Another accidental truth: Trump admits ‘We’re Like Pirates’

“We took over the cargo. We took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business” 

Jon Queally for Common Dreams

Irony of ironies: Trump and the Iranians agree
Trump is a pirate

Donald Trump on May 1 openly bragged about the US military acting “like pirates” in the world’s oceans as he described recent activities of the US Navy incapacitating vessels at sea and then taking their cargo.

“We took over the cargo. We took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business,” Trump said with a smile as the friendly crowd at the Forum Club in Palm Beach, Florida, cheered him on.

“We’re sort of like pirates, but we’re not playing games,” Trump added before calling the Iranian “bullies” who had to be confronted.

“The only good thing about Trump—only thing!—is that he sometimes says what we all know to be true,” said journalist Mehdi Hassan, “but don’t expect an American president to say, admit, out loud.”

In a social media post, the Iranian Embassy in New Zealand said: “No need to confess, President, the whole world already knows you. By the way, those who, with performative noise, constantly talk about ‘international law’ and ‘freedom of navigation’… don’t want to condemn piracy now?”

While using the US military to seize the contents of ships may be profitable to somebody, it’s not entirely clear who that might be.

So far, the estimate for what Trump’s war of choice against Iran over the last two months has cost US taxpayers in the immediate term ranges from $25 billion, which is what the Pentagon itself said this week, to upwards of $100 billion. Over the long term, including the increased cost of gas and groceries due to the economic disruption and the care of veterans involved in the war, the costs of the war—which remains historically unpopular among the US public—could exceed $1 trillion.

My favorite holiday is Friday, Sept. 19. International Talk Like a Pirate Day

 All you bilge rats, Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrgh! Get ready to celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day September 19.

#TalkLikeAPirateDay

As you are out and about today, don't be surprised if people are saying, "Ahoy Matey," "Avast," "Aye, Aye Capt'n," "Land ho!" "Hornpipe," and many other pirate-like phrases, because it's International Talk Like a Pirate Day. 

While ordering your coffee in the drive-thru, ask if they have change for gold bullion. Try testing your pirate language out at the library when asking for the location of Moby Dick. The pirate language always fairs well in rough seas. Settle a debate with "I'm right or I'll walk the plank!"

When the boss gives you a new project, "Aye, aye, Capt'n," is the correct response. However, beware calling the boss any frothy names. The goal of the day is not to lose your job.

To polish your persona, practice a swagger, limp or squint. Long days at sea give pirates unique qualities.

HOW TO OBSERVE TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY

Anchor's away! Get your sea legs and a barrel o' rum. Feel free to join in anytime with your own version of Pirate-ese. Learn more on how to talk like a pirate. Use #TalkLikeAPirateDay to share on social media.

TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY HISTORY

John Baur and Mark Summers (aka Ol' Chumbucket and Cap'n Slappy) created this international day in 1995.Click here for the entire story!

Aarrr! Happy Day!

Arrrr!

Dave Coverly 

Be upstanding for the Pirate National Anthem on Talk Like a Pirate Say

 

Thar she blows!

Manatee spotted in Quonnie

By Will Collette

Maybe Quonnie dwellers will forego their exodus to Florida this year, as Florida seems to be coming to us.

DEM spotted and photographed a manatee near a pier in Quonochontaug Pond, well over a thousand miles from its normal habitat.

DEM says they are monitoring the manatee, along with US Fish and Wildlife and the Mystic Aquarium in case it needs help.

Manatee have be spotted in RI waters in 2006 and 2016, according to DEM. They advise keeping 150 feet away and are warning boaters to use caution. In Florida, manatees are often killed or injured by boaters, not that Gov. Ron DeSantis's administration cares.

Speaking of matters aquatic, in one week, September 19, join us in celebrating international Talk Like a Pirate Day. It's a holy day on the Pastafarian calendar and a time for us all to practice talking like pirates.

Graphic by Sam Howard

Arrrrrr me hearties....HAPPY TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY!

 

Image thanks to Samuel Howard

Talk Like a Pirate Day has been held annually around the world every September 19 since 1995. On this day, we are reminded of all the pirates past, present and future who labor tirelessly to line their pockets at others expense. Or, in Piratese: 

"Ahoy, matey. This be the day we old salts ponder the deeds of bilge rats from the time of Aaron Burr to the Tangerine Terror of Mar-a-Lago. May he and all his buckos walk the plank!"

Enjoy the wild week ahead!

 Don't be surprised if you hear and see lots of fireworks to celebrate the two most exciting events of the year.

Tomorrow, September 19, is internationally renowned Talk Like a Pirate Day. Click here to read about the wild and wonderful history of this most sacred of holidays.

Here's a guide to pirate vocabulary:

If Talk like a Pirate Day isn't exciting enough, it's immediately followed by a week of celebrating during SepticSmart Week. 

Here are some ways you can celebrate:

Journalist Ian Urbina to discuss lawlessness on the ocean

September 17 URI on-line program is free and open to the public

Dawn Bergantino

Coincidence or not, this lecture is two days before
this big event

In 2015, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Ian Urbina produced a series about lawlessness at sea in The New York Times called “The Outlaw Ocean.” 

Last year, Urbina’s gripping, first-hand accounts of illegal overfishing, arms trafficking at sea, human slavery, gun running, intentional dumping, murdering stowaways, thieving of ships and other topics were collected and expanded upon in his bestselling book of the same name.

On Thursday, September 17 at noon, Urbina will share many of his stories as the featured lecturer in this year’s Charles and Marie Fish Lecture, hosted by the URI Graduate School of Oceanography. The online lecture is free and open to the public.

While a graduate student, Urbina’s first opportunity to spend time on the open ocean fell through and he instead spent days on a research ship that never left port in Singapore. “Spending long days on the dock, I was exposed to the diaspora tribe of seafarers and was struck by how distinct they were,” said Urbina. “Truth be told, once I was exposed to the place and the people, I was hooked.”

In his reporting over a decade later for The New York Times series and in his book, Urbina explored and chronicled a disparate array of characters: the traffickers and smugglers, pirates and mercenaries, wreck thieves and repo men, vigilante conservationists and elusive poachers, seabound abortion providers, clandestine oil-dumpers, shackled slaves and cast-adrift stowaways.

The series has now evolved into The Outlaw Ocean Project, where Urbina continues his reporting on the high seas and has expanded into a novel combination of music and journalism to raise awareness and stoke a sense of urgency about the human rights, labor and environmental abuses that occur at sea.

Arrrrgggg, there be corporate pirates runnin’ the ship

The Corporate Crook Conquest of the Executive Branch

By Phil Mattera for the Dirt Diggers Digest

It appears that the Trump Administration will not rest until every last federal regulatory agency is under the control of a corporate surrogate. 

The reverse revolving door is swinging wildly as business foxes swarm into the rulemaking henhouses.

Among the latest predators is Alex Azar II, who was just nominated by Trump to head the Department of Health and Human Services, a position Tom Price had to vacate amid the uproar over his excessive use of chartered jets for routine government travel. 

Until earlier this year Azar was the president of the U.S. division of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly.

Azar apparently shares Price’s abhorrence of the Affordable Care Act, but he also brings the perspective of a top executive for a drug company with a particularly sordid track record. 

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Yes, it's today.

To learn how to talk like a pirate, CLICK HERE. 

Arrrrr!

For more cartoons from Rhymes with Orange, CLICK HERE.

Happy TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY!

Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Collage by Lin Collette. See more by clicking here.

By Will Collette

International Talk Like a Pirate Day which is celebrated every year on September 19 is, for me, the most important holiday of the year. 

Popularized by my favorite humorist and Miami Herald columnist Dave Barry, Talk Like a Pirate Day is a time for serious people to pause, look in the mirror, say “Arrrrrrr!” and recognize what idiots we can be so much of the time. 

Arrrrr!

Getcher red-hot Charlestown Tapas

Crunchy news bites back by popular demand

By Will Collette

But first, check out the baby goat which has nothing to
do with anything in this article.

One of the by-products of my summer semi-sabatical has been fewer editions of Charlestown Tapas, our special collection of news tidbits. But now that summer is over, I hope to catch up on the backlog and bring this popular feature back.

First, some congratulations.

To us here at Progressive Charlestown for hitting the two-million mark for page-reads (people actually reading an article not just “hits”). Tom Ferrio and I started Progressive Charlestown in January 2011 as an alternative voice on politics in Charlestown, and never expected this kind of readership.

Belated congrats to Charlestown Housing and Zoning official Joe Warner for being named by the Governor to the RI Building Code Standards Committee. It’s an important position, so this is yet another recognition of Joe’s good work.

And also congratulations to Vicky Hilton for being picked as full-time Parks & Recreation Director. Vicky had been serving as acting director after the forced resignation of her former boss Jay Primiano. Vicky deserves the job on merit, but no doubt the Town Council preferred hiring her than having to publicly post the job and then have to deal with an application from ex-Councilor Lisa DiBello who received special permission from the Ethics Commission to apply if the job was opened up.

Jane Weidman also gets congratulations for being bumped up from part-time to full-time Charlestown Town Planner. The move became pretty much a sure thing after Block Island dropped Weidman from their payroll as part-time planner (Weidman was doing the same job for both Charlestown and Block Island) – without explaining why. Those reasons matter naught in Charlestown where the key criteria for Town Planner is to do exactly what CCA Party matriarch and Planning Commission leader Ruth Platner wants.

Chuck Wentworth deserves high praise – and got it in a very nice Projo piece doing just that – for the just-completed 35^th annual Rhythm and Roots Festival, one of the few remaining large events done in Ninigret Park. It’s hard to tell how long this tradition will continue, given the interest of many of the key Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Party) backers in ending most human activity in Ninigret.

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Collage by Lin Collette. For more, click here.

For more information on the only holiday truly worth celebrating (Arrrr!), click here.

VIDEOS: Tomorrow: It's "Talk Like a Pirate" Day!

Avast, me hearties! Arrrrrr!
By Will Collette

Collage by Lin Collette

Tomorrow is the most important holiday of the year - Talk Like a Pirate Day.

For the uninitiated, Talk Like a Pirate Day is the day when thousands, if not millions, of people around the globe celebrate by - get ready for this - talking like pirates. Some alcohol makes the transition to Piratese a lot easier.

Talk Like a Pirate Day really took off in the international consciousness when one of PC's favorite humorists, Dave Barry, adopted it as one of his special causes and began promoting it.

Then the day took on sacred trappings when it became one of the most holy of holy days of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

To aid you in preparing to make the most of the day, I have found a couple of very useful instructional videos that you can see after the jump. These will help you not only learn the vocabulary, but also understand the true meaning and spirit of the day.

It's coming! Talk Like a Pirate Day is Friday!

Collage by Lin Collette

Arrrrrr!

Your day is coming...

Talk Like a Pirate Day, Friday, September 19

Collage by Lin Collette

Lots of Charlestown activities in store

Tennis, golf, basketball, pumpkins and treat-or-treat

From Vicky Hilton, Charlestown Parks and Recreation Department

The only thing missing is something for
Talk Like a Pirate Day, September 19
(collage by Lin Collette)

The Charlestown Parks and Recreation Department will hold its Youth Tennis program on Saturday mornings at the Ninigret Park Tennis Courts. The program will run from 9-11am for ages 6-16. The program runs for eight weeks and the cost is $120. Our department is holding an Adult Golf program for those 18 and older at the Ninigret Park Tennis Courts from 11-noon for eight weeks on Saturday mornings.

Our department is holding an Adult Golf program for those 18 and older to be held at the Pinecrest Clubhouse.  This program will be held on Fridays from 9:30-10:30am. Players will be contacted with tee times. It will be held from September 19^th – November 7^th. The fee is $17 for nine holes, cart rental (not required), additional at a cost of $6. Fees should be paid at the Pinehurst Country Club- 26 Pinehurst Drive, Carolina. Please call 364-1222 for further information.

Adult Basketball for those 18 and over will be held at the Charlestown Elementary School Gym from 7:00-900pm on Thursday and Sunday evenings. This program is free and registration is at the Charlestown Elementary School Gym.