Learn something new every day. Today-I-learned that Sinclair has employment contracts that say employees have to pay Sinclair MUCH MONEY if they quit or are fired. That sounds illegal to me, but apparently it’s not.

https://twitter.com/mattdpearce/status/980811757726810112

If you can’t read the screenshot – it basically just says “employees have to pay Sinclair MUCH MONEY if they quit or are fired” in more legalese and detail.

That helps explain why they can’t just say “No” when Sinclair tells them to read lying canned bullshit on camera.… Read the rest

Taslima asks a pointed question.

Why are they so interested to take pictures? pic.twitter.com/Ze0ZGWxR24

— taslima nasreen (@taslimanasreen) April 3, 2018

I have to say, I’m a little grossed out by all those shameless naked hands poking out. They’re obviously doing it on purpose – carefully pushing their naked nude unclad hands out front so that we can’t not see them. The sluts.… Read the rest

Suzanne Moore has a lot of sympathy for Niall Ferguson and other endangered guys like him.

Up steps the latest victim, poor Niall Ferguson, author, history professor and lover of empire, who wrote in the Sunday Times that he had to endure a “disproportionately vitriolic response” for organising a conference that featured only white male historians. How he has suffered, I can only imagine.

Jordan Peterson, another minor academic, became major simply by outlining how wrong we are to talk of the various ways in which western culture has been deemed oppressive to women. Excuse me, but didn’t Camille Paglia do that 20 years ago?

To such men, any notion of inclusiveness, or of the dread “diversity”, becomes a

Trump and Pruitt are putting their shoulders to the wheel, or their feet to the floor, pushing us to create more and more and more pollution to make American great again.

The Trump administration openly threatened one of the cornerstones of California’s environmental protections Monday, saying that it may revoke the state’s ability under the Clean Air Act to impose stricter standards than the federal government sets for vehicle emissions.

The announcement came as the administration confirmed it is tearing up landmark fuel economy rules pushing automakers to manufacture cleaner burning cars and SUVs.

We want dirtier burning cars, god damn it. Dirt is good. It’s like cowboys n shit.

Pruitt’s announcement said that the administration will abandon the federal

Class photo time again: Trump with the spring class of White House interns:

That’s nearly 100 people; I think I found four who are not white.

Also, how weird is it that all the women have the Trump-women look? The long hair worn down over the shoulders in front in the manner of Princess Ivanka – every single female person in the photo is wearing her hair that way. As a female person who had long hair in her youth I can tell you that’s not a natural or default way to wear long hair; the natural thing is to pull it all back out of the way and just leave it there. It’s weird to drape some of … Read the rest

Here is Leo Igwe’s talk at a TED conference.

As a humanist, Leo Igwe doesn’t believe in divine intervention — but he does believe in the power of human beings to alleviate suffering, cure disease, preserve the planet and turn situations of poverty into prosperity. In this bold talk, Igwe shares how humanism can free Africans from damaging superstitions and give them the power to rebuild the continent.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

Niall Ferguson feels put upon.

First sentence of his Times (the London one) piece explaining why he feels put upon:

It is not very fashionable to be a man these days, especially a white one.

Really? In what sense? Have men lost all their power, their privilege, their advantage over women?

Of fucking course not. What he means is that many of us have noticed the advantage and are trying to make things less unbalanced in the direction of always calling a man. He feels aggrieved because we’re no longer just taking it for granted that men should dominate everything and women should be an afterthought at best.

Last month I organised a small, invitation-only conference of historians

Russian bots are springing to the defense of Fox bully Laura Ingraham, according to Business Insider.

As companies yank their ads from Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham’s show in droves, she continues to draw support from one key Twitter demographic: Russian bots.

The advertiser exodus comes after Ingraham insulted Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg’s grades on Twitter. The Fox News host announced Saturday that she would be taking a “pre-planned vacation” amid the controversy.

“Controversy” is too dignified for it. She’s a grown-ass adult who didn’t just see a bunch of her friends shot to death and felt entitled to bully a teenager who did. That’s not a controversy, it’s just hateful mindless shitty bullying in the style of … Read the rest

Photo of the day. Or week, or year.

https://twitter.com/AlexisCoe/status/980456131188453376… Read the rest

Another part of the takeover:

Seattle-based ABC affiliate KOMO-TV says its owner, the conservative-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group, is forcing its reporters to air pre-scripted segments about fake news media, in an attempt to undermine non-Sinclair stations.

Sinclair has long produced “must-run” segments for its stations, dispersing them to its various subsidiaries and requiring the local stations to run controversial, typically conservative commentary promos alongside their regular news coverage. However, in recent weeks, it’s begun turning its sights on the competition, throwing in mentions of “fake news,” among other things.

In other words it’s helping Trump’s authoritarian attacks on independent journalism.

“The promos, which began airing on the station last week, are part of a Sinclair campaign that forces local

Benjamin Butterworth at Pink News yesterday:

Labour’s shadow equalities minister hosted a string of anti-trans activists in parliament for an official meeting on ‘trans inclusion’, PinkNews has learned.

Dawn Butler, Labour’s lead MP on LGBT rights, met with activists opposed to transgender women being included on all women shortlists in an official capacity on Wednesday.

…

A spokesperson for the Labour Party told PinkNews: “All women shortlists are and always have been open to all women, which of course includes trans women.

…

“The Labour Party recognises the vital importance of self-declaration for the Trans community, which is why we are calling on the Government to reform the Gender Recognition Act and the Equality Act 2010 to change the