Reading the verdict.

Jury finds Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael and William Bryan guilty of felony murder in the death of Ahmaud Arbery. https://t.co/Ps6VAJnDHo pic.twitter.com/IloqyCKOc1

— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 24, 2021

Reminder: It wasn't until video of the Ahmaud Arbery's killing became public, drawing sharp questions about how local authorities handled the investigation, that the three white men were charged with murder. https://t.co/Wa4C7IcBMK

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 24, 2021

Back in September –

A former Georgia prosecutor was indicted Thursday on misconduct charges alleging she used her position to shield the men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery from being charged with crimes immediately after the shootings.

A grand jury in coastal Glynn County indicted former Brunswick Judicial Circuit

The BBC reports:

Travis McMichael was found guilty on all counts.

Greg McMichael, his father, was found not guilty of malice murder, but guilty on the other eight counts.

Their neighbour William Bryan was found guilty on three counts of felony murder, one count of aggravated assault, one count of false imprisonment and one count of criminal attempt to commit a felony.

So their attempt to persuade the jury that they were simply defending themselves while trying to make a “citizen’s arrest” failed.

You never know how these things are going to go. George Zimmerman got clean away with killing Trayvon Martin, claiming self-defense.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Michael Haubrich on Gender is the expected, coerced, and enforced default.

Gender expectations put incredible demands on our behavior, and I don’t find it surprising that the resulting dysphoria has been identified. What dismays me is that most of society has come to accept the idea that bodies must be altered to resolve the issue in place of working with the person to find ways to overcome the problem. With the prevalence of childhood sexual abuse becoming more apparent seemingly every day, it hardly seems surprising that children and teens are trying to find a way to work through it, and here comes social media to tell them there is a “fix” that will align … Read the rest

This guy.

Boris Johnson once again flouted official requests to wear a mask as he watched a performance of Macbeth at a busy theatre in north London on Tuesday night, witnesses say.

The prime minister was in the audience to see the Shakespearean tragedy at the Almeida theatre in Islington, after a torrid few days in which backbench Tories have accused him of losing the plot.

Three fellow audience members said Johnson was not wearing a face covering during the performance, despite the theatre’s requests for visitors to wear one at all times when not eating or drinking. He was photographed in the auditorium with a mask around his chin and again inside a public area of the theatre

Not what you want the police doing at the murder scene.

Two Metropolitan police officers who shared photos of two murdered sisters and referred to them as “dead birds” have been found guilty of gross misconduct.

PC Jamie Lewis, 33, will be instantly dismissed from the force, while former PC Deniz Jaffer, 47, had already resigned.

They were posted to guard the scene where the bodies of Bibaa Henry, 46, and Nicole Smallman, 27, were discovered in June 2020 after they had been stabbed to death by a teenager obsessed with Satan.

To guard the scene; not to treat the scene as a source of jokes and photoshops.

The officers were posted to guard the cordon after the bodies

Originally a comment by Rob on But let’s talk about precarity, replying to iknklast’s “If we didn’t think our body should be A, B, and C, we wouldn’t be disturbed when our body wasn’t A, B, and C.”

That’s certainly how I understand it and feel personally. When I was a young teen in the mid ’70s I wore a lot of homemade and hand-me-down clothes. Nothing was fashionable and some of it was decade old sixties stuff. In the socially staid and conservative town in the (at the time) socially staid and conservative NZ, the heights of young male fashion was a grey, brown, blue or green sweatshirt, worn with blue jeans of just the right leg width … Read the rest

Nancy Kelley urges us to read…Chase Strangio. Really?

Please read this brilliant and devastating thread by @chasestrangio on the global fight to protect trans people. Then please (if you can) donate in support of a group that is working to support trans rights or trans community building where you live. https://t.co/BKe8LCZ5UI

— Nancy Kelley (@Nancy_M_K) November 22, 2021

Strangio’s “brilliant and devastating thread” is unhinged.

Hating us and devoting your life to exacerbating those conditions is a choice. Being trans is not. Or if it is, I choose it every day because the alternative is unimaginable.

— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) November 22, 2021

I spent the last week reading briefs defending this law. Defending the idea that we should not

Just activism, right?

femboy has locked Their account, which is shocking, because femboy should have been ejected from Twitter altogether.… Read the rest

It’s impossible not to laugh. Anti-vax doctors get together for a jamboree, get Covid.

Seven anti-vaccine doctors fell sick after gathering earlier this month for a Florida “summit” at which alternative treatments for Covid-19 were discussed.

“I have been on ivermectin for 16 months, my wife and I,” Dr Bruce Boros told the audience at the event held at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, adding: “I have never felt healthier in my life.”

This “alternative” label is interesting. Alternative to what? To the normal, reliable ways of determining which medications prevent or treat and which don’t. What an odd thing to seek an alternative for. Should we have alternative parachutes, the kind that don’t open? Alternative seat belts, … Read the rest

I realize trial lawyers do what they have to do in the adversarial system, but…all the same. I recoiled last night when I saw the clip via Maddow.

The defense attorneys for Gregory and Travis McMichael, who are charged with Arbery’s murder, repeatedly have tried to present Arbery as a criminal. On Monday, Laura Hogue, one of Gregory McMichael’s lawyers, went further.

“Turning Ahmaud Arbery into a victim after the choices that he made does not reflect the reality of what brought Ahmaud Arbery to Satilla Shores in his khaki shorts with no socks to cover his long, dirty toenails,” Hogue told jurors.

ExCUSE me? He went running! Like millions of other people! And those last three words are just…… Read the rest

If only everything were unproblematic…

Barnes & Noble. Utter plonkers: pic.twitter.com/3PuhdbRQW1

— Julie Bindel (@bindelj) November 23, 2021

… Read the rest

Well I never. The guy who drove his car into a parade in Waukesha yesterday has gotten a little rough with women before. You don’t say.

The driver who plowed through a Christmas parade in downtown Waukesha, killing five people and injuring nearly 50, did so intentionally and is expected to face first-degree homicide counts and other charges, police said Monday.

The suspect, Darrell Brooks Jr., 39, recently had been released from custody in a strikingly similar case, in which he was accused of driving over a woman during a domestic dispute, sending her to the hospital and leaving tire marks on her pant leg.

The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting that case, said Monday

Mridul Wadhwa is such an inspiration to ambitious men who claim to be women.

Girl Guide’s U.K outfit has faced its fair share of scrutiny in recent years over its “inclusive” policies allowing males to join the organization, but recent revelations show a biological male has now taken a senior position with the girl’s group.

Monica Sulley, a male who identifies as a woman, became the lead Commissioner for the Southwell division of Girl Guides U.K, known there as Girlguiding, in July of this year.

Sulley’s appointment came on the heels of a female Girlguiding leader being expelled from the organization on the basis of her beliefs that girls should not be forced to shower or share tents with

And while I’m on the subject of Pink News…just one more –

Why cis men should never, ever play trans women as Eddie Redmayne admits ‘mistake’

But wait though. How do they know anyone is a cis man? Isn’t it a crime to assume people’s gender? How do they know Eddie Redmayne isn’t gender fluid and just hasn’t come out yet? How do they know he isn’t trans and hasn’t come out yet?

The debate on who gets to play what roles has been particularly prominent in recent years as the industry faces up to decades of misrepresentation.

Well…as a handful of activists yell louder and louder and ever louder.

Today, there is a broad consensus that trans roles should

Nailed it.

pic.twitter.com/nTXKLKVVS3

— Bill Moon (@BigBillMoon) November 22, 2021

… Read the rest

What Rowling said in response to the three shits who posted her address on Twitter:

I want to say a massive thank you to everybody who reported the image to @TwitterSupport. Your kindness and decency made all the difference to my family and me. I’d also like to thank @PoliceScotland for their support and assistance in this matter. 2/8

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) November 22, 2021

Over the last few years I’ve watched, appalled, as women like Allison Bailey, Raquel Sanchez, Marion Miller, Rosie Duffield, Joanna Cherry, Julie Bindel, Rosa Freedman, Kathleen Stock and many, many others, including women who have no public profile 4/8

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) November 22, 2021

None of these women are protected in the

The shamelessness of Pink News part 2:

The controversy comes after a turbulent few years for JK Rowling, who has repeatedly positioned herself at the centre of the UK’s toxic debate surrounding trans lives.

Just look at that – from Pink News! She hasn’t “positioned herself” anywhere, she has said what she thinks, as has Pink News. She’s allowed to say what she thinks. Pink News never shuts up about it, so why should she? Why should we? We have rights too, we even have lives. The toxic debate isn’t surrounding or encircling or about “trans lives” anyway, it’s about the claims of the new and ever-expanding trans ideology, especially where the claims conflict with the rights of women … Read the rest

The unabashed mendacity of Pink News is a sight to behold.

It starts with the headline:

JK Rowling condemns actors who held trans rights protest outside her house

They didn’t just “hold a protest.” They tweeted a photo with her address in it.

Also I wonder how pleased the people of Pink News would be if people “held a protest” where they live.

Comedian Holly Stars, actor Georgia Frost and drag king Richard Energy staged a demonstration outside the Harry Potter author’s house on Friday (19 November) in protest against her long-condemned views on trans lives.

Long-condemned by whom? Besides Pink News and people incited by Pink News? And her views aren’t on “trans lives,” which is a … Read the rest

Essex Police are angry that members of the public replied to their Facebook post about Trans Day of Remembrance and the threats it contained.

I take it the asterisks are meant to indicate “Update” (so why not just say “update”?). It all looks a bit like entrapment, to be honest. First they post some stupid catastrophizing bullshit about nonexistent violence against trans people, and then they tell us they’ve recorded all our responses and will go all police on our asses if they don’t like them. They’re going to “investigate” if they deem any of the comments “offensive.”

Yes, it looks very much like entrapment. And for what? Not agreeing that men are women if they say they are.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Pliny the in Between on So it was reckful?

I admit I have a definite bias against the American gun fetish. I learned to handle firearms from WWII vets, none of whom carried firearms routinely. To this day if someone were to hand me a weapon I would inspect and clear it the way they learned to do it during inspection in the 1940’s.

I was a trauma surgeon for more than 25 years. In that time, I treated wounds made by 22 cal pistols and rifles, 38s, 9mm, 10mm, 45 cal colts, black powder muzzle loaders, 12 gauge shotguns, 30 cal long guns and the 5.56mm favored by many of the assault rifles in civilian … Read the rest