DOCTOR McKinnon is off to the races.
Final TT prep before worlds!! I head to Manchester tomorrow. I’m anticipating 500m and 200m TT PBs…and a new masters women 200m TT world record.
#rainbowfoxracing #rainbowfox #worldchampion #herthighness…
He’s anticipating a new world record. How can he be so confident? Could it be because he’s anticipating it in a women’s race?… Read the rest
From the News from Siberia file:
Scientists in Siberia have discovered an area of sea that is “boiling” with methane, with bubbles that can be scooped from the water with buckets. Researchers on an expedition to the East Siberian Sea said the “methane fountain” was unlike anything they had seen before, with concentrations of the gas in the region to be six to seven times higher than the global average.
The team is doing research on the environmental consequences of permafrost thawing. You know the drill – permafrost melting, methane being released, permafrost melting faster, more methane being released, permafrost melting even faster, continue until everything dies.
And it’s not just the tundra, it’s also the ocean.
… Read the restIn 2017, scientists
In a performatively outraged eight-page letter to the House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon, the White House announced that it would not cooperate with the body’s impeachment inquiry under the circumstances in which it’s being conducted. Or, well, ever.
The tone of the letter, attributable to White House counsel Pat Cipollone, is shouty, reading as a lightly lawyered digest of the president’s tweets. It accuses House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic chairmen of three investigating committees of violating “the Constitution, the rule of law, and every past precedent” in the way they’ve conducted the inquiry.
And compare Trump, who honors Constitution, the rule of law, and every past precedent in every way … Read the rest
Why Trump’s sudden Syria move was such a catastrophically bad idea:
… Read the restAs President Trump defends his decision to pull away some U.S. troops from Syria’s border with Turkey, the president’s former envoy for the fight against the so-called Islamic State is raising alarms about how potentially destabilizing the move can be for the region.
Brett McGurk, who resigned from Trump’s national security team in December and also served in the Obama and Bush administrations, tells NPR that Trump making such a drastic announcement shortly after speaking with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has turned a vital foreign policy decision into a potential crisis.
“Presidents do a lot of things, but the most consequential are decisions of war and peace
Apparently there was much scrambling.
Aides to President Trump scrambled in the aftermath of his July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s leader — both to alert lawyers of their concerns and to contain the damage, new CNN reporting shows.
At least one National Security Council official alerted the White House’s national security lawyers about the concerns, three sources familiar with the matter said. Those same lawyers would later order the transcript of the call moved to a highly classified server typically reserved for code-word classified material.
Wait a second. What kind of “concerns” are we talking about? Concerns about the criminality and treachery of Trump’s attempt to extort campaign interference from the president of Ukraine? Or concern about the … Read the rest
While awaiting developments in the impeachment process, I stumble over (sigh) Tim Minchin being a jackass.
… Read the restI’m excited that so many people are so interested in the @OldVicTheatre at the moment! I look forward to hearing more about what you think of their amazing shows, fantastic community outreach programs, training & scholarships, and the wonderful work they’ve done over the…
… last 2 years to fund-raise for & carry out a complex renovation to make this historic 200 yr old building accessible for those who don’t do stairs 😊❤️. The Old Vic is not tax-payer funded, but does amazing work, carried out by passionate people who think very carefully..
… about the art they generate, the environment they create,
Trump has reacted to the latest subpoena of one of his administration officials by attacking the Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee.
Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrumpHasn’t Adam Schiff been fully discredited by now? Do we have to continue listening to his lies?
16K 9:06 AM – Oct 8, 2019Gordon Sondland said in a statement earlier today that he was “profoundly disappointed” he could not appear before Congress, so it will likely be much harder for Trump to prevent him from testifying now that he has been subpoenaed.
On the one hand they can’t – legally speaking – just ignore a subpoena; on the other hand these are Trump and the trumpies, so … Read the rest
So, is this the day it all comes crashing down? Or is it the day Trump seizes absolute power, and troops fill the streets?
I don’t think the second is very likely, because I don’t think Trump has that much ability to make everyone jump when he says jump any more.
But I hope his opponents hurry up and do something about this defiance of a subpoena problem.
… Read the restUS Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland has been told by the State Department to not appear this morning before the House.
His attorney Robert Luskin said Tuesday morning he has no choice but to comply. “He is a sitting Ambassador and employee of State and is required to follow
It appears that the sequence of events was: Erdoğan said Turkey was about to invade Syria, and Trump said “Great! I’ll take our troops out!”
… Read the restDonald Trump got “rolled” by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a National Security Council source with direct knowledge of the discussions told Newsweek.
In a scheduled phone call on Sunday afternoon between President Trump and President Erdogan, Trump said he would withdraw U.S. forces from northern Syria. The phone call was scheduled after Turkey announced it was planning to invade Syria, and hours after Erdogan reinforced his army units at the Syrian-Turkish border and issued his strongest threat to launch a military incursion, according to the National Security Council official to whom Newsweek
Just spent twenty minutes on the phone angrily telling the features ed – who approached me, commissioned me, and to whom I made myself available for any rewrites all for a derisory 50 quid fee (important enough issue to take a hit on the rate, I thought) – that he’s a coward
Sarah wrote one of the articles.
… Read the restUnbelievable as it seems, the issue of whether women should have toilets is incendiary. I agreed to write for the Stage in good faith, believing they intended to give a platform to an important conversation. That was my mistake and god do I regret it.
You can read the column here, on my website, and decide
And speaking of the difference between Identifying As and actually being…Trump an hour ago:
As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!). They must, with Europe and others, watch over…….the captured ISIS fighters and families. The U.S. has done far more than anyone could have ever expected, including the capture of 100% of the ISIS Caliphate. It is time now for others in the region, some of great wealth, to protect their own territory. THE USA IS GREAT!
… Read the rest“My name is Ozymandias,
Wait hold the presses it turns out that identifying as is not enough. It all depends on…er…um…
Whether they transitioned or not depends on if they made a tangible change either medically or through documentation (social transition). Just asserting your identity is absolutely your right, but it doesn’t mean you transitioned.
It doesn’t? But we’ve been told and told and told it does. We’ve been told that just asserting your identity is absolutely all it takes, and that any skepticism is a phobic crime against humanity.
It seems it’s going to turn out that that rule holds for trans people (definitely including those who just assert their identity) and not for former … Read the rest
It’s wrong from the headline on.
I was harassed at an In-N-Out bathroom for being a black trans woman
No. Not for being either black or trans, and not exactly harassed either, although that bit is tricky.
Subhead:
Ahead of a crucial supreme court decision, LeahAnn Mitchell writes about her experience with discrimination
That is, a guy who calls himself LeahAnn writes about his experience of using a women’s toilet.
… Read the rest“Is there a man in the bathroom?”
I was seated on the toilet in the stall of a women’s restroom of an In-N-Out when I heard the manager yell.
I had stopped at the burger restaurant in the Bay Area for a late lunch last spring, and was alone in
Oh and by the way also…
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — As Rudy Giuliani was pushing Ukrainian officials last spring to investigate one of Donald Trump’s main political rivals, a group of individuals with ties to the president and his personal lawyer were also active in the former Soviet republic.
What were they doing? Relief work? Technical advice? Helping?
Their aims were profit, not politics. This circle of businessmen and Republican donors touted connections to Giuliani and Trump while trying to install new management at the top of Ukraine’s massive state gas company. Their plan was to then steer lucrative contracts to companies controlled by Trump allies, according to two people with knowledge of their plans.
They were in Ukraine … Read the rest
William Barr is dropping his heavy hand on the shoulder of various foreign countries, seeking their assistance on finding something to make Trumpkraine go away.
Attorney General William Barr has been tugging on the sleeve of various foreign intelligence officials. He has asked authorities in at least three countries — Australia, Italy and the United Kington — for help.
He reportedly wants their assistance in reviewing how the CIA and the FBI went about investigating Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
Barr’s apparent role in all of this is alarming to some former law enforcement officials.
No kidding. He’s acting like Trump’s personal fixer, not the Attorney General of the [whole, entire] United States. He’s also apparently … Read the rest
Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith, and Max Wilbert on Orwell and Big Brother and who saw Big Sister on the horizon?
… Read the restYou also showed us the way out of this insane “sanity”:
“Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.”
But you also wrote, “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.” You said a boot. You did not say a men’s size twelve Christian Louboutin Hot Chick Patent Leather Pump stamping on a human face — forever. You, who predicted
Trump’s rage-tweets about Mitt Romney may be intended as an Awful Warning for any other Republicans thinking of failing to back Trump no matter what he does or says.
The acrimonious exchange is the latest turn in the up-and-down relationship between the two men, who share a party but are miles apart on questions of style, propriety, and adherence to institutional norms.
The vehemence of Trump’s tweets also served as a signal to other GOP lawmakers that Trump is willing to direct his ire at them if they step out of line and offer a hint of support to Democrats’ impeachment efforts against him.
It’s not as if they don’t already know that though. Everybody knows that. Everybody knows that … Read the rest
… Read the restThe attorneys representing the whistleblower who filed a complaint about President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine said they are representing “multiple whistleblowers” in connection to the case, including one with “first hand knowledge” of events.
“I can confirm that my firm and my team represent multiple whistleblowers in connection to the underlying August 12, 2019, disclosure to the Intelligence Community Inspector General,” attorney Andrew Bakaj tweeted Sunday. “No further comment at this time.”
Mark Zaid, another member of the first whistleblower’s legal team, also said the team is representing a second official with first-hand knowledge of events, as first reported by ABC News. The original whistleblower had not heard or seen a transcript of the phone
Hmm. Young Greens (youth and student branch of the UK party) tweet:
“Trans men are men, trans women are women, and non-binary identities are valid” – @rosierawle setting the record straight, Young Greens support all identities ⚧️
#gpconf @LGBTIQAGreens
What does it mean to “support all identities”? What can it mean?
What if someone’s identity is “Nazi trans woman”? Or just plain Nazi? Or dog, or toaster, or flying nun, or Marge Simpson, or Jupiter?
This is the hole we’ve fallen into by making such a fetish of “identity.” The claims about sacred identity keep ratcheting upward and upward, such that now we’re required to agree that identifying as=being. It’s a charter for frauds and tricksters and lying cheating … Read the rest
