Category: Media and Culture,

Mar-a-Lago: Trump’s Unethical ‘Winter White House’ – The Tab for Which He Gleefully Dumps on Local Tax-Payers

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

“We were told to expect him to come once a month. We never imagined it would be every weekend.”

Mr Gonzalez estimated that he’d lost about $65,000 and several clients since Mr Trump took office. “At this rate we might survive through the summer,” he said, “but I don’t see the company lasting much beyond that.”

…There are no official expenses yet for Trump’s weekend trips – the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has just announced it will begin a review – but travel and security are estimated to cost the taxpayer somewhere in the region of $3.3m per trip.

…the new president has repaired to Florida most weekends, racking up an estimated bill of about $23 million over 10 weeks. Added to that, the decision to keep his wife Melania and son Barron living in Manhattan is costing the state an estimated $58 million per year, according to the New York Police Department.

As a private citizen, Mr Trump delighted in tweeting pot shots at Mr Obama over his presidential travel costs, but according to an analysis by the conservative watchdog Judicial Watch, Mr Obama spent $97 million on travel in his entire eight years in office – a figure Mr Trump could, at his current rate, comfortably outspend within his first year. [emphasis: mine]

…When the president flies in for the weekend it costs the county sheriff’s office and city police about $120,000 a day in overtime pay.

…The county is looking at savings in its current budget, Mayor Burdick said, with possible cutbacks to parks, building maintenance and homeless services to fund the overtime pay.

Mayor Burdick has written twice to the Trump administration asking to be reimbursed for the costs. “To date, we haven’t heard a word back,” she said.

“I have a long list of things I’d like to say to President Trump,” she added, “regarding this, I’d just like to ask him to reimburse us our money.”

Mar-a-Lago: The price of Trump’s ‘Winter White House’ – BBC News

Hmmmm

Sean Spicer may want to reconsider downplaying ProPublica’s credentials

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Sean Spicer may want to reconsider downplaying ProPublica’s credentials. In his briefing Monday, the Press Secretary dismissed ProPublica as just a “left-wing blog.” The Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalism site took notice and brought the facts.

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Dayum….

White Parents Who Won’t Choose Black Schools 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Education,, Modern Parenting,, Race,, Schools,Leave a comment

They don’t want their kid to notice her whiteness in Pre-k and then find out while addressing that question, that while they already own great books about diversity, the only children’s books specifically about whiteness are published by the KKK. They don’t want their child to ask them why Quintavious’s sister says she doesn’t like white people. They don’t want to have to wonder when the teacher calls, if they are getting extra attention because white parents are often perceived as overbearing. They want diversity, just not too much.

Why White Parents Won’t Choose Black Schools | The Huffington Post

Sigh….

The women who sleep with a stranger to save their marriage 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Farah says she was “absolutely distraught”, but willing to return to her ex-husband because he was “the love of my life”.

She says her ex-husband also regretted divorcing her.

This led Farah to seek the controversial practice known as halala, which is accepted by a small minority of Muslims who subscribe to the concept of a triple talaq.

They believe halala is the only way a couple who have been divorced, and wish to reconcile, can remarry.

Halala involves the woman marrying someone else, consummating the marriage and then getting a divorce – after which she is able to remarry her first husband.

But in some cases, women who seek halala services are at risk of being financially exploited, blackmailed and even sexually abused.

It’s a practice the vast majority of Muslims are strongly against and is attributed to individuals misunderstanding the Islamic laws around divorce.

The women who sleep with a stranger to save their marriage – BBC News

WTF?!

Putin’s ex-wife and the fancy French villa the official disclosed “facts” would have her in no way able to afford 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Central Northern Asia and The Caucasus,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

But the OCCRP’s discovery of the luxury villa in France also raised questions about how Lyudmila or her new husband could afford such a lavish property. Artur Ocheretny is the director of a nonprofit organization, the Center for the Development of Interpersonal Communications, which is best known for being closely linked to Lyudmila. …The OCCRP notes that Russian NGO directors do not generally receive high salaries, and none of Ocheretny’s business ventures appear to be a success.

Lyudmila is not officially wealthy, either. Until her divorce, she was required by law to declare her assets and income, and she never declared much. In fact, Vladimir Putin’s own wealth declarations are similarly sparse, with a $147,000 salary and limited assets, including a Moscow apartment, a plot of land and three cars, listed on his 2015 statement.

There has long been speculation, however, that Putin and those close to him are significantly wealthier than they let on. Some estimates for the Russian president’s personal wealth go as high as $200 billion, though they are backed by sparse evidence. A 2016 leak of records from a law firm based in Panama did suggest that associates known to be close to Putin held as much as $2 billion through offshore accounts.

…Reuters reported in 2015 that Katerina Tikhonova, widely said to be the younger of Putin’s two daughters, owned a seaside villa in Biarritz that was worth about $3.7 million at the time. She and her husband, Kirill Shamalov, the son of a friend of the Russian president, together were worth around $2 billion, the news agency reported.

Putin’s ex-wife returns to the spotlight with a dashing young husband and a fancy French villa – The Washington Post

hmmm

Twitter Slams Ivanka Trump’s ‘Hypocritical’ Equal Pay Day Tweet

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

It was not lost on critics, however, that Ivanka’s father, President Donald Trump, just last week rolled back Obama-era protections for women in the workplace.

Charged one Twitter user: “Tell that to your father. He doesn’t believe in raising the minimum wage, is anti-union, & we all know how he feels about women’s bodies.”

Twitter Slams Ivanka Trump’s ‘Hypocritical’ Equal Pay Day Tweet

hmmmm

This One-Year Alternative to College Promises to Land Students a Well-Paying Job, Debt-Free 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Education,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Schools,Leave a comment

The first is that young people are leaving their undergraduate education without the skills necessary to land their first job nor to really thrive in their lives and careers going forward. Seventy-four percent [of students] feel that they are leaving university unprepared to enter the job market, and 50 percent of hiring managers think that today’s college grads lack the critical thinking skills necessary* to really thrive or contribute at their company.

The second, even more troubling, is whether students obtain a degree or not they are leaving their undergraduate with insurmountable, crippling debt. 

“…[MissionU charges] zero tuition.

…When you get into MissionU we invest in you for that whole year, which enables any student from any background to be able to participate in our program, regardless of your socioeconomic background and your financial situation. Only once you are making $50,000 or more, once you have that job, you contribute 15 percent of your income back to MissionU for three years. That enables us to provide that opportunity to the next student. And if you don’t reach that $50,000 threshold, then you don’t pay us anything.

…We have a skills- and career-focused curriculum. We start by partnering with employers. Our employer partners do two things. First, they advise us on curriculum, and the second is once we calibrate our curriculum to make sure that we are meeting the needs of these industry leading employers, that are indicative of the broader industry needs, we give them early hiring access to consider our top graduates.

…Our first quarter is the foundational quarter. You learn eight hard skills. Those are things like business writing, public speaking, project management, excel gathering and basic tech foundation of html and css. These are eight hard skills we believe will make you an effective employee at any company, regardless of the industry.

…we have our graduation moment, but we don’t think that graduation should be at the very end of the year and that you should be sent on your way to find a job yourself. Instead, we reserve six weeks at the end our program for ‘career launch.’ Career launch is where we support you from interview preparation all the way through to salary negotiation.

This One-Year Alternative to College Promises to Land Students a Well-Paying Job, Debt-Free | Innovation | Smithsonian

hmmmmm

*- emphasis: mine. Although Of course I think it is important to be sensitive to the needs of others, I have often speculated about the correlation between the proliferation of space spaces in academic environments and an impact on formulating problem solving and critical thinking skills. Seemed too pertinent not to hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Mike Pence’s Billy Graham Rule: Institutionalized Discrimination and Misogyny 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

Pence’s rule for his marriage perpetuates religious and political ideologies based on false, dehumanizing ideologies about women that, when espoused by those in power, have manifested disastrous outcomes for all of us. If Pence cannot eat alone with a woman, it must be because when he sees a woman across a table, she’s not an adviser, she’s not a teacher, she’s not a leader, she’s not a constituent — she is only a sexual entity.

…If it feels like we are going back in time, perhaps it’s because rules like Pence’s invite us back to 18th century political ideology — and one of the oldest tricks in the patriarchal playbook — of separate spheres. Separate spheres based on purported natural makeup and the will of God, that a man’s place is in the public sphere (politics, commerce, the economy and law) while a woman’s God-ordained role is in the private sphere (housekeeping, child-rearing and domestic duties). This ideology historically justified women’s legal status as dependents until marriage, and stripped women of their legal existence — economic and property rights — after marriage.

…If powerful men are free to meet alone with other men, and to exclude women from the most powerful rooms in the country — how will women ever occupy those rooms in their own right? If powerful men are only able to mentor young men, where does that leave young women? If, as data suggests, the most mutually beneficial negotiations take place over meals, then doesn’t denying a woman the opportunity to break bread equate to denying her the opportunity to close a deal — to be heard? Access is power; access denied is power denied.

What if male professors stopped meeting alone with female students? What if male doctors refused to meet with female patients? What if a Vice President announced he would never dine alone with a black person? If any of these hypothetical rules alarms you, so should Pence’s.

Mike Pence: Christian Blogger on Jesus and Billy Graham Rule | Time.com

Yup.

Research Shows Donald Trump Is Making Men More Sexist 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Wharton concludes that its most-famous alum is behind an increase in male aggressiveness.

…”We didn’t know Trump was going to be elected; we didn’t set out to study Trump’s election,” said Low. “We had the [lab experiment] sessions on the calendar already, and post-election, we looked at the data and saw that people’s behavior was profoundly different.”

Research Shows Donald Trump Is Making Men More Sexist | Vanity Fair

hmmmm

John Oliver’s interview with the Dalai Lama is an unexpected delight 

On By peanutgallerynhIn East Asia,, Media and Culture,, Religion,Leave a comment

The Dalai Lama wants the Last Week Tonight host to be his demon best friend forever.

Source: John Oliver’s interview with the Dalai Lama is an unexpected delight – Vox

 

How can you not just love both of these men?

(Sorry, China. You’ll never captivate American hearts and minds or be seen as honorable truth-tellers the way either of these guys do. It’s not you… It’s us. Apart from our own politics we just do love ourselves some authentic stuff.)

Abortions Rights Aren’t Optional for Democrats — There’s No Economic Justice Without Abortion Rights

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Scarborough brought up the question of abortion and other “social issues” that he said kept white working-class voters voting Republican…

…He suggested that if Democrats want to win white working-class voters in states …they might need to run candidates who reflect the social values of those same white working-class voters — that is, opposing a woman’s legal right to decide for herself whether to carry a pregnancy to term. Could Democrats, Scarborough asked [Vermont Sen. Bernie] Sanders, “be open to candidates that may not be rigidly pro-choice, may not be rigidly pro-gun control?” Sanders said yes.

…Abandoning full-throated support for abortion rights in an attempt to secure more votes from moderates is not a new idea. Throughout the ’90s and early 2000s, political commentators — almost always white, almost always male — positioned abortion rights as a social issue fueling divisive culture wars. They painted abortion as an issue of life and religious morality, eclipsing women and relegating the moral value of allowing us sovereignty over our own insides to the background of the picture.

…Tolerating Democratic hedging on abortion to justify appeals to the working class is also nonsensical. For women who are pregnant, abortion isn’t a “social issue”; it’s very much an economic one. Most women who have abortions say they chose that route either because of their economic realities or in planning for their economic futures: They can’t afford a child (or, more often than not, they’re already mothers who can’t afford another child…)

Abortions Rights Aren’t Optional for Democrats — There’s No Economic Justice Without Abortion Rights

hmmm

Oh, and screw you and your old white guy bro-blinders, Bernie. It’s embarrassing to white people.

Self-Avowed “Hardcore Conservative” Recounts What Changed Their Mind

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,Leave a comment

It’s actually very easy to believe your own small town or local religious community is an isolated pocket of “sanity” in a hedonistic liberal world. Outside of your immediate surroundings, how do you know how “people do things” in other parts of the world, or country, or state? Even traveling only exposes you to brief, touristy glimpses of restaurant workers and World’s Biggest quirky statues. If you haven’t actually lived in those places, you’re probably mostly depending on TV to tell you about their daily life.

I realize Hollywood’s ham-fisted attempts to be PC and woke have always been comically backwards to actual progressive people, but to someone who’s never lived outside a small conservative community, it would seem like a gritty, realistic glimpse into the liberal-ruled godless world out there.

While TV’s treatment of gay people has often caricatured them and ignored any discrimination or difficulty in their lives, to someone who’s never seen “a gay,” it reveals that outside of their town, the gays are “everywhere” and rich and celebrated and any complaints of discrimination must be laughable lies.

…Hollywood may also give some inaccurate ideas about sex frequency in the wider world. Every non-religious liberal person out there is not actually having sex with a different person every day, at least because of availability issues if not moral or pragmatic ones.

And finally, pretty much every overtly Christian person in TV/movies is a self-righteous moron. (This is fair as it applies to me but I have friends who deserve better.) This is pretty good at reinforcing the idea that your own local religious community is a tiny safe oasis in a dark world that hates you.

I Was A Hardcore Conservative: What Changed My Mind

The article was interesting but the description of how they perceived the world before exposure to people outside their religious community was fascinating.

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner Still Benefiting From Business Empire, Filings Show 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, President Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, will remain the beneficiaries of a sprawling real estate and investment business still worth as much as $741 million, despite their new government responsibilities, according to ethics filings released by the White House Friday night.

Ms. Trump will also maintain a stake in the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.

…It is unclear how Ms. Trump would earn income from that stake. Mr. Kushner’s financial disclosures say that Ms. Trump earned between $1 million and $5 million from January 2016 to March 2017, and puts the value of her stake at between $5 million and $25 million.

hmmmm

Pence and Religiously-rooted Discrimination against Women in the Workplace

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Women aides described the many ways in which men who adhere to the Graham Rule left them out of meetings and professionally relevant recreational activities. The “never alone with a woman” rule makes it difficult for these women to do their jobs, become part of their workplace cultures and compete effectively for promotions.

…The idea that a man cannot be alone with a woman he is not married to is the essence of maintaining fraternity in the professional and political worlds.

…The evanescent effects on the workplace of self-described religious beliefs like these make any statements about women’s equality moot in tangible, practical terms. Attitudes like his will keep women out of important roles in the White House and beyond.

Mike Pence Is Why We Have To Stop Excusing Religious Sexism | The Huffington Post

What the author fails to put forth here is simply this:

There is nothing wrong with two people orchestrating and living a marriage in a way which not only follow their own beliefs and values. As long as both individuals are consenting active participants in something that works for them and no one is getting hurt? It’s just another variation on marriage and relationships.

The inner workings of the Pence marriage aren’t -or at least shouldn’t be- the issue here.

The issue is that this behavior impacts women who did not choose to live their lives this way and the unfair burden Pence’s choices place on women to be able to perform their jobs on a fair, ethical, honorable, and -most of all- level playing field.

US government watchdog to review Trump’s Mar-a-Lago trips and hotel profits 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

…The Government Accountability Office’s review will examine whether Secret Service agents subject Mar-a-Lago guests to any security screening, and evaluate the expenses incurred by government employees who travel with Trump to Mar-a-Lago, according to a letter the agency sent the lawmakers on Friday.

…The GAO will also check whether Trump has made any payments to the U.S. Treasury from profits at his hotels.

…Udall said on Monday the American people “deserved to know who has access to the president, how much it’s costing to protect him and whether the Trump Organization is benefiting from that protection.”

He introduced a bill on Friday that would require the White House to publish logs of people who meet with Trump there and at other locations.

US government watchdog to review Trump’s Mar-a-Lago trips and hotel profits – Business Insider

hmmm

Melania Trump petition continues to surge in popularity – CBS News

On By peanutgallerynhIn Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

The petition calls for her to either move to the White House or personally pay for her New York City security expenses.“

The U.S. taxpayer is paying an exorbitant amount of money to protect the First Lady in Trump Tower, located in New York City,” the petition reads. “As to help relieve the national debt, this expense yields no positive results for the nation and should be cut from being funded.”

….Last month, the Secret Service requested $60 million in additional funding to protect the president and his family, according to a report in the Washington Post.

…As a private citizen, before he formally entered politics, Donald Trump was fiercely critical of then-President Obama’s travel and expenses.

Melania Trump petition continues to surge in popularity – CBS News

I’d love for someone to post  running tally of the costs the Trump family are incurring and display it clearly next to the rate sof spending by their predecessors for the last fifty years.