Michael Tomasky at The New Republic:

Trump will be a completely unaccountable president, then, for this very simple reason: The only three power systems capable of holding him to account—the right-wing media, Republicans in Congress, and the Supreme Court—have no interest in doing so. The mainstream media will try to hold him to account, or at least we hope it will; but the mainstream media means nothing to Trump, his party, and his base. Ditto Democrats in Congress.

I can’t imagine a single scenario in which the right-wing media or the GOP Congress or the high court will show backbone or independence. In the meantime, these three entities, especially the right-wing media, have by now been trained to immediately

Won’t somebody please think of the poor stigmatized men?

Lone male travellers should be allowed to sit next to unaccompanied children on passenger planes, a discrimination tribunal has ruled. The decision comes after a man was asked to swap seats with a woman by the cabin crew of a flight travelling from Oslo to Paris in October 2022.

They told him he could not be seated next to two children travelling alone, with the policy being enforced by Air France to prevent any possibility of predatory behaviour. But the man, Dominique Sellier, filed a complaint with Norway’s anti-discrimination tribunal, which ruled that the airline’s policy was discriminatory.

Yes it is but (sorry to repeat myself) sometimes discrimination is necessary. Sometimes … Read the rest

What we talk about when we talk about discrimination:

Equivocation in the first degree.

The word “discrimination” has a neutral meaning and a pejorative one.

The neutral one is just knowing the differences between things. If you have to sort stones out of a bowl of peas, you have to discriminate between stones and peas.

The pejorative one is treating people harshly for bad reasons or no reason. “Whites only” signs are discrimination in action.

Euan Weddell, aka “Sophie Molly,” is pretending that knowing a man is not a woman, aka discriminating between men and women, is the pejorative kind of discrimination when of course it’s not.… Read the rest

Trump’s what???

Hegseth’s experience in the Army National Guard is seen by the incoming administration and supporters in Congress as an asset for the job, but he also brings a jarring record of past statements and actions, including allegations of sexual assault, excessive drinking and derisive views about women in military combat roles, minorities and “woke” generals. He has vowed not to drink alcohol if he is confirmed to lead the Pentagon. He is among the most endangered of Trump’s cabinet picks, but GOP allies are determined to turn him into a cause célèbre for Trump’s governing approach amid the nation’s culture wars.

Trump’s “governing approach”?

You mean his total lack of relevant experience and education? You … Read the rest

Bumps in the road.

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, came under fire during his confirmation hearing on Tuesday as the top Democrat on the Senate committee accused him of lacking the “character and composure” to lead the U.S. military.

Hegseth, a former Fox News host, is one of the most controversial figures ever nominated to be Secretary of Defense. The 44-year-old has railed against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the military, questioning whether the top U.S. general has the job because he’s Black. Prior to his nomination, Hegseth strongly opposed women in combat roles.

White men are supposed to be in charge of everything. That’s just how it is.

A number of

The brainless euphemism strikes again.

Parking spaces ‘too narrow for modern vehicles’

Oh that’s what they are – not way too big, not monstrously out of proportion and dangerous to others and a boost to global warming – they’re modern. It’s so dull and old-fashioned and clueless not to drive monstrous trucks instead of small cars or god forbid just taking a damn bus.

A council is widening parking bays in some of its car parks “to accommodate the larger size of modern vehicles”. Colchester City Council is making the changes at its St Mary’s and St John’s car parks as part of a £1m improvement scheme. “Many of our city centre parking bays are underused simply because they

Los Angeles continues to burn.

However, officials have warned that the Santa Ana winds could return, with Cal Fire warning of “critical fire weather” through to Wednesday. In a post on BlueSky, CalFire said: “Life-threatening winds and dangerously low humidity are forecast for much of southern California – from Ventura to San Diego – creating a significant risk of rapid fire spread. The winds will cause increased fire activity.”

The death toll has risen to 24, according to the Los Angeles medical examiner, although officials acknowledge it is certain to rise. At least another 16 people are missing, according to Los Angeles county sheriff Robert Luna, who said search and rescue efforts were ongoing.

California governor Gavin

Sall Grover makes an important point in a short essay on the “middle ground” trans woman.

There is only one actual middle ground in this madness, and it’s this: in a free society, anyone can think whatever they want about themselves. But, and this is the really important part, they cannot make anyone else participate in their own thoughts about themselves. This means no legislation compelling anyone else to participate in gender ideology, no men in women’s spaces, nothing.

And why is that? Why can’t they make anyone else participate in their own thoughts about themselves? Well first of all because they have no right to make us think anything, but besides that?

Because they are biased in … Read the rest

Shocker:

Florida district judge Aileen Cannon has paved the way for the Justice Department to release the first part of a special counsel’s inquiry into President-elect Donald Trump, covering the investigation and charges against Trump tied to the 2020 presidential election.

Cannon denied a motion by Trump’s former co-defendants who sought to block the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on the election interference case.

Cannon did that? Trump’s fully bought and paid for pet judge?

The DOJ has been fighting in court about whether it is allowed to publicly release a final report from Smith about his cases against Trump. Such a report is an obligatory part of the special counsel’s work, and may be the last

An article on Facebook v Leo Igwe:

Earlier last week, Meta Platforms—the US-based technology conglomerate that owns Facebook—disabled Nigeria’s human rights-and-rationalism activist Leo Igwe’s Facebook account, he told Thoughtfox on January 12, Sunday, via a separate messenger system.

To his surprise, Igwe—the Nigeria-based social and educational reformer and prominent crusader against Africa’s self-styled witch hunters—had encountered a notice on his Facebook account informing him that his account had not been conforming with the platform’s ‘Community Standards’. Via Facebook’s appeal system, Igwe requested the company to reconsider its decision. His appeal was denied, prompting him to escalate it to the system’s last stage.

However, Igwe’s efforts went in vain when on January 12, he was given what reads like the

Hahahahahaha

Inside this week’s issue of The New Yorker: https://t.co/40ZzcAvxA9 pic.twitter.com/URNAcK9xiP

— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) January 13, 2025

… Read the rest

If you type “The Vivienne” into the BBC News search box you get eight hits. Not one, not two, but eight.

The Vivienne was an ‘authentic all-round perfomer’

The Vivienne was true talent, says pride organiser

The Vivienne was truly loved, says Drag Race star

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star The Vivienne dies aged 32

How The Vivienne became a breakout star of British drag

RuPaul says heart ‘broken’ after The Vivienne’s death

The Vivienne’s family tell vigil ‘we’re so proud’

Theatre pays tribute to ‘formidable’ drag race star

Eight separate stories about one drag queen.

Why?… Read the rest

Bahahaha Trump is getting tired of clingy Musk. Of course he is.

According to an eminent New York Times journalist named Maggie Haberman, US President- elect Donald Trump is privately growing weary of Tesla CEO Elon Musk‘s constant presence at Mar-a-Lago residence in spite of publicly welcoming his mega donor and ‘First Buddy’.

Daily Beast reported that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been renting the Banyan Cottage near US President- elect Donald Trump’s residence for approximately $2,000 per night while attending personnel meetings and dinners with other significant tech billionaires.

While Tesla CEO Elon Musk has invested over $260 million in US President-elect Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and currently seems to be on the winning side of the 

Nick Cohen on Elon Musk’s move to overthrow the UK government:

A billionaire American with extreme right-wing politics and a distant relationship to the truth wants to impose his will on us, and has found many eager collaborators here in the UK to help him do it.

The Financial Times reported three days ago: “Elon Musk has privately discussed with allies how Sir Keir Starmer could be removed as UK prime minister before the next general election.”

His “allies”? What are they? France, Germany, Sweden? Russia, China, North Korea? Does he think he’s a country?

And who might those allies be? The Mail reports this morning that the government believes Dominic Cummings, who orchestrated the “leave” victory in the 2016

The International Cricket Council is happy.

I guess that’s all that matters, yeah?

Family life:

A woman alleged to have strangled and battered her mother in a row over table salt has been acquitted. Ami Avanti (46) was charged with non-fatal strangulation and assault occasioning actual bodily harm following an incident at her mother’s home on August 11 last year.

The alleged victim told police at the time her daughter had punched, kicked and choked her after the lid of a salt cellar had come loose when Avanti was trying to season her food. However, during a contest at Laganside Magistrates Court in Belfast this month she was acquitted of both charges due to issues around the evidence.

The court heard no statement of complaint was made by the defendant’s mother, but

An oldy, but I happened to see it and it made me wonder, how does one address this kind of thing?

Philosophers, following Hume, talk of the is/ought gap. Short summary: they’re not the same thing, but humans like to mash them together.

What people, or asparagus, think about what we are is not the same thing as what we are.

I think working scientists in general are pretty aware of that. Gender patriotism seems to tug them, or at least one of them, in the other direction.

Here’s the skinny: men are men; women are women. How any of them feel about being either is another issue entirely. Disliking being a man does not make a man a … Read the rest

A very important question, one I fret about often.

Isaac de Tormes asked:

Question for British followers. Are there people in British media that are invited on shows to give an opinion on everything under the sun without having any particular background or experience in the topic? In Spanish, we call them “todólogos” or “everythingists”.

Here in the US we have just one for that job: David Brooks. I’ve been trying to figure out how he got the job for years, but I still have no clue.

It’s not that there’s anything in particular wrong with him, that I know of, it’s just that it’s so random. Why have random people pronouncing on everything? Why not find people who … Read the rest

Janice Turner on the fun new way to exploit and harm women:

At a trade fair called the Modern Family Show in a luxury London hotel I paid £32 to hear a PowerPoint presentation on how to buy a baby abroad. If you have $150,000 for a full “concierge service”, I was told, you send your embryos to be incubated by a stranger in America. But for a better “price point”, the hot new surrogacy destination, where UK agencies now have shiny clinics, is Mexico.

Oh dear god. Can you imagine it? For a luxury rent-a-woman go to the US, for a cheaper one go south of the border. Ugly enough yet?

Mexico has replaced India, which banned foreign

Joan Smith on The Usual Backlash:

For too long, a motley collection of trans activists and green zealots have only needed to threaten to withdraw from literary events, and the organisers have taken fright. Now the Oxford Literary Festival has discovered a backbone, inviting the gender-critical author Helen Joyce and the feminist campaigner Julie Bindel to take part in this year’s programme. Cue the predictable outrage.

There have been calls for authors to withdraw, on the dubious (some would say bonkers) premise that the invitation puts other writers at risk. Harry R. McCarthy, a lecturer in early modern literature, grandly announced that he had withdrawn from his scheduled session on “Shakespeare for the modern age” because Joyce and