A pair of tweets:
Vindman explains why a Soviet-born dad would worry about his testifying in way that could challenge/expose the president: “He deeply worried about it” bc in “his context” it was the “ultimate risk.”
Alayna Treene commenting on the above:
Each time Vindman reminds his dad — who is seated behind him — that he need not worry, his dad beams behind him
Meanwhile the White House and Trump are hard at work trying to be more like Putin.… Read the rest
Now the White House Twitter account is joining Trump in witness intimidation.
The White House Twitter account has just sent a message raising doubts about the judgement of Lt Col Alexander Vindman as the NSC official testifies in the impeachment inquiry.
Tim Morrison, Alexander Vindman’s former boss, testified in his deposition that he had concerns about Vindman’s judgment.
To repeat: that’s the White House Twitter account.
The Guardian adds:
… Read the restThe White House tweet raising doubts about the judgement of Lt Col Alexander Vindman is particularly shocking considering the Iraq war veteran still serves on the national security council.
Meanwhile, over on Trump’s Twitter account, the president is resharing messages from Republican accounts downplaying the testimony from Vindman and
Last thing yesterday I did a post about some amateur Savonarola on Twitter telling a college to cancel a talk by a woman artist because he, pretend Savonarola, considered her trAnspHobic, on the very serious basis that she had retweeted a couple of tweets he disapproved of. It seemed like childish bullshit, AND YET – it worked.
Rachel A R A tweeted 7 hours ago (so about 7:30 a.m. UK time)
Sorry folks .. but my talk at Oxford has been cancelled tonight. Some twitter user @terfsoutofart (I assume some disenfranchised man) has galvanised students to complain about me. I guess making art about feminist issues is a bit too challenging for today’s youth! #waronwomen
Just.like.that.
One asshole, one stupid … Read the rest
Another sniffy censor: TERFS OUT OF ART. They want to get feminists with unapproved opinions out of art, you see.
✊ Trans rights are human rights 👟 Working to kick transphobia out of art 📨 Tipoffs welcome 📣 RT / amplify us so we can get the job done 🏳️🌈 TERFs blocked
I’m blocked, so I guess I must be a TERF.
Here’s their “work” for today:
TERF artist Rachel Ara will speak at #OxfordBrookes university tomorrow.
Giving transphobes a uni platform is unacceptable. We encourage students & staff to picket & raise complaints with @obuarts at http://brookes.ac.uk/school-of-arts/about/ … – campus must be safe for everyone.
This account shows us two tweets that Rachel Ara retweeted, and for … Read the rest
Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug on Women’s sports are prospering so it’s time to give them to men.
So, once again, we have one definition whereby people with physical traits more representative of mothers than fathers are “women” while people with physical traits more representative of fathers than mothers are not, regardless of anything that goes on inside their heads. And we have one definition (or would have if it not for the fact that the Genderspeak definitions of “women” are all circular) whereby people with physical traits more representative of fathers than mothers who think or feel a certain way are “women”, regardless of physical traits, while some…? most…? all…? of the people with physical traits more … Read the rest
Mimi Rocah and Karen Schwartz on Marie Yovanovitch and Christine Blasey Ford:
… Read the restLike many Americans, we expected the testimony of the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, to be powerful. We did not expect it to prove so emotional, or to feel so familiar.
…
But by midmorning, things took a turn. Democratic counsel Daniel Goldman asked her about how she felt after learning President Donald Trump had discussed her with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during the now infamous July 25 phone call. It was a chilling moment. Referring to Yovanovitch as “the woman,” Trump told his Ukrainian counterpart she was “going to go through some things.”
“It was a terrible moment,” Yovanovitch recalled Friday. She
Charles Pierce at Esquire says things are speeding up on Trump’s train to the cliff edge.
… Read the restThe latest burst of hail comes from a federal appeals court in Washington. From the Washington Post:
The request followed closely on the heels of Friday’s conviction of longtime Trump friend Roger Stone. Testimony and evidence at his trial appeared to cast doubt on written replies from Trump to Mueller about the president’s knowledge about attempts by his 2016 campaign to learn more about the release of hacked Democratic emails by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks. “Did the president lie? Was the president not truthful in his responses to the Mueller investigation,” General Counsel Douglas N. Letter said. “The House is trying to determine
Another brave man brags on Twitter about sending another Letter to another Institution telling it not to “platform” a woman. In this case the man is one Olly Thorne who has a popular YouTube channel on philosophy.
I’ve just sent this letter to the Academic Director of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, concerning their decision to platform Kathleen St*ck at their Annual Debate. Those of us working in philosophy must stand up for our trans colleagues and students.
That is, those of us men working in philosophy must silence our female colleagues and students.
… Read the restI’m writing in sadness rather than in anger to caution you that the Royal Institute of Philosophy’s decision to host Kathleen Stock at the Annual Debate
You know how Zelenskiy has been saying he felt no pressure from Trump, no no, no pressure at all? Well, don’t you believe it.
… Read the restU.S. State Department officials were informed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was feeling pressure from the Trump administration to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden even before the July phone call that has led to impeachment hearings in Washington, two people with knowledge of the matter told The Associated Press.
In early May, officials at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, including then-Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, were told Zelenskiy was seeking advice on how to navigate the difficult position he was in, the two people told the AP. He was concerned President Donald Trump and associates were
Trump has fumed for weeks that Pompeo is responsible for hiring State Department officials whose congressional testimony threatens to bring down his presidency, the officials said. The president confronted Pompeo about the officials — and what he believed was a lackluster effort by the secretary of state to block their testimony — during lunch at the White House on Oct. 29, those familiar with the matter said.
Inside the White House, the view was that Trump “just felt like, ‘rein your people in,’” a senior administration official said.
Right, because that’s how everything works. It’s all personal, and it’s all about the guy at the top reining in the peons, and various guys … Read the rest
Trump is a big fan of torture, provided it’s the US doing it.
… Read the restTrump has held the same views about war crimes and torture for years — and being commander in chief has not changed him. He believes that previous presidents have been far too eager to send Americans to war, but that once they’ve been deployed, these soldiers should be free to treat enemies brutally.
- Trump’s views on this subject flared up again last week. He clashed with Pentagon brass when he cleared three soldiers who have been accused or convicted of war crimes.
- Pentagon leaders had privately argued that the president’s intervention in these cases would undercut the code of military justice.
Trump has told advisers that
Books by Selina Todd (she’s a historian):
… Read the restYoung Women, Work, and Family in England, 1918-1950, Oxford University
Winner, Women’s History Network Book Prize ‘Young women emerge in this history as a critically important force…When we imagine a typical interwar worker, it isn’t as a bob-haired 14-year-old shop assistant wearing her first pair of heels’. LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS
The People. The Rise and Fall of the Working Class, 1910-2010 2014Book of the Year in Observer and Guardian; one of David Kynaston’s Books of the Year; one of only three history books by women to be a bestseller in 2014. Now translated into Japanese, Korean, Catalan and Spanish.
Tastes of Honey: the making of Shelagh Delaney and a cultural
Oxford student newspaper Cherwell October 25:
A demonstration in support of trans rights will be held today in response to a meeting of self-described feminist group Woman’s Place UK (WPUK). WPUK was established in 2017 to oppose the trans rights enshrined in changes to the Gender Recognition Act, and has been widely condemned as transphobic.
The well is poisoned so carefully from the outset. “in support of trans rights” – because what kind of fiend could oppose someone’s rights? “self-described feminist group” – but we know better, don’t we, wink wink nudge nudge. “to oppose the trans rights” – there they are! They’re the kind of fiend who oppose someone’s rights! “widely condemned as transphobic” – the way we … Read the rest
The headline:
Palatine School District Approves Full Bathroom Rights For Transgender Students
Had transgender students been denied “full bathroom rights” until now? What are “full bathroom rights” anyway? Do students who are not transgender still have them at Palatine School District?
The suburban high school district at the center of a national debate over transgender student rights voted Thursday night to gives its transgender students full access to school locker rooms and bathrooms.
So they can go into all of them? While students who are not transgender have to pick those for girls or those for boys?
… Read the restThe debate over transgender student access started four years ago when a student charged that the district’s practices discriminated against transgender students. The
Nick Robinson of the BBC tweeted a few days ago:
Should the law treat me as a woman if I chose to identify as one? Yes @lucianaberger
of the @LibDems told me on @BBCr4today despite criticism by some women that their rights are being ignored.
Jolyon Maugham QC commented about this wrongthink about self ID. (More on this post.)
If Nick says he’s a woman that doesn’t mean he is. The Lib Dem’s would believe and treat him as a woman. That is ludicrous.
If Nick says it he’d be lying. Which is why his tweet is so reductive, and loaded.
Oh. He would? How does Maugham QC know … Read the rest
Humanists UK warns against a stealth evangelical campaign disguised as Xmas presents for children in need:
Schools are being warned not to support the Operation Christmas Child appeal run by an evangelical US charity Samaritan’s Purse, which unbeknownst to many parents uses donors’ gifts to evangelise to vulnerable children, after it emerged that more schools are collecting donations for the scheme.
Operation Christmas Child sends shoeboxes full of toys, books, and other shiny presents to vulnerable children in Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe. But alongside the packages put together by schools, the charity also adds religious literature which aims to convert children to Christianity.
Can you say “strings attached”? Can you say “sneaky godbothering shits”?
… Read the restToday it has emerged that
The most notable thing here – other than 50, 000 some ppl liking a dude saying ‘fuck those evil witches’- is how many read it as identical to an affirmation of trans rights. This is how the discourse is structured. Being pro-trans is signaled, above all, by being anti-TERF.
The tweet she is commenting on is alas by Adam Savage, the Mythbusters guy. I saw it yesterday and sighed and moved on.
TERFs are shit. https://twitter.com/charliejane/status/1195156950394097665
It’s all women’s fault, as usual. Radical feminist women “are shit.”… Read the rest
A student residence in Bolton goes up like a torch.
Firefighters have been tackling a huge blaze at a university student accommodation block.
Crowds of students were evacuated from The Cube in Bolton when the fire broke out at about 20:30 GMT on Friday.
At its height about 200 firefighters from 40 fire engines were tackling the blaze which was affecting every floor.
A witness said the fire was “climbing up” the six-storey building. One person was rescued by crews using an aerial platform.
@JoLiptrott tweeted a Guardian article from last year about Grenfell-type cladding on student residences:
… Read the restThousands of students arriving at university for freshers’ week face sleeping in high-rise accommodation wrapped in combustible Grenfell-style cladding, the
