Extraordinary.

Swansea [University] Union issues a statement:

The University recently informed the Union that an external community group, Swansea Bay ReSisters, is hiring Swansea University’s Taliesin Arts Centre for an event on 31^st August 2023 focussing on legal and social issues affecting women and girls in Wales.

This event has not been promoted, encouraged, or planned by the University, the Taliesin or the Students’ Union.

Wait, what? Why the need to frantically distance the university and the union from a discussion of legal and social issues affecting women and girls in Wales? Is that a taboo subject in Wales?

The Union acknowledges the impact this event could have on students, staff and the wider community, but also understands

… Read the rest

Back in May, staff at the Edinburgh comedy club The Stand tried to shut down a planned Fringe event with Joanna Cherry, but were foiled by public outrage. Now there are new threats.

Joanna Cherry has claimed that the need for unprecedented security measures such as metal detectors at her Fringe show are “a disgrace in modern Scotland”.

The MP, who is well known for her gender critical views, is the headline act at a show at The Stand comedy club on Thursday, an event it is feared trans activists will attempt to prevent going ahead.

Her appearance had initially been cancelled after staff refused to work at it due to Ms Cherry’s views, but the venue

… Read the rest

She’s the perfect judge for Trump – from our point of view, not from his.

LAWYERS WHO’VE DEFENDED clients before Tanya S. Chutkan, the judge assigned to Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 election conspiracy case, have some advice for the former president and his attorneys: buckle up.

Far from the more indulgent* Aileen Cannon, the judge overseeing Trump’s Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, attorneys tell Rolling Stone that Chutkan is perhaps the toughest judge he could have gotten in the Washington, D.C. district court.

*the more hand-picked and underqualified Aileen Cannon.

“It’s probably the worst draw for Trump. She’s the worst judge he could’ve gotten handed,” one attorney with experience representing a January 6 defendant tells Rolling Stone. “She’s

… Read the rest

Let’s try the whole case in public shall we? In fact let’s do it on social media.

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump

THERE IS NO WAY I CAN GET A FAIR TRIAL WITH THE JUDGE “ASSIGNED” TO THE RIDICULOUS FREEDOM OF SPEECH/FAIR ELECTIONS CASE. EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS, AND SO DOES SHE! WE WILL BE IMMEDIATELY ASKING FOR RECUSAL OF THIS JUDGE ON VERY POWERFUL GROUNDS, AND LIKEWISE FOR VENUE CHANGE, OUT IF D.C.

Trump complaining about experienced Judge Chutkan (black woman judge…his worst nightmare), where he doesn't complain about inexperienced Conservative Federalist Society White woman Judge Cannon?

Gee, I wonder why.

Your posts sure look like Obstruction of Justice to me, Donny. pic.twitter.com/vB8QvUdoSf

— Peter Briggs 🇪🇺 (@peterbriggs) August 6,

… Read the rest

Other lawyers are surprised to learn this:

If former President Donald Trump committed a “technical violation of the Constitution,” it doesn’t mean he necessarily broke any criminal laws, John Lauro, Trump’s criminal defense attorney, argued on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

…

“A technical violation of the Constitution is not a violation of criminal law,” Lauro contended, calling it “just plain wrong” to suggest that Trump had pressed Pence to break the law.

Other lawyers beg to differ.… Read the rest

Here is the Museum of Pop Culture blog post by Chris Moore explaining why the museum is displaying JKR’s work but not her name, aka stealing her intellectual property without acknowledgement. Apart from the sheer spiteful nastiness it seems to me to be remarkably childish and silly for a museum administrator, but maybe I’m wrong, maybe it’s just pop culturey.

Remember, this blog post is on the museum’s website, so it’s speaking for the museum, not just Chris Moore the (proudly gender-special) person.

Title: She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named

Subhead: There’s a certain cold, heartless, joy-sucking entity in the world of Harry Potter and, this time, it is not actually a Dementor.

Body of text:

We would love to go with the internet’s theory

… Read the rest

Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture, formerly the Experience Music Project, displays Harry Potter stuff but pretends Harry Potter was invented by no one. I call that highly unethical, bordering on plagiarism.

A Seattle Museum has airbrushed JK Rowling from its hall of fame and Harry Potter exhibition over her gender-critical views. The Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) in Washington hit out at the famous author and accused her of holding ‘super hateful and divisive’ opinions.

It defended its decision to remove all references to Rowling in a lengthy blog post on Saturday. The museum still has Harry Potter memorabilia on display but any mention of the author of the franchise has been airbrushed.

In other words it profits … Read the rest

How adult, how thoughtful, how reasonable, how wise, how proportionate, how free of spite and venom and loathing and contempt.

Trump typed:

I purposely didn’t comment on Nancy Pelosi’s very weird story concerning her husband, but now I can because she said something about me, with glee, that was really quite vicious. “I saw a scared puppy,” she said, as she watched me on television, like millions of others, that didn’t see that. I wasn’t “scared.” Nevertheless, how mean a thing to say! She is a Wicked Witch whose husbands journey from hell starts and finishes with her. She is a sick & demented psycho who will someday live in HELL!

Imagine saying a mean thing about someone!! Donald … Read the rest

Women may not have anything for women. Women may not defend the rights of women. Women may not tell the truth about who is a woman. Women must sit down and shut up. The Great Western Railway says so.

The website of a gender-critical group was blocked on a train’s Wi-Fi network for being linked to “terrorism and hate”, it has emerged.

Sex Matters, which campaigns against the adoption of gender ideology and argues that biological sex is a reality, had its web page blocked by Great Western Railway.

Those attempting to access the site, which raises concerns about gender reassignment surgery as well as about men in women’s prisons, hospital wards and sporting events, received a message

… Read the rest

Trump the anarchist:

American democracy is only as strong as its legal system. The founders of the country created the judiciary as the third branch of the federal government to keep executive power in check and prevent corruption. So it was a cause for deep concern last week when Donald Trump unleashed a verbal tantrum on his Truth Social platform, accusing special counsel Jack Smith of “prosecutorial misconduct” even before he filed four federal criminal counts against the former president over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in a bid to remain in office.

An identical barrage came last April when a Manhattan grand jury indicted Trump on 34 felony charges for falsifying business records.

… Read the rest

This is why we can’t turn it around.

Today we are saying no to @JustStop_Oil and their political wing the Labour Party 

We will power ahead with new oil and gas because it’s in the best interests of the British people, of our economy and of our national security pic.twitter.com/KO8zujUkdM

— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) July 31, 2023

… Read the rest

More reactions to Stephen Whittle’s disgusting tweet.

Hey @stephenwhittle,

Could you please reveal which police force sent an officer to you who said he would have “said far worse” than inciting violence. Was it @gmpolice?

Do you accept that you lied to police, as you misled officers with faux-contrition via a false apology? https://t.co/n4zJR0GW70

— Robbie Travers (@RobbieTravers) August 5, 2023

It will be @gmpolice and the visit will be logged so the police officer who said such a disgusting thing will be able to be identified.

— Jacky Holyoake (@JackyHolyoake) August 5, 2023

The officer I was in touch with stated that you had apologised and ‘didn’t mean it’.

Looks like you were lying about that.@gmpolice

… Read the rest

James Fallows makes a very good point here.

https://twitter.com/JamesFallows/status/1687847616103473152

Reporters generally (or always?) don’t write the headlines and subheads; that’s the editor’s job. The first para of the story certainly pulls no punches, ending with “He is an inveterate and knowing liar.”

Another thing: there’s an ambiguity in quotation marks. It’s not always clear whether they’re straightforward (someone said this) or scare quotes. But Fallows is still right: even if ‘Lies’ is quoting the indictment, it can still look like scare quotes.

https://twitter.com/JamesFallows/status/1687859317204996096

Yep, he certainly has a point there too. Habit? What a benign word for a pattern of criminal behavior.

He sums up:

To underscore a point well known in journalism but not so much in civilian world:

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It’s complicated.

If convicted in any of the three criminal cases he is now facing, Donald Trump may be able to influence whether he goes to prison and what his stay there looks like under a law that allows former U.S. presidents to keep Secret Service protection for life, some current and former U.S. officials said.

…

Trump could force politically and logistically complex questions over whether officials should detail agents to protect a former American president behind bars, leave it to prison authorities to keep him safe, or secure him under some type of home confinement, former U.S. officials said.

…

The charges Trump faces technically come with the possibility of decades in prison — though pleas, verdicts

… Read the rest

Oh really. How interesting.

Police visited after I made my remark re a certain welcome to KJK aka PP. But they were very sympathetic. One told me they "would have said far worse".

— Prof. Stephen Whittle OBE, PhD, DLaws, FAcSS, (@stephenwhittle) August 5, 2023

The cops visited trans man Stephen Whittle after she [gloated about the assault on KJK?] but actually they approved of the gloating and one said he would have said far worse? That is very very interesting, and not in a good way.

It will be @gmpolice and the visit will be logged so the police officer who said such a disgusting thing will be able to be identified.

— Jacky Holyoake (@JackyHolyoake) August 5, 2023

… Read the rest

Joyce Vance expands on her point:

Today, Donald Trump issued what can only be construed as a shot across the bow, after the Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya admonished him during arraignment yesterday that he must not commit any new crimes while on a pre-trial bond—the thing that’s keeping him out of jail before trial—and that efforts to influence or intimidate witnesses, jurors or others involved in the case were illegal.

So, naturally, he posted a threat on his social media toy.

It couldn’t be more clear that this is a threat to Jack Smith and the prosecutors and investigators involved in the case against him. It’s readily construed as a threat against state court prosecutors like Alvin Bragg in

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Joyce Vance thinks he should be locked up.

Former President Donald Trump has gone “over the line” and should be taken into custody for his latest apparent threat, according to former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance.

During an arraignment hearing in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Trump pleaded not guilty to four felony charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election result and over his actions surrounding the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Approximately 24 hours later, the ex-president posted the following to his Truth Social account: “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”

Vance, former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, said that the post went beyond “free speech” and Trump should

… Read the rest

Reuters tells us:

 U.S. prosecutors flagged a threatening social media post from Donald Trump in a late-night court filing on Friday, arguing that it suggests he might intimidate witnesses by improperly disclosing confidential evidence received from the government.

On his Truth Social site, the former president wrote, “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” on Friday afternoon, a day after he pleaded not guilty to charges that he orchestrated a criminal conspiracy to try to reverse his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

In the filing in Washington federal court, the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith said Trump’s post raised concerns that he might publicly reveal secret material, such as grand jury transcripts, obtained from

… Read the rest

Trump might find himself in prison to await trial.

This is the kind of thing that DOJ alerts the court to with respect to any defendant out on bail (in this case, in 3 criminal cases, and also is a threat in civil cases like E Jean Carroll). Not addressing this will only cause it to metastasize with undue deadly risks. https://t.co/UAjKfM2SfB

— Andrew Weissmann (weissmann11 on Threads)🌻 (@AWeissmann_) August 4, 2023

It’s a threat, you see. It’s not clever to threaten when you’re out on bail.… Read the rest

The needle has moved a little.

British sports governing bodies are under mounting pressure to reform their policies after world swimming banned transgender athletes who reached male puberty from elite women’s events.

In a seismic move for Olympic sport which will mean that American swimmer Lia Thomas can no longer compete in elite races, swimming’s rulemakers announced that transgender women must now establish that they “have not experienced any part of male puberty”.

Finally.

Fina, world swimming’s governing body, also announced plans to establish a new “open” category of competition to include transgender women that, according to president Husain Al-Musallam, would involve “some of our biggest events”.

It’s unclear why anyone but men who claim to be … Read the rest