Pathetically, it’s news that Trump was pushed into admitting that at some point he will have to get out.

Donald Trump has said that he will leave the White House in January if the electoral college votes for Democratic president-elect Joe Biden, in the closest the outgoing president has come to conceding defeat.

Which is not very close, because he said it in reply to a very narrow question, and he instantly qualified it and undercut it with more shouting about fake votes blah blah blah.

Speaking to reporters on the Thanksgiving holiday, Trump said if Biden – who is due to be sworn in on 20 January – was certified the election winner by the electoral college, he would

Trump won’t like it that news outlets are reporting on his tiny desk and tiny hands and big diapers.

For a US president obsessed by size – his hands, his wealth, his crowds – Donald Trump made something of a bold U-turn on Thursday night by addressing the country from a desk seemingly designed for a leprechaun.

Or a very naughty boy.

The hashtag #DiaperDon swiftly trended on Twitter, with people mocking the president as an infant banished to the children’s table for Thanksgiving.

I still can’t quite believe this happened today.
Whoever suggested that desk … thank you.#tinydesk #TinyDeskDonald https://t.co/9sQ6Ko1bMA pic.twitter.com/xKuU0DVjUD

— Noah Maher (@noahsparc) November 27, 2020

… Read the rest

The headline for today is Trump Tantrum.

So, the next few months are gonna be SUPER fun. #TrumpTantrum pic.twitter.com/BN6KlhI9a2

— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) November 27, 2020

Nah, Spanky, we’re gonna talk to you as the angry greedy self-centered goon you are. You reap what you sow, blowfish-lips.

Also he looked funny.

When your child is eventually allowed off the naughty step for Christmas lunch, but isn’t well behaved enough to join the rest of the family at the dinner table.#DiaperDon #TrumpTantrum pic.twitter.com/B4MWTTyUnL

— David (@DavidofPartick) November 27, 2020

I wonder if this will be the number one Christmas gift this year? #playskool #trumptantrum #DiaperDon pic.twitter.com/gV5kwzX6jS

— Caergalin (@caergalin) November 27, 2020

Watch this you won’t regret it #TrumpTheFool pic.twitter.com/FbpHigFkgg

Narcissist meets masochist, hilarity ensues. … Read the rest

I posted the other day about an open letter that purports to be “from the Irish LGBTQ+ community” and against “transphobia.” There’s more to say about it.

Let us say unequivocally that the statements of newly launched organisations that seek to defend biology or fight gender identity and expression do not represent the wider LGBTI+ community nor feminists in Ireland. More importantly, they are not organisations at all, they have no governance, no accountability, and are simply Twitter accounts. Further, they are not supported by the wider Irish community.

On the one hand there are newly launched organizations that say things, on the other hand the newly launched organizations are not organizations at all, but just Twitter accounts. But you … Read the rest

Downright embarrassing.

No there’s no cancel culture here. A play in three acts. Fuck sake @BoyzMagazine you very nearly did a good thing for gay young men then. pic.twitter.com/g0yERxt81K

— Kathleen Stock (@Docstockk) November 26, 2020

Whoops, what happened?

On behalf of Boyz magazine I wish to apologise to all our readers, venues and advertisers for the publicity we have given to the LGB Alliance. We recognise that many of our readers and supporters will have been deeply upset by our promotion of tonight’s LGB Alliance webinar. pic.twitter.com/bNlW4Httk2

— Boyz (@BoyzMagazine) November 26, 2020

We got it wrong. Please forgive us. We will be setting up a meeting with @Mermaids_Gender in the very near future to help improve our relationship

We blew it.

Perhaps no hospital in the United States was better prepared for a pandemic than the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

After the SARS outbreak of 2003, its staff began specifically preparing for emerging infections. The center has the nation’s only federal quarantine facility and its largest biocontainment unit, which cared for airlifted Ebola patients in 2014. The people on staff had detailed pandemic plans. They ran drills. Ron Klain, who was President Barack Obama’s “Ebola czar” and will be Joe Biden’s chief of staff in the White House, once told me that UNMC is “arguably the best in the country” at handling dangerous and unusual diseases. There’s a reason many of the Americans who

Jane Clare Jones is also infuriated by the interruption.

'On this, the day for the elimination of patriarchal violence against women, we, the good maidens, affirm our commitment to the first rule of patriarchy: female people must never be allowed to centre their own needs, experience, or interests because other people matter more.' pic.twitter.com/rHg1O9O0ca

— Dr. Jane Clare Jones (@janeclarejones) November 26, 2020

Maybe centring trans women and deliberately trolling women and trying to put them in their place on IDEVAW wasn't the best way of demonstrating how there is no conflict of interests here eh?

You patriarchy-pandering fools.

— Dr. Jane Clare Jones (@janeclarejones) November 26, 2020

… Read the rest

Shut up about women, we have to talk about trans women whenever anyone tries to talk about women. It’s imperative.

Olivia Colman, Jameela Jamil and Paloma Faith have signed an open letter condemning “hostility and violence” against trans women, joining a chorus of voices to do so on International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls.

Right, because we can’t talk about women and girls any more, it’s not allowed, if we try we will be interrupted and told to talk about trans women instead. Shut up about women and instead talk about men who say they feel like women in their heads.

The letter, which pledges solidarity with trans women, who experience significantly higher

Theocracy tightens its grip and gives a giant boost to COVID-19.

In a 5-4 ruling, the US Supreme Court sided with religious organizations in a dispute over Covid-19 restrictions put in place by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo limiting the number of people attending religious services.

The case is the latest pitting religious groups against city and state officials seeking to stop the spread of Covid-19, and it highlights the impact of Justice Amy Coney Barrett on the court. The decision comes as coronavirus cases surge across the country.

This could be a very wise move if we lived in a world where viruses do what a god tells them to do. We don’t live in that world, … Read the rest

Speaking of Ash Sarkar…PBS here is running a BBC series called The Rise of the Nazis, which I watched a bit of last week. It includes historians explaining things, including Richard Evans, so I settled in expecting good things…and then suddenly there was Ash Sarkar, giving her thoughts on the rise of the Nazis. Ash Sarkar??? I thought. Alongside real historians?? Wtf??? What she said was of course vapid and of no interest. I turned the tv off.

Later I consulted Google to see if anyone else had noticed, and anyone else had. There seems to have been a slight uproar. One article is titled Ash Sarkar is not an expert on Nazism. And the BBC should not treat her … Read the rest

This one spells it out – no you cannot have a single day to yourselves to talk about violence against women, yes you do have to include men who say they are women in your protests of violence against women.

I’m a very proud signatory of this letter – along with Olivia Colman, @Palomafaith, and @jameelajamil – affirming our support for our trans sisters on International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls.

Share widely!https://t.co/rpQx9q7ssr

— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) November 25, 2020

Ash Sarkar shouldn’t be proud of that letter, she should be ashamed of it.… Read the rest

That Suzanne Moore essay:

It is March 2020. For several months now I have been trying to write something — anything — about the so-called “trans debate” in my Guardian column. But if I ever slip a line in about female experience belonging to people with female bodies, and the significance of this, it is always subbed out. It is disappeared. Somehow, this very idea is being blocked, not explicitly, but it certainly isn’t being published. My editors say things like: “It didn’t really add to the argument”, or it is a “distraction” from the argument.

I wouldn’t like to have editors like that. I like having editors who let me decide what my argument is, since I’m the … Read the rest

Trump pardoned Flynn.

It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon. Congratulations to @GenFlynn and his wonderful family, I know you will now have a truly fantastic Thanksgiving!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 25, 2020

House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler issued a statement:

“This pardon is undeserved, unprincipled, and one more stain on President Trump’s rapidly diminishing legacy.

“Michael Flynn was fired from the White house for lying to senior officials.  He pleaded guilty—twice—to lying to federal investigators about his communications with a foreign adversary. Flynn’s agreement to cooperate with the government in exchange for those guilty pleas seemed light to some, given reports that Flynn and his

Another woman-hating creep who works for Pink News.

I’VE BEEN SILENCED!!!! suzanne moore cries, from the front page of a national newspaper pic.twitter.com/JDPgNrjmf3

— ryan john butcher (@ryanjohnbutcher) November 25, 2020

suzanne moore: *quits lucrative national newspaper column after relentless targeting of a vulnerable minority* i'm being bullied and silenced and cancelled!!!!

also suzanne moore: i never went into the office and my boss kept wanting to take me out for lunch pic.twitter.com/bro70BoQsn

— ryan john butcher (@ryanjohnbutcher) November 25, 2020

But what is this “relentless targeting”? The opening of Moore’s article:

It is March 2020. For several months now I have been trying to write something — anything — about the so-called “trans debate” in my Guardian column.

“This election has to be turned around.”

That’s what @realDonaldTrump just said, when he phoned into a GOP election hearing in Pennsylvania.

This is a dangerous statement.

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) November 25, 2020

CBS has details:

One day after Pennsylvania certified its election results, formalizing President-elect Joe Biden’s win over President Trump in the state’s presidential race, Mr. Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani is attending a public hearing in Gettysburg on election “issues” and alleged “irregularities.” President Trump, unable to attend in person, phoned in his false claims that he won swing states like Pennsylvania and the entire election. 

Mr. Trump stated his goal in no uncertain terms: “We have to turn the election over,” the president said

But seriously. The virus doesn’t agree to step back for five days, and I find the bargaining language people use about this decidedly odd. They seem to think that if they promise it’s just five days and they promise not to infect each other on purpose then the virus will do its part and all will be well. Like:

One of my daughters lives with her boyfriend in London, and the other lives in a flat share. The three-household rule means I can see them both. It’s a rubber-stamp, and it means that in your conscience you can know you’re doing the right thing, and abiding by what the government deems acceptable.

But none of that makes any difference … Read the rest

The way it works is, the virus understands that people really really want to get together with family over Christmas so it will declare a cease-fire for five days. The virus is strict, but fair.

Ministers are facing calls to publish scientific advice on the relaxing of Covid-19 rules over Christmas amid warnings that a single infectious guest could infect a third of those at a household gathering.

Under rules revealed by the prime minister on Tuesday, up to three households can form a “bubble” for five days over Christmas. It prompted a raft of scientists to speak out, warning that mixing will inevitably lead to an increase in infections come the new year, leading to deaths. Some said

Can women have anything for ourselves now? Even just one day out of the 365 to call for an end to violence against us? Just ONE??

No, of course we fucking can’t.

The time is up for victim-blaming, rape myths and stereotypes.

We stand with all women – including our trans sisters and non-binary siblings – on International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/o56Lm7ILpg

— Amnesty UK (@AmnestyUK) November 25, 2020

… Read the rest

Rewire is doing the same thing all over again today.

First, it's important to say that abortion is popular–like, really popular. More popular than you ever were in high school, Aunt Karen. Most Americans are pro-choice! And it's also super common–everyone knows and loves someone who has had an abortion, whether they know it or not. pic.twitter.com/b5m1nnHX0d

— Rewire News Group (@RewireNewsGroup) November 24, 2020

Hur hur. Throw food at them. We are very adults. Hur hur Aunt Karen, she’s such a bitch. Aren’t we good feminists?

Expanding abortion access, on the other hand, is simply good public health policy, because abortion is simply good medicine. https://t.co/V1LjRwQJfg

— Rewire News Group (@RewireNewsGroup) November 24, 2020

“Ask any pregnant person,” because … Read the rest