There’s a Private Security Force in the White House…?

So… Trumplethinskin is apparently using his own private security force…

President-elect Donald Trump doesn’t seem to tire of setting new precedents. Despite being provided with a newly bolstered Secret Service detail after the election, the president-elect has retained his own private security and intelligence force, breaking with tradition and creating operational and potentially legal problems.

That article was written on January 20th. On February 3rd, we found out that Trumpligula fired Secret Service managers and had them escorted from White House grounds:

At least two manager level Secret Service officials were fired and escorted from the White House complex, according to a report by reporter Steve Clemons.

The Secret Service has been accused of slow-walking an investigation of an agent based in Denver who publicly stated she would not ‘take a bullet’ for President Donald Trump.

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From Melanie Mallon at Skepchick: Bannon And The National Security Council’s Secret “Kill List”

This is a rather terrifying article. As the title suggests, it’s about the NSC’s kill list, and the fact that Steven Bannon now has control over it.

The fact that the NSC has a kill list is bad enough. But now Bannon has a hold of it?

Things really do just keep getting worse…

While the United States and the world was in an uproar over Donald Trump’s executive order (EO) on immigration that even conservative sources view as unconstitutional and illegal, Trump reorganized the National Security Council (NSC), adding his chief strategist Steven Bannon and decreasing the participation and status of the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, currently General Joseph Dunford, as well as the director of national intelligence (DNI), a position that remains vacated until a Trump nominee, currently Dan Coats, can be confirmed.

Although various national security and intelligence experts have spoken out against the president’s memorandum, the news has been all but swallowed up by the chaos surrounding the immigration EO.

Meanwhile, a specific and particularly terrifying possibility has been making the rounds on social media—that Bannon could have a role in a secretive NSC panel with the authority to place suspected terrorists, including Americans, on a kill or capture list and to make decisions to kill or capture without due process or any information or justification provided to the public.

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New on the US Education Task Force! The Return of Christian Young-Earth Creationism!

So… our Screaming Carrot Demon in Chief announced the name of the man who will be leading his Education Task Force.

If you were expecting someone who was actually qualified, you clearly weren’t paying attention to Betsy Devos. If the name I’m about to give you sounds like “of course. He would pick him.”, then you have been paying attention…

Evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, will lead an education task force put together by President Donald Trump, a spokesman for the university told CNN Thursday.

Len Stevens, the school’s spokesman, said Falwell — the son of Jerry Falwell Sr., the late televangelist — will push to stop regulations coming out of the Education Department, especially those that apply to colleges and universities.

The White House declined to comment.

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Self Care – The Struggle Bus: Sinceriously

Sorry this is going up late. My bad.

This is episode 82 of The Struggle Bus (the most recent episode). From the page:

On this episode Kate and Sally jibber jabber about the state of the US right now and how to stay engaged while taking care of yourself. Then they answer emails about how to bring up ~sex stuff~ with a prospective partner, how to cope when the shit hits the fan all at once, and the best ways to support a loved one who miiiiight be struggling with how to reconcile their sexuality with their religion.

While they do talk about current events and Sir Tony Orange Hands, it’s all in the context of self care, and ways to cope. It’s a great episode, which is why I’m posting it…

Self Care – Astronomy Picture of the Week: The Multiverse

Okay… you might be thinking I’ve jumped the shark with this series now, but before getting back to images of objects within our observable universe, I just have to go here…

You see, I’m fascinated by the idea of multiple universes, especially the idea that there could be an infinite number of universes, because that means that everything is real. In such a multiverse, there is no such thing as fiction or fantasy. I kind of love that. I won’t go into detail, because this is largely an image series, but just let your imagination go wild thinking about this.

It’s awesome.

The following image is an artist’s rendition of one idea born out of various multiverse ideas, including String Theory, Superstring theory, and M-Theory. I got it from an article on The Physics of the Universe.

Artist's visualization of rippling membranes

Artist’s visualization of rippling membranes

I remember seeing this membrane idea described on one of those TV science documentary shows. It was something like this…

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