More on ⁦@jk_rowling⁩ #transactivism, my sacking by ⁦@Mslexia⁩ as a result of signing the letter supporting the right to free speech and against trolling and the supine ⁦@Soc_of_Authors⁩ ⁦@englishpen⁩ . At least ⁦@PrivateEyeNews⁩ gets it pic.twitter.com/Rpoy9qgeTw

— Amanda Craig (@AmandaPCraig) October 7, 2020

The full image:

That’s the Chair of the Society of Authors, Joanne Harris, saying

People with power, money and influence do not experience the same effect from online abuse as those with less power. That doesn’t mean we should approve of abuse. But ‘silencing’ a person in power doesn’t actually silence anything.

So there, JK Rowling. You’ve had success and money from your books (even though … Read the rest

There’s a New Video from the king. He tweeted it himself. He plays a lot of accordion on it. He explains that he doesn’t know what “therapeutic” means. He says everybody is going to get Regeneron, for free. He says China is gonna pay a very big price. He plays the hell out of that accordion.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT! pic.twitter.com/uhLIcknAjT

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2020

… Read the rest

Ha! No.

And then this idea that he said “I’m your leader” and he said it more than once and I can understand why certain people would think that sounds a little dictatorial but the president is the leader and I think the president’s sort of mapping

Wait wait wait I have to stop you right there.

No he is not. He is not. He’s the chief government administrator; he presides over the government. That’s it. He is not our leader. We don’t have one and we don’t need one. Remember Il Duce? Remember Der Führer? Those were avowed Leaders, and they led everyone right over a cliff. We don’t have or want a governmental Leader. Get … Read the rest

From Stat News in February 2017:

Sharissa Derricott, 30, had no idea why her body seemed to be failing. At 21, a surgeon replaced her deteriorated jaw joint. She’s been diagnosed with degenerative disc disease and fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition. Her teeth are shedding enamel and cracking.

None of it made sense to her until she discovered a community of women online who describe similar symptoms and have one thing in common: All had taken a drug called Lupron.

Thousands of parents chose to inject their daughters with the drug, which was approved to shut down puberty in young girls but also is commonly used off-label to help short kids grow taller.

I guess this is like the … Read the rest

The barrister is fuming.

Today is a profoundly shameful day for our justice system which engineered a hearing on the healthcare of trans children in which no trans children, or charities who advocate for their rights or interests, have representation. But the anti-trans lobby is represented twice over.

— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) October 7, 2020

But it’s not “for trans children” versus “the hate campaign.” People who think it’s not healthy or useful for teenagers to take drugs that block puberty don’t think that because they “hate” those children – they think it because there are good reasons to think it. People who think it’s wonderful for teenagers to take drugs that block puberty don’t think that because they are … Read the rest

About that tweet from the misogynist barrister yesterday…

Which, if you don’t want it, is a pretty massive takeover of your body. It’s pretty massive if you do want it, but if you don’t want it it’s all that plus the not wanting it part. Men like the barrister should think about that just a tad more than they normally do.… Read the rest

Nathan Robinson at the Guardian considers Trump’s fraud-skills.

Donald Trump has one particular skill: pretending things are different than they seem. He was never a good businessman, but he was fantastic at playing a good businessman on TV.

Was he? I never saw it, so I don’t know, but from his performances that I have been seeing for the past four years plus a few months, my guess is that he was successful rather than fantastic. I don’t think it’s about his talent so much as it is about the eager willingness of his audience to be impressed. Why that is I don’t think I will ever understand, but I get that it is. The behaviors that make me … Read the rest

Oh I see. I thought Trump was just randomly saluting in that Trumpolini moment on the White House balcony Monday, but it turns out he was saluting the helicopter.

He went up the outside stairs, which is not the custom; he stood there gasping like a fish, which is obviously not a sign of robust health and recovery from the virus; and finally he saluted the Marine helicopter as it departed, which is…just wacko.

Yesterday he shut down the Congressional attempt to pass a new stimulus bill, which is savagely cruel to the millions of people who are struggling in the shutdown.

Today he has cranked out a massive barrage of venomous retweets and tweets, which betrays a total … Read the rest

He’s dangerously manic and insane.

NOW THAT THE RADICAL LEFT DEMOCRATS GOT CAUGHT COLD IN THE (NON) FRIENDLY TRANSFER OF GOVERNMENT, IN FACT, THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN AND WENT FOR A COUP, WE ARE ENTITLED TO ASK THE VOTERS FOR FOUR MORE YEARS. PLEASE REMEMBER THIS WHEN YOU VOTE! https://t.co/gsFSghkmdM

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2020

(He originally spelled “caught” as “cought”…probably while coughing.)

(Also, what difference does he suppose it will make if people “remember” that he thinks he’s entitled to a third term in defiance of the 22d amendment? They can’t give it to him by voting this year, but they could deny it to him by voting for the other fella.)… Read the rest

The Trump energy department has issued a long report saying “YEAH FOSSILE FUELS AWESOME BRING ON THOSE FOSSIL FUELS IGNORE THOSE WILDFIRES AND PUT SOME MORE FOSSIL FUEL IN THE TANK!”

Released a month before the election, the report is strikingly at odds with the realities of climate change that the American public has been coping with over the past few months, from huge wildfires to destructive derecho storms and a series of intense hurricanes.

As in, huge wildfires that killed 31 people in California so far and displaced thousands and polluted the air throughout much of the country. Kind of a major drawback, you’d think, but not to Trump’s energy department.

The report doesn’t cover any of the

Now we’re talking.

Stephen Miller has tested positive.

Stephen Miller tests positive a day after his wife, a Pence aide, mocked Kamala Harris for wanting COVID protections at tomorrow’s VP debate. https://t.co/mpEDRDrGN2

— Andy Kaczynski (@KFILE) October 6, 2020

#BREAKING: Stephen Miller tests positive for being a dead-eyed white supremacist ghoul. oh yeah, and covid

— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) October 6, 2020

https://twitter.com/AndrewSolender/status/1313622283014098950 … Read the rest

I guess Marina Hyde is not a huge fan of Trump’s.

A rare moment of unity in the US election, as Donald Trump marked his return to the White House by gasping along with his detractors. On Monday night, the president puffed up the front staircase of his residence, his face coated in several more gallons of paint than the front elevation of the building. “Don’t let it dominate your lives,” he panted of the virus, a bad case of which tends to dominate your death.

…

Still: don’t call him Wussolini. He beat this illness – which he still very much has – like a man. One of the really manly ones, who takes all the best drugs

It’s That Barrister Again.

Screenshots for the many blocked of Jolyon’s hot take on Keira Bell’s challenge to the Tavistock. pic.twitter.com/ww4ou5OxHt

— Sarah Phillimore (@SVPhillimore) October 6, 2020

Here’s the thing:

They’re not reversible.

Also, comparing puberty blockers to abortion is just random. You might as well compare them to espresso machines or luxury yachts.… Read the rest

It’s not just aides who are at risk in the White House.

The West Wing has reportedly turned into a “ghost town” amid complaints that the White House has failed to trace potential contacts of Trump and his infected aides, with many now working from home even as the president exhorted Americans “not to be afraid of Covid”.

Aides can work from home. You know who can’t?

That has left behind a skeleton staff of about 100 butlers, ushers, cleaners, custodians and maintenance workers, who are often older and drawn from groups at higher risk of developing severe symptoms of the virus, including a butler’s corp that has historically almost exclusively been black.

That work is hands-on, and … Read the rest

Trump issued a “the flu is worse, COVID is nothing” tweet and Facebook post this morning. For once Twitter and Facebook stomped on it.

Twitter has flagged this Trump tweet after Facebook removed the same post claiming that the flu is deadlier than covid. pic.twitter.com/FLAewcPRPP

— Courtney Theriault (@cspotweet) October 6, 2020

Twitter not only flagged it, it veiled it. It doesn’t always take that second step.… Read the rest

Psssssst wanna buy a commemorative coin?

The White House gift shop, which is not affiliated to the White House, has started taking pre-orders for a “President Donald J. Trump Defeats COVID” commemorative coin.

It’s in the same department as the “President Donald J. Trump Walks On Water” coin and the “President Donald J. Trump spins shit into gold” coin.

Note: he has the virus, it caused him two drops in oxygen level and a fever, he tested positive Thursday and the virus is known to get much worse 7 to 10 days after infection, he is in at least two high-risk groups, and…the virus is still infecting thousands of people a day and killing many. Trump hasn’t in any sense … Read the rest

Ah family life.

This mother-daughter moment between Kellyanne and Claudia Conway. “You’re taping me again?!” pic.twitter.com/nAOpQfjxCv

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) October 6, 2020

It seems Kellyanne picked up COVID at the superspreader event and gave it to her daughter and husband. Then she has the gall to tell her daughter: “You caused so much disruption.” … Read the rest

Maybe he shouldn’t have been in quite such a hurry to leave.

“Gasping” is trending on Twitter.

This is why:

Trump climbs a few steps to the White House, takes off his mask and then is visibly gasping and having diffulty breathing while he tries to wave and pretend everything is fine. pic.twitter.com/VXxSh1BNuO

— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) October 6, 2020

… Read the rest

Nick Cohen on the ongoing passion for bullying people into silence:

The current issue of the literary journal The Dark Horse contains a grim and resonant essay by the poet Jenny Lindsay, which shows how Scottish poetry allowed the extremes to define it. In Anatomy of a Hounding she describes the process of humiliation and denunciation she has recently experienced.

…In June 2019 she objected to a writer for the Skinny, who said they believed in ‘violent action’ against Terfs (in this instance lesbian feminists at a Pride March). Lindsay contacted the magazine on Twitter and said:

Hello! One of your commentators here advocates violence against lesbian activists at Pride. I find it extraordinary that such views are

MAKE IT STOP

I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good! Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020

Don’t let Covid dominate your life, the stupid reckless dribbling fool tells us because he’s only a few days into his case and because he had the undivided attention of a whole team of doctors. Yes brilliant advice genius IF you have a mild case but many people DON’T have a mild case so

STOP

TALKING

NOW… Read the rest