Skeptical Liberalism:… Read the rest

Recyling plastic? It’s a con job. Has been all along.

The US used to send most of its used plastic to China for recycling, but two years ago China said that’s enough now, and no one else wants it.

But when Leebrick tried to tell people the truth about burying all the other plastic, she says people didn’t want to hear it.

“I remember the first meeting where I actually told a city council that it was costing more to recycle than it was to dispose of the same material as garbage,” she says, “and it was like heresy had been spoken in the room: You’re lying. This is gold. We take the time to clean it, take the

Another one of those wait we need to tease out the meaning here items.

“At the moment, the GRA requires people to justify their gender identity to a panel of people in a way that cis people don't. No one should have other people stand in judgment over their gender identity, deciding whether their gender is 'good enough' to count as a man or woman.” pic.twitter.com/UKxBmFfzPr

— Trans Actual (@TransActualUK) September 12, 2020

At the moment, the GRA requires people to justify their gender identity to a panel of people in a way that cis people don’t. No one should have other people stand in judgment over their gender identity, deciding whether their gender is ‘good enough’ to count as … Read the rest

More in News from Scumbag:

THANK YOU to the 28,000+ Firefighters and other First Responders who are battling wildfires across California, Oregon, and Washington. I have approved 37 Stafford Act Declarations, including Fire Management Grants to support their brave work. We are with them all the way! pic.twitter.com/Uu9vArw70Z

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 12, 2020

That’s it. That’s all he’s said about these fires. Nothing all this time and then thank you to the firefighters but nothing to the millions of people affected.

CNN comments:

The President hasn’t tweeted about the devastating wildfires over the past few weeks, despite regularly posting to his Twitter feed. His relative silence adds to his history of offering little empathy in the

Trump is still using Twitter to tell his fans to commit a crime.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein reminded people they cannot vote twice, again refuting President Donald Trump’s instruction for North Carolinians to vote by mail and try again in person. It is illegal.

Trump’s “instruction” told his people to commit a crime.

Always breaking new ground, this guy.

Twitter added a disclaimer above Trump’s tweet on Saturday morning: “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about civic and election integrity. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”

Trump tweeted: “NORTH CAROLINA: To make sure your Ballot COUNTS, sign & send it in EARLY. When Polls open,

Oregon needs federal help.

Sen. Jeff Merkley said he expects Pres. Donald Trump to approve Oregon’s request for emergency federal assistance for the wildfires e soon, perhaps as early as Thursday afternoon or Friday.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown made the formal request for support Wednesday, and Oregon’s congressional delegation issued a letter of support the same afternoon.

On Thursday, as fires continued to ravage the state, Brown told reporters she was still waiting on a response to the request from the White House. About 900,000 acres of Oregon have burned, she said.

We hate to rush him and everything but…

Brown and state officials said they are working to get more firefighters on the ground. A strike team is

The air in Seattle blew past unhealthy this morning, then past very unhealthy this afternoon; it’s now at hazardous and still climbing; after hazardous it’s just we can’t count it any more.

But as for Oregon…

Hundreds of firefighters battled two large wildfires Friday that threatened to merge near the most populated part of Oregon, including the suburbs of Portland, and the governor said dozens of people are missing in other parts of the state.

The state’s emergency management director, Andrew Phelps, said officials are “preparing for a mass fatality event” and that thousands of structures have been destroyed.

Gov. Kate Brown said more than 40,000 Oregonians have been evacuated and about 500,000 are in different levels of evacuation

Chris Cillizza is not one of the great journalists, but I like his take on Trump’s efforts to prevent panic over a new lethal contagious disease.

There is, without doubt, a worthy debate to be had as to whether Woodward, who technically works for the Post but in practical terms has been writing books for years now, should have immediately gone to the Post after Trump made his statements about downplaying the virus and demanded space on the website (and in the next day’s paper) to write a big contemporaneous piece about it.

But that conversation pales in comparison to this one: If the President of the United States knew that Covid-19 was worse than people thought — and

Few face masks, no social distancing.

Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said Thursday he was “pretty puzzled” and “rather disheartened” by President Donald Trump’s crowded campaign rally in Michigan — at which few of the several thousand attendees could be seen wearing face masks and virtually none appeared to be practicing social distancing.

In unusually frank remarks during a CNN town hall event focused on the novel coronavirus, the nation’s top public health official lamented that commonsense mitigation measures had become politicized and claimed that aliens from far-off worlds viewing Americans’ behavior amid the pandemic would conclude that Earth was all but doomed.

Except for the “all but” part. Being aliens, they wouldn’t feel any … Read the rest

Now here’s a smart guy.

.@Acosta: "Why are you not wearing a mask?"

Trump supporter: "BECAUSE THERE'S NO COVID!" 😯 pic.twitter.com/eUjPia2xKb

— Matt Rogers 🗳 (@Politidope) September 11, 2020

… Read the rest

Brilliant call.

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts will end nearly all of his state’s social-distancing restrictions on Monday even as the number of new coronavirus cases has trended upward over the last few months.

Cases are going up so – shrug – might as well stop trying.

The new rules will still limit the size of large indoor gatherings, such as concerts, meeting halls and theaters, but will drop all other state-imposed mandates in favor of voluntary guidelines, as other conservative states have done.

Because “conservative” now means “ignore all expert health advice and refuse to take sensible steps to damp down a lethal pandemic.” They really want to go with that?… Read the rest

Richard Wolffe

The Inuit are supposed to have dozens of words to describe snow. The Brits have endless ways to talk about rain. Now it’s time for Americans to delineate all the many ways that Donald Trump is dumb.

I’ve been working on that project since July 2016.

(I know there’s a retort that he’s having a lot of success for someone who is dumb. Yes but the dumb is why he’s having the success. Sadly, pathetically, maddeningly, tragically, there are enough Murkans who love to see somebody stupid in the White House to put him there and keep him there despite impeachment.)

If Bob Woodward’s new blockbuster teaches us anything new about the character of the 45th president, it’s

He leads with “I don’t say this out of ego but”

Hahahaha no obviously not.

He also implies that he’s getting it in the same sense Obama did, but Obama got the actual prize, awarded by the committee, not a nomination, awarded by one far-right jackass.

But never mind, Trump isn’t bragging about his farcical nomination out of ego.… Read the rest

My writing for @FiLiA_charity on Holbeck, the legal red light zone in Leeds. A feminist action is currently underway by @LeedsReSisters there. https://t.co/ET1dGNE5Tf

— Dr EM (@PankhurstEM) September 10, 2020

I’m reading it. It’s tough going – I’ll be reading it in segments and taking breaks. Here’s one item:

Male violence and rape, and police inaction over these crimes, is also a problem for women and children not in prostitution who live near or enter the Holbeck zone. In 2015, ‘Sally – a young woman with learning disabilities, then aged 17 – was approached at a bus stop in Beeston on a weekday afternoon, bundled into a car, and raped in a nearby home. With DNA evidence, the attacker was

Interesting.

Have you seen this. The JK Rowling poster taken down at Waverley Station because of complaints ? FOI request shows there were none but 158 complained that it had been taken down. Here is the evidence supplied to me pic.twitter.com/xrLMynZWAO

— LMD (@Sationhund) September 11, 2020

The “I heart Rowling” poster didn’t get complaints, but Network Rail took it down anyway, because…………….??????

So then Network Rail got 128 158 complaints about the taking down, and ignored them.… Read the rest

More than 1,000 people died from COVID yesterday.@realDonaldTrump watched eight hours of TV.

If I’m president, you might not always agree with me. But I promise you I will always show up and fight for you. pic.twitter.com/HvVJLS83TZ

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 11, 2020

… Read the rest

Jessica Krug doing her academic woman of color thing.

Just a video of Jessica Krug, professor who faked being black for social justice clout, casually explaining how gang members killing a 15-year-old with machetes is actually good since the kid wanted to become a police officer. pic.twitter.com/Ehuod57xDX

— I,Hypocrite (@lporiginalg) September 10, 2020

H/t Lady Mondegreen… Read the rest

From Pliny:… Read the rest

New level of disgust. We knew he’d done it, but now we learn he bragged about it to Woodward.

President Donald Trump bragged that he protected Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from congressional scrutiny after the brutal assassination of the American journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Why does the pestiferous sack of shit think that’s something to brag of?

Woodward wrote that Trump called him on January 22 shortly after attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. During the conversation, Woodward pressed the president about Khashoggi’s gruesome murder.

…

“The people at the Post are upset about the Khashoggi killing,” Woodward told Trump on January 22, his book says. “That is one of the most gruesome things.

Via TheDudeDiogenes, Identity Theft by Zaid Jilani:

He starts with an analogy Apple’s CEO made between Emmett Till and Jacob Blake and points out what a terrible analogy it is.

I don’t write this to justify the shooting. If it turns out [Blake] didn’t pose any imminent threat to the officers or to the kids at the time of the shooting, it wasn’t justified. But there is no universe where it is legitimate to compare what is at worst an incompetent arrest and unjustified nonlethal shooting of someone wanted for an alleged violent crime to a brutal racist killing of an innocent child.

And yet such comparisons are now commonplace. Our contemporary political debates induce us to identify ourselves