Woman who works in the White House, and is representing the US at the Olympics, says it is inappropriate to ask her questions about her bosses sexual misconduct, because she's his daughter.

“Do you believe your father’s [sexual misconduct] accusers?” -@PeterAlexander

“I think it’s a pretty inappropriate question to ask a daughter if she believes the accusers of her father when he’s affirmatively stated there’s no truth to it.” -@IvankaTrump pic.twitter.com/23AVPgcOdE

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) February 26, 2018

Okay first off I think we all know that she knows these allegations are certainly not false.

And secondly, EVERYBODY accused of sexual misconduct denies that they did it.

If we simply took a predator's word for this there would be no rapists or child molesters in prison.

Donald Trump is even being mocked at the Olympics.

Sorry #Trump @POTUS
The Netherlands First - Second and Thirth!! #Olympics #Iceskating pic.twitter.com/KqUbBB3jE5

— Jeantin Boltjes (@jeantinb) February 10, 2018

Courtesy of Yes Plz: 

President Donald Trump pushed, clawed, and bullied his way into office on an “America First” platform. At first listen that sounds okay—“yeah, America is great, we should take of ourselves.” But it’s really just a more euphemistic way of saying “Make America Great Again,” of which the second, unstated part is, “at the expense of everyone else.”

There was bound to be some razzing of Trump by other countries on the world stage, and it finally happened yesterday, after the women’s 3,000-meter speed skating. The Netherlands completely dominated—Dutch athletes took first, second, and third in the event, making for a full sweep and 100 percent Dutch representation on the medals podium. 

That’s when two women in the stands unfurled the flag of the Netherlands—red, white, and blue like the American flag, but all striped—with a message written on it.

Can't really blame them.

I mean is there anybody on the planet more mock-able than Donald Trump?

And good for the Dutch!

Taking first, second, and third in any Olympic event is a huge accomplishment.

Former doctor who sexually abused well over a hundred young female gymnasts sentenced to 40 to 175 years.

This GIF of Judge Aquilina throwing away the letter Larry Nassar wrote the court about how hard it is for him to listen to victim testimonies PRETTY MUCH SAYS IT ALL. pic.twitter.com/5HB9WMaPqU

— Ellie Hall (@ellievhall) January 24, 2018

Courtesy of the New York Times:

After an extraordinary seven-day hearing that drew more than 150 young women to speak out publicly about sexual abuse they said was committed by Dr. Lawrence G. Nassar, the former team doctor for the American gymnastics team, a judge sentenced him on Wednesday to 40 to 175 years in prison. 

He had faced a minimum term of 25 to 40 years. 

Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, who had opened her courtroom to all the young women who wanted to address Dr. Nassar directly, and forced him to listen when he pleaded to make it stop, handed down the sentence, saying to him, “You’ve done nothing to deserve to walk outside a prison again.” 

“It is my honor and privilege to sentence you,” she said, and noting the length of the sentence, added, “I just signed your death warrant.” 

Given an opportunity to address the court before sentencing, Dr. Nassar apologized and, occasionally turning to the young women in the courtroom, said: “Your words these past several days have had a significant effect on myself and have shaken me to my core. I will carry your words with me for the rest of my days.” Several women sobbed in the gallery as he spoke.

Just before sentencing Dr. Nassar, the judge read parts of a letter he submitted to the court last week. In the letter, he complained about his treatment in a separate federal child pornography case and wrote that his accusers in this case were seeking news media attention and money. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” he wrote in the letter. There were audible gasps from the gallery when the judge read the line.

I'm guessing that did not help him with his sentencing.

Obviously this guy is a pig.

The impact of this case has also rippled through the world of USA Gymnastics, which just saw an Olympic coach suspended and three members of their board resign under pressure.

As you know I was at one time a gymnastics coach, but certainly not at this level.

My concern during my years coaching was not sexual abuse, which I never saw, but the ever present danger of eating disorders which were quite prevalent with female gymnasts in their teens and early twenties.

I think pound for pound gymnasts are the strongest, most coordinated athletes in the world.

But they are often pressured to slim down, or bulk up depending on their body type, and the risk of developing a poor body image is a constant danger that can have lifelong repercussions.

That same insecurity also makes them vulnerable to predators like Dr. Nassar.

For decades these young women suffered in silence, feeling that they had no voice, that nobody wanted to listen.

But for these last seven days they certainly found that voice and have been speaking out loud and clear, and I have no doubt that they have inspired hundreds, if not thousands, of others to do the same.

In my opinion what happened today is right up there with the Women's March, the #MeToo movement, and the outing of powerful predators like Harvey Weinstein, Roger Ailes, and Bill O'Reilly.

This is another example of women standing up for themselves, saying that they are tired of the status quo, and declaring that they are taking charge of their lives and putting those who would minimize, victimize, of disenfranchise them on notice.

I for one think it is about time.

The Liberal Redneck's take on the Olympics is kind of a must see.

.@traecrowder: Every 4 years, the Olympics remind the world America is still pretty badass https://t.co/1PCFGvmCYf pic.twitter.com/xriJYKO9nE

— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) August 14, 2016

Yep, still love this guy.

USA Gymnastics accused of ignoring years of sexual abuse allegations against coaches.

The 2016 Olympic Women's Gymnastics team.

Courtesy of the Indy Star:

Top executives at one of America’s most prominent Olympic organizations failed to alert authorities to many allegations of sexual abuse by coaches — relying on a policy that enabled predators to abuse gymnasts long after USA Gymnastics had received warnings. 

An IndyStar investigation uncovered multiple examples of children suffering the consequences, including a Georgia case in which a coach preyed on young female athletes for seven years after USA Gymnastics dismissed the first of four warnings about him. 

In a 2013 lawsuit filed by one of that coach’s victims, two former USA Gymnastics officials admitted under oath that the organization routinely dismissed sexual abuse allegations as hearsay unless they came directly from a victim or victim’s parent. 

Legal experts and child advocates expressed alarm about that approach, saying the best practice is to report every allegation to authorities. Laws in every state require people to report suspected child abuse. 

“USAG failed at this,” said Lisa Ganser, whose daughter filed the Georgia lawsuit, which is still being argued. “USA Gymnastics had enough information, I think, to have done something about this. It didn't have to happen to my daughter, and it didn't have to happen to other little girls.”

I have to admit that I have only paid minimal attention to the Olympic this year, until recently when the Gymnasts started competing.

As some of you may or may not know I was a mediocre gymnast myself in high school and a gymnastics coach in my thirties.

I will still argue that pound for pound the strongest athletes in the world are gymnasts.

I mean sure power lifters can sometimes bench press over 800 pounds, but just ask them to press up to a handstand or pull their bodies up into an iron cross the rings. THAT takes real strength, and the use of muscles that many athletes will never be asked to develop.

One of the first things I learned was that as a gymnastics coach the most important thing you have to establish with your athletes is a sense of trust because they quite literally place their lives in your hands.

More than perhaps any other sport there is a great deal of physical contact between the coach and the athlete because you have to physically assist them through their rotations, catch them when they fall, and even pick them up and place them on the equipment in certain circumstances.

For that reason as a coach you must conduct yourself with unwavering professionalism.

But even then there are incidents where hands can end up in the wrong places.

While still in high school I was once asked by the female coach to come into the gymnastics room to help spot a girl who was attempting a release move on the uneven bars. (Part of the deal I made for access to the gymnastics equipment was to be on call during the girl's training sessions and I did spot the girls fairly often.)

This time the young woman missed her grab and plummeted face first to the mat.

I was standing there and I managed to catch her before she hit, but in doing so I grabbed her by one of her boobs and between her legs. NOT, by the way, the appropriate manner in which to spot somebody according to the coach's manual.

I was incredibly embarrassed, and apologized profusely.

But she told me not to worry about it and that if I had not caught her she would probably have broken her nose or been knocked unconscious.

The point is that coach's have to be paragons of virtue in order to gain a gymnast's trust, ESPECIALLY if you are a male coaching young girls.

So for these young women to have been subjected to this abuse, when they desperately needed to trust their coaches, is incredibly shameful.

And it needs to be dealt with quickly and the young women entering this highly competitive atmosphere need to know they are protected and that their voices will be heard if they feel unsafe. And that reporting something like this will not endanger their standing or interrupt their training.

This sport is unbelievably hard on the athlete's bodies and can result in lifelong injuries. No parent should need to worry about their children suffering an emotional trauma as well.

Sure winning a gold medal at the Olympics is remarkable, but if you want to impress Sarah Palin you need to win it with a gun.

Courtesy of Okey Dokey Annie's Facebook page:

How beautiful that the first gold 🏅of the 2016 Summer Olympics goes to an American girl with a gun!? Congrats, Ginny Thrasher, you make ALL of us proud! (cool name too!) Go Team USA! 🇺🇸

So clearly this is a slam directed towards those of us who want common sense gun laws in this country. (That's right Sarah I can use the phrase "common sense" as well, and it even makes sense when I do it.)

However I think one would be hard pressed to find a gun control advocate who would have a problem with rifles being used at the Olympics, or for competitive shooting contests, or even for hunting to feed one's family. (There are always a few of course.)

So her nasty back handed insult really has no validity in this case.

I actually heard Ginny Thrasher being interviewed after her win and she was delightful, and not really very political:

“Some of the (controversy surrounding) gun laws in America is just distracting from our sport, which is very different,” Thrasher said.

However, speaking of political, as of this post America has won six medals altogether, but none of those are of any interest to Palin because she cannot use them in an attempt to create controversy.

Personally I am rooting for America to bring home a whole truckload of gold, silver, and bronze medals. And I don't care if they use a rifle, pole, paddle, or just their bodies to do it.

Remembering 2014. There will be tears.

The minute Robin Williams starting speaking I was gone. So many feels.

What an amazing, tragic, and eventful year.

But also immensely satisfying. 

As Maya Angelou so beautifully put it, "I've had rainbows in my clouds."

Sarah Palin watches the Sochi Olympics.

This image showed the other day on Reddit.

I actually wasn't going to post this until I read the comments that accompanied it, and found a small yet aggressive group of trolls trying desperately to suggest that this was unfair because it was Tina Fey, and not Palin, who said "I can see Russia from my house," and that in fact living so close to Russia DID give Palin foreign relations experience.

On the first part, yes that is true, but Palin made a slight exaggeration like that incredibly easy, which is why it stuck. And on the second part, no it didn't!

Palin's interactions with Russia were virtually non-existent, and in her own words really only amounted to the scrambling of American jets when Russian jets would penetrate our air space, which happens occasionally, and which the Governor of the state has NOTHING to do with.

However the point of this Reddit post is was that Palin is a joke. Not only a joke but a joke so recognizable that her name itself is often the punchline.

So the handful of pro-Palin trolls can grind their teeth and pull their hair all they want, but over the years Palin has proved her detractors right repeatedly, and proved that the wishful thinking of her supporters is simply a fantasy based on nothing but wishful thinking.

By the way just to demonstrate how split the Republican party is these days, Palin has been invited to speak at CPAC again.

And the sad fact is that she will NOT be the craziest person there.

Commercial featuring preparation for the Sochi Olympics hits right in the feels.

I don't know if it is just a symptom of getting older of if someone is injecting estrogen in my omelets, but I choke up at virtually every, even remotely, sentimental commercial these days.

This one destroyed me.

President Obama chooses openly gay delegates to send to the Olympic games in openly homophobic Russia. We'll call this "Putting it to Putin."

Courtesy of HuffPo:

President Barack Obama on Tuesday announced his delegates to the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. And, in what may be a thumb in the eye to Russian President Vladimir Putin over his crackdown on gay rights, two of Obama's delegates are openly gay. 

Billie Jean King, the tennis legend, and Caitlin Cahow, an Olympic medalist in women’s ice hockey, are both part of the U.S. delegation. Both are out lesbians. 

Another member of the U.S. delegation, figure skating Olympic medalist Brian Boitano, routinely declines to answer questions about his sexuality, saying "everybody's got their own path" to discovering who they are. 

Others in the delegation include University of California President Janet Napolitano, the former Homeland Security secretary; U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul; White House Deputy Chief of Staff Rob Nabors; Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, and speed skating Olympic medalists Bonnie Blair and Eric Heiden. 

In what may be another slight to the Russian president, Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and first lady Michelle Obama will not attend the opening ceremony. This marks the first time since the 2000 Summer Olympic Games that a president, vice president, first lady or former president won't be part of the opening ceremony.

God I love this President!

My daughter and I had quite the giggle about this yesterday. 

However she said that a lot of her friends were simply planning to boycott watching the Olympics and wish the US had done the same.

I argued that by doing so all we do is punish our own athletes who have been training for years to compete, and reminded her of my own personal frustration as a young gymnast when our incredible male gymnastic team of 1980, was denied their shot at the gold due to the Russians invading Afghanistan. (Ironic isn't it?)

I also reminded her that in1936, when Adolph Hitler was attempting to use the games to demonstrate the supremacy of the Aryan race, that America did not boycott, but rather sent their best, whihc resulted in this iconic photograph.

I said that showing up and forcing Russia to deal with their prejudice during an event heavily covered by the national media was far better than simply hiding at home, and cowering in fear while LGBT Russians were being attacked on the streets.

She asked what would happen if gay athletes, or their supporters, were assaulted while in Russia, and I said then they would tell the world and that is how change is brought to a society that does not want to be left behind by the rest of the world.

Rachel Maddow reports on Russia's new policy of removing children from the home of their gay parents and the Americans who support and applaud their anti-gay stance.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I am not one to support the boycotting of the Olympic games (I still remember Kurt Thomas) but I certainly would not fault any athletes or spectators who did not feel comfortable attending the games in such an overtly homophobic environment.

America's best Christian, Betty Bowers, calls out Vladimir Putin on Russia's anti-gay stance.

"The only people who buy things from Russia are alcoholics. Honestly how many nesting dolls and mail order whores does one household need?"

God I love that line!

Subtle gay people. Very subtle.

Sure the President won a historic political victory and his poll numbers are climbing, but some people are just impossible to impress.

Courtesy of Politico:

President Barack Obama jokingly mimics U.S. Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney's "not impressed" look while greeting members of the 2012 U.S. Olympic gymnastics teams in the Oval Office, Nov. 15.

For those who have been living under a rock, McKayla became one of the most prevalent online memes after she was photographed making this face during the gymnastic competition while participating in the Summer Olympics.

Since then she has been in great demand for appearances.

Apparently even the President knew who she was, and what she was famous for. You know besides that whole being a member of the Gold Medal winning Olympic Gymnastics team that is.

Does anybody really think that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan receive THIS kind of reaction when they visit a state fair?

President Barack Obama gets a hug from Joy Dannelly as he visits the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, August 13

Now the President is not the ONLY popular member of the Obama family. Here is his much more popular wife on last night's Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
There the Obama's go, being adorable again.

You can see the next two segments by clicking here.

(H/T to the Obama Diary for the photos.)

Watching the Olympics in 2012. Apparently from within the Matrix.

When did the video of an event become BETTER than watching it first hand?

So freaking cool!

Perhaps we should have let NASA be in charge of coverage for the Olympics!

You know I am usually a big fan of NBC, but they really screwed the pooch with their Olympic coverage. I missed just about every event I was interested in, and saw WAY too much of snooze worthy events like badminton, dressage, and water polo. God I hate water polo!

By the way if you want to see something really cool watch this simulation of Curiosity's landing with the sound from NASA'a control room during the actual event. How awesome was that?

I think it's about time to talk about increasing NASA'a budget don't you?

Gabby Douglas is a star!

Yesterday Gabby Douglas won the all around gymnastics title.

I am not even going to go into the fact that she is the first African American to do so since President Obama has demonstrated that NOTHING is restricted by one's race these days.  However I do want to say that what she did is an amazing achievement, and that coming from a single parent home, it is just that much MORE impressive.

NOBODY who has not parented a child gymnast, or been one themselves, can ever imagine how difficult their lives can be, or the kind of commitment it takes to reach even the competition level, much less an Olympic level in this sport.

As I am sure I have shared in the past I was a gymnastics coach for four and a half years and I can tell you first hand that what these young ladies, and young men, ask of their bodies on a daily basis is just this side of superhuman.

In my opinion pound for pound gymnasts are the most carefully conditioned and powerful athletes on the planet. I have trained in a number of disciplines including wrestling, football, baseball, swimming, power lifting, bodybuilding, and martial arts, and I can tell you that the MOST strenuous training I ever endured was in a little room above the gymnasium next to Dimond High's weight room where I learned gymnastics. (I STILL have injuries left over from those days.)

So all I can say is congratulations Gabby! You deserve EVERY accolade and honor you are about to receive.

P.S. I don't want to appear sexist so I also want to congratulate Danell Leyva's bronze medal victory. I am a HUGE fan of men's gymnastics but have missed almost all of it due to NBC's bizarre and spotty coverage.

I think Michelle Obama might qualify for an Olympic gold medal in charm.

First Lady Michelle Obama is picked up by U.S. Olympic wrestler Elena Pirozhkova.

First Lady Michelle Obama greets former Olympic swimmer Summer Sanders, right, and her children, Skye and Robert, following a “Let’s Move! London” event at Winfield House in London.

Yeah somebody might want to send these pictures over to Mitt Romney and let him see how it's done.

I don't really see it helping much however.

(H/T to the Obama Diary.)

A comparison.

Mitt Romney at the Olympic games being photobombed by a spectator.

The First Lady at the Olympics doing the country proud.

I'm just saying.

(H/T to the Obama Diary.)