This is not a joke, repeat, not a joke.

The White House issued a proclamation a couple of days ago because it’s “National Character Counts Week.” Thank fuck we have the president to remind us and inspire us.

Personal responsibility, integrity, and the other values which define our unique American spirit underpin our system of self-government…In looking to these examples of honor and virtue…From small acts of kindness to supreme selfless sacrifice…Individuals of integrity and principle lift us all to greater heights…selfless giving of time and assistance to people in need…social and cultural awareness, intellectual curiosity, and a sense of responsibility…how far decency and compassion can go in helping others…we recommit to being more kind, loving, understanding, and virtuous.

Signed, … Read the rest

Lara Trump mocks Biden for stuttering and then claims to be very concerned that it’s an indication of “cognitive decline.”

Jake Tapper calls out Lara Trump for openly mocking Joe Biden's stutter.

Lara says, "First and foremost I had no idea that Joe Biden ever suffered from a stutter. I think what we see on Joe Biden on stage is very clearly a cognitive decline."

Tapper isn't having it. pic.twitter.com/qGlfOLzd3k

— The Recount (@therecount) October 18, 2020

Lara TRUMP says that. Lara Trump says that in an effort to boost the campaign of the stupidest most ignorant sack of wind who has ever held that job.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Papito on Blaming the beheaded.

Freedom of speech isn’t worth civil war.

I simply cannot get past the way in which this statement holds an implicit threat. Another, ruder way to say the same thing is:

You better shut up, or we’ll keep killing you.

Isn’t it already a war? One could say that Samuel Paty was killed as a defender of the French nation and its values. This is the country where the first universal declaration of the rights of man was written, and among those rights the following:

Article XI – The free communication of thoughts and of opinions is one of the most precious rights of man: any citizen thus may speak,

Robert Reich compares different ideas of freedom:

Trump and many Republicans insist that whether to wear a mask or to go to work during a pandemic should be personal choices. Yet what a woman does with her own body, or whether same-sex couples can marry, should be decided by government.

Trump and most Republicans are not very good at thinking about (or noticing) the ways individual acts can affect other people and/or the world we have to live in. In the abstract, absolute freedom sounds appealing, but in the reality, we live among people and most of what we do affects others. It’s about degrees and kinds as opposed to freedom v not-freedom. Flouting public health measures during a … Read the rest

Ooh ooh I know this one.

Lara Trump tells @jaketapper people are frustrated over #covid restrictions.

Those restriction are in place because the US STILL can’t control the virus.

And yet Trump holds largely maskless rallies that feed the spread.

— Cristina Alesci (@CristinaAlesci) October 18, 2020

I know this one! Yes of course people are frustrated over the restrictions but you know what’s even more restricting and frustrating? A bad case of the virus! Even more so? Being dead! Also frustrating is accidentally infecting your beloved friend or spouse or parent or sibling or child. It’s all terribly frustrating! Spreading the virus won’t help. Trump is spreading the virus like crazy, and it’s not helping.… Read the rest

Bex Stinson is “Head of trans inclusion, Stonewall.” The meaning of “trans inclusion” of course is not the ordinary, commonly understood meaning of inclusion, but a new and paradoxical meaning: the “inclusion” of men with women and women with men, when the included identify as the other sex.

Nicola Adams is

a British former professional boxer who competed from 2017 to 2019. She retired with an undefeated record and held the WBO female flyweight title in 2019.

Bex Stinson is of course lying when he says Nicola Adams “is trying to prevent trans people from playing sports.” Saying men should not compete against women is not saying they should not play sports. It’s pretty simple.

Did you miss the

Does it even matter that Trump goes to Michigan and incites violence against its governor? Yes, it does.

After Donald Trump attacked Gretchen Whitmer at a rally in Michigan on Saturday, prompting chants of “Lock her up!”, an aide to the governor said: “Every single time the president does this at a rally, the violent rhetoric towards her immediately escalates on social media. It has to stop. It just has to.”

…

At his rally in Muskegon, Trump targeted Whitmer several times, criticising state rules to stop the spread of coronavirus, calling her “dishonest” and making light of a rightwing plot to kidnap her – and possibly to kill her – that was foiled by the FBI.

He’s behind … Read the rest

"There's something about that, when you watched everybody getting pushed around, there's some very beautiful about it. I don't care what anyone says. Not politically correct." — Trump describes the National Guard getting into physical altercations with protesters as "beautiful" pic.twitter.com/04ax2wWKra

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 17, 2020

Make.him.go.away.… Read the rest

How the pro-murder for “blasphemy” side sees things:

France is heading down a v dark path. The oppression & brutalisation of Muslims is completely out of control. And the terrible violence seems set to continue. This latest murder will only lead to more repraisals against Muslims. Perhaps French Muslims should make hijra.

— Roshan M Salih (@RmSalih) October 16, 2020

Salih is the editor of 5 Pillars. It’s fascinating to see his anxiety about oppression and brutalization of Muslims in France as a response to the murder of a teacher by an engraged Muslim. Obviously Muslims in France should not be oppressed or brutalized, because no one should, but if we’re going to talk about “terrible violence” what about that … Read the rest

Remember – some vigilantes were just arrested by the feds for plotting to abduct this same governor and “put her on trial.”

The President mentions the Governor of Michigan, the crowd chants lock her up, and the President says lock them all up pic.twitter.com/9wuB7blnoP

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 17, 2020

… Read the rest

There is no amount of fair or friendly criticism extremists are willing to accept, if they have the power to shut it down.#JeSuisProf #JeSuisCharlie pic.twitter.com/RRq1r04NNh

— Ex-Muslims of North America (@ExmuslimsOrg) October 17, 2020

Atterré, choqué et consterné par l’assassinat de #SamuelPaty. La liberté de pensée inscrite au fronton de notre république et notre sens critique reposent sur la transmission et l’acquisition des savoirs.

Mes pensées à ses proches et mon soutien au corps enseignant #JeSuisProf pic.twitter.com/SBlluiwKDL

— Jamy Gourmaud (@gourmaud_jamy) October 17, 2020

https://twitter.com/karimbitar/status/1317252972951277574

Ce matin je pense à #Samuel. À sa famille, à ses proches, à ses collègues, à ses élèves… #tristesse #jesuisprof pic.twitter.com/KdRKbc4C2u

— Fidel Navamuel (@outilstice) October 17, 2020

… Read the rest

More on the Paris nightmare:

Samuel Paty, 47, who taught history and geography at the school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine , north-west of the French capital, was attacked on Friday evening by an 18-year-old man who was shot dead by police shortly afterwards.

Because of a cartoon.

Earlier this month, Paty had shown a class of teenage pupils a caricature from the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo during a moral and civic education class discussion about freedom of speech, sparking a furious response from a number of parents who had demanded his resignation. Before presenting the caricature, the teacher reportedly invited Muslim students to leave the classroom if they wished.

Afterwards, the father of a 13-year-old girl who did not leave the

Brilliant. Well done us.

More than 68,000 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded in the US on Friday, the highest number in a single day since July, further confirmation the country is in the midst of a coronavirus resurgence.

That’s the worst it’s been since the end of July. Wrong direction, folks.

Cases dipped from August to mid-September. But public health experts have long feared a rise in cases as the weather starts to cool, leading people indoors, where the virus is more likely to spread. Cases are increasing in a majority of states, particularly in the northern midwest, including the Dakotas, Montana and Wisconsin – where Donald Trump was due to stage a rally on Saturday night.

Originally a comment by iknklast on Zero more years.

In 2016, his bitter account of the nation’s ailments struck a chord with many voters

This is one of the things that annoys me. Always saying this, without noting that the ailments he described were not in many cases ailments, but signs of a country that has people that are diverse and many of them have sentiments more in line with the modern world than with the one Trump voters long for. It’s time to quit playing this game of saying things in a way that sounds like he was describing legitimate bad things, things most of us could agree are bad, but which Trump didn’t solve.

The things that … Read the rest

The NY Times editorial board says get Trump out of there.

Donald Trump’s re-election campaign poses the greatest threat to American democracy since World War II.

Mr. Trump’s ruinous tenure already has gravely damaged the United States at home and around the world. He has abused the power of his office and denied the legitimacy of his political opponents, shattering the norms that have bound the nation together for generations. He has subsumed the public interest to the profitability of his business and political interests. He has shown a breathtaking disregard for the lives and liberties of Americans. He is a man unworthy of the office he holds.

The editorial board does not lightly indict a duly elected president.

Dictators should not make jokes about doing dictatorial things.

President Trump on Friday said he would blame Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis if he lost the potentially pivotal battleground state in the presidential election and quipped about firing him – a statement that raised eyebrows due to Trump’s history of accusing Democratic governors of working to tilt the election against him.

Yeah quip shmip – it’s not a “quip” when it’s exactly the kind of thing you do in fact do whenever you feel like it and have the ability. He doesn’t have the ability to fire Santis, of course, but if he did? He would if he decided he wanted to.

“Hey Ron, are we gonna win the state

Gee, you’d expect the weather professionals to know better than this.

The clocks are falling back by 1 hour at 2AM, November 1st! This means fewer daylight hours. Tell us! Are you a fan of the short winter days, or long summer days? Personally, I'm a fan of those seemingly endless summer days! #wawx pic.twitter.com/uawQYE9NA2

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) October 17, 2020

Snerk… Read the rest

À tous les enseignants de France. pic.twitter.com/YLlIVILTaN

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 16, 2020

Ils ne passeront pas.

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 16, 2020

That’s the Spanish Civil War slogan No pasarán in French. It originated with Dolores Ibárruri.

Ce soir, c’est la République qui est attaquée avec l’assassinat ignoble de l’un de ses serviteurs, un professeur.
Je pense ce soir à lui, à sa famille.
Notre unité et notre fermeté sont les seules réponses face à la monstruosité du terrorisme islamiste.
Nous ferons face .

— Jean-Michel Blanquer (@jmblanquer) October 16, 2020

… Read the rest

I’ve said it before but

A god who wants people to MURDER other people for disputing or laughing at or drawing cartoons of or sharing cartoons of that god or any of that god’s children or holy spirits or prophets or hairdressers or chauffeurs or button-polishers

is an EVIL god and not anything to be worshiped.

Today in Paris:

… a man who decapitated a teacher with a large kitchen knife near a school in a Paris suburb after he showed his class caricatures of the prophet Muhammad from the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

For some reason the Guardian decided to lead with the fact that the police shot the man, but fuck that, the core fact is that … Read the rest

Julie Bindel on Rosie Duffield:

Despite having seen the punishment inflicted on women like me who speak out about our sex-based rights, Duffield nevertheless braved the shark-infested waters this summer by daring to agree with Piers Morgan on Twitter that only women have cervixes. Had anyone told me a decade ago it would be seen as either risky or brave to point out the realities of female biology I would have laughed. Since then Duffield has continued to receive endless attacks and threats against her life.

It’s so bizarre, isn’t it. Eagles have wings; bears don’t. Flowers have petals; horses don’t. Trees have roots; butterflies don’t. Women have cervixes; men don’t. Men have testicles; women don’t. None of that … Read the rest