Being woke on the cheap – the very, very cheap.

It’s about those pronouns.

If everyone stated their pronouns, allowing those with a non-traditional gender identity to blend into the crowd, the quality of life of countless people could improve markedly, with negligible inconvenience caused to everyone else.

I am a cisgender, straight, white, male, middle-class Tory. If even I can muster enough self-awareness to recognise the uniqueness of others’ experiences and make small changes to the way I behave as a result, such as adding “he/him” to my social media bios, then you definitely can too. There is no basis for defying this that is both rational and compassionate.

It’s so easy – aka cheap. He can go on … Read the rest

Another filing:

White House Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President Jared Kushner violated the Hatch Act during a CNN interview on Sunday, according to a complaint filed today by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) with the Office of Special Counsel (OSC). Throughout the interview, Kushner advocated on behalf of the Trump campaign while appearing in his official government capacity on behalf of the Trump administration.

The Hatch Act prohibits executive branch employees from “us[ing their] official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.” Throughout the interview, Fareed Zakaria and Kushner openly discussed Kushner’s strategy to re-elect President Trump, while Kushner was identified in his government capacity.

… Read the rest

No free press for you.

President Donald Trump’s targeting of CNN is moving to yet another arena: The annual presidential lunch with television network anchors.

CNN anchors are being excluded from Tuesday’s lunch, three sources said on Monday night.

Do they have a reasonable expectation to be included? Yes, they do.

Trump, like presidents before him, typically invites anchors from all the major networks to dine with him at the White House in advance of his State of the Union address. The lunch conversation is considered off the record, but it gives the anchors a sense of the president’s state of mind before they anchor SOTU coverage. “Despite Trump’s persistent attacks on the news media, he’s kept up such

… Read the rest

Ah yes, a remarkable achievement.

Laurel Hubbard kept alive her hopes of competing at Tokyo 2020 when she won the women’s super-heavyweight contest at the Roma World Cup, the first Olympic qualifying event of the year.

It would be a remarkable achievement should she make it because Hubbard, who will be 42 on February 9, ruptured ligaments in her left elbow at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast and thought her career was over.

But not all that remarkable given the fact that Hubbard is a man and he’s competing against women.

Hubbard, who competed at national level as Gavin Hubbard before transitioning in her thirties, may find that her fate is not entirely in her own

… Read the rest

From Tatsuya Ishida:… Read the rest

So Trump doesn’t know where Kansas City is. I’m sure lots of people don’t, and the name does suggest that it’s in Kansas, but still, a president should know things like that. It’s not a random small town, it’s an important city in the Midwest or West or Plains States or whatever you want to call it – in the Heartland, if you like. It has a lot of cultural chops. Presidents should have a decent knowledge of US geography.

But does it really matter? Yes.

But here’s why Trump doesn’t get a pass. Because he and his administration have made a HUGE point of picking out the slip-ups of past politicians and questioning people over their supposed lack

… Read the rest

Morning Star reports on the WPUK meeting on Saturday:

Woman’s Place UK (WPUK) know better than most how challenging it can be, simply being able to gather together to discuss women’s rights. Many of their meetings have suffered intimidation, threats of violence, even a bomb scare.

A group of around 30 protesters did make a brief appearance as delegates arrived, claiming that the organisers were trans-exclusionary.

How dare women gather to talk about women’s rights.

In the packed hall, Pragna Patel, co-founder of Southall Black Sisters, helped kick-start the day, telling the crowd: “What a hopeful moment in history we have reached as feminists — and I know you’re thinking ‘what is she talking about’?”

Her optimism sprang, she

… Read the rest

Yes but also a bit of no.

https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1224325600770428928

I suppose it’s probably true that he thinks “the base will love this” with every insult, but I also think he does it because he likes it, and that that’s who he is. He’s a profoundly nasty man, one who lashes out in rage at anybody who annoys him, no matter how close or loyal. Nastiness aka cruelty is at the core of his being, and one of his favorite activities.

It does appeal to the base, though, and how depressing is that? A hefty fraction of the population is thrilled and amused and energized by deliberate hostile cruelty and bullying from a gilded real estate fraud who frauded his way into … Read the rest

It’s all about the coastal elites. Never mind soaring inequality, never mind low wages and de-unionization and crumbling schools, none of that matters, the real issue is coastal elites who don’t paint names on their barns. Well not names exactly; one name. But let’s pretend we mean names in general.

This take explains so much…

Coastal elites can’t fathom someone having so much pride in their President they would paint the roof of their barn…

Somehow they will manage to be shocked all over again this November. #tcnt https://t.co/wSFmMWT2tW

— Nick Zerwas (@NickZerwas) February 2, 2020

Would Nick Zerwas have said the same about, say, a grandchild of sharecroppers who painted OBAMA on the roof of a barn?… Read the rest

Why yes, this is what we’ve been saying all along.

I love having “transitioned to female” but oh gee I do miss the benefits of male privilege in business/career matters. My technology clients pay attention to me when I use my dudely real name and gosh darn it I miss that.

It’s so unfair that I have to think about this!

/sarcasm

Image via Lady Mondegreen… Read the rest

More video of men preventing women from talking.

https://twitter.com/kobakills161/status/1223838577957560320… Read the rest

At the Seattle Public Library last night:

I thought this uploaded last night. Anyways, video of the five who were arrested & removed from SPL #Newmisogyny (the 4 in front of me & the dude in a red dress behind me). pic.twitter.com/V5gzh339jN

— Amy Eileen Hamm (@preta_6) February 2, 2020

Men shouting so that women can’t speak. New boss same as the old boss.… Read the rest

“Happy Brexit Day”

Aka we hate you and think we now have licence to persecute and shame you.

BBC Norfolk:

“Happy Brexit Day” notices telling residents “we do not tolerate” people speaking languages other than English have been posted at a block of flats.

Who’s we, one wonders. Whatever damn fool wrote that notice is not the “we” of everyone living in that block of flats.

A resident of Winchester Tower in Norwich first spotted them at 06:00 GMT on Friday, as first reported in the Eastern Daily Press.

The man, who does not want to be named, has reported the signs – which he said were on every floor – to the police.

Full text:

As we

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Papito on “Morality” sounds better than “submit or else.”

I was idly contemplating these themes this morning as I walked down to the greengrocer for limes. I passed by the house of one of my daughter’s friends, whose parents had pulled her out of her very progressive school for a more traditional school that didn’t impress me very much, with the goal of later attending a school my son found utterly dehumanizing. I like the girl, and her parents as well, but why they would make such a choice didn’t really compute for me until I remembered that they are practicing Catholics (as opposed to cultural Catholics or recovering Catholics, no offense intended please). The doctrine … Read the rest

CNN is harsher than the Post.

The Department of Justice revealed in a court filing late Friday that it has two dozen emails related to the President Donald Trump’s involvement in the withholding of millions in security assistance to Ukraine — a disclosure that came just hours after the Senate voted against subpoenaing additional documents and witnesses in Trump’s impeachment trial, paving the way for his acquittal.

The filing, released near midnight Friday, marks the first official acknowledgment from the Trump administration that emails about the President’s thinking related to the aid exist, and that he was directly involved in asking about and deciding on the aid as early as June. The administration is still blocking those emails from the

… Read the rest

Oh is that so.

Hours after the Senate voted against seeking new evidence in the impeachment case against President Trump, the administration acknowledged in a midnight court filing Friday the existence of two dozen emails that reveal the president’s thinking about withholding military aid to Ukraine.

Was there a “neener neener” attached?

The Department of Justice filed a response to a lawsuit seeking access to unredacted copies of those communications. Heather Walsh, a lawyer for the Office of Management and Budget, wrote to the court that 24 of those emails were protected under “presidential privilege.”

“Specifically, the documents in this category are emails that reflect communications by either the President, the Vice President, or the President’s immediate advisors regarding

… Read the rest

More from #WomensLib2020:

https://twitter.com/ruthserwotka/status/1223657584516837380

Fifty years ago I was 15. I’m so grateful to the women who campaigned, organised, wrote, and empowered other women, so that my life could be so different from that of so many girls who went before me. I want my granddaughters to enjoy the same rights #sisterhood
#WomensLib2020

— Jane Waring (@warijan) February 1, 2020

The hashtag du jour is #womenslib2020 for today’s @Womans_Place_UK event. Sorry I can’t be there. There’s nothing that makes me prouder than standing alongside you lot.

— Graham Linehan (@Glinner) February 1, 2020

Feeling so sad for young women outside chanting ‘be nice’ while inside there’s a range of fantastic stalls covering different aspects of women’s rights & now they

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There was a Women’s Party UK event today at University College London aka UCL.

https://twitter.com/8RosarioSanchez/status/1223526343507349505

There were also people protesting the event – not godbothering fanatics who think their god ordained that women should be subordinate and submissive, but genderbothering fanatics who think women should shut up and let men who say they are women do all the talking.

https://twitter.com/sarahditum/status/1223542898521772033

It seems only yesterday that women were allowed to meet and talk and organize around women’s rights and women’s concerns without others on the left protesting this suspicious activity.

What do they think this conference is? #WomensLib2020 pic.twitter.com/zgUGrDgknA

— Helen Staniland (@helenstaniland) February 1, 2020

Sweet summer child there on the right – no, trans lib is not women’s lib. … Read the rest