I get the point, and it’s not wrong, but.

First, the issue isn’t the victory for the people who voted for him, the issue is the victory for him.

Second, and more urgent, the issue isn’t that the people who voted for him are clearly stupid and evil, the issue is that HE is clearly stupid and evil, especially the evil part. The issue is why do so many people embrace such a blatantly obviously unmistakably horrible person? One with no redeeming qualities? Honestly it’s hard to find people with no redeeming qualities at all – there’s usually something – good jokes or a bit of charm or occasional generous impulses. Something.

So yeah. It does bother me – profoundly – that so many people love such a howling wilderness of awful.

Whatever else happens, people will still be punished for violations of The Orthodoxy.

A female footballer with suspected autism has been hit with a six-match ban after asking a “bearded” transgender opponent: “Are you a man?”

The 17-year-old cried as she was found guilty of “discrimination” by a national serious case panel over remarks made during a match against a trans-inclusive club.

Serious case forsooth. About as unserious as it gets, if you ask me. Do I think the bearded opponent was genuinely wounded in his feelings? No I do not.

The panel is understood to have found the young woman repeatedly asked whether the alleged victim was a man after she had already been informed the opponent was transgender.

Yes, and? “The opponent is transgender” doesn’t answer the question, now does it.

That hearing was branded “farcical” by one of those present on the call, who said the alleged victim was repeatedly “misgendered” as “he” by panel members, and was also said to have been asked repeatedly: “How many LGBQT+ players do you have in your team?”

Her parents were outraged both by the hearing and the outcome, with her mother telling Telegraph Sport: “We’ve always taught our daughter to ask questions, and if she doesn’t feel comfortable or she doesn’t feel safe then she should go to somebody in charge and ask the question. In safeguarding training at places of work, you’re always told that you should question everything but she’s been told and effectively sanctioned by the FA for doing so. She asked, ‘Are you a man?’, and she admitted to that. The FA is essentially saying that no woman, when faced with what appears to be a male on the pitch, is entitled to ask a question.”

Yes, the FA is saying that and trans ideology in general is saying that, loudly, angrily, often. Women are not allowed to avoid men in any situation or setting whatsoever.

Behold – a piece of good news on this day of horror. Roz Adams wins £70,000 and a public apology from Edinburgh Bully Rape Victims Centre.

A trauma specialist has been awarded almost £70,000 and won a public apology from the rape crisis charity who forced her out of her job in a row over women-only spaces.

The payment to Roz Adams was twice the anticipated figure and came after a tribunal found she was the victim of a “heresy hunt” at Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC), where her “sex realist” beliefs were at odds with those of Mridul Wadhwa, the trans activist who was the centre’s chief executive.

The trans activist and man.

Adams suffered harassment after she stood up for a female victim who wanted assurances she would receive counselling from a woman, with Wadhwa identified as the “invisible hand” behind the counsellor’s persecution.

For 16 months under Wadhwa, who identifies as a trans woman but has no gender recognition certificate, the ERCC had no women-only spaces. Referrals to the centre have been paused while its safeguarding procedures are revamped.

Honestly the fact that Wadhwa has no gender recognition certificate is really beside the point. I know it’s not beside the point legally, but in terms of reality, it is. You can’t change sexes with a certificate. You can’t do it at all, and claiming to be able to do it with a certificate is like claiming you can do it with a paper clip or a bottle-opener or a tablespoon of baking soda.

At an earlier redress hearing, Adams argued that Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS), the umbrella organisation for 17 centres across Scotland, was at fault for failing to have a clear definition of “woman”. She urged the tribunal to make a ruling that would affect centres nationally.

McFatridge declined to make a ruling with wider implications. He said: “It is clear … that this is an area where people hold strong beliefs and individuals on both sides of the argument hold strong views that the other side are wrong or misguided or indeed that these opposing beliefs are dangerous.”

Well, yes, but that seems beside the point. Legally speaking maybe it’s not, but ontologically speaking it is. People can hold strong views about anything, and they can simply be wrong, including obviously blatantly undeniably wrong. People who think what sex a person is is a matter of self-declaration as opposed to a brute fact are just wrong. It doesn’t matter how strong their belief is, it matters how well it maps onto the reality.

Strength of belief surely just can’t be a criterion in law, can it? When humans are notoriously able to believe any damn thing they feel like believing?

All right. At such times one must cling to any consolation one can find.

The consolation here is that Sultana is an MP, which is not as disgusting as the return of DT, but it’s still very disgusting, and not our fault.

It’s not looking good.

Harris needs Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, and it doesn’t look as if she’s going to get them.

Return of the Toad. I can’t stand it.

Trump finishes his campaign by calling Nancy Pelosi an evil sick crazy bitch.

Standing at his final rally of the 2024 campaign, former President Donald J. Trump in the first minutes after midnight on Election Day used a crude sexist remark to attack Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker who is one of his longstanding political rivals.

“She’s a bad person,” Mr. Trump said at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Mich. “Evil. She’s an evil, sick, crazy —” He made an exaggerated face, his mouth open wide to draw attention to the next syllable: “Bi—”

Then he held up a finger dramatically, feigning that he’d caught himself. “Oh no,” he said. As the crowd of thousands began laughing, Mr. Trump mouthed the word into the microphone. “It starts with a B, but I won’t say it,” Mr. Trump added. “I want to say it.”

As the crowd roared even louder, some of the attendees began to supply the word he’d barely omitted, shouting, “Bitch!”

Hawhawhaw. I bet quite a few of them went home and punched the first female human they saw.

Mr. Trump has used misogynistic language to refer to Vice President Kamala Harris and has fostered an environment at his rallies where speakers and attendees feel comfortable making the kind of gendered insults that, in another political era, would have been unthinkable to say in public.

He’s normalized abusive misogynistic insults (as well as racist ones). That’s his legacy.

Mr. Trump has argued that Ms. Harris, who would be the first female president if she wins, lacks the stamina and intelligence to lead the country. He appeared to embrace a remark shouted by a rallygoer that insinuated Ms. Harris was a prostitute. And he voiced some approval of an audience member’s idea to put Ms. Harris in the ring with the boxer Mike Tyson.

In Reading, Pa., Mr. Trump was telling an off-topic aside on Monday about Mr. Tyson when a man in the crowd used it as an opportunity to demean Ms. Harris. “Oh, he says, ‘Put Mike in the ring with Kamala,’” Mr. Trump said. “That will be interesting.” The crowd cheered.

He’s trash. Here’s hoping we can dump him at last.

Well, now, if you can’t or won’t define it, then why are you making policy and laws about it? How are you providing services to it if you don’t know (or refuse to say) what it is? Please explain.

Remember Dr Johanna Olson-Kennedy, who buried evidence that puberty blockers don’t reduce gender dysphoria?

She may end up regretting it.

The finding that the PUBERTY BLOCKERS don’t make children with gender distress less distressed “might be weaponized” – i.e. might prompt medical people to stop blocking children’s puberties on account of how it doesn’t make them any less unhappy. It seems Olsen-Kennedy wants the children to keep on not having a normal puberty even though she now knows it won’t make them less unhappy. “Oh, it doesn’t work? Well, we have to keep doing it anyway, or the bad people will win.”

You’d have thought the whole point was to make the kids less unhappy, right? But oh no. The point was…uh…the point was to normalize blocking puberty, so that more and more kids will do it, even though it won’t make them any less miserable.

So now I know this is a thing.

Sigh. President of Humanists UK.

I guess women aren’t human enough.

Hmm.

Iowa.

I was waiting outside the PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte, North Carolina after Vice President Kamala Harris’s rally when my phone started to blow up. Ann Selzer, the vaunted pollster of Iowa, had just dropped a poll showing that Harris was leading Trump by three points in the Hawkeye State — a state Trump had won twice. Everyone in the political world wanted to talk about it.

The Trump campaign knew how bad this news looked. Tony Fabrizio and Tim Saler, the Trump campaign’s data men, released a memo challenging the findings almost immediately.

Not long afterwards, a New York Times/Siena College poll showed Harris leading in North Carolina, as well as Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin. If Harris wins all four, she would not even need to win Pennsylvania, Arizona or Michigan in order to win the entire election.

Interesting.

30 hours or so and we’ll know.

Wait a second.

I’m reading an article about heterodoxy and how goony both the left and the right can be and yadda yadda but then I stumble to a stop.

Until recently, within the heterodox slice of the cultural spectrum, opposition to Trump was the obvious response to his singularly reckless and destabilizing political presence. The number of self-described centrist “Never Trumpers”—starting with Trump’s current running mate, who once compared him in this magazine to “cultural heroin”—were legion. But as the race tightened in recent months, I’ve been struck by a palpable shift in attitude among many liberal and centrist voices—a slackening of vigilance, and a softening on Trump.

This is not to be confused with the 180-degree pivot of prominent MAGA converts such as Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and Bill Ackman, as well as writers and journalists such as Naomi Wolf—erstwhile Democrats who’ve become outright Trump fans. What I observed this past summer, as Joe Biden’s campaign self-immolated and Kamala Harris seized the nomination, was a more general exhaustion among many heterodox thinkers, and a disinclination to support the alternative to Trump that was now on offer. Harris, many agree, is not an ideal candidate. But given the enormous stakes, I wanted to understand how anyone not already ensorcelled by the cult of MAGA could hesitate to support her.

I just can’t understand that – that disinclination. I can’t understand even if you think her policies are worse than whatever actual “policies” Trump favors.

The reason I can’t understand it is (as I keep saying, to the point of tedium) because he’s such a horrible human being in every way. I couldn’t vote for him even if he had better policies. Or at least I can’t imagine doing so – maybe if the reality were different I would change my mind, but here and now, I can’t imagine ever voting for him because he is such a pulsating tower of mindless sadistic cackling greedy self-dealing ruthless vengeful horror.

How do “heterodox” types manage to see him any other way?

Despite his fears of Trump’s fascist tendencies, [Coleman] Hughes found the reality of the Trump administration much less dramatic. “He governed a lot more like a normal Republican,” he said. “In fact, many of his policies would be seen as not right-wing enough.” He’s learned, he told me, to “discount” much of what Trump says: “It’s basically just his businessman instinct. He literally talks about this in The Art of the Deal. You start by saying something crazy, and then you walk your way back to a point of leverage in negotiations.”

No. Wrong. You can’t “discount” what he says, because what he says is what he says. I don’t care what he says in his ghostwritten book; the point is that people at the apex of government shouldn’t say horrible sadistic bullying dangerous crap. Nobody should ever “discount” a head of state who does that – especially one who does it every waking minute of every day. He’s a bad man. It’s a terrible mistake to install a bad person as head of state.

In 2020, Hughes voted for Biden, whom he viewed as a moderate liberal and a politician with a record of reaching across the aisle. This is not at all how he perceives Harris, whom he sees as aligned with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, and “deeply destructive to the long-term flourishing of the country.” When it comes to foreign policy, “I haven’t seen even a 10-second clip of her impressing me by analyzing anything going on in the world related to geopolitics, foreign conflicts and so forth,” he told me. “I have basically zero signals of her competency as a manager or executive.”

While Trump, on the other hand?

I give up.

So. It’s in the news that Imane Khelif is indeed a man. Also, dogs can’t read.

Maybe now men will stop saying women should be beaten up for saying a man is not a woman?

No, of course not, now it will be women should be beaten up for getting it right too early, kind of like the premature anti-fascists of last century.

Baddy Kennedy in charge of public health: now there’s a plan.

Donald Trump suggested vaccines could be banned if he becomes president, in the clearest sign yet of a radical shake-up in public health policy should he put his ally Robert F Kennedy Jr in charge of it.

Trump on Sunday told NBC that Kennedy, the anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist and former independent candidate who dropped out and endorsed Trump, would have a “big role in the administration” if [he] wins Tuesday’s presidential election. Trump said he would talk to Kennedy about vaccinations.

Why? Why talk to Dumb Kennedy about vaccinations? He’s not a doctor or a researcher so why talk to him? Why treat a public health issue as a political football instead of a public health issue?

Kennedy has repeatedly claimed that childhood vaccines cause autism, a theory scientists have debunked. He has also said in recent days that Trump has promised him control over a broad range of public health agencies if he returns to the White House, potentially putting him in a position to implement his most radical theories.

Trump did not contradict that claim and held open the possibility of banning certain vaccines. “Well, I’m going to talk to him and talk to other people, and I’ll make a decision, but he’s a very talented guy and has strong views,” the Republican nominee told NBC.

One, no, he’s not very talented, two, strong views are not what’s needed on technical questions.

Howard Lutnick, the co-chair of Trump’s campaign, gave further credence to the weight Kennedy’s views might carry in an administration when he told CNN that he could be given access to federal data on vaccines safety. He also appeared to endorse Kennedy’s opinions on the supposed risks of vaccines.

“He says, ‘If you give me the data, all I want is the data, and I’ll take on the data and show that it’s not safe,’” Lutnick said. “Let’s give him the data. I think it’ll be pretty cool to give him the data. Let’s see what he comes up with. I think it’s pretty fun.”

Ah yes, that’s what destroying public health is, it’s “pretty fun.”

Trump is publicly saying he thinks “leaving” after losing an election is optional. In other words he’s saying that if you lose a re-election it’s up to you whether you “leave” or not. He’s wrong. If you lose a re-election then leaving is mandatory. That’s the point of the election.

By the way there are other situations where leaving is mandatory. Say friends invite you over for dinner. At some point after the dinner part, you have to leave. Inviting you over for dinner is not the same as inviting you to move in. There is some wiggle-room – in fact it would be bad form to swallow your final bite and then immediately rise and head for the door. But it’s wiggle-room, it’s not “stay forever if you want.”

With two days left in his third presidential campaign, former President Donald J. Trump told supporters at a Pennsylvania rally on Sunday that he “shouldn’t have left” the White House at the end of his term, escalated his unfounded claims of voter fraud, and said “I don’t mind” if reporters are shot at.

With the remarks, Mr. Trump used the final days of his campaign to offer voters a stark reminder of the violence that came at the end of his term when, after weeks of his false claims that he had won an election he had lost, a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol to try to prevent the certification of President Biden’s victory.

And yet he was allowed to run for the same office again. This country is badly broken.

On Sunday, at an airport in Lititz, Pa., Mr. Trump diverted from a closing argument about the stakes of the race with Vice President Kamala Harris and instead, his voice audibly hoarse and his speech sluggish, indulged in his personal grievances as he called the Democratic Party “demonic.”

No you are.

Reflecting on the state of border security at the end of his tenure, Mr. Trump said he regretted ever leaving office.

“I shouldn’t have left, I mean, honestly,” Mr. Trump said, adding, “we did so well, we had such a great—” and then cut himself off. 

After openly announcing he wants to be an unelected dictator. He wants to force himself on us the way he likes to force himself on women. The force in both cases isn’t a regrettable necessity to get what he wants, it’s much of the thrill of the thing. He likes forcing himself on people who don’t want him. Bullying takes him to his happy place.

Trump in cognitive decline:

When I say insane asylums, and then I say, Doctor Hannibal Lecter, does anybody know? They go crazy. They say, oh, he brings up these names out of— Well, that’s genius. Right. Doctor Hannibal Lecter. There’s nobody worse than him. Silence of the Lambs. Who the hell else would even remember that? I have a great memory, but they always hit me. I don’t bring it up too much because they have to take such a— he brought up Hannibal Lecter. What does that have to do with this? What is it? It has everything to do with it, right? He was – that’s who we’re allowing into our country, and, we don’t want to allow that into our countries, so I’ve done something for you for you that I haven’t done in 20 speeches. I brought up Doctor Hannibal Lecter and we’re allowing him, you watch, you watch these fake people will say again, he brought up Hannibal Lecter has absolutely nothing to do. You know I do the weave, right? The weave. It’s genius. You bring up Hannibal Lecter, you mention insane asylum. Hannibal Lecter. You go out, no. There’ll be a time in life where the weave won’t finish properly at the bottom and then we can talk. But right now it’s pure genius. Hey, I have an uncle, my uncle, Uncle John, my father’s brother, 41 years at MIT, longest serving professor has so many degrees, he didn’t know what the hell to do with them all in the most complicated. I understand a lot of this stuff, you know, I believe in that. Like, I mean, Jack Nicklaus is not gonna produce a bad golfer. Right. You know, that’s the way it works. It’s just one of those things and it’s in the family and it’s whatever

Originally a comment by Mostly Cloudy on It’s more than just a habit, it’s an aesthetic.

It does make me laugh that the article says today’s teenagers and twentysomethings are taking up smoking to “rebel”.

This is a generation that panics when someone uses the term “adult human female”.

This is a generation that bullies a writer (Elizabeth Gilbert) into withdrawing a book that’s set in Russia in the 1900s, because they think that the book is somehow pro-Putin.

This is a generation that has “challenging” books removed from their university courses because the rich little snowflakes are so easily triggered.

“Rebel?” The majority of today’s youth are conformist, philistine and easily offended. Somehow, we’ve raised a generation of Mary Whitehouses.

Laura Nyro and Joe Strummer wouldn’t recognise today’s pampered identarians, who love cigarettes but fear thought and action.

From the Sheer Unadulterated Stupidity Files: Hay kidz smoaking iz bakk.

…singers, actors and influencers seem to be bringing smoking back into vogue – quite literally, with cigarettes making a return as on the New York Fashion Week runways earlier this year as accessories.

So, why are cigarettes being glamorised again?

Lucy, a 20-year-old university student, says she took up smoking recently because “it’s just what everyone does”. Almost all her friends also smoke and she says it’s more than just a habit, it’s an aesthetic.

“I definitely think everyone trying to be brat has influenced people to start smoking because Charli herself says you have to have a pack of cigs if you really want to embody the vibe.”

Hunh hunh hunh yeah and if Charli herself takes a nap in the middle of a freeway you should do that too, right? Embody the vibe, maaaaan.

Journalist Olivia Petter says the cigarette has become a symbol that represents our nostalgia towards a bygone era of carefreeness, frivolity and hedonism and it’s making an comeback in pop culture.

You what now? Setting a dried plant on fire and putting it in your mouth is carefreeness, frivolity and hedonism? An addictive poisonous fire stick is luxurious fun?

Jessica, a 26-year-old who works in marketing, says smoking has “become so normalised again”.

“I didn’t know anyone that smoked a few years ago but now it seems like everyone is doing it and you sort of forget how bad it is for you.”

Well, if you’re really really stupid you do.

In the end the BBC admits it’s just bullshitting.

But, overall, the number of young people smoking is declining – official estimates show that fewer than one out of every 10 young adults in the UK smoke cigarettes – a steep drop from a quarter of 18-24-year-olds 12 years ago.

So smoking is making a comeback except that it’s not. Brilliant journalism.

The NY Times editorial board concisely sums up the bad guy:

You already know Donald Trump. He is unfit to lead. Watch him. Listen to those who know him best. He tried to subvert an election and remains a threat to democracy. He helped overturn Roe, with terrible consequences. Mr. Trump’s corruption and lawlessness go beyond elections: It’s his whole ethos. He lies without limit. If he’s re-elected, the G.O.P. won’t restrain him. Mr. Trump will use the government to go after opponents. He will pursue a cruel policy of mass deportations. He will wreak havoc on the poor, the middle class and employers. Another Trump term will damage the climate, shatter alliances and strengthen autocrats. Americans should demand better. Vote.

They left something out though.

He’s just bad. He’s a bad human. He’s thoroughly awful in just about every way one can think of. (Can you think of any exceptions? Is he funny? Nice to children? Loyal? Honest? Charming?) The result is he’s an inspiration to thoroughly awful people to be even more awful. He’s a role model for how to be a complete shit. He’s a bully, he’s cruel, he’s greedy, he’s ungrateful, he’s vain, he’s a liar – and on and on. He’s poisonous, and it’s degrading and demoralizing to have him squatting in the top job.

OutKick reports:

As OutKick reported earlier Saturday, San Jose State suspended associate head volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose. 

The university sent a statement to OutKick confirming the news, but did not provide a reason. “The associate head coach of the San Jose State University women’s volleyball team is not with the team at this time, and we will not provide further information on this matter.” 

Batie-Smoose filed a Title IX complaint against the school earlier this week alleging that San Jose State showed favoritism for transgender player Blaire Fleming at the expense of the women on the team. 

Following her suspension, Batie-Smoose spoke exclusively to OutKick. 

“We had a match today at 12 p.m. [Pacific Time] versus New Mexico. I was there at 10:15 a.m. [because] we were scheduled to take court at 10:30 for our pass and serve time,” Batie-Smoose recounted. 

“I walked into the building and was walking up the stairs to the gym, and I was met by administration, who asked me to step outside [and speak privately].” At that point, SJSU officials informed Batie-Smoose that she was suspended indefinitely, effective immediately, and forced to turn over her keys and school ID. 

She was not allowed to gather her belongings from her office, told to leave campus immediately, and instructed not to return to campus until further notice. “They said I would have to contact personnel at a later date to get into my office to get any of my belongings,” she said. 

In short they treated her like a criminal.

Officials handed her an envelope with the notice of her suspension and instructed her not to speak with the media or any of the players on the San Jose State volleyball team. 

But Batie-Smoose said she wanted to speak to OutKick, despite the mandate. “This is just another form of what San Jose State has been trying to do – silence people that are speaking up for their First Amendment rights and for what’s right,” she said. 

All for the sake of letting males invade and thus ruin women’s sports.

H/t Dave Ricks