More of Today in How Dense is Donald Trump?: he doesn’t understand chronology.

Yesterday, it happened again, when Trump signed the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commemorative Coin Act, which directs the Treasury to issue a commemorative coin to honor the 100th anniversary of American women getting the right to vote. After signing the measure – which passed both the House and Senate unanimously – the president decided to take a moment to reflect on what he considered important: his own awesomeness.

“I am curious why wasn’t it done a long time ago and also, well, I guess the answer to that is because now I am president and we get things done.

“We get a lot of things done that nobody else got done.”

Well, if Trump is “curious” why other presidents didn’t sign the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commemorative Coin Act, I can help. In this country, the women’s suffrage movement led to the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1919, and its ratification in 1920.

No one tried to honor the centennial of this because – and this is important – centennials mark the hundredth anniversary of things. In order to recognize the centennial of something that happened in 1920, we had to wait until around 2020, because that’s how time works.

It’s how dating works, at least. We weren’t allowed to celebrate the centennial ten years ago, or fourteen, or eighty-seven. The Academy is strict about that kind of thing.

Kevin Drum says the world has given up on climate change. He starts with a table from the Financial Times:

Europe is pulling back from clean energy research. India and Brazil barely have any to begin with. The United state is flat at about $50 billion—maybe a tenth of what we should spending. And China, after a decade of research, has decided to double down on coal and slash its clean energy R&D. Only Southeast Asia is still increasing its green energy research, perhaps because they have a more visceral fear of climate change then the rest of us. When you announce that you’re moving your capital from Jakarta to an entirely new island because Jakarta is sinking…

…it drives it home rather.

This is a disaster. Given (1) the consistent global refusal to cut back on energy usage and (2) the fact that building out current technology (mostly wind and solar) will only get us halfway to zero carbon, our only hope lies in better technology. Without that, 2°C is already in the rear-view mirror and even 3°C is all but impossible to achieve. We’re looking instead at a world that will warm by 4°C or even 5°C during the second half of the century. This is not a world you want your grandchildren to live in.

Trump explained his administration’s subtle, carefully considered policy on China and Hong Kong this morning:

After signing an executive order establishing a task force on missing and murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives, Trump was asked by a reporter about the protests in Hong Kong as he continues to negotatiate a potential trade deal with China.

“It’s going very well, but at the same time we want to see it go well in Hong Kong, and I think it will,” Trump said. “I think that President Xi [Jinping] can make that happen and I know him and I know we’d like to make it happen.”

Ahhh good; that’s impressive. I’m relieved to know they’re taking it so seriously and being so thoughtful.

No but seriously. This is total cognitive failure. It’s baby words taken from the tiny basket of baby words, for saying when somebody asks a hard question about a substantive issue. Go well, see it go well, think will go well. Nice Chynah man can make happen, my frend, can make happen. Will go well. Is going well, want to go well, will go well, think will go well. Can make happen, like make happen, will happen make.

He’s drawing on a tiny shrunken vocabulary and just repeating the one ghostly emaciated “idea” over and over and over. “They ask me about Hong Kong. Must say all will be good. Say that. Say that again. Say knowing Xi, big import man, proud be frend, say about him me. Say will good be.”

Why do we not have any system in place for when a president’s brain has mostly evaporated?

Pompeo says we’re totally complying.

Julian Borger:

Pompeo on Ukraine inquiry: “We will continue to comply …so that appropriate oversight can be conducted.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee:

.@SecPompeo and the @StateDept have turned over zero documents required by a duly authorized congressional subpoena.

Zero.

That’s not compliance. It’s obstruction.

Oh, right, obstruction. We always get those two words mixed up.

Measles is cutting a swathe through DR Congo.

Measles has killed nearly 5,000 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2019, authorities said, after the disease spread to all the provinces in the country.

Close to a quarter of a million people have been infected this year alone.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says this is the world’s largest and fastest-moving epidemic.

But hey, please let’s hear more from prosperous middle-class white people in California and Surrey who refuse to vaccinate their little Gwyneth and Nigel.

The Congolese government and the WHO launched an emergency vaccination programme in September that aimed to inoculate more than 800,000 children.

But poor infrastructure, attacks on health centres and a lack of access to routine healthcare have all hindered efforts to stop the spread of the disease.

Four million children have been vaccinated, but experts warn that this amounts to less than half of the total in the country – and not enough vaccines are available.

The majority of those infected with measles in the country are infants.

Meanwhile there’s a Facebook page for Stop Mandatory Vaccination Now. It’s very active.

Still going in the wrong direction.

Greenhouse gas emissions have steadily risen for the last decade despite the current and future threat posed by climate change, according to a new United Nations report.

The annual report compares how clean the world’s economies are to how clean they need to be in order to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change — a disparity known as the “emissions gap.”

However, this year’s report describes more of a chasm than a gap. Global emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gasses have continued to steadily increase over the last decade. In 2018, the report notes that global fossil fuel CO2 emissions from electricity generation and industry grew by a mammoth 2%.

It’s the tragedy of the commons coupled with the tragedy of that’s tomorrow and we’ll just keep doing what’s more comfortable for today.

“There is no sign of [greenhouse gas] emissions peaking in the next few years,” the authors write. Every year that emissions continue to increase, “means that deeper and faster cuts will be required” in order to keep the Earth from warming more than 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The Earth is already more than 1 degree warmer than it was before industrialization, and that is driving more frequent and severe storms, droughts, heat waves and other extreme weather. According to the 2018 National Climate Assessment, if global emissions fail to fall in the coming decade, it will slow economic growth and cause serious damage to infrastructure and property in the United States.

But that’s then. This is now. We’re not good at taking trouble now for the sake of then.

Originally a comment by Claire on God’s instrument.

To: God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit

CC; Archangel Michael

Sir,

I am writing to gain some clarity on the proclamations made by your emissaries here on Earth. Previously we had been led to understand that Barack Obama had gained the presidency by nefarious means such as getting more votes etc and was installed against your will. In office we were further informed by Metatron, the Voice of God, also known as Fox News that President Obama committed hideous crimes in office, such as wearing a tan suit, eating fancy mustard, being good at singing and worst of all, improving access to healthcare.

Obviously we understand that President Trump is your Chosen One, as evidenced by his moral and unimpeachable conduct such as conducting affairs with porn stars and sexually assaulting women, lying, cheating, money-laundering and so on. His divine mission to lower taxes on the top 1% and to sell out the US to Your Favored dictators such as Mr Putin of Russia is progressing as planned.

However, we are now given to understand that in contrast to previous statements, Mr Obama was in fact allowed to ascend the presidency, if not explicitly planned by you. We remain confused about whether Mr Obama is in fact Lucifer, the Great Adversary with his hand-maiden, the anti-Christ Hilary Clinton and as such should shunned and excoriated, or whether he in fact was part of the greater plan to get the new Messiah elected to the presidency in order to bring about the End Times.

If you could please respond in the usual means through your prophets here on Earth in the next 10 business days, I will be able to proceed with the Divine Plan of welcoming Russia’s help in the election and ensuring President Obama, Secretary Clinton and her hordes of demons are sent back to Hell or Benghazi whichever is most convenient.

Yours etc.

Secretary for Energy, Rick Perry and Attorney-General Bill Barr

Speaking of women, and why they need to be able to organize and meet as women, today is International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

“Sexual violence against women and girls is rooted in centuries of male domination. Let us not forget that the gender inequalities that fuel rape culture are essentially a question of power imbalances.” — UN Secretary-General António Guterres

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is one of the most widespread, persistent and devastating human rights violations in our world today [and] remains largely unreported due to the impunity, silence, stigma and shame surrounding it.

In general terms, it manifests itself in physical, sexual and psychological forms, encompassing:

• intimate partner violence (battering, psychological abuse, marital rape, femicide);
• sexual violence and harassment (rape, forced sexual acts, unwanted sexual advances, child sexual abuse, forced marriage, street harassment, stalking, cyber- harassment);
• human trafficking (slavery, sexual exploitation);
• female genital mutilation; and
• child marriage.

To further clarify, the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women issued by the UN General Assembly in 1993, defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”

That should be sex-based violence, but you get the drift.

Oh good god. The BC NDP Women’s Rights Committe proudly announces its own suicide:

Hugs, tears and cheers as — after many passionate conversations — we have voted to approve a historical name and constitutional change today! We’ll now be known as the Women’s and Gendered Rights Committee. Changing our constitution to welcome in two-spirit, non binary and gender nonconforming folks.

#intersectionalfeminism #biggertents

Yaaaaaay hooray hooray hooray yet another thing women don’t get to have for themselves but have to share with men who call themselves “two-spirit” or non binary or gender nonconforming – which basically means all men, because anyone can simply say “I’m gender nonconforming.” So haha yay women don’t get to organize as women any more, so go home bitches!

There are, as you might expect, many critical comments, which the committee replied to with more infuriating bullshit:

We are proud to continue to do good work supporting women. Our resolutions this year included asks that covered everything from Period Promise to abortion rights and safety to increasing access to legal aid. We have proudly, for years, included space for trans women. Because they are women. And we were proud this weekend to make a few more people feel welcome.

We will continue to make safe space for women. It will continue to be a space free of those who use the him/his pronouns. We are proud to be inclusive of other folks for whom gender has been cause of their discrimination and lack of safety. And we will continue to support those in our community who need it most and advocate on the issues that affect people.

So what are they going to do, confirm all members’ use of pronouns? How would they even go about that? They won’t, will they – it will just be a matter of self-declaration. Anyway even if Joe with the beard and the habit of talking over women does use eccentric pronouns, what’s that got to do with women’s need to organize and meet as women?

Not one god damn thing.

Rick Perry says it’s god’s plan.

Like a lot of evangelical Christians, Energy Secretary Rick Perry believes in a God who gets involved in every aspect of our lives — including the election of Donald Trump as President.

“I’m a big believer that the God of our universe is still very active in the details of the day-to-day lives of government,” Perry told Fox News in remarks aired on Sunday.

“You know, Barack Obama doesn’t get to be the President of the United Sates without being ordained by God. Neither did Donald Trump.”

Perry went on to say that being God’s instrument on Earth doesn’t mean that Trump is a perfect person. Echoing the argument of other white evangelical Christians, the Texas Republican went on to cite several biblical figures, including King David, whose private lives didn’t always align with biblical standards.

Never mind about “private lives,” which is code for extramarital sex. The issue goes way beyond “private life.” Trump is transparently and unavoidably a very bad man in every way – mean, greedy, selfish, callous, a bully, a liar, a thief, corrupt, ruthless, ignorant, willful, reckless – there is nothing good about him. If that’s ordained by god then god is a shit.

Anyway that claim is just a handy way to excuse anything and everything, which basically means we can’t make any moral judgments at all. If this walking shouting textbook of all that is evil can be explained away as God’s Plan then so can anything.

Ekemini Uwan, a public theologian and a co-host of the podcast “Truth’s Table,” told CNN in February that Trump’s election was not exactly an answer to her prayers.

Uwan said she believes that God is supremely in control of the entire universe, from the smallest atoms to American politics.

“We can’t say that it’s not God’s will for Donald Trump to be president, because he is the president,” she said.

But the theologian draws a distinction between God’s sovereignty and God’s approval. That is, what God allows to happen is not the same thing as what God wants to happen.

Cheap. Cheap cheap cheap, and glib, and easy, and worthless. The hell with it.

The latest oops is a mass of documentation that the Trump people tried hard to find a rug big enough to cover everything.

Internal emails show that the White House scrambled to come up with a justification for freezing the money [for military aid for Ukraine] just days after the White House Counsel’s Office was told that an anonymous CIA official had filed a complaint with the agency’s general counsel concerning the president’s July 25 phone call, suggesting people on the inside knew they were fucked.

The Washington Post reports that a confidential White House review of Trump’s decision to put a hold on aid to Ukraine has “turned up hundreds of documents that reveal extensive efforts to generate an after-the-fact justification for the decision and a debate over whether the delay was legal.” In early August, for example, email exchanges show acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney asking acting Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought to provide and update on the legal rationale for holding up the aid and how much longer it could be delayed.

Yo Russ, will you please get off your ass and come up with this fig leaf for us before we all fry.

Vanity Fair quoting the Post:

Mulvaney’s request for information came days after the White House Counsel’s Office was put on notice that an anonymous CIA official had made a complaint to the agency’s general counsel about Trump’s July 25 call to Volodymyr Zelensky during which he requested Ukraine investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, as well as an unfounded theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. This official would later file a whistle-blower complaint with the intelligence community’s inspector general, which ignited the impeachment push when its existence became public.

Pliny on the grim truth:

Let’s see, who’s an easy group to exploit? Oh I know: prisoners! Yeah, let’s exploit them, because we can.

Inmates at several West Virginia prisons are getting free electronic tablets to read books, send emails, and communicate with their families—but there’s a catch.

Any inmates looking to read Moby Dick may find that it will cost them far more than it would have if they’d simply gotten a mass market paperback, because the tablets charge readers by the minute.

Under a 2019 contract between the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation (WVDCR) and Global Tel Link (GTL), the company that is providing electronic multimedia tablets to 10 West Virginia prisons, inmates will be charged 3 cents a minute to read books, even though the books all come from Project Gutenberg, a free online library of more than 60,000 texts in the public domain.

Win-win! The content is all free and the company gets to charge for it!

[T]he Appalachian Prison Book Project, a nonprofit that offers free books and education to inmates, says the fee structure is exploitative.

“If you pause to think or reflect, that will cost you,” says Katy Ryan, the group’s founder and educational coordinator. “If you want to reread a book, you will pay the entire cost again. This is about generating revenue for the state and profit for the industry. Tablets under non-predatory terms could be a very good thing inside prisons. GTL does not provide that.”

According to the contract, using the tablets will cost $0.05 per minute (currently discounted to $0.03) to read books, listen to music, or play games; $0.25 per minute for video visitations; $0.25 per written message; and $0.50 to send a photo with a message.

The Prison Policy Initiative estimated in 2017 that wages in West Virginia prisons range between $0.04 and $0.58 an hour.

Seems fair, right?

Although the books on Project Gutenberg are all free, there is little the organization can do to stop GTL and the WVDCR from charging for access to the tablets.

“It’s all very sad,” Greg Newby, CEO of the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, wrote in an email to the Appalachian Prison Book Project. “From the trademark license of Project Gutenberg eBooks, I don’t see leverage to do anything about it. I’m glad that prisoners seem to have less expensive access to PG eBooks than to other content, but would greatly prefer if it was all free (and other reforms to the exploitation of prisoners).”

Hey I have an idea, what about trying rehabilitation instead of exploitation?

Ok, I know, crazy idea.

Karen Ingala Smith, who is an expert in the field, reminds Jo Swinton of a couple of things:

I am pig sick of people who have not run refuges (and probably spent little if any time in them) saying that allowing men in to women’s refuges is a matter of individual risk assessments. No. No it isn’t.

What are women’s refuges refuges from? Not from grasshoppers or missionaries or loud music.

As for @joswinson saying that abuse in lesbian relns is same as men’s violence against intimate partners, how dare you?
How many women are killed by female partners/exes? Hardly bloody any.
How many women in UK are killed by male partners/exes? On average at least 1 every 4 days.

Ok but women engage in the violence of talking back, which if you think about it is really the worst violence of all.

@Scottish_Women tweeted:

Case study from NHS policy. If a woman is agitated cos there is a man on her ward then staff should ‘re-iterate that the ward is female only & that there are no men present.’ If she continues to be vocal then ‘Ultimately it may be the complainant who is required to be removed.’!

The Gender Reassignment Policy Review page 16:

Inpatient Scenario:

A nurse is summoned to a patient’s bed in a female ward. The patient appears to be agitated. When asked what’s concerning her, the woman explains she didn’t expect to be sharing the ward with a  man and points to the bed opposite. She states it’s inappropriate to have ‘him’ in the ward with the other women. She tells the nurse she can’t relax and wants ‘him’ removed from the ward. If this doesn’t happen she’ll make a formal complaint – the hospital has a duty of care to look after her and they’re not taking this seriously by putting her in this situation.

The nurse listens and tells the woman she’ll see what she can do. She says that she understands having a transgender person on the ward will be upsetting to other women and leaves to talk with a senior colleague about the matter.

The response to the patient’s concern isn’t appropriate and breaches legislative protection afforded to transgender people. Someone’s trans status can not be disclosed to a third party without the express permission of the trans person and the assumption that others in the ward will feel uncomfortable is unfounded. In this instance there is no need to either disclose or seek permission to disclose gender identity. The nurse should work to allay the patient’s concerns – it would be appropriate to re-iterate that the ward is indeed female only and that there are no men present. Her duty of care extends to protect patients from harassment and should the woman continue to make demands about the removal of the transgender patient and be vocal in the ward it would be appropriate to remind her of this. Ultimately it may be the complainant who is required to be removed. The nurse should check with the transgender patient and sensitively ask if everything is ok. If the transgender patient has heard any of the discussions it is imperative that she is given every assurance that the matter will be dealt with. If the transgender patient is visibly upset and there is spare capacity, it would be appropriate to offer her the option to move to a single room, though this must be with the interests of the patient in mind rather than conflict avoidance.

General appreciation of transgender issues is relatively low within our communities and often this is used as a rationale for behaviour that is essentially transphobic. If a white woman complained to a nurse about sharing a ward with a black patient or a heterosexual male complained about being in a ward with a gay man, we would expect our staff to act in a manor that deals with the expressed behaviour immediately.

Emphasis mine.

Notice that there is no requirement to talk sensitively to the woman who doesn’t want to be in a ward with a man. Notice that the nurse is told to tell the woman that the ward is indeed female and there is no man present WHEN IT’S NOT AND THERE IS. Notice that the woman is discussed as a disruption at best and an evil bigot at worst. Notice that all the concern is for the man.

A woman not wanting to be in a hospital ward with a man is not the same as not wanting to be in a ward with a black person or a gay person. It is not the same.

I seriously hope we can do a lot better than Joe Biden.

During a campaign event in Greenwood, South Carolina Thursday night, former Vice President Joe Biden told a protestor who confronted him over the Obama administration’s mass deportation policies to “vote for Trump,” prompting outrage from immigrant rights groups and activists.

“You should vote for Trump,” Biden repeated as Carlos Rojas, an organizer with Movimiento Cosecha, urged the former Vice President to depart from the destructive record of the Obama White House and support a moratorium on deportations.

I suppose that’s Biden Demonstrating That He’s Not Some Crazy Radical?

Biden was also confronted by climate activists from Friends of the Earth during the Greenwood event, which came a day after the 2020 Democratic presidential debate in Atlanta.

“Please don’t take money from corporations,” said a woman in the audience.

“I do not take money from corporations,” replied Biden, whose campaign last month greenlighted the creation of a super PAC organized by corporate lobbyists who serve clients in multiple major industries, including fossil fuels.

“You listen to Bernie too much, man, it’s not true,” added Biden, referring to rival 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Oh please. Of course he takes money from corporations.

Joe Biden’s campaign is drawing more support from big-ticket donors than any other candidate in the race — yet he still can’t match his rivals’ cash flow.

Biden has raised $20.7 million from contributions of at least $500 — $1.5 million more than his nearest competitor, despite entering the race later than all of them — thanks to the former vice president’s strong connections and goodwill among the traditional donors who have long financed the Democratic Party. Biden drew donations from 114 former big money fundraisers for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the third quarter, the most of any Democrat, according to a POLITICO analysis.

But it’s been nowhere near enough to make Biden the leader of the fundraising pack. In fact, his big-dollar dominance, and his reliance on those donors, is more evidence of how quickly small-dollar donations have become the most important component of political fundraising in a sprawling, fractured Democratic race. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg are all outraising Biden, and stockpiling cash significantly faster than him, on the back of major support from online donors that Biden has been unable to build.

But hey you listen to Bernie too much, maaaaaaaaaan.