Whoa, top class DARVO from the Trump gang!

The White House on Sunday decried Democratic-led congressional investigations, saying Democrats are refusing to abide by “rules and norms” that govern oversight authority as they issue subpoenas for documents the Trump administration refuses to hand over.

We’re not refusing to abide by “rules and norms,” you’re refusing to abide by “rules and norms.” So there!

“There are rules and norms governing congressional oversight of the executive branch, and the Democrats simply refuse to abide by them,” White House deputy press secretary Steve Groves said in a statement. “Democrats are demanding documents they know they have no legal right to see — including confidential communications between the President and foreign leaders and grand

Jesse Singal on the Ban Scholars move:

2/ less faith that, as a journalist who often writes about science, I will be able to continue using Twitter without getting punished for communicating scientifiically accurate infromation. Twitter is making a terrible and embarrassing error here that it should fix.

— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) May 12, 2019

4/This is how you get the most important outlet in the world running an extremely misleading column on testosterone, the ACLU arguing women can compete w/and beat men in competitive sports. etc.

We're approaching a Soviet/fundamentalist/take your pick level of science denialism. pic.twitter.com/SJ6ia3NvLe

— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) May 12, 2019

6/ In conclusion , Twitter, PLEASE suspend me for accurately citing the DSM. I am

Ok let’s talk about that.

Transgenderism is an actual thing. Transethnicism, as far as we know, isn’t.

— Mitch Benn (@MitchBenn) May 11, 2019

What does it mean to say “transgenderism is an actual thing”?

It’s an actual thing in the sense that people talk about it a lot, but that’s not what Benn means, because he contrasts it with “transethnicism” which as far as we know, according to him, is not an actual thing.

So what does he mean? Presumably something like “an actual condition, not just a fashion or fad or subject of conversation.” But then how does he know it really is an actual condition, not just a fashion or fad or subject of conversation? Is his … Read the rest

Nick Cohen writes that Britain is too fond of “characters” to call a far-right politician a far-right politician.

If you want to deceive the French public, you pose as an intellectual. In England, you pose as a character. Like a criminal on a witness protection programme, the ham actor who plays upper-class roles avoids the accountability that prevents democratic life degenerating into the feast of fools we see around us.

In the US you pose as a nice guy. (Women of course don’t get to play this game.) Joe Biden is recycling himself yet again because of all those cozy photos of him with Obama. Joe Biden is not a nice guy.

They get away with it because the

They have got to be kidding.

https://twitter.com/HJJoyceEcon/status/1127476326603079680… Read the rest

Andrew Gilligan in the Sunday Times:

People warned by the police over comments they made about transgender issues are launching a pressure group and legal action next week, challenging “Big Brother interference” with their free speech rights.

The Fair Cop campaign is headed by Harry Miller, 54, from Lincolnshire, who was visited at work in January by Humberside police for retweeting a limerick that said trans women had silicone breasts. The force admitted there was no crime, but described it as a “hate incident” and said it would be monitoring Miller’s and his wife’s social media accounts.

Others involved include the Father Ted writer Graham Linehan, who was given a police warning after getting into a row with a

They don’t think these things through at all, do they.

Temporary provisional acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney did an interview for CBS news the other day.

Of particular interest, though, was the exchange that began at the 23:12 mark of the conversation.

The host noted that the Treasury Department has refused a congressional order to turn over Donald Trump’s tax returns, and Garrett asked why. This was the exchange that followed:

MULVANEY: Because they are not entitled to see them by law. By the way, they know, especially on this one, they know they’re never going to get these documents. This is a pure show-pony-type of situation. They know the legal reasons they can get those

Not for the squeamish.

https://twitter.com/museofwoolwich/status/1126634702822084608

Mandatory school sex ed that will include teaching the students how to masturbate. Er…really?

Really.

Teachers who have specialist training will do it

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) May 10, 2019

Listen, you’re supposed to get that kind of sex ed on the street, behind the bike shed, from your first (or second or tenth) sex partner…anywhere but school.

Also, Tatchell has been known to defend “adult-child sexual relationships”, and people with expertise in the subject say that adults “teaching” children how to masturbate is grooming. Tatchell appears to be promoting mandatory, can’t opt out sex ed in school that will include grooming. Not his best idea.… Read the rest

Meanwhile Carl Benjamin is on the outs with YouTube.

YouTube has demonetised Carl Benjamin’s Sargon of Akkad video channel after the political commentator turned UKIP candidate made comments about raping a woman MP.

Earlier this week, West Midlands police announced an investigation into Benjamin’s remarks made in a YouTube video about Labour MP Jess Phillips, where the UKIP European election candidate questioned whether he’d rape her before concluding “nobody’s got that much beer”.

I was just objecting to Twitter’s permanent banning of a woman who told a boy he is not a lesbian. Should I also, to be consistent, object to YouTube’s demonitization (you should forgive the word) of Carl Benjamin’s YouTube?

There are two (or more) ways of … Read the rest

One of the better headlines:

UKIP candidate Carl Benjamin in Truro milkshake melee

Not a Truro milkshake melee!? The horror.

Two protesters have thrown milkshake at UKIP European election candidate Carl Benjamin at a rally.

Mr Benjamin was holding a gathering on Lemon Quay in Truro, Cornwall, with British activist Milo Yiannopoulos.

It is understood a man and a woman tried to target Mr Benjamin with the milkshake but missed.

So not really much of a melee then. Fortunately, by way of consolation, the Beeb provided a photo of blobs of what could be bird shit or puke or melting snow or a vanilla milkshake, helpfully captioned “Milkshake could be seen on the ground after the incident.”

It gets better … Read the rest

Remember this from a few days ago?

https://twitter.com/anyabyke/status/1125481180168708097

Now Twitter has made the ban permanent.

https://twitter.com/boodleoops/status/1126937220370268160

Twitter is calling it “hateful conduct” to tell that boy he is not a lesbian. Twitter is saying that to tell that boy he is not a lesbian is “to promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people.”

Meanwhile relentless harassment and verbal abuse of women goes on unabated.… Read the rest

Sometimes…

Huge increase in UK same-sex couples seeking IVF and surrogates https://t.co/S7p16EdCMx

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) May 10, 2019

That is, huge increase in gay male couples seeking to rent women’s bodies to make them their very own bespoke baby. Lesbian couples don’t need to rent women to make a baby; men think they’re entitled to rent women to get whatever they want. Isn’t it funny how men don’t recognize or acknowledge the exploitation of renting women’s bodies, yet do manage to remember to disguise what they’re doing by talking about “same-sex couples” in the headline and the tweet?… Read the rest

Originally a comment by latsot on A roar rose from the crowd.

The UK is lost in a mire of racist sentiment. We’re sinking into the lie that things were better back then even when “then” means times like the 70s when absolutely everything was absolutely bad and the only reason we managed to keep our heads above the shit floating on every surface was… you know… those immigrants. Coming over here, the bastards, rescuing our economy and being totally fucked over because of it. You know, like those Windrush people, who we tricked into coming here to do the jobs we didn’t want to do and then we tried to deport their children and grandchildren? You know, those … Read the rest

Jennifer Rubin on Giuliani’s travel plans:

Democrats should call this out for what it is: Betrayal of, and disloyalty to, the United States.

Beyond that, the House should expeditiously pass a law making it mandatory for a campaign to report all contacts with foreign officials, prohibiting solicitation of information or action from a foreign government for the purpose of influencing a campaign, and making it illegal to knowingly use material provided directly or indirectly from a foreign government in a campaign.

Should Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) refuse to take up the measure, he would confirm the moral degradation of the Republican Party and the same unpatriotic attitude that prompted him to oppose a robust warning in 2016

The theocrats are sneaking bible study into public schools via bullshittery.

Bible classes in public school could become increasingly common across the United States if other states follow Kentucky’s lead in passing legislation that encourages high schools to teach the Bible.

The bible is a historical document and a literary work, or rather a collection of literary works, and it’s also a religious text. It could be taught in public schools under the first two categories but the third one doesn’t belong there.

Activists on the religious right, through their legislative effort Project Blitz, drafted a law that encourages Bible classes in public schools and persuaded at least 10 state legislatures to introduce versions of it this year. Georgia and

At least one judge is fast-tracking.

Very big. Overarching q for me has been whether judges would respond to Trump’s unprecedented stonewalling tactics by speeding things up. At least one is. https://t.co/byasjDEgXD

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) May 9, 2019

CNN reports:

Congress and Donald Trump’s fight over his financial records is now on the fast track.

Judge Amit Mehta plans next week to weigh the major legal issues raised in President Donald Trump’s challenge of a congressional subpoena for his accounting firm’s records, according to an order issued Thursday — putting the case on an even faster track than it previously looked to be.

Congress has subpoenaed Trump and his business’ accounting records from the firm Mazars USA, and