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Protecting Your Brand — Why Now?
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Protecting Your Brand

Trump values his ‘brand’ highly and charges a lot of money for people to use it on hotels and golf courses. His wife sued a tabloid over an article she felt was damaging her ‘brand’. His daughter was upset by the effect his running for President had on her ‘brand’.

Other people also protect their brands.

Tiki Brand, a small company with less than 100 employees, wanted everyone to know that it didn’t approve of the use of its products in the march on the University of Virginia. They had no problem saying they don’t like Nazis.

Trump’s response has led to the exit from his manufacturing council of Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, who was then attacked on Twitter by Trump. He was followed by Intel CEO Brian Krzanich and Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank. This was followed by the exit of Scott Paul, head of the Alliance for American Manufacturing.

Go Daddy protected its brand by giving The Daily Stormer [Der Tägliche Stürmer in the original German] 24 hours to find a new host after the sites scurrilous comments about the victim in the terrorist attack in Charlottesville. The article was deemed a violation of terms of service.

The site transferred to Google, but Google not only dumped it, they cancelled its domain registration based on the terms of service for an anonymous registration.

Both Dylann Storm Roof and Thomas Alexander Mair were fond of The Daily Stormer.

Chap behind Godwin’s law suspends his own rule for Charlottesville fascists: ‘By all means, compare them to Nazis’

Mike Godwin, creator of Godwin’s law, has rescinded his own rule for those outraged by vile fascists marching the streets of Virginia, USA, at the weekend.

In other words, it’s OK to call these un-American white supremacists exactly what they are: “By all means, compare these shitheads to Nazis. Again and again. I’m with you,” Godwin said on Sunday evening.

Update: Trump reverts to his inner fascist and defends the Nazis again.

29 comments

1 Badtux { 08.16.17 at 12:50 am }

Watch the people behind Trump as he defends Nazis. General Kelley is looking down at the floor with a disgusted expression. One dude is doing a hella eye roll, either that, or he’s praying. The dude with the football just has a stunned expression on his face, as if he can’t believe what he’s hearing. Even Trump’s own people seemed shocked at what Trump was saying….

2 Bryan { 08.16.17 at 10:03 am }

Kelly thought they had moved beyond this, but Trump must have been listening to the Bannon/Miller/Gorka cabal and let his inner racist loose for all to see. The White House staff must know he’s a bigot, but they have been covering it. There is no covering it up now.

This is the real Trump.

3 Kryten42 { 08.17.17 at 1:10 am }

Speaking of Bannon, seems he just did a Mooch and told a story out of school he shouldn’t have. But that isn’t really a surprise to some of us. Nice to have confirmation. Unless of course, it’s a red herring? *shrug* Time, as usual, will tell.

Thursday briefing: Steve Bannon has his Mooch moment

If it wasn’t planned, I wonder if 45 will dump Bannon for being disloyal to him? Seems the only reason Trump get’s rid of anyone.

4 Badtux { 08.17.17 at 2:56 am }

Yeah, I read that Bannon interview. I got two impressions out of it: 1) Bannon is probably the smartest person in the Trump White House, and thus the scariest, since he is utterly evil. And 2) he’s complete balls to the wall damn the torpedoes full speed ahead. We’ll see whether he’s managed to run himself aground upon his own torpedoes…

5 Badtux { 08.17.17 at 3:01 am }

Oh yeah. That manufacturing council? The remaining members had a group phone call and made a decision to disband it. Then Trump said “you can’t quit, you’re fired!” and tweeted that he’d disbanded it. ROFL.

Hell, Trump’s so popular right now that even Rupert Murdoch is getting in on the fun, printing a story in one of his rags about Trump not being able to open a casino in Australia back in the 80’s due to his Mafia connections. LOL.

6 Kryten42 { 08.17.17 at 5:49 am }

I posted a comment about the Trump failed Sydney Casino deal. I knew about it when I was working in Canberra. But it was part of my NDA. Since it just became public, it’s no longer covered by NDA’s (which I can tell you will cause a shit-storm in Canberra now!) I very much doubt this release was sanctioned by anyone in authority in Canberra. I’m watching developments with interest! 😉 😀

http://whynow.dumka.us/2017/08/13/are-you-having-fun-yet/comment-page-1/#comment-86058

This was posted on Twitter about a Synagogue in Charlottesville. The local Police, knowing that NAZI’s etc. would be in the area & that the synagogue would probably be a target, refused to provide any protection.

In Charlottesville, the Local Jewish Community Presses On

Oh! For another laugh at the stupid Aussies (who seem to be going out of their way to outdo USA), this:

Pauline Hanson wears burqa in Australian Senate while calling for ban

Stupid batshit insane cow!

7 Badtux { 08.17.17 at 1:27 pm }

Gotta ask, given their behavior, just how far up the food chain the Nazi infiltration of the Charlottesville police department really goes. They’re building a history now of protecting Nazis and not protecting Jews or anti-Nazis. At some point you have to ask, “is this coincidence, or are there Nazis in the PD ranks?” And I think that point is now….

8 Bryan { 08.17.17 at 10:08 pm }

Wearing the burka was a mistake for Pauline, Kryten, on her it looked good…

Having racists on a Southern police department isn’t unusual, but they may just have been feeling outgunned by the militia. One of the people covering the event mentioned that the police officials were complaining that they weren’t equipped to deal with threats like that. I didn’t see any UVa security/police at the Tiki parade and minimal presence of the state police. I don’t understand why the National Guard weren’t used – two can play at intimidation.

There is no way that anyone in New York/New Jersey real estate as long as the Trump family and the Kushner family have been doing business not being mobbed up. You’re going to need concrete, waste removal… Then he moves into the Atlantic City casinos, Hello, Godfather…

Yeah, Badtux, the ‘deal maker’ is toxic for business. No one wants the bad press that comes with being nice to Nazis.Musk with be sending “I told you so’s” to the others that were on the board. As for infrastructure, what makes him think bad-mouthing the Senate majority leader is go to help your cause.

Bannon is taking a risk. He may think that he is on his way out and is going to leave on his own terms.

9 Badtux { 08.18.17 at 2:38 am }

Bryan, there has been a pattern of behavior on the part of the Charlottesville PD of coddling Nazis and coming down like sledgehammers on anti-Nazis. Once might have been happenstance. Twice might have been coincidence. Thrice or more? Enemy action. Just sayin’.

If they were feeling outgunned, their leadership should have put in a request for mutual aid. We have 900,000 cops in this country. Surely they could have rounded up a few thousand of them to deal with some fucking Nazis. I mean, if some dipshit sheriff outside of Standing Rock can put in a request and get hundreds of cops complete with tanks in the middle of frickin’ nowhere who came from as far as three states away, then in a heavily populated state like Virginia surely a city police department could get far more assistance…

10 Bryan { 08.18.17 at 6:31 pm }

I don’t doubt that a significant number of the local LEOs are Kluxers, hell, that used to be a prerequisite for the job. There was no visible law enforcement presence on campus and the National Guard was no where to be seen. A town with about 40,,000 with the University which hasn’t started yet, would be taxed with a large demonstration, but where was the sheriff? Where were the surrounding jurisdictions? Mutual aide was built into New York law, but Virginia must be different.

Whether it was from fear or personal preference, LEOs took sides in Charlottesville.

11 Badtux { 08.18.17 at 8:10 pm }

Bryan, mutual aid is built into Virginia law too. There is a statewide mutual aid agreement under the direction of their Office of Emergency Management, as well as local mutual aid agreements between individual jurisdictions. They can even make mutual aid agreements with police departments outside the state. The out of state jurisdictions still have to enter into the mutual aid agreements, but once they do, the cops coming in to assist have all the power and authority of local cops.

A state of emergency doesn’t need to be declared by the governor in order to obtain assistance. All they have to do is notify OEM that they have an event that is beyond their ability to manage, and then call upon any local mutual aid as well as request additional mutual aid from beyond the local area.

12 Bryan { 08.18.17 at 8:52 pm }

After hurricanes the local sheriff just deputizes out-of-state officers to make it all legal. They had state and local emergency declarations, but nothing that resembled an effective plan of action. I’ll give UVa some slack because the semester hadn’t started and there were very few people on campus. The Nazis lied [who would have thought it] about the size of their march on Friday, but the town and the state knew what was coming.

Under New York law and the laws of many states, there is the concept of “fighting words” which encompasses symbols and gestures. They are used to determine who was the aggressor. Carrying a Nazi flag makes you wrong. If you get the crap pounded out of you, it is your fault for starting the fight. If my Dad was still alive he would have run over them with his wheelchair.

13 Kryten42 { 08.18.17 at 9:27 pm }

Well, Bannon is gone, as I suspected. Reports on what actually happened are conflicting.

My take is that Bannon had enough for several reasons & wanted out. His *frank* speech that grabbed him the spotlight from 45 basically sealed it. It’s been obvious for some time that things haven’t been going according to *his* plans. I think he underestimated the complete ignorance, stupidity, cowardliness & love of adulation of Trump & the GOP incompetence. Plus, his beloved Breatbart is tanking hard.

CNN: Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon fired

IN good news, White supremicists groups globally are feeling pain! Hackers are shutting sites, Gov’s are enacting new laws, Hosters are closing their sites. Cloudflare CEO said “I woke up in a bad mood over Charlottesville & decided to kick them off the internet!”

14 Kryten42 { 08.18.17 at 9:38 pm }

As suspected, Bannon went back to take over as executive chairman of Brietbart.

I’m conflicted over the response to the right hate groups. On the one hand, shutting down their voices and confronting them when they group is good. But on the other, it will probably just force them to work in secret again. Which is bad, as history shows. At least in the open, we know who they are. The USA Gov has a huge responsibility to hunt them down in the USA. SOme States are doing that, but far too few & of course the Fed. Gove is actively encouraging them. *shrug*

15 Bryan { 08.18.17 at 10:16 pm }

Like all of Trump’s advisory councils, Bannon resigned and Trump claims he fired him. When Bannon gave that interview it was certain that something had changed. Miller and Gorka are still there so there is a Nazi presence in the White House.

The rumor floating around is that Breitbart is in trouble, and Bannon doesn’t want to be poor. I assume that he gave up after 6 months because Trump still wasn’t housebroken, so it was time to go make some money.

Trump has no principles, so there is no way of creating a coherent policy. He expected to be able to make a decision and have it carried out immediately. He really can’t deal with contradiction.

The problem the alt-right/Nazis/KKK have on the ‘Net is they don’t think rules apply to them. For Go-Daddy they are an insignificant part of the business plan, and hosting them was bad for business. It’s the same for Google. I think they should be on the ‘Net so we can see what they are doing, but they have to clean up their act to the point they aren’t violating the rules. There are people who will host them, but they had better be willing to pay. There are more and stricter rules on free sites.

16 Badtux { 08.19.17 at 1:27 am }

Google even removed its search engine link to the Daily Stormer! Not that the link returns anything. Even the Russians have decided they want no part of the web site, LOL.

They’ve moved to the Tor “Dark Web”. Good. Best place for them. That way they’re out of sight of anybody who lacks the intelligence to navigate the Tor network. Which is pretty much everybody stupid enough to be a neo-Nazi.

I’m happy with them being forced underground again. Being out in the open makes them look mainstream and makes it easier for them to recruit. It’s not as if being on the “dark web” makes them totally invisible. Anybody can still browse their web site. You can bet the SPLC will be trawling it incessantly, for example. But Joe Farmboy in Dipstick, Iowa isn’t going to be looking at their web site and saying “gosh darn it, these people make a lot of sense!”. Because he isn’t going to be trawling through the dark web to find it.

17 Badtux { 08.19.17 at 1:29 am }

Oh, regarding Bannon — he really was fired. General Kelly apparently detests the man, and when Bannon did that gonzo interview with that lefty journalist the other day, blatantly violating message discipline, that was a whole dump truck full of ammunition to use to get Twitler to fire Bannon. That said, Bannon is just smart — and evil — enough to engineer his own firing in order to get more PR for his return to Breitbart….

18 Kryten42 { 08.19.17 at 2:27 am }

Re Bannon: I’m leaning towards the 2nd. He engineered it. I dealt a lot with the fledgling Breitbart & Bannon during my time w/ Loaded Mouth. He was a very shrewd evil bastard.

Our clown circus continues! A 7th sitting MP has suddenly discovered he has dual citizenship and is ineligable, under the rules, to sit. The LNP is referring them to the High Court so they can keep their job whilst awaiting a descision. But that may not be legal either! LOL They refuse to release the legal advice they have been given, even to the Senate! Again. illegal! A-mazing.

UK Home Office confirms key crossbench senator Nick Xenophon is a dual citizen

It’s a laugh a day from our Parliament! Too bad it’s not funny. :/ 🙄

19 Kryten42 { 08.19.17 at 5:16 am }

😆 First comment Bannon made on Brietbart was: “‘The Trump Presidency That We Fought For, and Won, Is Over.’”

And I have a pair of new Hero’s this year! I watched a vid of MSNBC’s Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle absolutely smash Brad Thomas as he tries to defend 45! I will be PMSL for a week! The double-take between Velshi & Ruhle & their response is priceless!

Seems some in the MSM have had enough of the crap & aren’t afraid to say so!

Trump advisor Brad Thomas defends POTUS amid CEO backlash

President Trump’s “Unprecedented” Economic Growth?

Enjoy!

20 Kryten42 { 08.19.17 at 5:37 am }

I couldn’t help myself! Watched them again! Still PMSL

Fair warning: If you do watch the *interview* with Brad Thomas… you will want to punch him out! But also shake Velshi & Ruhle’s hand. And give them a sympathy card! 😆

21 Kryten42 { 08.19.17 at 6:10 am }

Oh 😂

Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA19) files resolution in House demanding Trump undergo mental health exam to determine his fitness for office under Section 4 of the 25th Amendment!


“Whereas President Donald J. trump has exhibited an alarming pattern of behavior and speech causing concern that a mental disorder may have rendered him unfit and unable to fulfill his Constitutional duties.”

😂 Won’t happen I know, but I want to see 45’s head explode!🤯😂

Dem says Trump may have ‘early stage dementia,’ could be removed from office

22 Bryan { 08.19.17 at 7:28 pm }

Badtux, you were right about the Charlottesville PD – they are Klukers. They couldn’t arrange protection for the synagogue, but they have the manpower to protect the Lee statue from “vandalism”.

Velshi & Ruhle have been beating up on White House apologists for a while. New on the scene is James son of Rupert Murdoch calling out Trump and pledging $1 million to the Anti-Defamation League over the failure to note “Nazis are bad”. This is probably about polishing the image of News Corp to help the purchase of Sky.

Yes, Kryten, it seems like every time somebody makes a nasty remark about the dual citizenship of an opposition pol, they get found out. I expected a lot of British-Australians, but they have been from all over the world.

OT: I’m finishing up the rehab.

23 Kryten42 { 08.19.17 at 11:45 pm }

Yeah, I replied to a tweet a couple days ago about James. Had a few retweets & several likes.

“So… The son of Rupert Murdoch, a fascist & 1 of the primary ppl responsible for Trump being POTUS, is dissing Trump? Ohhh my aching brain!”

LNP referred them to the HC because they knew they had a big case load & wouldn’t be heard for Months. HC stated 1st wouldn’t be heard until Nov. Then it will drag on, then 2 Mth xmas break, then… etc. etc. All just a delaying tactic. *shrug* Actually, they are just compounding the illegality of it all.

Good luck with the rehab project! 😀

24 Kryten42 { 08.19.17 at 11:54 pm }

Oh! We have Glenn Greenwald here @ Seymour Centre in
The University of Sydney in a few min’s (3PM – 5PM). Wish i was there. They’re live streaming & tweeting. Looks like a full house (it’s a big theater).

An afternoon with Glenn Greenwald

25 Bryan { 08.20.17 at 8:15 pm }

`Get some new people and call an election is better than dragging this out, because anything passed by one vote is going to be nullified by an adverse response from the HC. He could just prorogue Parliament until things are cleared up, but Turnbull doesn’t seem to like that idea. Oh, well, as bad as it is, you be dealing with the broken system of the US – things could always get worse.

It sounded like an interesting conversation. Actually that department of the Uni sounds like an extremely useful enterprise, for skipping ‘alternate facts’ and calling it ‘bullshit’ if nothing else.

26 Kryten42 { 08.20.17 at 11:29 pm }

I can’t post a reply. See if this works!

OK! I give up!

In today’s news, as I expected & stated:
Australia’s citizenship crisis could last for months, George Brandis concedes

And the bloody ALP are useless! Fence sitting as usual. they don’t have the balls of a mouse! Can you believe Turdbull is STILL the proffered PM to Shorten by 44% to 33%?! How insane is that!

I saw that the beloved Nutty Professor died. But Jerry had a good run! 91 isn’t bad. 😀 I didn’t like all his work (some was just weird), but when he got it right, he was brilliant! I still watch my fave’s of his now and then. 🙂

I downloaded the vid of Glenn’s talk. I’ll watch it later over dinner. Should be interesting. 😀

It’s a typical Uni. A hotbed of Socialism don’t you know! 😉 LOL Silly things like… facts, rights, fairness, equality… quaint & amusing concepts.

27 Kryten42 { 08.22.17 at 2:05 am }

So, seems the Gov finally realised that their rapidly dropping preferences must be addressed! Or, their masters have I should say. They have realised that forcing a postal vote on same sex marriage was a really bad idea! Now many unregistered eligible voters are registering in large numbers. Few of them agree with the LNP! 😆 😆 Stupidity IS it’s own reward!

An interesting read:
Barnaby Joyce, Matt Canavan to concede they are dual citizens, solicitor-general says

28 Kryten42 { 08.22.17 at 6:20 am }

Latest WH comment say’s it all really:

Alt Fed Employee‏ @Alt_FedEmployee

Democrats: Why are we proposing billions of dollars to bolster the military if we are not at war?

Trump: Wait for it….

29 Bryan { 08.22.17 at 10:17 am }

Well that is certainly an interesting defense – ‘we admit we are guilty , your lordship, but do you think we’re guilty?’ That is something I have never seen before. Article 44 says you can’t be elected to Parliament if you have dual citizenship, so what is the issue if they agree they have dual citizenship?

Conservatives are strange people.

Any President down in the polls looks for a war to rebuild support.