Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Trump’s decompensation on the campaign trail.

“Climate change covers everything. It can rain, it can be dry, it can be hot, it can be cold….”

That’s exactly right, and that’s a huge part of the goddamn problem. It’s not just a “change” like flipping a switch on or off; it’s the disruption and destabilization of established, reliable patterns upon which human civilization (and the biosphere in general) depends. It is the removal of “pattern” itself, which makes human planning much more difficult, in this instance, the rescheduling, or the end of the concept of a hurricane “season” itself.

Looking more closely, it’s not just a “climate change” problem, but a … Read the rest

What’s the big deal?

A trans rights activist who poured tomato juice over controversial women’s rights activist Posie Parker is seeking to have her conviction overturned, with her lawyer saying it was out of proportion to the offending.

Eli Rubashkyn previously pleaded guilty to assault after she poured tomato juice over Parker – also known as Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull – and another woman at Auckland’s Albert Park in March 2023.

Eli Rubashkyn ain’t no she.

Rubashkyn earlier pleaded guilty to two charges of assault and was convicted and discharged by Judge Kirsten Lummis in September.

On Tuesday, Rubashkyn’s lawyer, James Olsen, appealed the conviction at the High Court at Auckland. Olsen told Justice David Johnstone that Judge Lummis was not correct

… Read the rest

Interlude for hilarity.

The image. I just can’t love the image enough.

Can’t remember where I found this but wanted to make everyone feel included today pic.twitter.com/jnYn9jo9Xj

— Charlotte Gill (@CharlotteCGill) October 8, 2024

… Read the rest

Trying to make who is what sex a matter of law instead of fact:

Amnesty International has been given permission to intervene in a landmark Supreme Court case on the legal definition of woman.

The charity, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Scottish Lesbians, and Sex Matters have all been granted permission to take part in For Women Scotland vs Scottish Ministers at the end of next month.

…

The case at the UK’s highest court is the latest development in a long-running legal battle over whether someone who is biologically male can legally be regarded as female for the purposes of the Equality Act.

The answer to that ridiculous question is so obviously “no” that it’s hard … Read the rest

Public Notice on Trump’s relentless lying about climate change:

With another historic storm, Hurricane Milton, now bearing down on Florida, Trump not only still refuses to acknowledge that climate change is happening and creates conditions more favorable to severe storms, but he’s actively lying about it.

“Nobody thought this would be happening, especially now,” Trump said during a photo op in a Helene-impacted part of Georgia on October 1. “It’s so late in the season.” 

The season is June 1 to November 30, so now is late in a sense, but it’s also irrelevant. Hurricanes don’t look at the calendar and think “Aw damn I can’t possibly get there in time” and decide to stay home. Trump means, as … Read the rest

[This story is a couple of years old but what the hell, a second thrashing is well deserved.]

The Times reporting does eventually hint at how appallingly reckless and women-hating the “Marceline” Harvey story is.

It is unclear where [Susan Leyden’s] path first crossed Ms. Harvey’s, but at the time Ms. Harvey posted about Ms. Leyden, she was seeking her own placement in city shelters. Immediately after her 2019 release, she sought housing in the Bronx. [In other words Harvey was seeking placement in city shelters.]

Ms. Harvey “presented as a mild spoken, very tall Black man,” said Anne Brennan, the nurse practitioner who ran the intake. “I said, ‘Well, why are you in the women’s shelter?’”

Ms. Brennan

… Read the rest

The New York Times, July 30, 2022:

The person before the parole panel in June 2019 was tall and slim, in far better shape than 81 years of life might have suggested. Mild and polite, the supplicant seemed nothing like the murderer who had spent decades in prison, first for shooting a girlfriend dead in 1963, and then for stabbing another in 1985, stuffing her corpse into a bag and leaving it in Central Park.

“I’m no longer that person,” the inmate told the parole board commissioners. Despite misgivings, they would rule in favor of release.

Two and a half years after leaving Cayuga Correctional Facility, Marceline Harvey was accused again, charged with killing Susan Leyden, 68. Parts of

… Read the rest

The Times interviews Sandi Toksvig:

Toksvig certainly boasts the widest-ranging CV imaginable. Her most recent achievement was officiating at the Abba star Björn Ulvaeus’s third wedding last month in Copenhagen. She and Ulvaeus, it transpires, have been friends since 2015, when she organised a Scandinavian-themed Women of the World festival at the Royal Festival Hall, where an all-female orchestra played Waterloo and Ulvaeus appeared. “You can be feminist and fun, you see.” More recently they collaborated on writing the interactive show Mamma Mia! The Party.

“Björn is a very gentle, not divaish person; he and I are both humanists,” she says…

I knew that about Björn. That time I went to Stockholm when Hatar Gud Kvinnor? was published,

… Read the rest

Behold: a dishonest fool.

Yesterday:

Current Ranked Top 10 Worst People in the UK:

1: JK Rowling
2: Graham Linehan
3: Wes Streeting
4: Katie Hopkins
5: Darren Grimes
6: Tommy Robinson
7: Posie Parker
8: Nigel Farage
9: Kemi Badenoch
10: Liz Truss

Who did I miss?

— Sam (he/him) (@mushycrouton) October 5, 2024

Today:

Gender criticals: we are not a cult

Random person: I don’t agree with JK Rowling’s views

Gender criticals: PROTECT THE LEADER. CANCEL THIS RANDOM PERSON. JOANNE MUST BE PRESERVED. ALL HAIL JOANNE. THOU SHALT NOT CRITICISE JOANNE.

— Sam (he/him) (@mushycrouton) October 6, 2024

Calling JK Rowling “the worst person in the UK” is not equivalent to “I don’t agree with JK Rowling’s views.”… Read the rest

From Inside Climate News, a discussion of the implications of Helene and North Carolina.

From our collaborating partner Living on Earth, public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by host Steve Curwood with Abrahm Lustgarten, author of “On the Move: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America.”

…

Helene’s huge size and speed are linked to increasingly hotter water in the Gulf of Mexico, and a stark reminder that with global heating, weather forecasts based on history are becoming [worse] guides to present dangers. Hurricanes have usually weakened when they make landfall, but to the surprise of many, Helene’s impact was just as devastating in the inland mountains of western North Carolina as on the Gulf Coast

… Read the rest

Another turn of the screw:

What is a woman? This now highly controversial issue will be decided in November by the highest court in the land.

No it won’t. It’s not the kind of thing that can be decided by a court, however high. The question would have to be “What will we all be required to call a woman?” or some similar wording for the claim to be true. Courts decide law; they can’t decide reality.

The justices — three men and two women — will be led by Lord Reed of Allermuir, 68, president of the court and the UK’s most senior judge. He is undaunted by the task. “When we hear cases … we are not

… Read the rest

Weirdness report:

A number of Donald Trump critics have mocked Elon Musk over his appearance alongside the former president at a Pennsylvania rally.

What, just because he jumped up and down like a lunatic?

Musk, the billionaire owner of X, formerly Twitter, and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, joined Trump onstage in Butler on Saturday to show his support for the Republican and state that he is “not just MAGA — I am Dark MAGA.”

After Trump introduced Musk to the stage, the tech mogul enthusiastically jumped in the air several times while supporters cheered. Musk, who wore a black Make America Great Again cap, warned in his speech that “this will be the last election” if

… Read the rest

Billionaires unite to trash everything.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1842679008791581140 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1842679258587488697

This is the most important election of your LIFE!!

And there are only 2 days left to register to vote in Arizona & Georgia before it’s too late!

Make sure everyone you know & everyone you meet has registered to vote. The fate of our civilization is at stake. https://t.co/Ysh0sYknpx

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 5, 2024

If @realDonaldTrump doesn’t win, the “Democratic” Party will legalize so many illegals that there will be no swing states!

America will become a single-party socialist state, just like what happened to California, where they just made requiring voter ID illegal. https://t.co/I9FhicDbfP

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 5, 2024

We’re doomed.… Read the rest

Shit just got real.

Financial services firms have been forced to pay hundreds of pounds in compensation to non-binary customers over “discriminatory” application forms. 

MoneySuperMarket (MSM), the comparison website, and Transunion, a credit union, were hit with separate complaints because their application forms did not include options for non-binary customers in their gender section.

But…that’s not a thing. It’s not real. It has nothing to do with realities like credit. You might as well say credit applications should include options for witches.

According to the complaint, MSM argued that changes to their website are bound by the information their insurance partners ask for and that many of them have not made provision for customers who identify as non-binary.

… Read the rest

If only we could have not-idiots. Never mind nice things, that’s too much to ask, but just not…this…

Marjorie Taylor Greene challenges YOU to prove Hurricane Helene wasn’t an inside job.

As the death toll from one of the worst U.S. storms in recent memory topped 200 on Friday morning, the Republican congresswoman and noted conspiracy theorist posted a timely reminder on X that “yes they can control the weather” and that “it’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

I wonder who “they” are. The Jews? The Dems? People with some brain cells?

The Georgia Republican drew widespread mockery and derision in 2021 after it was revealed she’d previously suggested devastating wildfires in

… Read the rest

It seems the hot new thing is to claim that the Feds are ignoring the hurricane victims.

I keep seeing images and footage of NC and can’t help but wonder if leaving the bereaved to fend for themselves and sending no help is part of a strategy to anger the American people. How can such a wealthy country not rescue and help those in desperate need?

— Kellie-Jay Keen (@ThePosieParker) October 5, 2024

Yeah good question except that that’s not what’s happening.

I did a little exploring and, of course, found that it’s the usual bullshit – baseless claims being amplified by fools.

Ok due warning, this is the Washington Post, which of course is in on the sinister plot … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Dave Ricks on These rococo claims.

Maya Forstater won her landmark employment case in the UK Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) on Thursday, June 10, 2021. The UK EAT is a high court, so she won a binding precedent for lower court cases (e.g. in the more recent case of Elizabeth Pitt that the FSU reported above).

Later that day, Freddie Sayers interviewed Maya about her case, and Ophelia posted the interview video here. In my comment #6 there, I transcribed part of the video, where Maya explained that her legal position had two parts to be taken together:

(1) The scientific FACT that “sex is real” — as her shorthand for “binary, immutable”, and … Read the rest

On a brighter note, meet the Falkirk Wheel. It joins two canals that are at different heights. They used to be joined by 12 locks that took almost an entire day to go through. Now the joining takes minutes.

https://twitter.com/devonzuegel/status/1113854385618968576

Adding another, filmed by a drone.

https://twitter.com/scotdrone/status/1834709042628821022… Read the rest

Cheltenham Literary Festival is in a panic because – oh my god – people might have unpopular thoughts which they might utter aloud.

Cheltenham Literature Festival has come under fire after issuing a warning notice to speakers comparing gender-critical views with racism and homophobia.

The festival, which begins today, sent an email to people who are hosting talks at the event, asking them to follow new guidance “in order to protect both yourselves and the [festival] from complaints”. It said: “If, during any of your events, a speaker shares an opinion that could be deemed controversial, please reinforce that everyone is entitled to express an opinion, however Cheltenham Festivals [the organiser] does not endorse the views shared on stage. By

… Read the rest

Yebbut that’s not what competitive sports does. That’s not how it works. The whole point is that somebody wins, which entails that somebody loses. It’s not about “being kind”; it’s about being the best.

San Jose State volleyball played its first game on Thursday night since three Mountain West schools announced they would forfeit rather than play the Spartans and transgender starter Blaire Fleming. 

After the match, Spartans head coach Todd Kress said he was “disappointed” that his team was “losing opportunities to play” but did not reference why, exactly, schools don’t want to face San Jose State. 

Well, Coach Kress, people are “choosing not to play” your team because your team chooses to roster a biological male. … Read the rest