Wednesday, November 14, 2018
CNN Lawsuit Against White House Contains Multiple Mistakes, Stupid Meme References
The feud over Acosta's indefinitely revoked hard pass revolves around his behavior at a November 7 press conference last week in which he, as White House Press Sec. Sarah Sanders put it, "plac[ed] his hands" on a female White House intern whom he had repeatedly refused to allow to take the microphone despite having already asked multiple questions and the president telling him in no uncertain terms that his time was up.
"President Trump believes in a free press and expects and welcomes tough questions of him and his Administration," Sec. Sanders wrote in a series of tweets announcing the removal of Acosta's pass. "We will, however, never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern. This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporter’s colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history."
Here's the moment where Acosta physically blocked the intern:
BREAKING: President Trump, CNN Correspondent Jim Acosta and @NBCNews Correspondent @PeterAlexander engage in tense exchanges in post-election news conference.
BREAKING: White House aide grabs and tries to physically remove a microphone from CNN Correspondent Jim Acosta during a contentious exchange with President Trump at a news conference. pic.twitter.com/fFm7wclFw2
‘IRREGULARITY AFTER IRREGULARITY’ — RUBIO BLASTS BROWARD COUNTY OFFICIALS FOR ELECTION LAW VIOLATIONS
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| LAUDERHILL, FL – NOVEMBER 10: Dr. Brenda Snipes, Broward County Supervisor of Elections, signs results with other canvassing board members after they were transmitted to the state capital on November 10, 2018 in Lauderhill, Florida. (Photo by Joe Skipper/Getty Images) |
Rubio began his conversation with Fox News host Sean Hannity by listing several irregularities the county’s office has so far been responsible for, including “19 people who were disqualified from voting by their own canvassing board.”
“So, it’s irregularity after irregularity,” said Rubio before explaining the role of “election lawyers” who have descended on Florida in the past week.
“As far as stealing is concerned, let me just make just one point on that,” said the Florida Senator. “The election lawyers are not coming to Florida to make sure every vote is counted. The reason why election lawyers get involved is to make sure as many votes as possible for their client is counted and as many votes as possible for their opponent is disqualified, and when you have an election office this incompetent and this lawbreaking it creates enormous opportunities for these sort of arguments to be made, and suddenly the election is decided by a judge or by lawyers, not by voters the way they are supposed to be.”
The only recourse, said Rubio, is to have “scrutiny and transparency” and “watch it every step of the way.”
“This level of incompetence gives you no confidence about anything with regards to that office and that’s why we’ve...
THE MEDIA HATES TRUMP BECAUSE IT HATES FREE SPEECH
President Trump and his predecessor had very different relationships with the media. And the media had a very different relationship to each of them.
Obama didn’t like talking to the press corps. The freewheeling unstructured chats that President Trump has become known for were rare during his administration. Instead, Obama preferred to have cronies arrange extended interviews at which he held forth to a single admiring reporter from an elitist publication.
These interviews targeted Obama’s base of wealthy donors and influential figures. And they were supplemented with staged events with millennial personalities that made him seem accessible. But Obama was anything but accessible. His media interactions were carefully managed.
Even his photographs, usually the one area where politicians have the least control, were often not the work of the media, but of his own photographer, Pete Souza, producing flattering images of him for the press. The White House Correspondents Association protested that, “Journalists are routinely being denied the right to photograph or videotape the President while he is performing his official duties.”
Obama wasn’t worried about rudeness from CNN or even tough questions. The abrasive belittling that President Trump has faced from the press corps would have been unthinkable. Even tough questions were a rarity. In one of the more embarrassing moments of media fawning, the New York Times' Jeff Zeleny asked Obama, what "enchanted you the most about serving in this office?"
But Obama and his associates worked hard at staying in control of the message. They didn’t just want flattering coverage. They couldn’t have gotten negative media coverage if they had nuked Boston. What they wanted was for the media to be an extension of the White House’s messaging operation. Tight control over Obama’s availability allowed him to purposefully set the media’s agenda to match his own.
An analysis by White House Transition Project director Martha Kumar noted that while Obama gave far more interviews, President Trump has done many more short Q&As. 42% of Trump's public statements came through his time with reporters while only 31% of Obama's did. Trump works the press in front of the camera. Obama’s people did most of their work with the press behind the curtain.
Where Obama needed to tightly control the media, Trump is comfortable trolling it. Obama avoided unstructured conversations because they might lead to the media covering something other than he wanted them to. Trump however is confident about getting the media to cover exactly what he wants.
Obama structured coverage by limiting access and using cronies like Ben Rhodes to trade access, plant stories and manipulate the media into functioning as his echo chamber. Trump welcomes coverage, and keeps his interactions with the media public. Unlike Obama, he expects no secret favors from the media. And his rousing battles with the media help promote whatever he wants to talk about. The more the media hates Trump, the more it has to cover him. The more he provokes it, the more it....
School Punishes Male Teacher For Refusing To Watch A Naked Girl In The Boys’ Locker Room
A Florida school district allowed a self-described transgender female student regular access to the boys’ locker room, with no advance warning to the boys or their parents. The first time she walked in, she caught “boys (literally) with their pants down, causing them embarrassment and concern by the fact that they had been observed changing by an obvious girl,” says a complaint letter to Pasco County School District from Liberty Counsel, a pro-bono constitutional law firm.
With a “gag order,” school administrators forbade teachers from talking about the change, and ordered a male P.E. teacher to supervise the potentially undressed girl in the Chasco Middle School locker room, the letter says. When he refused to “knowingly place himself in a position to observe a minor female in the nude or otherwise in a state of undress,” administrators told him “he will be transferred to another school as discipline for ‘not doing your job in the locker room.'”
In an email, an administrator initially threatened to put the male coach on administrative leave, telling him that refusing to supervise a potentially naked female student would “not be tolerated,”said Liberty Counsel attorney Richard Mast. The school’s other P.E. teacher, who is female, also objected and was ignored.
Pasco parents have yet to be informed by the school of this situation, yet the transgender student continues to have open access to private male areas, according to Liberty Counsel. Despite the initial September incident, then legal contact in October, the elected board for the district with 70,500 students has so far taken no action and administrators have refused to budge.
“Unfortunately these things are going on across the country, primarily with school psychologists and guidance counselors,” said Mast. He noted that it’s standard for public schools to pass transgender policies without informing parents, voters, or taxpayers first. That means the public only hears about it after children have been affected, withholding all opportunities for parents to prevent their child’s exposure to this kind of sexual indoctrination, confusion, and exploitation.
Last year in a Georgia public school, a five-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaultedby a “gender-fluid” male classmate in the school bathroom after a transgender policy allowed him access. He allegedly pushed her against the wall and repeatedly jammed his fingers into her...
The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #440
You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?
It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,
from the beautiful to the repugnant,
from the mysterious to the familiar.
If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,
you could be inspired, you could be appalled.
This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.
You have been warned.
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