May 21, 2018 in 3,174 words

What more do you need to know about Trump America’s Shithole?

_{^{Trump America’s Shithole did it and he’s going down for a host of crimes, and some of them have nothing to do with Russia}}

I’ve been “covering” the Trump story for over a year now, and I’m sick and tired of stacking up the details of his treachery day after day, week after week. What more do you need to know? He’s a lying, thieving, incompetent, ignorant traitor who conspired with the Russian government to steal the election of 2016 and illegally defeat a candidate who won the popular vote by nearly 3 million ballots. His presidency is illegitimate, and his occupation of the White House is a stain on our nation’s honor and a threat to our democracy. History will cast him into the same sewer in which float the putrid remains of Benedict Arnold, Jefferson Davis and Richard Nixon. Impeachment would be too kind an end for him. He belongs behind bars, broken, bankrupt and disgraced.

Every day the front pages of the newspapers and the headlines of the cable news shows are filled with evidence of Trump’s lies and thievery. Look at what happened this week alone.

Trump started out denying that he even knew Stormy Daniels, then he denied having a sexual relationship with her, then he said he didn’t know about any payoffs to her. Monday, he filed his required federal financial disclosure form in which he effectively admitted making the $130,000 payment to shut her up just before the election in 2016.

He did an about-face on trade restrictions on China, announcing that he would seek to help the Chinese communications giant ZTE, which paid a $1.2 billion fine last year for violating sanctions against trade with North Korea and Iran. Three days previously, China had issued a half-billion dollar loan to a development project in Singapore that includes Trump-branded hotels, golf courses and condos.

He opened the American embassy in Jerusalem, a move he had been warned would result in fighting and deaths in the Middle East — and sure enough, dozens of Palestinians were killed on the day the embassy opened during demonstrations in the Gaza Strip.

The Trump White House refused to apologize for a sick joke made about John McCain by one of his aides. …

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY: The above is NOT the entire list of crap pulled by America’s Shithole last week.

I’ve said it many times lately, and I’ll repeat it again: I’M TIRED OF THIS SHIT! CONGRESS, DO YOUR FUCKING JOB AND IMPEACH THIS ENTIRE ADMINISTRATION.

4chan: The Skeleton Key to the Rise of Trump

_{Trump’s younger supporters know he’s an incompetent joke; in fact, that’s why they support him.}

_{An Italian newspaper reporting on Donald Trump retweeting himself depicted as Pepe the Frog in September of 2016.}

1. Born from Something Awful

Around 2005 or so a strange link started showing up in my old webcomic’s referral logs. This new site I didn’t understand. It was a bulletin board, but its system of navigation was opaque. Counter intuitively, you had to hit “reply” to read a thread. Moreover, the content was bizarre nonsense.

The site, if you hadn’t guessed, was 4chan.org. It was an offshoot of a different message board which I also knew from my referral logs, “Something Awful”, at the time, an online community of a few hundred nerds who liked comics, video games, and well, nerds things. But unlike boards with similar content, Something Awful skewed toward dark jokes. I had an account at Something Awful, which I used sometimes to post in threads about my comic.

4chan had been created by a 15 year old Something Awful user named Christopher Poole (whose 4chan mod name was “moot”). Poole had adapted a type of Japanese bulletin board software which was difficult to understand at first, but once learned, was far more fun to post in than the traditional American format used by S.A., as a result the site became popular very quickly.

These days, 4chan appears in the news almost weekly. This past week, there were riots at Berkeley in the wake of the scheduled lecture by their most prominent supporter, Milo Yiannopoulos. The week before that neo-Nazi Richard Spencer pointed to his 4chan inspired Pepe the Frog pin, about to explain the significance when an anti-fascist protester punched him in the face. The week before that, 4chan claimed (falsely) it had fabricated the so called Trump “Kompromat”. And the week before that, in the wake of the fire at Ghost Ship, 4chan decided to make war on “liberal safe spaces” and DIY venues across the country.

How did we get here? What is 4chan exactly? And how did a website about anime become the avant garde of the far right? Mixed up with fascist movements, international intrigue, and Trump iconography? How do we interpret it all?

At the very beginning, 4chan met once a year in only one place in the world: Baltimore, Maryland at the anime convention, Otakon. As a nerdy teen growing up in Baltimore in the 90s, I had wandered into Otakon much like I had later wandered into 4chan, just when it was starting. I also attended Otakon in the mid-aughts when 4chan met there, likewise to promote my webcomic.

As someone who has witnessed 4chan grow from a group of adolescent boys who could fit into a single room at my local anime convention to a worldwide coalition of right wing extremists (which is still somehow also a message board about anime), I feel I have some obligation to explain.

This essay is an attempt to untangle the threads of 4chan and the far right. …

Why Are So Many Democrats Afraid of Impeachment?

_{Party leaders need to make clear that impeachment is always valid when there is evidence of presidential wrongdoing, cover-ups, and corruption of justice.}

_{President Donald Trump America’s Shithole arrives at the East Room in the White House on May 18, 2018.}

The Washington Post reported last week that “President Trump’s allies are waging an increasingly aggressive campaign to undercut the Russia investigation by exposing the role of a top-secret FBI source. The effort reached new heights Thursday as Trump alleged that an informant had improperly spied on his 2016 campaign and predicted that the ensuing scandal would be ‘bigger than Watergate!’”

That was a convoluted, and hyper-cautious, way of explaining the obvious: President Trump is actively engaged in a campaign to undercut special counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry into misdeeds associated with the Trump campaign and, presumably, the Trump presidency.

Trump was right in one respect; the level of presidential wrongdoing we are now witnessing is, in fact, “bigger than Watergate.” And it is remarkable the extent to which this wrongdoing is playing out in real time, often on Twitter. Trump has taken to social media to demand a Department of Justice inquiry into allegations regarding the Federal Bureau of Investigation’a gathering information about Russian involvement with his campaign. The allegation that the FBI had an informant with expertise on the Russia issue is, Trump claims, the “biggest political scandal” of all time.

The president is wrong. The scandal here is not that the FBI scrutinized a campaign that engaged in activities that clearly demand investigation by law-enforcement agencies. The scandal lies in those activities in the first place. As Congressman Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who is the ranking member of his party on the House Intelligence Committee, says, “it would have been negligent for the FBI not to take steps to protect the country in the midst of information it was receiving.”

But there is not just one scandal. …

London is awash with Russian “dirty money” and it’s damaging Britain, say UK politicians

_{PUTIN THEIR FOOT DOWN}

_Chto?

Britain’s Foreign Affairs Committee released a report today (May 21) detailing how the UK has been a major beneficiary of Russian money since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, and that cash is hidden in British assets and laundered through financial institutions in London.

“The scale of damage that this ‘dirty money’ can do to UK foreign policy interests dwarfs the benefit of Russian transaction in the City,” said member of parliament (MP) and chair of the committee Tom Tugendhat in a statement. “There is no excuse for the UK to turn a blind eye as President Putin’s kleptocrats and human rights abusers use money laundered through London to corrupt our friends, weaken our alliances, and erode faith in our institutions.”

The report highlighted how the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the British city of Salisbury in March initially led to seemingly tough steps taken against Moscow, such as a tit-for-tat expulsion of Russian diplomats from Western countries and vice versa. However, “Putin and his allies have been able to continue ‘business as usual’ by hiding and laundering their corrupt assets in London.” The MPs said that the Kremlin is able to use these funds to directly and indirectly support “Putin’s campaign to subvert the international rules-based system, undermine our allies, and erode the mutually-reinforcing international networks that support UK foreign policy.” …

5 Super Shady Things You Didn’t Know About ‘The Bachelor’

Hold on to your monocles, everybody: Reality shows occasionally bend the truth. OK, maybe you already knew that. But The Bachelor breaks the truth in half and spits on the pieces. Yes, it turns out that America’s favorite saga about finding love via an elaborate game show that’s primarily designed to emotionally manipulate and humiliate the players is not entirely trustworthy. Let us count the ways …

5. You Might Go Into Debt Simply Trying To Buy Enough Clothes For The Show

Episodes of The Bachelor double as fashion shows, because there’s no better way to set realistic expectations for a potential marriage than constantly dressing like you’re on your way to a royal ball. But while the show does give dresses to the two finalists once they reach the last episode, everything else is up to the contestants to get own their own. Every single woman has to bring enough of her own clothing to stay stylish yet comfortable for up to three months in every conceivable situation — fancy dinners, tropical islands, exotic winter getaways, hikes, pool parties, sitting on planes for six hours. They’re even given a lengthy list of suggested items to pack, plus a friendly reminder that you’re only allowed two suitcases.

_{Best to be prepared for any ethnic or holiday celebrations.}

Since the average woman does not attend five cocktail parties and two island getaways in different hemispheres every week, this necessitates a lot of shopping to rapidly expand one’s wardrobe. Some women manage to scrape a wardrobe together by borrowing from friends and family, but most have to buy. One woman spent six grand for her appearance on The Bachelor, then got it down to mere a $2,000 for Bachelor in Paradise. Another contestant admitted to dropping $8,000, and there are rumors that some have spent as much as $30,000.

If you’re wondering how these women can afford to spend so much on clothes, the answer is that they often can’t. Some cash out their 401(k)s, others pile up credit card debt, and one woman remortgaged her house. Now imagine buying and packing thousands of dollars’ worth of clothes … and then being the first person sent home. That’s the real reason they’re crying in those post-episode interviews.

_{“Have you … *sniff* … have you seen any clothing tags lying around?”}

New Starbucks policy allows non-paying guests to sit in cafes and use restrooms

_{Move comes after company was accused of bias when two black men were arrested for sitting without buying anything as they waited for a meeting.}

_{Rashon Nelson, left, and Donte Robinson settled with the city of Philadelphia for a symbolic $1 each and a promise to set up a $200,000 program for young entrepreneurs.}

Starbucks has told its employees to allow all guests to use the facilities in its coffee shops, including restrooms, regardless of their spending – unless they exhibit disruptive behavior including smoking, drug or alcohol use, improper use of bathrooms and sleeping.

The guidance, described as the “third place policy”, comes a month after the coffee giant found itself accused of discriminatory practices after a store manager in Philadelphia called the police on two black men who asked to use the bathroom without purchasing anything and then refused to leave the store because they were waiting to hold a business meeting.

The new policy was announced on Saturday in a company-wide letter that stated: “Any person who enters our spaces, including patios, cafes and restrooms, regardless of whether they make a purchase, is considered a customer.”

Previously, Starbucks employees had been free to exercise judgment about non-paying guests. The company said the new policy would apply to its more than 8,000 company-operated US cafes. It would issue different guidelines for its international stores, it said.

“We don’t want to become a public bathroom but we’re going to make the right decision 100% of the time and give people the key,” Starbucks’ chairman, Howard Schultz, told attendees of a corporate responsibility conference in Washington, according to the Wall Street Journal. …

Writing in a journal is good for you—and so is throwing it out

_{MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM}

_{Keeping an emotional record is healthy. Holding on to every word is not necessarily.}

Very little writing withstands the test of time, and that’s fine. Take journaling and journalism for example, which seem very different. One is subjective and personal, while the other is allegedly objective and intended for an audience. But the two forms share one important quality—they aren’t built to last.

It’s true that some journals have had a lasting literary or historical impact, like the erotic diaries of Anais Nin or the diary of Anne Frank, an important record of a Dutch Jewish teen in hiding during World War II. Most personal records don’t endure, however. And as Quartzy’s Thu-Huong Ha explains, Frank actually wrote her now-famous work with an eye to publication. After hearing a Dutch politician on the radio say he planned to collect individuals’ accounts of Germany’s occupation of the Netherlands during the war, she revised and edited her personal journal.

Frank’s record then went from journaling to journalism, taking on a different quality. She didn’t want us to know her every thought—as evidenced by the May 15 revelation that taped pages in her diary, previously hidden from view, contained dirty jokes and notes on sex education and prostitution.

Frank’s revisions and hidden pages reveal more than her editorial process. They also show why the rest of us should toss all our journals, trashing the books we fill with precious feels after some time has passed. Journals aren’t written for mass consumption; they are therapeutic. Keeping them around for too long only weighs us down. …

Pope Francis tells gay man: ‘God made you like this’

_{Pope Francis tells gay man: ‘God made you like this’
Juan Carlos Cruz, who was sexually abused, says pontiff told him God did not mind that he was gay.}

_{Juan Carlos Cruz said some of Chile’s bishops had sought to depict him as a pervert as they accused him of lying about abuse.}

A survivor of clerical sexual abuse has said Pope Francis told him that God had made him gay and loved him, in arguably the most strikingly accepting comments about homosexuality to be uttered by the leader of the Roman Catholic church.

Juan Carlos Cruz, who spoke privately with the pope two weeks ago about the abuse he suffered at the hands of one of Chile’s most notorious paedophiles, said the issue of his sexuality had arisen because some of the Latin American country’s bishops had sought to depict him as a pervert as they accused him of lying about the abuse.

“He told me, ‘Juan Carlos, that you are gay does not matter. God made you like this and loves you like this and I don’t care. The pope loves you like this. You have to be happy with who you are,’” Cruz told Spanish newspaper El País.

Now 87, Fernando Karadima, the man who abused Cruz, was found guilty of abuse by the Vatican in 2011. …

Video Goodnesses _{and not-so-goodnesses}

A New York Magazine article reports that President Trump and Sean Hannity talk on the phone before bedtime every night, creating a disruptive “feedback loop” in the process.

THANKS to Comedy Central and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah for making this program available on YouTube.

Jordan may be taking a week off, but he can still predict all the lying MSM’s fake news stories and refute them.

Jordan is outraged to learn about a California solar panel mandate and a Fox News anchor’s ambivalence about whining cheerleaders in New Jersey.

THANKS to Comedy Central and The Opposition with Jordan Klepper for making this program available on YouTube.

The addiction treatment industry is dangerously unregulated. John Oliver explains why many rehab programs should incorporate more evidence-based care and carefully reconsider their doctor-to-horse ratio.

THANKS to HBO and Last Week Tonight for making this program available on YouTube.

CAUTION: Some language may not be appropriate for work or children.

Here’s me commentary on me favourite Australian rules footy team (Brisbane Lions) getting a win on the weekend.

A sunny Sunday afternoon with Max in the sunroom.

FINALLY . . .

A controversial study has a new spin on the otherworldliness of the octopus

_{THE STUFF OF STARS}

_{A more alien creature has not been spotted on Earth.}

Octopuses are strange, smart creatures that certainly seem alien—what with the tentacles, camouflage, and shape-shifting skills. Still, the idea that they actually came from outer space would seem to fall strictly into the realm of sci-fi; an update of HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu, say.

But in these interesting times, real life reads like fiction. Recently, a group of 33 scientists worldwide—including molecular immunologist Edward Steele and astrobiologist Chandra Wickramasinghe—published a paper suggesting, in all seriousness, that octopuses may indeed be aliens.

The paper, published in the March issue of the the journal Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, is controversial, obviously, and the vast majority of scientists would disagree. But the paper is still worthy of discussion—for one, as a thought exercise, because outlandish ideas are often initially rejected. And in provoking us with seemingly bizarre theories, it forces us to acknowledge that there are aspects of life on Earth for which classic evolutionary theory as yet has no explanation.

The octopus, for example, is traditionally considered to come from the nautiloid, having evolved about 500 million years ago. But that relationship doesn’t explain how these odd cephalopods got all their awesome characteristics or why octopuses are so very different, genetically speaking, from their alleged nautiloid ancestors. The paper states:

The genetic divergence of Octopus from its ancestral coleoid sub-class is very great … Its large brain and sophisticated nervous system, camera-like eyes, flexible bodies, instantaneous camouflage via the ability to switch color and shape are just a few of the striking features that appear suddenly on the evolutionary scene. …

_{Ed. More tomorrow? Probably. Possibly. Maybe. Not?}