The Times on Donnie’s tantrum:

President Trump abruptly blew up a scheduled meeting with Democratic congressional leaders on Wednesday, lashing out at Speaker Nancy Pelosi for accusing him of a cover-up and declaring that he could not work with them until they stopped investigating him.

He then marched out into the Rose Garden, where reporters had been gathered, and delivered a statement bristling with anger as he demanded that Democrats “get these phony investigations over with.” He said they could not legislate and investigate at the same time. “We’re going to go down one track at a time,” he said.

Before the White House meeting Pelosi had been meeting with Democrats to talk about impeachment.

She emerged from that meeting with Democrats accusing Mr. Trump of a “cover-up.”

When she and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, arrived at the White House, Mr. Trump was loaded for bear. He walked into the Cabinet Room and did not shake anyone’s hand or sit in his seat, according to a Democrat informed about the meeting. He said that he wanted to advance legislation on infrastructure, trade and other matters, but that Ms. Pelosi had said something “terrible” by accusing him of a cover-up, according to the Democrat.

Well, yes, it’s terrible, because his cover-up is terrible. If you don’t want people saying terrible things about you, don’t do terrible things.

After just three minutes, he left the room before anyone else could speak, the Democrat said. From there, he headed to the Rose Garden, where a lectern had been set up with a sign that said “No Collusion, No Obstruction” and gave statistics intended to show that he had cooperated with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.

“Instead of walking in happily into a meeting, I walk in to look at people that have just said that I was doing a cover-up,” Mr. Trump said. “I don’t do cover-ups.”

He’s been doing cover-ups his entire life. He hides his school and university transcripts, his taxes, his wealth, his sexual assaults, his infidelities, his thefts, his lies, his dirty tricks, his mistakes, his cheating at golf – he tries to cover up things we see him saying and doing on camera. He does do cover-ups. They probably number in the hundreds. He’s a cheat and a thief and a liar. Of course he does cover-ups.

Mr. Schumer expressed shock at the outcome. “What happened in the White House would make your jaw drop,” he said.

He suggested that the real reason Mr. Trump blew up the meeting was that he had not come up with a way to pay for such an enormous spending package and therefore was looking for other excuses. He said it did not make sense that investigations would cause such an eruption because they had met late last month to discuss infrastructure.

So it’s another cover-up, by the guy who doesn’t do cover-ups.

But hey, it makes him look good, right?

Boys’ Club gets boy in trouble yet again. Boys just wonder how come all the rules got changed alla sudden and nobody ever told them.

Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada, a Republican, said on Tuesday he plans to step down from his position after lewd and racist text messages between him and his former chief of staff were leaked to the media.

…

Opposition to his leadership snowballed after texts were leaked to the media in which Casada and his now-former chief of staff, Cade Cothren, traded lewd remarks. Sent in the summer of 2016, the messages show Casada egging on the aide as he bragged about a sexual encounter in a restaurant bathroom, as one example.

The leaks also included a text message in which Cothren disparaged African Americans calling black people “idiots.” Only one of those went to Casada, and it is not clear if he responded.

Casada first questioned the authenticity of the texts, then wrote them off in an interview as “locker room talk.” Finally, Casada conceded that the texts were real and apologized.

What is this idea that “locker room talk” is some kind of escape clause? That of course is what Trump said, dismissively, about his “you can grab them by the pussy” brag – the one that cost Billy Bush his job and the respect of his daughter. So what is this idea? Who decided that when men talk contemptuous sexist shit about women in a locker room it doesn’t count? Why the fuck wouldn’t it count? Of course it counts! Locker rooms and other all-guy let your hair down places are where boys and men learn to talk contemptuous sexist shit about women. It’s where they learn they’re expected to talk contemptuous sexist shit about women, and that they’ll be mocked and bullied and ostracized if they don’t.

The fact that the contemptuous sexist shit about women is “locker room talk” doesn’t make it one tiny bit less contemptuous and sexist and guaranteed to train men to look down on women. Not.one.tiny.bit.

Did McGahn surprise us all and heed the subpoena? Nah.

“Our subpoenas are not optional,” Mr Nadler said during his opening remarks on Tuesday. “This committee will hear Mr McGahn’s testimony even if we have to go to court.”

Mr McGahn could be held in contempt for defying the subpoena from Congress.

“We will not allow the president to block congressional subpoenas, putting himself and his allies above the law,” Mr Nadler added.

…

Both the Department of Justice and White House released statements on Monday arguing that Mr McGahn was under no obligation to give evidence.

You might as well say “the Five Families released statements on Monday arguing that Mr McGahn was under no obligation to give evidence.” It’s every bit as meaningful. Trump’s grotesquely compliant employees released statements on Monday arguing that Mr McGahn was under no obligation to give evidence; of course they did; they’re all in for their mob boss.

Not good.

Today, Governor Jay Inslee declared a drought emergency that now expands across nearly half of Washington, with snow pack under 50 percent of normal across highlighted areas.

Hotter, drier conditions lead to more wildfires. This drought is a reminder that we expect 2019 will be a tough fire season. We are preparing as best we can to meet this challenge, but ask you to take caution and be vigilant when doing activities that may spark fires.

Fires in all directions, it will be.

The constitutional crisis rolls on, with Congressional Democrats being irritatingly feeble.

Donald Trump has blocked the former White House counsel Don McGahn from testifying before Congress about special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian election interference.

Donald Trump can’t “block him” from testifying. It’s just a power play and McGahn should ignore it, but he’s not, he’s said he’ll obey this arbitrary demand from someone he no longer works for.

In a legal opinion released on Monday, the justice department said lawmakers on Capitol Hill cannot compel McGahn, who was subpoenaed by the House judiciary committee, to answer their questions under oath.

Because “the justice department” is wholly in the bag for Trump. It’s not a justice department, it’s just a branch of the Trump operation.

The White House’s intervention was condemned by Jerry Nadler, the Democratic chairman of the judiciary committee. “The Mueller Report documents a shocking pattern of obstruction of justice,” he said in a statement. “The President acted again and again – perhaps criminally – to protect himself from federal law enforcement.

“Don McGahn personally witnessed the most egregious of these acts. President Trump knows this. He clearly does not want the American people to hear firsthand about his alleged misconduct, and so he has attempted to block Mr McGahn from speaking in public tomorrow.”

The move is the latest example of the Trump administration’s “disdain for the law”, added Nadler, who said the committee will meet as planned on Tuesday morning and still expects McGahn to appear.

Yes, groovy, but what are they going to do? Anything?

McGahn was subpoenaed by Nadler last month and, under instruction by the White House, failed to meet an initial deadline to appear before the committee. Nadler threatened to hold McGahn in contempt of Congress if he did not meet a second deadline of 21 May.

So do it. Don’t threaten; do it.

Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard, tweeted on Monday: “This WH position can’t POSSIBLY be the law when the House is exercising its power to investigate whether the president has committed impeachable offenses. The OLC [Office of Legal Counsel]/ Cipollone view would rip the Impeachment Power root and branch out of the Constitution.”

And the Dems will just stand around and watch, looking pained.

Saw this by Mike Twohy in the New Yorker:

No, let’s not remember not to do that.

Abortion is trending right now and we love it! But, let's remember not to use gendered language when talking about it. Abortion bans affect everyone who can get pregnant–not just cis women! pic.twitter.com/DJLzEmP18e

— URGE (@URGE_org) May 17, 2019

Abortion is “gendered” i.e. sex-based. If men needed abortions they would be easy to get.

Also, seriously, fuck all the way off with that idiotic slogan.

We won’t stop fighting. #StopTheBans pic.twitter.com/nMv91SWI3t

— URGE (@URGE_org) May 17, 2019

Why illustrate a “keep fighting for abortion rights” tweet with a poster screaming that abortion is not “just” a “cissue”? Why post a a “keep fighting for abortion rights” tweet with an image that insults and excludes women, the class of people who need abortion rights?

The sheer cluelessness can be jaw-dropping.

The Guardian has a piece by a trans woman about another trans woman’s voice training:

But a different voice is not just a luxury, it’s also a means of protection. For trans women, voice is often times the most significant indicator of their transness to the outside world. In 2018, LGBTQ advocates documented at least 26 homicides of trans people in the United States. Two murders of trans women have already been reported in 2019. For trans women, achieving a feminine voice can serve as a cloak of protection from bias and bigotry.

And how many murders of women were there in 2018?

I didn’t find stats for 2018 but 2016 will do:

More than 1,800 women were murdered by men in 2016 and the most common weapon used was a gun, according to the new Violence Policy Center (VPC) study When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2016 Homicide Data.

It appears that for those women a feminine voice did not serve as a cloak of protection. Maybe they all had particularly shrill feminine voices?

Then the author shifted to the personal note.

Throughout my own transition, I’ve often wondered whether my voice, which is deeper than that of the typical cisgender woman, diminished my value as a woman. Hormones and surgical alterations had feminized my exterior, however, my voice had not changed and was a persistent source of frustration and angst for me. At times, I wished for nothing more than a voice that was considered “pretty” and “passable”, wanting to change every aspect of my identity in order to live up to what society expects women to be: submissive, subdued, sensual and feminine.

If only all women would work harder to be more submissive and subdued.

A couple of comments from fans of that Facebook post about families giving birth:

• I will never understand people who are offended by inclusivity. Saying “birthing individuals” takes nothing away from cis women and adds a lot for trans men. Thank you for being inclusive with your language!
• Why can’t people understand that including everyone isn’t erasing anyone?

So “All Lives Matter” takes nothing away from black people and adds a lot for white people? No. The “All” replacing “Black” is there for the explicit purpose of erasing the “Black” part and the injustice BLM is campaigning against.  Woke people understand that without the slightest struggle, don’t they, yet they deny it angrily when the word that’s erased is “women.” It’s not true that it takes nothing away from women to stop naming them when talking about subjects that concern them and indeed are at the core of why they are a subordinated group in the first place.

The struggle to be named, the struggle against being erased, the struggle to be remembered, has always been central to feminism. Women have been and are treated as afterthoughts, second-best, marginal, out of sight, unimportant, insignificant. Not being named is crucial to that treatment, and being named is crucial to ending it. That’s what it fucking takes away from us.

A retired general talks about why Trump’s possible plan to pardon a list of people convicted or accused of war crimes is such a horrendous idea.

[E]ach soldier, sailor, airman or Marine undergoes extensive training regarding rules of engagement, the ethics of the military profession, and the law of land warfare. That training is usually repeated within units every year of the service-members’ enlistment, and that training is refreshed prior to deploying to combat and is reinforced by unit leaders during combat operations.

That’s because commanders — the ones ultimately responsible for good order, discipline and adherence to professional military standards — know, as difficult as it may sound, they must ensure and apply a moral boundary and a moral approach to the most immoral of situations: that is, the controlled application of violence directed toward the enemy.

People who have access to lethal force have to be rigorously trained how not to run amok because they have access to lethal force. You could call it the Colonel Jessup problem.

Gangs and terrorists often kill haphazardly or wantonly. Those who belong to these kinds of organizations are not constrained by laws and rules of societal conduct, and that is why the actions are so abhorrent.

But a professional military force, representing a republic, must adhere to regulations, is required to maintain discipline under the toughest conditions, and the members must be cognizant of repercussion for violation of legal and professional standards. The training of the force is reinforced through the supervision and control of its commanders to ensure this happens.

And it doesn’t always work, to put it mildly. War crimes are a thing because training doesn’t always succeed at preventing them.

On several occasions, while serving as a general officer who had the authority to convene court martial proceedings, I had to charge individuals with violations of the rules of land warfare or the failure to uphold professional standards. On a few of those occasions, I agonized over my decisions because I knew the battlefield conditions were tough and confusing and the individual soldiers were subjected to extreme emotion and passion. But in those cases, when doing my duty, I was always confident in the military justice system to provide excellent legal representation and a fair trial or hearing.

It’s difficult. Punishment itself is a dubious concept, and it seems especially worrisome to apply it to people who were under a kind of stress that civilians can’t really imagine, but it won’t do to shrug off war crimes. At any rate the solution is not for an ignorant mob boss to pardon them as a Fuck You to libbruls.

A Facebook post by Childbirth International:

Birth trauma is becoming more widely discussed and parents are opening up about their experiences in pregnancy, labour, birth, and beyond. Doulas can be incredibly valuable as an addition to a family’s birth team to guide the family in making informed decisions and sharing valuable skills to help each individual advocate for their goals and needs.

With Childbirth International you can train as a birth doula and trauma-informed professional concurrently with our completely flexible, online courses.

Notice anything…peculiar?

Of course you do. The words “woman” and “mother” are carefully, awkwardly, painfully absent. We get parents opening up about their experiences in pregnancy and labour, as if both parents had such experiences. We get a family’s birth team, as if the family gave birth. We get individual, as if the word “woman” were plutonium.

A woman asks

Do these courses cover Developmental Trauma caused to the infant?

Childbirth International replies

At this time the Trauma-Informed Professional course is focused more on the trauma experienced by the birthing parent and their partner, as well as the vicarious trauma experienced by birth and allied professionals working in environments that are not trauma-informed or trauma-sensitive.

There are a lot of enthusiastic comments about the “inclusive language” and a lot of confusing replies to comments that are clearly no longer there – comments from those pesky women who keep trying to point out that erasing women (from pregnancy and childbirth ffs!) is not actually “inclusive” at all.

The stupid is falling on everything like ash from the Mount Saint Helens eruption.

The war on women escalates.

A European organization that provides doctor-prescribed abortion pills by mail is under order by the US Food and Drug Administration to stop deliveries.

The federal agency sent a warning letter to Aid Access this month requesting that it “immediately cease causing the introduction of these violative drugs into U.S. Commerce.”

“Violative” is not a word.

“The sale of misbranded and unapproved new drugs poses an inherent risk to consumers who purchase those products,” the letter says. “Drugs that have circumvented regulatory safeguards may be contaminated; counterfeit, contain varying amounts of active ingredients, or contain different ingredients altogether.”

Translation: the drugs may do what they’re supposed to do and we have orders to put a stop to that.

Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, founder of Aid Access, did not respond to a request for comment on the new letter. But last fall, soon after her work went public, she said that safety concerns about Aid Access and the medications it prescribes were “totally unfounded.” She insisted that everything she does “is according to the law” and that the FDA’s restrictive handling of abortion medication is “based on politics, not science.”

What politics? The politics of making sure women are not free to define their own lives.

In a one-month period in 2017, research published last year showed that there were nearly 210,000 US Google searches for information about self-abortion. This indicates a demand for alternatives, perhaps driven by barriers to clinic access due to financial hardship, geographic distance, fear of being publicly shamed or other reasons.

Ya think?

According to the FDA, of the 3.4 million patients who’d taken mifepristone to medically terminate their pregnancies from when the agency approved it in 2000 through December 2017, 22 died: an average of 1 in about 155,000 women. Meanwhile, calculations from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that in 2016, 1 in 5,600 women died as a result of their pregnancies.

Gee. It’s almost as if pregnancy is more dangerous than taking the abortion pill.

But never mind that, that’s not the point. The point is to keep women enslaved.

We need this.

https://twitter.com/cctv_idiots/status/1130165583616577536