About that citizenship question on the census…

Wilbur Ross spoke with Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, before including on the 2020 census a question about people’s citizenship, the Justice Department said in a court document that appears to contradict what the commerce secretary told Congress.

The disclosure came in a lawsuit by more than a dozen states, cities and advocacy groups seeking to block the U.S. from asking the question, claiming it’s discriminatory and designed to reduce the accuracy of the count by cutting participation.

In other words, Ross “appears to” have lied to Congress. That’s a no-no.

Ross has denied speaking to Bannon, a vocal opponent of immigration, telling a congressional committee in March that

John Kelly really doesn’t like women.

Remember the lies he told about Representative Frederica Wilson? It was just a year ago.

Kelly claimed Wilson had boasted of securing “$20 million” in federal funding to build a new FBI field office in Miami during the dedication ceremony for the building in 2015. He also called the congresswoman an empty barrel, saying her remarks focused more on her own actions than the heroism of the two FBI agents for whom the new building had been named.

But a Sun Sentinel video of the building dedication ceremony confirmed that she had not taken credit for the building’s funding.

Asked Monday if he felt like he needed to apologize for his comments about

Oh good grief.

Bill and Hillary Clinton are taking their show on the road.

You what? What show? They’re not performers.

The famous political couple, who individually charge well into six figures for an address, is launching a 13-city joint public speaking tour of the U.S. and Canada titled “An Evening with the Clintons” that kicks off Nov. 18 in Las Vegas.

Ew. Ew ew ew. The famous centrist couple, who have been way too cozy with the billionaire set all along, want you to give them even more money for the high privilege of watching them talk some more. Can you say “vanity project”?

The tickets are expensive; surprise surprise.

“Experience a one-of-a-kind conversation with two individuals who

Reuters reports:

Amazon.com Inc’s (AMZN.O) machine-learning specialists uncovered a big problem: their new recruiting engine did not like women.

Garbage in garbage out, ya know. Misogyny in misogyny out. Underestimation of women in underestimation of women out.

The trouble is, they used resumes from the past ten years to train the computer models, and most of those came from – you’ll never guess – men.

Top U.S. tech companies have yet to close the gender gap in hiring, a disparity most pronounced among technical staff such as software developers where men far outnumber women. Amazon’s experimental recruiting engine followed the same pattern, learning to penalize resumes including the word “women’s” until the company discovered the problem.

Did … Read the rest

The Post has more on Trump’s refusal to say “boo” to Saudi Arabia:

President Trump said Thursday that “it would not be acceptable to me” to block arms sales to Saudi Arabia in response to the disappearance last week of a Washington Post columnist after he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said he was open to other actions but questioned the wisdom of not selling military weapons, saying Saudi Arabia could instead turn to Russia or China, hurting U.S. defense companies.

“What good does that do us?” Trump asked.

Spoken like a true narcissist. The issue isn’t doing us good, the issue is not supporting a regime that murders dissenters.… Read the rest

More on that being-stolen right in front of us election in Georgia:

It isn’t often you get to watch an election being stolen in real time, but that might be what is happening right now in Georgia.

When it comes to the nationwide, comprehensive, carefully planned Republican effort to suppress the votes of people who are likely to vote Democratic, particularly racial minorities, there is a menu of techniques Republicans employ — voter ID laws, voter purges, limiting early voting, closing polling places in heavily minority neighborhoods, and racial and partisan gerrymandering.

But Brian Kemp’s blatant theft is in a class by itself.

Paul Waldman recaps Ben Nadler’s reporting from yesterday then asks sarcastically who could have foreseen this.… Read the rest

Writer and broadcaster, Sophie Cook on spelling women as womxn – "X is just making it a bit more inclusive… they had the right intentions but it turned out being a slightly clumsy effort."@sophiecooktalks | #newsnight pic.twitter.com/lKpcK1HnRG

— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) October 10, 2018

X is jus making it a bit more inclusive, so it includes women of color, it includes trans women…

[through clenched teeth] “Women” already includes women of color, and it includes trans women for people who believe the formula “trans women are women.” The word “women” does not need to be “a bit more inclusive,” just as women don’t need to be colonized by men telling them to be more intersectional and inclusive by shutting … Read the rest

A pull quote I strongly disagree with.

"Feminism without intersectionality—in other words, without sensitivity and equal attention to other nexuses of discrimination and oppression, such as race and sexuality—is worthless."@CharoShane on why we must hold feminism to a higher standard.

https://t.co/yGK1rzk8bL

— Literary Hub (@lithub) October 11, 2018

“Feminism without intersectionality—in other words, without sensitivity and equal attention to other nexuses of discrimination and oppression, such as race and sexuality—is worthless.”

Bollocks.

Feminism is feminism. It’s about resistance to and elimination of the subordination of women. Its attention is for that. Intersectionality is about awareness that there are other forms of oppression and subordination, all of which can affect women; it is not about giving equal attention … Read the rest

The BBC is on the “womxn” issue.

Womxn – to the untrained eye it may look like a typo.

But when the Wellcome Collection – a museum and library in London – sent a tweet promoting an event using the word it led to a Twitter backlash from hundreds of women, and an apology from the organisation.

Like women, womxn refers to females, but it is an attempt to get away from patriarchal language.

The hell it is. That was “womyn,” which was floated decades ago and was largely ignored. No, this is not about getting away from patriarchal language, it’s about making women more “inclusive,” which is quite a different thing. It’s about “including” men in the category … Read the rest

Well that’s disgraceful.

The US is one of just 13 countries to have voted against a United Nations resolution condemning the death penalty for having gay sex.

Although the vote passed, America joined countries such as China, Iraq and Saudi Arabia in opposing the move.

The Human Rights Council resolution condemned the “imposition of the death penalty as a sanction for specific forms of conduct, such as apostasy, blasphemy, adultery and consensual same-sex relations”.

Ah so maybe it wasn’t the same-sex relations part that was the problem, maybe it was blasphemy and apostasy. Trump does pretend to be goddy these days.

Despite America’s opposition, the vote in Geneva passed with 27 of the 47-member Human Rights Council in favour.

This happened.

Corker, Menendez and more than a dozen more senators send a letter to Trump that could pave the way for sanctions over Khashoggi disappearance. Full letter and background here pic.twitter.com/bJBeb1ZxmB

— Jeremy Herb (@jeremyherb) October 10, 2018

CNN reports:

President Donald Trump is facing new pressure to investigate the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and determine whether to impose sanctions on those responsible after receiving a letter from a bipartisan group of senators Wednesday.

The letter, which triggers an “investigation and Global Magnitsky sanctions determination” was penned by the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chairman Sen. Bob Corker and ranking member Sen. Bob Menendez, along with the leaders of the appropriations

Oh no, even as the Wellcome Trust takes it back, it’s spreading. It’s Invasion of the Word-snatchers.

I have just received a press release that says “womxn” 15 times.
It’s about a campaign “for womxn, by womxn” to help refugees, sex trafficking victims + “pregnant womxn”.
It’s sponsored by H&M. @hm

Christ almxghty.

Did you agree to this nonsense @MaternityAction ??@ellashome pic.twitter.com/et5a1LGmqX

— Lucy Bannerman (@TimesLucy) October 10, 2018

Twice in the headline. Four times in the first paragraph. Three times in the second paragraph.

No. No. No. NO. We are not “cis” and we are not “womxn.”

NO.

The Post has more on Paltrow’s wellnessbabble.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness brand, Goop, has promoted “energy stickers” made from “the same conductive carbon material NASA uses to line space suits” — even though the stickers had nothing to do with spacesuits at all.

And coffee enemas.

And vaginal steaming.

And the jade eggs.

Why stop there? Why doesn’t she move on to gasoline ear-irrigations? Vaginal cauterization? Cyanide enemas? The all-coffee diet? Serenity through blood-letting? Leeches for the flu?

But when asked whether the products Goop sells online are based on pseudoscience, Paltrow told BBC News no.

“We disagree with that wholeheartedly,” the actress and business executive said Tuesday on “BBC Breakfast.” “We really believe that there

More than 53,000 voter registration applications are sitting on hold with Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s office. Most people on that list are black; many don’t know their registration is stalled.

Tuesday is Georgia’s deadline to register and be eligible to vote in the November General Election.

Kemp, who’s also the Republican candidate for governor, is in charge of elections and voter registration in Georgia.

His Democratic opponent, former state Rep. Stacey Abrams, and voting rights advocacy groups charge that Kemp is systematically using his office to suppress votes and tilt the election, and that his policies disproportionately affect black and minority voters.

Brian Kemp and Stacey Abrams (John Amis/Associated Press)

Kemp is one of those “Beware voter fraud!!” … Read the rest

Remember the Wellcome Trust and “womxn”? From two days ago? With so much to laugh at in the list of 100 Narcissistic Non-negotiable Demands yesterday it’s easy to lose track.

It got a lot of [cough] disagreement so it explained its reasons.

We’ve had some questions about why we’re using the word womxn for this event. We’re using it because we feel that it is important to create a space/venue that includes diverse perspectives. It was agreed during our conversations with collaborators as the programme developed.

— Wellcome Collection (@ExploreWellcome) October 9, 2018

I’m kidding, of course. “We’re using it because we feel that it is important to create a space/venue that includes diverse perspectives” explains nothing. … Read the rest

I’m not the only one who found that List of 100 Ways You Have to Grovel to the Trans Community grotesquely narcissistic and entitled. I’m seeing a lot of others on Twitter.

Christ in a carrier bag. Is this a spoof? 100 Easy Ways to Make the World Better for Trans People https://t.co/41Ebp4Q54u

— Julie Bindel (@bindelj) October 9, 2018

The manifesto of trans-narcissist-totalitarianism:
https://t.co/ULZLzRvHgB

— Dr. Jane Clare Jones (@janeclarejones) October 9, 2018

"Do not question anything ever, do not ask us anything, only question yourself and think about constantly about trans issues always, change the way you think, and then BUY US THINGS"?!

What the hell. It's like an incoherent rebellious teenager's list of demands. pic.twitter.com/fVDKVKKbeA

— Kate

Gwyneth Paltrow reassures us that she is not talking bullshit by talking bullshit.

Earlier this year, the lifestyle corporation fell under scrutiny once more when nonprofit group Truth in Advertising accused Goop of exploiting women with products which claim to combat health problems.

And now Gwyneth has opened up about the controversy.

When asked by the Radio 4 Today Programme about the flack the company has faced about some of the health benefits the products claim to have, Gwyneth replied that she thinks the criticism is important.

“If we’re not criticised we’re not doing our job. What we’re here to do is trailblaize and try to move culture forward,” she said.

“If we’re not criticised we’re not doing our job”? … Read the rest

The Kavanaugh mess distracted a lot of us from the Times’s big story on the Trump empire’s vast tax fraud. Paul Waldman at the Post reminded us to be reminded of it.

It has been less than two days since we learned that Donald Trump and his family appear to have engaged in a years-long conspiracy to commit tax fraud on an absolutely gigantic scale, evading hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes they owed to the federal government. We learned this from a mother lode of documents obtained by the New York Times — including tax returns, business records and bank records.

And nearly everyone seems to have already forgotten.

I didn’t forget but I did put it … Read the rest