UKIP guy is upset.
STOP THIS MADNESS! The Scottish Parliament has banned gingerbread men in case they cause offence, declaring they must be called 'gingerbread people' instead. https://t.co/qiaclO5uPN
— David Kurten (@davidkurten) December 16, 2018
Oh no! Without gingerbread men, who will impregnate the strawberry shortcake?… Read the rest
Trump’s gilt palace overlooking Central Park and his golf resorts and solid gold shoes and all the rest of it comes out of the wallets of poor people. That tax scam meant fraudulently hiked rents.
… Read the restThey were collateral damage as Donald J. Trump and his siblings dodged inheritance taxes and gained control of their father’s fortune: thousands of renters in an empire of unassuming red-brick buildings scattered across Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.
Those buildings have been home to generations of strivers, municipal workers and newly arrived immigrants. When their regulated rents started rising more quickly in the 1990s, many tenants had no idea why. Some heard that the Trump family had spent millions on building improvements, but they
Trump’s calling Cohen a “RAT” on Twitter is getting some lawyerly attention.
Sir, in mobster lingo, a ‘rat’ is a witness who tells prosecutors real incriminating info. Perhaps a different word? Searches of lawyer’s offices common enough that DOJ has a procedure for them. Here it yielded evidence of crimes you said he should be jailed for. You should stop. https://t.co/EV1txBYrhz
— Andy McCarthy (@AndrewCMcCarthy) December 16, 2018
… Read the restMy former colleague Andy McCarthy, one of the President's most steady and articulate defenders, is starting to take the measure of the man he has so vigorously defended. POTUS's language reflects the mentality of an at risk mob boss, not of a President.There is a reason for that. https://t.co/FXTVqt1Rdf
— Michael R.
Still not getting it. Aaron Hughes says life is tough for trans and gender nonconforming students at Oxford, then moves on to the more entertaining part about blaming feminist women for the tough life problem.
In spite of its public commitments, Oxford has failed to protect trans people from harassment and discrimination. Its refusal to act when transphobic speakers are invited to talk in its colleges and faculties is damning. Indeed, its willingness to condone the invitation of people who deny the existence of trans people entirely undermines its commitment to trans inclusivity.
Notice the instant and unargued jump from “harassment and discrimination” to “transphobic speakers invited to talk in its colleges and faculties.” That’s a massive jump. We … Read the rest
Donnie is agitated.
Wow, 19,000 Texts between Lisa Page and her lover, Peter S of the FBI, in charge of the Russia Hoax, were just reported as being wiped clean and gone. Such a big story that will never be covered by the Fake News. Witch Hunt!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2018
A REAL scandal is the one sided coverage, hour by hour, of networks like NBC & Democrat spin machines like Saturday Night Live. It is all nothing less than unfair news coverage and Dem commercials. Should be tested in courts, can’t be legal? Only defame & belittle! Collusion?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 16, 2018
… Read the restSo where are all the missing Text messages between
Intelligence officials are, not surprisingly, frustrated that Trump is too lazy and too stupid to pay attention to what they tell him.
Donald Trump continues to reject the judgments of US spy agencies on major foreign policy fronts, current and former US officials said, creating a dynamic in which intelligence analysts frequently see troubling gaps between the president’s public statements and the facts laid out for him in daily briefings.
The pattern has become a source of mounting concern to senior US intelligence officials who had hoped Mr Trump would become less hostile to their work and more receptive to the information that spy agencies spend billions of dollars and sometimes put lives at risk gathering.
Trump can’t “become” anything. … Read the rest
The state of academic “gender” studies these days.
Very much looking forward to a lovely lazy Xmas break and then to cracking on with my article about why ‘sex’ (as in ‘biological’ not desire) is no longer applicable to contemporary feminist theory and activism.
— Sally Hines (@sally_hines) December 15, 2018
How about a little nostalgia trip back to 2002 courtesy of the NY Times:
… Read the restWithin weeks of the death of John J. Gotti and the indictment of his eldest brother, Peter, the new reputed chief of the Gambino crime family, federal prosecutors in Manhattan yesterday announced charges against 14 more people who they said were Gambino family members or associates.
The crimes listed in the indictments seemed familiar — murder, loan-sharking, extortion, robbery and bookmaking — and they served as a reminder, federal officials said, that the mob is not dead in the city, only trying to reshape itself in the face of constant pressure from law enforcement.
”Folks who think that organized crime is a thing of the past
Bumpy day up in there.
Never in the history of our Country has the “press” been more dishonest than it is today. Stories that should be good, are bad. Stories that should be bad, are horrible. Many stories, like with the REAL story on Russia, Clinton & the DNC, seldom get reported. Too bad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2018
Erm…what? I think I get the “should be good: are bad” polarity; I think he means stories that should be about how awesome Donald Trump is fail to say that and instead say that he is disappointing. But the “should be bad: are horrible” one? Mystifying. They should say Democrats are bad but instead say they’re horrible? That … Read the rest
A 7-year-old Guatemalan girl who crossed the southern border into the United States illegally earlier this month died of dehydration and shock after being apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol in New Mexico.
The girl and her father were part of a group of 163 people who surrendered to Border Patrol officers on the night of Dec. 6, south of Lordsburg, N.M., according to The Washington Post, which first reported the story.
It seems slightly stupid to say a girl of 7 crossed the border illegally. Children of 7 don’t have that kind of autonomy, and she was with her father.
Anyway. She died. She died of dehydration.
… Read the restEight hours after the girl and her father were
Susan Glasser notes that the Mueller investigation owns Trump’s attention.
… Read the restGiven the constant, repetitive nature of Trump’s “witch hunt” tweets, it might be tempting to ignore them. That would be a mistake. The chief executive’s attention is the most valuable resource of any Administration—what a President spends his time on reflects, more than anything else, an Administration’s true priorities. By those standards, the “witch hunt” is the overriding priority of the Trump White House, and it will be even more so in the new year, when the special counsel, Robert Mueller, moves toward a conclusion and a new, Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, with the power and the votes to subpoena and impeach Trump, takes
Adam Schiff and Jeffrey Toobin talked over burgers in downtown Burbank the other day. Schiff says it’s about The Monayyy.
… Read the restSchiff went on, “At the end of the day, what should concern us most is anything that can have a continuing impact on the foreign policy and national-security policy of the United States, and, if the Russians were laundering money for the Trump Organization, that would be totally compromising.” Schiff hypothesizes that Trump went beyond using his campaign and the Presidency as a vehicle for advancing his business interests, speculating that he may have shaped policy with an eye to expanding his fortune. “There’s a whole constellation of issues where that is essentially the center of gravity,” Schiff said.
The Republican coup in Wisconsin is complete.
Scott Walker, the outgoing Republican governor of Wisconsin, on Friday signed into law measures that diminish the power of his Democratic successor and expand the authority of Republican lawmakers who teamed up with him over the last eight years to move the state firmly to the right.
Those Republican lawmakers? They’re still in the majority only because Wisconsin is so gerrymandered in favor of Republicans. The vote for Dems was much larger.
… Read the restMr. Walker signed the measures over the objections of the incoming governor and despite vehement protest in the State Capitol as Republican lawmakers rushed the bills through in a hastily-called session last week. Tony Evers, the Democrat who beat Mr.
The LA Review of Books has An Open Letter from Queer Studies Scholars. It is not an intelligent or persuasive letter.
To Whom It May Concern,
We write to respond to Christopher Reed and Christopher Castiglia’s unfortunate letter regarding Grace Lavery’s essay on using appropriate pronouns in the classroom context. While we debated taking up the many points of Professor Castiglia and Professor Reed’s very long essay, we feel that the best response is a simple reiteration of the final lines of Professor Lavery’s essay:
Deadnaming and misgendering are not acceptable scholarly practices, and they are not covered by the principle of academic freedom.
They “feel” (not think) that is the best response? And they call themselves scholars?
“Deadnaming” … Read the rest
https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/1073329533347016705
https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/1073330088677003265
https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/1073330540546220032
https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/1073331035633418240
https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/1073331546004672513
https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/1073332967169114112
https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/1073333800459894784
https://twitter.com/JamesFallows/status/1073331240638537728
H/t Screechy Monkey… Read the rest
Maddow argued yesterday that the AMI confession puts the three miniTrumps in the hot seat.
The US Senate just did what Trump has repeatedly refused to do.
… Read the restThe Senate cast two historic votes Thursday to end U.S. participation in the Saudi-led war effort in Yemen and condemn the Saudi crown prince as responsible for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, delivering clear political rebukes of President Trump’s continued embrace of the kingdom.
The unanimous vote to hold Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman responsible for Khashoggi’s murder reflects the extent to which senators of both parties have grown tired of Trump’s continued defense of Mohammed’s denials. It also puts significant pressure on leaders in the House — where the president’s Saudi policy is a much more partisan issue — to allow members to cast a similar
I can’t tell if this is hilarious or terrifying.
https://twitter.com/BCDreyer/status/1073055434339217408
Talking Points Memo cautiously prods the suspicious object:
The Department of Homeland Security sounded a bit like Cookie Monster or The Incredible Hulk in a press release Wednesday detailing how the agency has spent the roughly $1.67 billion allocated to it for fence and wall construction and renovation over the past 19 months.
“DHS is committed to building wall and building wall quickly,” the release read. “We are not replacing short, outdated and ineffective wall with similar wall. Instead, under this President we are building a wall that is 30-feet high.”
To me it sounds like Natasha and Boris in Rocky and Bullwinkle but that’s probably because I’m not … Read the rest
Originally a comment by Seth on He thinks the people would revolt.
As was obvious to anyone who’s been paying attention since Bush the Lesser’s misbegotten reign, Republicans rule as though divinely mandated despite (or, rather, because of) their having failed to secure a mandate, and they gin up their supporters to revolt whenever they don’t get their way.
People have already forgotten that Obama faced two organized, armed revolts during his tenure, instigated by the Bundy clan (klan?) and inspiring thousands of their fellow rubenicks to join them in spirit, and dozens in person. These revolts amounted to an insurrection that hasn’t been properly dealt with, especially given the wisdom of the juries involved.
The next Democratic administration, … Read the rest
Ian Bushfield of the BC Humanists Association writes:
… Read the restSection 296 of Canada’s Criminal Code said:
Offence
296 (1) Every one who publishes a blasphemous libel is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.
Question of fact
(2) It is a question of fact whether or not any matter that is published is a blasphemous libel.
Saving
(3) No person shall be convicted of an offence under this section for expressing in good faith and in decent language, or attempting to establish by argument used in good faith and conveyed in decent language, an opinion on a religious subject.
As Jeremy Patrick wrote in his PhD dissertation, the provision has been
