Trump gets a target letter.

The fact that Trump had received yet another target letter from Jack Smith was a relatively close hold in his world. He went public after a media inquiry asking if he had received one, according to a person briefed on the matter.

…

We don’t know what charges Smith is considering bringing against Trump, but commentary from many lawyers — ranging from the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 riot to outsiders writing “model prosecution memos” — have focused in particular on the possibility of the attempted corrupt obstruction of an official proceeding, under Section 1512(c) of Title 18, and conspiracy to defraud the government under Section 371 of Title 18.

Pathetic.

Nope, no misogyny here.

India Willoughby having the fucking gall to frame himself as a Jew and gender skeptics as Nazi exterminators.

This is not Vichy. There are no “collaborators” because there is no Vichy and there are no Nazis. There is no “Nazi poster-girl” and no one, NO ONE AT ALL, is “coming for” Willoughby. He’s not going to be hauled off to Auschwitz to be worked to death or immediately gassed. He’s not going to be one of the six million.

This is where narcissism and obsession with one’s precious IdenTiTee takes a person.… Read the rest

Never mind the lethal temperatures, the important thing is what reporters are saying about them.

Italy is sweltering in abnormally high temperatures, but its media appear to be more interested in how the extreme heat is being reported in the foreign press than delving deeply into the effects in a country deemed to be among the most vulnerable in Europe to the climate crisis.

Over the weekend, several outlets picked up on reports on Italy’s heatwave in leading foreign news websites – including the Guardian, the Times and the BBC. They were particularly fascinated by a headline in the Times calling Rome – where temperatures are forecast to reach highs of 43C on Tuesday – the “Infernal City”,

Jennifer Lahl and Kallie Fell, president and executive director respectively of the Center for Bioethics and Culture, write at Reality’s Last Stand:

In recent years, a striking paradigm shift in medical ethics has emerged, driven by progressive political ideologies purporting to champion “Social Justice.” This shift has precipitated a surge in initiatives centered around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The resulting effects have varied considerably; they include the introduction of explicit racial bias in treatment protocols in a quest for “health equity,” and an unsettling disregard for biological sex as an important variable in both medical research and patient care. Instead, the new radical movement favors categorizing individuals based on their self-identified and medically irrelevant “gender identity.”

To be “cis” is to be nothing.

This is being taught to primary school students in the UK.

It is subtle indoctrination that gives children the message that to be ‘cis’ and comfortable in their own body is to be boring or uncool.

This is abusive. pic.twitter.com/f4yv2BqqGb

— James Esses (@JamesEsses) July 14, 2023

YOU get a pretty colorful flag and YOU get one and YOU get one…but you dreary boring neutral straight people and “cis” people are just blanks.

Also, why the fuck do “asexual” people need a flag? Or for that matter a label? And why are they grouped with trans people and lesbians and the rest?

Link: https://t.co/0Zv63efdGN

— James Esses (@JamesEsses) July 14, 2023

There’s no … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Papito on Iss biggitree an prejjudiss.

This is the way the racket works: Willie can get the nurses and doctors fired if they don’t lie to him, so they lie to him.

Establishing “misgendering” as some sort of unforgivable prejudice means that he can force them to lie by threatening their livelihoods. So of course they lie; they need their jobs.

Martina Navratilova doesn’t have to lie to him, he can’t force her to lie to him with threats to her livelihood, so she doesn’t.

If gender critical belief were protected to the extent that it should be, then no doctor or nurse could be forced to lie to creeps like Willie. Consequently, many of … Read the rest

Trump has big plans to make himself (and future presidents, but what are the chances he’s taking that into account?) dictator.

Donald J. Trump and his allies are planning a sweeping expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government if voters return him to the White House in 2025, reshaping the structure of the executive branch to concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands.

Their plans to centralize more power in the Oval Office stretch far beyond the former president’s recent remarks that he would order a criminal investigation into his political rival, President Biden, signaling his intent to end the post-Watergate norm of Justice Department independence from White House political control.

Mr. Trump and his associates have

The Willoughby Diaries:

You ok with this Philip Bernie??? You condoning this Philip Bernie???

Philip Bernie is the Head of BBC Sport Content, so I guess Willoughby wants him to banish Martina from BBC sport content, or Twitter, or the planet, or something.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Athel Cornish-Bowden on Robin might be described as….

Last week I was invited to referee a paper by an editor of a journal that I was associated with (as author, editor of three special issues, member of the Editorial Board) for more than 40 years. The paper was relevant to my expertise, so I said yes. However, when I tried to download the PDF file I was faced with a demand (not optional) to answer a “diversity questionnaire”.

I should have said right away that it was none of Elsevier’s business what I “identify as”, or what sort of person I spend my nights with. Foolishly, however, I answered their silly questionnaire, in which the … Read the rest

Cartoon biology for cartoon people.

We’re cooking ourselves.

Americans have been treated for second-degree contact burns in Arizona as extreme heat caused pavement temperatures to surpass 71C (160F).

Over 110 million people were under extreme heat advisories in the south west as brutal conditions caused by a heat dome threatened to break records.

…

Hospitals and firefighters in the city have been treating residents who have been burned by scorching pavements.

Sidewalks are indeed nasty things in extreme heat.

Patients have been admitted with temperatures far exceeding the normal range. They have been treated with cold intravenous fluids and been placed in what look like small inflatable kayaks filled with ice.

One burn centre in Phoenix told the Washington Post it had treated

Originally a comment by Francis Boyle on Men are not women=the earth is flat.

I learnt a useful term on Twitter(!) today – epistemological caste system. Roughly, the idea is that people like McKinnon see their job as purely the promotion of ideas. Testing or analysis of those ideas is strictly someone else’s job. Whatever passes for truth in their world view is taken on authority and that authority is taken as being fundamentally ethical. How that squares with identifying as a philosopher is anyone’s guess. (I suppose I could read the thesis in question but thankfully that’s not my job and I don’t identify as a masochist.)

@ktron

I certainly don’t know anyone who believes the Earth is … Read the rest

I don’t know if this is real or not, but if it is, it’s…interesting.

The first thing I notice isn’t even about the stupid destructive ideology being shoved at children who are too young to judge it critically. The first thing I notice is the fact that there are multiple clunky mistakes in the very first question. 1. “Robin feels like he etc is” – yuck. Robin feels that he is or Robin feels as if he is. This is school, not the pub. 2. …”like he/she/they is” – yo! If you’re gonna be teaching kids the New Progressive Whatsit, how about not taking it for granted that the “he” comes first? How about mixing it up a little? … Read the rest

Rowan Moore in The Observer takes the both-sides view of men who urge violence against women:

“If you see a Terf,” said Sarah Jane Baker, a speaker at last weekend’s Trans Pride in London, “punch them in the fucking face.”…As a number of pro-trans organisations and individuals have since said, this is an incitement to violence against women, both unacceptable and no help to trans people. It enables the rightwing press, as they duly did, to portray what was a celebratory and positive event as an act of hate.

Ah yes, that’s the important thing: calling for violence against women is bad for trans people, especially the male ones. Do lets be sure to rush at high speed … Read the rest

Seditionists identify as not-seditionists. Who are you to deny their identity?

A growing number of Capitol rioters have gone back on their guilty pleas and apologies – including one of the most recognisable faces from 6 January.

The pretend-shaman guy.

A judge called his apology “the most remarkable I’ve heard in 34 years” and sentenced him to 41 months in prison – considerably less than the maximum allowed. Now more than a year-and-a-half later, Angeli is out of jail early, and his remorse is gone. “Regrets only weigh down the mind,” he told the BBC. “They’re like sandbags on a hot air balloon.”

Some minds need weighing down. People who do bad destructive dangerous things need to be weighed … Read the rest

Rhys McKinnon aka “Veronica Ivy” is back. He…hasn’t changed. For some reason MSNBC sees fit to publish his opinion that he has every right to compete against women in cycling races.

The International Olympic Committee and international sport federations have been grappling with inclusion policies for at least 20 years. 

What does he mean by “inclusion policies”? Allowing men like him to steal prizes and medals from women.

Are trans women really women? If you think they are, then there’s no real debate here.

If you think they aren’t, then there’s likely nothing I can say that will change your mind. It’s a little like arguing with a flat-Earther: If someone is convinced that the Earth is flat, then

Thank god The Independent is on the important news.

Lorraine Kelly repeatedly misgendered Sam Smith while discussing the singer’s look for the Barbie premiere.

*gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasp*

Hosting her ITV daytime show Lorraine on Thursday (13 July), Kelly talked to guest Vogue Williams about the pink carpet hits and misses from Wednesday night’s (12 July) European premiere for Greta Gerwig’s movie.

While the majority of the guests opted for Barbie-inspired all-pink outfits, Smith – who has written a song titled “Man I Am” from the perspective of Ken for the Barbie soundtrack – went for a far more casual look.

What does “more casual than Barbie-inspired all-pink outfits” mean?

Discussing the outfit on Lorraine, Williams joked that Smith looked like

Another taunt from another man pretending to be a woman:

Valentina Petrillo, a 49-year-old biological male, has won a women’s 400 metres bronze at the World Para Athletics Championships in Paris. The Italian, who was 18 years older than any other competitor in the race, denied Morocco’s Fatima Ezzahra El-Idrissi a place on the podium in the T12 final for visually impaired athletes.

The medal for Petrillo, the first achieved by a transgender athlete on the global stage in track and field, drew swift condemnation, with Peter Eriksen, Canada’s former Olympic head coach, calling the result “shocking” and Mara Yamauchi, the third fastest female British marathon runner in history, asking: “How many 49-year-olds would win medals at world level?”