Emrys
Emrys's JournalI have no idea either, but
I've posted this before here. There are similarities in the MO:
Donald Trump 'paid students £20' to protest against wind farm near his Scottish Golf course
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/donald-trump-paid-students-20-9274811
And in 2013, this notice appeared on Craigslist and Job Hustler before an anti-wind farm demo Trump planned in New York:
Wednesday December 31st, 1969
Our firm needs 100 volunteers to attend and participate in a rally in front of the British Consulate/Embassy in Midtown Manhattan on the East Side on Wednesday, January 30, 2013 at 12 noon. The event is being held in order to protest wind turbines that are being built in Scotland and England. Your participation will be to ONLY stand next to or behind the speakers and elected officials/celebrities that will be speaking at the rally.
It is a really simple job and easy money for anyone who is around Manhattan at the time. We need all of our volunteers to RSVP for this event. It is VERY important that you RSVP because we have had people confirm spots and fill spots on the first day of the advertisement in the past. If you have participated in one of our events in the past (Ovation) please make a note of that in your RSVP email and we will email EVERYONE back to confirm your attendance.
We look forward to hearing from you all and again, the money is quick, the job is easy and we pay in CASH at the end of the event.
Looking forward to seeing you next Wednesday!
http://grist.org/news/cool-job-posting-earn-20-pretending-to-hate-wind-energy/
Trump and Japan's Abe plotted their North Korea missile response on a crowded dining terrace
Source: The Week
When President Trump learned that North Korea had fired a midrange ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan on Sunday morning, Saturday night's dinner was being served on the terrace at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida. This is how he dealt with the first national security emergency of his administration, according to CNN:
Sitting alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with whom he'd spent most of the day golfing, Trump took the call on a mobile phone at his table, which was set squarely in the middle of the private club's dining area. As Mar-a-Lago's wealthy members looked on from their tables, and with a keyboard player crooning in the background, Trump and Abe's evening meal quickly morphed into a strategy session, the decision-making on full view to fellow diners, who described it in detail to CNN.
Trump's National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and chief strategist Steve Bannon left their seats to huddle closer to Trump as documents were produced and phone calls were placed to officials in Washington and Tokyo. The patio was lit only with candles and moonlight, so aides used the camera lights on their phones to help the stone-faced Trump and Abe read through the documents.... Waiters cleared the wedge salads and brought along the main course as Trump and Abe continued consulting with aides. {CNN}
Read more: http://theweek.com/speedreads/679763/trump-japans-abe-plotted-north-korea-missile-response-crowded-dining-terrace
Trump's team discussed response to North Korea missile test in front of diners at Mar-a-Lago
(CNN)The iceberg wedge salads, dripping with blue cheese dressing, had just been served on the terrace of Mar-a-Lago Saturday when the call to President Donald Trump came in: North Korea had launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile, its first challenge to international rules since Trump was sworn in three weeks ago.
The launch, which wasn't expected, presented Trump with one of the first breaking national security incidents of his presidency. It also noisily disrupted what was meant to be an easygoing weekend of high-level male bonding with the more sobering aspects of global diplomacy.
Sitting alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with whom he'd spent most of the day golfing, Trump took the call on a mobile phone at his table, which was set squarely in the middle of the private club's dining area.
As Mar-a-Lago's wealthy members looked on from their tables, and with a keyboard player crooning in the background, Trump and Abe's evening meal quickly morphed into a strategy session, the decision-making on full view to fellow diners, who described it in detail to CNN.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/12/politics/trump-shinzo-abe-mar-a-lago-north-korea/index.html
Aside from this revelation that if you want to know how the president handles an international crisis, you just need to book dinner at Mar-a-Lago when he's visiting and hope you're lucky, the article also explains Trump's advisers' decision that he would not make the formal statement prepared for him to follow Abe's speech.
Trump's delivered statement on North Korea differed from the printout of intended statement
There's been a lot of comment on what's been seen as a very subdued and brief statement from Trump following Japanese Prime Minister Abe's remarks on the North Korean test this evening. Trump said:
Judging by a sheet headed "POTUS REMARKS" an aide was carrying that was caught by a Reuters photographer, it looks like it was intended that he make a much longer and more detailed statement:
Sourced from this Twitter thread:
https://twitter.com/passantino/status/830645783615545345
Why didn't Trump deliver the statement as written? From what I can decipher, it doesn't seem to be particularly controversial. This may not be significant, but it seems a little strange.
EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini asks US not to 'interfere' in European politics
Ms Mogherini made the remarks on the second day of a two-day visit to Washington, her first since Donald Trump became President.
"We do not interfere in US politics {...} And Europeans expect that America does not interfere in European politics," AFP quoted Ms Mogherini saying.
Her remarks follow the US President's repeated praise of Brexit, calling it a "great thing" and saying the UK was "smart" for voting to leave the EU.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/eu-foriegn-affairs-chief-federica-mogherini-us-not-interfere-europe-politics-donald-trump-a7573866.html
NOPE! The claim is usually 156, and it's a myth based on wilful misunderstanding/lies. Snopes says:
A chart purportedly showing that Donald Trump has an IQ of 156 is based on incomplete and outright inaccurate information.
Origin: A chart purportedly ranking the intelligence quotients of former presidents of the United States made the rounds on social media in December 2016, along with the claim that the President-elect would rank among the smartest, boasting an IQ of 156:
...
This chart is based on a real study; however, the claim that Donald Trump has an IQ of 156 is not.
...
This article is chock-full of logical missteps and factual inaccuracies. Trump's official school transcripts are not available, so it is impossible to know his actual scholastic aptitude scores. While the article's author used Wharton's general admission requirements to estimate Trump's IQ, the math still doesn't quite add up.
According to PrepScholar.com, Wharton's SAT requirements are currently set at 1500. This roughly translates to an IQ score between 145 and 149, not 156. Regardless, Wharton's admission requirements are irrelevant, since Trump did not enter Wharton as a freshman. He transferred there his junior year, and Wharton does not list SAT scores among its requirements for transfer students.
Gwenda Blair claimed in her 2001 biography about Donald Trump and his family that the President-elect was admitted to Wharton thanks to a friendly admissions officer ...
http://www.snopes.com/donald-trumps-intelligence-quotient/
Note: Obama isn't on that chart of presidents because it was drawn up in 2006.
If Trump wants to settle this issue, he can always release his transcripts ...
Britain Has No Fake News Industry Because Our Partisan Newspapers Already Do That Job
BuzzFeed News analysed the hundred most shared news stories on social media for a variety of topics relating to British politics over the last 12 months, taking in major events such as the EU referendum, the appointment of Theresa May as prime minister, and Jeremy Corbyn’s re-election as Labour leader.
In countries such as the US and Italy, completely fake stories with no basis in fact have come to dominate political debate on social networks such as Facebook. Such material – with headlines such as the infamous “Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses Donald Trump for President” – is usually produced for political or financial purposes by websites that have little pre-existing online footprint.
...
But equivalent analysis of UK social media habits reveals the most popular dubious stories on British politics were almost always the work of long-established news outlets and relied at most on exaggeration rather than fakery. The evidence suggests that rather than reading complete lies, British audiences appear to prefer stories that contain at least a kernel of truth, even if the facts are polluted or distorted.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/fake-news-sites-cant-compete-with-britains-partisan-newspape
to bribe or twist,
thank God! the
British journalist.
But, seeing what
the man will do
unbribed, there's
no occasion to.
--Humbert Wolf
Cooper withdraws from solicitor general consideration
Source: Politico
Chuck Cooper, the conservative Supreme Court litigator, is withdrawing his name from consideration to be the next solicitor general, opening the door for the husband of Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway to be appointed to the role.
“I am deeply honored by any consideration that I may have received by Attorney General Sessions and President Trump for appointment as the Solicitor General, but I have asked them to discontinue any further consideration of me for that critically important position,” Cooper said in a statement Thursday.
Cooper, a onetime clerk for the late Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist, is a confidant of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and helped prepare him for his confirmation hearings. He was one of two finalists for the position.
In an interview on Thursday afternoon, Cooper told POLITICO that he wasn’t prepared to undergo the grueling confirmation process. “Life is too good and too short,” he said.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/chuck-cooper-solicitor-general-withdraws-consideration-234869
One of George Conway's claims to fame (apart from his spouse) is a leading role in pursuing President Clinton over the Paula Jones allegations.
Lord Dubs describes closure of child migrant scheme as 'shameful'
Last year, following intense pressure, the Government made changes to the UK's Immigration Act allowing the relocation of unaccompanied refugee children from other countries in Europe.
Although the exact number of migrants to be taken was never specified, campaigners originally called for 3,000 under-18s to be accepted into the country.
However, a written statement from Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill has now shown that the scheme will be closed once a mere 350 children have been brought to the UK.
http://news.sky.com/story/lord-dubs-describes-closure-of-child-migrant-scheme-as-shameful-10760647
Wikipedia bans Daily Mail as 'unreliable' source for website
Source: The Guardian
Wikipedia editors have voted to ban the Daily Mail as a source for the website in all but exceptional circumstances after deeming the news group "generally unreliable".
The move is highly unusual for the online encyclopaedia, which rarely puts in place a blanket ban on publications and which still allows links to sources such as Kremlin backed news organisation Russia Today, and Fox News, both of which have raised concern among editors.
The editors described the arguments for a ban as "centred on the Daily Mail’s reputation for poor fact checking, sensationalism and flat-out fabrication".
The Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia but does not control its editing processes, said in a statement that volunteer editors on English Wikipedia had discussed the reliability of the Mail since at least early 2015.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/08/wikipedia-bans-daily-mail-as-unreliable-source-for-website
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