Look! Over there! Or there! Or how about over there?!

Trump’s 47 millionth frivolous lawsuit:

Former president Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Thursday against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee and others, alleging that they “maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative” that his campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential race.

He’s a funny guy. He can’t open his yap or move his thick fingers without uttering a false narrative.

Nick Merrill, a Clinton spokesman, responded to the lawsuit with a one-word statement: “Nonsense.”

Let me add a second one-word statement. “Horseshit.”… Read the rest

Hmm. Sometimes sniffing out concealed hatred or “bigotry” can accidentally reveal one’s own.

“We do not condone violence.” “Assault is never the answer.” These words have echoed through all of my social media accounts since Will Smith slapped Chris Rock for making a poor-taste joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

Most people agree the slap shouldn’t have happened. But there’s something that feels precious at best, and downright racist at worst, about white people’s reaction to the now-infamous smack.

I don’t think I understand the continuum here – from precious to racist? Maybe “petty” was the idea? At any rate, “something that feels” itself “feels” like a reach. That whole sentence “feels” like someone struggling to beef up … Read the rest

Oh interesting. Another gap. There was that 18 minute gap on the Nixon phone tapes, and now there’s a seven hour gap on the Trump ones. You’ll never guess which seven hours.

Internal White House records from the day of the attack on the U.S. Capitol that were turned over to the House select committee show a gap in President Donald Trump’s phone logs of seven hours and 37 minutes, including the period when the building was being violently assaulted, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News.

The lack of an official White House notation of any calls placed to or by Trump for 457 minutes on Jan. 6, 2021 – from 11:17 a.m. to

Excellent analogy!

A legislature could try to end climate change by declaring that some CO2 could identify as nitrogen, but EVEN if that CO2 became 'legally nitrogen',the quantity of greenhouse gases building up in the atmosphere would not change, and the earth would keep warming. 4/n

— Helen Joyce (@HJoyceGender) March 29, 2022

… Read the rest

It’s not just the BBC and the Guardian doing the evasive dishonest framing of “trans athletes” and the like; the Times does it too.

Headline: Trans cyclist Emily Bridges faces Olympic winner Laura Kenny

Bridges isn’t a “trans cyclist”; Bridges is a trans woman, aka a man.

Lede:

A transgender athlete who has recently become eligible to compete in women’s events is set to compete against some of Great Britain’s leading female cyclists this week.

A trans woman athlete, i.e. a man, will be competing against women this week.

Journalism really needs to stop obscuring the realities this way.

Emily Bridges, 21, has been included on the entry list for the National Omnium Championships, to be held at the

Rhys McKinnon should just move to the UK; the policy of British Cycling would suit him perfectly. (No one else, but who else matters?)

British Cycling members have been warned that they will be censored and reprimanded if they have any criticism of their [British Cycling’s] newly updated 2020 “Transgender and Non-Binary Participation Policy.”

…

In reply to their Tweeted publication announcement the organization stated:

“We take a zero-tolerance approach to instances of hate being targeted at individuals because of their views or gender identity. This thread will be moderated, and if you’re aware of inappropriate or offensive behavior by our members please email compliance@britishcycling.org.uk.”

“Inappropriate” and “offensive” probably means saying men are men.

There’s a list of Roles and … Read the rest

More Ronny:

I think if you're actually honest with yourself–and the rest of us–you're honestly just happy with excluding us altogether because you don't care about us one iota.

— Dr. Veronica Ivy (@SportIsARight) March 28, 2022

No, I don’t. He’s right about that. I don’t care about Rhys McKinnon and people like Rhys McKinnon one iota. (That is, I don’t “care” in the sense he’s using it – anxiously wanting them to have novel extra “rights” so that they can get what they want at the expense of other people. I do care about him in the sense of considering him both a menace and a grotesque example of “trans activism” who is well worth discussing.) Why should I? … Read the rest

I guess Rhys has finished sulking over quitting his job because everybody hated him.

For people who think trans people should have their own sport category, tell me this:

Who, IN THE WORLD, will I race against?

There isn't a single trans woman (or man, as far as I know), at my level of track sprint cycling.

It's a practical non-starter AND ethical non-starter.

— Dr. Veronica Ivy (@SportIsARight) March 28, 2022

Except I'm female, so I have a female body. Again, non-starter.

— Dr. Veronica Ivy (@SportIsARight) March 28, 2022

Except no he’s not so no he doesn’t. Again, lies don’t become true through repetition.… Read the rest

Live Science on the collapse of the Conger Ice Shelf:

A massive Antarctic ice shelf that covered an area about the size of New York City or Rome just collapsed into the ocean. Scientists warn that while they do not expect significant impacts as a result of this event, melting ice in this historically stable region may be a foreboding sign of things to come.

Satellite photos reveal the sudden disappearance of the Conger Ice Shelf on East Antarctica between March 14 and March 16. “The Glenzer Conger Ice Shelf presumably had been there for thousands of years and it’s not ever going to be there again,” University of Minnesota glaciologist Peter Neff told NPR. While the Ice

Yes but how do you know?

You and I are and men, Tom. We have no right to enter women’s private spaces because men commit the overwhelming majority of sexual and violent crimes, and predatory men will exploit any weakness in safeguarding. Our ‘individuality’ is irrelevant, as is any other man’s.

— Gareth Roberts (@OldRoberts953) March 28, 2022

Men should not be allowed in women's spaces. No one is saying they should.

— Tom Harwood (@tomhfh) March 28, 2022

Oh yes they are. But of course Tom is being evasive here, in the usual way. By “men” he means men who don’t identify as women, while we mean men.

If you declared that on a whim, no.

— Tom Harwood

First ever all-transgender team to play a football match!

There’s just one slight problem.

The transgender team is all trans women.

The other team is all women.

Of course the news article doesn’t admit that up front. They never do.

A local football club will play against a team of solely transgender women in a “world first”.

Dulwich Hamlet will compete against Trans Radio UK United FC (TRUK) on 31 March.

TRUK United’s squad will consist only of transgender women, who will take to the pitch against Dulwich Hamlet’s womens team.

Very validating for the trans women no doubt, but what about the physical safety of the women? Not to mention the fair competition aspect.

Event organiser Lucy Clark says

Well but wait though.

A reminder that @NickFerrariLBC told me on air that being gay is a choice, and refused to apologise https://t.co/CMtsGWZgS4

— Benjamin Cohen (@benjamincohen) March 28, 2022

Right, being same-sex attracted is not a choice and it’s homophobic to tell people it is. But then what about trans people? What are same-sex attracted people supposed to do here? Specifically, are lesbians allowed to be not attracted to trans lesbians (men who identify as lesbians)? If a radio presenter asked Benjamin Cohen that question what would he say?

No, this is not what I think or indeed “tell” lesbians. I think lesbians should be able to decide, like everyone else, who they have sexual relations with.

— Benjamin

Mikhail Iossel shared a remarkable piece of street art from Lyon:… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug on Never mind Ukraine what about trans people?

It’s probably not helpful to make this about intelligence. I have been interested in cults for a while now*, and one particularly pernicious myth is that only weak or stupid people (or at the very least people who suffer from other major problems) join cults, when in fact cults are usually not interested in “damaged goods”: They are mainly interested in strong, healthy, intelligent, highly functional people who can go out there and recruit others (not a simple task!) and put down countless hours of voluntary work (including some highly specialized tasks that require great skill and competence) for the cults. In fact, I seem to … Read the rest

I get the feeling the venom is getting more venomous.

As a woman I am not being erased by the inclusion of my trans sisters.

As a woman I am not at increased risk of physical harm by the inclusion of my trans sisters.

As a woman I do not welcome the policing of our bodies as a means to define us.

As a woman transphobes are cunts.

— Mitten d'Amour (@MittenDAmour) March 27, 2022

I guess that’s the “d’Amour” part? Very lovey-dovey I must say.

Anyway Philip Pullman approves of it.

Go to hell then.

— Philip Pullman (@PhilipPullman) March 27, 2022

Feminist women are cunts, and Philip Pullman tells us to go to hell if we object to … Read the rest

They’re obsessed.

You’d think this was the only civil liberties issue on the planet. I see variations on this ad often and I don’t see ACLU ads that talk about mass incarceration or abortion rights or workers’ rights or any other civil liberties you’d think the ACLU would care about. Maybe this is because of Facebook’s algorithms but I talk about women’s rights a lot more than I talk about trans rights yet the ACLU seems to want to convert me. All it’s doing is convincing me it’s completely lost the plot.… Read the rest

Nancy Kelley says look look it’s all been proven look for yourself.

So I’m reading. First item: the title, subtitle, and first sentence all carefully obfuscate the issue in the way the obedient media outlets always do.

Title: Critics accuse trans swimming star

But the issue isn’t “trans” it’s man. He has an unfair advantage because he’s a man competing against women.

Subhead: The NCAA champion has sparked controversy and become a hate figure among conservatives, but statistics show little evidence that she performed any differently to other women, Io Dodds reports

That one’s a whole list of obfuscations. He became a “champion” by competing against women. He didn’t randomly become “a hate figure”: he cheated women … Read the rest

The Washington Post on Putin’s repression of all traces of dissent:

The speed of Russia’s transformation to Soviet-style “self-purification” has been astonishing. When Russia invaded Ukraine last month, state TV went to wall-to-wall propaganda blaming Ukrainian “neo-Nazis” and “nationalists.” Now, shadowy pro-Putin figures are daubing the words “traitor to the motherland” on the doors of peace activists and others.

The propagandists are seriously busy – I’ve even had a couple here trying to post the “Ukraine–neo-Nazis” crap in comments.

Despite the risk of fines and jail time, others keep protesting. More than 15,000 people have been arrested since the war started.

Anastasia, wearing a jacket with the words “No to War,” was grabbed by riot police earlier this

And speaking of the worship of Peak Bullying, Trump is still flattering his tits-out hero.

Donald Trump chose a rally in Georgia on Saturday night once again to praise Vladimir Putin, calling the Russian president “smart” even as he said the invasion of Ukraine amounted to a “big mistake”.

Putin is “smart” the way any successful crook is “smart.” It’s not a very admirable form of intelligence.

The Republican former president also had warm words for China’s president Xi Jinping and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and referred to such leaders collectively by saying: “The smartest one gets to the top.”

The “smartest” in the sense of the most ruthless, shameless, brutal, determined, conscienceless.

He spoke admiringly of Xi

There’s conservatism and then there’s whatever this is:

After Donald Trump lost the November 2020 election to Joe Biden, Fox skewed further from news to comment, ending its 7pm nightly broadcast, firing the political editor who had been part of Fox accurately projecting on election night that Trump had lost the crucial state of Arizona and promoting Tucker Carlson, the populist commentator and host who has consistently downplayed the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, by extremist Trump supporters, the New York Times noted.

Carlson and other voices aired by Fox have spent the past four weeks playing down Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, going soft on Putin, and undermining the messages of the invaded country’s