All entries by this author

Sheep may safely graze

Jul 3rd, 2019 10:39 am | By

To get rid of the bad taste that left behind…

Watch all 23 seconds, there’s a big surprise at the end.

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His SAT scores are high

Jul 3rd, 2019 10:36 am | By

Won’t somebody please think of the rapist?

Again.

A judge suggested that a teenage boy accused of raping a drunk girl at a party should be treated leniently because he came from “a good family”, and cast doubt on whether such an attack amounted to rape at all.

Judge James Troiano in New Jersey made the remarks while ruling that the boy, who was identified only as “GMC”, should not face trial as an adult for allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl while recording the incident on his mobile phone.

“This young man comes from a good family who put him into an excellent school where he was doing extremely well,” Troiano said. “He is clearly a candidate for not just

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Absolutely moving forward

Jul 3rd, 2019 9:45 am | By

Trump announces on Twitter that the Supreme Court can’t tell him what to do.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday branded as “fake” news reports that his administration was dropping plans to ask people if they are U.S. citizens on the 2020 census — despite officials in his own administration having said Monday that the question will not be asked.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and a Justice Department lawyer had both said Tuesday that the Census Bureau is in the process of printing the census questionnaire without the citizenship question.

Their statements came five days after a Supreme Court decision that effectively blocked the question being added to the 2020 census questionnaire.

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It’ll be special

Jul 2nd, 2019 5:00 pm | By

The BBC raises a skeptical eyebrow at Donnie Two-scoops’s wannabe-Mussolini parade.

“We’re going to have planes going overhead – the best fighter jets in the world and other planes too,” the Republican president told reporters at the White House on Monday.

“And we’re going to have some tanks stationed outside.”

He said the event will “be like no other, it’ll be special”.

You can hear them sniggering from all the way over here.

City leaders have spoken out against the idea.

“We have said it before, and we’ll say it again: Tanks, but no tanks,” the District of Columbia council tweeted on Monday.

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We have to have a serious discussion

Jul 2nd, 2019 4:37 pm | By

Hmmm. What are we saying here?

Trans women are not safe in male changing rooms, so women and girls have to share changing rooms with them.

But women and girls are not safe in male changing rooms either, so why do they have to make their changing rooms less safe for them in order to make them more safe for trans women? Why does the obligation always … Read the rest



Baby gets parade

Jul 2nd, 2019 10:56 am | By

Trump is putting on the full fascist display for the 4th of July, at least as close to it as he can get.

Donald Trump said on Monday that a display of US military tanks would be part of a special event he is headlining on the Fourth of July in Washington.

As if that were just normal, but it isn’t.

Trump had wanted a military parade of tanks and other equipment in the District of Columbia after he witnessed a similar parade on Bastille Day in Paris in 2017. That plan eventually was scuttled, partly because of cost, though Trump apparently held on to the idea.

Want tanks! Want tanks n planes n sojers n noise! Am big … Read the rest



They described horrific circumstances

Jul 2nd, 2019 9:15 am | By

Some House Democrats went to inspect two border prisons yesterday. The news is not good.

They described horrific circumstances at facilities on the same day the investigative news organization ProPublica revealed a closed Facebook group in which current and former Border Patrol agents reportedly share jokes about migrant deaths, derogatory comments about Latina lawmakers and a lewd meme involving at least one of them. The posts have been turned over to the Department of Homeland Security inspector general, said US Border Patrol Chief of Operations Brian Hastings.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was among the Democratic lawmakers who toured a facility here Monday following reports of squalid conditions for detained migrants at the border, overcrowded facilities and thinly stretched resources. She

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Shermersplaining

Jul 2nd, 2019 8:19 am | By

Large generalization department.

All leftists and progressives (as opposed to “liberals” by which Shermer means libertarians) respond to the assault on Andy Ngo by saying he deserved it.

Really?

No. Of course not. Some do, but everyone to the left of Shermer? Don’t be ridiculous.

He also embarrassed himself by saying that Nazism was anti-capitalist. He deleted that one.… Read the rest



Here there and everywhere

Jul 1st, 2019 5:06 pm | By

Still more.

https://twitter.com/Stutheeditor/status/1145684020904308737

https://twitter.com/OmnomnomPretzel/status/1145708738474577921

https://twitter.com/brianfraga/status/1145706626005045249

https://twitter.com/somekindahippie/status/1145715986143883264

https://twitter.com/DevonKiwi/status/1145745745942913031… Read the rest



Sea ice extent has nosedived

Jul 1st, 2019 4:39 pm | By

Uh oh. Again. It was the Canadian Arctic, it was the Himalayas, now it’s the Antarctic. All the ice that we thought was so locked up is melting much faster than expected.

The vast expanse of sea ice around Antarctica has suffered a “precipitous” fall since 2014, satellite data shows, and fell at a faster rate than seen in the Arctic.

The plunge in the average annual extent means Antarctica lost as much sea ice in four years as the Arctic lost in 34 years. The cause of the sharp Antarctic losses is as yet unknown and only time will tell whether the ice recovers or continues to decline.

But researchers said it showed ice could disappear

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She fainted and fell off her chair

Jul 1st, 2019 4:03 pm | By

Hey, here’s an idea, let’s put women back into corsets. People who can’t breathe properly can’t rebel.

Kim Kardashian West is perched on a chair. She’s not quite sitting; instead, she’s pushing her hands into the armrests then leaning against the cushion. Her figure is grotesque: above her generous hips rests an already small waist, tightened beyond belief thanks to a flesh-coloured corset. She addresses the camera. “Anna, if I don’t sit down for dinner, now you know why. I’ll be walking around mingling, talking, but I can hardly sit …” – she tries to sit, she can’t – “I can only half-sit.”

…Perhaps she was right not to sit; a few weeks later, actor Elle Fanning attended a

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Neville and Buzz and Elvis

Jul 1st, 2019 11:58 am | By

A few more.

https://twitter.com/usernameendgame/status/1145443452131434496

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Quis custodiet

Jul 1st, 2019 10:59 am | By

Pro Publica reports:

Members of a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents joked about the deaths of migrants, discussed throwing burritos at Latino members of Congress visiting a detention facility in Texas on Monday and posted a vulgar illustration depicting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engaged in oral sex with a detained migrant, according to screenshots of their postings.

In one exchange, group members responded with indifference and wisecracks to the post of a news story about a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant who died in May while in custody at a Border Patrol station in Weslaco, Texas. One member posted a GIF of Elmo with the quote, “Oh well.” Another responded with an image and the words “If

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Women in astronomy, go to the back of the line

Jul 1st, 2019 10:12 am | By

Again.

RAS Diversity is a branch of the Royal Astronomical Society.

https://twitter.com/RAS_Diversity/status/1145667572131651585

We very much encourage men who identify as women to apply for women only grants and awards.

Now, if you think this is at all wrong or unfair, RAS Diversity has an answer for you.

https://twitter.com/RAS_Diversity/status/1145680038756605952

Nothing like a smartass gif to make a compelling argument.… Read the rest



Ivanka Zelig

Jul 1st, 2019 9:37 am | By

More.

https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1145431713222397953

https://twitter.com/thor_benson/status/1145433455435628547

https://twitter.com/Rschooley/status/1145567832458948608

Nice one, because that’s Trump’s “mentor” and hero Roy Cohn there next to McCarthy.

https://twitter.com/brewmasterbones/status/1145469303271100422

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She was there

Jul 1st, 2019 9:23 am | By

#UnwantedIvanka is trending. It’s hilarious.

https://twitter.com/somekindahippie/status/1145546098267869184

https://twitter.com/will_oppss/status/1145488131837218816

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A long way, baby

Jun 30th, 2019 5:37 pm | By

Yes, he really does say that.… Read the rest



Infinite power in all directions

Jun 30th, 2019 5:26 pm | By

Donald Ayer, who was Deputy Attorney General under George H. W. Bush before William Barr, says it’s been Barr’s lifetime goal to make the powers of the president all but infinite.

[I]n securing his confirmation as attorney general, Barr successfully used his prior service as attorney general in the by-the-book, norm-following administration of George H. W. Bush to present himself as a mature adult dedicated to the rule of law who could be expected to hold the Trump administration to established legal rules. Having known Barr for four decades, including preceding him as deputy attorney general in the Bush administration, I knew him to be a fierce advocate of unchecked presidential power…

And not so much the rule of … Read the rest



Expressions of tortured politeness

Jun 30th, 2019 1:38 pm | By

She was there why, again?

The abiding image from this year’s G20 summit will not be Donald Trump sharing another chuckle with Vladimir Putin. It is the clip of his daughter, Ivanka, inserting herself into an awkward circle of world leaders. The video, released by the French government, shows varying expressions of tortured politeness as Ms Trump intrudes on a discussion between France’s Emmanuel Macron, Britain’s Theresa May, Canada’s Justin Trudeau and Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF. Ms Lagarde, in particular, was unable to conceal her irritation.

It’s not as if they’re gathered in Trump’s personal living room and Ivanka is an adorable toddler who has escaped from Nanny for a moment.

What they were discussing is secondary. Mr

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She wrote it this morning when she woke up

Jun 30th, 2019 1:19 pm | By

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