We need to talk about Donald: cursing and swearing allowed

[Svartalf]

Well, fact is the Southerners believed he was going to proceed against their interests and destroy their livelihood, so they started the Confederation. granted, they preempted any anti slavery measures he might have taken, or not, and used the tenth amendment to announce that they were leaving the Union.

[pErvinalia]

Japan paper:
Taking a page from former U.S. leader Richard Nixon, current President Donald Trump has warned China that it must do more to rein in North Korea’s nuclear ambitions or face “a big problem” with “warrior nation” Japan.

That's more likely to result in China nuking Japan.

[Brian Peacock]

Japan, that 'warrior nation' with a constitutional commitment to non-aggression.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Well, fact is the Southerners believed he was going to proceed against their interests and destroy their livelihood, so they started the Confederation. granted, they preempted any anti slavery measures he might have taken, or not, and used the tenth amendment to announce that they were leaving the Union.

Certainly the fire-eaters believed that, and used the election of Lincoln and a narrow Republican majority in Congress as leverage to stampede the south into secession. The 10th Amendment doesn't provide constitutional support for secession, despite claims to the contrary.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Japan, that 'warrior nation' with a constitutional commitment to non-aggression.

No doubt Japan is very pleased to have Trump use them as a bullshit threat for his 'let's you and them have a fight' rhetoric⸮

[L'Emmerdeur]

Sweet deal from the Trump administration to transfer wealth from citizens of the United States to the coal and nuclear power industries.

'Trump Wants to Save Big Coal With $11 Billion Annual Bailout'

The Trump administration wants to force electricity customers to pay for a $10.6 billion annual bailout of the failing coal and nuclear industries through surcharges on their monthly energy bills.

The quietly announced proposal would require ratepayers to fully underwrite a new mandate that coal and nuclear plants hold a minimum of 90 days' worth of fuel on-site under the false premise of providing security from power outages.

But critics say the subsidy is just a massive government-mandated transfer of wealth from consumers to coal and nuclear companies.

"This is like changing the energy system from capitalism to communism—and the U.S. government wants to do it within the next two weeks," said Michael Krancer, a principal at energy policy company Silent Majority Strategies.

The Department of Energy says the fuel stockpiles are necessary to prevent power outages “in times of supply stress, such as recent natural disasters.” But only 0.00007 percent of all major power disruptions over the past five years were due to fuel supply problems, John Larsen, a power sector researcher for the Rhodium Group, told Newsweek.

“The true cause of power loss is on the distribution side—meaning telephone poles going down,” he added. “The presence of a very large pile of coal next to my coal plant doesn’t really change much.”

So what is going on? Evidence points to a big handout to Big Coal from a president who campaigned on reviving the declining industry.

[Animavore]

Wait! Are Republicans for socialised services and minimalising government interference in business or not? Can't tell.

[Animavore]

Why I have resorted to blocking Trumpsters.




You just can't argue with stupid.

[Animavore]

Apparently Papa John's does not like being supported by racists.

Papa John's has now been forced to tell racists not to eat its pizza.
https://www.avclub.com/papa-johns-has-n ... 146555/amp

Which is ironic, because it has no trouble supporting a racist itself.

[Animavore]

Understanding the Fox News Propaganda Machine.

Few displays of Fox News propaganda have been as egregious as the cheeseburger incident on Monday, October 30.
It was a huge news day, with game-changing developments in the ongoing investigation by special prosecutor Robert Mueller into the Trump campaign’s potential ties to Russia. That morning, major news outlets like CNN and MSNBC reported that Mueller had indicted the president’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his deputy Rick Gates. The special counsel's office also released documents revealing that earlier in the month it received a guilty plea from former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, who admitted to lying to the FBI about "his interactions with a certain foreign contact who discussed 'dirt' related to emails" concerning Hillary Clinton, according to CNN.
As developments unfolded on its competitors's screens, Fox and Friends briefly mentioned the news, but failed to provide any accompanying reporting or commentary, and quickly moved on to a minutes-long dialogue about the differing placement of cheese on burger emojis released by Google and Apple.
A history-shifting moment was breaking in real time, and there was Fox, committed to a deep dive into the nuance of the virtual-beef-patty stacking hierarchy. It came just after a spot on millennials getting too enthusiastic about Halloween and before a piece announcing the breaking discovery that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are the most desired holiday candy.
“We’ve been talking about this all morning,” says host Jillian Mele, introducing the emoji segment. “Can you see what’s wrong with this picture? The cheese is underneath the hamburger! Who does that?”
Mele then proceeded to read a letter from a viewer. “Rhonda writes: I worked at a restaurant in my younger days and we were taught to put the lettuce under the burger to keep the bun from getting soggy.”
“Way to get to the bottom of that, Jillian,” Brian Kilmeade said from the couch.
Certainly there is not a rational person who believes alleged illegal action dispersed among the president’s campaign team is less significant than cartoon cheese. For an outlet that serves an estimated 1.42 million viewers per day, ignoring the news about Papadopoulos, Manafort, and Gates was an unabashed attempt to protect the reputation of the Trump administration, by denying its audience any significant coverage.
The sheer garishness of Fox’s bias is often written off as a cultural punchline, but it is also extremely harmful to huge swaths of the American electorate. Viewers are actively being brainwashed by propaganda masquerading as a serious source of news, frequently endorsed by the president’s Twitter account. Fox presents itself as a “fair and balanced” network, but it fails to report news from the White House without obvious bias. Consider Lou Dobbs’s recent interview with Trump: In about 10 minutes of conversation, he failed to press the president on issues throughout his tenure, instead complimenting him by saying, “You have accomplished so much in that nine months.”

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/underst ... da-machine

Yep.

[L'Emmerdeur]

If we can't see the extent to which the polar ice is decreasing, then it's not a problem, right?

The row has erupted after a key polar satellite broke down a few days ago, leaving the US with only three ageing ones, each operating long past their shelf lives, to measure the Arctic’s dwindling ice cap. Scientists say there is no chance a new one can now be launched until 2023 or later. None of the current satellites will still be in operation then.

The crisis has been worsened because the US Congress this year insisted that a backup sea-ice probe had to be dismantled because it did not want to provide funds to keep it in storage. Congress is currently under the control of Republicans, who are antagonistic to climate science and the study of global warming.

...

At present three ageing satellites – DMSP F16, F17 and F18 – remain in operation, though they are all beginning to drift out of their orbits over the poles. The latest satellite in the series, F19, began to suffer sensor malfunctions last year and finally broke down a few weeks ago. It should have been replaced with the F20 probe, which had already been built and was being kept in storage by the US Air Force. However it had to be destroyed, on the orders of the US Congress, on the grounds that its storage was too costly.

Many scientists say this decision was made for purely ideological reasons. They also warn that many other projects for monitoring climate change, including several satellite missions, face similar threats from the Trump administration and Congress.

Such losses have serious consequences, say researchers. “Sea-ice data provided by satellites is essential for initiating climate models and validating them,” said Andrew Fleming of the British Antarctic Survey. “We will be very much the poorer without that information.”

[Animavore]

Censoring enemies of free inquiry. How are these people considered the leaders of the free world again? Backward savages burning the Library of Alexandria. Real and harmful climate change added to the Index Librorum Prohibitorum all to serve the altar of the fossil industry. If they love oil so much they should drink it, along with a nice cigar.

Arseholes.

[Seabass]

Understanding the Fox News Propaganda Machine.
[Few displays of Fox News propaganda have been as egregious as the cheeseburger incident on Monday, October 30.
It was a huge news day, with game-changing developments in the ongoing investigation by special prosecutor Robert Mueller into the Trump campaign’s potential ties to Russia. That morning, major news outlets like CNN and MSNBC reported that Mueller had indicted the president’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his deputy Rick Gates. The special counsel's office also released documents revealing that earlier in the month it received a guilty plea from former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, who admitted to lying to the FBI about "his interactions with a certain foreign contact who discussed 'dirt' related to emails" concerning Hillary Clinton, according to CNN.
As developments unfolded on its competitors's screens, Fox and Friends briefly mentioned the news, but failed to provide any accompanying reporting or commentary, and quickly moved on to a minutes-long dialogue about the differing placement of cheese on burger emojis released by Google and Apple.
A history-shifting moment was breaking in real time, and there was Fox, committed to a deep dive into the nuance of the virtual-beef-patty stacking hierarchy. It came just after a spot on millennials getting too enthusiastic about Halloween and before a piece announcing the breaking discovery that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are the most desired holiday candy.
“We’ve been talking about this all morning,” says host Jillian Mele, introducing the emoji segment. “Can you see what’s wrong with this picture? The cheese is underneath the hamburger! Who does that?”
Mele then proceeded to read a letter from a viewer. “Rhonda writes: I worked at a restaurant in my younger days and we were taught to put the lettuce under the burger to keep the bun from getting soggy.”
“Way to get to the bottom of that, Jillian,” Brian Kilmeade said from the couch.
Certainly there is not a rational person who believes alleged illegal action dispersed among the president’s campaign team is less significant than cartoon cheese. For an outlet that serves an estimated 1.42 million viewers per day, ignoring the news about Papadopoulos, Manafort, and Gates was an unabashed attempt to protect the reputation of the Trump administration, by denying its audience any significant coverage.
The sheer garishness of Fox’s bias is often written off as a cultural punchline, but it is also extremely harmful to huge swaths of the American electorate. Viewers are actively being brainwashed by propaganda masquerading as a serious source of news, frequently endorsed by the president’s Twitter account. Fox presents itself as a “fair and balanced” network, but it fails to report news from the White House without obvious bias. Consider Lou Dobbs’s recent interview with Trump: In about 10 minutes of conversation, he failed to press the president on issues throughout his tenure, instead complimenting him by saying, “You have accomplished so much in that nine months.”

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/underst ... da-machine
Yep.

Honestly, Fox News is the least of our worries. I think a lot of people outside the US tend to think of it as the US equivalent of BBC News, but it isn't. You have to remember that the US is a huge country with thousands, maybe tens of thousands of news sources. I tend to think of Fox News as a medium sized fish in an ocean sized pond.

What really scares me is:

1. Sinclair Broadcasting
If you've never heard of Sinclair, read this, it will scare the pants off you:

This is Sinclair, 'the most dangerous US company you've never heard of'
(embedded John Oliver video in this article)

If the $3.9 billion merger with Tribune Media Co. is approved, the broadcaster would own 233 television stations and reach 72 percent of households in the country, the Sun reported.

In short, Sinclair has been buying up thousands of local news stations and requiring them to push pro-Trump propaganda. So all these blue collar types across the midwest, the south, the east, get home from work, eat dinner, sit on the couch and turn on the local news and suck down right-wing, Trumpian propaganda every night. Local news hits far more viewers than Fox News could ever hope to.


2. The spread of disinformation on social media.

Russian propaganda apparently reached 150 million Americans during the election. That's almost half the US population. It's fucking terrifying. And of course, in addition to the Russian propaganda, there's all the right-wing lunacy like "pizzagate".
Facebook Now Says Russian Disinfo Reached 150 Million Americans

Number of Americans exposed to Russian propaganda rises, as tech giants testify

How Russian Propaganda Spreads On Social Media

[Tero]

Trump’s personal swamp
https://www.thedailybeast.com/massive-l ... ed-kushner

[Animavore]

Seen the John Oliver piece before. I'm well aware also of the cancerous spread of disinformation, and that there's a whole portion of a generation learning about the World through memes.

Lots to worry about.