The BBC on Trump’s out on bailitude:

A judge in Georgia overseeing former US President Donald Trump’s election interference case has set a bail bond of $200,000 (£157,000).

Mr Trump and his 18 co-defendants have until midday Friday to surrender to a court in Atlanta.

The bail filing says Mr Trump can remain free pending trial so long as he does not attempt to threaten or intimidate witnesses.

But he will. He won’t be able to do otherwise. He doesn’t take orders from anyone.

Mr Trump is also banned from committing any crimes, and can only have contact with the other co-defendants in the case with lawyers present.

He’ll probably do both of those things too.… Read the rest

Out on bail.

Former President Donald J. Trump’s bail was set at $200,000 on Monday in a sprawling racketeering case charging Mr. Trump and 18 associates with election interference in Georgia.

The move came as it became clear that Mr. Trump and the other defendants will be required to pay cash upon being booked in Atlanta, unlike in the three other criminal cases involving the former president.

Under the conditions of his bond agreement, Mr. Trump cannot violate state or federal laws or communicate with any co-defendants in the case except through his lawyers. He was told not to intimidate witnesses or co-defendants, or “otherwise obstruct the administration of justice,” by threatening them or 30 unindicted co-conspirators in the

No. Get out.

Ecuadorians voted against drilling for oil in a protected area of the Amazon, an important decision that will require the state oil company to end its operations in a region that’s home to two uncontacted tribes and is a hotspot of biodiversity.

Yasuni National Park is inhabited by the Tagaeri and Taromenani, who live in self-isolation. In 1989, it was designated a world biosphere reserve by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, also known as UNESCO. Encompassing a surface area of over 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres), it boasts 610 species of birds, 139 species of amphibians, and 121 species of reptiles. At least three species are endemic.

Rock on birds and amphibians … Read the rest

Big weekend for cheating!

Trans-identified male cyclists took home women's titles at races in Zurich, Switzerland and Richmond, Washington this week.

At one of the races, the male participant beat out two teenage girls for the women's championship.https://t.co/N2Vet9tFXy

— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) August 20, 2023

… Read the rest

The NY Times reports:

A federal judge in Georgia has temporarily blocked part of a state law that prohibits hormone replacement therapy for transgender minors. 

But is “hormone replacement” actually therapy? Or is it medical malpractice? Or something in between?

Calling it therapy puts a big thumb on the scale in this contested issue. What if it’s quackery rather than therapy? What if it’s the new thalidomide, driven by trendy but magical ideas about people “born in the wrong body”?

Judge Geraghty, who was appointed by President Biden, said in her ruling that the ban “is substantially likely to violate the Equal Protection Clause.”

But maybe the equal protection needed is protection from quack medicine sparked by wack ideas … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Mike Haubrich on From Joe Hill to Rich Men North of Richmond.

The Republicans of today are benefiting from the abortion and gay rights strategy of the Moral Majority. Before they embarked on that, most Catholics were Democrats due to the social justice aspect of being Catholic. It also picked up on many of the blue collar workers who didn’t want rampant gay sex and loose women getting welfare checks during the Reagan era. These are now Trump Republicans who sincerely believe that he is going to drain the swamp and end child trafficking.

Our Billy Bragg has written a responsorial to this song (I know, I know!) Rich Men North of Earning North of … Read the rest

This fool should be a dictionary entry for narcissism. “So whenever someone looks at me, and they can’t tell what I was born as – [thumb up] – that’s perfect to me.”

Perfection to this fool is strangers looking at xir and not being able to tell what xir “was born as.” Not a fiery sunset, or a walk in the forest, or making a baby laugh, or helping someone, or learning something, or laughing xirself breathless – but causing a stranger to pay xir extra attention.

What a pathetic, witless, empty, futile, claustrophobic form of “perfection.”… Read the rest

Interesting. Innnnnnnteresting. It’s fine to have a Trans Pride event, but it is not permitted to have a lesbian/gay/bi event. No LGB without the T but definitely T without the LGB.

Why is that exactly?

Straight woman, MSP Maggie Chapman, tells gays & lesbians that they have to align with homophobic ideology and are not allowed to organise separately from the "T". Even as she joins a march which is explicitly T without the LGB. Different rules, eh Maggie? https://t.co/EfY4RUCaR3

— For Women Scotland (@ForWomenScot) August 21, 2023

I guess Maggie Chapman must be really quite thick? Not to have noticed? That she was promoting a trans event and in the same breath saying no lesbian gay bisexual without the … Read the rest

Sigh. Yes it is. Of course it is. Men don’t need to shed the endometrium every month. Men don’t have any endometrium, because they don’t have any uterus.

Menstruation isn’t just a women’s issue, say Lib Dems

But it is, just as pregnancy is “just” a women’s issue. Women aren’t being selfish and mean by hogging all the menstruation – they’re stuck with it because of being women. It’s idiotic, insulting, frivolous, fatuous, rude, absurd, grotesque, for adult political parties to start whining that men get to bleed out their uterine linings every month too.

Sir Ed Davey’s party will vote on a policy proposal that insists period poverty is an issue that affects “some trans and non-binary people”

Kenan Malik on a trumpy version of a folk song:

A jobbing country singer from Virginia, [Oliver] Anthony’s video of his song Rich Men North of Richmond has gone viral over the past week, clocking up more than 20m views on YouTube, rising to the top of the streaming charts and becoming an anthem for conservatives from Marjorie Taylor Green, the reactionary Republican congresswoman from Georgia, to the rightwing political commentator Matt Walsh, all viewing Anthony as a righteous figure, whose “rawness” and “authenticity” speak to real Americans.

The kind who just love them a criminal billionaire who wouldn’t give them a sandwich if they turned up starving at one of his golf resorts.

Kenan compares Anthony … Read the rest

A hunger strike.

So, I posted a bit of mockery about @WhatTheTrans's breathless tweet about Alan "Sarah Jane" Baker's performative hunger strike to get jail accommodations with real women by QTing, "Pls pass the balls." They felt genocided and blocked me, so here's a screencap for your enjoyment. pic.twitter.com/1Kpr4SRQaJ

— Fred Sargeant (@FredSargeant) August 19, 2023

A violent man who claims to be a woman and told a rally to “punch a terf in the face” is demanding to be moved to a female prison so that he can terrorize yet more women.

Colin Montgomerie is on Team Men in Women’s Spaces of course.

Half of all transwomen are in jail for sexual offenses which is 2½ times the

The ever-popular “but what do you mean by ‘trans rights’?” question.

Another thought on this fine Sunday morning: if you are anti-trans, and wish to remove trans rights, just admit what you are, instead of hiding behind ‘women’s rights’, as time again trans rights are shown not to be in conflict with women’s rights. https://t.co/31M83wz0T3

— Thomas Willett (@ThomasWillett9) August 20, 2023

For once we get an answer.

The right to access the single single sex spaces they identify with for one.

— Thomas Willett (@ThomasWillett9) August 20, 2023

Ah, that “right.” Ok so now explain to us how that can be a right without demolishing the right to single sex spaces. Explain how it can be a right for … Read the rest

British Columbia’s turn:

About 30,000 households have been ordered to evacuate in Canada’s British Columbia province, where nearly 400 wildfires are raging.

Two huge fires in the Shuswap region merged overnight, destroying blocks of houses and other buildings. To the south, travel to the waterside city of Kelowna has been restricted, and smoke from nearby fires hangs over Lake Okanagan. Fires have charred homes in West Kelowna, a nearby city of 36,000.

…

The province’s emergency management minister said officials “cannot stress strongly enough how critical it is to follow evacuation orders”. Bowinn Ma added: “They are a matter of life and death not only for the people in those properties, but also for the first responders who will

Robin Ince promotes LGBT Youth Scotland, is reminded of the allegations of grooming and trafficking, boasts that he views the people reminding him as flat-earthers.

Great work, Robin. Finger on the pulse as always https://t.co/FGZrDyrtwB

— Graham Linehan (@Glinner) August 20, 2023

https://twitter.com/robinince/status/1693051284608188447

It’s a particularly odd comparison, because it wouldn’t be supernatural or an overturning of a huge chunk of science for LGBT Youth Scotland to have a history of grooming.

It’s also callous and smug.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Nullius in Verba on We can say it; he can’t.

We could say the same about the word “nerd”, which people tell me isn’t an insult anymore. They tell me that it’s cool to be a nerd now. They tell me to look at how nerd subculture is mainstream with comic book superheroes reigning at the box office.

Permit me to doubt. What I see is the cool kids saying, “I’m such a nerd,” in the same way and the same tone as they would say, “I’m such a bitch.” I see basic functionality locked behind menu options with labels like “stats for nerds”, implying that to understand or care about such things … Read the rest

India Willoughby spits venom at The Telegraph for saying “terf” is a slur. Such a lovely guy.

He says, echoing every racist who wants to say “nigger” because theyyyyyy dooooooooo so whyyyy cannnnnn’t weeeeeee? Thick as a plank and nastier than rancid fish.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Francis Boyle on The situation evolved rapidly.

Terrible as this is it’s almost the best case scenario. The worst case scenario would be that the planet warms more or less uniformly with the tropics slowly becoming uninhabitable while the industrialised world looks on with much hand-wringing but precious little useful action. This way everyone is on notice that it’s their life or at least their property that is on the line.

Now, I’m not pretending that anyone is voluntarily going to give up their lives of consumption-for-the-sake-of-consumption. The sense of entitlement is too deeply engrained in the wealthy and the wannabee wealthy. But we have an opportunity to make the worst of the destructive behaviours … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Rev David Brindley on More threats.

It’s an easy, and lazy, argument to make that chess is played with the brain, not the genitals or the muscles therefore saying there is a need for a separate women’s category is demeaning to women. It relies on the trope of men’s brains and ladyeez brains and assumes women’s intellect is inferior to men’s.

Susan Polgar – Hall of Famer, the Winner of 4 Women’s World Chess Championships,12 Olympic Medals (5 Gold, 4 Silver, 3 Bronze), and the first woman in history to break the gender barrier in chess would like to disagree.

“Why is there a need for Girl’s or Women’s tournaments?”

This is probably one of

It’s never not weird that Giuliani started out as a scourge of mobsters and then turned into one. Maureen Dowd writes:

Giuliani went from cleaning up corruption to ginning up corruption, from crimebuster to criminal defendant in Georgia and unindicted “Co-Conspirator 1” in D.C. Rudy, the prosecutor who made his reputation aggressively pursuing RICO cases, is now Rudolph William Louis Giuliani, a defendant in the Georgia RICO case about the deranged plot to steal the election.

We have seen many cases of mobsters turning state’s evidence for prosecutors. But now we have the rare experience of seeing a prosecutor turn into a mobster.

After all those years spent prosecuting the Five Families in New York, Giuliani surrendered himself to

The passive-aggressive self-flattery is off the charts.

We get it – you want everyone to think you’re very very very very kind, you’re all about kindness, you put kindness first on all occasions, you’re a kind kind kind man. We get it; we get that you think that. We get that you think you’re massively kind and we’re cruel bitches. We get it.

But you’re not. You’re not, for instance, “kind” to women. Being “kind” to men who claim to be women entails being very unkind to women, and that’s what you’re doing.

We get that you think the default for kind people is to heap flattery on men who call themselves women while ignoring all the … Read the rest