It was that courthouse.

As Donald Trump lambasted the guilty verdict of his hush money trial this week, he stood inside a Manhattan courthouse that was the site of one of the most notorious examples of injustice in recent New York history. And he had a part in that.

It’s the same courthouse where five Black and Latino youths were wrongly convicted 34 years ago in the beating and rape of a white female jogger. The former president famously took out a newspaper ad in New York City in the aftermath of the 1989 attack calling for the execution of the accused in a case that roiled racial tensions locally and that many point to as evidence of a

The Lancet.

The Lancet!!!

From The Lancet's new guidelines for authors https://t.co/C5cV611Jkv pic.twitter.com/mmMxTaCe61

— Ian Leslie (@mrianleslie) May 31, 2024

The Lancet. … Read the rest

This is healthy and reasonable:

Supporters of former President Donald Trump, enraged by his conviction on 34 felony counts by a New York jury, flooded pro-Trump websites with calls for riots, revolution and violent retribution.

After Trump became the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime, his supporters responded with dozens of violent online posts, according to a Reuters review of comments on three Trump-aligned websites: the former president’s own Truth Social platform, Patriots.Win and the Gateway Pundit.

Some called for attacks on jurors, the execution of the judge, Justice Juan Merchan, or outright civil war and armed insurrection.

“Someone in NY with nothing to lose needs to take care of Merchan,” wrote one commentator on Patriots.Win.

Originally a comment by KBPlayer on Shortcut.

The activists have succeeded in forcing the Edinburgh Book Festival to drop sponsorship from Baillie Gifford because of their threatened disruption. The activists are such little shits – book festivals are about the safest place around to let off smoke bombs or whatever crap they do. This will damage the book festival, and of course the writers involved. According to Jenny Lindsay, the poet who was hounded out of Edinburgh by transactivists, one of her worst tormentors is part of this anti-book crusade.

There is an open letter from about every well-known Scottish writer, excluding Irvine Welsh, Ian Rankin and J K Rowling (who is English rather than Scottish but has lived … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Screechy Monkey on Putting ideology before science.

I think when it comes to medical or other technical subjects, we’re all forced to take shortcuts and rely on some heuristics. It’s just not possible to become an expert in gender medicine, climate science, evolutionary biology, and virology and infectious disease, to name just a handful of science-related controversies. So we look at things like what side do most of the credentialed experts take, how good are the best arguments made by their critics, what are the economic incentives and biases of the disputants, who seems to be arguing in good faith, etc.

And a lot of the time, this works quite well. You don’t have to … Read the rest

Texas wants women to die of pregnancy complications.

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday rejected a challenge to the state’s strict abortion ban — a response to a lawsuit filed last year by a group of women who had serious pregnancy complications.

The ruling was unanimous. All of the nine justices are Republicans.

Five women brought the lawsuit in March 2023, saying they were denied abortions even when issues arose during pregnancy that endangered their lives. The case grew to include 20 women and two doctors.

That’s what happened to Savita Halappanavar, and what happens to women in Catholic-run hospitals in the US. Texas wants all pregnant women in Texas to run that risk. Texas wants all pregnant women … Read the rest

Convicted felon Trump gave a news conference packed with the usual lies.

Mr. Trump, in a rambling and misleading 33-minute speech, derided the trial as “rigged” and attacked the judge in his first public comments since a Manhattan jury found him guilty of all 34 felony counts of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal that threatened to derail his 2016 presidential campaign. He also made numerous misleading statements about the case and what took place at the trial.

“Misleading statements”=lies.

Mr. Trump said he would appeal. Long before that appeal is heard, he will be enmeshed in the gears of the criminal justice system. A pre-sentence report, made by probation officers, will make recommendations based on the defendant’s

Darren Johnson on the Green party’s refusal to heed the Cass Report:

Labour’s Wes Streeting admitted that he had got things wrong in the past and called the review a “watershed moment” for the NHS. Even in Scotland, the previously gung-ho SNP belatedly welcomed the findings and it is hoped that changes will be made to provision there. 

But sadly, that wake-up call does not appear to have been heard by the Greens. In the Scottish Parliament Green MSPs now stand completely isolated on the Cass findings. Their co-leader, Patrick Harvie, was reluctant to even accept the report as a valid scientific document. 

In London, Zoë Garbett, the Green mayoral candidate last month (who now sits as a London

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