I keep finding things of interest that I want to use in an Open Thread, but by the time I get time to put it together, it is old by my standards and the OT never comes to fruition. Well today is different. Today’s ‘My Universe’ features a different and dangerous animal in its new home.
Short Takes
Daily Kos — Kansas State legislature sent a shot across the bow of Candidate for Governor and sometimes Secretary of State Kris Kobach, telling him the state’s taxpayers would not be paying for the results of his courtroom antics.
www.kansascity.com/…
The legislation was offered by Rep. Russ Jennings, R-Lakin. He said the move would prohibit using any state money for defense or penalties involved in a finding of a contempt of court by statewide elected officials. That would include the governor and the secretary of state.
“You pay your own bills if you get yourself in that kind of trouble,” Jennings said.
This from his own party no less. And this is how it should be! Kobach has come under fire numerous times for voter suppression and is your basic black hat Republican, evil to his political core. The free ride is over! Kobach is an example of Republican entitlement . . . feeding, or rather gorging from the public trough!
Reuters — South Korean President Moon Jae-in said U.S. President Donald Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the standoff with North Korea over its nuclear weapons programme, a South Korean official said on Monday.
“President Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize. What we need is only peace,” Moon told a meeting of senior secretaries, according to a presidential Blue House official who briefed media.
Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday pledged to end hostilities between the two countries and work towards the “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean peninsula in the first inter-Korean summit in more than a decade.
I would like to think the Nobel Committee would have the moral fortitude to turn down Trump’s nomination. I for one, do not believe that Trump was the impetus for the two Koreas coming together. Of course, he thinks he is and will take all the credit.
USA Today reports that 18 Republicans Congress critters have nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. Click through the article for the names of the “infamous 18”.
It’s official: President Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
On Tuesday, 18 members of Congress — all Republicans — sent a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, nominating Trump to receive the award for his work to “end the Korean War, denuclearize the Korean peninsula, and bring peace to the region.”
Here’s what they wrote:
“Since taking office, President Trump has worked tirelessly to apply maximum pressure on North Korea to end its illicit weapons programs and bring peace to the region. His Administration successfully united the international community, including China, to impose one of the most successful international sanctions regimes in history. The sanctions decimated the North Korean economy and have been largely credited for bringing North Korea to the negotiating table.
The nomination comes days after the leaders of North and South Korea announced they would enter a “new era of peace” and denuclearize the peninsula, though they provided few details on how that would happen.
As it is, Trump is an insufferable narcissist. Should the Nobel Peace Prize committee support the nomination and make him a Nobel Laureate, he will be even more insufferable.
Quartz — If you’ve been paying attention to the news over the past couple of weeks or so, you know that America was introduced to the concept of “alternative facts.” After Trump administration press secretary Sean Spicer rebuked the media for accurately reporting the relatively small crowds at president Donald Trump’s inauguration, senior White House aide Kellyanne Conway told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Spicer wasn’t lying—he was simply using “alternative facts.” …
Other outlets have resisted labeling Trump’s misstatements as lies. Earlier this year, for instance, the Wall Street Journal’s editor-in-chief Gerard Baker insisted that the Wall Street Journal wouldn’t label Trump’s false statements “lies.”
Baker argued that lying requires a “deliberate intention to mislead,” which couldn’t be proven in the case of Trump. Baker’s critics pushed back, raising valid and important points about the duty of the press to report what is true.
As important as discussions about the role of the press as fact-checkers are, in this case Baker’s critics are missing the point. Baker is right. Trump isn’t lying. He’s bullshitting. And that’s an important distinction to make.
This article dates from February 2017. I found the philosophical difference between bullshitting and lying interesting, and something I had not considered previously. There has been discussion about Trump’s lies . . . are they lies or is that his reality? Based on the definitions, I agree with the author . . . Trump is a bullshitter, a dangerous bullshitter! What do you think?
My Universe
Resist the Republican Reich!!!
RESIST!!
