Oh yes?

As many of us suspected & have been saying – but still WOW. https://t.co/jhUPFuFTvd

— Mimi Rocah (@Mimirocah1) April 30, 2019

Reading.

At the time the letter was sent on March 27, Barr had announced that Mueller had not found a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russian officials seeking to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Barr also said Mueller had not reached a conclusion about whether Trump had tried to obstruct justice, but Barr reviewed the evidence and found it insufficient to support such a charge.

Days after Barr’s announcement, Mueller wrote a previously unknown private letter to the Justice Department, which revealed a degree of dissatisfaction with the public discussion of Mueller’s work that

Erm…forget something?

This looks like it's going to be a great panel on Thursday at the BBC, with @meghamohan, @UglaStefania, @Mazharul82 & @PeterTatchell, moderated by @hugo_greenhalgh https://t.co/TjEqPEnDyI

— Rachel Savage (@rachelmsavage) April 29, 2019

Just one small problem – no L.

Is this true, @BBCPride @Inter_MediaUK? That you're having a high-profile LGBT panel but with no lesbians? If it is true, would any organiser or speaker like to comment on why they think it's OK to leave lesbians out of this conversation, and to allow others to speak for them?

— Kathleen Stock (@Docstockk) April 30, 2019

I now make it a practice, if ever asked into a panel on LGBT questions, to say “Who are

Rebecca Solnit is seeing a lot of unconscious bias going on:

I’ve just spent a month watching white male people in particular arguing about who has charisma or relatability or electability. They speak as if these were objective qualities, and as if their own particular take on them was truth or fact rather than taste, and as if what white men like is what everyone likes or white men are who matters, which is maybe a hangover from the long ugly era when only white men voted. It’s a form of self-confidence that verges on lunacy, because one of the definitions of that condition is the inability to distinguish between subjective feelings and objective realities.

She points out that … Read the rest

Meanwhile…

A Virginia judge has ruled that statues of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson in Charlottesville are war monuments that the city cannot remove without permission from the state.

In a nine-page ruling obtained from the University of Virginia School of Law website, Circuit Court Judge Richard E. Moore said neither the intentions of the people who erected the statues nor how they make people feel change the fact that the statues pay homage to the Civil War. Moore cited state code in his ruling that says it is illegal for municipalities to remove such monuments to war.

Gotta keep those monuments to war, because war is such a great thing.

The ruling comes

For my Freethinker column this month I wrote about Trump’s idiotic claim that Robert E. Lee was one of the greatest generals ever and is universally revered by all the many generals Trump talks to in the White House. Eric Foner wrote about the legend of Lee in August 2017, after the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville:

[O]f course, what interests people who debate Lee today is his connection with slavery and his views about race. During his lifetime, Lee owned a small number of slaves. He considered himself a paternalistic master but could also impose severe punishments, especially on those who attempted to run away. Lee said almost nothing in public about the institution. His most extended comment,

How the rules change when it’s Our Crook in the chair.

There is a world of difference between how Republicans viewed oversight when Barack Obama was president and their support of Trump’s obstruction. I know, because for five years I worked for Republicans on the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

In a 1957 Supreme Court ruling, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote, “The power of Congress to conduct investigations is inherent in the legislative process. That power is broad … It comprehends probes into departments of the federal government to expose corruption, inefficiency, or waste.”

During my time on Oversight, the chief justice’s words were often cited as justification for our vigorous supervision of the Obama administration. Led by Representative

Top argument skills.

The difference is between women who are transgender and those who are not, what we call cisgender women.
There is no difference between women and transgender women or betwern women and cisgender women.

— Morgane Oger M.S.M. (@MorganeOgerBC) April 27, 2019

“This is the difference.

There is no difference.”

Got that?… Read the rest

Street harassment in France:

French courts have handed down 447 fines in the past eight months under new laws to tackle street harassment of women.

The “outrages sexistes” law was passed in August 2018, and allows for on-the-spot fines of up to €750 (£650).

The first fine was handed down a month later to a man who slapped a woman’s bottom on a bus and made lewd remarks.

I can’t help wondering (not for the first time) what the point is. Did he think that would prompt her to have sex with him right there on the bus? Surely not. So, what, then? Just expressing a little casual hatred and contempt, because he couldn’t have sex with her right … Read the rest

Rod Rosenstein has sent his resignation letter, complete with a lot of flattery of the Mob Boss-in-chief.

The deputy attorney general, who has run the Justice Department’s day-to-day operations for most of the Trump presidency, submitted his resignation to the White House on Monday. The letter said he will stay on until May 11.

In the letter, Rosenstein thanked President Donald Trump—who once retweeted a picture of him behind bars—for “the courtesy and humor you often display in our personal conversations.”

Ahem.

The deputy attorney general shouldn't be having "personal conversations" with the president. https://t.co/3OezMaxfhu

— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) April 29, 2019

Rosenstein also made what appears to be a vague allusion to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia

Remember when Teen Vogue published a how-to piece on anal sex? That was interesting. This time it’s “sex work” – just what teenage girls need to read up on.

"Continued criminalization of sex work and sex workers is a form of violence by governments and contributes to the high level of stigma and discrimination." https://t.co/Wf4rgUdb13

— Teen Vogue (@TeenVogue) April 26, 2019

The violence in sex work comes from the pimps & punters. Calling the criminalisation of the purchase of sex (which is what progressive countries now do) ‘violence’ from governments is a profound lie. Legalised brothels create bigger markets & empower punters & pimps, not women

— Nelly Dean. Just saying what I see (@ICT456) April 29, 2019

Soraya points out yet another “women don’t count.”

"Swarthmore Students Stage Sit-in, Demand Closure of 2 Frats After Leak of Racist, Homophobic Documents." Why drop the foundational misogyny in the headline? Racist, sexist and homophobic comments about sexual assault captured all of this. https://t.co/yTKixANXU7

— Soraya Chemaly (@schemaly) April 29, 2019

In the actual story, misogyny is cited in the first paragraph:

Student activists at Swarthmore College are demanding the school permanently shut down campus fraternities in the aftermath of leaked documents showing racist, misogynist and homophobic comments as well as jokes about sexual assault allegedly from fraternity members.

Misogyny and sexual assault – you’d think that would put misogyny first in the headline, but instead it’s dropped altogether, … Read the rest

The Times on Trump’s lie about “executing babies”:

WHAT TRUMP SAID

“The baby is born. The mother meets with the doctor. They take care of the baby. They wrap the baby beautifully. And then the doctor and the mother determine whether or not they will execute the baby.”

President Trump revived on Saturday night what is fast becoming a standard, and inaccurate, refrain about doctors “executing babies.” During a more than hourlong speech at a rally in Green Bay, Wis., Mr. Trump admonished the Democratic governor, Tony Evers, for vetoing a Republican bill that could send doctors to prison for life if they fail to give medical care to children born alive after a failed abortion attempt.

“Children”? … Read the rest

*Hillary Clinton wins popular vote*

Media: BEGONE, wench! Disappear into the shadows and never return!

*Joe Biden tries A THIRD TIME after not even coming close twice*

Media: Wow, look at this exciting new candidate!

Can’t put my finger on what the difference could be…

— Rob Sheridan (@rob_sheridan) April 28, 2019

We keep being told that women need to lean in but…

Women’s lack of ambition is not the reason white men are leading in that race. Rather, it’s some dubious notion of who’s “electable” against Donald Trump. (Read: not a woman.)

That’s why watching South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who represents a population smaller than a New York City council district, outpoll Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren makes many

More Oppositional Defiance Disorder from Barr:

Attorney General William P. Barr, who is scheduled to appear Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee to testify about the special counsel’s report, is threatening to skip the session because he objects to the proposed format for questioning, a spokesman for Representative Jerrold Nadler, the committee chairman, said Sunday.

…

In addition to allowing each member of the committee to question Mr. Barr for five minutes, Mr. Nadler, Democrat of New York, has proposed a second round of questioning for Democrats and Republicans. However, he has also proposed that staff lawyers for both sides be included in that round, which Mr. Barr opposes.

Anything to disrupt.… Read the rest