Michael Tomasky says never mind Carlson, get Murdoch.

As Tucker Carlson begins to slither out of the news cycle, here’s a reminder to keep our eyes on the prize. The prize—that is, the real enemy of standards and decency and integrity—is Rupert Murdoch. Carlson was a symptom. An unusually disgusting and purulent (great word, look it up!) symptom, but a symptom all the same. The disease is Murdoch.

He has been destroying journalism for 50 years. I’ll get into some of that below. But right now, let’s focus on something that’s happening in England, which I can assure you is something that Rupert is worried about—maybe even more worried than he is about Smartmatic.

He means Britain … Read the rest

I saw a cruise ship heading from Puget Sound into Elliott Bay this morning for the first time this year. I saw another one at a pier a few days ago. April to October they ply to and fro, burning up their 80 thousand gallons of fuel per day.

Meanwhile Spain is hot.

Spain recorded its hottest ever temperature for April on Thursday, hitting 38.8C according to the country’s meteorological service.

Seattle got that hot two years ago, but not in April.

The record figure was reached in Cordoba airport in southern Spain just after 15:00 local time (14:00 BST). For days a blistering heatwave has hit the country with temperatures 10-15C warmer than expected for April. It’s been

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First of all the headline.

Narrow legal definition of sex in Montana bill would jeopardize protections for trans people

What “narrow”?!! It’s just the definition. A small set of people are trying to force all of us to “broaden” the definition so that it means nothing. If sex stops meaning “female/male” then it’s just random. (Of course there are other meanings of “sex,” in particular the activity, but the definition PBS means here is the one that names female or male.)

A bill advancing through Montana’s statehouse would legally define a man as someone who produces sperm and a woman as someone who produces eggs — and apply that definition to 40 aspects of the state’s legislative code, from employment protections

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The ACLU continues to cheer on teenagers to get their genitalia mutilated.

It’s completely disgusting and dishonest to call it “vital health care.” It’s not. Being unhappy with your gender or sex or both is not the same as being ill or injured. It’s not “vital health care” to kill people so that they can be with god sooner, and it’s not “vital health care” to try to swap out people’s genitals.

DOJ agrees: Tennessee’s ban denies young people vital health care simply because of who they are.

It’s discriminatory, it’s unconstitutional, and it's why we’re taking Tennessee to court.https://t.co/wEn8Ml0Q28

— ACLU (@ACLU) April 27, 2023

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Peak incoherent headline:

Montana governor lobbied by non-binary son to reject anti-trans bills

What the hell is a non-binary son?

The son of the Republican governor of Montana, Greg Gianforte, met their father in his office to lobby him to reject several bills that would harm transgender people in the state, the Montana Free Press reported.

Hahahahahahaha “their father” – this stuff gets dumber every day.

David Gianforte told the paper they identify as non-binary and use he/they pronouns – the first time they disclosed their gender identity publicly.

How exciting! How glamorous! How first time disclosing! How center of attentioning!

They told the outlet they felt an obligation to use their relationship with their father to stand up

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Originally a comment by Nullius in Verba on What is up for debate.

It’s difficult to represent the strongest form of their argument, not because their argument is bad, but because they have multiple arguments pointing to multiple conclusions that are mutually exclusive. The ends of their motte’s arguments are different from the ends of their bailey’s arguments. The arguments deployed in the motte are actually logically incompatible with those deployed in the bailey, so we’d have to handle each of those separately.

Even restricting our attention to just the motte or just the bailey, however, we find mutually exclusive arguments in terms of both premises and conclusions. In the motte, for instance, some arguments proceed from the premise … Read the rest

Pay close attention at 1:25.

The shutting down of lesbian voices and the #AHF film at @EdinburghUni was also raised in the House of Commons by @joannaccherry. Thank you! pic.twitter.com/Zt2u76j5M6

— For Women Scotland (@ForWomenScot) April 27, 2023

Penny Mordaunt says, in replying to Joanna Cherry, that historically the LGBT movement has given lesbians a lower profile. Yes it has, and all the more so now. Joanna Cherry nodded agreement when Mordaunt said that.

That film needs to be shown at Edinburgh, and then shown again, and again, and again.… Read the rest

More insults.

https://twitter.com/TouroftheGila/status/1651304404719644672

Yes so nurture, much positive.

https://twitter.com/palladianblue/status/1651369718518005760

One of those physical interactions was when he tried to push her off her bike.

https://twitter.com/palladianblue/status/1651371473167327233… Read the rest

Speaking of rights, and violations of same –

The screening of Adult Human Female at Edinburgh University has been cancelled. https://t.co/vgYntil1ZC pic.twitter.com/rOQg6Wvw0w

— Lisa Mackenzie (@lnmackenzie1) April 26, 2023

Guy with the mic has just said “step away from the TERF, she smells bad”.

— Lisa Mackenzie (@lnmackenzie1) April 26, 2023

Security let the protestors in.

— David (@_Dav1d__) April 26, 2023

The BBC:

The screening of a controversial film about transgender issues has been cancelled for a second time by the University of Edinburgh after student protests.

Gender-critical documentary Adult Human Female was due to be shown at a lecture hall in George Square on Wednesday. But the university said protestors were restricting access to the venue and

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Holly Lawford on trans YouTube celebrity Natalie Winn:

At one point, Wynn spends a substantial amount of time describing, and then attributing to Rowling, so-called “motte-and-bailey” rhetorical tactics. These are arguments by which a person puts forward a difficult-to-defend claim (analogized to a lightly defended low-walled medieval courtyard known as a bailey), and then retreats to a more defensible claim (the metaphorical motte, or castle) when challenged, without conceding that the latter differs from the former.

But then Wynn uses this same strategy to impugn Rowling, first arguing that saying “transwomen are men” is transphobic (the bailey), and then retreating to a far more defensible position, expressed implicitly by means of the following rhetorical question: “Is it really hysteria

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But wait – an article in Prospect says Carlson is a rebel guy.

Tucker, as his enormous fan following knows him, was adored by viewers and reviled by critics for his signature incredulous stare—the slack-jawed expression he wears when he simply can’t believe what he’s being told.

That look of smirking disbelief is deliberately theatrical. But Carlson’s insistent distrust of his powerful guests acts as a solvent to authority, frequently making larger-than-life figures of the political establishment defend arguments they otherwise treat as self-evident.

Tucker’s willingness to challenge and mock ruling elites went alongside an obsessively nativist message that alienated viewers who might otherwise have embraced his populist perspective.

He didn’t challenge and mock all ruling elites though did … Read the rest

Talk about a nest of vipers. Fox has a dossier on Carlson to threaten him away from retaliation. Fox made the US a much worse place while making itself a fortune, so I hope the pair of them devour each other leaving nothing behind but the claws.

When Fox announced Carlson’s departure on Monday, the network presented the separation as amicable. But according to one former on-air Fox personality, the anchor and some of the channel’s top executives are parting ways on “the worst” and “messiest possible terms.” Indeed, in private communications released last month as part of the Dominion-Fox lawsuit, the now-fired Fox host gossiped that one such exec “hates us,” claiming she was covertly working

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Is it true that Tucker Carlson is fascinating as well as repellent?

Tucker is hard to replace with just another cable-news face, Hirshman noted, because “he doesn’t just repeat things that others are saying but rather he cooks up these ridiculous issues in an ever-evolving list of grievances”.

What’s more, he’s remarkably good at capturing attention and giving his viewers the language to express their anger, racism and hate.

In that sense, Carlson is something like Donald Trump, who famously called himself a “ratings machine”. You can despise what these men are saying and still have trouble tearing your eyes from their TV presence; they possess a kind of perverse gift, like one bestowed by an evil godmother upon

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The judge in Trump’s current case plaintively suggests that it’s not appropriate for Trump to try to litigate via social media. Fat lot of good that will do.

…the judge in the case, Lewis A Kaplan, rebuked Trump for an “entirely inappropriate” statement on his social media platform, Truth Social, shortly before proceedings began.

Kaplan warned the former president’s lawyers that such statements about the case could bring more legal problems upon himself.

Why “could”? Why isn’t it a legal problem now?

Trump, who has not attended so far, called the case “a made-up scam”. He also called Carroll’s lawyer “a political operative” and alluded to a DNA issue Kaplan has ruled cannot be part of the case.

“This

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That’s silly.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov is upset about Tucker’s firing. For some reason. pic.twitter.com/XgBhaoJfEm

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 26, 2023

The First Amendment doesn’t forbid employers to fire employees because the employers don’t like their speech. The First Amendment doesn’t govern private employers at all.

It’s understandable that Russians would be unfamiliar with the details of free speech law.… Read the rest

The Wall Street Journal tells us

Tucker Carlson’s Vulgar, Offensive Messages About Colleagues Helped Seal His Fate at Fox News

Prime-time host called senior executive the c-word in redacted missive; network grew wary of further embarrassment from possible disclosure

Snappy headline and subhead.

Several weeks ago, as Fox News lawyers prepared for a courtroom showdown with Dominion Voting Systems, they presented Tucker Carlson with what they thought was good news: They had persuaded the court to redact from a legal filing the time he called a senior Fox News executive the c-word, according to people familiar with the matter. 

Mr. Carlson, Fox News’s most-watched prime-time host, wasn’t impressed. He told his colleagues that he wanted the world to know what

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From a Fresh Air conversation via J.A. at Miscellany Room:

By the time they enter kindergarten, most American children believe that being “thin” makes them more valuable to society, writes journalist Virginia Sole-Smith. By middle school, Sole-Smith says, more than a quarter of kids in the U.S. will have been put on a diet.

Sole-Smith produces the newsletter and podcast Burnt Toast, where she explores fatphobia, diet culture, parenting and health. In her new book, Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture, she argues that efforts to fight childhood obesity have caused kids to absorb an onslaught of body-shaming messages.

And also, no doubt, to do a lot of bullying of kids who are fat … Read the rest

The Oxford University LGBTQ Society has a passionate Statement on Facebook denouncing the L part of itself.

Our statement on Kathleen Stock’s speaking event at the union. Watch this space for updates regarding our next steps.

Steps? Like what? Kicking her?

The Oxford University LGBTQ+ Society is dismayed and appalled that the Oxford Union decided to platform the transphobic and trans exclusionary speaker Kathleen Stock.

Stock has been campaigning against trans rights, labelling them as dangerous to women, calling for the exclusion of trans people from the LGBTQ+ movement, supporting conversion therapy, and supporting hate groups such as the LGB Alliance and Lesbian Project.

Once again, the Union is disregarding the welfare of its LGBTQ+ members under the guise of

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It’s almost funny. Almost. The Oxford LGBTQ+ Society celebrates Lesbian Visibility Week with one breath and libels Kathleen Stock with a pack of lies in the next. Lesbian Visibility no not that kind!!!

Happy lesbian visibility week! Here are some of the lesbian people and lesbian stories that inspire us (1/10) pic.twitter.com/L1E4jdFiGb

— Oxford University LGBTQ+ Society (@OULGBTQ) April 24, 2023

(10/10) pic.twitter.com/R11qIP8YjA

— Oxford University LGBTQ+ Society (@OULGBTQ) April 24, 2023

Immediately below that –

Proud of our @OULGBTQ Society for being such a resilient, strong queer community, and for standing for the right of Oxford trans students to exist in peace. We will prevail.
https://t.co/RXylsau5xT

— Addi Haran (@AddiHD02) April 24, 2023

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This is bad and sad news. Tarek Fatah is gone.

Renowned Pakistan-born Canadian columnist and famous television personality Tarek Fatah died on Monday, April 24 at the age of 73. The author, based in Canada, died after a long-drawn battle with cancer. His daughter Natasha Fatah confirmed the news of his death in a Twitter post.

Lion of Punjab.
Son of Hindustan.
Lover of Canada.
Speaker of truth.
Fighter for justice.
Voice of the down-trodden, underdogs, and the oppressed.@TarekFatah has passed the baton on… his revolution will continue with all who knew and loved him.

Will you join us?

1949-2023 pic.twitter.com/j0wIi7cOBF

— Natasha Fatah (@NatashaFatah) April 24, 2023

NDTV goes on:

Tarek Fatah was born on November 20,

… Read the rest