The White House knew for a year that former staff secretary Rob Porter was a wife beater.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

White House Counsel Donald McGahn knew one year ago that staff secretary Rob Porter’s ex-wives were prepared to make damaging accusations about him but allowed him to serve as an influential gatekeeper and aide to President Trump without investigating the accusations, according to people familiar with the matter. 

Chief of Staff John F. Kelly learned this fall about the allegations of spousal abuse and that they were delaying Porter’s security clearance amid an ongoing FBI investigation. But Kelly handed Porter more responsibilities to control the flow of information to the president. 

Porter, who denied the “vile” allegations, resigned Wednesday after the ex-wives’ accounts of years of verbal and physical abuse were published, along with graphic pictures of Colbie Holderness, his first wife, bruised from what she said was a punch to the face. 

The episode has thrust Trump’s senior-most aides, many of whom have already been embroiled in controversy related to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation, into yet another crisis. 

McGahn and other West Wing officials are under increasing pressure to explain why Porter was kept in a key role in which he had access to classified information and helped determine which articles and policy proposals made it to the president’s desk while top Trump officials were aware for months of at least some of the serious allegations against him.

Not only is it upsetting to learn that the Trump White House did not seem to have a problem with a serial abuser, during yesterday's White House press conference we learned that if one of Porter's victims had not provided photographic evidence that he would likely still have a job.

Get a load of this.

As you can see around the 3:25 mark a reporter asks White House spokesman Raj Shah what changed about their understanding of the charges besides the photographic evidence, and while Shah attempts to skirt that question, his response makes it clear that the photos are what really doomed Porter.

Which essentially means that this White House does not believe women when they make accusations of physical abuse or sexual assault, unless they provide pictures.

So by those standards when it comes to the many Trump accusers the official defense would be "pictures, or it didn't happen."

Images of Trump leaving his wife in the dust sparks outrage on the internet.

Source

Of course the internet has been a buzz with all of this since the day they met with the Obamas.

Disrespectful POS.

But then, just for contrast, take look at how he boards Marine One with Ivanka.

It's like night and day.

Yeah I don't typically make too much out of this sort of thing, but something is really fucked up about all of this.

The state of modern politics in the new millennium.

I at first thought these people had turned their back to Hillary in order to wave at somebody out of camera range, which I thought was terribly rude.

But then I realized that it was selfie time and was simply struck by how important social media has become to the outcome of our elections.

The difference between President Obama and Donald Trump summed up in one photo.

Source

For Donald Trump everything is about him.

For President Obama everything is about you.

No, he doesn't.

One more picture for World Down Syndrome Day!! Love seeing my newsfeed filled up with so much love for these kids ❤️ PS can you guess which kid insists on picking their own clothes 😎 #theluckyfew #TrigPaxson #T21

A photo posted by Bristol Palin (@bsmp2) on Mar 21, 2016 at 6:11pm PDT

The above is a picture of Tripp Johnston and Trig Palin taken from Bristol's Instagram page.

Aren't they adorable?

Anyhow I thought I would take a moment to address another of the most frequent comments that I get and which I typically reject as idiotic.

And that is the comment which says some version of "Wow, I can't get over how much Trig looks like Levi. Clearly that is his dad."

No, there is nothing that clearly suggests that Levi is the father of Trig. And no matter how many times you say that, it does NOT make it true.

Look folks in the beginning I was right there with you.

We were all piecing together the evidence and certain assumptions made sense, the primary one being that Trig is Bristol's child by her teenage boyfriend Levi Johnston, and Sarah Palin faked a pregnancy to cover up the scandal.

It was such a neat theory and it tied the whole thing together in a perfect little package. Since we knew that Palin faked her pregnancy it made perfect sense.

The problem was that the more we learned the least likely that scenario seemed to be.

First off NONE of the Johnston family members that I have spoken to think that Trig is a member of their family.

Second Levi did not spend $100,000 dollars in court to fight for him, like he did Tripp.

And third THIS is what Levi's children look like.

Now Down syndrome certainly has an impact on a child's physical features, but it does not impact hair color. And as you can see his three children all have blonde hair,

As he himself did as a child.

Levi's children all have blue eyes as well, while Trig has beautiful brown eyes.

Now none of this absolutely proves that Levi is not the father, but it also means that evidence which people think they see in photographs of Trig is purely subjective, and making claims based on that "evidence" really says more about you than about what is actually there.

Once again if I find any real evidence I will report it here. Just like I have been doing for the last eight years.

Bristol Palin wastes no time in exploiting her newest child for attention.

Courtesy of Bristol's Instagram account:

never thought 2015 would play out like it did, but I look at my babies and know everything is exactly where it should be ❤️ 🍻to a new year and ✌🏼️to anyone who's got anything to say about it 😽

There is another one of the newest Palin pup here.

Now I know a lot of you ware REALLY into commenting that this child is bi-racial for some reason, (I imagine it tickles you that Palin hooked up with Glen Rice while espousing racist ideas.) but there is really no indication that this child is part African American.

Remember some conspiracy theories are just that.

However just because the little one appears Caucasian does NOT mean it is a product of Dakota Meyer's late night pelvis pounding.

And I personally find it a little odd that a child that cannot be more than about six or seven days old in this photo looks so big and pink skinned.

Like I said some things are simply conspiracy theories, but then others are actual honest to goodness conspiracies.

North Dakota father tries to get principal fired after a picture of his son holding his metal penis extender is rejected for the yearbook.

Courtesy of Star Tribune:

The father of a gun-toting North Dakota student is calling for a school principal to be fired after the student’s senior photo was banned from publication in the yearbook. 

In the photo, Josh Renville, a senior at Fargo North High school, is pictured holding “his favorite” rifle and wearing a shirt emblazoned with the stars and stripes. 

His father, Charlie, who called for the firing in a Tuesday post on Facebook, wrote that the image was rejected because “in their words, it promotes violence and breaks federal and state law.” He goes on to question how it is any different than pictures of soldiers during war or images of students who participate in trap or skeet teams. 

The Renvilles submitted the photo for the school yearbook, but it was rejected by the high school.

You know pictures of the military are not typically submitted for a student's yearbook photo, and skeet shooters are actually participating in a school sponsored activity.

The photo of this kid looks like exactly the kind of thing that would cause the school to lockdown and for the SWAT team to be called out.

Nobody is attacking this kid's second amendment right to own a gun. They just don't want to traumatize the rest of the school by including his douchebag picture in the yearbook.

And by the way after seeing this picture I think the school should start patting this kid down before letting his Timothy McVeigh looking ass back in the building.

But that's just me.

Bristol Palin had a birfday!

Courtesy of Bristol's Pikore account:Thank you to my co workers for making my 25th so special ❤️❤️

So Bristol is now a quarter of a century old huh?  Yet, still just as ignorant as always.

Now before you start sniping at her mother for not posting anything to commemorate her birthday you should know that she did. Kind of:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY(s)! 🎉🎈🎊 It's Alaska Day! On this date in 1867 the USA received transfer of this abundantly rich territory, eventually becoming the 49th state in 1959. Thank you Abe Lincoln for hiring William Seward as Sec. of State, for it was he who nabbed Alaska from the Russians... for 2-cents an acre! We scored. THAT is the art of the deal. 🎁🎉🎂🇺🇸 

And sweeter around here today, it's also Bristol's birthday so HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRISTOL! Check out her fantastic blog that keeps us all all informed: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/bristolpalin/ We love you so very much! 

- Mom. And the whole crew

So as you see Palin was perfectly willing to acknowledge her oldest daughter's 25th birthday, just so long as she could also include something to improve her credibility as an Alaskan, and also pimp the blog she pays Nancy French to write in order to convince people that Bristol shares her ideology and can string two coherent sentences together.

Kind of telling that Bristol posts a photo of her birthday celebration with her work mates, but nothing about her celebration with family.

That along with the fact that Sarah has mentioned nothing about Bristol's pregnancy, did not accompany her on her recent trip to Hawaii, and has not been featured in a photo with Bristol for about five months, does seem to indicate that perhaps there is a little trouble at the old compound.

In fact it seems that the only time Sarah mentions her daughter is when she is referencing the blog that we all know she has virtually NOTHING to do with.

Or am I just reading too much into this?

P.S. A lot of you sent me this Daily Mail today which states that Levi and Bristol have settled their child custody case. 

According to my sources that is absolutely not true, and if you visit Court View you can look the case up and see for yourself that it is still open.  In fact there are some murmurings that things are about to heat up again.

I don't know how the Daily Mail got this wrong, but it's not the first time that somebody has prematurely declared the case closed.

So this is a picture which was making the rounds on cable news and social media yesterday.

I think we all know that President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin are not exactly chummy.

However somebody on Twitter reminded us that there has been at least one American President that Putin was quite chummy with.

pic.twitter.com/msBfqNWV4x

— Jeff Gauvin (@JeffersonObama) September 29, 2015

Yeah, you know I actually feel a lot better having a President in office who is repelled by a man who has invaded neighboring countries at will and mistreated his own people.

So I have no problem with President Obama giving Putin the stink eye.

Especially since he seems to be getting along so well with so many others.

President Obama with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

President Obama with Raul Castro

Newly released photos show that Dick Cheney watched the towers burning to the ground on 9-11 with his feet up.

So there are these newly released photos of the Bush administration on 9-11 that I think are supposed to show them emotionally distraught and seriously considering how they should respond.

But what struck me, was this one of Cheney with his feet on his desk calmly watching the screen as if he were watching a tennis match or something.

Now have little doubt that all of you remember how you felt on that day. Did any of you feel like leaning back in your chair with your feet up to watch these towers burn?

Speaking just for myself I was so distraught that I watched for much of the morning while standing in front of my TV to upset to even sit down. And when the first tower fell my knees literally buckled.

I spent almost a solid week after that day rewatching the footage until my wife finally pried the remote out of my hands and told me I needed to get the hell out of the house and do something to take my mind off of it.

Yet there sits Dick Cheney, Vice President of the United States, with his feet up.

Gossip website confused by Bristol Palin's new look, thinks it might have something to do with her pregnancy and not her jay Leno chin implant.

Courtesy of Fishwrapper:  

This is, believe it or not, a little selfie that Bristol Palin took to celebrate the six year anniversary of someone employing her. It's ... it sure is something, isn't it? In fact, we wouldn't have even known this was Bristol if we'd just come across the photo, but she posted it on her own site, so I guess we're just looking at the new Bristol here. Did pregnancy make her look like a completely different person? Did she get her brows done? Is she taking this selfie in a funhouse mirror? There's got to be an explanation for this, but for now, let's just allow ourselves to get lost in the weirdness. 

Okay I get it. If you have not been paying a lot of attention, and the last time you saw a photo of Bristol she looked like this...

....and now she looks like this...

Courtesy of Bristol's Pikore account.

...you might indeed be a tad confused.

I mean the woman looks pregnant when she is supposedly not pregnant, and working out ten hours a day, but looks substantially slimmer and trimmer after announcing to the world that she IS knocked up with a child from an as yet unnamed sperm donor.

That would confuse just about anybody who was not aware of the Palin's penchant for peculiar pregnancy bodies.

Sarah Palin March 26, 2008.

Apparently not everybody is happy to meet the President.

The little girl's name is Claudia and she obviously had a long day.

It is not often that the President's famously mystical abilities with children fails him, but when it does it is clearly spectacular.

Oh well, you can't please everybody every day now can you?

Apparently somebody took notice that we called out Sarah Palin for using old photos of the family during past Iron Dog races. Bristol's blog offers new ones.

We'll assume that the guy with the camera on his head is Todd.

Looks like a skating rink more than a snowmachine friendly starting gate.

Brancy also links to a Breitbart article entitled:

NO GIRLY MEN ALLOWED: TODD PALIN RACES IRON DOG, HONORS CHRIS KYLE

Because calling people "girly men" is a thing now. 

You know if Palin and Breitbart had done a little fact checking they might have realized that team four in the pro class is made up of two women, Rachel Kidwell and Ashley Wood.

Are these two "girly men" or "manly girls?" Because I think they would take either as an insult.

Okay you all need to stop manipulating the Palins quite so much.

I mean you criticized Sarah for wearing Bristol's dress to the SNL 40th anniversary show, and they felt the need to fight back. And just today some of you pointed out that they used old photos on the SarahPAC graphic..

...and now look what happened.

Look I know it's fun to play with the simple people, but if you're not careful you might accidentally get one of them to jump off a cliff or drink anti-freeze or something.

Then wouldn't you feel bad!

I mean wouldn't you?

Guys?

Photos from Sarah Palin's speech in Texas yesterday.

I got dinged for not having any actual shots from Palin's speech yesterday for my post last night.

Well sometime after it went up I received this link for OA Online:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin spoke Thursday at The John Ben Shepperd Public Leadership Institute’s program on ‘How Women are Showing 21st Century Leadership’ at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center.

It has quite a few rather unflattering photos.

Yeah, this woman might need to start working more on the substance of her speeches because that whole "Look at me I'm pretty," thing just won't fly anymore.

There were also a few pictures on the John Ben Shepperd Public Leadership Institute's Facebook page.

Here is my favorite.

I don't know much about fashion, but what in the hell are those?

There is also a new write up on OA Online.

This is how one of the audience members described their feelings about Palin: 

Brenda Schwartz drove all the way from San Angelo to see Palin. 

“The reason I’m here is because Sarah Palin is one of the few politicians I halfway trust. She seems to be all-American and for American and that’s what we’re for as American citizens,” Schwartz said.

Oh yeah, that sounds like her crowd. 

Let's take a moment to talk Babygate.

March 14, 2008

I thought it might be a good idea to give all of you an update as to where I am on chasing my own personal white whale.

Toward that end I am pleased to report that I have three entirely separate angles that I am working right now with three entirely different sources. For at least two of these sources there is a timing component which is completely out of my hands, so all I can do is sit patiently and trust that when the time comes they will deliver as promised. 

I am of course being my usual cautious self so that I do not push too hard and frighten anybody away.

And trust me that ain't easy. But the stakes are high.

In my opinion at least two of these sources could blow the babygate thing wide open. And I mean wide open. (Oh I should mention that there is a fourth source that I am trying to locate which has information that is equally explosive, but I am not holding out much hope of locating them for right now.)

So I thought this might be good time to revisit what I do and do not know about Trig's mysterious birth.

Well one thing I know for certain is that the lady on the left did not give birth to him on April 18, 2008.

March 26, 2008.

Not really any question about that if you simply use your eyes.

I am also almost certain that Bristol did not give birth to Trig either. Not in April, nor before.

Now I am not saying that she did not have a baby before Tripp, but if she did it was almost definitely not Trig.

I base that on the observations of a number of people, most of who would love to tell me if she was the mother.

At this point my working theories are that Trig is either entirely unrelated to the family, or, as my source postulated, Todd's kid with another woman.

I have actually come to terms with the fact that we may NEVER know who Trig's real birth mother is, and have instead decided that the important thing to focus on is the false pregnancy and birth story. And that is a goal that I am getting closer to all of the time.

April 13, 2008.

Another thing we may not every know for certain is exactly why Palin did this.

I have entertained a variety of theories, from cementing her pro-life credentials, to protecting a family member, to simply trying to put gossip to rest before being tapped by John McCain. But as for definitive proof, currently there is little.

I sometimes wonder just how much proof it will take to convince the public at large that this hoax actually took place, and how much it will take to convince the MSM that it is not only news worthy, but explosively so.

I have to admit that I really thought we had just about done that back in 2011, with those Juneau pictures.  But after a couple of weeks of excitement on the blogs, it just kind of faded away.

Ultimately it is not enough that I offer the evidence here on IM, it has to go national. And it has to have real evidence that cannot be simply ignored, or dismissed as a conspiracy theory.

Hopefully, if every thing goes right, that is what I am about to come up with.

So when I do I am counting on all of you to help me get it out to the news agencies and websites that will help it to get national attention.

Boy won't that be a great day?

Just a few photos of our fearless leader throughout 2014.

Charming the Aussies

Well somebody didn't like the joke.

I hear the Republicans are your new fan boys. You can have'em.

Going 3D

Never turn your back on kids.

Speaks for itself.

There are a whole lot more over at The Obama Diary if you want to see them.

These next two years are going to be really tough for the President, so I hope we get to see that infectious smile of his in spite of that.

Mark my words history is going to judge him as one of the best this country has ever produced. Of that I have no doubt.

Our friend Dennis Zaki has a new, very informative page about all things Alaska.

So Dennis has been working on this rather incredible website for awhile now and late last night he decided to launch it publicly.

It is called Alaska Trekker, and it is chock full of interesting facts, amazing original photos and video of the Alaska outdoors, and even information on travel to and within the state.

Dennis did this purely out of frustration that there wasn't already a page that had all of the things that people are looking for when they are thinking of making a visit to our fair state.

Personally I am just happy that now people will get to see some of the amazing pictures that Dennis has been sharing with me for years.  The guy is really good!

Anyhow if you have a moment head on over and leave a comment. I know he will appreciate it.

Just a site with some of the best President Obama pictures you have ever seen.

You know every once in a while I will need a great Obama picture to complete a post.

Well now I know where to find them. Right here.

Winter cave exploring is not exactly the best idea in Alaska.

Courtesy of KTUU: Michael Glidden was wandering the ice-blue remains of a glacier in the Chugach National Forest Saturday when he spotted one particularly, deep, dark tunnel, he says. 

The Anchorage retiree and his two American Eskimo Dogs, Shasta and Aspen, ventured inside. Temperatures had dipped to 29 degrees along the riverbeds outside.

It wasn’t until he got home and began posting pictures online that Glidden noticed an unusual shape, hidden in the shadows, had been there in the cave with him all long. 

The photo was cloudy but the claws gave the animal away.

 Good thing that bears are heavy sleepers this time of year.

Alaska, where you are constantly only yards away from something that could definitely kill you.