The sleaze continues to deepen, now that both Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are what the Times calls senior federal government officials.

But the financial disclosure report released late Friday for Mr. Kushner, which shows that he and his wife still benefit financially from a real estate and investment empire worth as much as $740 million, makes clear that this most powerful Washington couple is walking on perilous legal and ethical ground, according to several prominent experts on the subject.

Unlike Mr. Trump, who is exempt from conflict of interest laws, both Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump — who took a formal White House position this past week — are forbidden under federal criminal and civic law to take

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

Courtesy of latsot:

… Read the rest

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

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

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

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

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

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

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