How adult, how thoughtful, how reasonable, how wise, how proportionate, how free of spite and venom and loathing and contempt.

Trump typed:

I purposely didn’t comment on Nancy Pelosi’s very weird story concerning her husband, but now I can because she said something about me, with glee, that was really quite vicious. “I saw a scared puppy,” she said, as she watched me on television, like millions of others, that didn’t see that. I wasn’t “scared.” Nevertheless, how mean a thing to say! She is a Wicked Witch whose husbands journey from hell starts and finishes with her. She is a sick & demented psycho who will someday live in HELL!

Imagine saying a mean thing about someone!! Donald … Read the rest

Women may not have anything for women. Women may not defend the rights of women. Women may not tell the truth about who is a woman. Women must sit down and shut up. The Great Western Railway says so.

The website of a gender-critical group was blocked on a train’s Wi-Fi network for being linked to “terrorism and hate”, it has emerged.

Sex Matters, which campaigns against the adoption of gender ideology and argues that biological sex is a reality, had its web page blocked by Great Western Railway.

Those attempting to access the site, which raises concerns about gender reassignment surgery as well as about men in women’s prisons, hospital wards and sporting events, received a message

… Read the rest

Trump the anarchist:

American democracy is only as strong as its legal system. The founders of the country created the judiciary as the third branch of the federal government to keep executive power in check and prevent corruption. So it was a cause for deep concern last week when Donald Trump unleashed a verbal tantrum on his Truth Social platform, accusing special counsel Jack Smith of “prosecutorial misconduct” even before he filed four federal criminal counts against the former president over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in a bid to remain in office.

An identical barrage came last April when a Manhattan grand jury indicted Trump on 34 felony charges for falsifying business records.

… Read the rest

This is why we can’t turn it around.

Today we are saying no to @JustStop_Oil and their political wing the Labour Party 

We will power ahead with new oil and gas because it’s in the best interests of the British people, of our economy and of our national security pic.twitter.com/KO8zujUkdM

— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) July 31, 2023

… Read the rest

More reactions to Stephen Whittle’s disgusting tweet.

Hey @stephenwhittle,

Could you please reveal which police force sent an officer to you who said he would have “said far worse” than inciting violence. Was it @gmpolice?

Do you accept that you lied to police, as you misled officers with faux-contrition via a false apology? https://t.co/n4zJR0GW70

— Robbie Travers (@RobbieTravers) August 5, 2023

It will be @gmpolice and the visit will be logged so the police officer who said such a disgusting thing will be able to be identified.

— Jacky Holyoake (@JackyHolyoake) August 5, 2023

https://twitter.com/WrathQueenof/status/1687790819544125441 https://twitter.com/Lorna9100M/status/1687791185941721089

You are claiming that police officers not only condoned this clear online incitement to violence (accompanied by an image of PP after

… Read the rest

James Fallows makes a very good point here.

https://twitter.com/JamesFallows/status/1687847616103473152

Reporters generally (or always?) don’t write the headlines and subheads; that’s the editor’s job. The first para of the story certainly pulls no punches, ending with “He is an inveterate and knowing liar.”

Another thing: there’s an ambiguity in quotation marks. It’s not always clear whether they’re straightforward (someone said this) or scare quotes. But Fallows is still right: even if ‘Lies’ is quoting the indictment, it can still look like scare quotes.

https://twitter.com/JamesFallows/status/1687859317204996096

Yep, he certainly has a point there too. Habit? What a benign word for a pattern of criminal behavior.

He sums up:

To underscore a point well known in journalism but not so much in civilian world:

… Read the rest

It’s complicated.

If convicted in any of the three criminal cases he is now facing, Donald Trump may be able to influence whether he goes to prison and what his stay there looks like under a law that allows former U.S. presidents to keep Secret Service protection for life, some current and former U.S. officials said.

…

Trump could force politically and logistically complex questions over whether officials should detail agents to protect a former American president behind bars, leave it to prison authorities to keep him safe, or secure him under some type of home confinement, former U.S. officials said.

…

The charges Trump faces technically come with the possibility of decades in prison — though pleas, verdicts

… Read the rest

Oh really. How interesting.

Police visited after I made my remark re a certain welcome to KJK aka PP. But they were very sympathetic. One told me they "would have said far worse".

— Prof. Stephen Whittle OBE, PhD, DLaws, FAcSS, (@stephenwhittle) August 5, 2023

The cops visited trans man Stephen Whittle after she [gloated about the assault on KJK?] but actually they approved of the gloating and one said he would have said far worse? That is very very interesting, and not in a good way.

It will be @gmpolice and the visit will be logged so the police officer who said such a disgusting thing will be able to be identified.

— Jacky Holyoake (@JackyHolyoake) August 5, 2023

… Read the rest

Joyce Vance expands on her point:

Today, Donald Trump issued what can only be construed as a shot across the bow, after the Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya admonished him during arraignment yesterday that he must not commit any new crimes while on a pre-trial bond—the thing that’s keeping him out of jail before trial—and that efforts to influence or intimidate witnesses, jurors or others involved in the case were illegal.

So, naturally, he posted a threat on his social media toy.

It couldn’t be more clear that this is a threat to Jack Smith and the prosecutors and investigators involved in the case against him. It’s readily construed as a threat against state court prosecutors like Alvin Bragg in

… Read the rest

Joyce Vance thinks he should be locked up.

Former President Donald Trump has gone “over the line” and should be taken into custody for his latest apparent threat, according to former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance.

During an arraignment hearing in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Trump pleaded not guilty to four felony charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election result and over his actions surrounding the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Approximately 24 hours later, the ex-president posted the following to his Truth Social account: “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”

Vance, former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, said that the post went beyond “free speech” and Trump should

… Read the rest

Reuters tells us:

 U.S. prosecutors flagged a threatening social media post from Donald Trump in a late-night court filing on Friday, arguing that it suggests he might intimidate witnesses by improperly disclosing confidential evidence received from the government.

On his Truth Social site, the former president wrote, “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” on Friday afternoon, a day after he pleaded not guilty to charges that he orchestrated a criminal conspiracy to try to reverse his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

In the filing in Washington federal court, the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith said Trump’s post raised concerns that he might publicly reveal secret material, such as grand jury transcripts, obtained from

… Read the rest

Trump might find himself in prison to await trial.

https://twitter.com/AWeissmann_/status/1687568227491028992

It’s a threat, you see. It’s not clever to threaten when you’re out on bail.… Read the rest

The needle has moved a little.

British sports governing bodies are under mounting pressure to reform their policies after world swimming banned transgender athletes who reached male puberty from elite women’s events.

In a seismic move for Olympic sport which will mean that American swimmer Lia Thomas can no longer compete in elite races, swimming’s rulemakers announced that transgender women must now establish that they “have not experienced any part of male puberty”.

Finally.

Fina, world swimming’s governing body, also announced plans to establish a new “open” category of competition to include transgender women that, according to president Husain Al-Musallam, would involve “some of our biggest events”.

It’s unclear why anyone but men who claim to be … Read the rest

So now he’s threatening us.

Free speech is one thing, but this is over the line. As a prosecutor, I'd be sorely tempted to make a motion to revoke Trump's pre-trial bond & put him in custody. Let him explain it to the judge. pic.twitter.com/qEhiXtVFnu

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) August 4, 2023

I wonder if he even understands that he’s out on bail.… Read the rest

The next thing I read after musing aloud whether Trump is so in the habit of lying that he doesn’t know what it is to know anything, is that William Barr says Trump knew he lost the election. Good enough for me! Barr knows the man and I don’t, so I’ll take Barr’s word for it (despite Barr’s squalid history of doing Trump’s foul bidding).

Former Attorney General Bill Barr on Wednesday undermined a key pillar of his old boss’ defense in the special counsel’s probe into 2020 election interference, telling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that Donald Trump “knew well he lost the election.”

Barr went on to say he’s shocked, shocked.

The former attorney general also described Trump’s

… Read the rest

Trump had to wait, just like any humble mortal waiting for a bus.

Donald Trump is not a man used to waiting.

But at a court hearing in the nation’s capital, the former US president found himself fidgeting in his seat while he waited 20 minutes for the judge to arrive.

Nobody thought to bring a coloring book and crayons?

The latest indictment stems from his alleged role in plotting to overturn the 2020 election results. He faces four counts: conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.

Federal prosecutors allege he knowingly and repeatedly spread false claims about the 2020 election, and, along with several unnamed co-conspirators, took

… Read the rest

Laurie Penny anthology recommendation:

Seeing as they/them has raised their several faces on here after a leave of absence, I will treat you to my thread in response to them's refusal to accept that lesbian and gay issues has sod all to do with them:https://t.co/Fck4WfqwP7

— Julie Bindel (@bindelj) August 4, 2023

… Read the rest

Trans ideologist behaving badly.

A retraction and apology has been issued by iNews for the baseless accusation made by journalist @PatrickStrud against Kellie-Jay Keen, aka @ThePosieParker. Mr Strudwick has forgotten to share this on Twitter, so it would be nice if people could help him out. pic.twitter.com/jc6Qg0bTVK

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) August 3, 2023

After JKR tweeted that, he did remember to share the note…but that’s all he did: simply share it. No apology, no discussion…and he closed replies.

There are many many quote tweets pointing out what crappy journalism and crappy behavior this is.

Just one example:

https://twitter.com/IanGee2023/status/1687344963212730368… Read the rest

Well this is the thing, isn’t it. Trans rights. What are they? What, exactly, are they? Is it a “right” to force everyone to agree that one is something one is not? If so, how do we know that’s a right? What chain of reasoning or history of injustices shores up the claim that that is a right? Is it a “right” for men to help themselves to everything set aside for women on the grounds that they are trans women? If so, how, why, on what grounds, and what about women who object?

They'd be about the same, given that 'questioning gender ideology' is what transphobes call their opposition to trans rights.

— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) August 3, 2023

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Seeking to balance inclusivity.

It can’t be inclusive at all times though. Competitions can’t be inclusive. The whole point of competitions is that some people win and others lose.

Emotional blackmail using word games. Just as “inclusivity” is not necessarily good, “discrimination” is not always bad. Discrimination is choosing. Choosing a winner distinguishes the winner from all those who did not win, discriminating against them specifically, by design. Even before any official competition, a whole bunch of would-be competitors are removed because they are not good enough to participate. At all. Everybody knows this is how sport works.

Note that the only “inclusivity” trans activists are interested in is that … Read the rest