Originally a comment by Nullius in Verba on All our fault.

Fun things here:

1) Wokeness/CRT views people as “racialized” rather than being of a particular race. This is neither typo nor poor word choice on her part. Rather, it is exactly the way the woke understand the world: as interacting systems of discourse that impose “race” (among other things) on groups of (not individual) people. It is the discursive systems that racialize. There is nothing, literally nothing, outside of the discourse.

2) White women’s fears drive policing, the economy, and politics. White women are apparently the most powerful force in the nation. Why did the DJIA jump? White women. Why did Trump win? White women. Why did Obama win twice before him? White women. Why did the Civil Rights movement succeed? White women. Why are our taxes what they are? White women. Damn. Being a white woman is fucking awesome!

3) White women’s fears are society’s fears. But if S is one of a society’s fears, then we should expect S to be a fear of most, if not all, people in the society. So S is reasonably a black woman’s fear, a brown woman’s fear, and a white man’s fear.

4) White women’s fears are not real issues. It’s clear that white women are either very stupid or very evil. If they’re afraid of things that aren’t real, then they’re stupid. If they’re not actually afraid of those things but pretend to be while wielding the power mentioned in (2) and (3), then they’re evil.

5) White women’s fears are not the fears we should have. If a white woman is afraid of something, that’s a dead certain indicator that it’s not something to fear. So the next time a white woman expresses fear, know that you’ve just learned something about the world: whatever it is she’s afraid of is perfectly safe.

It’s all Karens’ white women’s fault. All of it.

Stupid bitches. Who cares what happens to us?

Ok! Hey all white women friends – WE ARE BEING PLAYED TO HELP IN THE MAINTENANCE OF WHITE SUPREMACY. I DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS EXCEPT THAT EVERYTHING IS OUR FAULT. FIX IT!

The Guardian reports:

Police are investigating after a sign at Oradour, in the Haute-Vienne region of south-central France near Limoges, was defaced with the word mémoire (memorial) sprayed over and replaced by menteur (liar).

The desecration has caused national outrage across France, where Oradour remains a potent physical symbol of Nazi brutality.

On 10 June 1944 – four days after the Normandy landings – a 200-strong detachment of the 4th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment, part of the notorious Das Reich division, marched into the village.

In retaliation for the reported kidnapping of a Nazi officer and attacks by the French resistance in the region, they rounded up the village’s 652 inhabitants and ordered everyone into the village square.

The men were then taken at gunpoint into nearby barns; the remaining 247 women and 205 children were herded into the church. The men were machine-gunned in the legs, then the barns and church were set alight. Those who tried to escape were shot. Only six villagers survived.

The village was left as it was, to be a memorial.

Hilarity break.

It’s hilarious because every single element of it screams “FANTASY.” I keep saying the whole trans Doctrine is based on fantasy, and this is a classic of the genre.

One, an actual woman in a store parking lot looked at a man’s fake tits and decided to comment on them? No.

Two, the woman was jealous of his fake tits? No.

Three, our hero “turned to her”? But he was already facing her, or how could she have looked at his “latest configuration” of fake tits? So no.

Four, he looked her up and down? That’s a classic of the kind of self-flattering stage business narcissists include in their stories about themselves. No.

Then smiled at the man and said the thing? Since none of the preceding really happened, No.

Then put his hand on the man and got away with it? No.

Then she started crying? What, because she didn’t know about menopause? Because she’d been hoping to keep menstruating forever? No.

Beware of people who think their fantasies are real, or try to make other people think their fantasies are real. Beware of purported “political” or “social justice” movements that are based on fantasy. Beware of bullshit.

Don’s sister knows what he is.

Maryanne Trump Barry was serving as a federal judge when she heard her brother, President Trump, suggest on Fox News, “maybe I’ll have to put her at the border” amid a wave of refugees entering the United States. At the time, children were being separated from their parents and put in cramped quarters while court hearings dragged on.

“All he wants to do is appeal to his base,” Barry said in a conversation secretly recorded by her niece, Mary L. Trump. “He has no principles. None. None. And his base, I mean my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people. Not do this.”

Not so much religious as compassionate, which non-religious can be too. Religious people can be very cruel. Donald Trump may be the most non-compassionate person on the planet.

In response to a question from The Washington Post about how she knew the president paid someone to take the SATs, Mary Trump revealed that she had surreptitiously taped 15 hours of face-to-face conversations with Barry in 2018 and 2019. She provided The Post with previously unreleased transcripts and audio excerpts, which include exchanges that are not in her book.

…

The allegation that the president paid someone to take his SATs, which was one of the most publicized allegations in Mary Trump’s book “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created The World’s Most Dangerous Man,” stems from a conversation that Barry had with her niece on Nov. 1, 2018.

Barry told how she tried to help her brother get into college. “He was a brat,” Barry said, explaining that “I did his homework for him” and “I drove him around New York City to try to get him into college.”

Then Barry dropped what Mary considered a bombshell: “He went to Fordham for one year [actually two years] and then he got into University of Pennsylvania because he had somebody take the exams.”

Mary was right: that is a bombshell. Not in the least surprising, but bombshell-level damning.

But “Karen” is definitely not the new “bitch” or “cunt” no no no no it is strictly limited to evil women with evil suburban haircuts.

Another Republican admitting how terrible in every way Trump is – not only incompetent and lazy, but also criminal and authoritarian, and also vindictive and brutal.

LA Magazine transcribed the worst bits:

“On a phone call with [FEMA], he told [them] to cut off the money and no longer give individual assistance to California,” says Taylor, who served as chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen from 2017 to 2019. “He told us to stop giving money to people whose houses had burned down from a wildfire because he was so rageful that people in the State of California didn’t support him and that politically it wasn’t a base for him.”

In public Trump said it was because California wasn’t raking its floors, but it was pretty obvious that was a (ludicrous) screen for his desire to see California die because it doesn’t love Trump.

Taylor also discusses the President’s ideal border policy, which he says included forcefully tearing children away from their families “to show those parents that they shouldn’t come to the border in the first place.”

“A lot of the time the things he wanted to do weren’t just impossible, but in many cases they were illegal,” Taylor continues. “He didn’t want us to tell him it was illegal anymore because he knew that there were, and these were his words, he knew that he had ‘magical authorities.’”

Also, if he wins this one, he’ll kill us all.

“People who are still serving in this administration have said to me, just wait until the second term. It’ll be no holds barred, it will be shock and awe. We’ll do what we want.”

H/t Holms.

It’s all a bit of a clusterfuck apparently.

President Trump generated a good deal of drama over the past few months when he moved the convention to Jacksonville, Florida in attempt to get around pandemic restrictions in the original host city of Charlotte, North Carolina. But when COVID-19 cases shot up in Florida, events in Jacksonville were called off, and some party business was moved back to Charlotte.

“We’re leaving.”

slam

knockknock

“We’d like to come back.”

Now the convention has been pared down considerably and will be somewhat virtual – but it appears Trump hasn’t totally abandoned his dreams of a massive, mask-free crowd.

Which is a dream of a mound of corpses three or four weeks later.

CNN reports:

President Donald Trump, a television producer at heart, is hoping for a convention next week that looks vastly different from the all-digital event Democrats have staged over the past days – including an emphasis on live programming and at least some type of audience who can respond to the multiple appearances he is planning.

He’s a television producer at heart and also at mind – he cares about showing off and making a noise far more than he cares about all the boring policy and security crap they keep trying to tell him about.

Calling aides at all hours from Air Force One or the White House residence, Trump has conveyed last-minute ideas on venues or gimmicks and demanded progress reports on the speakers he wants during his nominating extravaganza, which he hopes will provide a boost to his poll numbers.

Ha! Yes, people just long to listen to Don then Melania then Princess Ivanka then Don 2 then Eric then Bergdorf I mean Tiffany then Jared then Princess Ivanka’s personal groomer.

I think I have a drain to clean out that evening.

H/t Sackbut

The narcissism is so off the charts it’s almost funny.

“Me, and My wife, and My daughter, and My son, and My son, and My daughter.” He thinks of all of them as fragments of himself, and the next best thing to His Awesomeness In All His Splendor.

From the cheerful news column – a successful gorilla birth at Bristol Zoo:

Keepers arrived to find the new arrival nestling in the arms of its mother.

Photographs taken just hours after the birth on Wednesday show Kala – a nine-year-old western lowland gorilla – cradling the newborn. Staff said both were “doing well”.

They say “its mother” because the zoo doesn’t know the sex yet and won’t for a while. Kala’s first infant was via emergency caesarian section and didn’t survive.

Lynsey Bugg, the zoo’s curator of mammals, said: “We knew we were having a baby gorilla due and we’ve been on baby watch for a little while.

“On Tuesday Kala looked nice and comfortable and not causing us any concerns or worries.

“I came in [on Wednesday] morning to find a brand new baby in the house. It was lovely.”

Captive great apes don’t always know what to do with an infant, but not in this case.

That’s a good mama.

There seems to be a lot of irritation about the Rose Garden. I share it, not least because I hate that cold colorless dull aesthetic.

So they are – I mean were – crabapples.

Again, to be fair, tulips are spring flowers, but there are plenty of August flowers that could be there instead of the Big Empty.

Ooof. That is ugleee.

Trump again pretending to think Democrats are mean to “God” and that he gives a shit:

Before playing golf on Saturday, Donald Trump took time to spread a false claim about God on Twitter.

“The Democrats took the word GOD out of the Pledge of Allegiance at the Democrat [sic] National Convention,” the president wrote.

“At first I thought they made a mistake, but it wasn’t. It was done on purpose. Remember Evangelical Christians, and ALL, this is where they are coming from – it’s done. Vote Nov[ember] 3!”

It should be where they’re coming from, but it isn’t. It should be because school children are forced to say the pledge, and nobody should be forced to make avowals about god, including children. But the Dems are never interested in resisting forced religion, least of all now.

Politifact says it’s not true.

“Some Democratic caucus members omitted ‘one nation under God’ from the Pledge of Allegiance during [convention] meetings,” the fact-checking website wrote. “But the line was not excluded from any of the convention’s primetime televised spots.

“On the first night … participants sang the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ instead of saying the Pledge of Allegiance. On the second, third and fourth nights, ‘under God’ was included in the pledge.”

It shouldn’t have been. “God” is a fiction. Nevertheless it was.

Under the first amendment to the US constitution, church and state are formally separate.

“Formally,” meaning, actually we mostly ignore that and cheerfully force religion in people whether they like it or not.

The Pledge of Allegiance was written by a Baptist minister in 1892, but it did not then include the words “under God”. They were formally added in 1954, when President Dwight D Eisenhower signed them into law.

To show the Godless Communists a thing or two.

The pledge is widely, though not universally, recited in American public schools, which under a 1943 supreme court ruling cannot force students to say it.

In 2019, an 11-year-old student in Lakeland, Florida was arrested after refusing to stand for the pledge at the start of his sixth-grade day, because he believed the US flag symbolised the oppression of African Americans.

Police said the boy was arrested because he caused a disturbance. The case was eventually dropped.

You will explicitly state your submission to The God whether you believe in it or not and whether you choose to submit to it or not. We have ways of forcing you even if it is unconstitutional.

I saw something yesterday saying Melania Trump would be saying something for the Republican convention from “the newly renovated [by her] White House Rose Garden.” Uh oh, I thought, what’s she done to it.

Ew.

To be fair, the one on the left is obviously spring – the crabapple* trees would not be flowering even if they were still there. But they’re not still there. They’ve been swept away. The vibrant various colors have been replaced by icy blue and white.

It’s funny, in a way, because the minimalism is so unlike the vulgar garishness of that Trump Tower apartment, but it’s still horrible, only in a different way. It’s cold and stiff and empty instead of lush and various and joyous. It’s reminiscent of that gruesome all-silver Xmas decoration of the interior.

And there will be no crabapple blossom next spring.

*Or cherry. I had cherry at first then changed to crabapple because

but then

From a post here last October:

“Attorney General” Bill Barr met with Rupert Murdoch last night; nobody knows what they talked about.

I’m sure it’s all very innocent. I’m sure Barr in no way tried to pressure Murdoch to make Fox even more slavishly adoring of Trump. I’m sure it’s entirely normal for an Attorney General to visit the boss of a notoriously political tv network, just to lift a few beers and shoot the shit.

The Guardian today:

The attorney general, William Barr, told Rupert Murdoch to “muzzle” Andrew Napolitano, a prominent Fox News personality who became a critic of Donald Trump, according to a new book about the rightwing TV network.

Barr’s meeting with Murdoch, at the media mogul’s New York home in October 2019, was widely reported at the time, with speculation surrounding its subject. According to Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth, by CNN media reporter Brian Stelter, subjects covered included media consolidation and criminal justice reform.

“But it was also about Judge Andrew Napolitano.”

The books will be published Tuesday.

Citing an unnamed source, Stelter writes that Trump “was so incensed by the judge’s TV broadcasts that he had implored Barr to send Rupert a message in person … about ‘muzzling the judge’. [Trump] wanted the nation’s top law enforcement official to convey just how atrocious Napolitano’s legal analysis had been.”

…

Though Barr’s words to Murdoch “carried a lot of weight”, Stelter writes, “no one was explicitly told to take Napolitano off the air”. Instead, Stelter reports, Napolitano found digital resources allocated elsewhere, saw a slot on a daytime show disappear, and was not included in coverage of the impeachment process.

There was no need to tell anyone explicitly to take Napolitano off the air, when there were so many more subtle options.

Now that’s funny.

The Times asks a silly question: Who Should Compete in Women’s Sports?

The answer is in the question. Women, duh.

But the full title is: Who Should Compete in Women’s Sports? There Are ‘Two Almost Irreconcilable Positions.’

Only when it comes to women, right? Nobody else is expected to nod compliantly to such a ridiculous set-up. Who should win a prize established for black writers? There Are Two Almost Irreconcilable Positions – I don’t think. But it’s ok to bully women that way, because women are required to be Nice, which includes giving away their own rights and smiling pleasantly while they do it.

While scientific and societal views of sex and gender identity have changed significantly in recent decades, a vexing question persists regarding athletes who transition from male to female: how to balance inclusivity, competitive fairness and safety.

No they haven’t. Scientific and societal views of sex haven’t changed in recent decades, it’s just that a small faction of entitled men has invented a new version of “gender” that has a lot of people confused and intimidated.

The article is long, and pandering, and annoying. It refers to the physical advantage males have as “residual,” as if it’s mostly gone but there’s just this tiny little wisp remaining that stubborn Karens are making a big unwomanly fuss about. Who oh who oh who should compete in women’s sports, I just can’t figure it out.

I think Trump’s throwing a funeral for his brother at the White House is tacky, at best. It’s not normal; it’s not what presidents do. It’s gross. It’s exhibitionist. It’s narcissistic. It’s ick.

Trump on Monday said he wanted to hold a service for his younger brother, who died Saturday, at the White House, telling reporters, “I think he’d be greatly honored. He loves our country. He loved our country so much. He was so proud of what we were doing and what we are doing for our country.”

That doesn’t mean you’re supposed to do his funeral in the building.

It is a rare event for the East Room to be used for funeral events, outside of a ceremony for a deceased president. There is precedent, however. In 1890, President Benjamin Harrison utilized the East Room for funeral services for the wife and daughter of his Secretary of the Navy, Benjamin Tracy. The two women were killed in a fire.

Different. Someone else’s family, not his.

And in 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt hosted a state funeral in the East Room for his longtime political adviser and close friend Louis Howe.

A little closer, and somewhat gross.

Just don’t.

They all knew.

(Of course they did. How could they not? How could anyone? He’s not subtle about it.)

Trump is trying out a new brand of birtherism: pretending Biden wasn’t born where he was born.

Which is weird because…what? Who cares? What difference does it make what town or city or village or megalopolis someone was born in?

President Trump traveled to Old Forge, Pennsylvania, just miles away from former Vice President Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton, to deliver a scathing speech in which he claimed Biden ‘wasn’t born’ in Scranton, just hours before the Democratic presidential hopeful was set to accept his party’s nomination.

Oh no, not Not Born in Scranton! The horror!

But perhaps Trump’s most vicious and bizarre attack was on Biden’s claim to be a native son of Scranton, asserting that Biden, who was born in St. Mary’s Hospital in Scranton in 1942, “wasn’t born here.”

Ok so I guess the claim is that Biden wasn’t born? He’s the walking unborn? He’s still a fetus, appearances to the contrary notwithstanding?

Whatever. As far as I’m concerned Scranton is the US Slough, because the US version of The Office was set in Scranton. Both are towns no one dreams of visiting.

This isn’t the approach to the climate crisis, this is the climate crisis. Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano, authors of Fire in Paradise: An American Tragedy, have the details.

In few places is this as clear as California, where extreme wildfires have become the new abnormal. There is currently a “fire siege” in northern California, with wildfires burning in every one of the nine Bay Area counties except for San Francisco, which is entirely urbanized. Tens of thousands of residents have evacuated and people are choking on smoke.

And that’s not some random inexplicable thing, it’s the climate crisis.

California’s governor announced on Wednesday that there were 367 fires, and conflagrations have grown so rapidly that there are not enough firefighters to tackle them all. Neil Lareau, an atmospheric scientist, told us in an interview that he was watching the current fires with “incredulity”.

“It seems like every year re-ups the previous year in terms of pushing the envelope, in terms of how much fire we’re seeing in the landscape and how severe that fire is,” he said.

There were also, by the by, several fire tornadoes at the weekend. Witnessing these phenomena, another fire expert remarked that California “is the exemplar for climate change extreme events today”.

An exemplar. The fires got pretty extreme in Australia just a few months ago, and China is watching anxiously as water nears the top of the Three Gorges Dam.