Catering to the Tiny Tantrum Tyrant.

Trump. AP News.

Oh dear. The Unprez’s trip is looming, and world leaders are all busy lining up favourite foods, padding playpens, and doing power point slides on how to handle the Tiny Tyrant. The mocking by the Twitterati has been merciless, and deservedly so. These are obviously not preparations for a visit by an adult, let alone the supposed president of a company country.  [My Freudian Slip is showing.] These are preparations for a cranky toddler, ever on the verge of a full meltdown tantrum. AP and NYT have stories about these preparations, if you feel like being gobsmacked this day, with a side helping of near-fatal eyerolls.

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Donald Trump sits down for dinner in Saudi Arabia, caterers have ensured that his favorite meal – steak with a side of ketchup – will be offered alongside the traditional local cuisine.

At NATO and the Group of 7 summits, foreign delegations have gotten word that the new U.S. president prefers short presentations and lots of visual aids. And at all of Trump’s five stops on his first overseas trip, his team has spent weeks trying to build daily downtime into his otherwise jam-packed schedule.

It’s all part of a worldwide effort to accommodate America’s homebody president on a voyage with increasingly raised stakes given the ballooning controversy involving his campaign’s possible ties to Russia. For a former international businessman, Trump simply doesn’t have an affinity for much international.

Even before Trump’s trip morphed from a quick jaunt to Europe into a nine-day behemoth, White House aides were on edge about how the president would take to grueling pressures of foreign travel: the time zone changes, the unfamiliar hotels, the local delicacies. Two officials said they feared that a difficult trip might even lead the president to hand off future traveling duties to Vice President Mike Pence.

From the AP article.

After four months of interactions between Mr. Trump and his counterparts, foreign officials and their Washington consultants say certain rules have emerged: Keep it short — no 30-minute monologue for a 30-second attention span. Do not assume he knows the history of the country or its major points of contention. Compliment him on his Electoral College victory. Contrast him favorably with President Barack Obama. Do not get hung up on whatever was said during the campaign. Stay in regular touch. Do not go in with a shopping list but bring some sort of deal he can call a victory.

“If you were prepping people for Donald Trump, the two or three points would be: one, bear in mind this is still a guy who focuses on wins,” Peter Westmacott, a former British ambassador to the United States, said. “He likes to have wins for America and wins for himself from bilateral meetings.”

“Secondly,” he continued, “he is a deal maker, a pragmatist. Third, this is a guy with a limited attention span. He absolutely won’t want to listen to visitors droning on for a half-hour — or longer if they need an interpreter.”

From the NYT.

“I don’t mean to belabor this comparison but these are literally tips for managing toddlers.”

“@AP @POTUS brings the world together in an international babysitting effort.”

Raw Story has some of the choice tweets on the issue.

Cool Stuff Friday.

the artist in front of “Tyrannosaurus” in Chiba prefecture (2016).

“Asura” in Akita prefecture (2015).

Toshihiko Hosaka began making sand sculptures in art school and has been using beaches and sand boxes as his canvas for almost 20 years. His work defies what we typically think of as sand art as he sculpts and carves the loose, granular substance as if it were some malleable form of clay.

There is no core, mold or adhesive ever used throughout the process: just sand. The only trick Hosaka uses (and this is commonly accepted) is a hardening spray applied to his sculpture only after it’s been completed, in order to prevent wind and sun from eroding it for a few days.

Looking at his work, you can hardly credit it, that’s it’s just sand, nothing more, because it’s truly amazing and intricate. He has done sculptures of Musashi Miyamoto, Godzilla, Alice in Wonderland, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Asura, and a massive Kraken, among others. All the ones listed you can see at Spoon & Tamago, and be sure to visit Toshihiko Hosaka’s website!

An octopus sings about overfishing:

Overfishing Song from “Papa Cloudy’s Restaurant” from Studio Creature on Vimeo.

Artist Chuck Miller is fascinated with bodies, as many artists are, however, what fascinates Miller the most is fluidity and complexity of flesh. You can read and see more at The Creators Project.

Milena Ogrizovic beside Monument of the Fallen Fighters. Designer: Dajana Vasic.

Throughout the former Yugoslavia, mysterious and beautiful monuments dot the landscape, initiated by Yugoslav revolutionary Josef Broz Tito and designed by modernist architects. Increasingly forgotten, these brutalist concrete sculptures, which were public monuments to the country’s fallen soldiers of World War II, are revived in Serbian photographer Jovana Mladenovic‘s series Monumental Fear, which not only explores the former country’s triumph over fascism, but echoes the painful split that led to several Balkan states. Mladenovic’s series is also a tone poem meant to celebrate the creativity of the Serbian people, many of them artists facing uncertainty in the wake of the Brexit vote.

After studying photography at Belgrade’s University of Arts, Mladenovic moved to London to pursue her interest in fashion photography at the London College of Fashion. But she soon realized she was more interested in conceptual art and photography. Though she was happy to be in London, exploring avant-garde impulses, Mladenovic started thinking about her home country—specifically, its brutalist Yugoslavian communist monuments unveiled in the decades following World War II.

Fascinating and beautiful work. You can read and see more at The Creators Project.

And last, but certainly not least, Mr. Rogers!

Mr. Rogers is singing about how it’s ok to hug a pillow or pine after a teddy bear, and even though it seems like I’m too old for such things, I feel my stomach drop and I’m suddenly having trouble breathing. I feel like a kid again, and thanks to the 18-day Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood marathon currently streaming on Twitch, over 2 million people have already had the chance to feel the same. The Twitch stream is playing the entire Mister Rogers archive back-to-back in chronological order, including rare episodes that only aired once on terrestrial TV.

Twitch reached out to PBS with an idea for a Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood revival in the lead up to the show’s 50th anniversary. They launched the marathon on May 15, partially thanks to the overwhelming response to marathons of Bob Ross’ The Joy of Painting, Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, and Julia Child’s The French Chef on the streaming platform. “We were excited to build on that momentum with this experimental initiative,” Lesli Rotenberg, a Senior Vice President at PBS, tells Creators.

You can read more about this at The Creators Project. The Twitch Mr. Roger’s Stream.

Another Day, Another Teeny Tantrum.

Jewish Virtual Library.

In yet another tantrum, Donny has declined to visit the Masada Fortress because he can’t land his helicopter on it. He canceled, rather than have the helicopter land at base, and take a cable car up. For Fuck’s Sake, you little twit, you are not emperor of the world. The Fortress, as most people know, is extremely old and easily damaged. The sheer amount of dust also makes landing a helicopter dangerous to all involved. Also, just how much of an idiot do you have to be to pass up a chance to see Masada? Yeah, I know. Fuck, I would love to be able to stand so steeped in history. What an experience.

President Donald Trump has canceled a planned visit and speech at the ancient mountain fortress of Masada in Israel after authorities told him that he could not land his helicopter on top of the UNESCO-listed site.

Instead, Trump will now deliver a speech at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. It comes after an Israeli Air Force (IAF) regulation that prevents helicopters landing at the summit of the Masada site, according to Israel’s Channel 2 broadcaster.

Unlike former presidents who have made the trip, such as George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, Trump declined to land the helicopter at a base of the historic site and then take the cable car up, preferring to cancel the visit altogether.

Where the hell is Washington DC Nagahame when you need him? There’s a teeny tyrant who could use a lesson in manners.  Via Raw Story.

Speaking of stupid, ill-mannered tiny tyrants, the one named Donny also thinks he’s going to be able to hire Flynn again.

A High-Tech Lynching! A Crucifixion! A Tsunami! An Earthquake! The Gates of Hell!

It’s customary for the Religious Reich and Uber-Conservatives to employ purple hyperbole, but Wayne Allen Root takes this habit to a whole new level. To say his latest screed is hyperbole overkill is something of an understatement. I’m rather surprised he omitted witch hunt and purge. Well, perhaps he felt the lynching and crucifixion were enough to get on with, along with the triune of Trump, William Wallace, and Jesus Christ. There’s a trinity for you.

Root says that Trump, like William Wallace and Jesus Christ, is a champion of the people and is now “facing one of the most intense, over-the-top, attacks ever seen in world history,” orchestrated by the “deep state,” the media, and “disgusting, disgraced people” like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

“They have to stop him at all costs,” Root said. “Not just stop him, destroy him. Lynch him. Crucify him. They need to send a clear message, so no one ever tries to educate, enlighten, or empower the people ever again. That’s why the gates of hell have been opened on President Trump. That’s why Trump is facing a tsunami, earthquake, tornado, hailstorm all in one.”

Okay, perhaps I’m simply easy to amuse, but I got a good laugh out of the notion that Trump, in any way, educates, enlightens, or empowers anyone. (Empowering himself and family, yes. Everyone and everything else? No.) As for the weather hyperbole, if we don’t get busy on the whole climate change is coming to get you, Barbara, that might happen to lots of us.

“They need to kill Trump,” he said, “whether it be character assassination or the real thing, aka murder.”

“Never in all my years in politics have I ever [seen?] anything like the way the gates of hell have been unleashed on Donald Trump,” Root said. “This isn’t just an old-fashioned attack, it isn’t random. This is a coordinated conspiracy to destroy Trump. This is a high-tech lynching. This is a crucifixion!”

How does one go about a high-tech lynching? Is that the same as a cyber-lynching, or just better tools? It never ceases to amaze just how much privileged white people love to invoke the very real terror of lynching, as if it were remotely applicable to themselves.

“And that’s why we must all support President Trump,” Root warned. “If we don’t back Trump now, if you don’t back Trump now, it’s all lost forever. It’s time to fight like a cornered wolverine. It’s time to fight like it’s the end of America, because it is. We can’t go back in time and save Sir William Wallace. We can’t go back and save Jesus Christ from being nailed to that cross. But we can change the future course of history today. There is still time to stand with Donald Trump against the forces of evil.”

I’m pretty sure you don’t want to go back in time to save your buddy Jesus. If you did that, you wouldn’t have your seriously twisted religion, would you? Well, actually, I’d be fine with that, make it so, okay? And stop besmirching the reputation of Wallace with your awful comparisons. Trump is no William Wallace. George, maybe. Anyone else getting the “I just found out about Wallace, I must use it!” vibe in this rant?

Via RWW.

Sheriff David Clarke Gets His Trump Appointment.

Sheriff David Clarke Jr. CREDIT: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin.

I’m sure that Dave Clarke is just giddy over being appointed to homeland security. For the rest of us, it’s a walking, talking, nightmare. No one could possibly be less qualified than Clarke, whose hatred knows no bounds. Many times over, this man should have been tried for his crimes, and if there was any justice, he’d be sitting in a prison cell for the rest of his life.  He’s in the midst of a prison deaths scandal right now, but apparently, that doesn’t matter, anymore than his previous crimes. This is just the tip of the Clarke iceberg:

Clarke has called the Black Lives Matter movement “black slime” that “needs to be eradicated from the American society and the American culture,” “garbage” and a “subversive movement” that seeks to overthrow the government, and said that the movement is driven by “an ideology of victimhood with a list of grievances that do not exist.” He has dismissed concerns about police brutality by saying that “black criminal abuse, black criminal brutality” is “the real brutality going on in the United States.” The real problem in “the American ghetto,” he has said, is “modern liberalism.”

Clarke said that Michael Brown, the black teenager shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri, was a “co-conspirator in his own demise” because he “chose thug life.” After Sandra Bland, a black woman who had been thrown to the ground during a traffic stop, died in police custody, Clarke went on Fox News to chastise her. He said that he would have used even more force against a group of black teenagers who were thrown to the ground by police outside a public swimming pool in Ohio, telling people who saw a racial component in the action to “shut up already.”

Clarke has been colorful in his condemnation of President Obama and Hillary Clinton for sympathizing with the Black Lives Matter movement, calling them “straight-up cop haters.” He called Obama a “heartless, soulless bastard” for speaking up about “goons” killed by police and said that the Obama administration’s attempts to address racial disparities in policing were a plot to “emasculate the police” in order to impose dictatorial control.” He accused the president of worsening racial divides in the country by pitting “whites against blacks” and “Hispanics against Americans.”

The sheriff is also happy to throw red meat to his conservative audience on a number of other topics. After the Supreme Court struck down state marriage equality bans, Clarke called for a “revolution” to “get this country back,” complete with “pitchforks and torches,” urging his audience to launch a standoff against the federal government the next time a bakery or the like is fined for refusing business to a same-sex couple.

When Trump caused a national uproar when he attacked a judge because of his Mexican-American heritage, Clarke took to his radio show to defend the candidate.

Clarke first became a conservative hero when, in 2013, he aired radio ads in his county urging citizens not to rely on calling 911 but instead to learn to protect themselves against crime. Speaking at the National Rifle Association’s convention last year, he proposed adding a semi-automatic rifle to the Great Seal of the United States. Appearing on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ radio program, Clarke warned that a renewal of the federal assault weapons ban would lead to gun confiscations that would spark “the second coming of the American Revolution, the likes of which would make the first revolution pale by comparison.”

While Clarke has no patience for African Americans who have deadly run-ins with the police, he has repeatedly associated himself with anti-government militia groups who have staged armed standoffs with federal government agents or who threaten to defy federal law. Earlier this year, when a group of armed activists took over a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon, Clarke backed their cause, saying that the country had reached a “pitchforks and torches moment” that couldn’t be solved by an election.

In 2013, after he aired his ads discouraging citizens from relying on 911, Clarke accepted the “ Constitutional Sheriff of the Year” award from the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, an anti-government group that promotes the idea that county sheriffs are the highest law enforcement officers in the country and thus have the power to defy federal laws that they believe are unconstitutional. In his acceptance speech , Clarke declared that “government” was the “common enemy” of the “patriots” in the room. In a radio interview that year, he said that “on an everyday basis, to me, federal government is a bigger threat” than terrorism.

Just this year, Clarke spoke at a fundraising event for the New York chapter of the Oath Keepers, an anti-government group aligned with the Constitutional Sheriffs that urges law enforcement officers and military personnel to defy laws they believe are unconstitutional and encourages its members to form militias ready to defy an out-of-control federal government. At that event, Clarke called Black Lives Matter a “hate group” and vowed to do “everything I can” to get Trump elected president.

Via RWW, click on over for the full story.

Also see: Why Sheriff Clarke will be a disaster in his new job, according to his predecessor: ‘Just plain awful’.