back to article President Donald Trump taken on by unlikely foe: Badass park rangers

In an extraordinary and seemingly unlikely battle, US President Donald Trump and his transition teams have had their authority challenged by none other than park rangers. On Twitter. Following a number of efforts by the incoming administration to flex its muscles by ordering federal agencies to go silent, several National Park …

  1. NateGee
    Joke

    So want to see this at some point

    In 2017, a crack forestry unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government they survive as rangers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them....maybe you can hire The NPS.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      Re: So want to see this at some point

      I love it when a plan comes together !

    2. Down not across

      Re: So want to see this at some point

      Nate, you owe me a keyboard.

      " I'm a real soldier, I'm a Ranger baby! "

    3. Haku

      Re: So want to see this at some point

      So Trump is in fact Colonel Decker?

      That explains a lot...

      1. Mark 78

        Re: So want to see this at some point

        And Leslie Knope is Murdoch?

        1. Triggerfish

          Re: So want to see this at some point

          Oustanding Nate

          1. AceRimmer1980
            Mushroom

            Re: So want to see this at some point

            Now we just need to rescue Howlin' Mad

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: So want to see this at some point

              And maybe a running joke about Hannibal's cigars starting forest fires?

              Or Murdoch moonlighting as a fire fighting pilot who dumps water on BA as the episode ends with "I'll got you fool!"

              Or BA wrestling bears?

              And when they do kill Trump, it turns out that it's actually his hair that is the evil genius and it runs off and finds a new host?

              This series has a LOT of potential...

            2. Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

              Re: So want to see this at some point

              "Now we just need to rescue Howlin' Mad"

              That's where the analogy breaks apart. Plenty of howlers to choose from, but they're hardly worth rescuing.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So want to see this at some point

      Nate, I spat cheese and crackers all over £180,000 worth of spectrum analyser reading that comment.

      Worth every penny.

  2. fscherz

    Hey America! You got a Russian or Turkish president! You voted for him!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "Hey America! You got a Russian or Turkish president! You voted for him!"

      Well, I didn't, but I do take your meaning. :) To be clear, our new Presidon't and Conspiracy Monger in Chief is a Russian puppet with an Eastern Bloc shemale living companion. FYI

      He's from an immigrant family from Scotland, and she/he is an illegal alien green card whore from who knows where, we're really going to need to see its' papers! I think their Muslim too. ;)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        But at least they are orange and not brown

      2. Timmy B

        RE: Well, I didn't, but I do take your meaning. :) To be clear, our new Pre

        I dunno - I was more put out by the bad typing, grammar and spelling.... IT'S THEY'RE!!!!

  3. Mephistro
    Angel

    Less than a week in the position...

    ... and almost a dozen public SNAFUs -by my count-. This President shows promise!

    Well done, Donald! Put more pressure on those damn big companies corrupt politicians bankers park rangers! Fuck yeah!

    1. Tom 64
      WTF?

      Re: Less than a week in the position...

      At this rate, it wont be long before the Drumpf administration crashes and burns. Hopefully before any more damage can be done.

      Let the impeachment process(es) begin, and the popcorn be broken out

      1. Youngone Silver badge

        Re: Less than a week in the position...

        It seems to me that less than a week into his administration the minor acts of resistance have begun already.

        If it's the National Parks Service it's probably a minor nuisance, but if it's the FBI or a major Police Department (those might be poor examples, but you get the idea), then Trump will have real problems.

        He has no experience of having people say no, and meaning it.

        1. Updraft102

          Re: Less than a week in the position...

          If you're catching flak, it means you're over the target. If there are not "minor acts of resistance" from the establishment bureaucrats and others, he's not doing what he was elected to do.

          1. Eric Olson

            Re: Less than a week in the position...

            If you're catching flak, it means you're over the target. If there are not "minor acts of resistance" from the establishment bureaucrats and others, he's not doing what he was elected to do.

            Flawed reasoning, and needlessly violent to use a war metaphor. It's even more out-of-place when he wasn't really voted to do anything. He ran on a vague platform and lost, if not for three states where his margin of victory was 80,000 out of nearly 14 million cast. Of course that's the system and therefore he won, but to call it a mandate is a joke (he couldn't even win with a majority in those three states; 48% was the best he could do)

            Of course, he was only able to do this against a candidate that had another nation actively working against her and a politically inept FBI Chief who thought it was important to tell Congress a few weeks before the election that they might have a few more emails to review. And then less than two weeks before the end, he meekly sends out a press release saying that nothing new was found, putting the whole thing back in the news again. At the same time, FISA warrants were sought by the very same FBI to investigate member's of Trump's campaign for communications with Russia, but the FBI Chief felt no need to tell Congress or anyone else that. I don't think it was a conspiracy, just a man seeing that it was likely to be a 2017 where he would have both a hostile Congress and hostile White House, and he would lose his job. Instead, Trump "shocked the world" and was elected... in no small part due to the Comey letter that everyone except him knew would be leaked within seconds of it landing on the desk of a Republican.

            We're stuck with Trump until he's no longer is useful to Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, or he goes so off the deep end that they have no choice but to start impeachment proceedings. They have an ace-in-the-hole in Pence, who's a groomed, established conservative that hits all the right notes without the alt-right connections. Trump is scary right now because Republicans have been trying for eight years to defeat President Obama and failed; Trump won their nomination (though given the other candidates, many would probably have beaten Clinton even more given the revelations) and is the nominal leader of the party. He's trying to make it populist, but much of the party money comes from businesses that thrive on open borders, free trade, and the movement of labor across geopolitical lines. Something will have to give...

            1. MachDiamond Silver badge

              Re: Less than a week in the position...

              Eric Olson, if one discounts California, Trump won the popular vote by approximately 1.7 million votes. Some simple math and a look at historical voter turnouts in the Los Angeles area hint strongly at a large illegal alien voter turnout. I'm wouldn't be surprised if a couple of large cemeteries and mental institutions also had a strong voter participation.

              While the US will send "monitors" to other countries to oversee elections, it doesn't do any investigations of US elections. Are they worried over what they will find? The same reason there hasn't been an audit of the country's gold reserves for decades? Three little monkeys!

              1. HausWolf

                Re: Less than a week in the position...

                And the Pubs suppress votes by not having the same amount of voting machines in poorer urban areas as the suburbs. Shouldn't that be monitored as well?

              2. Eric Olson

                Re: Less than a week in the position...

                ... if one discounts California, Trump won the popular vote by approximately 1.7 million votes.

                And if one discounts the states in which Clinton lost by a similar margin (Trump at 61% or more), it swings back to a +300,000 margin for Clinton. What's your point?

                The Electoral College doesn't give bonus points for winning a state by more than a single vote. So the notion that illegal voting would be best served in states that a candidate would already win handily is idiotic. If you want to cast around for phantom anomalous voting, look in the states with razor thin margins where the polling prior to the election indicated a different result... which are the states that Trump won.

                But the reality is that there wasn't a conspiracy, there wasn't illegal voting that swung an election, there was none of it. It's a canard clung to by a segment of the population that can't accept that someone might disagree with them. Is it hard to understand that a city with a large number of non-whites, naturalized citizens, and Hollywood types might lean away from Trump or the Republican party? Is there a reason you don't point out that in DC, only 4% of the voters chose Trump?

                Let me ask you this question: Do you believe that every citizen that is legally allowed to vote should be able to? Do you believe that every citizen that is legally allowed to vote who wants to vote should be able to? Do you believe that every citizen that is legally allowed to vote who wants to vote should be provided every opportunity to vote?

                If so, then you should stop bitching about dead people who aren't cleared from voter rolls (not the same as voting) and start bitching about how states are working hard to ensure that citizens who are legally allowed to vote are being turned away due to the government losing documentation (e.g. birth certificates), making it hard to register to vote, disenfranchising people for life well after they served the rest of their sentence for a crime, and overall trying to make voting more time consuming and expensive to cast a vote. It's the 21st century... why do we insist that each voter only has a single location in which they cast a ballot? This isn't a fucking stone being dropped in a clay jar.

                And if you don't think the government has a place ensuring that all citizens legally allowed to vote are able to vote when they can vote, you don't actually give a fuck about vote integrity and fair elections; you only want to wield it as a weapon in an attempt to cling to power. And that behavior is why the US has tried to monitor elections overseas on not locally... it wasn't a problem in the US until someone thought voter restrictions could be used to win elections.

          2. Patrician

            Re: Less than a week in the position...

            ..."If you're catching flak, it means you're over the target."...

            Historically you're incorrect; flack started to be aimed at aircraft way before they'd got anywhere near their targets. The idea is to knock down the enemy aircraft *before* the reach their target.

        2. hplasm
          Devil

          Re: Less than a week in the position...

          "It seems to me that less than a week into his administration the minor acts of resistance have begun already."

          Begun, this Twitter War has...

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Less than a week in the position...

            "Begun, this Twitter War has..."

            May the farce be with you.

        3. Adam 52 Silver badge

          Re: Less than a week in the position...

          "but if it's the FBI or a major Police Department "

          ...or the Secret Service?

          We may have to start accepting ex-federal employees fleeing prosecution for expressing their political views. Ironic for a country so proud of its constitution.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Less than a week in the position...

            "...or the Secret Service?

            We may have to start accepting ex-federal employees fleeing prosecution" ...

            Ssexit?

          2. MachDiamond Silver badge

            Re: Less than a week in the position...

            "We may have to start accepting ex-federal employees fleeing prosecution for expressing their political views. Ironic for a country so proud of its constitution."

            I'd be worried if ex-federal employees were prosecuted for expressing their personal views, but those currently employed should keep their views to themselves in public and in public forums. It's the same if you make derogatory public comments about your employer; you should expect to be out on your ass. Companies, and especially very large companies, work hard to develop good reputations and use trained PR people to maintain that image. If employees run their mouths about things without going through channels, it could impact thousands of people in the company.

        4. Phil.T.Tipp
          Black Helicopters

          Re: Less than a week in the position...

          Re: Less than a week in the position...

          You do understand that these 'minor acts of resistance' will be as nothing once the secessions begin. When mid-America has had enough of the deep state fvcking them around and the PITA whining from the election's losing side on both metrosexual coastal city zones - they WILL act. When it finally erupts there will be floods of pinko-illiberal blood. Civil war is where this points and Trump's Americans will be victorious.

          1. David Roberts

            Re: Less than a week in the position...

            Just checking, but wasn't the last Civil War between what are now "red necks" and the industrial North (think California although that doesn't work geographically)?

            Last time technology beat passion.

            O.K. some have been itching for a rematch ever since, but history suggests they may not like the result.

            1. Jaybus

              Re: Less than a week in the position...

              "O.K. some have been itching for a rematch ever since, but history suggests they may not like the result."

              History shows that neither side would like the result. US military deaths in their civil war: 592,680 (334,680 Union, 258,000 Confederate) . US military deaths in World War II: 407,300. Also consider that the US population in 1860 was 31.4 million as compared to 132.1 million in 1940.

        5. MachDiamond Silver badge

          Re: Less than a week in the position...

          "He has no experience of having people say no, and meaning it."

          On the other hand, he wields a much bigger stick than before. Those saying "no" might wind up feeling what it means when a US President says "You'll never work in this town again".

          1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
            Coat

            "Those saying "no" might wind up feeling what it means when a US President says "

            "Are you a Mexi can, or a Mexi cant?"

      2. Primus Secundus Tertius

        Re: Less than a week in the position...

        If Trump were impeached, I assume his bible-banging VP, Pence, would take over. As a Brit, I would not wish that upon our American friends.

        1. MJI Silver badge

          Re: Less than a week in the position...

          VP

          To be honest he is scarier than Trump.

          He is so anti everything, you just know there is some firty little secret somewhere, so can someone find it please?

          1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

            Re: Less than a week in the position...

            "VP

            To be honest he is scarier than Trump."

            It's the Agnew ploy. It didn't work, from what I recall.

          2. John Smith 19 Gold badge
            Unhappy

            "you just know there is some firty little secret somewhere,"

            Is that "flirty" or "dirty"?

            I'm not sure which is more salacious.

            But I agree whenever you see this sort of driven SEL you know there's something either very bad or very sad in their past.

            He didn't go to some kind of boarding school by any chance?

          3. Blank Reg

            Re: Less than a week in the position...

            No need to find his dirty little secrets, we can make some up. The republicans have been doing it for years so surely they will be willing to accept whatever we make up right?

        2. Triggerfish

          Re: Less than a week in the position...

          If Trump were impeached, I assume his bible-banging VP, Pence, would take over. As a Brit, I would not wish that upon our American friends

          Well Sir on this side you have the devil, and this side well it's the sea deep and blue.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: US Constitution 25th Amendment - to remove a President

            " or he goes so off the deep end that they have no choice but to start impeachment proceedings. "

            In which case there is a quicker way to remove him without impeachment - the 25th Amendment.

            "Section 4.

            Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President."

            https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxxv

            1. Eric Olson

              Re: US Constitution 25th Amendment - to remove a President

              In which case there is a quicker way to remove him without impeachment - the 25th Amendment

              Sounds nice and easy, but even in the 60s (or because it was the 60s) it was assumed a power struggle could ensue. So naturally, Section 4 has a bit more to it:

              Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

              Essentially, if the VP and the Cabinet all decide that Trump is unfit and rat him out to the President pro tempore of the Senate (currently Orrin Hatch of Utah), Trump can fire off a quick note (maybe a tweet?) that he is very fit, maybe more than fit, to continue as President, and he will immediately resume office. If the VP persists, it goes before Congress for a two-thirds vote in both chambers. That would actually be harder than impeachment and a subsequent finding of guilty on one or more charges; the House only needs a majority vote on one charge to forward it on to the Senate for trial, which would still need 2/3rds majority.

              The House, being much more unruly and with a wing of Republicans who like to stick it to the party leadership any chance they can, would be unlikely to support removal of Trump. Plus House Democrats might calculate that a President Trump would be more damaging to the Republicans if he remained in office, and that Republicans in disarray would be unable or unwilling to support President Trump's more... unorthodox... policy decisions.

              We are stuck with Trump until he's no longer useful for advancing the Republican agenda, or that even in helping with that, his other activities, EO's, public comments, etc., start to erode the public's confidence in the Republican party and their ability to do anything for the public... or Trump starts some kind of war (military, economic, etc.) with his idiotic rants. The danger here is that Republicans still believe they can co-opt office to pass their legislation and policy prescriptions, when the reality is that Trump already did that to them.

              The best hosts are the ones who think they are benefiting from the parasite's continued presence.

          2. Tom Paine

            Re: Less than a week in the position...

            I can swim. I'll take the deep blue sea, every time, thanks.

        3. Tom Paine

          Re: Less than a week in the position...

          Pence may be many things, but emotionally unstable sufferer from Narcissistic Personality Disorder is not one of them.

        4. Boo Radley

          Re: Less than a week in the position...

          Pence would be worse in some ways, particularly for LGBT people. Remember, Pence's state voted in "marriage equality" while he was governor. But they're all worse than Rafael Ted Cruz, god wants me to be president.

        5. Swarthy

          Re: Less than a week in the position...

          If Trump were impeached, I assume his bible-banging VP, Pence, would take over.

          I have a theory:

          Given: After Trump is Pence. After Pence is Paul Ryan, and then Some Republican Senator(TBD), then comes the Cabinet appointees.

          Given: To the "Enemies of Trump", each node in the line of succession is scarier than the previous.

          Hypothesis: The line of succession is being used as a poison-pill to ensure that Trump is not assassinated or Impeached.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Less than a week in the position...

        ... at this rate, I'm afraid, instead of the administration exploding (or imploding), people will soon become immune to the DAILY fits of the Trumpocracy. Perhaps this is their plan, chaos theory in action? :(

      4. AbeSapian

        Re: Less than a week in the position...

        Sadly, remember these are Republicans. The first commandment of being a Republican is "Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican." These are also most of the same yahoos that tolerated Bush / Cheney for eight years. I'm not holding out much hope for any measure of actual patriotism.from the Republicans, and the Democrats don't have the votes.

        So while impeachment or the 25th Amendment is a possibility, it's not a very likely one.

        1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
          Unhappy

          "So while impeachment or the 25th Amendment is a possibility, it's not a very likely one."

          Just a historical note but 4 Presidents have had their terms terminated with extreme prejudice.

          Only JFK was a Democrat. All the others were Republicans.

          Although, unlike other world leaders the Prez has never had to worry about any of his own security popping a couple in his dome (spoiler alert. Except in "Airforce One" of course).

          He'd have to really screw up for that to change.

          Which I'm sure people find really reassuring.

        2. Eric Olson

          Re: Less than a week in the position...

          These are also most of the same yahoos that tolerated Bush / Cheney for eight years.

          They tolerated him because he was them. His policies would be meek and mild compared to the median Republican Representative today (that's actually quantifiable, assuming you trust that public statements and voting record are viable inputs into the model). Bush was a conservative in a time when conservatives were trying to overcome the "hypocritical adulterer" label that stuck so well to their leadership after the debacle that was the impeachment trial for Clinton and the subsequent outing of skeletons. Bush was also a reliable Republican and hewed to the party platform while communicating in a bumbling style that made it seem like the other end of those planks weren't dangling off a ship in the shark-infested waters near the Cape of Good Hope.

          Trump is... not reliable. He's not conservative. He doesn't have a track record. And his public statements range from white nationalist to far-left socialist... just in the last 5 days. Statements from Ryan and McConnell indicate they are policy focused and assuming that Trump will just scrawl a signature on whatever bill comes his way. There is already public dissent in the ranks for Trump's use of Executive Orders in the first 5 days, especially knowing that there is a pliable Congress just itching to tear down anything that might have been constructed during President Obama's term... for reasons that range from legitimate policy disagreements to... well... less kind things.

          That Trump is backstopped by a VP that is closer to the median Republican official and has a track record of doing so means that Trump is expendable... assuming that a year of Trump signing those bills doesn't make the GOP think they have control over him.

      5. Truckle The Uncivil

        Re: Less than a week in the position...

        Faint hope. People like Trump take everything down when they go down. Trump would start a war, a nuclear war before he would let himself be taken down.

    2. Mark 85

      Re: Less than a week in the position...

      This might be the best thing. Let the government get embroiled infighting, finger pointing, and the blame game and all will be well. Nothing bad can happen. I reference the old saying that "life, liberty, and property are all in jeopardy when Congress is in session.".

      On a more serious note, this is just the tip of the iceberg. The US was downrated to a "flawed democracy". Note that this rating happened before Trump took office. It still tells a tale and the latest antics seem to prove it. Maybe gridlock is the best thing for awhile as it might slow the downward spiral we seem to be in with all the protests, in-figihting, etc. going on.

      I know I'll get downvoted but hey... Hillary would probably be in a similar situation also but perhaps for other things. I was not a supporter of either of them as I thought they were both the wrong people for the position.

      1. Truckle The Uncivil

        Re: Less than a week in the position...

        Yes, I think Bernie might have been the only reasonable choice the US could have made. And I pretty sure that Hillary et al. sabotaged that. I blame it on Hillary that the US elected another R.L.Hubbard.

    3. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Unhappy

      Put more pressure on..big companies corrupt politicians bankers park rangers! Fuck yeah!

      I think I know what this is about...

      So many believed he couldn't win.

      Looks like he didn't believe it either.

      And then he did. But that's not enough.

      Because deep down he still doesn't believe it. So he's never going to get past it. What does The D call such people?

    4. Yesnomaybe

      Re: Less than a week in the position...

      ... and the process of replacing truth with "post-truth" has begun.

  4. redpawn

    Political Minders

    Soon any speech by anyone receiving federal dollars will have to get approval from from an Igno-Trump, someone paid to be stupid in line with the ignorance and egotism of our Deer Leader. Having such a thin skin makes Trump like a rotten onion. The smallest touch yields enormous toxic stink.

    It will take a lot to wipe the stink off. Hope there is some unadulterated park land left after he gone.

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Political Minders

      "Having such a thin skin makes Trump like a rotten onion. The smallest touch yields enormous toxic stink."

      Yes, that seems to be a common perception from this side of the world too. Far too thin skinned and emotional to make a good leader.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Political Minders

      We're going to have such great control. Your gonna see what great control we have. We're gonna tell the truth to shut the hell up. Scumbags.

    3. lglethal Silver badge
      Big Brother

      Re: Political Minders

      I'm just waiting for the Ministry of Truth to be founded and then we can all find out that we were always at war with Eastasia, and Eurasia has always been our friend, and anyone who says differently is a thoughtcriminal.

      Trump is a Double Plus Good leader, I tell ya!

      1. Gray
        Boffin

        Re: Political Minders

        I'm just waiting for the Ministry of Truth to be founded

        Breaking news: as a buried provision deep within the last Defense Authorization Bill, the Republicans inserted a clause abolishing the governing board of the Voice of America broadcast network, and added a provision to allow VOA broadcasts within America which had previously not been allowed. Within the first week, the Trump Admin has appointed two men in their 20's as defacto Ministers of Information, directing the VOA.

        Given the continuing onslaught to discredit the press; executive orders to muzzle government agencies; and an information campaign to trust only official White House sources, it seems clear America's Ministry of Truth has arrived.

        Ref: MSNBC "Rachel Maddow" broadcast, Weds, 24 Jan 2017.

        1. Tom Paine

          Re: Political Minders

          Interesting - there's so much bad craziness going on it's easy to miss stuff. After a quick ggl, the VoA story is confirmed by the BBC:

          http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38284655

        2. Tom Paine

          Re: Political Minders

          (and the "broadcasting within America" long predates Trump:

          "In 2013, a shift in legislation allowed VOA and affiliates to begin broadcasting in the United States."

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Political Minders

            Back in the 1960s the BBC's World Service shortwave radio broadcasts had great world-wide popularity for telling truths when compared to the Voice of America's often blatant propaganda.

            Having said that - listening to VoA on the 22 November 1963 I was able to announce JFK's assassination to the family before the BBC TV newsflash appeared.

    4. Sanguma

      Re: Political Minders

      FICTION: Donald Trump was caught out one day and had to call in to the house of a lowly employee, Tom. Tom had not been warned about the sudden unexpected visit, but had to make do. Fortunately he had a hundred spare eiderdowns from his recently deceased mother-in-law, so he quickly prepared a super-soft bed for The Donald. And underneath it all he placed one solitary mushy pea.

      The Donald was hospitalized with severe internal injuries, and Tom was promptly arrested and sentenced. The CIA agents at Guantanamo Bay asked him, "Why'd you do it? You know how thin-skinned the President is!!!"

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Political Minders

        @ Sanguma ; "Fortunately he had a hundred spare eiderdowns, so he quickly prepared a super-soft bed for The Donald. And underneath it all he placed one solitary mushy pea."

        I seem to remember something involving Trump and a bed in the news recently.

        It wasn't so much "The Princess and the Pea" as "The Prozzies and the Pee".

    5. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

      Re: Political Minders

      Use the correct words - approval from a political Commissar.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    About time

    Obama and the Democrats tried their best to saddle the US with the AGW cult permanently. They have failed. President Trump has tipped over that reeking garbage pile at last. You eco-religionists can go pound sand.

    And I expect to see "minor resistance" from 8 years of embedded leftist bureaucrats. It will take a lot more than one week to lance all those festering boils and restore some sanity to our government.

    But if some minor govt. employees still want to embrace the cult, they can do so. Trump won't try to criminalize it like the cultists wanted to do to the AGW skeptics. College professors recently have called publicly for skeptics to be jailed for not joining the cult. Their justification? Well to save the world from those evil "deniers" that's why. And the left tries to suggest it's the Christians who want to force everyone to bend to their beliefs.

    Leftists only tolerate those who obey every single PC dictate, no matter how absurd or ephemeral.

    I'm sorry, but we conservatives aren't able to contort our minds around the kind of comic book causes the left thinks are so incredibly urgent, like a belief in warming that just isn't happening. But hey, you guys can still point at all those carefully tweaked computer simulations, right? Y'know, the ones that have to be constantly retweaked as the world refuses to conform to them?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: About time

      "I'm sorry, but we conservatives aren't able to contort our minds around the kind of comic book causes..."

      Really? You seem to have contorted it around a pole with no problem.

    2. Andrew Jones 2

      Re: About time

      @bigjohn

      "But if some minor govt. employees still want to embrace the cult, they can do so. Trump won't try to criminalize it like the cultists wanted to do to the AGW skeptics. "

      You are aware that forbidding the EPA from releasing any scientific studies or studies to the scientific community for peer review unless the US Gov says it is OK to do so basically contradicts that statement right? So now the situation will be that the EPA might for example (in the future) find that a water supply has been polluted with harmful chemicals - but if the Trump admin says "nope" then they can't publicly report their findings. I mean sure there is no problem here if you are happy living in a future where the only information you are ever allowed to read is "approved" information.

      I fully expect to see a China style firewall within a year in the US (because eventually he will realise that some terrorists are actually US citizens)

      1. Fatman

        Re: About time

        <quoteSo now the situation will be that the EPA might for example (in the future) find that a water supply has been polluted with harmful chemicals - but if the Trump admin says "nope" then they can't publicly report their findings.</quote>

        Mean like this:

        http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/06/12/toxic.tapwater/

        Note that this article reports that the contamination was discovered in 1982, and the date of the article is 2007.

        1. Andrew Jones 2

          Re: About time

          @fatman

          Jesus! It's stuff like this that makes you wonder how bad the stuff is that we still don't know about that is still being covered up!

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: About time

        "You are aware that forbidding the EPA from releasing any scientific studies or studies to the scientific community for peer review unless the US Gov says it is OK to do so basically contradicts that statement right?"

        Um, who told you the EPA is not part of the government? Please disabuse yourself of that notion. The EPA is an Agency of the US Federal Govt. and all their recent pronouncements about 'climate change' (previously Global Warming) being caused by humanity are pure Democrat boilerplate, not hard science. No way are those fables going to remain the official stance now, just because it might hurt the feelings of some snowflakes.

        BTW, Who the fug does Kieren think he is, trying to apply the 'snowflake' tag to Trump? He's not fooling anyone but himself. And some of you of course.

        1. Geoffrey W

          Re: About time

          But the yellow tressed one seems the very definition of a snowflake "An overly sensitive person, incapable of dealing with any opinions that differ from their own." (Urban Dictionary) This Alt.Right Alt.Fact world is so difficult for us Proto.Putin in Chief's neophytes to understand, but don't worry, I'll catch up.

        2. Hans 1
          Coat

          Re: About time

          @Big John

          The President's Advisory Council on Executive Organization recommends that key anti-pollution programs be merged into an Environmental Protection Administration, a new independent agency of the Executive Branch. (emphasis mine)

          src: https://archive.epa.gov/epa/aboutepa/ash-council-memo.html

        3. hplasm
          Happy

          Re: Who the fug does Kieren think he is, trying to apply the 'snowflake' tag to Trump?"

          Good point, well made.

          It should of course be 'Yellow-snow Flake'.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Who the fug does Kieren think he is, trying to apply the 'snowflake' tag to Trump?"

            'Yellow-snow Flake'.

            Ah - the subtlety of a well placed hyphen.

        4. Patrician
          Mushroom

          Re: About time

          .."climate change' (previously Global Warming) being caused by humanity are pure Democrat boilerplate, not hard science."....

          So much ignorance in once little sentence ....

        5. Andrew Moore

          Re: About time

          It should be "President Snow [flake]"

        6. H in The Hague

          Re: About time

          "… all their recent pronouncements about 'climate change' (previously Global Warming) being caused by humanity are pure Democrat boilerplate, not hard science"

          Science is never 100% hard, any sensible scientist is aware that new research might change our understanding. But climate change is widely accepted as being a real issue. Not just by liberal/left-wing folk, but by people in heavy industry - like my customers. Among my customers (manufacturing industry and service providers to the petroleum and process industries, mostly in Europe) reducing their carbon footprint is a real priority. That's because they feel responsible for their impact on society, want to comply with future legislation, and because climate change is going to impact them.

          Here's the view of one major oil company: http://reports.shell.com/sustainability-report/2015/energy-transition/addressing-climate-change/reducing-emissions.html

          1. PTW

            Re: About time @H

            No, it's so your customers reduce their carbon footprint so they can sell their ridiculously high value "carbon credits". That's why Tata Steel purchased the UK steel plants, so they could sell the CC and continue to make steel in India. Win-Win

            1. H in The Hague

              Re: About time @H

              "No, it's so your customers reduce their carbon footprint so they can sell their ridiculously high value "carbon credits". "

              Not aware that carbon credits are relevant to my customers or the users of their products. (One of their selling points is that their kit is fuel-efficient and therefore reduces emissions at the point of use, and reduces their customers' fuel bills.)

              Anyway, I thought the price of carbon credits was fairly low right now. But I'm aware that some companies did get excessive carbon credits awarded to them when the system was set up.

        7. Terrance Brennan

          Re: About time

          The problem little john, is that while it perfectly acceptable for an administration to ban social media posts it is not acceptable to ban the publication of peer reviewed scientific research. Imbeciles such as Snowflake and his "alternative facts" flunkies are in no position to judge the scientific value of such research; research which we American taxpayers paid for and would rather not have buried because it is considered inconvenient.

          If it makes you feel better I never use the term snowflake for the usurper currently tweeting from the White House. I only refer to it as SOS: sack of shit. Feel free to use that title if snowflake offends your sensitive nature.

        8. Lars Silver badge
          Happy

          Re: About time

          @Big John. You do know that most of the world is not part of the US government, and I wouldn't call China all that "Democrat" either..

          "As of December 2016, 194 UNFCCC members have signed the treaty, 127 of which have ratified it."

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Agreement

          I would suggest for you a less stressful approach to all that "'climate change' (previously Global Warming)" stuff and go for clean air good, dirty air bad, clean water good, dirty water bad. Not a bad approach at all, and much to my liking.

      3. Soruk

        Re: About time

        How long before Kim Jong Trump tries to force the media to report only his world view? Faux News is pretty much there already.

        1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

          Re: About time

          "How long before Kim Jong Trump tries to force the media to report only his world view? Faux News is pretty much there already."

          Well, I must admit that Democratic People's Republic of North America has a certain ring to it.

          1. Justicesays
            Trollface

            Re: About time

            "Well, I must admit that Democratic People's Republic of North America has a certain ring to it."

            That would never happen.

            It would be the "Republican People's Republic of North America".

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: About time

          How long before Kim Jong Trump tries to force the media to report only his world view? Faux News is pretty much there already.

          Actually, it seems Trump has just been tweeting whatever he hears on Faux news.

          1. Tom Paine

            Re: About time

            Actually, it seems Trump has just been tweeting whatever he hears on Faux news.

            Truefax.

            http://uk.businessinsider.com/trump-tweets-fox-news-segments-2017-1?r=US&IR=T

        3. Tom Paine

          Re: About time

          Bannon just snarled that the (news) media should "keep their mouths shut". Freedom of speech and fearless reporting of the truth doesn't seem to be a big priority for them.

      4. Tom Paine

        Re: About time

        I'm wondering whether or not he's already picked up the phone to the FBI and/or NSA to demand they unmask whoever's leaking all these hilarious / terrifying behind-the-scene stories. Then he'll order the army onto the streets of Chicago and other "carnage" prone warzones (read: areas with black populations.)

    3. Geoffrey W

      Re: About time

      Why, Big John...I do believe you're in love! You Rightists do adore your strong leaders. I know you have claimed not to be a Yellow King accolyte; you even criticized his hair! But its only because you want the best for your beloved and want the rest of the world to see him the way you do. Look at all those bits of paper he put his beautiful name on. He is signing love letters to you, Big John. He's sure draining that swamp and just so those poor venomous reptiles don't suffer from their eviction he's caring for them all personally in the aquarium he calls his cabinet. If he goes on signing all those love letters at the same rate its a good job he will soon be chopping down all the horrible view ruining trees because he will need a whole heap more paper to put his name on. Once he's sorted out those tree hugging rangers and those women in their furry hats, and the illegals who voted illegally for Hilary who should be in jail, this will be such a sweet place to live. You're right; I'm through pounding sand. I'm one of you now!

      Right now! Left behind!

      All hail the King in Yellow!

      1. Hardrada

        Re: About time

        "Why, Big John...I do believe you're in love! You Rightists do adore your strong leaders."

        He can't be any worse than Democrats, who overlooked Obama's record on drone strikes (ten times as many as Dubya), Wall Street fraud (fewer prosecutions), and use of the espionage act to intimidate whistle-blowers (he's used it more than any other president in US history).

        1. Geoffrey W

          Re: About time

          RE:"He can't be any worse than Democrats, who overlooked Obama's record on drone strikes (ten times as many as Dubya), Wall Street fraud (fewer prosecutions), and use of the espionage act to intimidate whistle-blowers (he's used it more than any other president in US history)."

          I didn't overlook it. I'm so looking forward to the flap headed one reducing drone strikes so he can nip in and requisition their oil. I love the way he's inviting all the Wall Street folk into his inner circle so he can get close enough to them to rendition them to Guantanamo and Libya for some energetic interrogation into where all the money went, before slipping his underpants on over his trousers and flying off to personally murder Snowden and Assange with his fearful rhetoric of death; and he'll do all this without leaving his desk just by putting his name on the magic sheets of paper his wizards present to him. All hail the King in Yellow!

          1. Hardrada

            Re: About time

            RE: "I didn't overlook [Obama's record on drones, financial corruption and whistle-blower suppression]. I'm so looking forward to the flap headed one reducing drone strikes..."

            In other words, your complaint is that Trump is as bad as Obama on security/secrecy issues. Fair enough, but the level of new angst has to come from something else.

            I'm a former Democratic organizer, so I'll take an educated guess at what it is:

            1: environmental issues and associated funding and regulatory goals

            2: support for public (state funded) schools

            3: feminist issues

            4: protecting academic control over professional advancement

            If that's what's bothering you, then your problem is that you're being unreasonable. In order:

            (1) As pointed out by a professor at the solidly Democratic University of Minnesota, Democratic ecological and trade policies have often just shifted environmental problems overseas:

            http://www.startribune.com/readers-write-nov-26-pipelines-federal-land-policies-president-elect-donald-trump-democratic-party/402779866/

            As another U of M professor illustrated, there's also a problem of carelessly blaming the wrong people (in this case farmers):

            "There were roughly 70 million to 80 million bison in North America before European colonization. Those bison produced more methane than the average cow, since bison are bigger and eat an all-grass diet. Over a couple of centuries, humans replaced the bison with roughly the same number of cattle, but fed a diet that generates less methane."

            http://www.startribune.com/readers-write-nov-26-pipelines-federal-land-policies-president-elect-donald-trump-democratic-party/402779866/

            Unsurprisingly, Democrats lost votes among groups that were hurt or threatened.

            As a candidate in 2008, then-Senator Obama singled out industry as the source climate change, even though industrial emissions made up only 20% of the US total. He and Congress have generally let consumers off the hook:

            http://www.startribune.com/climate-change-while-we-re-waiting-for-solutions-it-must-start-with-us/381582501/

            ("I find it disturbing that many of my “progressive” friends, who claim to be concerned about global climate change, haven’t really changed their lifestyles all that much." - I can personally vouch for this.)

            Unsurprisingly, affluent Democrats lost votes among the people who make their disposable stuff, many of whom are former Democrats and consume less energy than they do.

            Similar things happen on the funding side: Wealthy Tesla buyers have received $284M in federal subsidies, ostensibly to combat climate change, but Tesla has never published lifecycle CO2 figures. How is it sensible to slosh a quarter-billion dollars of public money at a company that hasn't even claimed to further your goal, let alone proven it?

            (2) Obama's big contribution to public schools was to free them from having to measure their own performance under No Child Left Behind. The law was unpopular, and people complained that the law's mandated tests didn't represent schools' and teachers' true merit, but the same can be said of grading kids: They have no control over their lives, and the tests often don't predict their ability to handle the work in later grades or on the job. If an 8-year-old student can take the heat, why can't college educated teachers do the same?

            (3) When police refer to a female college student who filed a false stranger-rape report* as a "victim-survivor", there is no 'war on women.'

            *http://www.startribune.com/u-police-don-t-think-student-was-victim-of-armed-assault/303006671/

            (4) See #2.

            1. Geoffrey W

              Re: About time

              @Hardrada's long and, I'm sure, well researched and referenced post.

              Yes. We all know that the democrats have been less than successful in many areas and made some mistakes, and that it wasn't entirely due to congress and senate being under control of the republicans, though that played a significant part in lack of progress and movement. But honestly, which side do you think represents at least some chance of movement in the right direction, R or D? It would be unrealistic to expect absolute perfection from any side so I'll go with the line of best hope, however littered with disappointments that path may be, and hope that the world might not be quite so shitty at term end than it was at term start. Currently with this administration my hopes of improvement at term end are less than zero, so I don't care about all the faults of the democrats you document; I already know all that but I'm not yet ready to give up on the human race and creep into my misanthropic cave and seal the entrance and/or cut my wrists, which seems the only direction to take if I accept your analysis at face value. I'll continue to try to poke what I still see as the best bet in the right direction no matter how dispiriting that can be at times, and keep on enjoying my life as best I can.

              1. Hardrada

                Re: About time

                @Geoffrey W:

                "We all know that the democrats have been less than successful in many areas and made some mistakes, and that it wasn't entirely due to congress and senate being under control of the republicans, though that played a significant part in lack of progress and movement. But honestly, which side do you think represents at least some chance of movement in the right direction, R or D?"

                The post of mine to which you originally responded wasn't about the candidates or parties in general; it was about whether Big John was worse than people on the left who don't hold their candidates accountable. I don't think that he is. I would go farther and say that some of his points had merit (even if they were exaggerated or brusque).

                He's right that there are people on the left who've used shoddy evidence to try to shut up opponents or intimidate them. For example, both a sitting US senator and a former high-ranking federal prosecutor have advocated using RICO against oil companies despite a lack of evidence justifying that. They relied on an analogy to tobacco companies, but didn't offer a single example of an Exxon manager making a knowingly false statement about AGW.

                For that you have to go to surrogates, and it becomes obvious that Sen. Whitehouse and Mz. Eubanks skipped the details because they were inconvenient:

                Real Climate News said that "Exxon's Own Research Confirmed Fossil Fuels' Role in Global Warming Decades Ago," which is categorically false. Their article doesn't even include the right general type of data. Exxon took measurements of ocean acidity along a single shipping route over just three years, and any trend would have been buried in short-cycle noise:

                https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-ocean-acidity

                The Exxon employees who warned about AGW were environmental specialists (not the allegedly-guilty executives), and their evidence was weak. Ars Technica's Scott K. Johnson has admitted that:

                "So how do scientists build datasets that track the temperature of the entire globe? That story is defined by problems. On land, our data comes from weather stations, and there’s a reason they are called weather stations rather than climate stations. They were built, operated, and maintained only to monitor daily weather, not to track gradual trends over decades. Lots of changes that can muck up the long-term record, like moving the weather station or swapping out its instruments, were made without hesitation in the past. Such actions simply didn’t matter for weather measurements."

                The other lines of evidence for AGW didn't exist in 1977: Landsat 3 hadn't been launched, and Landsat 1 and 2 had only been active for 5 and 2 years, respectively. Sea surface temperature buoys weren't standardized until sometime in the '70s and had notable biases (D. E. Parker [1995]). The trend-line was also quite a bit flatter prior to 1980, and David Anderson's paleo-index wasn't published until 2012.

                So while Exxon managers didn't shut down the company and fire all of their workers at the first warning, there is no evidence that they hid proof of AGW in the late '70s and early '80s.

        2. Suricou Raven

          Re: About time

          "He can't be any worse than Democrats, who overlooked Obama's record on drone strikes (ten times as many as Dubya), Wall Street fraud (fewer prosecutions), and use of the espionage act to intimidate whistle-blowers (he's used it more than any other president in US history)."

          I disagree: Trump will be worse, and I am confident of that because I am in no doubt he will continue with just as many drone strikes, just as few fraud prosecutions, and probably even more intimidation of whistle-blowers.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Democrats overlooking Obama's record

            It would appear almost half of them weren't overlooking his record - the ones who voted for Sanders in the primaries because he spoke out against those things, while Hillary supported them.

            Just like the republicans who tried to form an "anyone but Trump" movement, but a bit too late when Cruz was the only possible option (who many republicans find even more distasteful)

            The problem with politics as practiced here in the US is that almost all these people, in both parties, roll over and throw their full support behind the flawed leader they did not support in the primary because "he's better than the other guy". There wasn't nearly enough criticism of Obama from democrats during his term, and already it looks like a similar level of apology will be coming from the right over Trump's many flaws.

            This kind of shit is how we end up with elections between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the worst possible alternatives on both sides.

            1. MJI Silver badge

              Re: Democrats overlooking Obama's record

              There were worse than Trump

              1 - The creationist

              2 - The current minion

            2. Triggerfish

              Re: Democrats overlooking Obama's record

              I have to say the partisanship in the US (although guess we see some of that in the UK with Brexit right now), is always quite suprsing, a lot of the people I have talked to in the US are very partisan with their politics and refuse to see the other side at all. I have had more than onepersons tell me they have refused certain people in their house because they had different politics. (I'm talking someone being a democrat versus repulican, rather than say supporting something like Nazi's and the Clan). And it's only from my small sample grop so could be completly wrong.

              I know not all people like that in the US aren't like that plenty of American friends, but it seems more prevalent.

              1. Lars Silver badge
                Happy

                Re: Democrats overlooking Obama's record

                @ Triggerfish

                One of the reasons, perhaps the biggest, to this divide in both the USA and the UK is the two party system. It's always about us or them, in most European countries the governments are coalition governments more or less around the centre and it's less bloody. The "normal" reaction to this among Brits tends to be that the British system (like the British weather) is superior because it's British, and will probably never change. But in the USA I think it could, and I think it should change. As has been pointed out on this thread the Americans now had to choose between two very unpopular candidates, and the whole campaign was exceptionally dirty.

                And yes I know there was that "Aleppo" guy and the green woman, but it's also quite clear that those two parties will always keep any competitors at bay because they can, and because, for some damned reason, they have been handed the right to write the rules too. But perhaps by braking them up it could be possible. And the Americans have shown that they can form grass root movements.

                1. Triggerfish

                  Re: Democrats overlooking Obama's record @Lars

                  As someone British I can assure you our lot is not really that superior. :)It just used to fascinate me because it seemed to carry on down into society for so many as well. One tech I knew had not let his father into his house since his father had asked him to vote for Obama last time, there's been some stuff like taht here, it just seemed more common.

                  I really do not think (or know enough to think) one system is better than the other just sometimes you realise when talking to people you work with and friends, how much of a shared langauge different culture thing goes on with some conversations.

            3. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Democrats overlooking Obama's record

              There wasn't nearly enough criticism of Obama from democrats during his term,

              He didn't need criticism from democrats; he had enough with Republicans in congress vowing that their goal was to make sure Obama was not re-elected. Not "fix the country," not "improve the economy," just prevent his reelection.

              and already it looks like a similar level of apology will be coming from the right over Trump's many flaws.

              No, that started months/years ago.

          2. Hardrada

            Re: About time

            "I disagree: Trump will be worse, and I am confident of that because I am in no doubt he will continue with just as many drone strikes, just as few fraud prosecutions, and probably even more intimidation of whistle-blowers."

            Re-read my post. Given what I was responding to - which I quoted - you should have read it as:

            "[Big John] can't be any worse than Democrats, who overlooked Obama's record on drone strikes (ten times as many as Dubya), Wall Street fraud (fewer prosecutions), and use of the espionage act to intimidate whistle-blowers (he's used it more than any other president in US history)."

            If I'd been referring to Trump, I would have made a direct comparison to ex-President Obama rather than to "Democrats, who overlooked Obama's record on drone strikes... [etc.]."

            I also under-stated the last point. It should have read: "...and use of the espionage act to intimidate whistle-blowers (he's used it more than [all] other president[s] in US history)."

        3. Tom 64

          Re: About time @Hardrada

          >> "Obama's record on drone strikes (ten times as many as Dubya)"

          That's a dumb argument. When Dubya was elected there practically were NO drones to send out. He sent the troops instead.

          1. Hardrada

            Re: About time @Hardrada

            RE: "That's a dumb argument. When Dubya was elected there practically were NO drones to send out. He sent the troops instead."

            Well, by March 2009 (just over a month after President Obama's inauguration), the Air Force had nearly 200 Predators and had flown 500,000 hours in them:

            (http://www.ga.com/us-air-force-mq-1-predators-achieve-500000-flight-hours)

            "3 March 2009 – General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA‑ASI), a leading manufacturer of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and tactical reconnaissance radars, today announced that MQ-1 Predator® aircraft delivered to the U.S. Air Force (USAF) have surpassed the 500,000 flight hour milestone, with 87 percent of those hours being flown in combat. The milestone was achieved by P-143 on February 16 while it performed an armed reconnaissance mission in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). This particular aircraft has flown over 330 combat missions in the two-and-a-half years it has been deployed.

            “'In July 1994 we delivered the first MQ-1 Predator, and next month we are scheduled to deliver the 200th Predator aircraft to our U.S. Air Force customer,”'"

        4. Dr. Mouse

          Re: About time

          overlooked Obama's record on drone strikes (ten times as many as Dubya)

          Well, seeing as drones really took off (pun intended) over the past 8 years, that's not really surprising. I'm sure Dubya would have used them a lot more had they been as readily available.

        5. Tom Paine

          Re: About time

          He can't be any worse than Democrats

          Are you serious?!??

      2. codejunky Silver badge

        Re: About time

        @ Geoffrey W

        "You Rightists do adore your strong leaders"

        Can I ask for a clarification of this line. Is this to suggest that anyone who is not a 'rightist' has preference for weak leaders? Or is it the desire for a strong leader that defines a rightist? Are non-rightists against strong leadership? Do non-rightists think presidency can be won or even should be won through weak leadership and why is that desirable?

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

        2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: About time

          "@ Geoffrey W"

          I'm not sure if this answers your question but I spent some years working in a place where the boss was inept and a weak leader. The two more or less cancelled out so that his ineptness wasn't communicated sufficiently strongly to prevent the rest of us from doing our jobs.

          An inept strong leader can be more of a problem.

        3. Geoffrey W

          Re: About time

          @codejunky <QUOTE>"You Rightists do adore your strong leaders"

          Can I ask for a clarification of this line.</QUOTE>

          My statement makes as much sense as do Big Johns statements about Leftists. It isn't meant to be taken too seriously or literally. I was channeling the active zeitgiest and speaking in tongues of many colours

        4. Truckle The Uncivil

          Re: About time

          I think their are two mindsets that view "leader" differently. One sees "leader" as dominant, alpha male; a leader is one who gets his way. The other sees leader as guiding, not leading to dominate or use force.

          One "leader" is authoritarian while the other is a guide.

          Personally, I willing to be governed but not willing to be ruled.

        5. Tom Paine

          Re: About time

          I suspect it's drawing attention to the right's (and far right's, especially) tendency to fetishise dictators. Did you see GOP voters' approval ratings for Putin? They love the lash of "firm government", especially backed up with show trials, extrajudicial killings, jailing of political dissenters, etc. All things I'm sure you'd find a Trumptard happy to whoop and holler for if you looked in the comments on the right (wrong) sites. (Seen Brietbart comments? Like the Daily Mail, they're worth a look once in a while, as long as you've a strong stomach and don't have access to firearms.)

    4. Geoffrey W

      Re: About time

      Oh Big John. I'm so sorry but just look at all those down votes! I'm afraid like our glorious King we aren't winning the popular vote. At least we can console ourselves with being Right.

      1. SteveK

        Re: About time

        Oh Big John. I'm so sorry but just look at all those down votes! I'm afraid like our glorious King we aren't winning the popular vote

        But those down-votes were obviously made illegally by people who are dead or foreign. It's the only explanation as to where they came from. Or maybe the press did it?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: About time

          But those down-votes were obviously made illegally by people who are dead or foreign.

          Tick for the foreign bit, dead was close but London's fog has lifted a bit :)

      2. Triggerfish

        Re: About time

        Oh Big John. I'm so sorry but just look at all those down votes! I'm afraid like our glorious King we aren't winning the popular vote. At least we can console ourselves with being Right.

        Must be all those illegal forum joiners.

    5. desht

      Re: About time

      You seem to be confusing "conservatives" with "alt-right nutjobs". The former, who I usually don't agree with, at least have some sense of decency. You're one of the latter, though: a tagnut on the arsehole of humanity.

    6. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

      Re: About time

      Did anyone else start reading John's rant, and go back to check to see if it was amanfromMars?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: About time

        Did anyone else start reading John's rant, and go back to check to see if it was amanfromMars?

        IMHO, amanfromMars may sometimes take a bit of parsing and decoding but is generally more coherent and fact-true than BJ.

      2. John Smith 19 Gold badge
        Unhappy

        "Did anyone else start reading.. and go back to check to see if it was amanfromMars?

        No.

        AMFM has bursts of coherence.

        I've never seen that from BJ.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: "Did anyone else start reading.. and go back to check to see if it was amanfromMars?

          AMFM has bursts of coherence

          Oh, that's just beautiful - I like it. AMFM - bursts. I never liked him to a radio station but it fits.

          :)

      3. This post has been deleted by its author

      4. LionelB Silver badge

        Re: About time

        Did anyone else start reading John's rant, and go back to check to see if it was amanfromMars?

        I WENT BACK TO CHECK WHETHER IT WAS BOMBASTIC BOB.

      5. Captain Badmouth
        Coat

        Re: About time

        "Did anyone else start reading John's rant, and go back to check to see if it was amanfromMars?"

        Of course not, despite being obscure in the extreme the posts by amanfromMars are, after deciphering, erudite and informing. John's rants are just that, ill-informed right wing get off my land rants.

        Mine's the one with James Joyce's Ulysses in the pocket, thanks.

    7. Primus Secundus Tertius

      Re: About time

      @Big John

      "8 years of embedded leftist bureaucrats"

      Yes, we had that problem in the UK after Labour were voted out in 2010. It still is a problem. It does seem that lefties can only make their careers in public services rather than the private economy.

      1. Rich 11

        Re: About time

        Yes, we had that problem in the UK after Labour were voted out in 2010. It still is a problem. It does seem that lefties can only make their careers in public services rather than the private economy.

        Or people who care more about society than themselves are more drawn to public service, while those who care more about themselves than society tend to look instead for money-making opportunities. Then there's also the possibility that people who started their careers under 18 years of a Conservative government may tend to think about public services one way, while those who started their careers under 13 years of New Labour government may tend to think of their responsibilities in different terms. Unsurprisingly, if you're happy with the previous and current government's desire to cut services to those who need them most, you'll take exception to anyone fighting to stop that.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: About time

          Having worked there, for far too long, maybe 40% in the public sector want to "put something back", however 40% are basically unemployable elsewhere, either lazy as fuck or incompetent . Other 20% see it as a job.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: About time

            "Having worked there, for far too long, maybe 40% in the public sector want to "put something back", however 40% are basically unemployable elsewhere, either lazy as fuck or incompetent . Other 20% see it as a job."

            This may be true of the public sector but I can assure you it's just as true of big corps in the private sector. I think it's the size of the organization that results in this pattern, not its ownership.

          2. Tom Paine

            Re: About time

            40% unemployable elsewhere? That sounds like most (not all) private sector orgs above a certain size threshold I've worked at. The quantity of deadwood in a 250,000 strong FI I once worked for was gobsmacking.

        2. cambsukguy

          Re: About time

          Record numbers of cars made and sold, massive increase in rough sleeping.

          The divide and conquer, rich get richer at the expense of the poor paradigm seems to be doing rather well.

          Seems like retirement to Spain is ever more likely - avoiding Cataluña of course.

          1. Tom Paine
            IT Angle

            Re: About time

            I take it you missed the memo about tens of thousands of British immigrants to Spain being forced to sell up their retirement villas in a firesale, just when everyone else is selling as well, because they'll no longer be eligible for free healthcare once we leave the EU? (I'm not sure they all realise what sort of accommodation you can get in the UK for the price in Euros of a Spanish retirement villa, but that can't be helped.)

            Or... you DID get the memo, and realise prices will be through the floor in a couple of years' time, and have a couple of hundred £K in the bank?

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: About time

          Or people who care more about society than themselves are more drawn to public service, while those who care more about themselves than society tend to look instead for money-making opportunities.

          Then problem with that argument is that someone still has to pay for that public service, and if no-one is looking for the money-making opportunities, the public service bills will bankrupt the economy. As Mrs T famously pointed out, you can't assume that "society" will pick up the tab, it always falls to individual taxpayers, i.e. us. Unfettered support for public service therefore ends up destroying the society it claims to be serving.

      2. Darth.0

        Re: About time

        What I love about:

        "8 years of embedded leftist bureaucrats"

        Is that that statement completely overlooks the fact that the last 6 of those 8 rightist bureaucrats controlled the legislative branch. When you view the world from one end of the spectrum, it's always the other side's fault.

    8. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: About time

      @BJ I won't engage in debate with you as that would rely on facts, and anyone heralding the new administration as in any way, shape or form beneficial to the US must be so fact averse that reality isn't even in sight.

      A small example: "But if some minor govt. employees still want to embrace the cult, they can do so. Trump won't try to criminalize it like the cultists wanted to do to the AGW skeptics."

      Really? You haven't been reading the news then. In a clear attempt to intimidate the press into following the Communist Party line of news, they arrested journalists on as yet unspecified charges (they threaten with "felony rioting charges"), whereas the real crime clearly was reporting truthfully on events non-compliant with the Diktats from Trump Tower.

      Personally, I hope this gets to court because I want to see what happens there. If these people get convicted in what is clearly an attempt to stifle free press, I think the rest of the world should censor any further publication from the White House and Trump Tower that dares to use the word "freedom", "democracy", "constitutional" without the word "not" in close proximity.

      So, instead of engaging in a pointless battle of wits with an unarmed opponent I'd like to know what you're smoking so I can avoid it.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: About time

        Would anyone be surprised that those doing the damage weren't Trump shills paid to do so? This is how Authoritarians discredit protest.

    9. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: About time

      I did write a reasoned response to your foolish and incorrect arguments, but in the end I realised it was pointless given what nonsense you have written before. So I boiled it down to:

      "You are very clearly a complete and utter twat"

      Succinct, to the point and well, a bit like you, simple.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: About time

        "You are very clearly a complete and utter twat"

        Another twatter user then? :)

    10. MJI Silver badge

      Re: No conservative

      Hmm you are not a conservative, nothing like what I would call one.

      Well most of the ones I know of understand that climate change is happening.

      Global Warming is the old name, it is a LOT more complex than that.

    11. Andrew Moore

      Re: About time

      Why do all the nutjobs seem to think that a presidential term is 8 years??? It's 4 years.

    12. Haku

      Re: About time

      "I'm sorry, but we conservatives aren't able to contort our minds around the kind of comic book causes the left thinks are so incredibly urgent, like a belief in warming that just isn't happening."

      I see your global warming card and raise you:

      Forty foot high two thousand mile long wall.

    13. Terrance Brennan

      Re: About time

      Spoken like a little man, Big John.

    14. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: About time

      @BigJohn

      Look, it's like this: you look at the research and the data that emnates therefrom, and the conclusions that the researchers have derived from it all. You look to see if there is supporting evidence or evidence that counters it, and how much of each, and how credible it all is. You then draw your own conclusions.

      That's how science works. Individual scientists may be biased, and some are even dishonest, but the scientific community as a whole always eventually settles on provable truths. That's the point of science.

      The fact that the vast majority of the scietific community are saying things that you choose to disbelieve but left-wingers choose to believe may be vexing for you, but it doesn't mean that the science is wrong. If you feel the case against is so compelling, make it, let's see it, and see whether we can find fault with your argument or not.

      Fact is, it tends to be conservatives that only tolerate that which fits conservative ideology. The clue is in the name - conservative - resistant to new ideas, data and change (and science is always about new ideas and getting ever closer to the truth).

      With regard to climate-change deniers etc, here's the bottom line: if the climate is NOT changing and we act as though it is, then we end up with a cleaner, more efficient world with more recycling of materials. It's a win-wn situation. Whereas if the climate IS changing and we act as if it is not, then we have massive disruption in agricluture and fisheries, and more weather-induced problems, like flooding, landslides, desertification etc.

      Now, you happen to be in favour of a president that won an election on a minority of the votes due to teh structure of teh US electoral college system. The bulk of the world belivee that president to be a dangerous fool (as well as a misogynist racist bigot and a sex-attacker). By votes, even teh bulk of teh US aren;t happy with him, but - he won your electoral system, so you would have those of us wjho disapprove shut the heck up and accept the result, no?

      Well, the scientific community has been looking into the data on climate for a very long time, and the consensus is clear - the vast majority of scientists agree that the climate IS warming. Guess what? It has warmed and cooled in the past, before mankind developed civilisation. So that brings us to teh question - is mankind having a noticeable impact on the climate? And again, the consensus seems to be that it's likely that we are - and that it's certainly possible for us to do things to lessen our impact on the climate.

      But science, unlike presidential elections, always allows another vote. Science LIKES having multiple votes on the same thing, in fact. Find that compelling evidence that supports YOUR cawse, Big John, and let's have a look at it. Maybe you can convince the scientific community that it really has got it wrong. It;d have to be pretty compelling data though. Otherwise, why, yes, I believe I shall ask you to shut the heck up just because you're suffering from sour grapes because you lost the vote in the scientific community. But I won;t expect you to do so, because we both like teh principle of free speech, eh? (although Mr Trump doesn't seem to like it one bit)

      As for Trump himself, all I can say is that I do not believe that Trump was anything like the best candidate for the presidency that the Republicans could have put forward. I have felt previous US presidents to be buffoons, foolish, unwise or even criminal, but never have I ever felt that an incumbent of that office so besmirched it as Trump does. (Please note: I have never stated any opinion regarding Hilary Clinton. I simply do not know enough about her to have an opinion).

      Mr Trump has made the USA a laughing stoock, an object of pity, and a worry that its erratic, ignorant and autocratic leadership will drag the world into unwonted upsets, to the detriment of us all. He is so obviously so ill-suited for that post that he makes Mrs May look good as PM of the UK, and that's a pretty damned difficult feat to achieve.

      Heaven knows the UK's on a sticky wicket at the moment, but I honestly and truly pity the good folk of the United States of America at the moment. You deserve so much better, my Left-Pondian cousins. Good luck!

      God help us all, - but especially America, as with Trump at its helm it's going to need all the help it can get.

  6. ecofeco Silver badge

    Do not...

    ...fuck with Park Rangers of any kind. They are some of the nicest and smartest people you will ever meet, but with real "fuck you" skills.

    Think "monk warriors". No joke.

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Do not...

      "...smartest people you will ever meet,"

      Yogi might argue that point after the next pic-a-nic :-)

    2. hplasm
      Joke

      Re: Do not...

      Star Lord? Is that you?

      (Parks & Rec joke...)

    3. Michael Strorm Silver badge

      Re: Do not...

      @ecofeco ; "Do not fuck with Park Rangers of any kind. They are some of the nicest and smartest people you will ever meet, but with real "fuck you" skills."

      Meh... Don't know about American ones, but there are a bunch in England- and royally-appointed ones at that!- who are so lazy they spend more time playing football than protecting the environment.

      "Queens Park Rangers", my ass.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Do not...

        "@ecofeco ; "Do not fuck with Park Rangers of any kind. They are some of the nicest and smartest people you will ever meet, but with real "fuck you" skills."

        Meh... Don't know about American ones, but there are a bunch in England- and royally-appointed ones at that!- who are so lazy they spend more time playing football than protecting the environment"

        Well, to be honest, any hall monitor (think prefect for you British) could be a Royal Park Ranger. Smaller parks, people don't have assault weapons, no grizzly bears, heck, even your deer are the nice kind, ever seen a moose? I would not mess with a US Park Ranger under any circumstance. Yet every one I have ever interacted with could give the politest British bobby a lesson in public relations. The one I most recently spoke with looked out across the Grand Canyon and said, "A bad day out here is still better than a great day at the office."

  7. malvcr

    1) The park rangers are first line witnesses, and they are government employes. They have an extremely important job protecting the real US treasures.

    2) The United States is supposed to be a democracy, and the government officials, even the president, are citizen employees, they are not kings.

    3) The good manager is the one that can make marvels with what he/she really has in his/her hands, not what he/she pretends to have.

    4) You need to have employees that follow you because you can convince them, not because you force them to do what you like to do.

    There are different methods to manage. One of them is to have an iron hand, but a public service it is very different than a private enterprise. On some leaked documents an US ambassador in Costa Rica said that we have a dysfunctional democracy because "everything" here is discussed openly and our president lack of real power. But, even with all our internal problems (we have many), it is still possible to bread freedom and not so contaminated air. Would the Trump administration to help the world were we all live to have a real improvement or the intention is just to paint a temporary Utopia for a couple of people?

    Maybe Mr. Trump pretends to isolate the US with a wall and with information control, and describing how politics can control nature together with a brand new set of physical laws ... I expect not to be describing some other place.

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

      all he needs to do is

      Issue and order killing all funding to the NPS. Problem solved (in his eyes)

    2. Aladdin Sane

      possible to bread freedom

      And then deep fry it.

      1. Pedigree-Pete
        Joke

        Re: possible to bread freedom

        You can do it to our Mars bars but you can't have our FREEDOM! PP

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "4) You need to have employees that follow you because you can convince them, not because you force them to do what you like to do."

      It should be remembered that Machiavelli advised his Prince (Chapter 17)

      "Nevertheless, the new Prince should not be too ready of belief, nor too easily set in motion; nor should he himself be the first to raise alarms; but should so temper prudence with kindliness that too great confidence in others shall not throw him off his guard, nor groundless distrust render him insupportable."

      1. cambsukguy

        The Orange One is as far from Machiavellian as it might be possible to get, in a person in power that is.

        Machiavellian would have been to lie and lie during the campaign and then implement Hillary's agenda as was the plan all along, some even believed it might be the case, she was at his wedding I believe.

        Let's hope he gets bored and quits.

  8. Barry Rueger

    Oh Canada!

    Trump is so unimaginative. Or, alternately, learns from past masters.

    Stephen Harper had exactly the same draconian policies when Prime Minister, muzzling employees, refusing to allow scientists to speak at scholarly conferences, and insisting that everything issued to the public had to be vetted by his minions before release.

    As if that wasn't bad enough, they went one step further and dumpstered several scientific libraries, trashing decades of fisheries data and research.

    Seriously folks, anything of scientific value that you think might offend the Trumpists should be copied and stored off-site NOW.

    1. Sanguma

      Re: Oh Canada!

      That, in my books, ranks as a crime against humanity! (Gnothe seauton - Know thyself - being one of the zeroth command of being human, followed closely by Know thy world.)

    2. Alistair
      Windows

      Re: Oh Canada!

      @Barry:

      Since JT pulled the gag orders, and because there are some decent ties between the two groups of agencies - there has been a concerted effort to get a fair bit of the data moved up here. This started on Nov 21. Experience pays off in this case.

      One of those science libraries that was dumped (at least all the digital data) is available on a set of systems hosted in France. With an IP surprisingly close to CERN's range.

  9. Andrew Jones 2

    There are now 24 "officially" unofficial - and some just jumping on the bandwagon - twitter accounts for the major agencies https://twitter.com/stollmeyereu/lists/twistance/members

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    REMEMBER, AMERICA!

    Trump is your President, and you must stand beside him!

    Because if you stand behind him, he'll shit on you, and if you stand before him, he'll fuck you in the arse!

  11. Hardrada

    Trump is pretty good at alienating voters, but these park rangers are playing with fire also.

    The people who visit national parks aren't urban yuppies in BMW i3s; they're suburban families in camper-vans, and quite a few of them voted for Trump.

    The NPS has seen declining attendance as the US becomes more urban: https://www.fs.fed.us/nrs/pubs/jrnl/2014/nrs_2014_stevens_001.pdf

    In other words, people from the most solidly Democratic parts of the US don't actually go to the parks, pay admission or rent campsites. The NPS needs the money, and it can't afford to piss off people who do.

    1. Suricou Raven

      Given Trump's business background and inability to accept disagreement - witness his several Twitter flame wars - I expect that he has already ordered an investigation to find out who these employees are, and is getting ready to fire them all the moment he finds out.

      1. Adam 52 Silver badge

        I expect prosecutions under the Hatch Act. And I expect them soon, to send a message.

        Disappointingly they'll succeed too, because the Supreme Court won't allow federal employees free speech.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Park attendance has been declining because the middle class is shrinking. Reagan was the one that really got the decline in middle class income rolling. there's also the issue of American's not using all their, very limited by first world standards, vacation time to appear to be totally devoted to their employer.

      America has not been exceptional since the early '70s, if it could make that claim in seriousness.

      1. cambsukguy

        > America has not been exceptional since the early '70s, if it could make that claim in seriousness

        America is heading towards being Brazil, while Brazil tries not be at the same time.

        More and more gated communities, more and more people losing their home to reverse mortgages with clauses allowing repossession for the slightest reason.

        All it will mean is that the rich have more money and more need of security to try to stay safe from those who resent it, many of whom may well be armed.

        I can't really understand the logic of already-rich people just trying to get even richer, especially if it lowers their quality of life by reducing their overall safety.

        It is not a surprise that many of the best countries to live in the world are Scandinavian, and it isn't the weather.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          "[...] are Scandinavian, and it isn't the weather"

          The summers can be really nice with those long daylight hours where you can still play outdoor tennis at 2am. The winters so cold that snow is easily brushed powder and the dry air doesn't feel so cold. The only downside is the biting midges on shaded lake/sea shores until the end of July.

    3. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

      "Trump is pretty good at alienating voters, but these park rangers are playing with fire also."

      You certainly don't want that!

  12. Magani
    Stop

    Attention - Kellyanne Conway

    ...went rogue and started posting facts about climate change.

    I guess the Trump team will just dismissively classify these as 'alternative facts'

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Attention - Kellyanne Conway

      ...went rogue and started posting facts about climate change.

      Do you mean the ones that show that CO2 is not a pollutant but a necessary for life plant food or that the temperature has only risen by 0.06 degree C over the last 30 years or growing things for fuel is causing food problems in some parts of the world.

      Those are the facts but nearly all the climate scientists ignore them and 'massage' the figures on which they are based to fit in with their Marxist utopian world view.

  13. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

    Trump, "Newspeak" and 1984

    With Trump continuing to pronounce on just about everything (incuding wanting to bring back Torture) we are seeing a war waged in the media (real and social)

    What's the top seller on Amazon?

    1984

    Newspeak is alive and well in the USA in 2017.

    An Orwellian society is being created right in front of our eyes.

    Interesting times.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Trump, "Newspeak" and 1984

      The Orwellian society was created by Tony Blair and the EU by and large.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Trump, "Newspeak" and 1984

        The Orwellian society was created by Tony Blair and the EU by and large

        Dont forget it was aided and abetted by ex-pres Obama handing wodges of cash to the UN.

  14. Paul

    Ah, one day they'll make a movie about this. Trump Wars Episode 1: Rise of the Park Rangers it'll be called.

    Credit to my daughter who said this when we chatted about it.

    1. Paul

      Synopsis: When a mysterious misshapen orange troll rises to power in the near dystopian future and declares war on common sense and logic, a group of unlikely heroes rise to combat his insanity and spark rebellion.

      1. Geoffrey W

        As long as Adam Sandler isn't their leader, I'm cool. In episode 2, (or is that episode 5?) a horde of pussy eared Hello Kitties arise and paint all the golden death towers with glitter paint before Bernie Wan Kenobi appears and leads them all to the west coast where they all link hands and hug the giant redwood trees before toppling the silicon apple of doom off its tree and George Lucas comes with his magic directors stick and beats all traces of a story to death and everyone goes home and has a good supper.

  15. Mephistro
    Joke

    They should invite the fecker to hunting in the park

    Once he is there, a Cheney-style incident could be arranged.

  16. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

    Trump getting trumped?

  17. Milton

    What can possibly go wrong?

    When the world's most militarily powerful bankrupt nation, armed with thousands of nukes, is taken over by an ignorant, lying, bellicose, childish, homophobic, lying, simplistically-minded, arrogant, egotistical, lying, thin-skinned, insecure, racist, self-confessed sex assaulting, lying, sexist, lying, misogynist, serially bankrupt, lying liar?

    Trumpty Dumpty sat on a wall ... you can guess what happens next.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What can possibly go wrong?

      I upvoted this a hundred billion times. it is pro-Trump a conspiracy that makes the number look lower. FACT

      (Written al la Donald).

      BTW, just reading a "Toilet" book given for Christmas and originally published in 2010; guess whose name was ALREADY a euphemism for having crap.

    2. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Coat

      "Trumpty Dumpty sat on a wall ... you can guess what happens next."

      Not going to happen.

      He's going to have to be pushed.

    3. Triggerfish

      Re: What can possibly go wrong?

      You missed out meglomaniac, demagogue and twat. ;)

      1. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

        Best Trump

        Best summary of Trump I've heard - from US comedian Michelle Wolf:

        Trump never wanted the job of president.

        He just wanted to be Mr. USA,

        put on a sash, and tell people how you change the world

        without actually having to change it.

        But instead, Trump has gone from being a carefree billionaire

        to a public servant.

        Yeah, Donald J. Trump,

        you just became America's butler.

        Now, go fix our health care

        and make me a sandwich,you sunburnt bitch.

        1. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

          Re: Best Trump

          "and make me a sandwich,you sunburnt bitch"

          Obviously, from his white eyelids, it not sunburn, but solarium-burn.

          He's all unnatural.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You recognize a path to authoritarian regimes...

    .... when politicians and officials become obsessed with the smallest minutiae - and they fear them.

    Also I'm worried they knew exactly about what information to go after and where - so it looks something carefully planned in advance. Trumps looks more and more a puppet in the hands of his son-in-law, and other people behind him.

  19. PTW

    Ah! "The gentler, kinder politics of the left"

    Whether you disagree with Trump or Big John do you really align yourselves with;

    some of the comments on here aimed at either of the aforementioned?

    Or the Democrat supporters spitting in the face of the military widows at the inauguration?

    Democrats rioting because their candidate did not win?

    Then take a long look in the mirror! You're the reason Trump won & the reason IRA supporting Corbyn is polling @ 26%, those that are usually silent or can't be bothered to vote are sick of your hate and bullshit.

    There is no far right surge, no "alt-right" just decent human beings that don't riot if they lose a vote, don't throw parties when a politician they oppose dies.

    Like it or not, and I know you REALLY hate facts [strange for tech folks] it's socialists[ism] that've been responsible for millions of deaths around the world, usually in their own countries. Idiots shouting for LGBT rights while wearing Che t-shirts and flying hammer and sickle flags, whilst blaming Thatcher! [Che imprisoned homosexuals whilst Mrs Thatcher voted to repeal the law banning homosexuality]

    But, anyway, if I started tweeting shit about my employer, off time or not, I'd be sacked!

    1. cambsukguy

      Re: Ah! "The gentler, kinder politics of the left"

      About 50% of people have Democrat leanings and about 50% have Republican leanings.

      Both groups have Murderers, Rioters, Paedophiles, Burglars, Shoplifters and all other things under the sun in them.

      Democrats are not all good people (see above sample list).

      The general view is that Democrats (left-leaning people) simply want to see a more equal society, say votes for Women or Transgender rights, equal pay.

      Republicans (right-leaning people) tend to think that letting people keep all the money they earn, with the least amount taken in tax to allow support for those in 'real' need, works best.

      But, even in the USA, almost everyone believes that School should be free and compulsory - logic would dictate that people find and pay for school themselves and tough-luck on those who cannot - should have worked harder.

      This is actually what it used to be like of course. In fact, the USA has a higher percentage of people with money (compared with the UK) putting their kids in 'state' schools (which are called public schools just to be confusing).

      And, obviously, the USA thinks that 'nationalising' the Military is a given too. Why don't all the states have their own armies? Why don't the Cities use private Militias? Because they know that some things require Government control.

      The continuous need to regulate things that had been given too much freedom, such as the 'Markets', prove that unfettered 'Capitalism' simply doesn't work - just like pure Communism doesn't work.

      The best current answers seem to be a mix of Capitalism with controls - the main argument is how far to control. The Chinese system appears less reliable to me at this point.

      1. PTW

        Re: Ah! "The gentler, kinder politics of the left"

        @cambsukguy I did upvote you as I don't disagree with most of what you're saying, but I do feel you somewhat missed the point I was making... And I believe we have Corporatism/Globalism now not Capitalism.

        But 10 [and counting] downvotes and not a single counter to any of my points?

      2. tiggity Silver badge

        Re: Ah! "The gentler, kinder politics of the left"

        Dems & Reps both right leaning (just to different degree) to most people from a European perspective

        Just like Blair was right wing to most external European observers

      3. Hardrada

        Re: Ah! "The gentler, kinder politics of the left"

        RE: "And, obviously, the USA thinks that 'nationalising' the Military is a given too. Why don't all the states have their own armies? Why don't the Cities use private Militias? Because they know that some things require Government control."

        State governors do control their states' National Guard contingents (although not exclusively):

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Guard_of_the_United_States

        City police forces have significant freedom to buy military weapons and put their officers through combat training. Many do. There are limits on certain weapons: Nuclear reactors and bombs are heavily regulated and supersonic flight over the US is banned. Large missiles are also restricted. It might be legal for them to buy tanks and artillery.

    2. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

      Re: Ah! "The gentler, kinder politics of the left"

      " if I started tweeting shit about my employer"

      So the emplyer is? Is it "the non-global warming corp"?

    3. Terrance Brennan

      Re: Ah! "The gentler, kinder politics of the left"

      Sounds like more alternative facts to go with your alternative right.

      Who spit in the face of military widows? Of the tens of thousands of protestors the police reported a group of approximately 100 rioted; they were anarchist, not Democrats.

      Snowflake, aka SOS, was endorsed by the American Nazi party, the KKK, and the dictator of Russia. We don't have to accuse him of being racist, misogynist, homophobic, islamophobic, xenophobic, or fascist; his own speeches and twitter twats accuse and convict him. He lost the popular vote even though his nominal party worked hard to suppress the votes of minorities. You can't say you like his policies because he never articulated any during the campaign. He offered nothing but vague threats and promises and the chance to make America white again.

      1. PTW

        Re: Ah! "The gentler, kinder politics of the left" @Terrance B

        It's "spat" and my mistake it was a Gold Star's sister

        http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jan/23/gold-star-family-says-anti-trump-protesters-spit-o/

        OK, so if the KKK endorse any of my posts it makes me a KKK member? Or my views are automatically those of the KKK? Or I'm therefore a member of the KKK?

        What fucking logic is that? Do you work in DevOps?

        1. Truckle The Uncivil

          Re: Ah! "The gentler, kinder politics of the left" @Terrance B

          It is exactly the same logic that right wing people use against left wing people. It is a shame to see left wing people using it.

    4. HausWolf

      Re: Ah! "The gentler, kinder politics of the left"

      stop it.. the reason we have the short fingered vulgarian is because of the right, not obama, noty hillary, not bernie... it is because the right put him up as a candidate.

      a well oiled propaganda machine spewing lies against a flawed candidate on the left .. boom .. instant clown in the WH.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The thing about spin is...

    ..that it cuts both ways

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/01/25/altusnatparkservice/

    1. Tom Paine

      Re: The thing about spin is...

      You're citing WattsUp in support of your argument?

      *plonk*

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Barbara Straisand

    can you hear this? You shall soon be forgotten..

    but looking at a broader picture, I don't think there has ever been a US administration that has done some much damage to the US worldwide credibility in so remarkable little time as this one. Well, what's left of it. Wikileaks cables took some time for the media to digest and share the juicy morcels the world. Snowden files, likewise. But THIS... this has been just less than a week and the world can already see, on a daily basis, who runs the World's Top Superpower. See - and imitate.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Do they mean this sort of AGW?

    https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23231023-600-polar-shark-and-invasive-fish-found-in-the-mediterranean-sea/

    No? Oh..

  23. Triggerfish

    It's like a movie

    Y'know when he first started running I joked to a friend he reminded me of that guy in the Dead Zone, y'know the one who Johhny has a vision of starting a nuclear war, but fails because he tries to use a baby as a shield.

    Then just after the alt facts of the inauguartion I joked it was a bit like the prelude in a film, where you see these sort of things happening, then it goes wavy lines and someone in a guy fawkes mask, stalks between the shadows of spotlights, while people wearing uniforms by Hugo Boss, stand gaurd.

    Anyway lets see.

    supress free speech - check

    limit press - check

    newspeak - check

    black sites - check

    torture - check

    cut off sanctaury cities - check

    hate week - check

    Useful Idiots - check.

    big fucking wall to put spotlights on for V to run around under - working on it

    1. Tom Paine

      Re: It's like a movie

      Lots more than that.

      * turned out to have made $$$ from the KSA.

      * has announced block on refugees from countries that the US has bombed

      * entire State Dept senior management resign in disgust

      * widespread leaks from within the administration along the lines of "OMG, what have we done?!?"

      * building the wall and paying for it by taxing Americans

      * ...

  24. PhilipJ

    what happened to the President Snowflake title ?

    1. hplasm
      Coat

      "what happened to the President Snowflake title ?"

      Melted- AGW

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
        Joke

        Re: "what happened to the President Snowflake title ?"

        "Melted- AGW"

        Fke new!, Fake News!, Commie Plot, Commie Plot! Nya, Nya!

  25. unwarranted triumphalism

    Consequences

    Employees refuse to shut up and do as they're told.

    Guess what the consequences will be?

  26. james 68

    Trump is in for a wake up call.

    He can fire off as many threats and exec orders as he likes, fact is his attempted gagging of these environmental agencies (and others he disagrees with) is illegal.

    The OSC note lists some examples of things that are protected: “For example, one prohibited personnel practice explicitly shields employees for blowing the whistle on any effort to ‘distort, misrepresent, suppress’ or otherwise censor any government ‘research, analysis, or technical information’ that the employee reasonably believes could, among other things, pose a substantial and significant threat to public health or safety or constitute a violation of law, rule, or regulation.”

    1. Velv
      Big Brother

      Re: Trump is in for a wake up call.

      "Whistleblowing and the protections surrounding it are exactly the type of regulations holding back business and will be next in line to be removed."

      Just wait for it...

    2. Tom Paine

      Re: Trump is in for a wake up call.

      Being illegal (or unconstitutional) hasn't stopped him so far, has it?

      I have this eccentric hobbyhorse theory that the US is screwed until it tears up the constitution and starts again from scratch; so many of the fundamental dysfunctions flow from unexamined fetished pronouncements that probably fitted the 18th and 19th and even 20th centuries fairly well, but are now anachronisms.

      I think you'll soon be seeing exactly how much use it is in it's most fundamental purpose, that of preventing a tyrannical government seizing power. "Not very much at all, as it turns out" is my bet.

  27. bombastic bob Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    no bias nor inflamatory tone, move along

    sorry, but when the author uses terms like "President Snowflake" [totally getting WRONG the whole 'snowflake' concept] and "climate change DENIER", I have to point out the OBVIOUS SLANT here.

    OK maybe just being snarky, but I don't think it's SNARK. I think it's the typical lefty tactics surfacing.

    man-made "climate change" is a HOAX. I've proved it before, I can prove it again, and the only thing I'm "denying" is giving an opportunity to be MANIPULATED by SOCIALISTS.

    And I think Trump wants a CONSISTENT government position on this issue, and NOT a bunch of people undermining the TRUTH, that human activity is NOT ruining the planet, and we don't need to PANIC and stop EVERYBODY from using (inexpensive) fossil fuel energy, based on PSEUDO SCIENCE claims that CO2 [which has about 1% of the effect that ATMOSPHERIC WATER has on earth's heat retention capability on a given day] allegedly caused by burning DINOSAUR REMAINS in our cars and power plants, is warming, no cooling, no warming again, the ENTIRE PLANET to a point of either a THERMAL MELTDOWN [which didn't happen, DID it Algore?] or A NEW ICE AGE, which ALSO did NOT happen. I mean, the data is out there, so how can ANYONE actually BELIEVE that CRAP???

    Oh, because "scientists say so". I forgot.

    1. Triggerfish

      Re: no bias nor inflamatory tone, move along

      Man you gotta fix that keyboard.

    2. Patrician

      Re: no bias nor inflamatory tone, move along

      ..."man-made "climate change" is a HOAX. I've proved it before, I can prove it again, ".....

      No you haven't and, no you can't! At best you can ignore all the data and stick your head in the sand; the problem is that by the time climate change has become undeniable, even by you, it will be very obvious and too late to reverse.

      1. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Thumb Down

        Re: no bias nor inflamatory tone, move along

        (re: demonstrating no man-made climate change, that such claims are a HOAX)

        "No you haven't and, no you can't!"

        Sure I can, and have done so already, and I'll do it AGAIN.

        The CO2 mechanism is just on example of the HOAX of man-made global temperature whatever. It's there because it ties in directly with fossil fuels, which the left HATES anyway [they empower average people, making us more mobile and having affordable luxuries]. And the use of fossil fuels ties to human activity, and ANY connection they can make, is a method by which they can CONTROL people through manipulation and outright lies.

        Consider this: If CO2 concentration increases, and if it were causing warming, it would result in a HIGHLY UNSTABLE condition, like thermal runaway in a semiconductor (which we are NOT seeing, by the way). Why? It's because when you heat ocean water, it RELEASES CO2! That's why.

        The projection would be that, when the planet warms, more CO2 is released from the ocean, causing a warmer planet, EVEN MORE CO2, and so on. Thermal runaway. Yes, that's NOT happening. And it WON"T happen, because of the OBSERVABLE property in chemistry known as EQUILIBRIUM.

        So what we DO see is a CO2 + H2O equlibrium reaction in the atmosphere due to RAIN. It ends up depleting atmospheric CO2 into waterways and the ocean, and it precipitates out as carbonates. [volcanos underwater can stir these carbonates up and cause CO2 to bubble up to the surface - and if you measure CO2 NEAR a thermal anomoly like that, you'll get the skewed figures that warmists need in order to "prove" their hoax - but I digress]

        Now, ANYONE studying chemistry knows about equilibrium reactions, which CO2 and water have most definitely been observed as having, including the affinity of CO2 for being hydrolyzed in water, and so on. So the laws of physics COMPLETELY go against the claims that CO2 levels are rising, rising, rising, and temperatures are going with it. Besides, isn't it OBVIOUS, RIGHT NOW, that world-wide temperatures are starting to COOL DOWN??? That they've come off of a CYCLIC PEAK, and are heading back the OTHER way? What data is being IGNORED again???

        The "inconvenient truth" here, aside from CO2 maintaining an equlibrium level, is that CO2 does NOT have a significant infrared absorption spectrum above VERY COLD temperatures (something close to -50C as I recall). So atmospheric CO2 will do a FINE JOB of helping to keep temperatures from going BELOW -50C, by blanketing IR emissions at those temperatures, keeping the heat in etc.. OK it's not perfect because occasionally, in Antarctica, it can get a bit colder than that. But not by much. Thank CO2 for THAT!

        For temperatures in the NORMAL range, WATER has a significantly greater effect. NOT surprisingly, WATER absorbs infrared energy in the "normal daily temperature" range. So when it's cloudy during the day, it's cold. When it's cloudy at night, it's warmer than it would be on a clear night.

        And some time ago, I calculated that "Water, the OTHER greenhouse gas" has something in the order of 100 TIMES THE EFFECT OF CO2 on world-wide temperatures. But you won't see gummints or enviro-wackies trying to make the claim that we have to stop putting WATER into the atmosphere. This planet is effectively FLOODED being 3/4 covered with the stuff. It would be a LUDICROUS claim, even to the most uneducated observer.

        Then you have to look at ACTUAL TEMPERATURE CYCLES. It's actually been warmer in the past, around the end of the last ice age, even. No humans were burning fossil fuels, either.

        As yet ANOTHER example, THIS guy extrapolates a modified "linear line" corresponding to the last 120 or so years of temperature data, in addition to a cyclic component.

        http://www.climate-skeptic.com/category/temperature-history

        however, if he treated that 120 or so year "bent linear line" like the SINE WAVE THAT IT IS, you would see the longer, 500 year (or so) trend, and it's on the upswing at the moment. We knew that.

        What's not so obvious [when you consider the combination of 2 or more long cycles], when you don't measure ENOUGH data for LONG enough, is that you get a 'hockey stick' if you start at a low point (1970's) and end up at a high point (2010'ish), and think OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD and project ridiculous increases in temperature and THEN blame CO2 for it.

        (note: the guy on THAT web site believes that SOME warming is due to human activity. I don't accept CO2 as a mechanism, because chemistry/physics/science, and THEREFORE if you can't come up with something ELSE to model a 'human blame' after, I say it's NOT human activity at ALL!)

        In any case, believe what you want. Calling people "denier" because they USE THEIR BRAINS instead of SWALLOW THE KOOLAID is just "yet another lefty trick" to SILENCE those who simply DISAGREE with you!

        'nuff. I grow weary of repeating myself.

        1. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

          Re: no bias nor inflamatory tone, move along

          Somehow I'm pretty sure you will also claim that we never went to the moon.

          Am I right?

        2. Terrance Brennan

          Re: no bias nor inflamatory tone, move along

          Not as weary as we get of you repeating your hallucinations.

          1. Triggerfish

            Re: no bias nor inflamatory tone, move along

            TMCDR*

            *To Much Caps Didn't Read

        3. Captain DaFt

          Re: no bias nor inflamatory tone, move along

          I thought the style of writing looked familiar.

          You are Otis Eugene "Gene" Ray, and I claim my £5!

        4. Patrician

          Re: no bias nor inflamatory tone, move along

          Sorry but I asked for proof, not a "this is what I believe"; please provide links to published, peer reviewed, scientific papers backing up your "this is what I believe".

    3. David Nash Silver badge

      Re: no bias nor inflamatory tone, move along

      Go on then, PROVE it.

      It's not about "BELIEVEing that CRAP" it's about which way the balance of the evidence (or should I say "EVIDENCE"?) points.

      Belief is only for people who don't have evidence. Magic sky faries and the like.

      Do you even know what science is, the scientific method, the whole point?

    4. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

      Re: no bias nor inflamatory tone, move along

      OK, Bob, what are your scientific credentials?

      Your 10 cats told you so?

      1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

        Re: no bias nor inflamatory tone, move along

        Your 10 cats told you so?

        Oi! No dissing the cats y'hear!

        I wish *I* was allowed 10 cats. Could have done too[1] except I got ganged up upon by my wife and my mum..

        [1] Well - it would have been 9. But the extra 1 would have been easy to sneak in while herself wasn't looking. Forgiveness is easier to ask than permission..

    5. John Presland

      Re: no bias nor inflamatory tone, move along

      Stop shouting!!!

    6. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: no bias nor inflamatory tone, move along

      man-made "climate change" is a HOAX. I've proved it before, I can prove it again, and the only thing I'm "denying" is giving an opportunity to be MANIPULATED by SOCIALISTS.

      Bombastic Bob, you're either a troll or severely deluded.

      Either way, please provide a link to all the peer-reviewed published research papers that you've written showing that man-made climate change is a hoax.

    7. Turbo Beholder
      Alien

      Re: no bias nor inflamatory tone, move along

      >sorry, but when the author uses terms like "President Snowflake"

      That's just SJWAL rule #3: "SJWs always project". =)

      And we all know who pushes this particular scam.

      >I mean, the data is out there, so how can ANYONE actually BELIEVE that CRAP???

      Those who advertise it don't believe it themselves - except maybe "useful idiots" ("Do you want a cola with that?"). Which is why if you get all fired up, you are pretty much arguing with a TV screen.

      Quoth interview of Patrick Moore, in the very Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/08/patrick_moore_greenpeace_dropout/):

      > when I see the NGOs themselves in sackcloth and ashes, then I might put some truck by what they're saying.

      > That was 12,000 NGOs – not counting the bureaucrats.

      > There tens of thousands more bureaucrats. And there are four of five of these conferences a year.

      > Yet here they are telling us we all must stop flying ...

  28. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

    If only we'd started recording temperatures 100 years ago - this climate debate would be all over.

    or maybe if there was some kind of ice core record we could sort it out.

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge

      If only we'd started recording temperatures 100 years ago - this climate debate would be all over.

      or maybe if there was some kind of ice core record we could sort it out.

      does THIS help?

      https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Holocene_Temperature_Variations.png

  29. dncnvncd

    Those pesky GS merit employee rules

    The Civil Service Commission rules expressly forbid political activities on the job and any off the job that could be sen as related to one's official position. By using Twitter accounts associated with National Park Service or identifying themselves as Park Rangers connects them to their official position. Looks like Dept. Inspector General could be busy. Posting comparison photos is also dangerously close to political if it does not address the variances. Two explanations are possible. People didn't like Trump. The threat of anarchy kept people away. Also, Obama organizer "paid" to get people to his inauguration with free entry while Trump charged admission to the event and let people get there by their own devices. The Japanese internment camp posting can only be explained by Trump's America First reference. Ironically, the original America Firsters were NAZI supporters. Germans and Italians were also sent to internment camps if they supported native nationalist groups. The FBI constantly surveilled German communities and the ring of Nazi saboteurs that did infiltrate America with specific targets were turned in by their families. The attack on Pearl Harbor was directed by an American born Japanese via a commercial radio station in Hawaii. Lucky Luciana took care of the Italian community. In general terms, those that defy their boss soon don't have a boss because they are no longer employed.

    1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge
      Stop

      Re: Those pesky GS merit employee rules

      surveilled

      ..is not a word. "Conducted surveillance upon" maybe. Or even "had under surveillance" - that would be acceptable too.

    2. Tom Paine

      Re: Those pesky GS merit employee rules

      Ironically, the original America Firsters were NAZI supporters

      Ironically? Are you sure? I see no irony there...

  30. spacecadet66

    All well and good, but let's not forget that El Reg itself had Lewis Page publishing a climate denial column once a week or so for years.

    1. Tom Paine

      Orlowski was the original denialist offender; I stopped reading El Reg for the best part of a decade because of it.

  31. I am the liquor

    Wasn't it Einstein who said something about not knowing what weapons World War 3 would be fought with? I think we can answer that for him now. World War 3 will be fought on Twitter.

    1. nkuk

      I would expand that to the internet in general, not just twitter.

      1. lglethal Silver badge
        Joke

        Oh, the humanity!!!!

  32. unwarranted triumphalism

    It's an amazing coincidence that the 'absence' of climate change trumpeted by the deniers is *exactly* the justification they need to continue the lifestyle choices they find most convenient.

    Because you'll be damned if anyone tries to tell you to stop rolling coal any more, won't you?

  33. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

    Trump in mascara: "We're all stupid, and we're all gonna build a wall"

  34. Marty McFly Silver badge
    Mushroom

    NPS jerks

    Doesn't surprise me. Have you ever visited one of our National Parks? The Rangers consider themselves gods of all that they can see. Their vocabulary is filled with No, Don't, Stop, Unpermitted, Not Allowed, etc. They live in their own little tiny pond and they are the big fish that runs the pond.

    (No, no, no, I am not advocating for opening up the national parks for real estate development or something like that.)

    My point is they are used to being the king of their little world and they are used to getting their way with the full force of the US government behind them. They have the exact kind of personality filled with bureaucratic arrogance that lends itself to this kind of behavior.

    My advice to Trump: If they post from a personal Twitter account, ignore it - the followers there are the same angry snowflake losers from the election. If they post from an official NPS Twitter account - fire them, and do it publicly.

    1. Triggerfish
      Facepalm

      Re: NPS jerks

      "On Friday, the National Park Service announced a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of three men who trespassed and vandalized the Devils Hole unit of Death Valley National Park. The 40-acre site is detached from the main portion of the park, about 30 miles outside of the park boundary within Nevada's Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. It contains a 500-foot deep pool in the desert that is home to the rarest fish in the world—the Devils Hole pupfish.

      The three men who vandalized Devils Hole and their off-road vehicle. (National Park Services Investigative Services Branch)

      On the evening of Saturday, April 30, the three men drove around a locked gate at Devils Hole and shot at signs, locks, and a motion sensor on the security system. One of the vandals climbed the fence that protects Devils Hole and swam in the pool, leaving behind a pair of boxers floating in the water. While the men tried to disable the cameras at the site by yanking out the wires, their shenanigans were still captured on video. They also left behind beer cans and some vomit. Abby Wines, the public information officer for the park, told LAist that they thankfully did not vomit into the water of Devils Hole."

      You're right that shit should totally be allowed.

      1. Triggerfish

        Re: NPS jerks

        Ok BTW slightly hyperbole answer.

        But it's amazing how many people keep doing things and think well it's only a me doing it, or it's just minor harm and don't realise it all adds up. Used to see it with divers, whats it matter if I touch this coral? It's only a bit and only me or I'm only chucking one cigarette butt over the side, next thing you know a hundred grubby hands have screwed a reef, or a turtle is choking after eating a dozen cigarette butts chucked by a dozen individuals.

        Eventually you end up getting very fucked off with people doing that.

  35. Brent Beach

    It happened in Canada

    This suppression of science in support of ideological goals - in particular climate change - happened during the Harper administration in Canada 2006 - 2015. If science disagrees with your ideology, get rid of the science.

    Unfortunately, we did not have twitter back then to the degree we do now, so the scientists had no venue to report on what was happening.

    It was a bleak 10 years for science in Canada.

    Trump will find ways to clamp down on all dissent - it can happen in the US.

    Good thing the way back machine is mirroring outside the US.

  36. Custard Fridge
    Megaphone

    We few...

    We few, we happy few, we band of mostly techies,

    For he today that vents his spleen with me

    Shall be my tech brother, be he ne’er so vile,

    This day shall gentle his condition;

    And BOFHs in England now a-beering

    Shall think themselves formatted they where not here,

    And hold their hard drives cheap whiles any speaks

    That vents with me upon Dark Snoflake’s day!

  37. Billl
    IT Angle

    Death Valley NP not in Nevada

    I don't care about this politically motivated opinion piece. We all have our opinions.

    However, the location of Death Valley National Park is not in Nevada. It is in California.

  38. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. PTW
      Pint

      Human Man...

      Have an upvote and a beer!

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

    3. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

      But Trump is their boss

      Doesn't mean that they have to slavishly follow ever diktat that he utters, or agree with every work that he says (the word for that is "slave[1]".

      In fact, I'd go as far as to say that Government employees loyalty is to their *country*, not to whichever tinpot crackpot has had sufficient money to fool the gullible into voting for him.

      [1] Having seen somewhat of US employee relationships over the years, it's obvious that the employer/employee relationship is, in a lot of states, a lot closer to slavery that in the civilised world.

    4. Tom Paine

      Of course the data isn't literally stored on the website (a copy is, sure, but not the only copy.) The point is that if they pull the websites offline and sack all the climatologist then DROP TABLE GIS; DROP TABLE HADCRUT; is likely to come along before very long, too.

    5. HausWolf

      He is their temporary boss, even if he gets two terms , laughable but dumber things have happened .. see his election in the first place.

  39. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fake news

    It appears that Kieren has let his hate for Trump override his journalism.

    This whole episode is not from the parks service but some disgruntled ex-employee that hacked the park service twitter account to tweet about climate change. The problem is it appears that we can't have facts get in the way of an anti Trump political rant.

    http://climatechangedispatch.com/all-these-news-outlets-falsely-reported-that-badlands-national-park-defied-trump/

  40. AbeSapian

    In Another Interesting Turn of Events

    Wednesday, the entire senior staff of the Department of State resigned. With Trump's incompetence and total failure to have his own people ready to step into these positions, the State Department is going to be stripped of it's institutional memory of how to conduct it's business. When Tillerson is confirmed (almost a certainty) he's going to be a party of one prowling empty, echoing halls trying to pick up the pieces.

    That's going to slow his Putin ass kissing down for a while.

    The Washington Post: The State Department’s entire senior administrative team just resigned

    1. Gravis Ultrasound

      Re: In Another Interesting Turn of Events

      What a shame,the State Department has been oozing of success recent years. I am sure the private sector will fight over the chance of employing these exceptional leaders.

      1. Tom Paine

        Re: In Another Interesting Turn of Events

        Not much call for diplomats in the private sector.

  41. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    After the Trumpocalypse..

    ...humanities only hope wandered the barren earth in the form of Ranger Bob!

  42. tony trolle

    AltNatParkSer followers

    1,209,919 as of 21:17 Pacific Time

  43. Turbo Beholder
    Alien

    Oh, please.

    >I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade

    > or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality

    > the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most

    > obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they

    > lose once and for all their sense of probity.

    > -Theodore Dalrymple

    The promoters know well that the whole apocalyptic cult of the Hockey Schtick is a scam - or the biggest ones won't be frequent fliers.

    Now, believing that everyone else is enough of an idiot that this scam will hold water even without witch-hunts and censorship - THAT's a desperate self-deception.

  44. Turbo Beholder
    Coat

    That's fine. Siberia has more than enough of space for all the Climate Refugees™ who want to put the money where their mouths are and find the new home.

  45. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

    Now with blocking Iranians from entering the country, it does actually seem that Trump is as stupid as the image he has been projecting during the election!

    And I was hoping it was just an image to get rednecks and hillbillies to vote for him..

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