Laurie Penny getting things backward again.

In the U.K., standing up for trans rights now comes with serious professional consequences. I was shocked by the ferocity of the establishment backlash.
I don't know that my career will ever fully recover from the basic choice not to betray my trans friends and colleagues. > https://t.co/z4IbkcLxBQ

— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) August 3, 2023

Is she…unaware of the professional consequences for gender-critical women? Is she unaware of Kathleen Stock? Is she unaware of the actual police persecution of gender-critical women? Is she unaware of pretty much everything but herself?… Read the rest

A star is born.

In a conference room near the Capitol, young conservatives gathered in April to learn how to run for office — how to win and wield government power.

Among the keynote speakers at the summit, hosted by a group devoted to “training America’s future statesmen today,” was Jeffrey Clark, the former senior Justice Department official who in 2020 sought to use federal law enforcement power to undo then-President Donald Trump’s defeat.

Cool cool. Young “conservatives” gathered to learn how to seize power by force.

The criminal indictment of Trump unsealed on Tuesday depicts in vivid detail Clark’s alleged role in the conspiracy prosecutors accuse Trump of orchestrating. The indictment identifies Clark only as “Co-Conspirator 4

… Read the rest

How they will do it if and when they get the chance:

Out of the many new details revealed in former President Donald Trump’s third indictment, the most chilling one may be a discussion between Trump’s White House deputy counsel Patrick Philbin and “Co-Conspirator 4” — who, based on the Jan. 6 Committee report, appears to be Jeffrey Clark, a former top Justice Department official in the Trump administration. That discussion, in which the man believed to be Clark suggests using the Insurrection Act, underscores how Trump’s inner circle wasn’t simply seeking ways to delay Trump’s departure from the White House, but actively gaming out how he could stay in power even in the face of a

… Read the rest

I can’t find any news coverage of this (yet) so the bird will have to do for now.

https://twitter.com/biologycounts/status/1687115660726562816

It’s not Nazism to know that men are men and not women.

Updating to add: wrong address in the tweet – correct one is the ipaper.… Read the rest

News from Ireland:

Dangerous inmate Barbie Kardashian has been transferred to a male prison – but remains under a restricted regime for the safety of others, we can reveal. Sources say that Kardashian, who identifies as a trans woman after she secured a gender recognition certificate, has been moved into Limerick Prison’s D block in recent days in the men’s side of the jail. The lag had been housed in an isolation unit of the now-old female part of the prison, which has since closed after the opening of a brand new facility there recently.

Golly, they don’t write very well at the Irish Mirror – but I guess we get the idea.

A factor behind the move to

… Read the rest

Well knock me down with a 2 by 4.

Oliver Brown in The Telegraph:

British Rowing is expected to announce a dramatic abandoning of its controversial transgender policy on Thursday by restricting the women’s category solely to those born female, Telegraph Sport can reveal.

All right. Now all other sporting bodies all over the world kindly follow suit. Restore fairness to women!

After months of intense discussion at board level, the governing body has decided to follow the majority view of its 31,500 members, more than 80 per cent of whom are understood to have urged a change in approach that would ensure the fairness and integrity of the female category.

It is about. fucking. time.

Rowing

… Read the rest

Awww Free Willy wants to be an advertising model. Poor guy must be jealous of Dylan Mulvaney.

https://twitter.com/JammersMinde/status/1686790648437895175

He was such a star on that Big Brother thing all those years ago.

https://twitter.com/mathano4/status/1686807941205082120… Read the rest

Sarah Smith at the BBC leans on the same aspects of the indictment as I did.

Some US commentators have introduced another reason why they think these charges are the most serious. They see in Mr Trump’s alleged conduct a threat to the ideals that underpin the bedrock of the country.

Not since the nation’s founding has any president “voted out of office been accused of plotting to hold onto power in an elaborate scheme of deception and intimidation that would lead to violence in the halls of Congress,” writes Peter Baker in the New York Times.

He goes on: “As serious as hush money and classified documents may be, this third indictment in four months gets to the

… Read the rest

Peter Baker on the implications of the indictment:

But not since the framers emerged from Independence Hall on that clear, cool day in Philadelphia 236 years ago has any president who was voted out of office been accused of plotting to hold onto power in an elaborate scheme of deception and intimidation that would lead to violence in the halls of Congress.

What makes the indictment against Donald J. Trump on Tuesday so breathtaking is not that it is the first time a president has been charged with a crime or even the second. Mr. Trump already holds those records. But as serious as hush money and classified documents may be, this third indictment in four months gets to

… Read the rest

A legal eagle, Randall D. Eliason, takes us through the third indictment.

The charging decisions in the indictment reflect smart lawyering by the special counsel Jack Smith and his team. The beauty of this indictment is that it provides three legal frameworks that prosecutors can use to tell the same fulsome story.

It will allow prosecutors to put on a compelling case that will hold Mr. Trump fully accountable for the multipronged effort to overturn the election. At the same time, it avoids legal and political pitfalls that could have delayed or derailed the prosecution.

Good to know. I woke up this morning brooding on the two cliffs we’re racing toward – the climate one and the prolific criminal … Read the rest

Hahahaha I for one, unlike SOME people, never wear either baseball caps or shades. I’ll cop to being “bitchy” though – but not in the way Mr Willoughby means it.

(It’s very telling though. Men wear shades and caps; women are bitchy. Clearly there’s not a misogynist bone in Will’s body. Clearly.)

"At the end of the day, Gender Criticals are either bitchy women or blokes in sunglasses and baseball caps," said Jonathan Willoughby with all the self-awareness of a dog licking its arse in public.#IndiaWilloughbyIsADude
H/T @ilovepreserves pic.twitter.com/UVJCyxzFPV

— Fred Sargeant (@FredSargeant) August 2, 2023

… Read the rest

The “friendly” atheist again, at Religion News Service:

Richard Dawkins has abandoned science to justify his transphobia

Even the title is ridiculous. It’s not “abandoning science” to know that men are not women. Trans ideology is not scientific, it’s all about the fee-fees.

Subhead:

It’s jarring to see the world’s most famous atheist use his massive platform to downplay or deny trans identities.

Wait. Are we talking about science here, or idenninies? They’re not the same, to put it mildly.

And how is it “jarring” to see an atheist deny that claims about idenninies can trump physical realities?

For decades, the renowned evolutionary biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins urged his readers to use science and reason to counter religious misinformation.

… Read the rest

Bros line up to brosplain trans ideology for Dawkins. (That is, they line up that way on my Twitter, because they would, wouldn’t they.)

I remember when Dawkins once told me during a Q&A that he was confused at why people would want his opinions on topics outside his expertise.

I wish I'd given him a different reply. Because now he's just being cited by conservative propaganda for his anti-trans misinformation. https://t.co/SCI2sdHGrC pic.twitter.com/VHs9IKxPm0

— Matt Dillahunty (@Matt_Dillahunty) August 1, 2023

And what is the “expertise” that tells us men are women if they say they are? Having a trans significant other, of course. What more do you want?

Calling trans people by their pronouns might lead to *gasp* other forms

… Read the rest

Trump raised nearly $250 million pushing fake election claims in the weeks before Jan. 6

The House select committee that investigated the riot on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021 said in their final report that Donald Trump raised nearly $250 million between Election Day and Jan. 6 as the former president’s tried and failed to fight the election results in court.

“Evidence gathered by the Committee indicates that President Trump raised roughly one quarter of a billion dollars in fundraising efforts between the election and January 6th. Those solicitations persistently claimed and referred to election fraud that did not exist,” the committee said in their final report.

His crimes are nested, or recursive. He tries to steal the election, … Read the rest

Here we go.

Former President Donald Trump was criminally charged Tuesday in connection with his efforts to reverse his loss to President Joe Biden in 2020.

The charges mark the unprecedented third criminal indictment against the former president since he launched his latest bid for the 2024 Republican nomination. No other U.S. president, current or former, has ever faced criminal charges.

No other US president has ever been such a rampant, lifelong, determined criminal.

Attractively, he’s using it as a lever to raise yet more money.

Trump is back to fundraising off of the latest federal indictment against him just days after it was revealed that his allied political action committee has spent over $20 million on his legal fees.

… Read the rest

Boris Johnson wants to put in a swimming pool at his Oxfordshire house, but there’s a problem. The Great Crested Newt is in his way.

The UK’s largest newt, which takes its name from the striking jagged crest that males display in the spring breeding season, is a protected species under British law.

As such, an unlimited fine and up to six months in prison could await anyone found guilty of disturbing the newt’s resting places and breeding sites, or taking their eggs.

Johnson launched an application with South Oxfordshire district council in June for the construction of an outdoor pool, measuring 11 metres by 4 metres (36ft x 13ft).

But Edward Church, a local government ecologist who reviewed

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Sastra on Hemantsplaining biology to a biologist.

In a way, trans ideology resembles a religious Accomodationist argument. Trans people, like the devoutly religious, are seen as a uniquely vulnerable, needy group utterly dependent on their belief. It provides them with their foundation for meaning and sense of self. Without the reassurance that there is this one thing they can know and depend on, their life shatters.

It comes back to New Atheism, which as I saw it was a reaction not so much against religion, but against Accomodationism. In Accomodationism, arguing for the truth of atheism was insensitive at best, a cruel intellectual exercise which ignored the grieving widow in need of a future heavenly … Read the rest

Phoenix has smashed all the records – not in a good way.

A historically intense and long-duration heat wave has spent weeks baking the South and Southwest, bringing dangerous triple-digit temperatures to 70 million Americans. Phoenix, at the epicenter, just logged its hottest month on record — and the hottest month ever observed in a U.S. city.

Phoenix’s average temperature for July was a blistering 102.7 degrees, taking into account average daytime high of 114.7 degrees and overnight low of 90.8.

…

While the heat in Phoenix eased just enough on Monday to end its record-shattering streak of 31 straight days at or above 110, the hot weather is forecast to recharge later this week. Excessive heat watches are in

… Read the rest

Librarians hiding the naughty books:

Works by authors sceptical of transgender activism became the subject of an internal “grievance” within the library service of Calderdale Council, a local authority affiliated with the controversial LGBT charity Stonewall.

The Telegraph can reveal that books critical of gender ideology have been removed from public view by staff at council libraries, and stashed out of sight in an off-limits storage space.

…

Calderdale Council has stated that no books are expressly banned by library services, but information from the local authority has revealed that “following consideration of a formal grievance internally” a number of titles were “placed in the lending store”.

The council has confirmed that while these books could be found

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Eava on Showing members how to gain children’s trust.

To play devil’s advocate, our laws about consent are legal fictions, not brain development. Legally minors can consent to sex in most states in the US. Depending on the ages of the minor and the adult, in some states a 14 year old can consent to sex with an 18 year old. In some states a minor can consent to vaginal intercourse, but not oral or anal sex, or the penalties are different, creating a disparity between gay and straight minors. There was a big blow up over a State Senator in California who put forth a law to equalize the penalties so a 21 year … Read the rest