London has been infested

 

Fascism is a global threat

 

Perfect

[London p]olice said 113 people were arrested on Saturday, including a 28-year-old man detained on suspicion of urinating by a Westminster memorial dedicated to the murdered police officer Keith Palmer, after far-right activists organised a counter-protest to BLM groups. The Metropolitan police said its officers were injured after being kicked, punched or hit by missiles as they faced hundreds of angry demonstrators, who claimed they were protecting statues.

[...]

[Patrick] Hutchinson and his friends, who are security and martial arts experts, attended an anti-racist protest on Saturday to “try and keep the peace”. When far-right groups began to clash with black protestors, Hutchinson said the man he helped had been caught alone and left by his friends.

[...]

In an interview with Channel 4 News, the personal trainer and grandfather said: “You don’t think about it [being scary] at the time, you just do what you’ve got to do.”

[...]

“His life was under threat, so I just went under, scooped him up, put him on my shoulders and started marching towards the police with him.”

  Guardian

"There were people trying to protect him, but unsuccessfully. And then the guys went in there, they sort of put a little cordon around him to stop him receiving any more physical harm.

"He was under physical harm. His life was under threat.

"And whilst they did that I thought, 'well if he stays here he's not going to make it.

"So I just went under, scooped him up and put him on my shoulders and sort of started marching towards the police with him whilst all the guys were sort of surrounding me and protecting me and the guy I had on my shoulder.

"I could actually feel strikes and hits as I was carrying him, so these guys were probably taking some of that themselves on their person."

Mr Hutchinson downplayed any notion that he is a hero and said the men who were with him and protected him as he carried the man also deserve credit.

Without them, he said, he likely would have been trampled by the crowd as well.

  Chronnicle

Nice friends the guy has to take off to save their own skin. How humiliating for him this picture must be. He might lose his standing with his "friends".

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

NATO news

Donald Trump arrived in the UK to meet Nato allies who are fearful that he could pose a serious threat to the survival of the alliance if he wins re-election next year.

Days before Wednesday’s leaders’ meeting just outside London to mark Nato’s 70th anniversary, the US announced it was cutting its contribution to joint Nato projects.

Nato officials say the cut (which reduces the US contribution to equivalence with Germany’s) was mutually agreed, but it comes against a backdrop of Trump’s longstanding ambivalence about the value of the alliance, and suggestions that US security guarantees to allied nations were dependent on their military spending.

John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser until September, heightened fears among allies about the president’s intentions in a private speech to a hedge fund last month, in which Bolton (according to a NBC report) warned that Trump could “go full isolationist” if he wins re-election next November, withdrawing from Nato and other international alliances.

[...]

The New York Times has reported that Trump has said privately several times that he would like to withdraw from Nato.

[...]

Before leaving Washington on Monday, Trump repeated his complaint about “other countries that we protect, that weren’t paying”.

“They were delinquent. So we’ll be talking about that,” he told reporters, though he noted that allies were now spending $130bn more than before he took office, a development he took credit for.

[...]

A European diplomat in Washington pointed out that under the Trump administration, the US military presence on the alliance’s eastern flank has been stepped up, but expressed concern that such reinforcements were driven by other administration officials seeking to compensate for Trump’s personal affinity for Vladimir Putin and his denigration of his European allies.

“The greatest fear is what he would do in a second term. He would be more free from constraints,” the diplomat said, adding that he was under pressure from his capital to assess what a second Trump term would look like. “It is impossible to predict,” he said.

  The Guardian

But we all know it would be bad.

NATO allies are closing in on a deal to contribute more to allied running costs to reduce the United States’ share of funding, three diplomats familiar with the matter said.

Agreement would meet a demand by U.S. President Donald Trump, though France has made clear it will have no part in the deal, which the alliance hopes to reach before its 70th anniversary summit in London next week.

[...]

The agreement would mean European allies, Turkey and Canada contribute more towards the annual $2.5-billion budget to run the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation headquarters, international staff and military assets under NATO command.

Compared to the hundreds of billions of dollars that allies spend on their armed forces each year, it is a small sum. But it is one that allies hope would silence Trump’s statement in July 2018 that the United States “pays tens of billions of dollars too much to subsidize Europe”.

“It is a political gesture,” one senior NATO diplomat of the possible deal. “There is no alliance without the Americans.”

France opposed the proposal long before President Emmanuel Macron described the alliance on Nov. 7 as “experiencing brain death”, French diplomats have said.

[...]

Paris will not block the proposal, but will abstain, the three NATO diplomats said. France’s defense spending is higher than Germany’s as a percentage of economic output, data shows. Paris says it will also meet a NATO target to spend 2% of national output on defense by 2025 at the latest, while Germany will reach that level only in 2031, according to French and German officials.

[...]

Italy has yet to decide its position.

[...]

All 29 NATO member states contribute to the budget on an agreed formula based on gross national income, but this formula would change after the proposed reform.

“It will be a more cumbersome mechanism,” a second NATO diplomat said.

Under the proposal being negotiated for the 2021 budget, the U.S. contribution to the alliance’s annual budget would fall to around 16% from 22%. Germany’s would rise to the same level as the United States and others’ contributions would also rise.

Only seven NATO countries currently meet or exceed the NATO target of spending 2% of national output on defense - the United States, Britain, Greece, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

  Reuters

The NATO budget is separate from the 2 percent of gross domestic product that each NATO member has agreed as their goal for defense spending by 2024.

Mr. Trump regularly complains about defense spending by other NATO members, but other countries in the alliance have increased their military spending since the Russian annexation of Crimea five years ago by about $130 billion, a NATO diplomat said, a figure that Mr. Stoltenberg is expected to announce next week.

[...]

At a news conference with Mr. Stoltenberg after their meeting in Paris, Mr. Macron defended his own criticism about NATO. The French leader, in an interview with the magazine The Economist, said that the alliance was approaching “brain death” because of a lack of coordination.

He was particularly irked that Mr. Trump had told President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey that he would pull American troops out of Syria without having spoken to other NATO members.

[...]

In [a] gesture to President Trump, NATO announced on Thursday that it had agreed to reduce the United States’ contribution to the alliance’s relatively small central budget, a move aimed at ensuring a calm leaders’ meeting next week in London.

[...]

NATO leaders are trying to keep Mr. Trump from disrupting this meeting, a short one to celebrate the alliance’s 70th anniversary, as he did the last Brussels summit meeting in July 2018.

  NYT

Talk about your unreasonable hopes.

Donald Trump has lashed out at Emmanuel Macron on the first morning of a two-day Nato meeting, saying the French president’s description of Nato as brain dead was insulting and a “very, very nasty statement”.

[...]

“Nato serves a great purpose. I think that’s very insulting.”

He added: “Nobody needs Nato more than France. It’s a very dangerous statement for them to make.”

[...]

At a news conference alongside the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, the US president also accused Macron of trying to break away from Nato, as well as running a failing economy.

Trump has described Nato as obsolete on previous occasions.

  The Guardian

Obsolete is ok. Brain dead is nasty. Got it.

Macron made his criticism of Nato in an Economist interview partly to reflect his frustration that Turkey, a Nato member, had entered northern Syria in October without coordination with any Nato partner apart from Trump. Macron believes the invasion has undermined the fight against Islamic State.

[...]

Defending his decision to pull US troops out of north-east Syria, and to green-light the Turkish invasion, he said: “I wanted to get our soldiers out of there, but I wanted to keep the oil.”

Why does no one bring that up? He keeps saying it, and everybody just seems to let it ride.

He also reeled off a string of insults against France, saying: “I think they have a very high unemployment rate in France. France is not doing well economically at all.

“It is a very tough statement to make when you have such difficulty in France, when you look at what is going on with the yellow vests [anti-government protesters].

“They have had a very rough year. You just can’t go around making statements like that about Nato. It is very disrespectful. I’m looking at him [Macron] and I’m saying that he needs protection more than anybody, and I see him breaking off [from Nato]. So I’m a little surprised at that.”

Not nasty at all.

“When I came in, I was angry at Nato, and now I’ve raised $130bn,” Trump said, referring to the sum Stoltenberg says Canada and European members will have added to their defence budgets by next year.

“And yet you still have many delinquent – you know, I call them delinquent when they’re not paid up in full,” the US president said.

And here is where people should stand up and recite the list of contractors Trump has stiffed.

Trump also said a trade agreement with China might have to wait until after the US presidential election in November 2020, denting hopes of a quick resolution to the dispute that has weighed on the world economy.

Every time he touts a great deal with China, nothing happens. Every time.

The Trump attack came only hours after divisions opened up elsewhere in the alliance, with Turkey vowing to oppose a NATO plan to defend Baltic countries unless the alliance backs it in recognizing the Kurdish YPG militia as a terrorist group.

The YPG’s fighters have long been U.S. allies on the ground against Islamic State in Syria. Turkey considers them an enemy because of links to Kurdish insurgents in southeastern Turkey.

[...]

In an interview with Reuters, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper warned Ankara that “not everybody sees the threats that they see”, and he urged it, in the name of alliance unity, to stop blocking the Baltics plan.

Queen Elizabeth will host the leaders at Buckingham Palace. But even the British hosts, for generations among the most enthusiastic champions of the trans-Atlantic partnership that NATO represents, are disunited over their project of quitting the EU and distracted by a rancorous election due next week.

“The question is, as we celebrate 70 years, are we waving in celebration or do people think we are drowning?” said a senior European NATO diplomat.

  Reuters

Brain dead.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Making himself welcome in England

After the embrolio about him referring to Megan Markle as nasty, he's decided to double down on the usage of that word.  No need to wonder if he meant to call her that or not.

And Trump waded into the Conservative Party's contest to find a new Prime Minister and Britain's paralyzing debate on leaving the European Union, in a way sure to outrage British critics.

[...]

In the Sunday Times interview, Trump suggested that May would have been better off had she adopted his barnstorming negotiating style in intricate exit talks with the EU.

He said May should refuse to pay the $49 billion divorce payment required by the EU if Brussels does not give into Britain's demands and said she should sue the European bloc.

[...]

Most presidents would go out of their way to avoid such sensitive topics at a moment of extreme political stress. In Trump's case they may deepen his already intense unpopularity in Britain ahead of his arrival for a three-day stay on Monday but enhance his global reputation as an unpredictable, disruptive influence.

Respecting diplomatic niceties has never been Trump's style, and his remarks underscored the intense challenge his visit poses to the "special relationship" between the US and Britain.

Trump's incendiary remarks were conveyed in a pair of bombshell interviews with the "Sun" tabloid and the "Sunday Times" -- papers owned by Rupert Murdoch, the proprietor of Fox News. They came as Britain prepares trademark pomp for Trump, who will be guest of honor at a state banquet hosted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on Monday, designed to indulge his taste for adulation.

[...]

There is also a sense that the President is playing to type and the shock value of his remarks is perhaps not what it was during the early years of his administration.

  CNN

He is the ugly American writ large.

UPDATE:

Maybe his great friendship with Xi can help him get this nixed

A giant talking robot of Donald Trump sitting on a gold toilet is being shipped from Sichuan in China to London for protests to mark the president’s controversial state visit to the UK.

[...]

It depicts Trump with his trousers down, tweeting on the toilet, while his long red tie dangles into the bowl. It also emits farting noises and recordings of some of Trump’s provocative sound bites including: “no collusion”, “a witch-hunt”, “you are fake news” and “I’m a very stable genius.”

It was commissioned by Don Lessem, a Philadelphia-based dinosaur expert and anti-Trump campaigner, who paid $25,000 (£19,375) of his own money to get it made.

[...]

He said he had to reassure the factory owner that he [Lessem] would not be imprisoned for commissioning this new robot.

  Guardian

Is he sure?

Lessem told the Guardian there was some uncertainty about whether the robot would arrive in the UK in time for the three-day state visit starting on 3 June. He put the chances of it arriving on time at “50-50”.

Better hurry up and make that call to Xi.

“My goal is to create this year’s attention-getting and bile-producing sequel to the Trump baby balloon, and one that could be more easily deployed at rallies all over the world. I think we need a focus to our rage, and as many and large reminders as possible of what a disgusting disgrace this oaf is to humanity.”

He is that.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

ROFL

And you couldn't go but not "cut ribbon", eh? 

Our president is a big chicken AND a total joke.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Trump's Tweet Was a Lie - Updated Again

The mayor, Sadiq Khan, did not use the phrase “no reason to be alarmed” in a statement overnight or when he spoke in a television interview earlier on Sunday.

In the statement, Khan said “Metropolitan police are responding to the horrific terrorist attack at London Bridge and Borough Market,” and added: “My thoughts are with everyone affected, and I’d like to thank the brave men and women of our emergency services who were first on the scene and will be working throughout the night.

“This was a deliberate and cowardly attack on innocent Londoners and visitors to our city enjoying their Saturday night,” he said. “I condemn it in the strongest possible terms. There is no justification whatsoever for such barbaric acts.”

In the television interview, Khan said the UK general election, scheduled for Thursday, should go ahead as planned. He added: “There aren’t words to describe the grief and anger that our city will be facing today. I’m appalled and furious that these cowardly terrorists would deliberately target innocent Londoners.

“There can be no justification for the acts of these terrorists and I am quite clear that we will never let them win.”

[...]

Trump was widely criticised for his first reaction to the news from London, in which he retweeted an unsubstantiated headline from the conservativeDrudge Report website.

[...]

The Drudge retweet was later removed from the president’s personal Twitter account.

  Guardian

It was unclear whether the president received any kind of intelligence briefing of his own about the attacks before he saw a tweet from the Drudge Report that said: “Fears of new terror attack after van ‘mows down 20 people’ on London Bridge.”

  Guardian

Of course he didn't. Wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Seventeen minutes after the Drudge tweet, White House press secretary Sean Spicer tweeted: “National Security team has briefed @POTUS on situation at #LondonBridge and will continue to provide updates.”

NBC felt the need to caution its audience about the credibility of the information the president was passing on. The channel put out its own tweet in response, saying: “Pres[ident] Trump has used Twitter to share news report on London incident. We aren’t relaying president’s retweet, as the info is unconfirmed.”

[...]

Some 40 minutes after his original reflex response, Trump sent out a second tweet, making a political point from the unfolding horror in London, arguing that it added weight to his efforts to get a travel ban imposed on travellers from six predominantly Muslim countries.

[...]

Daniel Drezner, a politics professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, responded furiously, denouncing the president as “a cheap hustler occupying an office that you don’t understand”.

John Horgan, a psychologist and terrorist expert at Georgia State University responded to the tweet by calling Trump the “Opportunist-in-Chief”.

Adam Wagner, a British human rights barrister in said: “Message from London: political point scoring is the absolute, LAST thing we need right now.”

Eight minutes after his political point about the travel ban, Trump sent out a third, more supportive tweet, closer to a more normal response from a world leader when an ally comes under attack.

“Whatever the United States can do to help out in London and the UK,” he wrote, πwe will be there – WE ARE WITH YOU. GOD BLESS!”

An afterthought. Or his communications team suggested he might want to show some actual support and a little presidential decorum.

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  The Guardian is wrong:

"Londoners will see an increased police presence today and over the course of the next few days," Khan told the BBC earlier on Sunday. "There's no reason to be alarmed. One of the things the police and all of us need to do is ensure that we're as safe as we possibly can be. I'm reassured that we are one of the safest global cities in the world, if not the safest global city, but we always evolve and review to make sure we're as safe as we possibly can be."

Khan's spokesperson dismissed the US President's comments: "The mayor is busy working with the police, emergency services and the government to coordinate the response to this horrific and cowardly terrorist attack and provide leadership and reassurance to Londoners and visitors to our city. He has more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump's ill-informed tweet that deliberately takes out of context his remarks urging Londoners not to be alarmed when they saw more police – including armed officers – on the streets."

  Buzzfeed

UPDATED 6/5:

In fact, Mr Khan had said: “My message to Londoners and visitors to our great city is to be calm and vigilant today.

“You will see an increased police presence today, including armed officers and uniformed officers. There is no reason to be alarmed by this.”

  UK Independent

I wonder just what exactly he did say. It seems likely that what he intended was for people not to be alarmed by the increased police activity, but whatever he said, there is no excuse for tRump's fear-mongering, derogatory tweet.

Theresa May is facing calls to scrap Donald Trump’s visit to Britain after the US President’s latest attack on London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

  Independent

I didn't know he was invited in the first place. I knew he was threatening to go, to show solidarity - what a brilliant idea: add to the chaos and strain on police resources. The man thinks of nothing but himself.

Pathetic

Pathetic excuse for a president and human being who has no sense of common decency and diplomacy, along with the pathetic 45,000 people who liked this tweet.  (46,000 by the time I finished posting this!)

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Hmmmmm

One of the suspects in the London attack who was shot dead by police on Saturday was carrying an Irish identity card, the Press Association reported on Monday, June 5.

The Irish Times reported that the card was purportedly issued by Irish police. These ID cards, issued to vetted foreign nationals by the Garda National Immigration Bureau, include the holder’s name and date of birth, and are proof that the holder has legal residency in Ireland.

Gardaí and British police are working to establish beyond doubt that the dead man is the same person featured on the card found and that the card is genuine.

[...]

The man, who was of Moroccan origin, spent time living in the Rathmines area of Dublin in 2016.

[...]

Ireland’s Department of Justice said: “The expert threat assessment is that while an attack here is possible it is unlikely and that there is no specific information in relation to any threat to Ireland from international terrorism.”

  Grasswire

But how was he vetted and how was he connected with London terrorists?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

They Don't Understand Irony

This Boris Johnson tweet happened after the Manchester attack, and on the same day as the London Bridge attack.

Recalls George W Bush administration conspicuously leaving out the 9/11 attacks when claiming they were the only ones who could keep us safe from terrorists.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Tone Deaf and Opportunistic

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Trump's Tweet Was a Lie - Upated and Corrected

The mayor, Sadiq Khan, did not use the phrase “no reason to be alarmed” in a statement overnight or when he spoke in a television interview earlier on Sunday.

In the statement, Khan said “Metropolitan police are responding to the horrific terrorist attack at London Bridge and Borough Market,” and added: “My thoughts are with everyone affected, and I’d like to thank the brave men and women of our emergency services who were first on the scene and will be working throughout the night.

“This was a deliberate and cowardly attack on innocent Londoners and visitors to our city enjoying their Saturday night,” he said. “I condemn it in the strongest possible terms. There is no justification whatsoever for such barbaric acts.”

In the television interview, Khan said the UK general election, scheduled for Thursday, should go ahead as planned. He added: “There aren’t words to describe the grief and anger that our city will be facing today. I’m appalled and furious that these cowardly terrorists would deliberately target innocent Londoners.

“There can be no justification for the acts of these terrorists and I am quite clear that we will never let them win.”

[...]

Trump was widely criticised for his first reaction to the news from London, in which he retweeted an unsubstantiated headline from the conservativeDrudge Report website.

[...]

The Drudge retweet was later removed from the president’s personal Twitter account.

  Guardian

It was unclear whether the president received any kind of intelligence briefing of his own about the attacks before he saw a tweet from the Drudge Report that said: “Fears of new terror attack after van ‘mows down 20 people’ on London Bridge.”

  Guardian

Of course he didn't. Wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Seventeen minutes after the Drudge tweet, White House press secretary Sean Spicer tweeted: “National Security team has briefed @POTUS on situation at #LondonBridge and will continue to provide updates.”

NBC felt the need to caution its audience about the credibility of the information the president was passing on. The channel put out its own tweet in response, saying: “Pres[ident] Trump has used Twitter to share news report on London incident. We aren’t relaying president’s retweet, as the info is unconfirmed.”

[...]

Some 40 minutes after his original reflex response, Trump sent out a second tweet, making a political point from the unfolding horror in London, arguing that it added weight to his efforts to get a travel ban imposed on travellers from six predominantly Muslim countries.

[...]

Daniel Drezner, a politics professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, responded furiously, denouncing the president as “a cheap hustler occupying an office that you don’t understand”.

John Horgan, a psychologist and terrorist expert at Georgia State University responded to the tweet by calling Trump the “Opportunist-in-Chief”.

Adam Wagner, a British human rights barrister in said: “Message from London: political point scoring is the absolute, LAST thing we need right now.”

Eight minutes after his political point about the travel ban, Trump sent out a third, more supportive tweet, closer to a more normal response from a world leader when an ally comes under attack.

“Whatever the United States can do to help out in London and the UK,” he wrote, πwe will be there – WE ARE WITH YOU. GOD BLESS!”

An afterthought. Or his communications team suggested he might want to show some actual support and a little presidential decorum.

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  The Guardian is wrong:

"Londoners will see an increased police presence today and over the course of the next few days," Khan told the BBC earlier on Sunday. "There's no reason to be alarmed. One of the things the police and all of us need to do is ensure that we're as safe as we possibly can be. I'm reassured that we are one of the safest global cities in the world, if not the safest global city, but we always evolve and review to make sure we're as safe as we possibly can be."

Khan's spokesperson dismissed the US President's comments: "The mayor is busy working with the police, emergency services and the government to coordinate the response to this horrific and cowardly terrorist attack and provide leadership and reassurance to Londoners and visitors to our city. He has more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump's ill-informed tweet that deliberately takes out of context his remarks urging Londoners not to be alarmed when they saw more police – including armed officers – on the streets."

  Buzzfeed

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATED 6/5:

In fact, Mr Khan had said: “My message to Londoners and visitors to our great city is to be calm and vigilant today.

“You will see an increased police presence today, including armed officers and uniformed officers. There is no reason to be alarmed by this.”

  UK Independent

I wonder just what exactly he did say. It seems likely that what he intended was for people not to be alarmed by the increased police activity, but whatever he said, there is no excuse for tRump's fear-mongering, derogatory tweet.

London Attack Detail

Police said armed officers shot dead all three attackers within minutes of receiving reports of the terrorist attack unfolding in central London. The three men were wearing suicide bomb vests that were later confirmed to be fakes.

  Guardian

So, how did the police know they didn't have dead man's switches that would set off the bombs if the men were killed?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Trump's Tweet Was a Lie

I know you're shocked.

The mayor, Sadiq Khan, did not use the phrase “no reason to be alarmed” in a statement overnight or when he spoke in a television interview earlier on Sunday.

In the statement, Khan said “Metropolitan police are responding to the horrific terrorist attack at London Bridge and Borough Market,” and added: “My thoughts are with everyone affected, and I’d like to thank the brave men and women of our emergency services who were first on the scene and will be working throughout the night.

“This was a deliberate and cowardly attack on innocent Londoners and visitors to our city enjoying their Saturday night,” he said. “I condemn it in the strongest possible terms. There is no justification whatsoever for such barbaric acts.”

In the television interview, Khan said the UK general election, scheduled for Thursday, should go ahead as planned. He added: “There aren’t words to describe the grief and anger that our city will be facing today. I’m appalled and furious that these cowardly terrorists would deliberately target innocent Londoners.

“There can be no justification for the acts of these terrorists and I am quite clear that we will never let them win.”

[...]

Trump was widely criticised for his first reaction to the news from London, in which he retweeted an unsubstantiated headline from the conservativeDrudge Report website.

[...]

The Drudge retweet was later removed from the president’s personal Twitter account.

  Guardian

It was unclear whether the president received any kind of intelligence briefing of his own about the attacks before he saw a tweet from the Drudge Report that said: “Fears of new terror attack after van ‘mows down 20 people’ on London Bridge.”

  Guardian

Of course he didn't. Wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Seventeen minutes after the Drudge tweet, White House press secretary Sean Spicer tweeted: “National Security team has briefed @POTUS on situation at #LondonBridge and will continue to provide updates.”

NBC felt the need to caution its audience about the credibility of the information the president was passing on. The channel put out its own tweet in response, saying: “Pres[ident] Trump has used Twitter to share news report on London incident. We aren’t relaying president’s retweet, as the info is unconfirmed.”

[...]

Some 40 minutes after his original reflex response, Trump sent out a second tweet, making a political point from the unfolding horror in London, arguing that it added weight to his efforts to get a travel ban imposed on travellers from six predominantly Muslim countries.

[...]

Daniel Drezner, a politics professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, responded furiously, denouncing the president as “a cheap hustler occupying an office that you don’t understand”.

John Horgan, a psychologist and terrorist expert at Georgia State University responded to the tweet by calling Trump the “Opportunist-in-Chief”.

Adam Wagner, a British human rights barrister in said: “Message from London: political point scoring is the absolute, LAST thing we need right now.”

Eight minutes after his political point about the travel ban, Trump sent out a third, more supportive tweet, closer to a more normal response from a world leader when an ally comes under attack.

“Whatever the United States can do to help out in London and the UK,” he wrote, πwe will be there – WE ARE WITH YOU. GOD BLESS!”

An afterthought. Or his communications team suggested he might want to show some actual support and a little presidential decorum.

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  The Guardian is wrong:

"Londoners will see an increased police presence today and over the course of the next few days," Khan told the BBC earlier on Sunday. "There's no reason to be alarmed. One of the things the police and all of us need to do is ensure that we're as safe as we possibly can be. I'm reassured that we are one of the safest global cities in the world, if not the safest global city, but we always evolve and review to make sure we're as safe as we possibly can be."

Khan's spokesperson dismissed the US President's comments: "The mayor is busy working with the police, emergency services and the government to coordinate the response to this horrific and cowardly terrorist attack and provide leadership and reassurance to Londoners and visitors to our city. He has more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump's ill-informed tweet that deliberately takes out of context his remarks urging Londoners not to be alarmed when they saw more police – including armed officers – on the streets."

  Buzzfeed

Terror! Scary! Terror! Scary!

via GIPHY

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  London's mayor never said there's no reason to be alarmed.

Typical Post-Attack Hysteria and Anti-Immigrant Ranting

Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo has linked Wednesday’s London attack to Europe’s migrant policy, saying it is “impossible” not to connect them. She went on to suggest the deadly assault justifies Warsaw's refusal to take in refugees.

  RT

The attacker was born in England.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

London Terror Attack

via GIPHY

He makes it sound as if May herself were a victim.

Trump doesn't know anything about Kurt Cochran. Except that he's "a great American."

Police have named the attacker as Khalid Masood. He was 52, born in Kent and detectives believe he was most recently living in the West Midlands.

  Guardian

The attacker behind the terrorist rampage at the gates of the Houses of Parliament was a British-born man previously known to MI5 due to concerns over violent extremism, the prime minister has said.

The assailant, who was shot dead on Wednesday as he attacked police officers in the shadow of Big Ben, was considered to be a peripheral figure and had fallen from the intelligence picture, Theresa May told a packed House of Commons.

  Guardian

Four people have died, including a police officer and the attacker.

Police say 29 other people were treated in hospital, seven of whom are in a critical condition.

The assailant drove a car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing two people, before crashing it outside parliament and trying to enter the complex, armed with a knife.

He stabbed an unarmed police officer who later died from the injuries, before armed police shot him.

[...]

Islamic State (Isis) claimed responsibility for the attack. It released a statement through the Amaq news agency, which it uses to broadcast propaganda, calling the unnamed man “a soldier of Islamic State”. The claim is unverified.

The attacker is believed to have acted alone but police are investigating possible associates. May said there was “no reason to believe” further attacks on the public were planned.

[...]

The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, vowed “Londoners will never be cowed by terrorism” in a video statement.

  Guardian

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Color Me Surprised

I didn't think Londoners had it in them.

Sadiq Khan has been elected the new Mayor of London - boosting Labour after it slumped in Scotland's elections.

Mr Khan is the city's first Muslim mayor, after beating Tory Zac Goldsmith by 1,310,143 votes to 994,614.

[...]

Mr Khan's victory - which gave him the largest personal mandate of any politician in UK history - ends eight years of Conservative control of City Hall.

[...]

Mr Khan distanced himself from Mr Corbyn during the campaign, pledging to freeze fares on the capital's transport network and build more affordable housing, but also promising to champion business and cut taxes on enterprise.

  BBC

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.