Lake Manchar has punched through.

The retaining wall of Pakistan’s largest lake burst on Tuesday after months of heavy rains, threatening hundreds more villages downstream and forcing thousands more from their homes.

The Pakistani government engineered two intentional breaches of Lake Manchar’s retaining wall over the weekend in an effort to ease the pressure on the structure, but an irrigation official told The Washington Post that the wall began to crack Tuesday as water levels continued to rise.

…

The Pakistani government is already struggling to respond to what has been described as a “catastrophic” crisis, and the Lake Manchar breach is likely to further impede access to those in need. Anger is growing among displaced Pakistanis, hundreds of

… Read the rest

The Daily Beast on the “privilege” issue:

[Cannon’s] ruling was widely criticized by former prosecutors and legal scholars on Monday over the way it awkwardly lent credence to the idea that an ex-president can somehow assert “executive privilege” over government documents, even if federal law enforcement agencies operating with the tacit approval of a current president are acting in their capacity as the current executive branch.

Similar to the question I kept squawking yesterday – how does he get to claim “executive privilege” when he’s not the executive any more? What executive privilege? The whole point of it is to enable the actual executive to do the job. When the job is not yours any more you don’t need … Read the rest

To cheer us up a little –

Smart law enforcement actions can domino into unsmart defendant reactions.

After the FBI released the photo of top secret documents placed on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago office carpet, Trump posted a response on social media: “The FBI took them out of cartons and spread them around on the carpet, making it look like a big ‘find’ for them,” he asserted. “They dropped them, not me — Very deceiving.”

Very deceptive, he means. The word is “deceptive,” not “deceiving.”

Trump was again playing his “aggrieved martyr” card to his base — but in the process, he added to prosecutors’ portfolio against him. His own words confirm that he held sensitive national security documents at Mar-a-Lago

… Read the rest

More lawyers say this ain’t law.

Legal scholars called Cannon’s ruling unprecedented, in the sense that it goes against decades of court precedent — especially expanding the special master role to include executive privilege potentially claimed by a former president over the executive branch, for government-owned documents the Justice Department argues Trump had no right to take or keep.

Surely to god “executive privilege” applies to current executives, not ones who have been booted out. Surely Trump doesn’t have any claim to “executive privilege” now – all the more so since on his way out he incited an insurrection.

This was “an unprecedented intervention by a federal district judge into the middle of an ongoing federal criminal and national

… Read the rest

Some lawyery opinions.

This judge basically did Trump’s lawyers’ work for them, making arguments under the 4-part Richey test which Trump did not brief or argue, making executive privilege arguments that Trump did not press fully in the hearing, and granting an injunction when one wasn’t requested https://t.co/qD0aWUiNys

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) September 5, 2022

https://twitter.com/AWeissmann_/status/1566827402910732292 https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1566896420174659585

This item is especially creepy – she’s like a robot they created especially for the purpose of shielding Trump from the law.

https://twitter.com/PeterVroom1/status/1563961640235814912

Why is judge shopping allowed at all? If crooks can just find a crooked judge anywhere in the country to block criminal investigations, how can the legal system work?

https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1566950294730248193

So the DoJ appeal is doomed to fail? So Trump … Read the rest

I don’t really understand why this isn’t End of Story:

The Justice Department has staunchly resisted Trump’s request, saying he cannot claim executive privilege because the records do not belong to him; they belong to the government.

“He is no longer the president,” Jay Bratt, the department’s top counterintelligence lawyer, told Cannon at a Sept. 1 hearing. “And because he is no longer president, he did not have a right to take those documents.”

Why isn’t that all there is to it? They’re not his; that’s the whole point; so how does he get to demand a special master to check them all for executive privilege blah blah blah when they’re not his?

I suppose the only answer … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Fake confusion.

The truth is that sex and gender aren’t so easily divided.

Sure they are. Sex is real, gender is bullshit. But if you’re being paid by the word, succinctness is a liability. Stirring the pot and feigning bafflement is more lucrative.

One appears to be grounded in hard biological facts, while the other rests on the seemingly slippery notion of identity.

One is grounded in hard biological facts, and the other on social structures intended to restrict the sexes (particularly women) in what they may or may not do. It might very well be true that most, if not all cultures have had socially enforced sexual divisions of … Read the rest

This is ludicrous:

Federal judge grants Trump’s special master request to review Mar-a-Lago materials

Psssst oh by the way the judge who grants Trump’s request was appointed by Trump.

Ludicrous, fucked up, shaming, disgusting. Lifelong criminal appoints judges who then protect him from consequences of his lifelong crimes. This country doesn’t work.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has granted former President Donald Trump’s request for a special master to review documents seized by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago last month, temporarily stopping federal prosecutors from using those documents in their investigation into obstruction and mishandling of government secrets.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon who was appointed U.S. District Judge by Trump – that should be in every sentence about the subject, … Read the rest

Also Arianne Shahvisi:

https://twitter.com/ArianneShahvisi/status/1547234273954070528

Pregnant people. Even when talking about the overturning of Roe v Wade, an epic disaster for US women, she says “pregnant people.”

She’s an academic at…wait for it…Sussex.… Read the rest

The great mysterious question again – what exactly is a woman and how can we possibly know? Arianne Shahvisi in the LRB is stumped.

The truth is that sex and gender aren’t so easily divided. One appears to be grounded in hard biological facts, while the other rests on the seemingly slippery notion of identity. Yet most of us have a much firmer grip on gender than we do on sex. Gender is an observable part of our everyday world, while the decisiveness of sex is mostly taken on trust.

Is it? Is it really? Mostly? Are we really mostly guessing who is which?

I think not. I think we mostly know who is which, and ambiguities are rare.… Read the rest

He actually does. He actually does say, with stentorian emphasis, “LAST WEEK weirdo – he’s a weirdo – Mark Zuckerberg came to the White House, kissed my ass.”

Trump says Mark Zuckerberg came to the White House last week and kissed his ass pic.twitter.com/QT7zBHjedy

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 4, 2022

After that he does his annoying dialogue routine, where he plays first the sycophant kissing his ass calling him sir over and over then himself then the sycophant some more.

LAST WEEK weirdo Zuckerberg came to the White House and kissed Trump’s ass.… Read the rest

Well now what’s the problem with this? Just a harmless bit of fun isn’t it? Exaggeration for comic effect?

A sign from this weekend’s Dresden Pride…

This kind of sexually aggressive nonsense is precisely why so many gay men and lesbians now reject Pride. It no longer stands for them.

If you think gender ideologues are on “the right side of history”, you haven’t read much history. pic.twitter.com/ce70TOi5tc

— Andrew Doyle (@andrewdoyle_com) September 4, 2022

No. Why? Because the threat is of a type that is not exaggerated or fictional. Whether the people who display the banner mean it or not, the words are all too familiar to women. Sexual violence is a tool to punish, dominate, control women. Forcing … Read the rest

Grown man makes fool of himself abusing his betters on social media.

https://twitter.com/AndrewAtter/status/1566414901328986112 https://twitter.com/AndrewAtter/status/1566416337169223685 https://twitter.com/AndrewAtter/status/1566417113983721472

Who is this rude bozo? According to himself on Linked in he’s “an internationally recognised psychodynamic coach, innovation consultant and university enterprise educator.”

What is any of that? It sounds like a grift. If you’re a genius at innovation and enterprise wouldn’t you just be putting them to use to make tons of money rather than setting up as a coach and consultant and educator in them?… Read the rest

Apparently these two things happened around the same time yesterday, which is amusing.

Trump: Obama.. so popular. They say he’s so handsome. He’s such a great speaker. What does he say? He says nothing pic.twitter.com/sNfmYZbpeG

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 4, 2022

Barack Obama wins outstanding narrator for 'Our Great National Parks' at the #CreativeArts #Emmys

See the full list of winners: https://t.co/ropHIyOHsg pic.twitter.com/zp2QyGNP8V

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) September 4, 2022

Trump reveals his envy, Obama wins an Emmy.

Catchy.… Read the rest

Ah yes the old “female brain” joke. Don’t tell me, I already know – shoes, gossip, shopping, gossip, romance novels, gossip, bad driving, talking too much. Hahaha that’s such a funny joke. The millionth time every bit as funny as the first.

A leading doctor who is under investigation at one of Scotland’s oldest universities has come under fire for a ‘sexist’ image that was shown to medical students.

Professor John Paul Leach, a consultant neurologist who is head of undergraduate medicine at the University of Glasgow, displayed an graphic of the female brain as part of a teaching session with a large area designated the ‘headache generator’.

A tiny part is labelled  ‘sex initiation’ gland while driving skills

… Read the rest

The former guy, the one who stole boxes full of classified documents, is out there libeling people as if he hadn’t a care in the world.

Former President Donald Trump baselessly accused Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman of using drugs and disparaged his clothing while speaking at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night.

In his speech, Trump claimed without evidence that Fetterman supports “taxpayer-funded drug dens and the complete decriminalization of illegal drugs including heroin, cocaine and crystal meth and ultra-lethal fentanyl.”

“And by the way, he takes them himself,” Trump added.

There is no evidence to suggest Fetterman has ever used illicit drugs. Fetterman has never expressed support for decriminalizing the drugs mentioned by Trump, although he

… Read the rest

Yet another Diddums. He’s distraught.

The Rugby Football Union have been rocked by a legal challenge against their ban on transgender women from female contact rugby.

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Telegraph Sport can reveal transgender player Julie Curtiss has issued the RFU with a pre-action protocol letter – a legal document written to resolve a dispute before court proceedings are commenced – following the controversial decision.

It’s “controversial” to keep men out of women’s sports – that’s how stupid this whole thing has become.

Curtiss, one of two trans players who featured in a special Telegraph Sport report about the impact of the RFU’s ban last month, claims the governing body’s new gender participation policy discriminates against her on

… Read the rest

Women can’t have anything just for women.

Our Women in STEM group became Womxn in STEM, meant for "those who identify as women or non-binary". Suddenly, I who AM a woman and do not "identify as" anything, found myself excluded while males "identifying as" women were included. (And yes the males came!) #YoungGCWomenUnite

— Céline (@ItsCelineV) September 3, 2022

She doesn’t say where this is, so I tried Google: the only two institutions named are UCL and the University of Washington Bothell – Bothell being a suburb a few miles northeast of Seattle. UW Bothell doesn’t have the status or fame or infrastructure of the UW itself, which is in Seattle. I’m guessing UCL is the more likely culprit, being … Read the rest

Trump mad at Barr:

Bill Barr had “no guts,” and got “no glory.” He was a weak and pathetic RINO, who was so afraid of being Impeached that he became a captive to the Radical Left Democrats – “Please, please, please don’t impeach me,” he supposedly said. Barr never fought the way he should have for Election Integrity, and so much else. He started off OK as A.G., but faded fast – Didn’t have courage or stamina. People like that will never Make America Great Again!

He “supposedly” said? Supposed by whom? Nobody. Trump made it up and put it in quotation marks. “Supposedly” is not a synonym for “according to me.”… Read the rest

Ed Pilkington at the Guardian notes that Trump has an issue with documents:

Trump has been archivally challenged, to coin a phrase, for many years. The roots of his refusal to abide by normal rules relating to documents stretch back at least to his refusal to disclose his own tax returns during the 2016 presidential campaign – a resistance to accepting public access to his personal papers that is the mirror image of his current claim that presidential records from his time in the White House belong to him.

Good point. Trump gets to keep his secrets, and he also gets to violate all other forms of secrecy. Heads he wins tails we lose. Trump’s will is all that … Read the rest