Donald Trump and Scotland, Ivanka and Confederate flag

This video from the USA says about itself:

The Original Trump Haters | Full Frontal with Samantha Bee | TBS

8 February 2017

We sent Amy Hoggart to Scotland to discuss resisting oppression with people who are born crotchety.

By Jessica Kwong in the USA:

Trump Loses $147,000 Tax Break On Scottish Golf Course

12/26/17 8:00pm

While President Donald Trump was enjoying the holidays at his “winter White House” Mar-a-Lago resort, one of his luxury hotel and golf complexes in Scotland was hit with bad news.

Scotland Finance Secretary Derek Mackay stripped Trump Turnberry of a lucrative tax break that this year amounted to nearly £110,000, which is about $147,000, in business rates relief, the Sunday Herald reported on Saturday.

Trump Turnberry will be cut out from the break because the Scottish government announced that starting next year, properties are required to have a “rateable value” of less than £1.5 million to be eligible. Trump’s property, which is one of two luxury golf resorts he owns in the country, has a value exceeding £1.6 million, or about $2.1 million.

The tax break is designed to assist struggling businesses, and the rule change is being viewed by some as directed toward the wealthy American president who has handed over his business operations to his sons.

“It’s bad enough that he has a business presence in Scotland”, Patrick Harvie, a Member of the Scottish Parliament from the Green Party, told the Sunday Herald. “It’s galling to learn that the public purse is giving him a helping hand.”

Longtime Trump critic Martin Ford, a councilor in Aberdeenshire, told the Sunday Herald that “absolutely no-one would think that the best use of nearly £110,000 of public money is to use it to enhance Mr. Trump’s bank balance. He clearly doesn’t need it.”

Trump has a history of being at odds with the Scottish government. Trump initially had a cordial relationship with Alex Salmond, who served as the First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014, but became enraged over plans for an offshore wind farm near his golf resort, saying it was “financial suicide” for the country and would kill tourism.

“Your country will become a third world wasteland that global investors will avoid,” Trump told Salmond in 2012.

Earlier this year, the head of the Scottish Open said Trump’s divisive politics forced the organization to reconsider using Trump Turnberry for future events.

The tax break change decision from Scotland came a couple of days after Trump received good news from Ireland that authorities were giving him permission to build a scaled-down seawall at his golf course that sits on the country’s west coast.

Environmental groups and Irish residents objected to the seawall, saying it could alter the coastline and pose a threat to wildlife.

“It’s disappointing,” Green party leader Eamon Ryan told the Guardian. “We should be altering the golf course, not the coastline”.

Billy Graham’s granddaughter smacks down modern evangelicals for ‘hypocritical’ Trump support: here.

Close-up of a photo shared by Ivanka Trump with a Confederate flag flying over Jared Kushner's shoulder. Image via Twitter

By Noor Al-Sibai in the USA:

Ivanka Trump’s holiday vacation photos include shot of a Confederate flag

26 Dec 2017 at 14:22 ET

On Tuesday morning, the president’s daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump shared photos of her and Jared Kushner [her husband]’s family fishing expedition — and in the background of the top right photo, a Confederate flag flew.

Ivanka Trump is sometimes called a ‘moderate’ counterweight to her father in the Trump administration by corporate media. Like General Kelly is. However, both these ‘moderates’ seem to have a soft spot for the 1860s United States slave owners’ rebellion. Not even talking about the conditions of Ivanka Trump’s workers in Indonesia.

German foreign minister goes beyond other US allies to decry ‘nepotism’ of Ivanka Trump role: here.

GOP lawmakers surprised to learn no black soldiers served under Confederacy in South Carolina: here.

Islamophobia even worse under Trump than after 9/11 attacks, says top Muslim activist. Exclusive: ‘He has empowered and mainstreamed white supremacy and bigotry’: here.

IVANKA OFF LIMITS Rudy Giuliani has warned special counsel Robert Mueller not to target Ivanka Trump in his probe — but said her husband, Jared Kushner, is “disposable.” Trump’s new legal chief has also said that any interview the president gives to Mueller should be limited to a few hours and specific questions about the 2016 election. [HuffPost]

KIDS CASH IN Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump pocketed $82 million last year while working in the White House, according to documents seen by The Washington Post. [HuffPost]

Ivanka Trump was named in a bombshell lawsuit filed by the New York state attorney general on Thursday accusing the Donald J. Trump Foundation of operating under a “pattern of persistent illegal conduct, occurring over more than a decade”: here.