Open Mike 29/01/2017

59 comments on “Open Mike 29/01/2017 ”

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1. AsleepWhileWalking 1

   29 January 2017 at 8:09 am

   Trump is the fastest moving president ever. It’s both impressive and frightening.
   • Sacha 1.1

     29 January 2017 at 8:22 am

     They are re-using executive decrees written for the 2012 election.
2. AsleepWhileWalking 2

   29 January 2017 at 8:27 am

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FRbBDRcjQ

   Toast. I wish I could afford a stash of gold and a secret lair.
3. Morrissey 3

   29 January 2017 at 8:27 am

   What happens when you point out that a
   Fox News presenter has told a lie? (On his show)
   • Adrian Thornton 3.1

     29 January 2017 at 8:39 am

     Yeh loved that one…” ok you are clearly obfuscating the truth time and time again through this segment.”
4. Nick 4

   29 January 2017 at 8:29 am

   America burns…. A lot of other countries are going to catch light also.
   • Johan 4.1

     29 January 2017 at 9:45 am

     There are many similarities of what is happening in the USA presently, to that what occurred in Germany 1936-1945. The great unwashed in both countries are/were easily manipulated, partly due to a poor education system. Lies are easily converted and swallowed up as facts. Assessing Trump’s past behaviour towards those possessing less power, I am very worried about the demise of America.
     • saveNZ 4.1.1

       29 January 2017 at 9:54 am

       As well as their education maybe their monocultural diet….

       France’s wild hamsters being turned into ‘crazed cannibals’ by diet of corn

       https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/28/frances-wild-hamsters-being-turned-into-crazed-cannibals-by-diet-of-corn
       • Draco T Bastard 4.1.1.1

         29 January 2017 at 11:37 am

         Another example of how our mono-cropping destroys life rather than supporting it.
     • swordfish 4.1.2

       29 January 2017 at 1:00 pm

       “There are many similarities of what is happening in the USA presently, to that what occurred in Germany 1936-1945. The great unwashed in both countries are/were easily manipulated”

       If by “the great unwashed” you’re suggesting that the Poor / Unemployed / Working Class / Precariat disproportionately voted for Hitler and Trump then I’d have to disagree.

       But, ironically enough, “the great unwashed” is precisely the sort of contemptuous elite rhetoric that encouraged a lot of ordinary Democrats to stay home on Election Day … and a crucial few to swing towards Trump in the Rust Belt swing states.

       An elite DNC mindset reflected, of course, in an abysmally unprogressive record (that ordinary Americans were apparently supposed to enthusiastically embrace because … er … Trump …………… Precisely the same Trump that Hillary, the DNC and their chums in the media did everything to promote during the Primaries because they assumed an already woefully unpopular ‘Hills’ would have a better chance of beating him on Election Day).
       • RedLogix 4.1.2.1

         29 January 2017 at 1:10 pm

         precisely the sort of contemptuous elite rhetoric

         Behind the media-manufactured facade of white working class men as the cackling villains who gave the country to Donald Trump, in other words, lies a reality far more in keeping with the complexities of American electoral politics: a ramshackle coalition of many different voting blocs and interest groups, each with its own assortment of reasons for voting for a candidate feared and despised by the US political establishment and the mainstream media. That coalition included a very large majority of the US working class in general, and while white working class voters of both genders were disproportionately more likely to have voted for Trump than their nonwhite equivalents, it wasn’t simply a matter of whiteness, or for that matter maleness.

         It was, however, to a very great extent a matter of social class. This isn’t just because so large a fraction of working class voters generally backed Trump; it’s also because Trump saw this from the beginning, and aimed his campaign squarely at the working class vote. His signature red ball cap was part of that—can you imagine Hillary Clinton wearing so proletarian a garment without absurdity?—but, as I pointed out a year ago, so was his deliberate strategy of saying (and tweeting) things that would get the liberal punditocracy to denounce him. The tones of sneering contempt and condescension they directed at him were all too familiar to his working class audiences, who have been treated to the same tones unceasingly by their soi-disant betters for decades now.

         http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.ca/2017/01/the-hate-that-dare-not-speak-its-name.html
         • swordfish 4.1.2.1.1

           29 January 2017 at 4:44 pm

           Cheers, RedLogix.

           Entirely agree with him on the elite’s sneering contempt and class bigotry towards American workers.

           But I think he’s smuggling in a few too many assumptions when he confidently asserts that Trump’s “ramshackle coalition” notably included “a very large majority of the US working class” and that Trump’s victory was hence “to a very great extent a matter of social class”.

           He seems to assume that having: No (or only some) University Education automatically equals Working Class.

           The Exit Polls certainly suggested that the less formally educated were more likely to vote Trump (especially among White voters). But that group actually includes a huge number of both affluent and middle income business owners (more than 25 million if you include spouses), senior managers and supervisors, insurance and real-estate agents (another 20 mill, including spouse), as well as various other members of that sector of society so often considered inherently conservative – the so-called “Petite Bourgeoisie”

           Some will, no doubt, possess a degree, but clearly that still leaves tens of millions of non-working-class people in the US who are included in the lack advanced formal education category, and who are more likely to (1) get out and vote and (2) be traditional / frequent Republican voters than a majority of blue-collar workers.

           Exit polls, while prone to error and by no means definitive, do suggest that, though disaffected, economically insecure white blue-collar voters no doubt helped Trump win the key “battleground” Rust Belt states, they can’t explain his performance nationwide … middle-class and wealthy suburban whites came out in droves for Trump and made up a larger part of his coalition.

           Certainly was a white working class swing to Trump (albeit dwarfed by significant numbers among the Democrats’ traditional core constituencies – so disenchanted with Clinton – boosting the already huge number of poorer non-voters), but his victory was disproportionately a middle-class, upper-income phenomenon
       • Johan 4.1.2.2

         29 January 2017 at 2:25 pm

         To swordfish:
         “If by “the great unwashed” you’re suggesting that the Poor / Unemployed / Working Class / Precariat disproportionately voted for Hitler and Trump then I’d have to disagree.”
         The great unwashed refers, as I mentioned above as those who can be easily manipulated, nothing less, nothing more. If you like to falsely interpret what I have said then take that responsibility.
         • swordfish 4.1.2.2.1

           29 January 2017 at 4:32 pm

           .
           “the great unwashed”
           .

           From MacMillan Dictionary

           an offensive or humorous word for people from low social classes.

           From Urban Dictionary:

           Coined by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, “the great unwashed” refers to the lower classes. The common people.

           From The Phrase Finder UK

           The common, lower classes; the hoi polloi..

           From Wiktionary

           the populace: hoi polloi, unwashed masses.

           From Wikipedia

           Synonyms for hoi polloi, which also express the same or similar distaste for the common people felt by those who believe themselves to be superior, include “the great unwashed”, “the plebeians” or “plebs”, “the rabble”, “the masses”,”the dregs of society”, “riffraff”, “the herd”, “the canaille”, “the proles” (proletariat), “sheeple”, and “peons”.

           .Although, to be scrupulously fair, Johan , you may be adopting more of a Humpty Dumpty approach:

           “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” … “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
           • Morrissey 4.1.2.2.1.1

             29 January 2017 at 5:52 pm

             Another term of contempt for working people is “redneck”. The use of that putdown became particularly virulent in the late 1960s and early ’70s, as sniffy East Coast Democratic Party elites—I won’t call them “liberals” because they weren’t then and aren’t now—sought to abuse working people who they blamed for Nixon’s victory.

             I’ve repeatedly taken Martyn Bradbury to task over his thoughtless reiteration of the term. And, sadly, some people on this fine site sometimes lapse into using it….

             https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-21032013/#comment-607424
             • Anne …

               29 January 2017 at 6:02 pm

               Sorry Morrissey but I think you’re wrong. The term redneck is used to describe someone (usually male) who has ultra sexist/racist attitudes. They invariably have low IQs… are poorly educated and vote along conservative lines. Trump’s more virulent supporters could be described as such including Trump himself. While they are to be found among working people it is certainly not a term to describe working people as such. Many workers – including those on low incomes – are a damm sight more intelligent than their ‘superiors’ and you won’t find rednecks among them.
               • Morrissey …

                 29 January 2017 at 6:23 pm

                 The term redneck is used to describe someone (usually male) who has ultra sexist/racist attitudes.

                 Then why not just call them peasants? It’s an equivalent term of contempt, and just as accurate—in other words, it’s totally inaccurate.

                 The proper term for people with ultra sexist/racist attitudes is “bigot”. The worst bigots in our country are not working people but privileged people who hold white collar jobs and/or do little or no hard work: Leighton Smith, Mike Hosking, John Ansell, Cameron Slater, John Banks, John “Hone the Dole Bludger” Carter, Sir Robert Jones. The only two notorious bigots I can think of who might deserve the term “redneck” are the S.S. Trust’s Grand Dragon Garth “The Knife” McVicar and Sir Peter “Mad Butcher” Leitch.

                 Trump is not a redneck; he hasn’t done a day’s work in his worthless life.
           • Johan 4.1.2.2.1.2

             29 January 2017 at 7:27 pm

             Nice to see that you have so much free time on your hands. lol
             • swordfish …

               29 January 2017 at 8:49 pm

               Well, you know, I was in the mood. 🙂
               • Morrissey …

                 29 January 2017 at 8:56 pm

                 That reminds me of something….
5. Adrian Thornton 5

   29 January 2017 at 8:35 am

   For people interested, here is a pretty good conversation, at times debate, on the dysfunctional DNC, with some interesting pointers to possible ways forward…
   
6. repateet 6

   29 January 2017 at 8:42 am

   Corruption in education in a country patting itself on the back for being without corruption:

   https://networkonnet.wordpress.com/2017/01/28/parents-teachers-and-community-of-rangiora-high-school-get-a-load-of-this/
   • garibaldi 6.1

     29 January 2017 at 9:46 am

     Thank you repateet. I had heard snippets of this but you have put it very well. What a debacle, and shame on Parata.
7. One Anonymous Bloke 7

   29 January 2017 at 9:04 am

   Test.
   • Stunned mullet 7.1

     29 January 2017 at 9:21 am

     Bill’s out of the office …you should be fine.
8. Adrian Thornton 8

   29 January 2017 at 9:24 am

   Just got sent this little vid from Joe Carolan, Socialist candidate for the Auckland electorate of Mt Albert, really refreshing to see a NZ politician actually talking about some real and viable solutions for long term housing security for working and poor people…. used to be that the Labour party would defend and talk on behalf of the working class and the poor, now they are far more interested in defending and talking to the middle class.

   https://www.facebook.com/solidarityjoe/videos/10154121963567601/?pnref=story
9. Sanctuary 9

   29 January 2017 at 10:04 am

   I was reading that Fisher & Pykel are thinking about bringing some of their manufacturing back to NZ if Trump goes ahead with his 20% tariff on Mexican goods.

   Ummmm… Wouldn’t that be a good thing for New Zealand workers?

   That is the Trump problem. So entrenched are the zombie economics of neoliberalism amongst the liberal elite that the real problem isn’t that Trump will fail – it is that enough of his economic policies will succeed to utterly consign them to the dustbin of history forever – and they may take the actual left with them.

   Not many unemployed workers will care much about the rights of migrants or a free press if Trump can take the credit when a factory re-opens nearby that pays a decent wage and gives them healthcare.

   Also, I spent the day with a bunch of 60 something Americans from Virginia last week, parents of a friend visiting NZ. They voted Trump, I didn’t bring it up directly (a good host does not discuss politics with his guests) but listening to them gave me an interesting insight into how they thought, at least. Generally, they HATED illegal immigrants and voted entirely on the issue of immigration. But their reasoning was fascinating, and way tied up with the general brainwashing the US population has about how the USA is the greatest country ever in the history of the world, and a general comment on a country where collective social security has never happened.

   They reasoned that living in and being a citizen of the greatest nation on earth is a privilege that has to be earned. Sneaking in illegally is a form of freeloading on that privilege. Not only are they not deserving to live in that great land, but they use resources that the more deserving should have first call on. And being American is strictly interpreted as how white Americans like them see the country, there was no sense of be able to be American in any other way. So failure to integrate and assimilate – by people who snuck in anyway – is just the last straw. They really do just want mass deportations of these undeserving and sneaky foreigners.
   • Andre 9.1

     29 January 2017 at 10:14 am

     I’m fairly confident your group of 60somethings don’t appreciate what jobs undocumented immigrants generally do. It’s the shitty, very low-paid ones that American citizens generally don’t want to do. But exploitation of undocumented workers is a key part of keeping the price of many things low in the US, food in particular.
   • Adrian Thornton 9.2

     29 January 2017 at 10:53 am

     Interesting comment, I think you are quite right in your reasoning that the ‘ liberal elite’ are so blinded by their own neo liberal ideology that they are in danger of being dust binned, not that I have a problem with that.

     I commented yesterday, they are already positioning Cory Booker for 2020, the guy who while being in the pocket of the pharmaceutical industry, just voted down Sanders affordable medicine bill,
     https://theintercept.com/2017/01/12/cory-booker-joins-senate-republicans-to-kill-measure-to-import-cheaper-medicine-from-canada/

     http://maplight.org/us-congress/interest/H4300

     On Cory Booker, New Yorker 2012…
     “I don’t think there could be a finer young rising star in urban politics than Cory Booker. His policies go far beyond Democratic-Republican. There has to be a new way of thinking about poverty. Cory understands that private enterprise is not the enemy of the urban poor.”

     Yes it looks like they are prepared to drive off the cliff screaming…See I told you the free market works………
10. Rosemary McDonald 10

    29 January 2017 at 10:39 am

    Stuff this morning…http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/88515678/Punished-for-love-Disabled-couple-lose-home-help

    Nah, I’m not going to copy and paste…read it for yourself. 🙂

    So far the ferals have refrained from slagging this couple in the comments section, and all comments so far are overwhelmingly in support of them.

    FFS, even the Missing on Disability Issues seems to think they should at least have home help…she’s wrong…but hey…she’s interested.

    “Subsidised support services for disabled people were not determined by a person’s income alone, Wagner said.

    “It wouldn’t matter if you were a multi-millionaire, if you had cerebral palsy and you need people to look after you we would give you that disability service.”

    This is bullshit…but never mind…there is means and asset testing for personal care…it’s just couched in terms of “natural support”.

    As one of the commenters says…these rules have been in place since before National….yes, Labour did this.

    Too much to ask that these issues attract cross party non political policies?

    Damn right.

    The Green’s Mojo Mathers comments for the article, but Labour is MIA.

    I don’t even know who Labour’s spokesperson is for disability issues….

    ….and I generally keep up with shit like that…..

    Come on Labour…stop the posing and step up…the tide of public opinion is rising in favour of people in this situation….
    • weka 10.1

      29 January 2017 at 11:05 am

      Oh good, I was just about to see if you were around so I could check some things (might put this up as a post). I can’t tell if her homehelp and personal cares were coming from the MoH or the DHB. Would it matter, or are both means/asset tested despite what the Minister says?
      • Rosemary McDonald 10.1.1

        29 January 2017 at 11:49 am

        Personal cares are (in this couple’s case) assessed and funded through their local Miserly of Health Disability Support Services’ agency the NASC.

        assessment is done, hours allocated and funding is through either a provider or through IF. The assessment is supposed to be on need…but it is very closely tied to “natural supports” (that is who you live with and what support they can unreasonably be expected to provide at no cost.)

        In the case of this couple…clearly (to any sighted, rational human being) neither can be expected to provide personal care support to the other.

        Home help…IS means tested and can only be funded (through MSD )if you have a community services card and no “natural supports” to do the work.

        Obviously, ( heavy long drawn out sigh), in the case of this couple, community services card or not, no reasonable person would expect either of them to be able to perform all the tasks required to keep their home clean to a standard slightly above squalid. Pete will be knackered at the end of his working day…having to do housework on top of that will likely send him to an early grave.

        Likewise having to pay from their actually quite limited income for a cleaner… (bet they don’t live in the Paratai Drive equivalent in Christchurch)…will cause significant stress, which would also increase his chances of an early demise.

        Unless of course…and no joking or sarcasm here…that is the intended purpose.

        Bear in mind those of you who do not have a wheelchair user in the family…floors become dirtier quickly as as yet the techos have not invented the wheelchair with interchangeable tyres twixt the outdoor and in.

        Some fuckwit bureaucratic with megalomaniacal tendencies has has taken the rule book and used it to punish this couple for having the sheer audacity to think that when they say “go live and ordinary life disabled person…we will support you to do this” they actually mean’t it.

        What this couple should have done…is simply not told anyone they were a couple.

        Hidden their relationship.

        The system…set up under Labour…always left plenty of room for the exploiting of loopholes.

        Right..back to emptying the shit tanks on my Bus.
        • Rosemary McDonald 10.1.1.1

          29 January 2017 at 12:11 pm

          ….and speaking of shit, so far it seems that Farrar’s Ferals haven’t started in on Amy and Peter yet. David Garrett is usually up for a spot of cripple bashing of a morning….
        • weka 10.1.1.2

          29 January 2017 at 12:25 pm

          Thanks Rosemary. I understand how the NASC works, and good to have it clarified that home help is means/asset tested. I wasn’t sure from her diagnosis if she would go through the MoH disability funding or the DHB chronic illness funding (can’t remember if that has the same CSC criteria). Just had a quick look online and the MoH sites are saying go to the DHB sites, but I can’t find anything on them.

          I wanted to put the article out to people on TS who wax lyrical about a UBI and then state that supplementary income benefits can be paid via Health because it’s so much better than WINZ. I’d like them to see that Health is often just as fucked up as Welfare, but people don’t like hearing that.
          • Rosemary McDonald 10.1.1.2.1

            29 January 2017 at 1:05 pm

            “…via Health because it’s so much better than WINZ.”

            TBH….I have found staff at WINZ who are positively kind compared with NASC staff and their MOH:DSS overlords.

            We doooooo have a system here in Godzone that does take an holistic approach to disability supports and living allowances, has a rights and entitlement based protocol and a complaints and review mechanism….

            ….we call it ACC…and if I remember rightly Labour actually ran the idea of extending it to all with permanent impairments up the flagpole to see if it fluttered…what came of that????
            • Rosemary McDonald 10.1.1.2.1.1

              29 January 2017 at 1:31 pm

              The words had no sooner left my fingertips when Stuff post this…http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/88811571/tetraplegic-mum-her-partner-and-4yearold-live-in-a-van

              Tracey is covered by ACC…so why the hell aren’t they paying for her and her family to stay in a motel?

              Ye gods and little fishes…is being a fuckwit a prequisite for working for Housing NZ, WINZ, ACC and MOH:DSS et al?

              The Auckland Spinal Rehab Unit has small one bedroom accessible units available….file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Auckland%20Spinal%20Unit%20Patient%20booklet%202016.pdf

              ….if Tracey has a pressure sore she should be in the ASRU having it treated, and her husband and daughter should be put up in one of these on site units.
              How hard is this…

              Also, there is TASC… http://tasc.org.nz/ theoretically “peer support”.
    • Adrian Thornton 10.2

      29 January 2017 at 11:17 am

      I couldn’t agree more, Labour are MIA or tacit at best on nearly all issues concerning the disenfranchised, working and poor..except when it comes to policing them it seems, then they have that centrist shill Nash breathing fire…what about Little showing us some fire in his belly for the citizens who have little or no voice, isn’t that what Labour exists for?…well it should.
      • Rosemary McDonald 10.2.1

        29 January 2017 at 11:53 am

        “…for the citizens who have little or no voice,”

        Ah! But the disabled DO have “voices”…advocacy groups (funded by the Government 😉 ) to speak on behalf of ALL disabled people.

        Again…Labour did it too. (Though admittedly National, with the help of traitor Turia, ensured that ONLY these government funded groups get to speak out officially on disability issues.)
11. HDCAFriendlyTroll 11

    29 January 2017 at 11:11 am

    Trump (greatest president since Reagan): America gets back it’s borders.

    https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/824407390674157568
12. Chris 12

    29 January 2017 at 12:49 pm

    This family was kicked out a motel because they “couldn’t show they’d been looking for a private rental”.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/88811571/tetraplegic-mum-her-partner-and-4yearold-live-in-a-van

    Absolutely typical of how Social Welfare operates, and not one jot of a legal basis for it. Then when there’s publicity they burst into action.

    How many other people are on the receiving end of treatment like this? If it’s a “rule” that not being able to show you’ve been looking for a private rental results in being chucked out of emergency motel accommodation (regardless of how fair or correct or legal that “rule” might be) then you can bet your house on it there’s a whole bunch more.
    • Draco T Bastard 12.1

      29 January 2017 at 1:23 pm

      How many other people are on the receiving end of treatment like this?

      Tens of thousands.
    • millsy 12.2

      29 January 2017 at 1:58 pm

      It is silly to have people find their own housing, given that they wouldnt have been going to MSD for emergency housing if they wernt looking because they would have found a place to live.

      There really needs to be some sort of matching program for rentals in place, rather than telling people to bugger off and find their own place.

      And if a tetraplegic woman who cannot control her own bowel movements is left to rot in a van, then what hope do the rest of us have if we find ourselves needing stable housing?

      And good on her man for sticking by her through all this. A lesser man would have slung his hook for the first bimbo that waved her legs at him.
      • Rosemary McDonald 12.2.1

        29 January 2017 at 2:05 pm

        “And good on her man for sticking by her through all this. A lesser man would have slung his hook for the first bimbo that waved her legs at her.”

        There is so much wrong with what you’re saying here that even gabby old me can’t think where to start.
        Don’t, please don’t comment on a person’s relationship in these terms again. Ever.

        The rest of your comment is ok. 🙂
        • millsy 12.2.1.1

          29 January 2017 at 2:40 pm

          Prentice will probably ban me for a couple of weeks for that comment. He banned me for 2 months for a comment I made about that gay bar massacre last year that was more tamer than that.

          So I had better float my idea of DHB’s and ACC running their own social housing for clients such as her. There is a case for it.

          [lprent: The most common reason for a banning is because a commenter trying to start fires rather than debates. I can’t remember what I banned you for because I simply don’t bother remembering details. If I need to I can always look them up. However I do have mental notes on your typical behaviours gained over any years. You :-

          1. Often try to enhance a debate that is proceeding reasonably well by trying to pour petrol on it.

          2. Will proceed to personally abuse anyone who pulls you up on it and generally act like a idiotic libertarian.

          So I have a canned response as a result. If you start acting like a pyromaniac arsehole – I douse you immediately without any hesitation. Don’t whine about it. But perhaps you should consider your own behaviour that built that reaction. ]
          • Rosemary McDonald 12.2.1.1.1

            29 January 2017 at 3:01 pm

            Prentice should do some re-programming….apologies for my snipe, it’s only manners to offer some education when someone’s inadvertently stuffed up….so here…http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rachelle-friedman/10-things-you-shouldnt-say_b_4334039.html kinda basic, but you’ll get the drift.

            “So I had better float my idea of DHB’s and ACC running their own social housing for clients such as her. There is a case for it.”

            Oh dear…and you’re trying so hard!

            Disabled people don’t want to live with other disabled people just because they are disabled. If that makes sense?

            All houses should be built with accessible features. This is not hard. The traditional Kiwi single story house can very easily be built as an accessible home. Piece of piss really, and I’ve no idea why they make such a fuss about it.
            Its an actual ‘thing’….http://www.superseniors.msd.govt.nz/finance-planning/choosing-where-you-live/universal-design.html

            If all of the theoretical hundred thousand or so of new social houses are NOT based on Universal Design…then they really are a bunch of fwits.
            • millsy 12.2.1.1.1.1

              29 January 2017 at 6:38 pm

              I mean individuals having their own flats, but modified, etc. Having disabled people flat together isnt a really good idea, given the informaton that comes out of those care homes every so often.
            • Sacha 12.2.1.1.1.2

              29 January 2017 at 9:30 pm

              “If all of the theoretical hundred thousand or so of new social houses are NOT based on Universal Design…then they really are a bunch of fwits.”

              No guarantees there, across the parties. Other nations like the UK manage to make the basic universal access features like level entrances and wider doorways compulsory in new *private* housing but our backwoods clowns can’t yet manage it in all public stock.

              Just watch the panic as the boomer population surge arrives at that lifestage where such things are no longer optional.
13. joe90 13

    29 January 2017 at 1:27 pm

    The peace dividend.
    /

    War with the US under Donald Trump is “not just a slogan” and becoming a “practical reality”, a senior Chinese military official has said.

    The remarks were published on the People’s Liberation Army website, apparently in response to the aggressive rhetoric towards China from America’s new administration.

    They communicated a view from inside the Central Military Commission, which has overall authority of China’s armed forces.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-donald-trump-war-us-military-official-practical-reality-president-latest-a7550601.html
14. Draco T Bastard 14

    29 January 2017 at 1:54 pm

    A twitter thread about Trump with David Seymour:

    to condemn every silly thing that a foreign leader does, I’ll need Maui to slow the sun again
    • Incognito 14.1

      29 January 2017 at 2:41 pm

      Seymour doesn’t want to be “inconsistent” and he can’t condemn every silly (!) thing that has happened in the world – not that he was asked – so he does exactly nothing. If he had kept his mouth shut (on Twitter) he would have been more consistent and would be looking less like a political weakling. Show some guts, David!
      • Morrissey 14.1.1

        29 January 2017 at 3:13 pm

        David Seymour is one of the silly things that has happened in the world.

        Nice but dim.
15. Morrissey 15

    29 January 2017 at 3:27 pm

    “There you are, that’s the quality of celebrity that Trump has behind him.”

    Angelina Jolie’s moronic old man can’t handle being questioned over his support for Twitler….
16. joe90 16

    29 January 2017 at 3:29 pm

    eric and junior will be delighted
    /

    With the ascension of President-elect Donald Trump, Republicans see an opportunity to roll back the Endangered Species Act, which has become one of the government’s most powerful conservation tools. The GOP contends the act has been used by wildlife advocates to block economic development and to hinder drilling, logging and other activities. Over the past eight years, Republican lawmakers have sponsored dozens of measures aimed at curtailing the landmark law. Almost all were blocked by Democrats and the White House or lawsuits from environmentalists.

    https://www.yahoo.com/digest/20170117/gop-makes-plans-invalidate-endangered-species-act-00837573
17. esoteric pineapples 17

    29 January 2017 at 5:37 pm

    This guy Mike Malloy can be a very riveting commentator if one likes his style – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4emO2sOC50o
18. joe90 18

    29 January 2017 at 5:40 pm

    Donald Trump is afraid of stairs.

    So it wasn’t necessarily an affectionate holding of hands after all.

    […]

    But Government sources in Washington DC were suggesting that the hand-holding was not as a result of a deep and lasting friendship after all.

    The insider said that Mr Trump is known to have an aversion to slopes or stairs, and said this could have been the reason for the president’s decision to grasp the Prime Minister’s hand.

    Such a fear is a recognised condition – called bathmophobia.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/28/revealed-real-reason-donald-trump-theresa-may-held-hands-not/
    • Andre 18.1

      29 January 2017 at 5:45 pm

      Jeez, his hands look even smaller than hers!
19. adam 19

    29 January 2017 at 7:13 pm

    Just in case you missed it, it seems war mongering is now official USA policy. Be afraid be very afraid.
20. Morrissey 20

    29 January 2017 at 9:01 pm

    Whatever problems there are in the U.S., one thing’s for sure:
    that “certifiable lunatic” Alex Jones is NOT the answer.

    This is a 2013 clip featuring Jeremy Scahill….

    
    
21. Sabine 21

    30 January 2017 at 4:29 pm

    I suggest that People have a bit of fun with this movie here – on youtube

    https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/second_civil_war/

    but not before they watch this

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486358/

    and they might want to read this

    https://www.autostraddle.com/i-was-trained-for-the-culture-wars-in-home-school-awaiting-someone-like-mike-pence-as-a-messiah-367057/

    and then they might get an idea who Pence is, Ryan, Haley and all the others that want to bring “god” back to the US, and only do ‘gods work’ and be ‘godly’ and such.

    i also suggest that when you have done so you have available lots of chocolate and a furry beast for cuddles. Cause…..reasons.

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