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Note: This article contains images of dead animals that some readers may find disturbing.
LAST NIGHT AS Donald Trump Jr was proudly announcing his father as the Republican candidate for the US presidency, journalist and broadcaster Ronan Farrow couldn’t help but notice some symbolism.
While many of the delegates at the four-day-long convention in Cleveland are enthusiastic supporters of Trump Sr, many just can’t get behind him.
Conventions are supposed to be the time when, after a gruelling primary process, party members put their own personal choices behind them and unite behind whoever won.
Sometimes it can be difficult – but most of the time, they get there.
Except this time there are many who simply refuse to do so. Some Republicans – notably, the likes of Mitt Romney – think that supporting Trump is damaging to their own party, and indeed to the US as a whole.
That’s why, among the cheering for veterans and booing for Hillary Clinton, Commentary Magazine described a general listlessness among delegates.
That’s where the symbolism comes in…
In particular, the Republican Party’s symbol of the elephant and a reminder from Farrow that Donald Trump Jr once proudly stood holding the severed tail of a wild elephant.
The picture was taken during a ‘big game’ hunt Donald Jr went on with his younger brother Eric Trump. The photos surfaced in 2012 with The Daily Beast reporting that the pair were hunting in Zimbabwe.
Last year’s killing of Cecil the lion by US dentist Walter Palmer in the same country provoked global outrage.
On their hunting trip, the Trumps also posed beside a dead cheetah and a crocodile hanging from a tree.
The story made quite big news at the time and Trump Jr subsequently defended himself in an interview with Deer & Hunter magazine, saying he had “no regrets about it”.
Last night’s tweet from Farrow provoked a bit of reaction online – and he wasn’t the only person to notice the symbolism – but it’s unlikely to hurt his father’s campaign too much.
Whether or not the Trumps will actually kill the party, well that’s a different question.
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Surely we should at least be checking stomachs to see if plastic is an issue?
@brian boru: All died from plastic at the same time? Not likely.
@brian boru:
Oh, plastic is the current buzzword, it must be plastic so!,
Its more than likely sonar. Sonar is used in oil exploration and during military exercises.
Not really a mystery when you see the amount of such activity in our Atlantic waters.
@brian boru: Probably full of condoms as they look like small jellyfish as well, go to any beach here and its full of them…
@TamuMassif2019: they must be full of seamen too so ;-)
We will act when no whales can be found in our seas.
@Winterfell: I’ve swam in Dollymount for 35 years and never saw a whale. The old dead whale hoax.
@Winterfell: What will Norway and Japan do then, kill dolphins?
@Paul Whitehead: not exactly the Atlantic is it
Until today, I was ignorant of how destructive active sonar is to marine life.
I was just reading that sonar on some American ships is way more powerful than the minimum needed to kill a human in the water. It stands to reason it can’t be good for whales/dolphins which are biologically designed to pick up sonar.
The government and the MSM have missed a trick here. Surely they could have pointed to Climate Change being the cause. Another reason to slap carbon taxes on all of us.
The Great Climate Change Shakedown missed an opportunity here….
Russian naval activity in the Atlantic. Destroyers passed through the English Channel yesterday on the way to the Atlantic. Bet there’s subs there too. I wonder are the Irish navy keeping an eye on things or playing Irish ferries in the med?
@Phil Keenan: It was a British ship.
@Phil Keenan: far more non russian than Russian. Those clickbait articles in the Sun are only there to incite anti russian hatred before the next government anouncement blaming them for something.
Like it was said earlier, the exploration activity off the coast is clearly a more likely explanation
Also, it could be deep sea fishing vessels coming into Irish waters to catch our fish. The whales are also being netted. Fishing vessels dump the unwanted catch back into sea. Read something about this happening in the north west Irish deep sea.
@Ashling Visser Bishop: absolutely. Also the sonar they use for catch location is probably as powerful as military grade.
“Whales are designed for dealing with pressure changes” who’s designing these whales I demand to know.
sounds fishy
Another one spotted in the water close to sligo today. Will be on the shore in a few hours.
What are US and UK subs doing in our waters, why is this not asked, a few months ago a trawler got into difficulties as it seemed with a sub in the Irish sea but that wasn’t reported anywhere.
Those military children and their war games and UK’s Trident using the XP Windows operating system, it is crazy.
It has been stated for years that the sonar is causing this but the military don’t care, it’s time they did.
Also… “We take our environmental responsibilities very seriously and continue to work with the relevant UK authorities to reduce any environmental risk.
A necessary series of safety checks is observed and an environmental risk assessment is carried out before any underwater task is undertaken by the Ministry Of Defence, to minimise any potential risk to marine life.”
And again I ask what are they doing in and near Irish waters???
Saw one floating off Murder Hole Beach in Donegal on Sunday. Same colour as the ones above.
@Gavin Sheehan: Murder Hole Beach. What a fantastic place name!
There is absolutely no evidence of any kind provided here that naval sonar is the cause of these deaths.
Grace O Malley, pirate queer sorry what am l saying pirate queen……..she has not gone away yiz know…watch the sky
Saying there’s no evidence, instead of actually denying involvement in this, is like saying “you can’t prove it, so F off”.
Marine research vessel discovered coral reefs 300 miles off our west coast recently. How did they achieve that. SONAR maybe???
have your say