Category: Media and Culture,

A Zen Master’s Advice On Coping With Trump 

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

Referring to the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, during which marchers remained passive despite being chased and beaten, she said: “They were taught how to be quiet, how to be still, how not to resist and fight back no matter what happened.”

… comment piece in The Guardian, arguing that “Trump’s grand and vulgar self-absorption is inviting all of us to examine our own selfishness. His ignorance calls us to attend to our own blind spots. The fears that he stokes and the isolation he promotes goad us to be braver, more generous.”

A Zen Master’s Advice On Coping With Trump | The Huffington Post

hmmm

Bono Meets Mike Pence, Praises Previous AIDS Relief Efforts

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Bono and Mike Pence met briefly in Munich on Saturday, with the U2 singer thanking the vice president for his past support of AIDS relief in Africa.

Bono Meets Mike Pence, Praises Previous AIDS Relief Efforts – Rolling Stone

Bono’s such a tool. Is he at all ignorant of the context of such remarks? Guess the asshole doesn’t care. Sit down and shut the fuck up, tool.

Utah county GOP official resigns after criticizing equal pay bill 

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

A Utah county Republican Party official has resigned after receiving blowback for criticizing a bill in the state legislature designed to create equal pay criteria.

Utah county GOP official resigns after criticizing equal pay bill – CNNPolitics.com

Hey backwater, f’tard, inbred, moron: supporting limiting someone’s opportunities is opposite of supporting someone. So no, if you are arguing women should be paid less so they have to stay home and not work that is not supporting women. That’s actually the exact opposite of supporting women. The fact that you clearly do not get that means you are a total liability to any organization that deal with the public – let alone a political one. Sit down and keep your backwards trap shut, son.

Utah Republican argues against equal pay for women: It’s ‘bad for families’ and society 

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

In a letter criticizing a bill that addresses pay gap in the workforce, a Utah Republican said that men have traditionally earned more than women and, citing “simple economics,” argued that things should stay that way.

Utah Republican argues against equal pay for women: It’s ‘bad for families’ and society – SFGate

Backwards, inbred moron.

..And beyond that, what a myopic asshole.

If you’re going to be that self absorbed and stupid it’s probably best not to open your ignorant little mouth.

McCain defends free press, raises specter of dictatorship from Trump’s attacks

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

Presidential tweet stirs the pot on media relations

…Sen. John McCain on Sunday defended the need for “a free — and many times adversarial” — press. Without it, he said, “I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time — that’s how dictators get started.”

McCain defends free press, raises specter of dictatorship from Trump’s attacks

Yup.

 

How to Lie like the Trump Admistration

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,Leave a comment

First, she casts doubt on the verifiable reality of the question at hand, painting the attempt to get at the truth as a Sisyphean task; then paints herself as the polite and respectful one, implying that her interlocutor is the one violating codes of civility; and finally claiming that the reporter is ignoring the day’s real events of substance….

…As the administration grinds into its second month, Trump’s flacks have made increasing use of a variation of Bartleby’s “I would prefer not to”: “I can’t speak to that.” Or, as I like to translate it, “I haven’t prepared any lies to respond to that question.”

…Among Swift’s requirements of a good political liar are that “he ought to have but a short memory,” that he be ready and willing to swear to “both sides of a contradiction,” and that he never consider “whether any proposition were true or false, but whether it were convenient for the present minute or company to affirm or deny it.”

…The speaker’s enthusiasm and willingness to repeat the assertion (of voter fraud in New Hampshire, but it could be anything) stand in for evidence, and Miller’s “100 percent” catchphrase masquerades as a quantifiable truth claim.

How Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer Get Away With Lying

hmmmm

The Downfall of Kellyanne Conway

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

When the cast of “Morning Joe” pointed out that Ms. Conway’s recent appearances on news shows proved her a useless source of information, …they sneered at Ms. Conway’s apparent White House ostracization….

…Confronted about Mr. Trump’s chauvinism, [Conway] snapped back that women who were in poverty were not served during the Obama years, as though that somehow undid her boss’s history.

…Ms. Conway breached federal ethics laws by hawking Ivanka Trump’s “stuff” in the press briefing room…

…I simply cannot dredge up any sympathy for a person who has acknowledged the structural problems most women face only when she is personally facing them, or used them as derailing tactics when she’s losing an argument. I can’t mourn the downfall of a fair-weather feminist, a woman who has used her power to hurt other women.

presented without  comment

Trump’s inherited ‘mess’ hard to find in economic data

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

To hear President Donald Trump tell it, you’d think the U.S. was in the worst shape since the Great Depression.

“It’s a mess. At home and abroad. A mess. Jobs are pouring out of the country. You see what’s going on with all of the companies leaving our country. Going to Mexico and other places. Low pay, low wages.”

…When it comes to the U.S economy, though, that “mess” isn’t borne out by most measures.

Trump’s inherited ‘mess’ hard to find in economic data

hmmmm

NBC’s Peter Alexander gives Trump in-person fact check 

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

President Donald Trump, after lambasting the media as “dishonest people,” received an in-person fact check from NBC’s Peter Alexander at a White House news conference Thursday.

…Trump had claimed in his opening remarks that he had won the biggest Electoral College victory since Ronald Reagan, which is demonstrably false.

…“You said today that you had the biggest electoral margin since Ronald Reagan,” Alexander said, sitting feet from the president. He then began to list recent electoral victories bigger than Trump’s, which include both of Barack Obama’s victories, both of Bill Clinton’s victories and George H.W. Bush’s 1988 victory, all since Reagan.

…“It was a substantial victory, you do agree with that?” Trump asked.

“You’re the president,” Alexander responded.

NBC’s Peter Alexander gives Trump in-person fact check – POLITICO

Heh.

The real question is, does Trump know when he is lying?

Press Conference Backfire: Rep. Elijah Cummings Calls Out Trump For Making Up A Story About Him

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Race,Leave a comment

Rep. Cummings said that Trump’s claim that Democrats backed out of the meeting with him was a made up piece of fiction.

In a statement to the press, Rep. Cummings said: “I have no idea why President Trump would make up a story about me like he did today. Of course, Senator Schumer never told me to skip a meeting with the President. I was actually looking forward to meeting with the President about the skyrocketing price of prescription drugs. 

…I also sincerely have no idea why the President made this claim in response to an unrelated question about the Congressional Black Caucus. I am sure members of the CBC can answer these questions for themselves. “The skyrocketing price of prescription drugs is an issue that affects every American family—not just people of color—and I hope the President will make good on his promise to finally allow HHS to negotiate lower drug prices on behalf of American families. I look forward to meeting with him on this issue and others.”

Press Conference Backfire: Rep. Elijah Cummings Calls Out Trump For Making Up A Story About Him

hmmm

Oklahoma Lawmakers Want Men to Approve All Abortions

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,Leave a comment

The first, Rep. George Faught’s House Bill 1549, was returning for a second year. Under the measure, a woman would be blocked from aborting a fetus because it has — or is suspected of having — a genetic abnormality, regardless of how early she sought termination. 

…HB 1441, that was even more disturbing, devoid of any nuance and completely unconstitutional. Written by another of the chamber’s freshmen, Rep. Justin Humphrey, the legislation would require a woman seeking an abortion first to obtain written permission from her sexual partner. It would also require her to provide his name to her doctor and would forestall the procedure if the man wanted the opportunity to challenge paternity.The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a similar provision in 1992.

…Humphrey said that the original intention of the bill was to ensure that fathers are involved in supporting a child from conception. “I was wanting fathers to have to pay child support at the beginning,” 

….Ultimately, he said, his intent was to let men have a say. “I believe one of the breakdowns in our society is that we have excluded the man out of all of these types of decisions,” he said. “I understand that they feel like that is their body,” he said of women. “I feel like it is a separate — what I call them is, is you’re a ‘host.’ ”

Oklahoma Lawmakers Want Men to Approve All Abortions

How very Handmaiden’ Tale.

Exclusive: U.S. arrests Mexican immigrant in Seattle covered by Obama program 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Race,Leave a comment

U.S. authorities have arrested an immigrant from Mexico who was brought to the United States illegally as a child and later given a work permit during the Obama administration in what could be the first detention of its kind under President Donald Trump.Daniel Ramirez Medina, a 23-year-old with no criminal record, was taken into custody last week at his father’s home in Seattle by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

…Ramirez, now in custody in Tacoma, Washington, was granted temporary permission to live and work legally in the United States under a program called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, established in 2012 by Democratic President Obama, according to a court filing.

Exclusive: U.S. arrests Mexican immigrant in Seattle covered by Obama program | Reuters

Because racism. (Duh!)
…And the little fact that the only actual laws this administration respects are the fantasy ones in their own tiny little minds.