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October 2017

I'm still trying to get my mind around the Vassar College campus reaction to my planned lecture on "hate speech" and free speech, which I wrote about in Safe Spaces and Safety Teams at Vassar College for My Lecture on Free Speech. Hundreds of students, faculty and staff were whipped into a frenzy by factually false accusations against me and regarding my appearance. There were many false accusations. In this post, I'll address just one aspect, that I supposedly posed a threat to campus safety.

Former Massachusetts governor and twice failed GOP candidate for president Mitt Romney is reportedly quite seriously contemplating a Senate run in Utah.  While the senior senator from Utah Orrin Hatch (R) has not announced any plans to retire, it appears that the Utah GOP is ready for Romney. Romney is no stranger to Senate campaigns; he ran against Ted Kennedy (D-MA) in 1994 and lost.  Utah, however, may be just the ticket for Romney who has high approval numbers there and is a favorite among the Utah GOP.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has made a trip to South Korea and the DMZ where he made it known that North Korea has accelerated itself as nuclear threat. From Fox News:
“North Korea has accelerated the threat that it poses to its neighbors and the world through its illegal and unnecessary missile and nuclear weapons programs,” Mattis said.

President Trump's eraser and Twitter feed seem to be more effective that Obama's pen and phone. In the last days of his insipid administration, the former president created the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah with a stroke of his pen, claiming thousands of square acres of land for the federal government. Now, President Trump indicates that he is going to trim back the size of the land grab.
President Trump on Friday told Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah that he will shrink the size of Bears Ears National Monument, a 1.35 million-acre piece of land former President Obama designated as a national monument just before leaving office.

Newsweek published an article this week which took direct aim at Irish Americans. Who knew Irish-bashing was still alive and well in the 21st century? The author of the piece is named Van Gosse and teaches history at Franklin & Marshall College. He's not kidding, either. He obviously sees this as a serious problem:
Why Are All the Conservative Loudmouths Irish-American? Just as they used to play an outsize role in the Democratic Party’s apparatus, and in organized labor, putative Irishmen are now the face of the hard Right.

After a week of news treats, President Trump had some Halloween fun with the children of the press corps.
Mr. Trump invited children of the White House press corps to the Oval Office in their costumes to meet him and pose for pictures during the annual Halloween festivities at the White House Friday. As the kids dressed as Darth Vader, a unicorn and Princess Leia gathered around the Resolute Desk for a photo with the president, Mr. Trump teased some of their journalist parents who were in attendance. “I cannot believe the media produced such beautiful children,” the president said to laughter. “How the media did this, I don’t know.”