “with
friends like that who needs enemies.” The usually unflappable Canadian prime minister,
Justin Trudeau, finally gave up trying to cajole President Trump and declared the tariffs “insulting and unacceptable” and “an affront” to the thousands of Canadians “who have fought and died alongside American comrades-in-arms.” Japanese
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has worked harder and longer than any foreign leader to make nice to President Trump, still faces United States trade penalties despite Japan’s critical role in North Korea, playing several rounds of golf with Mr. Trump
and making personal pleas to exempt Japanese producers from the sanctions.

Finally, for completeness, Mr. Putin might encourage the president to ensure that countries large and small revile America’s leadership, suggesting he: disparage African nations and Haiti with a vulgarity; call Latin American migrants rapists and
criminals; halt most refugee admissions; ban Muslims from several countries from entering the United States; restrict legal immigration; and separate children from their parents at the border.

With the sum of these actions, President Trump has deeply angered our closest allies and offended almost every member of the international community, except Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates — and Russia. Meanwhile, Russia is ascendant in
the Middle East. The European Union is reeling — with Italy, Slovenia, Austria and Hungary now led by populist nationalists who embrace Mr. Putin and wish to terminate sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. NATO’s unity is similarly
strained, provoking concern about its collective will to counter any new Russian aggression.

All good for Mr. Putin and no one else.

Four years ago, after the Ukraine invasion, the United States led the charge to
throw Russia out of the G-8. Now, as leaders of the G-7 nations gather in Quebec, President Trump says he thinks Russia should be readmitted. The climate
is so bitter that
the French finance minister termed the meeting the “G-6 plus one.” In reality, it’s the “G-7 minus one”, since President Trump has so alienated
the United States from its core partners that we have effectively absented ourselves.

America stands alone, weakened and distrusted. Without United States leadership, the G-7 can accomplish little. And, when next we need our allies to
rally to fight terrorists, place sanctions against North Korea, combat a pandemic or check China and
Russia, will they join with us after we have so disrespected them?

There is no evidence that Mr. Putin is dictating American policy. But it’s hard to imagine how he could do much better, even if he were.

***

Those last two sentences are almost profound.

.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: allreadydun@gmail.com

who was/is more cunning?
Trumpski or cc ?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: slider@anashram.com

You speak for him now? He can't answer his own questions? I'm still
just not sure what he was trying to say. And you're just trying to
start another fight since you have nothing real to do.

relax cochise, he's right this time.
playing with shorty's "when you're not
afraid of being a fool, you can fool anyone".
same kind of psychopathology here.
both equally bonkers.

### - that's exactly how i read it, and took it

i.e., jeremy could do with maybe taking a leaf outta vinni's book and
realising that it's just all in his head?! - more; accept his crappy mistake-ridden past, and get over it instead of jumping at every shadow in defense of the indefensible! (laffing at that last bit hehehe, but that's exactly what it is...)

plus that's 'twice' now just recently he's given you quite a nasty dig
innit!

just for being yourself?

nah maan, stay as nice as you are and don't let nuthin' change ya! :)

(didn't even need a bandaid this time hah, ya must be gettin' stronger
innit; bounced-off!)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: slider@anashram.com

who was/is more cunning?
Trumpski or cc ?

### - a pair of cunning stunts :D

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: allreadydun@gmail.com

alright fuck this trump/cc talk.
let's get down to real business.

NBA Finals tonight in Cleveland.
Does Golden State (Warriors) put
these guys away OR does Cleveland
come back and win one?

i say Golden State cleans their clock.
no team has ever come back from being
down 3-0. Hasta la vista James.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: slider@anashram.com

### - you know me, i always tend to go for the underdog/outsider ;)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: slider@anashram.org

### - prezzy for ya's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2J-fInG2egI

outsider movie, with we the viewers being the outsiders...

a potted history of wallyworld and how it all gots that way?

a plan to save humanity goes awry, to save them from suffering the
knowledge of the ruin existing above them for a limited time, only it all
goes off-course, the plan mislaid, and so everyone just carries on
unwittingly for god who knows how long beyond the original allotted time
just making the best of it even with everything falling apart around their ears, making a life for themselves based on necessity alone, e.g., careers handed out by lottery, we (as the outsiders) can see the situation for
what it really is: no one there really knowing wtf they're doing just
simple peeps living in total ignorance of the real reality they've all
been cut off from for so long, a corrupt politician (what else hah) gets
his just deserts eventually...

whoever wrote this certainly knew what they were talking about obviously
heh...

truth as expressed between the lines/indirectly; a parable for what's
really going down on a far grander scale in our beloved wallyworld...

(it's strange how outsiders arrange their view of the world?)

:)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: slider@anashram.com

### - bollocks! pasted the wrong movie LOL :)))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJOHsO1avs4

THIS one! :)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: david.j.worrell@gmail.com

On Friday, June 8, 2018 at 5:15:01 PM UTC-7, slider wrote:

### - you know me, i always tend to go for the underdog/outsider ;)

And we know you, you're almost always wrong. :)

.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: allreadydun@gmail.com

i say Golden State cleans their clock.
no team has ever come back from being
down 3-0. Hasta la vista James.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjiOtouyBOg

wipe out folks

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: intraphase@gmail.com

Popcorn, Soda Pop, & Chocolate Bar tossed to Mr. Thang.

..

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: slider@anashram.com

king of the ocd jerks wrote...

### - you know me, i always tend to go for the underdog/outsider ;)

And we know you, you're almost always wrong. :)

### - you were totally unable to prove that tho' innit? :)

had your chance recently and blew it...

so really you're just the same as your current nemesis trump?

a slanderous + lying sack of shit who 'paranoiacly' deflects from his
'own' inadequacies & failings by pointing the finger at everyone else
hehehe; the king of cheap shots! :)

better watch out jeremy! they're coming to getcha!

just don't forget to make sure you turn off the cooker et al before ya go
eh? :D

(so did ya apologise to matey yet? fuckin' betcha didn't hah!)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: intraphase@gmail.com

The queers regect hysteria
https://youtu.be/4Pjs7uoOkag

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: david.j.worrell@gmail.com

“Trump is readier to give a pass to countries that pose a real threat
to Western values and security than to America’s traditional allies.
If there is a ‘method to the madness,’ to use the words of British
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, it is currently well hidden.”
-Peter Westmacott, a former British ambassador to Washington

“These Russian actions are purposeful and premeditated and they
represent an all-out assault by Vladimir Putin on the rule of law,
Western ideals and democratic norms,” Mr. Coats said, according
to prepared remarks. “His actions demonstrate that he seeks to
sow divisions within and between those in the West who adhere to
democratic norms. The Russians are actively seeking to divide our
alliance and we must not allow that to happen.”
-Dan Coats, Trump's own Director of National Intelligence

'Russia has “no interest in behaving according to the rules of
Western democracies” and there are “no grounds whatsoever”
for bringing Russia back.'
-Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s foreign minister

“It is an illegal act... That is extremely problematic between
any two allies. What adds insult to injury is the national
security pretext, which is absurd and insulting.
It hurt our feelings, it’s very emotional... It’s not exclusive
to our government. It’s a feeling that all Canadians have.
I’ve had hundreds and hundreds of emails in the past week.
The sentiment expressed is that they can’t believe the Americans
are doing this to us.”
-Chrystia Freeland on Trump's Tariffs and threatening NAFTA

“Canada does not believe that ad hominem attacks are a
particularly appropriate or useful way to conduct our relations
with other countries.”
- Freeland

Freeland said she had recently come across a “terrifying” quote
from Adolf Hitler, explaining his rise to power in Germany in a
time of economic uncertainty and grievance. “I will tell you what
has carried me to the position I have reached,” Hitler had said.
“Our political problems appeared complicated. The German people
could make nothing of them. ... I, on the other hand ... reduced
them to the simplest terms. The masses realized this and followed me.”

She leaned forward, a look of concern in her eyes. “How do you
attract voters and public support compared with the flashiness
of exciting, chaotic, fact-ignoring populism?” she asked.
“The reason Hitler won was because all of the other politicians
were giving complicated and difficult explanations about
difficult things. Hitler just told people simple things that
they wanted to hear.”

It was a question that not so long ago would have seemed unthinkable
to have to ask: If Canada can’t rely on the United States, then what
country can?

Molly McKew, a foreign policy strategist who served as an adviser
to the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Moldova in their
struggles with Moscow, said the expulsion of Russia from the
Group of 8 reflected “a sense of unity” in the West that has
eroded since Mr. Trump’s election.

“As Trump’s America is increasingly isolated and viewed as a
rogue actor, the Kremlin is again preying upon ‘economic openness’
to buy silence for their crimes in Ukraine, Syria, and beyond,
even as they attack our societies”
-McKew

“The G-7 should be our preferred venue to unify the free world to
compete with and counter authoritarian kleptocracies... Rather than
prepare for that real battle, we’re distracted in a family dispute.”
-Damon Wilson, former national security aide to George W. Bush
now vice president of The Atlantic Council

“I’ve never seen anything like this... The irony is this institution
was designed largely by the United States... to shore up alliances
and political relationships and resolve economic issues. This just
served to do the opposite of that.”
-Robert D. Hormats, who advised Republican and Democratic presidents
at a dozen Group of 7 summit meetings

“Big tough guy once he’s back on his airplane... Can’t do it in
person, and knows it, which makes him feel week. So he projects
these feelings onto Trudeau and then lashes out at him. You don’t
need to be Freud. He’s a pathetic little man-child."
-Roland Paris, former foreign affairs adviser to Mr. Trudeau, on Trump

“International cooperation can’t depend on anger and small words...
Let’s be serious and worthy of our people. We spent two days
obtaining a draft and commitments. We stick to it. And anyone who
leaves and turns their back on them shows their inconsistency.”
-France’s Élysée Palace

Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain issued a statement through an
aide saying she was “fully supportive of Justin Trudeau.”

“It’s actually not a real surprise... We have seen this with the
climate agreement or the Iran deal. In a matter of seconds, you can
destroy trust with 280 Twitter characters. To build that up again
will take much longer.”
-German foreign minister, Heiko Maas

“It looks like the U.S. is no longer a reliable partner in
international agreements, and that’s bad.”
-Peter Beyer, German coordinator on trans-Atlantic relations

“He is about to destroy what’s left of the liberal world order
because he thinks rules and institutions help America’s rivals,
China and Europe."
-Josef Braml of the German Council on Foreign Relations

***

Trump never really wanted to attend the Group of 7 meeting,
but aides pressed him to go even as they feared it would be a
disaster because he was being forced to do something he did not
want to do. He rebelled by showing up late and leaving early.

He arrived 18 minutes late for the Saturday session on gender
equality and did not bother putting his headphones on for
translation when President Emmanuel Macron of France spoke.
At some points, Mr. Trump closed his eyes in what people in
the room took to mean he was dozing off.

But he came alive whenever trade was mentioned, mocking and
insulting other leaders, particularly Mr. Trudeau, Mr. Macron and
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, according to witnesses.
Ms. Merkel was clearly not happy but largely kept quiet, evidently
not wanting to provoke more conflict. Mr. Trump’s conversation
was described by European officials as stream of consciousness,
filled with superlatives but not following a linear argument.

***

What a clueless asshole he is. :)

.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: david.j.worrell@gmail.com

On Saturday, June 9, 2018 at 1:11:31 PM UTC-7, LowRider44M wrote:

The queers regect hysteria
https://youtu.be/4Pjs7uoOkag

A blitzkrieg of rhetoric with no facts to back it up. Talk about
a minority-minority view. ;) Here are a few facts...

In the 2016 election, 86% of LGBTs voted against Trump.
And the percentage against Trump has risen since, for good reasons.

Trump’s most venomous public statements haven’t targeted LGBTs.
But his policies have, from his selection of Mike Pence as his
running mate and Neil Gorsuch as his first Supreme Court nominee
to his attempt to ban transgender people from the military.

The rollback of LGBT rights may be quiet, but it’s consequential.
Even the White House’s silence on gay rights — in 2017, Trump
declined to continue President Barack Obama’s tradition of
recognizing June as National LGBT Pride Month — can matter,
especially when it means failing to respond to rising homophobia
and anti-LGBT violence in countries such as Chechnya, Egypt and
Indonesia.

Once in office, the Trump administration has followed the lead of
the GOP rather than Trump himself, amassing a striking record of
executive branch actions that strip LGBT people of nondiscrimination protections.

Trump and Attorney General Sessions have taken every opportunity to
promote discrimination against LGBT people in health care, social
services, private business, employment, and state- and federally-
funded government services under the guise of free exercise of religion.

Back in January, the Department of Health and Human Services Office
of Civil Rights publicly announced a new “Conscience and Religious
Freedom Division.”

The Washington Post reported that the language describing the new
office is “broad” and that healthcare experts believe the new office
is likely to defend those who refuse to treat “transgender patients
or those seeking to transition to the opposite sex.” Making matters
even worse is that Trump has successfully nominated numerous judges
throughout the federal court system who support these policies,
including Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Some of Trump’s anti-LGBT actions are symbolically important, like
not declaring June LGBT Pride Month, as Presidents Obama and
Clinton did, and not mentioning gay and bisexual men or transgender
women — groups disproportionately burdened by HIV here and globally —
in his World AIDS Day declaration. But as documented in a new policy
brief by The Fenway Institute, most are much more serious. Trump has
rolled back the collection of sexual orientation and gender identity
data on surveys, which was expanded under the previous administration.

His administration has taken numerous actions to undermine the
Affordable Care Act, which cut rates of insurance among lesbian,
gay and bisexual people in half. The ACA also helped many people
living with HIV access insurance who previously could not get it
and sharply reduced racial/ethnic disparities in health insurance
coverage, a key driver of racial/ethnic health disparities.

Trump has failed to appoint a Director of the White House Office
of National AIDS Policy for the first time since President Clinton
created it, and the Centers for Disease Control put the kibosh on
using seven terms in descriptions of the agency’s work, including “transgender” and “evidence-based.”

Trump’s budget proposal would gut funding for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS
Program and the CDC. A proposed $1.1 billion cut to global HIV
prevention and treatment would cause thousands of adults and children
to lose treatment, and many would die. Progress cutting new global
HIV infections in half over the past 15 years could be reversed.

Trump has also reversed American leadership to promote an end to
anti-LGBT persecution around the world. President George W. Bush’s administration included anti-LGBT persecution in its State
Department’s country reports, and President Obama’s State Department promoted LGBT equality as a goal of U.S. foreign policy.

The Trump administration removed pro-LGBT content from the
department’s website, and does not prioritize human rights.
Over the past year several governments — Tanzania, Chechnya, and
Indonesia — have unleashed campaigns of persecution against gay men
and LGBT people.

Candidate Trump in 2016 promised to protect LGBT people against another terrorist attack fueled by fanatical, intolerant distortions of Islam.
Yet as president, he is enacting policies pushed by conservative
Christian Americans that are causing great harm to LGBT people,
and that many would argue distort the meaning of Christianity.

These policies represent a major threat to the health and well-being
of LGBT Americans. They are likely to increase minority stress
and reduce access to health care. And they are out of step with
the American public, 69 percent of whom support LGBT nondiscrimination
laws covering employment, housing, and public accommodations.

Nearly one-third of Trump’s judicial nominees have anti-LGBTQ records.

The Trump administration rescinded a nonbinding Obama-era guidance
that told K-12 schools that receive federal funding that trans students
are protected under federal civil rights law and, therefore, schools
should respect trans students’ rights, including their right to use
bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity.
The Trump administration took back the guidance altogether, arguing
trans students aren’t protected under federal civil rights law.

Trump’s Justice Department also rescinded another Obama-era memo that
said trans workers are protected under civil rights law. This has
enabled the federal government, including its army of attorneys,
to now argue in court that anti-trans discrimination isn’t illegal
under federal law. The courts are ultimately independent of the
Trump administration, but the federal government can play a big role
in legal arguments by throwing its people and resources behind a case.

Trump’s Justice Department argued that anti-gay discrimination is
legal, filing a friend-of-the-court brief claiming that the federal
Civil Rights Act doesn’t protect gay and bisexual workers.
The lawsuit in this case was filed by Donald Zarda, a skydiving
instructor who says an employer, Altitude Express, fired him due to
his sexual orientation. The Justice Department in effect argued that
this was legal under federal law.

The changes at the Department of Health and Human Services represent
"rapid destruction of so much of the progress on LGBT health," said
Kellan Baker, a researcher at the Johns Hopkins School of Public
Health who worked with HHS on LGBT issues for nearly a decade.
“It’s only a matter of time before all the gains made under the
Obama administration are reversed under the Trump administration,
for purposes that have nothing to do with public health and have
everything to do with politics.”

There's plenty more...

***

Btw, we happened to be out at the big LGBT event in West Hollywood
just this last weekend. Tens of thousands of people out there partying.
And I guarantee you those people were upwards of 90% against Trump.
They damn well should be too.

.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: david.j.worrell@gmail.com

De Niro gets a standing ovation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zNr8Pf1QkY

.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: allreadydun@gmail.com

On Monday, June 11, 2018 at 11:27:11 AM UTC-7, Jeremy H. Denisovan wrote:

De Niro gets a standing ovation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zNr8Pf1QkY

fuck trumper?
the presidente?
everybody must get fucked

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: slider@anashram.com

nellie the (white) elephant wrote...

De Niro gets a standing ovation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zNr8Pf1QkY

### - OFF he went with a trumpy-trump...

trump trump TRUMP! :D

lol

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: slider@anashram.com

On Mon, 11 Jun 2018 17:48:01 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan <david.j.worrell@gmail.com> wrote:

Btw, we happened to be out at the big LGBT event in West Hollywood
just this last weekend. Tens of thousands of people out there partying.
And I guarantee you those people were upwards of 90% against Trump.
They damn well should be too.

### - well at least you didn't all have to drink cool aid then huh :D

cults, more cults & now anti-cults...

what a bunch of cults! :)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: slider@anashram.com

LowRider wrote...

This cult is insidious and has deep roots https://twitter.com/DeepStateExpose/status/1005816325590142977

### - they're ALL a bunch of cults! (and yes that IS (and also isn't) a spelling mistake hah!)

all good little believers in a system that seems so right?? the only thing
to aspire to!

the right way! only of course it never turns out that way 'coz they're all as-bent as 9-buck notes!

or soon end-up that way seein' as that's the very nature of that whole
filthy rotten business!

and which will 'never' work! unless say a 'poet' becomes the leader of the world??

fat-chance of anything like that on this planet of the morons babe!

they only likes leaders with gumption & parkin' meters here son!

hard-face bastards who can 'get things done' in a hurry!

riiiight... :D

...please sir mr nazi,
is there no room for kindness in this; your philosophy of... strength?

NO! FUCK OFF!

oh ok then, forget about it, it was just an idle passing thought, no
biggie :)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: intraphase@gmail.com

This cult is insidious and has deep roots https://twitter.com/DeepStateExpose/status/1005816325590142977

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: intraphase@gmail.com

United States and North Korea Agreement:
Communique | Jun 12, 2018 | International

President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong
Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) held a first, historic summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018.

President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un conducted a comprehensive, in-depth, and sincere exchange of opinions on the issues related to the establishment of new U.S.-DPRK relations and the building of a lasting and robust peace regime on the Korean
Peninsula. President Trump committed to provide security guarantees to the DPRK, and Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to
complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Convinced that the establishment of new U.S.-DPRK relations will contribute to the peace and prosperity of the Korean Peninsula and of the world, and recognising that mutual confidence building can promote the denuclearization of
the Korean Peninsula,
President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un state the following:

1. The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new U.S.-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for
peace and prosperity.

2. The United States and the DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.

3. Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work towards complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

4. The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.

Having acknowledged that the U.S.-DPRK summit — the first in history — was an epochal event of great significance and overcoming decades of tensions and hostilities between the two countries and for the opening of a new future, President Trump and
Chairman Kim Jong Un commit to implement the stipulations in this joint statement fully and expeditiously. The United States and the DPRK commit to hold follow-on negotiations led by the U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and a relevant high-level
DPRK official, at the earliest possible date, to implement the outcomes of the U.S.-DPRK summit.

President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong
Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have committed to cooperate for the development of new U.S.-DPRK relations and for the
promotion of peace, prosperity, and security of the Korean Peninsula and of the
world.

June 12, 2018

Sentosa Island

Singapore

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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From: intraphase@gmail.com

It's early in the relationship https://twitter.com/crudereporter/status/1006509264494620672

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: david.j.worrell@gmail.com

On Tuesday, June 12, 2018 at 7:04:10 AM UTC-7, LowRider44M wrote:

United States and North Korea Agreement:
Communique | Jun 12, 2018 | International

President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim

Jong Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) held a first, historic summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018.

President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un conducted a comprehensive, in-depth,

and sincere exchange of opinions on the issues related to the establishment of new U.S.-DPRK relations and the building of a lasting and robust peace regime on the Korean
Peninsula. President Trump committed to provide security guarantees to the DPRK, and Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to
complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Convinced that the establishment of new U.S.-DPRK relations will contribute

to the peace and prosperity of the Korean Peninsula and of the world, and recognising that mutual confidence building can promote the denuclearization of
the Korean Peninsula,
President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un state the following:

1. The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new U.S.-DPRK

relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for
peace and prosperity.

2. The United States and the DPRK will join their efforts to build a

lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.

3. Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits

to work towards complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

4. The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains,

including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.

Having acknowledged that the U.S.-DPRK summit — the first in history —

was an epochal event of great significance and overcoming decades of tensions and hostilities between the two countries and for the opening of a new future, President Trump and
Chairman Kim Jong Un commit to implement the stipulations in this joint statement fully and expeditiously. The United States and the DPRK commit to hold follow-on negotiations led by the U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and a relevant high-level
DPRK official, at the earliest possible date, to implement the outcomes of the U.S.-DPRK summit.

President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim

Jong Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have committed to cooperate for the development of new U.S.-DPRK relations and for the
promotion of peace, prosperity, and security of the Korean Peninsula and of the
world.

June 12, 2018

Sentosa Island

Singapore

"Oh, look what a good boy I was! Look at what I've accomplished!"
-Little Donnie Trump

***

Trump Was Outfoxed in Singapore
By Nicholas Kristof

June 12, 2018

It sure looks as if President Trump was hoodwinked in Singapore.

Trump made a huge concession — the suspension of military exercises with South Korea. That’s on top of the broader concession of the summit meeting itself, security guarantees he gave North Korea and the legitimacy that the summit provides his
counterpart, Kim Jong-un.

Within North Korea, the “very special bond” that Trump claimed to have formed with Kim will be portrayed this way: Kim forced the American president, through his nuclear and missile tests, to accept North Korea as a nuclear equal, to provide security
guarantees to North Korea, and to cancel war games with South Korea that the North has protested for decades.

In exchange for these concessions, Trump seems to have won astonishingly little. In a joint statement, Kim merely “reaffirmed” the same commitment to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula that North Korea has repeatedly made since 1992.

“They were willing to de-nuke,” Trump crowed at his news conference after his meetings with Kim. Trump seemed to believe he had achieved some remarkable agreement, but the concessions were all his own.

The most remarkable aspect of the joint statement was what it didn’t contain.
There was nothing about North Korea freezing plutonium and uranium programs, nothing about destroying intercontinental ballistic missiles, nothing about allowing inspectors
to return to nuclear sites, nothing about North Korea making a full declaration
of its nuclear program, nothing about a timetable, nothing about verification, not even any clear pledge to permanently halt testing of nuclear weapons or long-range missiles.

Kim seems to have completely out-negotiated Trump, and it’s scary that Trump doesn’t seem to realize this. For now Trump has much less to show than past negotiators who hammered out deals with North Korea like the 1994 Agreed Framework, which
completely froze the country’s plutonium program with a rigorous monitoring system.

Trump made a big deal in his news conference about recovering the remains of American soldiers from the Korean War, but this is nothing new. Back in 1989, on my first trip to North Korea, officials there made similar pledges about returning remains, and
indeed North Korea has returned some remains over the years. It’s not clear how many more remain.

Trump claimed an “excellent relationship” with Kim, and it certainly is better for the two leaders to be exchanging compliments rather than missiles. In a sense, Trump has eased the tensions that he himself created when he threatened last fall to “
totally destroy” North Korea. I’m just not sure a leader should get credit for defusing a crisis that he himself created.

There’s still plenty we don’t know and lots of uncertainty about the future. But for now, the bottom line is that there’s no indication that North
Korea is prepared to give up its nuclear weapons, and Trump didn’t achieve anything remotely as
good as the Iran nuclear deal, which led Iran to eliminate 98 percent of its enriched uranium.

There was also something frankly weird about an American president savaging Canada’s prime minister one day and then embracing the leader of the most totalitarian country in the world.

“He’s a very talented man,” Trump said of Kim. “I also learned that he loves his country very much.”

In an interview with Voice of America, Trump said “I like him” and added: “He’s smart, loves his people, he loves his country.”

Trump praised Kim in the news conference and, astonishingly, even adopted North
Korean positions as his own, saying that the United States military exercises in the region are “provocative.” That’s a standard North Korean propaganda line. Likewise,
Trump acknowledged that human rights in North Korea constituted a “rough situation,” but quickly added that “it’s rough in a lot of places, by the
way.” (Note that a 2014 United Nations report stated that North Korean human rights violations do
“not have any parallel in the contemporary world.”)

Incredibly, Trump told Voice of America that he had this message for the North Korean people: “I think you have somebody that has a great feeling for them. He wants to do right by them and we got along really well.”

It’s breathtaking to see an American president emerge as a spokesman for the dictator of North Korea.

One can argue that my perspective is too narrow: That what counts in a broader sense is that the risk of war is much less today than it was a year ago, and North Korea has at least stopped its nuclear tests and missile tests. Fundamentally, Trump has
abandoned bellicose rhetoric and instead embraced the longstanding Democratic position — that we should engage North Korea, even if the result isn’t immediate disarmament.

The 1994 Agreed Framework, for example, didn’t denuclearize North Korea or solve the human rights issues there, but it still kept the regime from adding to its plutonium arsenal for eight years. Imperfect processes can still be beneficial, and the
ongoing meetings between the United States and North Korea may result in a similar framework that at least freezes the North Korean arsenal.

Of all the things that could have gone badly wrong in a Trump administration, a
“bloody nose” strike on North Korea leading to a nuclear war was perhaps the most terrifying. For now at least, Trump seems to have been snookered into the same kind of
deeply frustrating diplomatic process with North Korea that he has complained about, but that is far better than war.

Even so, it’s still bewildering how much Trump gave and how little he got. The cancellation of military exercises will raise questions among our allies, such as Japan, about America’s commitment to those allies.

The Trump-Kim statement spoke vaguely about efforts “to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean peninsula,” whatever that means. But that was much less specific than the 1994 pledge to exchange diplomatic liaison offices, and the 2005
pledge to work for a peace treaty to end the Korean War.

In January 2017, Trump proclaimed in a tweet: “North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won’t happen!” But in fact it appears to have happened
on Trump’s watch,
and nothing in the Singapore summit seems to have changed that.

All this is to say that Kim Jong-un proved the more able negotiator. North Korean government officials have to limit their computer time, because of electricity shortages, and they are international pariahs — yet they are very
savvy and shrewd, and
they were counseled by one of the smartest Trump handlers of all, President Moon Jae-in of South Korea.

My guess is that Kim flattered Trump, as Moon has, and that Trump simply didn’t realize how little he was getting. On my most recent visit to North Korea, officials were asking me subtle questions about the differences in views
of Mike Pompeo and Nikki
Haley; meanwhile, Trump said he didn’t need to do much homework.

Whatever our politics, we should all want Trump to succeed in reducing tensions
on the Korean Peninsula, and it’s good to see that Trump now supports engagement rather than military options. There will be further negotiations, and these may actually
freeze plutonium production and destroy missiles. But at least in the first round, Trump seems to have been snookered.

***

I'd actually be okay with Trump getting snookered as long as we
actually end up with no war. But I'm still skeptical. North Korea
has not really done anything yet with regard to 'denuclearization'.

.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: slider@anashram.com

I'd actually be okay with Trump getting snookered as long as we
actually end up with no war. But I'm still skeptical. North Korea
has not really done anything yet with regard to 'denuclearization'.

### - dat's my boy! hehehe :)))

you're learning! :)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: allreadydun@gmail.com

maybe that former Chicago Bull basketball player
made a differece? the ultimate "assist" eh?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: david.j.worrell@gmail.com

On Tuesday, June 12, 2018 at 10:31:40 AM UTC-7, LowRider44M wrote:

It's early in the relationship https://twitter.com/crudereporter/status/1006509264494620672

It's still a bit early in this relationship below too.

The Donald J. Trump Presidential Twitter Library: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7ikwmgqoq0ednay/AABPVfSy_MD08gvrfEA18r1ka?dl=0

.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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From: david.j.worrell@gmail.com

And let's not forget who we're really dealing with either:

Quoting Kristof:
"a 2014 United Nations report stated that North Korean human rights
violations do “not have any parallel in the contemporary world.”

.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: david.j.worrell@gmail.com

This puts the problem we have pretty accurately...

***

A Quisling and His Enablers
By Paul Krugman

June 11, 2018

http://tinyurl.com/yd9m6wlc

This is not a column about whether Donald Trump is a quisling — a politician who serves the interests of foreign masters at his own country’s expense. Any
reasonable doubts about that reality were put to rest by the events of the past
few days, when
he defended Russia while attacking our closest allies.

We don’t know Trump’s motivation. Is it blackmail? Bribery? Or just a generalized sympathy for autocrats and hatred for democracy? And we may never find out: If he shuts down the Mueller investigation and Republicans retain control of Congress, the
cover-up may hold indefinitely. But his actions tell the story.

As I said, however, this isn’t a column about Trump. It is, instead, about the people who are enabling his betrayal of America: the inner circle of officials and media personalities who are willing to back him up whatever he says or does, and the wider
set of politicians — basically the entire Republican delegation in Congress — who have the power and constitutional obligation to stop what he’s doing,
but won’t lift a finger in America’s defense.

It’s important to understand that the fight Trump is picking with our allies isn’t about any real conflict of interest — because they are not, in fact, doing the things he accuses them of doing. No, Canada and Europe aren’t imposing “massive
tariffs” on U.S. goods: A vast majority of U.S. exports enter Canada tariff-free, and the average European tariff is only 3 percent. These are simple facts, not disputable issues.

So Trump is justifying his attempt to destroy the Western alliance by accusing our allies of misdeeds that exist only in his imagination.

The same thing may be said about his claim that Canada’s Justin Trudeau somehow betrayed him and undermined the Group of 7 summit meeting. In reality, Trudeau’s remarks at the end of the conference were restrained and conventional, simply asserting �
� as any normal leader would — that he would defend his nation’s interests.
The Trump rage-tweet that followed was responding to an insult that, like those
“massive tariffs,” exists only in his imagination.

But that’s Trump, a man whose presidency has been marked by around seven false statements per day in office. What about his officials?

Well, they have been acting like the courtiers in the old story about the emperor’s new clothes. (The emperor’s new hairpiece?) If the boss says something whose falsity is obvious to anyone with eyes to see, they’ll claim to believe his version.

So Larry Kudlow, the administration’s chief economist (actually “economist,” but that’s another story) went on TV to declare that Trudeau
“stabbed us in the back.” Peter Navarro, the administration’s chief trade
expert (“expert”) went
even further, repeating the stab-in-the-back line and declaring that Trudeau faces a “special place in hell.”

Remember when people used to imagine that Trump would be restrained by officials who would put some check on his worst impulses? Maybe that happened for a few months, but at this point he’s entirely surrounded by sycophants who will tell him whatever
he wants to hear.

Still, America isn’t a monarchy — not yet, anyway. Congress has the power to check a president who seems to be betraying his oath of office. It can even remove him; but short of impeachment, there are many ways members of Congress could act to
constrain Trump and limit the damage he’s doing.

But Congress is controlled by Republicans. And their response to a president whose actions are manifestly not just un-American but anti-American has been … a few sad tweets from a handful of senators who are unhappy about Trump’s
behavior but not
willing to do anything real. Most Republicans haven’t even gone that far: They’re just silent.

Why are Republican politicians unwilling to discharge their constitutional responsibilities? Relatively few of them, one suspects, actually want a trade war, let alone a breakup of the Western alliance. And many of them, one also suspects, are well aware
that a de facto foreign agent sits in the Oval Office. But they are immobilized
by a combination of venality and cowardice.

On one side, tax cuts for the rich have become the overriding priority for the modern G.O.P., and Trump is giving them that, so they’re willing to let everything else slide.

On the other side, the party’s base really does love Trump, not for his policies, but for the performative cruelty he exhibits toward racial minorities
and the way he sticks his thumb in the eyes of “elites.” So any Republican politician who takes
a stand on behalf of what we used to think were fundamental American values is at high risk of losing his or her next primary. And as far as we can tell, there is not a single elected Republican willing to take that risk, no matter what Trump does.

What all this tells us is that the problem facing America runs much deeper than
Trump’s personal awfulness. One of our two major parties appears to be hopelessly, irredeemably corrupt. And unless that party not only loses this year’s election but
begins losing on a regular basis, America as we know it is finished.

***

I'd say that is indeed about the size of it, so let's repeat that:

"Unless that party not only loses this year’s election but begins
losing on a regular basis, America as we know it is finished.

We'll find out in less than 5 months. :)

.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: david.j.worrell@gmail.com

More on Bonehead's Trade War...

Politico
Chinese leaders ‘absolutely confused’ by Trump’s demands on trade http://tinyurl.com/yamujy3u

Excerpts:

Donald Trump has called on China to capitulate to U.S. demands on trade. The problem is nobody knows exactly what Trump actually wants — including the Chinese.

One week, he condemns threats to American national security interests and the next, agrees to lift a ban on doing business with Chinese telecom giant ZTE. He
rails about the U.S. trade deficit with China, then dismisses Beijing’s offer
— negotiated
by his own officials — to boost its purchases of U.S. goods by billions of dollars.

Beyond the feints and jabs, he’s raised so many different issues that it’s hard to know what his priorities might really be.

By all accounts, it has left the Chinese increasingly mystified about what Trump really wants at a pivotal moment when the world’s two largest economies
are teetering on the edge of sustained trade warfare.

“They’re absolutely confused,” Derek Scissors, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said of the Chinese.

Without clear demands, he argued, Beijing is unlikely to offer much. “The concession has to get them something. And they don’t know what they’re going to get because the U.S. doesn’t have a strategy.”

Chinese officials, for their part, are increasingly blunt about their frustration.

“We appeal our American interlocutors to be credible and consistent,” Li Kexin, minister at the Chinese embassy in Washington, said in a speech Tuesday at the Institute for China-America Studies. “When you agree, you mean it.”

And on Friday, Gao Feng, spokesman for China’s Ministry of Commerce, criticized the U.S. as “capricious.”

“Yes, they have a plan. No, I don’t think it will work,” said Bill Reinsch, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The plan is always push harder, demand everything and offer nothing.”

Adding to the confusion, senior administration officials have said they don’t
know exactly what Trump will decide to say or do on trade at any given moment. That uncertainty has led advisers to compete for his attention in a bid to sway
him, which
leads to varied tactics and mixed messaging.

Officials like National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow have indicated the goal is to knock down barriers to U.S. exports, such as tariffs. But under the rules of the World Trade Organization, China is bound to give the United States the same
tariff treatment as every other WTO member, making negotiations on the reduction of duties difficult.

Beyond uncertainty about the administration’s goals, U.S. business groups also aren’t pleased with the approach taken by the administration — imposing a lot of new tariffs — in a bid to spur change.

“One way we’ve been putting it lately is: right question, wrong answer,” said Josh Kallmer, senior vice president of global policy at the Information Technology Industry Council.

“We’ve actually been really supportive of the administration for undertaking the investigation and raising this to a level of seriousness that past administrations have not,” added Kallmer, a former career official at the USTR with experience in
negotiating with China.

But “the path they’ve gone on, we’ve found it to be pretty counterproductive and bordering on irresponsible,” he added, saying tariffs are merely going to hurt American standards of living by raising prices.

***

The Atlantic
Trump Always Wanted a Trade War — and Now He’s Got Several

KRISHNADEV CALAMUR
JUN 15, 2018

http://tinyurl.com/yc73scto

Excerpts:

The president’s seemingly arbitrary punishment of countries with wildly different practices suggests he was never much interested in negotiating.

The variety of Trump’s targets, starting with U.S. allies whose trade policies resemble those of the United States, and continuing with China, which is almost universally acknowledged to engage in unfair competitive practices, proves there’s
something more going on here than a simple desire to punish bad actors and negotiate fairer deals. If that were the goal, China would not be treated similarly to Europe even though the two have vastly different approaches to trade. But Trump really does
seem to believe that “trade wars are good, and easy to win.” His priority is not negotiating, but fighting.

First came Canada, the EU, and Mexico; now it’s China’s turn.

China responded almost immediately, saying it will retaliate against the tariffs at the same scale.

[Trump's doing most of this trade war crap out of his own long-term
obsession with trade deficits. But...]

Most mainstream economists from across the political spectrum say deficits do not matter as much as people think they do, and that deficits are based on a variety of factors including the value of a nation’s currency and how much its citizens save.
Tariffs, though, result in trade wars that result in higher prices across the board for all consumers.

Singling out China’s trade practices and economic policies for criticism or punitive action might be one thing, but Trump has done the same for U.S. allies
whose regulatory, labor, and environmental frameworks are at least as stringent
as those in the
U.S. Two weeks ago, he imposed tariffs of 25 percent tariffs on steel and 10 percent tariffs on aluminum imports from Canada, the EU, and Mexico, citing national-security concerns. They reacted angrily, and imposed retaliatory tariffs. Both Canada and
the EU have complaints about China’s trade practices similar to those of the U.S., and they could have been reliable allies in persuading Beijing to alter its policies in order to make trade with it more balanced. (Mexico, fearing the
demise of nafta,
is meanwhile cozying up to China.)

America’s trading partners have their own politics to consider, and the concessions Trump demanded were often simply too much.

***

Trump doesn't much care about "higher prices across the board for
all consumers", which is the very likely outcome of his trade wars.
Why? Because really rich people can afford to pay higher prices,
especially if they also get major benefits like huge tax breaks.

Note: once again Trump will be hurting the poor and middle class,
while hopefully making certain conditions more favorable for the
super-rich (although this whole strategy could easily backfire).

.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: slider@anashram.com

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 22:50:13 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan <david.j.worrell@gmail.com> wrote:

Beyond the feints and jabs, he’s raised so many different issues that it’s hard to know what his priorities might really be.

### - everything he's been doing and is doing; in a nutshell..

iow: a smoke screen!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: thangolossus@gmail.com

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 23:49:23 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.com>
wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 22:50:13 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan ><david.j.worrell@gmail.com> wrote:

Beyond the feints and jabs, he’s raised so many different issues that
it’s hard to know what his priorities might really be.

### - everything he's been doing and is doing; in a nutshell..

iow: a smoke screen!

Trump is an iconoclast. He does the ordering, not the usual
puppeteers.

We could do with a dose of Trump here in Australia actually.


I have lived a lot,
trembled a lot,
was surrounded by little men
who forgot that we entered naked
and exit naked
and that no accountant can audit life in our favor.

Ben Rand

---
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--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: thangolossus@gmail.com

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 14:50:13 -0700 (PDT), "Jeremy H. Denisovan" <david.j.worrell@gmail.com> wrote:

More on Bonehead's Trade War...

Politico
Chinese leaders ‘absolutely confused’ by Trump’s demands on trade >http://tinyurl.com/yamujy3u

Excerpts:

Donald Trump has called on China to capitulate to U.S. demands on trade. The problem is nobody knows exactly what Trump actually wants — including the Chinese.

One week, he condemns threats to American national security interests and the next, agrees to lift a ban on doing business with Chinese telecom giant ZTE. He

rails about the U.S. trade deficit with China, then dismisses Beijing’s offer
— negotiated
by his own officials — to boost its purchases of U.S. goods by billions of dollars.

Beyond the feints and jabs, he’s raised so many different issues that it’s

hard to know what his priorities might really be.

By all accounts, it has left the Chinese increasingly mystified about what Trump really wants at a pivotal moment when the world’s two largest economies

are teetering on the edge of sustained trade warfare.

“They’re absolutely confused,” Derek Scissors, a resident scholar at the

American Enterprise Institute, said of the Chinese.

Without clear demands, he argued, Beijing is unlikely to offer much. “The concession has to get them something. And they don’t know what they’re going to get because the U.S. doesn’t have a strategy.”

Chinese officials, for their part, are increasingly blunt about their frustration.

“We appeal our American interlocutors to be credible and consistent,” Li Kexin, minister at the Chinese embassy in Washington, said in a speech Tuesday at the Institute for China-America Studies. “When you agree, you mean it.”

And on Friday, Gao Feng, spokesman for China’s Ministry of Commerce, criticized the U.S. as “capricious.”

“Yes, they have a plan. No, I don’t think it will work,” said Bill Reinsch, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The plan is always push harder, demand everything and offer nothing.”

Adding to the confusion, senior administration officials have said they don’t know exactly what Trump will decide to say or do on trade at any given moment. That uncertainty has led advisers to compete for his attention in a bid

to sway him, which
leads to varied tactics and mixed messaging.

Officials like National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow have indicated the goal is to knock down barriers to U.S. exports, such as tariffs. But under the rules of the World Trade Organization, China is bound to give the United States the same

tariff treatment as every other WTO member, making negotiations on the reduction
of duties difficult.

Beyond uncertainty about the administration’s goals, U.S. business groups also aren’t pleased with the approach taken by the administration — imposing a lot of new tariffs — in a bid to spur change.

“One way we’ve been putting it lately is: right question, wrong answer,”

said Josh Kallmer, senior vice president of global policy at the Information Technology Industry Council.

“We’ve actually been really supportive of the administration for undertaking the investigation and raising this to a level of seriousness that past administrations have not,” added Kallmer, a former career official at the USTR with experience in

negotiating with China.

But “the path they’ve gone on, we’ve found it to be pretty counterproductive and bordering on irresponsible,” he added, saying tariffs are merely going to hurt American standards of living by raising prices.

***

The Atlantic
Trump Always Wanted a Trade War — and Now He’s Got Several

KRISHNADEV CALAMUR
JUN 15, 2018

http://tinyurl.com/yc73scto

Excerpts:

The president’s seemingly arbitrary punishment of countries with wildly different practices suggests he was never much interested in negotiating.

The variety of Trump’s targets, starting with U.S. allies whose trade policies resemble those of the United States, and continuing with China, which is almost universally acknowledged to engage in unfair competitive practices, proves there’s

something more going on here than a simple desire to punish bad actors and negotiate
fairer deals. If that were the goal, China would not be treated similarly to Europe even though the two have vastly different approaches to trade. But Trump
really does seem to believe that “trade wars are good, and easy to win.” His priority is not
negotiating, but fighting.

First came Canada, the EU, and Mexico; now it’s China’s turn.

China responded almost immediately, saying it will retaliate against the tariffs at the same scale.

[Trump's doing most of this trade war crap out of his own long-term
obsession with trade deficits. But...]

Most mainstream economists from across the political spectrum say deficits do not matter as much as people think they do, and that deficits are based on a variety of factors including the value of a nation’s currency and how much its citizens save.

Tariffs, though, result in trade wars that result in higher prices across the board
for all consumers.

Singling out China’s trade practices and economic policies for criticism or punitive action might be one thing, but Trump has done the same for U.S. allies

whose regulatory, labor, and environmental frameworks are at least as stringent
as those in the
U.S. Two weeks ago, he imposed tariffs of 25 percent tariffs on steel and 10 percent tariffs on aluminum imports from Canada, the EU, and Mexico, citing national-security concerns. They reacted angrily, and imposed retaliatory tariffs. Both Canada and the EU have complaints about China’s trade practices
similar to those of the
U.S., and they could have been reliable allies in persuading Beijing to alter its
policies in order to make trade with it more balanced. (Mexico, fearing the demise of nafta, is meanwhile cozying up to China.)

America’s trading partners have their own politics to consider, and the concessions Trump demanded were often simply too much.

***

Trump doesn't much care about "higher prices across the board for
all consumers", which is the very likely outcome of his trade wars.
Why? Because really rich people can afford to pay higher prices,
especially if they also get major benefits like huge tax breaks.

Note: once again Trump will be hurting the poor and middle class,
while hopefully making certain conditions more favorable for the
super-rich (although this whole strategy could easily backfire).

Tl:dr

Trump is finally taking on the ChiComs. They have had it their way
for far too long. The US will outspend the ChiComs in any trade war
and most of the shit manufactured in China is so pathetic (unless
manufactured under licence, supervision by Euro or US corporates) that
the US can well do without it. China has no innovation, they steal IP
and have been carrying out raw espionage against the west for decades
and getting away with it.

Trump is our best bet to stop this nonsense from these fuckers. ANd I
do believe he will. Australia is the only major western power which
has had no tariffs placed on our exports to the US and we really do
appreciate that, at least those of us who use our heads to THINK with.
It's not coincidental...

You're a fucking idiot if you can't see the big picture. Even Slider
can although his view that the big picture is simply icononclasm and
chaos is incorrect, but at least he can see outside of his own
physical vision. You can't. This is why the "progressives" lost the
election, and a good thing too. Imagine a US steered by HRC into
another global conflict, with Antifa and the Cali airheads running
home affairs... :)

.

---
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--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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From: slider@anashram.com

On Mon, 25 Jun 2018 04:40:54 +0100, thang ornerythinchus <thangolossus@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 23:49:23 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.com>
wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 22:50:13 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan
<david.j.worrell@gmail.com> wrote:

Beyond the feints and jabs, he’s raised so many different issues that
it’s hard to know what his priorities might really be.

### - everything he's been doing and is doing; in a nutshell..

iow: a smoke screen!

Trump is an iconoclast. He does the ordering, not the usual
puppeteers.

We could do with a dose of Trump here in Australia actually.

### - no need for that...

after all... they've gots YOU! (really laffing ahahaha!)

(meaning: you're as-right wing as that fucker is lol)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: david.j.worrell@gmail.com

On Sunday, June 24, 2018 at 8:40:56 PM UTC-7, thang ornerythinchus wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 23:49:23 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.com>
wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 22:50:13 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan
wrote:

Beyond the feints and jabs, he’s raised so many different issues that >> it’s hard to know what his priorities might really be.

### - everything he's been doing and is doing; in a nutshell..

iow: a smoke screen!

Trump is an iconoclast. He does the ordering, not the usual
puppeteers.

We could do with a dose of Trump here in Australia actually.

Don't worry, you'll get more than a dose of him. You already are,
actually, you don't seem to be aware of it.

Here, this is one 'dose' - just one gift from Trump and his ilk: http://tinyurl.com/y7njdp4o

There will be plenty more. Believe me. :)

.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: slider@anashram.org

On Mon, 25 Jun 2018 17:12:36 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan <david.j.worrell@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sunday, June 24, 2018 at 8:40:56 PM UTC-7, thang ornerythinchus wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 23:49:23 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.com>
wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 22:50:13 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan
wrote:

Beyond the feints and jabs, he’s raised so many different issues that >> >> it’s hard to know what his priorities might really be.

### - everything he's been doing and is doing; in a nutshell..

iow: a smoke screen!

Trump is an iconoclast. He does the ordering, not the usual
puppeteers.

We could do with a dose of Trump here in Australia actually.

Don't worry, you'll get more than a dose of him. You already are,
actually, you don't seem to be aware of it.

Here, this is one 'dose' - just one gift from Trump and his ilk: http://tinyurl.com/y7njdp4o

There will be plenty more. Believe me. :)

### - and that's just 'one' of the many canaries we have in various
tipping points around the globe, all of which are currently showing
stress... mind you, dumping millions of tons of radioactive shit into
those oceans doesn't exactly help either!? plastic too! and is rather
obviously the evidential end-results of an increasingly detrimental
environment to all and sundry, ourselves included...

perforce no one person is to blame for all this...

it's taken 'years' to get to this tipping point?! (actually started with
the industrial revolution and those 'satanic mills' of good olde
england...)

silly bollocks only tightening the purse strings in an obvious attempt to
slow down the rate of our own rapidly declining 'human' economy (has no
other choice really) so further cuts 'will' thus be made! (the whole
thing's going down the dunney! (the shit hole) and there's basically now nothing 'anyone' can do to stop it! all we can do is to sadly + lamentably watch those various canaries all dying one by one, i don't think anything
can stop it now...)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: david.j.worrell@gmail.com

Trump Is Saving Germany’s Liberals
By Jagoda Marinic

Ms. Marinic is the author of “Made in Germany.”

June 25, 2018

HEIDELBERG, Germany — Last week President Trump tweeted that German voters were beginning to rebel against Chancellor Angela Merkel over her refugee policy. “The people of Germany are turning against their leadership as migration is rocking the
already tenuous Berlin coalition,” he wrote. Days later, he tweeted again, asserting — wrongly — that crime in our country was up because of the hundreds of thousands of refugees Germany has admitted over the last few years.

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
The people of Germany are turning against their leadership as migration is rocking the already tenuous Berlin coalition. Crime in Germany is way up. Big mistake made all over Europe in allowing millions of people in who have so strongly and violently
changed their culture!

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Crime in Germany is up 10% plus (officials do not want to report these crimes)
since migrants were accepted. Others countries are even worse. Be smart America!

Both of these comments are demonstrably, laughably wrong. And more than that: Mr. Trump’s efforts to insert himself into German politics is having the opposite effect, driving together the parties that make up Ms. Merkel’s fractious center-right
alliance, and pushing voters away from the parties on the fringe.

Let’s go tweet by tweet. Chancellor Merkel still has an approval rating of 64
percent; she is by far Germany’s most respected politician. And she’s on an
upswing: People here love the idea of her standing up to Mr. Trump — she got a boost after a
photo of her towering over him at the G-7 summit went viral.

Barack Obama all but literally passed on the mantle of “leader of the free world” to Ms. Merkel (and not Mr. Trump), and most Germans feel empowered by that new responsibility. A country that, due to its history, feels uncomfortable with being the
leader of the free world is coming to understand its role in standing up for liberal democracy in a world turning more and more authoritarian.

In this respect, Mr. Trump’s tweets are clarifying: He and his followers have
managed to mobilize more and more institutions and citizens to organize pro-European demonstrations and petitions, many of them demanding that Germany defend the values that
underlie the “West.”

About that crime tweet: In fact, crime in Germany is currently at a 26-year low. But right-wing populists are using criminal acts committed by a relatively
small number of refugees to create a climate of fear and thus cut off empathy for those in need.
They are being assisted by parts of the German media who know that fear sells papers.

The populists and the news media have exploited several high-profile cases in which refugee men have raped and murdered young women. These are tragic stories, and horrific crimes. But in fact the number of murder cases involving young women has dropped
from 30 in 2000 to 15 in 2017.

Yet the fear-mongering is creating a positive response. As the anti-immigrant faction picked up on these stories, German feminists rallied, demanding to know
why violence against women in Germany gets so little attention unless it’s committed by a
migrant. Rather than driving German feminists and refugees apart, a new avenue of conversation between them has opened.

Still, even as Mr. Trump is inadvertently bringing Germans together, there is something that troubles us. Germany has always been strongly pro-American — not always on policy, but in celebrating the sense that America is our most stable trans-Atlantic
partner. In the last year, and especially over the last few weeks, we seem to have lost that alliance.

Germans have not always liked what America did in the world, but we deeply admired it for a postwar strategy that helped Germany become what it is today. Most Germans have stories like those my American studies professors would tell us at university.
These stories all go back to a moment when they were children and met a G.I., often soon after the war, who introduced them to music they had never listened to before, gave them sweets they had never tried or simply behaved toward them in a way the
soldiers of the Nazi regime never had.

Yes, they might be the nostalgic, infantile memories of a postwar child. But they also fit our self-conception. For decades after the war, Germans were democrats-in-training; we had to learn the rule of law and the values of liberalism. Democracy was
nothing this country ever fought for. Instead, we learned it from America.

There has always been ambiguity about American leadership — one should not forget George W. Bush and his Axis of Evil — but it always felt safer than turning one’s head toward Russia or China. For the first time Germans cannot be sure of this. We
don’t know where the United States is leading the world.

The anti-Trump dynamic is at work at home, too. A few weeks ago Horst Seehofer,
the head of the Christian Social Union, hinted that he might pull his party out
of Ms. Merkel’s coalition government, where he is the interior minister, unless she agreed
to sharp limits on immigration. It was a trumpian move, designed to counter inroads made in the party’s home base of Bavaria by the far-right Alternative
for Germany (known by its German initials AfD).

But instead of wrecking the government or forcing Ms. Merkel’s hand, Mr. Seehofer’s crude politics forced the majority of Germans who support Ms. Merkel’s position to ask why the 13 percent of far-right voters behind the AfD seem to set the agenda.
And why should the elections in little Bavaria define the future of Europe? Instead of getting what he wanted, Mr. Seehofer has set off a wakeup call for his opponents, and is driving Ms. Merkel to work harder with her European allies.

Most Germans feel Ms. Merkel has it just right: After a too-permissive policy in 2015, she created Germany’s most restrictive immigration laws ever. The fact that even this doesn’t seem to be enough for the far-right angers liberal Germans. And it
has set off a soul-searching among the center-right Christian Democrats as well. Is it right for a party rooted in faith to sacrifice empathy for the less
fortunate? And it has both sides in a surprising alignment, fighting to preserve the postwar
European heritage.

Ms. Merkel and Mr. Seehofer have now agreed on a two-week break from their fight. The German chancellor thus gained time to find allies for a European way
out of the crisis; after a meeting Wednesday with French President Emmanuel Macron, she seems well
on the way.

The far-right in Europe is happy to have the support of the American president.
But for the rest of us — the vast majority of us — Mr. Trump’s endless, angry talk, and the images of children taken from their parents from the American border, is
only strengthening the resolve of the German center. It is reminding us how important Europe and European values are, and that someone has to defend them.

Jagoda Marinic (@jagodamarinic), an essayist and novelist, is the author, most recently, of “Made in Germany.”

***

Go German center! :)

I especially like this part:
"Germans have not always liked what America did in the world, but we
deeply admired it for a postwar strategy that helped Germany become
what it is today."

They need to help us now. Help us get rid of this Trumpism shit.

.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: slider@anashram.com

### - there ya go...

ain't that so clever of us??

and 'coz there's what it's really all about huh...

https://www.facebook.com/ScienceNaturePage/videos/1288703157928606/

wonderful....

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: thangolossus@gmail.com

On Mon, 25 Jun 2018 09:12:36 -0700 (PDT), "Jeremy H. Denisovan" <david.j.worrell@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sunday, June 24, 2018 at 8:40:56 PM UTC-7, thang ornerythinchus wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 23:49:23 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.com>
wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 22:50:13 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan
wrote:

Beyond the feints and jabs, he’s raised so many different issues that >> >> it’s hard to know what his priorities might really be.

### - everything he's been doing and is doing; in a nutshell..

iow: a smoke screen!

Trump is an iconoclast. He does the ordering, not the usual
puppeteers.

We could do with a dose of Trump here in Australia actually.

Don't worry, you'll get more than a dose of him. You already are,
actually, you don't seem to be aware of it.

Here, this is one 'dose' - just one gift from Trump and his ilk: >http://tinyurl.com/y7njdp4o

There will be plenty more. Believe me. :)

That link takes me to "coral decline" in northern Australia. Am I
missing something?

.

---
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--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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From: thangolossus@gmail.com

On Mon, 25 Jun 2018 11:30:29 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.com>
wrote:

On Mon, 25 Jun 2018 04:40:54 +0100, thang ornerythinchus ><thangolossus@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 23:49:23 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.com>
wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 22:50:13 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan
<david.j.worrell@gmail.com> wrote:

Beyond the feints and jabs, he’s raised so many different issues that >>>> it’s hard to know what his priorities might really be.

### - everything he's been doing and is doing; in a nutshell..

iow: a smoke screen!

Trump is an iconoclast. He does the ordering, not the usual
puppeteers.

We could do with a dose of Trump here in Australia actually.

### - no need for that...

after all... they've gots YOU! (really laffing ahahaha!)

(meaning: you're as-right wing as that fucker is lol)

You compartmentalise too much, too easily. That's just fucking lazy.
There are shades of all colours, nothing is black and white. The most
virulent "right wing" outfit ever known, the Nazis, had the word
"socialist" in their moniker (national sozialiste deutsche arbiter
partei - national *socialist* german workers party). The swastika is considered the footprint of the buddha and homologous with the dharma
wheel. Nothing is black and white.

I smoke dope and don't fucking vote. I don't do a lot of other things
that reputable and respectable citizens like you and David Jerome do.
I do most things to please myself. I believe that untrammeled
immigration is a fucking disgrace and that China is raping the world
and that the US has the only democratically based military capable of
spanking the two great dictatorships of our time, Russia and China. If
you were'nt so tied up in your silly wally world delusion, you would
see all this crystal clear too.

And, I smoke way more dope than you do :)

---
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--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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From: thangolossus@gmail.com

On Mon, 25 Jun 2018 17:33:45 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.org>
wrote:

On Mon, 25 Jun 2018 17:12:36 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan ><david.j.worrell@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sunday, June 24, 2018 at 8:40:56 PM UTC-7, thang ornerythinchus wrote: >>> On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 23:49:23 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.com>

wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 22:50:13 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan
wrote:

Beyond the feints and jabs, he’s raised so many different issues that >>> >> it’s hard to know what his priorities might really be.

### - everything he's been doing and is doing; in a nutshell..

iow: a smoke screen!

Trump is an iconoclast. He does the ordering, not the usual
puppeteers.

We could do with a dose of Trump here in Australia actually.

Don't worry, you'll get more than a dose of him. You already are,
actually, you don't seem to be aware of it.

Here, this is one 'dose' - just one gift from Trump and his ilk:
http://tinyurl.com/y7njdp4o

There will be plenty more. Believe me. :)

### - and that's just 'one' of the many canaries we have in various
tipping points around the globe, all of which are currently showing
stress... mind you, dumping millions of tons of radioactive shit into
those oceans doesn't exactly help either!? plastic too! and is rather >obviously the evidential end-results of an increasingly detrimental >environment to all and sundry, ourselves included...

perforce no one person is to blame for all this...

Now that's what I'm talking about. You are being reasonable now. It
seems to me that Dave is blaming this on Trump, which is patently
ridiculous.

it's taken 'years' to get to this tipping point?! (actually started with
the industrial revolution and those 'satanic mills' of good olde
england...)

Yep. Couldn't agree more. We have proverbially shat in our own nest.
It needs to stop. And, it is. Australia has just banned non-reusable
plastic bags, I think we are the first in the world. That's an
example.

silly bollocks only tightening the purse strings in an obvious attempt to >slow down the rate of our own rapidly declining 'human' economy (has no
other choice really) so further cuts 'will' thus be made! (the whole
thing's going down the dunney! (the shit hole) and there's basically now >nothing 'anyone' can do to stop it! all we can do is to sadly + lamentably >watch those various canaries all dying one by one, i don't think anything
can stop it now...)

That's nonsense. Much is being done.

---
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--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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From: slider@anashram.com

On Thu, 05 Jul 2018 01:46:09 +0100, thang ornerythinchus <thangolossus@gmail.com> wrote:

On Mon, 25 Jun 2018 11:30:29 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.com>
wrote:

On Mon, 25 Jun 2018 04:40:54 +0100, thang ornerythinchus
<thangolossus@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 23:49:23 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.com>
wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 22:50:13 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan
<david.j.worrell@gmail.com> wrote:

Beyond the feints and jabs, he’s raised so many different issues that >>>>> it’s hard to know what his priorities might really be.

### - everything he's been doing and is doing; in a nutshell..

iow: a smoke screen!

Trump is an iconoclast. He does the ordering, not the usual
puppeteers.

We could do with a dose of Trump here in Australia actually.

### - no need for that...

after all... they've gots YOU! (really laffing ahahaha!)

(meaning: you're as-right wing as that fucker is lol)

You compartmentalise too much, too easily. That's just fucking lazy.
There are shades of all colours, nothing is black and white. The most virulent "right wing" outfit ever known, the Nazis, had the word
"socialist" in their moniker (national sozialiste deutsche arbiter
partei - national *socialist* german workers party). The swastika is considered the footprint of the buddha and homologous with the dharma
wheel. Nothing is black and white.

### - too far right OR left IS obviously a disaster! (a travesty
actually!) so the questions arises: where is it then 'the' most intelligent/advantageous place to stand considering all the places one
'can' stand?!

('just' left of center of course, where else heh...)

I smoke dope and don't fucking vote. I don't do a lot of other things
that reputable and respectable citizens like you and David Jerome do.
I do most things to please myself. I believe that untrammeled
immigration is a fucking disgrace and that China is raping the world
and that the US has the only democratically based military capable of spanking the two great dictatorships of our time, Russia and China. If
you were'nt so tied up in your silly wally world delusion, you would
see all this crystal clear too.

### - "democratically based military"??? (gotta really laff at that one hehehe...)

if you don't come to 'democracy', democracy will come to you! (with bombs
& shit lol)

we INSIST that you become democratic! (iow: how else could we ever influence/affect your government otherwise?) democracy?? riiiight...

"We don't live in a 'democracy' - we live in a 'hypocrisy'! --malcomb x
(who, because of the things he got involved in, got the chance to
see/recognise all that for himself and put it together...)

And, I smoke way more dope than you do :)

### - believe it or not, the 'only' thing i actually took home/got from
college at age 18 was weed and acid LOL :))) oh and my first real
girlfriend too...

so all in all then, a fairly decent education that set me up for 'life'
hahaha ;)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: david.j.worrell@gmail.com

How to Make Trump’s Tax Returns Public
By David Cay Johnston

Johnston is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter
and the author of two books about Donald Trump.

July 4, 2018

http://tinyurl.com/y9x293q2

(...article not included...)

Summary of the Takeaways:

* New York State attorney general Barbara Underwood has filed a
CIVIL complaint against President Trump and his three oldest children,
accusing them of “persistently illegal conduct” in using the
Donald J. Trump Foundation

* Letters Underwood sent the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal
Election Commission recommend “further investigation and legal action.”

* Underwood could gain the authority to start a CRIMINAL investigation
against Trump if ANY of the following request it: Gov. Andrew Cuomo,
the New York State Police, the state Department of Taxation and Finance,
or Cyrus Vance Jr., the Manhattan DA.

(That is 4 different ways to possibly gain the authority)

* If an investigation concluded that Mr. Trump cheated the state,
Ms. Underwood and Mr. Vance have the authority to put Mr. Trump’s
tax returns — both state and federal — into the public record
by filing civil or criminal tax fraud charges.

* Trump has a well-documented history of cheating governments.

* Trump already lost two civil tax fraud trials over his
1984 income tax returns.

This shit is only one of Trump's many huge problems.
Shit is going to hit the fan in so many different ways.

It's probably worth following:
DCReport.org
A NON-PROFIT news service. (Got it bookmarked.)

.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: slider@anashram.com

On Thu, 05 Jul 2018 01:50:32 +0100, thang ornerythinchus <thangolossus@gmail.com> wrote:

On Mon, 25 Jun 2018 17:33:45 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.org>
wrote:

On Mon, 25 Jun 2018 17:12:36 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan
<david.j.worrell@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sunday, June 24, 2018 at 8:40:56 PM UTC-7, thang ornerythinchus
wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 23:49:23 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.com>
wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 22:50:13 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan
wrote:

Beyond the feints and jabs, he’s raised so many different issues

that

it’s hard to know what his priorities might really be.

### - everything he's been doing and is doing; in a nutshell..

iow: a smoke screen!

Trump is an iconoclast. He does the ordering, not the usual
puppeteers.

We could do with a dose of Trump here in Australia actually.

Don't worry, you'll get more than a dose of him. You already are,
actually, you don't seem to be aware of it.

Here, this is one 'dose' - just one gift from Trump and his ilk:
http://tinyurl.com/y7njdp4o

There will be plenty more. Believe me. :)

### - and that's just 'one' of the many canaries we have in various
tipping points around the globe, all of which are currently showing
stress... mind you, dumping millions of tons of radioactive shit into
those oceans doesn't exactly help either!? plastic too! and is rather
obviously the evidential end-results of an increasingly detrimental
environment to all and sundry, ourselves included...

perforce no one person is to blame for all this...

Now that's what I'm talking about. You are being reasonable now. It
seems to me that Dave is blaming this on Trump, which is patently
ridiculous.

### - imho, having only just woken up to how horribly fucked-up our world
is (and is steadily becoming) he's merely blaming everything on the one
source currently which is highlighting it, but when trumpy's gawn the
problems will still remain and then the 'truth' will come hammering home
to him! WE did THIS!

it's taken 'years' to get to this tipping point?! (actually started with
the industrial revolution and those 'satanic mills' of good olde
england...)

Yep. Couldn't agree more. We have proverbially shat in our own nest.
It needs to stop. And, it is. Australia has just banned non-reusable plastic bags, I think we are the first in the world. That's an
example.

### - a serious case of: FAR too little too late? of closing the
proverbial barn door 'after' the horse has already long fucked off out of
it?

IF we REALLY wanted to DO something REAL about it + realising the
genuinely horrible situation WE'VE created and ARE creating, then
everything else should just STOP while we fuckin' FIX IT - TODAY! -
instead of TALKING about fixing it, and making ultimately USELESS gestures
of banning reusable plastic bags and then smugly feeling like we've
actually DONE something about it???

e.g., ALL that money spent on weapons - just THIS year alone! - would
likely be enough to ACTUALLY clean up the oceans in a year or 3! but
noooo, we've gots OTHER priorities???

yeah riiiiight...

silly bollocks only tightening the purse strings in an obvious attempt
to
slow down the rate of our own rapidly declining 'human' economy (has no
other choice really) so further cuts 'will' thus be made! (the whole
thing's going down the dunney! (the shit hole) and there's basically now
nothing 'anyone' can do to stop it! all we can do is to sadly +
lamentably
watch those various canaries all dying one by one, i don't think
anything
can stop it now...)

That's nonsense. Much is being done.

### - i really don't think you have visualised the 'sheer-scale' of the problems thang??

with 2 thirds of the flora & fauna already... gone?

the oceans literally choking with refuse??

millions of people starving to death???

it's a runaway train going downhill! and chucking straw under it's wheels
ain't gonna be slowing it anywhere even enough to affect anything??

how's about a 'global ocean day' wherein the whole fucking planet gets
down to actually DOING something for REAL about cleaning this shit up??

too expensive! besides, weapons are cheaper and make vast profits!

iow: they ain't gonna be 'doing' shit about shit thang!

putting up the prices of everything! that's all they's ever gonna be doing
lol :)

less fish more cost! it's good business! (harsh sarcasm btw)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: david.j.worrell@gmail.com

On Wednesday, July 4, 2018 at 5:50:36 PM UTC-7, thang ornerythinchus wrote:

On Mon, 25 Jun 2018 17:33:45 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.org>
wrote:

On Mon, 25 Jun 2018 17:12:36 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan
wrote:

On Sunday, June 24, 2018 at 8:40:56 PM UTC-7, thang ornerythinchus wrote: >>> On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 23:49:23 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.com>

wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 22:50:13 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan
wrote:

Beyond the feints and jabs, he’s raised so many different issues

that

it’s hard to know what his priorities might really be.

### - everything he's been doing and is doing; in a nutshell..

iow: a smoke screen!

Trump is an iconoclast. He does the ordering, not the usual
puppeteers.

We could do with a dose of Trump here in Australia actually.

Don't worry, you'll get more than a dose of him. You already are,
actually, you don't seem to be aware of it.

Here, this is one 'dose' - just one gift from Trump and his ilk:
http://tinyurl.com/y7njdp4o

There will be plenty more. Believe me. :)

### - and that's just 'one' of the many canaries we have in various >tipping points around the globe, all of which are currently showing >stress... mind you, dumping millions of tons of radioactive shit into >those oceans doesn't exactly help either!? plastic too! and is rather >obviously the evidential end-results of an increasingly detrimental >environment to all and sundry, ourselves included...

perforce no one person is to blame for all this...

Now that's what I'm talking about. You are being reasonable now. It
seems to me that Dave is blaming this on Trump, which is patently
ridiculous.

Looks like you are indeed "missing something". Something huge!
Something also obvious as hell. Trump and his appointees are doing
everything they possibly can to UNDO virtually every major
environmental regulation enacted in the previous decades.

Are you really too stupid to realize that that WILL (and is)
having major effects on the environment all over the world.
In every place where we're at a tipping point, his policies are
guaranteed to push us on into the worst possible consequences.

For example, Trump appointed the idiot Scott Pruitt head of
the EPA. That man has been attacking clean air, clean water,
automobile, and carbon regulation standards (ALL kinds of
regulations, actually) constantly - in numerous dastardly
ways, ever since he was appointed.

Today, that asshole leaves in disgrace, like so many of Trump's
people have been forced to do (hopefully soon Trump himself).

***

E.P.A. Chief Scott Pruitt Resigns Under a Cloud of Ethics Scandals http://tinyurl.com/y82b6raj

"Scott Pruitt, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency,
is the subject of 13 federal investigations into allegations of legal
and ethical violations.

Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection
Agency and architect of President Trump’s aggressive effort to
rewrite the government’s rule book on environmental regulations,
resigned on Thursday in the face of numerous ethics investigations
that doomed his tenure."

***

I can't really celebrate, though, because the Deputy standing
right behind that asshole, ready to take his place, is another
Trump appointee - Andrew Wheeler, former coal lobbyist.

Can you imagine anything more insane than having a former
*coal lobbyist* RUNNING the EPA? Well, not that I doubt your
ability to imagine insane things. You're quite good at it. Heh.

But if it's up to these people and others like them, then all of
the world's reefs are toast - and yet somehow you don't manage
to even see any connection (where any damn fool could).

.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: intraphase@gmail.com

JFK reading Declaration of Independence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PSUr9rMVtc

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: slider@anashram.com

On Fri, 06 Jul 2018 01:32:09 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan <david.j.worrell@gmail.com> wrote:

On Wednesday, July 4, 2018 at 5:50:36 PM UTC-7, thang ornerythinchus
wrote:

On Mon, 25 Jun 2018 17:33:45 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.org>
wrote:

On Mon, 25 Jun 2018 17:12:36 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan
wrote:

On Sunday, June 24, 2018 at 8:40:56 PM UTC-7, thang ornerythinchus

wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 23:49:23 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.com>
wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 22:50:13 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan
wrote:

Beyond the feints and jabs, he’s raised so many different issues

that

it’s hard to know what his priorities might really be.

### - everything he's been doing and is doing; in a nutshell..

iow: a smoke screen!

Trump is an iconoclast. He does the ordering, not the usual
puppeteers.

We could do with a dose of Trump here in Australia actually.

Don't worry, you'll get more than a dose of him. You already are,
actually, you don't seem to be aware of it.

Here, this is one 'dose' - just one gift from Trump and his ilk:
http://tinyurl.com/y7njdp4o

There will be plenty more. Believe me. :)

### - and that's just 'one' of the many canaries we have in various
tipping points around the globe, all of which are currently showing
stress... mind you, dumping millions of tons of radioactive shit into
those oceans doesn't exactly help either!? plastic too! and is rather
obviously the evidential end-results of an increasingly detrimental
environment to all and sundry, ourselves included...

perforce no one person is to blame for all this...

Now that's what I'm talking about. You are being reasonable now. It
seems to me that Dave is blaming this on Trump, which is patently
ridiculous.

Looks like you are indeed "missing something". Something huge!
Something also obvious as hell. Trump and his appointees are doing
everything they possibly can to UNDO virtually every major
environmental regulation enacted in the previous decades.

### - welcome to the right-wing world! ya takes from the poor (or in this
case; the environment) and ya gives to the rich!

cuts cuts cuts are the order of the day! oh and austerity too!

can't cut money from the rich, soooo?

Are you really too stupid to realize that that WILL (and is)
having major effects on the environment all over the world.
In every place where we're at a tipping point, his policies are
guaranteed to push us on into the worst possible consequences.

### - bollocks! and is quite the exaggeration too! and because NOT
'pushing' (i.e. necessarily 'adding' to it all) just not 'pulling' or
taking 'away' from it all...

For example, Trump appointed the idiot Scott Pruitt head of
the EPA. That man has been attacking clean air, clean water,
automobile, and carbon regulation standards (ALL kinds of
regulations, actually) constantly - in numerous dastardly
ways, ever since he was appointed.

### - 'since' he was appointed to 'cut/trim' that particular budget!
obviously heh...

THAT'S his job! CUT back this massive budget we're not even sure we
believe in?

and NOT just the environment, but everywhere else it's possible to cut
back on as well too!

'austerity' remember?? the opposite of... spending??

Today, that asshole leaves in disgrace, like so many of Trump's
people have been forced to do (hopefully soon Trump himself).

### - 'another' scapegoat bites the dust eh?

wasn't doin' his job properly! (didn't make big-enough cuts more likely!
or just didn't do what he's told... dozens just waiting to fill his
post...)

But if it's up to these people and others like them, then all of
the world's reefs are toast - and yet somehow you don't manage
to even see any connection (where any damn fool could).

### - arguably there's fuck-all anyone can 'actually' do about it anyway?

at least not directly, and/or in any way that will (or would) show
immediate results?

fuck it, (and this is the right-wing talking) we gots to cut the hell
outta everything in order to have an appreciable effect now: 'today'!

let the left wing deal with that shit when 'they' gets back in?

give/leave 'em such problems they'll never get it together before it all
gets blamed on them and we'll be straight back in anyway! whoo-hoo!

it's a win-win!

for the... right...

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: david.j.worrell@gmail.com

Now let's talk about yet another area where Trump is extremely
dangerous - his erosion of the separation of church and state.

***

"Trump’s administration has consistently treated the separation of
church and state as a form of heresy rather than a cherished
American value."

"Many Americans were shocked when Attorney General Jeff Sessions
turned to the Bible — specifically, Paul’s epistle to the Romans —
to justify President Trump’s policy of separating migrant children
from their parents... Sarah Huckabee Sanders followed up with a
reminder that it was “very biblical” to enforce the law. Neither
went on to quote Verse 10, which proclaims, “Love worketh no ill
to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” "

"The very meaning of the phrases “religious liberty” and
“religious freedom”— traditionally understood as referring to
the right of Americans to practice whatever faith they wish or
no faith at all — is being altered to mean that government
should foster a closer relationship with those who want to mix
their Christian faith with taxpayer dollars. This usage can be
found in numerous executive orders and speeches by Mr. Trump
and his cabinet members."

"Rachel Laser, president of Americans United, put it succinctly:
“The separation of church and state means that we don’t base
public policy on the Bible or any religious book.” "

"Scott Pruitt... asserted in an interview with the Christian
Broadcasting Network that Americans who want stricter environmental
standards are contradicting the Bible. Mr. Pruitt, a former trustee
of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said, “The biblical
worldview with respect to these issues is that we have a
responsibility to manage and cultivate, harvest the natural
resources that we’ve been blessed with...”

"Today’s religious right... asserts that the only purpose of the
'wall of separation' was to protect religion from government —
not government from religion. That was true in early colonial
America, but the other side of the equation was well understood
by the time the Constitution — which never mentions God and
explicitly bars all religious tests for public office —
was written. Destructive religious wars in 17th-century Europe,
among other factors, had led many Americans to the realization
that governments could indeed be threatened by a close
identification with religion."

"Ben Carson, the secretary of housing and urban development and
a devout Seventh-day Adventist, has described commitment to the
separation of church and state as “crap,” prompted by
“political correctness.” At a December cabinet meeting, Dr. Carson
was asked by Mr. Trump to say a prayer thanking God for the
recently passed tax cut bill."

"Jeff Sessions took on a larger mission last fall when he sent a
25-page memo on “protections for religious liberty” to every
federal agency. It warned that government “may not exclude
religious organizations as such from secular aid programs,
at least when the aid is not being used for explicitly religious
activities such as worship or proselytization.” Andrew Seidel,
a lawyer with the Freedom From Religion Foundation, notes that
although it’s hard to know what this will mean in practice,
“It’s an invitation — but one that carries great authority —
to go further and further and further in shrinking the distance
between church and state.”

"Education Secretary Betsy DeVos... devoted much of her life to
promoting private and religious schools over public education.
She is particularly proud that last year’s tax bill expanded the
education savings accounts known as 529s so that they can now be
used to pay for private schools, starting from kindergarten.
In May, Ms. DeVos visited New York City, which has the largest
public school system in the country. She did not inspect a
single public school. Instead, she stopped by two Orthodox
Jewish schools and spoke at a fund-raiser where she was introduced
by Cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan. In her speech, she expressed
support for tax credits to help pay tuition for private schools."

- Susan Jacoby, author of “The Age of American Unreason
in a Culture of Lies”

***

One more important thing about disgraced jackass Scott Pruitt:

"The most lasting blow to the EPA could simply be Pruitt’s campaign
to defund and destaff the agency’s programs. In the 2019 budget
proposal he suggested the agency take a 23 percent budget cut,
and pushed to kill programs, including ones aimed at cleaning up
the Great Lakes and preventing children’s exposure to lead —
in an attempt to make up for the $2.5 billion funding gap.

With the number of employees now down to the lowest level in
30 years, the EPA is also increasingly incapable of enforcing the
laws that remain. Because the agency needs to catch and fine
perpetrators to fund clean-up, reducing its workforce is a
significant blow. The EPA ordered just $1.6 billion in fines
last year, one-fifth of the amount in 2016."
- Agnes Walton (Vice News)

[So going by dollars, enforcement is now about 20% of what it was.
Isn't it obvious what effect that will have on major polluters?
They're all saying: "Yeehaw! Unless we fuck up super bad they'll
never come after us, so full steam ahead and screw the pollution!"

As our air, water, and lands get more and more poisonous.]

***

"As a candidate and shortly after taking office, Trump declared that
he would “totally destroy” what is known as the Johnson Amendment,
the long-standing ban on churches and other tax-exempt organizations
supporting political candidates.

But that provision is written in the tax code and would require
an act of Congress to repeal fully.

In a letter to Republican leaders of Congress, Sen. Ron Wyden
(D-Ore.) and other Democrats expressed concern that repealing the
amendment would allow tax-exempt churches and other nonprofits
to be used to skirt campaign finance laws.

89 percent of evangelical leaders said in a National Association
of Evangelicals poll that they do not think pastors should
endorse politicians from the pulpit.

Until Trump elevated it during his campaign, the Johnson Amendment
was rarely a top priority for advocates of religious liberty.
In fact, some faith groups have said they strongly support the
amendment that Trump is weakening. Requiring churches to stay out
of politics, they say, is key to separating church and state.

The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, a leading
faith-based group focused on religious freedom, has said it
supports the Johnson Amendment because keeping politics and
religion separate is best for religion.

Rabbi Jack Moline, president of the Interfaith Alliance, criticized
the executive order in a statement. “For decades, the Johnson
Amendment has prevented houses of worship from being turned into
partisan political tools. A majority of clergy — and Americans —
support the status quo and oppose political endorsements from
the pulpit.”

Nonreligious groups also support the Johnson Amendment, which
applies broadly to charities, not just churches. The Secular
Coalition for America called the executive order Thursday
“an unprecedented attack on the separation of church and state
by a sitting president.” "

-John Wagner and Sarah Pulliam Bailey (Washington Post)

***

Jeff Sessions once called the separation of church and state:
“a recent thing that is unhistorical and unconstitutional,”
during an interview with The Alabama Baptist as a member of
the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1997.

He also suggested a “constitutional change” to remedy the issue.

Sessions: “Because the Constitution says we shall not establish a
religion — Congress shall not establish a religion. It doesn’t say
states couldn’t establish a religion.”

Betsy Devos, Trump's Secretary of Education:
“Our desire is to be in that Shephelah, and to confront the culture
in which we all live today in ways that will continue to help
advance God’s Kingdom,” Devos told The Gathering, an annual
conference for Christian philanthropy, in 2001.

The term “Shephelah” refers to biblical lands where battles were
fought in the Old Testament. According to Politico, which obtained
audio recording of the speech, DeVos and her husband were talking
about their plans to reform America’s education system, which had “displaced” the Church — a trend school choice can reverse,
they said.

Through her family’s nonprofits, DeVos has also poured millions of
dollars into groups that support teaching “intelligent design,”
a right-wing code word for creationism, in schools.

Mike Pence, in a speech to the House as a congressman in 2002:
“Now that we have recognized evolution as a theory, I would simply
and humbly ask, can we teach it as such, and can we also consider
teaching other theories of the origin of species?” -

The speech meant to highlight that evolution is just a theory and
shouldn’t be taught in schools without the Bible’s explanation, too.
Pence even suggested textbooks would need to be changed.

Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, as Georgia's governor in 2007:
“We have come together, very simply, for one reason and one reason
only: to very reverently and respectfully pray up a storm.”.

He had hosted a public prayer on the steps of state’s Capitol...
for rain.

Not only did Perdue face backlash and protests for bringing religion
onto government grounds, the drought intensified.

***

These are the people Trump is putting in charge of
damn near everything. Do you really want that??

***

Back in May 2018, one of Donald Trump’s lawyers unexpectedly told
a national television audience that the president repaid a
different lawyer for the hush-money payoff he made to a porn star
before the election. The next morning, Trump hosted a National Day
of Prayer event at the White House with a group of allied
religious leaders.

The gathering, of course, included no references to the
intensifying sex scandal, but Trump did insist that people say,
“Merry Christmas” more frequently because of him, adding that
Americans are also saying “One nation, under God” more often,
also because of him.

There’s no evidence that either of those claims is true.

But looking past the latest examples of presidential nonsense,
there was an important substantive angle to this event that
shouldn’t go overlooked. The Washington Post reported:

"President Trump in a Rose Garden ceremony Thursday announced an
executive order he said would expand government grants to and
partnerships with religiously-affiliated groups through a new
faith-based office – a move described by one of his top faith
advisers as aimed at changing the culture to produce fewer
discussions about church-state barriers with “all of these
arbitrary concerns as to what is appropriate.” "

Trump’s order created something called the White House Faith and
Opportunity Initiative, and while there’s still some ambiguity
as to what the office will do, Johnnie Moore, the spokesperson
for the president’s evangelical advisory group, told the Post
Trump is ordering every department in the executive branch to
“work on faith-based partnerships.”

That could pose some constitutional problems. For decades,
religious social-service organizations have competed for
government contracts – receiving funds to run soup kitchens
and shelters, for example – but safeguards were put in place.
Groups that accepted public money, for example, couldn’t
proselytize to those receiving benefits.

When one of the president’s advisers says the Trump administration
intends to ignore “arbitrary concerns as to what is appropriate,”
it sounds an awful lot like the White House might look for ways
around those legal safeguards.

Or put another way, the president who’s been largely indifferent
to constitutional principles since taking office appears to have
found another – in this case, the separation of church and state –
he may not want to honor...

The litigation is bound to be interesting.

- Steve Benen (MSNBC)

***

Exit polls in November 2016 showed Trump defeated Clinton
80 percent to 16 percent among white evangelical Christians.
That means Trump owes them, so get ready to see irrational shit,
especially given we have Mike Pence as VP. Pence has already
argued for even more extreme policies favoring religion.

I am an agnostic atheist. Do you think I'm okay with huge amounts
of our tax dollars doled out in support of religious organizations?
And all kinds of major restrictive rules being put in place based
primarily on someone's delusional religious tenets? Absolutely not.
That's some seriously fucked up bullshit, man. :)

.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: slider@anashram.com

On Fri, 06 Jul 2018 20:09:38 +0100, Jeremy H. Denisovan <david.j.worrell@gmail.com> wrote:

[Slider, this updated new law was passed, so this work that was
previously intended to be DONE now will not be done. That is
more than "failure to improve". It's actual rollback in scope.]

### - 'planned' work that 'wont' now be done = cuts!

Specific Examples:

The E.P.A. will examine what harm can be caused to anyone directly
exposed to perchloroethylene — designated by the E.P.A. as a likely carcinogen — during manufacturing or when using it in dry cleaning,
carpet cleaning or handling certain ink-removal products.

But the agency will NOT focus on exposures that occur from traces
of the chemical found in drinking water in 44 states as a result
of improper disposal over decades. The decision conflicts with
a risk assessment plan detailed by the E.P.A. a year ago, which
included drinking water. The agency will also not consider the
hazards of perchloroethylene discharged into streams or lakes,
landfills or the air from dry-cleaning stores or manufacturing.

Similar issues apply to 9 of the first 10 chemicals evaluated.

One is 1,4-dioxane, in antifreeze, deodorants, shampoos and
cosmetics and considered “likely to be carcinogenic to humans.”

Another is trichloroethylene, used to make a refrigerant chemical
and remove grease from metal parts and associated with cancers
of the liver, kidneys and blood.

Pruitt's EPA also narrowed the definitions of certain chemicals,
including asbestos. Some asbestos-like fibers will no longer be
included in the risk assessments, nor will the 8.8 million pounds
a year of asbestos deposited in hazardous landfills or the 13.1
million pounds discarded in routine dump sites.

More than a dozen environmental and public-health groups
are suing the E.P.A. to challenge changes made to this program.

***

This clown Scott Pruitt who just resigned... he was a real piece
of work. Some of the changes Pruitt sought at the EPA adversely
affect the health of everyday Americans. He had begun reversing
the proposal to ban the neurotoxic pesticide chlorpyrifos, going
against all credible scientific advice. He lifted key controls on
air pollution from major industrial sources. He began rolling back
vehicle efficiency standards, which provide a key way to cut
greenhouse gas emissions.

### - yawn... show me 'any' right-wings fucker, who when they were in
office, weren't actively 'cutting' (or rolling back) the shit outta
everything the previous 'left' administration had more benevolently
attempted to implement?

like where ffs, does it ever say in any right-wing policy/agenda that they wanna look after the environment or to better the conditions of the
working man??? they don't! that's never their policy! that's all left-wing ideology!

the left get in and try to repair all the damage caused by the right! they
do good things! they try to look after everyone as best they can on the
little budget they have, they do wonders! people are happier, but the
economy usually suffers as a result because they take from the economy to
pay for all the things that have been neglected, prices start going up to
pay for it all, and at the peak of discontent at these increases the right steps in offering all kinds of promises to 'fix' the economy!

and round & round it all goes like a fuckin' merry-go-round jeez...

Pruitt took unprecedented steps to purge members of the EPA’s
science advisory panels, citing conflicts of interest and replaced
these individuals with researchers from industry or states that
have sued the EPA to block its rules.

One of Pruitt’s most impactful strategies at the EPA ultimately
was to slow down or stall its work, seeking years-long delays
for some parts of the agency’s ongoing rule development.

### - roll back/stall... simply = cuts to all those budgets, what maybe
can't be cut altogether can be delayed/stalled, reduced... cuts cuts cuts!

He also backed off the EPA’s pursuit of polluters, issuing far
fewer fines for infractions than any of the last three
administrations in their first year.

### - reductions in tax for businesses essentially, business grows; grows
the economy!

Example: Pruitt issued a memo reversing the agency’s position
in an existing enforcement battle with a Michigan-based company
accused of modifying the state’s largest coal-fired power plant
without getting federal permits for a projected rise in pollution.

[Slider, such a strategy involves much more than "not taking away".
When there are anti-science policies, extreme delays, and reduced enforcement, it actively *encourages* pollution, ensuring MORE,
rather than simply holding steady. Pruitt undermined the mission
of the EPA in *numerous* other ways, but your eyes are probably
glazing over as it is, so I won't elaborate further.]

### - prolly ALL these companies were originally found to be poisoning everything anyway, and were then being forced to either upgrade their technology and/or pay higher rates etc, a typical left-wing strategy, thus effectively reducing their earnings growth/capacity (craftily dumping your
shit waste in some river being vastly cheaper than having it taken away/purified etc) a vast improvement but only at very expensive cost to
those companies who'd been having it easy until then, yes even criminally
so! and then the right wing gets in and eases-off on all those
restrictions in an effort to make the economy grow faster, this being
something that's occurred under every single right wing government since
time began!

go back and examine the 'bush era' for similarities? did they do any different??

and then ya eventually realise/see that they're ALL always like that: both
the left AND the right; that THAT'S what they ALWAYS typically DO in one
form or another + realise WHY they behave like that based on their
respective policies and pov's; only THEN are ya gonna be ABLE to discern
just where trumpy-boy is any different to all (or any of) his
predecessors, and to exactly 'what' degree compared to them!

The Trump administration is trying to EXPAND offshore oil drilling.
They are at the same time trying to slash safety regulations related
to drilling. They're attempting to revive a major drilling plan
that Obama had already considered and scrapped

### - making it 'easier' to make money: that's right wing.

Obama had us on a path toward curtailing offshore drilling.

### - because it was nasty, dangerous, and generally bad for the planet:
that's left wing

Trump has already initiated an expanding of it, and if he could
get away with it, would expand it even more.
Trump's plan proposed opening up nearly ALL US coastal waters to
offshore drilling. That proposal has been met with a striking level
of opposition.

### - opposition from his own right-wingers would only be token
opposition, perforce the left would oppose it outright

Almost 1.5 million public comments have been
registered against the plan. There was bipartisan resistance
from governors in all but one of the coastal states that do not
currently allow offshore drilling. And 12 attorneys general signed
a letter saying they intend to sue the administration if the plan
goes forward.

### - whatever they 'say' (or have to be 'seen' to say for their voters
heh) makes no difference in the order of things, ways to make more
money/income have to be found, and this boy's a whizz at cutting corners
to make a buck! + they put him in office to do precisely that! trump the axeman! he cuts/chops! while at the same time selling 100's of billions in
arms to places like saudi! - this dude's a money-making machine! and in
times of such (man-made heh) austerity while their money's at stake,
they'll 'piss' on the environment and on anything (and anyone) else to
make that faster buck!

Inserted in Trump's tax break legislation was a plan to open up
Arctic offshore drilling, ending a previous hold on oil and gas
drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, reversing
wilderness protections Obama had proposed. Environmental Review
has already begun for setting up an oil and gas leasing program
in the refuge’s 1.5-million-acre coastal plain.

### - what fucking planet are YOU living on bud? this is planet earth!
there's MONEY there!? when does the rush begin?? (i.e., even the left wing
wont be able to hold back on that eventually, we're running outta such resources?)

This action disregards biological, cultural, and climate impacts
on an already rapidly warming Arctic. It will make things worse.

### - was a time really not that long ago when we didn't even consider
shit like this?

and now it's all the rage eh? suddenly, in only a few years, everyone's
become a recycling nut??

(reminds/images of: child beggars in india searching through refuse tips
for little bits of shit they can possibly make summat out of to sell just
in order to live etc, something we used to look down on and frown... and
now we's here all doing the same? we're catching up! there's gonna be one
last mad scramble for all those dwindling remaining resources, and then
that's gonna be it! all the policies & promises in the world wont change anything then!

[Slider, Obama had previously scrapped such plans. Trump is
trying to get as much of it as possible revived and implemented.

### - happens virtually every single time: the left expensively improves
shit, the right eases those same regulations in order to make making-money easier/faster... can't blame trump personally for age-old policies

That's more than "not acting". There was so much outcry against
this plan in many states that they seem to have backed off of
much of it for now, but they will keep trying.]

### - 'not-acting' isn't the *only* means at their disposal!?

there's a dozen different ways to chuck spanners into the works! that's
only one!

what maybe can't be stopped can be delayed! (tie it up in law for years
maybe)

they have endless means at their disposal! 50 different spanners! AND ways
of hurling 'em!

The Trump administration approved a land swap deal that allows a
road to be constructed through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.
That action overruled wilderness protections that had previously
kept that area off-limits to vehicles for decades.

### - sounds bizarre, so ya think maybe he's got little horns on that head
of his eh? sitting around all day just dreaming up shit to be mean about?
no, there's clearly some good 'financial' reason for it that justifies it
in their right-wing eyes! makes or cuts money somehow! find out how and
you'll understand why!

The Interior Department rescinded a 2015 Obama administration rule
that would have set new environmental limitations on fracking
on public lands.

[Again, limitations on fracking were planned to be implemented.
To roll them back goes beyond simply "not acting" since it
*rescinded* positive actions previously planned.]

### - ohhh lookee here! a chance to make money and screw what ordinary
peeps thinks?

i can certainly see how the right-wing would typically sponsor summat like
that lol :)

oh yeah! :)

snip the rest of this endless diatribe through, which is basically all the
same really:

loolk, the right's doin' what the right do! (what they always do!) and
you're horrified as you realise just how insidious it all is, at how big
it all is! at what a fucking goddamn mess it all is and getting bigger!
you, a lefty! having to stand there in growing awareness and watch as the fucking right destroy any/all intelligent (most of 'em) improvements made, being torn down and/or brought to a halt all in the name of making a quick buck!

yeah it's horrible... am horrified too... in fact: i always am every
'time' i see it!

and have seen it EVERY time jeremy! EVERY TIME! every time there's a
change from left to right and vise versa! to focus on trump alone is thus
to be missing the point! he's just their current front-man! glove puppet!

there'll be another along in a minute? hah!

and so it goes on! round & round all going fuckin' nowhere?

and is not a sustainable situation!

'something' has to change!

something 'will' change!

NEW politics are required!

an intelligent 'blend' of left & right going forward maybe?

but only for mandela i wouldn't have even been 'able' to think of that!

his example!

and quite possibly his legacy to us all :)

and THAT my friend, IS the future of politics!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: jeremyhdonovan@gmail.com

Two new obnoxious Trump administration
actions today:

Health Insurers Warn of Market Turmoil
as Trump Suspends Billions in Payments
https://nyti.ms/2lYVTpj

They are sabotaging the health care of
millions of people any way they can.

U.S. Opposition to Breast-Feeding
Resolution Stuns World Health Officials
https://nyti.ms/2J0WJuV

This one was downright creepy.
Threatening other countries to support
infant formula companies? What?

Living in bizarro world.
Those people are utterly mad. Gonesville.

.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: jeremyhdonovan@gmail.com

What Trump supporters see

https://thenib.com/what-trump-supporters-see

.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: slider@anashram.com

Man Wins “Why Trump Shouldn’t
Go to Prison” Essay Contest

### - haha + perforce the essay that argued just why he should be kicked
out on his ass didn't even get a mention hah! :)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)