Janeth Maranillo

Remember when you and your wife called Bob Iger to have me fired?

I am a senior coordinating producer for the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. I have worked eleven of these. I was backstage at the Washington Hilton when the shots were fired. The first thing I heard was not the gunfire. It was glass. A champagne flute hit the floor of the International Ballroom at approximately 9:47 PM. Then a second. Then the sound that I have since been told was a 12-gauge shotgun, which from inside the ballroom sounded like a heavy door slamming in a parking garage. Then the Secret Service moved. They moved the President, the Vice President, the First Lady through the east corridor in under ninety seconds, which is protocol, which is practiced, which is the one part of the evening that worked exactly as it was designed. Everything else was improvised. I know this because I ordered the wine. 94 tables. Two bottles per table. 188 bottles of a Willamette Valley pinot noir that the Association selected in February after a tasting committee spent three meetings debating between Oregon and Burgundy. Oregon won. The budget was $14,200. I signed the invoice. I can tell you the vintage. I can tell you the distributor. I can tell you the per-bottle cost because I negotiated it down from $89 to $76. What I cannot tell you is how 147 of those bottles left the building during an active shooter evacuation. I can tell you what I saw. A correspondent from a network I will not name picked up two bottles on her way to the east exit. Full bottles. One in each hand. She was wearing heels and she did not spill. A man in a tuxedo tucked one inside his jacket the way you'd shoplift a paperback at an airport bookstore. A woman picked up a bottle, looked at the label, put it back, and took a different one. She checked the vintage. During an evacuation. That's editorial judgment under pressure. The theme of the dinner was "A Free Press for a Free People." The banners were still hanging when the evacuation began. I know because I hung them. Twenty-three banners, navy blue, gold serif lettering, $11,400 for the set. They were still hanging when 2,600 guests were directed to the exits by Secret Service agents, one of whom had just taken a shotgun round in his ballistic vest and walked to the ambulance on his own feet. The agent's vest costs approximately $800. The wine that left the building was worth $11,172 at Association cost. At restaurant markup, roughly $29,000. The guests saved more in wine than the vest that saved the agent. That's priority. The video went viral by 10:15 PM. Not the video of the evacuation. Not the Secret Service response. The wine. Three guests in formalwear grabbing bottles off white tablecloths while being told to move toward the exits, while a man with a shotgun stood in the same motor entrance where John Hinckley shot Ronald Reagan 45 years ago. A woman near the service entrance was crying. She said "I just wanna go home." She was not holding wine. She was holding her phone. She was the only person I saw that night who looked afraid rather than inconvenienced. That's the distinction. The rest of the ballroom did not look afraid. They looked interrupted. An active shooter at the WHCD is a logistical problem. The dinner was disrupted. The timeline was off. The after-party at the French Ambassador's residence would need to be rescheduled. These are contingency matters. Contingency matters have solutions. Fear is for people who attend events without security details. I have produced eleven of these dinners. I have managed seating charts that require diplomatic-grade negotiations. I have handled comedians, cabinet secretaries, network anchors, and the editor of a major newspaper who once threatened to leave because his table was behind a column. I have never, in eleven years, seen a guest leave a $76 bottle on the table during an evacuation. I have also never seen a guest check the label first. Both observations are consistent. The bottle is worth taking. The evacuation is worth surviving. The instinct is to do both simultaneously. 188 bottles placed. 41 recovered. 147 unaccounted for. One agent shot. Zero guests injured. Zero bottles broken. A free press for a free people. The press is free. The wine was $76 a bottle. They took it anyway.

@FLOTUS As proved by the Wall Street Journal, the violence and evilness from the left cannot be hidden anymore.

Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn’t comedy- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America. People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate. A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him. Enough is enough.  It is time for ABC to take a stand.  How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community.

@FLOTUS @JeffW701 Starting today, I won’t buy any products advertised on the @jimmykimmel Show- @McDonalds @jcpenney

@Pedro_Torrijos Am I the only one finding this suspicious?

Este hombre se llama Mohamed Bzeek, vive en California y esa niña que tiene en brazos murió pocos días después de que le hicieran la foto, también en sus brazos. No era su hija. Era uno de los diez niños que han muerto bajo su cuidado. Porque Bzeek es padre de acogida y solo acoge a niños en estado terminal, para que no mueran solos. Nació en Trípoli en 1954, antes de irse de Libia corría maratones. En 1978 entró en Estados Unidos con un visado de estudiante y allí se quedó. Vive en Azusa, una de esas localidades del extrarradio de Los Ángeles por donde circulan camiones y donde las casas tienen una pinta genérica, agrupadas sin llamar la atención. En 1989 conoció a Dawn Rowe, que ya era madre de acogida desde principios de los ochenta, se casaron y empezaron a acoger juntos. En 1995 tomaron la decisión de dedicarse exclusivamente a niños con enfermedades terminales, los que nadie quería. Me pregunto cómo fue ese momento exacto en que dos personas se sientan en una cocina y deciden que van a abrir su casa a los niños que se mueren, y en cómo esa decisión se toma, sin actas, sin nada que la registre, y sin embargo organiza el resto de una vida. La primera niña que murió en su casa tenía un año, espina bífida, parte de la columna le crecía fuera de la piel. Murió el 4 de julio de 1991, mientras Mohamed se duchaba y Dawn preparaba la cena, él recuerda haber salido del baño y haber encontrado médicos en su salón. Lloró tres días. Desde entonces ha acogido a unos ochenta niños, diez han muerto en sus brazos. El condado de Los Ángeles, cuatro millones de habitantes, lo llama cuando no hay nadie más. Lo llaman el padre de último recurso. Muchos llegan sin nombre, nacen en hospitales y los abandonan, las familias no los nombran y en el papel pone "Baby boy", "Baby girl". Mohamed los nombra, les pone un nombre antes de que mueran. Un nombre es gratis, cuatro sílabas, pero ese gesto, cuando se pone el nombre, decide si un niño que vivirá tres semanas existirá como persona o como registro administrativo. Su hijo biológico, Adam, nació con osteogénesis imperfecta y enanismo, se ha roto casi todos los huesos del cuerpo. Dawn murió en 2015 de una enfermedad pulmonar y desde entonces Mohamed sigue solo, solo puede ocuparse de un niño a la vez. Cuando un periodista del Los Angeles Times entró en su casa en 2017 cuidaba de una niña de seis años con microcefalia, ciega, sorda, pies zambos, caderas dislocadas, no movía brazos ni piernas, tenía convulsiones. La había recibido con siete semanas de vida y le habían dicho que viviría unos meses. La sostenía durante las convulsiones y le hablaba aunque no oyera. Sé que no puede oír, sé que no puede ver, pero le hablo, tiene sentimientos, es un ser humano. En 2016, a Bzeek le diagnosticaron cáncer de colon, le pidió tiempo al médico, no puedo operarme todavía, tengo a un niño en casa que es terminal y tengo a mi hijo, que es discapacitado, no hay nadie más para ellos. En el hospital, ingresado, solo, dijo que por primera vez entendió lo que sentían los niños que cuidaba. Si yo a esta edad estoy asustado, cómo estarán ellos. Se operó y siguió. Bzeek es musulmán practicante. Su historia se hizo internacional en febrero de 2017, justo cuando Trump firmó la orden ejecutiva que vetaba la entrada en Estados Unidos a ciudadanos de siete países de mayoría musulmana, Libia era uno de ellos. Ese mismo mes, en Azusa, el único padre de acogida de toda la ciudad de Los Ángeles dispuesto a llevarse a casa a los niños terminales era un libio musulmán. Aunque mi corazón se rompa, dijo una vez, la muerte es parte de la vida, estoy con ellos hasta el final, los conforto, los quiero, quiero que sientan que tienen una familia, que tienen a alguien. Que no están solos.

Jeff Bezos’s rocket company said a satellite from customer AST SpaceMobile was deployed into an incorrect orbit. on.wsj.com/4sJnERM

@JeffBezos @JeffBezos You forgot to mention that you left the satellite you were supposed to deliver in the incorrect orbital parameter! Instead of celebrating this spectacular incompetence, perhaps you should articulate a precise “sorry” as per standard protocol in mission critique!

@elonmusk Not problem at all. They have plenty of inmigrantes

Children are the future

@DefiWimar How do you know is a Trump insider?

🚨 BREAKING TRUMP'S INSIDER JUST OPENED A $53 MILLION $BTC SHORT WITH 30X LEVERAGE! HIS WIN RATE IS 100%,10 OUT OF 10 TRADES HAVE BEEN PROFITABLE. IF $BTC PUMPS JUST 7% → HE WILL BE LIQUIDATED FOR $50 MILLION. EITHER HE KNOWS SOMETHING, OR A MASSIVE LIQUIDATION IS COMING...

Indeed, this needs to stop

@War_Radar2 This is embarrassing… opening the strait after is already opened?

‼️🇪🇺🇫🇷🇬🇧 EUROPE GOES SOLO ON HORMUZ France and the U.K., led by Emmanuel Macron, are preparing a post-war mission to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, without U.S. involvement. A neutral, defensive coalition would exclude the U.S., Israel, and Iran, aiming to make it more acceptable, especially to Tehran. A major shift: Europe stepping in independently to secure one of the world’s most critical oil routes. 🌍🔥 Source: The Wall Street Journal

Viktor Orban didn’t cancel any elections and never arrested people for social media posts. He also stepped down after his election loss and is partaking in a peaceful transfer of power. But, don’t forget, he was a dictator. Keir Starmer attempted to cancel about 1,000 local council elections next month and arrests about 12,000 people a year for social media posts. He also refused to let a rival run for a seat in a by-election because he was worried it would be a threat to his leadership. But, don’t forget, he’s a democratic leader.

The Pope visited Algeria mosque today. Taking his shoes off to wander around. Algeria was a Christian nation until Islam conquered through force, just like Europe now. Christians have no rights now there. Pope Leo hasn't even bothered visiting suffering Nigerian Christians.

Horrific

@mrwtffacts @grok did this happen?

NASA Artemis passing close to the Moon

✝️ Happy Easter! ✝️

@WhiteHouse @greybullrescue Nice to read.

🚨“WE GOT HIM! My fellow Americans, over the past several hours, the United States Military pulled off one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. History, for one of our incredible Crew Office Members, who also happens to be a highly respected Colonel, and who I am thrilled to let you know is SAFE and SOUND!” - President Donald J. Trump 🇺🇸

Major problem