Linked List: August 12, 2019

Monday, 12 August 2019

Trump’s Horrific Photo With El Paso Victim 

Rhonda Garelick, writing at The Cut:

Imagine this: A shooter has entered a public place, where you are walking with your family. You have but a minute to realize you can save your 2-month-old by using your own body to shield him from the bullets raining down around you. Mere days later, your baby, the youngest survivor of the El Paso massacre, will appear on television with the very man who inspired the terrorist who killed both you and your husband. A photograph is taken, for posterity. […]

Neither the president nor Melania so much as glances at Baby Paul. Oblivious (as ever) to the solemnity of their occasion, they smile broadly, matching veneers on full beam. Your husband came from a family of Trump supporters. Perhaps, in a different world, you might even have wanted to meet Donald Trump, or take a photo with him as he gave one of his signature thumbs-up gestures — everything is A-OK here.

This photo isn’t emblematic of what’s truly wrong with Trump’s kakistocratic administration, but it is emblematic of the fact that he is clearly mentally unwell, so deeply in the grips of narcissistic personality disorder that he can smile and thumbs-up his way through a profoundly tragic moment. His supporters and shoulder-shruggers might look at this photo today and chalk it up to Trump being Trump, but the rest of us see what history will judge: he’s a sociopath with no capacity for empathy.

Trump Administration Weakens Protections for Endangered Species 

Lisa Friedman, reporting for The New York Times:

The Trump administration on Monday announced that it would change the way the Endangered Species Act is applied, significantly weakening the nation’s bedrock conservation law credited with rescuing the bald eagle, the grizzly bear and the American alligator from extinction.

Why in the world would they do this?

The changes could clear the way for new mining, oil and gas drilling, and development in areas where protected species live.

Oh, that’s why.