Category Archives: Transhuman News

A day after saying the White House press corps ought to be eliminated, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich co-hosted The View, where he and his fellow panelists collided over President Donald Trumps lynching tweet.

Gingrich is currently making the rounds to promote his new book, Trump vs. China: Facing Americas Greatest Threat, and after telling CBS there wouldnt be a White House press corps in the White House if he had his way, he took his media tour to ABC. Sure enough, things started off with a bang when Whoopi Goldberg asked Gingrich to respond to how Trump is likening impeachment a Constitutional process to lynching.

Its a word that nobody, you know, wants to hear, Goldberg said. This was not a good choice of words for him, do you think?

Gingrich defended Trump by comparing him to Clarance Thomas, who claimed he experienced a lynching when he was investigated during his Supreme Court confirmation process. The former speaker continued to excuse Trump by saying hes deeply frustrated by how he has been beaten up and investigated since the start of his presidency.

But doesnt he bring a lot of that on himself? Abby Huntsman asked, to which, Gingrich shrugged and said sure.

Listen, Newt, Golberg interjected as she jumped back in the conversation. When a giant six-foot white guy says Im being lynched here, you understand why its a little bit like, listen man, youre not being lynched here, you are being held to the standard were supposed to be holding every president to.

Gingrich continued to be pressed on the subject, with Sunny Hostin noting that his Trump-Thomas comparison is faulty since Thomas is black.

Im going to be very politically incorrect, Gingrich eventually said, pivoting. Most of the early American movies on lynching were about lynching white people.

Gingrich eventually acknowledged Goldbergs point that it wasnt appropriate for Trump to use the term, and he often uses words more clumsily than he should.

Ive been comfortable just calling it a witch hunt and a Kangaroo court and things like that, he said. I havent gone up to that next level.

Watch above, via ABC.

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Newt Gingrich Battles The View on Trump's 'Lynching' Tweet - Mediaite

Meghan Daums The Problem With Everything. Simon and Schuster

Ive never been more afraid of writing a book, essayist Meghan Daum says in the self-aggrandizing introduction to The Problem With Everything. Ive never been more certain I had to. Subtitled My Journey Through the New Culture Wars, the best that can be said about Daums meandering tract is that its breezy, conversational tone goes down quick and easy. The worst that can be said is that it reads like a late-in-life coming-of-age story in which this straight, cis-gendered, able-bodied, (mostly) heterenormative white chick giggles whilst unloading politically incorrect knowledge-bombs on her New York peers.

Its not as if I didnt find myself nodding in agreement here or there; Daums book of essays isnt as willfully stupid as Bret Easton Ellis latest, even if their fed-up, cranky politics do dovetail at points. There should be room for uncomfortable conversations about whether the #MeToo movement has overstepped itself, or whether we need to tap the brakes on certain aspects of woke culture. But Daum, despite her own confidence, never steps up and proves why the world so needed this bookrather than a simple list of hyperlinks to the more robust Salon and New Yorker articles that informed it.

SEE ALSO: A Few Good Reasons Not to Read Bret Easton Ellis New Book, White

The Problem With Everything is at its weakest when it gets personal, when Daum weaves memoir into her retread of the recent sagas of Brett Kavanaugh, Aziz Ansari, Title IX debates, the outrage over whether women boarding a United Airlines flight were allowed to wear leggings, the overuse of the word badass in empowerment literature, etc. She positions herself as a proud representative of Gen X who has little or no patience for a younger cohort of feminists, especially the sort who are very online.

Conveniently, her targets are all straw(wo)men and caricaturesloony Social Justice Warriors who wear I DRINK MALE TEARS t-shirts while slaying on Twitter. Daum is the Amy Klobuchar of cultural critics: sane defender of the proud center. And certainly she is entitled to her opinions on sexism, racism and whatever else, it would just be nice if they were more enlightening; I swear Ive heard more eye-opening takes on some of these issues on an episode of Law & Order: SVU, or over the course of any five minutes of Dear White People.

Meghan Daum. Simon and Schuster

Often, the anecdotes sprinkled throughout the book are intended to convey a specific message: Men have always been pigs, but women havent always been so wilted and wounded over it. In 1995, our mandate was to laugh it out of the room, she says, of chauvinism. Todays young feminists, Daum wants us to believe, are all snowflakes masquerading as badasses. (Speaking of Ellis, its surprising that Daum doesnt borrow his lame coinageGeneration Wussto describe the fragile millennials shes so bored of.) By Daums account, previous decades knew how to handle it if some middle-aged clown decided to whip his cock out by the Xerox machinea scenario she borrows from the political novel Primary Colors. Daum measures the youngs and finds them lacking, insufficiently awed by toughness, a generation of oversized kids who refuse to be shamed by vulnerability.

Maybe its my natural temperament (and maybe this is proof that my temperament is fundamentally narcissistic) but theres no one Id rather blame for my misfortunes than myself, she writes, as if stumping for a keynote gig with Turning Point USA. Personal responsibility trumps victim culture, because it makes you strong: Its almost as if blaming myself strips the men of their power by rendering them too insignificant to even gripe about. This is how Daums friend reacted, circa the mid-90s, when she was working on Wall Street and a male colleague masturbated on her desk in the middle of the night (or, in the authors oddly delighted rendering, liquidated his holdings all over it.) This friend didnt call the police, or HR; she felt bad for the creep, spoke of him almost with an air of pity.

So to recap: Millennials are doomed in their brittleness; identity politics will destroy the left; Pussy Hats were lame; feminists say fuck too much; and Meghan DaumIm just guessing hereis the type of liberal who would have voted for Obama a third time but maybe wants to hear what the Charles Murray crowd has to say about evolutionary psychology on some edgy podcast. The breakdown of Daums marriage, and her relocation to New York, forms the background to a now-familiar narrative arc: Self-proclaimed NPR liberal has her eyes opened by the intellectual dark web; spends a lot of time online, alone, streaming YouTube videos. Theres something low-level sad about the Come to Jesus moment she has when these new friends enter her life, ready to battle against what Daum smugly dubs the wokescenti: John McWhorter, Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris, the shining stars of her beloved Free Speech YouTube.

Is Daum correct in asserting that liberals and leftists can be mired in a sticky groupthink in the age of Trump? Sure. But even when Daum makes a sensible point, she never justifies the apparent necessity of The Problem With Everything, which merely collects and annotates conversations that are still ongoing. She wants to cast herself as a minor martyr, daring to speak truth to powertruths like the fact that well-meaning white people, behind closed doors, dont always love Ta-Nehisi Coates as much as they claim to. Stop the presses! Her emphasis on the personal journey here is the real problem. Daums not an insightful guide, and her conversion story is a clich that shes mistaken for something singular. She calls this book an extended rumination, which is perhaps a fancy word for a self-righteous, 221-page Twitter thread. In which case: Unfollow.

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The Problem With Meghan Daums The Problem With Everything - Observer

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson took aim at political correctness at a contentious committee hearing, warning that the impulse to control speech and expression would destroy the country.

During Tuesdays House Financial Services hearing, Representative Jennifer Wexton (D-Virginia) raised previous comments Carson had made about big, hairy men, widely understood to be directed at transgender women, inviting him to apologize, but the secretary was having none of it.

I think this whole concept of political correctness you can say this, you cant say that, you cant repeat what someone said is total foolishness and its going to destroy our nation, Carson shot back, adding: We need to be more mature than that.

Carson, a Republican, went on to deny that he was referring to transgender women in his prior remark made at a HUD meeting last month arguing that he was merely relating a story a womens group told him about men entering their facility and having to be accepted because of the rules that were in place.

While he said he could not recall the group who told him that story, Carson added that they were based in Alaska.

Wexton later took to Twitter to lament the exchange, slamming Carson for his refusal to apologize and stating that hateful words translate into discriminatory policy.

The Democratic representative has previously quarreled with Carson, decrying a new HUD policy rolled out earlier this year which allowed federally funded homeless shelters to turn away transgender people on religious grounds, a move she called incredibly dangerous.

Carson has been something of an anti-PC warrior for years, well before the highly politically incorrect president entered the Oval Office in 2016, regularly shredding the concept in media appearances and warning of a society where people are afraid to say what they actually believe at times even drawing comparisons to Nazi Germany.

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HUD Secretary Ben Carson warns political correctness will DESTROY' the US (VIDEO) - RT

US top diplomat in Ukraine Bill Taylor testified Tuesday that he was told by US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland that security aid to Ukraine could have been held up in part because of a push for Ukraine to publicly announce an investigation that could help President Donald Trump politically, according to sources in both parties.

In a lengthy and detailed opening statement, Taylor said that he and Sondland spoke by phone about why the aid was frozen, and Sondland cited the need for Ukraine to open an investigation among other reasons, according to the sources. Sondland told Taylor that the investigations potentially included both Ukraines involvement in the 2016 election and Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company that hired former Vice President Joe Bidens son Hunter Biden, the sources said.

Asked about Taylors comments, a source familiar with Sondlands testimony said that Sondland cited, in addition to the investigations, that the aid may have been frozen because the Europeans werent giving Ukraine enough and corruption in general. The source said Sondland was only speculating when he referenced the political investigations into the 2016 election and Burisma.

He made very clear in his testimony that nobody would give him a straight answer about why the aid was being held up, the source said about Sondlands testimony.

Text messages between Taylor and Sondland and provided to Congress show that the two discussed the aid being frozen on the phone, amid concerns Taylor had raised that it was being held up in order to help Trump politically.

As I said on the phone, I think its crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign, Taylor texted Sondland on September 9. Sondland responded that Taylors assertion was incorrect, a conclusion he reached after speaking directly to Trump.

The opening statement from Taylor took roughly an hour to deliver, according to multiple people in the room. Sources said that the statement rich with detail.

Democrats described Taylors testimony as damning to the President.

All I have to say is that in my 10 short months in Congress its my most disturbing day in Congress so far, said Rep. Andy Levin, a freshman Democrat from Michigan.

Republicans, however, downplayed Taylors testimony. Rep. Mark Meadows, a North Carolina Republican, said of Taylors testimony there was nothing new here, I think.

Were trying to see if any witness has a connection between foreign aid and pausing the foreign aid, Meadows said. As it relates to the quid pro quo, we havent had any witness suggest that.

Taylors opening statement was intended to fill in the gaps of his text messages with US diplomats about Ukraine that have formed a key part of the impeachment investigation into Trump and Ukraine, according to another source familiar with his testimony.

Taylor, who is testifying before the three House committees leading the Democratic impeachment inquiry, planned to lay out the reasoning behind his different WhatsApp text messages in his opening statement Tuesday, the source said. Taylor planned to include a chronology of events, according to the source, dating back to June, when Taylor assumed the post as ambassador, through October.

Taylors testimony is among the most significant for Democratic impeachment investigators because of text messages he exchanged with Sondland and former US special envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker about the freezing of US security aid to Ukraine.

Taylor is not bringing any new documents to the committee, and he will just reference those that have already been made public, the source said. Volker, who is no longer at the State Department, provided the texts to Congress. Other witnesses who have appeared, including Sondland, have been prevented by the State Department from providing documents.

Taylor is appearing behind closed doors before the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees as part of the Democratic impeachment inquiry fueled by whistleblower allegations that Trump solicited foreign election interference from Ukraine to investigate his potential 2020 political opponent.

Taylor was issued a subpoena to compel his testimony on Tuesday morning in response to the Trump administrations direction to witnesses not to testify in the impeachment probe, according to an official working on the inquiry. Thats the same thing the committees have done for other current State Department employees who have testified.

The witnesses who have appeared so far have said that the President directed his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to take the lead on US-Ukraine policy as Giuliani was pushing for an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

Taylor, as the current acting ambassador to Ukraine, is in a difficult and delicate position testifying Tuesday, the source said. Taylors view is that he is there to speak to the committee and answer their questions, and hes not looking to issue his own statement publicly.

Other officials who have given testimony and also delivered opening statements were in different positions: Volker had already resigned and Sondland, a major Trump donor, was unlikely to be fired by Trump. Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who testified earlier this month, is still a State Department employee but is not currently in an active ambassador role.

Taylor plans to return to Ukraine on Wednesday, the source said. He wants to keep his job and thinks it is important work.

A career diplomat, Taylor had to be convinced to take the Ukraine job in the first place, sources familiar with conversations explained. Volker recommended Taylor to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for the post after Yovanovitchs unexpected removal in the spring. Taylor then met with Pompeo, State Department Counselor Ulrich Brechbuhl and Volker at the department at the end of May.

The conversation focused on US policy towards Ukraine and Pompeos view of that policy. The secretary of state argued the Trump administration had a robust policy a position he has taken in numerous interviews and the elephant in the room Yovanovitchs ouster was not extensively addressed, the sources told CNN.

After the meeting, Taylor texted back and forth with Volker, and among other things, he asked why Volker would not want to take the job. Volker said he was better off in his current role covering Ukraine as well as Washington and allies and NATO. Taylor was on the ground in Ukraine, serving as de-facto ambassador, about a month later.

By Manu Raju, Jeremy Herb, Kylie Atwood, Lauren Fox, and Gloria Borger, CNN

Originally posted here:
US envoy to Ukraine testifies that EU ambassador cited political investigations as possible reason for Ukraine aid delay - KTVI Fox 2 St. Louis

Maher has been talking politics for over two decades now, starting with the aptly titled show Politically Incorrect, on Comedy Central back in 1993. Most recently, he made headlines, offering president Donald Trump $1 million dollars to leave office, saying, "You love money."

Maher is the host of Real Time, an HBO show that's earned him 34 Emmy nominations; he won his first Emmy in 2014 for his work as executive producer of the HBO series, Vice.

He's written five books including New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer and The New New Rules: A Funny Look at How Everybody But Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass.

Maher visited the PAC back in 2015, when he chatted with City Paper about what exactly is wrong with conservatives:"I have a lot of conservative friends. I meet them on the show, and over the years we talk after the show. They tend to be the nicest people except when it comes to dealing or thinking about people who are not like them. That seems to me, their tragic flaw."

@ North Charleston Performing Arts Center

5001 Coliseum Drive

North Charleston, SC

When: Sun., Feb. 16

Price: $58+

Comedy

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Bill Maher heads to North Charleston Performing Arts Center this February - Charleston City Paper

HOUSTON Anthony Rendon can still smell the Astrodomes stench more than two decades later. Even now that hes the biggest superstar on the team he calls Los Viejos, the old ones, the Washington Nationals third baseman transforms away from his usually reserved demeanor into the goofy kid who ran around the bowels of the Eighth Wonder of the World in search of autographs.

Rendon is back home for the World Series. This is where it all started for the southwest Houston native, beginning with the Post Oak YMCA Giants. This is home. It will always be home, he says.

Its where he finds the most comfort, the best barbecue and best tacos and taquerias. Rendon, 29, is renowned for his introverted personality. He declined to attend his first All-Star Game this summer in part because he wanted to rest, but those who have worked with him knew he also passed on the Midsummer Classic because he didnt want to deal with the media hassle.

Yet, on the Eve of the World Series, he was clearly the most popular player to interview by the local, national and international media. It took him a few minutes to warm up, but once he did, he unshackled the personality that his good friends and family members love.

He was home, after all, in the concourse of Minute Maid Park, a stadium where he first played as a member of the Lamar High Texans and then at Rice University and eventually as a visitor with the Nationals.

Well, actually, he never played for the Texans. They had a more politically incorrect name when Rendon attended Lamar.

Redskin for life, thats for sure, Rendon says of the old Lamar nickname. I know theyve changed it to the Texans, but Im still going to hold true to that. Theyve had a lot of great players come through their system. I think thats a testament to the coaching staff that theyve had over the years.

No Lamar product has been better than Rendon, who is also likely to go down as the best player in Rice history.

Rendon may even become the first player from Rice to win the National League MVP Award. Hes one of the favorites this year along with the Dodgers Cody Bellinger and the Brewers Christian Yelich.

I think hes an incredible baseball player, said Astros third baseman Alex Bregman, who is among the favorites for the AL MVP Award. I think hes one of the top players in all of the game. Hes the MVP in the National League, makes it look easy.

He hits from line to line with power, controls the strike zone, doesnt swing and miss much. Hits for power, hits for average, high OPS and then also, not to mention, a great defender over there.

Hes not sure how many family and friends will be at Minute Maid Park for Game 1 of the World Series Tuesday night, but he concedes that the number will be more than 100.

He is bracing for a rush of emotion and a montage of childhood memories to hit when he sees his parents and siblings in reds Nationals gear among the sea of Astros orange.

A lot of memories here, definitely in high school, and we played here in high school and college, he said. Fortunate enough to play here at this level too. Probably all of those memories are going to come hit me at once. Hopefully theyll hit me while were taking (batting practice) tonight and maybe well get it out of the way.

Rendon wasnt certain if he could get away with the rush of memories during Mondays workout. He also didnt know what he would do after the evening workout.

He had a good guess, however. Like a true Mexican American from Houston, he was eager to get Mexican food or barbecue.

Heck, in the fourth largest city in America and the largest city in the Lone Star State, one can even get Mexican food and barbecue in the same joint. Brisket tacos, anyone?

Washington DC may be the center of power, but the nations capital has nothing on Houston in terms of Mexican food.

Rendon hoped to hit the town after Monday evenings workout to see what had changed around Houston since he left in February for the start of spring training in West Palm Beach, where the Nationals share a facility with his hometown Astros.

Oh, and he wanted to find some food. Actually, one specific type of food.

Any Mexican food possible, he said with a twinkle in his eyes. Theres no Mexican food in DC or barbecue, so I might hit them all.

Any recommendations?

I love Demeris Bar-B-Q, he said. That was kind of a spot we would go to in college. Theres a lot of hole-in-the-walls, those little taquerias around here that you cannot miss.

There may not be a taco truck in every corner of Houston, yet you probably couldnt go four miles before hitting multiple taquerias. Great hole-in-the-wall taquerias are as common as young ballplayers in Houston.

The Houston area is a true baseball mecca, producing Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan and superstars such as seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens and All-Stars Andy Pettitte, Lance Berkman, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett, Jose Cruz Jr. and Rendon, to name a few.

Rendon, Berkman and Cruz are the best trio of players ever produced at Rice. Only one of them, however, can say that the city declared a day in his honor.

Former Houston Mayor Annise Parker declared Anthony Rendon Day on June 29, 2010, after Rendon won the Dick Howser Trophy as the best baseball college player that season. He had celebrated his 20th birthday earlier in the month.

He was only a sophomore and a bit naive as to what Anthony Rendon Day entailed, he admits with a hearty laugh. Moreover, he notes that Parker may have been a bit biased in his favor because shes a Rice alum.

Its not an annual event, but it was definitely an awesome experience, he said. You hear all these stories, so and so, he plays for the Rockets or hes the best fireman in the world and he gets a key to the city.

That was kind of what was going through my mind. Man, Im about to get a key to the city. She just hands me like a piece of paper, but it was an awesome experience.

The piece of paper, as he calls it, was a proclamation. He gave it to his parents Rene and Bridget Rendon because hes certain he probably would have lost it by now. He assumes they have it stashed somewhere.

A year after the proclamation, the Nationals picked Rendon sixth overall in the 2011 June Amateur Draft. He had been picked in the 27th round by the Braves in 2008, but he preferred to attend Rice.

In that way, he set a great example for other Latinos in Houston and everywhere on the value of education.

Everyone says that college is the best time of their lives, and I would say that about my college experience as well, Rendon said. I had a great time playing on that team and just being at a local college where my family can support me.

That family will be out in force during the World Series, whether at the games at Minute Maid Park or at Nationals Park.

Rendon is always quick to credit his parents. In an era when players focus much time on promoting their brands, Rendon remains true to the lessons he learned growing up in southwest Houston.

They definitely taught me to be humble, Rendon says of his parents. Both of my parents are very quiet individuals. They told me not to boast about myself, its not about me.

Obviously being in this game theres more players on the team than just yourself, give as you can and then you have nothing to worry about if things dont go your way because you know that you did everything you could.

Rendon has built a reputation as a person who is respectful to the media without not exactly caring for interviews or drawing attention to himself. He is not exactly inaccessible, but hes not usually the best quote either.

Until he is, of course.

On Monday at home, he was at his charismatic best, showing off the personality that Astros outfielder George Springer has loved since they played together on Team USA a decade ago.

Springer and Rendon work out at the same gym together in the offseason.

Springer notes that Rendon is a goofball at the gym.

I know him pretty well, Springer said. Hes a great guy. Hes extremely funny, but again, baseball doesnt define him. He happens to be really, really good at it, but hes a great guy.

I sent him a text earlier today. I talk to him here and there. Hes doing Anthony Rendon things. (I said) Good luck, have some fun. I want him to do well. I think hes had one of the most unbelievable years. Obviously hes a superstar in this game. Hes a great dude. I love him.

In a welcoming city that tends to respect opposing teams, Rendon is likely to get the warmest cheer among the visitors when the players are introduced before Game 1 of the World Series.

Hell likely smile, perhaps even tip his cap. Hell have a rush of emotions and likely think back to all the games he played at Minute Maid Park as a Lamar Redskin and Rice Owl.

He fell in love with the Astros by cheering for the original Killer Bs, Derek Bell, Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell. He remembers the 2005 team that won the Astros franchises only NL pennant for its first World Series appearance.

Much like Rendons 2019 Nationals, the 2005 Astros were dismissed early in the season after a horrendous start that had them 15 games under .500 in May. Rendon remembers the infamous Houston Chronicle tombstone that was published on June 1, 2005, declaring the Astros dead five days before Rendons 15th birthday.

The Nationals were also dismissed by many pundits this year after they began the season 19-31. When asked if there were any similarities between his 2019 Nationals and the 2005 Astros that reached the World Series, Rendon chuckled and tried to end the comparisons.

That team got swept (in the World Series), he noted.

The World Series sweep is not a good memory for Astros fans. Rendon has better memories of his Astros fandom. Hell always love the 2017 World Series champion Astros for the way they lifted his hometowns spirits after Hurricane Harvey ravaged Houston and surrounding communities.

His favorite Astros memory, though, involves his family. He was between eight and nine years old, considering that he remembers slugger Mark McGwire was in town with the Cardinals. McGwire never played against the Astros until he was traded to the Cardinals and appeared at the Astrodome after Rendons eighth birthday.

The team moved to Minute Maid Park in 2000, so its not hard to find the age range. Rendon was following his older brother that day in search of autographs.

I think my greatest memory would be the only game that I went to the Astrodome, he said. I do remember that it was a very smelly place. We kind of got a tour like behind the scenes. And that place was really dirty and real stinky. And I was really young at the time.

But we actually went with my older brothers baseball team and his coach and their son. We waited for Biggio, Bagwell. I was really young at that time. That memory still sticks in my mind.

Rendon, easily the greatest Latino player produced in Houston, cannot afford to be an Astros fan during this Fall Classic. Win or lose, though, the kid who hunted for autographs at the Astrodome and played at Minute Maid Park as a teenager and young adult will make a more special memory at home during the 2019 Fall Classic.

Hell likely stop at a few taquerias during his visit too. This is the ultimate family trip to Minute Maid Park. Its a trip he admittedly didnt ever dream about as a child, but its here, taquerias and all.

Featured Image: La Vida Baseball

How college prepared Anthony Rendon for big league success and life

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From Southwest Houston, Nationals star Rendon longs for taquerias and a title on work trip home for the... - La Vida Baseball