Pray for Trump Because…

Credit: Kingdom Life.

Credit: Kingdom Life.

Rev. Franklin Graham told CNN’s Carol Costello that he backs President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to bring back manufacturing jobs because people are not proud of modern jobs in computer science.

During an interview on Tuesday, Graham praised Trump for finding a way to “work with the thugs” like Russian President Vladimir Putin “so that we can have peace in this world.”

There are none so blind as those who refuse to see. Trump loves Putin, because Putin says nice things about him, and in Donald’s world, that’s what matters. They are also both consumed by money and power. Best buds. I’m afraid if you’re going to call Putin a thug, you have to call Trump one, too. In no way will their working together bring peace to this world. If the Exxon and Rosnet deal goes through, that’s 500 billion for power-mad tyrants to play with.

“That’s the problem with the politicians in Washington,” he said. “They sit down there and they do nothing. Now we’ve got a man who’s coming into the White House who wants to get things done. And I hope and I pray — we all as Americans, we need to pray for the president-elect and vice president-elect.”

Well yes, republicans aren’t overly keen on working, unless they’ve cooked up some sort of legislation to oppress marginalized people even more. Then you see some enthusiasm.

“Start working to make America great again, that’s what Trump wants to do,” the pastor continued. “We need jobs, we need to get employment up, we need to have hope for the future. And the only way you’re going to have hope for the future is if a kid goes to college and comes out and knows, ‘I can get a job and I can get a good paying job and maybe I can work my way up the ladder.’”

Oh for Crispy Fried Christ’s Sake. No. I addressed this in an earlier post, but going to college should not be tied to “get a good job”, it should be tied to a love of learning. And, as too many young people have found out, and keep finding out, a college degree is no guarantee of getting any sort of job. As for that “up the ladder” isht, I’d dearly love to see that colonial minded concept die. No. Learn to be content, learn when enough is more than enough. Learn that you do not need to compete your whole life long, with yourself, your neighbours, colleagues, or anyone else. Who gives a flying fuck what they think?

According to Graham, graduates are not finding jobs because companies have shifted to overseas manufacturing.

“This is terrible. I live in North Carolina where so much of our manufacturing base has gone to other countries,” he insisted. “And people are out of jobs, are out of work. And they say, ‘But we’ll retrain you, we’ll let you be a computer programmer.’”

Nothing wrong with that, it’s a job, right?

“They don’t want to be a computer programmer!” Graham continued. “They want to do the same job as their fathers and their grandfathers. There was pride in the manufacturing and the building. And we’ve taken all that away and it’s sad.”

Oh for fuck’s sake, make up your bloody mind. Either they go to college and get jobs which are not factory jobs, or they don’t go to college, and get a factory job. As for Trump, well, he’s not overly keen on anything being manufactured here, costs too much, y’know, those workers, they want to be paid a living wage. And unions! Oh, the archenemy of billionaires everywhere. Trump happily scammed the hell out of people with the whole Carrier deal, and now Carrier is richer by millions, big tax cuts, and they are going to use that money to automate people right out of a job. (Carrier one, Carrier two.) Trump has no intention of “bringing back jobs”. Trump is interested in making more money, and making sure his fellow billionaires make more, too.

So, go ahead and pray, Mr. Franklin, for all the good it will do. You’re providing a fine example of why we are so very fucked.

Via Raw Story.

SUF Uppsala: Demonstration mot DAPL!

https://twitter.com/SUFUppsala

Perry the Prayer to Be Energy Secretary.

Rick Perry speaks to Fox News (screen grab).

Rick Perry speaks to Fox News (screen grab).

Rick Perry, the former governor of Texas, whose style of governance was basically “hey, let’s pray!”, has been tapped by Trump to be Secretary of Energy.

CBS is reporting that President elect Donald Trump has chosen former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) to be his energy secretary.

[…]

According to Major Garrett of CBS, two sources have confirmed Perry will be offered the spot  and will accept.

As CBS notes, Perry sits on the boards of two major energy companies, including Energy Transfer Partners which owns a subsidiary Dakota Access LLC, which is attempting to build the Dakota Access Pipeline.

It’s not enough to say all these rich assholes are living in one another’s pockets, they are living in each others rectums. It’s quite the racket Trump is setting up, making sure that all his investments don’t suffer by protecting his fellow investors, all of whom are climate change deniers, and pro-fossil fuels. (See here for the Exxon mess.)

People must get serious about fighting filthy energy, our lives are at stake. When we remove the earth’s ability to sustain us, we’ll die, and not pleasantly so. When we have poisoned all the water, we’ll die. And once again, water systems are not neatly contained puddles. Water flows, it meets other water, it’s an intricate and beautiful network, one which is vital to the health of our earth, and the life residing on it. Everywhere you look, more pipelines are being approved, against public sentiment and wishes. Trudeau, who styled himself a friend to the Indigenous nations of Canada, recently approved two major pipelines. Trump has vowed to okay Keystone XL, and while he won’t be pinned down on DAPL, he says “there will be a fast resolution”. As he’s heavily invested in ETP, I’m sure it doesn’t take much work to figure out which way he will go. The coal industry is also getting much more pushy, pinning their hopes on a Trump presidency. As usual, much of the pipelines and planned coal stations will be on Indigenous land, and treaties will be broken left and right, while colonialists happily destroy the ability of Indigenous people to sustain themselves, and make sure their land and water is always at risk of being poisoned beyond repair.

Does anyone think that the blatant disregard shown by Trump and his appointees won’t matter? Climate change is real, and we are already feeling the effects of it. Sea levels are rising. Water is routinely poisoned by gas and oil. Land which used to yield food is now rendered blasted and useless from fracking. Things will continue to get worse unless we change things right. fucking. now. Trump and his cronies have no interest in that at all. They plan to accelerate all the damage. When great swathes of the U.S. are no longer inhabitable for 3 to 6 months a year, what’s going to happen? Do you have enough money to purchase alternate residences, and the money cushion involved in moving back and forth? Are you going to get out your precious, beloved gun and start shooting people who don’t have resources? What do billionaires care about any of that? The entitlement brought on by having endless amounts of money and power allows them to think they will never, ever be victimized by such things, but planetary climate change doesn’t care about billionaires, and while it might get them last, it will get them.

The most recent pipeline leak here in nDakota, it was not detected by all that supposed early detection equipment, so no more of the same, tired bullshit about how safe pipelines are, and oh, they have detection equipment, because that crap does not work, and pipelines leak, end of story.

People in Arkansas and Oklahoma need help to stop a pipeline.

…More. Right. The orange man is on deck. Trump the troll. His minions. Pipeline lovers. Oil-addicted junkies. Wall builders and bigots. The illegal immigrants in this country are not brown. I’ve said this before. Many times. These gibbed geeks are the descendants of European invaders. But enough of that. Word is the oil-and-gas fat cats at Energy Transfer Partners are pissing and moaning into their whiskeys and ryes. Whiny brats. They said they’ll push on. President Andrew Jackson pushed on, too. The Trail of Tears happened anyway. “Justice Marshall made his decision, now let him enforce it.” Another whiny brat.

There’s little justice in this world, but on December 4, Native Americans got a taste. It’s always a fine feeling when good prevails over evil. And that’s what these pipelines are. Evil. Pure. Unadulterated. How could they not be? The oil oafs and their seedy oligarch asshat homies know pipelines leak. And they know people get sick when they do. Just ask the folks in the gulf who are still suffering from the massive BP oil spill. They agonize from chronic respiratory illnesses and skin diseases. THEY know what happens when pipelines leak and poison the water, sink into the soil. But these paunchy pipeline pricks turn a blind eye in the name of profit. They are gibbed vermin, and they deal in deception. …

Excerpt from Simon Moya-Smith, writing from the Oceti Sakowin Camp.

Standing Rock: No DAPL Roundup.

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© Marty Two Bulls.

The Twists and Turns of Extortion.

Foreign governments and lobbyists have rushed to book rooms at the new Trump International Hotel in D.C., expecting to curry favor with the president-elect. Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Foreign governments and lobbyists have rushed to book rooms at the new Trump International Hotel in D.C., expecting to curry favor with the president-elect. Chip Somodevilla/Getty.

Newsweek has broken a story about the twisty financial ties of Trump, and how very easy it would be for foreign governments to do some serious arm twisting, to get Trump to do their bidding. As I hope has been made clear through dozens upon dozens of posts, Trump is primarily concerned with his name and his wallet. This whole government thing, not so much. Anyone who thinks Trump will actually divest prior to inauguration, oh please, make it back to reality land. That simply won’t happen. Trump has already stated he doesn’t care if it’s a violation of the constitution. Unfortunately, that particular mess does not rest there. If you need one more reason to actively fight against Trump, here it is – this is person who thinks of the presidency as nothing more than a good business opportunity. He not only does not understand the implications, he does not care. This is just the tip of the iceberg, one which spells out, very clearly, that Trump is placing the U.S. government in a prime position to be blackmailed by an assortment of other governments.

Despite universal condemnation of the ongoing slaughter of Filipinos, Trump signaled his approval of Duterte’s policies during a phone call on December 2. According to Duterte—an account that has gone uncontested by Trump—the president-elect endorsed his tactics as “the right way.” Duterte added: “[Trump] was wishing me success in my campaign against the drug problem.” (He also said Trump invited him to the White House, a courtesy not yet extended to Theresa May, the prime minister of Britain, America’s most important strategic ally.)

[…]

One thing, however, is clear: The Trump family has an enormous financial interest in keeping Duterte happy. Trump Tower at Century City in Makati, Philippines, is on the verge of completion, with potential buyers having placed deposits on at least 94 percent of the condominiums, according to Century Properties, the Trump Organization’s business partner there. During the U.S. presidential campaign, Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric traveled to Makati to shovel some dirt in a ceremony to celebrate the structural completion of the building; a photograph of the two men shoveling alongside top Century Properties executives was posted on the building’s website. (On that same website, a line of jewelry by Trump’s daughter Ivanka is offered for sale, and it is expected to be available for purchase at the $150 million property.) As with almost every property with Trump’s name on it built over the past decade, his company is not the developer; it merely sold its name to Century Properties to use on the building. Although details of the transaction are not public, contracts for other Trump branding deals reviewed by Newsweek show that they require a multimillion-dollar up-front payment as well as up to 25 percent of the developer’s revenue, year after year. So, under the deal, Trump’s children will be paid millions of dollars throughout their father’s presidency by Jose E.B. Antonio, the head of Century Properties.

Duterte recently named Antonio the special government envoy to the United States. The conflicts here could not be more troubling or more blatant: President Trump will be discussing U.S. policy in Southeast Asia with one of his (or his children’s) business partners, a man who is the official representative of a foreign leader who likens himself to Hitler. Also note that the Trump family has an enormous financial interest in Duterte’s deadly campaign: Rooting out crime in the Philippines is good for the real estate values.

The full, in-depth article is here.

Rachel Maddow also addressed highly troubling concerns when it comes to a Trump financial tangle and Turkey.

According to Maddow, Trump has a business relationship with the Doğan family, owners of Doğan Holding, which is building twin towers in Turkey bearing the Trump name for which the Trump family stands to make millions of dollars.

[…]

Maddow then got to the heart of the matter.

“Turkey desperately wants the U.S. government to extradite an imam [Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen],” Maddow explained. “They [the U.S.] have said that they are not extraditing him. But if that’s what you wanted, what if you could squeeze the personal financial interests of the American president as a way to get what you want from the American government?”

“I mean, the Trump family and the president-elect themselves, they stand to make millions of dollars from their relationship with the Doğan group in Turkey. That will stop if they get locked up,” she continued. “So they started locking them up. Nice leverage, right? It would be one thing if it was business leverage — but it’s leverage against all of us as Americans.”

As Eichenwald notes in his article: “If Erdoğan’s government puts more pressure on the company that’s paying millions of dollars to Trump and his children, revenue flowing from that tower complex in Istanbul could be cut off. That means Erdoğan has leverage with Trump, who will soon have the power to get Gulen extradited.”

Full story and video here.

Day of Tears.

Ben Cline (Facebook).

Ben Cline (Facebook).

Here’s a fine example of what republicans are good for, which is not much. Not much at all. “Day of Tears”. This is a Virginia delegate’s idea of meaningful legislation, to make the anniversary of Roe v Wade into “Day of Tears”, complete with flags flown at half mast.

The bill, pre-filed by Cline on Monday, would encourage Virginians to lower the flag to half-staff on January 22, 2017, and every subsequent year. The text reads:

“Whereas on January 22, 1973, the majority of the members of the Supreme Court ruled that abortion was a right secured by the Constitution; and whereas since that fateful day, over 58 million unborn children have perished; now, therefore, be it resolved that January 22 shall be called the Day of Tears in Virginia and that the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia are encouraged to lower their flags to half-staff to mourn the innocents who have lost their lives to abortion.”

The smug self-righteousness of republicans knows no bounds, and the only thing which truly shines where they are concerned is their utter uselessness. The only thing they know how to do in regard to government is to remove human rights. Roe v Wade, which is most certainly threatened, is no day of tears. It’s a day of relief, of care, of love, of health, and more than anything, a day which should remind everyone that women are indeed full human beings, with the right to full bodily autonomy. If there is a day of tears to connect with abortion, why is it smarmy, nasty “pro-lifers” are never dropping tears over the wealth of women who died because abortion was illegal? You won’t ever see that, because they do not care about adult women in the slightest, and all those women who died? “Oh, they deserved it!” they spit, designating them all as evil sluts. There’s nothing quite like the republican hatred of women, of their most cherished of foundation stones.

Full story.

Standing Rock: No DAPL Roundup.

Sacred Stone Media/YouTube Grassroots coalition against DAPL announces December as a month of action, focused on banks.

Sacred Stone Media/YouTube
Grassroots coalition against DAPL announces December as a month of action, focused on banks.

We, the below stated, are a coalition of grassroots groups living and working in the Dakota Access resistance camps along the Cannon Ball River in Oceti Sakowin treaty lands.

Sacred Stone Camp | Indigenous Environmental Network | International Indigenous Youth Council | Honor the Earth

The following is a coalition statement on the next steps for the #NoDAPL fight:

As we reflect on the decision by the U.S. Army (NOT the U.S. Army Corps) to suspend the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) river crossing easement and conduct a limited Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), the resistance camps at Standing Rock are making plans for the next phase of this movement.

Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II has asked people to return home once the weather clears, and many will do so. Others will stay to hold the space, advance our reclamation of unceded territory affirmed in the 1851 Treaty of Ft. Laramie, and continue to build community around the protection of our sacred waters. They will also keep a close eye on the company, which has drilled right up to the last inch it can, and remains poised and ready to finish the project.

[…]

[Read more…]

High Disapproval.

1_1The Pew Research Center has a new report out, an 8 page report. Personally, I find it disturbing, because while disapproval of Trump is very high at the moment, the survey reflects a forlorn hope that somehow or another, actually being president will somehow make Trump okay at the job. That, or some people may be pinning their hope on Pence actually doing all the work, but that’s hardly good news. It would certainly be worse news for the queer community.

My point of view is that this just another example of American apathy swinging into place. “Well, he was elected, he’ll get better once he’s actually in office. That will tame him.” To that, I say the fuck it will. He’s already setting the stage for mass destruction, and he’s not in office yet. Why in the hell anyone would think it might be better once he gets in the white house is beyond me. For the zillionth time, he’s a conman, a known fraud. This is not news, and there are piles of evidence of his fraudulent practices littered all over the place. He is a compulsive liar and a sexual predator. Trump is an extreme narcissist, and he will not change once he has his feet under the presidential table.

I understand people wanting to pull some sort of protective shell around themselves, hell, if I had a bunker, I’d probably be in it by now, pretending none of this happened. It has happened though, and telling yourself little fairy stories about how it will somehow magically be alright – that won’t help. It won’t help you, it won’t help anyone else. We must all be brave, and stare reality in the face, eyes wide open, and fight back.

Pew Research Center Report in Full.

 

Russia Hacks; Trump Lies.

trump-modok-spider-gwen-188535More information continues to come out in regard to Russia’s interference in the election. They have proved to be adept masters at manipulation, not that it was particularly difficult to manipulate a good portion of the American people. Really, all it took was playing to the implicit and explicit bigotry of many white Americans, and playing on the fears of the rest. There was a time, decades ago, when America in general didn’t have a problem with intelligence. Intellect was considered to be a good thing, along with the tools to use it. There was a push to get everyone into college, and I think that was a mistake because it was done for the wrong reason, it was promoted as college = good job, rather than stressing the opportunity to learn, to expand your personal horizons, and simply to instill a lifetime love of learning.

There’s always been a serious strain of resentment bubbling along in America, the resentment of colonial minded people who are always prepared to think they’ve been denied their big ol’ piece of the pie, here in the land of the self-made man. That goes hand in hand with the idea that “lesser” people (non-white) have no business “taking jobs” away from them. This was at the bottom of the massive shift to anti-intellectualism, the eschewing of intelligence as a good or desirable trait. I’d place the serious start of this around the time of Reagan. It was slow to start, but rapidly gained ground.

Throughout the years, people got sleepy and apathetic, on all sides. We suffered through a number of years of remarkably bad leadership, this just being one of them:

Ignoring intelligence briefings can have real, disastrous consequences. In August 2001, President George W. Bush was handed a memo entitled, “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” But after receiving that briefing, Bush downplayed the intelligence, reportedly telling the briefer, “All right. You’ve covered your ass, now.” Just over one month later, Bin Laden struck with the September 11 attacks.

Pretty sure most people know the consequences of that instance of lousy leadership. That consequence so scared many Americans, who were living in their insular bubble, that they voluntarily started giving up their rights, one after the other. We’re still dealing with the fucking snarled mess created in the aftermath, and none of it is right. We took rights away from citizens, but gave every right to militarized cops. Citizens are expected to be under constant surveillance, but cops are not expected to have visual records of their behaviour, and no one seems to care if they tamper with what records do exist. So, Putin takes a good look at his buddy, Trump. Then he takes a good look at all the money which could be made if Trump were to be elected. Then he takes a look at the mob. A mob fueled by bigotry based hate, with a hard on against intelligence and critical thought, but enamored with conspiracy theories. People soaking up fake news with nary a thought to flex their index finger a couple of times to verify. Not difficult to manipulate at all. The timing was exquisite, and the hack worked exactly as planned. Time for homework:

Trump claims no one discussed Russian hacking before the election. His own tweets prove he’s lying.

Trump says it’s OK if he skips intelligence briefings because he’s ‘a smart person’.

McConnell Covered Up CIA Reports That Russian Hacks Were Aimed At Electing Trump.

Russian media expert tells CNN: ‘They’ve succeeded in hacking our elections’ and now ‘the damage is done’.

Trump’s response on Russia draws pushback from Republican senators.

All of the Republicans supporting a congressional investigation into Russian election interference.

An Unholy Trinity.

Russia’s $500 billion oil deal with Exxon was killed by U.S. sanctions. CREDIT: Wall Street Journal, 9/11/2014.

Russia’s $500 billion oil deal with Exxon was killed by U.S. sanctions. CREDIT: Wall Street Journal, 9/11/2014.

For those people who may have read all the posts about Standing Rock, DAPL, and ETP, and wondered why there was a fuss, it’s just a pipeline, right? Well, you need to read, and understand that all these smaller actions by big oil are just the tiny feeder roots of what they really want to do, and what they really want to do is stuff their already overflowing pockets, and if our earth is damaged past the point of no return, eh, who cares, because money.

There’s been little reaction to Russia’s role in making sure Trump was elected, and that should be an electric shock to all those people who care about democracy, among other things. The insane amount of attention paid to “emails! emails” when it came to Clinton was near unbelievable, but there’s solid evidence of just how much Russia did influence and manipulate this election, and all of a sudden, conservatives don’t give a shit? You may think that marching fascism in is okely dokely, because you think it’s wrapped in Christian Jingoism, but it’s going to bite your head off too. This is a game of serious money and power, and the only ones who count are those who have the goods to ante up. The rest of us? We do not matter, and that message needs to hammered home, hard. We. Do. Not. Matter. People, please, wake the fuck up.

The aligning interests between Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia’s choice for U.S. president (Donald Trump), and Big Oil represents the gravest threat to humanity (and democracy) since the rise of the Axis powers in the 1930s.

That’s because while Trump may not be able to destroy global climate action and the landmark 2105 Paris climate deal all by himself — as he pledged to do during the campaign — he probably could do that with help from Russia and the trillion-dollar oil industry.

So much is explained by Trump’s Secretary of State choice. Media reports now say it will be Rex Tillerson, CEO of oil giant ExxonMobil, which had made a $500 billion oil deal with Putin that got blocked by sanctions.

Stalling the biggest oil deal ever did not just “put Exxon at risk,” as the Wall Street Journal reported in 2014. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow explained last week this deal was so big it was “expected to change the historical trajectory of Russia.”

This deal could explain why Putin appears to have interfered in U.S. elections in favor of a Trump victory. Recently, “the C.I.A. altered its formal assessment of Russia’s activities to conclude that the government of President Vladimir V. Putin was not just trying to undermine the election,” as the New York Times reported Saturday, “but had also acted to give one candidate an advantage.”

You can certainly make a plausible case, as many have, that Putin had enough motivation to interfere simply to undermine the legitimacy of U.S. elections.

[…]

But for Putin and the kleptocrats who benefit from his rule, little matters more than enriching coffers right now. It is no coincidence that just last week, Putin revealed Russia had sold a 19.5 percent stake in the Kremlin-controlled oil giant Rosnet for $11.3 billion to Qatar and others, “confounding expectations that the Kremlin’s standoff with the West would scare off major investors,” as Fortune reported in a must-read piece that connects major pieces of this puzzle.

There’s so very much to this story, the full article is at Think Progress. If for some reason, you think the Paris accord will help or make a difference, you need to go read just how easy it will be for Trump and Putin to nullify it. If for some reason, you think democracy is still alive, you need to disillusion yourself – that’s close to gone, and the celeb-elect has not yet taken office. Once he does, the the death knell sounds.

The Carrier Scam Continues.

United Technologies CEO Greg Hayes shakes hands with Vice President-elect Mike Pence before Pence speaks at Carrier Corp Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, in Indianapolis. CREDIT: AP Photo/Darron Cummings.

United Technologies CEO Greg Hayes shakes hands with Vice President-elect Mike Pence before Pence speaks at Carrier Corp Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, in Indianapolis. CREDIT: AP Photo/Darron Cummings.

As part of the deal President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence struck with Carrier, the company has promised to make a $16 million investment in its Indianapolis facility — an investment management plans to use on developing technology that will allow them to replace human workers with robots.

The company’s plans were confirmed by Greg Hayes, CEO of United Technologies, Carrier’s corporate parent, during a CNBC interview earlier this week.

“We’re going to… automate to drive the cost down so that we can continue to be competitive,” Hayes said. “Is it as cheap as moving to Mexico with lower cost labor? No. But we will make that plant competitive just because we’ll make the capital investments there. But what that ultimately means is there will be fewer jobs.”

This news comes on the heels of Trump blasting Chuck Jones, president of the United Steelworkers 1999 union that represents Carrier workers, for the sin of correctly pointing out that Trump exaggerated the number of jobs his deal “saved” during a December 1 news conference at the factory. Trump said the company agreed to keep 1,100 jobs at the Indianapolis factory when the real figure is closer to 800, with 550 workers at the factory facing layoffs despite Trump’s deal. In addition, Carrier still plans to ship 700 jobs from a separate factory in Huntington, Indiana, to Mexico. And as part of the deal, Indiana taxpayers will dole out $7 million in tax breaks to the company.

After Trump smeared him on Twitter, Jones received threats against his family.

After all this, it would be nice if people finally understood that Trump does not give one tiny little shit about jobs. He put on a show, then wandered off to something else, having no attention span, but he did make sure to tweet nastiness about Mr. Jones, who now gets to endure a mass amount of harassment, like others who have been the subject of Trump’s bile. The Celeb-elect is busy treating the presidency of a whole country like it’s a game, a new asset to play with, at least until he gets bored, which won’t be long, given his history. He has once again stated that he will not divest, so he’ll be violating that constitution so beloved by Trumpoids, who are unsurprisingly quiet about this violation. I guess it’s okay if conservative assholes figuratively set it on fire; it’s only wrong if those awful lefties do it. So, if nothing else, all you Trumpoids can stop the “jobs, jobs, jobs” talk. It’s not as though that was ever believed by any sort of majority, and trying to keep up the thin facade will not work. Trump and his cronies have theirs, why on earth would you ever think they care about yours?

Despite Trump’s pro-worker campaign rhetoric, the details of the Carrier deal and Trump’s nomination of fast food executive Andrew Puzder as labor secretary suggests he doesn’t have an issue with companies replacing humans with machines. Puzder is a proponent of replacing human workers with robots, telling Business Insider last March that machines are “always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there’s never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex, or race discrimination case.”

CNN, citing a McKinsey & Co. study, reports that “45 percent of the tasks that U.S. workers are currently paid to perform can be automated by existing technology. That represents about $2 trillion in annual wages.”

Oh, there’s love for the workers, alright. Workers that don’t require payment and have no capacity to complain. Love for human workers? Not there.

Full story at Think Progress.

Resistance: Mike Hot-Pence.

The resemblence between Mike Hot-Pence (Glen Pannell, left) and VP-elect Mike Pence (right) is uncanny. Just, one wears pants, the other doesn't.

The resemblance between Mike Hot-Pence (Glen Pannell, left) and VP-elect Mike Pence (right) is uncanny. Just, one wears pants, the other doesn’t.

Glen Pannell has found a great way to be a one-person resistance, his resemblance to Mike Pence being the key. What started as a bit of Halloween fun has morphed into doing good for people. Many cheers for Mike Hot-Pence!

You see all sorts of things in Times Square these days, Spidermen fighting Elmos, naked cowboys — and now pants-less vice president-elects.

There’s a new character in Times Square and he looks an awful lot like Mike Pence.

Glen Pannell wears a suit, tie, no pants — just short shorts — and goes by “Mike Hot-Pence,” raising money for Planned Parenthood, the environment, and soon, the Trevor Project for LGBT youth. He raised over $300 for Planned Parenthood and the Natural Resources Defense Council the first weekend in December.

Pannell kept hearing, “you look like Mike Pence! You should be him for Halloween,” so much that he did it. But the actor/director and designer thought that wasn’t creative enough, so Pannell stepped out as “Sexy Mike Pence” and hasn’t turned back.

The activist, who’s gay, said he wants to use his resemblance to Pence to champion causes Pence has opposed.

Pannell finds a “patch of sunlight” in Times Square and carries a repurposed whey protein bucket for donations, because “Mike Hot-Pence cares about the environment.”

Pannell designs the labels himself. When speaking to the News, he remembered he needed to make and print one for his upcoming charity, The Trevor Project. (Glen Pannell).

Pannell designs the labels himself. When speaking to the News, he remembered he needed to make and print one for his upcoming charity, The Trevor Project. (Glen Pannell).

“I am raising money for groups that would be especially vulnerable during a Trump/Pence administration,” he said. The donations, which Pannell screenshots and posts on his Twitter feed, are donated in the name of “Mike Hot-Pence.”

Pannell says he isn’t interested in being immature or disrespectful. Rather, he wants to use his resemblance to call attention to Pence’s record as a public servant.

“His policy over the last 16 years makes me very afraid for the next four years. I want to make it about the issues.”

And Glen is doing a great job, too. If you’re in NYC, and see Mike Hot-Pence, be resistance minded, and send some pennies his way.

Full story at NY Daily News.

Sunday Facepalm.

Scott Lively.

Scott Lively.

Time for word salad with Scott Lively, the rabid bigot who managed to implement his evil in Uganda, and who is hopeful about implementation here, once Trump is in power. Lively believes that all queer people should be put to death, if they act on their orientation in any way. Just a small bit here:

If Trump had taken a strong pro-family stand on LGBT issues, he would have opened up a huge new battle-front in the war for the presidency with virtually no support from conservative GOP leaders (nearly all of whom have retreated from that fight due to the ferocity of the leftist cartel on “gay rights”). And he would have energized the Bernie Sanders bloc of the Democratic base, especially the young people, the most thoroughly brainwashed portion of the US electorate on LGBT issues due to nearly monopolistic “gay” influence in public education and the entertainment media.

However, by embracing renegade Thiel and saying Obergefell was settled law, Trump neutralized the “gay” card and kicked the can past the election. I didn’t support that tactic but I understood it. Now, while the leftist cartel is reeling from the Trump pummeling, Christian conservatives have perhaps their last opportunity to take back some ground on marriage and family values – irrespective of Mr. Trump’s personal views on the issue and the GOP’s willingness to throw the pro-family cause under the bus. The fact is that support for the sodomy lobby is driven almost entirely by fear of the Great and Powerful OZ of Political Correctness backed by media thuggery. But the curtain has been pulled back and guess what? The Wizard is as naked and impotent as the Emperor, so there is no good reason to let political correctness about homosexuality continue to trump family values in our public policy.

These bloodthirsty, thoroughly evil asses are the living embodiment of phallophobia. Speaking of bloodthirsty, evil asses, Kevin Swanson is having a fit over the movie Moonlight, which has garnered high praise from every corner. I’m really looking forward to seeing it.

RNC Emails Hacked; Russia Held Them Back.

Two women look at their cell phones in front of portraits of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, as they arrive at the Union Jack pub in Moscow, Russia, to watch a live telecast of the U.S. presidential election on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016. CREDIT: AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko.

Two women look at their cell phones in front of portraits of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, as they arrive at the Union Jack pub in Moscow, Russia, to watch a live telecast of the U.S. presidential election on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016. CREDIT: AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko.

Yet explosive new reporting from the Washington Post tells us that the CIA informed U.S. senators last week that it was “quite clear” from a “growing body of intelligence from multiple sources” that Russia’s goal was to elect Trump.

The “consensus view,” said a senior U.S. official briefed on an intelligence presentation made to U.S. senators, according to the Post, is that “it is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia’s goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected.”

The New York Times also reported Friday evening that intelligence agencies have “high confidence” that Russian cyberattacks had the goal of helping Trump because the Republican National Committee was hacked. The data and email traffic was not released. The hacked emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee and sent to WikiLeaks gained international headlines for weeks, causing headaches for the Clinton campaign and the resignation of the DNC chair after internal party squabbles became public.

[…]

The idea that Russia actively put its thumb on the scale in Trump’s favor in a very close election where he prevailed in the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote by almost three million votes alarms more than Democrats.

Trump has shocked people across the political spectrum with his laudatory praise for Russia and Vladimir Putin and his desire to diminish NATO. One of his first staffing choices was former general Michael Flynn for National Security Advisor, who equated a Russian propaganda media outlet to CNN. For secretary of state, he is considering congressional Putin advocate Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), and someone who may be closer to Vladimir Putin than anyone in America: ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson.

“[Tillerson] has had more interactive time with Vladimir Putin than probably any other American with the exception of Henry Kissinger,” security expert John Hamre told the Wall Street Journal this week.

Think Progress has the full story.