All entries by this author

A staggering financial penalty

Feb 17th, 2024 11:08 am | By

The NY Times takes a close look at Trump’s immediate future:

On Friday, the judge overseeing Mr. Trump’s civil fraud case issued a final ruling that inflicted a staggering financial penalty. With interest, the former president has been ordered to pay about $450 million, a sum that threatens to wipe out a stockpile of cash, stocks and bonds that he amassed since leaving the White House. He will have only 30 days or so to either come up with the money or persuade an outside company to post a bond.

The judge, Arthur F. Engoron, also imposed several new restrictions on Mr. Trump and his family business. For three years, Mr. Trump cannot run any New York company, including

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School record

Feb 17th, 2024 10:00 am | By

Another dude steps up.

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Welcoming and inclusive of a select few

Feb 17th, 2024 9:46 am | By

Oh really.

They want to be the UK’s most inclusive, because celebrating diversity will make them perfect and supernatural. Well then why don’t they include women for a change? Why don’t they celebrate diversity by talking about women for a change? Why don’t they create an environment where women feel welcome for a change? Why is inclusion and diversity and celebration always about men who pretend to be women instead of women?

Or what … Read the rest



A new Pecksniff

Feb 17th, 2024 6:46 am | By

You can’t sue people for saying that men are not women.

I know that’s too obvious to bother saying, but this guy

First there’s the headline.

Help WOKEN Sue Darren Grimes – Transphobia Against Brianna Ghey

Help what? Is “woken” a new trans verb that means “wake up” or “rouse to action”? Are we being asked to help spur Sue Darren Grimes into being less sleepy?

Or is “woken” an adjective that applies to Sue Darren Grimes? Is Sue one of those boring woke people who keep prodding us to be more woke? Or “woken” for extra elegance?

And what does the part after the hyphen mean? What about Transphobia Against Brianna Ghey? What does it have to do … Read the rest



Impunity no more?

Feb 16th, 2024 5:20 pm | By

Trump ordered to pay $350 million.

A New York judge on Friday handed Donald J. Trump a crushing defeat in his civil fraud case, finding the former president liable for conspiring to manipulate his net worth and ordering him to pay a penalty of nearly $355 million plus interest that could wipe out his entire stockpile of cash.

But first he will appeal. I want to see him having to sell properties now.

Justice Engoron barred Mr. Trump for three years from serving in top roles at any New York company, including portions of his own Trump Organization. He also imposed a two-year ban on the former president’s adult sons and ordered that they pay more

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This mess doing

Feb 16th, 2024 4:40 pm | By

I saw this so…

[If you open the full tweet you get a view of his naked bum]

…so I had to look up this Senior Lecturer. The source is Middlesex University itself:

Dr T J Bacon

Pronouns: Xe/Xem/Xyrs (usage)

Producing artwork under the name tjb, Dr Bacon’s practice, framed as an artist-philosopher, extends across performance art, visal art, curation, socially engaged practice, transgender studies, queer theory, crip theory and queer phenomenology. Xis outputs manifest through the interdisciplinary visual arts and as an author. Xe has exhibited xis practice internationally for over 20 years and is the founder

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Guest post: With police forces deployed against limericks

Feb 16th, 2024 4:24 pm | By

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Mote and beam.

CSIS’s comments come as provincial policies on gender-affirming surgeries and pronoun preferences are being hotly debated across the country.

And it looks like they’ve taken a side. There’s only one “side” whose potential for violence seems to concern them:

“CSIS assesses that the violent threat posed by the anti-gender movement is almost certain to continue over the coming year…

As I would be considered a part of the “anti-gender movement” by trans activists and their allies (of which we can now count CSIS), I might very well have my own CSIS file. I’m not flattering myself with some degree of inflated “importance,” I’ve just seen how this … Read the rest



Mote and beam

Feb 16th, 2024 11:52 am | By

The CBC inciting violence against people who don’t believe in trans ideology:

Canada’s intelligence agency is warning that extremists could “inspire and encourage” serious violence against the 2SLGBTQI+ community — a threat the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says almost certainly will continue over the coming year.

CSIS’s comments come as provincial policies on gender-affirming surgeries and pronoun preferences are being hotly debated across the country.

“CSIS assesses that the violent threat posed by the anti-gender movement is almost certain to continue over the coming year and that violent actors may be inspired by the University of Waterloo attack to carry out their own extreme violence against the 2SLGBTQI+ community or against other targets they view as representing the gender ideology ‘agenda,'” said CSIS spokesperson

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Ruby identifies as panto

Feb 16th, 2024 11:29 am | By
Ruby identifies as panto

Oh come on. Surely it’s a parody. Surely. Like the guy with tits the size of a small car.

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Vigils

Feb 16th, 2024 10:59 am | By

The BBC is wall to wall Navalny right now, which is appropriate. Photos of vigils in Tbilisi, Berlin, Riga, Lisbon, London.

Candles and flowers are being laid for Alexei Navalny outside the Russian embassy in London. Some of the Russians that I’ve spoken to at the vigil have been fighting back tears as they speak to me. The sentiment is mixed.

One woman, who asked to go by the name Erika, tells me: “We still have hope for a better future for Russia. Even without him, his dream lives on. We continue to fight.” But for another, the dream is over. “I feel very sad because nobody should be treated like he was treated. It’s against humanity There is no

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Worse than ever

Feb 16th, 2024 8:26 am | By

This borders on lying.

That’s like saying amputating a smashed leg is the same surgery as amputating a healthy leg. Yes they’re both amputations of a leg, but the difference in the reason for the surgery is not a trivial difference.

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We welcome anyone, no not you

Feb 16th, 2024 7:53 am | By

So, naturally, there has been a bit of a reaction, so the MS Society felt obliged to Issue A Statement, which is of course a statement like all the other statements.

For more than 75 years, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society has advanced one bold vision—a world free of MS. Through thousands of volunteers, dedicated staff, and generous donors, we live that vision every day. We welcome anyone to join us to advance that mission. As an organization, we firmly believe that we best serve and support those living with MS by creating a space that welcomes all. This is especially true for self-help group leaders, who are responsible for leading meetings for people affected by MS to confide

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The difficult decision

Feb 16th, 2024 7:10 am | By

Inclusion strikes again.

Fran Itkoff, an elderly disabled woman in California, was dismissed from her volunteer work at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society because she asked about the use of pronouns in an email signature. “I was confused. I didn’t know what it was and what it meant,” she said.

When Itkoff was allegedly asked by an unnamed worker at the nonprofit group to use her pronouns, the 90-year-old woman said that she did not understand the request.

Probably because there’s no such thing as “my pronouns.” There is such a thing as “my name”; there is not such thing as “my pronouns” or “my verbs” or “my adjectives.” Language is public property.

Following the conversation, she received an

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1200 miles northeast of Moscow

Feb 16th, 2024 6:49 am | By

Putin wins again.

Russia’s most prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny collapsed and died on Friday after a walk at the “Polar Wolf” Arctic penal colony where he was serving a long jail term, the Russian prison service said.

Navalny, a 47-year-old former lawyer, rose to prominence more than a decade ago with blogs on what he said was vast corruption and opulence among the “crooks and thieves” of Russia’s elite.

The Federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District said in a statement that Navalny felt unwell after a walk at the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp, about 1,900 km (1,200 miles) north east of Moscow into the Arctic Circle.

Putin is thinking it certainly took him long enough … Read the rest



A magazine for staff

Feb 15th, 2024 6:18 pm | By

The Telegraph:

[John Lewis is a department store chain.]

John Lewis has launched a magazine for staff which advises parents on how to find breast binders for trans children. The partnership, which also owns Waitrose, faced boycott calls on Wednesday after it issued a new publication to more than 70,000 staff members.

The Identity magazine, produced by the “LGTQIA+ network”, warned parents their support “can determine their child’s mental wellbeing” before quoting figures from controversial charity Stonewall, which suggested that the number of trans children attempting suicide is “double the national average”.

The magazine recommends support from the charity Mermaids, which is currently under investigation by the Charity Commission amid safeguarding concerns, and praises private clinic Gender GP for

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Any quick google search

Feb 15th, 2024 5:13 pm | By

Remember Helen Clarke? Of Oxford Brookes University and Approved Opinions on Trans Isshooz?

She’s not very forthcoming about how she knows what she claims to know.

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Into the books

Feb 15th, 2024 10:32 am | By

Girls cheated out of their own sport again:

The KIPP Academy girls basketball game on February 8 against the Collegiate Charter School of Lowell ended at halftime. The question is, why? Collegiate Charter left after 16 minutes of play with KIPP leading, 31-14. The game goes into the books as a 10-0 forfeit win for KIPP.

According to multiple sources, KIPP has a male player on its girls basketball roster, despite the school offering a boys program. The player is reported to be more than 6 feet tall with facial hair. KIPP officials refused to confirm the player’s gender identification. 

The facial hair bit seems irrelevant at first, but then you realize it’s a pretty good reason to think … Read the rest



Actors and men of letters

Feb 15th, 2024 10:07 am | By

Let’s learn more about the Garrick. Its own account of itself is interesting.

The Garrick Club is instituted for the general patronage of drama; for the purpose of combining the use of a Club, on economic principles, with the advantages of a literary society; for bringing together supporters of drama; and for the formation of a theatrical library, with works on costume.

The Garrick was founded in 1831 by a group of literary gentlemen under the patronage of the King’s brother, the egalitarian Duke of Sussex. They announced that the Club would be a place where ‘actors and men of refinement and education might meet on equal terms’, where ‘patrons of the drama and its professors were to be

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An opportunity expressly denied to women

Feb 15th, 2024 8:50 am | By

Amelia Gentleman in the Guardian three years ago:

Over 100 QCs have signed a petition calling on members of one of London’s last remaining gentlemen’s clubs, the Garrick, to vote for women to be admitted at the club’s annual general meeting next week.

The Garrick has a long association with the legal profession, and many senior lawyers are members. Female QCs who signed the petition expressed frustration that a club frequented by senior judges still refuses to accept female members.

So in that sense the Garrick isn’t really all that “private.” It’s useful for professional advancement, and that’s not exactly “private.”

“It is well known that The Garrick is a forum where senior members of the legal profession

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Newspaper gossip

Feb 15th, 2024 5:34 am | By

In the Telegraph reporting on the Guardian news, the T reports that the G sports reporter Jonathan Liew is fashionably indifferent to the needs and concerns of women.

JK Rowling has branded the Guardian’s chief sports writer a “progressive misogynist” with “disdain for women’s sport” after he dismissed concerns that transgender women could compete in Parkrun’s female category.

Jonathan Liew, who has written for the newspaper since 2019, labelled concerns raised by womens’ groups a “sinister campaign” which had been amplified by “useful idiots in the media”.

Women have always been seen as “sinister” by men who hate us. You just never know when a woman might find a man asleep and seize the opportunity to cut his balls off.… Read the rest