Seems bizarre.

 A Colorado judge on Friday allowed Donald Trump to remain on the ballot in the state’s election next year, but found that he “engaged in insurrection” by sparking the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.

He did the thing that should disqualify him but he gets to stay anyway.

The ruling from Judge Sarah Wallace, which is almost certain to be appealed, rejects a bid by a group of Colorado voters to disqualify Trump under a rarely used amendment to the U.S. Constitution that bars officials who have engaged in “insurrection” from holding federal office.

I’m betting the reason the amendment is rarely used is that insurrection doesn’t happen all that … Read the rest

At the Critic an anonymous psychiatrist writes:

When a child identifies as trans, the spectre of suicide is frequently raised by campaigners — sometimes in a highly manipulative and unethical form. A talk by philosopher Kathleen Stock at the Oxford Union in May was interrupted by an activist glueing her hands to the floor. She wore a T-shirt stating, “No more dead trans kids”. Parents are told that unless they immediately “socially transition” their child — i.e., refer to them as members of the opposite sex, and present them as such to everyone else — their child is highly likely to self-harm.

Perhaps the most egregious form this claim takes is that unless a child is swiftly medicalised, first

Let’s read that article that Media Matters has pinned on Twitter:

Elon Musk praises antisemitic replacement theory that motivated a mass shooting as “the actual truth”

Ever in search of a new low, Elon Musk managed to find one on November 15 when he declared on X (formerly known as Twitter) that a paid X Premium (previously Twitter Blue) user’s antisemitic conspiracy theory attacking Jewish people was the “actual truth.”

We’ve already seen the tweet in question, and had a heated conversation over it. Jews pushing hatred against whites blah blah, Musk high-fiving.

The conspiracy theory, that Jewish populations are pushing “hatred against whites” and supporting “hordes of minorities” coming into the country, is the same one that motivated the

Dropping in on Media Matters this morning…

November 16:

Far-right figures and white nationalists have praised Elon Musk for pushing the antisemitic conspiracy theory: “What we were saying in Charlottesville”; “Normalising our ideas.” https://t.co/JfFV0oRw7w

— Media Matters (@mmfa) November 16, 2023

November 16 or 17:

Elon Musk is reportedly no longer speaking at the APEC CEO Summit after his antisemitic comments.

He's currently slated to appear as a speaker at the NY Times' upcoming DealBook Summit on November 29.

Are they going to pull the ripcord?https://t.co/QnGeiGVitu pic.twitter.com/JzNZHbIT7K

— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) November 16, 2023

November 17:

The obvious and central issue for X (formerly known as Twitter): Its owner, Elon Musk, is a right-wing extremist who has made the

Musk promises to go thermonuclear.

Elon Musk has said he will be filing a “thermonuclear lawsuit” against Media Matters and others, after major US companies paused their adverts on his social media site over concerns about antisemitism.

The media watchdog Media Matters said earlier this week that it found corporate advertisements by IBM, Apple, Oracle and Comcast’s Xfinity were being placed alongside antisemitic content, including that praising Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

The result was a lot of big advertisers leaving Musk’s social media site.

“The split second court opens on Monday, X Corp will be filing a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and ALL those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company,” Musk said in a

Originally a comment by Arcadia on But they’re not.

we can’t have that debate, because there’s a genuine conversation to be had about the rights of transgender people and the protection of safe spaces and hard-fought rights for women.

Yeah. We could have that debate, if trans organisations would ever allow it (and to date they won’t, escalating to barricading, deplatforming, threatening and actual violence when it’s been tried).

But they won’t. And they won’t because once it’s suggested by them that the right of a woman to get changed without seeing a stranger’s dick ought to be *balanced* with the “right” of an adult to show his dick to an unwilling woman and children, most people wonder what … Read the rest

Debbie Cameron always nails it.

It's even worse than this online pussy-themed campaign from a few years back. It's not cool, it's just 1970s sexism in 21st century dress. For the love of God just stop it /2https://t.co/l5EQacFmx7

— Debbie Cameron (@wordspinster) November 17, 2023

… Read the rest

Funny, it seems I’m not the only credulous fool who thinks Musk’s horrible tweets are horrible.

Joe Biden has excoriated Elon Musk’s “abhorrent” tweets two days after the X owner posted his full-throated agreement with an antisemitic post.

…

Musk sparked backlash with his own tweets responding to a user who accused Jewish people of “hating white people” and showing indifference to antisemitism. “You have said the actual truth,” Musk tweeted in reply. X users, including many in the tech industry, lambasted the posts, though other users agreed with Musk and said they were gleefully watching him sink into their hateful worldview.

Well I doubt they said that exactly. I doubt they said “I am/we are gleefully watching him … Read the rest

Can women have something? Just a small something? If we’re very good? No?

No, of course not.

British Cycling is allowing biological males to participate in its female-only Breeze community rides and has ejected one concerned woman from its Facebook group for ride leaders for using the term “male”, on the grounds that this constitutes discriminatory language.

That’s so interesting. Women are not allowed to say “male” now. So we can’t report rape now, we can’t say we were passed over for jobs that went to men now, we can’t take precautions to avoid male violence now unless we do it in complete silence.

The Breeze programme was set up explicitly and exclusively “by women for women”, but those

The BBC reports:

White House criticises Elon Musk over ‘hideous’ antisemitic lie

On Wednesday, Mr Musk replied [to] a post sharing an antisemitic conspiracy theory, calling it “actual truth”. Mr Musk has denied that the post was antisemitic. But a White House spokesman said his endorsement of the post, which drew anger online, was “unacceptable”.

“We condemn this abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms,” said White House spokesperson Andrew Bates. He noted that the post Mr Musk was responding to referred to a conspiracy theory that motivated the man who killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018.

…

On Wednesday, Mr Musk responded with his “truth” comment to a post that accused

God this is infuriating.

The BBC continues its quiet complicity with the campaign to erase ‘woman’ from the language around female issues.

Someone (marvellous) sent this to me. The presenter doesn’t use the word ‘woman’ until 9 minutes in and then only once in the programme. 1/ https://t.co/EsaHlhiHTr

— Cath Leng (@leng_cath) November 17, 2023

I listened to the first few minutes and sure enough – the male presenter talks about “people” buying sports bras and wearing sports bras. There’s some conversation with women, and we can tell they’re women because of their voices, but there must not be any mention of women.

This is so poisonous.… Read the rest

Oh shut up.

Lisa Nandy recites the “trans people are THE most persecuted blah blah blah” creed so we can roll our eyes for the fifty billionth time.

The Times story is such a mess I can’t quote from most of it, because it keeps relying on pronouns (female ones, ironically) where it needs to use names, so the reader can’t tell who said what. The gist is that JKR said women can’t trust Labour because it’s in the tank for trans bullshit.

Asked at an event with members of Westminster’s press gallery whether women could trust Labour, the MP [Nandy] said: “Yeah, look, they can. It breaks my heart actually, we’re re-reading Harry Potter at the moment in my

Wait who is the bully in this scenario???

BBC presenter Emma Barnett has faced an online pile-on from trans allies after she questioned why the new transgender CEO of an endometriosis charity was not using the word ‘woman’.

The host was lauded by prominent feminists including Julie Bindel and Kathleen Stock for robustly questioning charity boss Steph Richards after her appointment as CEO of Endometriosis South Coast. Listeners had widely praised the presenter and thanked her for ‘defending biological reality’. But she was accused of ‘bullying’ and conducting a ‘disgraceful’  interview on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour by critics including Labour MP Ben Bradshaw. 

Men like it when women get shoved aside that way – men like Ben Bradshaw at … Read the rest

Nonononononono

Referred to the police.
This is racist – no surprise from the PSC – but it’s also both a threat and grossly offensive. pic.twitter.com/OZPtJKVEje

— Simon Myerson KC (@SCynic1) November 16, 2023

I haven’t been able to find the image on their Facebook page or via Google.… Read the rest

Oh good god.

For #TransAwarenessWeek, head to our blog as Dr Clara Barker reflects on the intersection of science, identity, and the influence of anti-science rhetoric on both: https://t.co/aVbAuy3vL0 @ClaraMBarker pic.twitter.com/YCpRlshwzm

— The Royal Society (@royalsociety) November 16, 2023

There is no “intersection of science and identity.” They don’t intersect. “Identity” isn’t science, it’s a buzzword, it’s rhetoric, it’s a loose label for how we think of ourselves. Sometimes it’s just a basic fact recorded on a birth certificate and/or passport and/or driver’s license and so on, but most of the time these days it’s a tedious Magical Spiritual Essence that nearly everyone is sick to death of hearing about. That version is more or less the antithesis of … Read the rest

The Children’s Hospital of Manitoba appears to be a nightmare.

Mary is a 10-year-old, who just wants to feel like a “real girl,” in her body and thanks to her family's unwavering love and support, together they are on a gender-affirming path to make her feel more authentically herself.

Read about Mary’s journey at https://t.co/UOKcO2yHdn pic.twitter.com/d5cyMhC8d2

— Children's Hospital Foundation of Manitoba (@CHFManitoba) November 15, 2023

I’m reading it, and it’s horrifying.

Mary [a pseudonym], a vibrant 10-year-old with bright eyes that always seem to be smiling, is a beacon of creativity, kindness, and artistry. She’s a dancer and musician, expressing herself through the beauty of movement and sound. 

No he’s not a musician ffs. He’s ten. He likes … Read the rest

Media Matters:

Elon Musk lights his tiki torch

The latest edition of the Elon Musk Twitter experience features the unfathomably wealthy right-wing owner of the site arguing that Jews are wrong about antisemitism. In his telling, Jewish communities are overly concerned with white nationalists like those he has welcomed to his social media platform, when they should worry instead about the brown “hordes” that they themselves have welcomed to the United States.

“You have said the actual truth” was Musk’s Wednesday night response to a paid X Premium user who, in explaining why “Hitler was right,” accused Jewish communities in the U.S. of “dialectical hatred against whites” and blamed them for “flooding their country” with “hordes of minorities.” Musk 

It’s da jooz.

You have said the actual truth

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2023

The Guardian:

Elon Musk tweeted his fervent agreement with an antisemitic statement on Wednesday night.

A tweet posted by @breakingbaht on Wednesday night read: “Jewish communties [sic] have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.”

The billionaire owner and CTO of X, formerly Twitter, responded the same evening: “You have said the actual truth.” In another reply, he wrote: “I am deeply offended by ADL’s messaging and any other groups who push de facto anti-white racism or anti-Asian racism or racism of any kind.” Musk has feuded with

John Cassidy at the New Yorker on Trump’s verminspeak:

If the phrase “live like vermin within the confines of our country” sounds vaguely familiar, it should. In February, 1933, days after Adolf Hitler was appointed as Chancellor of Germany, Wilhelm Kube, a Nazi politician, wrote in a propaganda publication, as reported at the time by the Jewish Daily Bulletin: “The Jews, like vermin, form a line from Potsdamerplatz until Anhalter Banhof. . . . The only way to smoke out the vermin is to expel them.” In 1936, when Oswald Mosley’s British Fascists were harassing Jews in London’s East End, they referred to them as “rats and vermin from the gutters of Whitechapel.” Hitler himself used similar language

Speaking of people speaking of “vermin”…