Julie Bindel on Rosie Duffield:

Despite having seen the punishment inflicted on women like me who speak out about our sex-based rights, Duffield nevertheless braved the shark-infested waters this summer by daring to agree with Piers Morgan on Twitter that only women have cervixes. Had anyone told me a decade ago it would be seen as either risky or brave to point out the realities of female biology I would have laughed. Since then Duffield has continued to receive endless attacks and threats against her life.

It’s so bizarre, isn’t it. Eagles have wings; bears don’t. Flowers have petals; horses don’t. Trees have roots; butterflies don’t. Women have cervixes; men don’t. Men have testicles; women don’t. None of that is political; none of it should be a reason to attack and threaten women.

Every single MP, regardless of where they stand on the transgender debate, should speak up in support of Duffield, because to do so is to speak out against the appalling and toxic misogyny which is currently engulfing women. I strongly suspect that many of Duffield’s colleagues agree with her and are appalled at her treatment. But this is clearly not enough for them to risk being bumped from good positions on the front bench. They need to have a long, hard think about who would stand up for them if they happened to say something deemed unacceptable to the mob. They should exercise compassion rather than cowardice.

But they’ve been trained to think it’s men who say they are women who really need compassion, not mere women who just are women. Women who just are women are boring and privileged both, which is why we’ve been ordered to redirect our solidarity to men who want to force everyone to agree that they’re women.

Half of Twitter is replying that that’s all very well but Kelly is pretty terrible himself; Representative Frederica Wilson gets mentioned a lot.

True, but the point isn’t so much “these are great people with integrity” as it is “even the shittiest people are saying he’s the worst.”

Kelly doesn’t get any medals or praise or parties for saying it, but if he’s saying it, you know Trump can’t rely on the Worst People section of voters any more.

You’d think they have more important things to worry about.

What does that have to do with women? What does it have to do with women’s needs, women’s rights, women’s equality?

Nothing. Not one thing. It’s a pseudo-concern from a pseudo-rights movement that is hell bent on taking rights away from women as opposed to supporting or strengthening or expanding them.

So far I can’t get a read on how abnormal it is to deny federal disaster aid in the wake of an enormous disaster. The Post is playing it close to the vest:

Fueled by extreme heat and tinder-dry conditions, wildfires exploded across California in September, blazing through almost 1.9 million acres, destroying nearly 1,000 homes and killing at least three people. One wildfire, the Creek Fire, became the largest single blaze in California history and grew so fierce it spun up fire tornadoes with 125-mph winds.

But the Trump administration this week refused to grant an emergency declaration that would open up hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for areas devastated in those fires, California state officials confirmed to The Washington Post early Friday.

It’s unclear why the request was denied, when similar declarations were granted earlier this year for other wildfires. President Trump has previously threatened to withhold emergency fire aid to California over disputed claims that the state isn’t doing enough to prevent wildfires.

Shall we take a wild guess then? Since it’s unclear? How about, it’s because he’s a spiteful stupid piece of shit, and he did it because he can?

It’s not even ten a.m. yet and I’m already out of words.

Trump says NO to federal disaster relief for California.

Because of course he does. Too many Democrats in that state. Never mind that it’s the biggest state in the country by population, that it has more people than most countries, that it’s an agricultural giant and a tech giant and a movie industry giant and a forest products giant and a shipping giant and a tourism giant – it’s not going to vote for him and its people don’t bow down before him.

It’s true about the world population by the way. It would go between Iraq and Afghanistan, with 40 million and 38 million respectively. That would make it number 37 out of 235.

The LA Times reports:

The Trump administration has rejected California’s request for disaster relief funds aimed at cleaning up the damage from six recent fires across the state, including Los Angeles County’s Bobcat fire, San Bernardino County’s El Dorado fire, and the Creek fire, one of the largest that continues to burn in Fresno and Madera counties.

The move heighten tensions between California and the president over wildfires. California saw record fires this year, fueled by several factors including climate change. Trump has repeatedly criticized California for its handling of fire policy, sometimes with misleading claims, and had rejected the role of rising temperatures as a factor.

But more to the point, the state doesn’t vote for him.

More than 4 million acres burned in 2020, more than double the state’s previous record. The fires this year have burned an area larger than the state of Connecticut and killed 31 people.

So naturally the hateful puffed-up bladder of a man says no to federal aid.

Owen joins the kicking. As usual.

Pro Publica has a big piece on what Trump & co have done to the CDC.

Back in May a team at the CDC was working furiously on guidance for how to not get the virus.

Butler’s team rushed to finalize the guidance for churches, synagogues and mosques that Trump’s aides had shelved in April after battling the CDC over the language. In reviewing a raft of last-minute edits from the White House, Butler’s team rejected those that conflicted with CDC research, including a worrisome suggestion to delete a line that urged congregations to “consider suspending or at least decreasing” the use of choirs.

Why do Trump’s aides get to “shelve” informed medical advice during a pandemic? Why do they get to “battle” the CDC over language? Why do the desires of the president get to edit and delete informed medical advice, especially advice on how to survive a pandemic?

On Friday, Trump’s aides called the CDC repeatedly about the guidance, according to emails. “Why is it not up?” they demanded until it was posted on the CDC website that afternoon.

The next day, a furious call came from the office of the vice president: The White House suggestions were not optional. The CDC’s failure to use them was insubordinate, according to emails at the time.

How dare they? How dare they do that? How dare they put their perceived political advantage ahead of the survival of millions? How do they sleep at night?

They restored the White House version. The danger of singing in church was left on the floor.

Early that Sunday morning, as Americans across the country prepared excitedly to return to houses of worship, Butler, a churchgoer himself, poured his anguish and anger into an email to a few colleagues.

“I am very troubled on this Sunday morning that there will be people who will get sick and perhaps die because of what we were forced to do,” he wrote.

Forced for the sake of the warped politics of the evil lump of flesh in the White House.

Pro Publica has a big stash of emails and other records.

Senior CDC staff describe waging battles that are as much about protecting science from the White House as protecting the public from COVID-19. It is a war that they have, more often than not, lost.

Employees spoke openly about their “hill to die on” — the political interference that would prompt them to leave. Yet again and again, they surrendered and did as they were told. It wasn’t just worries over paying mortgages or forfeiting the prestige of the job. Many feared that if they left and spoke out, the White House would stop consulting the CDC at all, and would push through even more dangerous policies.

To some veteran scientists, this acquiescence was the real sign that the CDC had lost its way. One scientist swore repeatedly in an interview and said, “The cowardice and the caving are disgusting to me.”

…

Once seen as an apolitical bulwark, the CDC endured meddling on multiple fronts by officials with little or no public health experience, from Trump’s daughter Ivanka to Stephen Miller, the architect of the president’s immigration crackdown. A shifting and mysterious cast of political aides and private contractors — what one scientist described as young protégés of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, “wearing blue suits with red ties and beards” — crowded into important meetings about key policy decisions.

Princess Ivanka ffs. Creepy racist Stephen Miller ffs.

The Trump administration is “appropriating a public enterprise and making it into an agent of propaganda for a political regime,” one CDC scientist said in an interview as events unfolded. “It’s mind-boggling in the totality of ambition to so deeply undermine what’s so vitally important to the public.”

This is what I’m saying. They’re trashing the medical science during a pandemic for their own political (in the very lowest cheapest sleaziest sense) goals – they’re doing it because they want to retain their death-grip on power.

The Guardian shares the front page of the Trump website:

I want to say just this one thing.

Why would anyone want to do that? Why would anyone want an image of self with a different and better body? A fake image like that just underlines what a soft flabby weak puffy unhealthy body Donnie Two Scoops has.

That’s the one thing. Never mind that like hell he has – that one’s too obvious.

This filthy man…

President Donald Trump continued his attacks on Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday, calling the Democratic lawmaker a “dictator” as authorities announced charges against a 14th suspect in the thwarted plot to kidnap her and violently overthrow the government.

“Michigan, she has to open up. [Whitmer] wants to be a dictator in Michigan and the people can’t stand her,” Trump said Thursday in a FOX Business interview. Blasting Whitmer’s COVID-19 policies, he insisted people “want to get back to work.”

Do they also want to catch the virus?

The president has repeatedly attacked Whitmer even after authorities announced last week charges against more than a dozen individuals who allegedly conspired to kidnap the state leader and put her on trial for “treason” in a “secure location” in Wisconsin.

He’s a filthy human being.

On Tuesday, FBI Special Agent Richard Trask revealed that the men facing federal charges also discussed “taking out” Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam during a June meeting in Ohio. During the meeting, the group discussed their outrage at the two Democratic governors’ decisions to lock down their states and discussed ways they could take matters into their own hands.

“They discussed possible targets, taking a sitting governor, specifically issues with the governor of Michigan and Virginia based on the lockdown orders,” Trask said, adding that the meeting brought together militias from at least four states.

On Thursday, Northam condemned Trump’s rhetoric, which he said is “emboldening” white supremacists.

Whitmer also addressed Trump’s rhetoric last week, after the charges were announced.

“When our leaders speak, their words matter. They carry weight. When our leaders meet with, encourage, fraternize with domestic terrorists, they legitimize their actions and they are complicit. When they stoke and contribute to hate speech, they are complicit,” Whitmer said. “Hatred, bigotry, and violence have no place in the great state of Michigan.”

Trump was quick to respond to Whitmer’s criticism on Oct. 8, firing off a series of rage-filled tweets criticizing the Michigan official’s tenure in office and her decision to lock down the state to combat the pandemic.

What an adult, responsible, reasonable, generous way to respond.

I had to find them, which meant hitting the end key a lot because he tweets so frenetically.

Not his worst ever, but plenty bad enough. Petulant selfish narcissistic little toad.

Whitmer was shocked by it.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told NBC News she was “shocked” by President Donald Trump’s “appalling” response to her after federal officials revealed they had thwarted a plot to kidnap her around the November election.

“I was shocked to see that response,” Whitmer said. “I think this was a moment where I heard from a lot of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, my fellow governors, Republican and Democrat, reached out to say, ‘Are you OK? How’s your family?'”

“That’s what decent people do. And unfortunately, that was not the response at the White House,” she said.

Because Trump is a terrible mean little lump of flesh. There’s nothing good about him, nothing redeeming, nothing worth a second of anyone’s time. He’s a pure waste of resources.

He’s campaigning again.

That is, Trump tells the cheering crowd that “we sent in US Marshals” and they murdered a suspect.

19 days.

But nobody is claiming trans women don’t have a right to play – the issue is whether trans women (people with male bodies) have a right to play against women, in defiance of the danger to the women and the unfairness to the women.

And there’s this.

Their “motion” is protracted filthy bullying.

I had to Google to find out what the GMB is – it’s a huge general union, the product of amalgamations over time. GMB=General, Municipal, Boilermakers but it’s lots of other things too. This branch is for people who work for MPs, if I’ve understood correctly. Anyway they’re joining the bullying of Rosie Duffield. Here’s the whole thing:

It’s interesting that they say they “condemn all harassment towards anyone within a protected characteristic” while in the act of harassing Rosie Duffield. It’s annoying that they chummily call her “Rosie” while in the act of harassing her.

Another lawyer bails out of Barr’s Justice Department:

Barr has never actually investigated, charged or tried a case. He’s a well-trained bureaucrat but has no actual experience as a prosecutor.

Unfortunately, over the last year, Barr’s resentment toward rule-of-law prosecutors became increasingly difficult to ignore, as did his slavish obedience to Donald Trump’s will in his selective meddling with the criminal justice system in the Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and Roger Stone cases. In each of these cases, Barr overruled career prosecutors in order to assist the president’s associates and/or friends, who potentially harbor incriminating information. This career bureaucrat seems determined to turn our democracy into an autocracy.

…

It took federal Judge Reggie Walton (who sharply criticized Barr for a “lack of candor”) to at least temporarily stop Barr from dismissing all charges against Flynn, the president’s former national security adviser, who admitted lying to the FBI about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador. Rather than representing the interests of the American public, Barr chooses to act as Trump’s lap dog.

More recently, Barr directed federal officers to use tear gas in Lafayette Park to quell what were, at that time, peaceful protesters. Barr’s assertion the square was not cleared due to the president’s desire for a Bible-carrying photo op is laughable. It is certainly a case that Barr would lose before a jury (again, though, this may not be clear to him due to his unfamiliarity with jury trials).

Major put-downs about no experience with prosecution. It’s rather like hardened combat vets talking about an officer who has never left Fort Dix.

Barr also turned his back on the rule of law by supporting the president’s selective use of federal troops to assault citizens protesting the killing of George Floyd in Portland, Oregon. Yet he stood silently by when armed right-wing protesters stormed the Michigan state Capitol building to protest the Democratic governor’s public health orders.

Fortunately, Barr has only weeks left.

Yes but it’s even worse than that. It mandates the recognition of other people’s subjective individuality. How the hell are we supposed to be able to do that? How can we recognize something internal to someone else? We can’t; it’s literally impossible, impossible by definition.

We try to do that up to a point with people we have some connection to – with friends, family, colleagues. We take their word for it that they feel X, in general, unless we have good reasons not to. But that’s all we’re doing – taking their word for it. Their feelings remain internal, as do ours. We can’t literally “recognize” something hidden.

And as for total strangers, as for the world at large – we are under no obligation to take their word for it. None, zip, zero. We can’t “recognize” it and we’re not required to declare belief in it. The whole idea is literally nonsensical.

Summons a lot of memories, this does.

Heather Peto is a man who identifies as a woman. It’s classic the way men who identify as women tip their hands by being so comfortable and at home with bullying women. Heather here takes it for granted that he gets to tell Rosie Duffield MP what to do and even – and especially – WHAT TO THINK. That’s the bit that especially summons memories, that telling women what to think and the bullying when they refuse to be told.

Heather Peto’s profile says “LGBT-Labour Co-Chair (she/her).” That makes it sound (or at least it did to me) as if it’s a branch of the Labour party, but (I looked it up) it’s an independent group allied to Labour. It’s not in any way the boss of Rosie Duffield MP.

Anyway – that patronizing de haut en bas “Each time we thought we had made progress with Rosie by explaining” just makes me bristle with rage. I’m not the only one.

And many more.

Mother Jones on the Giuliani/New York Post “bombshell”:

On Wednesday, the New York Post released what it hailed as a bombshell: an unidentified computer repair store owner in Delaware had come to possess a laptop that contained Hunter Biden emails (and purportedly a sex tape), the hard drive and computer was seized by the FBI, the store owner at some point passed a copy of the hard drive to Rudy Giuliani, and one of the emails suggested that Hunter, who served on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, may have in 2015 introduced a Burisma official to his dad, Vice President Joe Biden. The story depicts this as a big scandal, and Guiliani tweeted, “Much more to come.” 

Got all that? No, me neither. I can’t be bothered, because Giuliani and the Post? Pfff.

But the key point of the article was predicated on false information that Giuliani has been spreading for a long time—and that appears to be linked to a Russian disinformation operation that the Post neglected to note in its article. That is, the Post piece, based on an unproven smear, is in sync with Moscow’s ongoing effort to influence the 2020 election to help President Donald Trump retain power. (The FBI and other parts of the US intelligence community have stated that Vladimir Putin is once again attacking the US political system to boost Trump.)

And the news media should be reporting that, not this bullshit story.

Rupert Murdoch’s paper is using this one email to revive the Ukrainian scandal that Giuliani has been trying to gin up for over a year. (This crusade included trying to raise $10 million to make a documentary that would be released before the election.) And don’t forget that it was Giuliani and Trump’s search for Ukrainian dirt that led to Trump’s impeachment. 

And don’t forget what a Trump-licking sleaze Giuliani has shown himself to be.

The Post, Fox, and the Trump campaign will try to turn this disinformation and whatever else might be on that laptop into an October Surprise. The big question is how the rest of the media will contend with this, especially if Giuliani or others keep leaking other material (which may or may not be legitimate) from this computer. Will reporters at other outlets repeat the mistakes of 2016 and focus obsessively on these leads without examining the source or investigating the operation that put them into play? Will they wittingly or not assist an obvious ploy to generate headlines that suggest there is a new scandal about old (and already disproven) allegations? Will they fall for it? 

If they’re Maggie Haberman they will.

On Wednesday morning, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted out the Post story and its headline referring to a “smoking-gun email.” Subsequently, she posted tweets taking a more skeptical view of the story. To his credit, Chris Megerian, the White House correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, quickly pointed out, “The story does not say that allegations of Ukrainian corruption have been pushed by Russia to undermine Joe Biden, according to U.S. intelligence officials. Nor does it mention that Rudy Giuliani has worked with a Ukrainian lawmaker identified as a Russian agent.”  Facebook executive Andy Stone noted that the social media giant would limit the Post article’s distribution on its platform. 

Three weeks.

Our pal Benjamin Cohen (CEO of Pink News in case you’ve forgotten) is still at the woman-hating.

Which people would those be? By “might use to describe Helen” does he mean certainly would and he would be right there with them? Why would these mysterious people be deploying “the sort of language” he hints at? Not really a hint though; we know he means “cunt” and variations.

These guys would be happier hanging out with Donald Trump than with Kamala Harris.

Lindsey Graham is just thrilled that Amy Coney Barrett wants women to be forced to remain pregnant when they would prefer to stop. He’s lucky enough to be the kind of person who can’t be forced to remain pregnant.

“I have never been more proud of a nominee,” Graham said. “This is history being made, folks. This is the first time in American history that we’ve nominated a woman who is unashamedly pro-life and embraces her faith without apology. And she’s going to the court. A seat at the table is waiting on you.”

It’s not that she’s “pro-life.” People who favor abortion rights are not “anti-life” or “pro-death.” It’s that she’s pro-forced pregnancy. That’s the issue. Abortion ends a pregnancy, usually at an early stage. Pregnancy is not the kind of thing that should be forced; it’s the kind of thing that should be as voluntary as possible.

Graham criticized some of his Democratic colleagues’ questions about a 2006 ad that Amy Coney Barrett signed on to, which said life begins at fertilization.

The ad was organized by St Joseph County Right to Life, an extreme anti-choice group that has also argued the process of discarding unused or frozen embryos created during the in vitro fertilization (IVF) process should be criminalized.

Embryos matter more than adult women; that’s goddy world for you.

Misogyny loves Halloween.

What’s the scariest thing you can be for Halloween 2020?

A “Karen,” according to Los Angeles-based artist Jason Adcock.

Aw haw haw, so funny. It’s always a laugh-riot to see men telling us how terrifying and evil women are.

“2020 is the year of the KAREN! Scare all ur friends with ur big hair and narrow mind,” Adcock, 34, wrote on Instagram.

Hur hur

Adcock told “Good Morning America” that his idea stemmed from having a dark sense of humor.

“I’ve kind of seen Karens in the wild my whole life, and I just thought it would be kind of a funny thing to make for Halloween, and I didn’t think it would really take off,” he said. “Karen is transcendent of all gender and size. She is just like a modern day tyrant. Anybody evil can be a Karen.”

But we use a woman’s name because…you know…most tyrants and evil people are women, obvs.

Oy. Amy Cooper made two calls to the police that day.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office filed a misdemeanor charge Wednesday against the White woman who called police on a Black man birdwatching in Central Park in May and revealed that she had made a second 911 call about the encounter.

Amy Cooper was charged in New York County Criminal Court with falsely reporting an incident in the third degree, according to Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr.

The second call wasn’t to say never mind, I got rattled but nothing actually happened, I’m fine, I apologize for wasting your time. No, she went the other way.

In addition, according to the criminal complaint and as stated in court, Amy Cooper made a second, previously unreported call to police and repeated the accusation, adding that the man “tried to assault her,” the DA’s office said.

“When responding officers arrived, Ms. Cooper admitted that the male had not ‘tried to assault’ or come into contact with her,” a release from the DA’s office said.

I wonder if she’s ever heard of Emmett Till. She shouldn’t aspire to be another Carolyn Bryant.

Cooper and her attorney appeared before a judge on Wednesday morning. No plea was entered and the case was adjourned until November 17 as the prosecutor and defense work toward a possible disposition.

The prosecutor indicated they are exploring with the defense a program designed to have the defendant take responsibility for her actions but also educate her and the community on the harm caused by such actions.

It’s hard not to wonder how many such explorations happen when the defendant is not white, but at the same time if her sentence is educating the community on the harm of racism, at least that could be useful.