Jan 10th, 2017 7:05 am |
By Ophelia Benson
The Local pointed out some extensive lying by Breitbart a few days ago.
Breitbart wrote an article about New Year’s Eve in Dortmund on Tuesday with the headline “Revealed: 1,000-man mob attack police, set Germany’s oldest church alight on New Year’s Eve”.
“At New Year’s Eve celebrations in Dortmund a mob of more than 1,000 men chanted ‘Allahu Akhbar’, launched fireworks at police, and set fire to a historic church,” the alt-right website reported.
But no. There was no mob, the actions were separate as opposed to coordinated, and the church was not set on fire.
There was in fact a total of around 1,000 people gathered to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Leeds Square, including “large and
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Jan 9th, 2017 3:12 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
The other day House Republicans made it possible for them to get around civil service protections by cutting the pay of individual workers to $1 thus in effect firing them.
House Republicans this week reinstated an arcane procedural rule that enables lawmakers to reach deep into the budget and slash the pay of an individual federal worker — down to $1 — a move that threatens to upend the 130-year-old civil service.
The Holman Rule, named after an Indiana congressman who devised it in 1876, empowers any member of Congress to propose amending an appropriations bill to single out a government employee or cut a specific program.
The use of the rule would not be simple; a majority of the
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Jan 9th, 2017 2:16 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Via Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans History Month UK on Facebook:
Message from LGBT History Month:
Julie Bindel
Schools OUT UK wishes to make a statement concerning the proposed appearance of Julie Bindel at The Working Class Movement Library in Manchester on the 4th of February, which is promoted on the LGBT History Month Calendar.
It’s not a “proposed” appearance, by the way – it’s a scheduled appearance. It’s on the calendar.
As the creators of LGBT History Month and the owners of the website and associated social media, we wish to make clear that the only events for which we are responsible are OUTing the Past: The National LGBT History Festivals taking place in fifteen venues around the country
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Jan 9th, 2017 11:24 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Greg Sargent at the Washington Post takes an in-depth look at Trump’s persistent lying. He cites the tweets in which Trump says he never mocked the reporter he did mock.
Here Trump is telling two lies about a third lie. A quick review: Trump’s mockery of a disabled reporter came after he claimed “thousands and thousands” of Muslims living in America celebrated 9/11. Kovaleski had written an article just after 9/11 that claimed law enforcement “detained and questioned a number of people who were allegedly seen celebrating the attacks.” Under fire for his falsehood about celebratory Muslims, Trump cited that article to push back, even though an “alleged” “number” is hardly proof of “thousands.” In response to that, the
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Tags: President Liar, Trump
Jan 9th, 2017 10:48 am |
By Ophelia Benson
The Times updated its TodayInTrump piece with the newest bad news: Trump’s horrible son-in-law will be senior adviser to his horrible father-in-law.
It has been expected for weeks. Now, Trump transition officials confirm that Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and a major real estate developer in New York, will be named senior adviser to the president.
The rumored post has focused attention on Mr. Kushner’s myriad potential conflicts of interest, including a Chinese development deal that’s in the works. Then there’s the issue of whether a son-in-law in the West Wing violates antinepotism laws.
But the Trump team will muscle through — as it usually does.
Scum rises.… Read the rest
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Tags: Trump
Jan 9th, 2017 10:02 am |
By Ophelia Benson
The Times is just pointing and laughing now.
■ Donald J. Trump, after an intelligence report concluded that Russia tried to help him get elected, is going after … Meryl Streep.
■ The president-elect takes credit for a $1 billion Fiat-Chrysler investment in the U.S.
■ Mr. Trump might want to save some ammunition. He has a big week ahead of him.
They share those tweets, including the one that calls Streep “a Hillary flunky who lost big,” and annotate with:
For the record, Mrs. Clinton did not lose big. She won the popular vote by nearly three million votes and lost the presidency by losing Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin by about the number of people who cheered
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Tags: Trump
Jan 9th, 2017 9:30 am |
By Ophelia Benson
There was a Hollywood prize-giving event yesterday. Meryl Streep gave a short talk there. This is part of what she said:
They gave me three seconds to say this, so: An actor’s only job is to enter the lives of people who are different from us, and let you feel what that feels like. And there were many, many, many powerful performances this year that did exactly that. Breathtaking, compassionate work.
But there was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good; there was nothing good about it. But it was effective and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh, and show their teeth. It
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Tags: Trump
Jan 7th, 2017 4:57 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
The Times did a stinging editorial on Trump’s egomaniacal disdain for the intelligence professionals the other day.
What plausible reason could Donald Trump have for trying so hard to discredit America’s intelligence agencies and their finding that Russia interfered in the presidential election? Maybe he just can’t stand anyone thinking he didn’t, or couldn’t, win the presidency on his own.
Regardless of his motives, the nation’s top intelligence officials were having none of his nonsense on Thursday.
But what a grotesque situation this is – a giant baby pitching fits at professional intelligence-gatherers, who have to pay attention because he’s the next president.
With his refusal to accept regular intelligence briefings on threats facing this country and his persistent denigration
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Tags: Trump
Jan 7th, 2017 2:23 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
I hear via a grapevine that there’s a crackdown on freethinkers in Pakistan. I don’t have any shareable sources at present, but the grapevine says things are looking dangerous. It appears that Ahmad Waqass Goraya, a known critic of the establishment, was picked up by the agencies two days ago. Two others recently arrested are Salman Haider and Aasim Saeed. Their friends would like attention to be paid.… Read the rest
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Jan 7th, 2017 11:04 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Sinister news – the federal agency that reviews the backgrounds of Cabinet nominees says it’s overwhelmed by the workload. That’s not surprising: usually the Cabinet nominees are relatively “normal” – in the sense of not being loaded down with conflicts of interest or bad history or both.
In a letter to Democratic senators dated Saturday, the head of the Office of Government Ethics also warned that Republicans are trying to take the unprecedented step of holding hearings for Cabinet picks before they have completed requisite paperwork to ensure there are no ethical, financial or criminal concerns.
Walter M. Shaub Jr., the ethics director, said it is “of great concern to me” that several of Trump’s nominees have not completed
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Tags: Trump
Jan 7th, 2017 10:49 am |
By Ophelia Benson
David Remnick at the New Yorker on Russia’s excellent adventure. He says the Duma cheered and applauded when Trump won.
In the days to come, there were more declarations of acid satisfaction among the Russian élite. Dmitri Kiselyov, the host of “News of the Week,” a popular current-affairs show on state-controlled television, gloated over Trump’s victory and Barack Obama’s inability to prevent it. Obama, he said, was a “eunuch.” Trump was an “alpha male”—and one who showed mercy to his vanquished rival. “Trump could have put the blonde in prison, as he’d threatened in the televised debates,” Kiselyov said on his show. “On the other hand, it’s nothing new. Trump has left blond women satisfied all his life.” Kiselyov
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Tags: Trump
Jan 6th, 2017 3:54 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Trump continues to announce as fact – even in official statements that are obviously by written by someone else (who knows how to write) – things he doesn’t and can’t possibly know.
President-elect Donald J. Trump acknowledged the possibility on Friday that Russia had hacked a variety of American targets, including the Democratic National Committee, after an almost two-hour meeting with the nation’s top intelligence officials.
Mr. Trump asserted that the hacking had no effect on the outcome of the election.
That. He can’t know that.
If he weren’t so stupid, he would realize how stupid it makes him look to make such ridiculous claims. But he is, so he doesn’t.
In a statement issued after the president-elect was
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Tags: Trump
Jan 6th, 2017 3:14 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Jeff Sharlet on Facebook:
I’d almost forgotten the time Dan Coats, Trump’s pick for National Intelligence Director — the man to whom 16 intelligence agencies report — called me an “enemy of Jesus.”
Well, I didn’t hear him do it, but the source seemed solid. It was, I think, 2004, and I’d been invited to speak at the University of Potsdam, near Berlin, in a series sponsored by the U.S. embassy. My subject was “the Family,” the secretive fundamentalist organization of which Coats, unbeknownst to me at the time, is a member. When I arrived, my German host told me there’d been a little problem: the ambassador — Dan Coats — had blocked funding for my talk. “He said,”
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Tags: Trump
Jan 6th, 2017 11:19 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Feminist Current reported yesterday:
Women’s conference in Oslo, Norway, organized by the Norwegian Socialist Party, no-platforms Julie Bindel over pressure from individuals accusing her of “transphobia.” Rachel Moran withdrew from the conference in solidarity with Bindel, yet conference organizers have refused to publicly state the reason for her action.
Moran states:
“The Norwegian Socialist Party needs to know that I will not speak for any group that displays the extraordinary cowardice they have shown in allowing an abolitionist feminist to be bullied from the stage. Julie Bindel has been an activist on men’s violence against women almost as long as I have been living, and it is nauseating to see a woman who’s dedicated her life to women’s rights
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Jan 6th, 2017 11:11 am |
By Ophelia Benson
New Year’s Eve in Karnataka:
This New Year’s Eve, India’s Silicon Valley reared its ugly head. As thousands of revelers gathered in Bengaluru’s city center—MG Road and Brigade Road— to ring in 2017, hooligans infiltrated the celebratory crowd, and for many women, the joyful parade turned into a nightmare.
An unruly mob of men began “pawing, molesting and passing lewd remarks on women on the streets,” according to the Bangalore Mirror, whose photojournalists were on the ground when havoc broke out minutes before midnight. Women cried for help and ran with heels in hand as men, many inebriated, mauled them. Eyewitnesses described the horrific incident as a “mass molestation.”
But don’t worry, it turns out it was the … Read the rest
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