I’ve converted, my new religion is kangaroo ultraviolence https://t.co/ufC7N9rzYC
— Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) March 9, 2019
Saturday Night Open Thread: Animals Being DicksPost + Comments (162)
This post is in: Open Threads
I’ve converted, my new religion is kangaroo ultraviolence https://t.co/ufC7N9rzYC
— Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) March 9, 2019
Saturday Night Open Thread: Animals Being DicksPost + Comments (162)
by Betty Cracker| 225 Comments
This post is in: Dog Blogging, Domestic Politics, Food, Open Threads
Badger always looks super alarmed when I’m dusting in his location:
I mean, I know dusting is rare around here, but really?
We’re having a chill day. The mister took the kids fishing upriver, and what do I do when I finally have a moment to myself? Dust and make fun of my dog on the internet.
Hope y’all are doing something more exciting. Open thread!
ETA: I’m also making a big pot of ropa vieja using Ingrid Hoffmann’s recipe. It’s a great recipe, and I’ve made it dozens of times, but Hoffmann must have servants because she unnecessarily directs you to dirty an entire sink full of dishes when in reality all you need is one big pot and a large bowl.
PPS: I’d link the recipe, but the WP mobile interface sucks great big green gators…
This post is in: Dolt 45, Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Trump Crime Cartel, All Too Normal
Thought experiment: Hillary is President. She rams a security clearance through for Chelsea, who flies to Saudi Arabia to meet with the crown prince after a journalist is brutally murdered. All embassy staff are excluded. No one knows what they talk about. What are the headlines? https://t.co/k4jQupg1sd
— Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) March 7, 2019
Why do Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner need top secret security clearance? https://t.co/JwUlZMJu33 pic.twitter.com/AUlSb4rHcx
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) March 9, 2019
But he can’t keep straight MBS’s intel requests, so Javanka need to do it themselves. https://t.co/IZ7oCPxBdZ
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) March 9, 2019
I'll believe that Jared Kushner is growing into his role as a White House staffer when fellow White House staffers no longer feel the need to leak documents that embarrass him. https://t.co/JGCodIUoq6
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) March 8, 2019
But SERIOUSLY…
So, the big story isn't that *Jared and Ivanka* shouldn't have security clearances.
— Molly McKew (@MollyMcKew) March 6, 2019
The real story is that POTUS is mishandling classified intelligence.
There are several public examples.
— Molly McKew (@MollyMcKew) March 6, 2019
There is zero chance that he has not, in his endless calls to whoever via unsecured crap phone, casually revealed other classified info —
To prove he is smart, because he doesn't know not to, whatever.All those calls are likely being intercepted by foreign intelligence as well
— Molly McKew (@MollyMcKew) March 6, 2019
It will take years to unravel what he and his family have compromised, the American lives it may have cost, and the disadvantage to the nation it has caused.
— Molly McKew (@MollyMcKew) March 6, 2019
This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, General Stupidity
Remember when Republicans had an ear-splitting hissy fit about alleged influence peddling at the Clinton Foundation? I’m sure they’ll be even more outraged to learn that wealthy members of Trump’s tacky-ass, for-profit South Florida resort have been openly selling access to Trump and the “Minister of Commerce” to foreigners. (Haha, no they won’t!) Via Mother Jones:
The latest Trump political donor to draw controversy is Li Yang, a 45-year-old Florida entrepreneur from China who founded a chain of spas and massage parlors that included the one where New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft was recently busted for soliciting prostitution. She made the news this week when the Miami Herald reported that last month she had attended a Super Bowl viewing party at Donald Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club and had snapped a selfie with the president during the event. Though Yang no longer owns the spa Kraft allegedly visited, the newspaper noted that other massage parlors her family runs have “gained a reputation for offering sexual services.” (She told the newspaper she has never violated the law.) Beyond this sordid tale, there is another angle to the strange story of Yang: She runs an investment business that has offered to sell Chinese clients access to Trump and his family. And a website for the business—which includes numerous photos of Yang and her purported clients hobnobbing at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Palm Beach—suggests she had some success in doing so.
Yang, who goes by Cindy, and her husband, Zubin Gong, started GY US Investments LLC in 2017. The company describes itself on its website, which is mostly in Chinese, as an “international business consulting firm that provides public relations services to assist businesses in America to establish and expand their brand image in the modern Chinese marketplace.” But the firm notes that its services also address clients looking to make high-level connections in the United States. On a page displaying a photo of Mar-a-Lago, Yang’s company says its “activities for clients” have included providing them “the opportunity to interact with the president, the [American] Minister of Commerce and other political figures.” The company boasts it has “arranged taking photos with the President” and suggests it can set up a “White House and Capitol Hill Dinner.” (The same day the Herald story about Yang broke, the website stopped functioning.)
I wonder if Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is the “Minister of Commerce” mentioned on the defunct site? Did he get a “happy ending” at one of the massage parlors? It would be irresponsible not to speculate, as gross as it is.
It’s almost disappointing in a way, that this scandal-ridden, corrupt administration is associated with such petty and garish grift operations. Better a pack of greedy, dumb buffoons than a cabal of smart and sinister villains, I suppose. But I can’t help but think the tawdriness of it all reflects poorly on America’s oligarch class.
This post is in: Don't Agonize - Organize, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Venality, Voting Rights, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Fuck Yeah!
BREAKING: the House just passed legislation to get big money out of our politics, expand voting rights, and hold our elected officials to a higher ethical standard. Let’s get this passed in the Senate. #ForThePeople
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) March 8, 2019
The House did its job, and now it's the Senate's turn.
We have the opportunity to come together and pass sweeping voting rights legislation to expand and protect voters' access to the ballot box.
— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) March 8, 2019
The Washington Post, paper of record in the company town where national politics is the monopoly industry, has a good explainer:
The House approved a far-reaching elections and ethics bill Friday — one that would change the way congressional elections are funded, impose new voter-access mandates on states and, in one of several provisions targeting President Trump, force disclosure of presidential candidates’ tax returns.
Democrats dubbed the bill H.R. 1, a designation meant to signal its place as a centerpiece of their congressional agenda. The measure, which has more than 500 pages, contains dozens of provisions favored by liberal advocacy groups, labor unions and other Democratic allies.
“It’s a power grab, a power grab on behalf of the people,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said at an event on the Capitol steps ahead of the planned vote.
The bill is headed for a brick wall in the Republican-controlled Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has made clear it will not get a vote. However, Democrats and their allies said the bill’s passage would build momentum for action in coming years if and when Democrats solidify control in Washington.
“If Mitch McConnell is the immovable object, H.R. 1 is the unstoppable force,” said Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), the lead author of the bill. “We’ll keep pushing on it.”…
Read the whole thing for a full list of the bill’s (excellent!) provisions.
This is about instilling the confidence of the American people in the political process, in what happens in government, that it is the people’s interests that are being served. So yes: it’s a power grab, a power grab on behalf of the people. -NP https://t.co/1RlH7JhgB1
— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) March 8, 2019
Ed Kilgore, at NYMag:
… Aside from its scope, what’s most remarkable about HR1 is that every single House Democrat voted for it… And every Republicans voted against it, which means the GOP is determined to use barriers to full participation in elections — along with related abuses like partisan gerrymandering and unregulated campaign spending — to maintain its competitive position, regardless of public opinion….
The vote on HR1 should also provide something of a counterargument to all the recent “Democrats in disarray” story lines stemming from intraparty debates over socialism or Israel. No, the bill won’t even get a hearing in the Senate, where Mitch McConnell has denounced it as the “Democrat Politician Protection Act.” Mitch has a point: It might well help Democrats in the long run, for the rather honorable reason that they are defending rather than resisting the full expression of the popular will.
It's worth noting how, despite @SenateMajLdr clearly doesn't want either #HR1 *or* the Green New Deal to pass, he'll allow a vote on the latter but not the former.
He thinks he can lie and scare people out of supporting the GND. But he's scared of #HR1 even being debated at all. https://t.co/CXMWaB4GJ4
— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) March 8, 2019
Saturday Morning Open Thread: Democrats Are Pro-Voters; Repubs Are NotPost + Comments (30)
This post is in: Excellent Links, Women's Rights Are Human Rights, "Lock Her Up!!"
From China to Russia and Hungary, there is a very clear overlap between the embrace of strongman rule and the erosion of women’s rights. https://t.co/sS2wN6jYDV #InternationalWomensDay #IWD2019
— Leta Hong Fincher洪理达 (@LetaHong) March 8, 2019
… In 2018, the #MeToo hashtag on sexual harassment was one of the top 10 censored topics on China’s popular messaging app, WeChat, according to the University of Hong Kong’s WeChatscope.
Weibo and WeChat also banned China’s most influential feminist social media account, Feminist Voices. Authorities have closed down prominent women’s rights centres. They have also detained students and recent graduates advocating for #MeToo and workers’ rights.
Just as China’s crackdown on women’s rights activism is growing, the global backlash against feminism is likely to intensify, as misogynistic autocrats have been emboldened everywhere, in part by a US president who openly expresses admiration for “strongman” rulers…
Why are authoritarian rulers so threatened by feminism? The subjugation of women is a common feature in virtually all authoritarian regimes.
Putin signed a law in 2017 that partially decriminalised domestic violence in Russia, making it much more difficult for women to report abuse.
In Hungary, the autocratic Prime Minister Viktor Orban has banned gender studies programmes at universities. Putin, Orban and Xi, among others, are fixated on pushing women into more traditional roles in the home and having more babies for the state…
Far too often, women in resistance movements are overlooked by journalists and the narrative revolves around male opposition figures.
Yet more young women in authoritarian states have become fed up with the misogyny in their daily lives, demanding equality, dignity and an end to pervasive gender-based violence.
Young women standing up for their rights pose a growing challenge to male autocrats everywhere – not just in China – which is why authoritarian rulers are so threatened by the prospect of any large-scale women’s movement developing.
Male autocrats see patriarchal authoritarianism as crucial for their political survival, but one of the core demands of feminism – that women should be free to control our own bodies and reproductive lives – is in direct conflict with the coercive, often pronatalist policies of authoritarian states, which see declining birth rates as an existential crisis. And that is exactly what is happening in China…
But Seriously… (International Women’s Day)Post + Comments (44)
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Assholes
Trump watched the Super Bowl with the founder of the spa where Patriots owner Robert Kraft was busted in prostitution sting, the ?@MiamiHerald? reports.
The party was at Trump’s West Palm Beach country club. https://t.co/aPnqN50uEX
— Steve Contorno (@scontorno) March 8, 2019
They hate women and fear immigrants, or maybe it’s the other way around. But money, and the people who possess it — *that* they love & respect…
… The woman who snapped the blurry Super Bowl selfie with the president was Li Yang, 45, a self-made entrepreneur from China who started a chain of Asian day spas in South Florida. Over the years, these establishments — many of which operate under the name Tokyo Day Spas — have gained a reputation for offering sexual services.
Nineteen days after Trump and Yang posed together while rooting for the Patriots, authorities would charge Kraft with soliciting prostitution at a spa in Jupiter that Yang had founded more than a decade earlier…
In a brief phone interview, Yang said she and her family have never broken the law, but did not answer questions about whether she knew of the allegations that therapists in her spas were offering sex. She added that she was out of the business, would soon be moving to Washington, D.C., and didn’t want any negative press.
Before the 2016 general election, Yang offered no evidence of political engagement. She hadn’t voted in 10 years, records showed. But she has now become a fixture at Republican political events up and down the East Coast. Her Facebook is covered in photos of herself standing with President Trump, his two sons, Eric and Donald Jr., Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Rick Scott, Sarah Palin, the president’s campaign manager and an assortment of other high-level Republican operators she has met at charity events, political fundraisers and galas, many of which require hefty donations to attend. She sometimes carries a rhinestone encrusted MAGA clutch purse.
Yang has shown considerable political largesse. Since 2017, she and her close relatives have contributed more than $42,000 to Trump Victory, a political action committee, and more than $16,000 to the president’s campaign…
Oh. Look at that. What do you know. The whole family took some nice shots with the massage parlor lady. pic.twitter.com/pfHTiX2FnN
— andy lassner (@andylassner) March 8, 2019
Oh look it’s “doctor” pumpkin head with the lady who runs the chain of Asian day spas in south Florida pic.twitter.com/BV2aAG2v57
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) March 8, 2019
The dumbest member of Congress with the lady who runs the chain of Asian day spas in South Florida. pic.twitter.com/2cANCiMf0m
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) March 8, 2019
And it’s @mattgaetz with the lady who runs the chain of Asian day spas in south Florida pic.twitter.com/An2KaHOjbN
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) March 8, 2019
There was also this time when the freshman senator from Florida was photographed with the lady who runs the chain of Asian day spas in south Florida. pic.twitter.com/Me99VhW15I
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) March 8, 2019
Worth reminding folks that the Trumps recently acquired Chinese Trademarks for Massage Parlors and Social Escort services. https://t.co/32FdCXaUll
— Wrath of Chaka Khan ?????? #BlueWave2020 (@ta2t2o) March 8, 2019
In Jan 2017, human trafficking "spa" founder Cindy Yang attended Trump’s inaugural. Later that year, she was snapped in a photo with Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway. In 2018, Yang attended a Safari Night at Mar-a-Lago hosted by Trump’s sister.#Maddow https://t.co/8M3wHNLu1Y
— Polly Sigh (@dcpoll) March 8, 2019
Late Night Open Thread: Florida Men of the GOPPost + Comments (77)