Trump believes he's bigger than the Hindu gods, his biggest crowd size lie yet, sounds drugged

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Monday February 24, 2020 · 8:04 AM PST

2020/02/24 · 08:04

"We're going to have many millions and millions of people… Some people say the biggest event they've ever had in India. That's what the Prime Minister told me, that this will be the biggest event they've ever had."

—Donald Trump, 2/23/2020, on eve of visit to India.

A blatant lie, of course: it is not possible that the Prime Minister or any Indian would tell him that. India's biggest events are religious festivals that honor Hindu gods. 150 million attend Kumbh Mela, the world's largest human gathering.

Trump believes he is bigger to Indians than the gods.

And my gods… “Swami Vive' Kammmooonunnnd”???

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Call the Virginia gun hysteria what it is: a rightwing extremist terrorism movement in the making

BoGardiner

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Friday February 21, 2020 · 8:29 AM PST

2020/02/21 · 08:29

I have yet to see Virginia or national media name the gun rights hysteria in Virginia for what it is: a budding rightwing proto-terrorism movement. Instead they give it the cowardly “both sides” treatment while gun rights groups call to establish local militias and prepare for a violent uprising.

Their Facebook pages are peppered with death and terrorism threats that moderators incite, while doing nothing to tamp down the worst of them. While the more PR-savvy gun advocates tout the lack of bloodshed at the Richmond gun rally in January, gone unreported are the many expressing disappointment.

The “Second Amendment Sanctuary” hysteria here in which boards of supervisors of locality after locality cave to roomfuls of bullying, shouting gun extremists isn’t evidence of the idea’s popularity so much as it’s simply evidence of fear for your family’s safety when your neighbors make death threats.

Here are recent screencaps from the public FB page of just one or two of many such groups in Virginia, so multiply these by god knows how many:

Franklin Graham claims monosyllabic 98-yr-old father Billy who "can't hear, can’t see" voted Trump

BoGardiner

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Friday December 20, 2019 · 11:54 AM PST

2019/12/20 · 11:54

Not buying it.

You of course know by now that yesterday Christianity Today, the magazine founded by world-famous Christian evangelist Billy Graham, published a scathing editorial titled “Trump Should Be Removed From Office,” calling Trump “grossly immoral” and “a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.”

Today Franklin Graham counter-attacked, including this tweet:

I hadn’t shared who my father Billy Graham voted for in 2016, but because of @CTMagazine’s article, I felt it necessary to share now. My father knew @realDonaldTrump, believed in him & voted for him. He believed Donald J. Trump was the man for this hour in history for our nation.

Trump of course quickly clutched at this, tweeting: “Thank you to Franklin Graham for stating that his father, the late great Billy Graham, voted for me in the 2016 Election.”

But just days before the 2016 election, Franklin was interviewed by the Charlotte Observer on Billy’s 98th birthday and asked about his father’s health:

“He's real quiet. Doesn’t say much... Can't see. His mind is clear. ... But he speaks in sentences of one word... It’s a party every Sunday when I go see him because he’s made it through another week... At 98, you count the days and weeks."

As for this year’s presidential race, Billy Graham “knows who’s running and that kind of stuff,” his son said, but there are no real conversations with him about it.

About three months after the election, in January 2017, the Washington Post interviewed Graham family members including Franklin, who in describing his dad’s health hardly portrayed an engaged voter:

At 98, Graham now lives in his mountaintop home near Asheville, N.C.; Franklin said his father can’t hear, can’t see and doesn’t talk very much.

We do know that in earlier years, Billy Graham had distanced himself from some of his son’s extreme politics, as the Post noted:

Though Billy Graham passed on his ministry to his son, he was not afraid to publicly disagree with him. In 2005, Larry King asked Billy what he thought about Franklin calling Islam “evil and wicked.” Billy responded, “Well, he has [his] views and I have mine. And they are different sometimes.”

It’s questionable Billy would have discussed it with his son even if he’d been physically able:

Franklin Graham said he doesn’t talk about politics with family members because he doesn’t want to divide the family. As with many evangelical families, Graham said he knows some family members may have voted differently from him in the presidential election…

It’s not as if the rest of Billy Graham’s family are lockstep Trump supporters. Judging by this granddaughter’s comments in the above 2017 Post interview, she would likely challenge her uncle’s claim about Billy’s vote for Trump:

But Jerushah Armfield, Billy Graham’s granddaughter and Franklin Graham’s niece, said the Graham family is not the single unit that many on the outside see. She said that while family members respect one another and most voted for Trump, they do not all fall on the same side of social issues or hold the same views about the role of faith in politics.

Armfield, a writer and a pastor’s wife in South Carolina, said her uncle’s suggestion that Trump’s win meant God answered the country’s prayer was bad theology. “To suggest the president-elect is an ambassador to further the kingdom in the world diminishes not only my Jesus but all he stood for and came to earth to fight against,” she said.

She said Trump “encouraged racism, sexism and intolerance, exactly what Jesus taught against.” She said that her grandfather “understood the love of Jesus that fought for the outliers while the president-elect ostracized them.”

“The evangelical leaders that endorsed Trump put power and influence over principles and character,” she said.

Exploitation of his father for personal gain would not be new for Franklin Graham. Four years earlier, experts were suggesting he was falsely putting his father’s name on some of his own more more right-wing writings to sell books:

In a blog post that made waves in the Christian press last week, Billy Graham warns churches to “prepare for persecution.” Message aside, determining whether or not the nearly 97-year-old evangelist actually issued this warning himself is another matter.

A new book bearing the byline of Billy Graham presents scholars of contemporary religion with a similar puzzle. Did Graham actually write Where I Am: Heaven, Eternity, and Our Life Beyond, a book that, despite its title, focuses mostly on hell?
...
Posing these questions about Where I Am strongly suggests that the book is, in fact, pseudepigraphic—falsely named.

Billy Graham is the sole author listed for this book. His son Franklin’s name appears on a three-page foreword, and, perhaps more tellingly, Franklin is listed as the copyright holder.

NPR mentions the controversy in its obituary for Billy Graham:

During the months when the book was allegedly being written, Billy Graham was in failing health and suffering from severe memory loss due to hydrocephalus and Parkinson's disease.

What better way for Franklin Graham to kick off his 2020 version of his huge 2016 Trump rally tour than by dishonoring his father’s legacy.

Trump forgets who Prime Minister Johnson is at NATO summit in London

BoGardiner

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Wednesday December 04, 2019 · 4:58 PM PST

2019/12/04 · 16:58

Trump befuddled at who this "Prime Minister Johnson" could be

Yes, at times yesterday in London Trump was able to recall that Boris Johnson is now Prime Minister. But at other times...

He and French President Emmanuel Macron were taking reporters' questions at the NATO summit in London, December 3, 2019. The following exchange took place:

Q: Sir — Mr. President, Prime Minister Johnson, I believe, is organizing some sort of discussion later today about the Syria conflict. Are you going to take part in that and meet with him? And if not, why?

TRUMP: Are you talking about Ambassador Johnson?

Q: Boris Johnson. Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister.

T: Oh, I thought you meant Woody Johnson.

Q: No.

T: And I said, “Boy, he’s really risen rapidly,” Woody. Where is Woody? Is he here? This is his house. I can’t believe he’s not here.

Hey, remember when the President of the United States slipped into unconsciousness in the middle of making a public statement?

And the media treated it as a mere joke?

Responsible media and leaders should have taken “covfefe” as a warning something was seriously wrong with the person overseeing our nuclear arsenal. There should be much more serious debate as to whether this 73-year-old man in clear cognitive decline is fit to remain President for another five years.

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Anatomy of Embrace by Conservative "Mainstream" Media of Fringe Fake News Story on Chelsea Clinton

BoGardiner

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Thursday March 30, 2017 · 1:49 PM PDT

2017/03/30 · 13:49

On Homeland this season, a huge right-wing fake news operation in America is infiltrated by good-guy CIA agent Max.

Right-wing fake news is nearly a daily occurrence now, but a viral story this week was so blatant, so easily traceable, that it's a useful example. It was impossible watching its wave build, transform, and travel across the net without picturing chilling scenes from this season's TV series Homeland (a must watch).

In the show, a screaming radio host and right-wing conspiracy theorist named Brett O'Keefe is a despicable mixture of Alex Jones of InfoWars, James O'Keefe of deliberately twisted video fame, and Chris LaCivita from the swift-boating monstrosity. O'Keefe gets support from a rogue CIA element to open a massive fake news and sock puppet operation designed to destroy the presumably Democratic president-elect.

Homeland_Brett_O'Keefe__Alex_Jones.png — Homeland’s right-wing radio outrage machine Brett O'Keefe, modeled in part on Alex Jones of InfoWars

This week’s sadly nonfictional story began mildly enough with a tweet from a West Palm Beach TV reporter about the dinner program at a March 24 Republican "Lincoln Day" event:

The cover of the 2017 Lincoln Day Dinner program for Republican Party of Palm Beach County tonight at Mar-a-Lago. @WPTV pic.twitter.com/SJPlB8V6qb
— Andrew Lofholm (@AndrewLofholm) March 24, 2017

Turns out it was actually much worse. There was this monstrous banner:

This is genuinely hanging in Mar-a-Lago for a dinner honoring Lincoln... pic.twitter.com/sRQLtjwBi4
— B (@bXbyrne) March 25, 2017

Chelsea Clinton saw the dinner program tweet, was as yucked out as the rest of us, and responded:

Please tell me this is photoshopped. Please? https://t.co/WezDQx6IvT
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) March 25, 2017

Next day at Glenn Beck's The Blaze, reporter Chris Enloe was apparently unable to find anything of substance transpiring in the world so posts this:

Chelsea Clinton triggered by Abe Lincoln in ‘MAGA’ hat — gets trolled with hilarious responses

But apparently that was too much for Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former President Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. She took to Twitter Saturday to show her disbelief that the event’s program did, in fact, feature Lincoln in a “MAGA” hat.

Twitter proceeded to troll Clinton with hilarious comments:

No, Lincoln actually wore that hat in 1865; it was found at Ford's Theater.

she ain't the brightest "sinister underlord" in the family.

But hey, at least Enloe correctly described why Chelsea was in disbelief, giving himself plausible deniability. But by including that second tweet, he deliberately left the door open for a flood of comments by the less intelligent, who misunderstand and thought she was wondering if Lincoln in fact wore a MAGA ballcap:

And this is EXACTLY why I asked how she ever got the job running the Clinton foundation straight out of college? She got a 600K job running it and this is all the brains she has…to ask if Lincoln with a MAGA hat was photo shopped…? Noooooo Chelsea….he actually wore it, and bought it online…….stupid is as stupid does…. Chelsea for congress

Airhead!!

Seeing just how -- well, I hate to say it, but what other word for it is there but... stupid? – are their readers, Tom Blumer, contributing editor for Newsbusters, saw an opportunity. Blumer has to be of at least standard intelligence, and therefore absolutely knew he was publishing a lie:

Chelsea Clinton Hopes MAGA Hat on Pic of Lincoln Is Photoshopped

I'd suggest that if you really have to ask, as Chelsea Clinton did, if a "Make America Great Again" hat seen on a rendering of Abe Lincoln on the cover of a Republican Party dinner program has been "photoshopped," you deserve every bit of the ridicule coming your way… To her credit, Mrs. Clinton (or Ms., or Miss, based on reader input) hasn't deleted her tweet — yet. Though she doesn't seem to understand photo editing, she at least grasps the idea that the websites of Twitter curators like Twitchy will have her tweet as long as they exist.

Now imagine if either of former President George W. Bush's daughters, who are also in their mid-30s, had posted something this dumb on Twitter. Does anyone believe that the establishment press, or especially the left-leaning cadre of late-night comedians, would be able to resist engaging in intense mockery? The heavy bets here should be placed on both groups pretending not to know anything about Chelsea Clinton's latest Twitter calamity, even though the press has gone out of its way to fawn over her supposedly aggressive and effective tweeting to this point (spare me), even though she's especially fair game for ridicule because of her rumored political ambitions.

Keep this episode in mind the next time some op-ed writer like Ann Friedman at the Los Angeles Times pathetically laments how "Just like her mother, Chelsea Clinton never gets a break."

Max McGuire, Advocacy Director at Conservative Daily and associate partner of a communications consulting company, is also presumably of standard intelligence. So with straight cynicism for never overestimating his readers, published this deliberate fake news:

Chelsea Clinton Unsure If Abe Lincoln Ever Wore a Trump Hat

Did Abe Lincoln support Donald Trump for President?

This is the question of our time and it was posed by none other than Chelsea Clinton. Forget about the limits of the space-time continuum and forget about the fact that 81 years separate Lincoln’s death and Trump’s birth.

First of all, the picture of Abraham Lincoln is from the five dollar bill. Now, it is obvious that Chelsea Clinton probably hasn’t handled small change in a while. But one would think… one would hope… that the daughter of a President wouldn’t be so dense as to think that this was real. I mean, come on. It’s a red hat super-imposed on a black and white etching of a long-dead President.

Is she worried that the five dollar bill has been redesigned to include a MAGA hat? Or is she nervous that Old Abe hopped in Doc Brown’s DeLorean and was actually photographed wearing a Trump hat?

There are just so many levels of stupid to Chelsea Clinton’s tweet…

But seriously, this is the woman that Democrats are grooming to become the next Senator for the State of New York. And here she is, seeming genuinely confused about whether a black and white etching of Abraham Lincoln, made famous by the $5 bill, was photoshopped to include a red Make America Great Again hat.

And the flood began. Possibly millions of Americans were being “informed” that Chelsea Clinton was stunningly imbecilic, a blonde so dumb she could never seriously be considered for a political career.

Chelsea responded:

Clearly the sarcasm directed at the #MAGA rewriting of history was...too subtle? (And Photoshop created in 1988) https://t.co/GmZ2QnQSJK
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) March 27, 2017

But that didn't stop Eren Moreno of Truthfeed, who followed with this:

Chelsea Clinton Questions if This Photo of Abe Lincoln Wearing a MAGA Hat is REAL

And it certainly didn’t stop Rush Limbaugh, never shy about repeating a blatant lie and then expanding on it:

Meaning, it’s likely that Chelsea Clinton literally actually believed that Abraham Lincoln had worn a Make America Great cap and had been photographed wearing it back in 1863! She was serious, folks. She was scared to death that Lincoln actually wore the hat.

Needless to say, the comments sections on all these sites are filled with the most misogynistic crap you can imagine, focusing on her being a dumb blonde, her appearance, and comparing her with other “stupid” Democratic women.

Within a day the obviously fake news was happily embraced by conservative "mainstream" media (I'm choking on the fact Trump has elevated these fringe sites to the mainstream now).

Breitbart displayed its particular eloquence, showing why our president is such a fan:

Chelsea Clinton Ridiculed on Twitter for Confusion over Abe Lincoln ‘MAGA’ Image

Chelsea Clinton became the subject of ridicule across Twitter over the weekend as she asked whether a photograph of Abraham Lincoln wearing a Make America Great Again hat was photoshopped.

Dumber than her mother. Unbelievable.

What a moron...

The now august Fox News republished the NewsBuster story with this headline:

Chelsea Clinton Hopes MAGA Hat on Pic of Lincoln Is Photoshopped

The Sean Hannity Show:

HILARIOUS: Chelsea Clinton Wonders If Lincoln-MAGA Hat Image Is Photoshopped

Chelsea Clinton's strange reaction to an image of President Abraham Lincoln sporting a MAGA hat is drawing ridicule today.

Yes Chelsea, it's photoshopped. America's 16th president never traded in his stovepipe hat for a MAGA cap.

I'm no expert on how to track social media volume, but Sean Hannity's page shows about 20,000 Facebook shares so far. So much for Facebook trying to control fake news.

And thus the wave traveled across the World Wide Web.

Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit is approaching 10,000 shares with this:

DUMB AS A BRICK: Chelsea Clinton Wonders if Lincoln in a #MAGA Hat is Photoshopped

Mental genius Chelsea Clinton made a complete a$$ of herself once again this past weekend. Someone really needs to keep her away from the computers without supervision. …What a dunce…. What an idiot!

USSA News, "The Tea Party Front Page":

Chelsea Clinton unsure if pic of Lincoln in #MAGA hat photoshopped, gets mocked on Twitter

Is this what the Democrats really want to run for office some time in the future? On Sunday, Twitchy reported that a picture of former President Abraham Lincoln wearing a Make America Great Again cap actually prompted Chelsea Clinton to ask if it was photoshopped. The question, naturally, sparked a great deal of mockery on Twitter.

American Lookout:

BIGGEST MORON EVER: Chelsea Clinton Wonders if Lincoln in a MAGA Hat is Photoshopped

Many have worried about who will take the coveted spots that Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters hold as the biggest morons in Washington. To those who worry, worry no more, Chelsea Clinton is emerging as the person who will one day take their spot.

I guarantee these editors are not this stupid. Nor can this be chalked up to the blinders of bias. This is blatant, deliberate spreading of a lie to the most gullible Americans.

Which puts every name I named squarely on the list of known fake news generators in this country, deliberately weaponizing falsehoods to manipulate public opinion and devolve America.

No, YOU'RE the puppet... for China!

BoGardiner

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Wednesday March 29, 2017 · 7:15 AM PDT

2017/03/29 · 07:15

Trump’s latest move to send us back to the gray skies of the coal era was a mistake, but not for the reason you think.

Remember all that anti-China rhetoric in his campaign? Four-dimensional chess at its finest, a smokescreen to hide his true purpose:

Trump Is a Chinese agent. Friedman exposes Trump’s dirty secret in today’s New York Times:

He threw away a U.S.-designed free-trade deal with 11 other Pacific nations — a pact whose members make up 40 percent of global G.D.P.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership was based largely on U.S. economic interests, benefiting our fastest-growing technologies and agribusinesses, and had more labor, environmental and human rights standards than any trade agreement ever. And it excluded China. It was our baby, shaping the future of trade in Asia.

Imagine if Trump were negotiating with China now as not only the U.S. president but also as head of a 12-nation trading bloc based on our values and interests. That’s called l-e-v-e-r-a-g-e, and Trump just threw it away...

So now China is gathering Asian nations into its own trading association, one less troubled by rules for petty matters like the environment or human trafficking. China’s power is expanding into a Trump-shaped vacuum.

Meanwhile back at home, Trump has begun the American Industrial Devolution.

But Trump took his Make China Great campaign to a new level on Tuesday by rejecting the science on climate change and tossing out all Obama-era plans to shrink our dependence on coal-fired power. Trump also wants to weaken existing mileage requirements for U.S.-made vehicles. Stupid.

... clean power, clean water, clean air, clean transportation and energy-efficient buildings will have to be the next great global industry, whether or not there is climate change. The demand will be huge.

Now Chinese investors are backing green cars and small electric vehicle startups, and have just bought a stake in Tesla. While the GOP tries to make dwindling fossil fuels great again.

Still doubtful that Trump’s a Chinese agent? How about making it harder for the world’s top STEM grads to immigrate here? Brilliant! China is happy to take them off our hands.

NBC News reported last week that applications from foreign students, notably from China, India and the Middle East, “are down this year at nearly 40 percent of schools that answered a recent survey by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.”

Trump’s subterfuge has been so brilliant, he can probably even say the word “China” properly… in Chinese.

European Green Party Officially Rejects U.S. Greens' “Republicans Preferable to Democrats” Stance

BoGardiner

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Wednesday March 29, 2017 · 4:36 AM PDT

2017/03/29 · 04:36

U.S. Green Party’s 2016 vice-presidential candidate Ajamu Baraka and presidential candidate Jill Stein (Source: Wikipedia Commons)

[Excerpts from my post at Under the Greenwood Tree]

I have received a March 20 communication from the European Green Party officially rejecting the U.S. Green Party’s “Republicans are preferable to Democrats” stance.

This was in response to my query to them asking, as a writer intending to publish their response, if they share the views expressed by numerous U.S. Green Party leaders and allies that Republicans in American office are preferable to Democrats. I provided them a link to a compilation of statements, each with a link to its original source so validity and context are easily verified. It includes views such as such as this from U.S. Greens’ 2016 presidential candidate Jill Stein in October 2016:

If you watched the debate the other night, you would have heard Trump saying that he’s looking for collaboration with Putin… he’s got business interests all over the place; on that basis, hey wow, maybe he’d be the peace president because he needs peace all over the place… Yeah, climate change is horrific, but it’s not happening tomorrow.

Among the many similar pronouncements by U.S. Green leaders are an article by Stein posted in October titled “What’s scarier than Donald Trump? Hillary Clinton’s plans to gut Social Security;” an article that her running mate Ajamu Baraka tweeted in October titled “Why Hillary Clinton Is More Dangerous Than Donald Trump;” and a statement from the U.S. Greens’ 2016 campaign social media director Jillian Thomas explaining her own preference for Trump over Clinton.

There are many more. Ralph Nader, U.S. Greens’ 2000 presidential candidate, similarly often stated his desire to see Al Gore defeated and George W. Bush win.

The reaction from Eliana Capretti, Head of Communications and Press, European Green Party, was a swift, thorough and unambiguous repudiation:

None of those quotes have every been associated with the European Green Party, nor have we ever lent support to any of them, nor will we endorse them now, nor in the future.

...

Perhaps if word gets around, this might encourage U.S. Green grassroots to begin demanding a strategy for the future from its leadership that’s less destructive to Earth and all living things that dwell upon it.

[Do NOT use this diary to relitigate the primary. This is about the future and helping Democrats succeed.]

THIS is not OUR Resistance. Whoever you are doing this, you are NOT our allies.

BoGardiner

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Saturday March 25, 2017 · 6:46 PM PDT

2017/03/25 · 18:46

This has happened several times now, starting with the Milo incident at Berkeley, and now this today.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A scuffle broke out on a Southern California beach where supporters of President Donald Trump were marching when counter-protesters doused organizers with pepper spray, authorities said Saturday.

The violence erupted when the march of about 2,000 people at Bolsa Chica State Beach reached a group of about 30 counter-protesters, some of whom began spraying the irritant, said Capt. Kevin Pearsall of the California State Parks Police. Three people were arrested on suspicion of illegal use of pepper spray, he said.

Reprehensible.

It’s about the most anti-progressive, illiberal, anti-free-speech, unethical, counter-productive, stupid-as-shit thing I can possibly think of for anyone deluding themselves they’re part of our Resistance.

I’m confident I speak for nearly all here when I say progressives DEPLORE this behavior.

I’m not going to jump to false-flag theories like the rightwingers automatically do. Until proven otherwise, we should accept the Associated Press at face value and denounce anyone using abusive tactics to silence Trump supporters.

A Legend Who Persuaded a Generation to Love Birds, Wild Places and Science Has Passed

BoGardiner

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Tuesday March 21, 2017 · 1:54 PM PDT

2017/03/21 · 13:54

Birds of North America, 1966 (the "Golden Guide", as we all called it)

Thousands, maybe millions, this week will recall this gorgeous book with profound affection and tears in their eyes. I can attest, as I seem to be having a bit of trouble myself writing this.

Chandler S. Robbins, co-author of the classic Birds of North America (1966), more widely known to birders simply as “The Golden Guide,” died yesterday, March 20 -- a legend of ornithology and citizen science.

Let me tell you about this man and his work, even if you know nothing of birds.

Many of you will recognize this book, and I hope some of you share your stories about its role in your life. For me, the tears are less about sadness -– 99 years is a marvelous run — than of gratitude for the incredible and lasting joy this book brought into my life.

The Golden Guide was revolutionary and changed field guides forever, as the first birding field guide to include:

All North American birds.
Range maps showing breeding, wintering and migration distribution.
Sonograms (visual depictions of bird song).
Text opposite the illustrations, instead of grouped separately.

Trust me on those last three -– it's impossible to imagine trying to learn about birds today without these:

The 1966 Birds of North America (the “Golden Guide”) was a revolution.

Like countless other young children, I stared longingly at the Golden Guide’s cover, at those glorious three buntings in colors that didn’t seem possible in the natural world, and determined to see all three for myself in the wild. I was crazy for fairy tales, and these were every bit as enchanting. Could such magical creatures possibly dwell in my mundane world? The maps said they did! I was stunned!

The utterly ridiculous Painted Bunting. In a southern scrub not so terribly far from you. Every few years one even appears like a dream come true here in Virginia.

So I did. See them all in the wild, that is. And so can you. And so you should. Because once you do, your world becomes more beautiful and your life richer. (Here’s how to track the suckers down: Lazuli Bunting, Indigo Bunting, Painted (gasp!) Bunting. They’re not among the most difficult species to find.)

I never met Chan, but I don’t think he’d mind if I join those who did know him in calling him that. Chan’s early work and data on the effects of DDT on birds helped inspire Rachel Carson to write her game-changing 1962 book, Silent Spring.

Chandler_Robbins_Ocean_City_MD_banding_station_1962.png — Ocean City, Maryland, bird banding station, 1962, banding a Cerulean Warbler, azure and vulnerable jewel of mature forest

In the same year Chan published the Golden Guide, 1966, he established with colleagues in the U.S. and Canada one of the most important citizen science tools we have today, the North American Breeding Bird Survey. The BBS is an annual largely volunteer bird census that gives us a long-term dataset on species distribution and population. There’s no other way to have early warning of population trends that could signal potentially harmful breeding habitat changes or other threats that might cause irreversible species collapse. Today, volunteers monitor thousands of tracts every year; the results are used by countless scientists and land managers.

(Don't be shy, pitch in this year! Even if you can’t recognize bird calls yet, you can be the recorder or driver.)

Below depicts the incredibly valuable data maps and trends we can view now thanks to Chandler S. Robbins. This is the Loggerhead Shrike, a fascinating predatory hawk-like songbird that rips off lil’ sparrow heads and spikes them on thorns like a macabre scene from Game of Thrones, and it’s in deeply serious trouble, most likely due to pesticides.

Breeding Bird Survey data for the Loggerhead Shrike

When BBS data revealed disturbing declines in forest-dwelling birds such as many of our spectacular wood warblers, Chandler co-authored in 1981 the monumentally important paper whose title every ecology student now knows, "Effects of forest fragmentation on avifauna of the eastern deciduous forest." The paper led to a massive national effort to rush to identify and prioritize large, still-unbroken tracts of forest while there was still time. Recently, in 2012, Chan said it was his work in forest fragmentation of which he was most proud.

Chan retired from Maryland’s USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in 2005, after sixty (!) years of service as an avian biologist there. His legacy is so remarkable that the USGS put up then a web page wholly dedicated to him, including a slideshow with many touching photographs such as these:

Chandler_Robbins_May_1966_Midway_Rare_Short-tailed_Albatross.png — Midway Island, 1966, studying the incredibly rare Short-Tailed Albatross.

Nihoa Island, 1967, studying Pacific seabirds. I hope it’s not disrespectful to note it’s kind of hot.

Teaching Guatemalan students to band and study birds, early 1990s

Teaching Ornithology 101 to Guatemalan students, 1995

Chan’s wife Eleanor Robbins, who died in 2008, was a serious birder as well, who for forty years wrote a much-loved and data-filled weekly birding column.

The Patuxent wildlife station ended its slide show of Chan’s vast scholarly achievements with this image, and so shall I.

~~Winter~~ Spring migration is coming.

Documenting History So It's Not Repeated: Naming Regressive Leftists Who Tried to Help Trump Win

BoGardiner

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Sunday March 19, 2017 · 8:40 AM PDT

2017/03/19 · 08:40

At this time there is near-100% denial from leftwing extremists that many of them in 2016 said they’d rather Trump and not Clinton become president.

It’s critical for our future that we don’t allow them to revise history.

Why do we need to name names? For our planet’s future. We must discourage this nihilistic, irrational, scorched-earth agenda, an agenda which helped give us Trump, helped stop Al Gore from becoming president, may very well get Trump reelected, and may continue to darken the world for future generations.

I’ve been conversing on social media for months with hundreds of ostensibly progressive 2016 protest voters and nonvoters. When I ask that in the future they stop lending the GOP tacit support, the response so far has been universal: they deny they ever have and call me a liar. When I post the quotes, some admit they hadn’t realized, though most deflect to personal attack. Still I have hope. Why? A state Green Party rep messaged me saying she was horrified to read my list of Green leaders’ quotes. She told me she’s going to start challenging Green leadership from within to end their tacit GOP support.

So please share these, not as a hammer to blame, but as a plea to beg their grassroots to demand new leadership.

To any protest voters/nonvoters here: don’t even think about whining that this is “bitterness”, “not letting go”, and “shaming.” Because irreversibly wounding the planet must be shamed. We can not let go until we start to see some dawning realization in their followers. I say “followers,” because I hold no hope their leaders will abandon their narcissism.

So here’s my not-remotely-comprehensive list. Please add your own here as you find them, and I’ll add them to the main document.

Original and fully credible source links are all provided here. While I’d rather have them below with each quote, I removed them to turn this into a cleaner-looking image, only afterward deciding to also make this a full text post. So to see each quote’s source and full context, just go to this page, which has a longer version of each quote with the link to its original source.

At the bottom is the image of these quotes, which you can easily share in social media, when you encounter inevitable denial.

Regressive Leftists Who Openly Tried to Help Trump Win

Ralph Nader, 2000 Green Party presidential candidate:

Trump is… a breath of fresh air… (8/10/2015)

[Trump] funded himself and therefore attacked special interest money, which is very important… [Clinton] is a corporatist, militarist Democrat… She’s going to win by dictatorship. (5/13/2016)

Jill Stein, 2016 Green Party presidential candidate

It’s outrageous that she’s not being prosecuted and indicted. (7/10/2016)

Clinton… is an existential threat to human survival. (7/28/2016)

Donald Trump, I think, will have a lot of trouble moving things through Congress… Hillary has the potential to do a whole lot more damage… (9/19/2016)

If Trump’s campaign is flailing, does a “spoiler” vote even exist anymore? (10/12/2016)

Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy is much scarier than Donald Trump’s… (10/14/2016)

Trump say[s] that he’s looking for collaboration with Putin… he’s got business interests all over the place; on that basis, hey wow, maybe he’d be the peace president because he needs peace all over the place… Yeah, climate change is horrific, but it’s not happening tomorrow. (10/19/2016)

it’s actually Hillary’s policies which are much scarier than Donald Trump’s… [Trump] wants to seek modes of working together, which is the route we need to follow… (10/11/2016)

What’s scarier than Donald Trump? Hillary Clinton’s plans to gut Social Security. (10/21/2016)

Ajamu Baraka, Green Party VP candidate

Why Hillary Clinton Is More Dangerous Than Donald Trump (10/15/2016)

Expecting people of color to fear Donald Trump after all we’ve been through the last 200 years, is absurd. (10/16/2016)

The #SteinBaraka camp does not waste time focusing on Trump’s misogyny or scapegoating Russia. (10/19/2016)

I’m more concerned about another 8 years of neoliberal policies than I am with Trump. (10/29/2016)

Even Trump knows that the #TPP will undermine the US economy & empower the elite’s control over governments. (11/2/2016)

Jillian Thomas, Green Party's Stein/Baraka Campaign Social Media Director

A Clinton presidency is DANGEROUS… So yes: If a Trump presidency would mean that we have to fight ignorants in the streets—I’m ready for that. (10/31/2016)

Cornel West, Progressive Author, Professor

What Donald Trump talks about in the abstract has actually been concretely enacted under neoliberal regimes of the Democratic Party… [Trump may be a] neofascist catastrophe… but I can look the catastrophe in the face and still tell the truth and still go down swinging with a smile… (7/18/2016 Green Party national convention keynote speech)

Chris Hedges, Progressive Writer

Trump is… like the used car salesman who rolls back the speedometer. But Hillary Clinton is like, you know, the managers of Goldman Sachs. (8/4/2016)

Jimmy Dore, Progressive Commentator

If Donald Trump became president he would actually be a positive for the progressives. (10/29/2016)

John Rachel, Progressive Author, Manager of “I’ll Vote for Jill If You Will” Campaign

Why Donald Trump is not as horrible as Hillary Clinton… Donald Trump as president will do ‘less damage’… Trump will fall flat on his face… He has no support — his own party has all but disowned him — no connections, at least not the political ones necessary for promoting his agenda… she is completely insane. (10/28/2016)

Eric Draitser, Host of Progressive "CounterPunch Radio," with guest John Pilger, Progressive Author

Pilger: In my opinion, Hillary Clinton, if I’m to guess at it, is by far the more dangerous candidate of the two. Draitser: Yeah… the dangers of a Trump presidency… are open questions, and in many ways, sort of a wildcard, whereas I feel like Hillary Clinton is sort of a known quantity. (7/5/2016)

Eric Zeusse, Progressive Columnist

I’m a Bernie Sanders Voter, And Here’s Why I’ll Vote Trump… Donald Trump is, perhaps, as much of a closeted progressive, as Hillary Clinton is a closeted fascist… Though Clinton verbally endorses the view that global warming is the world’s biggest problem, she doesn’t care about it…Trump is no conservative when the issue is global warming… Trump’s stated positions are basically like Sanders’s… (8/16/2016)

Progressive People's Coalition

Why do we need to vote for Hillary Clinton? We could vote for Donald Trump. That will even more frustrate and invigorate the progressive movement… It doesn’t make a difference whether you believe in climate change or not… at least with Donald Trump you know exactly what you’re getting. (11/6/2016)

Greens for Trump Moderator

While Donald’s mainstream media reputation is an “anti-green” stance… HCGW is constantly pushed down our throats while the science is shoddy and often faked… There are issues that are, here, right now, and much more serious. For example the Indian Point Nuclear power plant, fukishima, poisoned drinking water, gmo’s… I’m still registered with the Green party, but this year I’m voting for Trump… (5/2016)

Jill Stein Dank Shirt Stash 2016: Unofficial Fundraising Page for Green Party

Anon has given the blessing, vote Trump to stop Hillary! (11/6/2016)

Here’s an image of these quotes, displaying the link to original sources, that’s easily shared via social media when you meet with inevitable denial:

BoGardiner

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday March 14, 2017 · 6:31 PM PDT

2017/03/14 · 18:31

In an interview with Deirdre Bolton on Fox Business News on August 7, 2015, Ralph Nader said he was “delighted” to learn that Donald Trump was entering the presidential race, possibly as a third-party candidate:

The two party tyranny that blocks voter choices and dominates the political scene on behalf of big business needs to be broken up and Trump is the one to do it...

He is with the progressives on challenging the rigged trade agreements…

He’s going to be a very interesting factor: the nightmare of the corporate Republican establishment, and it’s a breath of fresh air.

He’s also gaffe-proof, they can’t trap him. He just turns it right around on the reporters who question him.

By being brazen, Trump is punctuating the progressive agenda — the progressive critique of big business, Wall Street over Main Street.

...

I’ll tell you, I’ve always said the only people who can break up a two party tyranny that stifles the voices of small parties and independent candidates are billionaires, and we got one called Trump.

Bolton asked him if all this means he’d consider voting for Trump:

No, because he stands for a lot of things I oppose; however, what he’s doing, he’s breaking up these sloganeering politicians.

YouTube Video

After Trump became the leading Republican primary candidate, Nader’s delight lessened, complaining in a May 13, 2016, interview that Trump “lowered the level of political debate.” But he still preferred Trump as president to Hillary Clinton:

But in an interview with U.S. News, Nader expressed more positive thoughts about Trump’s candidacy than Clinton’s.

The liberal activist says Trump has brought some important issues to the fore.

“He’s questioned the trade agreements. He’s done some challenging of Wall Street – I don’t know how authentic that is. He said he’s against the carried interest racket, for hedge funds. He’s funded himself and therefore attacked special interest money, which is very important,” Nader says…

When asked what positive contributions Clinton has made to the 2016 campaign, Nader called her a “corporatist, militarist Democrat… She’s going to win by dictatorship.”

Similarly, during Nader’s 2000 third-party presidential run, he often said he wanted George W. Bush to beat Al Gore.

In the May 2016 interview, Nader expressed admiration for Bernie Sanders, especially for taking down Clinton:

he says Sanders' candidacy was meaningful because it simultaneously pressured and exposed Clinton.

So... will Nader ever express regret for his praise of Trump? No matter how much irreversible damage Trump does to this country, to people’s health, to regulatory agencies, to the planet? Given that he never expressed regret for saying George W. Bush would be better in the White House and on the environment than Al Fucking Gore, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say no.

No really, Donald Trump Jr. just said: I can say it & mean it, I've lost so many freedoms

BoGardiner

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday March 12, 2017 · 9:31 AM PDT

2017/03/12 · 09:31

hatra-iraq-isis-plaster-monuments_(1).jpg

On Saturday, Donald Trump Jr. spoke in Dallas at the annual Reagan Day dinner to a group of Republican prospective major donors.

"You guys get it” he told them. “ You understand the freedoms... so many of which we've lost... I can say that and mean it because I see it."

Yes, Donald Trump, Jr., one of the richest white men in the world, just said he’s lost so many freedoms.

if there’s one group who understands more deeply than anyone else the loss of freedom, it’s this billionaire white male and his wealthy white audience.

Praising his own father’s actions since his rise to power, he exulted: “I'm watching more take place in two months than I saw in two terms before.”

He has a point.

A point often demonstrated by others seeking to destroy the trappings of enlightenment: it’s dramatically faster and easier to tear down than to build.

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