Mark Cunliffe writes about the repressive policing of coronation protests last weekend:

It became very clear early on Coronation Saturday that things were not right. Reports emerged that police had targeted vans belonging to #NotMyKing protesters, and that others were also targeted by police before they had even begun to protest. 

Many MPs were quick to condemn the actions of the police with Nottingham East MP Nadia Whittome tweeting: “Protest is fundamental to democracy. People must have the right to oppose having an unelected head of state, or more than £100m of public funds being spent on a coronation when millions rely on food banks. These arrests should concern us all.”

Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana tweeted “It

One good thing about Trump’s campaigning: he keeps incriminating himself.

During a town hall event on CNN Wednesday night, former President Donald Trump made multiple incriminating remarks about his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Trump’s responses will further hurt his case should Special Counsel Jack Smith charge the former president in connection with his role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol and other attempts to hold onto power unlawfully. Trump’s statements were also valuable to Fulton County DA Fani Willis in her investigation and possible prosecution.

Consider what Trump had to say about former Vice President Pence. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins pointed out that Pence has blamed Trump for endangering his life. Trump interjected with a lie. “I

The BBC reports:

The comedy club which cancelled a Fringe show by SNP MP Joanna Cherry has reinstated the event.

The Stand had cancelled the show after staff said they were not comfortable with her views on transgender issues.

But the venue has now said the decision was “unfair and constituted unlawful discrimination against Ms Cherry”.

Ms Cherry said it was a “very welcome move by The Stand” and confirmed she will take part in August’s event as originally planned.

She did.

I am pleased that @StandComedyClub have apologised to me today. This is a very welcome move by the Stand and I look forward to taking part in the show. pic.twitter.com/YoGsSfxeVO

— Joanna Cherry KC (@joannaccherry) May 12,

Yes!

A statement issued on behalf of The Stand. Our solicitor's correspondence with Joanna Cherry's legal team can be found here: https://t.co/CMjCkOoUaa pic.twitter.com/F4TOc0CIuW

— The Stand (@StandComedyClub) May 12, 2023

Now nobody do this EVER AGAIN.… Read the rest

Bev Jackson tells us about a meeting.

Who is responsible for undermining the rights of lesbians and gays at the United Nations? Why, that would be Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the UN’s Independent Expert for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI). “What’s that?” you say. Shouldn’t he be protecting the rights of people who are attracted to others of the same sex? Ah, but SOGI is a way of getting round that. Having an advocate for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity is a bit like having one for Veganism and Chicken Farming. It doesn’t work.

Why? Because the GI bit insists that the SO bit has to buy into the ideology of the GI bit, which means lesbians have to pretend … Read the rest

The Times does a quick rundown of Trump’s horrors on CNN.

In little over an hour, Donald J. Trump suggested the United States should default on its debts for the first time in history, injected doubt over the country’s commitment to defending Ukraine from Russia’s invasion, dangled pardons for most of the Capitol rioters convicted of crimes, and refused to say he would abide by the results of the next presidential election.

…

In New Hampshire, the audience of Republicans lapped up Mr. Trump’s one-liners and slew of insults — to Ms. Collins (a “nasty person,” he jeered, echoing his old attack on Hillary Clinton), to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to E. Jean Carroll, the woman whom a jury this

It’s interesting that Trump was found liable for defaming Jean Carroll and the next day defamed her all over again on a major news network.

Writer E Jean Carroll is considering suing Donald Trump for defamation again after the former US president made disparaging remarks about her during a televised CNN town hall just a day after he was found liable in a civil case for sexually assaulting her.

…

But during the Wednesday night CNN event in New Hampshire – which attracted widespread condemnation of the US broadcaster – Trump repeatedly insulted and demeaned Carroll and her experiences.

Trump said her account of a sexual assault was “fake” and a “made-up story” and referred to it as “hanky-panky”.

Meteor. … Read the rest

Why the Australian Liberal Party expelled Moira Deeming:

The Victorian Liberal leader, John Pesutto, says he can’t see a way back into the party for controversial MP Moira Deeming, after her colleagues voted to expel her from their party room.

Liberal MPs voted 19 to 11 to expel Deeming during a two-hour party room meeting on Friday morning, meaning she will have to serve the remaining three-and-a-half years of her term on the crossbench of the upper house of the Victorian parliament.

…

Her ally, upper house MP Renee Heath, who accused Pesutto of bullying last week, was also stripped of her party secretary position in a separate motion.

No bullying here, no siree!

The expulsion motion was

Of course you know this means war. [B. Bunny]

.@MoiraDeemingMP has just been expelled from @LiberalVictoria. Her crime? Standing up for herself, and for women and girls.#IStandWithMoiraDeeming#LetWomenSpeak pic.twitter.com/gV6MQXwLdt

— WomensForumAustralia (@WomensForumAust) May 12, 2023

unbelievable: @MoiraDeemingMP expelled. the liberals are pathetic, spineless, cowards. (paywalled). #IstandwithMoiraDeeming https://t.co/zmWITK9SWP

— A/Prof Holly Lawford-Smith (@aytchellesse) May 12, 2023

In addition to expelling @MoiraDeemingMP, @LiberalVictoria has sanctioned her colleague @ReneeHeathMP, removing her as party secretary over her taking of minutes in Deeming's original expulsion meeting.#IStandWithReneeHeath#IStandWithMoiraDeeming#LetWomenSpeak pic.twitter.com/eqB65ZS4EE

— WomensForumAustralia (@WomensForumAust) May 12, 2023

Injustice has a particularly sharp bite and this unwarranted, vindictive move is not one based in evidence, but, it is so wildly unfair it

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Samantha left her keys.

This one sentence is some carefully crafted, chock-full-of DARVO, primo emotional blackmailing bullshit.:

When someone refers to another person using the wrong pronouns, especially on purpose, that can lead to that person feeling disrespected and can lead to dysphoria, exclusion and alienation.

Tough. Not my problem, really.

It’s like a trans-activist Gish Gallop that takes a lot longer to unpack and refute than it takes to utter. Still, sometimes it’s worth the effort, because it helps to lay bare the underlying ethos and assumptions of the speaker, and clarifies the role that is being thrust upon the listener. It gives you the chance to ask if … Read the rest

Joan Smith on horrible Chu and his horrible prize:

Pornography drips with misogyny. Teenage boys can easily find scenes of rape and sexual torture on their phones, changing the very idea of what constitutes “normal” sexual practices…

All a porn enthusiast has to do is link their habit with the magic word “transgender” and it is instantly transformed into something radical and progressive. It’s a form of cultural blindness so widespread that an author and academic who claims that violent porn persuaded him to “change” his sex has this week been awarded a Pulitzer Prize for literary criticism. “Sissy porn did make me trans,” Andrea Long Chu, formerly Andrew, once wrote.

…

Chu clearly has a very distorted

Trump came right out and said he expected Raffensperger to give him some votes so that he could win.

Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had no regrets about his demand that Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “find” enough votes to reverse his election defeat, a recorded conversation that is at the center of an ongoing Fulton County criminal probe.

Pressed about the call at a CNN town hall by moderator Kaitlan Collins, Trump said Raffensperger “owed me votes because the election was rigged” and repeated false conspiracy theories about his defeat in 2020 by Joe Biden.

“Owed” him votes. That’s so interesting.

Legal experts said Trump’s remarks could bolster [Fulton County District Attorney Fani] Willis’ case as she

Originally a comment by Screechy Monkey on Exploiting what looked like a principle of free speech.

We live in a world of finite resources, including credibility. Every time you give someone a platform, you are spending some of those resources, whether it’s the physical space, the staff time, the speaker budget, the attention span of your community, and/or your credibility as an institution.

There are thousands of crackpots out there churning out emails to physicists explaining how they have figured out that Einstein Was Wrong, that their pet Time Cube Theory or whatever explains life, the universe, and everything, etc. etc. And free speech demands that they are allowed to operate their badly-designed web sites without being shut down … Read the rest

Make it stop make it stop make it stop

Guess who's out selling t-shirts today based on his CNN appearance last night?

Very presidential indeed. . . pic.twitter.com/Y0VQTqOwjI

— Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) May 11, 2023

… Read the rest

Blah blah blah sob sob sob blah blah poor nice lady sob sob why won’t they let her compete sob sob

A 21-year-old sprinter, Halba Diouf, dreamt of running under France’s banner in the 2024 Olympic Games. But as a transgender woman, her hopes were dashed when the World Athletics Council banned athletes like her from competing in women’s events https://t.co/5wv8O9VS8n pic.twitter.com/UQwpdB9jES

— Reuters (@Reuters) May 11, 2023

Halba Diouf “dreamed of” running in competition with women, which would give him a huge advantage. The problem with that is that it’s unfair to the women, so keep your sobs and sympathy to yourselves.

He hoped to cheat; he can’t; end of dramatic story.… Read the rest

The person (or identity) who wrote this ridiculous “pronouns” “resource” for the University of Colorado is barely literate as well as dim.

They/zir provides a whole table of how to use pronouns as if students age 17 and above don’t already know how to speak their own language. They/zir then give a lot of absurd patronizing laughable advice.

Try to introduce yourself with your own pronouns so that everyone you meet knows that you’re a safe space and that you won’t assume a person’s pronouns. It also prompts them to provide pronouns without it being awkward. (Ex. “Hello, my name is Alex and I use they/them/theirs pronouns.”)

What if you don’t want everyone you meet to know you’re a safe … Read the rest

The University of Colorado, you’ll be thrilled to know, has a Center for Inclusion and Social Change (or at least a website that calls itself a Center for etc). It has, of course, a pride office, and it offers, of course, lgbtq resources. You can tell that from the url of that office’s resources’ page on

drum roll

wait for it

pronouns

Pronouns are how you refer to someone if you are not using their name. For example; “Samantha left her keys at my place last night.”

If someone tells you their pronouns, use those! If you don’t know someone’s pronouns, don’t assume gendered pronouns and use gender-neutral ones, like they or ze.

Bad writing; sounds as if they’re saying … Read the rest

God I wish a meteorite would drop on him. I see in the news a meteorite just punched a hole in the roof of a house in Hopewell, New Jersey. I grew up a few miles from Hopewell. I feel a kinship with this meteorite. I urge it to send a message to its comrades to aim for Trump until they score.

"Women let you" — Trump defends his comments about the Access Hollywood tape from his deposition pic.twitter.com/46QFb0buc5

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 11, 2023

He tells about 17 lies in that one clip, and gets about 50 things wrong.

Send. that. meteorite.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Artymorty on Weeds.

do they agree that wrong-think should be suppressed and never analysed?

Well, “our” opinion about one specific example of one specific view being presented in one specific context doesn’t extrapolate to whether “we” agree that all “wrongthink” should be suppressed and “never” analysed.

For example, most people agree that Holocaust denialism no longer merits the legitimacy of a platform at a respectable academic institution. This isn’t at all because Holocaust denialism is supposedly “wicked” and should be suppressed: it’s because such views have already been aired plenty, and analyzed to death, and there’s by now such broad, overwhelming evidence against them that the subject is done and buried. There’s nothing left to … Read the rest

Trump did a “Town Hall” thing last night, which is to say he did a campaign gig hosted by CNN. Why is CNN boosting Trump? I suppose because $$$.

He may have increased his legal jeopardy though.

The most heated exchange that Mr. Trump had with Ms. Collins was over the special counsel investigation into his possession of hundreds of presidential records, including more than 300 individual classified documents, at his private club, Mar-a-Lago, after he left office.

And it was the area in which he walked himself into the biggest problems.

“I was there and I took what I took and it gets declassified,” said Mr. Trump, who has maintained, despite contradictions from his own former officials, that