From what I can tell so far, a few gender critical women put on a small, socially distanced political discussion in Leeds today. Result: they got arrested.

The police, its been reported, have said that women's rights aren't political and so Covid restrictions apply #Posie #StandingForWomen

— Dr EM (@PankhurstEM) September 20, 2020

A few fixed order penalty notices issued, such as @claireOT, as the police have declared any discussion of women's rights nonpolitical and thus illegal #Leeds #standingforwomen

— Dr EM (@PankhurstEM) September 20, 2020

Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (Posie Parker) has been arrested and threatened with a fine for arranging for women to speak about women's rights in Leeds. The police are on camera saying they do not think

Trump’s sniggering glee that a journalist reporting on a protest was injured by police is really sticking in my craw. I’m sick of having a psychopath as president, and not only as president but going out and encouraging other people to laugh and cheer at police violence against journalists.

“I remember this guy Velshi,” Trump said. “He got hit in the knee with a canister of tear gas and he went down. He was down. ‘My knee, my knee.’ Nobody cared, these guys didn’t care, they moved him aside.”

I wonder if that’s what Princess Ivanka means when she says she loves him for being real.

“And they just walked right through. It was the most beautiful thing,” Trump said.

A new level of disgusting.

"It was the most beautiful thing … it's called law and order" — Trump gloats about @AliVelshi getting hit by a rubber bullet in Minneapolis. Sick stuff. pic.twitter.com/bgKSmmL8O7

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 18, 2020

Ali Velshi isn’t sure about the beauty.

So, @realDonaldTrump, you call my getting hit by authorities in Minneapolis on 5/30/20 (by a rubber bullet, btw, not a tear gas cannister) a “beautiful thing” called “law and order”. What law did I break while covering an entirely peaceful (yes, entirely peaceful) march?

— Ali Velshi (@AliVelshi) September 19, 2020

… Read the rest

He’s already said he’s not going to abide by it.

“I want you to use my words against me. If there’s a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination." pic.twitter.com/quD1K5j9pz

— Vanita Gupta (@vanitaguptaCR) September 19, 2020

… Read the rest

Now wait just a second here.

On Friday night, Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, declared: “President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.”

There was an outcry, accusing McConnell of hypocrisy. When the conservative Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, also an election year, McConnell refused to act on Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to fill the opening. The seat remained vacant until after Trump’s victory.

McConnell argues this case is different because in 2016 the president was Democratic and the Senate majority was Republican but now the same party controls both. His opposite number, Chuck Schumer, and the Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, instantly rejected the view.

What are … Read the rest

“Well you see constable I was filming a video for Snapchat…”

A woman fell out of a moving car on the M25 while leaning out of the window to film a video for Snapchat.

She’s all right so we get to laugh at her.

The front seat passenger was hanging out the car whilst filming a SnapChat video along the #M25. She then fell out the car and into a live lane.
It is only by luck she wasn’t seriously injured or killed.#nowords
2846 pic.twitter.com/b7f1tPJTEb

— Roads Policing – Surrey Police – UK (@SurreyRoadCops) September 19, 2020

She’s another Fellini, a Truffaut, a Scorsese. I can’t wait to see the full movie.… Read the rest

You're A Coward, Harry pic.twitter.com/1B2EcGwCrt

— Tatsuya Ishida (@TatsuyaIshida9) September 19, 2020

… Read the rest

More transphobia spotted!

Trans advocate Jayce Carver said she believes Igor Dzaic should bow out of the Ward 7 byelection after his “transphobic” tweet came to light.

“Imagine thinking that to be a woman all you have to do is say you are and get a few surgeries, even though you’re a man,” read one of Dzaic’s tweets. “You must not value real women at all.”

Carver said Dzaic apologized for some of his social media posts, which she said is “kind of too little too late.”

How much do you value real women though, Jayce Carver?

“When you are a politician, you’re supposed to represent the entirety of your community,” said Carver. “Trans-identified people — although we are a

Even when pointing out that Rowling’s new novel isn’t all about a trans woman, it’s imperative to put the boot in anyway. After several paragraphs of plot summary to make clear that the minor character who puts on lady-coat and a wig isn’t trans and isn’t the main suspect, the final paragraph gets to the boot.

Perhaps some will still consider this depiction transphobic, given Rowling’s rightly widely criticised views on trans people.

How different that sentence would have been without the “rightly.” Miles less ugly and clumsy, for a start – “Rowling’s rightly widely criticised views” – that is a mess. But substantively – who says “rightly”? I say “wrongly” so now what do we do? It’s … Read the rest

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh fuck.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Champion Of Gender Equality, Dies At 87

Fuck fuck fuck… Read the rest

Not all that funny.

I have to say that I find this pretty amusing. After Princeton’s President (like officials of many other colleges) wrote a letter flagellating himself and his University for systemic racism, the U.S. Department of Education has begun investigating Princeton for violating Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The charge is taking federal money for years while purporting to abide by federal nondiscrimination and equal-opportunity standards. If Princeton is indeed rife with “systemic racism” that it hasn’t addressed, then surely they have violated that agreement.

I saw items about it earlier today, and had the same ambivalent reaction.

I get why it’s a little funny, I suppose. I definitely get that it can … Read the rest

Heh.

Heh heh.

Heh heh heh heh.

Troubled Blood, the new book from Robert Galbraith aka J K Rowling, has shifted more copies in a day than Lethal White sold in its first week, according to publisher Little, Brown.

Oops.… Read the rest

Aaron Rupar on Trump’s Hymn to White Resentment:

The solution, Trump claimed, is to “restore patriotic education to our schools.” He said he’ll create a new “1776 Commission” to “encourage our educators to teach our children about the miracle of American history and make plans to honor the 250th anniversary of our founding.”

“Our heroes will never be forgotten. Our youth will be taught to love America with all of their heart and all of their soul,” he added.

What this will end up meaning in practice isn’t clear, and isn’t really important. For Trump, what matters is to signal to racial reactionaries that he’s on their side.

In case they hadn’t already figured that out.

This legacy of

Um…

Mister Stupid say that man is bad man, he doesn’t say anteefuh is bad people who do bad things, he must be bad man.

Sounds like FBI Director Wray should probably make sure his LinkedIn account is up to date and his resume is fresh pic.twitter.com/kAQRDIGCnU

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 18, 2020

… Read the rest

The Voting Rights Act? What’s that? Never heard of it.

North Carolina Is Already Rejecting Black Voters’ Mail-In Ballots More Often Than White Voters’

In North Carolina, absentee ballots have already been sent back and the state has been updating statistics on those ballots daily. As of September 17, Black voters’ ballots are being rejected at more than four times the rate of white voters, according to the state’s numbers.¹ Black voters have mailed in 13,747 ballots, with 642 rejected, or 4.7 percent. White voters have cast 60,954 mail-in ballots, with 681 — or 1.1 percent — rejected.

…

“When there’s a barrier, it’s going to fall hardest on the most disadvantaged and disenfranchised in the community, which is

He’ll sue! He’ll sue any damn scientists who say he’s bullshitting. He’ll sue them into oblivion!

Scott Atlas, a Trump coronavirus adviser, has threatened to sue a group of Stanford professors who wrote an open letter denouncing multiple public statement[s] Atlas has made about responding to Covid-19.

A letter from his lawyer said the professors’ statement “maliciously defames” Atlas and demanded the signers of the letters to withdraw their claims or be sued, according to Politico.

The open letter, which was published last Wednesday, said that Atlas’s statements and opinions “run counter to established science and, by doing so, undermine public-health authorities and the credible science that guides effective public health policy”. Over 100 faculty members with various medical

Another woman steps up to say Trump sexually assaulted her.

Amy Dorris told the UK’s Guardian newspaper that Mr Trump groped various parts of her body and forcibly kissed her as she came out of a bathroom at the US Open tennis tournament.

Trump’s lawyers say nuh uh he did not.

She says Trump was lurking outside the women’s room waiting for her.

“He just shoved his tongue down my throat and I was pushing him off. And that’s when the grip became tighter and his hands were very gropey and all over my butt, my breasts, my back, everything,” she told the Guardian.

“I was in his grip, and I couldn’t get out of it.”

Of course not. … Read the rest

This guy. Honestly.

He doesn’t so much gasp as emit a loud histrionic breath-squeal of shock-horror when Bev Jackson says “We personally don’t believe that anyone can be born in the wrong body.”

We not only don’t believe it, we can’t believe it. It’s six impossible things before breakfast all over again. We can’t believe these dopy science-fictiony fantasy run amok claims, because they are not believable.

I suppose they think there’s a giant warehouse in the sky, full of angels in overalls putting the right soul in the right body and occasionally getting it wrong. The box was mislabeled, or an angel is hungover after all that beer mixed with vodka, or they do it on purpose because … Read the rest

The Pantanal is on fire:

The Pantanal, a vast floodplain in South America, is among the largest wetlands in the world. The mosaic of grasslands, shrublands, forests, marshes, and lakes covers an area as large as West Virginia. It is home to thousands of species, including many that are rare and endangered, such as jaguars, giant river otters, hyacinth macaws, and giant armadillos.

Though the number of ranches and cattle pastures have increased on the plateaus that surround the Pantanal in Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia, the floodplain itself has remained mostly free of development in recent decades. But in the past few years, the Pantanal has faced a new challenge: uncontrollable fire.

The 2019 fire season (July through