27 May, 2017: Today, BBC Headlines for an article by its North America editor headlines, "Trump's normal-ish foreign trip". Does this sound as sceptical to you as it does to this webpage? As far as we know, "normal-ish" is not a word.

25 May, 2017: How to make Jewish ancestors weep. Today we have something different, folks, at right, a joke stolen from Mad Magazine.

21 May, 2017: How to make Trump supporters weep in frustration. During the weekend, this webpage noticed an article in Weekend Australian by associate editor Chris Kenny, which gave a rundown on Trump's presidency so far that uses pretty ripe language. We decided that if this is from Trump's friend (The Australian newspaper, not Kenny necessarily), imagine what his enemies might say!? Some examples... The article is headlined for starters in an alarmist way, "Fear and Loathing Inside the Beltway". Rather reminiscent of Hunter S. Thompson's notorious anti-Nixon masterpiece, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, no? Where we note that the fear and loathing evidently must happen in some place that can be named.) (1) "From this commander in-chief (Trump) we must expect the unexpected." (2) "but it is the siege mentality that he leaves behind in Washington ..." perhaps undermining his authority. (3) [have Trump's efforts to drain the swamp of Washington merely] "unleashed a horde of operatives, activists and journalists in search of vengeance?" (4) "Trump is suffering from his own faults ... he faces malevolent insubordination ... "He ought to be paranoid because they are out to get him." (5) "Think of violent protests at his electoral success and how there was talk of impeachment even before he was inaugurated." (6) "There is much that is disturbing in Trump's political iconoclasm. It would seem almost impossible for the President to 'Make America Great Again' ..." (7) Trump offers, eg., intolerance, economic nationalism, a paradoxical concoction of foreign policy isolationism and adventurism, populist concerns about sovereignty, borders, jobs and taxes, but he also offers "character so obviously flawed, policies so contradictory and utterances so impetuous" ... (8) "His self-inflicted problems include: random tweetings ... difficulty implementing his agenda ... loose language, poor selection of staff, and a spokesman who is often as incoherent as Trump himself. (9) Trump operates in a climate of media antipathy. ... Trump's own loose acquaintance with facts and consistency ... (10) Trump invites derision and opposition. One New York newspaper has regarded Trump as "The Leaker of the Free World" ... (11) Trump sets himself up for controversy ... "Trump will need to survive the revenge of the swamp ... lose the air of crisis enveloping his thus-far shambolic presidency ..."
This webpage asks again: if this is how Trump's friends talk, what on earth are his enemies saying? What could possibly go wrong?

19 May 2017: How to make King Canute openly weep. Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama provides Trump with a "coded warning" that he/The USA can't escape the effects of climate change. But this webpage wonders a lot if he has the time to listen to this sort of warning, preoccupied as Trump is with "the greatest witch-hunt in US history". (Remember the story about the boy who cried "Wolf" too often, after a while no one believed a word he said.)

18 May 2017: How to make President Trump Himself cry a lot, Part II. Oh dear, T's doo-dah deepens. Now a public call has been made in the USA by Congressman Al Green (a Democrat from Texas) for Trump's impeachment ... for Obstruction of Justice. That didn't take long, did it? Trump has only been in power since 20 January. Now he might be impeached. Really? Let's see if Trump can trump this? But what on earth has happened to Trump's wall against Mexico? How come the USA isn't great again, already? What about renovating US infrastructures? What on earth has happened to the Trump Agenda? And can we stop Putin in Russia cracking unseemly jokes about Trump's US problems? What does Vice-President Pence think? So many questions, so little time in in which to answer them, so many worries. (And while looking at this story on the net, this webpage amusedly found a US website keeping a Running List of Democrats Who Have Discussed Impeachment.)

17 May, 2017: How to make President Trump Himself cry a lot: Oh dear, Trump's doo-dah has suddenly gotten much deeper. Suddenly it's being alleged in the USA that some time ago he improperly asked the FBI to drop an investigation into Trump's early security adviser, Flynn (on whom see below). Really?

16 May 2017: Oh dear, is President Trump in big doo dah today. Allegations arise in the USA, particularly with Washington Post, that Trump has personally delivered top-security military capability secrets to the Russians, probably betraying ally Israel. But these allegations do tend to assume that Trump ever actually or consciously knows what he might be saying to anyone, we fear. We wonder if he hasn't just been confabulating, again. (We find later in 2017 from a book on Memory that a definition of confabulation from today's neuroscientists is "unconsciously making it up."-Ed.)

15 May 2017: Making Trump supporters cry. Today's offering, folks, is the text of a Wilcox cartoon from Sydney Morning Herald, 15 May, 2017. President T. is having morning tea with some children's toys, and he says to them, "Making up rules, doing anything you want, trashing the Constitution, lying, removing and threatening anyone who disagrees with you, is MUCH MUCH harder than I thought. That's why I deserve two scoops of ice cream while the rest of you have one."

13 May 2017: Making the whole world cry. Wannacry about Ransomware? It's a world wide hit on computer systems. The hackers said they had published the password as a "protest" about US President Donald Trump. At the time, some cyber-security experts said some of the malware was real, but old. A patch for the vulnerability was released by Microsoft in March, but many systems may not have had the update installed. Microsoft said on Friday its engineers had added detection and protection against WannaCrypt. The company was providing assistance to customers, it added. How does the malware work? Some security researchers have pointed out that the infections seem to be deployed via a worm - a program that spreads by itself between computers. Unlike many other malicious programs, this one has the ability to move around a network by itself. Most others rely on humans to spread by tricking them into clicking on an attachment harbouring the attack code. By contrast, once WannaCry is inside an organisation it will hunt down vulnerable machines and infect them too. This perhaps explains why its impact is so public - because large numbers of machines at each victim organisation are being compromised. (From BBC Headlines on 13 May, 2017.)

10 May 2017: How to make half the FBI cry. Pres. Snowflake Trump lest he gets another blow to his glass jaw has fired FBI director James Comey, who has been replaced by Congressman Trey Gowdy, head of House Investigative Committee. Let's see then how long Gowdy lasts. Some idiots think T. is immature enough to fire Comey just because he's taller than T by a few inches, can you believe it?

9 May 2017: Speaking of Fake News ™, this webpage has been idly wondering of late, in the worst possible way, what if, gasp, we didn't know that a lot of the music we listen to was fake? What if we were surrounded by fake food? Fake motor cars. Fake education systems. Fake good vibes. Faked orgasms? (More women than men, we suppose.) Did we have fake childhoods? Might we have fake funerals? It doesn't bear thinking about, does it? What if this is a fake webpage? Does it matter if the USA has a fake democracy because it's really a Constitutional Republic designed to be run by insiders?

1 May, 2017: Making all his Mexican-hating voters cry: globalnews.ca reports 1-5-2017 that US Congress has confirmed a US$1 trillion spending bill but denies money for Trump's border wall with Mexico. The spending allocation does give Trump a $15 billion start for his effort to strengthen the US military, but the Bill guarantees US spending only till September 2017. More agony happens in September, then, we presume.

30 April, 2017: BBC Headlines reports today that "Trump attacks US media at 100-day rally, says criticism of his regime is 'fake news'". So folks, it's back to Fake News ™. Is this predictably unpredictable or is it just predictable? Trump has reportedly said that he didn't know health care was so complex. He didn't know so much work was involved in being president of the USA. He didn't know these things beforehand, and yet he is elected president of the USA! Really? Sad but true, yes.

29-30 April, 2017: US President Snowflake Trump reaches his first 100 days in power. How does he seem to you to be going, ok? Has he made USA great again? Ain't it just so great, this re-greating of America? Here's an old Mexican saying for Trump while he celebrates, and it ain't fake: "Pity the country that needs heroes."

26 April, 2017: Trump makes his own voters cry: BBC Headlines today reports that "Trump's back down on wall funding. If cash for a wall is left out of the budget bill, a government shutdown can be averted this week." (US Democrats seem set to vote against a budget allocation for wall-building.)

25 April 2017: A San Francisco judge blocks T's executive order withholding funds from so-called "sanctuary" cities. From Sydney Morning Herald, w/e 29-30 April, 2017, News Review Section.

24 April, 2017: Could be fake news, but maybe not. (Fake News ™) As reported on Australian TV news, President Snowflake Trump is to be sued at law by a nine-year-old lad in USA for his sins in calling climate change a hoax. The kid believes it's not a hoax. This webpage's money is on the kid!

23 April 2017: North Korea threatens Australia as an ally of USA with direct nuclear attack. Which is not very funny. Australia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Julie Bishop, responds by telling North Korea it could better feed its people properly than to waste money trying to develop nuclear-strike capabilities.

22 April 2017: US VP Pence meets with Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. From Sydney Morning Herald, w/e 29-30 April, 2017, News Review Section.

21-4-2017: Big Day Out for Facts. Even a year ago, it might have been impossible to even imagine it, but today, around the world, scientists are marching in defence of facts, that's right, ascertainable facts. Partly because of Pres. Snowflake Trump's wars on facts and advertising of the benefits of alternative facts. And right, says this webpage, now we know the Moon is made of green cheese, not blue, or white, or any other colour, can we get on with it please? "It" being things like they used to be in the good ole USA in the late 1950s. Ok, not.

21 April, 2017: Female ABC TV journalist on morning news earnestly explains re the upcoming USA VP Pence visit to Australia, that unlike Pres. Snowflake Trump, Pence "doesn't speak in absurdities" and also doesn't do Twitter at odd times in the morning.

20 April 2017: Trump signs an order directing the US Commerce Dept. to investigate whether steel imports to US are a threat to US National Security. From Sydney Morning Herald, w/e 29-30 April, 2017, News Review Section.

19 April 2017. Can Pres. Snowflake Trump get his oceans correct please? The US Carl Vinson naval strike group was not sailing north toward North Korea, in the Pacific Ocean, it was sailing for Perth Australia thence the Indian Ocean - despite Trump's shock-and-awe use of words (since about 8 April) such as "powerful". Trump got it wrong. Trump also a few days wasn't so strong in a TV interview on whether he had recently bombed Syria or Iraq, so just for the record here, it was Syria with 50 Tomahawk missiles which each cost about $1 million.

17 April, 2017: President Flipflop Trump now thinks that China is not a currency manipulator after all, says Sydney Morning Herald in a story by Alan Rappeport, p. 23 ... "The US Treasury Dept. has officially declined to label China as a currency manipulator, breaking one of President Donald Trump's most prominent campaign promises."

17 April, 2017; This webpage temporarily drops its usual derision of Pres. Snowflake Trump out of respect for the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, and out of respect for Mrs Trump, who seems like a good egg to us. More in due course, and in the interim, go figure. Meantime we confess to reading idle gossip last weekend if not fake news on the Net that right-wing and breitbart alt-right guru Steve Bannon is now being sidelined at the White House since he's a growingly persona-non-grata. The story is that as soon as he was typecast as a "puppeteer", only a few weeks ago, he was gone, since NO ONE read NO ONE does that to Pres. Snowflake Trump, NO ONE. Now, as you were ... if Mr Bannon is now unemployed, who gives a rat's? See Weekend Australian, 15-16 April 2017, Trump now feels that Bannon is merely "a guy who works for me." (Great manipulator sent to the doghouse)

16 April, 2017. Can't speak, too worried about North Korea. Anyway, it's Easter.

15 April, 2017. Can't speak, too worried about North Korea. Anyway, it's Easter.

14 April, 2017. Can't speak, too worried about North Korea. Anyway, it's Easter.

How Trump makes particular Australian politicians cry: AAP 13 Apr 2017 - 3:30 PM UPDATED 1 HOUR AGO - Former Australian foreign minister [former Labor politician] Gareth Evans has launched a blistering attack on US President Donald Trump. Mr Evans has lambasted Mr Trump as "the most ill-informed, ethically challenged and psychologically ill-equipped" president in US history. "Personally driven by instinct and impulse, unhampered by knowledge or judgement, he has led an administration, acting so far manifestly on the basis of postures and not of policies," Mr Evans told the National Press Club in Canberra on Thursday. And this webpage quite agrees.

13 April, 2017: Today the crikey/com WORM has a field day with Trump. As follows: TODAY IN TRUMP - A week was once thought to be a long time in politics, but in the age of Donald Trump even two-and-a-half-minutes can feel daunting. In a clip of that length doing the rounds today, Trump recounts eating "the most beautiful" chocolate cake while ordering the bombing of Syria, gratuitously flatters his interviewer for "treating me so good for so long", and goes on to accidentally say he fired missiles at Iraq. Trump, who did not notice the error, was corrected by Fox News host Maria Bartiromo. He had fired on Syria, not Iraq. Also on Wednesday Trump was also contacted by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who encouraged a peaceful resolution to the renewed tensions with the country Trump has now refers to as "the menace of North Korea".

12 April 2017, Trump declares that NATO in his IMHO is no longer "obsolete". Meaning, he's recently discovered that he might need it one day. From Sydney Morning Herald, w/e 29-30 April, 2017, News Review Section.

11-12 April 2017: Trump makes his own press secretary cry. And it gets curiouser and curiouser. Evidently Spicer is finally manful enough to admit his mistake but his mistake, or his lack of knowledge, then his lack of judgement, is not forgiveable. It's come to this. As Sydney Morning Herald has it, "Sean Spicer apologises for Hitler remarks amid series of gaffes", story by Josephine Tovey. White House press secretary Sean Spicer, besieged by widespread condemnation and calls for his resignation, made a televised apology on Tuesday afternoon for a baffling series of gaffes in which he favourably compared Adolf Hitler to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and claimed the Nazi leader had not used chemical weapons against his own people. Democrats and the Anne Frank Centre for Mutual Respect were among those calling for the senior official, already a frequent target of criticism and ridicule for his combative and at times bumbling style, to be dumped from the role. In making one of his unreserved apologies, Spicer made a further couple of gaffes, mispronouncing the name of the Syrian leader and stating that he didn't want to distract from President Donald Trump's attempt to "destabilise the region". [When he meant "to stabilise"], Shades of George W. Bush being misunderestimated!! During an answer on the recent chemical attack in Syria, Spicer framed the depravity of the act using a comparison with Nazi Germany, saying: "You had someone as despicable as Hitler, who didn't even sink to chemical weapons."
And well, seldom in living memory has a US presidential press secretary been so wrong! Clearly, Mr Spicer finds it impossible to be clear about anything. Clearly, Mr. Spicer should no longer be allowed to talk further to the adults in the room and should be sent back to kindergarten and not let out. Clearly, the first person to mention the Nazis loses the argument.

10 April, 2017: Tom Switzer (a presenter for ABC Radio's Radio National program) today writes in The Sydney Morning Herald and asks, when it all boils down, there is not much difference between killing people by conventional means and killing them by chemical weapon attack, they are still dead, so why mount an attack just because chemical weapons have been used? Another writer in the same newspaper quotes from the Chinese classic, The Art of War/Sun Tzu, "Tactics without strategy is [merely] the sound before defeat." One might add, as Sun Tzu did, "Strategy [a plan] without tactics [implementation] is the slowest route to victory."

7- April, 2017: Two US navy ships in Eastern Mediterranean have fired 59 Tomahawk missiles on a Syrian Govt army/air base near Homs, allegedly connected with a gas-bomb attack on civilians (by Syrian Govt?) in a rebel-held area on Tuesday 4 April. This is given wide coverage in Australia (a US ally) by ABC TV news. Much depends on whether Syria regards this as a formal act of war, a declaration of war, or takes a cooler approach. What Russia might do/think is another matter. One Tomahawk missile misfired, making it a round 60 missiles were fired. A friend of this webpage estimates from his Net reading that these 60 Tomahawk missiles cost about $60 million, or $1 million each. How much would this cost alleviate any of the up-to-four famines now threatening parts of Africa, he wants to know?

7 April, 2017: Today in Australia, Crikey.com's Worm says: "As Republicans fight Democrats in the Senate, it's Republican v Democrat-turned-Republican in the White House. A rift between Steve Bannon and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is now playing out in public after Bannon left the National Security Council. So bad is the relationship, Bannon has reportedly called Kushner the two worst things in the alt-right vocabulary: a 'cuck' and a 'globalist'." You recall the schoolyard chant in Australia years ago, don't you? "Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me."

6 April, 2017: BBC Headlines reports that: Pres. Trump's senior strategist Steve Bannon loses his place on the US National Security Council.

4 April, 2017: Normal service is interrupted today, folks, while this wepage considers a dire scenario which has arisen for journalism in general these days. To wit, in our present days of Fake News ™, is it possible anymore for journalists to execute a really successful demolition job on someone, or something? We wonder.

30 March, 2017: Amazingly, US Republicans make their President cry. Yes folks, watch the tables turn on each other, it's not a pretty sight at all. BBC Headlines today reports that T's anti-Mexican Wall could be delayed as Republicans consider putting its funding on hold as they consider whether to shut down a spending bill needed for the measure, matters here to take effect by 28 April. Yes folks, the Republicans are again wanting to cut off their nose to spite their face in order to reduce the size of the US Govt. But you try to govern a country of 325 million people without using a government and see how far you get. This could be even more tragic than a Wall against Mexico. Don't ask me, ask The Ghost of Thomas Jefferson.

29 March, 2017: Environmentalists around the world are weeping already. Busy busy busy as ever, Pres. Snowflake Trump today turns his attention to Obama-style regulations re climate change, and does his level best to abolish as many of them as possible. T. declares in public that he is in love with Clean Coal (although there is really no such thing and never has been). Some US residents might think all this trumpeting of clean coal is as wise as it might be welcome, but on the other hand, if the Science is indeed in, it could prove decidely unwise for such a large economy to do this. T. is pro-coal industry and Climate Change Denialism is now national US policy. Dearest Reader, it's your call, so please call soon.

28 March 2017: Today, folks, an Australian friend of this webpage rings especially to tell us -- breaking news -- that young Jared Kushner, T.'s son-in-law and "top aide", (it's called nepotism) is now under high-level investigation in USA because he may have broken US sanctions against various Russian interests (probably a bank). Our informant went so far as to use the T-word - treason. We wonder. We wonder deeply whether Mr. and Mrs. Angry America, who in their wisdom elected T., when will their penny drop, when will they realise they have here elected a dud named T.?

25 March, 2017. Today Trump makes cry the people who elected him, due to political failure, as ABC TV News 24 in Australia reports during an Al-Jazeera hour: "No repeal for Obamacare as Republicans pull Donald Trump's healthcare Bill".
This BTW was not so much a matter of Democrats winning or not winning as it was of Republicans losing the plot. The question now being asked is: has the US Republican Party forgotten how to govern? T. it seems, lately having failed to deal with Health, will soon have a crack at Tax. Let's see now if he also finds Tax a little bit over-complicated to deal with?
On 29-3-2017, BBC Headlines has a story on Canadians living longer on average than US citizens due to better/different health-care system(s). So beware, living in the USA may shorten your lifespan.

How power is going to Trump's head

24 March, 2017:

Our Melbourne fan of this page says, "Those limp-dick liberals at NYT are still being unkind to our Donald", and he's sent along this story to prove it ... =========

Help Wanted: Trump Betting Expert for Gambling Website - how Trump is making all the bookies cry ...

By CHAD BRAY MARCH 21, 2017 - New York Times
Will President Trump seek to have his likeness added to Mount Rushmore? Will he announce the existence of alien life?
Whimsical as these situations might sound, there is a growing market for betting on an already unpredictable Trump presidency.
Paddy Power, the Irish gambling website known for its over-the-top marketing stunts, says wagers associated with Mr. Trump have been more popular than any other novelty bets it has offered in the last year, including bets associated with Britain's referendum on whether to leave the European Union.
Now, Paddy Power is hiring a "head of Trump betting" to oversee bets related to the new US president and his administration.
The company, which is part of Paddy Power Betfair, a bookmaking business based in Dublin, is advertising the three-month contracted position amid sustained interest in Trump-related bets.
A Paddy Power spokesman insisted the job is a real one, despite the irreverent manner in which its advertisement is written.
"With more than 100 special bets online, the successful candidate will monitor and manage existing Trump markets while devising new specials to launch," the company said in its online advertisement. "They will also need to build a wall around the hub to ensure foreign bets don't get in."
The ad also said that "substantial experience with fake tan is preferable" and an "awareness of [the] national security situation in Sweden" is beneficial, referring to the controversy after comments in February by Mr. Trump that implied something terrible had happened in Sweden the night before.
On its website, Paddy Power offers customers a variety of potential bets tied to the Trump administration, DealBook.
DealBook delivers the news driving the markets and the conversation, it's delivered weekday mornings and afternoons and it also receives occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services.
They include which member of the Trump administration is likely to resign next -- Attorney-General Jeff Sessions is a 2-to-1 favourite -- and whether the president will seek to have his likeness added to Mount Rushmore this year, at 100 to 1.
The likelihood that Mr. Trump will announce that alien life exists: 20 to 1.
Despite the popularity of bets involving Mr. Trump, Paddy Power Betfair said in January that the unexpected victory by Mr. Trump cost the company almost 5 million pounds, or about $6 million, in the fourth quarter.
Before the election, Paddy Power said that it had paid out more than $1 million in late October to customers who bet on a victory by Hillary Clinton. The company had paid out $700,000 two days ahead of President Barack Obama's re-election in 2012.
The company did not say how much customers had wagered on Trump-related bets.
Paddy Power completed an all-stock merger with its rival Betfair last year, creating an online gambling company that is now worth 7.3 billion.
The marketing for the Paddy Power brand includes a tongue-in-cheek blog, irreverent television advertisements and a variety of stunts such as: Turnaround Steward! New Paddy Power advert #YouBeauty Video by Paddy Power
For example, the company sent a hearse to the stadium used by the British soccer team Leicester City after the team fired its manager, Claudio Ranieri, last month, less than a year after winning the English Premier League.
The unexpected title run of Leicester City last year proved costly to gambling companies in Britain, costing Paddy Power alone more than 2 million. The club had a 5000-to-1 chance of winning the league entering the 2015-16 season.
Other marketing stunts by Paddy Power have included the unveiling of a hot-air balloon in the shape of a pair of lucky underpants at the Cheltenham Festival in 2013, and the display of a wax figure of the former Manchester United manager, Alex Ferguson, in a box labelled "In case of emergency break glass," when the soccer club was struggling in 2014.
(C)opyright New York Times.

Sign for a Mexican restaurant somewhere in NSW, Australia

	(With sincere apologies to the population of Mexico)

23 March, 2017: Signs are emerging that The Trump Factor is beginning to hurt the US tourism industry, reports www.newdaily.com.au, today in Australia.

22 March, 2017: Forget about T. just for today, folks. Today we're going to go deeper into the Fake News ™ thing by way of presenting some new nonsense about media: Now read on.
Mainstream Media: The Kind of Media we thought we used to have, eg, the woefully pre-Internet media that years ago reported on the decline of US President Richard M. Nixon, the kind of media now termed by T. as "fake".
Brainstream Media: (1) For ideas that are genuinely new; (2) For ideas resulting from brainstorming sessions; (3) for puzzled comment about no-brainers in politics.
Cainestream Media" (1) News for people feeling mutinous, (2) fanzine for fans of actor Michael Caine.
Drainstream Media: for media that's going down the gurgler.
Gainstream Media: daily updates for the investment industry, the finance sector and devotees of The Christian Gospel of Prosperity.
Grainstream Media. News for farmers.
Jainstream Media: Newsletter for folks interested in Jain Buddhism.
Painstream Media: World newsletter for hospital patients.
Rainstream Media: Newsletters for staff of dams around the world.
Refrainstream Media: for people who like media material that's boring and repetitive, no matter how reassuring it is. (eg., the old blues music line: "it's gonna be allright".)
Stainstream Media: Newsletter for the dry cleaning industry.
Strainstream Media: world-wide newsletter for all the people who feel that they do an honest day's work for an honest day's pay.
Vainstream Media: newsletter for people devoted to lost causes.
Zanystream Media: fanzine for fans of Frank Zappa Music, comedians like the Marx Bros. and/or fans of movies by Mel Brooks.

How the Chinese kept out Mexicans

	(With sincere apologies to the population of China)

18-20 March, 2017: Trump so far and in overview ... Dear Readers, a devoted fan of this webpage, who shall remain nameless, recently raided the Internet for us and got this prize article on Snowflake T. Now read on ... Our fan e-mailed, "Dear Editor, As you seem pre-occupied with who The Donald has made to cry today ... It may be himself. Or at least according to this article published in The New York Times: (I quite like the line ... 'he counter-punches so hard he hits himself') ..."
WASHINGTON - Minutes before President Trump was to take the stage in Nashville last week to make his case for the health care overhaul he had promised, he received some unwelcome news that shifted his script.
A Federal District Court judge in Hawaii had just placed another stay on his ban on travellers from six predominantly Muslim countries, dealing his order a second legal setback in two months. As a country music duo crooned in an auditorium still filling with adoring supporters of Mr. Trump, the president fumed backstage and huddled with his staff for a hasty redrafting of the speech.
When Mr. Trump emerged, he decided to relegate the health care overhaul, which he has identified as a top domestic priority, to a brief mention more than halfway through the speech. He instead replaced its prime billing with an angry diatribe against the travel ban ruling and the judge who had issued it.
"I have to be nice, otherwise I'll get criticized for speaking poorly about our courts," he said. But he could not help himself: The president soon suggested that the court that had just ruled against him should be destroyed. "People are screaming, 'Break up the Ninth Circuit!' "
Once again, Mr. Trump's agenda was subsumed by problems of his own making, his message undercut by a seemingly endless stream of controversy he cannot seem to stop himself from feeding.
The health care measure appears on track for a House vote this week, and the president, who planned a weekend of relaxation at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach, Fla., club, is likely to receive a large measure of the credit. But it has also become clear that Mr. Trump, an agitator incapable of responding proportionately to any slight, appears hellbent on squandering his honeymoon.
Instead, he has sowed chaos in his own West Wing, and talked or tweeted his way into trouble, over and over again.
That was never more apparent than over the last week, when fresh questions about his refusal to release his tax returns and the blocking of his executive order sapped the spotlight from his efforts to build support for the health measure and even the unveiling of his first budget.
Even more self-lacerating: his insistence that President Barack Obama had authorized surveillance on his 2016 campaign, a claim that continued unabated despite rebukes from Republicans, denials by the congressional intelligence committees and complaints from the British government, which demanded an apology after Mr. Trump's spokesman suggested that one of its intelligence agencies had aided in the spying.
"It's a pattern with him - he sometimes counterpunches so hard he hits himself," said Ari Fleischer, who served as White House press secretary for George W. Bush.
The public outbursts are mirrored by internal tensions. With the embers of the old rivalry extinguished between his chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, and chief of staff, Reince Priebus, a new realignment has emerged in a West Wing already riven by suspicion and intrigue.
Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs executive who serves as the president's top economic policy adviser and who is decidedly more liberal than the rest of Mr. Trump's inner circle, is on the rise, and has the ear of the president's powerful son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Mr. Kushner also gained an ally on the National Security Council with the appointment of Dina Powell, a Republican and another former Goldman official who worked with Mr. Cohn, as a deputy for strategy.
In the newness of the administration, the constant need to tend to internal dynamics has been a distraction. The aides have watched each other warily and tried tending to the president's base of supporters amid a sea of appointments of people who worked on Wall Street.
Mr. Trump is not bothered by turf battles in his administration. He believes they foster competition and keep any one aide from accumulating too much power. He is even more enthusiastic about waging war publicly, believing that it fires up his white working-class base.
Indeed, in Nashville on Wednesday night, Mr. Trump spoke to a rapturous crowd of almost 10,000 people and his embattled spokesman, Sean Spicer, was greeted as a star by awe-struck supporters, who spent several minutes crowding around him to take pictures and pat him on the back.
But in Washington, some Republican lawmakers and officials have watched in dismay and frustration, they say privately, because the president they are looking to for cover and salesmanship of the health care overhaul keeps getting sidetracked.
One of those diversions came after the judge's ruling on the travel ban. In Nashville, the president said he would prefer to go back to his first, more restrictive ban and pursue it to the Supreme Court. "That's what I wanted to do in the first place," Mr. Trump said, a statement that seems destined to be used against his own lawyers in upcoming court cases on the executive order.
For Mr. Trump, this was supposed to be a week of pivoting and message discipline. The president read from a script during public appearances and posted on Twitter less often. He invited lawmakers from both parties to the White House for strategy sessions on the health measure. He scheduled policy speeches, like one near Detroit, where he announced that he was halting fuel economy standards imposed by Mr. Obama, and the rally in Nashville, where he visited the grave of Andrew Jackson, the populist patron selected by his history-minded political impresario, Mr. Bannon, as Mr. Trump's presidential analog.
But by Friday, as Mr. Trump worked to call attention to his powers of persuasion in securing commitments from a dozen wavering Republicans to back the health measure, the White House was left frantically trying to explain why Mr. Spicer had repeated allegations that the Government Communications Headquarters, the British spy agency, had helped to eavesdrop on the president during the campaign.
Rather than expressing regret for a slight of one of the United States' strongest allies, Mr. Trump was unapologetic.
"We said nothing," he said at a news conference with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany. "All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television," he added, referring to Andrew Napolitano, the commentator who first levelled the charge about the involvement of the British intelligence service on Fox News.
That did not seem to be enough for the irate British, who had called the charge "nonsense" and "utterly ridiculous." Shepard Smith, a Fox News anchor, later disavowed it as well, saying his network could not back up Mr. Napolitano's claims.
The episode left little time for talk of Mr. Trump's "America First" budget released on Thursday, filled with domestic spending cuts so deep that even his budget director conceded they would be unpopular, or the health care measure that would affect more than 20 percent of the economy.
"This White House is on two tracks," Mr. Fleischer said. "The legislative one, which has been surprisingly and pleasantly productive, and the other one full of self-induced error."
The problem for Mr. Trump, he added, is that the self-destructive behaviour, if it continues, threatens to overshadow everything else.
"He has a tremendous number of ingredients at his disposal to be a very successful president," Mr. Fleischer added, "but he might not even get credit for it if he is so red-hot controversial."
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS and MAGGIE HABERMAN MARCH 18, 2017, (C)opyright New York Times, 2017

19 March, 2017: A weekend. The weekend papers have had a field day with T. Sydney Morning Herald, page 31, has an article by a noted Trump critic, journalist Paul McGeough, who in an article on T's budget has it that this is going to be "Dismemberment 'one dollar at a time'." What could be more fun? The T regime promises a triple-barrelled Armageddon, a scorched earth policy for government, of the government, for the government, by the government ... by hacking into bureaucracy, budget and regulations generally. T. has "an anarchic chief strategist, Steve Bannon". This will be a "history-making takedown of Washington as a national and global centre of power". Defence and Homeland Security will enjoy boosts at the expense of almost every other government department (and really, what could be simpler?). T. continues to screw his voters, McGeough asserts, but eek, would T. really do that, screw his voters, surely not!! Meantime, The Weekend Australian p. 11 trumpets. "No evidence of taps on Trump" on the wilting of Trumps's evidence-lacking accusation that he was "wiretapped" by his predecessor, Obama. And about Trump's budget? Well, "Nervous Republicans resist deep budget cuts". The Weekend Australian also inserts a bit of official advertising for itself (for 50 per cent off the usual price), "for the informed Australian", promising, "For facts that aren't alternative", complete with a picture of T. answering the phone, thus dignifying the Fake News ™ thing, dignifying T. himself, and dignifying a large price drop for the newspaper. And really, which facts are alternative here and which are not ... while this newspaper's price drops? It's your call or is it my call? This webpage feels that what T. as President of the USA now badly needs is a brand new department, which would actually have two wings, (a west wing and an east wing, or a south wing with a north wing attached?) called Dept. of Homeland Credibility.

17 March, 2017: Today, too, BBC Headlines asks, and more so as politically, US Republicans are now in control numerically at least ... have US republicans forgotten how to govern? Why does T. keep undermining things with irrelevant tweets (eg about Obama monitoring Trump Towers in 2016) - or with his "social media rants". Re T's use of social media, this webpage happens to remember that early in Obama's incumbency, his fondness for using Blackberry technology was oft mentioned. As time went by, we heard much less about Blackberry. This webpage feels we'd all be far better off if T. stopped using twitter to twitter on.

17 March, 2017: BBC Headlines (they're a "real beauty" in T's word, y'all remember): BBC Headlines reports that: Senate intelligence panel rejects Trump wiretap claim ... [2 minutes ago or about 5.26am Australian Eastern Time (DS in NSW)] - "There are 'no indications' that Trump Tower was under surveillance by the US government before or after the election, a Senate committee has said. The statement from Republican Senator Richard Burr, Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, dismissed Donald Trump's claim his phones were tapped. Mr Trump had accused his predecessor, Barack Obama, of wiretapping Trump Tower during the presidential race. Mr Burr joins a cadre of lawmakers who have rejected the allegation.
Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, Devin Nunes, said on Wednesday he doesn't believe 'there was an actual tap of Trump Tower'. But Mr Trump stood by his unverified allegations on Wednesday, telling Fox News a 'wiretap covers a lot of different things'. T. also hinted that more details about the alleged surveillance could be revealed in the coming weeks. 'Wiretap covers a lot of different things. I think you're going to find some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next two weeks,' T. said in an interview that was broadcast in full on Wednesday night." Or, as we said below, would T. pls be clearer about whether he means wiretap, or wire tap, or wire-tap. Is this real news or fake news? Who knows? And does it sound like confabulation on T's part? Yes it does.

16 March, 2017: This is even juicier. Today we find that a judge in Hawaii has found Trump's second executive order/travel ban on Muslims to be nationally unacceptable. Pres. Snowflake Trump on TV seems VERY angry about this and he is also NOT calling it fake news, it's evidently real news. Well, well, well. He might even take matters here to the US Supreme Court. Well, well, well.

15 March, 2017: This is juicy. President Snowflake Trump's 2005 tax return data has been leaked to one US journalist (David Cay Johnston), perhaps leaked by T. himself, so now speculation reigns and possibly, so will fresh fake news reign.

15 March 2017: Fake News ™. Today we steal a headline from www.newdaily.com.au, which says it all: "Donald Trump’s latest backflip adds to trail of disbelief ... What the President and his advisers say seems to be vastly different to what they actually mean. It’s amazing how often they go back on their word ..."

14 March, 2017: Oops! Sorry honey, I just shrunk the national health situation. Continuing his so-brave attempts to Make America Great Again ™, Pres. Snowflake Trump seems to have lately succeeded only in making medical patients cry. BBC Headlines today reports that the Trump Health Care Plan will strip insurance from about 14 million people for the year 2018. It's hard for this webpage to see where the progress is here. This looks like a national ill-health program. But oh well, this is not a disaster, it's merely not-great.

13 March, 2017: US Republican Senator John McCain says that re President Snowflake Trumps's confabulation-seeming allegations that President Obama,wiretapped Trump Towers during the 2017 presidential elections, T. should put up or shut up. This webpage also feels in addition that it would be more than helpful if T. specified what he means by "wiretapped"; does he mean wiretapped, or wire-tapped or wire tapped?

9 March, 2017: Now Trump causes a lot of US doctors to cry. BBC Headlines today reports that "US hospitals oppose Trump health bill - Medics express fears for poor Americans as they assess the potential impact of the new Republican plan." And this webpage feels this brief story is a bit misleading already. Surely here, Bill should be given a capital letter, not a lowercase B, since a Bill is a formal item going into the political process, as with Act? We also feel that the word "impact" here should be in the plural, not the singular. Also, we know already that the USA can't do national health scheme with any success, and that whether Obamacare is any good or not, that anything that Trump proposes will be a nonsense. In any case, doctors usually win any political fights they get into, so in this stoush our money is on what the BBC calls, "the medics". Maybe here, Trump should heed the old advice given to doctors when they start their careers? - Do No Further Harm.

7 March 2017: Today folks, BBC Headlines has a story that ... "Ben Carson calls US slaves 'immigrants'." This is just plain sad, folks, this webpage thinks. Ben Carson is the (2-3-2017) newly-appointed Secretary of US Housing and Urban Development and is a former brain surgeon. It seems to this webpage that while Carson as a retired brain surgeon might understand brains, he really doesn't understand North American history since 1718 or so, and probably Caribbean and South American history with it, nor what can be called, The Triangular Trade Pattern of the Atlantic Community. His remarks, one US website says, have had the result that the "Internet has exploded". But well, this webpage with its liking for black comedy and weird humour thinks that this certainly won't be the last of daft remarks that members of the Trump administration will utter in months to come. So stay tuned. Carson, who has a lot of odd ideas about history, is said to be a Seventh Day Adventist. Go figure.

4 March 2017: Not crying, just drowning. Those humour-driven cards at BBC Headlines today have a new headline, "Drip of Russia revelations deluges Trump." 'Nuff said about the lack of sympathy here.

3 March 2017: Now Russia makes USA cry? If the allegations now raging on the Internet and international TV are half-true, about US Attorney -General, former Senator for Alabama, Jeff Sessions, he of the unbearably Southern USA accent, that Sessions spoke about "things" to the Russian Ambassador before President Snowflake Trump was actually elected president. What sort of "things"? Will Sessions become casualty No. 2 of the Trump Administration? ... which officially has only been going since 20 January 2017. Don't waste time watching this space, now, ya'll hear? [But to bone up on what sort of things might be bothering Trump here, go google on the Magnitsky Act (USA 2012) - and, it's complicated - Ed.)]

2 March 2017: Fake news ™? Pres. Snowflake Trump has delivered his first speech to Congress. He took 61 minutes and made 51 incorrect statements in the eyes of the watching Centre for American Progress. Meantime, Wall Street glowed. Trump hit the patriotism button and soon made a military widow named Owens weep about things that happened recently in Yemen, and the USA glowed. Trump promised to boost military spending and the USA's chest swelled. And he promised to make ISIS cry a lot. He ended by asking everyone to believe in themselves, to believe once more in America; and then he said, without the slightest bow to originality, "Thank you, God bless you and God bless the United States." This is how America is being made great ™ again, it seems.

1 March, 2017: Trump makes US Democrats laugh and cry at the same time (it's called catharsis) by saying in a speech that the time has come to put "trivia fights" behind us.

28 February, 2017: Pres. Snowflake Trump makes all the world's peaceniks cry as he's going to beef up the US military forces.

27 February, 2017: Fake news ™ itself is made to cry as Trump continues his War With The Media. Trump has declared that fake news media are "the enemy of the people". But unfortunately, this is the sort of thing that could so easily happen in the USA, which has long lacked a due sense of a loyal opposition in government. The USA has an immature lack of any sense that opposition to a particular government is not unpatriotic. So now it looks as though the US media has to take upon itself the national work of the USA developing a sense of loyal opposition to government. Sigh. We say "sigh" because we doubt this work will go at all well.
All this webpage can suggest is that aggrieved or weeping journalists here try how the the Spartacus movie ends: "I"m fake news ™". "No, I'm fake news." "No, I'm fake news." "No, I'm fake news."
That'll fix him. It fixed the Romans in the movie and it ought to fix Trump now.

26 February, 2017: Mexico refuses to cry: BBC Headlines says today: the very same BBC that with CNN has been banned from the latest Trump press conferences: "Mexico has warned the US against imposing a unilateral tax on Mexican imports to finance a border wall, saying it could respond in kind. Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said the government could place tariffs on selected goods from US states reliant on exports to Mexico. Earlier, US President Donald Trump vowed to start building the wall ™ 'soon, way ahead of schedule'."

25 February, 2017: How to make US flag flyers cry: Hey Guys, this webpage on 25 Feb was looking over its collection of songs from the USA that Pres. Snowflake Trump so wants to make great again, and we thort, we thort, why don't we list songs-n-stuff about what Trump so wants to make great again? And so we list these wonderful songs/bits of music and even some jive from movies. And why not the poetry of Walt Whitman? Or the song, Who's Gonna Build Your Wall? by US folk songwriter Tom Russell? Or music from the soundtrack of the documentary on The Civil War by Ken Burns. Eg., song, Born to Run, by Bruce Springsteen. Desolation Row by Bob Dylan. Duquesene Whistle, by Bob Dylan. Billy Joel, We Didn't Start The Fire. Delius, American Rhapsody. American Pie by Don Maclean. Rum and Coca Cola by The Andrews Sisters. Just for fun, The Beatles, Back in the USSR. Ferde Grof, The Grand Canyon Suite. And what does Trump play in public? ... The Rolling Stones, a UK outfit via France via the USA (black folks dept, ie R&B), I can't Get No Satisfaction or You Can't Always Get What You want ... big deal, we don't think.
Or, try Simon and Garfunkle, America. Paul Simon in 2016, song Cool Papa Bell, from his 2016 album Stranger to Stranger, quite a satirical spray. Grand Funk Railroad with We're an American Band. James Brown with Living in America. Jack Nietzsche with The Lonely Surfer, Anything at all by The Beach Boys. The Jerome Kern overture, The Girl from Utah. We could do the full-on catalogue thing here with The National Treasure movies, but why bother?

25 February 2017: Hey guys, this is actually interesting. Bill Gates the former boss at Microsoft has come up with an idea that Pres. Trump could consider, don't sack the robots, tax them. Tax the robots, inasmuch as they do work that people used to do. So, tax the robots. Well, why didn't this webpage think of this? Why didn't Trump think of this? Why did we have to wait for Bill Gates to come along? More to come on this issue. - Ed.

24 February 2017: Weeping in The Hotel California. In Australia today thenewdaily.com.au reports that some voters in California (popn: 39 million) want to secede from USA as they dislike Trump. Some are calling it "Calexit". California could be "a nation unto itself". More on this in 2019, it seems.

23 February, 2017: Making the US fact-checkers cry? Well, folks, now that Pres. Snowflake Trump has been in his White House chair for about 33 days already, today we thought we'd look at how the fact checkers are finding him. It's not a good look, figures given tend on various websites to vary alarmingly, but one Australian news outlet found that in 33 days, Trump's administration had given the fact-checkers about 133 items to inspect, which would be on average about 4.03 items per day. We wonder. But it's not good: we netsurfed on, and found figures much lower, particularly on websites from the USA, as though Pres. Trump was telling lies smaller than we anticipated. The jury however isn't out, exactly, as it hasn't even been seriously called yet. This webpage figures we might have to see Trump bring on a war before this situation clarifies, since as we know from WWII if not earlier, truth is one of the first casualties when a war breaks out.

21 February, 2017: Yes folks, it does seem as if something happens every day, like clockwork. Today, Trump has made a lot of Londoners cry. It is reported from London, UK, that thousands of people have joined a Westminster protest against Donald Trump's planned state visit to the UK, as MPs debate a petition against the Trump state visit. Fears exist that Queen Elizabeth might be embarrassed by Trump. Fears that Trump himself might feel embarrassed by any of this seem strangely to be in short supply in London, however.

Editorial: The reaction world-wide to Snowflake Trump's views on what does or not go on in downtown Sweden of late because of its migrant intake reminds this webpage of one of the funniest remarks it's ever heard about history and how to read it.
We forget where it comes from but it goes like this ...
A certain world-weary and cynical world correspondent, cynical about government ministers, cynical about reasons for war, cynical about what goes on in peacetime, cynical about everything, finally hits on the ultimate put down.
He sits, he listens intently to all and any expert on conditions in a given country, or area. And when the expert has said it all, our cynic jumps up and says, "But surely, it's different in the south?"
And cynically he is right, because it's always different in the south.
Sadly, Trump hasn't worked this out yet. -Ed

20 February, 2017: US Pres. Snowflake Trump has baffled all sorts of folks in Sweden, from ordinary citizens to government ministers or spokespersons by claiming at a rally in Florida that "last night" in Sweden, something dreadful happened due to Sweden's intake of [Islamic] refugees. All this webpage could suggest for those seeking words from Psychology about what Trump is up to here, the best word may be "confabulation". But we'll see. Media wars continue about "fake news" ™ and so on.

19 February 2017: Trump continues his absurd war against the US Fourth Estate (journalism). Meantime, C-Span has surveyed 91 US presidential historians about 44 US presidents and finds that Obama comes in 12th. So now we know how things stand.

18 February, 2017. Sunset-time commercial free-to-air TV news in eastern Australia reports that Pres. Trump is listing more new enemies (several national US news outlets are now to be regarded as enemies of the people [NBC, ABC, CNN, CBS, New York Times]; he still wants a cheaper US Air Force One air plane); and only a month into his new presidency is back on the campaign trail for 2020. This makes this webpage cry uncontrollably, due to, gulp, the slightest prospect of eight years of this nonsense to be dealt with. Good grief! Trump and his administration don't seem to know it yet, but their sort of story is what journalists pray for in the still of the night, and rub their hands about when in groups, a story that just keeps on giving and giving and giving. And it isn't only the US media Trump's administration has to worry about, this is international. Even the Russian media will want to comment! We mean: how can something be said to be leaking when it's already sunk? Surely it would be fake news to indicate that something's only leaking when it is in fact, sunk?

17 February, 2017: BBC Headlines has it that "US President Donald Trump has launched a ferocious attack on the media while defending his record during his first weeks in office. Mr Trump appeared in a 76-minute press conference where he told reporters their level of dishonesty was/is out of control." And strangely, it's almost as though Pres. Trump has made Pres. Trump cry?! So Trump's war with the media continues. At a recent press conference Trump called, described by BBC Headlines as "most unusual", Trump berated CNN and called the BBC "a real beauty".

16-2-2017: Trump disappoints Palestinian interests by dropping US support for a two-state solution (which this webpage supports) to the Palestinian-Israeli imbroglio. The US Dept of State is rather taken by surprise here and various Middle Eastern interests are reportedly gobsmacked. Meantime, Trump wants to make the US media cry yet again for their sins of "Fake News ™" and for their treatment of his goodbye-saying national security adviser, "Mad Dog" Flynn, who is now it seems, out like Flynn.

15 February, 2017: The [Australian] Crikey Worm newsletter of today says, "Donald Trump's national security adviser Michael Flynn has resigned after misleading Vice President Mike Pence about his communications with the Russian ambassador. In a phone call to the ambassador prior to Trump's swearing in, Flynn discussed US sanctions on Russia, potentially putting him in breach of an obscure law against unauthorised negotiations. Flynn then told Pence and others he had not discussed sanctions in the call, causing them to mislead the media. In a statement, Flynn said he had 'inadvertently' briefed the Vice President inaccurately but confirmed he would resign after just three weeks in the job." (Washington Post)

On 14 February, 2017: Editorial item. Question for Pres. Snowflake Trump and/or the US media, and the US movie industry ... There are several US-made movies re shonky Christian preachers, including the 1960 movie Elmer Gantry starring Burt Lancaster/Jean Simmons (based on a 1926 novel of the same name by Sinclair Lewis); and the recent HOB production, Carnivale. What is the problem with Hollywood making a movie about a shonky Islamic preacher? One would have imagined it would be in the interests of the CIA and FBI to finance such a movie, no? What on earth then is the US problem with financing and producing a movie about shonky Islamic religion? Could the problem be, learned helplessness? Or, dire ignorance about Islam as a religion? - Ed

13 February, 2017: Complaints are being noted from Washington DC, USA that the Trump Presidency (TP) is suffering from "leaks". However, this could be incorrect. The real situation could be that the TP is too big to put into a colander and that this is the reason for what seem to the uninitiated to resemble "leaks". Or, that it is awash. It is sinking, or gasp, it has already sunk. Or, that something badly overshot while the swamp was being drained and extra time will be needed while the swamp is re-drained? More fake news as it comes to hand ... On 13 February 2017 we also find that former US presidential contender in 2016, Bernie Sanders, has in public called Trump "delusional" and "a pathological liar". Reportedly, a few Senior US Republicans (so far unnamed, which is hardly surprising) suggest that Trump has some mental health issues. There is also a trace on the Internet of wonderment whether or not Trump is dyslexic.

12 February, 2017: Pres. Snowflake Trump has tweeted on other important matters, such as the marketing situation of his daughter Ivanka. The failing career of The New York Times. The US legal system apparently (Snowflake says) is "broken", which is just plain sad, no? Islamic refugees (something to do here with a recent New York Times story). And the costs of his wall against Mexico. The cost of the wall has lately fallen to a mere $28.1 billion, as little as this. However, it is still unclear if Mexico will decide to pay for the wall, as it has been unclear that West Germany would pay for the wall separating it from East Germany or that long ago now, those cheeky East Asian nomads refused to pay for the building of The Great Wall of China. But we'll all see if Mexico will pay for this wall or not!

12 February, 2017: General world condemnation follows North Korea's test of another missile. USA's President Trump vows to stand behind Japan, which calls this North Korean test "unacceptable".

11-12 February, 2017: A letter-writer in Enmore Sydney remarks, "It looks as though the Beverley Hillbillies have taken over the White House -- no one seems to know how to behave." Sydney Morning Herald, News Review and letters-to-editor section, p. 29. And on p. 31, columnist Gary Linnell complains, "Trump is found guilty of killing the English language ... Trump's use of exclamation marks is in comic book style, he has an unusual lack of curiosity about the world around him, and such people have a great lack of imagination, and may believe the world runs on black and white lines ... Trump is guilty of lacking nuance, he has no subtlety, so he is sentenced to - writing a clear and useful sentence in the English language." But just maybe, a lot of mystery about Trump's use of English misimply disappears if he was found to be - dyslexic (?). Meaning, Trump is simply not well-read since he reads badly.

10 February, 2017: Judges of the USA now must cry. President Snowflake Trump finds that a San Francisco-based US appeals court has unanimously upheld a suspension of Trump's travel ban on Moslems from seven designated countries. Trump thinks the US courts have become "so political", blissfully unaware it seems that he is the one who has tried to politicize them, go figure. Trump thinks the security of the USA is important. He seems not to realise that also important is the credibility of the USA, which he is routinely trashing.

10 February, 2017: Just look at how Trump is being viewed around the world ... This is from Crikey.com's Worm today in Australia ... "American companies are bracing for a new kind of “natural disaster”: a mean tweet from Donald Trump. (Quartz): "One global strategy firm told Quartz it had issued a company-wide directive saying that Trump’s tweets should be treated the same way as an earthquake or flood." (Does that mean, regarding the insurance as well, or not? -Ed)
And, where do countries stand with Donald Trump? (The Atlantic): "We now live in a world where European Union officials talk of the grave threat posed by the American president, who in turn doggedly defends the leader of Russia." Go figure.

9 February, 2017: Trump via Twitter wants to make US retail outlet Nordstrom cry because it chose not to carry a clothing line promoted by his daughter Ivanka. Nordstrom shares dropped 0.7 per cent then rose by 3.7 per cent.

9 February, 2017: Snowflake Trump wonders about the "impartiality" of Federal judges in the matter of decisions involving his anti-Moslem travel ban.

8 February, 2017: The supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, a theocratic sort of leader admittedly, nevertheless thinks that Trump has shown the "real face" of the USA and that the Trump Ascendancy in USA has revealed levels of corruption in US life, including political, economic, social and moral. It's your call now, Dear Reader.

8 February, 2017: The Trump war against the media continues. The Trump administration releases a list of 78 "terror attacks" that have allegedly been under-reported by US media/dishonest press. The list contains spelling errors and seems unrespectable on several fronts. The list is international and refers to events occurring in Australia and gets wrong the Curtis Cheng shooting at Parramatta in 2015 that can be easily checked/rechecked on the Internet. (Cheng was a civilian accountant for the NSW police, not a serving police officer.) By lunchtime today, the UK mother of one victim in Australia of a non-terror attack (but a lethal attack all the same) has already written an open letter of protest to Trump about the unnecessary politicization of her grief; so she has called Trump a "disgrace". And so, it looks as though the Trump administration has its agenda but is composed of sadly slow learners as well as badly-mannered people. That's right folks, let's make America not great but a world laughing stock as soon as we can, as often as we can.

7 February, 2017: Trump makes Speaker of UK parliament cry (says BBC Headlines). Commons Speaker John Bercow has been criticised for voicing his opposition to US President Donald Trump addressing Parliament during a state visit. Senior Tories told the BBC his comments had caused a lot of anger, with one saying it was "utterly outrageous" and others saying he should be impartial. Mr Bercow said he would be "strongly opposed" to the president addressing MPs and peers when he visits the UK. US Congressman Joe Wilson said it was a "slap" to Mr Trump's Republican Party. Last month, Prime Minister Theresa May said President Trump had accepted an invitation from the Queen for a state visit to the UK later this year.

6 February 2017: Australian TV, Four Corners program on ABC TV on The Trump Ascendancy. A female Trump critic calls him a loose cannon. It's said that around the world, national leaders (except Putin) seem to feel anxious and unsettled by Trump. One Trump supporter with a long list of grievances says the US presidency doesn't need a soft-spoken gentleman, it needs a pitbull [ie, Trump]. A theme here is "a nation on the brink". The term American First is an old isolationist canard from the USA of older days. A Trump supporter says (approvingly), Trump is deliberately confrontational and says outrageous things [for effect]. Accusations are made re Fake News ™, otherwise seen as Trump's war with the US media. Finally, the allegation that Trump's use of twitter feeds has thrown the world's diplomatic corps into turmoil. The program following this, Media Watch, was devoted to another notable Trump production of 2016 - fake news.

6-2-2017: Trump's pick for education secretary seems to be unpopular according to today's BBC Headlines. She is Betsy DeVos, a promoter of charter schools who believes that education reforms help to "advance God's kingdom". That's right folks, she's a Creationist.

6 February, 2017: This webpage hears a rumour that a story is getting about that US youngsters (the oldest is 20) are going to sue the US government (ie, Pres. Snowflake Trump) for inaction re climate change. This has been reported since last November 2016, according to the Internet. The story seems to have gone off the boil, but this webpage will keep an eye out for story developments here. (You'd better stay tuned here after all, to find out.)

6 February, 2017: Crikey Worm on 6-2-2017 citing New York Times: A US Federal appeals court has (temporarily?) thwarted President Donald Trump's efforts to immediately reinstate a travel ban on citizens from seven predominately Muslim nations, as well as refugees. Over the weekend a federal appeals court confirmed that the ban would be suspended while its constitutionality was tested in various courts. Although the Department of Homeland Security and State Department both respected the ruling and reopened the country's borders to those excluded by Trump's executive order, the President went on a Twitter tirade against the judge who had suspended the order. -- New York Times.

6 February, 2017: Well, folks, it looks by now, and it didn't take long, did it, as if Pres. Snowflake Trump got it constitutionally wrong with his bans on "Moslem visitations" to the good ole USA. Some mere federal judge (James Robart of Seattle) interpreting The Constitution thinks otherwise, and there's an end to it. So how is Snowflake Trump going to weasel his way out this one? (And I wouldn't waste my time staying tuned here if I was you.) See above - Ed.

5 February 2017: Has Der Spiegel magazine in Germany gone too far this time, critics ask. BBC Headlines reports that the magazine is being asked to cry by its critics after it has used a front page cartoon of US president Trump jubilant after having beheaded the Statue of Liberty, as he holds aloft the severed head and the sword which did the job.

5 February, 2017: BBC Headlines reports that a deputy-PM of Sweden, Isabella Lovin, who is also Climate Minister, might be trolling Pres. Trump as she has "satirically" posted on the Net a pic of herself looking ultra-stern while she signs something important, and surrounded by women, one of whom is pregnant, taking the mickey out of Trump, who once posted a pic of himself looking stern, signing something important and surrounded by men. One of the Swedish lady's respondents on the Net has said, "Make the Planet Great Again" and this webpage now in chagrin wonders: why didn't we think of that?
But one of our e-mailer friends tersely notes, and with surprising speed: "That photo of Trump, surrounded by middle-aged men in suits as he signed one of his Presidential directives, was taken while he was signing the directive banning US funding for any foreign aid projects involving abortion, which will probably condemn hundreds of thousands of women in third world counties to a painful death through amateur abortions."

4 February, 2017: Article on Narcissist Trump, by Jacqueline Maley, "Every world leader who has to deal with Donald Trump .... should be stacking their bedside tables with literature on pathological narcissism ...", and "Narcissists need two sorts of people: those who provide what the psychiatrists call 'narcissistic supply', - people who reflect glory on them, feed their grandiosity and pump up their self-image - and enemies to bully (in search of mastery over a weak opponent ...)". And, "Narcissists are fuelled by the reactions to the emotional chaos they create." Sydney Morning Herald, News Review, 4-5 February, 2017, pp. 29.

4 February 2017: As Trump continues with government-by twitter tweet, this webpage proudly represents this weekend's best lines about Pres. Snowflake Trump. Paul Kelly on front page of The Australian newspaper calls Trump "petulant and irresponsible" for his treatment of Turnbull/Trumbull/Trunbull this week. One letter writer to the Sydney Morning Herald wonders if more "extreme vetting" shouldn't have been applied to nominees that US voters were allowed to vote for in late 2016! The Sydney Morning Herald news review section rather amazes by carrying on w/e 4-5 February 2017 a large block of letters from USA citizens apologising for Pres. Snowflake Trump - one of whom wants to call Trump, "Trumplethinskin". (One wonders what would be the impact around the world if all newspapers in all major cities did this?) Warren Buffett the legendary and very wealthy US investor is said to disapprove of Trump's "slash-and-burn style" (w/e Australian, 4-5 February 2017, p. 33) but Buffett also thinks Trump is tax-cutting and growth-driven and so a good bet. ()We suppose, this is how to have it both ways.)
And now we turn to more good quotes; this time from Paul McGeogh's article Power Players in Sydney Morning Herald, News Review, 4-5 February, 2017, pp. 20-21; "A Public Policy Polling survey released on Thursday shows that 40 per cent of Americans already want to impeach Trump - up from 35 per cent just a week ago."; "This is how the Washington Post's Ruth Marcus attempted to describe the unfolding early days of Trump - 'Every day is a jack-in-the-box or a dozen - a fresh page from Hieronymus Bosch's sketchpad'."

4 February, 2017: Trump orders review of banking rules. This refers to the 2010 Dodd-Frank rules which were designed to reduce banks' riskier lending practices. (This webpage is not sure who this is designed to make to weep. In the longer run, Wall Street, probably, and again.) Trump is also said to be on the verge of expanding rights for religious groups in the USA, albeit with less attention than usual to Moslems in this respect, however. particularly Moslems from various selected countries.

4 February, 2017: BBC Headlines. Is the US a liability for Australia? (A reference to the ANZUS Treaty -Ed.)

4 February, 2017: Analysis article by Andrew McLeod, in today's newdaily.com.au, asking if Australia should now go it alone if Trump is ignorant of, or dismissive of, the ANZUS Treaty? The article also notes that Trump with his America First policy might also mean American Alone, while by dropping the TPP the USA has effectively abandoned the Pacific and left it to China's RCEP (Regional Economic Comprehensive Partnership). Now, after Trump has humiliated Australian PM Turnbull/Trumbull, is it time for Australia to cast the ANZUS Treaty aside? Or will Australia like Switzerland for the Northern Hemisphere be allied with no one at all and try to be a peacemaker? (And so we learn how quickly after Trump's inauguration [20 January] the Australian enemies of the ANZUS Treaty have come out of the wooodwork. That didn't take long at all, did it? -Ed)

4 February, 2017: It's getting a bit peculiar, folks, since Australian TV news is already wondering if the US public still doesn't quite realise that on the international front, Trump is speedily trashing the US reputation. Worse, while explaining the recent furore about the destination of detainees between Australia and USA, a White House spokesman calls the Australian prime minister, "Mr Trumbull", when his name is actually Turnbull. Can we get that right please? Could it be that the US electorate is more populated with slow learners than we thought? While in the USA, comedian Jon Stewart idly wonders, that the US presidency is suppose to age the president, not the US public.
Is Snowflake Trump as volatile as international commentators are suggesting? How are perceptions in the USA domestically? None of the future here looks pretty, folks. After all, Trump has just made Arnold Schwarzenegger cry, by criticising Arnold's ratings since Arnold has taken over Trump's old TV show, The Apprentice. Schwarzenegger responds by suggesting that he and Trump switch jobs. Not a bad idea, actually. Trump should be sent back to something he can actually handle; Arnie is still sweet after his stint as governor of California, where hopefully the drought taught him something useful about climate change. (Schwarzenegger by 4 March had reportedly bailed out as compere of Apprentice, blaming Trump's baggage for reducing ratings. So much for views on the magic of Trump's electoral victory)

4 February, 2017: It really seems already as if the US voters said to themselves last year: Let's vote in an old businessman with a short temper and make him President, what could possibly go wrong? Let's drain the swamp in Washington by voting in someone who has got NO political experience at all, no experience in governance whatsoever, what could possibly go wrong? We remember the amusing view of things governmental taken by conservatives in the USA: "Government should be no bigger than anything you can drown in a bathtub." And guess what folks, this might be what the USA ends up with? After all, Snowflake Trump sure is doing a lot of: government by Twitter feed. And once again, what could possibly go wrong? (Aged 70, Snowflake Trump is the oldest man ever to become a US President.)

3 February, 2017: This is brilliant, folks. You can probably work out for yourself who'se crying here, we hope so.
BBC Headlines has gone to the length of reporting how writer J. K. Rowling hits back over threats from Trump fans to burn Harry Potter books. Shades of Beatles' albums being burned by religious nutters years ago in the US South. Fun folks, those Americans are! Now let's see.
It seems that ... - Image copyright Reuters caption: Rowling has never shied away from expressing her political views on social media. Now BBC Headlines goes full-throttle ...
Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling has hit back at Twitter users who threatened to burn her books following her criticism of President Trump. Rowling's recent Twitter feed has been filled with her retweets criticising the president's recent travel ban. Some followers have taken umbrage with her stance, with several saying they have burned her books or plan to do so, and one suggesting she "should stay out of politics". (J. K. Rowling on Twitter has more than nine million followers.)
But the novelist has proved a match for her critics with her mocking responses. One Twitter user said they would now "burn your books and movies, too". Rowling hit back with: "Well, the fumes from the DVDs might be toxic and I've still got your money, so by all means borrow my lighter." Another said she had "just burned all their Harry Potter books after being a fan for 17 years". Rowling's riposte? "Guess it's true what they say: you can lead a girl to books about the rise and fall of an autocrat, but you still can't make her think."
Another Twitter user posted: "You're a grown ass woman whose entire career is based on stories about a nerd who turns people into frogs. Stay out of politics." Rowling responded: "In - Free - Countries - Anyone - Can - Talk - About - Politics. "Try sounding out the syllables aloud, or ask a fluent reader to help."
It isn't the first time people have burnt or threatened to burn J. K. Rowling's books. In the late 1990s, not long after the first couple of Harry Potter books were published, some had concerns about the magic and supernatural references, which they believed went against Bible teachings.
A pile of Potter books was set alight in New Mexico in December 2001 by a religious group who claimed Harry was "the devil". And a preacher in Maine in the US marked The Chamber of Secrets' release by holding a party in which he shredded copies of Potter books. (Ends, that's it for now, folks.)

2 February 2017: Far from subsiding, things are getting tragic already. Pres. Snowflake Trump according to this afternoon's TV news has lately humiliated Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull and made him cry with a phone tirade about the recent asylum-seeker deal (made by the outgoing Obama administration) between the USA and Australia as "dumb". Rumour is that Trump hung up on Turnbull. So now, we gather than Mr Turnbull knows what the go actually is (?).

2 February 2017: From Crikey Worm for Early Birds, 2 Feb 2017. Shrinks battle over diagnosing Donald Trump (Psychology Today): “Can Donald Trump or any public figure be deemed to have mental illness, even based on specific, well-publicized criteria reflecting observable behaviour? Is it ethical or appropriate for mental health professionals to venture into public acts of diagnosis?”

1 February, 2017. All Things Trump rule, ok. An old friend e-mails this webpage and has to mention Trump because of the All-Things-Are-Trump thing. This webpage wonders when we will see Peak Trump and why/how all this begins to subside.

31 January, 2017: We deliver this without further comment. It is taken from The Crikey Worm for Early Birds, crikey.com (Australia) in turn from the US Magazine, Atlantic, by 31-1-2017. "A Clarifying Moment in American History (The Atlantic): "Precisely because the problem is one of temperament and character, it will not get better. It will get worse, as power intoxicates Trump and those around him. It will probably end in calamity -- substantial domestic protest and violence, a breakdown of international economic relationships, the collapse of major alliances, or perhaps one or more new wars (even with China) on top of the ones we already have. It will not be surprising in the slightest if his term ends not in four or in eight years, but sooner, with impeachment or removal under the 25th Amendment." And so The Atlantic weeps. In other news, apparently in the USA the term is being bandied about, habeus corpus, and as we know, habeus corpus is only mentioned when things are getting rough and rugged.

31 January 2017: BBC Headlines today reports that US acting Attorney-General Sally Yates (an Obama appointee likely to be soon replaced by Trump appointee Senator Jeff Sessions), says that the US Justice Dept. will not defend new US immigration curbs in court imposed by Trump. So it looks like parts at least of the US legal profession has been given reasons to cry. Later on 31-1-2017, Yates is reportedly sacked. (Or, if you recall a certain US reality TV show, "You're fired!"). The US State Dept. is also reported to be upset with Pres. Trump's migration thing. (He's already being called, The Great Disruptor, Pres. Snowflake Trump.) UK petitioners have already acted to protest Trump's official visit to UK, planned for the future.

30 January, 2107: The crying people of today are following on from the tearful of yesterday. Some might say it's boo-hoo time around the world.

29 January, 2017: Oh dear, Pres. Snowflake Trump's Islamic refugee ban is making all sorts of people cry around the world, including UK PM Theresa May. It looks like tough titty, Theresa, but we'll see what we see, will we? Watch this space closely. (By 31-1-2017 May says she disagrees with Trump's immigration order.)

Paul Kelly, Inquirer, Australian newspaper, article headlined "Grievance Culture invites backlash". The Trump ascendancy begins with a revolt against identity politics. "In retrospect, the 2016 US election story is a grand joke", this is the "end of Identity Liberalism", a large rump of voters was recruited from "white voters without college degrees". Kelly says, "Identity politics is a far bigger issue in the US than in Australia but that does not gainsay this reality [that identity politics is bad, partly as it is blind to the consequences of its policies, and ... children are being asked to discuss their identity before they have an identity]". Kelly claims that some results of identity politics are "a fragmented society, the decline of a shared historical narrative and a distorted moral order that damages us all". w/e Australian, 28-29 January, 2017. But this webpage wonders if any of this will be as damaging as a Trump Ascendancy? In the very same newspaper issue, Henry Ergas had an article headlined, "This protection racket isn't great for America - history suggests Donald Trump's trade measures will backfire on the US".

28 January, 2017: President Snowflake Trump signs orders for 90 days against various Moslem-majority countries including Syria to stop "Islamic terrorists" from ever entering the USA, sure to make some folks cry and others to cheer. Even the USA's Koch Brothers, leaders of a conservative network called The Tea Party, have opposed Trump's ban. (Charles Koch BTW is aged 81.) The countries are: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen. Various commentators have cynically noted that some Moslem countries where Trump has hotel interests are not included in the ban. Trump also discusses with Pres. Putin of Russia some ideas of reducing sanctions on Russia. This anti-immigration/anti-Moslem move is soon noted by BBC Headlines which says that this has made Google cry, as Google fears that some of its employees from affected Moslem countries may not be allowed back into the USA.

28 January, 2017: Pres. Snowflake Trump has even made Sydney newspaper columnist Michael Pascoe cry. Pascoe writes, amongst other things, "The kindest thing than can be said about the [US] Commander-in-Chief is that he is a loose cannon - and that is being very kind. In his talk of security issues, "madman" would also fit." Pascoe thinks that eg., Trump is scary, he has persistent paranoia about the presidential popular vote (or lack of it), as well as his dismantling-views on climate change. We could all be quite forgiven for thinking that Pascoe thinks we're all in for quite a rough ride. Sydney Morning Herald, Business Day, Opinion, p. 6, w/e 28-29 January, 2017).

27 January, 2017: BBC Headlines weeps - what if Trump tries to bring back torture?

New York Times accuses Trump administration of lying only days after the new president's election. The Australian, 26 January 2017., p. 9.

26 January, 2017. Article by Bret Stephens on "a reader's guide to The Donald: he runs a royal court". Reporting that Angela Merkel of Germany has been reading old copies of Playboy for the articles, especially one 1990 issue which carries an interview with The Donald. Which article remarks that Trump will be what English teachers call "an unreliable narrator". Re world literature, Stephens thinks Trump most resembles Peeperkorn in Thomas Man's novel, Magic Mountain. Trump won't have just an administration, his senior followers will be more like a royal court, most likely the court of Henry VIII. (This webpage thinks Henry VIII grew to be a tyrant.) Or, Napoleon III? Lastly, well, anyone for a spot of readings from Hannah Arendt, Origins of Totalitarianism? The Australian, 26 January, 2017., p. 9.

26 January, 2017: President Snowflake Trump is going to make the USA's voting fraudsters cry. Yes, he's going to get real tough with them, truly-rooly. Quite what goes on here we don't quite know yet. We doubt that Trump quite knows the facts either. Actually, this webpage feels the US media for years now has been working off "doh" and "wha?" and WTF instead of finding out more about how those fine old journalistic questions -- "how, what, when, where and why?" -- actually do work. This webpage suspects that when the US media does get back to "how, what, when, where and why?" it'll get some very nice surprises, thank you very much. Time will tell much here. But if not, then not. How the US media got distracted from "how, what, when, where and why?" is probably a too-long story so we'll leave it for another day. It's even more so about "Fake News ™", actually. (But just so you know we had been thinking about the problems here - Ed)

25 January, 2017: Snowflake Trump reviews several oil pipeline projects and makes environmentalists weep as he reactivates the projects. This is Trump's own take on "drill, baby, drill" and like wow, effective it ought to be! Indigenous Indians are said to feel outraged and Obama's legacies on climate change seem wasted already. See also The Australian, "Stalled pipeline projects revived" under general heading, New World Order. That's right, folks, it looks like we have a New World Order to think about already.

24 January, 2017: "Wildly unpredictable": Trump has the world's business elite worried. Sydney Morning Herald, 24 January, 2017., p. 21. Comment article by Ben Marlow. "If there is one word which characterized the mood at Davos this year, it is uncertainty." Trump's use of "Twitter to issue rebukes to multinationals deemed to be breaking the rules drives genuine fear into the heart of chief executives, while threats to tear up free trade deals and impose tariffs on China terrify fellow heads of state."

24 January, 2017: Today Snowflake Trump makes free traders weep as he signs executive orders which withdraw the USA from the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership). Wall Street in New York is said to be unhappy about the demise of TPP, but of course, this is the same Wall Street that helped cause the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. ABC TV in Australia suspects that here, Trump has thrown Australia a "curveball", a metaphor as unfortunately drawn from the US game of baseball as it is probably true. Trump also has imposed some new restrictions on those seeking abortions, raising concerns from women's rights advocates.

23 January, 2017: Today Snowflake Trump makes women of the Western World cry, so much so they march against him, But that was then. Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band have been crying, so they have decided to become part of the anti-Trump "new resistance" in the USA. (Which reminds this webpage of the absence in US political life of a tradition that is long known and respected in the UK, and Australia, about "His (or Her) Majesty's Loyal Opposition". There is no such tradition in the US and more's the pity.)

22 January, 2017: Today Snowflake Trump begins to make the US media cry. He's going to hold them "accountable", says one of his press officers. We are reminded again of US wonderments that the US press took him literally but not seriously while his supporters took Trump seriously but not literally ... This interesting view comes from journalist Selena Zito writing in the Atlantic in September 2016 (according to Los Angeles Times), and we take enormous pleasure in congratulating Ms Zito on her insight. We think she got it right.

w/e 21-22 January, 2017: Editor-at-large for The Australian, Paul Kelly, in an article that feels like an orgy of scepticism, remarks on Trump variously ... "the blind arrogance of the Republican Party relying on low-income white male voters for whom it rarely delivered" ... Trump projects himself as a "prosperity agent" ... Trump's "central pledge is to 'make American great again' but Trump doesn't seem to believe in the core idea and policies that made America so great in the first place, in that post WWII era," ... such as free trade, "immigration, a global sense of responsibility, an alliance culture, a moral framework, a measured approach to global power and leadership, loyalty to friends and a willingness to sacrifice to resist enemies." Trump as a dealmaker doesn't see himself as needing to be consistent, doing the deal is what matters, he is transaction based, not faith-based.

21 January, 2017: Is no news = good news? We must not forget that one of the few US people who predicted that Trump would win the presidency was Scott Adams, the cartoonist who produces the Dilbert cartoon. Another was leftist filmmaker, Michael Moore.

20 January, 2017: Inauguration Day for President Snowflake Trump. And what a day it was! It led to strenuous arguments so soon in this incumbency about "alternative facts" as fights broke out about how many people turned up to applaud. Were more people happy about Trump becoming president than there were fans of President Obama eight years ago? And so on. Mrs Trump looks absolutely splendid in a light blue outfit that's just right ... The well-dressed Young Mr Trump is patient as usual with Dad! Inauguration Day machismo reigns ... The tears can wait till tomorrow. Today is all joy!

How to make all the 'nuff said people cry worldwide: Sydney Morning Herald, 12-13 November 2016, headline, p. 4, "Thousands rally against Trump presidency". Mind you, this in a country with a 2016 population of about 323 million.

Sydney Morning Herald, 23-24 July 2016: Front page story pointer, Trump's terrifying vision for the world. Inside is a story by Paul McGeough, headlined, Trump whips up frenzy built on fear.

Words of the Year in 2016

Below is from: www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/words-of-the-year-2016-edition

By Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty, 12 January, 2017 ...

According to several online dictionaries, here are [some] 2016 words of the year. During 2016 was noted a 938% increase in lookups for the word xenophobia the day after the UK voted to leave the European Union and a smaller spike immediately after the US presidential election. Lexicographers noted that they already had their eye on xenophobia before 2016, because it also had a huge spike in 2015 after attacks on foreigners in South Africa. Other words they highlighted as showing large search spikes in 2016 were hate crime and populism.

The Oxford Dictionaries Word Of The Year for 2016 was post-truth, which they defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” According to Oxford Dictionaries, they saw large increases in searches for post-truth “in the context of the Brexit referendum in the UK and the presidential election in the US.” Some of their other candidates included political terms such as Brexiteer, alt-right, and woke, and non-political words such as chatbot and (one of my favourites that you may remember me talking about in previous years) adulting.

The Collins Dictionary Word of the Year, 2016 was Brexit, which Collins Dictionary chose as they first saw people using Brexit in 2013, but saw a 3,400% increase in searches in 2016. (I’m sure Math Dude would tell you that if you start from a small number, as you would for a new word, a 3,400% increase may not be that big in raw numbers, but we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that the search volume made it a worthy choice.)

Other candidates on the Collins list included Trumpism, mic drop, snowflake generation, Uberization (referring to the ride-hailing company Uber and their business plan), and JOMO (which means the joy of missing out and is presumably a reaction to FOMO, which is the fear of missing out).

They also included the Danish word hygge (pronounced much like hookah, but with more of a G than a K sound in the middle), which means “the practice of creating cosy and congenial environments that promote emotional wellbeing.” Oxford Dictionaries actually included hygge too and their definition notes that it’s regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture. It’s hard for me to pronounce, but it’s a nice word, and there don’t seem to be many of them this year.

Those are the major dictionary words of the year based at least loosely on search volume, but just a few days ago, the American Dialect Society also chose its words of the year, which are based on votes at the group’s annual meeting, and you can see how it all unfolded by searching Twitter for the woty16 hashtag because multiple people were live tweeting from the meeting.

The American Dialect Society Word Of The Year was dumpster fire, to mean “an exceedingly disastrous or chaotic situation,” and I always find the American Dialect Society choices to be the most interesting because they have categories and they even pick an emoji of the year. For example, the emoji of the year was the flame, and then they also included the emoji representation of dumpster fire as part of the dumpster fire choice. It’s a combination of a waste basket emoji and the flame emoji, presumably because there is no dumpster emoji. (Ends)

Lost Worlds' World Stupidity Award 2016

And this year, the winner is ...

The barber for North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, for non-services to hair style design, for downright ugliness.

But this webpage supposes that someone has to have to world's worst haircut!

Ughhhhhh ....

Like, as with the movie Borat, it makes you embarrassed to be human!

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