So Rudy the Gee has artlessly admitted – to The New Yorker, so not at all conspicuously or anything – that yes he needed to get Marie Yovanovitch out of the way of his cunning plan.

Rudy Giuliani, the personal attorney to President Trump, has admitted that he saw former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch as an obstacle in his plan to find dirt on his client’s potential rival—former Vice President Joe Biden—in advance of the 2020 election, he said in an interview with The New Yorker. “I believed that I needed Yovanovitch out of the way,” Giuliani is reported to have said, telling the magazine that he compiled a dossier on the former VP and his

… Read the rest

Double back-flip with walnuts:

The chief executive of Hallmark Cards has apologised for its decision to withdraw television advertisements featuring same-sex couples.

The company’s cable network pulled the ads for wedding registry and planning site Zola under pressure from the conservative group One Million Moms.

The decision drew criticism on social media and calls for a boycott.

Hallmark said it would reinstate the adverts and attempt to re-establish its partnership with Zola.

Ok well next time just skip the part about doing what conservative groups tell you to do, especially ones that call themselves “moms” instead of “mothers” as if we were all six. No but seriously, just ignore people who whine about same-sex marriage. We’re past that.

The

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Another one of those “being a man who identifies as a woman is such an excellent screen for misogyny” types:

That’s longstanding Pharyngula commenter abbeycadabra, who joined the populous but thin roster at Freethought Blogs a few days ago. That photo on the blog is captioned:

Abbey St. Brendan is five or six kinds of artist, maybe one kind of successful at it, a long-time FtB reader and grizzled veteran of the deadly TERF wars.

The opening of Cadabra’s hello world post:

Hi folks! I reckon most of you who might look at this post at least have seen my handle around, probably complaining bitterly at someone who is being a dicknostril, especially about trans issues. The plan here is

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Apparently this Louis Staples guy went on shit-tweeting about Helen Lewis for hours after his first barrage, and then – uh oh – must have had a tap on the shoulder from a higher up at the Independent (where he is a columnist).

That was so wrong of me. I’m going to reflect on this and try to be better next time – I’m really sorry

[2/2]

— Louis Staples (@LouisStaples) December 15, 2019

Do we believe he’s sincere? No.

https://twitter.com/HJoyceGender/status/1206235792261177351

He plans to reflect on “this.” How much reflection does it take? How much does it take to grasp the complicated and subtle point that you don’t spend six hours shit-tweeting lies about people, and that a man doing … Read the rest

That whole piece about Casablanca by Meredith Hindley is interesting.

With few Americans knowing Casablanca was a city in French Morocco — let alone how to find it on a map — the studio banked on audiences’ love of wartime intrigue, along with the star power of Bogart and castmates Claude Rains and Paul Henreid, to sell the film.

But on November 8, reports began to trickle in that the Americans and British had launched Operation TORCH with the goal of seizing Algeria and French Morocco from Vichy France. The assault was a new phase in the war against Nazi Germany, one designed to help the Soviets, who fought a bloody battle against the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front. Over

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Have just learned, chatting on Twitter, that a friend has never seen Casablanca. The tragedy of it!

Nearly all the bit players in that scene are refugees from the Nazis.

Casablanca made its debut two-and-half years after Germany marched into France, triggering a massive refugee exodus. As the Nazis advanced, the population of France fled south, hoping to avoid being swallowed up by Hitler’s burgeoning empire. Hungarians, Poles, Russians, Austrians, and Spanish Republicans who had fled their homelands to seek sanctuary in France before the war, once again found themselves on the run. Thousands would end up in Casablanca.

In July of 1940, more than two hundred ships arrived off the coast of Casablanca, the largest port in

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From the Venomous Thugs on Twitter files:

https://twitter.com/LouisStaples/status/1205962507590000641

Updating to add a few later tweets:

His venomous unprovoked attack was on Helen Lewis. He probably didn’t expect that the result would be fellow journalists and editors saying how brilliant she is and how zero she deserves this venomous unprovoked misogynist attack. Dude has now apologized and set about deleting his shitty tweets, all too late.

End of update.

The Independent should fire him, but leaving that aside – what I’m interested in is the (all too typical) loose analogy that, if you think about it for .5 second, is complete bullshit. “Imagine a “left wing” magazine publishing this sort of thing [meaning: the sort of thing he doesn’t like] … Read the rest

If you’re going to make a case for something, try using a little care in the way you make it. For instance:

https://twitter.com/DonaldClarke63/status/1205808705150881793

I was going to argue with the column, so as a preliminary step I read it, which is just as well because I found I don’t disagree with it all that much. If particular person X asks to be called “them” I’m not going to go to war over it. The issue is when you try to generalize that into a Big Rule that applies everywhere – as Clarke did in that tweet. It’s laughably easy to think of exceptions to Clarke’s Big Rule, so it won’t work as a Big Rule.

And this is part of … Read the rest

Originally a comment by latsot on Hands.

Of course he has posted a passive-voice notpology about how mistakes were passively made when she was passively “touched” on the “back” in an incident involving a hand, which might or might not be connected to his arm, as opposed to her being deliberately slapped on the arse by his hand, which is what happened. And happened because he thought she was his to use. And because he thought he’d get away with it, because you can grab them by the pussy.

Of course the part of the not-pology about how he is a loving husband and father is not in the passive voice. That part is very clear about how it’s … Read the rest

Life lesson: if you’re running in an event and you spot a reporter doing a live bit, and you’re a man and the reporter’s a woman, don’t take the opportunity to slap her bum on the way, because the thing is, since she is a reporter doing a live bit, you will be on camera. 

A Georgia man who was videotaped slapping a female reporter’s bottom on live TV was arrested on Friday on a misdemeanor charge of sexual battery.

A Savannah police spokeswoman, Bianca Johnson, confirmed that Thomas Callaway, 43, of Statesboro was charged in connection with the incident that occurred while WSAV-TV reporter Alex Bozarjian was broadcasting live as runners streamed past her on a prominent bridge

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They cannot be serious.

New pronoun guidance (“Inclusive Language Tips”) from @nyctaxi, the city’s regulator. pic.twitter.com/8AN4RgbqFT

— Matthew Chayes (@chayesmatthew) December 12, 2019

Using someone’s preferred pronoun is a simple way to show respect…so the driver should say “Where do them want to go?”

Ask the passenger what their pronoun is. Do not assume someone’s pronoun because of their appearance or name on the app. If you do not want to ask, you can ask what they prefer to be called –

So if you do not want to ask, ask. Mkay.

Introduce yourself and share your pronouns.

What planet are these people on? A taxi trip isn’t a long-term relationship, it’s a transaction in which A drives B … Read the rest

She really doesn’t care.

Her cause is anti-bullying, which is making the first lady’s silence deafening.

Melania Trump has yet to speak out in the wake of President Donald Trump’s mocking tweet directed at 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg, in which he told the teenager to “work on her anger management” and “chill” out.

This is 72-year-old millionaire president of the US using his Twitter account to jeer at a teenage girl. It doesn’t get much more “bully” than that.

Just last Wednesday, Melania Trump tweeted a defense of her own child, whose name was referenced in a pun by an impeachment inquiry witness.

“A minor child deserves privacy and should be kept out of politics.

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At least we know whose fault it is that the Tories won.

https://twitter.com/arthur_affect/status/1205247088532963329

It was the Jews the Communists the Masons the feminists!!… Read the rest

I BEG you pardon?

I'll be on @seanhannity 2nite @FoxNews at 9pm ET and will explain how @realDonaldTrump will be eligible for a 3rd term due to the illegal attempts by Comey, Dems, and media , et al attempting to oust him as @POTUS so that's why I was named to head up the 2024 re-election.

— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) December 12, 2019

For an encore how about he “explains” how he’ll pluck the moon out of the sky and use it for a lawn ornament.

Also note that “will be eligible.” Not so fast, sonny. It doesn’t become true just because you use the future tense.

Also note that ludicrous “eligible” as if he’s talking about some … Read the rest

No thank you. No really, that’s ok, we’ve got this.

Empowered Trans Woman:

I think it’s super important for trans gals to learn about the feminist movement. Here’s Jude reminding us of the First Wave — the women’s suffrage movement. The Women’s Suffrage movement flourished concurrently in the United States and in the United Kingdom. Thanks to the efforts of such courageous women, the 19th Amendment, giving women the vote, passed in the U.S. in 1919, and got ratified in 1920.

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Ah Princess Ivanka – she’s so sneaky.

https://twitter.com/Susan_Hennessey/status/1205216342330269696

If your family leave is paid for by your own Social Security then it’s not paid family leave. That’s not how we use the word “paid.” Paying for it ourselves isn’t “paid.” A job we pay ourselves for isn’t a paid job, and family leave we pay for from our Social Security isn’t paid leave.

https://twitter.com/Susan_Hennessey/status/1205217210979045376

Remember kids – if you pay for it yourself then that’s you paying for it yourself. Don’t be fooled.… Read the rest

Another episode of Trump Behaving Badly:

In the days following the release of a viral video showing world leaders at the NATO meeting in London making fun of him, Donald Trump shot back at his counterparts. The famously sensitive American president lashed out during a closed-door meeting at the White House with more than a dozen ambassadors to the United Nations present, according to three sources with knowledge of the gathering.

Oh he’s not famously “sensitive.” He’s famously touchy, famously quick to go nuclear at any insult to him while freely insulting anyone and everyone else whenever he feels the urge. That’s quite another thing. “Sensitive” would include other people’s feelings as well as his own. Trump never, … Read the rest