It’s a big No on the tax returns.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday told House Democrats he would not furnish President Trump’s tax returns despite their legal request, the latest move by Trump administration officials to shield the president from congressional investigations.

The latest move by Trump administration officials to shield the corrupt thieving cheating lying president from congressional investigations.

Mnuchin added that requests from Congress “must serve a legitimate legislative purpose” and that the request from Democrats does not.

A number of legal experts have said it would be unprecedented for Mnuchin to refuse to turn over the tax returns, as the power for lawmakers to seek the returns is written explicitly in a 1924 law.

In … Read the rest

Things fall apart, the center cannot hold, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, but DON’T WORRY, there is still always plenty of time to arrest people for OffenDing ReLigious SentiMent.

A woman has been arrested on suspicion of offending religious sentiment, after posters bearing an image of the Virgin Mary with her halo painted in the colours of the rainbow flag appeared in the city of Płock in central Poland.

The Polish interior minister, Joachim Brudziński, announced on Twitter on Monday that a person had been arrested for “carrying out a profanation of the Virgin Mary of Częstochowa”.

So Poland has a law against “profanation” does it? So the law is an arm of the church in … Read the rest

Still. After all this time.

The optimistic tale of the modern, involved dad has been greatly exaggerated. The amount of child care men performed rose throughout the 1980s and ’90s, but then began to level off without ever reaching parity. Mothers still shoulder 65 percent of child-care work.

This isn’t just conservative men who have no aspirations to do their share of child-care work, this is men who think they’re progressive but are still utterly oblivious to how much work the women are doing while they kick back and watch the game.

Though many men are in denial about it, their resistance communicates a feeling of entitlement to women’s labor. Men resist because it is in their “interest to

Narrator: It is. https://t.co/WsY9CPVUiK

— Nick Offerman (@Nick_Offerman) April 28, 2019

… Read the rest

Sarah Ditum tells us she failed at combating gender stereotypes with her own children. She couldn’t bring herself to let her son age 4 go off to school with painted nails like hers because it could have led to teasing. We can’t just brush that off, can we, because it damn well might have…or, for that matter, though Sarah doesn’t say this, it could instead have led to teachers’ concluding he must be trans.

The idea of letting him break the boy code in such a visible way, and sending him off to school where he might have been teased for it by other children, was too much to take. So I did the work of the prospective bullies before

The ultimate in intersectional wokeness: getting working class people fired.

[Dud tweet because account now protected]

A supermarket security guard and a cleaner on a council estate, fired for “misgendering” and “deadnaming.” A better world is just over the horizon!… Read the rest

Whose big idea was “likability,” anyway? Historian Claire Potter says it was a guy thing.

As Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and others jumped into the race, each seemed to affirm the new power of women in 2019, a power that was born when President Trump was sworn into office, exploded during #MeToo and came into its own during the 2018 midterms.

But no female candidate has yet led the polls. The men keep joining — Michael Bennet this week, Joe Biden the last — and keep garnering glowing press coverage. Although Mr. Biden fumbled two previous presidential bids, we are told he has “crossover appeal”; Bernie Sanders has been admired by this newspaper as “

Well now here’s an interesting thread.

https://twitter.com/kat_blaque/status/1124370495338569734

https://twitter.com/kat_blaque/status/1124370496928116736

https://twitter.com/kat_blaque/status/1124370498400337921

Ahhhhhh don’t you love that fifth one? “One of the things I’m coming to terms with in life is that I am going to be seen as this amazing inspiring fascinating person to a lot of people and that’s as deep as any relationship they have with me will go”? I know I do. I love it for its hilariosity and I love it for its evidentiary worth. It can be everyone’s “NOW do you see the narcissism??” resource.

But also…”It’s always just this weird “hey” and I’m expected to accept it.” Oh yes? Is that what it’s always? And you don’t always feel like accepting it? What might that be … Read the rest

Nothing to see here folks, move on.

Anything in this very interesting world is possible, but I believe that Kim Jong Un fully realizes the great economic potential of North Korea, & will do nothing to interfere or end it. He also knows that I am with him & does not want to break his promise to me. Deal will happen!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 4, 2019

Trump is with Kim Jong-un. Trump is not with the EU, or NATO, or Merkel, or the UN, or Schumer, or Mueller, or Obama, but he is with Kim Jong-un. Interesting.

South Korea isn’t quite so with Kim.

South Korea initially reported Saturday that a single missile was fired, but

Conservative Democrats always think they know that only the most conservative possible platform can get Democrats elected. Pelosi is warning us away from any wild and crazy ideas like universal health insurance, you know like what every other developed country has had for decades.

Sitting in her office with its panoramic view of the National Mall, Ms. Pelosi — the de facto head of the Democratic Party until a presidential nominee is selected in 2020 — offered Democrats her “coldblooded” plan for decisively ridding themselves of Mr. Trump: Do not get dragged into a protracted impeachment bid that will ultimately get crushed in the Republican-controlled Senate, and do not risk alienating the moderate voters who flocked to the party in

Dispatch from Swansea Pride:

#GetTheLOut Swansea Pride. Lesbians forcibly removed by police for stating lesbians don’t have penises.

… Read the rest

From last summer: Why I Put Pronouns on my Email Signature (and LinkedIn profile) and You Should Too.

Pronouns…on your signature?

looks around confusedly as if having just landed on an alien planet

What does that even mean? Signatures don’t have pronouns.

Never mind what it is; the point is it doesn’t cost you anything.

For a cisgender person (a person whose gender is in alignment with the sex they were assigned at birth- more on that another time!) there is little to no risk in sharing your pronouns. When you’ve never questioned what pronouns people use for you, or even thought about the idea of pronouns after you learned about them in 2nd grade, sharing your pronouns