The Daily Beast has more on Stella Immanuel.

Immanuel, a pediatrician and a religious minister, has a history of making bizarre claims about medical topics and other issues. She has often claimed that gynecological problems like cysts and endometriosis are in fact caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches. 

She alleges alien DNA is currently used in medical treatments, and that scientists are cooking up a vaccine to prevent people from being religious. And, despite appearing in Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress on Monday, she has said that the government is run in part not by humans but by “reptilians” and other aliens.

Immanuel gave her viral speech on the steps of the Supreme

… Read the rest

Guess who’s back!

President Donald Trump’s attempt to project a more serious tone about the coronavirus lasted for about a week.

On Tuesday, he resumed spreading misinformation about how to fight the virus and amplifying criticism of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, who said he’d keep his head down and do his job.

Social media platforms worked to remove multiple versions of a video promoted by Trump that included unproven claims about treating people who test positive for the virus, but only after more than 17 million people had seen one version of it.

What’s the point of being president if you can’t con millions of people into poisoning themselves with an off-label medication?

Trump retweeted

… Read the rest

Joy Reid is live-tweeting the Barr hearing. It’s as sinister as you’d expect.

Jerry Nadler came out swinging in his opening statement, slamming William Barr for protecting Trump above all else, for the federalized violence against protesters, and more. #BarrHearing

— Nope. (@JoyAnnReid) July 28, 2020

Then Jim Jordan is yelling something, and she wonders why he’s always yelling.

Weirdly, the Republican video horror montage did not include any of the police and federal agent violence and tear gassing of protesters … huh… #BarrHearing

— Nope. (@JoyAnnReid) July 28, 2020

Well you see when they do it it’s Law Norder.

It is the height of irony for Bill Barr to even breathe out the name of John Lewis. Barr is

… Read the rest

Awwww, ‘doreable indeed.

https://twitter.com/JArtist_15/status/1280265650594705409… Read the rest

The Daily Mail (sorry) reviews Abigail Shrier’s book on the fad for girls to decide they are boys:

The picture that emerges is something much more complex than the familiar narrative of ‘born in the wrong body’. None of these girls appeared to be trans until their teenage years. Some are lesbians – but as one young woman explains to Shrier, being a lesbian is ‘just not very cool… it’s a porn category’, whereas being trans is celebrated. Others have eating disorders or issues with self-harm: for them, taking male hormones and having surgery to remove their breasts seems like another way to attack the body.

Lesbian is a porn category? Says it all, doesn’t it.

Shrier argues that this

… Read the rest

There was no clip when I first posted this, only the statement of fact. I wanted to see and hear how he said it – whether with a pretense of regret and mention of a full schedule, or not. Now I know. Look at how this evil pig said it.

Trump says he will not be paying his respects to Rep. John Lewis at the U.S. Capitol, where his body lies in state. pic.twitter.com/oaD2cF36DL

— The Recount (@therecount) July 27, 2020

… Read the rest

Of course he won’t.

https://twitter.com/JonLemire/status/1287806622534959110

Right now:

Congressman John Lewis was the conscience of the Congress. Today, we say goodbye to our friend and colleague, honoring his legacy of advancing freedom and justice for all. https://t.co/pf697CGr5o

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) July 27, 2020

"Amazing Grace" plays as John Lewis' motorcade passes through Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House in Washington, DC, the site of the late congressman's last public appearance https://t.co/Iswn1bpl5Y pic.twitter.com/uYHjvQf13I

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 27, 2020

… Read the rest

Oh goody, another private “militia” is born.

The Utah Citizens’ Alarm is only a month old, and yet it already boasts 15,000-plus members.

The citizen militia’s recruits wear military fatigues and carry assault rifles. Their short-term goal, they say, is to act as a physical presence of intimidation to deter protesters from becoming violent and destroying the state of Utah. Their long-term goal: to arm and prepare the state of Utah against underground movements they believe will incite civil war.

But the physical presence of a “militia” wearing military fatigues and carrying assault rifles would not merely deter protesters from becoming violent and destroying Utah, it would deter them/us/me from protesting at all. If I saw a bunch … Read the rest

Dan Froomkin points out that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seems to make the people at the NY Times very nervous.

So rather than report on how Ocasio-Cortez’s riveting, viral speech on the House floor on Thursday was a signal moment in the fight against abusive sexism, Times congressional reporters Luke Broadwater and Catie Edmondson filed a story full of sexist double standards and embraced the framing of her critics by casting her as a rule-breaker trying to “amplify her brand.”

Here’s her speech in case you need a refresher.

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1286341062651523076?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1286341062651523076%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpresswatchers.org%2F2020%2F07%2Fthe-new-york-times-has-a-misogyny-problem-too%2F

Then consider that the Times described the speech as “her most norm-shattering moment yet,” leading with the fact that “she took to the House floor to read into the Congressional Record a 

… Read the rest

You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs, ya know?

The Arkansas Republican senator Tom Cotton has called the enslavement of millions of African people “the necessary evil upon which the union was built”.

Cotton, widely seen as a possible presidential candidate in 2024, made the comment in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published on Sunday.

He was speaking in support of legislation he introduced on Thursday that aims to prohibit use of federal funds to teach the 1619 Project, an initiative from the New York Times that reframes US history around August 1619 and the arrival of slave ships on American shores for the first time.

Well that’s certainly urgent at this time of a pandemic, … Read the rest

What we now say when we mean “shut up, bitch.”

https://twitter.com/gorskon/status/1287158532299784194

Updating: Oh look there’s more.

https://twitter.com/gorskon/status/1287392306828640256

Very adult, very thoughtful, very progressive and feminist and reasonable and fair-minded.

Also the other David.

https://twitter.com/david_colquhoun/status/1287159599544578054

Than “Ok Karen” and an eyeroll. Yes, I think so too.

Updating 2:

Thanks for being an example of skepticism done well. The gripers in your mentions are aggressively anti-science, anti-human jerks.

— Kavin Senapathy (@ksenapathy) July 26, 2020

Skepticism done well, yes indeed – you can’t get much better skepticism than “Ok, Karen” and an eyeroll emoji.… Read the rest

pic.twitter.com/qf7I0nZ9ti

— Penni Peterson (@pennipete) July 26, 2020

… Read the rest

No, actually, we approve of violence against women.

Poland is to withdraw from a European treaty aimed at preventing violence against women, the country’s justice minister announced on Saturday.

Zbigniew Ziobro said the document, known as the Istanbul Convention, was “harmful” because it required schools to teach children about gender.

Meaning what? That there are two sexes? That one of the sexes is on average bigger and stronger than the other? That the stronger one has historically dominated the other one? That it takes one of each to make a baby? Aren’t they going to learn all that in any case?

He added that reforms introduced in the country in recent years provided sufficient protection for women.

Easy for … Read the rest

No comment necessary.

It would be nice to ignore the Harry Potter person but the rhetoric being used on her massive platform is feeding a genocidal impulse that already exists in government and within individuals. She is dangerous.

— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) July 26, 2020

… Read the rest

But St Bernards are supposed to rescue people in the mountains…

A mountain rescue team has said its members “didn’t need to think twice” when they were called to help a 121lb (55kg) St Bernard dog that had collapsed while descending England’s highest peak.

Sixteen volunteers from Wasdale mountain rescue team spent nearly five hours rescuing Daisy from Scafell Pike after receiving a call from Cumbria police.

Her back legs were hurting and she couldn’t keep going. (Descending a steep hill can be hella painful, more so than climbing.)

They sought advice from vets before beginning the rescue operation and were able to assess Daisy’s condition and administer pain relief before lifting her off the mountain on a stretcher. The

… Read the rest

Speaking of men who treat women like underlings…

A nonpartisan Christian organisation that seeks to end hunger says it has asked for and received the resignation of Republican congressman Ted Yoho from its board of directors, following what it called his “verbal attack” on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

That’s especially interesting because what was Yoho abusing Ocasio-Cortez about? Her argument that an increase in crime is related to an increase in poverty – i.e. that poverty can lead to increased crime. Poverty is also very intimately linked to hunger. Ocasio-Cortez and this Christian organization are on Team End Poverty while Yoho is on Team Poverty Is the Fault of the Poor Person. It was never a good fit.

In a statement

… Read the rest

Jolyon Maugham QC says he would love to discuss it with a gender critical feminist, so a GC feminist says I’d love to discuss it with you Jolyon, so…

He says it.

That's certainly true. I have spoken out against no platforming of careful voices. And I could give you (for their privacy only, privately) a list of high profile GC feminists I have offered to discuss the issue with in public, without success. For me, one of the only good…

— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) July 23, 2020

Privately. For their privacy only. So we don’t know who they are or what they said or why his offer was “without success.” We don’t even know whether we should believe him … Read the rest

Just call her Bitch?

In Afghanistan, family members often force women to keep their name a secret from people outside the family, even doctors. Using a woman’s name in public is frowned upon and can be considered an insult. Many Afghan men are reluctant to say the names of their sisters, wives or mothers in public. Women are generally only referred to as the mother, daughter or sister of the eldest male in their family, and Afghan law dictates that only the father’s name should be recorded on a birth certificate.

Of course that’s not completely strange to us in the so much more progressive part of the world. Not many decades ago it was pretty normal to refer to … Read the rest

pic.twitter.com/3kh81WYNTu

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) July 24, 2020

… Read the rest

Oh good, the tv machine is training kids in how to lecture medical staff.

When Bailey comes down with a fever, Mary Anne rushes her to the hospital, where two doctors misgender her. Mary Anne firmly corrects them.

Misgendering is traumatic. This is one of the baseline ways cisgender people can show up for the trans people in their life pic.twitter.com/EyrenC5QDK

— Netflix (@netflix) July 23, 2020

The first clip is merely stupid and cloying, but the second is infuriating. The lecturing kid is what, 12? Maybe 13? And she’s lecturing two medically-trained adults as if they were puppies who had eaten the carpet. And they look grief-stricken and horrified, as if they’d torn the patients limbs off by mistake. … Read the rest