But will they enforce it?

A New York judge on Tuesday issued a gag order barring Donald Trump from making public statements about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.

Judges have issued gag orders on Trump before, and he’s violated them, if I remember correctly. He’s violated them and gotten away with it.

The judge, Juan Merchan, cited Trump’s previous comments about him and others involved in the case, as well as a looming 15 April trial date in granting the prosecution’s request for a gag order. “It is without question that the imminency of the risk of harm is now paramount,” Merchan wrote.

Prosecutors had asked for the gag order citing what

Guest post by Jonathan Gallant

Contemporary academia in the US is blessed with a wealth of programs that start with the word “Critical” and end with the word “Studies”.   I hereby announce a new discipline which will interrogate the history, sociology, hermeneutics, and astrology of all these programs.  Our new discipline is called Critical Studies Studies, and its monographs will appear in our own scholarly journal, to be called Studies in Critical Studies Studies.  We intend this journal to take its place in high-powered scholarly publication, alongside such outstanding examples as Social Text, the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, the Journal of Progressive Policy & Practice, Hypatia, and Gender, Place & Culture.  We will require “positionality … Read the rest

Engineers say yeah that’s what happens.

To bridge experts, the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge after being hit by a heavy cargo ship was as inevitable as it was devastating.

When a vessel as heavy as the Singapore-flagged Dali collides with such force against one of the span’s supercolumns, or piers, the result is the type of catastrophic, and heartbreaking, chain reaction that took place early Tuesday.

So maybe take all possible measures to keep that from happening? If you have a setup where massive container ships regularly go toddling under bridges, you’re gonna wanna make sure they don’t go oops on the way through.

No bridge pier could withstand being hit by a ship the size

I was accidentally awake in the middle of the night, as I often am, so I saw that clip of the bridge disintegrating soon after it happened. It grabbed my attention rather. I live in a port city and see container ships chugging in and out all the time. Seattle is also a very bridge-having city, because of being so up and down, so seeing a massive bridge go from normal to in the water in pieces in a matter of seconds is a shocker.

BREAKING: Ship collides with Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing it to collapse pic.twitter.com/OcOrSjOCRn

— BNO News (@BNONews) March 26, 2024

CNN is updating:

The DALI container ship that struck Baltimore’s Key Bridge

The BBC is so infuriating on this subject.

More than 100 elite British sportswomen have told the BBC they would be uncomfortable with transgender women competing in female categories in their sport.

That’s such a bad, stupid, misleading, unfair, sneery lede.

Yes, duh, elite sportswomen don’t want men competing in female categories in their sport. Why would they?! The issue, as always, is not being “transgender” but being male. But the Beeb just will not admit that, ever, so instead it solemnly reports that sportswomen are creepy nasty bigots for feeling “uncomfortable” about their darling trans sisters.

But many have expressed fears over sharing their opinion publicly because of concerns they would be seen as discriminatory.

Says the … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Artymorty at Miscellany Room.

The Trump appeals court reprieve really bothers me. Here’s a take by David Graham in The Atlantic, which argues that, even though Trump routinely exploits legal procedures to get out of justice, it’s right of the appeals court to lower his bond and grant him yet more extensions. It would be “unjust” for Trump to lose his ill-gotten assets if he succeeds in getting this case dismissed:

But then imagine that a few weeks from now, Trump won his appeal, convincing the court that Engoron’s finding was incorrect, or that the calculated amount of the penalty was unfair. Trump would have no way to recover the assets he’d been forced

More from the women in sport front:

Some observations about the IOC trajectory, and again, I can't really source them without getting into trouble, but please just take this as informed speculation…

— Jon Pike (@runthinkwrite) March 25, 2024

… expect more policing of language from the IOC – talking about 'male bodied athletes' will be clamped down upon. …

— Jon Pike (@runthinkwrite) March 25, 2024

… the fact that the Framework Document is ignored by the big international federations – swimming, cycling and athletics – is noticed, but explained by 'political manipulation' (for which read, consultation with female athletes) …

— Jon Pike (@runthinkwrite) March 25, 2024

All this energy – conferences! more conferences! yet more conferences! – … Read the rest

Bahahahahaha

Remember – from a few hours ago – the lanyard doctor? Who said “My work lanyard gets a lot of comments, and people spotting something on it and asking about it has started a lot of conversations over the years.”? Well, sometimes Twitter people step up.

My work lanyard gets a lot of comments, and people spotting something on it and asking about it has started a lot of conversations over the years. pic.twitter.com/23kYrb2SWr

— dubz 3.0 (@dubz3dot0) March 25, 2024

https://twitter.com/ShowerAbsolute/status/1772252568451785185

My work lanyard gets a lot of comments, and people spotting something on it and asking about it has started a lot of conversations over the years. pic.twitter.com/31inBgv2fZ

— Matthew 'Call Me Swishmale' Greenfield (@MatthewGreenf11) March

SERIOUSLY??????

A New York appeals court on Monday paused for 10 days a massive civil business fraud judgment against Donald Trump — and sharply reduced to $175 million the bond amount he will have to post to obtain a longer stay of that award.

The ruling came the same day that New York Attorney General Letitia James would have been allowed to start seizing the former president’s real estate assets and bank accounts to satisfy the $454 million-and-rising judgment after he failed to obtain an appeal bond.

James is prevented from doing so — for now — due to the order from the five-judge panel in Manhattan Supreme Court’s appellate division.

…

In its order Monday, the appeals court stayed

What was that we were just saying about using honest language to talk about women and sports and men invading women’s sports?

… to keep within these rules I have blanked out the logo on the slide and I won't name the speaker. But I will say that this is an important slide, and I will comment critically on it, mainly on the third row. …

— Jon Pike (@runthinkwrite) March 25, 2024

… female sport, this will be 'reframed'. Instead of responding to the overwhelming majority of female athletes, the people in question will *support stakeholders to understand* why transwomen must come first. It's because they are *at most risk of being harmed* …

— Jon Pike (@runthinkwrite)

BBC Sport tells us, with a puzzled frown, that female athletes are not always entirely ecstatic to lose prizes to men who pretend to be women.

More than 100 elite British sportswomen have told the BBC they would be uncomfortable with transgender women competing in female categories in their sport.

Or to put it in ordinary language, more than 100 elite British sportswomen have told the BBC they don’t want men competing in their sport. Well duh: of course they don’t. Women’s sport is for women.

Over the past couple of years, a raft of sports have banned transgender women from competing in elite women’s sport because of concerns.

Because they are men. They have the male physical advantage, … Read the rest

Oooooooooh an all-female film festival!

Sheffield’s first all female film festival

Ok then! Mark your calendars: it’s November 24 at the Showroom Cinema.

Highlighting the work of women and women’s achievements in all incarnations of cinema. Inspired by events showcasing films made by women (such as Scotland’s Femspectives), we want to recentre the focus of film history and the future of the industry on projects creatively led by women. Sheffield has a rich cultural history and we hope to further develop the city’s reputation as a hub for excellence supporting diversity in film in the North of England.

The aim of FFStival is to provide an intersectional platform highlighting the work of women, female presenting and non binary people’s achievements

Primum non nocere: First do no harm.

Some doctor is boasting about his badge encrusted lanyard that’s dangling round his neck all day at work. As a tattooist I’d be forbidden to work with a cross contamination hazard like this and risk losing my license but it’s ok for him because ‘it’s trans’. pic.twitter.com/gw7jnpzYXs

— Joolz Denby (@JoolzDenby) March 25, 2024

That plus the frenzied messaging. I would feel extremely uneasy with all that hectoring from a doctor. I think I would feel that way whether I agreed with the content or not, because it’s so…all about Dr Opinions instead of about what Dr Opinions is supposed to be doing.

Here is the lovely man talking lovingly about himself.

My

Oh yay, another dude wins a women’s race, how heartwarming.

Congratulations Kylie Not All That Small!… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Seen using a loud hailer.

To be fair, events like the one “Dr.” Ikharia* was protesting do indeed represent a threat; a threat to her credibility and livelihood. Not that anyone claiming to be “trans, nonbinary” should have much credibility left to defend, let alone a “doctor.” But she is right to see this conference as a direct rebuke of what she’s doing. If the tide is indeed turning, then “gender affirming” clinicians are at risk of being left high and dry, without the institutional support to which they have grown accustomed.

Dr Ronx, 40, presents alongside twin doctors Chris and Xand van Tulleken on the popular children’s health show

Willoughby sees what isn’t there.

It would be funny if it weren’t so disgusting. A bunch of smiling women, and loony man who hates women sees “psycho coldness.”… Read the rest

The people behind yesterday’s conference:

While trans activists attempted to halt yesterdays conference with chants of ‘you don’t care if children die’ the real suicide figures were discussed inside. Thankfully they are very rare and there is no evidence that medical treatment reduces them in fact quite the opposite (… pic.twitter.com/zeTosVEVjD

— Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender (@CanSG_org) March 24, 2024

The “show more” is just the source: (Dhejne 2011).

But wait.

Yes professors Biggs and Kaltiala both spoke at the conference about actual suicide rates and have extensive current publications. Dhejne found suicides increased post surgery 20 fold but everyone dismissed this ( without evidence) as the result of ‘minority stress’ and didn’t…

— Clinical Advisory Network

Labour continues to be confused about what the word “woman” means.

And while a proud socialist, [Angela Rayner] is clear that first and foremost she’s a pragmatist. “Ideology never put food on my table,” is one of her top lines. Another: “We can’t fix everything overnight.” She has also said she is “hardline” on law and order, and pro-security (her brother served in Iraq). When I ask how Labour will handle the accusation from Tories that “Keir doesn’t know what a woman is”, she says, without acknowledging any shift, “Yeah, sure. We have biological women and we have trans women. And they’re both women: one is a biological woman through sex, and one is a trans woman who has transitioned.

The binder-promoting doctor (Dr Ronx Ikharia) was at the aggressive “protest” yesterday. The Daily Mail is the source:

A CBBC presenter has been accused of leading a transgender rights mob that yesterday set off smoke bombs and tried to storm a conference on gender issues.

Dr Ronx Ikharia, who presents Operation Ouch!, was seen using a loud hailer outside a meeting of doctors and academics at the Royal College of General Practitioners in London.

Police and security staff clashed with dozens of activists who set off smoke bombs and tried to get into the building, but no arrests were made.

Just imagine if the people inside had been holding a trans conference and the people outside had been gender … Read the rest

Oh, your ribs are popping out and you can’t breathe? Well try this other binder.

Frankie cries when her ribs “pop out” when walking: “I just can’t breathe properly,” spine kyphosed. She can’t exercise, 36D breasts bound for 5 years.
Dr Ronx reacts like a child,then
“I’ve a wide selection of binders”with MORE reinforcement. No exam of the damage already caused https://t.co/W0ha2pnFDv pic.twitter.com/fRrVnaHXrj

— Rebel Ada, authoritarian extremist. (@DearRebelAda) March 24, 2024

… Read the rest