Pugnacious Trump should be in a wrestling ring, not the White House
Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times)
David Horsey Donald Trump missed his calling. He should have had a career in professional wrestling. The macho theatrics, loud boasts, crude threats and puerile insults that are the mainstay of the silly sport are his specialty.
Instead, he is president of the United States (or, at least, he plays a president on TV), but that has not stopped him from acting like a doughy caricature of Hulk Hogan or Stone Cold Steve Austin.
This week, the pugilistic president picked a fight with the National Football League. He told a campaign audience in Alabama that any NFL football player who engages in a silent protest by kneeling during the pre-game performance of the national anthem is a “son-of-a-bitch” who should be run out of the league. He followed up those comments with a series of tweets that continued his attack. One of the most recent said, “Tremendous backlash against the NFL and its players for disrespect of our country.”
Actually, polls indicate that a majority of Americans support the free speech rights of players. And the NFL is hardly intimidated by Trump’s taunts. In defiance of the president, every team playing on Sunday took part in demonstrations of solidarity, from linking arms to staying in the locker room during the anthem. They had the backing of coaches, many owners and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. David Horsey cartoons
When he wasn’t maligning football players, Trump was tearing into his fellow Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was the chief recipient of the slams. The president called McConnell “weak” for his inability to repeal Obamacare — this from a man who has repeatedly displayed almost complete ignorance of the details of healthcare legislation and no ability to round up votes. Privately, it is reported, Trump has been making fun of McConnell and Arizona Sen. John McCain by mimicking their physical traits. That is such a crass thing to do, especially in the case of McCain whose physical limitations resulted from five years of torture in the Hanoi Hilton
Like any street corner bully, Trump is always looking for weaknesses in his opponents, but on Wednesday he revealed a weakness of his own. The tweeter-in-chief removed the tweets he sent out endorsing Alabama Sen. Luther Strange after Strange was trounced in Tuesday’s special election by a right wing zealot, Judge Roy Moore. Apparently he was trying to erase reminders that his endorsement of Strange was as ineffectual as his huffing and puffing about the NFL.
Trump is desperate to sustain the tough-guy image he has tried to project since he was pushing other kids around in military school. Unfortunately, he is a weak man’s idea of a strong man. In a silly spat with pro football players, that is of no consequence. In a fight with his own party leaders, he only undercuts himself. But, when he took his alpha male act to the United Nations last week, he embarrassed his country and edged closer to war with North Korea.
"The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea," Trump said. "Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.”
This passage in the UN speech prompted a response from the rocket man, himself, North Korea’s loony leader, Kim Jong Un. He called Trump “a frightened dog” and promised to “tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.” (Dotard, by the way, means senile old man — can’t wait for Trump to fling that one at McConnell and McCain!)
Trump responded by tweeting that Kim “will be tested like never before,” which was rather restrained, compared to past comments that threatened “a major, major conflict” and “fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.”
Apparently, Trump has never heard Theodore Roosevelt’s admonition to “speak softly and carry a big stick.” Trump loves to speak as loudly and belligerently as possible and he cannot shut up long enough to consider the consequences. While that may be entertaining in a wrestling ring, it is wildly irresponsible in a confrontation where hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives could be sacrificed if an impulsive war of words turns into a real war of missiles.
19 Sep 17 Real News with David Knight GUESTS: • John McAfee, After promising to cut off his d**k on live TV if BitCoin didn’t hit $500k in 3 years, McAfee is still long on the cryptocurrency — he tells why and talks about the EquiFax hack of 143 Million people’s financial ID • Dr. Jerome Corsi — the “Obama Foundation” is looking suspiciously like the “Clinton Foundation”. Dr. Corsi talks about his first installment of an in-depth report TOPICS: • For months the media and Comey have been telling us there was no surveillance of Trump or his team and saying InfoWars was the source of fake news behind Trump’s tweets. Now suddenly they admit they were lying • Hillary told NPR she wants more liberal media to combat InfoWars. Google is obliging with funding for 1,000 journalists • A pediatrician from Baylor explains that the “refusers” of vaccines are mostly white and educated and don’t do as they’re told like the immigrants do. The solution is to “kill all the white people” and conduct a “war”, “one-on-one against individual families” • California wants mandatory vaccines, but they want to revoke a law that makes it a crime to INTENTIONALLY infect someone with HIV/AIDS • Bill Gates is funding research at MIT to inject babies with a lifetime of time-released vaccines
[A recently-debuted new show from Alex Jones and his merry band of batshit bullshitters.]
WATCH LIVE: President Trump and world leaders speak at United Nations General Assembly
Streamed live on Sep 19, 2017 by PBS NewsHour
President Donald Trump will deliver his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly alongside other world leaders scheduled to speak on Tuesday.
Tuesday, September 19th 2017[, with appearances by Roger Stone, Jerome Corsi and Jack Posobiec, and Paul Joseph Watson hosting the fourth hour]: Trump Calls Out United Nations - Trump visits the UN to declare the globalist body will no longer enrich itself at America's expense. Gab CEO Andrew Torba joins today's show to discuss how tech giants like Google are threatening to shut down his pro-free speech website in the name of fighting "hate speech." Nature's Brands CEO Marc Gonsalves also joins us to talk about how to incorporate naturally-based products into our lives and avoid toxic brands.
WATCH: Sens. McConnell, Schumer hold news briefings
Streamed live on Sep 19, 2017 by PBS NewsHour
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer hold separate news briefings after their weekly Senate Party Policy Luncheon meetings with their respective caucuses.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), who was arrested outside Trump Tower, talks about the power of protest and the possibility of a deal in Congress to provide legal status to young immigrants. Duration: 4:39
Donald Trump's teleprompter trick - or is it a tic?
All In with Chris Hayes 9/19/17
Thing 1/Thing 2: Much like a blues guitarist who might improvise around a misplayed note, watch what President Trump does when he misreads his remarks. Duration: 2:47
Trump paying Russia scandal legal bills with RNC donor money
The Rachel Maddow Show 9/19/17
Rachel Maddow shares new reports that Donald Trump is using money donated to the Republican National Committee to pay for lawyers for himself, family and staffers in the Trump Russia investigation. Duration: 6:46
Mounting death toll in Mexico City follows massive earthquake
The Rachel Maddow Show 9/19/17
Dudley Althaus, reporter for the Wall Street Journal, talks with Rachel Maddow about the damage suffered by Mexico following a massive earthquake, and the alarmingly increasing death toll as rescuers search through collapsed buildings. Duration: 3:07
Millions threatened as Hurricane Maria hurtles toward Puerto Rico
The Rachel Maddow Show 9/19/17
Bill Karins, NBC News meteorologist, talks with Rachel Maddow about the intense strength of Hurricane Maria and the threat it poses to millions of people in Puerto Rico and its neighboring islands. Duration: 3:15
Trump lawyer violates deal with Senate Intelligence Committee
The Rachel Maddow Show 9/19/17
Rachel Maddow reports on Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen violating his agreement with the Senate Intelligence Committee and being forced to reschedule his testimony to October for a open hearing. Duration: 9:50
Mueller office interviewed Rod Rosenstein on Comey firing: WSJ
The Rachel Maddow Show 9/19/17
Barbara McQuade, former U.S. attorney, talks with Rachel Maddow about breaking news that special counsel investigators interviewed Assistant A.G. Rod Rosenstein about the firing of former FBI Director James Comey. Duration: 5:21
Barbara McQuade, former U.S. attorney, talks with Rachel Maddow about whether it's unusual for a prosecutor to inform a target of imminent indictment, and whether former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort could already be indicted under seal. Duration: 2:10
Trump joins history's list of unhinged speakers at UN
The Rachel Maddow Show 9/19/17
Andrea Mitchell, NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent, talks with Rachel Maddow about Donald Trump's speech to the UN General Assembly, and the emaciation of the State Department under Trump/Tillerson. Duration: 7:08
Lawrence: Why Trump's UN speech worst, most dangerous in history
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell 9/19/17
Donald Trump says the U.S. could "totally destroy" North Korea. Lawrence O'Donnell revisits a speech by Amb. Adlai Stevenson in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis and argues Trump's speech is the worst ever delivered by the United States at the United Nations. Duration: 9:46
Amb. Sherman on Trump UN speech: 'Dangerous' where U.S. is headed
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell 9/19/17
Lawrence O'Donnell talks to Amb. Wendy Sherman, who worked on the Iran Deal and was a special advisor for President Clinton on North Korea, to get her take on Trump's speech and what he could have possibly meant when he threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea. Duration: 6:54
Jimmy Kimmel: Bill Cassidy lied right to my face about healthcare
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell 9/19/17
Sen. Bill Cassidy vowed to support a health care bill that passed the "Jimmy Kimmel test," but his new Graham-Cassidy plan to repeal and replace Obamacare does anything but… and Kimmel has something to say about it. Sen. Chris Van Hollen joins Lawrence O'Donnell. Duration: 8:44
Trump threatens North Korea & declares 'America first' at UN
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 9/19/17
Vowing to 'totally destroy' North Korea if provoked, Donald Trump gave his base red meat while stunning world leaders in his first UN General Assembly address. Our panel reacts. Duration: 7:25
Trump's UN speech completely devoid of foreign policy specifics
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 9/19/17
Noting that Trump's speech to the UN General Assembly was very reassuring to his base, reporter Eli Stokols points out it included little to no actual details about Trump's foreign policy plans. Duration: 1:41
Handful of GOP senators hold latest health care reform in limbo
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 9/19/17
Republicans are trying yet again with a new health care bill from Sens. Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy to repeal and replace Obamacare. Do they have the votes? Our reporters break it down. Duration: 6:26
In his first speech in front of the United Nations General Assembly, President Trump reinforces his "America first" stance and threatens to wipe out North Korea.
Jimmy shares his thoughts on Senators Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham’s new health “care” bill including why it doesn’t pass Cassidy’s “Jimmy Kimmel Test.”
Published on Sep 20, 2017 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
If the Texas Senator liked the salacious video he was reported to have favorited on Twitter, he's going to love this one that cooked up with his preferences in mind.
Hillary Rodham Clinton Experienced Putin's Sexism Firsthand
Published on Sep 20, 2017 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
The winner of 2016's popular vote and 'What Happened' author Hillary Rodham Clinton tells Stephen about her strangest experiences with Russia's President during her time as Secretary of State.
[originally aired September 19, 2017 (U.S. central time)]
Hillary Clinton: Nobody's Talking About Contesting The Election
Published on Sep 20, 2017 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
The former Secretary of State speaks on how the country should react if it's proven Russia and the current administration colluded during the 2016 election.
[originally aired September 19, 2017 (U.S. central time)]
Stephen Hands Hillary Clinton A 'Cheeky' Dossier Of Unused Election Night Jokes
Published on Sep 19, 2017 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Stephen had to toss out a lot of unused 'Clinton victory' material during his election night special. Tonight he gave those jokes, and one very cheeky photo, to the former candidate herself.
Seth takes a closer look at how the GOP is trying to ram through a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare while waiting for what could be the Russia investigation's first indictment.
On "Day 243" of the Donald Trump White House Regime, we find out that Bibi is Very Pleased and Extremely Happy about Trump's Speech to the United Nations. When Trump Reneges and Welches on the Iran Deal, Bibi will hold a Party, but the World will NO Longer trust any American Contract. The Pied Piper will be paid one day, Trump, Bibi and Friends will leave the Bill for your Grandchildren to pay !!!!!! Long-Neck Mutation popping up in Government and Colleges at an alarming rate.
What would a Russia-NATO war look like? Russia’s wargaming it right now .LUGA, Russia — A revitalized Russian military on Monday sent tanks, paratroopers, artillery, antiaircraft weapons, jets and helicopters into frigid rains to engage the forces of a mock enemy called the “Western Coalition.” The barrage of firepower , part of war games that began last week, was an explosive show of force that Baltic leaders said was a simulation of an attack against NATO forces in Eastern Europe. Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the field Monday, skipping the 72nd U.N. General Assembly in favor of the military exercises held jointly with Belarus. The muscle-flexing, which began Thursday, highlights the lethality of a fighting force that has taken a crash course of reforms and upgrades over the last decade. In response, U.S. fighter jets in Lithuania have been scrambling nearly daily to inspect Russian activity over the Baltic Sea. “It gets your blood pumping,” U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Clinton Guenther, commander of a beefed-up NATO deployment of fighters in the Baltic country, said of the scrambling. The Zapad war games — the word means “West” in Russian — focus on a hostile imaginary country called Veishnoria, which resembles a slice of the western part of Belarus with the biggest Catholic population and the highest prevalence of the Belarusan language. Veishnoria, along with two imaginary allies that appear to be stand-ins for the Baltics, attempts regime change in the Belarusan capital, Minsk, then foments separatism in parts of Belarus. The Baltic countries that would be on the front lines of any potential Western conflict with Russia say that the exercises are only nominally about separatism and are mainlyintended to leave them rattled. “Russia is still trying to demonstrate force and aggression in its relations to its neighbors,” Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said in an interview. But deployments this year of about 4,000 NATO troops across the Baltics and Poland leave the region far more confident that Russia will hold back from direct military confrontation, she said. [...] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/putin-watches-as-russias-military-exercises-turn-up-the-firepower/2017/09/18/8099f4fa-9bb7-11e7-b2a7-bc70b6f98089_story.html
Commentary: The coming robot arms race Russia’s latest “Zapad” military exercise is underway on NATO’S eastern border. Tens of thousands of soldiers are taking part in the massive four-yearly war games that are both a drill as well as a show of strength for the West. Next time around, in 2021, those troops might be sharing their battle space with a different type of force: self-driving drones, tanks, ships and submersibles. Drone warfare is hardly new – the first lethal attack conducted by an American unmanned aerial vehicle took place in Afghanistan in October 2001. What is now changing fast, however, is the ability of such unmanned systems to operate without a guiding human hand. That’s a truly revolutionary shift – and one every major nation wants to lead. Critics have long feared countries might be more willing to go to war with unmanned systems. Now, some see a very real risk control might pass beyond human beings altogether. Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has long warned that humanity might be on the verge of some cataclysmic errors when it comes to artificial intelligence. Last month, he ramped that up with a warning that the development of autonomous weapons platforms might provoke a potentially devastating arms race. As if to reinforce Musk’s point, Russian President Vladimir Putin told students shortly thereafter that he believed the technology would be a game changer, making it clear Russia would plow resources into it. “The one who becomes leader in this will become ruler of the world,” Putin was quoted as saying. China too is pushing ahead, believed by some experts to now be the global leader when it comes to developing autonomous swarms of drones. Already, drones are able to fly themselves independently so they can stay airborne if they lose touch with human pilots. Soon they may be able to make their own tactical decisions. At Georgia Tech in the United States this summer, researchers programmed swarms of light drones to fight their own aerial dogfights. The U.S. military is trying out similar products. That means one operator could command many, many more drones – or that they might not need direct supervision at all. Even more important than what is happening in robotics may be the wider developments in artificial intelligence. That won’t make warfare necessarily more deadly – a bomb dropped from a drone is not in itself less lethal than one from a manned aircraft. While it’s possible that greater accuracy might reduce casualties, some analysts fear that the changes brought by new unmanned systems might themselves fuel new conflicts. “Radical technological change begets radical government policy ideas,” concluded a July report on the topic produced for the U.S. intelligence community by Harvard University’s Belfer Center. It warned an “inevitable” AI arms race could prove as revolutionary as the invention of nuclear weapons. Artificial intelligence could dramatically increase the efficiency of surveillance technology, allowing a single system to monitor perhaps millions of digital conversations, hacked personal devices and other sources of information. The implications could be terrifying, particularly in the hands of a state with little or no democratic oversight. At a recent UK panel discussion, Britain’s former Special Forces director Lieutenant General Sir Graeme Lamb predicted that by 2030, technological breakthroughs – not just AI, but quantum computing and beyond – would produce entirely unpredictable changes. Special force teams, he suggested, might well have a robotic and artificial intelligence component deployed alongside them – the U.S. Army calls this “manned-unmanned teaming.” That sounds like something out of science fiction – and it might well look like it. Last year, Russia unveiled its FEDOR humanoid military robot, which it demonstrated firing a gun. Most countries deliberately keep their defense AI secret, ultimately fueling the arms race Musk was warning about. Some scientists already worry about a real-world version of the premise for the Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring “Terminator” film franchise in which the United States, fearing cyber attack, hands control of key military systems to the artificial intelligence Skynet. (Skynet, fearing its human creators might choose to turn it off, immediately launches a full-scale nuclear attack on humanity.) For now, Western nations at least look keen to keep a human in the “kill chain.” Not all countries may make that choice, however. Russia has long had a reputation for trusting machines more than people, at one stage considering – and, some evidence suggests, building – an automated system to launch its nuclear arsenal should its command structure be destroyed by a first strike. Outside of the military, there is evidence AI algorithms have already alarmed their creators. In August, Facebook shut down an AI experiment after programs involved began communicating with each other in a language the humans monitoring them could not understand. Is this the end for ordinary human soldiering? Almost certainly not. It’s even been argued that a more complex, high-tech battlefield might require more soldiers, not fewer. Robotic systems may be vulnerable to hacking, jamming and simply rendered inoperable through electronic warfare. Such techniques allow U.S.-led forces in Iraq to largely negate the off-the-shelf drones being used by Islamic State. Russia used similar techniques against Western-made drones in Ukraine. That’s a worry for armed forces betting – like many industries – on automation. Britain’s new aircraft carrier has only a fraction of the sailors on its only slightly larger U.S. carrier counterparts, relying heavily on automatic systems to manage weaponry and damage control. The latest Russian tank, the T-14 Armata, has an automated turret that will usually be out of reach to most of its crew. Such techniques have clear advantages – but also mean that interfering with electronics could leave them useless. Such technology is coming whether it is a good idea or not. Indeed, even relatively old military equipment increasingly can be retrofitted. Russian engineers have already demonstrated that they can adapt the 20-year-old T-90 tank to be controlled remotely. Ironically, the North Korean crisis reminds us that the most dangerous technologies smay well remain those invented more than 70 years ago – atomic weapons and the missiles that carry them. Even if mankind can avoid a nuclear apocalypse, however, the coming AI and robotic revolution may prove an equal existential challenge. https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apps-robots-commentary/commentary-the-coming-robot-arms-race-idUKKCN1BT1XN
This Just Might Be The Most Painfully Awkward Campaign Ad Ever Made “Dan, I like you. This is... not a good ad. Fire whoever thought it was.” A video to promote the fledgling campaign of a Democratic hopeful in Virginia is going viral — but for all the wrong reasons. The awkward footage ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDfhFfKSohc ) shows Dan Helmer, who is running for the U.S. House, doing a parody of the bar scene from “Top Gun.” In the film, Maverick (Tom Cruise) sings “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” to Charlie (Kelly McGillis) and the entire bar joins in. In the ad, Helmer sings “You’ve Lost That Centrist Feelin’,” supposedly to Republican incumbent Rep. Barbara Comstock. [...] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dan-helmer-top-gun-ad_us_59c09476e4b0f22c4a8c0e61
Jerry Brown: ‘Troglodyte’ Trump Supporters ‘Dwell In Deep, Dark Caves’ California governor doesn’t mince words. California Gov. Jerry Brown compared President Donald Trump and his supporters who deny climate change to ancient cave-people. “They’re both kind of very similar,” the 79-year-old Democrat said Monday in New York, according to Politico. “You should check out the derivation of ‘Trump-ite’ and ‘troglodyte,’ because they both refer to people who dwell in deep, dark caves.” He also called Trump “stupid and dangerous and silly.” “I mean, come on, really, calling the North Korean dictator ’Rocket Man’?” he said, referring to a tweet Trump sent Sunday. Brown was in New York for Climate Week NYC, held as world leaders arrive in the city for the United Nations General Assembly. Since the election of Trump, who has called climate change an “expensive hoax” that was “created by and for the Chinese,” Brown has become a leading voice in the fight against global warming. “We’ve got the scientists, we’ve got the lawyers and we’re ready to fight. We’re ready to defend,” Brown vowed last year after the presidential election. “If Trump turns off the satellites, California will launch its own damn satellite.” [...] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jerry-brown-trump-supporters-troglodyte_us_59c0790de4b0186c22054329
Melania Trump in legal row with English-language school "Just imagine how far you can go with a little bit of English," reads the advert for the Americki Institut, an English-language school in Croatia. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41317287
Biologists Just Discovered an Underwater Octopus City And They're Calling It Octlantis I, for one, welcome our cephalopod overlords. [...] The international team of researchers saw the gloomy octopuses meeting up, living together, communicating with each other, chasing unwelcome octopuses away, and even evicting each other from dens – so it seems Octlantis can be quite a rough place to live. "These behaviours are the product of natural selection, and may be remarkably similar to vertebrate complex social behaviour," lead researcher David Scheel, from Alaska Pacific University, told Ephrat Livni at Quartz. "This suggests that when the right conditions occur, evolution may produce very similar outcomes in diverse groups of organisms." [...] https://www.sciencealert.com/marine-biologists-discover-an-underwater-octopus-city-they-re-calling-octlantis
Palestine Just Joined Interpol. Is That Bad for Israel?
By Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian September 27, 2017 - 12:29 pm
[...]
“Almost every country in the world is a member of Interpol, with the notable exception of North Korea,” Min said, including the Arab League, whose members view Israel with hostility. “Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, Syria, Yemen, Iran — these are all member countries I’m assuming for Israel would be not particularly friendly countries.”
That means that Iran, for example, already has access to the same kinds of data that Palestine will now have. That didn’t keep Iran from joining Interpol, nor has it prevented virtually any other country.
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