Category Archives: Just strange

Why is Trump’s adviser wearing a medal of Nazi collaborators? | +972 Magazine

Gorka’s decision to publicly identify with Vitezi Rend raises questions about Trump’s adviser and the administration’s flirtations with anti-Semitism and the alt-right. It’s even more awkward that he’s the person defending the administration’s explicit omission of Jewish victim of the Holocaust from the Holocaust Remembrance Day statement.

Source: Why is Trump’s adviser wearing a medal of Nazi collaborators? | +972 Magazine

Trump and Netanyahu are allies in a losing battle | +972 Magazine

The most important clue to solve this puzzle is Trump and Netanyahu’s obsession with attacking, controlling and manipulating the news media (indeed, this is one of the major sources of Netanyahu’s recent legal troubles). Admittedly, even within their own camps, they are extreme outliers in terms of crudity and relentlessness on this issue — something that surely has to do with their individual psychological makeup. But they are also emblematic of a broader approach on the right, which has fueled the rise of rigorously partisan and uncurious media organs such as Israel Hayom in Israel and Fox News in the U.S.Journalists are a major problem for the Israeli and American extreme right because, despite all their flaws, they occasionally do provide information and cover actual events. In other words, they reflect reality — however partially and inadequately.Reality is the greatest foe of the extreme right wingers currently in power. In the real world, Palestinians, Mexicans, Muslims, and many other groups that they do not like continue to exist, despite travel bans and land grabs. In the real world, international relations are crucial for the prosperity of both countries and cannot be flippantly dismissed. “Alternative facts” are easily malleable. Actual facts cannot be so flexibly managed. The extreme right is not creating “facts on the ground,” it is being undone by them, bit by bit.Netanyahu, Trump, and their allies are fighting a losing battle. Deep inside, they know this. If they truly believed otherwise, their disposition would be sunny and confident, not dark and fretful.This is not cause for complacency. Part of the reason these agendas will be defeated is precisely because people are not complacent — they are mobilized and agitated (at least in the U.S.; this kind of mass opposition seems to be further down the road in Israel and Palestine). Until they are stopped, Trump and Netanyahu can do great harm, some of which will be irreparable. Nonetheless, the struggle against them must begin with the insight that we are not fighting an ascendant and secure power, we are opposing a desperate and fearful faction.

Source: Trump and Netanyahu are allies in a losing battle | +972 Magazine

Donald Trump: The Role of the Media in Addressing the Threat – SPIEGEL ONLINE

So there we have it: Donald Trump, a misogynist and a racist businessman who verifiably made 87 false statements in the course of only five days of the election campaign, is no longer a candidate. He’s sitting in the White House. Here are three insights about this American president who has been in office since Jan. 20.First, in the two-and-a-half weeks since his awful inauguration speech, he has demonstrated that he will do what he said he would: He is ordering the construction of a wall on the border to Mexico, he is issuing xenophobic decrees and he is rattling America’s allies and international institutions and, by doing so, every aspect of global politics. He has already threatened Iran and North Korea. None of this comes as a surprise either, because even Trump’s voters knew that adviser Stephen Bannon is a man who considers wars to be useful.Second, Trump is also showing that he will do much that he did not announce in the campaign. He has ordered scientists not to conduct or publish research on topics of which he does not approve. He says climate change doesn’t exist and means it seriously. He stood by as one of his closest confidants invented the term “alternative facts” to create a parallel reality. Trump brings his children with him to high-level meetings, he hired his son-in-law as a White House adviser, he has spared countries in which he does business from his travel ban on citizens of predominately Muslim states, he has not divested himself of his company holdings, he has not released his tax filings (despite pledging to do so) and even had his adviser Kellyanne Conway claim that voters didn’t care. He now wants to undo banking regulations so that “friends of mine” can get easier access to money. Is he paving the way to cash in and further enrich himself while in office?Third, Trump has already proven some of the things we already knew about him. The perception people have of him is more important to Trump than anything else. Nothing was more important to him in his first two and a half weeks in office than the size of the crowd at his inauguration. Trump is a chronic liar and he proves this in one tweet after the other. Trump despises the media (he calls it the “opposition party” and says “As you know, I have a running war with the media”) as well as the judicial branch in the form of “this so-called judge” who didn’t rule the way that his ruler desired. Meanwhile, Trump claims the people protesting against him are “paid.”

Source: Donald Trump: The Role of the Media in Addressing the Threat – SPIEGEL ONLINE

′Der Spiegel′ magazine sparks furor as cover depicts Trump beheading Lady Liberty | News | DW.COM | 04.02.2017

It depicts a recognizable figure of Trump holding up the bleeding head of the Statue of Liberty in one hand, and a bloodstained knife in the other. In this week’s editorial, “Der Spiegel” editor-in-chief Klaus Brinkbäumer dubbed the president “Nero Trump,” after the notoriously brutal ancient Roman emperor.Trump’s action and pose depicted on the cover clearly invokes that of Islamist terrorist – and that was always its intention.The cover’s illustrator, Edel Rodriguez, a Cuban political refugee in the US, told the “Washington Post” newspaper that he was prompted to channel his anger into the piece of art following Trump’s visa ban. “It’s a beheading of democracy, a beheading of a sacred symbol,” Rodriguez said. “And clearly, lately, what’s associated with beheadings is ISIS, so there’s a comparison. Both sides are extremists, so I’m just making a comparison between them.”

Source: ′Der Spiegel′ magazine sparks furor as cover depicts Trump beheading Lady Liberty | News | DW.COM | 04.02.2017

Trump’s top EU pick warns German media of ‘seismic shift’ in ties – The Local

He said Trump preferred to deal bilaterally with European countries rather than the bloc as whole, adding that “frankly, this also gives us the upper hand”.He also reiterated his view that the European common currency was a mistake and that, if he were working for an investment bank, he would “bet against the euro”.European Parliament leaders on Thursday urged the EU to reject Malloch if he is named Trump’s ambassador to Brussels, calling him hostile to the bloc.The leaders of the main parliamentary groups said Malloch, whom they called Trump’s likely choice, has openly backed the dissolution of the European Union much like the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Source: Trump’s top EU pick warns German media of ‘seismic shift’ in ties – The Local

Lufthansa starts flying people on Trump travel ban into Boston – The Local

Germany’s largest airline has resumed carrying citizens of countries named under an American travel ban into Boston until at least February 5th.In an announcement on its website, Lufthansa said that the decision was in response to a decision by the District Court in Massachusetts to suspend the travel ban until that date.The airline says that all passengers with valid travel documents may now board their flights to Boston.US President Donald Trump issued the ban last Friday on nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen entering the US, regardless of whether they held a valid visa.

Source: Lufthansa starts flying people on Trump travel ban into Boston – The Local

Video: Two U.S. Congresswomen Couldn’t Get Answers About Detainees At LAX On Saturday Night: LAist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpPPat_XN70

 

Two U.S. congresswomen were among the slew of local politicians who had arrived at the airport to show their support. Despite the fact that a federal judge had issued an emergency stay against the implementation of Donald Trump’s executive order on Saturday night, Rep. Judy Chu and Rep. Nanette Barragán were still stonewalled by customs officials when they tried to get information about detainees. Here’s a video of the two congresswomen on the phone with customs officials just after 8 p.m. on Saturday night:

Source: Video: Two U.S. Congresswomen Couldn’t Get Answers About Detainees At LAX On Saturday Night: LAist

Donald Trump Bans ALL Refugees From 7 Muslim Nations | 3CHICSPOLITICO

So insulting and offensive! …And UNCONSTITUTIONAL! We have FREEDOM OF RELIGION here. This extreme vetting is bullshit. It’s targeting Muslims. Get ready ACLU and sue these racist bigots to the knees.  The country can’t take 4 years of lies, conspiracy theories, bigotry and hate masquerading as national security. Racist SCUM causing pain and havoc around the world. This hateful ISH cannot stand!Impeach this monster!AMETIA: We cannot, must not remain silent, while fascism, ignorance, bigotry, and the continued DUMBING DOWN of America ensues.LIZA: Well, one week now of this living nightmare. I don’t know how it ends, but it can’t go on.

Source: Donald Trump Bans ALL Refugees From 7 Muslim Nations | 3CHICSPOLITICO

President Trump has ordered Muslims Excluded from the US to Keep America “Safe.” The US did this once before and this is what happened to them. vintage everyday: Wilhelm Brasse’ Mugshots – Photographer Took Up to 50,000 Chilling Photos in Auschwitz for the Nazis during World War II

Wilhelm Brasse was compelled to take mug shots of the prisoners in Auschwitz, the Nazi extermination camp. “I tried to calm them,’ he later confided. He made studio portraits of the SS guards, too, and became popular with them, with a reputation for being able to put his subjects at ease. He told one officer to “sit comfortably, relax and think about your fatherland” before taking his picture. Brasse’s photographic skills certainly saved his life.

Source: vintage everyday: Wilhelm Brasse’ Mugshots – Photographer Took Up to 50,000 Chilling Photos in Auschwitz for the Nazis during World War II

Donald Trump’s executive order means he is now officially gunning for Muslims | Moustafa Bayoumi | Opinion | The Guardian

The order is nothing short of a Muslim ban by another name. It is cruel and callous, espouses positions contrary to the professed values of the United States, and will certainly produce more problems than it purports to solve. In other words, it’s exactly like Donald Trump.I cannot tell you how livid these scant pages of bureaucratic language make me. In them, Trump is returning the country to the dark days of excluding masses of people on the basis of our national prejudices. It’s as if we’ve reverted to the late 19th century when laws were passed to bar Chinese entry to the United States, but this time the action is by executive fiat and trained on Muslims. Not incidentally, the case law for Chinese Exclusion also established the legal authority for the National Security Entry-Exist Registration System (Nseers), the US government’s previous incarnation of a Muslim registry. We’re never far away from our demons.

Source: Donald Trump’s executive order means he is now officially gunning for Muslims | Moustafa Bayoumi | Opinion | The Guardian