December 26, 2018

Trump causes a dumpster fire wherever he goes.

https://twitter.com/TamerELG/status/1078044922169577472

In a statement, Iraqi PM Adel Abdul Mahdi’s office says US informed them about Trump’s plans and it was supposed to include a formal reception btw the leaders but a “divergence of views” over the meeting lead it to be downgraded to a phone call.


https://twitter.com/TamerELG/status/1078049289165713409

But the damage has been done: several lawmakers critical of the US presence in Iraq have called for parliament to expedite a bill calling for the expulsion of US troops — others want the US Ambassador summoned over Trump’s visit (and apparent snub of Iraq’s PM)

December 26, 2018

Trump handed out campaign paraphernalia to troops

https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1078036914836590592


The President of the United States is using a Christmas visit to the troops in Iraq to disseminate campaign paraphernalia?




Walter Schaub deleted the above tweet because he doesn't want the soldiers getting blamed.


https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1078040557275021314

I took down a tweet about what Trump did on his trip to Iraq because I’m worried about the chance that someone might blame the soldiers. It’s not their fault. Trump’s engaging in campaign activity during this trip is on Trump and Trump alone. Disgusting. Truly disgusting. Shame!

December 26, 2018

Democracy continues its disturbing retreat

More than half the countries in the latest update of a democratic-health index saw their scores decline


A DECADE has passed since Larry Diamond, a political scientist at Stanford University, put forward the idea of a global “democratic recession”. The tenth edition of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index suggests that this unwelcome trend remains firmly in place. The index, which comprises 60 indicators across five broad categories—electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, democratic political culture and civil liberties—concludes that less than 5% of the world’s population currently lives in a “full democracy”. Nearly a third live under authoritarian rule, with a large share of those in China. Overall, 89 of the 167 countries assessed in 2017 received lower scores than they had the year before.

Norway remains the most democratic country in the ranking, a position it has held since 2010, and western Europe accounts for 14 of the 19 “full democracies” that make up the ranking’s top tier. Nonetheless, the region’s average score slipped slightly in 2017, to an average of 8.38 points out of 10. The Spanish government’s attempt to stop Catalonia’s independence referendum by force on October 1st caused the country’s score to fall by 0.22 points, leaving it just 0.08 points above the “flawed democracy” threshold. In Malta, the unresolved murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, an anti-corruption blogger, raised questions about the rule of law and the authorities’ willingness to investigate sensitive crimes, leading to a drop of 0.24 points. And France, already a “flawed democracy” according to the taxonomy of the index, fell further down the table, even though its voters firmly rejected a far-right candidate in a presidential election last year. The country’s civil-liberties score declined because its legislature passed a law expanding the government’s emergency powers.


America sits in 21st place in the ranking, level with Italy. It remains a “flawed democracy” for the second year in a row.

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2018/01/31/democracy-continues-its-disturbing-retreat?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/



Top 5 Democracies

Democracy Index 2017
Top 5
Rank Movement Country Score
1 Norway 9.87
2 Iceland 9.58
3 Sweden 9.39
4 New Zealand 9.26
5 Denmark 9.22

The latest edition of The Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index records the worst decline in global democracy in years. Not a single region recorded an improvement in its average score since 2016, as countries grapple with increasingly divided electorates. Freedom of expression in particular is facing new challenges from both state and non-state actors, and is a special focus of this year's report.
http://www.eiu.com/topic/democracy-index

December 24, 2018

Russia Repeats Claim That Ukraine Is Preparing A 'Provocation'

Russia's Foreign Ministry has said "it is quite possible" that Ukraine "might switch to full-scale combat actions within the next few days." Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova made the statements in Moscow on December 24, repeating claims by Russian officials predicting a "provocation" by Kyiv in the near future.

The unsubstantiated claims come at a time of high tensions between the two countries since Russia seized three Ukrainian Navy ships and their crews near the Kerch Strait on November 25. The United States and the European Union have denounced that action and called on Russia to release the vessels and seamen immediately.

"Apart from a ground operation, Kyiv is also mulling other option to increase tensions in the region and extend martial law," Zakharova said. "We are really concerned about increasingly more frequent reports by 'experts' in Ukrainian media outlets on the possible use of chemical-warfare agents by [Russia-backed militants in eastern Ukraine]."

"This circumstance gives grounds to presume that the strategists in Kyiv have thoroughly analyzed the record of their foreign supervisors in staging provocations involving the use of weapons of mass destruction and are ready to put them into practice."

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-repeats-claim-that-ukraine-is-preparing-a-provocation-/29674117.html


Russia's getting ready to invade Ukraine and Trump won't do a thing.

December 20, 2018

Gatwick to remain closed for the rest of Thursday, and Friday's situation is "fluid"

New drone sighting 'in last hour'
There has been another drone sighting in the last hour and Gatwick airport will remain closed for the rest of the evening, Gatwick chief operating officer Chris Woodroofe has said.

"We will review overnight whether there is any potential to open tomorrow," he said.

He said passengers should check with their airlines and not travel to the airport tomorrow unless advised to do so.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-england-sussex-46564814?ns_mchannel=social&ns_linkname=news_central&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_breaking


What a mess.

December 20, 2018

There's something strange going on with the GoFundMe wall page

https://twitter.com/InsectophileJim/status/1075800512207847424


Umm, there’s something strange going on with the gofundme wall page.
The list of names repeats itself constantly as you scroll through, I only saw one donation over a hundred dollars, most are $50 or $100.
Look how many time Diane holland, Steve farmer, David Moore, donated..?


https://twitter.com/InsectophileJim/status/1075800528796377088


It continues like this, and there are many other repeated names.
I was skeptical before, but this totally looks like someone else is funneling tons of money into this using fake accounts.

December 19, 2018

The U.S. Treasury Department is removing Russian aluminum giant Rusal from the sanctions list

https://twitter.com/olgaNYC1211/status/1075457923428560896

Manafort’s boss Deripaska wins. After 8 months of delaying sanctions Deripaska’s company Rusal is taken off the sanctions list. This story started in April in Russian press and predictably ended this way




@olgaNYC1211
Why does Deripaska keep getting these breaks? Have been following this story all year and thanks to Mnuchin, most likely under the direction of Trump, sanctions against Deripaska’s companies keep getting postponed.
Reminder Deripaska was Manafort’s boss

December 19, 2018

A blind, wormlike amphibian that burrows underground has been named after Donald Trump

When President Trump announced his plan to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement last year, he said he was benching the United States in the global fight against climate change because he wanted the rest of the world to stop “laughing at us.”

“We don’t want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore, and they won’t be,” Trump vowed from a podium in the White House Rose Garden in June 2017. “They won’t be.”

But the name of a newly discovered amphibian species reveals just how hearty a laugh critics of the president abroad are having at his expense — and on the very issue he cited as he promised to protect American dignity.

A London-based sustainable building materials company, EnviroBuild, saw a resemblance between the serpentine creature, which is nearly blind and burrows underground, and Trump, who has called the evidence of global warming a “hoax.” EnviroBuild, which paid $25,000 for the naming rights at an auction this month, said on Tuesday that it chose “Dermophis donaldtrumpi” in recognition of the president’s position on climate change. The announcement came on the heels of a weekend agreement by climate negotiators in Poland on the rules for implementing the Paris pact, which Trump sees as counter to U.S. national interests.



A London-based sustainable building company added a mop of blond hair to an image of an amphibian in the same family as the Dermophis donaldtrumpi, which it named after Donald Trump. (Matthijs Kuijpers/EnviroBuild and Al Drago/Bloomberg)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/12/19/blind-worm-like-amphibian-that-buries-its-head-underground-has-been-named-after-donald-trump/?utm_term=.da47a0b454e2

December 17, 2018

This list of reasons for admission to a "lunatic asylum" in the 1800s

https://twitter.com/historylvrsclub/status/1074390816821571584





Some of these pairings, like bad habits and political excitement and fever and loss of lawsuit are weird. Apparently people could be thrown in an asylum for anything back then.

December 16, 2018

Stephen Miller's spray on hair

https://twitter.com/futuropolist/status/1074327409934004225


#facethenation Stephen Miller sporting the worst case of spray-on hair I have ever seen.
The glory and horror of HDTV.



I don't understand all the bad hair in the Trump administration. They could get better toupees at Hair Club for Men.