So now he’s threatening us.

Free speech is one thing, but this is over the line. As a prosecutor, I'd be sorely tempted to make a motion to revoke Trump's pre-trial bond & put him in custody. Let him explain it to the judge. pic.twitter.com/qEhiXtVFnu

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) August 4, 2023

I wonder if he even understands that he’s out on bail.… Read the rest

The next thing I read after musing aloud whether Trump is so in the habit of lying that he doesn’t know what it is to know anything, is that William Barr says Trump knew he lost the election. Good enough for me! Barr knows the man and I don’t, so I’ll take Barr’s word for it (despite Barr’s squalid history of doing Trump’s foul bidding).

Former Attorney General Bill Barr on Wednesday undermined a key pillar of his old boss’ defense in the special counsel’s probe into 2020 election interference, telling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that Donald Trump “knew well he lost the election.”

Barr went on to say he’s shocked, shocked.

The former attorney general also described Trump’s

Trump had to wait, just like any humble mortal waiting for a bus.

Donald Trump is not a man used to waiting.

But at a court hearing in the nation’s capital, the former US president found himself fidgeting in his seat while he waited 20 minutes for the judge to arrive.

Nobody thought to bring a coloring book and crayons?

The latest indictment stems from his alleged role in plotting to overturn the 2020 election results. He faces four counts: conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.

Federal prosecutors allege he knowingly and repeatedly spread false claims about the 2020 election, and, along with several unnamed co-conspirators, took

Laurie Penny anthology recommendation:

Seeing as they/them has raised their several faces on here after a leave of absence, I will treat you to my thread in response to them's refusal to accept that lesbian and gay issues has sod all to do with them:https://t.co/Fck4WfqwP7

— Julie Bindel (@bindelj) August 4, 2023

… Read the rest

Trans ideologist behaving badly.

A retraction and apology has been issued by iNews for the baseless accusation made by journalist @PatrickStrud against Kellie-Jay Keen, aka @ThePosieParker. Mr Strudwick has forgotten to share this on Twitter, so it would be nice if people could help him out. pic.twitter.com/jc6Qg0bTVK

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) August 3, 2023

After JKR tweeted that, he did remember to share the note…but that’s all he did: simply share it. No apology, no discussion…and he closed replies.

There are many many quote tweets pointing out what crappy journalism and crappy behavior this is.

Just one example:

He got there eventually with a screenshot of an apology with no context given and the replies turned off, how stunning

Well this is the thing, isn’t it. Trans rights. What are they? What, exactly, are they? Is it a “right” to force everyone to agree that one is something one is not? If so, how do we know that’s a right? What chain of reasoning or history of injustices shores up the claim that that is a right? Is it a “right” for men to help themselves to everything set aside for women on the grounds that they are trans women? If so, how, why, on what grounds, and what about women who object?

They'd be about the same, given that 'questioning gender ideology' is what transphobes call their opposition to trans rights.

— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) August 3, 2023

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Seeking to balance inclusivity.

It can’t be inclusive at all times though. Competitions can’t be inclusive. The whole point of competitions is that some people win and others lose.

Emotional blackmail using word games. Just as “inclusivity” is not necessarily good, “discrimination” is not always bad. Discrimination is choosing. Choosing a winner distinguishes the winner from all those who did not win, discriminating against them specifically, by design. Even before any official competition, a whole bunch of would-be competitors are removed because they are not good enough to participate. At all. Everybody knows this is how sport works.

Note that the only “inclusivity” trans activists are interested in is that … Read the rest

NBC reported, confusedly, on the decision by British Rowing that has Peter Tatchell so distraught.

British Rowing has banned transgender athletes from competing in elite female races, but has created three different categories that allow transgender participation, with the policy set to come into effect on Sept. 11, the sports body said on Thursday.

British Rowing said only athletes who are “assigned female at birth” will be eligible to compete in its women’s competitions and represent Britain or England in international events.

Apart from the women’s category, all athletes will be eligible to compete in an ‘open’ category, while a ‘mixed’ category can be offered by organizers if 50% of crew are eligible from the women’s category.

Transgender rights have

Peter Tatchell got a “readers added context” on a dishonest tweet he dropped a few hours ago.

#BritishRowing's BLANKET ban on ALL trans athletes is unfair

Not all trans women athletes have an unfair advantage. Some may be smaller & weaker than average biological women

I urge individual assessment

Many non-trans have the advantage of large hearts & lungs but not banned https://t.co/Kz6KPRyAef

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) August 3, 2023

There is no ban on trans athletes, the note says. The tweet is an intentional lie, the note says.… Read the rest

Rev David Brindley tells us

A Tasmanian woman has been “outed” as a NAZI because she tweeted “DAY 88 of being investigated for ‘inciting hatred’ for stating the truth….”. Yep. 88 = HH so NAZI! Too bad for all those people filling out forms where their birth date is 1988, or who live at number 88, or perhaps even want to order 88 yards of curtains.

And it’s true!

I hate that the internet has taught me this but that number is a neo-nazi signal. Google it if you have to. This is really really not ok #politas pic.twitter.com/A8U9Wtqcy6

— Angela Wilson (@ange_wilson) August 1, 2023

How long do we have before all the numbers become Nazi numbers?… Read the rest

Laurie Penny getting things backward again.

In the U.K., standing up for trans rights now comes with serious professional consequences. I was shocked by the ferocity of the establishment backlash.
I don't know that my career will ever fully recover from the basic choice not to betray my trans friends and colleagues. > https://t.co/z4IbkcLxBQ

— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) August 3, 2023

Is she…unaware of the professional consequences for gender-critical women? Is she unaware of Kathleen Stock? Is she unaware of the actual police persecution of gender-critical women? Is she unaware of pretty much everything but herself?… Read the rest

A star is born.

In a conference room near the Capitol, young conservatives gathered in April to learn how to run for office — how to win and wield government power.

Among the keynote speakers at the summit, hosted by a group devoted to “training America’s future statesmen today,” was Jeffrey Clark, the former senior Justice Department official who in 2020 sought to use federal law enforcement power to undo then-President Donald Trump’s defeat.

Cool cool. Young “conservatives” gathered to learn how to seize power by force.

The criminal indictment of Trump unsealed on Tuesday depicts in vivid detail Clark’s alleged role in the conspiracy prosecutors accuse Trump of orchestrating. The indictment identifies Clark only as “Co-Conspirator 4

How they will do it if and when they get the chance:

Out of the many new details revealed in former President Donald Trump’s third indictment, the most chilling one may be a discussion between Trump’s White House deputy counsel Patrick Philbin and “Co-Conspirator 4” — who, based on the Jan. 6 Committee report, appears to be Jeffrey Clark, a former top Justice Department official in the Trump administration. That discussion, in which the man believed to be Clark suggests using the Insurrection Act, underscores how Trump’s inner circle wasn’t simply seeking ways to delay Trump’s departure from the White House, but actively gaming out how he could stay in power even in the face of a

I can’t find any news coverage of this (yet) so the bird will have to do for now.

It’s not Nazism to know that men are men and not women.

Updating to add: wrong address in the tweet – correct one is the ipaper.… Read the rest

News from Ireland:

Dangerous inmate Barbie Kardashian has been transferred to a male prison – but remains under a restricted regime for the safety of others, we can reveal. Sources say that Kardashian, who identifies as a trans woman after she secured a gender recognition certificate, has been moved into Limerick Prison’s D block in recent days in the men’s side of the jail. The lag had been housed in an isolation unit of the now-old female part of the prison, which has since closed after the opening of a brand new facility there recently.

Golly, they don’t write very well at the Irish Mirror – but I guess we get the idea.

A factor behind the move to

Well knock me down with a 2 by 4.

Oliver Brown in The Telegraph:

British Rowing is expected to announce a dramatic abandoning of its controversial transgender policy on Thursday by restricting the women’s category solely to those born female, Telegraph Sport can reveal.

All right. Now all other sporting bodies all over the world kindly follow suit. Restore fairness to women!

After months of intense discussion at board level, the governing body has decided to follow the majority view of its 31,500 members, more than 80 per cent of whom are understood to have urged a change in approach that would ensure the fairness and integrity of the female category.

It is about. fucking. time.

Rowing

Awww Free Willy wants to be an advertising model. Poor guy must be jealous of Dylan Mulvaney.

Oh, this is just so sad 😂😂😂

Can’t wait to see which company bites. I’m sure they’ll love being associated with someone who thought drowning refugees was a great idea.

Good luck, Willoughby 🤞 pic.twitter.com/3VJ1Yt5epu

— 🦖Leonora Christina 🦕 (@JammersMinde) August 2, 2023

He was such a star on that Big Brother thing all those years ago.

They could hire him to stand outside Costa screaming "you will buy this coffee, let that penetrate!" pic.twitter.com/9eYN7BHxnt

— Mathaíno KP&WS 🟩⬜️🟪 🇺🇦 (@mathano4) August 2, 2023

… Read the rest

Sarah Smith at the BBC leans on the same aspects of the indictment as I did.

Some US commentators have introduced another reason why they think these charges are the most serious. They see in Mr Trump’s alleged conduct a threat to the ideals that underpin the bedrock of the country.

Not since the nation’s founding has any president “voted out of office been accused of plotting to hold onto power in an elaborate scheme of deception and intimidation that would lead to violence in the halls of Congress,” writes Peter Baker in the New York Times.

He goes on: “As serious as hush money and classified documents may be, this third indictment in four months gets to the

Peter Baker on the implications of the indictment:

But not since the framers emerged from Independence Hall on that clear, cool day in Philadelphia 236 years ago has any president who was voted out of office been accused of plotting to hold onto power in an elaborate scheme of deception and intimidation that would lead to violence in the halls of Congress.

What makes the indictment against Donald J. Trump on Tuesday so breathtaking is not that it is the first time a president has been charged with a crime or even the second. Mr. Trump already holds those records. But as serious as hush money and classified documents may be, this third indictment in four months gets to

A legal eagle, Randall D. Eliason, takes us through the third indictment.

The charging decisions in the indictment reflect smart lawyering by the special counsel Jack Smith and his team. The beauty of this indictment is that it provides three legal frameworks that prosecutors can use to tell the same fulsome story.

It will allow prosecutors to put on a compelling case that will hold Mr. Trump fully accountable for the multipronged effort to overturn the election. At the same time, it avoids legal and political pitfalls that could have delayed or derailed the prosecution.

Good to know. I woke up this morning brooding on the two cliffs we’re racing toward – the climate one and the prolific criminal … Read the rest