US Politics

The illustrator at Der Spiegel has been busy again

Trump announced he wasn't going to attend the Kennedy Center Honors activities (which is apparently an event that the President routinely attends).

The Kennedy Center responded to politely express its disappointment as follows.

Boston today

https://twitter.com/kid_mao/status/898931810729701376

that'll do pigs, that'll do.

etc, obvs.

I giggled.

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I giggled too :)

My sister was part of the counter-demo today in Boston. Probably in the crowd shots and chanting along.

Quite an interesting theory.

https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/policy-and-politics/2017/8/18/16169464/steve-bannon-fired-donald-trump

Without wishing to make too tenuous an analogy, the comment "we’re watching a president who wants to comment on his own presidency without actually driving its agenda or being held accountable for anything he says" reminds me a little of Cameron (remember him?), who only ever seemed to operate as a PR person for 'his' government (i.e. he would talk about what was happening but never seemed to stand for anything substantial).

This sounds like a VW forum I used to frequent.

It became swamped with loud, thick racists so I ended up losing interest.

I think we drifted off about the same time ;0)

I think a lot of people did. Which was a shame as the really interesting ones went first.

I tried to have another look a few months back, as the technical forum has a lot of good info in, but, they do say never go back.......!

reminds me a little of Cameron (remember him?)

barely, but trump is less educated, richer and, arguably, more psychopathic.

I see Cameron as a shill and Trump as a power holder, albeit quite thick and reactionary.

*not that Cameroon wasn't reactionary

*or thick

I think that's quite insightful (and in turn remarkable: because it comes from "fakenews" Vox)

I think he's in his element on domestic opinion issues/talking-points but anything complex and outside his sphere of ... um ... expertise (fucking lolz) ... he's just not really interested. Sad!

There is a theory (pushed by Bannon now he's back to his old tricks?) that Ivanka getting upset with footage of dead Syrian babies, white nationalists with tiki torches and issues-of-the-day plays a role in The Donald's opinion.

Someone on Twitter pointed out a suspicious alignment between the dates of Trump-gaffes and the dates Ivanka and Jared have been elsewhere...

Someone on this thread did too.

Given that they both tend to fly away from Washington a hell of a lot, seemed to be a bit of a baseless claim to me.

I thought it was more that whenever Trump said something really offensive that Javanka just happened to be out of town. Javanka like to present themselves as fair, moderate, sensible, etc. - and indeed actively covet that reputation. For example, they probably enjoyed the recent press (most likely encouraged by their people) that seemed to suggest they were influential in Bannon getting moved on. However, to get back to the point, the argument goes that they run away when the heat gets too much (e.g. Trump's comments on Charlottesville) in an attempt to protect the reputation they seek to create. And that ultimately highlights that they have little (if any) real influence.

The Trumps are costing a lot of money

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/08/21/secret-service-cant-pay-agents-because-trumps-frequent-travel-large-family/529075001/

Although the Secret Service has put out a statement

There was a Last Week Tonight episode on Ivanka and Jared generally suggesting that their calming influence has been exaggerated and they pretty much say nothing and commit themselves to nothing whilst trying to give the impression of reasonableness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD8AwgO0AQI

The man who knows more than scientists looks directly at the sun (three times)

https://twitter.com/cspan/status/899723142205251589

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/aug/21/solar-eclipse-eye-damage

Can't get enough of these...