Fatima Bhutto tells us about the disaster in Pakistan:

This summer, erratic monsoon rains battered the country from north to south – Sindh, the southernmost province, received 464% more rain over the last few weeks than the 30-year average for the period.

At the same time, Pakistan’s glaciers are melting at a rate never seen before. These two consequences of the climate crisis have combined to create a monstrous super-flood that has ravaged the country.

Ninety per cent of crops in Sindh have been damaged; Faisal Edhi, who runs Pakistan’s largest social welfare organisation, the Edhi Foundation, has warned that those who don’t die from the floods risk death by starvation.

A famine is coming; the only question is

Prospect gives us a typically smug “what’s all this fuss about trans rights?” piece by a typically smug dude who isn’t affected by the issue the way women are, and who is so smug he doesn’t notice or care that he isn’t affected by the issue the way women are.

You may have noticed, whether or not you are interested in transgender issues, a fascination with them in the press that borders on the obsessional. 

Ur hur hur, fascination, obsessional, ur hur hur, Y R people so interested?

It’s no skin off his ass so why is it skin off anyone else’s ass?

You may have got the impression, because much of the writing asserts or implies this, that trans

China’s heatwave:

[T]he heat wave that baked China for weeks was startling in its scale, duration and intensity. Through July and August, it shattered temperature records, dried up rivers, withered crops, sparked wildfires and caused deaths from heatstroke. It may have been the most severe heat wave ever recorded.

And it laid bare frightening realities about how humanity is expected to adapt.

With temperatures as high as 113 degrees Fahrenheit, electricity usage soared as hundreds of millions of Chinese switched on air-conditioners. But where was that power supposed to come from? Severe drought had dried up the rivers on which the country depends for much of its clean hydroelectricity, crippling output.

This forced China,

How did I miss this?? Republicans cheering Viktor Orban:

All you need to know about the state of the Republican Party today is what happened at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas on Thursday [last month]. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has been destroying his country’s democracy, received a standing ovation less than two weeks after he gave a speech in Romania in which he endorsed the white supremacist “replacement theory” and denounced a “mixed-race world.”

Texas Monthly has more:

Last month, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán traveled to Romania to deliver a fiery speech denouncing the “mixing” of European and non-European peoples. “We [Hungarians] are not a mixed race . . . and we

More on this we’re definitely going to pass a lot of tipping points story today:

The drought- and flood-stricken summer of 2022 has shown the impact of 1.1° Celsius of global warming — the amount that’s already occurred since pre-industrial times. Now a major scientific reassessment finds that several critical planetary systems are at risk of breaking beyond repair even if nations restrain warming to 1.5°C, the lower threshold stipulated by the Paris Agreement. 

At that level of warming, coral reefs may die off, ice sheets in Greenland and the West Antarctic may melt and permafrost may abruptly thaw, according to a new paper in the journal Science. 

Which will cause a whole lot more critical planetary systems to … Read the rest

Dirt dirt and more dirt. Ginni Thomas is in it up to her neck.

Ginni Thomas, the self-styled “culture warrior” and extreme rightwing activist, has links to more than half of the anti-abortion groups and individuals who lobbied her husband Clarence Thomas and his fellow US supreme court justices ahead of their historic decision to eradicate a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy.

A new analysis of the written legal arguments, or “amicus briefs”, used to lobby the justices as they deliberated over abortion underlines the extent to which Clarence Thomas’s wife was intertwined with this vast pressure campaign.

On the one hand, we’ve got the left zealously campaigning to destroy women’s rights via “trans rights,” and on the … Read the rest

The tipping points aren’t in the future.

The climate crisis has driven the world to the brink of multiple “disastrous” tipping points, according to a major study.

Or not to the brink but over it.

It shows five dangerous tipping points may already have been passed due to the 1.1C of global heating caused by humanity to date.

These include the collapse of Greenland’s ice cap, eventually producing a huge sea level rise, the collapse of a key current in the north Atlantic, disrupting rain upon which billions of people depend for food, and an abrupt melting of carbon-rich permafrost.

But we will continue to do nothing about it.… Read the rest

On the calendar today:

A judge will consider an appeal by the trans rights charity Mermaids on Friday against the Charity Commission’s decision to award charitable status to the new gay rights organisation LGB Alliance. It is understood to be the first time one charity has attempted to strip legal status from another.

The highly unusual hearing will focus attention on increasingly fractious debates over sex and gender identity, and the legal definitions of same-sex attraction and sexual orientation.

I for one hope it will also focus attention on what people mean when they talk about “rights” without ever defining them. What does it mean to call Mermaids “the trans rights charity” as Amelia Gentleman does in the first … Read the rest

Dems tie themselves The left ties itself to the mast as the bow of the ship points down.

Today I got my first “what is a woman” question.

Before I could say anything my campaign manager replied:

”Fuck off Transphobe!”

There was no reason to say anything else.#FuckOffTransphobe #TransRightsAreHumanRights

— Matt Hoh for Senate (@MatthewPHoh) September 3, 2022

Actually there are a lot of reasons to say anything else. About 4 billion or so.

No, I’m proud of my campaign manager for standing up to an aggressive bad faith heckler (that guy was not interested in a conversation).
A woman is a person who identifies as an adult female. I’m happy to talk further @MattWalshBlog https://t.co/YkShcbzCVC

— Matt Hoh

Steve Bannon indicted.

Top former Trump strategist Steve Bannon has been charged in New York with money laundering, conspiracy and scheme to defraud in connection with his role in a fundraising effort to privately underwrite the construction of the US-Mexico border wall, according to the indictment unsealed on Thursday.

…

Bannon is facing charges that he siphoned off more than $1m from the “We Build the Wall” fundraising effort that promised to send all proceeds towards underwriting the completion of the US-Mexico border wall to enrich himself and his associates, the 22-page indictment said.

…

Bannon never went to trial after he received a presidential pardon from Donald Trump that expunged the federal charges. But pardons do not apply

California is burning again.

Firefighters in California struggled on Thursday to gain control of major wildfires that have grown explosively and forced extensive evacuations amid a searing heatwave.

The deadly and destructive Fairview fire in southern California expanded in two directions, covering more than 30 sq miles (78 sq km) of Riverside county. It was just 5% contained.

In the Sierra Nevada, the Mosquito fire had scorched nearly 9 sq miles (23 sq km), forcing evacuations in Placer and El Dorado counties.

California’s a big state, bigger than many countries, but still, multiple huge fires=problem.

There’s another one in the San Bernardino mountains east of LA.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Mike Haubrich on You’re never too young.

“With this gender fluid identity, within a day, you can easily experience three, four, or five different gender expressions … and that can end with people using different names or pronouns,” Laurence says.

Bonsai responds by claiming that “my gender changes from time to time,” and claims that her “identity had been very mixed up in high school.”

“I came out at first [and] thought I was a lesbian. Then, I went to [bisexual] … and then I started to question my identity. Who am I? I can’t explain it … and I’ve totally accepted it at this point,” Bonsai says.

She can’t explain it, but she’s totally … Read the rest

They’re all wrong. Everybody here is wrong. Disband and start over.

A chaplain was deemed a risk to children by his Church of England diocese for defending the right to question school LGBT policies, it has emerged.

The Rev Dr Bernard Randall, 49, is suing the Bishop of Derby and Trent College over alleged religious discrimination after he was sacked by the fee-paying school and reported to terrorism watchdogs.

But why was a school employing “a chaplain” in the first place?

The Rev Dr Randall was appointed in 2015 to provide pastoral care, share the Christian faith and lead services in Trent School’s chapel.

There’s part of your problem. Schools shouldn’t have “chaplains.” Religious schools shouldn’t exist, because … Read the rest

Oh no, now Trump has fallen out with…Fox News.

The Lincoln Project is amused.

We go low so you don't have to! pic.twitter.com/lIi8xYVDKR

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) September 8, 2022

Was it something we said? https://t.co/n3x7eti7w1

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) September 8, 2022

https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1567894430832533504

This is the ad that pissed off Trump this morning. pic.twitter.com/Ee8edHICu3

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) September 8, 2022

… Read the rest

Interesting. There’s a grand jury investigating what lead to the January 6 insurrection, and it has now “expanded its probe to include seeking information about Trump’s leadership PAC, Save America.”

It’s kind of as if you can’t investigate anything about Trump without uncovering new dirt that leads to more new dirt repeat ad infinitum.

The interest in the fundraising arm came to light as part of grand jury subpoenas seeking documents, records and testimony from potential witnesses, the sources said.

The subpoenas, sent to several individuals in recent weeks, are specifically seeking to understand the timeline of Save America’s formation, the organization’s fundraising activities, and how money is both received and spent by the Trump-aligned PAC.

Fraudulently, that’s how.… Read the rest

Hottest summer on record in Europe:

A series of extreme heatwaves and a long running drought saw June, July and August shatter the previous high mark for temperature.

…

“An intense series of heatwaves across Europe paired with unusually dry conditions, have led to a summer of extremes with records in terms of temperature, drought and fire activity in many parts of Europe, affecting society and nature in various ways,” said Freja Vamborg, a senior scientist with the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

It’s the new normal, and the newer normal will be even worse. … Read the rest

Genevieve Gluck at Reduxx:

A video of a young trans-identified teenager is sparking controversy on social media for depicting a 13-year-old dressed in provocative, sexualized clothing as part of an official promotional video for the gender clinic at Chicago’s Lurie Children’s Hospital.

The child, identified as ‘Jupiter,’ uses they/them pronouns and can be seen speaking with a clinician named Natalia, who asks how adults, and parents in particular, can be more accepting of “gender diversity” and develop an “inclusive environment” for trans children.

“I think that one thing that should be explained to a lot of people is that you’re never too young to know about this kind of stuff,” Jupiter says, referring to gender identity.

“I feel like

Since we’ve been talking about Critical Race Theory, let’s talk about Parchman Farm.

After the Civil War, the South’s economy, government, and infrastructure were left in compete shambles. Desperate to restore the previous economic and social order and to control the freedom of newly emancipated African Americans, Southern states adopted criminal statutes, collectively known as “Black Codes,” that sought to reproduce the conditions of slavery. These laws are also commonly known as Jim Crow laws.

“The plantation owners, as best they could, wanted Blacks to return to the same place as they had been as slaves,” according to historian David Oshinsky, author of Worse Than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice.

In addition to

Originally a comment by Mike Haubrich on Ask the consultants.

I stlll have the opinion that schools should be teaching students how to analyze competing claims critically rather than shoveling facts at them. Yes, they need to have a grounding of relatively solidly established facts. But they also need to have a Zinn/Loewen style understanding of how to find perspective in the way that history is taught, so that the Charge up San Juan Hill is understood in context, or why the Phillipines were denied their independence by the United States due to realpolitik concerns and their strategic location.

Students should be encouraged to understand why there were riots following George Floyd’s murder, and what is the relationship between … Read the rest

It’s only gender conservative dullards who don’t consider it art to pour urine around in public spaces.

This kind of art protest will be mystifying to gender conservative dullards.

Trans Activists Left Over 60 Bottles of Piss Outside the EHRC https://t.co/kZNIWYQwTf

— Alex Sharpe (@AlexSharpe64) September 6, 2022

Speaking of what kind of people don’t get what, I think maybe Alex Sharpe isn’t all that attuned to the labor of cleaning up urine. I think maybe Alex Sharpe has never had to mop any up.… Read the rest