From the Bad People file:

Pam Bondi, President-elect Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Justice (DOJ), has a history of “undermining” voting rights, according to a report opposing Bondi from the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund. 

The report highlights that Bondi’s work as Florida attorney general and as chair of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) make her “unfit” for the office of U.S. attorney general.

“Ms. Bondi has a record of limiting voting rights, baselessly undermining faith in U.S. elections, and encouraging politically motivated prosecutions as an act of vengeance,” the report states.

“By contrast, DOJ has historically played a vital role in protecting the right to vote, a function that has become even more important in a post-Shelby County v. Holder era in which there has been a widespread effort across the country, particularly in the South, to limit the voting rights of Black communities and other communities of color. DOJ has also been central to the federal government’s efforts to ensure free and fair elections and to the upholding the principle of equal justice under law.”

“Ms. Bondi’s record of actively seeking to limit voting rights, coupled with her attempts to undermine the integrity of our elections by supporting President-Elect Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen, should raise grave concerns among Senators who will be tasked with considering her nomination,” the report states. 

But she’ll get the job anyway. Always expect the worst outcome, because it’s going to happen.

Catastrophize much?

More on the trans laydee actor winning a women’s award:

Spanish performer Karla Sofía Gascón, 52, starred in the Mexican musical comedy Emilia Pérez, a film about a cartel boss who transitions from a man to a woman to escape vengeful criminals.

The British Academy is the latest film body to include the transgender performer in a best actress category, following the Cannes Film Festival and the Golden Globes.

…

Gascón could become the first ever transgender best actress at the Baftas if she fends off competition from Cynthia Erivo for Wicked, Marianne Jean-Baptiste for Hard Truths, Mikey Madison for Anora, Saoirse Ronan for The Outrun, and Demi Moore for The Substance.

That’s five women potentially cheated out of an award from an industry that notoriously ignores and under-employs women.

Liverpool Anglican Cathedral and Rainbow Toffees – reach for the stars, Willoughby!

Yeah boy what could be more inspiring than India Willoughby?

The goldy spiky crown is a nice touch. Is he ascended like that Jesus fella?

The New Scientist says we’re cooked.

Hopes of keeping global warming below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels have been all but extinguished after new data confirmed 2024 was the first calendar year to see average temperatures breach that critical threshold.

Last year was the hottest ever recorded in human history, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) declared on 10 January, in the latest stark warning that humanity is pushing Earth’s climate into uncharted territory.

Ok but on the upside we have lots more people and buildings and cars and planes.

Scientists agree that the surge in temperature was caused mostly by the continuation of human-caused climate change and an El Niño weather pattern, which tends to push up global temperatures. But the scale and persistence of the heat has shocked many experts, who expected temperatures to subside once El Niño ended in May 2024. Instead, they remained at record levels throughout the rest of the year.

And as for Los Angeles County…

The world’s oceans have been most affected, with sea surface temperatures staying at record levels for most of 2024, playing havoc with marine ecosystems. The year also brought no shortage of extreme weather on land, with fierce heatwaves, sharp declines in polar ice, deadly flooding and uncontrollable wildfires. “This was a year when the impacts of climate change are right across the planet,” says David King, former chief scientific adviser to the UK government and founder of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group.

Technically, the Paris Agreement target of limiting warming to below 1.5°C is calculated using a 20-year average, so a single year above the threshold doesn’t signal a formal breach of the target. But given the pace of warming in recent years, many scientists say the long-term Paris goal is now out of reach.

“The abrupt new records set in 2023 and 2024 join other evidence that recent global warming appears to be moving faster than expected,” said Robert Rohde at Berkeley Earth in a statement. “Whether increased global warming is a temporary change or part of a new long-term trend remains to be seen. Already though the Paris Agreement target of staying below 1.5°C is unobtainable, and the long-term average will pass this milestone within the next five to 10 years.”

Elon Musk goes everywhere via private jet.

There’s nothing about this in the news, so it has to be Elon’s toy again.

Why? Why him? I do not get it.

Man “vents fury” because he’s not allowed to play on the women’s team.

Let’s all do this – it could be so entertaining. I hereby vent fury that I’m not allowed to fly around at night grabbing insects. Perhaps you would like to vent fury that you’re not allowed to roam the savannah gathering grass with your trunk.

Transgender athlete Hannah Mouncey claims the Australian women’s handball team has left her out of the world championships team because her teammates are refusing to share a change room with her. 

Excuse me, Daily Mail, but Hannah Mouncey is a man. Of course he’s not on a women’s championship team: he’s not a woman.

The 30-year-old was thrust into the spotlight in 2018 after she was blocked from playing in the Women’s AFL because she had too much testosterone to qualify for the female league.

Mouncey, who previously represented the nation in men’s handball, has since helped the Australian women’s handball team qualify for the world championship.

In other words he’s helped them cheat.

Michael Tomasky at The New Republic:

Trump will be a completely unaccountable president, then, for this very simple reason: The only three power systems capable of holding him to account—the right-wing media, Republicans in Congress, and the Supreme Court—have no interest in doing so. The mainstream media will try to hold him to account, or at least we hope it will; but the mainstream media means nothing to Trump, his party, and his base. Ditto Democrats in Congress.

I can’t imagine a single scenario in which the right-wing media or the GOP Congress or the high court will show backbone or independence. In the meantime, these three entities, especially the right-wing media, have by now been trained to immediately and reflexively aim their fire at Democrats and liberals for every single thing that may go wrong during Trump’s presidency.

We’re getting a little taste of that now. Once upon a sweet old time, the barely imaginable horror of the Los Angeles fires would have been given a little time to marinate before us as a merely human tragedy. It’s entirely appropriate to ask questions and hold leaders accountable—of course. But historically, we tend to get a few days of unified mourning before we get to that. And those days of unified mourning serve a civic and national purpose of reminding us that we are one people.

No longer. Within hours or even minutes of the fires spreading, conservatives took to social media to let the world know that there was nothing accidental or capricious about any of it—it was all the fault of Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass and, most of all, DEI, which stripped the LAFD of the kind of manly white men whom the fires would have taken one look at and retreated back to the hills in fear.

With a big assist from the loudmouth owner of TwitterX.

This is what the new Trump era will be like, and it’s what Democrats need to know they will be up against. There is a powerful disinformation and propaganda apparatus (1) for which Trump can do no wrong and (2) which, in all cases of conflict, will instantly advance a narrative, whether true or false or somewhere in between, that it’s the fault of Democrats, liberals, or the woke left. Thus the paradox of the new Trump era: The only institutions that will try to hold Trump accountable are powerless to do so, while the only ones with the power to punish him will never do it.

Four more years of futile yelling while everything goes to hell.

Won’t somebody please think of the poor stigmatized men?

Lone male travellers should be allowed to sit next to unaccompanied children on passenger planes, a discrimination tribunal has ruled. The decision comes after a man was asked to swap seats with a woman by the cabin crew of a flight travelling from Oslo to Paris in October 2022.

They told him he could not be seated next to two children travelling alone, with the policy being enforced by Air France to prevent any possibility of predatory behaviour. But the man, Dominique Sellier, filed a complaint with Norway’s anti-discrimination tribunal, which ruled that the airline’s policy was discriminatory.

Yes it is but (sorry to repeat myself) sometimes discrimination is necessary. Sometimes it’s for bad reasons but sometimes it’s not. Life is complicated that way.

According to the tribunal’s ruling late last year, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, Air France’s policy stipulates that if a flight is fully booked, a woman should “preferably” be seated next to unaccompanied minors.

And why would that be? Because sexual predators are very rarely women.

In proceedings, a lawyer for Air France argued that the crew was merely following company policy, which was based on the argument that men account for 97.93 per cent of all suspected sex crimes.

There you go. 98 percent – that’s why you don’t want to seat a child next to a male stranger on a plane.

Mr Sellier said Air France generalisation about men went too far, adding: “How can we accept this kind of suspicion because we belong to the male gender?”

By being a god damn adult, that’s how. By realizing that it’s more important not to let children be creeped on than it is to coddle the vanity of men.

What we talk about when we talk about discrimination:

Equivocation in the first degree.

The word “discrimination” has a neutral meaning and a pejorative one.

The neutral one is just knowing the differences between things. If you have to sort stones out of a bowl of peas, you have to discriminate between stones and peas.

The pejorative one is treating people harshly for bad reasons or no reason. “Whites only” signs are discrimination in action.

Euan Weddell, aka “Sophie Molly,” is pretending that knowing a man is not a woman, aka discriminating between men and women, is the pejorative kind of discrimination when of course it’s not.

Trump’s what???

Hegseth’s experience in the Army National Guard is seen by the incoming administration and supporters in Congress as an asset for the job, but he also brings a jarring record of past statements and actions, including allegations of sexual assault, excessive drinking and derisive views about women in military combat roles, minorities and “woke” generals. He has vowed not to drink alcohol if he is confirmed to lead the Pentagon. He is among the most endangered of Trump’s cabinet picks, but GOP allies are determined to turn him into a cause célèbre for Trump’s governing approach amid the nation’s culture wars.

Trump’s “governing approach”?

You mean his total lack of relevant experience and education? You mean his profound ignorance coupled with raging hostility and vindictiveness? You mean his general contempt for almost everyone? That “governing approach”?

Come on, news media. He doesn’t have a governing approach. He has an Id. He has a vast supply of grudges and hatreds, and a passion for putting them into action. It’s not about governing, it’s not about us, it’s about him and his entertainment.

Bumps in the road.

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, came under fire during his confirmation hearing on Tuesday as the top Democrat on the Senate committee accused him of lacking the “character and composure” to lead the U.S. military.

Hegseth, a former Fox News host, is one of the most controversial figures ever nominated to be Secretary of Defense. The 44-year-old has railed against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the military, questioning whether the top U.S. general has the job because he’s Black. Prior to his nomination, Hegseth strongly opposed women in combat roles.

White men are supposed to be in charge of everything. That’s just how it is.

A number of episodes from Hegseth’s past have sparked concern among lawmakers, including a 2017 sexual assault allegation that did not result in charges and which he strongly denies, and accusations of excessive drinking and financial mismanagement at veterans’ organizations.

Other than that he’s an absolute prize.

Senator Roger Wicker, the Republican who leads the committee, strongly endorsed Hegseth, saying: “Admittedly, this nomination is unconventional. The nominee is unconventional.”

Euphemism alert!

“Unconventional” can mean a lot of things. In the case of Trump and the people he appoints it means unqualified, reckless, misogynist, racist, corrupt, ignorant…

If confirmed, Hegseth could make good on Trump’s promises to rid the military of generals he accuses of pursuing progressive diversity policies. Reuters has reported that the Trump administration was drawing up a list of generals to fire.

Because only white men are good enough to do anything important.

The brainless euphemism strikes again.

Parking spaces ‘too narrow for modern vehicles’

Oh that’s what they are – not way too big, not monstrously out of proportion and dangerous to others and a boost to global warming – they’re modern. It’s so dull and old-fashioned and clueless not to drive monstrous trucks instead of small cars or god forbid just taking a damn bus.

A council is widening parking bays in some of its car parks “to accommodate the larger size of modern vehicles”. Colchester City Council is making the changes at its St Mary’s and St John’s car parks as part of a £1m improvement scheme. “Many of our city centre parking bays are underused simply because they are too narrow for modern vehicles,” said Martin Goss, portfolio holder for neighbourhood services.

That’s not “modern,” chum, that’s consumerism ratcheting everything ever upwards while the planet we live on gets less hospitable to life.

Los Angeles continues to burn.

However, officials have warned that the Santa Ana winds could return, with Cal Fire warning of “critical fire weather” through to Wednesday. In a post on BlueSky, CalFire said: “Life-threatening winds and dangerously low humidity are forecast for much of southern California – from Ventura to San Diego – creating a significant risk of rapid fire spread. The winds will cause increased fire activity.”

The death toll has risen to 24, according to the Los Angeles medical examiner, although officials acknowledge it is certain to rise. At least another 16 people are missing, according to Los Angeles county sheriff Robert Luna, who said search and rescue efforts were ongoing.

California governor Gavin Newsom said he will suspend a number of environmental laws to allow rebuilding across southern areas of the state destroyed by the wildfires. 

Yeah just fucking brilliant – suspend the laws so that houses can be built in a fire zone all over again.

That’s the opposite of what he should be doing. Pacific Palisades should be made a national park, instead.

Sall Grover makes an important point in a short essay on the “middle ground” trans woman.

There is only one actual middle ground in this madness, and it’s this: in a free society, anyone can think whatever they want about themselves. But, and this is the really important part, they cannot make anyone else participate in their own thoughts about themselves. This means no legislation compelling anyone else to participate in gender ideology, no men in women’s spaces, nothing.

And why is that? Why can’t they make anyone else participate in their own thoughts about themselves? Well first of all because they have no right to make us think anything, but besides that?

Because they are biased in their own favor, and we’re not. We’re biased in our own favor, not in theirs. That’s how this works. We all favor ourselves. That’s how we’re built. That means, along with a lot of other things, that we’re not as interested in them as we are in ourselves, and that we’re much less likely to see them through a rosy glow than we are to see ourselves that way.

Normally everybody knows that. Part of growing up is learning to keep that in mind, and try to correct for it, but there are limits. We can’t correct for it so drastically that we see our own perceptions as wacko and trans women’s as obvious truth.

Guys. We don’t see you the way you see yourselves. We don’t. We can’t. You have no right to demand that we do and can. Our perceptions belong to us, not you.

Shocker:

Florida district judge Aileen Cannon has paved the way for the Justice Department to release the first part of a special counsel’s inquiry into President-elect Donald Trump, covering the investigation and charges against Trump tied to the 2020 presidential election.

Cannon denied a motion by Trump’s former co-defendants who sought to block the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on the election interference case.

Cannon did that? Trump’s fully bought and paid for pet judge?

The DOJ has been fighting in court about whether it is allowed to publicly release a final report from Smith about his cases against Trump. Such a report is an obligatory part of the special counsel’s work, and may be the last chance for prosecutors to explain their decisions after they dropped the federal cases against Trump after he won the election. Trump was charged with election interference in Washington, D.C., and with hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort and refusing to return them to the FBI.

…

Lawyers could still appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to block the report’s release.

So we still have to keep holding our breaths.

An article on Facebook v Leo Igwe:

Earlier last week, Meta Platforms—the US-based technology conglomerate that owns Facebook—disabled Nigeria’s human rights-and-rationalism activist Leo Igwe’s Facebook account, he told Thoughtfox on January 12, Sunday, via a separate messenger system.

To his surprise, Igwe—the Nigeria-based social and educational reformer and prominent crusader against Africa’s self-styled witch hunters—had encountered a notice on his Facebook account informing him that his account had not been conforming with the platform’s ‘Community Standards’. Via Facebook’s appeal system, Igwe requested the company to reconsider its decision. His appeal was denied, prompting him to escalate it to the system’s last stage.

However, Igwe’s efforts went in vain when on January 12, he was given what reads like the final verdict by Meta Platforms on his appeals. The verdict, whose screenshot was shared by Igwe with Thoughtfox (and is posted below), states that his account had continued not to follow Meta’s ‘Community Standards on fraud and deception.’ Perhaps more important, the verdict adds the following: ‘You cannot request another review of this decision.’

Thus affirming that Facebook is a fan of literal witch-hunting and witch-torturing and witch-burning to death. However deep in bed with Trump Zuckerberg is, I really can’t see how being pro-witch hunting is an extra attraction. Trump is too busy robbing us blind to bother himself with witch-hunters or critics of witch-hunters.

Igwe is now considering his legal options within Nigeria, given that Meta Platforms has an office in Lagos. Igwe’s supporters are also planning to initiate an online campaign to press Meta Platforms to revoke its decision to disable his Facebook account, which is critical to his activist campaigns against coercive, violent witch hunters and irrationalists. When, and if, such a campaign has started, its link would be added to this report.

Send me in, Coach.

Hahahahahaha

If you type “The Vivienne” into the BBC News search box you get eight hits. Not one, not two, but eight.

The Vivienne was an ‘authentic all-round perfomer’

The Vivienne was true talent, says pride organiser

The Vivienne was truly loved, says Drag Race star

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star The Vivienne dies aged 32

How The Vivienne became a breakout star of British drag

RuPaul says heart ‘broken’ after The Vivienne’s death

The Vivienne’s family tell vigil ‘we’re so proud’

Theatre pays tribute to ‘formidable’ drag race star

Eight separate stories about one drag queen.

Why?

Bahahaha Trump is getting tired of clingy Musk. Of course he is.

According to an eminent New York Times journalist named Maggie Haberman, US President- elect Donald Trump is privately growing weary of Tesla CEO Elon Musk‘s constant presence at Mar-a-Lago residence in spite of publicly welcoming his mega donor and ‘First Buddy’.

Daily Beast reported that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been renting the Banyan Cottage near US President- elect Donald Trump’s residence for approximately $2,000 per night while attending personnel meetings and dinners with other significant tech billionaires.

While Tesla CEO Elon Musk has invested over $260 million in US President-elect Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and currently seems to be on the winning side of the MAGA tech landscape, at the same time, his aggressive behavior and proximity are causing significant tension, asserted Daily Beast. Maggie Haberman also suggested that US President- elect Donald Trump is irritated by references to ‘President Musk’ and that Elon Musk has not even fully understood Donald Trump’s complex political dynamics.

A ray of hope.