So it appears that Ivanka Trump was actually the one who decided to launch a missile attack against Syria. I'm sorry, when was she elected president again?

Syria made me very upset Daddy. Bomb them...bomb them all.

Courtesy of The Telegraph:

(Eric Trump) also confirmed that President Trump’s decision to bomb a Syrian airbase to punish President Bashar al-Assad for a nerve gas attack last week was influenced by the reaction of his sister Ivanka, who said she was “heartbroken and outraged” by the atrocity.

So let me get this straight.

We just launched an illegal attack against a sovereign country, without first seeking the approval of Congress, because Ivanka Trump was traumatized by some photographs?

Don't get me wrong I was upset by those photographs as well, as I am sure many of us were.

However having an emotional response to a picture is not what should determine a military response.

Especially if that emotional response was from your grown ass daughter who is not currently holding an elected position or seat on your cabinet.

I have to imagine that if we were living in an alternative universe where Hillary Clinton won the election, that if Chelsea approached her sobbing over a photograph and saying that we need do something, her mother would have informed her that they already had a plan in place, and to suck it up because there is no crying in the Oval Office.

By the way in this same article Uday...I'm sorry...Eric also said this: 

Donald Trump’s decision to launch a cruise missile attack on Syria proved he is not in league with Russia and will not be “pushed around” by Vladimir Putin

Uh no.....no it doesn't. 

But nice try.

I think the 2016 year in photographs presented by White House photographer Pete Souza is exactly what we all need right now.

These are some of my favorites.

To see the rest just click here.

Photographer travels to Alaska to photograph polar bears in their natural habitat. What she finds shocks her.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Photographer Patty Waymire traveled to Alaska’s Barter Island from late September to early October with an express purpose: To take pictures of polar bears in their natural environment, surrounded by picturesque snow. 

But there was no snow to be found. 

“I was surprised when I arrived, to find there was no snow nor was the sea ice forming yet,” Waymire told The Huffington Post. “The locals told me that it was an unusually warm winter and that the snow would be late in arriving. It is one of the warmest winters on record.” 

So instead, she photographed the bears on patches of sand and dirt, or swimming in the Beaufort Sea.

I say this all of the time so pardon me for being redundant, but nobody living in Alaska has the luxury of denying the existence of global warming.

And to be fair it was not the scientists who were beating the drums about climate change up here, it was the native Alaskans.

They saw it before anybody, and they tried to tell people, but nobody seemed to want to listen until it was too late.

(P.S. You can visit the website for his wonderful photographer by clicking here.)

Much of the Wall Street Journal's piece on Sarah Palin's new show on the Sportsman Channel focuses on her fear of taking a bad picture.

What Sarah Palin apparently considers a "good" picture.

So today this article from the WSJ came out.

They ask her the usual questions about her views on the new show, her views on politics, hunting, the family, you know the drill.

However the first part of the article focuses on something that we know Palin REALLY cares about. Her appearance: 

Sarah Palin is walking through a suite in the Peninsula New York Hotel in midtown Manhattan trying to find the great outdoors. The former GOP vice presidential candidate is being photographed before the launch of her new reality series, "Amazing America," which features human-interest tales about outdoor adventures, ranging from a blacksmith championship to a car race among pastors. But the suite doesn't even have a landscape painting. She finally finds a window to pose in front of, but it's facing a brick wall, not the wilderness. 

Crammed into two tiny rooms with eight other people—including her husband and two handlers—Ms. Palin doesn't want to be "burned" by unflattering photographs, which has happened in the past, she says. Wearing a V-neck shirt, black skinny jeans and a glittering "Girls with Guns" belt and buckle, she also doesn't want to wear the camouflage jacket that the photographer has brought for her, nor will she succumb to his French charm. She certainly doesn't want to perch on any furniture. 

As the photographer clicks away, Jason Recher, a former George W. Bush aide and her longtime aide, tries to move things along. "Next frame, next frame, next frame," he says, glancing over the photographer's shoulder. Ms. Palin has a busy schedule this day. She has had back-to-back meetings and appearances, and over the course of the hourlong interview and photo shoot, she drinks several glasses of Diet Coke.

Gee I wonder which photos she feels "burned" her?

Personally I can't think of a one.

The article does explore a few other areas of course.

Here is her answer as to why she did not run in 2012:

"Too busy," she says quickly. "Young family, busy family, lots going on, and today there's still a lot going on."

Oh yeah, that was the reason. It certainly couldn't have anything to do with the fact that she could not weather any serious media scrutiny or answer a simple question without notes, a teleprompter, or a hidden earpiece to provide her the answers, right?

On government surveillance:

 "Snowden isn't the problem!" she says. "The American government spying on its own people is the problem!" She finishes her thought by saying, "The smaller the government, the bigger the people, and this show talks about big, bold, beautiful America."

Notice how she fails to mention that it was HER party that started the domestic surveillance  program, and that there was not a word against it from her, or any other Republican, until President Obama took office.

At the end of the interview they finally talk her into having her picture taken with the camouflage jacket:

Ms. Palin's own defenses have slightly weakened over the course of the hour, so she finally agrees to put on the camouflage jacket. Standing in front of a white screen next to the bathtub, she holds her lapels and alternates between a tough-lower-lip-jut and a nervous glance at her strategist. "I think it's too big," she says of the jacket, adding, "I wanted to wear black." Mr. Recher seconds this opinion. He wants to get her out of the marble bathroom so that he can whisk her down the hall to her next appointment.

So essentially what we learn from this interview is that Palin is still incredibly vain, continues to lie about why she has refused to run for office, and that Jason Recher is still able to speak with his lips firmly attached to Palin's wrinkled ass.

(H/T to Gina for this link.)

Never forget how we as a nation allowed this to happen.

Thania Sayne leans on the headstone marking the grave of her husband, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2011, at Arlington National Cemetery. 

I saw this picture among a group of photos called the most powerful images of 2013.

When I saw it I was immediately angered.

All I could think was that right now the conservatives Republicans are talking about impeaching President Obama, for imaginary crimes that only exist in the Right Wing bubble.

However this young woman is grieving because George W. Bush lied to America in order to start two unnecessary wars that killed thousands of our fellow citizens and untold hundreds of thousands of Afghans and Iraqis.

All I can think is that this Christmas there will be children who will be missing a parent, fathers and mothers still grieving for their children, and wives and husbands sleeping in a half empty bed because when it was REALLY important to hold a President accountable and to interfere with his plans our politicians and our media were not up to the task.

Presdient Obama is a good, perhaps even great, President. But compared to George W. Bush he is a fucking saint.

A second helping of snowy Alaska.

My friend Dennis Zaki noticed my sad little I-Phone pictures from this morning and figured I needed a little help, photography wise.

Here some pictures he took today out in the Valley.

Well sure, everything looks better when you shoot it in focus.

By the way most of that early morning snow has already melted away, but I have little doubt that it will be back very, very soon.,