What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[Razgovory]

Sadly fake.

[DGuller]

Not sadly, IMO.  Serious media outlets shouldn't be resorting to tabloid nonsense, and I'm glad that hasn't happened in this case.

[mongers]

Won't mess up the McCain thread, so I'll post here:

Somewhat interesting juxtaposition between McCain first coming to public attention with his principled stand and treatment in the 'Hanoi Hilton' vs Trump's possibly becoming fatally compromised by what may have happened in the Moscow Carlton Ritz.

[Syt]

 

https://money.cnn.com/2018/08/28/technology/donald-trump-google-rigged/index.html

Trump slams Google search as 'rigged' — but it's not

President Donald Trump has renewed his claims of bias against conservatives on the internet, accusing Google of rigging its results to show "bad" stories when users search for "Trump news."

"Google search results for 'Trump News' shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake News Media," the president said Tuesday on Twitter.

"In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD. Fake CNN is prominent. Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out," he added. "Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives."

Trump suggested that Google's actions could be "illegal" and he said that the situation would be addressed. He did not specify what actions he would take, or say what laws may have been violated.

Google said its goal with search was to make sure users receive the most relevant answers.

"Search is not used to set a political agenda and we don't bias our results toward any political ideology," a Google spokesperson said. "We continually work to improve Google Search and we never rank search results to manipulate political sentiment."

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that the administration is "taking a look" at Google search results.

"We're just gonna do some investigations, some analysis, that's what we do," he said.

Pressed on the fact that the theory of censorship had been discredited, Kudlow demurred: "This is above my pay grade."

In addition to routine attacks on broadcasters and newspapers, Trump and some of his supporters have railed against social media and technology companies, claiming that they suppress conservative and pro-Trump information.

Google uses automated programs called "spiders" to search the internet and index pages based on keywords. While search results can vary between users, observers were quick to point out Tuesday that the top result for many "Trump news" searches was an article from Fox News.

According to Google, it uses algorithms to evaluate hundreds of factors including user experience and how many other prominent sites link to a page. It then ranks results by order of usefulness.

It also seeks to identify websites that manipulate its algorithms, and pushes their results down the rankings.

Trump appeared to be referencing a story published in recent days by conservative outlet PJ Media, which claimed that Google was "deprioritizing" content from conservative websites. The story was picked up by other conservative outlets including Breitbart.

Lou Dobbs, a Fox Business Network host and close friend of the president's, highlighted the report on his program on Wednesday.

Google does not reveal the algorithms that power its search engine, or all the factors that go into why one news outlet would rank higher than another in search results. The secretive nature of the algorithms has exposed the company to accusation of bias.

But the articles that were the basis for Trump's claim of rigging ignored the fact that Google's most fundamental interest is returning search results that users find helpful, because that's how it gets them to come back. It does that, in part, by prioritizing results from trusted news outlets with large audiences.

The PJ Media article that led to Trump's claim turned this into a conspiracy in part by defining almost all major national news outlets in the US as on the left, compared to a number of smaller, opinionated and even conspiratorial sites on the right.

The article's author relied on a chart of media outlets made by former CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson, who has become a media critic on the right. The chart shows news organizations including ABC News, USA Today, CBS, the Associated Press, CNBC, Bloomberg, CNN, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time, Politico and even People as being on the left.

The only major national outlets shown as being on the right are the Wall Street Journal, McClatchy, Forbes, The Economist and Fox News. Otherwise, with some exceptions like The Daily Mail and the New York Post, the list of organizations on the right is mostly populated by small outlets that do little original reporting, and even by outright conspiratorial sites like InfoWars and The New American, a site run by the fringe John Birch Society.

The president suggested in a tweet last month that Twitter was "shadow banning" conservatives by making it harder to find some prominent accounts using the search function. Twitter (TWTR) denied the claim.

Allegations of social media bias and censorship have made their way to Congress, where lawmakers have held two hearings this year on the so-called practice of "social media filtering."

Executives from Facebook (FB), Twitter and Google have been asked to testify in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee about censorship and election interference on September 5.

[mongers]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45364150

Trump threatens to pull US out of World Trade Organization31 August 2018   

Mr Trump has been embroiled in tit-for-tat trade battles on several fronts in recent months

President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw the US from the World Trade Organization (WTO), claiming it treats his country unfairly.

"If they don't shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO," Mr Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

The WTO was established to provide rules for global trade and resolve disputes between countries.

Mr Trump says the body too often rules against the US, although he concedes it has won some recent judgments.

He claimed on Fox News earlier this year that the WTO was set up "to benefit everybody but us", adding: "We lose the lawsuits, almost all of the lawsuits in the WTO."
....

What ever next:

'Trump threatens to pull America out of US constitution, worse deal ever.'

Though I think some variation on this works better, 'Trump to pull White House out of US constitution, "We lose the lawsuits, almost all of the lawsuits .... "

[Syt]

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/aug/30/boston-globe-man-arrested-death-threats-fbi-robert-chain

FBI arrests man who threatened to kill Boston Globe staff for criticizing Trump

FBI says Robert Chain began a series of threatening calls after the newspaper announced it was coordinating a response to Trump's attacks on the media

A man has been arrested and charged with threatening to kill employees of the Boston Globe newspaper, in messages repeating Donald Trump's claims that journalists are the "enemy of the people" and "fake news".

Robert Chain called the Globe's newsroom and claimed he would shoot staff members in the head, according to the FBI, which said Chain later specified that he was retaliating against the newspaper's criticism of Trump's attacks on the news media.

Chain, of Encino, California, owns several firearms and was found to have purchased a new 9mm carbine rifle in May this year, according to US authorities.

Andrew Lelling, the US attorney for Massachusetts, said in a statement: "In a time of increasing political polarisation, and amid the increasing incidence of mass shootings, members of the public must police their own political rhetoric. Or we will."

Chain, 68, is due to appear in a federal court in Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon charged with making threatening communications in interstate commerce. He will later be transferred to Boston, officials said.

In an affidavit filed to federal court in Boston, the FBI said Chain began a series of 14 threatening calls to the Globe soon after the newspaper announced on 10 August that it was coordinating a response by US publications to Trump's attacks. Dozens of outlets agreed to publish editorial columns on the subject on 16 August.

Trump has led an unprecedented assault on the American media over the past three years, falsely claiming that coverage unfavourable to him is "fake news" and declaring journalists to be enemies of the public. He has frequently urged supporters at rallies to direct abuse at individual reporters, leading some to hire bodyguards.

Chain allegedly called the Globe from a blocked number on 16 August and said: "You're the enemy of the people, and we're going to kill every fucking one of you." After suggesting that staff call special counsel Robert Mueller for help, Chain allegedly said: "I'm going to shoot you in the fucking head later today, at four o'clock." Telephone records traced the call back to Chain's home landline, the FBI said.

That morning, Trump had posted several attacks on the media to Twitter, complaining about "fake news" and declaring that the media was "opposition party" and "very bad for our great country".

The FBI said Chain's calls scared employees of the Globe, leading the newspaper to call police and contract a private security company to protect its staff.

Six days later, Chain allegedly called the newspaper from a cellphone registered to his wife. When asked by a Globe employee why he was calling, Chain allegedly said: "Because you are the enemy of the people."

Chain allegedly continued: "As long as you keep attacking the president, the duly elected president of the United States, in the continuation of your treasonous and seditious acts, I will continue to threat, harass, and annoy the Boston Globe, owned by the New York Times, the other fake news."

The New York Times Company previously owned the Boston Globe but sold the newspaper in 2013. Trump, apparently angered by the coordinated editorials against him, drew attention the link between the two newspapers in a tweet on 16 August.

Following the charge against Chain, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which advocates for press freedom, said that amid a "hostile climate" newsrooms and law enforcement must take threats against reporters seriously.

"Journalists should never face violence for doing their jobs," said Alexandra Ellerbeck, the CPJ's north America program coordinator.

The president continued to attack the media using the same terms on Thursday, a day after his own justice department filed its complaint to court detailing Chain's use of Trump's slogan. Trump claimed in a tweet that he "cannot state strongly enough how totally dishonest much of the Media is," adding: "Enemy of the People!"

[Admiral Yi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuEo85wRo6M

Donald pissed at Sessions for badly timed prosecutions of Collins and Hunter. 

[garbon]

Wow

[Syt]

Well, as far as I can see, it's Chaotic Evil clashing with Lawful Evil.

[Syt]

I presume there's condemnation from both Democrats and Republicans on this attack on the independence of law enforcement and the judiciary?

[Razgovory]

This one sort of surprised me.  Minor thing, but telling.

After John McCain's death, as official Washington set its flags at half-staff, Chuck Schumer proposed another kind of tribute to the iconic senator and war hero: that the Russell Senate Office Building, currently named for a segregationist southern Democrat, be renamed for McCain. His Republican colleagues, however, demurred.

They could not admit that their real reason for opposing the honor was that McCain had crossed Trump. Nor could they defend Senator Richard Russell's ardent white supremacy, which extended to denouncing laws to ban lynching. Instead, they flailed about, inventing pretexts on the fly. Russell "did so many other things," Georgia Republican David Perdue rhapsodized. "He was a big supporter of the Great Society, the War on Poverty. Now, we all know those things failed, but he was a big champion of them." So here was Perdue arguing that Russell deserved to be honored for his role in crafting what Perdue's party regards as a historic debacle. Even Lindsey Graham proclaimed that the best way to honor his best friend would somehow be to not name a Senate building after him: "Instead of worrying about what to name for him ... let's be more like him."

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/09/congressional-republicans-are-enabling-trump.html

Incidently I am back on anti-psychotics and and am very disappointed that Trump is still President.

[derspiess]

Don't understand that.  Why not just go along with renaming the building? 

[Razgovory]

Don't understand that.  Why not just go along with renaming the building?

Trump, that's why.

[Valmy]

I know. It seems like a win for the Republicans to rename a building from a Democrat to a Republican Senator.

[grumbler]

Don't understand that.  Why not just go along with renaming the building?

The had the choice between doing the right thing and doing the Trump thing.  They chose the Trump thing.  Not one voice demurred, as far as i can tell.

I can't see why any self-respecting person would call himself a Republican these days, or vote for a Republican candidate.  The leaders of the Republican party will continue to jostle for the best place to suck Trump's dick until there is a price to pay for whoring themselves.  It's in the long-term interests of the party to force them to stop.