This is disturbing.
https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/978704115789451265
The editor
of the Atlantic
hired a writer
who argued
that women should be hanged
for having abortions.
https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/978705326936641536
Oh yes, controversial. Provocative. Edgy. Brave. Forthright. Outspoken. Fearless. Contrarian.
https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/978706649572610048
https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/978707302256644097… Read the rest
Sam Harris has added an update to his attack on Ezra Klein / email dump, to explain how sad it is that everyone did such a crap job of reading his attack / email dump, it’s enough to make a person lose faith in the power of shy-racist thought-making.
… Read the restNOTE (3/28/18)
Judging from the response to this post on social media, my decision to publish these emails appears to have backfired. I was relying on readers to follow the plot and notice Ezra’s evasiveness and gaslighting (e.g. his denial of misrepresentations and slurs that are in the very article he published). Many people seem to have judged from his politeness that Ezra was the one behaving honestly and ethically.
So, as you’ve probably seen already via comments, Sam Harris retorted to Ezra Klein’s Vox piece yesterday. He retorted in his usual prickly, self-righteous, mind-blind, egomaniacal way.
https://twitter.com/SamHarrisOrg/status/978766308643778560
Most of the (nearly 900 so far) replies to that tweet point out that he doesn’t come across as well in that piece as he clearly thinks he does. Did I mention mind-blind? Yes I did. He reminds me of Trump in his helpless inability to perceive his own presentation of self from the point of view of not-SamHarris.
https://twitter.com/jtjoelson/status/978777659307151363
Exactly so. He’s always done that though – this isn’t some new thing. Remember that time he tried to make Chomsky do a dialogue with him? And posted their email exchange as … Read the rest
On the scarcity of women in the Trump administration:
The White House has named twice as many men as women to administration positions. This gender skew is both broad and deep: In no department do female appointees outnumber male appointees, and in some cases men outnumber women four or five to one. Moreover, men significantly outnumber women in low-level positions as well as in high-level ones, with Trump’s Cabinet currently composed of 19 men and five women. Overall, 33 percent of Trump’s appointees are women, compared to 47 percent of the national workforce and 43 percent of the 2 million workers across the executive branch.
Well let’s not be all cowardly and politically correct, here – let’s face facts. … Read the rest
Sigh.
Sanders says a citizenship question has been on every census since 1965.
Citizenship hasn’t been questioned on a decennial census since 1950: https://t.co/xwx10yrUeH pic.twitter.com/siAIF8lCIk
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 27, 2018
That’s an enormous lie on a very important subject. (Also why cite 1965 when the census is every ten years on the tenth year? There was no census in 1965, they were 1960 and 1970. As Kyle Griffin says: the census is decennial.)
Maybe it’s not a lie but an Honest Mistake, but it’s her job not to make howlers like that. But it was probably a lie, probably by whatever quisling briefed her.
… Read the restShe also said the question was “necessary for the Department
Ezra Klein on Sam Harris and “we brave awesome white guys are going to talk Forbidden Truth about race now, so suck it up, cowards.”
It starts with a typically smug taunt by brave awesome Sam himself.
https://twitter.com/SamHarrisOrg/status/977889565238153222
Klein explains:
… Read the restThe background to Harris’s shot at me is that last year, Harris had Charles Murray on his podcast. Murray is a popular conservative intellectual best known for co-writing The Bell Curve, which posited, in a controversial section, a genetic basis for the observed difference between black and white IQs.
Harris’s invitation came in the aftermath of Murray being shouted down, and his academic chaperone assaulted, as he tried to give an invited address on an unrelated topic at
Trump misses Rob wifebeater Porter and wants him back.
President Trump has stayed in touch with Rob Porter, the former White House staff secretary who stepped down after allegations that he had abused his two former wives came to light, according to three people familiar with the conversations, and has told some advisers he hopes Mr. Porter returns to work in the West Wing.
He sees Porter as a “they just don’t understand us!” bro.
From Fire and Fury:
… Read the restHere was, Bannon saw again, the essential Trump problem. He hopelessly personalized everything. He saw the world in commercial and show business terms: someone was always trying to one-up you, someone else was always trying to take the
Another xenophobic action from the Trump administration:
… Read the restThe 2020 census will ask respondents whether they are United States citizens, the Commerce Department announced Monday night, agreeing to a Trump administration request with highly charged political and social implications that many officials feared would result in a substantial undercount.
In a statement released Monday, the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau, said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had “determined that reinstatement of a citizenship question on the 2020 decennial census questionnaire is necessary to provide complete and accurate census block level data,” allowing the department to accurately measure the portion of the population eligible to vote.
But his decision immediately invited a legal challenge: Xavier Becerra, California’s attorney general,
The Post also reports on BoJo’s casual everyday sexism along with his everyday everythingelseism besides.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has a habit of putting his foot in his mouth.
He once described Hillary Clinton as “a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital” with “dyed blond hair and pouty lips, and a steely blue stare.” He said Barack Obama is “part-Kenyan” with an “ancestral dislike” of Britain. He joked about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “having relations” with a goat.
Check check check – sexism, racism, xenophobia.
And in Parliament on Tuesday, he referred to Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary for the opposition Labour Party, as Lady Nugee. Nugee is the last name of Thornberry’s husband, Christopher.
What … Read the rest
Goodness, even the Speaker of the House of Commons is a Social Justice Warrior – that is to say he recognizes that a man referring to a woman as “Lady Husbandname” when she goes by her own name is (brace yourselves) sexist.
H/t Maureen Brian… Read the rest
Poor Don. Yet another will you come to my party? will you be my lawyer? meets with a Sorry, no.
… Read the restTwo more high-power attorneys have had to turn down President Donald Trump. Tom Buchanan and Dan Webb confirmed to The Daily Beast that Trump reached out to them about representing him, and that they couldn’t do it.
“President Trump reached out to Dan Webb and Tom Buchanan to provide legal representation,” they said in a statement. “They were unable to take on the representation due to business conflicts. However they consider the opportunity to represent the President to be the highest honor and they sincerely regret that they cannot do so. They wish the president the best and believe
The shoe might start to pinch now.
The United States and its European allies are expelling dozens of Russian diplomats in a co-ordinated response to the poisoning of a former Russian spy in the UK.
It is said to be the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history.
More than 20 countries have aligned with the UK, expelling more than 100 diplomats.
Russia says it’s going to “retaliate” – which is silly because it did its retaliating in advance, which is why the allies are responding.
… Read the restPresident of the European Council Donald Tusk said the EU states had decided to expel Russian diplomats as a direct result of a meeting, held last week about the Salisbury poisoning.
Haha the Times (Shear and Haberman) calls Trump verbose. In real life (i.e. socially as opposed to pretending to be presidently) that would be the worst thing about him: the windbag aspect. I cannot bear windbags.
… Read the restThe verbose commander-in-chief has posted more than 2,900 times on Twitter since taking office, using the term “FAKE NEWS” to describe everything from the Russia probe and allegations of chaos in the White House to harassment accusations, the size of his inaugural crowds and heated arguments with world leaders.
But he has been uncharacteristically silent in recent days — to the relief of his advisers — as a pornographic film star and a Playboy model described intimate details of sexual encounters with Mr.
Well there’s a surprise, Trump has finally joined the move to rebuke Putin.
President Trump ordered the expulsion of 60 Russians from the United States on Monday, adding to a growing cascade of similar actions taken by western allies in response to Russia’s alleged poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.
Poland, Italy, Denmark, France and Germany were among 14 European Union member nations announcing plans to expel Russians from their countries in solidarity with Britain, which previously expelled 23 Russian diplomats after the poisoning. Canada also said it would expel four.
They’re kicking out 12 intelligence officers at the UN and closing the consulate in Seattle, with seven days to pack up and leave.
… Read the restIn a call
Priss Choss is even funnier than I realized.
An unauthorised new biography of Prince Charles paints a picture of a capricious man who is obsessed with the public’s opinion of him, whose lavish spending reveals a royal utterly divorced from the life of ordinary people.
According to Tom Bower’s Rebel Prince, published on Thursday by William Collins, Charles once “shrieked” and “trembled” at the sight of an unknown plastic substance covering his dinner, only to be told “It’s cling film, darling,” by Camilla. On another occasion, Bower claims the prince brought his own mattress, toilet seat, Kleenex Velvet toilet paper and two “landscapes of the Scottish Highlands” when visiting a friend in north-east England.
And he was only dropping in … Read the rest
Sam Harris just keeps getting more tiresome. (Not more smug. He started out at maximum smug so he can’t get any more so.) (Unless he performs a miracle.)
Ooh edgy.… Read the rest
… Read the restParkland high school shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez galvanized a student revolt against gun violence with a fiery speech calling out NRA-bought politicians, just a few days after a disturbed young man murdered 17 of her peers—in six minutes and 20 seconds. At Saturday’s March For Our Lives in Washington, Gonzalez galvanized a movement with silence.
She recited the names of all 17 Parkland victims, and then she stood mute, tears streaming down her cheeks, her eyes sometimes closed. The crowd, rooting for the poised young woman with the shaved head and wearing a braided choker, grew confused. A few minutes earlier, a nervous Parkland classmate had actually vomited on stage during her speech, and then
Surprisingly, Melania won’t be settling down on the couch next to Don this evening to watch 60 Minutes. He’s going back to DC but she’s staying on in Florida because reasons.
“The First Lady will be staying in Florida as is their tradition for spring break,” White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said in a late Sunday morning statement.
Ah yes their tradition. They have a long long long tradition that goes back to the Norman Conquest that he goes to the White House and she stays at the golf hotel for spring break. Tradition is a beautiful thing.
… Read the restTrump, meanwhile, has been complaining to associates here this weekend about all the media attention Daniels has been receiving, according to people
Aw. Poor Don is having trouble hiring new lawyers now.
President Trump has decided not to hire two lawyers who were announced last week as new additions to his legal team, leaving him with a shrinking stable of lawyers as the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, enters an intense phase.
“The president is disappointed that conflicts prevent Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing from joining the president’s special counsel legal team,” Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, said in a statement on Sunday morning. “However, those conflicts do not prevent them from assisting the president in other legal matters. The president looks forward to working with them.”
And Dowd quit on Thursday. Rats, sinking ship, at … Read the rest
Well, great, Rick Santorum has the solution – tell the kids to stop whining and just learn first aid for when their shooter arrives. Right?! Goddam lazy kids expecting other people to pass reasonable gun control laws.
CNN commentator and former Pennsylvania GOP Sen. Rick Santorum on Sunday suggested students protesting for gun control legislation would be better served by taking CPR classes and preparing for active shooter scenarios.
“How about kids instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations that when there is a violent shooter that you can actually respond to that,” Santorum said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Totally! Kids today … Read the rest
