Owen joins the kicking. As usual.

Pro Publica has a big piece on what Trump & co have done to the CDC.

Back in May a team at the CDC was working furiously on guidance for how to not get the virus.

Butler’s team rushed to finalize the guidance for churches, synagogues and mosques that Trump’s aides had shelved in April after battling the CDC over the language. In reviewing a raft of last-minute edits from the White House, Butler’s team rejected those that conflicted with CDC research, including a worrisome suggestion to delete a line that urged congregations to “consider suspending or at least decreasing” the use of choirs.

Why do Trump’s aides get to “shelve” informed medical advice during a pandemic? Why do they get to “battle” the CDC over language? Why do the desires of the president get to edit and delete informed medical advice, especially advice on how to survive a pandemic?

On Friday, Trump’s aides called the CDC repeatedly about the guidance, according to emails. “Why is it not up?” they demanded until it was posted on the CDC website that afternoon.

The next day, a furious call came from the office of the vice president: The White House suggestions were not optional. The CDC’s failure to use them was insubordinate, according to emails at the time.

How dare they? How dare they do that? How dare they put their perceived political advantage ahead of the survival of millions? How do they sleep at night?

They restored the White House version. The danger of singing in church was left on the floor.

Early that Sunday morning, as Americans across the country prepared excitedly to return to houses of worship, Butler, a churchgoer himself, poured his anguish and anger into an email to a few colleagues.

“I am very troubled on this Sunday morning that there will be people who will get sick and perhaps die because of what we were forced to do,” he wrote.

Forced for the sake of the warped politics of the evil lump of flesh in the White House.

Pro Publica has a big stash of emails and other records.

Senior CDC staff describe waging battles that are as much about protecting science from the White House as protecting the public from COVID-19. It is a war that they have, more often than not, lost.

Employees spoke openly about their “hill to die on” — the political interference that would prompt them to leave. Yet again and again, they surrendered and did as they were told. It wasn’t just worries over paying mortgages or forfeiting the prestige of the job. Many feared that if they left and spoke out, the White House would stop consulting the CDC at all, and would push through even more dangerous policies.

To some veteran scientists, this acquiescence was the real sign that the CDC had lost its way. One scientist swore repeatedly in an interview and said, “The cowardice and the caving are disgusting to me.”

…

Once seen as an apolitical bulwark, the CDC endured meddling on multiple fronts by officials with little or no public health experience, from Trump’s daughter Ivanka to Stephen Miller, the architect of the president’s immigration crackdown. A shifting and mysterious cast of political aides and private contractors — what one scientist described as young protégés of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, “wearing blue suits with red ties and beards” — crowded into important meetings about key policy decisions.

Princess Ivanka ffs. Creepy racist Stephen Miller ffs.

The Trump administration is “appropriating a public enterprise and making it into an agent of propaganda for a political regime,” one CDC scientist said in an interview as events unfolded. “It’s mind-boggling in the totality of ambition to so deeply undermine what’s so vitally important to the public.”

This is what I’m saying. They’re trashing the medical science during a pandemic for their own political (in the very lowest cheapest sleaziest sense) goals – they’re doing it because they want to retain their death-grip on power.

The Guardian shares the front page of the Trump website:

I want to say just this one thing.

Why would anyone want to do that? Why would anyone want an image of self with a different and better body? A fake image like that just underlines what a soft flabby weak puffy unhealthy body Donnie Two Scoops has.

That’s the one thing. Never mind that like hell he has – that one’s too obvious.

This filthy man…

President Donald Trump continued his attacks on Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday, calling the Democratic lawmaker a “dictator” as authorities announced charges against a 14th suspect in the thwarted plot to kidnap her and violently overthrow the government.

“Michigan, she has to open up. [Whitmer] wants to be a dictator in Michigan and the people can’t stand her,” Trump said Thursday in a FOX Business interview. Blasting Whitmer’s COVID-19 policies, he insisted people “want to get back to work.”

Do they also want to catch the virus?

The president has repeatedly attacked Whitmer even after authorities announced last week charges against more than a dozen individuals who allegedly conspired to kidnap the state leader and put her on trial for “treason” in a “secure location” in Wisconsin.

He’s a filthy human being.

On Tuesday, FBI Special Agent Richard Trask revealed that the men facing federal charges also discussed “taking out” Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam during a June meeting in Ohio. During the meeting, the group discussed their outrage at the two Democratic governors’ decisions to lock down their states and discussed ways they could take matters into their own hands.

“They discussed possible targets, taking a sitting governor, specifically issues with the governor of Michigan and Virginia based on the lockdown orders,” Trask said, adding that the meeting brought together militias from at least four states.

On Thursday, Northam condemned Trump’s rhetoric, which he said is “emboldening” white supremacists.

Whitmer also addressed Trump’s rhetoric last week, after the charges were announced.

“When our leaders speak, their words matter. They carry weight. When our leaders meet with, encourage, fraternize with domestic terrorists, they legitimize their actions and they are complicit. When they stoke and contribute to hate speech, they are complicit,” Whitmer said. “Hatred, bigotry, and violence have no place in the great state of Michigan.”

Trump was quick to respond to Whitmer’s criticism on Oct. 8, firing off a series of rage-filled tweets criticizing the Michigan official’s tenure in office and her decision to lock down the state to combat the pandemic.

What an adult, responsible, reasonable, generous way to respond.

I had to find them, which meant hitting the end key a lot because he tweets so frenetically.

Not his worst ever, but plenty bad enough. Petulant selfish narcissistic little toad.

Whitmer was shocked by it.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told NBC News she was “shocked” by President Donald Trump’s “appalling” response to her after federal officials revealed they had thwarted a plot to kidnap her around the November election.

“I was shocked to see that response,” Whitmer said. “I think this was a moment where I heard from a lot of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, my fellow governors, Republican and Democrat, reached out to say, ‘Are you OK? How’s your family?'”

“That’s what decent people do. And unfortunately, that was not the response at the White House,” she said.

Because Trump is a terrible mean little lump of flesh. There’s nothing good about him, nothing redeeming, nothing worth a second of anyone’s time. He’s a pure waste of resources.

He’s campaigning again.

That is, Trump tells the cheering crowd that “we sent in US Marshals” and they murdered a suspect.

19 days.

But nobody is claiming trans women don’t have a right to play – the issue is whether trans women (people with male bodies) have a right to play against women, in defiance of the danger to the women and the unfairness to the women.

And there’s this.

Their “motion” is protracted filthy bullying.

I had to Google to find out what the GMB is – it’s a huge general union, the product of amalgamations over time. GMB=General, Municipal, Boilermakers but it’s lots of other things too. This branch is for people who work for MPs, if I’ve understood correctly. Anyway they’re joining the bullying of Rosie Duffield. Here’s the whole thing:

It’s interesting that they say they “condemn all harassment towards anyone within a protected characteristic” while in the act of harassing Rosie Duffield. It’s annoying that they chummily call her “Rosie” while in the act of harassing her.

Another lawyer bails out of Barr’s Justice Department:

Barr has never actually investigated, charged or tried a case. He’s a well-trained bureaucrat but has no actual experience as a prosecutor.

Unfortunately, over the last year, Barr’s resentment toward rule-of-law prosecutors became increasingly difficult to ignore, as did his slavish obedience to Donald Trump’s will in his selective meddling with the criminal justice system in the Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and Roger Stone cases. In each of these cases, Barr overruled career prosecutors in order to assist the president’s associates and/or friends, who potentially harbor incriminating information. This career bureaucrat seems determined to turn our democracy into an autocracy.

…

It took federal Judge Reggie Walton (who sharply criticized Barr for a “lack of candor”) to at least temporarily stop Barr from dismissing all charges against Flynn, the president’s former national security adviser, who admitted lying to the FBI about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador. Rather than representing the interests of the American public, Barr chooses to act as Trump’s lap dog.

More recently, Barr directed federal officers to use tear gas in Lafayette Park to quell what were, at that time, peaceful protesters. Barr’s assertion the square was not cleared due to the president’s desire for a Bible-carrying photo op is laughable. It is certainly a case that Barr would lose before a jury (again, though, this may not be clear to him due to his unfamiliarity with jury trials).

Major put-downs about no experience with prosecution. It’s rather like hardened combat vets talking about an officer who has never left Fort Dix.

Barr also turned his back on the rule of law by supporting the president’s selective use of federal troops to assault citizens protesting the killing of George Floyd in Portland, Oregon. Yet he stood silently by when armed right-wing protesters stormed the Michigan state Capitol building to protest the Democratic governor’s public health orders.

Fortunately, Barr has only weeks left.

Yes but it’s even worse than that. It mandates the recognition of other people’s subjective individuality. How the hell are we supposed to be able to do that? How can we recognize something internal to someone else? We can’t; it’s literally impossible, impossible by definition.

We try to do that up to a point with people we have some connection to – with friends, family, colleagues. We take their word for it that they feel X, in general, unless we have good reasons not to. But that’s all we’re doing – taking their word for it. Their feelings remain internal, as do ours. We can’t literally “recognize” something hidden.

And as for total strangers, as for the world at large – we are under no obligation to take their word for it. None, zip, zero. We can’t “recognize” it and we’re not required to declare belief in it. The whole idea is literally nonsensical.

Summons a lot of memories, this does.

Heather Peto is a man who identifies as a woman. It’s classic the way men who identify as women tip their hands by being so comfortable and at home with bullying women. Heather here takes it for granted that he gets to tell Rosie Duffield MP what to do and even – and especially – WHAT TO THINK. That’s the bit that especially summons memories, that telling women what to think and the bullying when they refuse to be told.

Heather Peto’s profile says “LGBT-Labour Co-Chair (she/her).” That makes it sound (or at least it did to me) as if it’s a branch of the Labour party, but (I looked it up) it’s an independent group allied to Labour. It’s not in any way the boss of Rosie Duffield MP.

Anyway – that patronizing de haut en bas “Each time we thought we had made progress with Rosie by explaining” just makes me bristle with rage. I’m not the only one.

And many more.

Mother Jones on the Giuliani/New York Post “bombshell”:

On Wednesday, the New York Post released what it hailed as a bombshell: an unidentified computer repair store owner in Delaware had come to possess a laptop that contained Hunter Biden emails (and purportedly a sex tape), the hard drive and computer was seized by the FBI, the store owner at some point passed a copy of the hard drive to Rudy Giuliani, and one of the emails suggested that Hunter, who served on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, may have in 2015 introduced a Burisma official to his dad, Vice President Joe Biden. The story depicts this as a big scandal, and Guiliani tweeted, “Much more to come.” 

Got all that? No, me neither. I can’t be bothered, because Giuliani and the Post? Pfff.

But the key point of the article was predicated on false information that Giuliani has been spreading for a long time—and that appears to be linked to a Russian disinformation operation that the Post neglected to note in its article. That is, the Post piece, based on an unproven smear, is in sync with Moscow’s ongoing effort to influence the 2020 election to help President Donald Trump retain power. (The FBI and other parts of the US intelligence community have stated that Vladimir Putin is once again attacking the US political system to boost Trump.)

And the news media should be reporting that, not this bullshit story.

Rupert Murdoch’s paper is using this one email to revive the Ukrainian scandal that Giuliani has been trying to gin up for over a year. (This crusade included trying to raise $10 million to make a documentary that would be released before the election.) And don’t forget that it was Giuliani and Trump’s search for Ukrainian dirt that led to Trump’s impeachment. 

And don’t forget what a Trump-licking sleaze Giuliani has shown himself to be.

The Post, Fox, and the Trump campaign will try to turn this disinformation and whatever else might be on that laptop into an October Surprise. The big question is how the rest of the media will contend with this, especially if Giuliani or others keep leaking other material (which may or may not be legitimate) from this computer. Will reporters at other outlets repeat the mistakes of 2016 and focus obsessively on these leads without examining the source or investigating the operation that put them into play? Will they wittingly or not assist an obvious ploy to generate headlines that suggest there is a new scandal about old (and already disproven) allegations? Will they fall for it? 

If they’re Maggie Haberman they will.

On Wednesday morning, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted out the Post story and its headline referring to a “smoking-gun email.” Subsequently, she posted tweets taking a more skeptical view of the story. To his credit, Chris Megerian, the White House correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, quickly pointed out, “The story does not say that allegations of Ukrainian corruption have been pushed by Russia to undermine Joe Biden, according to U.S. intelligence officials. Nor does it mention that Rudy Giuliani has worked with a Ukrainian lawmaker identified as a Russian agent.”  Facebook executive Andy Stone noted that the social media giant would limit the Post article’s distribution on its platform. 

Three weeks.

Our pal Benjamin Cohen (CEO of Pink News in case you’ve forgotten) is still at the woman-hating.

Which people would those be? By “might use to describe Helen” does he mean certainly would and he would be right there with them? Why would these mysterious people be deploying “the sort of language” he hints at? Not really a hint though; we know he means “cunt” and variations.

These guys would be happier hanging out with Donald Trump than with Kamala Harris.

Lindsey Graham is just thrilled that Amy Coney Barrett wants women to be forced to remain pregnant when they would prefer to stop. He’s lucky enough to be the kind of person who can’t be forced to remain pregnant.

“I have never been more proud of a nominee,” Graham said. “This is history being made, folks. This is the first time in American history that we’ve nominated a woman who is unashamedly pro-life and embraces her faith without apology. And she’s going to the court. A seat at the table is waiting on you.”

It’s not that she’s “pro-life.” People who favor abortion rights are not “anti-life” or “pro-death.” It’s that she’s pro-forced pregnancy. That’s the issue. Abortion ends a pregnancy, usually at an early stage. Pregnancy is not the kind of thing that should be forced; it’s the kind of thing that should be as voluntary as possible.

Graham criticized some of his Democratic colleagues’ questions about a 2006 ad that Amy Coney Barrett signed on to, which said life begins at fertilization.

The ad was organized by St Joseph County Right to Life, an extreme anti-choice group that has also argued the process of discarding unused or frozen embryos created during the in vitro fertilization (IVF) process should be criminalized.

Embryos matter more than adult women; that’s goddy world for you.

Misogyny loves Halloween.

What’s the scariest thing you can be for Halloween 2020?

A “Karen,” according to Los Angeles-based artist Jason Adcock.

Aw haw haw, so funny. It’s always a laugh-riot to see men telling us how terrifying and evil women are.

“2020 is the year of the KAREN! Scare all ur friends with ur big hair and narrow mind,” Adcock, 34, wrote on Instagram.

Hur hur

Adcock told “Good Morning America” that his idea stemmed from having a dark sense of humor.

“I’ve kind of seen Karens in the wild my whole life, and I just thought it would be kind of a funny thing to make for Halloween, and I didn’t think it would really take off,” he said. “Karen is transcendent of all gender and size. She is just like a modern day tyrant. Anybody evil can be a Karen.”

But we use a woman’s name because…you know…most tyrants and evil people are women, obvs.

Oy. Amy Cooper made two calls to the police that day.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office filed a misdemeanor charge Wednesday against the White woman who called police on a Black man birdwatching in Central Park in May and revealed that she had made a second 911 call about the encounter.

Amy Cooper was charged in New York County Criminal Court with falsely reporting an incident in the third degree, according to Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr.

The second call wasn’t to say never mind, I got rattled but nothing actually happened, I’m fine, I apologize for wasting your time. No, she went the other way.

In addition, according to the criminal complaint and as stated in court, Amy Cooper made a second, previously unreported call to police and repeated the accusation, adding that the man “tried to assault her,” the DA’s office said.

“When responding officers arrived, Ms. Cooper admitted that the male had not ‘tried to assault’ or come into contact with her,” a release from the DA’s office said.

I wonder if she’s ever heard of Emmett Till. She shouldn’t aspire to be another Carolyn Bryant.

Cooper and her attorney appeared before a judge on Wednesday morning. No plea was entered and the case was adjourned until November 17 as the prosecutor and defense work toward a possible disposition.

The prosecutor indicated they are exploring with the defense a program designed to have the defendant take responsibility for her actions but also educate her and the community on the harm caused by such actions.

It’s hard not to wonder how many such explorations happen when the defendant is not white, but at the same time if her sentence is educating the community on the harm of racism, at least that could be useful.

Speaking of the police and dversty n incloozhun – TOMATOES ARE FRUIT – no wait – TOMATOES IDENTIFY AS SALAD – no wait – IF SOME LEMON SAYS TOMATOES ARE NOT FRUIT THEN CALL THE POLICE!!! Yeah that’s it.

Funny…the Rugby Football Union has a page on Diversity and Inclusion, which shows that they do realize women exist and are not always included. The RFU says it wants to improve diversity and inclusion…or, as they call it, D&I.

The RFU has conducted research with over 4,400 people from the rugby community to understand attitudes and opinions to D&I in rugby and it has undertaken a detailed analysis of sport participation from Sport England Active Lives and YouGov data. The findings will inform areas of focus for D&I action planning in each part of the game. The results included: 

Despite growth of the women’s game and the most diverse England men’s team ever, compared to the overall England adult population, those who participate in rugby union are significantly less likely to be female, of a BAME ethnicity and of the lowest socio-economic group. 

Aaaaand…they’ll be even more less likely to be female now, because of this “we’re going to go right on letting trans women play on women’s teams” policy.

Brilliant joined-up thinking there.

But won’t somebody please think of the trans ladies?

Transgender women will still be allowed to play women’s rugby at all non-international levels of the game in England for the foreseeable future, the Guardian can reveal, after the Rugby Football Union decided that more evidence was needed before implementing any ban.

More evidence! More evidence needed to figure out whether or not male bodies are a danger to female bodies in playing a very rough contact sport! It’s all up in the air; we just don’t know; must collect more evidence, and more and more and more and more. We suspect there may never be enough evidence to convince us.

The RFU’s position is sharply at odds with World Rugby, which last week ruled that trans women could no longer play elite women’s rugby after a major review of the latest science concluded that the risk of “significant injury” was “too great’”.

However, the RFU’s view, which is understood to be supported by several other countries, is that more work is needed to assess whether there are safe ways to allow trans women to keep playing the sport they love.

Understood to be?? By whom?! What an absolutely crap bit of writing for a major newspaper. Thumb on the scale much?

And then that “to allow trans women to keep playing the sport they love” – what about allowing women to keep playing the sport they love? Why all this maudlin concern for the feelings of men who call themselves women coupled with brutal indifference to the feelings of women? It just never stops rattling my brain, this abrupt and complete replacement of women as the subordinated sex class with men who want to role play women.

The RFU’s decision means that trans women can continue playing women’s club rugby in England for now, provided their concentration of testosterone in serum has been less than 5 nmol/L continuously for at least 12 months. However, they are no longer eligible for selection for the Olympics or the Six Nations, competitions governed by World Rugby rules.

Or, rather, the RFU’s decision means that women cannot continue playing women’s club rugby in England without the risk of having to play against one or more men. This “inclusion” of trans women means either the exclusion of or danger to actual women. Giving women’s stuff to men entails taking that stuff away from women. Along with the danger there is also the fact that any man on a women’s team equals a woman who is not on that team – in other words the men who call themselves women will be taking places away from women. That’s not how this is supposed to work.

The RFU’s decision was greeted with disappointment by the women’s rights group Fair Play for Women. “Everyone knows that in a rough sport like rugby it is dangerous for males to play against females,” said the campaigning group’s Nicola Williams said. “And if it’s not safe, it can never be fair either. The science is clear. Growing up male will give transgender athletes a lifelong edge that simply cannot be fully reversed by a period of testosterone suppression.”

The RFU is simply punching women in the face. It’s disgusting.

No charges.

The federal prosecutor appointed by Attorney General William P. Barr to review whether Obama-era officials improperly requested the identities of individuals whose names were redacted in intelligence documents has completed his work without finding any substantive wrongdoing, according to people familiar with the matter.

Oh gosh darn it, they were so looking forward to punishing Obama for something.

The revelation that U.S. Attorney John Bash, who left the department last week, had concluded his review without criminal charges or any public report will rankle President Trump at a moment when he is particularly upset at the Justice Department. The department has so far declined to release the results of Bash’s work, though people familiar with his findings say they would likely disappoint conservatives who have tried to paint the “unmasking” of names — a common practice in government to help understand classified documents — as a political conspiracy.

Maybe next time. Cheer up, little guy.

The department — [under both] Barr and Trump’s previous attorney general, Jeff Sessions — has repeatedly turned to U.S. Attorneys across the country to investigate matters of Republican concern, distressing current and former Justice Department officials, who fear department leaders are repeatedly caving to Trump’s pressure to benefit his allies and target those he perceives as political enemies.

Which isn’t how the Justice Department is supposed to carry out its work.

Trump is also furious that the Durham investigation won’t be making headlines before the election. That was the whole point!

Barr recently told some Republican lawmakers that no report of Durham’s investigation would be released before the November election, though unlike Bash’s review, Durham’s work seems to be ongoing, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has in recent days called the delay in the Durham case “a disgrace,” and asserted that his 2016 Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, should be jailed. He was previously critical of another prosecutor specially tapped by then-Attorney General Sessions to investigate matters related to Clinton, but whose case ended with no public report or allegations of wrongdoing.

If they don’t find anything they make something up – is that so hard to understand??

ARE YOU KIDDING

Top elections officials in California are scrambling to find out how many illegal ballot drop boxes Republican staffers put up in three counties across the state over the weekend, as local law enforcement authorities continue to search for outstanding witnesses and potential suspects.  The state’s Republican Party, meanwhile, has indicated that it won’t comply with an official order to remove the boxes, and may even add more.

Law and order party, folks.

On Monday, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said his office, in conjunction with the state justice department, issued a cease-and-desist order to the California GOP to remove the illegal ballot drop boxes that have appeared in Los Angeles County, Orange County and Fresno County. … Last Thursday a regional field director with the California Republican Party in Orange County tweeted a photo of himself holding a vote-by-mail ballot, standing next to a black cabinet with a taped sign that read “official ballot drop off box.” The staffer, Jordan Tygh, encouraged voters to message him for “convenient locations” to drop off their ballots. 

Republicans say this is just ballot harvesting — a practice that allows volunteers, organizations, or campaign workers to collect completed ballots and drop them off at county election offices.    

And what possible reason could anyone have to doubt them?