Even uglier.

The White House’s trade representative in late August withdrew a recommendation to restore some of Ukraine’s trade privileges after John Bolton, then-national security adviser, warned him that President Trump probably would oppose any action that benefited the government in Kyiv, according to people briefed on the matter.

The warning to Robert E. Lighthizer came as Trump was withholding $391 million in military aid and security assistance from Ukraine. House Democrats have launched an impeachment inquiry into allegations that the president did so to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the business activities of former vice president Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden. As part of the inquiry, lawmakers are closely scrutinizing the White House’s actions between July

Amnesty International has an inspiring inspirational aspirational empowermenting inspiringational tweet for us:

Trans rights are women’s rights.
Queer rights are women’s rights.
Disability rights are women’s rights.
Abortion rights are women’s rights.
Migrant rights are women’s rights.

And women’s rights are human rights.
11:01 AM · Oct 22, 2019· Falcon Social Media Management

Sic. Yes really.

Note the very last item: Falcon Social Media Management. We’ll come back to that.

But first, what is this garbage? What is their point? To remind women that we alone of non-dominant groups don’t get to have our own struggles, our own rights, our own campaigns, our own petitions for redress of grievances? That we alone need constant reminding to Think Of Others instead … Read the rest

Life in the sewer:

White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham on Thursday doubled down on her boss’ “human scum” attack on so-called “Never Trump” Republicans and seemingly expanded it to include anyone who has worked against the president’s agenda.

“The Never Trumper Republicans, though on respirators with not many left, are in certain ways worse and more dangerous for our Country than the Do Nothing Democrats,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday afternoon.“Watch out for them, they are human scum!”

The president’s tweet set off a firestorm about the his rhetoric—in this case about a notably small subset of Republicans, some of whom are likely to vote for him anyhow—and so Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade asked the top

The splitting off of the LGB Alliance from Stonewall is shining a light on the difficulty a lot of people have with figuring out who is part of The Community and who is not. Like for instance in replies to a tweet in which they invited comrades to join the effort:

We had our pre-launch meeting last night. The amount of positive energy and expertise in the room was truly inspiring! Please DM us if you want to join in our efforts. We have a mountain to climb but we will succeed!

A confused reply:

We are stronger when united. When you choose to create factions within our community we are all diminished. You do the work of

Mieke Eoyang, who is an expert in the field, explains why the whole barging into a SCIF stunt is not cute.

A few words on why Gaetz stunt to storm the SCIF to disrupt Laura Cooper’s deposition is a VERY serious national security problem.

Note, I worked in that SCIF for HPSCI and handled cybersecurity issues while there.

Aside from disrupting the testimony of a DoD official shedding light on the President’s attempts to extort a sham investigation into the child of his most feared political rival by withholding military aid that Congress gave to resist a Russian invasion…Storming the SCIF without respecting the security protocols that require people to leave their electronic devices *outside* the space, is actually

In more hopeful news – The Telegraph reports Stonewall have split over the trans-mania issue.

Europe’s biggest LGBT rights organisation has split after being accused of promoting a ‘trans agenda’ at the expense of gay and lesbian rights.

Stonewall is known for campaigning for the equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people across Britain. The charity’s mission statement says that it aims ‘to create inclusive and accepting cultures’.

However, following a meeting on Tuesday night – and amid an ongoing row about trans inclusion – the charity has divided and forged a splinter group.

Announcing themselves as the LGB Alliance, the group, formed of ‘influential lesbians, gay men and bisexuals’ met in central London last night and forged the

Whoopsie, it seems the brave rebels who stormed their own Congress have realized they’re getting themselves in trouble. Caroline Orr @RVAWonk:

They’re all realizing that live-tweeting from inside SCIF is a huge security breach and now they’re trying to tweet their way out of it.

It’s staff tweeting! We’re not tweeting!

Oh look, another one:

I’m not quite sure it becomes not a security breach if they send it to staff who then send it to the world. I kind of think it’s the whole sending it thing that’s the breach. Could be wrong.… Read the rest

Meanwhile Trump is busy winning hearts and minds by calling critics in the Republican party “human scum.”

The Never Trumper Republicans, though on respirators with not many left, are in certain ways worse and more dangerous for our Country than the Do Nothing Democrats. Watch out for them, they are human scum!

Naturally I learned this because “human scum” is trending on Twitter. Of course it is.

Also – he pinned the tweet!

He’s frantically RTing Ever Trumpers staging their coup.

Like Rep. Jody Hice (Georgia):

Stepping out of Schiff’s dungeon for a quick update. Members and the thousands of constituents they represent have a right to know what’s going on in this “impeachment inquiry.” Schiff’s efforts to hide

God, these people.

Representative Mark Walker (North Carolina):

UPDATE: We are in the SCIF and every GOP Member is quietly listening. Meanwhile, Adam Schiff, clearly peeved that he will no longer be able to hide his impeachment sham, is threatening Ethics punishment for all of us. His fake intimidation can’t hide his lies–Open the process!

His profile:

US Congressman. @housegop Vice Chair. Ranking Member on Subcommittee for Intelligence and Counterterrorism. Former Pastor

Rep. Matt Gaetz (Florida) advertising his upcoming show this morning:

COMING UP: Rep. Matt Gaetz will lead a delegation of Republican members of Congress to the House Intelligence Committee deposition, where they will demand increased transparency and inclusion in the impeachment process from House Democrats. WATCH LIVE:

Soraya Chemaly has the best comment on the whole thing.

Keeper for the American Patriarchy Photo Collection

Matt Gaetz says he’s about to lead this phalanx of House Republicans into the SCIF to check out what’s going on with the whole impeachment thing

Republicans: Law and order! National security! America First!

Also Republicans: Storm the classified hearing, cell phones in hand!

House Republicans took their impeachment grievances to a more confrontational level on Wednesday, barging in to a secure facility during a closed-door witness deposition and refusing to leave until Democrats held open hearings.

The gambit—cooked up by the pro-Trump brawler Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and endorsed by House GOP leadership—derailed the closed-door deposition of Laura Cooper, a Pentagon official with jurisdiction over Ukraine policy, before it even started. And it left Democrats indignant that their colleagues had violated long standing rules about interviewing witnesses in classified settings.

Long standing rules long standing shmules, this is a fight. You don’t bring rules … Read the rest

Word is that Taylor’s statement and testimony are very damaging to Dirty Donnie. The Guardian has some summaries:

In the 15-page statement, the acting US ambassador to Ukraine and longtime civil servant describes how he became “increasingly concerned” that the US-Ukraine relationship was being “fundamentally undermined” by withholding military aid for “domestic political reasons.”

Taylor added that he stood by his Sept. 9 text message to Gordon Sondland and Kurt Volker, in which he said it would be “crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”

He also said he was worried about taking the job as acting ambassador to Ukraine because Giuliani was gumming up the works.

The longtime diplomat said: “I worried about what

A tweet from Teacher2Teacher, an account where teachers apparently share ideas and advice and the like:

⛄️ Using this “gender snowperson,” Ss learn about identity and language! (📸 via educator
@LexingtonDEI) #EdEquity #ChampForKids #SchoolCulture

From the graphic style it appears to be aimed at very young children. Is it really teaching?

Do very young children really need to be taught about “gender expression”? I’m not sure I think anyone does, but the older the children the more able they are to question what they’re told by teachers. Do they need to be taught about “gender identity”? Are they taught what “identity” is first, and then how that can be made to fit with “gender”? I don’t think it can, … Read the rest