Roger Stone is fighting back (or punching himself in the face – one of those.)

Since Friday, Stone has engaged in a blitz of media interviews, an unusual approach for someone who has been indicted.

Asked what he hopes to gain, Stone said he wanted to draw attention to what he saw as the inappropriate way his arrest took place.

“This was an expensive show of force to try to depict me as public enemy number one, the OG, to attempt to poison the jury pool,” Stone said, using a slang expression that means “original gangster.”

“These are Gestapo tactics,” he said.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) later told ABC that Stone used arguments that are typical

James Kirkup points out that Women get treated far worse than men in Labour’s transgender debate.

[I]f general run-of-the-mill Twitter is angry and stupid, gender-identity Twitter is angry and stupid on steroids. Simply liking the ‘wrong’ bit of content on Twitter can have you branded a transphobic witch and burned at the electronic stake, at least if you’re a woman. No one, or more accurately, no woman, is safe from the online inquisition’s charges of transphobia. You might think that JK Rowling was about as insulated as a person can be from online vitriol, since she’s lovely, kind, thoughtful, the creator of the world’s most popular wizard – and a billionaire. But you’d be wrong, because even JK has

The CBC points out that men who think they are owed sexual access to women are a large and threatening group. Quite a few of them are murderous.

Involuntary celibates or incels are an online brotherhood of men who say they are unsuccessful in their romantic attempts with women.

Romantic attempts? Sexual attempts, mostly. They want access a lot more than they want cozy evenings in front of the fireplace.

Incels interact in forums online, like 4chan, Reddit and a few public incel boards, and even on popular social media platforms including Facebook and YouTube. They often express extreme feelings of misogyny and hatred.

In the worst cases, their online misogyny turns to violent fantasies, where many online encourage

In memory of

In memory of Charlotte Shalomon, Yva, Malva Schalek and Otti Berger, Jewish artists murdered in Nazi concentration camps, among the 17 million victims of the Holocaust #womensart

#HolocaustMemorialDay pic.twitter.com/UqyaCzeHPw

— #WOMENSART (@womensart1) January 27, 2019

 … Read the rest

Perfectly normal, not a problem, move along, don’t stand there gaping. Trump meets with off the charts lunatic right-wing activist who is married to a Supreme Court justice.

President Trump met last week with a delegation of hard-right activists led by Ginni Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, listening quietly as members of the group denounced transgender people and women serving in the military, according to three people with direct knowledge of the events.

For 60 minutes Mr. Trump sat, saying little but appearing taken aback, the three people said, as the group also accused White House aides of blocking Trump supporters from getting jobs in the administration.

It is unusual for the spouse of a sitting

CNN is rubbing his nose in it.

The most shocking thing about Trump’s statement announcing the end of the shutdown was how diminished the President seemed.

He appeared to acknowledge his weakness later in a tweet he posted after absorbing the unflattering TV news coverage of his climbdown.

“I wish people would read or listen to my words on the Border Wall. This was in no way a concession,” he insisted.

Hours before, aides had clapped as Trump entered the Rose Garden, often a setting reserved for grand presidential victory laps.

The man who bills himself as the ultimate winner was forced to disguise the most humbling loss of his two years in power.

Geddit? He lost. He’s … Read the rest

Some of the European countries are putting the arm on Maduro.

Spain, Germany, France and the UK have warned Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro that he must call elections within eight days – or they will officially recognise the opposition.

Mr Maduro is under pressure after his rival Juan Guaidó declared himself “acting president” on Wednesday.

Venezuela, or rather Maduro’s people, told them to fuck off.

On Saturday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on Twitter: “Spain has a responsibility to Latin America… we do not seek to change or remove governments, we want democracy and free elections in Venezuela.”

France and Germany also issued similar statements, in what looked like a co-ordinated demand that elections be held in Venezuela.

Remember when Wilbur Ross said government agencies were offering unpaid workers very low interest loans? Yesterday? (Never mind the fact that people shouldn’t have to pay interest, however low, on their own god damn salaries.) Turns out they’re not what a normal person would call “low” at all, at least not Wilbur Ross’s department.

The Commerce Department’s federal credit union is charging furloughed employees almost 9 percent interest on emergency loans to cover their missing paychecks, despite Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross saying Thursday that financial institutions were offering “very, very low-interest-rate loans to bridge people over the gap.”

Who wouldn’t want to pay 9 percent interest to get their own salary? Such a deal. I hear the commissary was … Read the rest

The governor of Washington state has declared a state of emergency because of the measles outbreak.

There are 25 confirmed cases in Clark County, and a single known case in King County after a man in his 50s contracted measles and was hospitalized following a recent trip to Vancouver, according to a news release from Inslee’s office. As of Friday, Clark County Public Health had posted even higher numbers, with 30 confirmed and nine suspected cases.

…

On Jan. 18, Clark County declared its own local public health emergency after the outbreak. Twenty-six of those suffering from the disease had not been immunized and the vaccination status of four others was unverified. Researchers called nearby Portland a “hot

Alice Sullivan and Judith Suissa of University College London on the narrowness of the ledge we are allowed to stand on:

Academics who do not adhere to a particular line on gender and transgender issues have suffered intimidation by trans activists. The people under attack are not mavericks or extremists. They are feminists who question the trans-orthodox view that biological sex is a social construct while gendered identities are fixed and innate. They also seek to defend women’s sex-based rights. In this article, we explain what is happening and consider what steps the higher education community needs to take to ensure that academic freedom is not curtailed.

One reason why concerns about academic freedom have been crystallised by

The Telegraph has further details on the “Inspector Plod understands you have tweeted a tweet” incident.

Harry Miller, 53, from Lincoln was contacted on Wednesday by a community cohesion officer following a complaint that had been made about the plant and machinery dealer’s social media posts.

Ahhh a community cohesion officer, of course. Community cohesion is apparently mandatory and enforced by the police in the UK…but then what is it, exactly? We know it’s not about men threatening women because the police couldn’t care less about that – but it is about doggerel (it’s not a limerick) that makes fun of “gender identity”? We have to cohere when it comes to gender identity but we’re free to split apart when … Read the rest

NEW: Pres. Trump says Speaker Pelosi "has cancelled" State of the Union address.

"I don't believe it's ever happened before. It's always good to be part of history, but this is a very negative part of history. This is where people are afraid to open up and say what's going on." pic.twitter.com/vQLJ5xzJyn

— ABC News (@ABC) January 23, 2019

Or, “Nancy” as I call her

and she doesn’t want to hear more importantly the American people hear the truth

n I think that’s a great…BLAHHTSHHH

on the…incredible country that we all love

it’s a great great harrible mark

this is where people are ayfrayd to open up and say what’s going on

very very negative pard of histree… Read the rest

Since Screechy Monkey and Pliny the In Between both quoted it, here is the full passage in A Christmas Carol:

They were portly gentlemen, pleasant to behold, and now stood, with their hats off, in Scrooge’s office. They had books and papers in their hands, and bowed to him.

“Scrooge and Marley’s, I believe,” said one of the gentlemen, referring to his list. “Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. Marley?”

“Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years,” Scrooge replied. “He died seven years ago, this very night.”

“We have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his surviving partner,” said the gentleman, presenting his credentials.

It certainly was; for they had been two … Read the rest

I’ll just strum the Wilbur Ross guitar for a few more minutes…

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross — a multimillionaire who has engaged in multiple, possibly criminal, ethics violations during his tenure — "doesn't understand why" federal workers are going to homeless shelters and food banks during the shutdown. pic.twitter.com/4jvYAdFMvf

— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) January 24, 2019

Wilbur Ross, who has been leading us into a trade war on behalf of the steel industry, says that the number of workers affected by the shutdown is small, so it's no big deal. A useful chart pic.twitter.com/5sWkjtwug8

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) January 24, 2019

Wilbur Ross is @realDonaldTrump’s Secretary of Commerce.

Wilbur Ross is a billionaire.

And this is billionaire Wilbur Ross

More on Wilbur Ross and “why don’t they just take out a loan?”

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Thursday said he doesn’t understand why federal workers are visiting food banks during the partial government shutdown, saying they should instead seek low-interest loans from banks and credit unions to supplement their lost wages.

“I know they are, and I don’t really quite understand why,” Ross said on CNBC when asked about federal workers going to food banks. Ross is a billionaire and a longtime friend of President Trump.

“The idea that it’s paycheck or zero is not a really valid idea,” he said. “There’s no reason why some institution wouldn’t be willing to lend.”

Wellllll I can think of a reason. … Read the rest