David Smith at the Guardian on Trump’s prelude to dictatorship performance yesterday:

Trump careered from touting miracle vaccines to building supreme court suspense, from insulting a female member of the British royal family to abruptly departing for a mysterious “emergency” phone call. But first, there was the small matter of kneecapping American democracy.

Perhaps it was not chance that the president, ever eager to generate media outrage, gave the first question to Brian Karem, who describes himself on Twitter as a “Loud Mouth” senior White House reporter at Playboy. “Will you commit to make sure there’s a peaceful transferral of power after the election?” Karem asked.

And the answer was no, not unless I win.

“Get rid of the

There there, they say, don’t worry, they say, he didn’t really mean he’s going to steal the election. It’s an uphill battle though seeing as how he said what he said.

Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, the sole Republican to vote to remove Trump from office at his impeachment trial earlier this year, drew comparisons with a crisis in Europe, tweeting: “Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power; without that, there is Belarus. Any suggestion that a president might not respect this Constitutional guarantee is both unthinkable and unacceptable.”

Right, but he did suggest it, so there we are.

But there were alarming signs of dissent on the Republican side. Thomas Massie, a member of the conservative

Failing state:

US President Donald Trump has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses November’s election.

“Well, we’ll have to see what happens,” the president told a news conference at the White House. “You know that.”

No. Nobody knows that. It isn’t true.

“I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots,” Mr Trump, a Republican, said. “And the ballots are a disaster.”

When the journalist countered that “people are rioting”, Mr Trump interjected: “Get rid of the ballots, and you’ll have a very – you’ll have a very peaceful – there won’t be a transfer, frankly, there’ll be a continuation.”

Well yes, if we get rid of the ballots, there won’t be a transfer, … Read the rest

Any pretext will do.

In an interview with France Bleu Alsace radio, Elisabeth said she was walking home when one of the three men said: “Look at that whore in a skirt.”

Two of the three men then held her while the third hit her in the face, leaving her with a black eye, she told the station. The men then fled.

They hate women, and they’re stronger than women. No deeper reason needed. She’s in a skirt! She’s in jeans! She’s a slut! She’s a bitch! There is no Acceptable State for a woman.

She said more than a dozen people witnessed the incident, but no-one intervened.

On Wednesday, junior interior minister Marlene Schiappa – who is

The UK has issued new guidance for schools on sex and relationships teaching. One passage in particular has drawn praise from people with sane views on children and “gender”:

We are aware that topics involving gender and biological sex can be complex and sensitive matters to navigate. You should not reinforce harmful stereotypes, for instance by suggesting that children might be a different gender based on their personality and interests or the clothes they prefer to wear. Resources used in teaching about this topic must always be age-appropriate and evidence based. Materials which suggest that non-conformity to gender stereotypes should be seen as synonymous with having a different gender identity should not be used and you should not work

Welcome to the theocracy of the country called The Savior, where women are harshly punished for having miscarriages and stillbirths.

A woman sentenced to 30 years in jail after a stillbirth that was judged to be her fault has been released from jail in El Salvador.

First rule of theocratic misogyny: it’s always a woman’s fault. “It” means anything and everything.

Cindy Erazo, 29, from San Salvador, was granted conditional freedom on Wednesday after six years in jail.

Morena Herrera, head of the Citizen’s Group for the Decriminalisation of Abortion, said that Erazo, who has a son aged 10, had an obstetric emergency when she was eight months pregnant. She was accused of attempting to end the

Navalny is out of the hospital.

Navalny, who has built a huge following on social media, described his condition in an Instagram post featuring a photo in which he is staring into the camera from a Berlin park bench. He wrote that sleeping is still his biggest problem and that doctors decided the best treatment is a return to “normal life.”

Navalny said he is taking walks and spending time with his family and that his plans are “simple”: daily physiotherapy sessions so he’ll be able to stand on one leg again and regain full control of his fingers. He joked that he’ll find out if he can get a prescription for the PlayStation 5.

Colleagues of

This guy is fascinating. He just can’t stop telling women what to do.

It seems there was a Mumsnet thread discussing surrogacy that included harsh remarks about him, and Justine Roberts of Mumsnet took it down after he complained about it.

Btw this was just replaced with a topic about how awful surrogacy is in all circumstances. Is this the official view of @MumsnetTowers @Justine_Roberts ? https://t.co/YBOIgHSbFm pic.twitter.com/bLQvK3Dg8e

— Benjamin Cohen (@benjamincohen) September 23, 2020

Well is it? Justine?! I’d like an answer please!

Who the hell does he think he is? It’s no wonder Pink News is so awful, when he’s the CEO of it.… Read the rest

Speaking of Trump’s refusing to accept the election result…

President Donald Trump on Wednesday would not commit to providing a peaceful transition of power after Election Day, lending further fuel to concerns he may not relinquish his office should he lose in November.

“Well, we’re going to have to see what happens,” Trump said when asked whether he’d commit to a peaceful transition, one of the cornerstones of American democracy.

As if “American democracy” is something to boast of at this point.

His reluctance to commit to a peaceful transition was rooted in what he said were concerns about ballots, extending his false assertion that widespread mail-in voting is rife with fraud.

“You know that I’ve been complaining very

So, about this election…

If we are lucky, this fraught and dysfunctional election cycle will reach a conventional stopping point in time to meet crucial deadlines in December and January. The contest will be decided with sufficient authority that the losing candidate will be forced to yield. Collectively we will have made our choice—a messy one, no doubt, but clear enough to arm the president-elect with a mandate to govern.

As a nation, we have never failed to clear that bar. But in this election year of plague and recession and catastrophized politics, the mechanisms of decision are at meaningful risk of breaking down. Close students of election law and procedure are warning that conditions are ripe for a

Well you see it’s like this…

Male same-sex couples can’t reproduce. It’s that simple. They don’t need reproductive healthcare services because of the not being able to reproduce thing. Female same-sex couples can’t reproduce on their own either, but the fix for that is technologically quite simple and quick and entirely non-invasive. It’s very different from pregnancy that way. The obstacles that exist for male couples that don’t exist for straight couples are all about the presence or absence of a uterus. That’s not because of unfair laws or homophobia, it’s just how female and male bodies work.

Harrop puts it the way he does because he wants us to think that access to female reproduction is there for … Read the rest

Newsweek reports:

Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has defended 17-year-old Illinois double murder suspect Kyle Rittenhouse as a “little boy” who was merely “trying to protect his community” during the shootings in Kenosha, Wisconsin last month.

Bondi appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show to discuss new video footage released by Rittenhouse’s attorney which paints the suspect in a favorable light and suggests his actions were justified in the “war zone” which had broken out in Kenosha in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

“You have got a 17-year-old out there trying to protect his state,” Bondi said, despite the fact the teenager traveled from his hometown in Antioch, Illinois, to attend the protests on

Ah you see it’s a long-term relationship, not at all a rent a woman’s uterus situation.

These people genuinely seem to believe that Surrogacy in the UK is us “demanding” a random woman is our surrogate. Instead it’s building a long-term relationship with someone as a friend and a member of our extended family who does so for altruistic only reasons pic.twitter.com/1bRYDV6qr8

— Benjamin Cohen (@benjamincohen) September 23, 2020

(First of all, the inelegance of the grammar – “us “demanding” a random woman is our surrogate” – ick. Should be “our ‘demanding'” because gerunds are nouns, but much more…demanding a woman is our surrogate? Come on. That’s what the subjunctive is for. Demanding that something is just makes no … Read the rest

The discussion continued.

They are also claiming that I don’t want to pay “an adult female to rent a uterus”. Doing what they are asking for, would be illegal as commercial surrogacy is not allowed in the UK (2/3)

— Benjamin Cohen (@benjamincohen) September 22, 2020

Oh look, he said the Forbidden Words – adult female. He said it in quotation marks, but he forgot to tell us the words are forbidden, and transphobic, and terfy, and deserving of punishment.

And I’d add because the transphobes are deliberately spinning things. I don’t think that I have a right to a specific surrogate. I do think that I should have the right to things like a F**king BLOOD TEST on the

Oh no, a reporter asked him a question about the more than 200 thousand deaths. How dare she.

He doesn’t care if you die. He believes America exists to serve him. Dying is failure because it prevents you from serving him. https://t.co/E8gnUQLZKV

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) September 22, 2020

… Read the rest

Trump is in Chynah did it mode:

Tensions between the US and China came to the fore of the annual UN General Assembly in New York, with US President Donald Trump blaming China for the spread of coronavirus.

He called for China to be held “accountable” for the pandemic.

The one he calls “the China virus.”

[A]s often is the case for speeches to the assembly, President Trump used his address to tout his achievements and tear into a rival.

It’s all he knows how to do – say how magnificent he is and pick fights with other people. He’s not a talented guy.

But Laura Trevelyan explains that it’s a campaign move.

This was a stump speech by

Cory Booker is not impressed by Trump’s move to whip up his audience by saying the words “suburbia” and Cory Booker!!” together yesterday. Oooooooh Cory Booker gonna move into your suburbia and make it all SCARY and not white so be afraid be very afraid.

Sen. Booker responds to Pres. Trump's comments about him: "I'm tired, I really am exhausted, at the end of this man's time as president, he has pushed every racially divisive nerve possible in this country." pic.twitter.com/Cap4CINquP

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) September 22, 2020

… Read the rest

Trump was out flapping his lips yesterday.

"I turn on NBC w/Lester Holt, another beauty, & they start w/a hurricane, & then they went to something…I'm saying, 'First Lady, this is getting a little embarrassing…they haven't mentioned the Nobel'"- Trump whines that NBC covered a hurricane instead of his Nobel nomination pic.twitter.com/C3jRDy5NH1

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 22, 2020

If this doesn’t make you check your registration, mail or walk-in your vote RIGHT NOW, then track your vote to make sure it’s counted, I don’t know what else you need to hear. To the loved ones of the 200,000+ who suffered and died from this containable virus, this is evil. https://t.co/IgCbvkRecA

— Ava DuVernay (@ava) September 22, 2020

… Read the rest

Oh look at that now, it turns out women are needed for some things.

(This guy is the CEO of Pink News, scourge of ‘TERFs.”)

If we were straight, then we would be entitled to three cycles of IVF and all of the associated test costs would be covered by the NHS. I realise the NHS is under a lot of strain, but @MattHancock promised last year there would be a review of this. Nothing has happened. (2/2)

— Benjamin Cohen (@benjamincohen) September 22, 2020

How casual is his “for gay male couples starting a family through surrogacy” – that is, for gay male couples renting a woman’s body to gestate a baby for them. It doesn’t sound quite so … Read the rest

Speaking of “a woman” with accompanying ( ) gesture to explain what a woman is, this is not the most intelligent headline I’ve ever seen.

Via Sister Outrider… Read the rest