Turkey doesn’t allow any lèse-majesté when people mention Erdoğan. People who lèse the majesté of Erdoğan get busted.

The boss of a cafeteria at a Turkish opposition newspaper has been detained after saying he would refuse to serve tea to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Senol Buran, cafeteria head at Cumhuriyet, was remanded accused of insulting the president. He denies the refusal was an insult, his lawyer said.

Trump would do the same thing if he could, but fortunately he can’t. He can’t stop us calling him a short-fingered vulgarian, a fascist, a bully, an ignorant shallow conceited stupid loudmouth, a tiny-fisted Nazi, a Cheeto, the pussygrabber-in-chief, a sexist racist pig, a fraud, a thief, a very bad man.

Mr Buran was on his way to work on 24 December when he found roads were closed as part of security measures for a speech being given by Mr Erdogan.

Mr Buran told police officers: “I would not serve that man a cup of tea.”

A judge at the Istanbul criminal court jailed Mr Buran pending a trial.

Insulting the president can carry a four-year jail term.

Senol Buran is in jail awaiting trial for saying he wouldn’t serve Erdoğan a cup of tea. It’s revolting.

The reporting on conflicts of interest has finally gotten through to Trump and the Trumplings.

Realizing that his presidency could face potentially crippling questions over conflicts of interest, Donald J. Trump and his family are rushing to resolve potential controversies — like shuttering foundations and terminating development deals — even as the president-elect publicly maintains that no legal conflicts exist.

In recent days, the president-elect and his aides have said that he intends to distribute the assets of his personal charity and then close it down, has examined a plan to hire an outside monitor to oversee the Trump Organization and has terminated some international business projects.

He’s not exactly a quick study, is he. How long has it been? Six weeks?

Even with these steps, Mr. Trump will enter the White House with a maze of financial holdings unlike those of any other president in American history. Many ethics experts still say the only way Mr. Trump can eliminate his most serious conflicts is to liquidate his company, and then put the money into a blind trust — a move Mr. Trump has so far rejected as impractical and unreasonable.

But then he shouldn’t have run for president, should he.

“Yes, it would be hard to sell the business — there would be some personal discomfort,” said Robert Weissman, the president of Public Citizen, a liberal nonprofit group that has mocked Mr. Trump’s efforts to “drain the swamp” of Washington special interests. “But he ran for president of the United States and won, so those considerations can’t be weighted very heavily.”

Nobody made him run for president; it was his idea.

The hurried effort to clean up some of the family’s potential conflicts stands in contrast to the public statements by Mr. Trump since his election that as president he would not be subject to conflict of interest laws and could eliminate most questions by turning his business operations over entirely to his children.

But in recent weeks, as public scrutiny of Mr. Trump’s global business operations has intensified, Mr. Trump, his family, their executives in New York and a team of outside lawyers have been working to eliminate many of these potential flash points — a task so complicated that Mr. Trump has delayed announcing the details.

Good. We can get to them. That’s good.

Mr. Trump gave little thought to what to do with his business in the event of a victory on Election Day. But embarrassing reversals by his children highlighted concerns that access to the incoming administration could be for sale, and pressed the family to respond. A charity auction for coffee with Ivanka Trump, his daughter, was canceled, and Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., the president-elect’s sons, pulled out of another charity event that asked donors to give as much as $1 million in return for access to their father and a hunting expedition with his sons.

In interviews late last week, executives at the Trump Organization, advisers on the Trump transition team and members of Mr. Trump’s family said they were determined to move aggressively in the remaining days before the inauguration to clear as many of these potential conflicts as possible.

It remains astonishingly stupid that they didn’t think of that before.

The Times lists some of the things they’ve done so far. Here’s a good one:

A labor dispute with hundreds of workers at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas — which generated calls for a national boycott of Trump properties and protest rallies — was suddenly settled on Wednesday, with the hotel agreeing to provide pensions, health insurance, annual wage increases and other benefits that it previously refused to offer. Another agreement with employees at the just-opened Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington will allow them to organize a union.

Good. On the other hand – how repellent that richy rich Trump was refusing to provide pensions, health insurance, annual wage increases and other benefits to workers in his Las Vegas hotel. Gold armchairs for him, no health insurance for his workers. Nice.

The turnaround on the labor union dispute demonstrates just how sudden the shift has been. In November, four days before Election Day, the Trump hotel filed a lawsuit in the United States Court of Appeals challenging a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board that ordered his hotel in Las Vegas to recognize a labor union that workers voted for in late 2015 and to negotiate a new contract. A month later, company officials invited labor negotiators to Trump Tower for a three-day negotiation.

On Wednesday, the union ratified a deal that gave the 500 workers generous health care coverage, pensions, a guaranteed workweek and other protections, and set up a grievance system if they objected to conditions. The lawsuit was also dropped, as were outstanding matters pending before the labor relations board, which will soon be under Mr. Trump’s control.

His lawyers must have told him he really needed to deal with it.

But – doing a little isn’t going to solve the problem here.

While the family may be removing some of the most obvious problems, critics say Mr. Trump will still know what properties his family owns and which policy decisions will benefit them, no matter how careful he is.

The portfolio of assets might influence his interactions with leaders in nations such as Turkey and the Philippines, where Mr. Trump has prominent marketing deals. In places where he has allowed the use of his family name and even his image, Mr. Trump will soon be confronting foreign policy decisions, such as how to confront human rights violations or fight terrorism.

The family, at least so far, has not announced how it will resolve other issues, such as the lease at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, which was issued by the federal government’s General Services Administration, an agency Mr. Trump will soon oversee.

Trump-owned hotels and golf courses across the globe could benefit from business sent to them by foreign governments or other corporate players seeking to try to influence Mr. Trump. Loans that help finance his companies and permits issued by local government or foreign entities — even on projects that are already built — could be perceived as special favors. Payments by foreign governments to his hotels — for diplomatic soirees or overnight stays — might violate the so-called emoluments clause of the Constitution, which prohibits gifts to federal employees from foreign government entities.

Conflict conflict conflict.

A festive treat.

Have a disturbing film clip from France24 (in English).

Do not read the comments.

I am relieved – the Rockettes don’t have to perform at Trump’s coronation inauguration if they won’t want to. Unlike some women in show business, they get to say No to Donnie from Queens.

Within hours of confirming plans to appear at the inauguration of Donald J. Trump, the Radio City Rockettes were plunged into a maelstrom of social-media outrage Friday amidreports that the performers were contractually obligated to dance at the ceremony or lose their jobs.

But as the day wore on, both the Madison Square Garden Company, which manages the Rockettes, and their union, the American Guild of Variety Artists, said that any of the dancers could opt out of the Jan. 20 inauguration ceremony in Washington.

Good. It’s only fair, frankly. The guy is a professed enemy of women, who brags to other men about his freedom to grab women by the pussy and get away with it because he is a “star.” Self-respecting women naturally don’t want to be involved in celebrating his increase in stardom.

“For a Rockette to be considered for an event, they must voluntarily sign up and are never told they have to perform at a particular event, including the inaugural,” the statement read. “It is always their choice.”

The statement also said that, among the dancers, Mr. Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 in Washington has been a popular opportunity: “In fact, for the coming inauguration, we had more Rockettes request to participate than we have slots available. We eagerly await the inaugural celebrations.” Nonetheless, the company did not respond to further inquiries or make any Rockettes available for interviews.

Despite these assurances, many of the dancers may feel under pressure to perform. Much of the fear and confusion could be traced to an email sent Thursday night by the Guild to some of the dancers.

“If you are full time, you are obligated,” said that message, which was forwarded to The Times. “Doing the best performance to reflect an American institution which has been here for over 90 years is your job. I hope this pulls into focus the bottom line on this work.”

Ah, that’s quite a “union.”

The pressure to perform in the inauguration ceremonies will likely vary based on the circumstances of each individual Rockette, according to a performer who spent five years with the company.

Heather Lang, a contemporary dancer who left the Rockettes in 2009, said in a phone interview that there are about 12 full-time dancers within the current company who perform in both winter and spring shows. They are a minority of the company, which has about 80 Rockettes. All the dancers were seasonal until about a year ago.

Ms. Lang, 35, said that, for both full-time and seasonal dancers, there is fear of jeopardizing their future employment, and compromising their standing in the eyes of James L. Dolan, the executive chairman of the Madison Square Garden Company, and his executives, if they complain or try to bow out.

So the only people performing for Trump’s coronation are people who more or less have to.

In between commenting on Twitter about the proliferation of nuclear weapons and addressing business conflicts of interest within his family, the president-elect took time on Thursday evening to assure the nation that he did not want A-list celebrities attending his inauguration.

Sure, Donnie from Queens. We totally believe you.

This is how we live now – an adviser to the next president saying grossly racist and malevolent things in public.

Carl Paladino, a former Republican nominee for governor of New York and an adviser to president-elect Trump, included the death of President Obama and “return” of first lady Michelle Obama to Africa on his list of things he wanted for 2017.

Paladino was responding to a survey by an alternative weekly magazine, Artvoice.

Asked what he would like to happen in 2017, he said he hopes that “Obama catches mad cow disease” and dies after having relations with a Hereford, a type of cow. Asked what he would most like to see go, Paladino responded that Michelle Obama would “return to being male” and be “let loose” in Zimbabwe.

Full exchange:

Artvoice: What would you most like to happen in 2017?

Carl Paladino: Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford. He dies before his trial and is buried in a cow pasture next to Valerie Jarret, who died weeks prior, after being convicted of sedition and treason, when a Jihady cell mate mistook her for being a nice person and decapitated her.

Artvoice: What would you most like to see go in 2017?

Carl Paladino: Michelle Obama. I’d like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.

What a nice nice nice man he must be.

Paladino assured the Washington Post that what he said was in no way racist.

“It has nothing to do with race,” Paladino said. “That’s the typical stance of the press when they can’t otherwise defend the acts of the person being attacked.”

“It’s about 2 progressive elitist ingrates who have hated their country so badly and destroyed its fabric in so many respects in 8 years,” he added.

Elitist. Right. One the child of working class parents, the other the child of middle class parents; neither of them the child of rich parents.

You know…they did what Republicans profess to value: they studied, they did well in school, they went to excellent universities and law schools. They climbed the ladder. That’s what people are supposed to do in Republican world. The possibility (for a few) of doing that is what makes our grotesque levels of income inequality and wealth inequality tolerable, according to Republicans. So why do people like Paladino call them elitists when they get the educations but don’t abandon their roots?

Who knows. Expecting coherence from a Republican of this type is expecting a unicorn driving a bus.

Paladino has repeatedly over the years attacked Obama privately and publicly — including pushing the falsehood that Obama is Muslim. During his gubernatorial race, Paladino was accused of sending graphically racist and sexist emails — some of them concerning Obama — to his circle of friends. Paladino never denied sending the emails but called them a “smear.”

This is Trump world. Get used to it.

In a statement, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat,  slammed Paladino for a “long history of racist and incendiary comments.”

“Carl Paladino, a Republican Party official from Western New York, made racist, ugly and reprehensible remarks about President Obama and the First Lady Michelle Obama,” Cuomo said. “While most New Yorkers know Mr. Paladino is not to be taken seriously, as his erratic behavior defies any rational analysis and he has no credibility, his words are still jarring.”

He has no credibility but he’s an adviser to the next president.

A “queer” woman explains why she hates lesbians so much.

Some years ago, a close friend and I developed a not-so-subtle code for queer women too basic for our tastes: We’d make an “L” with our thumbs and forefingers against our foreheads, like the loser sign that was popular when we were in middle school. In this case, the “L” stood for lesbian.

We, too, were lesbians—generally speaking. But the women my friend and I mocked (and trust, I am duly shamed by this memory) were what we’d call “capital-L lesbians.” We were urban-dwelling and queer-identified and in our 20s; the other women came from the suburbs, skewed older, and were, we presumed, unversed in queer politics. We traveled in circles of dapper butches and subversive femmes; the other women either easily passed as straight or dressed generically sporty in cargo shorts and flip-flips. A woman in this category was clearly down with the assimilationist, trans-exclusive politics of the likes of the Human Rights Campaign. She was the kind of dyke for whom the laughably niche Cosmopolitan lesbian-sex tip “tug on her ponytail” might actually apply.

I don’t “trust,” actually – I don’t think she is duly shamed by what she’s saying. I don’t think she grasps at all that a politics that is viewed as “assimilationist” and unhip before it’s had time to draw a breath is a politics that will never get anywhere. I don’t think she grasps that she too will cease to be in her 20s and thus become an L for loser to the new cohort of Hippest Of All. I don’t think she realizes how stupid and counterproductive it is to judge politics by the criteria of style or hippitude.

In other words, we shared a common sexual orientation, but little, if any, cultural affiliation. In the space between “lesbian” and “queer,” my friend and I located a world of difference in politics, gender presentation, and cosmopolitanism. Some of our resistance to the term lesbian arose, no doubt, from internalized homophobic notions of lesbians as unfashionable, uncultured homebodies. We were convinced that our cool clothes and enlightened, radical paradigm made us something other than lesbians, a label chosen by progenitors who lived in a simpler time with stricter gender boundaries. But with a time-honored label comes history and meaning; by leaving lesbian behind, we were rejecting, in part, a strong identity and legacy that we might have claimed as our own.

No shit. But how pathetic that she ever thought otherwise. How pathetic that she thought of lesbians as the tame boring conformist conservatives, as if lesbians had stopped being doubly marginalized and become the privileged marginalizers. How pathetic that she has that much internalized misogyny to go with the internalized homophobia (and doesn’t even mention it).

Cultural connotations aside, the main reason my friend and I felt (and still feel) more comfortable with queer than lesbian was practical: The word lesbian, insofar as it means a woman who is primarily attracted to women, does not correctly describe our reality. My personal queer community comprises cisgender and transgender women; transgender men and transmasculine people; and people who identify as non-binary or genderqueer. One friend told me queer works better for her and her female spouse because lesbian implies a kind of sameness she doesn’t see in her relationship or those of her peers. In her circles, as in mine, most romantic partnerships lean butch-femme or involve at least one trans or genderqueer person. Many of us have had or are currently enmeshed in sexual or romantic relationships with people who aren’t women. Using lesbian to refer to my queer sphere (e.g. “She’s hosting a lesbian potluck!”) excludes many people I consider my peers. In most young, urban queer communities, at least, lesbian, in its implication of a cisgender woman to cisgender woman arrangement, is both inaccurate and gauche.

Right? Aren’t “cisgender women” just the worst?

She goes on in that way for many many paragraphs, alternately belaboring the obvious and brandishing her superior wokeness.

Oh well. So people on the left need to come up with a new politics every five years or so, while demonizing everyone who isn’t finished with the old politics yet – it’s worked well so far, right?

Right?

There’s a video. There’s always a video.

Anis Amri was killed in a suburb of Milan after he shot a cop.

Hours after the shootout, the Islamic State-linked news agency, Amaq, released a video that purports to show Amri swearing allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed caliph of the Islamic State.

Speaking in a black-hooded windbreaker on an iron bridge with white railing and scrawled graffiti, he called on Muslims in Europe to rise up and strike at “crusaders.”

“God willing, we will slaughter you like pigs,” he said in the video, whose date and location was not given.

Yeah that’s nice – a god who endorses murdering random people “like pigs.”

He added, “to my brothers everywhere, fight for the sake of Allah. Protect our religion. Everyone can do this in their own way. People who can fight should fight, even in Europe.”

For the sake of Allah, protect the religion – by slaughtering random people like pigs. What a lovely conception of a supernatural daddy-figure.

The Hill reports that Trump said Michelle Obama didn’t mean it when she mentioned a hope deficit.

“We have tremendous hope, and we have tremendous promise and tremendous potential,” Trump said in Mobile, Ala., on the final stop of his “thank you” tour.

“And I actually think she made that statement not meaning it the way it came out,” Trump continued about Obama.

She was nice when he went to visit them that one time, and sat there looking like an overgrown child about to throw a tantrum. He said she couldn’t have been nicer. No doubt, Donnie from Queens, because she’s adult like that, but that doesn’t mean she thinks you’re a good future president or a good human being.

She had some things to say about Trump when the Access Hollywood tape came out. Remember that speech? I certainly do. She’s not impressed by a president-elect who bragged about grabbing women by the pussy, and getting away with it because he’s a “star.”

Michelle Obama told Oprah Winfrey during an interview earlier this week that the Obama administration achieved the hope it promised during the campaign.

“Because we feel the difference now,” she said. “See, now, we’re feeling what not having hope feels like.”

Trump responded Saturday, predicting “tremendous hope” in the nation’s future.

“And beyond hope, we have such potential. This country has such potential. You watch, it’s going to be so special. Things are going to happen like you haven’t seen happen in many many decades,” he said.

The stupidity of the man is mind-boggling.