New York lawyer Lloyd Green on Trump’s bust:

The question now looms whether the nation will face Trump-incited violence as a result. The former president threatened “death and destruction” if charged. In a now infamous social media post targeting the Black district attorney Alvin Bragg, Trump depicted himself brandishing a baseball bat at the District Attorney, and called him as an “animal” and “degenerate psychopath”.

That’s where I had to pause reading in order to find the post and share it.

The drumbeat continues. Next month, Trump stands trial for defamation and sexual assault. He faces a civil suit brought in New York by E Jean Carroll. Unlike his purported relationship with Daniels, this case centers on rape and degradation.

Carroll contends that a quarter of a century ago Trump attacked her in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store. He parried that she was not his “type”. But at a recent deposition, he mistook her for Marla Maples, his second wife, raising questions about his credibility and mental acuity.

The Trump-Carroll square-off will also provide the country with another opportunity to revisit history. Her lawyers will probably play the infamous Access Hollywood tape. “When you’re a star, they let you do it,” Trump said on a hot mic. “You can do anything.”

If they don’t play it they’re crazy.

Separately, a New York judge has refused to delay a $250m civil fraud action commenced by the state against Trump, his three older children and the Trump Organization, the family business. The October 2023 trial date is “written in stone”, Judge Arthur Engoron said last week.

Maybe, just maybe, the Republicans should try to get a non-criminal to run for president next time. Just a thought.

Senator Rand Paul, the self-styled libertarian, calls for Bragg’s arrest. Marjorie Taylor Greene demands that George Soros, foreign-born and a Bragg-backer, be stripped of his US citizenship.

Law and order! No, wait. Special rules for our crook! Yeah, that’s it.

Jeezus, I missed this. Last week Trump posted a photo of himself with a baseball bat next to a head and shoulders photo of Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan DA.

Will this nightmare ever end?

The indictment is on.

Members of Congress reacted to news of former President Trump’s indictment by a Manhattan grand jury with a mixture of shock, outrage, fear, uncertainty and celebration.

It’s the first time in U.S. history a former president has been indicted — a shock to the 2024 election and a move likely to harden pro- and anti-Trump sentiments well beyond Washington.

You know, there’s a reason for that – most former presidents hadn’t committed multiple crimes, some of them in full public view. Mind you there have been some very iffy ones – Grant and Harding to name two, plus of course Nixon. But the florid array of Trump’s crimes, the many decades they have behind them, the accompanying fact that he did his best to steal an election – it all adds up to make him Top Crook.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), a close Trump ally, is already fundraising off the anger around the indictment.

• “THIS JUST IN: PRESIDENT TRUMP HAS BEEN INDICTED,” reads a text from his campaign, calling it “unfair on so many levels.”
• The text includes a link to a WinRed page that says Trump was indicted “for being a patriot.”

No, that’s not it.

New Zealand Greens co-leader and Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence Marama Davidson is asked what she thinks of the violent “protests” at the Let Women Speak rally.

She says it very smugly, too, and concludes with “transphobia is not welcome here!”

So it’s ok for a man who claims to be a woman to assault a woman, because the man claims to be a woman? Violence from cis men is bad but violence from men who claim to be women is good? According to the Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence? So, if a married man decides he’s a woman and his wife objects it’s fine if he knocks her about?

Davidson appears to be slightly drunk on her own superiority.

Alarm bell in the night.

Yes! So true! Except for the fact that it hasn’t happened and isn’t happening, so in fact you don’t and can’t know that your claimed outcome is what will happen, so in fact, you’re just blathering about your deranged fantasies.

Other than that, good sound reasoning!

Andrew Tettenborn in The Spectator last July:

Sex offences, violence and fraud have spiked, according to the latest crime figures. Meanwhile, the number of convictions remains staggeringly low: in England and Wales, more than 99 per cent of rapes reported to police do not end in a conviction.

And yet the police still have ample time to punish us for knowing that men are not women.

The College of Policing, the national standards body for police, has said that officers need to focus on cutting crime, take a common sense approach and ‘not get involved in debates on Twitter’. Police have been told to avoid recording trivial incidents and reduce the number of ‘non-crime hate incidents’ (NCHI). In short, this means anything said or done by anyone which the victim (or anyone else) saw as being motivated by hostility or prejudice based on race or a protected characteristic, even if it didn’t amount to a crime. Of course, this comes too late for the 120,000 people in the past five years who were recorded by police even though their behaviour did not meet the criminal threshold. An enhanced CRB check could still flag up exiting non-crime hate incidents, meaning that these people could find their hopes of obtaining sensitive employment jeopardised. 

It also comes too late for Harry Miller, a retired policeman. Back in 2019, someone complained that his tweets on gender recognition went too far; he was visited by police, who told him that although he had committed no offence, they had to ‘check your thinking’. Refreshingly bloody-minded, he sued. Just before Christmas last year, the Court of Appeal said the police guidance behind the practice was unlawful, as it was disproportionate and an undue fetter on freedom of expression.

Not to mention just plain crazy. Punishing people for thinking, saying, writing that men are not women is grotesque.

Shaneel Lal today:

Trans activist Shaneel Lal believes their Young New Zealander of the Year award may receive some online backlash, but said the win is a result of hard work, not to, “fill a diversity quota”.

Lal, 22, who was an instrumental figure in the fight to have conversion therapy banned in New Zealand, was celebrated at the 2023 New Zealander of the Year awards at Auckland’s Cordis Hotel on Thursday night.

Shaneel Lal writing in the NZ Herald five days ago:

Aucklanders and New Zealanders from many parts of the country showed up and showed out.

Keen-Minshull’s minute group of supporters were outnumbered by counter-protests who attended wearing the trans flag colours and carrying signs in support of trans people and condemning Keen-Minshull’s transphobia. Keen-Minshull left Albert Park without saying a single word.

Auckland – I cannot thank you enough. Yesterday, you made me feel like I belong. You made me feel like I can live as my true self in this city. You showed me that I do not need to go back into hiding.

The cops are doing what now?

Hey. How about a day of WOMEN visibility?

But no, don’t be stupid. Women are horrible. No one wants women being visible. Trans people are the only decent people…along with men of course.

Kellie-Jay in The Spectator:

The turn towards violence came in Melbourne at our largest gathering. The police had done a pretty fine job of protecting women with buffer zones between us and the rabid trans activists. But this gathering included competing groups of woman-hating losers: trans incels to the left of me and Nazis to the right, and here we were stuck in the middle and blamed by the media and politicians for the Nazi salute that occurred. I’ve been asked following that incident whether I have sympathies with the far right, but seriously, who does? It’s a vile ideology and frankly anyone convinced by it in 2023 is pathetic. John Pesutto, the leader of the Liberals in Victoria, repeated dangerous lies about me and suspended Moira Deeming MP from his party for her association with me.

Much liberal, very freedom of thought and utterance.

This storm gathered pace and in New Zealand it was magnified a hundredfold. There was a case brought to the high court to try to stop me entering the country and their media started a constant spew of lies, insisting I was a dangerous anti-trans Nazi. At the border I had a two-hour interrogation and search, one hotel cancelled my reservation, and in another a threatening note was slid under my door while I slept. I had been told I would be protected by the police. That couldn’t have been further from the truth.

It’s interesting (though tragically not surprising) that the news media worked up the mob by telling lies about her.

The big event, the one that has been in the news, was in Auckland, and the minute I arrived I felt rising fear. As the car pulled up I could see the thousands gathered to oppose me. My security gathered around me and we pushed through the hateful mob to the centre, where the local organisers and attendees were who had come to speak. Where were the police? Not one officer was in that crowd; not one officer was there to protect the brave women who turned up. Within seconds a man had tipped tomato soup all over my head. I continued to live-stream. But over the next few minutes the mob took on a life of its own. A frenzy grew until it was a deafening swell, a modern-day ‘Burn the witch’. Men started ripping down the barriers and charging forward. ‘The police aren’t coming,’ said my head of security. ‘We have to get you out.’ This meant placing me in the centre of my security and some stewards, women who had volunteered to help, pushed through the baying mob. As we moved, we stumbled. I knew that a body on a floor is fair game and ripe for stomping and kicking. When we eventually got to the outer edge of the park, the police did step in and helped get me to a car. They took me to the nearest police station where I was guarded for six hours before I had an escort of three officers to the airport. They didn’t leave until my plane took off.

There you have it – the police abandoned her to the screaming [yes, fascist in the literal sense] mob. It’s beyond belief.

That day I was told emphatically by each police officer and security that had I fallen I would have been killed. Women were injured that day, women who you may never hear about. You will never know their names. They didn’t get to hop on a plane and leave; they have to stay and live in a country that has told them their lives are not worth protecting.

It’s a horror.

Rubashkyn is on the lam.

Information on Rubashkyn’s charge was first reported by Newsable, which received a statement from Rubashkyn where he again claimed the assault and suggested he was comfortable facing justice.

“I did assault her and I will do it again,” he said. “And if I need to be 10 years in prison I’m happy to be 10 years in prison.”

But despite his words, Rubashkyn fled New Zealand shortly after being made aware that police were planning on issuing a warrant for his arrest on charges of assault.

So he’s confident that the NZ police won’t tell the NY police about his flight from the law?

During the space, Rubashkyn made a number of anti-lesbian, racist, sexist, and violent remarks, including that trans-identified males were the “first victims” of the Holocaust.

“Trans women were the first victims of Nazism. Trans women were killed before the Jews were sent to concentration camps,” he said, continuing: “In the 1930s, Nazis relied on TERFs to promote hate… TERFs became holders of concentration camps for females. TERFs were quite instrumental in the system that the Nazis built for making more babies… to keep Nazi Germany growing.”

Nope. Not a word of that is true. Slaaaay.

This doesn’t sound good at all.

Deep ocean currents around Antarctica headed for collapse, study finds

Cold water that sinks near Antarctica drives the deepest flow of the overturning circulation—a network of currents that spans the world’s oceans. The overturning carries heat, carbon, oxygen and nutrients around the globe. This influences climate, sea level and the productivity of marine ecosystems.

“Our modeling shows that if global carbon emissions continue at the current rate, then the Antarctic overturning will slow by more than 40 percent in the next 30 years—and on a trajectory that looks headed towards collapse,” says Prof England.

…

With a collapse of this deep ocean current, the oceans below 4000 meters would stagnate.

“This would trap nutrients in the deep ocean, reducing the nutrients available to support marine life near the ocean surface,” says Prof England.

So everything that lives on the nutrients will starve, so everything that lives on everything that lives on the nutrients will starve. I have a feeling that’s a lot of animals, including human ones.

Huh. Has SWR ever painted a train to signify inclusion of women?

It seems that suddenly the trans movement has bumped up against a boundary.

Twitter says it has removed thousands of tweets showing a poster promoting a “trans day of vengeance” protest in support of transgender rights in Washington, D.C., on Saturday.

Ella Irwin, Twitter’s head of Trust and Safety, said in a tweet Wednesday that the company automatically removed more than 5,000 tweets and retweets of a poster promoting the event.

“We do not support tweets that incite violence irrespective of who posts them. “Vengeance” does not imply peaceful protest. Organizing or support for peaceful protests is ok,” Irwin wrote in the tweet.

But trans activists don’t know from peaceful protest. They feel entitled and aggrieved, and they’ve been warmly encouraged to feel that for a good few years. Don’t talk to them about peaceful protest when there are women still walking around who freely say they don’t believe trans women are women.

But trans activists were quick to point out that “trans day of vengeance” is a meme that has been around in the trans community for years and is not a call to violence — and said Twitter is misguided in its reasoning behind removing the tweets in support of the protest.

On its website, the group organizing Saturday’s protest said it does not condone violence.

…

“Vengeance means fighting back with vehemence,” the protest’s organizers wrote on their website. “We are fighting against false narratives, criminalization, and eradication of our existence.”

Uh huh, “with vehemence” like getting people fired and shunned, trashing women’s sports, going off like a siren every five minutes, demanding the whole world pay attention to your non-existent plight…and when you’re in the mood, plain old everyday violence. Just ask Fred Sargeant.

Important business.

LAUREN BOEBERT WAYLAID a congressional hearing on crime in the nation’s capital on Wednesday by repeatedly grilling D.C. City Council Member Charles Allen on what she insisted were efforts to decriminalize public urination. 

“Did you or did you not decriminalize public urination in Washington D.C.,” Boebert asked.

“No we did not,” replied Allen.

“Did you lead the charge to do so?” Boebert rephrased. 

“No, the revised criminal code left that as a criminal charge,” Allen answered. 

Did you “lead the charge” – what a dopy question.

The exchange continued for some time, with Boebert asking different variations of “Do you support peeing in public?”and Allen attempting to clarify that taking a piss on the sidewalk remains illegal in D.C. 

“The legislation that you are referring to, that came from the criminal code reform commission, changed public urination from a criminal to a civil offense. The council then changed that [back] to maintain it a criminal offense, at the request of the mayor,” Allen explained when able to get a word in. 

…

Boebert has personal experience with crime related to indecent exposure. In 2004, her husband, Jason Boebert, pleaded guilty and served jail time after exposing himself to two women at a bowling alley, one of whom was underage. 

Well yeh but that’s completely different. Completely.

Have the sick bag nearby.

You know…if all this nonsense they tell the kids is true, why don’t the kids already know it? Why haven’t their parents been telling them it all along? Why are they being told it only now when they’re eight or nine years old? Why don’t they already know all about it via their parents’ many trans friends? Why don’t they already know about it from their own friends whose parents are trans? Why don’t they know about it from their trans classmates? It couldn’t be because it’s all bullshit could it?

Sigh.

I see this, so must investigate.

What? Who? What?

Oh. Josselyn Berry is the press secretary to Katie Hobbs, the governor of Arizona. Yes that’s a good look, offering to shoot feminist women who don’t believe men can be women. Solidarity forever yadda yadda.

Update: she’s resigned.

Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ spokesperson has resigned amid controversy over a social media post suggesting violence posted hours after the deadly shooting at a Nashville school on Monday.

The Governor’s Office confirmed Wednesday that Press Secretary Josselyn Berry resigned from her job and Hobbs accepted the resignation.

Any apology I wonder?

The controversial tweet included a clip from the 1980 movie “Gloria,” featuring actress Gena Rowlands with a handgun in each hand pacing forward a few steps. “Us when we see transphobes,” Berry wrote in the post sharing the image.

Berry posted earlier in the day Monday about transgender rights and progressive politics, saying if you “work in the progressive community and are transphobic, you’re not progressive.” It is unclear what she was referring to.

And of course as always it’s unclear what she means by “transphobic.” It’s not “phobic” to think people can’t change sex.

The AP put out a fake news warning.

CLAIM: A photo of a person holding a sign featuring pink, blue and white guns and the words “trans rights… or else” shows the shooter who killed six people at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The person who took this photograph confirmed it was captured in Oklahoma City before news of the Nashville shooting was widespread. It does not show the shooter.

THE FACTS: The photo circulated widely online after the police chief identified the shooter as transgender in a late afternoon news conference on Monday. Police had previously identified the shooter as female.

“This is the trans shooter, Audrey Hale,” read one tweet shared thousands of times. “The Feds are in the middle of trying to scrub ALL of her social media & pictures from the internet.”

The tweet claimed the shooter was a “terrorist” who wanted to kill Christians, “as the sign makes clear.”

However, the person holding the sign in the image is not the shooter who opened fire at The Covenant School, killing three students and three adults.

So. Not a photo of the shooter. But. Is a photo of someone threatening mass shooting.

Oli has images of the shirt.

Now that’s what I call a grift.

Guy puts on a dress, gets $26,000.

Good move.

The government is planning on banning a cosmetic surgery called hymenoplasty across the UK.

It attempts to recreate a woman’s hymen, which in some cultures is linked to virginity, and has been described as a form of honour-based abuse. The procedure will be criminalised, as will virginity testing.

…

Hymenoplasty is available in clinics and can cost up to £3,000. The procedure recreates a thin membrane known as the hymen which partially covers the entrance to the vagina. It is often done as a way to “repair” a hymen.

Because without that there hymen all you’ve got is a slut.

A woman’s hymen can tear for all sorts of reasons and not just through sexual intercourse, for instance through playing sports or using tampons.

The practice of hymenoplasty is linked to conservative cultures which place a high value on virginity, with the expectation a virgin should bleed after sex on her wedding night. The WHO says virginity testing is practised in at least 20 countries. It involves an intrusive vaginal examination to check if the hymen is intact.

It’s not virginity per se, it’s female virginity. Nobody cares about male virginity – in fact for males it’s shameful to be a virgin. This is because children are women’s fault.

Aleena, whose name we have changed, said she was raped and then, as a teenager, faced years of pressure from her family to get the procedure.

Some “family.”

Another cleanup on aisle 10.

Several Agatha Christie novels have been edited to remove potentially offensive language, including insults and references to ethnicity.

Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries written between 1920 and 1976 have had passages reworked or removed in new editions published by HarperCollins to strip them of language and descriptions that modern audiences find offensive, especially those involving the characters Christie’s protagonists encounter outside the UK.

To be honest this doesn’t really outrage me all that much. Agatha Christie wasn’t a giant of literature, she was a popular mystery writer.

The updates follow edits made to books by Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming to remove offensive references to gender and race in a bid to preserve their relevance to modern readers.

Or, a bid to make it possible to read their books without flinching. Dahl is far more of a literary writer than Christie or Fleming, and I do think that makes a difference. I think I can explain why, too: Christie and Fleming are telling stories; the language is just the medium. Literary writers care about the language as well as the stories.

Among the examples of changes cited by the Telegraph is the 1937 Poirot novel Death on the Nile, in which the character of Mrs Allerton complains that a group of children are pestering her, saying that “they come back and stare, and stare, and their eyes are simply disgusting, and so are their noses, and I don’t believe I really like children”.

This has been stripped down in a new edition to state: “They come back and stare, and stare. And I don’t believe I really like children.”

But what if the racist language is there to tell us something about Mrs Allerton?

H/t Nullius in Verba