babylonsister
babylonsister's JournalJulian Castro released an animal welfare plan. It's good policy -- and smart politics.
Julián Castro released an animal welfare plan. Its good policy and smart politics.
This groundbreaking plan will undo Donald Trumps damage, the Democratic candidate said.
By Sigal Samuel Aug 21, 2019, 1:30pm EDT
Julián Castro is the first 2020 presidential candidate to roll out a comprehensive plan for animal welfare, an issue thats increasingly attracting American voters concern.
The Democrats Protecting Animals and Wildlife (PAW) plan, released on Monday, includes an array of bold proposals, including making animal cruelty a federal crime.
Castro frames his plan as a way of sticking it to President Donald Trump and as the solution to Trumpian problems. The PAW plan would strengthen the Endangered Species Act, which Trump has weakened. And it would stop Americans from importing animal trophies that result from big-game hunting something Donald Trump Jr. is known to love.
Castro also seeks to reform factory farming by creating minimum standards for animal welfare and opposing state ag gag laws that hide animal cruelty from the public; to end the euthanasia of healthy cats and dogs in shelters; to prohibit the testing of cosmetics on animals; and to protect at least 30 percent of US lands and oceans by 2030.
more...
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/8/21/20826598/julian-castro-animal-welfare-plan-trump-endangered-species
Protesters Meet Trump In Kentucky And Mock His Small Penis
https://www.politicususa.com/2019/08/21/trump-kentucky-small-penis.html
Posted on Wed, Aug 21st, 2019 by Jason Easley
Protesters Meet Trump In Kentucky And Mock His Small Penis
Via the White House Pool Report as provided to PoliticusUSA:
Across the street from the hotel entrance, some protesters are standing quietly while holding a large white sign with large spray painted black letters that say:
Donnie Has a SMALL Pee Pee.
Here is the sign (at link):
https://twitter.com/i/status/1164256835068669952
As seen in the video above, protesters lined the street and met Trump with a variety of signs about locking children in cages, and his stupidity, but the one that is certain to get under his skin was the big spray-painted sign mocking the size of his penis, which we all know way too much about thanks to public reports of Trump adultery. Trump has been sensitive about the size of his stuff since he entered politics, so if a protester was looking to get noticed, they made a good choice.
Trump loves to play the tough guy, usually by insulting women, and the American people have caught on.
Donald Trump cant go anywhere without being insulted, as the least popular president in history was even protested in Mitch McConnells backyard.
Rick Wilson: This Isn't the Madman Theory. This Is a Madman President.
This Isnt the Madman Theory. This Is a Madman President.
In business, Trump could paper over his bankruptcies, flops, asinine remarks, and failed cons. The presidency is different.
Rick Wilson
Published 08.22.19 4:44AM ET
snip//
The recognition that Donald J. TrumpPresident of the United States, Commander in Chief of the U.S. armed forces, leader of the Republican Party and now King of Israel and Chosen Oneis, to use the psychiatric term of art, batshit crazy is dawning even on the slowest members of society. Also, that theres not a damn thing we can do about it until November of 2020.
The big cons of the first term havent just been embarrassing flops but concatenating failures putting our economy and security at existential risk. The tax bill blew out the debt and deficit to unimaginable depths. North Koreas serial humiliation of Trump proved to Kim Jong Un that he could pants the President of the United States and move the DPRK closer to full nuclear capabilities to threaten our allies and even our own shores.
The cruel nostalgia of Trumps promises to restore coal, steel, and auto jobs are shattered on the altar of President Bigly Negotiator's moronic shitshow of an unwinnable trade war. The fact that he was spanked by Denmark, a country the size of Delaware, after his absurd Buy Greenland campaign was just one more humiliation of a President who clearly likes having his ass handed to him by bijou nations.
The Trump campaign and the early days of his administration were marked by the charming window when most of his supportersand frankly, much of the mainstream mediabelieved that the vomitus spraying out of Trump's mouth was part of some clever psychological game, quantum chess to own the libs.
Only idiots and zealots believe that now. The howling vacuum of need within Trump's soul had already distorted every normal human emotion for decades, but now the stress of the presidency and the realities of his lasting failures have pushed him closer to a very public mental breakdown. In business, Trump could paper over his bankruptcies, flops, asinine remarks, and failed cons.
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-isnt-playing-madman-theory-hes-a-madman-president?ref=home
"My America, I hardly know you anymore"
https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-opinion-america-guns-patriotism-20190816-gnht5zypy5aghhx2w6mrvatwiy-story.html?fbclid=IwAR2rH6LUmE_4coGlSerY8Z9JVF-fi2Qtjwb3NWGUbdCU4xiHdjMgBFnUphk
Commentary: My America, I hardly know you anymore
By Stephen J. Lyons
Chicago Tribune |
Aug 16, 2019 | 12:45 PM
snip//
Oh, my America, no more yellow ribbons for me. No more moments of silence. No more hand over heart as the fighter jets roar above an oversize flag in some tricked-out stadium bursting with inebriated fans drunk from the strange brew of sports and war. Instead, I will take a knee.
Oh, my America, you have traded my goodwill for your bad deeds. Pawned my obedient childhood pledges of allegiance for extended ammo clips, open carry and body armor. You sold me a hologram of life, liberty and the pursuit of freedom. But when I needed protection you handed me a shiny Glock and said, Heres your protection, pal. Aim for the heart. Trust me, you will get the hang of it.
Oh, my America, my eyes are filled with the endless tears of the traumatized. When I look at you today I see the coffins and the mounds of teddy bears stacked up at curbside vigils. I also see the dead-end faces of the 20-year-old white shooters who are high on hate and racism. I see the cynical profiteering pimps of the gun industry, cashing in on the latest mass shooting. See? they lecture us. We told you only a gun can protect you from each other. #gunssavelifes, they bellow. Tell it to the grieving families, I say. Look into their grieving eyes and tell them.
Oh, my America, you have told me over and over again that I am nobody to you. I am not a lobbyist, a senator, nor billionaire. I am not a brand name or media megaphone. I am invisible to you, the next statistic in your casualty count. But I am your American boy, the one from the mythical Heartland that you ally yourself with when you need to serve your political agenda. What will you do with me now that your fair-haired native son no longer believes in you?
Oh, my America, you will dismiss me as ungrateful. As simply noise that can be silenced with another slick public relations campaign. Its all about the right messaging, you whisper. You will slur me as a radical leftist. Yet, I am more patriotic than you. I believe in what was once special about this beleaguered nation. I believe in that shining city on the hill. I believe in Lady Libertys torch and the immigrants dream. I believe in welcoming the stranger to my door. I believe I should have the right to buy groceries without the fear of ending up as another chalk outline in some crime scene. I believe my grandchildren should not have to wear bulletproof backpacks to class and be forced to participate in live shooter drills. And, yes, I believe no one has the right to own an assault rifle.
Oh, my America, I ask, what is it you still believe in?
Dahlia Lithwick: The Demoralizing Reality of Life Under Trump
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/08/demoralizing-reality-of-life-under-trump.html?fbclid=IwAR3-9JRs2hZUjop7Lxm3flO_PMxxKkaBNlNTWqKXR_Yrnpoijh0RkBCUjlAThe Demoralizing Reality of Life Under Trump
Every day is the same, but still awful.
By Dahlia Lithwick
Aug 21, 2019
5:36 PM
snip//
The actual psychic toll on our mental health is crippling. The lost sleep, the grinding anxiety, the escalating fears dont just represent squandered time. They start to chip away at your health and at your soul. The healthy response would be to tune it out altogether, but since actual people are actually suffering the brutal consequences, we cannot. And so here we are back in the narcissists loop, fueling his need to be at the center because, well, there he is at the center.
I have been writing about Trump burnout for a while now, but I confess that this summer has been harder, both because the cruelty we once dreaded and feared is manifestly occurring all around us every day and because vast numbers of our friends and neighbors are either exulting in it or sidelining themselves as a result of what Vox, waaaay back in 2017 once dubbed Trump fatigue syndrome, a kind of fugue state involving numbness, burnout, and a corresponding loss of reality. This is then doubly concerning, because in addition to being jealous of these peoples newfound freedom, as Nesrine Malik writes, for the Guardian, the real jeopardy of authoritarianism starts with fatigue. Moral seriousness seems to require being aware enough of the chaos everywhere that you accept being punched in the mouth with it every day.
The email I have received most often this summer goes something like this: I am doing too much. I am not doing enough. The same can be said for all of us. Self-care in the form of manicures and time with the kids isnt making a dent in it. And if one stops to think about the cumulative effect of gerrymandering, election interference, vote suppression, and a president signaling that he will not concede even if he loses in 2020, pinning all hopes in the next election feels one notch more sanguine than we can afford to be.
So, Donald Trump, who just in the past two days refused to visit Denmark because it wouldnt sell Greenland, tossed an anti-Semitic canard out to see how it landed on American Jews, retweeted a conspiracy theorist who claims Trump is the king of the Jews, reversed himself on gun policy and payroll taxes, and mulled ending birthright citizenship by way of executive order, just keeps on trucking. No check in sight. Don McGahn is not going to do anything to stop him, Congress is not going to do anything to stop him, Senate Republicans are not going to do anything to stop him, and Sean Spicer is on Dancing With the Stars. Cold comfort perhaps, but if you dont feel that you are losing your damn mind, something would be profoundly wrong with you.
We are all doing too much. And we are all also not doing enough. And there is nothing wrong with you, beyond being a human being in categorically insane times.
Trump says administration looking 'seriously' at ending birthright citizenship
Trump says administration looking 'seriously' at ending birthright citizenship
By Brett Samuels - 08/21/19 02:00 PM EDT
President Trump on Wednesday said his administration is once again seriously considering an executive order to end birthright citizenship months after several lawmakers cast doubt on his ability to take such action.
"We are looking at birthright citizenship very seriously," he added. "Its, frankly, ridiculous."
The president proposed ending the practice that grants citizenship to those born in the United States during his 2016 presidential campaign. He revived the idea last year, saying he would sign an executive order to enact the change.
Numerous lawmakers, including several Republicans, quickly pushed back on the idea and argued Trump lacked the authority to make such a change using an executive order. They cited that birthright citizenship is a right enshrined under the 14th Amendment.
Trump responded to the criticism by saying birthright citizenship would be ended "one way or another."
more...
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/458276-trump-says-administration-looking-seriously-at-ending-birthright
Charles Pierce: The President* Has Gone as Soft as Church Music
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a28772482/donald-trump-twitter-king-of-israel-wayne-allyn-root/?fbclid=IwAR1-FO7ESkhjD48HhLwKOLNFyrdzKX6KmcbVN0YXwzX4YBp2qbSwGCgDjy4The President* Has Gone as Soft as Church Music
Donald Trump accepts his crown as King of the Jews.
By Charles P. Pierce
Aug 21, 2019
For the love of god, you should pardon the expression, somebody get the damn net.
And thus did "King of the Jews" trend on the electric Twitter machine this morning as America awoke to another day in Bedlam.
(The last time "King of the Jews" trended, things did not end well.)
Mr. Root is a wingnut clown of long-standing. He's one of the most prominent of the Seth Rich truthers, among his other offenses against truth and sanity. So it's no surprise that the President* of the United States, a man so thirsty for praise he probably polls himself every night before bed, would retweet this blasphemous hooey.
First of all, no Jews anywhere believe in "the second coming of God" because they don't believe that God, in the person of the young rabbi Yeshua ben-Yoseph, came here the first time.
Second...well, there is no second, nor any need for one. This is completely around the bend and off the planet.
I have no doubt that the administration*'s spinmeisters are happy with the distraction provided by any story that doesn't contain the words "recession" or "obstruction." But demonstrating that the president* has gone, as the late George V. Higgins once put it, "as soft as church music," is a high price to pay to keep people from finding out how badly he's fcking everything else up. Maybe he should try to buy Patmos from Greece.
The Rude Pundit: If You're Not Anti-Fascist, You're Pro-Fascist
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2019/08/if-youre-not-anti-fascist-youre-pro.htmlThe Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
8/20/2019
If You're Not Anti-Fascist, You're Pro-Fascist
snip//
Yes, in other articles and on-air pieces, Foxeteers have spoken out against "Antifa and far-right" groups. No less a motherfucker than Sean Hannity said, "To each and every single person on either side that has an extreme agenda, you must stop this insanity this lawlessness." The Chin of Doom declared that Antifa and white supremacists are two sides of the same coin: "They're all tied to sick, ugly, twisted, evil ideologies." And we should kumbaya ourselves out of any conflict: "Let's not forget, we can have political disagreements but at the end of the day, we are all Americans. We're all created equal. We're all one nation under God."
But the context is so fucked up. It's saying that white nationalism, Neo-Nazis, and other assorted racist, heinous, violent shitheels should be given the same consideration as those whose ideology is (checks a dozen websites) stopping white nationalism, Neo-Nazis, and other assorted racist, heinous, violent shitheels. Oh, and also support immigrant rights, health care for all (including white supremacists), and other mainstream progressive ideas. In other words, it's fascists versus, you know, anti-fascists. Seems pretty easy to pick a fuckin' side here.
I'm not saying that Antifa groups and individuals haven't committed violence. Every movement has moments of violence, but incidents are isolated and blown out of proportion, usually by whiny pukes like "journalist" Andy Ngo, who is desperately trying to grift his way into relevance. Hell, in Portland, Ngo just outright lied about supposed violence. And, honestly, you know how fucking lame you look crying about a tossed milkshake and some Silly String sprayed at you when people on the right are literally shooting children to death for being non-white? Also, violence and threats against Antifa supporters are far more prevalent than violence against, for lack of a simpler word, Nazis.
Of course, conservatives have to condemn Antifa because they'd lose a big percentage of their base of inbred mutants and anxious pigfuckers if they said, "You know what? I'm anti-fascist. Cut this Nazi shit out." It's no different than the condemnation of anti-war protesters or civil rights marchers in the past. Right-wing bitches will be right-wing bitches.
Gotta say, though, this is some weird ass shit. The right in this country just wants to erase all the history that makes it uncomfortable. Yeah, let's pretend that the rise of the Nazis in Germany happened overnight, not that it took years of propaganda and refusal to take the threat seriously before things got all Holocausty. Frankly, if you're saying let's be nicer to Nazis in this country, I'm gonna say, "Go fuck yourself. I'm not waiting for another Kristallnacht to call evil 'evil.' I'm gonna call Nazis "Nazis.'"
Fascist motherfuckers have the right to speak. They have a right to gather. They have a right to freely write any idiot hate they want. They can get their 88 tattoos all up and down their faces. And we have the right to raise our voices louder and in bigger numbers and tell them to shut the fuck up and go back to their holes in the ground like the piles of shit they are.
But we still want them to have health insurance.
Barack Obama to return to Denmark in September
The real reason the ugly bastid bailed...imo
https://www.thelocal.dk/20190813/barack-obama-to-return-to-denmark-in-september?fbclid=IwAR2fV1_AnLI_BGDYHxcXvpnRncnZYr41ZNLdTR-Elmx_zpfOr38k6mBFX0o
13 August 2019
10:37 CEST+02:00
Barack Obama to return to Denmark in September
Obamas September 28th stop in North Jutland would have fallen in the same month as the now-postponed official state visit of his successor, Donald Trump, on September 2nd and 3rd.
The 44th president of the United States last came to Denmark in 2018, when he gave a talk for business leaders in Kolding, and also visited while in office.
snip//
The visit will be the first to Aalborg by a former US president.
Im delighted that one of the worlds most prominent people sees potential in visiting Aalborg to share his visions about such topics as leadership and entrepreneurship, he added.
Denmark Cannot Believe Trump Snub: 'Reality Surpasses Imagination'
https://www.thedailybeast.com/denmark-cannot-believe-what-just-happened-reality-surpasses-imagination?ref=homeDenmark Cannot Believe Trump Snub: Reality Surpasses Imagination
Barbie Latza Nadeau
Correspondent-At-Large
Updated 08.21.19 7:39AM ET /
Published 08.21.19
7:16AM ET
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