News from Samoa:

The death toll from the measles epidemic in Samoa has reached 33 as of Wednesday and infection rates continue to rise.

Of those who have died, 29 are children under the age of 4 years old.

Despite mass immunisation efforts, the Government of Samoa confirmed 249 more cases had been recorded in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 2686 on Wednesday.

Government of Samoa tweets:

Latest update: 2,686 measles cases have been reported since the outbreak with 249 recorded in the last 24 hours. To date, 33 measles related deaths have been recorded. Since the Mass Vaccination Campaign on 20 Nov 2019, the Ministry has successfully vaccinated 33,085 individuals.

More of Today in How Dense is Donald Trump?: he doesn’t understand chronology.

Yesterday, it happened again, when Trump signed the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commemorative Coin Act, which directs the Treasury to issue a commemorative coin to honor the 100th anniversary of American women getting the right to vote. After signing the measure – which passed both the House and Senate unanimously – the president decided to take a moment to reflect on what he considered important: his own awesomeness.

“I am curious why wasn’t it done a long time ago and also, well, I guess the answer to that is because now I am president and we get things done.

“We get a lot of things done that

Kevin Drum says the world has given up on climate change. He starts with a table from the Financial Times:

Europe is pulling back from clean energy research. India and Brazil barely have any to begin with. The United state is flat at about $50 billion—maybe a tenth of what we should spending. And China, after a decade of research, has decided to double down on coal and slash its clean energy R&D. Only Southeast Asia is still increasing its green energy research, perhaps because they have a more visceral fear of climate change then the rest of us. When you announce that you’re moving your capital from Jakarta to an entirely new island because Jakarta is sinking…

…it … Read the rest

Trump explained his administration’s subtle, carefully considered policy on China and Hong Kong this morning:

After signing an executive order establishing a task force on missing and murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives, Trump was asked by a reporter about the protests in Hong Kong as he continues to negotatiate a potential trade deal with China.

“It’s going very well, but at the same time we want to see it go well in Hong Kong, and I think it will,” Trump said. “I think that President Xi [Jinping] can make that happen and I know him and I know we’d like to make it happen.”

Ahhh good; that’s impressive. I’m relieved to know they’re taking it so seriously and being … Read the rest

Pompeo says we’re totally complying.

Julian Borger:

Pompeo on Ukraine inquiry: “We will continue to comply …so that appropriate oversight can be conducted.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee:

.@SecPompeo and the @StateDept have turned over zero documents required by a duly authorized congressional subpoena.

Zero.

That’s not compliance. It’s obstruction.

Oh, right, obstruction. We always get those two words mixed up.… Read the rest

Measles is cutting a swathe through DR Congo.

Measles has killed nearly 5,000 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2019, authorities said, after the disease spread to all the provinces in the country.

Close to a quarter of a million people have been infected this year alone.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says this is the world’s largest and fastest-moving epidemic.

But hey, please let’s hear more from prosperous middle-class white people in California and Surrey who refuse to vaccinate their little Gwyneth and Nigel.

The Congolese government and the WHO launched an emergency vaccination programme in September that aimed to inoculate more than 800,000 children.

But poor infrastructure, attacks on health centres and a lack of

Still going in the wrong direction.

Greenhouse gas emissions have steadily risen for the last decade despite the current and future threat posed by climate change, according to a new United Nations report.

The annual report compares how clean the world’s economies are to how clean they need to be in order to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change — a disparity known as the “emissions gap.”

However, this year’s report describes more of a chasm than a gap. Global emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gasses have continued to steadily increase over the last decade. In 2018, the report notes that global fossil fuel CO2 emissions from electricity generation and industry grew by a

Originally a comment by Claire on God’s instrument.

To: God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit

CC; Archangel Michael

Sir,

I am writing to gain some clarity on the proclamations made by your emissaries here on Earth. Previously we had been led to understand that Barack Obama had gained the presidency by nefarious means such as getting more votes etc and was installed against your will. In office we were further informed by Metatron, the Voice of God, also known as Fox News that President Obama committed hideous crimes in office, such as wearing a tan suit, eating fancy mustard, being good at singing and worst of all, improving access to healthcare.

Obviously we understand that President … Read the rest

Speaking of women, and why they need to be able to organize and meet as women, today is International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

“Sexual violence against women and girls is rooted in centuries of male domination. Let us not forget that the gender inequalities that fuel rape culture are essentially a question of power imbalances.” — UN Secretary-General António Guterres

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is one of the most widespread, persistent and devastating human rights violations in our world today [and] remains largely unreported due to the impunity, silence, stigma and shame surrounding it.

In general terms, it manifests itself in physical, sexual and psychological forms, encompassing:

• intimate partner violence (battering, psychological abuse,

Oh good god. The BC NDP Women’s Rights Committe proudly announces its own suicide:

Hugs, tears and cheers as — after many passionate conversations — we have voted to approve a historical name and constitutional change today! We’ll now be known as the Women’s and Gendered Rights Committee. Changing our constitution to welcome in two-spirit, non binary and gender nonconforming folks.

#intersectionalfeminism #biggertents

Yaaaaaay hooray hooray hooray yet another thing women don’t get to have for themselves but have to share with men who call themselves “two-spirit” or non binary or gender nonconforming – which basically means all men, because anyone can simply say “I’m gender nonconforming.” So haha yay women don’t get to organize as women any … Read the rest

Rick Perry says it’s god’s plan.

Like a lot of evangelical Christians, Energy Secretary Rick Perry believes in a God who gets involved in every aspect of our lives — including the election of Donald Trump as President.

“I’m a big believer that the God of our universe is still very active in the details of the day-to-day lives of government,” Perry told Fox News in remarks aired on Sunday.

“You know, Barack Obama doesn’t get to be the President of the United Sates without being ordained by God. Neither did Donald Trump.”

Perry went on to say that being God’s instrument on Earth doesn’t mean that Trump is a perfect person. Echoing the argument of other white evangelical

The latest oops is a mass of documentation that the Trump people tried hard to find a rug big enough to cover everything.

Internal emails show that the White House scrambled to come up with a justification for freezing the money [for military aid for Ukraine] just days after the White House Counsel’s Office was told that an anonymous CIA official had filed a complaint with the agency’s general counsel concerning the president’s July 25 phone call, suggesting people on the inside knew they were fucked.

The Washington Post reports that a confidential White House review of Trump’s decision to put a hold on aid to Ukraine has “turned up hundreds of documents that reveal extensive efforts to generate an

Pliny on the grim truth:

… Read the rest

Let’s see, who’s an easy group to exploit? Oh I know: prisoners! Yeah, let’s exploit them, because we can.

Inmates at several West Virginia prisons are getting free electronic tablets to read books, send emails, and communicate with their families—but there’s a catch.

Any inmates looking to read Moby Dick may find that it will cost them far more than it would have if they’d simply gotten a mass market paperback, because the tablets charge readers by the minute.

Under a 2019 contract between the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation (WVDCR) and Global Tel Link (GTL), the company that is providing electronic multimedia tablets to 10 West Virginia prisons, inmates will be charged 3 cents a minute

Karen Ingala Smith, who is an expert in the field, reminds Jo Swinton of a couple of things:

I am pig sick of people who have not run refuges (and probably spent little if any time in them) saying that allowing men in to women’s refuges is a matter of individual risk assessments. No. No it isn’t.

What are women’s refuges refuges from? Not from grasshoppers or missionaries or loud music.

As for @joswinson saying that abuse in lesbian relns is same as men’s violence against intimate partners, how dare you?
How many women are killed by female partners/exes? Hardly bloody any.
How many women in UK are killed by male partners/exes? On average at least 1 every 4