It's official. There has never been a POTUS as --vile-- unpopular as Trump. Sad! Trump cont.

[MicrowaveSpy]

Link to previous thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2999592-Were-not-on-a-17-day-vacation-not-us-We-have-meetings-and-calls-Now-where-did-that-golf-ball-go-Trump-cont

I remember a really powerful anti-racism campaign from about 15 years ago which had a picture of about 6 babies- white, Black, mixed race, Asian, Chinese etc etc and the slogan was 'There are lots of places where racism doesn't exist -here, here and here' with arrows pointing at the babies.
I live in a very diverse area of London and my children have attended nursery, primary school and secondary school with children of every race, colour and creed. They have had friends from Jamaica, Pakistan, Iran, Argentina, Ghana, Nigeria, Russia, India, Holland, Ethiopia, Afghanistan etc etc.
They have never given a second thought to the colour of someone's skin or their country of origin. They find it strange when they visit my DPs or ILs that everyone is white.
I totally agree that nobody is born racist, it's something you learn. Humans do seem to have an inbuilt mechanism to see the world in terms of us and them or 'in' and 'out' groups whether that's based on race, religion, politics, tribe etc.
I'm sure it must have served some kind of evolutionary function at some point but we really need to try to move on from that.

Ugh this from the Daily Fail:

'The president let a Jew steal his daughter': White nationalist Charlottesville rally co-organizer says he's disgusted to see Jared Kushner with Ivanka as he predicts MORE people are going to die
Christopher Cantwell says he hopes somebody 'more racist' and 'capable' than the president will come along to help him spread his racist message
'Somebody like Donald Trump, who does not give his daughter to a Jew,' he said
'I don't think you could feel the way I do about race, and watch that Kushner bastard walk around with that beautiful girl,' he said
Cantwell, who had been talking about how he was trying to make himself 'more capable of violence', said he hoped to find someone more 'capable... to do that'

'We're not non-violent. We'll f*ing kill these people if we have to', he said
A woman died, and 19 were injured when a white nationalist plowed his car into the crowd at the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally on Saturday
But white nationlaist Cantwell said he considered the rally a win for his side
'I think a lot more people are going to die before we're done here,' he said
'People die every day. The fact that nobody on our side died... (and) none of our people killed anyone unjustly, I think is a plus for us'

I'm actually finding this beyond disgusting. It's hard to believe how many absolute bastards there are out there.

I'm going to have to distract myself with a walnut whip (before they destroy that little pleasure too but taking away the walnut)

I'm sure Mueller hasn't been distracted

The WH, on the other hand, might be... Maybe distracted enough to ease off pressure?

Whilst everything that has happened in the last few days is utterly abhorrent, I think the exposure of Trump's vile instincts will be useful when it comed to impeaching him. Up til now there's. een a risk that people would believe the fake news/harsh media/unfairly maligned narrative. He's now out in the open, in plain sight. When impeachment comes, as it inevitably will, I believe the majority of Americans will now see it as a good outcome & can't come soon enough. A couple of months, nay weeks, ago I think there would have been more public protest. The question is whether those heavily armed neonazis will use it as an excuse for insurrection.

Some good news for the persisters.

Texas 'bathroom bill' collapses again amid Republican acrimony
Restriction targeting transgender people defeated along with much of governor’s other legislative demands at special session

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/16/texas-bathroom-bill-collapses-again-republican-transgender-governor-sepcial-session

I see the Bushes have spoken out?

An interesting Beast piece.

How Democrats can take back Middle America

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump 7m7 minutes ago
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Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!

Bless. He's a toddler

I saw that. He's closing them down?

(I wonder who else was about to go.)

I see the Bushes have spoken out?

Yes. Go Bushes.

I don't particularly like their policies, but they aren't complete twats.

Things to do with Russia that emerged this week (and some were posted on this thread!)

Evan Rosenfeld @Evan_Rosenfeld
BREAKING: @washingtonpost reports: Trump campaign emails show aide’s repeated efforts to set up Russia meetings

www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/politics/trump-campaign-emails-show-aides-repeated-efforts-to-set-up-russia-meetings/2017/08/14/54d08da6-7dc2-11e7-83c7-5bd5460f0d7e_story.html

Benjamin wittes posted the below accompanied by a baby cannon:

www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/08/21/trumps-business-of-corruption/amp

<a class="break-all" href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/08/16/world/europe/russia-ukraine-malware-hacking-witness.html?referer=t.co/V12MgCniEk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">mobile.nytimes.com/2017/08/16/world/europe/russia-ukraine-malware-hacking-witness.html?referer=t.co/V12MgCniEk

In Ukraine, a Malware Expert Who Could Blow the Whistle on Russian Hacking

George Takei‏Verified account
@GeorgeTakei
Following
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Trump was seeing CEOs flee his Manufacturing Council, so he disbanded it. Bet his dad canceled his bday parties, too, when no kids RSVPed.

It does sound rather like 'It's ma ba''.

George Takei is brilliant, that last tweet (thank you, Orlantina) is excellent. I'm afraid I lowered myself to answering Trump's tweet just now with a four letter word. "Liar".

Tearful Van Jones: "I don't know what to say"

Particularly when speaking about his jewish godmother.

From about 9:15.

At AP, we have taken the position that the term “alt-right” should be avoided because it is meant as a euphemism to disguise racist aims.

blog.ap.org/behind-the-news/how-to-describe-extremists-who-rallied-in-charlottesville

Let's see others follow them on this!

Isn't alt-right a synonym with racism and fascist views these days?
Or are many people distracted?

I think because it doesn't have the same history, you can pretend it's less awful than nazis/white supremacists

And so the normalisation continued:

Jim Acosta @Acosta
Pence at news conf in Chile: "I stand with the president."

Jonathan Lemire @JonLemire
Just in: VP Pence ending his international trip early, coming home tomorrow

@Shakestweetz
This is...curious. Especially since Pence almost certainly wants to be as far away from Trump as possible at the moment.

Two possibilities: One is that Pence is getting an incredibly hostile reception abroad. The other is that something is in the works here.

Or, of course, both.

As per usual, I will advise: Keep your eyes on Pence.

So...is Pence riding back on his charger to try and calm the shit down or has he been summoned for something?

I don't think it's 'normalisation', Pain. Just that he was presented with a choice. Not good on those is the VP.

Interesting, Pain - hope the latter.

My guess would be that they're circling the wagons, Bigly.