Another Sokal hoax. Has to be. Right? Right?

The University of Washington Press has published the book 'Underflows, Queer Trans Ecologies and River Justice', which is a 'trans focus on grief for fish'. It also details 'why rivers matter for trans life'. A review of the book has even been hosted by London School of Economics pic.twitter.com/uKDvSLHlBj

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) June 12, 2023

Wait there’s more.

Feel sorry for the 15 year old boy who bought 'Truck Sluts' and waited til his parents were out before opening it

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) June 12, 2023

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Screechy Monkey on A uniquely favorable jurist.

This NYT article reports on the clerk’s explanation for how Cannon was assigned to this case. In a nutshell:

Judge Cannon’s handling of the prior case was irrelevant. The “low number” rule Rob reports Ken White mentioning was not in play here.

Her assignment was “random” in the sense that judicial assignments usually are — that is, strictly speaking, although there were 10 judges who were eligible to receive the case, it was not a 1 in 10 chance, because that’s weighted by how full each judge’s caseload is, and 3 of those 10 judges are senior judges (semi-retired) who have smaller dockets and are at or close … Read the rest

Moral monster Willoughby

If you go on tv or radio and someone deliberately misgenders you, DO NOT let it pass. It’s offensive and cruel bigotry. The BBC seem to be trying to normalise this. #PoliticsLive

— India Willoughby (@IndiaWilloughby) June 12, 2023

Immediately followed by ridiculous fake dressup Willoughby

Festive interlude.

This is:
– A flight attendant escorting a mob boss off a jet
– A meeting of Adult Children Of Indicted Dads
– The angels of Denial and Tax Evasion
– Guests at a Saudi golf tournament
– Ivanka wearing a mullet: business up top, party below the knees
– The Perons at a brunch pic.twitter.com/HuRXd0q758

— Paul Rudnick (@PaulRudnickNY) June 11, 2023

… Read the rest

Excuse me?

The two halves of the tweet disagree with each other. The first two curt bossy sentences just issue an order, without of course any authority to do so. The rest of the tweet pretends to give reasons for the curt order.

First of all, it’s just gibberish. Bits of vocabulary aren’t “required.” What are they gonna do, arrest us? Give us an F? Sue us? Carve us up? They’re not in a position to tell us what words to use or else.

Second, pronouns, like verbs and nouns and prepositions and the like, are neither preferred nor required, they’re just part of language. Use them correctly if you want to be understood, use them creatively if … Read the rest

The Johns Hopkins definition of lesbian is doing the rounds.

A masterpiece @JohnsHopkins clap………….clap………clap……

Compare & contrast. https://t.co/XSfdCt1nBb

— James Dreyfus (@DreyfusJames) June 12, 2023

https://twitter.com/SoniaRGallego/status/1668236564080590848 https://twitter.com/hatpinwoman/status/1668212741067137028

I really think Johns Hopkins ought to explain, as well as delete and start over. I really think anyone in a position to promulgate the claim that women are non-men while men get to go on being men ought to explain the reasons for spreading such a blatant shameless in your face insult to women.… Read the rest

Humanists UK are going with “men are women if they say they are.” Women are going with “Goodbye Humanists UK.”

I've resigned today as a Patron of @Humanists_UK. I've campaigned for women's rights all my life & I can't support an organisation that opposes the EHRC's advice that the government should consider clarifying the 2010 Equality Act to protect women @SexMattersOrg @HayteratLords

— Joan Smith (@polblonde) June 12, 2023

Sex Matters explains.

The @Humanists_UK are lobbying against women's rights and freedom of speech.

They say there is no definition of sex in law, and no need for one.

Thankyou Baroness Hayter and Joan Smith for taking a stand and resigning @HayteratLords @polblonde https://t.co/sdLLeS3E5Q pic.twitter.com/QE1BgjgDrT

— Sex Matters (@SexMattersOrg) June

Mark Joseph Stern at Slate takes a very grim view of the Judge Cannon situation.

Cannon’s total lack of principle, combined with her evident incapacity to experience shame, renders her a uniquely favorable jurist for the former president. Indeed, if she maintains her grasp on this case, it is nearly impossible to envision Smith securing a conviction in her courtroom.

Cannon, a Trump appointee, gained notoriety while presiding over Trump’s attempt to halt the classified documents investigation in 2022. Following the search of Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s lawyers filed a complaint alleging that the search was illegitimate and unconstitutional; they demanded the appointment of a special master and, in the meantime, a freeze on prosecutors’ review of seized materials. In a

But don’t worry, climate change is just a lefty plot to make people get rid of their SUVs, it’s not a real thing. Not real not real not real.

Tens of thousands of fish washed ashore along the gulf coast of Texas starting on Friday after being starved of oxygen in warm water, officials said.

Park officials for Brazoria County said that a cleanup effort was underway but thousands more fish were expected to wash ashore.

That’s ok. We can just print new fish.

Katie St. Clair, the sea life facility manager at Texas A&M University at Galveston, said that the warming of gulf coast waters through climate change could have contributed to the fish kill.

“As we

Just try harder grrrlzzzz

No no no no no you stupid goons, you still don’t get it – we’re happy for you to play all-trans sports. Delighted. Go for it! It’s the playing “one man in the women’s sport” that we object to.

Pink News headline:

Historic all-trans rugby match sends a ‘big f*** you’ to transphobes

No, Pinky, it really doesn’t. Quite the opposite. All-trans sport is perfectly fine and doesn’t trouble us in the least. It’s the stealing women’s sports we object to. I think we’ve been very clear on this point.… Read the rest

Ken White on the unwinnable case scenario:

Yesterday, on our Emergent Situation Episode of Serious Trouble, Josh and I sparred a bit over the moral and political philosophy of Jack Smith’s decision to prosecute. I pointed out that the somewhat predictable assignment of the case to Judge Aileen Cannon — who proved herself to be an arguably lawless Trump partisan when she entertained his attempts to derail his own investigation — will make it extraordinarily difficult to convict him. If Judge Cannon presides over the case she can derail the prosecution in myriad ways, some of them unreviewable, if she wants to. Moreover, there’s reason to doubt that a Florida jury will convict Trump. Finally, and perhaps

Hmmm.

A lawyer speaks:

You know what I don’t have? Female clients assaulted in women’s institutions by women with penises. Nada. Not a single one. What I do have are trans women who can’t get women’s clothing, trans women who are told that wigs and makeup present a security risk, (4/x)

— Amy Matychuk (@amymatychuk) June 10, 2023

You know who the vulnerable parties are? Trans women living their gender in male institutions, which means being assaulted, being jeered at and asked to show their tits by staff and inmates alike. Trans women who are too afraid to be out while in custody. (6/x)

— Amy Matychuk (@amymatychuk) June 10, 2023

“And when they finally have the genitalia they want?” … Read the rest

Trump isn’t the only one.

Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been arrested in connection with the ongoing investigation into the funding and finances of the SNP. Police confirmed a 52-year-old woman was taken into custody as a suspect and is being questioned by detectives.

It follows the arrest and release of her husband, ex-SNP chief executive Peter Murrell in April. A spokesman for Ms Sturgeon confirmed she was cooperating with the investigation.

She probably won’t have to spend time in a cell, but if she does, I wonder if she’ll urge the screws to put her in with a trans laydee.… Read the rest

Sonia Sodha writes:

Patients are supposed to be at the heart of everything the NHS does. This is considered such an important principle that, a decade ago, the fledgling NHS constitution was rewritten after the mid-Staffs scandal, in which so many patients died, to make clear it should frame every aspect of NHS work.

You’d think that would be self-evident. What else would be at the heart of health care?

Yet, last week, the NHS Confederation, the membership body for NHS providers, published guidance that appears to cut this ethos adrift. [Its stated objectives are incredibly important: supporting trans staff by helping healthcare leaders to understand their needs and address any workplace discrimination they may face.] But it also

Grey Slavery is back in the news gossip.

I’m ready to disclose the details of the prior restraint of my research. The culprit is University College London, whose lawyers instructed the executive editor of their online journal THINK PIECES to pull my essay. The essay is linked here.https://t.co/H0BYUfY3kj

— Prof. Grace Lavery (@graceelavery) June 9, 2023

He adds several hundred tweets, which are too boring to read, let alone share. He’s enjoying the attention a lot.

H/t Mostly Cloudy… Read the rest

The Times says Aileen Cannon won’t be recused.

The news of Judge Cannon’s assignment raised eyebrows because of her role in an earlier lawsuit filed by Mr. Trump challenging the F.B.I.’s search of his Florida club and estate, Mar-a-Lago. In issuing a series of rulings favorable to him, Judge Cannon, a Trump appointee, effectively disrupted the investigation until a conservative appeals court ruled she never had legitimate legal authority to intervene.

In other words she’s the last person who should be filling this slot.

There are all kinds of reasons other judges couldn’t be assigned to the case. It’s almost as if there are too many reasons. Assigning a judge who has already tried to protect Trump from the … Read the rest

Trump is displaying his usual taste and wit.

Donald Trump vowed Saturday to continue running for president even if he were to be convicted as part of the 37-count federal felony indictment that was issued against him this week.

“I’ll never leave,” Trump said in an interview aboard his plane. “Look, if I would have left, I would have left prior to the original race in 2016. That was a rough one. In theory that was not doable.”

Translation: He’ll continue to barge ahead because he’s a deranged narcissist.

While Trump said campaign fundraising had skyrocketed since the indictment was issued, he conceded it was an unwelcome development.

“Nobody wants to be indicted,” said Trump. “I don’t care that

The BBC reminds us that Trump is charged not just with taking all those documents he had no right to take, but also with lying and obstruction in order to hang on to them.

Mr Trump has been charged with 37 counts of unauthorised possession of classified material, obstruction of justice, concealing documents, and making false statements to law enforcement.

…

Republicans, including some of Mr Trump’s presidential rivals, rushed to his defence on Thursday as news of the indictment first broke.

While they may still take issue with what they view as a politically motivated prosecution, they may find it more difficult to explain why Mr Trump held onto such sensitive national security after leaving the White House.

Where … Read the rest

The Guardian is still resorting to the gender uncritical framing.

Oxford University’s new professor of LGBTQ+ history has accused the government of “fanning a culture war” over freedom of speech, insisting it is alive and well in higher education.

Is there such a thing as LGBTQ+ history? I suppose you can lump two or more unrelated things together and then do history of both of them, but is that a genre of history or just a random list?

Matt Cook, who was this week named as the first Jonathan Cooper chair of the history of sexualities, a newly created post at Mansfield College, was speaking only days after the appointment of the government’s first “free speech tsar” for