Well now here’s a turnup for the books: Scottish Labour has deselected a candidate for tweeting an image that calls Joanna Cherry a TERF and implies she should be shot.

The Scottish Labour candidate who posted a controversial image on Twitter involving her SNP rival has been dropped by the party.

Frances Hoole, a care and support worker, had been chosen to stand as the Labour candidate in the General Election in the Edinburgh South West constituency, attempting to unseat incumbent MP Joanna Cherry.

However last week Ms Hoole, who has been part of Labour’s Jo Cox leadership programme, posted an image on Twitter in which she and Ms Cherry had been photo-shopped, with the caption “Bang! And the terf is gone”.

Hoole deleted the tweet but here is the image:

Says it all, doesn’t it.

Joanna Cherry shared the image, tweeting: “Earlier this year I received a death threat & a storm of misogynistic abuse for defending #womensrights. The @scottishlabour candidate standing against me in #EdinburghSouthWest thinks it’s funny. I hope she will apologise & engage in respectful debate #GE19.”

Hoole, a graduate of Labour Jo Cox leadership programme, then claimed she didn’t “perceive” the image as a threat.

Nicely done, mentioning Jo Cox again – to remind us that in Jo Cox’s case “BANG!” meant she was dead, murdered by an angry man with a gun.

We may hate him but the Russians don’t.

Russian experts, government officials, and prominent talking heads often deride the American president for his Twitter clangor, haphazard approach to foreign policy, clownish lack of decorum, and unfiltered stream of verbalized consciousness. But all the reasons they believe Trump “isn’t a very good president” for America are precisely their reasons for thinking he is so great for Russia.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a Russian client whose regime teetered on the brink of collapse only to be saved definitively by Trump’s chaotic approach to the Middle East, recently said that “President Trump is the best type of president for a foe.” The Russians heartily agree. The Trump presidency has been wildly successful for Russia, which is eagerly stepping into every vacuum created by the retreat of the United States on the world stage.

Glad we could help.

“They say Trump is making Russia great. That’s basically accurate,” pointed out Karen Shakhnazarov, CEO of Mosfilm Studio and a prominent fixture on Russian state television. “The chaos brought by Trump into the American system of government is weakening the United States. America is getting weaker and now Russia is taking its place in the Middle East. Suddenly, Russia is starting to seriously penetrate Africa… So when they say that Trump is weakening the United States—yes, he is. And that’s why we love him… The more problems they have, the better it is for us.”

MAGA!

Some months back “Jessica” Yaniv was Twitter-promoting a municipal pool party for teenagers and making it creepily obvious he was being creepy and pervy about it, and then he got suspended from Twitter for awhile and was preoccupied with losing his suit against the women who didn’t want to pull the hairs out of his scrotum. But now! It’s all happening all over again.

Yaniv:

THANK YOU to the @CityofSurrey for putting on an All Bodies Youth Swim Pool Party for #LGBTQ youth ages 13-18. Taking place at the Newton Recreation Centre on Nov 10th! All my LGBTQ2 allies please call (604) 501-5540 to show your support! So happy! https://surrey.ca/culture-recreation/30270.aspx #Surrey

So I follow the link, and: he’s not making it up.

Youth All-Bodies Pool Party

All bodies! Like for instance this hairless slender white female one right here. But anyway…

All Genders | All Sexualities | No Judgement
Youth ages 13-18 are invited for a fun, free evening swim. LGBTQ2S+ & allies are welcome. The All-Bodies Swim will include the water slide, waves, hot tub and much more.

Kids of 13 are being invited to an all sexualities pool party? Along with much older kids? Is that really such a brilliant idea, even without Yaniv lurking?

Dress Code
Wear what works for you – but remember clothes must be clean and fresh, not the ones you wear to the event and please no denim or shoes in pool.

Please consider the comfort levels of others.

Important Details
For the safety and privacy of youth attending the event, note that parents, guardians and other adults are not permitted. Parents or guardians can drop youth at the front entrance and Youth Engagement staff will safely welcome them into the facility to participate in the All-Bodies Swim event.

Wtf?

Am I wrong in thinking this is a very bizarre thing for a municipal body to be doing? For older teenagers, go ahead, knock yourselves out, but this?

I wonder if they’ll be teaching the kids how to do “breath play”…

The Democrat seems to have won the governor’s race in Kentucky despite or because of Trump’s rally there on Monday. If so, the Republican has flagrantly disobeyed Trump’s orders.

After all, the President was in Kentucky the day before Tuesday’s election. And he said this to Bevin: “If you lose, they’re going to say Trump suffered the greatest defeat in the history of the world. This was the greatest. You can’t let that happen to me!”

His modest self-effacement never ceases to amaze.

Chris Cillizza goes on to compare the charisma-levels of Bevin and Trump.

Trump is an entertainer, with a type of wit, humor and real charisma. Bevin, well, isn’t. Where Trump comes across to his supporters as a hugely successful businessman who can and will tell anyone in the country (or the world!) exactly what he thinks of them, Bevin reads more humorless scold. Trump without the personality isn’t a winner.

I’m not seeing it. I know that’s because I’m of that other political persuasion, and a snob and all the other bullshit, but even so – I think I’m not seeing it because it isn’t there. I’m not seeing “a type of wit, humor and real charisma” – what type would that be exactly? What I see is the windbag who sits next to you on the bus or stands behind you in the queue and seizes the occasion to listen to his own voice. (Yes, his, it’s more of a guy thing.) What I see is the guy who thinks he has a type of wit, humor and real charisma but doesn’t. I’ve known guys like that. I still know guys like that. I assume we all have and do? He has zero wit. He has “humor” in the form of mean jokes. He has negative charisma.

What he does have is a lot of flash and a reputation for being enormously rich. Without that he would be the guy everyone avoids at parties, end of story. As for the “who can and will tell anyone in the country (or the world!) exactly what he thinks of them” – give me a break. He’ll do that to people he perceives as weaker than he is. Now that he’s bullied his way into the presidency that is of course most people, but it’s also still bullying. It’s not telling the truth without fear or favor, it’s bullying. Let’s not confuse the two.

Updating to add: story from 2018. She’s now been promoted to his adviser though, so the information is hotly relevant.

Ah the old “send me money and God will reward you tenfold” scam, this time from Trump’s “spiritual adviser.” Yeah right.

Paula White, who heads up the president’s evangelical advisory committee, suggested making a donation to her ministries to honor the religious principle of “first fruit,” which she said is the idea that all firsts belong to God, including the first harvest and, apparently, the first month of your salary.

“Right now I want you to click on that button, and I want you to honor God with his first fruits offering,” she said in a video shared to her website, in which she encourages her followers to donate to her ministries to get blessings from God.

…

In her newest video, the pastor encourages people to send her money, stating, “Each January, I put God first and honor him with the first of our substance by sowing a first fruits offering of one month’s pay. That is a big sacrifice, but it is a seed for the harvest I am believing for in the coming year. And God always provides!”

Those who send White money, which she suggests belongs to God, will see positive consequences, she claims.

But how do people know sending her money means it’s going to God? (And what does God want with money anyway? It’s not as if God’s short on the rent this month.)

“When you sow a First Fruits Offering of $75 or more, I will rush to you the book, the devotional and also a Paula White 2018 wall calendar! Track throughout the entire year prioritizing God with me!” her website says.

Oooh a book and a calendar for 75 bucks! Plus salvation!

Gordon Sondland suddenly remembered he’d got it exactly opposite. Gosh he’ll forget his own name next! Isn’t memory a funny thing!

Gordon Sondland, President Donald Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, reversed himself in new testimony to House impeachment investigators, saying he does believe military aid for Ukraine was contingent upon the launch of politically motivated probes.

In his revised statement, Sondland said he told a top Ukrainian official on Sept. 1 that hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to the beleaguered U.S. ally would “likely” be held up unless the government announced investigations of Trump’s political rivals.

Oh well fortunately it wasn’t a crucial point in the impeachment inquiry, no more significant than what color socks he was wearing that day. Was military aid that Ukraine needed for survival (given Putin’s attacks) used to force Ukraine to do Trump’s bidding, or not? No biggy. Nothing rides on the answer to that question.

The acknowledgment of a potential quid pro quo is an explosive shift that threatens to upend claims by Trump allies that military aid was not used as a bludgeon to advance Trump’s domestic political interests.

Sondland revealed the exchange in supplemental testimony he submitted to House impeachment investigators on Monday, saying he had failed to recall the episode when he testified in person last month.

Marks and Spencer recently announced a “gender-neutral” policy for its changing rooms. Quite a few women objected; some of them wrote to M&S directly. Rose George is one:

A response from @marksandspencer about their awful decision to refuse to guarantee single-sex changing facilities to women and girls. Pretty much identical to what they tweeted @JeanHatchet

And my response.

Just look at that pathetic mess. “As a business, we strive to be inclusive and therefore, we allow customers the choice of which fitting room they feel comfortable to use, in respect of how they identify themselves.” But not “in respect of” what they really are and how vulnerable they may be to spying creeping perving men if they can’t have women-only changing rooms.

How is it “inclusive” to put women at risk for the sake of indulging the fantasies of a few men that they are women underneath their skins? Men are not made more vulnerable either way, but women are. Why are people suddenly so willing to put women and girls at risk from men?

“We understand your concerns and I want to make it clear that if any customer was [sic] to act inappropriately or cause intentional offence, the necessary action would be taken.” Oh that’s all right then – they’ll do something about it after it’s happened. Why not just make customers change in the middle of the shop then? Why not yank their clothes off them the minute they walk in, for greater ease of trying on and oh yes being “inclusive”?

The fire department will take the necessary action after your house burns to the ground. The doctors will take the necessary action after you’ve died of your treatable illness. The police will take action after you’ve been raped and strangled. Preventive action has been ruled transphobic.

Also note the careful intentional offence stipulation. They won’t take the necessary action if it’s just an unintentional offence, like being a naked man in a space where women and girls are trying on clothes.

Kind regards though. Thanks for that.

Yovanovitch was in terrible danger in Ukraine – danger from Trump’s Twitter.

On 24 April this year, she received a call from Carol Perez, the director general of the foreign service, speaking to her in cryptic tones as if Yovanovitch’s life was in danger if she remained at her ambassadorial post in Kyiv. She spoke as if there was a threat too awful to describe clearly on a phone line.

“She said that there was a lot of concern for me, that I needed to be on the next plane home to Washington,” Yovanovitch recalled in her testimony to the congressional committees conducting impeachment hearings. Taken aback, the ambassador to Ukraine wanted to know what the sudden panic was about. Perez just told her: “I don’t know, but this is about your security. You need to come home immediately.”

So she did, and found a State Department she didn’t recognize.

When Yovanovitch went to see the deputy secretary of state, John Sullivan, he confirmed that she had lost the confidence of the president, again without explaining how or why. His explanation of the urgent call in the middle of the night was equally bizarre.

“They were worried that if I wasn’t physically out of Ukraine, that there would be, some sort of public either tweet or something else from the White House,” Yovanovitch testified. “And so this was to make sure that I would be treated with as much respect as possible.”

The ambassador had been evacuated not because of some outside threat, but in fear of a tweet from the president. The terrible capricious power of Trump’s Twitter outbursts, and their paralysing effect on the administration, is a striking theme of the Yovanovitch transcript.

This toy that other people use for jokes and stories and conversation (or, in truth, for bullying and shaming and dogpiling) Trump uses to destroy and inflame and disrupt.

She had grown accustomed to a whispering campaign against her from Ukrainian politicians and businessmen for whom she had made life difficult, but when an article appeared on The Hill news site, recycling Ukrainian smears against her, she asked for a show of support from her secretary of state, Mike Pompeo. Such support for an ambassador in a critical post should have been a given, but Pompeo remained silent.

“What I was told is that there was concern that the rug would be pulled out from underneath the state department if they put out something publicly,” Yovanovitch said. “You know, that perhaps there would be a tweet of disagreement or something else” from the president.

The best Pompeo did for his ambassador in Ukraine, according to her testimony, was to contact Fox television’s Sean Hannity, to ask if there was any truth to the smears against Yovanovitch, which Hannity was helping to push. That a secretary of state had to go to a talk show host to find out what was going on in Ukraine neatly encapsulates the nature of the Trump presidency.

Not all that neatly. There’s still always more to say than there is space or time to say it.

Now, in Ukraine and elsewhere, a shadow foreign policy has emerged, whose true goals are known to the president, his family and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. Through that channel, a discredited Ukrainian prosecutor and two obscure Florida businessmen who had become Giuliani’s sidekicks, wielded more influence than the entire state department. They fought to get Yovanovitch removed and they succeeded.

For experienced diplomatic veterans like Yovanovitch, this kind of corruption and dysfunction was all too familiar. They see it every day in the world’s autocracies.

“This is the sort of stuff we report on, how the president’s family and its hangers-on run everything. Now foreign diplomats are saying the same things about us,” one US foreign service officer observed recently.

The shame of it is scorching.

Charles Pierce at Esquire has been reading the transcript of Marie Yovanovitch’s testimony, and has learned that Sean Hannity was helping Trump tell lies about her.

Schiff: And did you ever find out when, you know, the allegations were being made or the attacks were being made by Donald Trump, Jr., or Rudy Giuliani, did you ever find out what the Secretary of State’s position, whether the Secretary of State was going to defend you or not, apart from the refusal by the Secretary to issue a statement in your defense?

Yovanovitch: What I was told by Phil Reeker was that the Secretary or perhaps somebody around him was going to place a call to Mr. Hannity on Fox News to say, you know, what is going on? I mean, do you have proof of these kinds of allegations or not? And if you have proof, you know, telI me, and if not, stop.

And I understand that that call was made. I don’t know whether it was the Secretary or somebody else in his inner circle. And for a time, you know, things kind of simmered down.

Schiff: I mean, does that seem extraordinary to you that the Secretary of State or some other high-ranking official would call a talk show host to figure out whether you should be retained as ambassador?

Yovanovitch: Well…I’m not sure that’s exactly what was being asked.

Schiff: Well , they were asking if what basis they…was Hannity one of the people criticizing you?

Yovanovitch: Yes.

Schiff: So some top administration official was going to him to find out what the basis of this Fox host was attacking you for?

Yovanovitch: Uh-huh.

Sean Hannity running US diplomacy.

Back in August I did a couple of posts about cricket player Maxine Blythin. I missed the news a month later:

🏆 | What a season she’s had!

Your 2019 Kent Women Player of the Year is…. Maxine Blythin!

What a season indeed! Taking a woman’s place on the team and then taking an award from a woman.

One poignant reply a few minutes ago:

I teach at a girls’ school in Kent. We’ve had speakers in from Kent cricket to encourage the girls to view cricket as a sport for them. I guess that was all just a lie.

Oh not at all, girls can still play, they just have to be prepared for boys to be on the team too. I suppose if enough boys decide to cheat that way then girls can’t still play, but…I don’t know, maybe they can stand on the sidelines and cheer the boys on?