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The policies of his own administration

May 28th, 2018 11:45 am | By

During intervals from lying about the investigation into Russian meddling in the election Trump is lying about his administration’s policy and practice of taking children away from parents who immigrate illegally.

President Trump’s attempt to blame Democrats for separating migrant families at the border is renewing a political uproar over immigration, an issue that has challenged Trump throughout his presidency and threatens to grow more heated as he imposes more restrictions to stem the flow of illegal immigration.

In one of several misleading tweets during the holiday weekend, Trump pushed Democrats to change a “horrible law” that the president said mandated separating children from parents who enter the country illegally. But there is no law specifically requiring the government to

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Nice

May 28th, 2018 11:29 am | By

Oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god

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A big pile of quids

May 27th, 2018 4:45 pm | By

Oh look, more blatant corruption and conflict of interest – more using the office of president to put more millions in the pockets of Donald Trump or family members of Donald Trump.

Ivanka Trump’s business has won approval from the Chinese government for at least five new trademarks. The approval came just days before President Donald Trump announced he was working on a controversial deal to drop U.S. prohibitions against China cellphone manufacturer ZTE.

Quid pro quo much?

Another trademark was given trial approval. The trademarks grant Ivanka Trump operations exclusive rights to market a variety of products in China that could potentially amount to millions of dollars in profits. Ivanka Trump Marks LLC received approval last year for

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Stealing children

May 27th, 2018 4:34 pm | By

What was that about separating children from their parents?

In case you’re not familiar with the history – slave families could be broken up at any time at the pleasure of their “owners.”

The lisp and facial burns were from torture for speaking their own languages at the schools.

https://twitter.com/CorbieCrow/status/1000838789244358657

https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1000865151975903232… Read the rest

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Suitability

May 27th, 2018 2:45 pm | By

I hope someone brings this to Trump’s attention.

Two graduates of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., penned an op-ed in The Baltimore Sun questioning President Trump’s suitability to deliver the commencement speech to this year’s graduating class of midshipmen on Friday.

“It is right and fitting that the president of the United States give a commencement address to a service academy’s graduating class,” Daniel Barkhuff and William Burke wrote in Wednesday’s edition of the paper. “It is also right and fitting that citizens of the democracy for which these graduates will soon be charged with protecting point out the personal cowardice, narcissism and incompetency of the current president.”

They graduated in 2001.

They wrote of the sacrifices

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Repetition

May 27th, 2018 2:28 pm | By

Trump is on a relentless campaign to Repeat the Lies over and over and over and over to chip slowly away at the number of people who recognize that he is both a liar and malevolent.

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Is she original? Is she piquant?

May 27th, 2018 2:08 pm | By

I’ve been sort of re-reading Jane Eyre lately – sort of because I’ve been dipping in and out and going back and forth as opposed to reading straight through – sampling more than re-reading. In a way it’s more interesting than I remembered, but in another way it’s at least as irritating as I’ve long found it.

Irritating once the Rochester plot gets going, that is. The Gateshead part and the Lowood part are immortal, but the –plucky governess meets grumpy but fascinating master of the house– plot is all too familiar. It’s familiar in great part because it helped set the pattern itself, but that doesn’t make it less predictable.

It’s far more literate, in Charlotte Bronte’s telling, than … Read the rest

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Missing

May 27th, 2018 11:53 am | By

Speaking of children…

The US government seems to have lost some.

The federal government has placed thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children in the homes of sponsors, but last year it couldn’t account for nearly 1,500 of them.

Steven Wagner, a top official with the Department of Health and Human Services,disclosed the number to a Senate subcommittee last month while discussing the state of the Office of Refugee Resettlement(ORR) that oversees the care of unaccompanied immigrant children.

Wagner is the acting assistant secretary for the Administration for Children and Families, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. ORR is a program of the Administration for Children and Families.

CNN reported earlier this month

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Resounding

May 26th, 2018 4:09 pm | By

More reaction shots.

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Trump and Bolton shocked by bellicose rhetoric

May 26th, 2018 12:32 pm | By

How the beautiful friendship between Kim and Trump fell apart so sudden-like:

Inside the White House residence, the first alarm sounded about 10 p.m. Wednesday when national security adviser John Bolton told Trump about North Korea’s public statement threatening a “nuclear-to-nuclear showdown” and mocking Vice President Pence as a “political dummy.”

Trump was dismayed by Pyongyang’s bellicose rhetoric, the same theatrics Trump often deploys against his adversaries. Bolton advised that the threatening language was a very bad sign, and the president told advisers he was concerned Kim was maneuvering to back out of the summit and make Americans look like desperate suitors, according to a person familiar with the conversations.

Trump was “dismayed” that an adversary is as big … Read the rest

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Yes

May 26th, 2018 11:18 am | By

Some Repeal the 8th tweets.

https://twitter.com/DancingTheMind/status/1000306630033072129

https://twitter.com/CaoimheSloan/status/1000323212679483392

Best one:

Updating to add another best; h/t Seth.

https://twitter.com/98FM/status/1000431252091101184… Read the rest

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If it did happen, it would have been office banter

May 26th, 2018 10:58 am | By

The BBC followed up on that bound and gagged worker story.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has told MSPs she is “absolutely horrified” by a photo of a woman allegedly taped to a chair and gagged by male colleagues.

Ms Sturgeon said she had asked a top civil servant to conduct a full review into the circumstances and report to her personally as soon as possible.

The BBC obtained the photo of DeeAnn Fitzpatrick being restrained.

She claims it took place amid years of bullying and harassment at Marine Scotland’s Scrabster office.

Ms Fitzpatrick, a Canadian national, said the incident happened in 2010 as a result of her blowing the whistle on a threatening and misogynistic culture at the Scottish

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Resoundingly

May 26th, 2018 9:53 am | By

RTÉ reports:

The results in the referendum on the Eighth Amendment show the Yes side is ahead by a margin of around 2-to-1.

Most of the 40 constituencies have now finished counting ballot papers and have declared official results.

In what is expected to be the highest Yes vote, 78.4% of voters in Dublin Bay South opted to repeal the Eighth.

On a day described by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as the “culmination of a quiet revolution”, Galway East was the first constituency to declare a result delivering a decisive Yes vote at 60%.

In the capital all declared constituencies have come in with over 70% for the Yes side.

Donegal looks to be the one constituency that will vote … Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 9 comments


No racist and misogynistic culture to see here

May 26th, 2018 9:13 am | By

Fun and games at the office.

A woman who complained of a racist and misogynistic culture in a Scottish government department claims she was taped to a chair and gagged by two male colleagues as a warning to keep quiet.

DeeAnn Fitzpatrick said the restraint took place amid years of bullying and harassment at Marine Scotland’s Scrabster office.

The fisheries officer has taken her case to an employment tribunal.

BBC Scotland has obtained a photo of the restraint incident.

It was taken by one of the men allegedly responsible.

Ms Fitzpatrick, a Canadian national, said it happened in 2010 as a result of her blowing the whistle on a threatening and misogynistic culture at Marine Scotland’s office in Scrabster,

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A man with a mission

May 25th, 2018 4:08 pm | By

A long and very interesting piece on Jordan Kermit Peterson by a longtime colleague and friend who successfully pushed for the University of Toronto to hire him twenty years ago. He now thinks that was a mistake.

The takeaway: Peterson was always eccentric and intense, but he’s gotten worse, especially since he became a famous guru.

I thought long and hard before writing about Jordan, and I do not do this lightly. He has one of the most agile and creative minds I’ve ever known. He is a powerful orator. He is smart, passionate, engaging and compelling and can be thoughtful and kind.

I was once his strongest supporter.

That all changed with his rise to celebrity. I am

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Goodbye 8th

May 25th, 2018 2:41 pm | By

Ireland has voted massively to repeal the 8th amendment.

Ireland has voted by a landslide margin to change the constitution so that abortion can be legalised, according to an exit poll conducted for The Irish Times by Ipsos/MRBI.

The poll suggests that the margin of victory for the Yes side in the referendum will be 68 per cent to 32 per cent – a stunning victory for the Yes side after a long and often divisive campaign. See here for liveblog coverage of events across Friday in the referendum vote.

The Irish Times reported on an issue with the abortion ban in April:

The Eighth Amendment has caused pregnant women with cancer to die and will continue to put

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Flanked by several sex crimes detectives

May 25th, 2018 11:01 am | By

Harvey Weinstein turned himself in this morning.

Harvey Weinstein turned himself in to New York City detectives and appeared in court on Friday on charges that he raped one woman and forced another to perform oral sex, a watershed in a monthslong sex crimes investigation and in the #MeToo movement.

Around 7:30 a.m., Mr. Weinstein walked into a police station house in Lower Manhattan, flanked by several sex crimes detectives. Toting three large books under his right arm, he looked up without saying a word as a crush of reporters and onlookers yelled, “Harvey!”

…

He was fingerprinted and formally booked. Then about an hour later, he was led from the First Police Precinct in TriBeCa and taken to

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Miller and Kushner laughed

May 25th, 2018 9:58 am | By

Trump is reeeeeeeally mad at Kirsten Nielsen – not of course because she’s too racist and xenophobic but because she’s not racist and xenophobic enough.

As illegal crossings are once more on the rise and Trump hears a cascade of criticism from conservative allies, Nielsen finds herself on the receiving end of the president’s visceral anger about immigration, seeing the issue as the reason he won in 2016 and a key to his politicking ahead of the midterm elections.

The president has chastised her on several occasions this spring, including a much publicized meeting earlier this month when he attacked her in front of the entire Cabinet. He has grown furious because his administration has made little progress building

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What possible legitimate purpose?

May 24th, 2018 5:56 pm | By

Yes, thank you for asking, it is quite strange that subjects of an investigation were allowed to plant their lawyers and friends in a meeting to discuss the investigation while it is in progress. As a matter of fact, to put it more technically, it’s a fucking circus.

The president’s chief of staff and the White House counsel attended a classified briefing Thursday with top Justice Department officials and lawmakers about an investigation into the president and his associates — and the events have floored national-security experts and former intelligence officials.

When the White House announced the first of the two briefings earlier this week, it said chief of staff John Kelly would not be attending.

One former FBI

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Accuracy patrol

May 24th, 2018 12:29 pm | By

Honestly, they’re still getting this wrong.

The story: senior academic, a male, when a voice on a crowded elevator at a conference invites people to call out their floors, calls out “Ladies’ Lingerie!” Haw haw. Another academic, a woman, makes a complaint, and since this is in the Daily Mail you know the rest.

But then the senior male academic, Richard New Lewbow, telling this sad tale, gets to Tim Hunt.

I know many in my profession are more vulnerable to threats and bullying than I am — at 76 I am near the end of my career. But students and young dons will feel an even greater need to censor their thoughts in a world where people who

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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 10 comments