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And yesterday, Day Five of the new Presidency… January 26, 2017

Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.
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…this was what was being done.

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1. EWI - January 26, 2017

Neo-nazi scum.

(And as for all the smug ####holes out there who claimed for the past three months that he wasn’t going to do exactly this…)

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WorldbyStorm - January 26, 2017

Yeah, very much agree, Jamelle Bouie had a good line in Slate, saying after all the crap about him being serious but not literal could people now start taking him literally.

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2. CL - January 26, 2017

-“As you renew your nation just as we renew ours — we have the opportunity — indeed the responsibility — to renew the Special Relationship for this new age,” May will say, according to the excerpts. “We have the opportunity to lead, together, again.”- Theresa May.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/01/26/british-lawmakers-tell-their-prime-minister-your-groveling-in-front-of-trump-is-embarrassing/?utm_term=.7edb361f1493

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WorldbyStorm - January 26, 2017

Wow. Cringe. Then puke.

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3. ivorthorne - January 26, 2017

Not to minimise these horrible actions but long term, I’m more concerned about the actions taken against the EPA, NASA etc.

Trump has effectively tried to gag these agencies. Even if he doesn’t install his own puppets into leading positions within those organisations, if they are only permitted to publish what suits Trump’s agenda, it will start to look as though his own policies are supported.

It’s the advertisement approach to research. Conduct enough trials until by chance you get the result you want (e.g 9/10 cats . . .) but then only publish the one that suits you. Watch as statistics support Trump’s policy on the dangers of refugees and immigrants, climate change, the impact of his financial policies etc.

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EWI - January 26, 2017

Trump has effectively tried to gag these agencies.

Bush II did the same (as did Harper in Canada), but he didn’t have a decade of railing against ‘activist scientists’ to fall back on for backing that up with physical threats by a thuggish rightwing movement.

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ivorthorne - January 26, 2017

I think that if Trump manages two terms, the US could end up looking a lot like Russia with regard to state control and manipulation of the public.

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EWI - January 26, 2017

I think that Trump is going to move quite quickly to drown out the real US media (he wouldn’t get away with Putin-style ‘silencing’).

Expect to see future press conferences packed with loyal ‘alt-right’ media supporters – they’re already bringing his staff in to the press room to jeer at journalists when they ask actual questions.

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ivorthorne - January 26, 2017

Tangent – do we need to stop using the term “alt-right” even when putting it into quotation marks? Maybe it’s just me but already I find myself almost forgetting it means far- right or facist.

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EWI - January 26, 2017

I’m entirely comfortable with going with calling them out as what they are – neo-nazis or fascists (as your preference).

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CL - January 26, 2017

‘Donald Trump’s senior adviser Steve Bannon said the media should “keep its mouth shut” after being “humiliated” by a surprising election outcome.’
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/steve-bannon-donald-trump-war-media-transparency-liberal-elite-interview-new-york-times-a7548406.html

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WorldbyStorm - January 26, 2017

IvorThorne, +1 on your point re NASA etc. Scientific American has been calling attention to this danger for months now. I hope there are other avenues for actual hard fact to be disseminated.

And also, yep, let’s not call these people alt-right. They are far right. That there’s no coherence, or that there are ‘moderatish’ folk in the administration, and that there’s no structured movement as such doesn’t detract from that reality – as the old line went, when fascism comes to the US it will be different to that elsewhere. It’s not quite fascism, but the instincts, the rhetoric, the actions of this administration is far-right. When we’re relying on Pompeo and Mattis for something even approaching sanity we know we’re in deep shit.

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EWI - January 26, 2017

It’s not quite fascism

There I would disagree with you. It has every characteristic of fascism, right down to racism, the ridiculously-puffed-up strongman and the anti-intellectualism.

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ivorthorne - January 27, 2017

Fascism is a broad church. The Nazis were fascists and the Blackshirts surely were but the Blueshirts?

The Blueshirts supported fascism but ultimately many members of the Blueshirts found a more comfortable home in the more traditionally conservative right wing FG party of the mid 20th century.

I think that what we are encountering now with UKIPers and Trump supporters is more akin to the “soft” fascism of the Blueshirts than to that of the Nazis. These movements have unrepentant bastards in their leadership who’d have no problem running a concentration camp, but they take a lot of their support from people who hold less extreme views but find it hard to find a home in more traditional right wing parties.

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makedoanmend - January 27, 2017

“There I would disagree with you. It has every characteristic of fascism, right down to racism, the ridiculously-puffed-up strongman and the anti-intellectualism.”

About as neat an assessment of fascism as I’ve ever come across – esp adding in the anti-intellectualism. This is the self-censoring and self-neutering aspect of fascism that infects ordinary people. It is the controlling component. Those voices that are raised are at first derided, then persecuted and the go quiet.

Sidenote: there seem to be 2 historical components of our era that may have an current impact. All too often fascism has been bandied about too often – – cry fox once too often syndrome.

Again, too many workers have been “insulted” by being called racists when they complained about constructed labour surpluses… to be sure some were racists but many were not. The Left failed to confront the issue head on and honestly. (I know many will argue they did…but their efforts failed and are failing.)

Anywho, I hope some of our better document writers are taking notes because, while the past 40 years were bad, I’ve a feeling the next 40 might get a whole lot nastier and closer to home. We live in intersting times.

The pidgeons coming home to roost in the Wesht?

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4. sonofstan - January 26, 2017

Reckon she’ll come back with a piece of paper saying ‘free trade in our time?’

Noticeable even the svummy right wing press here are staying neutral on Trump.

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WorldbyStorm - January 26, 2017

What is your take on that neutral stance? I’m very interested in your thoughts on that.

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sonofstan - January 26, 2017

hedging probably. If T-M comes back with a trade deal and the sense of having won him over, then we might see the mail/ express warming to him; a replay of the Thatcher Reagan years where, for the Brits, she was the brains of the operation and Ronnie her poodle.

There’s also quite a strong vein of anti-Americanism here, especially among older voters – and the readership of the tory red tops are getting older and likely to be offended by DJ-P. But it could swing.

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WorldbyStorm - January 26, 2017

That makes depressing sense.

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sonofstan - January 27, 2017

So the Times today has a pic of TM in best Tommy Cooper pose with the ‘just like that’ hands and a headline something like ‘ new atlantic alliance could reverse decline of the west’ (from memory, but the Spengler meme was there)

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CL - January 27, 2017

‘Let’s stand together and halt eclipse of the west’ said May.
Can Trump, supported by May, halt the Decline of the West? Stay tuned.

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ivorthorne - January 27, 2017

It’s funny to hear May talking about abandoning military interventionist policies. Isn’t it a wonderful coincidence how UK prime ministers tend to end up changing their military policies at the same time as American presidents?!

I also see that she’s not ruling out using the NHS as part of any trade deal.

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EWI - January 27, 2017

I also see that she’s not ruling out using the NHS as part of any trade deal.

Yes – she just made a slippery comment about remaining committed to public health being free at point of use – nothing about who would be providing same.

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WorldbyStorm - January 27, 2017

Loathsome. Tories.

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CMK - January 27, 2017

‘Noticeable even the svummy right wing press here are staying neutral on Trump.’

He’s the first US President where there don’t seem to have been any efforts to identify even the most tenuous connection with Ireland.

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CL - January 27, 2017

‘Irish councillors will extend an invite to President Trump to visit County Kerry when he gets the chance.’
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/politics/county-kerry-to-invite-president-trump-to-the-kingdom

If the people in the white coats come for Trump we’ll have Pence,-small change.

‘Pence spent summers working in Ireland when he was younger. He tended bar and cut turf in County Clare and almost stayed there.’
http://www.irishcentral.com/homepage/mike-pence-the-irish-vice-president-one-heartbeat-from-the-presidency

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CL - January 27, 2017

And there’s this:

‘Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, the sister of President-elect Donald J. Trump, once attacked the Federal Government her brother will soon lead for its terrorism laws.

In a strongly worded judgment, the now retired New Jersey judge lambasted the Bush Administration for tying her hands in a 2006 case that involved the deportation of Belfast man Malachy McAllister for IRA activities.’
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/politics/donald-trump-s-sister-supported-ira-fight-for-irish-unity-in-case-she-handled

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