As recently as a week ago it looked like the White House Easter Egg Roll would go the way of the correspondents’ dinner

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

The logistics that go into security, crowd control, activities and invitations for something this size are insane. Last year, 35,000 parents and children attended. Yet, no one’s heard that any of work is being done on this year’s event with only seven weeks to go.

…“FYI manufacturing deadlines for the Easter eggs are near. Please reach out!” tweeted Wells Wood Turning, the Maine company that has made the wooden eggs for the past five years. tweeted last week, tagging all the Trumps.

Could the White House Easter Egg Roll go the way of the correspondents’ dinner?

It really looks like there is not a single thing that this WH is on top of….

 

 

History according to Ben Carson 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

There is history, and then there is history according to Ben Carson. The two aren’t always the same.

…”That’s what America is about. A land of dreams and opportunity,” Mr Carson told staff on Monday, his first day in his new job.

“There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less. But they, too, had a dream.”

…In 2013, he said President Obama’s healthcare reform plan was “the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery” and then, in October 2015, compared women who seek abortions to slaveholders.

…Back in November 2015, Buzzfeed published a video of Mr Carson saying the pyramids were built by the Biblical figure Joseph for storing grain.

The video was filmed 17 years earlier but Mr Carson, at the time the Republican frontrunner, told journalists that his views had not changed.

…In a speech to fellow Seventh-Day Adventists in 2012, he said the Big Bang was one of many “fairy tales” being peddled by “highfalutin scientists” and that the order in the solar system showed that creation was a planned event.

…Back in October 2015, when he was still second-favourite to win the Republican nomination, he suggested the Holocaust may have been avoided if people had been armed.

…His campaign backed away from his claim that he had been admitted to the prestigious US military academy at West Point.

But Mr Carson continued to stand by his assertion that, as a teenager, he tried to stab a relative,

….One magazine summed up the oddness of his story, headlining its article: “Ben Carson defends himself against allegations that he never attempted to murder a child.”

Relate

History according to Ben Carson – BBC News

There is something seriously off about that man.

Jeff Sessions Is Pretty Sure He Didn’t Do Anything Wrong

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

No, Franken does not specifically ask if Sessions spoke with the Russians — Sessions volunteers the response! And he does not specify the context in which he might have spoken to members of the Russian government; he merely states that he has not done so at all. And that, Jefferson Beauregard, seems rather dishonest in light of recent discoveries.

Jeff Sessions Is Pretty Sure He Didn’t Do Anything Wrong

Sigh….

Middlebury engages in soul-searching after speech is shouted down and professor is attacked

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

When Murray couldn’t speak, the college moved him and Stanger to another location to livestream a discussion. But after that event, some of the protesters surrounded them as they were leaving. Some shoved Stanger and yanked her hair with such force that she needed to wear a neck brace the next day.

That a professor was physically attacked has added to the soul-searching at Middlebury. Stanger, politically liberal and far from Murray on most issues, agreed to a student request to moderate the question period because, she wrote, she wanted to encourage students, and looked forward to a good debate.

Middlebury engages in soul-searching after speech is shouted down and professor is attacked

There is nothing liberal about intolerance. And certainly nothing liberal about violence and intimation against those who encourage debate between parties who disagree,

Trump’s Wiretap Tweets Raise Risk of Impeachment 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

But when President Trump accuses Obama of an act that would have been impeachable and possibly criminal, that’s something much more serious than libel. If it isn’t true or provable, it’s misconduct by the highest official of the executive branch.

How is such misconduct by an official to be addressed? There’s a common-law tort of malicious prosecution, but that probably doesn’t apply when the government official has no intention to prosecute.

The answer is that the constitutional remedy for presidential misconduct is impeachment.

Trump’s Wiretap Tweets Raise Risk of Impeachment – Bloomberg View

hmmm

High heels row: MPs ‘shocked’ by women’s dress code stories 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Europe,Leave a comment

A petition that calls for a ban on forcing women to wear high heels at work is debated by MPs.

…MPs said they were “shocked” by stories submitted as part of the inquiry, which included one case of a woman who had been told to dye her hair blonde.

The government has said no employer should discriminate on gender grounds.

…Helen Jones, who chairs the Petitions Committee, said : “It is fair to say that what we found shocked us.

“We found attitudes that belonged more [to the] – I was going to say 1950s but probably the 1850s might be more accurate – than the 21st Century.

…Women should not be expected to wear things that caused discomfort or expense that a male colleague would not, she added.

“I must reiterate that the government utterly condemns such dress requirements where their effects are discriminatory.”

High heels row: MPs ‘shocked’ by women’s dress code stories – BBC News

hmmmm

This Sportscaster Roasting Transphobic Bigots Is Truly Glorious To Watch. 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Texas sportscaster Dale Hansen came to the defense of a transgender teen during a segment on WFAA-TV, and totally shut down transphobic bigots in the process. 

In the video, Hansen spoke specifically of Mack Beggs, a 17-year-old athlete who is forced to wrestle against girls although he is a transgender boy. Beggs takes testosterone as part of the gender confirmation process, which changes his body to be more typically masculine. Hansen argues that this is not only unfair to the girls Beggs is wrestling, but to Beggs himself who clarified that he would feel more comfortable wrestling other boys.

…Hansen is sending the message that you don’t have to fully understand or agree with someone in order to be decent toward them.

“He’s a child, simply looking for his place in the world and a chance to compete in the world.”

This Sportscaster Roasting Transphobic Bigots Is Truly Glorious To Watch. | Someecards LGBT

How can you not love Dale Hansen?