Good god, this is getting intense.

FBI agents removed 11 sets of classified documents from former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida,

including some marked top secret and meant to only be available in special government facilities.https://t.co/aDz9EmA2co

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) August 12, 2022

Many news sources are running the same headline.

11 sets, some top secret.

That’s no joke.

He’s done, isn’t he? Unless he just unleashes his fascists on us?… Read the rest

Leo Igwe:

A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return.’—Humanists UK patron and novelist Salman Rushdie on freedom of expression.

Elham Manea:

„The moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible.“ – #SalmanRushdie #WordsMorePowerfulThanKnives #RushdiQuotes

Sigh.

Ash Sarkar. Of course.

Don't have anything particularly clearheaded to say, but the stabbing of Salman Rushdie (though it has decades-old origins) alongside the campaign of threats and intimidation against drag queens in the US makes it feel like a very grim, dangerous time for artistic expression.

— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) August 12, 2022

… Read the rest

From a year ago:

Do your patients have questions about their #genderidentity? Join us for the "Understanding gender identity: Answers for physicians," webinar on July 14 at 5:30 p.m. Submit your questions in advance to answers@childrens.harvard.edu. Click ➡️ to register. https://t.co/7KBxQ8zghD pic.twitter.com/3GXfg0LxAz

— Boston Children's (@BostonChildrens) July 13, 2021

That’s like doctors offering a seminar for other doctors on “Understanding the immortal soul: answers for physicians.” There is no immortal soul, and there is no “gender identity” either – not in the sense of being a real, tangible thing that doctors can research and understand. There are feelings people have about their sex and “gender” but that’s more a social and/or psychological and/or emotional category than a medical one.… Read the rest

The BBC’s Frank Gardner on That Book:

The furore that followed the publication of his book, considered blasphemous by many Muslims, had far-reaching consequences. It sparked a deadly riot in Mumbai, the burning of both his effigy and his books in Britain, and attacks on translators and his Norwegian publisher.

It’s all nonsense. The whole idea of “blasphemy” is nonsense. The god is supposed to be omni-everything – all powerful, all knowing, all goodness and mercy, all perfection, all justice – peak excellence in all things. Why would such a god care about “blasphemy”? Do we care if ants think we’re stupid? No. We have better things to do than trying to make ants respect us or love us or … Read the rest

The Guardian also has a live page on the attack on Salman.

New York governor Kathy Hochul posted a statement on Twitter about Rushdie’s attack, praising first responders at the scene who assisted Rushdie and apprehended the suspected attacker.

Thank you to the swift response of [New York state police] & first responders following today’s attack of author Salman Rushdie. Our thoughts are with Salman & his loved ones following this horrific event. I have directed State Police to further assist however needed in the investigation.

She talked about Chatauqua as a place and an institution.

Hochul commented further on Rushdie’s stabbing, confirming that the author is alive and receiving treatment at a local hospital.

“He’s getting the care

Some piece of ordure physically attacked Salman Rushdie onstage just now.

The Booker Prize winner was speaking at an event at the Chautauqua Institution at the time.

Witnesses say they saw a man run on stage and either punch or stab Mr Rushdie as he was being introduced.

People rushed the stage. More is not currently known. Will update when.

Update:

–@SuzanneNossel, CEO of PEN America, issued the following statement in response to the attack on author @SalmanRushdie:

“PEN America is reeling from shock and horror at word of a brutal, premeditated attack on our former President and stalwart ally, Salman Rushdie, who was…

— PEN America (@PENamerica) August 12, 2022

There’s some irony there, because … Read the rest

Also the Rhine is shrinking.

Water levels on the Rhine River could reach a critically low point in the coming days, German officials said Wednesday, making it increasingly difficult to transport goods — including coal and gasoline — as drought and an energy crisis grip Europe.

All the same thing innit. Drought hinders transport making energy crisis worse.

From France and Italy, Europe is struggling with dry spells, shrinking waterways and heat waves that are becoming more severe and frequent because of climate change. Low water levels are another blow for industry in Germany, which is struggling with shrinking flows of natural gas that have sent prices surging.

…

HGK and other shipping companies are preparing for a

Drought declared:

A drought has been declared across wide swathes of England after a meeting of experts.

The prolonged dry conditions, with some areas of the country not receiving significant rainfall all summer, have caused the National Drought Group to declare an official drought.

The Environment Agency has moved into drought in eight of its 14 areas: Devon and Cornwall, Solent and South Downs, Kent and south London, Herts and north London, East Anglia, Thames, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, and the east Midlands.

Documents seen by the Guardian show the Environment Agency expects a further two areas will move into drought later in August. These are Yorkshire and West Midlands.

Could it be that the globe is warming?

Those

The Post reported last night:

Classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items FBI agents sought in a search of former president Donald Trump’s Florida residence on Monday, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Experts in classified information said the unusual search underscores deep concern among government officials about the types of information they thought could be located at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club and potentially in danger of falling into the wrong hands.

…

Material about nuclear weapons is especially sensitive and usually restricted to a small number of government officials, experts said. Publicizing details about U.S. weapons could provide an intelligence road map to adversaries seeking to build ways of countering those systems. And other countries

Et tu The Globe?

Our new play I, Joan shows Joan as a legendary leader who uses the pronouns ‘they/them’. We are not the first to present Joan in this way, and we will not be the last. We can't wait to share this production with everyone and discover this cultural icon.https://t.co/19T7baWsRk pic.twitter.com/lrgOC59TvQ

— Shakespeare’s Globe (@The_Globe) August 11, 2022

That’s the spirit. Let’s turn all the famous women into men. Rosa Parks can be Roger Parks. Virginia Woolf can be Victor Woolf. Ruth Bader Ginsburg can be Ralph Bader Ginsburg. Rachel Maddow can be Robert Maddow. Give them all chest binders, call them all they them, erase women from everything. What’s not to love?… Read the rest

Look at this. Look at her smiling face, her swinging hair, her cheerful smiles and nods. Look at the extra smile she gives when she says “a hysterectomy is the removal of the uterus.” Look at the grin she gives when she says the Fallopian tubes are attached to the sides of the uterus. Look how enthusiastically she shakes her head, making her hair bounce, when she says “people getting gender-affirming hysterectomies do not have to have their ovaries removed.”

It’s a thing out of nightmares.… Read the rest

They asked Trump nicely before they raided the place.

Former President Donald J. Trump received a subpoena this spring in search of documents that federal investigators believed he had failed to turn over earlier in the year, when he returned boxes of material he had improperly taken with him upon moving out of the White House, three people familiar with the matter said.

The existence of the subpoena helps to flesh out the sequence of events that led to the search of Mr. Trump’s Florida home on Monday by F.B.I. agents seeking classified material they believed might still be there, even after efforts by the National Archives and the Justice Department to ensure that it had been returned.

In … Read the rest

There’s nothing like starting a news story with an agentless passive voice claim that doesn’t mean anything.

The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) is being urged to reconsider its decision to ban transgender women from female contact rugby competitions due to fears it will set a “dangerous precedent” in other sports.

Oooooh really? By whom? You? Your cat?

That’s such crappy manipulative sneaky concern-mongering disguised as journalism; there ought to be professional standards against that kind of thing.

What about the fears of other dangerous precedents, like the dangerous precedent of letting men take over women’s sports? I urge the Irish Independent to pay attention to that, and to skip the passive voice intro in the future.

Para 2:

Equality

This reads more like a letter from a hostage than a policy statement from a sporting institution.

IRFU Updates Transgender Policy

The IRFU will amend its gender participation policy for rugby from the forthcoming season, based on medical and scientific evidence and in line with World Rugby guidance.

The IRFU is keenly aware that this is a sensitive and challenging area for those involved and the wider LGBT+ community and will continue to work with those impacted, providing support to ensure their ongoing involvement with the game.

Ok? Ok? Ok? We’re keenly aware, we promise we are, so so so aware, we totally get how sensitive and challenging and agonizing and torturous and sensitive it is, have we grovelled enough … Read the rest

On the one hand a law firm is working up a class action type case against the Tavistock GIDS; on the other hand a chain of banks is…doing this.

We’re so proud to sponsor this year’s Trans Festival. While we’re there, we’ll be joining a panel to talk about how businesses can support the trans community. Because everyone is welcome. pic.twitter.com/eLjbqflaYU

— NatWest (@NatWest_Help) August 11, 2022

When did banks and corporations and other profit-seeking institutions get so childish? And how, and why?… Read the rest

Some news about the law firm that is planning to sue the Tavistock GIDS:

The U.K.-based plaintiffs firm PGMBM, which operates as a partnership between British, Brazilian and American lawyers, is launching an office in Rio de Janeiro following a significant win for claimants harmed by a dam collapse at a mine co-operated by BHP Inc. in Brazil.

The firm is also changing its name globally, and will now be known as Pogust Goodhead.

…

The firm has secured a series of high-profile litigation wins over the past 12 months.

In addition to the court victory against BHP, Pogust Goodhead notched a settlement in May on behalf of 15,000 claimants against the Volkswagen Group, and in 2021 it won an

It must have been fun to be a political journalist reporting on Trump, right?

Well, no. I never found Donald Trump to be remotely captivating as a stand-alone figure. He’d been around forever and his political act was largely derivative. His promise to “drain the swamp” was treated as some genius coinage, though in fact the platitude had been worn out for decades by both parties. Nancy Pelosi promised to “drain the swamp” in 2006, just as the Reagan-Bush campaign had vowed to “Make America Great Again” in 1980.

Trump said and did obviously awful and dangerous things—racist and cruel and achingly dumb and downright evil things. But on top of that, he is a uniquely tiresome individual, easily

Originally a comment by Papito on Boston Children’s Hospital.

In many American states (I haven’t added up which ones lately), therapy for kids identified as suffering from gender dysphoria, which does not affirm their transition, is considered to be “conversion therapy,” and is illegal.

In Massachusetts, the law is HR 140, passed in 2019.

The law has specific exceptions for therapists who are encouraging children to change their gender identification to the opposite gender. It only prohibits providing therapy to children that affirms their actual sex.

This law, similar to laws in dozens of other states, all passed in the last decade, makes it possible that a therapist could not only lose his license to practice, but be … Read the rest

Boston Children’s you might want to pay close attention to this report in the Times:

The Tavistock gender clinic is facing mass legal action from youngsters who claim they were rushed into taking life-altering puberty blockers.

Mass legal action? How mass?

Lawyers expect about 1,000 families to join a medical negligence lawsuit alleging vulnerable children have been misdiagnosed and placed on a damaging medical pathway.

Yikes! Very mass!

They are accusing the gender identity development service [GIDS] at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust of multiple failures in its duty of care.

Starting with failing to be not credulous idiots. These are doctors, not teenagers; why did they fall for this destructive nonsense?

This includes allegations it recklessly