The Times drags Halifax:

Halifax has suggested that customers close their accounts if they oppose a policy allowing staff to display their personal pronouns on name tags.

Or, more accurately, if they oppose the absurd ideology behind posturing about “displaying” “personal” “pronouns.” We don’t actually care what banks allow employees to put on their name tags, but we do care about the idiotic truth claims such banks make in bragging about their Name Tag Pronouns Policy.

The bank tweeted a picture of a name badge with the pronouns she/her/hers and the caption: “Pronouns matter.” In response to complaints the social media team said that Halifax wanted to “open the conversation around gender identity. We care about our customers and

… Read the rest

The author of that revolting piece in the Independent about the chop shop in the woods was written by Io Dodds, who is – can you guess? – a man who says he’s a woman.

We’ve met him once before, a few months ago, when he wrote another piece for the Indy, this one explaining why it’s perfectly fine for Lia Thomas to cheat women out of prizes.… Read the rest

Where the hell have all the adults gone? Isn’t it supposed to be adults running institutions like universities and health services and councils and newspapers? Not reckless moody children?

‘Never ask permission’: How two trans women ran a legendary underground surgical clinic in a rural tractor barnhttps://t.co/deFJIZ0wRi pic.twitter.com/eEIPqL2yoV

— The Independent (@Independent) June 29, 2022

ExCUSE me??? “Legendary”? A “legendary” “underground” “surgical clinic” where they mutilated people’s genitals? Which The Independent is flattering in public? Are they drunk?

And, if you had entered that tractor barn between 2004 and 2006, you would have found a secret underground transgender surgical clinic run by two trans women with an autoclave and a cauterisation machine bought on eBay.https://t.co/deFJIZ0wRi

— The Independent

… Read the rest

But don’t try to tell these sadists that there’s no way to know who is a predatory male and who is a man who wants to live as if he were a woman.

https://twitter.com/laureningram/status/1541693928860172288

It makes her angry, more angry than she can say, that a woman who is a rape victim wants a women-only support group.

https://twitter.com/laureningram/status/1541699988190904320

Yes that’s nice but explain to us how you know that the man in question is not a predator. Saying “she is a trans woman” does not count as such an explanation.

Thank God that male born people will still be able to access spaces with the most vulnerable and victimised women who have been subject to the worst of violations at

… Read the rest

Can women have anything for women? No.

A woman who is suing a rape crisis charity says she felt unable to speak at a support group after a transgender woman began attending the same meeting.

“Sarah”, who says she was raped in her 20s, stopped going to the sessions, saying she became uncomfortable sharing details of her past with the group.

She says the centre could have offered separate groups, telling the BBC: “I think my case is about women’s rights.”

The charity, Survivors’ Network says it plans to vigorously defend the claim.

It says male victims of sexual violence are referred to neighbouring services, but trans women “are welcome into all of our women-only spaces”.

They shouldn’t be. Trans … Read the rest

Also Renato Mariotti:

7/ Courts have routinely set this bar very high in the context of political speech because the First Amendment broadly protects speech of that type.

A political statement by the President of the United States would be presumptively protected by the First Amendment.

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) June 28, 2022

9/ The DOJ will understandably be concerned that the Supreme Court (particularly the current court) would find that Trump's speech was constitutionally protected by the First Amendment. But this evidence should be enough to make them consider an incitement prosecution.

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) June 28, 2022

The thing about the “they’re not here to hurt me” admission that I hadn’t fully taken in is that it … Read the rest

David French explains why Hutchinson’s testimony makes the case for prosecuting Trump stronger:

I confess that I’ve been skeptical that the January 6 committee would produce evidence that Donald Trump was directly criminally responsible for the attack on the Capitol. Certainly he was morally and politically responsible. There’s no credible argument that a mob would have stormed the Capitol if he had the basic decency to concede a race he clearly lost. 

At the same time, it’s legally quite difficult to hold a politician responsible for the violence of his followers.

It’s very difficult for non-lawyers to keep that distinction in mind – at least it’s very difficult for me and I doubt I’m special that way. It feels as … Read the rest

Aw yeah, fun times.

Mark Meadows backstage with the Trumps at January 6 rally. There were dozens of versions of this kind of opportunistic enabler in the bunkers of World War II Berlin and the entourage of Mussolini. pic.twitter.com/4Hj1O0ZvKi

— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) June 29, 2022

A lot of cops were seriously injured thanks to these guys an hour or two after this snap was taken. Nice to see them feeling so perky.

The Case for Prosecuting Donald Trump Just Got Much Stronger https://t.co/qFm2fiJZsM

— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) June 29, 2022

Let’s hope so.… Read the rest

Stupidity or malice or both?

For the anti-trans brigade complaining I've got comments turned off on that thread, here's why:

I'm not interested in debating the legitimacy of trans rights, because it's not a debate, it's a civil rights issue. Trans people exist, their right to exist needs protection.

— Dr Fern Riddell (@FernRiddell) June 28, 2022

But we’re not “debating the legitimacy of trans rights.” We don’t for a second disagree that people who call themselves trans should have human rights. What we’re doing is seeking clarity on what “trans rights” are. Are they human rights that trans people, like all people, should have? Or are they special, custom, bespoke rights that only trans people should have? If … Read the rest

Greg Sargent notes that the Trump headlines in the wake of yesterday’s hearing are brutal.

Yet Trump’s propagandists have found an answer. They are claiming Hutchinson’s appearance was a flop, based on the fact that a single anecdote about Trump — one barely related to the central allegations against him — is now being questioned by a handful of bit players in this saga who aren’t even offering this pushback publicly, let alone under oath.

…

Trump’s spinners have seized on Trump’s episode with the Secret Service. Hutchinson testified to the Jan. 6 select committee on Tuesday that Tony Ornato, then-White House deputy chief of staff, told her Trump erupted in fury as his detail refused to take him to

… Read the rest

Peter Wehner in The Atlantic:

This new account of what Trump did leading up to, on, and after January 6 was shocking, yet not surprising. His behavior did not amount to an abrupt about-face by an otherwise honorable man, but was the last link in an almost unfathomably long chain of events—vicious, merciless words and unscrupulous, unethical acts that were said and done, many in public view, in ways that were impossible to deny. All of the signs of Trump’s corruption and disordered personality were obvious for years.

And yet he was able to become the president. Without the popular vote.

Perhaps the case against Trump presented by the January 6 committee and previous Trump loyalists—by now so overwhelming

… Read the rest

LP is trying to sound intelligent again. This never goes well.

Pedantry is always regressive.
The idea that a word like ‘woman’ should only ever have one meaning – a meaning that is sanctioned by the state and enforced at every level of society – should horrify anyone who loves language and cares about freedom of expression.

— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) June 28, 2022

I wonder what she thinks she means by “a word like woman.” Like woman how? What other words are like the word woman? Man, girl, boy, I suppose. Will those do? Is that what she’s saying? The four words that name people of the female and male sex?

If so why do those words, in particular, … Read the rest

CNN underlines some points from yesterday’s January 6 hearing:

The reality of Trump’s intentions became clear to national security officials in real time as they learned the Secret Service was scrambling to find a way for the former President to travel to the Capitol while he was on stage urging his followers to march, according to National Security Council chat logs from that day that were revealed for the first time during Tuesday’s hearing.

The NSC chat logs provide a minute-by-minute accounting of how the situation evolved from the perspective of top White House national security officials on January 6 and, along with witness testimony delivered on Tuesday, contradict an account by Meadows in his book where he says Trump

… Read the rest

How it started.

Pronouns matter. #ItsAPeopleThing pic.twitter.com/vj9UdlBnLy

— Halifax (@HalifaxBank) June 28, 2022

How it’s going.

Hi, I'm Lee. At Halifax, we strive for inclusion and equality. Giving our colleagues the option to add their pronouns on their badge, helps to create an inclusive environment for our customers and colleagues.

— Halifax (@HalifaxBank) June 28, 2022

We strive for inclusion, equality and quite simply, in doing what’s right. If you disagree with our values, you’re welcome to close your account. ^AndyM

— Halifax (@HalifaxBank) June 28, 2022

Ruthless anything for a buck capitalism in action!… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Freemage on But which people, which Americans, whose bodies?

“Karen” didn’t originally mean “aggressive female racist”. It originally (as used by the male black comedian who coined the term) was mostly about class-privilege (in, of course, a gendered way), about upper-middle-class women who made life tough for front-line service industry workers by complaining incessantly and immediately demanding to ‘speak to the manager’. So not about feminists specifically, and mostly focused on class, but with that sexist tag-along.

It didn’t really have anything to do with race until the New York Central Park incident, where the white woman calling the cops on a black man as a threat was considered the ultimate form of ‘speaking to the … Read the rest

The incident of the catsup in the nighttime.

Same transcript via NPR:

LIZ CHENEY: The physical altercation that Ms. Hutchinson described in the Presidential vehicle was not the first time that the President had become very angry about issues relating to the election. On December 1, 2020, Attorney General Barr said in an interview that the Department of Justice had not found evidence of widespread election fraud sufficient to change the outcome of the election.

Ms. Hutchinson, how did the President react to hearing that news?

CASSIDY HUTCHINSON: Around the time that I understand the AP article went live, I remember hearing noise coming from down the hallway. So I poked my head out of the office. I saw

… Read the rest

NPR has a transcript of today’s hearing on the January 6 [attempted coup].

Bennie Thompson: In the weeks ahead, the committee will hold additional hearings about how Donald Trump summoned a mob of his supporters to Washington, spurred them to march on the Capitol, and failed to take meaningful action to quell the violence as it was unfolding on January 6th. However, in recent days the Select Committee has obtained new information dealing with what was going on in the White House on January 6th and in the days prior, specific detailed information about what the former president and his top aides were doing and saying in those critical hours, firsthand details of what transpired in the office of

… Read the rest

And one more thing. (This day of the hearing is proving to be startling.) NYT reporter Carl Hulse:

Murmurs through the hearing room as Mike Flynn refuses to answer whether he believes in the peaceful transfer of power and whether the Jan. 6 violence was justified, citing his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

NYT reporter Peter Alexander:

To see a retired four-star general who swore an oath to defend the country and the Constitution plead the Fifth when asked if he believed in the peaceful transfer of power in America is another stunning moment today.

This country is in deep trouble.… Read the rest

Some observers are saying Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony indicates a seditious conspiracy.

https://twitter.com/AshaRangappa_/status/1541837956973043712

Removing the magnetometers, in the context of the whole situation, really amounts to evidence of seditious conspiracy.

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) June 28, 2022

Doing what? It seems the people attending the rally on the lawn were checked for weapons first, so a lot of them were shut out, because of ALL THOSE GUNS. So then apparently the White House or Trump ordered the magnetometers removed…so that heavily armed people could attend the rally and then head for the Capitol, heavily armed.

It’s…yikes.

It’s now fairly clear why the DOJ declined to charge Meadows with contempt: it’s going to be charging him with much more severe charges along

… Read the rest

So. According to new testimony from a Trump White House aide, Trump got violent when he was told he wasn’t going to the Capitol after the January 6 rally.

Cassidy Hutchinson testifies that she was told that as then-President Donald Trump was being driven back to the White House after the Jan. 6 rally that he demanded to be taken to the Capitol and tried to grab the steering wheel from a Secret Service agent. https://t.co/JefVhEsY0b pic.twitter.com/uUyQcnSlLG

— The Associated Press (@AP) June 28, 2022

“I’m the fucking President,” he said. “Take me up to the Capitol.”… Read the rest