Oh INteresting.

Ivanka Trump was deposed Tuesday by the DC attorney general's office as part of its lawsuit alleging misuse of inauguration funds, according to a new court filing.

— Kara Scannell (@KaraScannell) December 2, 2020

DC attorney general, so Trump can’t pardon her ass out of there.

Scannell reports for CNN:

Ivanka Trump, the President’s daughter and adviser, sat for a deposition Tuesday with investigators from the Washington, DC, attorney general’s office as part of its lawsuit alleging the misuse of inaugural funds, according to a court filing.

In January, the DC attorney general’s office sued the Trump Organization and Presidential Inaugural Committee alleging they abused more than $1 million raised by the nonprofit by “grossly overpaying”

Seattle has a celebrity visitor, all the way from the Arctic.

This snowy owl has been wowing residents and birders in Queen Anne.* It is rare for the owls to be seen in this region, and the owls always create a stir in Seattle, where with their striking appearance they can hardly be missed. Their color evokes their usual home in the Arctic. Snowies are the largest of owls, with a wingspan that can reach nearly 5 feet. They also are among the heaviest, weighing in at about 5 pounds. 

I went to see her today. Google actually had the address – apparently she really likes that particular chimney so that’s where she spends the day – which made … Read the rest

To the surprise of no one –

Private Eye has named the Guardian trans activist 'misogynist' who Suzanne Moore complained about (a complaint that wasn't dealt with), because he called her an insecure bigot after she asked him if they could be civil with each other. His name is Owen Jones pic.twitter.com/GRW5pIEaxY

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) December 2, 2020

From Moore’s “Why I had to leave the Guardian” piece last week:

By 2018, the atmosphere was poisonous. A fellow columnist at The Guardian replied to a message I sent about being civil at the Christmas do with: “You’ve prompted the most sickening transphobia, for which you have never apologised, you called islamophobia a myth and you publicly abuse leftwingers.” This person

Whatever.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) has been telling colleagues and allies that he plans to challenge the Electoral College votes when Congress officially certifies Joe Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, as long as a Senate Republican joins him in the long-shot effort, sources tell your Huddle host.

Sure, and I plan to be a billionaire with the power of flight by next Tuesday.

Brooks confirmed his plans in a phone interview, adding that he is still considering objecting to the vote-counting process even if no one joins him — though he acknowledged that would be more of a symbolic protest. Brooks, echoing President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud without providing evidence, argued that the election was “badly

Glosswitch pointed out one perverse aspect of the trans juggernaut.

We know that being trans is highly fashionable, and also energetically encouraged from many directions. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t also attract hostility and persecution, but we do know there are plenty of cheerleaders around. I hadn’t quite noticed the paradox that those cheerleaders also insist that being trans (or at least being dysphoric) is agony, but of course they do and of course it is a paradox. Maybe a lot of the putative agony is manufactured, precisely by the biggest cheerleaders for the trans juggernaut. “You’re awesome and stunning and brave and also very likely to kill yourself – welcome aboard!”

I’ve been assuming the shouts about agony … Read the rest

Of course they did.

Sweeping data released by the Small Business Administration on who benefited from pandemic relief programs raises questions about the equitability and distribution of loans intended for small businesses, an initial analysis by NBC News shows.

The analysis found that properties owned by the Trump Organization as well as the Kushner Companies, owned by the family of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, profited from the program.

Does that sound corrupt? Just a little.

After months of litigation, the SBA released the dataset Tuesday night on every small business that received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) or Economic Injury Disaster (EIDL) loan.

…

Over 25 PPP loans worth more than $3.65 million were

The Guardian has more on that furious plea to stop the lies:

One of Georgia’s top election officials has made an impassioned plea to Donald Trump to tone down his rhetoric disputing the election results, saying the president is “inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence”.

He wants to though. He would love to see violence erupt because of his lies. I’m completely serious: he does, he would, that’s what he is.

Gabriel Sterling, a Republican who oversaw the implementation of the state’s new voting system, also issued the stark warning that if Trump does not rein in his supporters then “someone is going to get hurt”.

…

Sterling, the voting systems manager for the Georgia secretary of

He really mad.

He’s the voting implementation manager in Georgia.

WATCH. https://t.co/aU1oaAArLQ

— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) December 2, 2020

… Read the rest

Trump is getting a lot of money from this country-destroying grift of his.

President Trump’s political operation has raised more than $150 million since Election Day, using a blizzard of misleading appeals about the election to shatter fundraising records set during the campaign, according to people with knowledge of the contributions.

As we know, 60% of that money is for him, to pay off campaign debts, not for the purpose it says on the label.

Much of the money raised since the election is likely to go into an account for the president to use on political activities after he leaves office, while some of the contributions will go toward what’s left of the legal fight.

Oh and for future … Read the rest

Suzanne Moore asks a crucial question in a post on the Tavistock ruling.

Again, we must ask what is causing this misery for girls and why suicide rates are rising. Why are female bodies such an uncomfortable place to be?

That question needs to be thrown back to society and not always located in the psyche of the individual. This is why I find parts of trans activist discourse so totally conservative. There is no analysis of how gender operates, of how bodies and definitions do not exist in isolation, how the notion of a true self may itself be false.

Very likely is false, from what I’ve read of psychology and philosophy. The self isn’t a thing, and … Read the rest

Giuliani is curled up on Trump’s lap begging for a pre-emptive pardon.

Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph Giulani, discussed with the president as recently as last week the possibility of being granted a “pre-emptive pardon,” according to the New York Times, which cited two anonymous sources.

Pardon for what? Not known, but best guess is that whole Ukraine thing. The Times wrote:

Such a broad pardon pre-empting any charge or conviction is highly unusual but does have precedent. George Washington pardoned plotters of the Whiskey Rebellion, shielding them from treason prosecutions. In the most famous example, Gerald R Ford pardoned Richard M Nixon for all of his actions as president. Jimmy Carter pardoned thousands of American men who illegally

The Tavistock ruling part 2.

The Tavistock deals with cases referred to it from across England and Wales. Until 2011, puberty blockers were only available at GIDS for those aged 16 or older.

In the year 2019-20, of 161 children referred to GIDS, three were aged 10 or 11 and 95 under the age of 16.

95 out of 161. Eeeeesh.

Diagnosis of gender dysphoria involves children demonstrating at least six of a series of behavioural traits as well as an “associated significant distress or impairment in function, lasting at least six months”.

Ah yes behavioral traits, like wearing the “other” clothes for example. The patterns include:

• A strong desire to be of the other gender or an insistence … Read the rest

There’s a ruling in Bell v Tavistock:

Children under the age of 16 considering gender reassignment are unlikely to be mature enough to give informed consent to be prescribed puberty-blocking drugs, the high court has ruled.

Even in cases involving teenagers under 18 doctors may need to consult the courts for authorisation for medical intervention, three senior judges have ruled in an action brought against the Tavistock and Portman NHS trust, which runs the UK’s main gender identity development service for children.

An NHS spokesperson welcomed the “clarity” the decision had brought, adding: “The Tavistock have immediately suspended new referrals for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for the under 16s, which in future will only be permitted where a

He mad.

Why is he rushing to put a Democrat in office, especially when so many horrible things concerning voter fraud are being revealed at the hearing going on right now. @OANN What is going on with @dougducey? Republicans will long remember! https://t.co/XILGaHcyw7

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2020

Why is the governor certifying Biden’s win? I’m gonna take a wild guess and say it’s because Biden won.

TRUE! https://t.co/GaldE1fto5

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2020

Ducey betrayed the people of Arizona by not helping Trump steal the election. Hmm.

Don retweeted a bunch of people saying how bad and awful it is that the Governor signed off on an election instead of helping Trump … Read the rest

More threats from the losers:

On Monday President Trump’s campaign lawyer and former U.S. Attorney Joe diGenova said that fired Trump cybersecurity chief Chris Krebs should be executed for saying that the election was the “most secure in United States history.”

DiGenova, appearing on the Howie Carr show, which simulcasts on Newsmax, took aim at Krebs as an aside during a wheels-off segment full of false claims about how the United States election had been rigged.

“Anybody who thinks the election went well, like that idiot Krebs who used to be the head of cybersecurity [for Trump]. That guy is a class A moron. He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot,” diGenova said.

This

Originally a comment by Papito on The unbridled pursuit of personal appetites.

Barr is, of course, historically ignorant. Our country was explicitly founded without a state religion, and declared by our founding fathers not to be a Christian nation. God was literally voted out of the Constitution.

Several of our founding fathers, for example Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin,Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, John Adams, and George Washington, were more philosophical Deists, or outright atheists, than Christians.

Let’s see what Washington had to say on the matter:

The blessed Religion revealed in the word of will remain an eternal and awful monument to prove that the best Institutions may be abused by human depravity; and that

This guy continues to fascinate me in his cold-blooded outrageousness.

Me: debates gender crits
Gender crit intelligent professionals: why won’t you debate us, you @&nt, you &%fg *cue pile-on*

— Simon Cox (@SimonFRCox) November 29, 2020

One person called him a “twunt” – just one, just one time. He says it’s all of us, and when challenged, refuses to admit.

Abuse and threats are deliberate gender-crit strategies. I publicised it the people who haven’t yet worked out how dishonest is the gender-crit claim that reluctance to debate them is because of the quality of their arguments.

— Simon Cox (@SimonFRCox) November 29, 2020

I don’t love this “gender-crit” label either.

It is my statement. I don’t think it’s unjust.

Robert Reich points out that Biden’s “normality” compared to Trump is a relief but not enough.

Normal led to Trump. Normal led to the coronavirus.

Normal is four decades of stagnant wages and widening inequality when almost all economic gains went to the top. Normal is 40 years of shredded safety nets, and the most expensive but least adequate healthcare system in the modern world.

Normal is also growing corruption of politics by big money – an economic system rigged by and for the wealthy.

Normal is worsening police brutality.

Normal is climate change now verging on catastrophe.

Normal is a GOP that for years has been actively suppressing minority votes and embracing white supremacists. Normal is a Democratic party

The BBC has a prominently placed news item about an attack on Laverne Cox:

Orange is the New Black star Laverne Cox has said “it’s not safe if you’re a trans person” after being caught up in a transphobic attack in Los Angeles.

Cox posted a 10-minute Instagram video explaining she had been walking with a friend in a park on Sunday when a man “aggressively” asked for the time.

He then proceeded to ask the friend if Cox was a “guy or girl?”

The man then physically attacked her friend, according to the star, who said she was “still in shock”.

“The guy is like hitting my friend, and then my friend is going toward him,” said Cox.

“I

I wrote a thing about William Barr’s hypocritical pretense to care about morality while lying and cheating to help the most immoral human slug on the planet do whatever he wants.

He unloaded his deep wisdom at the Catholic college we Yanks call Noder Daym last year, including this inspiring gem:

On the other hand, unless you have some effective restraint, you end up with something equally dangerous – licentiousness – the unbridled pursuit of personal appetites at the expense of the common good. This is just another form of tyranny – where the individual is enslaved by his appetites, and the possibility of any healthy community life crumbles.

This from a guy who enables Donald Trump. You’d laugh if … Read the rest