All entries by this author

These violative drugs

May 19th, 2019 4:26 pm | By

The war on women escalates.

A European organization that provides doctor-prescribed abortion pills by mail is under order by the US Food and Drug Administration to stop deliveries.

The federal agency sent a warning letter to Aid Access this month requesting that it “immediately cease causing the introduction of these violative drugs into U.S. Commerce.”

“Violative” is not a word.

“The sale of misbranded and unapproved new drugs poses an inherent risk to consumers who purchase those products,” the letter says. “Drugs that have circumvented regulatory safeguards may be contaminated; counterfeit, contain varying amounts of active ingredients, or contain different ingredients altogether.”

Translation: the drugs may do what they’re supposed to do and we have orders to put a … Read the rest



Not Chopsticks

May 19th, 2019 4:14 pm | By

We need this.

https://twitter.com/cctv_idiots/status/1130165583616577536… Read the rest



Exeter Cathedral says no thanks

May 19th, 2019 11:36 am | By

Carl Benjamin told to stay away.

Exeter Cathedral has banned a Ukip candidate from taking part in hustings for Thursday’s European elections, saying he may be a risk to public order.

Carl Benjamin, who is under police investigation for comments he made about raping the Labour MP Jess Phillips, had been due to speak at the event alongside other candidates for the South West England region on Wednesday evening.

But the cathedral authorities decided Benjamin’s presence ran the risk of public disorder, and invited Ukip to send another candidate to the event.

Oh but what about his free speech?

Ukip’s Devon chair, Margaret Dennis, said the move was “outrageous” and “an affront to democracy”.

She told DevonLive:

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But executives at Deutsche Bank looked the other way

May 19th, 2019 11:15 am | By

Bang: now there’s a lede:

Anti-money laundering specialists at Deutsche Bank recommended in 2016 and 2017 that multiple transactions involving legal entities controlled by Donald J. Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, be reported to a federal financial-crimes watchdog.

Oh really. Then what happened?

The transactions, some of which involved Mr. Trump’s now-defunct foundation, set off alerts in a computer system designed to detect illicit activity, according to five current and former bank employees. Compliance staff members who then reviewed the transactions prepared so-called suspicious activity reports that they believed should be sent to a unit of the Treasury Department that polices financial crimes.

But executives at Deutsche Bank, which has lent billions of dollars to the Trump

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On charges of shooting unarmed civilians

May 19th, 2019 10:40 am | By

What fresh horror is this?

Donald Trump has asked for files to be prepared on pardoning several US military members accused of or convicted of war crimes, including one slated to stand trial on charges of shooting unarmed civilians while in Iraq, the New York Times reported.

War crimes. My god. What next? Is he going to try to overturn the Nuremberg convictions? Declare sainthood for Hitler and Goebbels and Himmler? Hang portraits of Milošević and Mladić in the East Room? Erect statues of Stalin and Pol Pot in the Rose Garden?

According to the Times, which cited two unnamed US officials, Trump requested the immediate preparation of paperwork needed, indicating he is considering pardons for the men

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What “all feminists must recognize”

May 19th, 2019 9:56 am | By

This time we have to start with the title, whether a sub chose it or not.

Trans women are victims of misogyny, too – and all feminists must recognize this

No. There is no such “must.” Trans women are male people, and there is no “must” that commands feminists to extend their feminism to men. No. All trans activists must stop trying to bully feminist women into changing the subject to men. No.

The subtitle is also bad.

Some feminists claim misogyny targets only those who have female sex features (ovaries, vaginas and uteruses). We should be alarmed by this view.

No. We should be alarmed by the spectacle of people telling us men can be women, and the Guardian … Read the rest



A constant preoccupation

May 18th, 2019 5:33 pm | By

Ray Blanchard talks to the National Review:

Kearns: What do we mean by “gender identity”?

Blanchard: What do mean by it?

Kearns: Yes. Let’s start with that.

Blanchard: Well, back in the days when I was writing a lot on that topic, which is quite a while ago now, I tended to avoid the phrase “gender identity” because I think that it’s a trivial concept when it’s applied to normal people. I mean normal men and normal woman know what sex they are, and they respond to that automatically, like when looking for a washroom. But I think it’s only at very unusual moments that a normal man or woman has a conscious awareness of “I’m a woman” or

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At the I-don’t-care phase

May 18th, 2019 4:28 pm | By

From a Fresh Air interview with the novelist Stephen McCauley:

GROSS: The first time we talked in 1996, we talked about how one of your characters – your main character – always felt like he was either too young and then he felt like he was too old. And he never felt like he was the right age. And you talked about how when you started teaching, you felt like you were too young to be an authority figure. And then at some point, you felt like you were too old in the sense that you had kind of bypassed the common reference points that you used to have with your students. Where are you now?

MCCAULEY: I’m at the

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That every life is a sacred gift from God

May 18th, 2019 11:31 am | By

Catherine Bennett notes an interesting juxtaposition.

In terms of knowing the enemy, much of it, in the US, will certainly resemble the Alabama misogynists – the 25 white, male, no longer young Republicans who have just stripped half their state’s population of reproductive rights. Photographs have been generously distributed. But, as the men would probably be the first to admit, they couldn’t have ushered in a generation or more of unwanted children without assistance from at least two women combatants, Terri Collins and the state governor, Kay Ivey.

Signing the ban into law, Ivey celebrated “a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious & that every life is a sacred gift from God”.

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A powerful bleach used in the textile industry

May 18th, 2019 8:11 am | By

“Drink bleach” is a version of “drop dead” or “fuck off”: it’s not a “miracle cure,” or a humdrum ordinary medical cure either. Bleach is not good to ingest. It’s toxic.

But that doesn’t stop monsters from peddling it as a miracle cure:

An American pastor from New Jersey backed by a British former clairvoyant is running a network that gives up to 50,000 Ugandans a “miracle cure” made from industrial bleach, claiming drinking the toxic fluid eradicates cancer, HIV/Aids, malaria and most other diseases.

(A former clairvoyant? He used to be able to see magical stuff that no one else can see but then lost the knack?)

The network, led by pastor Robert Baldwin and part-funded by Sam

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“What a day, 9 for 9!”

May 17th, 2019 11:19 am | By

Where do we draw the line?

When Mary Gregory filled out the registration form to compete in a local weightlifting event, she checked the box that read “female” without hesitation.

“I mean, that’s my gender,” she said “I didn’t even think about it. That’s who I am.”

If any eyebrows were raised, Gregory didn’t notice, and on April 27, after months of training, she strode onto the platform at the Best Western hotel just east of Charlottesville and wowed the spectators and fellow powerlifters in attendance. That night she posted a picture on Instagram of herself holding a trophy, telling her 120 followers about the records she set for her age and weight class in the 100% Raw Powerlifting

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Reminding him of the president’s fondness for Flynn

May 17th, 2019 10:32 am | By

The reason for Trump’s sudden new panic about Flynn, and his deranged threats to imprison Obama and Sally Yates and anyone else who warned him about Flynn while he didn’t listen, is even more startling than the panic and threats. It’s because a federal judge ruled yesterday that that part of the Mueller report must be made public.

A federal judge on Thursday ordered that prosecutors make public a transcript of a phone call that former national security adviser Michael Flynn tried hard to hide with a lie: his conversation with a Russian ambassador in late 2016.

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in Washington ordered the government also to provide a public transcript of a November 2017 voice mail

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Really a grotesque abuse of power

May 17th, 2019 10:13 am | By

Jeffrey Toobin reminds us to be outraged:

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin called President Trump’s cries of “TREASON” on Friday morning “reckless and irresponsible,” adding that it’s yet another norm the President has broken.

“And treason is a crime for which death is a potential penalty,” Toobin said on CNN’s “New Day.” “It is so reckless and irresponsible to talk that way. One of the things that this president has done has violated so many norms.”

“It’s not illegal to say what he said, but the idea of a president accusing people of any crime — remember, he accused  Michael Cohen’s in-laws of crimes. A president, who is the head of the Justice Department, the head of

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ALL women

May 17th, 2019 9:46 am | By

Wait.

Discussions on women’s rights must include ALL women and “TERFs” must be kept out. So discussions on women’s rights must include ALL women but not the women who disagree that men can be women. So discussions on women’s rights must include men who say they are women and the women who love them but not women who refuse to agree that men who don’t “identify as” men are therefore women. So ALL women but not ALL women. Mkay.

H/t Holly

https://twitter.com/aytchellesse/status/1129408007564140544… Read the rest



Too scared to tipe all the words rite

May 17th, 2019 9:34 am | By

It appears that Donnie Two-scoops is sweating.

All of Twitter, with one voice:

YOU WERE TOLD

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A woman in possession of a hammer

May 17th, 2019 9:25 am | By

The Liverpool Echo reported a few days ago:

Two women have been charged after a woman was threatened with a hammer during a shocking road rage incident in a car park.

Footage from the incident shows two small groups coming to blows at Stonedale Retail Park in Croxteth on Wednesday night (May 8).

Initially the groups can be seen shoving and pushing each other before a woman retrieves a hammer from the boot of a car.

At one point the video shows a woman swinging the hammer towards another, younger woman, who tries to defend herself with a shoe.

A 19-year-old woman suffered head injuries, which are believed to be from a punch and was taken to hospital for assessment,

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The m word

May 16th, 2019 5:06 pm | By

Oops. Wokey McWokerson made a little mistake.

https://twitter.com/MJB_SF/status/1129045483157110785

Yaaaaaaay inclusivity, no mention of women, just “uterus holding individual”! Utopia is nigh!

Oh but wait though, what’s that ugly thing in the line above? “Men”? That can’t be right. On the one hand men, on the other hand uterus holding individuals? Do these rules apply only to women?

Woking every day is not easy.… Read the rest



A President Like No Other

May 16th, 2019 4:48 pm | By

More “I can do anything I want to” from President Crook:

President Donald Trump has granted a full pardon to Conrad Black, the former press baron and one-time society fixture who was found guilty of fraud and obstruction of justice in 2007.

…Black is a personal friend and the author of pro-Trump opinion pieces as well as a flattering book, Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other.

Oh he’s like no other all right.

Sanders described Black, who also once owned the Chicago Sun-TimesThe Jerusalem Post and The Telegraph in London, as “an entrepreneur and scholar” who “has made tremendous contributions to business, as well as to political and historical thought.”

She also cited support

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The weight of years and years of abuse

May 16th, 2019 12:30 pm | By

Victoria Derbyshire talked to Jess Phillips about it a few days ago.

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He is empathizing with the other side

May 16th, 2019 12:10 pm | By

Victoria Derbyshire talked to Carl Benjamin this morning about his “jokes” about rape.

“There are two sides to every question,” he says, “and I am empathizing with the other side.”

So there are two sides to rape and he’s empathizing with the rapist?

Probably not; he probably means he’s “empathizing” with the side that finds rape jokes funny and “empowering.” He claims that he gets survivors of … Read the rest