monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

@MontereyJack,

Quote:

conservatives are unable to tell wheat's good and what's bad

Thinking people, of any political persuasion, were able to understand that Clinton was not on America's side, and duty-bound to her donors in the ME and Europe.

They weren't ready to start more wars for the bottom line of the Saudis or Israel, who were major donors in her bogus foundation, and her election campaign (though the lines between those two were very blurred.}

They would have voted for Smokey the Bear, if it meant no further neoliberal agenda from Clinton and co.

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"Viktor Orbán has done a tremendous job in so many different ways," Trump told reporters last spring, while granting his Hungarian counterpart a cordial White House visit. "Respected all over Europe. Probably, like me, a little bit controversial, but that’s okay."

Now, the Hungarian Prime Minster, who's "been great with respect to Christian communities" ordered that Anti-Semitic authors will be compulsory reading in Hungarian schools, and history books must be rewritten to promote pride in the nation.
All that Aaong with a controversial new bill that greatly increases the power of Hungary's far-right Prime Minister Victor Orban, which has been described by critics as a power grab,.

The curriculum's patriotic goals are particularly clear in literature and history. Students should learn to be "proud of their people's past." The nation's historical wartime defeats are to be deleted from textbooks and replaced by portrayals of victorious battles. Hungarian legends and myths are to be presented as historical facts.

The controversial authoritarian rule of Miklos Horthys from 1920 to 1944 is also to be portrayed in a positive light. The fact that Horthy passed anti-Jewish laws in 1920 and later became one of Adolf Hitler's close allies will be downplayed.

The literature program is also highly criticized. Hungary's only Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, Holocaust survivor Imre Kertesz, was removed from the curriculum, as well as the internationally recognized and widely translated novelist Peter Esterhazy, who received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 2004.

Instead, works by nationalist authors such as Jozsef Nyiro and Albert Wass are now mandatory reading. Nyiro was a member of the fascist Arrow Cross Party and an admirer of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Wass was an avowed anti-Semite and convicted war criminal. The government of Orban's Fidesz party has been pushing the rehabilitation of these authors for years, erecting new monuments and naming streets after them.

[Trump quoted via White House org]

NYM report from last year, but no old news at all: Trump’s Dream Is to Become America’s Viktor Orbán]

1 Reply

Matt Stoller
@matthewstoller
·
7h
It's so much easier for an airline exec to apply for $32 billion in bailout money than for a random poor person to apply for food stamps. (ht
@amandalfischer
) https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/Guidelines%20and%20Procedures%20for%20Payroll%20Support%20to%20Air%20Carriers%20and%20Contractors.pdf

1 Reply

@Walter Hinteler,

They are of a type, aren't they.

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@Brand X,

France, Germany and the UK sent medical supplies to hard-hit Iran, in a move that works around U.S. sanctions.
The three European countries are shareholders in the Instrument In Support Of Trade Exchanges, or Instex, and hope other states will join later.

Quote:

France, Germany and Britain have exported medical goods to Iran in the first transaction conducted under a trade mechanism set up to barter humanitarian goods and food after the US withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear deal, Germany said on Tuesday.

The German Foreign Ministry said the medical goods were now in Iran and added that the Instex trade mechanism and its Iranian counterpart would now work on more transactions and on enhancing the system.

Britain, Germany and France said earlier this month they had offered a 5 million-euro ($5.5 million) package to Iran to help fight coronavirus there and are also sending medical material, including equipment for laboratory tests, protective body suits and gloves.

Washington’s major European allies opposed the decision by US President Donald Trump in 2018 to abandon the nuclear deal, under which international sanctions on Iran were lifted in return for Tehran accepting curbs on its nuclear programme.

France24

3 Replies

@Walter Hinteler,

Yes, I'd seen reporting on that, Walter. Blocking medical supplies during this pandemic seems a pretty perfect encapsulation of American conservative christian values.

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@Walter Hinteler,

Yes, the sanctions have devastated Iran's ability to grapple with covid.

1 Reply

I posted on this yesterday but The WP's Aaron Blake adds some data I did not know

Quote:

Trump just comes out and says it: The GOP is hurt when it’s easier to vote

President Trump on Monday morning became the latest in a procession of Republicans to say making it easier for more people to vote would hurt his party politically.

In an interview on “Fox & Friends,” Trump referenced proposals from Democrats in the coronavirus stimulus negotiations that would have vastly increased funding for absentee and vote-by-mail options. The final package included $400 million for the effort, which was far less than what Democrats had sought.

“The things they had in there were crazy,” Trump said. “They had things — levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”

Trump didn’t expand on the thought. But he clearly linked high turnout to Republicans losing elections....

In my post yesterday, I noted the example of Mike Turzei imprudently bragging that Voter ID was a device to help Republicans electorally:

Quote:

Voter ID, which is going to allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania: Done,

Here's something else related I did not know:

Quote:

After Romney lost the state, the state’s Republican Party chairman still said Voter ID helped.

“We probably had a better election,” the chairman, Robert Gleason, said. “Think about this: We cut [Barack] Obama by 5 percent, which was big. A lot of people lost sight of that. He beat [John] McCain by 10 percent; he only beat Romney by 5 percent. And I think that probably photo ID helped a bit in that.”

Here's another:

Quote:

Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) offered similar comments during the 2016 presidential election.

“I think Hillary Clinton is about the weakest candidate the Democrats have ever put up,” Grothman said, adding: “And now we have photo ID, and I think photo ID is going to make a little bit of a difference as well.”

And there's this:

Quote:

But Trump isn’t even the only high-ranking national Republican during the 2020 election to reference the idea that higher turnout would hamper the party’s chances. Last year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) dismissed Democrats’ proposal to make Election Day a federal holiday, suggesting it was intended to help them win elections — apparently by increasing turnout.

“This is the Democrat plan to restore democracy?” McConnell said with a laugh. “A power grab that’s smelling more and more like exactly what it is.”

There's no scarcity of evidence that Republicans have disdain for democracy but this broad strategy of voter suppression is perhaps the most transparent example.link

1 Reply

Quote:

“All I want them to do — very simple — I want them to be appreciative. I don’t want them to say things that aren’t true. I want them to be appreciative.”

— President Trump

Dear Mr. President,

Respectful greeting! I kiss, remotely, from a safe distance, the hem of your garment, and my prayers fly up in a thick cloud on your behalf. I appreciate you more than any of the other states, certainly more than Delaware just by virtue of our surface area, and definitely more than New York — which should go without saying, but never shall, for it delights me too much to proclaim our devotion! To me, you are perfect. I love you more than words can wield the matter. As a token of my appreciation, I have sent you my only son, to follow you at a respectful distance and live in your court until he is older, where he may learn your ways and someday attain to a greatness like that of Jared or Ivanka or (I dare not profane the name with my humble lips!) yourself!

WP

2 Replies

@revelette3,

revelette3 wrote:

Quote:
“All I want them to do — very simple — I want them to be appreciative. I don’t want them to say things that aren’t true. I want them to be appreciative.”

— President Trump

Dear Mr. President,

Respectful greeting! I kiss, remotely, from a safe distance, the hem of your garment, and my prayers fly up in a thick cloud on your behalf. I appreciate you more than any of the other states, certainly more than Delaware just by virtue of our surface area, and definitely more than New York — which should go without saying, but never shall, for it delights me too much to proclaim our devotion! To me, you are perfect. I love you more than words can wield the matter. As a token of my appreciation, I have sent you my only son, to follow you at a respectful distance and live in your court until he is older, where he may learn your ways and someday attain to a greatness like that of Jared or Ivanka or (I dare not profane the name with my humble lips!) yourself!

WP

Sarcasm, unlikely flattery, really will get you nowhere.

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@revelette3,

So nicely done.

I moved to Manhattan in 2004. One of the first things my mate and I did to learn a bit about the city was to take a tour bus ride. As we passed the Trump Tower, the fellow on board giving facts and details as we drove pointed out the building and said, "Everybody in New York hates this guy".

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This is important

Quote:

Aaron Blake
@AaronBlake
· 15m
CDC Director Robert Redfield on what he's learned about coronavirus:

"This virus does have the ability to transmit far easier than flu. It's probably now about three times as infectious as flu."

https://npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/31/824155179/cdc-director-on-models-for-the-months-to-come-this-virus-is-going-to-be-with-us

1 Reply

Quote:

Dan Gardner
@dgardner
1h
The contrast between Republican reactions to this pandemic and Republican reactions to 9/11 is truly spectacular.

Now there's a big set of questions.

1 Reply

Winner of today's No ****, Sherlock! award

Quote:

Greg Sargent
@ThePlumLineGS
· 4h
It's just weird how the media is widely portraying Trump's shift on social distancing as a massive surrender to facts, data and science -- without quite conveying how deeply crazy it is that he only capitulated to those things when he absolutely had to.

https://washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/30/cult-trump-is-threat-untold-numbers-american-lives/

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@Walter Hinteler,

Iran also has a lot of people invalided from gas attacks by Saddam Hussein.

1 Reply

@blatham,

blatham wrote:

This is important

Quote:
Aaron Blake
@AaronBlake
· 15m
CDC Director Robert Redfield on what he's learned about coronavirus:

"This virus does have the ability to transmit far easier than flu. It's probably now about three times as infectious as flu."

https://npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/31/824155179/cdc-director-on-models-for-the-months-to-come-this-virus-is-going-to-be-with-us

I hope research will tell us exactly how coronavirus transmits 'far easier than flu.'

It will be great if the public gets a crash course in the mechanics of virus transmission while we're in lockdown.

1 Reply

@blatham,

Quote:

Now there's a big set of questions.

But you have no idea what they are? Enlighten us, or do you have to wait for some arrogant blowhole with a Twitter account to tell you?

1 Reply

@coldjoint,

I think we do have to wait for people on Twitter to "say what they think" before Blatham is able to tell us that "he thinks what they think".

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@Brand X,

Brand X wrote:

Yes, the sanctions have devastated Iran's ability to grapple with covid.

Maybe Iran should stop being a rogue nation.

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@blatham,

blatham wrote:

There's no scarcity of evidence that Republicans have disdain for democracy but this broad strategy of voter suppression is perhaps the most transparent example.

Don't be silly. Preventing Democrats from cheating in elections is not voter suppression.

The only party with an actual history of disenfranchising voters is the Democratic Party. Note the 2008 Michigan presidential primary.

0 Replies

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