Holy shit that was fast.

The jury is reciting the verdict. Up to 20 guilty at this moment.

Next moment: guilty on all 34.

Updating to add some er commentary.

TRUMP IS FOUND GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS. pic.twitter.com/RhGcAToZmU

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) May 30, 2024

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha DONALD TRUMP IS GUILTY AS FUCK ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha oops I mean how terrible

Yet another field of battle: literary festivals.

Last week, in the days leading up to the Hay Literary Festival – the UK’s most prestigious literary event which, each May since 1987, has brought together high-profile speakers from across the world – a crisis was unfolding. 

Those scheduled to appear had received an email from an organisation called Fossil Free Books, urging them to protest against the festival over its sponsorship deal with the Edinburgh-based investment firm Baillie Gifford. The email asked them to denounce Baillie Gifford – which invests two per cent of its portfolio in the petrochemical industry and which, FFB argue, also profits from “Israeli apartheid, occupation and genocide” – or read aloud a poem by a

Snappy headline:

Scottish Greens drop candidate who called JK Rowling a ‘cow’

A SCOTTISH Greens election candidate has been deselected by the party after calling JK Rowling a “torn-faced cow”.

Sophie Molly has been blocked from standing as the party’s candidate in Gordon and Buchan at the upcoming General Election after a Scottish Green Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday night. Green members in Molly’s area had complained about her social media conduct and accused her of bringing the party into disrepute.

So now he’s tweeted that he’s ditched the Greens and joined the SNP. Frying pan/fire springs to mind.

She added: “They will afford me the respect and dignity that a proud trans woman like me deserves. I will

Is it “sexist” for a woman to object when a man who pretends to be a woman wins a best actress award?

The first transgender woman to be awarded the best actress prize at the Cannes film festival filed a legal complaint on Wednesday over a “sexist insult” from a far-right politician after her win. Karla Sofía Gascón and co-stars jointly received the accolade on Saturday for their performances in French auteur Jacques Audiard’s Mexico-set narco musical Emilia Perez. In the film, the 52-year-old Spanish actor – who lived as a man until she was 46 – plays a Mexican drug trafficker both before and after gender reassignment surgery.

He didn’t “live as a man” until he was 46. He … Read the rest

Last week:

Action on the floor of the House of Representatives paused for more than an hour Wednesday after Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., listed off the criminal charges against former President Donald Trump.

“We have a presumptive nominee for president facing 88 felony counts, and we’re being prevented from even acknowledging it,” McGovern said during debate on the House floor, suggesting that House Republicans had prohibited any honest discussion of Trump’s trials. “A candidate for president of the United States is on trial for sending a hush money payment to a porn star to avoid a sex scandal during his 2016 campaign and then fraudulently disguising those payments in violation of the law.”

House Republicans quickly pushed back

Well whaddya know.

EXC: Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle has told local activists he has been suspended by the party pic.twitter.com/PaFiJwensP

— Patrick Maguire (@patrickkmaguire) May 29, 2024

Novara Media explains the sinister plot.

Starmer is currently on a mission to oust the few remaining leftwing Labour MPs from the party ahead of the snap election. On Monday, Labour sources leaked to the Times that Diane Abbott would not be permitted to stand as Labour’s candidate in Hackney North and Stoke Newington, despite having had the whip restored.

Amidst intense backlash, including from Tony Blair’s former director of communications and Starmer’s own party racism inspector, Starmer appeared to backtrack, denying to the BBC that Abbott had been barred from

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Looking for a face-saving way to recant.

Amongst them is Keir Starmer. In 2021 the Labour leader said backbencher Rosie Duffield was wrong to say that only women have a cervix; post-Cass he admits that “biologically, she of course is right”.

Sounds like a grudging admission preceding a “but” that’s supposed to mean that deep down he was actually correct.

An awful lot of people who spent years insisting not just that gender-confused kids should be chemically castrated with puberty blockers and speedily prescribed cross-sex hormones, but also that women can have penises and all the other trans articles of faith, are now looking for a face-saving way to recant.

Let’s break the taboo! No not that one! The other one!

Let’s break the taboo: Menstruation is a natural part of life, and having reliable access to safe and affordable period products improves the health and well-being of all who menstruate.#MenstrualHygieneDay pic.twitter.com/gl1RY0j43h

— United Way Centraide Canada (@UWCCanada) May 28, 2024

Let’s break the taboo on talking about menstruation, but let’s enforce and promote and flatter the taboo on the filthy word “women.” … Read the rest

Trump wants to beat up electric cars.

He has long claimed electric cars will “kill” America’s auto industry. He has called them an “assassination” of jobs. He has declared that the Biden administration “ordered a hit job on Michigan manufacturing” by encouraging the sales of electric cars.

And on Saturday, after ticking off a litany of false claims about electric vehicles, he spoke about slapping a “100 percent tariff” on cars manufactured in Mexico but imported into the United States. “And you’re not going to be able to sell those cars,” he said. “If I get elected. Now if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a blood bath for the whole. That’s going to be the least

Helen Joyce on the awkward retreat from gender ideology:

An awful lot of people who spent years insisting not just that gender-confused kids should be chemically castrated with puberty blockers and speedily prescribed cross-sex hormones, but also that women can have penises and all the other trans articles of faith, are now looking for a face-saving way to recant.

Which is tragic for them, because there isn’t one. Their faces are stuck with what they did and said for so long.

Amongst them is Keir Starmer. In 2021 the Labour leader said backbencher Rosie Duffield was wrong to say that only women have a cervix; post-Cass he admits that “biologically, she of course is right”. Wes Streeting, the shadow

Victoria Smith on trans activism versus anti-rape activism:

Roz Adams, a former ERCC caseworker, won her tribunal against the organisation for unfair dismissal, having been accused of transphobia for wanting to reassure clients about the sex of a colleague. The judgement was damning in its description of the “deeply flawed” way in which Wadhwa conducted the internal investigation. Nonetheless, at the time of writing, he remains in post. This is inexcusable. 

Even now, there will be some who characterise the situation as one of balancing competing rights (so difficult!) or well-meaning activists going a little too far (so easy to do!). I would argue that it is far worse than that. While claiming to stand for the

Another purge.

This post is what they are not happy about. I knew at the time it would put my 37-year membership of the party in jeopardy but I was not going to sit back and stay silent while leading members of the Green Party went out of their way to trash the findings of the Cass Review. pic.twitter.com/FlpmZfFXt0

— Darren Johnson (@DarrenJohnson66) May 28, 2024

Anyway, thanks people for your supportive comments. I'm genuinely touched. Stepped off the train after getting my disciplinary email and decided to go for a curry and a Cobra while I contemplate this latest news. pic.twitter.com/SZrdQPppRl

— Darren Johnson (@DarrenJohnson66) May 28, 2024

There will be fewer but better Greens. Well not better exactly, … Read the rest

Classic.

This was advertised in my local area. Some women complained when a highly sexualised man who totters round in high heels said he would be attending. The women who complained were banned and their comments warning other women were removed from Fbook. pic.twitter.com/6HMeHDIX1k

— Jill Foster (@JournalistJill) May 28, 2024

Absolutely classic. It’s called Women’s Open Talk, it promises a judgement free support group for the women of Holmfirth – when it shuts down women’s talk, it judges the women for talking, it kicks the women out instead of supporting them. It talks a good game and then cancels every single promise it made.

They need to re-do the whole thing. It’s not women’s, it’s not open, it’s not … Read the rest

Oh no oh no a movie actor said things that don’t comport with gender ideology. How will we cope?

A cinema in Massachusetts has apologised to the audience at a special screening of Jaws and a Q&A with its star, Richard Dreyfuss, who reportedly made a number of sexist and transphobic comments.

I have a feeling the sexist comments would have flown way under the radar if it hadn’t been for the “transphobic” ones. We all know that men who claim to be women are persecuted a BILLION times more than any sniveling bitches are.

No transcript of the event has been released, but social media posts suggest that he called Streisand a “genius” but that he didn’t listen to her

Portlandia.

Always proud to celebrate a cheater.… Read the rest

I happened on this piece from the National Women’s Law Center last June. I don’t think I saw it or shared it at the time (a word search turns up too many items to check). Apologies if this is a revisit.

Happy Pride, the title tells us. Don’t Be a TERF, it adds.

Women’s Law Center, putting men in dresses ahead of women.

The content is asinine.

It feels like every day there’s a new attack on trans people—whether it’s a ban on medical care for trans youth or legislation making drag shows illegal. 

What do drag shows have to do with trans people? Trans isn’t drag. Haven’t they been told?

Anti-trans rhetoric is currently taking center stage in

More on Alabama v unions:

On May 13, Gov. Kay Ivey announced to a meeting of the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce that she had signed SB231. The new law punishes businesses that choose to voluntarily recognize unions by forbidding them from receiving any grants, loans, or tax credits from state and local governments.

Must not accept unions voluntarily. Must resist, kicking and screaming, until the bitter end. Those with more money and power must always be on top.

In her speech, Ivey also made it clear that she views the United Auto Workers as an outside intruder threatening one of Alabama’s “crown jewels” — the auto industry.

“Huntsville, Tuscaloosa, they’re not Detroit,” she said, referring to the ongoing

The Independent is pruriently concerned about why an actor continues to play a character created by that notorious monster JK Rowling.

Tom Burke has shared his feelings about starring in Strike, the hit BBC adaptation of the detective novels written by JK Rowling. The 42-year-old actor has portrayed the one-legged private eye, Cormoran Strike, since 2017 and is returning to the role for its sixth season, which began shooting in February.

Speaking in an interview with The Independent, Burke discussed his thoughts on being linked to one of the most polarising figures of the day, Rowling, who has been met with a strong backlash in recent years over her outspoken stance on trans women.

HINT HINT. Been met with a … Read the rest

Do scabs identify as scabs?

The United Auto Workers on Friday accused Mercedes of interfering in a union election at two Alabama factories by intimidating and coercing workers into voting no.

A week after Mercedes workers voted against joining the union, the labor group filed an objection with the National Labor Relations Board seeking a new vote. The union accused the company of engaging in a “relentless antiunion campaign marked with unlawful discipline, unlawful captive audience meetings, and a general goal of coercing and intimidating employees.”

As companies tend to do when they can get away with it.

The company’s spokespeople of course said it was nothing but helpful and polite.

Employees at Mercedes battery and assembly plants near

Stupid and malicious in one delightful package.

Oh, you know, just JK Rowling, saviour of women and girls, framing bodily autonomy in a way that positions it as extremely un-feminist, a tool of the patriarchy & dissuades women from it.
Bodily autonomy emancipates women.
Restricting bodily autonomy, however, benefits men. pic.twitter.com/U0JocxwYGl

— Thomas Willett (@ThomasWillett9) May 27, 2024

A couple of hours later:

Pointing out that some women’s rights benefit men is not the same as saying those rights are bad or not worth having or extremely unfeminist.

It’s such a basic distinction. Can he really be this stupid? Is it an act? Is he a double agent?… Read the rest