Blessed

Mar 31st, 2017 5:31 pm | By

The Trump dynasty will go right on profiting from their business interests despite their entanglement in his presidency, even though there are rules against that, because I guess it’s just too embarrassing to tell them no.

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, President Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, will remain the beneficiaries of a sprawling real estate and investment business still worth as much as $741 million, despite their new government responsibilities, according to ethics filings released by the White House Friday night.

Ms. Trump will also maintain a stake in the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. The hotel, just down the street from the White House, has drawn protests from ethics experts who worry that foreign governments or special interests

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National No Grabbing Women by the Pussy Month

Mar 31st, 2017 3:34 pm | By

Mother Jones:

In an announcement late Friday, President Donald Trump proclaimed April as National Sexual Assault and Prevention Month, vowing to commit his administration to raising awareness on the issue and “reduce and eventually end violence” against women, children, and men.

“This includes supporting victims, preventing future abuse, and prosecuting offenders to the full extent of the law,” a statement from the White House read. “I have already directed the Attorney General to create a task force on crime reduction and public safety.  This task force will develop strategies to reduce crime and propose new legislation to fill gaps in existing laws.”

“In the face of sexual violence, we must commit to providing meaningful support and services for victims

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His biggest lie yet

Mar 31st, 2017 12:31 pm | By

This tweet is particularly infuriating:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/847625389908217856

How can we possibly enlist the full potential of women in our society when women in our society are subject to so much contempt and predatory behavior from men like Trump? How can he mouth pious bullshittery about the full potential of women when he talks about women the way he does? Where does he get the nerve?… Read the rest



Dashing off in all directions

Mar 31st, 2017 11:29 am | By

Ok my excuse is that yesterday was rushed because I had to do things out in the world, so I didn’t grasp what the news about the identity of the people who gave Nunes the sekrit info meant. Julie Hirschfeld Davis at the Times caused the penny to drop in a piece on Trump’s dopy tweet about Flynn and immunity and “Dems” this morning.

The credibility of the inquiry was thrown into question on Thursday after it emerged that a pair of White House officials helped provide Representative Devin Nunes of California, a Republican and chairman of the Intelligence Committee, with intelligence reports that showed Mr. Trump and his associates were incidentally swept up in foreign surveillance by American spy

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Or we could just let Putin run the board

Mar 31st, 2017 10:18 am | By

The government ethics duo Richard Painter and Norman Eisen on Flynn and immunity:

Instead of categorically rejecting Mr. Flynn’s offer, as the Senate Intelligence Committee appears to have done today, both houses of Congress and federal prosecutors should carefully review Flynn’s proffered testimony and the details of the immunity deal and then make a decision.

This is the latest development in a scandal more frightening than Watergate because it involves a foreign adversary attacking the American political system. We need to get to the bottom of it as soon as possible.

In this case need to know might outweigh need to punish.

This time, the stakes are too high to wait. Immunity should be granted as soon as Congress

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No, look over there

Mar 30th, 2017 6:21 pm | By

There’s yet more confirmation that Devin Nunes is the White House’s fluffy fluffy poodle.

A pair of White House officials helped provide Representative Devin Nunes of California, a Republican and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, with the intelligence reports that showed that President Trump and his associates were incidentally swept up in foreign surveillance by American spy agencies.

The revelation on Thursday that White House officials disclosed the reports, which Mr. Nunes then discussed with Mr. Trump, is likely to fuel criticism that the intelligence chairman has been too eager to do the bidding of the Trump administration while his committee is supposed to be conducting an independent investigation of Russia’s meddling in the presidential election.

Why, … Read the rest



Because I read it in the Daily Mail

Mar 30th, 2017 6:07 pm | By

Courtesy of latsot:

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In return for immunity from prosecution

Mar 30th, 2017 5:33 pm | By

Mike Flynn has a story to tell. He wants to tell it.

Former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn has told the Senate Intelligence Committee he is willing to be interviewed about the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia in return for immunity from prosecution, a Congressional official told NBC News.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Flynn had told the FBI and Congress he was willing to be interviewed in exchange for a grant of immunity.

In a statement tweeted Thursday, Flynn’s lawyer, Robert Kelner, confirmed that discussions had taken place with the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, and said “General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it.”

Never … Read the rest



Boys only for Pence

Mar 30th, 2017 5:19 pm | By

Speaking of Mike Pence, and scum, and hatred of women – he has a personal Rule against being alone with women.

The Indianapolis Star reported in 2016:

During his 12 years in Congress, Pence had rules to avoid any infidelity temptations, or even rumors of impropriety. Those included requiring that any aide who had to work late to assist him be male, never dining alone with a woman other than his wife, and not attending an event where alcohol is served unless Karen was there.

So he excludes women from some aspects of working for him; he excludes them as women, because they are women. I believe there are laws against that kind of discrimination. It doesn’t suddenly … Read the rest



More grabbing

Mar 30th, 2017 5:03 pm | By

Those fuckers.

The Senate voted Thursday to let states block federal family planning money from going to Planned Parenthood affiliates and other abortion providers.

Senators approved the Republican legislation 51-50. Vice President Mike Pence cast the tie-breaking vote after two GOP senators, Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, voted with Democrats against the measure.

The Senate measure would roll back a regulation Obama issued shortly before leaving office. It bars state and local governments from denying federal family planning funds to organizations unless they are unable to provide those services. Some states have passed laws preventing abortion providers from receiving the funds.

There is already a ban on using federal funds for abortion except for rare instances.

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Who is going to be advising him?

Mar 30th, 2017 11:58 am | By

Meanwhile, Trump is leaving executive branch science jobs unfilled, which means he has no science advisers on staff.

Mr. Trump’s first budget proposes slashing $5.8 billion, or 18 percent, from the National Institutes of Health and $900 million, or about 20 percent, from the Energy Department’s Office of Science, which runs basic research at the national laboratories. The Environmental Protection Agency would be cut by 31 percent.

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump issued executive orders that roll back Mr. Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which would have closed hundreds of coal-fired power plants in an effort to curb planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions.

Those actions have been taken without advice or guidance from scientists and engineers inside the White House. The few

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A tough tone with the rebels

Mar 30th, 2017 11:47 am | By

Today in Trump.

Fight them, and the Dems, and the 65% of the population who think Trump is a trainwreck. That should go well.

The Times attempts to pick its way through the debris field, starting with that tweet.

The post from Mr. Trump did not seem to have been impulsive: Mr. Bannon, who has counseled a tough tone with the rebels, has instructed his staff to more closely monitor the president’s Twitter messages to use them as leverage in negotiations.

Dan Scavino, an aide

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Guest post: He wasn’t quite high enough on the list

Mar 30th, 2017 11:25 am | By

Originally a comment by iknklast on She said people should be embraced for who they are authentically.

In an office where I used to work (as an intern), there was one man who couldn’t quite get hired because he wasn’t quite high enough on the list (it was a state job – he had to reach a standard of merit). The office couldn’t hire him because there were several women who had tested higher than he had, and even without the one point they got for being women, he couldn’t get near their scores. So, they worked and worked until they found some trace somewhere of a Native American ancestor, way back in his background, got him the 10 … Read the rest



Legs

Mar 30th, 2017 10:59 am | By

Sigh.

A Daily Mail front page picturing Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon and asking “who won Legs-it” has been condemned as “moronic” sexism.

The tabloid was scorned for focusing on the prime minister’s and first minister’s legs during talks on Brexit and on a second Scottish referendum.

Former equalities minister Nicky Morgan said it was “deliberately demeaning”.

The Daily Mail responded to the criticism in a statement which said: “For goodness sake, get a life!”

Of course it did. The Daily Mail lives in Trumpworld, where “jokes” that reduce even heads of state, if they have the bad taste to be female, to tits and bums and legs are normal and appropriate. Yeah sure she’s the PM but LOOK … Read the rest



She said people should be embraced for who they are authentically

Mar 29th, 2017 6:07 pm | By

The New York Times talked to Rachel Dolezal earlier this month.

In a New York Times report chronicling reactions to the discovery of Ms. Dolezal’s deception, blacks and liberals accused her of an offensive impersonation, part of a long history in which whites appropriated black heritage when it suited them.

Almost 1,500 Times readers responded in comments on that article:

So, if a white person claims to be black to get into Harvard (just like the 1980s movie Soul Man), h/she should be left alone and allowed to continue enjoying the fruits of the deception? — Lanier Y. Chapman, New York

Portraying oneself as black when they’re not is not a crime. However, if one isn’t truthful about one’s

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Anti-Bullet Charms and Destructive Power of Superstition in Africa

Mar 29th, 2017 | By Leo Igwe

The recent case of a traditional priest in Ghana who was fatally wounded in the process of testing his supposed anti-bullet charms has once again illustrated the dangers of superstitious beliefs in Africa. This incident has amply shown the imperative of skeptical thinking and scientific outlook in the region, and the fact that a dearth of critical temper could damage and shorten the lives of people. Nana Tolofasito, the traditional priest, claimed to have spiritual powers and went ahead to test these powers. He asked somebody to shoot him with a gun in order to demonstrate the efficacy of his anti-bullet medicine. He sustained serious injuries from the gunshot because his so-called medicine could not protect him. Fortunately, the bullet … Read the rest



Boys are the norm, girls the variation

Mar 29th, 2017 3:55 pm | By

Barry Duke at the Freethinker tells us that Haredi Jews in Bnei Brak in Israel have been spared the horror of seeing a female cartoon character on billboards.

Here’s the safe, innocent, not-smutty billboard:

Here’s the filthy lascivious lewd one:

Aaaaaaaaaaaaah! Yellow hair, eyelashes, googly eyes, a small nose! A female! FILTH!!!

According to this report, the original poster for Smurfs: The Lost Village, shows four of the tiny blue humanoids – but one one, a blonde Smurfette, was cropped from the ads in the district by the PR company Mirka’im – Hutzot Zahav.

The company distributing the movie, Forum Film, said that the PR company decided not to hang the original posters in Bnei Brak in order not

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Thanks for typing

Mar 29th, 2017 12:03 pm | By

Ah the typing wife. I remember those.

Bruce Holsinger is a novelist and English professor at the University of Virginia.

Holsinger and some colleagues were recently discussing how often the wives of male academics do significant work for which they are rarely given proper credit.

This reminded Holsinger of all the times he has read male authors thanking their wives for typing up manuscripts in the acknowledgments of their books. Curious to see how widespread the practice was, Holsinger did a quick search on Google Books and found dozens of “eye-opening” examples that he started sharing on Twitter with the hashtag #ThanksForTyping.

“The response was immediate and overwhelming,” Holsinger said. “It’s turned into a lively and mind-bending exchange.”

The … Read the rest



Guest post: People like being angry at things

Mar 29th, 2017 11:39 am | By

Originally a comment by Claire on They’ve done it.

As an expat Brit, I was in two minds whether to vote in the referendum. After all, it seemed a bit cheeky to insist on a voice on it when I’d no intention of returning to the UK. But the rhetoric changed my mind. I quickly became very concerned that the Brexit campaign were willing to lie brazenly and hand-wave any demands for details on how any number of important structural changes would be managed. So I got registered and voted, for my nephews and nieces too young to vote, for my other family members who’s lives and job prospects depended on us remaining in the EU. It was not … Read the rest



Donnie is watching

Mar 29th, 2017 10:31 am | By

Spicey is shocked, shocked, that people think there was anything wrong with the way he talked to April Ryan yesterday. Or, more likely, he’s pretending to be shocked. They want to normalize asshole behavior so that Trump won’t look so glaringly abnormal and psychopathic.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer responded to accusations of sexism and racism after he repeatedly told senior journalist April Ryan to stop shaking her head during Tuesday’s press briefing.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized Spicer’s actions Tuesday, labeling the incident an example of the kind of sexism that women encounter every day. But Spicer said that Ryan was a tough reporter and he was “astonished” at the accusation. He insisted that he

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