Why?

Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has said flags in the state will fly at half-staff for Rush Limbaugh, the hard-right talk radio host who died this week aged 70.

Is that a thing? Lowering flags for random entertainers?

DeSantis, a controversial governor known to some as a “mini-Trump” and widely thought to have presidential ambitions, called Limbaugh a friend.

What’s that got to do with anything? Do governors usually get to lower flags for their friends? I thought flag-lowering was meant to be an exceptional thing with some connection to public service.

Appearing with James Golden, longtime producer to the leading “shock jock”, the governor told reporters: “When there’s things of this magnitude, once the date of

While he has a minute.

This dude is the mayor of Colorado City, Texas.

Good fucking god they're fucked. pic.twitter.com/kMDkYAFqEd

— Michael Paulauski (@mike10010100) February 16, 2021

It’s not a “handout” though to get electricity and water that you pay for. Public utilities aren’t “handouts,” they’re what it says on the tin. Water, sewer systems, garbage removal, recycling, electricity – we pay for them.

I also wonder how he thinks people are supposed to “think outside the box” to “supply water” on their own. Outside the box is likely to kill you, especially when you can’t boil anything because the power is out.

Word is he has decided to stop being mayor of Colorado City, Texas.… Read the rest

Well that was fun – the power went out in the neighborhood yesterday morning a few minutes past 7 and was out ALL DAY.

This was the third time in the last 8 months.

I can report that reading by flashlight while freezing cold is not very pleasant.… Read the rest

He’s sorry though.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has offered a stunning explanation for flying out to Cancun on Wednesday night as his home state literally froze to death: He was being a good dad.

“Whether the decision to go was tone-deaf, look, it was obviously a mistake, and in hindsight I wouldn’t have done it. I was trying to be a dad,” Cruz told reporters late Thursday after returning home to a crowd of protesters chanting “Resign!”

That “in hindsight” is hilarious. What hindsight would that be? It’s not as if he didn’t know about the cold, the snow, the power outages. What does he know now that he didn’t know then? Hm, hm, hm. Oh I know – … Read the rest

Touchdown!

Here goes! Lighting the engines on my “jetpack” for final descent. Wheels down in less than a minute.#CountdownToMars pic.twitter.com/AQKPEBGr0o

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 18, 2021

Note: is animation.

Not animation:

And another look behind me. Welcome to Jezero Crater. #CountdownToMars pic.twitter.com/dbU3dhm6VZ

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 18, 2021

I’ve come nearly 300 million miles, and I’m just getting started. Hear from the team about my picture-perfect landing and what comes next.

LIVE at 2:30 p.m. PST (5:30 p.m. EST/20:30 UTC) https://t.co/fciqGe8GpC pic.twitter.com/5XgclFaGtB

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 18, 2021

We get real pictures – movies even – of the descent tomorrow. I look forward to that. It still blows my mind … Read the rest

Oxford graduate student has major meltdown because one person has a different view.

We'd tried to put robust safeguarding in place to prevent anti-trans interference. As organisers, we know from experience that UK trans academic events are often subject to harassment and shut down.

This was not taken seriously or anticipated by the history faculty.

— Jack Doyle (@JackRaoul) February 18, 2021

I think by “robust safeguarding” he means not letting Enemies attend, and by “anti-trans interference” he means Enemies attending.

This may sound extreme, but this guy is an influential policymaker with a history of harassing trans women + singling out individual staff members and students. There's been no institutional accountability for this behaviour.

— Jack Doyle (@JackRaoul) February

No, that’s not right.

I’ll say it again, if you hold obnoxious views people have the right not to want to speak with you. That’s as true in universities as elsewhere in life. This is ‘freedom’ – the freedom of no speech and no debate. People cannot be made to speak to those who do not respect them. https://t.co/DmWylw8pyD

— Sally Hines (@sally_hines) February 17, 2021

It’s really not true that it’s “as true in universities as elsewhere in life.” She works at a university, as an academic (as opposed to an accountant or maintenance engineer), so you’d think she would know this. Universities do in fact have a particular duty to keep speech (and writing and teaching) as open … Read the rest

Another entry in the Big Book of Guy Snaps, Kills Nearest Woman:

A man has been found not guilty of murdering his wife, just days into the first national Covid lockdown.

That is, the not-murder happened just days into the lockdown. The verdict was three days ago.

Anthony Williams, 70, said he “just flipped” and strangled his wife Ruth at their home in Cwmbran, Torfaen.

Williams, of Brynglas, Hollybush, denied murdering the 67-year-old in March 2020, but admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility.

It was the merest chance that he was home at the time. He could have been miles away, in which case he might have “just flipped” at a burly young man, and been slapped instead of accidentally … Read the rest

If you’re a Texas senator now seems like the ideal time to take a nice warm vacation. It will cheer up all those forlorn people in your state who are struggling with a power outage and subfreezing temperatures.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz traveled to Mexico on Wednesday for a family vacation as his home state struggled with a powerful winter storm that left many residents without power or safe drinking water.

The high-profile Republican lawmaker went for a long-planned trip to Cancun and was expected to return almost immediately, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private conversations.

If you’re going to return almost immediately, why waste … Read the rest

A friend wrote on Facebook:

I’ve been pondering Rush Limbaugh all day. I’ve read many postings from my friends and many tweets from strangers. I don’t have any sort of hate for Rush (although I honestly did, some years ago). There are some things that I’d like to say about him, however.

We should note that Rush Limbaugh, about whose death many honestly good people (and some not-so-good) are admonishing others not to celebrate, for various good (and some not-so-good) reasons: Rush Limbaugh said, upon hearing of the death of Jerry Garcia of “Grateful Dead” musical fame (who although certainly not an angel did spend his life mostly bringing happiness to a lot of people): “Just another dead doper. And … Read the rest

This doesn’t seem like something that ought to be taught in schools.

Grateful for the opportunity to join Equity Leaders from @a2schools & @AASAHQ school districts across the country today in equity learning – thank you @luvelleb & @64msherman pic.twitter.com/CtC2KCqEqP

— A2SchoolsSuper (@A2SchoolsSuper) February 13, 2021

There’s an expanded version.

Below is a list of characteristics of white supremacy culture which show up in our organizations. Culture is powerful precisely because it is so present and at the same time so very difficult to name or identify. The characteristics listed below are damaging because they are used as norms and standards without being pro-actively named or chosen by the group. They are damaging because they promote white supremacy thinking.

Why did Texas’s power supply fall over as the temperatures plunged way below freezing? It was nothing to do with the Green New Deal, as fools have been claiming. Texas has its very own electrical grid.

The U.S. has three power grids: one covers the eastern U.S., another the western states and the Texas grid covers nearly the entire state.

It’s the LONE STAR state, see, it has to do everything itsown self.

“Utilities in Texas were smart and made an agreement that no one was going to extend power outside of Texas,” Donna Nelson, who served as chair of the state Public Utility Commission, which oversees ERCOT, from 2008 to 2017, said in an ERCOT promotional video about

Kate Manne objects to telling men to learn to care about rape by thinking of their daughters.

But there are at least three things wrong with thinking of it in this way.

First off, it should not take a woman in general, or someone’s wife in particular, to persuade a man in Morrison’s position to take decisive action over a problem as serious as allegations of rape in his own workplace.

That we still have to try to make people care about these devastating allegations wreaks its own kind of trauma – the trauma of dealing with hostile indifference in the wake of such reported violence. Higgins spoke of her pain upon realising that, when it came to what happened,

About an hour ago:

#nofgm sick of people coming to this thread and insert themselves by bringing Trans issues. Hear me clearly. I will not discuss trans issues. trans issues aren't mine. I am only for Women and girls. If you come to my page and talk about Trans issue. I will block you 100%

— hibo wardere (@HiboWardere) February 17, 2021

What kind of clueless pest would try to tell Hibo Wardere to pay attention to trans issues instead of female genital mutilation? I wondered, so I went looking, and in mere seconds found an answer.

#nofgm women and girls are slowly been erased. We are named as things with ovaries or chest feeding instead of breastfeeding. This world

Rudy is reading the old love letters and crying.

Attorney Rudy Giuliani is “not currently” representing former President Donald Trump “in any legal matters,” Trump advisor Jason Miller said in a statement Tuesday, as the ex-president’s former personal lawyer faces multiple lawsuits against him for his role in Trump’s effort to overturn the presidential election results.

And this is the thanks he gets.

Lie down with dogs get up with fleas, pal. You knew what he is, and you chose to help him be it while having the power of the presidency.

Miller’s statement was in response to a lawsuit filed Tuesday against Trump, Giuliani and two far-right groups, which alleges the president and his lawyer violated the Ku

Talk about not getting it…

Days after Japan’s Olympics chief was forced to resign over sexist comments, the ruling party has decided to invite women to attend key meetings – as long as they do not speak.

No, see, guys, this is just the same thing all over again. The “sexist comments” in question were of the “women talk too much” variety. Telling women not to talk is not a fix for that problem. The problem is not women talking, the problem is MEN HAVING A PROBLEM WITH WOMEN TALKING.

Talking is basic. We need talking. Talking is why we have all this, very much including items like the Olympics, ruling parties, meetings, Japan – all of that is … Read the rest

An outstanding interview on Fresh Air with a law professor who got a part-time volunteer job as a cop in DC. Bonus: she’s Barbara Ehrenreich’s daughter. Highly recommended.… Read the rest

It's literally just objectively false that trans women don't experience misogynistic sexism and sexual violence

I guess you lie about this for validation, but my god is it pathetic

— Katy Montgomerie 🦗 (@KatyMontgomerie) February 14, 2021

Actually it’s literally objectively false that men do experience misogynistic sexism, on account of how the “gyn” bit means women, and men are men. Men don’t experience misogynistic sexism even if they are wearing dresses and crippling shoes.

"appropriate female oppression"

I don't want to be sexually assaulted for being a woman you absolute loser. It happens because I am one. I can't identify out of it, it's a fact of life. What is wrong with you

— Katy Montgomerie 🦗 (@KatyMontgomerie) February

Originally a comment by Screechy Monkey at Miscellany Room.

Speaking only for myself, I have no opinion on whether or not Murphy is a bigot or got what she deserved. Certainly I’m aware of the skewed nature of the debate over trans issues and the casual accusations of transphobia; on the other hand, I haven’t scrutinized her writings enough to form an opinion.

For me, it’s just a sense that this kind of thing doesn’t belong in court. I won’t go so far as to say this was a frivolous lawsuit, but it was an utterly predictable and correct result in my opinion, as both a descriptive matter (current law pretty clearly precludes it) and a normative one (that … Read the rest

Suzanne Moore in The Telegraph:

I was a bit worried, I must admit, that I was doing this womanhood thing all wrong. For my whole life I haven’t really got the hang of it. There are many things that women are meant to be interested in: shopping, baking programmes, thrillers in which other women get tortured that leave me cold. Ditto: weddings, dating, baby showers, celebrity gossip about torsos with pouts.

And that’s just to start with.

But I shouldn’t have worried because the United Nations has come up with a new slogan and tweeted “There is no wrong way to be a woman. There is no wrong way to be a woman.” They actually said it seven times,