The White House chief of staff is fine with all this coronavirus-defying:

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows defended Vice President Pence’s decision to continue traveling and campaigning despite his exposure to staff who have tested positive for COVID-19, saying Sunday that Pence is exempt from CDC guidelines because he is “essential personnel.”

But is campaigning essential activity?

Meadows told CNN that “we are not going to control the pandemic,” dismissing the notion that the appropriate COVID policy should be to “quarantine all of America.” Instead, Meadows argued, the focus should be on developing vaccines and therapeutics “to give Americans the relief that this is not a death sentence.”

And in the meantime it’s fine to infect people … Read the rest

So Pence’s staff is riddled with coronavirus.

At least five people in Vice President Mike Pence’s orbit have tested positive for coronavirus in recent days, including chief of staff Marc Short and outside adviser Marty Obst, a source familiar with the situation told CNN.

…

Despite the slew of coronavirus cases around him, Pence — who is the head of the White House’s coronavirus task force — is not quarantining, as per US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Instead, he plans to continue traveling and campaigning in the final stretch to Election Day.

Because, you know, the hell with CDC guidelines, the hell with safety, the hell with everything except the self-interest of Trump and his dummy.… Read the rest

This one really struck a nerve. Not in a good way.

https://twitter.com/SandsUK/status/1314855702343680002

Sands is here for you, but not so here that it will call you a mother instead of a “birthing parent” (or a father instead of a “non-birthing parent”).

The replies are genuinely painful to read.

Can you please have the decency & respect to refer to a woman who loses her baby as the mother? I've seen so many women crying out for their lost babies to be remembered & their short existence to be acknowledged. Let them be the mothers they wanted to be, the mothers they ARE.

— Jayne (courage calls to courage everywhere) (@ScouseJayne) October 24, 2020

I have never experienced the loss of

… Read the rest

Ok…

https://twitter.com/GailRossSNP/status/1319740452258676736

Commence piling on. If love, respect and humanity should be the bedrock of society then why are you calling people bitches? I know it’s hip and everything but what’s it got to do with love respect n humanity?

Also, how does “equality” come into it? What do “pronouns” have to do with equality?

In reality, nothing. In the jargon-world these two apparently inhabit, part of “equality” is bespoke pronouns and forcing everyone else to use those bespoke pronouns. How they get there, though, remains obscure.

And then from the Jason Michael tweet, what does treating other human beings with love, dignity and respect have to do with pronouns?

In reality, nothing. In the jargon-world these two apparently inhabit, … Read the rest

Alarm bells:

PRESIDENT TRUMP’S newest executive order, signed without fanfare this week, could prove one of his most insidious.

The directive from the White House, issued late Wednesday, sounds technical: creating a new “Schedule F” within the “excepted service” of the federal government for employees in policymaking roles, and directing agencies to determine who qualifies. Its implications, however, are profound and alarming. It gives those in power the authority to fire more or less at will as many as tens of thousands of workers currently in the competitive civil service, from managers to lawyers to economists to, yes, scientists.

Wo. That’s a terrible plan. It dynamites the whole point of having a civil service (the hilarities … Read the rest

We’re still doing it wrong.

The United States on Friday was approaching a record for the number of new daily coronavirus cases, as a new study warned that the pandemic is set to cause half a million American deaths by February.

…

This means that with cases surging in many states, particularly the upper midwest, what appears to be a third major peak of coronavirus infections in the US could lead to nearly 300,000 people dying in just the next four months.

Compared to over 200,000 in the last eight months – so that’s a huge leap.

The news came as Anthony Fauci, the top public health official on the White House coronavirus taskforce, said Donald Trump has not

… Read the rest

Speaking of the princess…she’s sharing Trump’s idiotic “cleanliness” interpretation of environmentalism.

https://twitter.com/IvankaTrump/status/1319759284947865601

“Pristine” ffs. It’s the comprehension of a resort-owner. There must be NO DIRT anywhere. We need CRYSTAL CLEAR WATER and PRISTINE OCEANS AND BEACHES.

The hell we do. Sterile environments are by definition hostile to life. Biology needs a lot of muck, and it generates a lot of muck. Princess Ivanka makes it sound as if we should bleach everything. (Ask the coral reefs how that’s working out.)

I cannot wait to see the back of these people.… Read the rest

Hahahahaha Princess Ivanka and Prince Jared are SUING, they are SUING I tell you.

Nuts! pic.twitter.com/XxxkG43z3W

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) October 24, 2020

I’m sure they’ll win that suit because how could anyone possibly back up the claim that Princess Barbie is indifferent to the sufferings of people harmed by her criminal murderous daddy?

Jared and Ivanka have always been entitled, out-of-touch bullies who have never given the slightest indication they have any regard for the American people.

We plan on showing them the same level of respect.

Our full statement: pic.twitter.com/M3K5nOE5qd

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) October 24, 2020

For the first time ever I feel a twinge of gratitude toward Princess and Prince, for giving us this … Read the rest

Why do they keep doing this?

https://twitter.com/RebeccaTinnelly/status/1319717341165457409

This makes NO sense. Women are the ones subject to sexual violence and harassment and creeping (you know, cameras, peering over the partition, that stuff), not men. Women; not men. It shouldn’t be men who are given the toilets to themselves while women have to share them with men; that is backwards.

Plus the whole…”well we don’t want to push men around because they might punch us, so we’ll just dump it all on you, because if you punch us we can smash all your teeth in.” It’s called bullying; it’s called unfair; it’s called taking advantage.… Read the rest

I wish I’d heard that (or could currently find a recording of it):

https://twitter.com/marstrina/status/1319694268102021121

Marina sent the perfect question:

https://twitter.com/marstrina/status/1319695360365834240

Seriously. How can Kate Manne talk about something named “male entitlement” or “male privilege” if she doesn’t know who male people are? How does she know they’re not all trans women but just haven’t worked up the courage to say so yet?

Festival of Ideas blurbs the conversation:

Philosopher Kate Manne offers a radical new framework for understanding misogyny. She ranges widely across the culture — from the Kavanaugh hearings and ‘Cat Person’ to Harvey Weinstein and Elizabeth Warren — to show how the idea that a privileged man is tacitly deemed to be owed something is a pervasive

… Read the rest

Aw, Bibi won’t play.

Speaking to “Bibi” on the phone in the Oval Office earlier today, Trump tried to goad Netanyahu into attacking Joe Biden.

“Do you think Sleepy Joe could have made this deal, Bibi?” Trump asked Netanyahu, referring to Biden by an insulting nickname. “You think he would have made this deal? Somehow, I don’t think so.”

Very appropriate. Just what heads of state are supposed to do – try to draw other heads of state into insulting a rival for the office. “Bibi” will have to work with Biden if we succeed in putting a stake through Trump’s gut, but Donnie Two Scoops can’t be bothered with details like that when they’re about other people.

But

… Read the rest

Peter Tatchell’s determined indifference to the concerns of women – which he names accurately and claims to “sympathize and empathize with” – is breathtaking to see.… Read the rest

More voter suppression from the right-wing Supreme Court:

The Supreme Court has sided with Alabama state officials who banned curbside voting intended to accommodate individuals with disabilities and those at risk from the COVID-19 virus.

The high court issued its order Wednesday night, without explanation, over the dissent of the court’s three liberal justices.

At issue was the decision by the Alabama secretary of state to ban counties from allowing curbside voting, even for those voters with disabilities and those for whom COVID-19 is disproportionately likely to be fatal.

People like that won’t be voting for Trump so…… Read the rest

Tatchell reminds us he doesn’t give a shit about women.

Peter Tatchell: "actually the studies show that transwomen are at a disadvantage in women's sports."

How people can lie so brazenly in the media and still expect people to take anything they say seriously is beyond me. https://t.co/M0ZtcLngv5

— Roary (@GrRoary) October 23, 2020

Trans women are at a disadvantage in women’s sport? Really?… Read the rest

This goon. He says it AGAIN – I knew he was going to and flinched in advance and pow, there it was: the crystal clean water again.

US President Donald Trump says, “Look at India … it’s filthy. The air is filthy.” But who ran away from the Paris accord? pic.twitter.com/gCYyie3usF

— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) October 23, 2020

But also…starting at 40 seconds, notice the energy with which he calls China filthy, India filthy. We can all see he’s not just thinking about “the air.”… Read the rest

Remember those skeletons in the septic tank at the Catholic-run mother and baby prison [formally “home”] in Tuam? Let’s hush all that kind of thing up until everyone’s dead, ok?

In September, the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes said bespoke legislation would be required to safeguard and transfer a database of the mothers and children who were resident in the main mother-and-baby homes.

The bill provided for the database to be sent to Tusla, which raised concerns among former residents of the homes and their families over their ability to access the information held by the Child and Family Agency.

Under a 2004 act, the remaining archives will be sealed for 30 years. Last Friday, the bill

… Read the rest

Joining the women-haters club:

The US has today signed an anti-abortion declaration with a group of about 30 largely illiberal or authoritarian governments, after the failure of an effort to expand the conservative coalition.

The “Geneva Consensus Declaration” calls on states to promote women’s rights and health – but without access to abortion – and is part of a campaign by Trump administration, led by secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, to reorient US foreign policy in a more socially conservative direction, even at the expense of alienating traditional western allies.

You can’t promote women’s rights while imposing mandatory pregnancy on them. If women can’t say no to having their bodies taken over for nine months then they have… Read the rest

Again with this baffler.

We are campaigning to protect the Human Rights of female prisoners and female guards in female prisons where transwomen are being housed.
The transwomen in Limerick Women’s prison for instance, are both fully-intact males. One might imagine a Human Rights organisation.. 2/

— The Countess (@TheCountessIE) October 22, 2020

This letter outlines their policy in stark terms: pic.twitter.com/LvQ3NXBQ0t

— The Countess (@TheCountessIE) October 22, 2020

That last one is the baffler. WHY is it their general human rights position that people have a right to have their gender identity recognized? WHY??

What they mean by “gender identity” is “fictional gender that is the opposite of the real one.” We dull-normal people don’t have “gender identities” because … Read the rest

The 60 Minutes interview wasn’t Trump’s to post. CBS allowed the White House to tape it for archival purposes. Trump doesn’t honor agreements. Never do business with Trump.

CBS News on Thursday called out the White House for violating an agreement it had with the network and posting President Trump’s full “60 Minutes” interview online ahead of its Sunday air date.

“The White House’s unprecedented decision to disregard their agreement with CBS News and release their footage will not deter ’60 Minutes’ from providing its full, fair and contextual reporting which presidents have participated in for decades,” CBS News said in a statement.

…

CBS News has said the White House recorded the interview alongside the network, but agreed

… Read the rest

The BBC has been letting the children loose on their website again. The result is An Article About Bespoke Pronouns.

How to be an ally to friends who’ve changed their pronouns

Walk away. Don’t linger, don’t express regrets, don’t wave, just walk away.

There is no such thing as “their pronouns.” Pronouns aren’t a thing you can possess. Personal names, yes; pronouns, no. That’s pretty much the point of them. Personal names are, as the title suggests, personal to the people whose names they are. Pronouns are the short items that substitute for the personal names because it gets weird saying the name over and over. They are necessarily generic.

We all like to be referred to in a

… Read the rest