“He has no historical view. He is only dealing with these issues now, and seems to think the world started when he took office,” a diplomat told BuzzFeed News, pointing to Trump’s remarks and tweets about defence spending. “He thinks that NATO existed only to keep the communists out of Europe. He has a similar attitude in Asia-Pacific with Japan, ignoring that the US basically wrote their constitution.” During his presidential campaign, Trump called out Japan to pay more for the security US provides, including for hosting the US troops in the country. Japan’s constitution restricts its military options.

They also believe Trump’s foreign policy is chiefly driven by an obsession with unravelling Barack Obama’s policies. “It’s his only real position,” one European diplomat said. “He will ask: ‘Did Obama approve this?’ And if the answer is affirmative, he will say: ‘We don’t.’ He won’t even want to listen to the arguments or have a debate. He is obsessed with Obama.”

It's alive

Do you like etymology? I do! That's why I must recommend the History Of English Podcast.

I'm only 10 episodes in, so I can't vouch for the other 80+ episodes. But the first ten are fascinating.

uhhhh @Walmart we need to talk pic.twitter.com/Fwb4UdXf1D

— sara (@thisbemesara) August 9, 2017

Be prepared, there is a small chance that our horrendous leadership could unknowingly lead us into World War III.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2013

A team of Reddit power users is taking over subreddits across the site—and transforming communities like WhitePolitics with posts about shades of gray and laundry.

...

When you click on “WHITE POWER,” it shows a 136 kilowatt power generator. That power generator is white.

The post below it, titled “Why whites must be separated from blacks,” is about laundry.

On WhitePolitics, according to a stickied post on the site, “racism is now banned,” and it is now a place to “hail the greatest of whites, Swiss Coffee!”

...

Take, for example, r/Trannys, which now shows close-up shots of car transmissions. (Urquhart identifies as trans.) r/Whites, these days, exists to “discuss shades of whites, off-whites, and light grays.”

...

“I told them that if they made me mod instead of Milo, that I would use my mod powers for good instead of evil and extol the wonders of bundles of sticks and questionable British meat products. I think I made them laugh because they did indeed make me the top mod,” said Urquhart, who said she identifies as queer. “I mean, what’s not to laugh about pics of bundles of sticks in a sub called r/faggots?”

Apparently William Shatner is an alt-right dumbass on Twitter.

Savage Chickens

A self-described "email prankster" in the UK fooled a number of White House officials into thinking he was other officials, including an episode where he convinced the White House official tasked with cyber security that he was Jared Kushner and received that official's private email address unsolicited.

CNN

Though Republicans won a majority of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1930, fully 14 House members died during the ensuing 72nd Congress, including Speaker Nicholas Longworth. As a result, Democrats were able to elect one of their own as speaker.

Things weren’t much better in the Senate. Sen. Hiram Bingham (R-Ct.) said in 1931, “It is a very striking fact and one which cannot be too often called to the attention of Senators that there is no other body of this size in the world which has as high a death rate as this body. Out of the 96 Senators, during the past 7 or 8 years at least three have died each year, and if there is anything that can be done to cause members of this body to enjoy greater health and to prolong their lives, it seems to me that no one should object to it.”

But we don't have that, these days. What happened?