erronis
erronis's JournalTrump golf resort wrecked special nature site, reports reveal
Source: Guardian
US president’s broken promises have ruined a fragile dune system in Aberdeenshire
The spectacular dunes system picked by Donald Trump for his golf resort in Aberdeenshire has been “partially destroyed” as a result of the course’s construction, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed.
Scottish Natural Heritage, which has been under pressure for years to speak out on the issue, now acknowledges that serious damage has been done to the site of special scientific interest (SSSI) at Foveran Links on the Menie estate, north of Aberdeen, since the course opened in 2012, the documents show.
As a result, Foveran’s SSSI status – given because of its unusual shifting sands and diverse plant life – now hangs in the balance.
“Construction of the new golf course involved earthworks, planting of trees, greens and fairways, drainage, irrigation and grass planting,” states one of the reports released by Scottish Natural Heritage inspectors. “This has affected the natural morphology of the dunes and interfered with natural processes. Most of its important geomorphological features have been lost or reduced to fragments. Nearby marine terraces have also been reduced to fragments.”
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/29/donald-trump-golf-environment-sssi-damaged-broken-promises
This on the heels of the post today (https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017503747) about the movie "You've Been Trumped" (full version in the post.
A historian surveys the wreckage of the Trump-Putin summit
https://www.vox.com/conversations/2018/7/19/17588518/trump-putin-helsinki-meeting-history-diplomacy-russia-us-syria-ukraineI found this a good exposure of how some experts can be wrong. I do agree with the closing.
In Foreign Affairs, a mere week ago, the historian and former diplomat Michael Kimmage made the case that the real action at the Helsinki meeting would quite likely occur behind the scenes, in unglamorous conversations among midlevel diplomats, who would begin much-needed exchanges about thorny issues including Ukraine and Syria.
Then President Trump stepped up to the mike. In a now-infamous press conference, he cast doubt on the US intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia hacked Democratic politicians and generally interfered in the 2016 election. (He subsequently backpedaled, unconvincingly.)
Trump “has destroyed his credibility on Russia even with people who might be Trump voters on other issues,” said Kimmage, who teaches at the Catholic University and who served, from 2014 to 2016, on the policy planning staff at the State Department, focusing on Russia and Ukraine.
...
I think in retrospect, what one can say about this meeting is that it was way too soon given the level of preparation, and probably it was just a bad idea to begin with.
If the president genuinely cared about improving the US Russian relationship, it is he who just killed the chance of that, by appearing so untrustworthy and so ill-prepared. You can’t blame Putin in this case; you can’t blame the media. It the president that has put himself in the place he is in.
Major Defense Contractor to Investigate Violent White Supremacist on Its Staff
Source: ProPublica
Defense contractor Northrop Grumman said it will investigate an employee identified as a member of a violent white supremacist group in a recent report by ProPublica and Frontline.
The employee, Michael Miselis, a 29-year-old aerospace engineer, works at the company’s facility in Redondo Beach, California, and holds a government-issued security clearance of the sort required for personnel assigned to classified military projects. Outside of his professional life, Miselis belongs to the Rise Above Movement, a racist Southern California group whose members have physically attacked their political foes in at least four different cities.
Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/northrop-grumman-defense-contractor-to-investigate-michael-miselis#146678
This "doxxing/outing" of these creeps needs to continue. ProPublica has done an incredible job of research hate and other interpersonal crimes in the US.
Requiem for the Soul of the Republican Party
http://www.greenmountaindaily.com/2018/07/04/a-eulogy-for-the-soul-of-the-republican-party/Today is the United States’ traditional birthday, and pollsters are scrambling to take the patient’s pulse even as we feebly attempt celebration amid record heat induced by unchecked fossil fuel consumption, and try not to notice the cries of refugee mothers and their children separated by “baby jail.”
According to CNBC, which could never be mistaken for a liberal source, less than half (47%) of U.S. adults call themselves “proud to be American.” That number has dropped 10 percentage points in just the last five years.
That’s despite our supposedly booming economy and all the “greatness” Donald Trump insists he is bringing back to the nation.
A CNN poll reports that half of all Americans view Donald Trump as a racist. Is it any coincidence that, also according to recent surveys, close to 90% of Republicans approve of the policies of Donald Trump while almost no one else does?
One can not resist reflecting on the other half of Americans who apparently do NOT see him as a racist. In order to subscribe to that position, one must either have never read any of his own comments on brown and black people; or must themselves be racist. Both possibilities are inescapably damning for the future of the democracy we attempt to celebrate today.
Every single day since and including his inauguration, another demonstration (or three) of his willful ignorance, epic narcism, unabashed dishonesty or pure unadulterated abuse of power has turned the nightly news into a spectacle not for the faint of heart.
Even today, as the Senate Intelligence Committee finally delivered its verdict in agreement with all of the nations intelligence agencies, that Putin’s Russia did indeed interfere in the 2016 election for the purposes of getting Donald Trump elected; Republicans, from Mitch McConnell on down to the last man standing, are doing all they can to avoid acknowledging the truth.
Such a demonstration of unquestioning allegiance to a complete scoundrel like Donald Trump pretty much confirms for me that they share all of his most odious positions, and that includes racism.
He’s their sick puppy; whether he plots to invade Venezuela, sleeps with our enemies, chokes our allies, maintains the most corrupt and incompetent cabinet in recent history, and ultimately destroys ten years of economic growth; he is aided and abetted by the party of Lincoln. Now isn’t that the greatest irony?
Let it henceforth be agreed that the Republican party is not only the party of Baby Snatchers and liars, but it is also the party of racists. Sorry, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and John McCain. I appreciate your heroic efforts to save the soul of your party, but if you lie down with dogs, you’re going to wake up scratching.
Happy Fourth of July.
Baby Jesus 'detained' in US immigration protest
Source: BBC
A US church has placed statues of baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph in a cage on its lawn to protest against the Trump administration's immigration policy.
The Episcopalian Christ Church Cathedral in Indiana, Indianapolis, put the display up on Monday night, saying the Biblical family were refugees too.
The church said it was in response to the US justice department's separation of migrant children from their parents.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44704580
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