The American People DIDN’T Elect Trump (plus Tweets)

by | Apr 18, 2018 | Tweets | 30 comments

You’re probably all wondering where I am given it’s been so long since I put anything on the website. So, I thought I’d do a quick tweets post to get you up-to-date.

Everything is the same as usual with me. The problem was I didn’t have a laptop. On Thursday morning while rushing to answer a Skype call from a friend, I sent my laptop flying across the table and onto the floor. Then, while I was trying to get my laptop back into position again, and while Skyping on the phone at the same time, the laptop went skidding across the table and off the other side.

Anyway, the computer is okay, but the screen is toast. And I also broke the internal microphone. I took it in to get a replacement screen straight away. But living in the middle of nowhere means new screens aren’t readily available. The new screen was ordered immediately, but the courier couldn’t get it here until Monday. However, when I went to pick it up, the repair guy had just made the discovery that they’d sent the wrong screen. Another screen was duly ordered, but once again didn’t arrive the next day as it should have.

Now, I do have a desktop computer, and a tablet, and a smartphone. But when you’ve got a body in the condition mine is, it’s not easy to get physically comfortable. An electric armchair, a table with wheels sitting across the chair, and a laptop, are what I need to write for more than a short time.

As a result, I was AWOL during the biggest week of the Trump presidency so far. There is consolation though – it looks like it’s about to get even more dramatic!

There’s so much to comment on, I’m not sure where to start. Every time I think I’ll leave a particular situation for a longer post, the events quickly become yesterday’s news. There’s more to write about in the Trump presidency so far than in the whole eight years of Obama’s administration. Of course, the main reason for that is so much of what Trump does is controversial.

Trump’s supporters say that the only reason so much of what he does is contentious is that most of the media is liberal so they’re automatically going to criticize anything Trump does. When an interviewer manages to pin down a Trump supporter and get them to admit he was wrong and it’s not just an unsympathetic media, they always fall back on one consistent line. That is, “The American people elected Trump. They knew he wasn’t perfect, but he’s what they want.”

This is simply not true. I’ve said as much more than once in comments, but I don’t think I’ve said it in a post, so here goes.

The American people did NOT elect Donald Trump.

It was the Electoral College that gave the presidency to Donald Trump. I admit they didn’t have a lot of choice about it. But the truth is, most USians gave their votes to Hillary Clinton. She was the one who was able to convince USians, by a majority of three million, that she should be president.

So DON’T tell me that Americans chose Trump, and that he’s doing what they want. They didn’t. Americans chose Hillary Clinton. The vagaries of the US electoral system along with Russian interference and the James Comey press briefings, gave the US their embarrassment of leader.

 

In Memoriam Tweets: Barbara Bush

Barbara Bush died today at the age of 92. Here’s what a few people are saying.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barbara Bush quote.

 

 

Political Tweets

I don’t know if Ikea did this deliberately or if it’s a translation thing, but I love it either way!
(Via Ann German.)

 

This is a something about Trump that annoys me a lot. I think the country should pay to keep the president safe, no matter what I think of the president. However, there are issues with Trump because there’s been no proper divestment of business interests. Trump makes the Secret Service pay for the golf carts they use to follow him around his own resorts, for example. There’s not even a discount rate. I personally think that’s OTT. It means Trump is profiting from the presidency. I’m sure there are other areas where this is happening given the amount of time Trump spends at resorts he owns.
(Via Ann German.)

 

Wow! Looking promising so far. Let’s hope they can get this right. (They’re due to get something right after all the appalling fuck-ups domestically!)

 

Mueller Time Tweets

This isn’t strictly Mueller-time as it’s part of a state prosecution (despite what Trump’s acolytes think), but it’s easier to put this here than make up a new section.

 

I suppose it’s possible?
(Via Ann German.)

 

As (almost) always, Trevor Noah’s take is brilliant!

 

Very well said!!!
(Via Ann German.)

 

Funny Tweets

Very good!
(Via Ann German.)

 

Ha ha!
(Via Ann German.)

 

Fake New Tweets

In case you’re not aware, Obama is NOT saying those things. The video is real; the sound is not.
(Via Ann German.)

 

Gun Safety Tweets

Isn’t this what we all thought would happen? (I know this is old news now, but I wanted to make sure I got it in somewhere!)
(Via Ann German.)

 

A response to the above tweet …

 

Human Rights Tweets

They’re getting braver – there are more and more tweets of women going hijab-free.

 

Getting rid of the baddies is one thing. And it’s right to ensure employers are following the law. But if this employer can’t get employees except by employing illegal immigrants, and these kids are US citizens, I think they’ve got their priorities wrong. Why aren’t ICE agents going to downtown Los Angeles and rounding up those gangs Trump likes to wax lyrical about? Are these easy targets to get the numbers up?

 

As it says in the second tweet, men don’t realize that employers, just like everyone else, don’t like to tell people they’re not good enough. Saying, “we needed a woman,” is a useful way to get out of telling someone they weren’t good enough.
(Via Ann German.)

 

 

Science Tweets

Here’s a new series I’ll be featuring with the help of science communicator Amy Carparelli. I really like the third item in the video. We found out in NZ’s news yesterday just how many cases of food poisoning there are here each year, mostly in relation to chicken.

 

You can always rely on science to keep doing the stuff that matters!
(Via Ann German.)

 

Once again, science saves the day.

 

Also received this tweet on the topic from Ann German.

 

I didn’t know that!

 

This is basic science. To me it’s a lot of fun, and a great way for people like me who are pretty ignorant when it comes to things like physics and chemistry to learn. However, some of you may find it too far below you.

 

Scenic Tweets

Wow! Just Wow!

 

Creepy-Crawlies Tweets

Beautiful.

 

Other Animals Tweets

Elephant calves are always a winner …

 

Otter’s are one of my favourites – it’s their wee hands that do it.

 

Look at the size of that hedgehog!

 

Just off for a stroll. Look at those cute little legs!

 

Bird Tweets

How lucky can you get!!!

 

Dog Tweets

My favourite dog breed, and what a cutie!

 

Cat Tweets

Who would’ve thunk it – a llama and a kitten!

 

Awwww……

 

And another one!

Love this!

 

Ha ha! You can’t pay attention to a goat and expect the cat to play second fiddle! What were they thinking!

 

Gorgeous animals!
(Via Ann German.)

 

If you enjoyed reading this, please consider donating a dollar or two to help keep the site going. Thank you.




 

 

30 Comments

  1. Paul Topping
    Paul Topping on 19th April 2018 at 3:23 am

    The Obama video isn’t real either. Both sound and video are algorithmically generated, based on sound and video samples of the real Obama. I find the video less convincing than the sound and the two don’t seem quite in sync. However, this technology is bound to improve quickly. So now it is not just Photoshop we have to fear!

    Reply
    • Heather Hastie
      Heather Hastie on 19th April 2018 at 9:38 am

      I remember seeing one where the video was generated too, but wasn’t sure if this was it. As you say, even though you can currently see that it’s not real, that will change quickly.

      I suspect it would be easier with some people than others. Trump, for example, has such a limited vocabulary in not just words, but phrases too. You could just about cobble something together from real video.

      Reply
      • Paul Topping
        Paul Topping on 19th April 2018 at 9:50 am

        Agreed on Trump, but his limited vocabulary can limit what you can make him say and still have everyone believe he could have spoken it. As long as you intend him to tell everyone that something was “huge” or the “greatest ever”, it is easy.

        Reply
        • Heather Hastie
          Heather Hastie on 19th April 2018 at 9:59 am

          Yeah, good points.

          One thing he could announce though is a nuclear attack, with “fire and fury.” There are plenty of clips of him dissing multiple countries – North Korea, China, Iran, possibly Mexico, or even Canada, Australia, or the EU.

          Reply
  2. Jenny Haniver
    Jenny Haniver on 19th April 2018 at 4:44 am

    Too bad about your computer: however, I’m glad that it was your computer and not you that went flying. It illustrates the problem people have when they’re deprived of their computers or smart phones. Easy and cheap to find another pen if you’ve lost one, not easy to do anything much if your compute is down or you don’t have one or can’t afford Internet.

    I was just following a twitter from WEIT featuring images from medieval manuscripts, and I found some great hedgehogs. Following those images to the sources led me to other twitter feeds on medieval manuscripts, and more cool hedgehog illustrations. Since you’re fond of hedgehogs, Here’s one from the British Museum http://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2014/10/how-to-be-a-hedgehog.html, which has links to their other posts on the little beasties. Then I did a Google Image search for medieval images of hedgehogs. What fun to look at these.

    Thanks for reminding us (in the US, me) that “we” did not elect Trump.

    Reply
    • Heather Hastie
      Heather Hastie on 19th April 2018 at 10:10 am

      The Internet has become an essential service alongside electricity, water, and phone. There were so many things I couldn’t do without the laptop.

      The friend I was talking to is in the US, and our friendship wouldn’t have developed so much without Skype. It’s too expensive to phone all the time. In fact come to think of it, I don’t even know his phone number. It makes a big difference being able to see facial expressions, especially as accents and slightly different word use between countries can cause confusion.

      Reply
  3. nicky
    nicky on 19th April 2018 at 5:54 am

    Let me guess, from left to right: Nancy Reagan (nee Davis), Pat Nixon? (nee Ryan) , Hillary Clinton (nee Rodham), Eleanor Carter (nee Smith), Betty Ford? (nee Bloomer), and Barbara Bush (nee Pierce).
    I’m not sure about Pat Nixon and Betty Ford though. They look strikingly alike from a distance in old age. Nancy looks very much annoyed, which is understandable, since Hillary was the ‘reigning’ first lady at the time 🙂
    What a very nice picture though.
    Since it is a 1994 photograph, Michelle La Vaughn Robinson and Melanija Knavs don’t figure yet.

    Reply
    • nicky
      nicky on 19th April 2018 at 6:47 am

      Nor Laura Bush (nee Welch) for that matter. How rude of me to omit her.

      Reply
    • Heather Hastie
      Heather Hastie on 19th April 2018 at 9:51 am

      I always wondered if any of them really liked Nancy Reagan. I suspect she was a bit miffed too that Hillary and the now late Mrs Bush got on so well despite the differences in politics. She clearly loved her husband, but it must be very hard being married to someone who’s mind is going, which the others didn’t have to deal with. And Iran contra was still a fairly big thing then – scandals lasted much longer in those days. I bet Mrs Bush had a few sharp words for her. She was too sensible to be tolerant of someone taking things like astrology seriously.

      Reply
    • Diane G.
      Diane G. on 20th April 2018 at 3:29 pm

      Nancy Reagan, Lady Bird Johnson, Hillary Clinton, Rosalynn Carter, Betty Ford, Barbara Bush. 🙂

      Reply
      • nicky
        nicky on 21st April 2018 at 10:12 am

        Yes, his mind was going, that must have been hard indeed. I remember thinking (no, this it not hindsight, I thought and said it at the time) that Mr Reagan had early Alzheimers while in office. (Yes, I have it in my family, my ‘ouma’ (granny). my mother, and an aunt, so I’m kind of sensitive to it.) On the other hand, Indeed, Nancy, with her astrological ventures, was a bit feeble-minded herself (albeit not clear Alzheimers), something I think the other first ladies did not suffer from.
        I’m not sure about Mr Trump, he shows quite a few signs, but there are clearly so many other mental issues with him, clouding a diagnosis of Alzheimers. I mean, I guess he has, but there is much more, he’s so clearly ‘not normal’ (as my daughter would euphemistically say*) to begin with, making the Alzheimers diagnosis difficult.

        * in plain language: he’s a ‘psycho’.
        She’s quite sharp, observant, she called my now seven year old (her little brother -she’s old enough to be his mother) ‘not normal’, well before he was diagnosed with ADHD, and well before anyone (including myself) noticed.

        Reply
        • Heather Hastie
          Heather Hastie on 21st April 2018 at 1:51 pm

          I believe you thought that about Reagan while he was in office because I thought it too. There’s a video of him meeting Queen Elizabeth, and he clearly didn’t have a clue what was going on and Nancy is prompting him. I remember that at the time, and that’s when I was sure.

          Also, I was in high school when he became president, and my best friend and I wrote a letter about how worried we were that someone whose mind was clearly not all there should be in control of the nuclear button. That was in 1981, so we were thinking that early in his first term too.

          Reply
      • nicky
        nicky on 21st April 2018 at 10:22 am

        You are absolutely right Diane, the second from the left is ‘Lady Bird’ Johnson indeed, not Pat Nixon, how could I not have recognised her. Shame on me. I think Pat Nixon died earlier. In my (feeble) defense: I said I wasn’t sure about her.

        Reply
  4. nicky
    nicky on 19th April 2018 at 6:36 am

    No, US-ians did not elect Mr Trump, the EC did. Pertinent observation
    Why did HRC lose? I’ve put some reasons in a row, apart from (1) the EC system:
    2 – Voter disenfranchisement, ie.: CrossCheck, ‘provisional’ votes discarded, voting stations in accessible areas closed, no off-day for voting, etc. etc.
    3 – Counting fraud. In swing states where HRC won in the exit polls, but lost the count there was always a Rep in charge, the only swing state where this did not happen was Virginia, where a Dem was in charge.
    4 – Relentless trolling by a horde of Russian operatives on social media. Sometimes I even doubted myself if HRC was not a pawn of the (non-existant, IMMO) ‘Deep State’ or ‘Wall Street’. They also incited many minority voters not to vote.
    5 – The ‘Bernie or bust’ crowd, who did not vote for HRC, because…
    6 – The Pomo, third wave feminists, who, with their inane and asinine rhetoric and actions provoked a reaction from the centre, towards the right. Especially their smooching with fundamentalist Islam must have been a turn-off for ‘centrists’.
    7 – Fox channel with all it’s relentless fake and highly partisan news.
    8 – Mr Comey’s admission a few days before the elections, that the HRC e-mail investigation was reopened, ,while not mentioning Mr Trump was also under investigation (Russia).
    I’m sure there were other reasons, but I think it is a good start of a summary.
    I can’t remember where I read this, but it was before november ’16, that a Dem needs about 5 to 10 million more votes than his/her Rep opponent to make it to the WH.
    Those 2.9 million were not enough there.

    Reply
    • Mark R.
      Mark R. on 19th April 2018 at 8:15 am

      I’d add:

      9 – the XX factor…where there is racism, there is misogyny; where there is not racism, there is misogyny. The US is institutionally patriarchal, though the bias is slowly dissipating and the younger generations will speed up the needed equilibrium. (At least that’s what the data says.)

      It’s this underlying misogyny that exacerbates the negative effects indicated in your points 4, 7 and to a lesser extent, 8. It is also a reason why Trump’s pussy-grabbing remarks didn’t immediately disqualify him.

      Reply
  5. nicky
    nicky on 19th April 2018 at 6:44 am

    Shrodinger defeated: the cat in the non-opened box is alive, no uncertainty. Would not even fool a mouse: Mouse 1, Shrodinger 0.

    Reply
  6. Lee Knuth
    Lee Knuth on 19th April 2018 at 10:54 am

    Thanks for a great post. So true that Trump was elected by the Electoral College, the agency that was designed to protect us from demagogues. Didn’t quite work out that way..

    Reply
  7. ratabago
    ratabago on 19th April 2018 at 1:44 pm

    [Warning, seems I’m still grumpy]

    And the Guardian stuffs the science up, again. They should stop taking their leads from press releases, which IME are nearly always written by professional liars*, and start hiring some marginally scientifically literate reporters, and have them engage with the published papers, talk to the scientists, and discover the real story. If the Guardian did real reporting again I might even start buying their (currently useless) paper, again.

    It is remarkable that: “The new research was spurred by the discovery in 2016 of the first bacterium that had naturally evolved to eat plastic, at a waste dump in Japan”. Quite a surprise to me, as I had to study chemical pathways involved in the bacterial breakdown of plastics as a second year student back in the 1980s**. Some of the papers we covered went back to the 1970s.

    This isn’t even the first bacterium that can attack PET, the plastic that many plastic bottles are made from. It is still a useful breakthrough, as this is reportedly the first bacterium we have discovered that is able to fully metabolise PET. The importance of this enzyme is that it makes it energetically feasible to break PET back down into chemical feedstock that can be used to make new clear plastic. The importance of the bacteria is that they can completely mineralise PET in landfill, breaking it down into water and simple gases. Why did they need to sex it up? Why the BS?

    This fake news has generated so much buzz that it is flooding the front pages of google if you search on something like “plastic” and “bacteria”. It’s almost as depressing as all the creationist and “3rd way” noise when searching topics related to evolution. And every bit as useless.

    Here is a decent non-specialist’s overview of the breakdown of plastics in marine environments, just for some context: https://oceans.taraexpeditions.org/en/m/science/news/bacterial-degradation-of-synthetic-plastics/

    ————————–

    *You know, Marketing and Public Relations People.
    ** Most of which I have since forgotten.

    Reply
    • Heather Hastie
      Heather Hastie on 19th April 2018 at 2:16 pm

      Thanks for this. It’s good to have people in the comments who know what they’re talking about, so stay grumpy!

      Reply
  8. Mark R.
    Mark R. on 19th April 2018 at 3:10 pm

    The unfitness of this USian millionaire cabinet is beyond disturbing. It seems many powerful players are gaining from Oligarchy money…we can hope that laundering will be revealed. Might take too many years, but it will be revealed. As all this current American despotism will be…unless we hit true Armageddon. There is always a segment (large in the US) of people who actually welcome Armageddon. Too much zombie movies mixed with revelation religion shit. We’re good at creating cults and look at the data. Gung-ho shit-show as far as I’m concerned. And a huge country with sheltered inhabitants who need better from the richest land in the history of the world. How pathetic it goes forever to the top! This must stop.

    Reply
  9. Randall Schenck
    Randall Schenck on 20th April 2018 at 10:42 am

    First thing to say here is, we need to get the donations up and running here so Heather can get a back up. These things are important. It is good to see all the good comments on Barbra Bush, always the most popular member of the family. All of us eventually lose our parents and George W has been lucky to have his around a long time.

    Keeping up with the political news these days is nearly impossible. Living half way around the world I don’t know how you do as well as you do. I live right here and cannot do it. Latest I hear today is that Cohen and his lawyers have dropped their lawsuit against the firm that hired Steele to do his Dossier on Trump. We have to think, after the raid on Cohen, his goose is cooked and there is no sense pretending this stuff is not true. We will see. Another old lawyer and idiot friend of Trump’s apparently called him and told him Cohen will flip and throw him under the bus. Then this same guy called the Wall Street Journal and told them. Just the kind of thing you would expect from a Trump lawyer. And last but not least, Giuliani is now a lawyer for Trump. Is this a comedy or what?

    Reply
    • Heather Hastie
      Heather Hastie on 20th April 2018 at 12:29 pm

      Thanks for your kind words Randall!

      I’ve gotta say I’m not surprised that Cohen and co have dropped that lawsuit. It was always for show – part of the pretense that they’re a bunch of choir boys. Steele actually has a really good reputation as an investigator. He was involved in the years long investigation that proved that Russia was behind the first poisoning in Britain – Alexander Litvinenko. He’s not political either. He just reports the things he discovers and has a very high accuracy rate.

      That lawyer who told Trump Cohen would flip was the one who negotiated his divorce settlements from his first two wives. A CNN reporter was saying last night that he had recommended a lawyer to Trump, but wouldn’t tell her who is was – only that he was from a big firm. That fits with it being Giuliani. He’s a big enough creep to think his own reputation won’t be damaged by association with Trump, and not to care if it is.

      I think Cohen will flip. He’s fairly young and has a family. If he doesn’t flip he’ll be spending the rest of his life in jail. He appears to be someone who talks a big game, but would never survive prison.

      It’s been said before, but it gets more and more true. If you wrote this for a TV drama about the presidency, it would all get rejected as being too far fetched. It might manage a farce, but nothing that is supposed to look like reality.

      The important thing is for people to make sure they vote in the 2016 elections, and get everyone they know to vote too. That’s one of the biggest problems in the US – people don’t vote. I think there are a lot of red states where blue voters don’t vote because they think there’s no point. Making the effort might flip a few, or at least give a few Republicans a good scare. The latest Quinnipiac poll shows the Democrat only three points behind Ted Cruz in Texas! 47-44 Wouldn’t that be an upset?!

      Reply
      • Randall Schenck
        Randall Schenck on 20th April 2018 at 2:18 pm

        Yes, the people must vote or nothing happens. But we must remember the people are also being highly influenced and manipulated before this vote and I am as concerned with that as with how many of them vote. The junk that “the people” feed on everyday with their time on face book, or twitter, or blogs all over the net or what they get from certain parts of TV is changing the face of politics.

        In the meantime, will this investigation turn the next election upside down again. Tonight we hear that congress is demanding Comey’s notes, which are part of the investigation. And Rudy Giuliani pronounces that he will be stepping in and bring this investigation to an end in about 2 weeks. Stand by for that one…

        Reply
        • Heather Hastie
          Heather Hastie on 20th April 2018 at 3:17 pm

          Watching AC360 today, they had all the lies that are being told to voters about Mueller etc, They get picked up and spread, and people believe them. Sean Hannity hasn’t been fazed by what’s happened to him, and is spreading rubbish, like Mueller being responsible for keeping people in prison to hide Whitey Bulger’s link with the FBI. By the time I was watching, Congress had Comey’s notes and so did the press. I’m just watching a discussion that was recorded about an hour ago, but I has to pause to take a Skype call.

          Reply
      • nicky
        nicky on 21st April 2018 at 11:31 am

        Yes, thanks for defending Steele. He collects info, and several of his operators do that at quite some risk.
        He also did not present all of his findings as facts, he has always been careful to mention some of his info might not be fully correct. However, most of it appears to have been corroborated and confirmed later.
        I would not go as far as calling him an unsung and much maligned ‘hero’, but he clearly is a much maligned ‘Honest Broker’. Thumbs up for Steele.

        I hope Mr Cohen will ‘flip’, he must have quite a bit of ‘interesting’ info.
        The defense of Mr Hannity re Mr Cohen makes no sense, if his dealings with Mr Cohen were only about some ‘real estate advice’, why would he actively try to hide his connection? ‘Baloney’ (?) as they say in the US.
        Mr Hannity and Mr Trump are revealed to be very close buddies. How can any news channel, even Fox, still maintain him as a commentator? Is there no rule or guideline there?

        The whole Mr Trump presidency is a farce and a tragedy. It would be a comedy if the damage that this usurper has done were not so catastrophic. The worst of it is that if Mr Trump will be impeached (which appears increasingly likely) the world is saddled with the repugnant ayatollah called Mr Pence. Woe on all of us.

        Reply
        • Heather Hastie
          Heather Hastie on 21st April 2018 at 1:42 pm

          Yeah. I don’t think of him as a hero. He’s an honourable man, doing a job that’s he’s good at.

          Hannity and Trump have been big buddies for a while, and Fox likes the connection because it gives them an “in” with Trump. Hannity isn’t the only one, though he’s probably the closest to Trump. His show was little more than an infomercial for Trump from the time he started running. Since Trump got into office, he’s been a propaganda outlet. He’s happy to lie for Trump for what he thinks is the Greater Good. Hannity is a very committed Christian, though Catholic rather than Evangelical I think.

          There are people saying that Trump selected Pence as his VP as a brake on impeachment. What they mean is, the thought of Pence as prez is so bad, they’d rather keep Trump. I think that’s unlikely. I doubt Trump thought he would be impeached. I think he thinks the rules shouldn’t apply to him because he’s Donald Trump, and he’s too important to have to follow things like laws. Rules are for other people. I think Pence got the job because he’s an Evangelical and Dominionist, and it’s a way to suck up to his base who are the same.

          Reply
          • nicky
            nicky on 21st April 2018 at 11:57 pm

            I did not think at the time Mr Trump thought of impeachment, but more as a kind of life insurance against assassination. But of course, smooching with the religious fundamentalist must have been his main motive.

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