Tag Archives: gates

It Turns Out Rex Tillerson Is Just Another Member of the Swamp

by Mark Q Manning Posted on December 10, 2016

Mother Jones

Now that ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson seems to be a likely choice for Secretary of State, I got to wondering: where did his name come from in the first place? Obviously not from Trump himself. Well, I asked, and Twitter delivered. Here is Politico:

Tillerson was brought into Trump Tower for an interview with Trump at the recommendation of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who count Exxon among their private consulting clients, according to two sources familiar with the conversations. His name was first publicly floated for the job in early December and he met privately with Trump on Tuesday. Rice sat down with the President-elect in late November, and Gates followed her three days later.

So Tillerson pays Gates and Rice for “consulting,” whatever that means, and they in turn recommend him to Trump for the State Department. Welcome to the swamp, ladies and gentlemen.

And while on we’re on the subject of the Secretary of State, National Review editor Rich Lowry says that Tillerson, Rudy Giuliani, and Mitt Romney all have problems that ought to disqualify them:

The natural pick here has always been John Bolton, who endorsed Trump early, who fits broadly within the Trump worldview that you might characterize as muscular realism, and actually has substantial foreign policy experience.

I think the answer here is pretty obvious: Bolton doesn’t like Russia, and he has no qualms about saying so loudly and persistently. Trump obviously values an appreciation of Vladimir Putin’s talents more highly than he does even loyalty to Trump. Plus there’s the mustache.

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It Turns Out Rex Tillerson Is Just Another Member of the Swamp

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Here’s What Rappers Have to Say About Donald Trump

by MicaelaBrewis Posted on September 6, 2015

Mother Jones

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“He loves Trump! He loves Trump!” GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump exclaimed this week about Kanye West. But rappers have been invoking Trump’s name since long before the real estate mogul entered politics, and it hasn’t always been with love.

According to Genius.com, a site that specializes in lyrics annotation, Trump has been mentioned more than 400 times in songs and interviews, with many, many references coming from hip-hop artists. Most of the Trump references are brief, with Trump’s name appearing as a stand-in for obscene wealth. Here are five of the most notable mentions.

1. “Constantly Hating,” by Young Thug (feat. Birdman)

Yeah thumbs up,
I’ve seen more holes than a golf course on Donald Trump’s course

Jeffrey Lamar Williams, a.k.a. Young Thug, a.k.a. Thugger Thugger, is a new rapper who, with his twisting melodies and distinctive crooning, has changed hip-hop’s popular sound. In this song, he invokes Trump before launching into the hook, using Trump’s golf courses to highlight how many women he’s slept with.

2. “So Appalled,” by Kanye West (feat. CyHi the Prynce, Jay-Z, Pusha T, RZA, and Swizz Beatz)

I’m so appalled, Spalding ball
Balding, Donald Trump taking dollars from y’all.

Kanye West’s verse on “So Appalled,” from 2010’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, calls out Trump as a symbol of income inequality. West equates Trump with income redistribution. He spends the rest of the song discussing individuals acting above the law and unemployment in America.

3. “Song for the Ville,” by J. Cole

Too much spinach to eat for niggas beefin’,
So I’m out here trick or treatin’, can my niggas comprehend?
Bill Gates, Donald Trump, motherfucker let me in.

Fayetteville, North Carolina, rapper J. Cole uses Trump to talk about glass ceilings for people of color. Trump and Gates represent gatekeepers of a life of luxury and immense wealth that only the smallest fraction of the population will ever enjoy.

4. “Lights,” by Frank Ocean

Donald Trump said buy an apartment with her (ha),
Buying an apartment with ya,
Greenspan said the rate was good,
My pastor says that your faith is major,
Best friend said I ought to wife you today,
Like jumping over the broom,
The white dress and all, yup the rice and all,
They said you love that girl.

Frank Ocean is technically not a rapper, yet much of his music has hip-hop influences. In “Lights,” Ocean makes a sly reference to Trump’s real estate history and expresses regret at taking The Donald’s advice and buying an apartment with his girlfriend.

5. “Bossed Up, Pickle Juice,” by Nicki Minaj

Donald Trump can say, “You’re fired!” Let Martha Stewart run her company the same way and be the same way! “Fuck, oh evil bitch.” But Donald Trump, he gets to hang out with young bitches and have 50 different wives and just be cool. “Oh Donald, we love ya. Donald Trump.” But when you’re a girl, you have to be like, everything. You have to be—you have to be dope at what you do, but you have to be super sweet, and you have to be sexy, and you have to be this, and you have to be that, and you have to be nice, and you have to—it’s like, I can’t be all those things at once. I’m a human being.

Okay, this is not a song by Nicki Minaj, but a recorded conversation uploaded to YouTube in which she critiques the double standards and sexism in the music industry and America’s cultural landscape.

Source:  

Here’s What Rappers Have to Say About Donald Trump

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Boy Scouts End Age-Old Ban on Gay Leadership

by AdalberOreilly Posted on July 27, 2015

Mother Jones

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The Boy Scouts of America voted today to scrap a blanket ban on gay leaders, marking the end of a policy as old as the group itself. The change will also bar discrimination based on sexual orientation in all Boy Scouts of America official facilities and paying jobs.

Robert Gates, president of the Boy Scouts of America (and former US defense secretary), called for an end to the ban in May, saying the organization should “deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be.”

The end of the ban does not, however, mark complete acceptance of gay leaders: Some scout groups, particularly those with close religious affiliations, will be able to limit leadership positions to heterosexuals.

Here are some stories that demarcate turning points in the controversy:

An alternative group called the Navigators gained traction with families fed up with BSA policies against gay scouts, atheists, and families who wanted their daughters and sons to be in the same scouting troop. Navigators USA publicized itself as an organization that “welcomes all people…no matter what gender, race, lifestyle, ability, religious or lack of religious belief.”
This timeline shows just how long anti-gay discrimination has been going on in the BSA.
In 2013, the BSA ended its ban on kids in the program who identify as gay, but kept its ban on adults—meaning, in effect, that once a scout turned 18, he could be kicked out.
The Boy Scouts council threatened to kick out a Maryland pack for posting an inclusive statement on its website promising not to discriminate against gay scouts.
BSA funders such as UPS, United Way, the Merck Company Foundation, and the Intel Foundation fled for the hills as a direct result of the Boy Scouts’ anti-gay policies.

From:  

Boy Scouts End Age-Old Ban on Gay Leadership

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Melinda Gates Shames Anti-Vaxxers "Who Have Forgotten What Measles Death Looks Like"

by LorrieWolford Posted on January 23, 2015

Mother Jones

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On the heels of an increasingly widening measles outbreak at Disneyland in California, where at least 28 of the people infected were reportedly unvaccinated, Melinda Gates is urging parents to take advantage of healthcare resources in the United States and get their children vaccinated.

“We take vaccines so for granted in the United States,” Gates explained during an appearance on HuffPost Live Thursday. “Women in the developing world know the power of vaccines. They will walk 10 kilometers in the heat with their child and line up to get a vaccine because they have seen death.

In detailing the struggle parents in the developing world endure to have their children vaccinated, Gates said Americans have simply “forgotten what measles death looks like.”

Through her philanthropy work with husband Bill Gates, Melinda has long worked to help people in developing countries obtain basic healthcare treatment, including vaccine deliveries.

“I’d say to the people of the United States: We’re incredibly lucky to have that technology and we ought to take advantage of it,” she added.

In the United States, the highly contagious disease has reemerged in recent years thanks to the anti-vaccination movement and personal belief exemptions. Use of the controversial waivers is particularly prominent in California.

The recent outbreak at Disneyland has heightened the debate. According to the Associated Press, those infected range from just seven months to 70-years-old, including five park employees.

Dr. James Cherry, a specialist in pediatric infectious diseases at the University of California-Los Angeles, told the New York Times the current outbreak is “100 percent connected” to the anti-immunization movement.

“It wouldn’t have happened otherwise—it wouldn’t have gone anywhere. There are some pretty dumb people out there.”

Link: 

Melinda Gates Shames Anti-Vaxxers "Who Have Forgotten What Measles Death Looks Like"

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Gates Says Obama Gave Up On Afghanistan Three Years Ago

by BrandiNic Posted on January 7, 2014

Mother Jones

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Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates has published a memoir of his time in government. He served in Obama’s cabinet for two years:

Mr. Gates says that by 2011, Mr. Obama began expressing his own criticism of the way his strategy in Afghanistan was playing out.

At a pivotal meeting in the situation room in March 2011, Mr. Gates said, Mr. Obama opened with a blast of frustration over his Afghan policy — expressing doubts about Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander he had chosen, and questioning whether he could do business with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai.

“As I sat there, I thought: The president doesn’t trust his commander, can’t stand Karzai, doesn’t believe in his own strategy and doesn’t consider the war to be his,” Mr. Gates writes. “For him, it’s all about getting out.”

Gates was frustrated about this, and I don’t blame him. And needless to say, conservatives are going to have a field day with it.

But it’s pretty frustrating for those of us on the other side of the fence as well. Apparently, we’ve spent the past three years fighting a war that the White House no longer believes in. There’s been essentially no hope of victory, or even of doing much good, and yet we gutted it out anyway. What a waste.

Taken from – 

Gates Says Obama Gave Up On Afghanistan Three Years Ago

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