Sorry about the image this conjures up…

The reputation of Rudy Giuliani could be set for a further blow with the release of highly embarrassing footage in Sacha Baron Cohen’s follow-up to Borat.

If you care about spoilers now is the time to exit.

In the film, released on Friday, the former New York mayor and current personal attorney to Donald Trump is seen reaching into his trousers and apparently touching his genitals while reclining on a bed in the presence of the actor playing Borat’s daughter, who is posing as a TV journalist.

Following an obsequious interview for a fake conservative news programme, the pair retreat at her suggestion for a drink to the bedroom of a hotel

Oh lord he’s done it again – tried to impress us with blank sheets of paper. Remember those action shots at Walter Reed of Trump signing the middle of a blank sheet of paper? And those boxes stacked on a table at the beginning of his “administration” that were supposed to convey how open he was being with his financial records? Except that the boxes were just boxes? He hasn’t learned.

Kayleigh McEnany presenting Lesley Stahl (@60Minutes) with some of the many things we’ve done for Healthcare. Lesley had no idea! pic.twitter.com/8bfIxkFiXt

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 21, 2020

Oopsie, they shouldn’t have let her open it.

Computer, enhance pic.twitter.com/k593RPda4D

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) October 21, 2020

Juliet Jacques at Newsweek assures us that no male person would ever pretend to be trans just to win at his chosen sport:

As a transsexual woman and fervent soccer player (and fan), the idea that someone would transition just to succeed in women’s sports because they couldn’t do so in men’s sports is absurd.

Not as any kind of writer though. Writers understand that you have to keep your subjects and verbs straight throughout the whole sentence. There should have been an “I find” before “the idea,” and the “is” before the last word should be gone. Then the whole thing should be re-worked because that second clause is too clumsy.

ANYway – like hell it’s absurd. Is it … Read the rest

From the voter intimidation file:

Voters in Alaska and Florida reported receiving emails on Tuesday that threatened “vote for Trump or else!” — messages that have prompted investigations in both states. “You are currently registered as a Democrat and we know this because we have gained access into the entire voting infrastructure,” said one of the emails obtained by Alaska Public Media. “You will vote for Trump on Election Day or we will come after you. Change your party affiliation to Republican to let us know you received our message and will comply.”

It sounds so…Mississippi 1964.

The sender claimed to have the voter’s email, phone number and home address. Some of the emails were purportedly sent by

It’s International Pronouns Day. We’re encouraging everyone to use pronouns and ask about pronouns as a simple way to show you’re inclusive of trans and non-binary people #PronounsDay #hellomynameis #LGBTHealth pic.twitter.com/zGFM9VAGcD

— Michael Brady (@drmbrady) October 21, 2020

It may be “simple,” in a sense, but as for showing you’re “inclusive” of trans and non-binary people…even if it’s true that “using pronouns” and “asking about pronouns” is a way of doing that, what about the fact that it’s also a way of showing you’re not “inclusive” of everyone else? What about the fact that it’s alienating to most people to force them to pretend that they chose their own sex? What about the fact that most people just do not … Read the rest

But who cares that Woman’s Hour bigged up the claim that Fair Play For Women, Woman’s Place UK, and Filia are “transphobic”? Why does it matter? Fair Play For Women explains:

Fair Play For Women are others are often called transphobic. It is a political smear tactic designed to silence us and make others fearful of engaging with us. This is why is it vital that other do not repeat these claims out of context. /1

— FairPlayForWomen (@fairplaywomen) October 21, 2020

'Transphobic' is a serious allegation. The general public understands this word to mean hate, dislike, fear and prejudice towards trans people simply because they are trans. What is lost is that 'some people' who started the smear believe

Trump is having a meltdown about an interview.

Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes not wearing a mask in the White House after her interview with me. Much more to come. pic.twitter.com/0plZG6a4fH

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 20, 2020

…Everyone should compare this terrible Electoral Intrusion with the recent interviews of Sleepy Joe Biden!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 20, 2020

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1318692477893836808

Oooh he looks very sulky.

In 2016, Lesley Stahl asked Donald Trump why he constantly attacked her and other members of the free press. He said: "I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you." https://t.co/3CsmWd11hY

— Swing Left (@swingleft) October 20,

A joint statement by Women’s Place UK, Filia, and Fair Play for Women:

Today, 20th Oct, BBC Woman’s Hour hosted an excellent discussion on the politicization of Mumsnet with feminist scholar Sarah Pedersen (at approx 25mins). The discussion looked at the growth of the popular Mumsnet feminist discussion boards and their role in promoting a nascent women’s movement advocating women’s rights, in particular informing discussion on GRA reform.

Woman’s Place UK (WPUK), Fair Play for Women (FPFW) and FiLiA were highlighted as groups popular with and representative of women’s rights issues. At this point Jane Garvey, the BBC presenter felt it necessary to interject “We have to be clear, which are groups that some people have described, in some

The Guardian collects the ways Trump has trashed the environment.

“I want crystal clean water and air.”

That’s what Donald Trump said in the first chaotic presidential debate with Joe Biden.

It drives me crazy that he keeps putting it that way, because it shows how completely he doesn’t even get it. He hears “the environment” and he pictures a god damn glass of water. Water can be muddy and murky and be exactly right for its local environment. Environmental issues are not solely about what Donald Trump can safely put in his mouth; he can’t drink ocean water but humans sure as hell depend on that undrinkable water, as does much of the rest of life on the … Read the rest

I saw this

So I looked it up. What is ACAS? Google says:

The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service is a Crown non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom. Its purpose is to improve organisations and working life through the promotion and facilitation of strong industrial relations practice.

Under Workplace Problems they have Discrimination, bullying and harassment, and under that they have Sexual harassment, and sure enough under that they have the anyones.

What sexual harassment is

Sexual harassment is unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature.

It can happen to men, women and people of any gender or sexual orientation. It can be carried out by anyone of the same sex, opposite sex or anyone

The marketing of “surrogacy”…

The essence of a surrogate is to provide the gift of family to those who need help in having a baby. #becomeasurrogate #omegafamilyglobal pic.twitter.com/hw1mOjojrs

— Omega Family Global (@OFGSurrogacy) October 19, 2020

No, the “essence” of “a surrogate” is not providing a family or helping have a baby. The essence of surrogacy is using a woman’s body to gestate a baby for other people, as if women are factories for the manufacture of babies.

Women are not spare parts!https://t.co/NskECc34NI

— Angry She Bird (@AngrySheBird) October 20, 2020

This is incredibly dehumanising "the essence of a surrogate" "destroy a surrogate's purpose"?! Women are entire human beings, not vessels. This could not be more Gilead if it

Well, no………………

It’s true enough that nothing about a girl’s body makes her more or less of a girl…but the point here is to claim that nothing about a boy’s body makes him less of a girl [if he identifies as a girl]. That’s just dumb. Why do people fall over like ninepins at all this dumb? Girls have lots of different types of body, true, but they don’t have boys’ bodies, because if they have those then they’re boys, not girls. Freckles, cheekbones, tall, short – none of those determine what sex you are, but that doesn’t mean that nothing about your body determines what sex you are.

Enough with the dumb already!… Read the rest

I was saying how energized and high Trump gets from his rallies. This one from today is a good example.

The content is grotesque but leaving that aside for the moment – look at how juiced he is. Look at how much more fluent and confident and actory he is. It’s all disgusting but it’s skilled, in its way – which his non-rally performances just are not. Press conferences, speeches, announcements – he’s more like a gas station inflatable doll, luring in the crowds by lurching back and forth in the breeze and gesticulating.

It’s creepy. It’s creepy that he’s so tuned in to crowd-love. It’s creepy that crowd-love can change his speech patterns and energy levels and timing … Read the rest

Really?

I could see it if Alison Phipps were a novelist…although I would still disagree, because extended criticism of a bad novel can be both entertaining and enlightening. But Alison Phipps isn’t a novelist, she’s a “Professor of Gender Studies” – i.e. an academic. Academics don’t usually think, or at least don’t usually say, that if you can’t say something nice you should be brief and then change the subject. Academics do a lot of extensive analysis of each other’s work, and they don’t observe any rule that I’ve ever heard of mandating brevity in disagreement.

Why spend so much time and energy? Because bad ideas can have bad consequences, and they can also be interesting routes to … Read the rest

Sometimes when you hire your Medical Experts on the basis of their Fox News commentary as opposed to their medical expertise you get…well you get Scott Atlas.

As summer faded into autumn and the novel coronavirus continued to ravage the nation unabated, Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist whose commentary on Fox News led President Trump to recruit him to the White House, consolidated his power over the government’s pandemic response.

Atlas shot down attempts to expand testing. He openly feuded with other doctors on the coronavirus task force and succeeded in largely sidelining them. He advanced fringe theories, such as that social distancing and mask-wearing were meaningless and would not have changed the course of the virus in several hard-hit

This “Huh huh Hunter Biden’s laptop” story is too dubious even for Fox News.

Mediaite has learned that Fox News was first approached by Rudy Giuliani to report on a tranche of files alleged to have come from Hunter Biden’s unclaimed laptop left at a Delaware computer repair shop, but that the news division chose not to run the story unless or until the sourcing and veracity of the emails could be properly vetted.

With the general election just three weeks away, Giuliani ultimately brought the story to the New York Post, which shares the same owner, Rupert Murdoch.

And an even worse reputation.

But even New York Post reporters didn’t want their names on the story.

On

The Republicans are restless.

A member of Republican leadership in the US Senate has likened his relationship with Donald Trump to a marriage, and said that he was “maybe like a lot of women who get married and think they’re going to change their spouse, and that doesn’t usually work out very well”.

Not very flattering to men…

Trump spent some of the weekend in a public fight with Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska. Sasse criticised Trump in a call with constituents, lamenting among other things his treatment of women and the way he “kisses dictators’ butts” and “flirts with white supremacists”.

You know, little things like that.

Trump fired back with insults, forcing Republican National Committee chair, Ronna

Trump is in Las Vegas, where he should stay until he is imprisoned.

Trump joined a campaign staff call from his hotel in Las Vegas, where he is staying before his two campaign rallies in Arizona later today.

The president tried to instill confidence in his campaign staff, insisting he would win the election, despite the recent disappointing polls.

He insists a lot of things. Insistence doesn’t make it true.

He relieved his frustrations by trashing Fauci.

“People are tired of coronavirus,” the president said, according to reporters who listened in on the call. “People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots.”

We’re tired of coronavirus – you don’t say! Here I thought we were loving … Read the rest

Allons enfants:

Thousands have attended rallies across France in support of Samuel Paty, the teacher beheaded after showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to his pupils.

People in the Place de la République in Paris carried the slogan “Je suis enseignant” (I am a teacher), with PM Jean Castex saying: “We are France!”

The Place de la République in Paris filled with people rallying in support of Mr Paty, 47. Mr Castex and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo joined them.

The square was the scene of a huge demonstration in which 1.5 million people showed solidarity with Charlie Hebdo following the deadly attack of January 2015.

Vous ne nous faites pas peur.
Nous n’avons pas peur.
Vous ne nous diviserez

Originally a comment by Bruce Gorton on Blaming the beheaded.

Remember a few years ago when the in meme was the paradox of tolerance?

The paradox of tolerance is that pure tolerance doesn’t produce a tolerant society because there comes a point at which tolerating the intolerant means that the intolerant dominate the more reasonable people.

The solution to the paradox is that tolerance isn’t an absolute virtue. There is a line beyond which you don’t tolerate any longer. That line, according to the original argument, was drawn at the use of violence for political ends. You don’t tolerate terrorism.

Unfortunately, this same argument was used to endorse violence against bigots.

The problem is that violence is habit forming, … Read the rest