Meanwhile…

Remember the planned redesign of the $20 bill that was going to include the first African American woman to appear on U.S. currency?

Well, don’t expect to see Harriett Tubman on your $20 any time soon.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin confirmed Wednesday what had been apparent for some time: The currency redesign pursued by his Obama administration predecessor Jacob Lew not is going to happen during the Trump administration.

Well of course it’s not. Trump has a plan to put war criminals on your $20 so Harriett Tubman will just have to go back to Mexico where she belongs.

Mnuchin said a new design for the $20 bill will not come out until 2028. The $10 and the

Hey kids, let’s play Pretend Feminist for ten seconds before we go back to cheering for forced birth.

After Trump abruptly left legislative leaders meeting today, Kellyanne Conway asked Pelosi if she wanted to respond to what Trump had said. "I'll respond to the president, not staff," Pelosi said. "Wow, that's really pro-woman of you," Kellyanne Conway said back, per aides.

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) May 22, 2019

… Read the rest

Ursual Le Guin on abortion:

My friends at NARAL asked me to tell you what it was like before Roe vs Wade. They asked me to tell you what it was like to be twenty and pregnant in 1950 and when you tell your boyfriend you’re pregnant, he tells you about a friend of his in the army whose girl told him she was pregnant, so he got all his buddies to come and say, “We all fucked her, so who knows who the father is?” And he laughs at the good joke….

What was it like, if you were planning to go to graduate school and get a degree and earn a living so you could support

The Telegraph introduces the UK to Meghan Murphy:

As one of the lone voices unequivocally arguing that identifying as a different gender does not change one’s chromosomal sex (and, ergo, that trans-women are not actually women) Murphy was swiftly labelled a ‘radical’ feminist, as well as a bigot and a transphobe by her detractors, many of whom also accuse her of being Right-wing.

To Murphy, a once proud socialist with a Marxist father, it’s a laughable claim. But she feels betrayed by the Left. ‘The NDP [Canada’s equivalent to Labour] has fully vilified women who speak out about this,’ she says. ‘They won’t even have a conversation.’

On Monday evening she spoke at a sold-out event on women’s rights

The Times on Donnie’s tantrum:

President Trump abruptly blew up a scheduled meeting with Democratic congressional leaders on Wednesday, lashing out at Speaker Nancy Pelosi for accusing him of a cover-up and declaring that he could not work with them until they stopped investigating him.

He then marched out into the Rose Garden, where reporters had been gathered, and delivered a statement bristling with anger as he demanded that Democrats “get these phony investigations over with.” He said they could not legislate and investigate at the same time. “We’re going to go down one track at a time,” he said.

Before the White House meeting Pelosi had been meeting with Democrats to talk about impeachment.

She emerged from that

Boys’ Club gets boy in trouble yet again. Boys just wonder how come all the rules got changed alla sudden and nobody ever told them.

Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada, a Republican, said on Tuesday he plans to step down from his position after lewd and racist text messages between him and his former chief of staff were leaked to the media.

…

Opposition to his leadership snowballed after texts were leaked to the media in which Casada and his now-former chief of staff, Cade Cothren, traded lewd remarks. Sent in the summer of 2016, the messages show Casada egging on the aide as he bragged about a sexual encounter in a restaurant bathroom, as one example.

The leaks

Did McGahn surprise us all and heed the subpoena? Nah.

“Our subpoenas are not optional,” Mr Nadler said during his opening remarks on Tuesday. “This committee will hear Mr McGahn’s testimony even if we have to go to court.”

Mr McGahn could be held in contempt for defying the subpoena from Congress.

“We will not allow the president to block congressional subpoenas, putting himself and his allies above the law,” Mr Nadler added.

…

Both the Department of Justice and White House released statements on Monday arguing that Mr McGahn was under no obligation to give evidence.

You might as well say “the Five Families released statements on Monday arguing that Mr McGahn was under no obligation to give evidence.” … Read the rest

Not good.

Today, Governor Jay Inslee declared a drought emergency that now expands across nearly half of Washington, with snow pack under 50 percent of normal across highlighted areas.

Hotter, drier conditions lead to more wildfires. This drought is a reminder that we expect 2019 will be a tough fire season. We are preparing as best we can to meet this challenge, but ask you to take caution and be vigilant when doing activities that may spark fires.

Fires in all directions, it will be.… Read the rest

The constitutional crisis rolls on, with Congressional Democrats being irritatingly feeble.

Donald Trump has blocked the former White House counsel Don McGahn from testifying before Congress about special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian election interference.

Donald Trump can’t “block him” from testifying. It’s just a power play and McGahn should ignore it, but he’s not, he’s said he’ll obey this arbitrary demand from someone he no longer works for.

In a legal opinion released on Monday, the justice department said lawmakers on Capitol Hill cannot compel McGahn, who was subpoenaed by the House judiciary committee, to answer their questions under oath.

Because “the justice department” is wholly in the bag for Trump. It’s not a justice department, … Read the rest

Saw this by Mike Twohy in the New Yorker:

… Read the rest

No, let’s not remember not to do that.

Abortion is trending right now and we love it! But, let's remember not to use gendered language when talking about it. Abortion bans affect everyone who can get pregnant–not just cis women! pic.twitter.com/DJLzEmP18e

— URGE (@URGE_org) May 17, 2019

Abortion is “gendered” i.e. sex-based. If men needed abortions they would be easy to get.

Also, seriously, fuck all the way off with that idiotic slogan.

We won’t stop fighting. #StopTheBans pic.twitter.com/nMv91SWI3t

— URGE (@URGE_org) May 17, 2019

Why illustrate a “keep fighting for abortion rights” tweet with a poster screaming that abortion is not “just” a “cissue”? Why post a a “keep fighting for abortion rights” tweet with an image that insults … Read the rest

The sheer cluelessness can be jaw-dropping.

The Guardian has a piece by a trans woman about another trans woman’s voice training:

But a different voice is not just a luxury, it’s also a means of protection. For trans women, voice is often times the most significant indicator of their transness to the outside world. In 2018, LGBTQ advocates documented at least 26 homicides of trans people in the United States. Two murders of trans women have already been reported in 2019. For trans women, achieving a feminine voice can serve as a cloak of protection from bias and bigotry.

And how many murders of women were there in 2018?

I didn’t find stats for 2018 but 2016 will do… Read the rest

A couple of comments from fans of that Facebook post about families giving birth:

• I will never understand people who are offended by inclusivity. Saying “birthing individuals” takes nothing away from cis women and adds a lot for trans men. Thank you for being inclusive with your language!
• Why can’t people understand that including everyone isn’t erasing anyone?

So “All Lives Matter” takes nothing away from black people and adds a lot for white people? No. The “All” replacing “Black” is there for the explicit purpose of erasing the “Black” part and the injustice BLM is campaigning against.  Woke people understand that without the slightest struggle, don’t they, yet they deny it angrily when the word that’s erased is “women.” … Read the rest

A retired general talks about why Trump’s possible plan to pardon a list of people convicted or accused of war crimes is such a horrendous idea.

[E]ach soldier, sailor, airman or Marine undergoes extensive training regarding rules of engagement, the ethics of the military profession, and the law of land warfare. That training is usually repeated within units every year of the service-members’ enlistment, and that training is refreshed prior to deploying to combat and is reinforced by unit leaders during combat operations.

That’s because commanders — the ones ultimately responsible for good order, discipline and adherence to professional military standards — know, as difficult as it may sound, they must ensure and apply a moral boundary and a

A Facebook post by Childbirth International:

Birth trauma is becoming more widely discussed and parents are opening up about their experiences in pregnancy, labour, birth, and beyond. Doulas can be incredibly valuable as an addition to a family’s birth team to guide the family in making informed decisions and sharing valuable skills to help each individual advocate for their goals and needs.

With Childbirth International you can train as a birth doula and trauma-informed professional concurrently with our completely flexible, online courses.

Notice anything…peculiar?

Of course you do. The words “woman” and “mother” are carefully, awkwardly, painfully absent. We get parents opening up about their experiences in pregnancy and labour, as if both parents had such experiences. We get … Read the rest