Swift global blowback to Trump’s racism

Donald Trump’s racist comments has had swift blowback around the world.

Remarks by Donald Trump describing immigrants from Africa and Haiti as coming from “shithole countries” were racist, the United Nations human rights office has said, as it led global condemnation of the US president.
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The UN human rights spokesman, Rupert Colville, told a Geneva news briefing: “There is no other word one can use but racist. You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as ‘shitholes’, whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome.”


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Trump goes flat-out racist

Donald Trump at a meeting referred to El Salvador, Haiti, and African nations as ‘shithole countries” and wondered why we couldn’t have more immigrants from Norway instead of them. This has made even mainstream media commentators, who usually try to use euphemisms to soft-pedal what presidents say, outright call him a racist. Here’s Anderson Cooper reacting.


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I hope all wait staff know who Stuart Varney is

There has been a growing movement to make $15 the minimum wage for all employees in any job. Currently the wait staff in restaurants can be paid much less than the federally mandated minimum wage because they supposedly make it up in tips. That is in addition to working conditions that are far worse than in many other professions and lacking many benefits that other people take for granted.
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A breakthrough against Israeli apartheid at the New York Times

The growing worldwide support for the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement to pressure Israel over its treatment of Palestinians has led the Israeli government to ban 20 organizations that support BDS from entering Israel. The list includes Codepink, American Friends Service Committee, and Jewish Voice for Peace. The Israel lobby in the US has also used its clout to try and silence voices that support Palestinian rights and BDS.
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Seth Meyers catches up on the news

It turns out that Donald Trump’s ‘executive time’ (i.e., time to watch TV, tweet, and gossip on the phone with his friends) occupies a much larger portion of his daily schedule than was previously reported, with many such periods included throughout the day. In fact, it looks like being president is just something he does in his spare time, and that may not be altogether a bad thing.

This Trump legal maneuver will fail

One of the methods used by wealthy people and businesses to intimidate people and prevent them from taking action against them is to threaten them with legal action. Even if you, as an individual, are completely in the right and they are completely in the wrong, you will encounter a lot of up front costs and hassle in pressing your case, because the high-priced lawyers on the other side will make things as hard as possible for you. People like Donald Trump and Harvey Weinstein use this tactic repeatedly and, sadly, it usually works to silence critics.
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Trump as Calvin

In that great comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin is always imagining himself in heroic exploits that showcase his genius and where he vanquishes all who dare challenge him. That reminds cartoonist Reuben Bolling of someone …

Tom the Dancing Bug 1370 donald and john – genius

A new euphemism for goofing off

A report says that in 2018, Donald Trump will reduce the demanding schedule that he pursued in 2017 which involved playing a lot of golf at the various course and resorts that he owns. (There is a website that tracks the amount of golf that he plays.) This year he has told his aides that he wants more ‘executive time’, i.e., time alone, and that his first scheduled daily meeting will be his intelligence briefing at 11:00am. And it does not get much busier the rest of the day either.
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The problem with open secrets

James Fallows says that the recent revelations of widespread sexual abuse and harassment by powerful people in so many areas of work share one significant feature with the revelations in the new book Fire and Fury about how all the people working in the White House or who have come into contact with Donald Trump have known all along that he is utterly unsuited to the job. In both cases, the situation was an ‘open secret’, in that insiders knew what was going on and yet did nothing about it, except whisper the truth among themselves and warn those whom they happened to know personally.
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Three Billboards and Oprah Winfrey at the Golden Globes awards

I noticed that the film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri won four awards at last night’s Golden Globes awards show for Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, best drama, and best screenplay. I had reviewed this film favorably when it came out last month. It is widely tipped to do well at the Academy Awards show next month as well.
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