But never mind WW3, never mind food and medicine, never mind global warming, never mind the minimum wage – how about that political correctness, huh? Like TIME magazine? “Person” of the year? Am I right? For years it was “Man of the Year.” It should obviously just stay that, right? Am I right?
Trump is now complaining about being named Time's "Person of the Year": "Who would rather have it be the Man of the Year?" pic.twitter.com/9Id0zGExbX
— Colin Jones (@colinjones) December 9, 2016
There’s just nothing quite as exhilarating as having a complete novice and intentional ignoramus elected president so that he can amble around provoking war with tiny weak little countries like China.
… Read the restPresident-elect Donald J. Trump, defending his recent phone call with Taiwan’s president, asserted in an interview broadcast on Sunday that the United States was not bound by the One China policy, the 44-year diplomatic understanding that underpins America’s relationship with its biggest rival.
Mr. Trump, speaking on Fox News, said he understood the principle of a single China that includes Taiwan, but declared, “I don’t know why we have to be bound by a One China policy unless we make a deal with China having to
What kind of person do you want running the Food and Drug Administration? A scientist who has a good understanding of food and drug safety and a commitment to ensure both for the citizenry.
Oops! Joke’s on you! Trump wants the other kind – the kind who thinks the citizenry should take care of itself and not expect some government bureaucrat to do it, god damn it.
President-elect Donald Trump is weighing naming as Food and Drug Administration commissioner a staunch libertarian who has called for eliminating the agency’s mandate to determine whether new medicines are effective before approving them for sale.
Sure. Just throw them out there and see what happens.
… Read the rest“Let people start using them, at their own
The opening of this video seems to me to reflect a rather crude understanding of “intersectionality.” Kat Blaque of Everyday Feminism talks to Riley Jay Dennis, also of Everyday Feminism, on the subject.
I stopped at 52 seconds and didn’t watch any more, so I don’t know what else they said, but the first 52 seconds are…underbaked.
Kat Blaque: In what ways do you [inaudible] yourself intersectional?
Riley Jay Dennis: I’m trans and non-binary, and a woman, an atheist, and polyamorous.
Kat Blaque: Wow, nice!
It’s as if it’s a contest – how many boxes can you tick? But that was never the point, was it? It was never supposed to be a competition, surely. Imagine:
… Read the restPerson 1: In
… Read the restThis fucking election. Fucking Trump.
These newest revelations, that Russia hacked the election. Piles of evidence, teetering up to the sky. That Russia ALSO hacked the RNC and are holding them over a barrel because of what they know. Which would be hilarious if it wasn’t so frightening.
And the boiling chaos that’s resulting from it. I’ve got conservative friends actually DEFENDING Russia on this. I’ve got progressive friends gloating that we’ve finally had done to us what we’ve done to other countries. That Hillary somehow deserves this. That WE somehow deserve this. That infuriating cliche about, “It’s actually GOOD ifTrump destroys everything it’ll start a revolution BLAH BLAH BLAH FUCKING BLAH…”
And in the
Furthermore, the relationship between Donnie from Queens and the intelligence professionals is tanking. That could be a problem.
… Read the restThe simmering distrust between Donald Trump and U.S. intelligence agencies escalated into open antagonism Saturday after the president-elect mocked a CIA report that Russian operatives had intervened in the U.S. presidential election to help him win.
The growing tensions set up a potential showdown between Trump and the nation’s top intelligence officials during what some of those officials describe as the most complex threat environment in decades.
…
Trump’s reaction will probably deepen an existing rift between Trump and the agencies and raised questions about how the government’s 16 spying agencies will function in his administration on matters such as counterterrorism
More on Trump the smart person who doesn’t need to read intelligence briefings, from the Atlantic.
… Read the restTrump complained that his briefings are repetitive, and insisted he’s receiving the information he needs, even he takes the briefings only once a week. “I get it when I need it,” Trump told Chris Wallace. “First of all, these are very good people that are giving me the briefings. And I say, ‘If something should change from this point, immediately call me. I’m available on one-minute’s notice.’”
Trump also pointed out that Vice-President-elect Mike Pence receives the daily briefings he declines, although he did not explain why Pence—like every recent president—finds value in receiving the daily assessments while he does not. “And I’m
The Times editorial board has a think piece on what to do about Trump’s relentless lying. They use that word a lot. As I mentioned a week or two ago, newspapers don’t do that lightly – they don’t do it at all unless they’re very sure they can back it up. This piece treats Trump’s lying as not even in doubt.
Mind you, they start with an odd claim.
… Read the restDonald Trump understood at least one thing better than almost everybody watching the 2016 election: The breakdown of a shared public reality built upon widely accepted facts represented not a hazard, but an opportunity.
The institutions that once generated and reaffirmed that shared reality — including the church, the government,
President-elect Donald J. Trump said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that he did not believe American intelligence assessments that Russia had intervened to help his candidacy, casting blame for the reports on Democrats, who he said were embarrassed about losing to him.
“I think it’s ridiculous. I think it’s just another excuse,” Mr. Trump said in the interview, on “Fox News Sunday.” “I don’t believe it.”
Except the intelligence people who made the assessments are civil servants, not political appointments.
… Read the restHe also indicated that as president, he would not take the daily intelligence briefing that President Obama and his predecessors have received. Mr. Trump, who has received the briefing sparingly as president-elect, said that it
Jack Halberstam on intersectionality at Reed College.
… Read the restIn 1999, just six years after the rape and murder of a young gender variant person, Brandon Teena, and two friends in a small town in Nebraska, Kim Peirce released her first film, a dramatic account of the incident. The film, Boys Don’t Cry, which took years to research, write, fund, cast and shoot, was released to superb reviews and went on to garner awards and praise for the lead actor, Hilary Swank, and the young director, Kim Peirce, not to mention the film’s production team led by Christine Vachon. The film was hard hitting, visually innovative and marked a massive breakthrough in the representation of gender variant bodies. While there were
Today in Trump News –
Yesterday’s fascist rally in Michigan:
Thank you Michigan. We are going to bring back your jobs & together, we will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Watch: https://t.co/cJK323RDYl pic.twitter.com/JjhIdFXCGV— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2016
Again: this isn’t what presidents-elect do. They work hard to get up to speed on the job, they read intelligence briefings, they learn as much as they can. They don’t bounce around the country working up their fans.
Another thing presidents-elect and presidents don’t do: produce tv shows. The NY Times reports that Donnie from Queens will be executive producer of The Apprentice starting in January (funnily enough, the same month he takes over that other job).
… Read the restPresident-elect Donald
It’s disconcerting for the Republicans to have Trump jeering at the intelligence agencies.
… Read the restThough Mr. Trump has wasted no time in antagonizing the agencies, to carry out priorities like combating terrorism and deterring cyberattacks he will have to rely on them for the sort of espionage activities and analysis that they spend more than $70 billion a year to perform.
At this point in a transition, a president-elect is usually delving into intelligence he has never before seen and learning about C.I.A. and National Security Agency abilities. But Mr. Trump, who has taken intelligence briefings only sporadically, is questioning not only analytic conclusions, but also their underlying facts.
“To have the president-elect of the United States simply reject the
Trump didn’t just start bullying individuals via Twitter yesterday. Oh no. More than a year ago, for instance, he went on Twitter to attack a college student for daring to ask him a question at a political forum.
… Read the restIn October 2015, then-18-year-old Lauren Batchelder asked Trump a question at a political forum in New Hampshire. “So, maybe I’m wrong, maybe you can prove me wrong, but I don’t think you’re a friend to women,” she said. Trump defended himself, and Batchelder took the mic again, asking if she’d get equal pay and access to abortion with Trump as president. Trump answered: “You’re going to make the same if you do as good of a job, and I happen to
So, yeah, apparently it is the case that we have this rampaging idiot monster preparing to destroy everything because Putin put his elbow on the scale.
… Read the restAmerican intelligence agencies have concluded with “high confidence” that Russia acted covertly in the latter stages of the presidential campaign to harm Hillary Clinton’s chances and promote Donald J. Trump, according to senior administration officials.
They based that conclusion, in part, on another finding — which they say was also reached with high confidence — that the Russians hacked the Republican National Committee’s computer systems in addition to their attacks on Democratic organizations, but did not release whatever information they gleaned from the Republican networks.
In the months before the election, it was
John Glenn didn’t agree with Trump on the flag:
John Glenn played a key role in the U.S. Senate helping to defeat an amendment making the "descrecration" of the American flag a crime. pic.twitter.com/rgcyNH4Ayz
— ACLU (@ACLU) December 9, 2016
Rex W. Tillerson, the president and chief executive of Exxon Mobil, is the leading candidate to be Mr. Trump’s secretary of state, according to a person with direct knowledge of the search process.
Mr. Tillerson went to Trump Tower in New York on Tuesday to meet with Mr. Trump, who is said to be close to making a decision. Mr. Tillerson has been strongly recommended by a number of business leaders.
What does running an oil company have to do with being the country’s foreign minister?
And then there’s this questionnaire.
… Read the restPresident-elect Trump’s transition team has circulated an unusual 74-point questionnaire that requests the names of all employees and contractors who have attended
Ah the old latte-drinking elitists trope – it just won’t go away, will it. Kevin Baker at the New Republic hates it as much as I do.
… Read the restThe most irritating media trope to emerge in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s election is the idea that it was a rebuke to “condescending” liberals who live in our own “bubbles.” Steve Schmidt gave us a preview on MSNBC even before the race for the White House was decided. “The people who are for Trump are not embarrassed to be for Trump. This is a fiction of New York City,” the former Republican political consultant told us early on election night. “This is a fiction of the New York City, Acela Corridor
Now we get to look at a dinosaur’s tail with feathers.
It’s a tiny dinosaur, the size of a sparrow.
Researchers described the remarkable specimen in a new study, identifying it as the first evidence in amber from a nonavian theropod — a meat-eating and feathered dinosaur that doesn’t belong to the lineage that led to modern birds. The remarkable preservation provides a snapshot of dinosaur biology that can’t be retrieved from the fossil record, and offers a rare glimpse of feather structures in extinct dinosaurs, which could help scientists better understand how feathers evolved across the dinosaur family tree. [Photos: Amber Trap Nabs Feathered Dinosaur Tail]
Feathers!
… Read the restThe findings were published online Dec. 8 in the
Guest post by Josh Spokes.
As a former waiter of many years from greasy spoons to fine dining, my politics are entirely on the side of the serving class. Wait staff are regularly abused, and a tipping culture is merely cruelty and theft codified.
However, there are certain standards of service that wait staff at any type of restaurant should observe. They are not difficult, they are not demeaning, and when used correctly they make each party’s day nicer and more efficient. I find eating out so annoying anymore—and specifically because of wait staff—I avoid it. Here are the reasons.
1. We are in a customer-vendor relationship. You, “Justin,” are not my friend. That doesn’t mean we have an … Read the rest
