Archive for June, 2017

President Trump Just Held a Signing. He Had Nothing to Sign – TIME

After announcing his goal to privatize the nation's Air Traffic Control System, President Donald Trump sat down at a desk on Monday and signed two documents. There was only one problem: He wasn't actually signing something that would have any tangible impact on what he had just proposed.

A White House aide told reporters Trump had signed a "a decision memo and letter transmitting legislative principles to Congress," surrounding the privatization of the Air Traffic Control system, which he had just spent the last few minutes advocating for. But in order for his goal to come to fruition, Congress would need to pass pass legislation implementing it. Before Trump gave remarks Monday, White House officials had told reporters that the President is only dictating his legislative goals of separating air traffic controls from the FAA. Congress is not required to follow through on these goals.

Trump's proposal was actually based on legislation introduced by Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Bill Shuster, the Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The bill never made it to the House floor for a vote and reportedly faced bipartisan opposition in the Senate.

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President Trump Just Held a Signing. He Had Nothing to Sign - TIME

Donald Trump’s Mishandling of the Paris Climate Agreement Was Even More Humiliating Than We Thought – GQ Magazine

(Photo by Gabriele Maricchiolo/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

A dark moment in American history gets darker with each bit of information that comes out.

Donald Trump's disastrous decision to pull out of the Paris climate deal last week is already, on its face, one of the dumbest decisions a political leader has made in a long time. The reasons to stay in the agreement were countless, while the reasons to pull out were stupid both politically and, you know, factually.

Politically, polls show that seven out of ten Americans support staying in the Paris Agreement. Considering this nation is so divided that I'm pretty sure you'd be hard-pressed to get more than 51 percent of Americans to agree that ice cream is good, that is saying something. But perhaps more staggering are the facts of the situation. Donald Trump decided to leave the Paris Agreement because he thinks it will cost us jobs. Of course, this is all based on the fact that Trump desperately wants his base to think he's bringing back coal jobs. Spoiler: He's not. No one is. They're gone forever, and burning down the world's future just to try (and fail) to convince some people otherwise is not a recipe for success. And parading about in the Rose Garden as though you just accomplished something good (as opposed to terrifying) is embarrassing.

And that's become something of a theme with this administration. Embarrassing decision after humiliating fuck-up after embarrassing decision after et cetera, et cetera. But on this issue, Donald Trump had every opportunity to fix things. He had every chance to not make himself (and by proxy all of us) look stupid. A new report from Der Spiegel claims that Trump's display in a closed-door meeting with world leaders was that of a petulant child who chose recalcitrance and tempter tantrums over listening to anyone.

The newly elected French president, Emmanuel Macron, went first. It makes sense that the Frenchman would defend the international treaty that bears the name of France's capital: The Paris Agreement. "Climate change is real and it affects the poorest countries," Macron said.

Then, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reminded the U.S. president how successful the fight against the ozone hole had been and how it had been possible to convince industry leaders to reduce emissions of the harmful gas.

Finally, it was Merkel's turn. Renewable energies, said the chancellor, present significant economic opportunities. "If the world's largest economic power were to pull out, the field would be left to the Chinese," she warned. Xi Jinping is clever, she added, and would take advantage of the vacuum it created. Even the Saudis were preparing for the post-oil era, she continued, and saving energy is also a worthwhile goal for the economy for many other reasons, not just because of climate change.

So let's look at those arguments. Macron made an appeal to Trump's sense of intellect (obviously a bad idea) and compassion (oh boy...). Trudeau appealed to Trump's sense of history (yikes). Merkel, the savviest of the bunch, went in a different direction. She appealed to Trump's egohis image of himself as a brilliant businessman and his desire to "win" at all costs. "You wouldn't want the Chinese to win, would you, Donald?" Obviously, this was the only path that even had a chance, but in the end, Donald couldn't, just once, do the right thing. Nope. Donald reportedly said that even though staying in the deal was easier, he was going to leave because the agreement was hurting the economy's ability to create jobs.

Interesting. Is that true? Well, tough to say. On one hand, noted dummy Donald Trump says it is, while on the other, actual experts say "the agreement would likely help create about as many jobs in renewable energy as it might cost in polluting industries." So for no reason, Donald Trump didn't listen to our allies and then tried to embarrass them in a weirdly confrontational press event. So not only is the world going to burn to a crisp, but we'll have no friends internationally to commiserate with when it does.

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Donald Trump's Mishandling of the Paris Climate Agreement Was Even More Humiliating Than We Thought - GQ Magazine

Donald Trump is massively unpopular, and he’s making no effort to change that – Salon

Donald Trump reached the height of his popularity right before he became president in January. Ever since then, his poll numbers have been moving steady downward. Even in late December Trump still was notviewed favorably by a majority of Americans, according to polling averages.

With Trumppromotinga deeply unpopular health care plan and enmeshed in a scandal surrounding his current and former associates dealings with the Russian government, hisapproval ratings are literally at their lowest point of his presidency according to poll aggregator RealClearPolitics. Just less than40 percent of Americans approve of the job that Trump is doing in office when the most recent surveys are averaged together. That mirrors data from FiveThirtyEight, which gaveTrump a 39 percent approval rating as well.

Most presidential administrations would be sounding internal alarm bells upon hearingsuch low figures, but Trump and the Republicans hehas allied himself with seem to be coming to the realization that things arent likely to change anytime soon. So instead of trying to increase his support by working with Democrats on some bipartisan legislation, Trump and the GOP appear to be embracing the idea of keeping his hard-core supporters happy and motivated in the hopes that the presidents critics dont show up.

Its a risky strategy but one that is actually somewhat in line with the 2004 re-election strategy of former President George W. Bush. During that year, his top strategists Karl Rove and Matt Dowd came to the conclusion that swing voters dont really exist and therefore going toward the middlewouldntbe worth potentially alienating dedicated supporters.

Nobody had ever approached an election that Ive looked at over the last 50 years, where base motivation was important as swing, which is how we approached it, Dowd told PBS in 2005. We didnt say base motivation is what were going to do, and thats all were doing. We said both are important, but we shouldnt be putting 80 percent of our resources into persuasion and 20 percent into base motivation.

That strategy was one that was largely copied by former President Barack Obama when he ran for re-election in 2012. Facing big drops in millennial white support (his GOP rival Mitt Romney actually won over that group) and greater apathy among black Americans who had already made history by voting forObama, hiscampaign operation focused most of its resources ongaining the support of people who had enabled his capture of 365 Electoral College votes.

The problem for Trump, however, is that his base is continuing to shrink not just because elderly voters representedthe only age group with a majority thatvoted for him but also because more and more people are leaving the Republican Party.

Trying to keep happy the dwindling percentage of people who do choose to remain Republican is therefore the No. 1 job for those within the Trump administration and its a huge part of why he recently withdrew from a climate change agreement that was signed by Obama. The bet is that while the public says it wants to abide by the Paris treaty (the Senatestill had to voteon itfor the United States to be bound by its terms even if Trump hadnt withdrawn from the pact), environmental issues dont affect voting decisions that much.

Expect more such decisions of this nature in the very near future from Trump. The White Househas essentially admitted that its anti-government views wont be able to gainthe support of a majority of Americans. If enough congressional Republicans go along with this, expect even more stark policy changes to happen, especially as the party is trying to turn national media outlets into its opponents instead of Democrats.

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Donald Trump is massively unpopular, and he's making no effort to change that - Salon

No, Londoners Didn’t Chant "Donald Trump, We Love You" After The Attack – BuzzFeed News


BuzzFeed News
No, Londoners Didn't Chant "Donald Trump, We Love You" After The Attack
BuzzFeed News
An old video of protesters chanting "Donald Trump, we love you" has resurfaced in the wake of the London attack. It's being passed off as a recent recording by Trump supporters. Sadiq Khan is an EMBARRASSMENT Londoners chant #Trump's name ...

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No, Londoners Didn't Chant "Donald Trump, We Love You" After The Attack - BuzzFeed News

How Portland’s Anti-Fascist Alliances Drove Out The ‘Alt-Right’ – Vocativ

PORTLAND, Ore. Leading up to Sundays Trump Free Speech rally, Kyle Chapman, otherwise known as alt-right star Based Stickman, urgedhis followers to smash political opponents on sight. By the end ofthe Portland rally, the first potentially volatile event of its kind since a white supremacist killed two men defending young womenfrom hate speechlast month, Chapmanfled in humiliation after being vastly outnumbered, unheard and denied the opportunity for the kind of street violence he promotes against opponents of President Donald Trump.

More importantly, no one was killed or seriously injured at a heavily policed face-off between out-of-town, alt-right agitators and local anti-fascists known as the Antifa, who showed up to drown them out on Sunday.A few hundred Chapman fans filtered out of downtown Portlands Terry Shrunk Plaza with anxious looks on their faces, obviously lost, looking for where they parked their cars. Some were escorted by police and trailed by hecklers shouting, Nazis out!

Despite raw emotions and fears of further violence following a white supremacist double murder on May 26, Portlanders mobilized the largest anti-fascist demonstration in the United States in recent memory during Sundays Trump Free Speech Rally. They did so at a crucial time, nine days after the double murder, and about a month aftera free speech rally attended by the alleged murderer, Jeremy Joseph Christian, a known white supremacist.

Whilethe organizers of Sundays rally in Portlandpublicly disavowed Christian at every opportunity, not everyone who showed up for the event shared the view that Christian was a terrorist.A man with a sign tying Christian to VermontSen. Bernie Sanders found himself on the defensive, blaming the news media for misrepresenting the alt-right and adding that the alt-right movement did not condone hate.

Why doesnt your sign say, Empathy for the people of Portland? a counter-protester angrily demanded.

Another attendee, Brian Fife of Salem, Oregon, told the Guardian that Christian did everything right up until the point he started killing people, and praised Christian for calling out the changing elements of our culture by harassing those young women on the train, one of whom was Muslim.

With alt-right live-streamers boasting from their grassy safe space about the accomplishments of white men through history, the rally devolved into a pity party.

People with conservative beliefs are being oppressed, Chapman said when he took the stage, according to the Willamette Week.

It was impossible to hear the stage speakers remarks from the sidewalk outside. Instead, whatcame through were chants of Black Lives Matter and Racists, murderers, fascists out of Portland!

A pro-Trump group gathers during a free speech rally in Portland on Sunday.

Credit: Corey Pein

One dubious aspect of these pro-Trump free speech rallies is that they demand unquestioned respect for their message. Pat Washington, an alt-right YouTube star known as Based Spartan, told reporters that our speakers have a right to say what they want, and not be exposed to this shit across the street. (Thats nothow free speech works.)

God, I hate them, Washington continued. I look over there and I just want to smash.

But Washingtondidnt get to smash any Portlanders, asthe Trumpists were vastly outnumbered and encircled throughout the day. Press accounts settled on a 10-to-1 ratio in favor of thecounter-protesters, but some attendees boasted that it was more like 20-to-1.

Not everyone felt safe enough to show up. Rev. Jesse Jackson visited Portland on Saturday tourge people not to show up to confront racists at the Trump rally. Acircle of Buddhists meditated around a monument two blocks from the Trump rally, sending protective vibes to the assembled antifa.

Many would like to join the anti-fascists, but theyre afraid, a spokeswoman for the Buddhist group said.

Anti-fascist protesters stand in front of a line of riot police during a free speech rally in Portland on Sunday.

Credit: Corey Pein

Knowing that images of violence would be used against the counter-protesters to the benefit of the pro-Trump crowd, local Antifa were able to team with black bloc demonstratorsto demonstrate a measure of discipline and restraint relative to previous Portland protests. With this restraint in mind, the groupswere able to surround the Trump rally on three sides with counter-protesters, boxing them into a fourth side ofhedges.The black bloc demonstrators, somewhat uncharacteristically, confined themselves to a park across the street from the Trump rally, facing toward a line of riot police. On the next block over, an even larger rally gathered at Portland City Hall, organized by an array of demonstrators, including more than 70 activist groups, labor unions and religious congregations. Opposite the City Hall, a smaller group of union members calling themselves, Portland Labor Against the Fascists, stood with banners and bullhorns.

Groups opposing a free speech rally in Portland made their voices heard on Sunday.

Credit: Corey Pein

But even with the relative discipline, the police, citing unspecified criminal activity, charged the park held by the black bloc demonstrators. Riot police kettled perhaps 100 of the masked protesters, including a number of journalists. In total, 14 arrests were made, with police announcing that others might be charged with crimes in the future after prosecutors review video evidence.

While some activists criticized the Portland Police Bureaus response asprotecting fascists, law enforcement placingthemselves in between the two groups prevented a potential melee and what could have been a much uglier situation.

Sundays rallywas the latest example of the kind of brute force faced by people who publicly gather in opposition to Trump and those who feel emboldened because of him.

A small crew of burly Trump die-hards have been touring the country almostnonstop since April, physically confronting liberal and leftist dissidents, and acting as security at far-right rallies featuring Islamophobic, misogynistic, and white supremacist speakers. Its an open question whether these individuals are financed purely through their own crowdfunding campaigns, or through some other source. At least one member of these groups received a gift from a Trump campaign operative days after scuffling with protesters. Another filmed himself rolling in money, bragging about collecting $100 bounties for knocking out the teeth of Antifaprotesters.

In Berkeley, California, these far-right protesters mixed it up with students, using projectiles and sticks,which is how Chapman earned his Stickman nickname. In recent events in Portland and New York, they laid out a young man and a teenage girl, respectively.

Portland was lucky. While Christian had a few admirers in the free speech crowd on Sunday, he did not have any imitators.

Locals who toured the alt-right rally were struck by the sheer nerdiness of the attendees, with their Pepe paraphernalia, Kekistan referencesand beer guts. However, they were equally creeped out by the presence of surly bikers anrd militiamen, such as the Oath Keepers, an anti-government, far-right organization.

At one point, black bloc protesters pelted the police line with what appeared to be used tampons. A photographer even saw one of the Oath Keepers pick up a tampon from the ground and sniff it, as though he were tracking a deer on the hunt.

Smells like animal blood, the Oath Keepersaid.

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How Portland's Anti-Fascist Alliances Drove Out The 'Alt-Right' - Vocativ