Huh, guess who is “required” to work without pay during the government shutdown. (I put scare quotes on “required” because that’s slavery and as Katha Pollitt pointed out on Twitter the other day, slavery is a violation of the 13th Amendment.) The Secret Service, that’s who.

Secret Service agents are growing increasingly anxious and angry about the shutdown, according to several current and former agents. The Secret Service protects 42 people associated with the Trump White House, 11 more than were given details during the Obama administration. In August 2017, the agency’s new director, Randolph D. Alles, told an interviewer that the sprawling Trump entourage was putting unprecedented strains on his agents, in terms of staffing and budgeting.

DOCTOR Rachel McKinnon wrote a piece explaining what people should do when they annoy DOCTOR Rachel McKinnon, with particular reference to Martina Navratilova.

Last month, tennis legend Martina Navratilova wrote some now-deleted, unfortunate tweets about trans-women athletes.

Her initial tweet was about trans women athletes competing as women while having a penis. It read:

Clearly that can’t be right. You can’t just proclaim yourself a female and be able to compete against women. There must be some standards, and having a penis and competing as a woman would not fit that standard…

Two days later, I weighed in by retweeting the offending tweet: “Welp, guess Navratilova is transphobic.” I also said, “No, you are not ‘pro- trans people’

Jacob Mchangama and Sarah McLaughlin at Foreign Policy also argue that Europe is going backward on free speech and free thought.

But despite the unanimous rhetorical support for free speech after Charlie Hebdo, blasphemy bans have become more firmly anchored in some parts of the continent in recent years. In a recent case, the European Court of Human Rights even reaffirmed that European human rights law recognizes a right not to have one’s religious feelings hurt. The court based its decision on the deeply flawed assumption that religious peace and tolerance may require the policing rather than the protection of “gratuitously offensive” speech. Accordingly, it found that Austria had not violated freedom of expression by convicting a

Charlie Hebdo, four years ago today.

Four years after Charlie Hebdo attacks, satirists bemoan the loss of reason #JeSuisCharliehttps://t.co/vrkNQyUwiW

— Ex-Muslims of North America (@ExmuslimsOrg) January 7, 2019

‘Respect for religion’ has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion.’ – Salman Rushdie #JeSuisCharlie pic.twitter.com/C2DaT8ZVTc

— Ex-Muslims of North America (@ExmuslimsOrg) January 7, 2019

“I am not afraid of retaliation. I have no kids, no wife, no car, no credit. It perhaps sounds a bit pompous, but I prefer to die standing than living on my knees.” Charb – Chief Editor at Charlie Hebdo #JeSuisCharlie pic.twitter.com/rSmHMZ0nnF

— Ex-Muslims of North America (@ExmuslimsOrg) January 7, 2019

It’s four years ago today that the Charlie Hebdo attack took place. This is

Now Trump wants to take over the airwaves to tell us lies.

President Trump wants to address the nation about the government shutdown on Tuesday night, and later in the week plans to travel to the southern border as part of his effort to persuade Americans of the need for a border wall — the sticking point in negotiations with Democrats who are eager to reopen shuttered agencies.

The White House did not immediately respond to questions about a request to television networks to carve out time for an Oval Office address. A person familiar with the request said the White House had asked to interrupt prime time programming on Tuesday.

So that he can lie to us about … Read the rest

And at the same time, I saw Julie tweet.

YES!!!!!!!! https://t.co/0n85rQObVe

— Julie Bindel (@bindelj) January 7, 2019

… Read the rest

Rahaf tweeted her barricade.

https://twitter.com/rahaf84427714/status/1082212804549959687

Help was on the way.

https://twitter.com/melissarfleming/status/1082212629148565504

Australia director of Human Rights Watch urges Australia to step up.

Australian senator calls on the government to issue emergency travel documents to allow young Saudi woman @rahaf84427714 trapped at Bangkok airport to travel to Australia. Do it, Australia! https://t.co/mLH4RELi8s

— Elaine Pearson (@PearsonElaine) January 7, 2019

ABC News Middle East correspondent on the scene.

UN has arrived. They are interviewing Rahaf. They gave their word that she would remain in their custody & that she is now safe. This is what they promised @UNHCRThailand @Reaproy @melissarfleming

— Sophie McNeill (@Sophiemcneill) January 7, 2019

https://twitter.com/rahaf84427714/status/1082275701330345989

Sophie McNeill joined her in the barricaded room.

https://twitter.com/rahaf84427714/status/1082297101239836672

Human Rights Watch is still … Read the rest

It looks as if Thailand is not going to hand Rahaf Alqunun over to her father after all.

Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, 18, will be taken to a safe location in Bangkok, a hotel where U.N. staff members will interview her and process her status determination in coming days. She originally was set to be deported back to Kuwait, where her family was waiting for her.

…

Thai authorities had detained her at an airport hotel in Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport since Saturday night and had initially planned to send her back to Kuwait on a flight departing at 11:15 a.m. local time Monday. Alqunun, however, barricaded herself in her room and demanded to meet with the U.N. refu­gee agency, missing the

Foreign Minister Chrystia @caFreeland, please intervene to help @Rahaf84427714; save her life. She’s a Saudi woman who renounced Islam & tried to escape her family & Saudi Arabia, but was arrested in Thailand at the behest of Riyadh. Please #SaveRahaf. We Canadians r not cowards.

— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) January 6, 2019

https://twitter.com/miss9afi/status/1082032113069756418

#Thailand authorities should immediately halt planned deportation of Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, a #Saudi woman who says she is fleeing domestic abuse & fears for her safety if forcibly returned to Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch @hrw said today. https://t.co/C2iyZ6XJ3f #SaveRahaf

— Mona Eltahawy (@monaeltahawy) January 6, 2019

https://twitter.com/JenDegtjarewsky/status/1082054336383860736

#Saudi woman asylum-seeker Rahaf has stated that the forced flight info is @KuwaitAirways 412. It is

Oh, how thoughtful.

Women in Saudi Arabia divorced by their husbands will now be sent a text message to inform them of their new status.

The move is designed to stop the practice of men ending marriages without telling their wives.

That nice Saudi Ministry of Justice tweeted it.

https://twitter.com/MojKsa_EN/status/1081894180908134400

So nice for her, as she’s walking around in her abaya (which she wouldn’t be, because women aren’t supposed to be walking around on their own) she gets a text telling her she’s divorced. I’m glad it’s such a nice blue-sky day.

The message will include the divorce certificate number and the name of the relevant court where the women can pick up the documentation.
Women can also inquire

Feminist – a *woman* who fights for the political, economic and social liberation of *women.*

When 'UN Women' will not even name themselves as advocates for women things are fucked. https://t.co/CoQEhhlHQi

— Dr. Jane Clare Jones (@janeclarejones) January 6, 2019

https://twitter.com/tommykinda/status/1081984250054889473

Nope, that’s exactly what it is. “Feminism isn’t about the liberation of women, it’s about the liberation of people.” That is All Lives Matter in a different outfit. But, you know, it’s only women, so it doesn’t matter.

Like, why on earth would you participate in that? Is being nice so important that you’d happily just blink out of existence? I fucking love all the women who firmly answer ‘no’ to that question.

— Graham Linehan (@Glinner)

We haven’t seen enough starvation lately, let’s have more of that.

The partial government shutdown glided into its third week Saturday with no end in sight. If the government is not reopened before February, millions of Americans who receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — the nation’s food stamp program — could have their assistance disrupted.

But they can just make an adjustment. Trump said so.

According to the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 42 million Americans received SNAP benefits in 2017. More than 68 percent of participants were in families with children, and more than 44 percent were in working families.

Other programs are in even more immediate danger than SNAP. The

Human Rights Watch:

(Bangkok) – Thailand authorities should immediately halt the planned deportation of a Saudi woman who says she is fleeing domestic abuse and fears for her safety if forcibly returned to Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should also allow her unrestricted access to make a refugee claim with the Bangkok office of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and should respect UNHCR’s decision under the agency’s protection mandate.

Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, told Human Rights Watch that she arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok on the evening of January 5, 2019, en route from Kuwait to Australia, but was met by a representative of the Saudi embassy who seized her passport to

Judith Shulevitz at the Times points out that publishers are starting to add morality clauses to their contracts.

This past year, regular contributors to Condé Nast magazines started spotting a new paragraph in their yearly contracts. It’s a doozy. If, in the company’s “sole judgment,” the clause states, the writer “becomes the subject of public disrepute, contempt, complaints or scandals,” Condé Nast can terminate the agreement. In other words, a writer need not have done anything wrong; she need only become scandalous. In the age of the Twitter mob, that could mean simply writing or saying something that offends some group of strident tweeters.

Here’s one problem with that: not all strident tweeters are reasonable. We wouldn’t want Adrian Harrop … Read the rest

Oh come on now.

Feminist = a person who believes in & stands up for the political, economic, and social equality of human beings. pic.twitter.com/5MMwk1bMyM

— UN Women (@UN_Women) January 5, 2019

I don’t see color!

ALL lives matter!

Affirmative action is unfair to white men!

Feminism is about ALL PEOPLE!

Shouldn’t UN Women change its name now? I mean, why women? Why not people? Why is UN Women being so exclusionary in its very own name?… Read the rest