Oh by the way, about that other frivolous lawsuit – never mind.

Former President Donald Trump on Friday morning voluntarily dropped a longshot federal lawsuit in Florida against New York’s attorney general — a day after the same judge in the case sanctioned him and his lawyer nearly $1 million for filing another, “frivolous” lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and many other defendants.

The judge, John Middlebrooks, had pointedly noted in a scathing sanction order Thursday evening in the Clinton case that he was also handling Trump’s complaint against Attorney General Letitia James in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Trump’s suit against James — which Middlebrooks last month warned appeared “vexatious and frivolous” — was filed

Meanwhile in Glasgow…

Where this ideology goes, threats of violence, including sexual violence, are never far behind. This is a sexualised and profoundly misogynistic movement. pic.twitter.com/2w3Z2qWBfw

— Scottish Lesbians (@ScotLesbians) January 21, 2023

… Read the rest

More from that silly clumsy piece on Artifacts Gallery:

[Rylee] Lee said the shop is also in violation of Athens City Municipal Code section 3.07.62 (b), which states “It shall be unlawful for any proprietor or his/her employer, keeper or manager in a place of public accommodation to deny any person, except for reasons applicable alike to all persons, regardless of race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.” 

But who says the shop has “denied” anyone? I assume “deny” there means refuse service, kick out, tell to go away. There’s nothing in the article to indicate that the shop has done any such thing.

Lee hopes the protest will help draw attention to Mangano’s opinion

News from Athens, Ohio:

At 2 W. State St. there lies a familiar Athens business that is the subject of current controversy: Artifacts Gallery. Some social media posts encourage a boycott of Artifacts Gallery and its owner, Amy Mangano, for accusations of transphobia. A protest against Mangano and the shop is scheduled for Saturday at 10:30 a.m.

Rylee Lee, a junior studying music education, helped organize the protest, and said it was sparked by social media posts about new signage on the door of Artifacts Gallery. From there, Lee joined forces with Kaycie Tillis, a sophomore studying psychology, to begin organizing a protest against the shop. The new signs and banners on the front door include messages like “humans

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Teach that everything was always fine.

The issue isn’t that people are born racist, the issue is that we absorb racism from the world we live in, because we can’t help it.

Ditto with sexism. Racism and sexism; we’re soaking in it. Simply pointing this out can bring accusations of guilt induction, particularly among those who want to pass off the status quo as a pure meritocracy that justly rewards the “industrious.” Those who lag behind or can’t hack it just have to try harder to get that job or make it to the podium. (Does this sound familiar?) We’re not supposed to look too closely at the ways in … Read the rest

But trans people are the most marginalized.

A few of Scotland's wonderfully progressive and kind politicians, posing proudly in front of banners calling for women to be decapitated and eaten. pic.twitter.com/satQhRojbA

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 21, 2023

Why is the rhetoric of the trans movement so violent? I’ve never understood that. Is it just because the trans movement is mostly about trans women aka men, and the opposition to trans women taking what belongs to women is mostly from women? In other words just men being misogynist?

I don’t know. See, I would think a movement that purports to be lefty and progressive would not want that kind of threatening violent imagery and talk, if only because it … Read the rest

The Telegraph:

Transgender women could continue to be allowed to compete in the female category in international track and field under controversial plans drawn up by World Athletics.

No. Just say no. No men in women’s sports. No.

In a move that risks reigniting sport’s toxic trans row, Telegraph Sport can reveal the governing body has begun a consultation with its member federations over a proposed rule change that would stop short of an outright ban.

There’s your problem right there. An “outright ban” should be all there is to it: men should be banned from women’s sport because women’s sport is women’s sport. That’s not something you compromise or bargain or negotiate over, it’s just definitional. … Read the rest

Hahahahaha oh lord now they’re lecturing us on the glories of nicotine.

Tucker: They hate nicotine. They love THC.. Why do they hate nicotine? Because nicotine frees your mind and thc makes you compliant and passive pic.twitter.com/M73aC2IeWy

— Acyn (@Acyn) January 21, 2023

… Read the rest

Rosie Duffield on the bullying:

I have lived through an abusive relationship and have spoken about it in Parliament. I was reminded of making that speech earlier this week — the daily trauma that inspired it, how hard it was to make and, afterwards, the overwhelming support of my colleagues. That was the Labour Party I joined.

On Tuesday, when two of those colleagues traded that sympathy for aggression, shouting down women in the Chamber, it felt like a very different Labour Party. I was defending the need to protect vulnerable women in single-sex spaces, and had just criticised Scotland’s Gender Reform Bill, when Ben Bradshaw yelled his disapproval at me. Sitting nearby, Lloyd Russell-Moyle went puce — 

The Lloyd Russell-Moyle ragefest was even worse than I knew. He wasn’t satisfied with just shouting at Miriam Cates and stabbing his finger at her and making rage-face at her; he got up and went to sit close to her and stare at her. Sicko.

This morning I suggested that @RosieDuffield1 was mistaken – I’m happy to correct that – she wasn’t
Here is the intimidation and bullying in three screenshots
I hope @CommonsSpeaker @Keir_Starmer and @UKLabour will now investigate Lloyd Russell-Moyle’s behaviour in parliament pic.twitter.com/fwv2BOtQDc

— Tim (totally unremarkable) (@forwardnotback) January 20, 2023

I was there and saw Lloyd Russell Moyle bizarrely go and sit close to Miriam Cates on the Conservative side of chamber after his extraordinary outburst.

There are so many gaps in information to this story that it’s hard to form an opinion on it.

Florida Rejects A.P. African American Studies Class

Florida will not allow a new Advanced Placement course on African American studies to be offered in its high schools, stating that the course is not “historically accurate” and violates state law.

In a letter last week, the Florida Department of Education informed the College Board, which administers A.P. exams, that it would not include the class in the state’s course directory. Rigorous A.P. courses allow high school students to obtain credit and advanced placement in college.

“As presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational

The Baroness raises some interesting questions.

Why drag queens? Is there any equivalent butch woman story hour? Prostitute story hour? Stripper story hour? Kink story hour?

We don’t view minstrel shows as entertainment any more, let alone as entertainment for children.

How is it that we can see at a glance how insulting and destructive that is, but are fine with men mocking women?… Read the rest

Hmmmm.

An elderly man spotted wearing a girl’s school uniform near a Leigh secondary school and on a bus “does not pose a risk”, according to police who have urged the public to stop sharing photos of him.

Social media has been flooded with reports of the man wearing Belfairs Academy uniform in the vicinity of the Highlands Boulevard school this week, as well as on a bus in the area while children travelled home. 

Photos have also been posted online of the man wearing a Milton Hall Primary School uniform.

Photos not of this man wearing girls’ school uniforms at home, mind you, but wearing them in public while loitering near the schools and riding the bus the … Read the rest

A bit of good news at last:

Former president Donald Trump and his lawyer, Alina Habba, have been fined almost $1 million by a federal judge in Florida for what was ruled a frivolous lawsuit brought against his 2016 presidential rival Hillary Clinton and others.

Trump is a “prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries,” wrote U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks in his searing 46-page judgment published late Thursday.

“He is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process, and he cannot be seen as a litigant blindly following the advice of a lawyer. He knew full well the impact of his actions,” said Middlebrooks. “As such, I find

Priyamvada Gopal outdoes herself again.

Three white people and one dominant caste middle-class British Asian discuss the lives of the marginalised and how to further marginalise them. Inspirational.

— Priyamvada Gopal © (@PriyamvadaGopal) January 20, 2023

Caste?????

Wait there’s more –

I didn't know about the Islamophobia bit but again, goes with the terrain of dominant caste Hindu background. Combined with British mainstream discourse.

— Priyamvada Gopal © (@PriyamvadaGopal) January 20, 2023

“Islamophobia” in this context means skeptical or critical of theocratic Islam.

And “dominant caste Hindu background” is a snide (worse than snide) hint that Sonia Sodha is an ally of Modi and his Hindutva goals. It’s outrageous.… Read the rest

Dr Em at Wings Over Scotland last year on Why woke blokes abuse women:

The woke bloke contempt for women is clear, and abusive behaviours are on full display. Reading through Lundy Bancroft’s pivotal work “Why Does He Do That? Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men”, the full cast of characters is present on Twitter, in the news and in our political parties and institutions.

…

Bancroft’s work, sometimes criticised for being too inclusive and easily applied to any man, is corroborated by what women know personally from relationships with abusive men, the patterns we recognise and which are analysed by domestic violence charities such as Refuge and charities attempting to end violence against women such

At long last, Willoughby, have you no shame?

The “trans community” is not, repeat not, being subject to anything resembling what Jewish people were, and Willoughby of course knows that perfectly well. He didn’t say “Holocaust” or “genocide” or “8 million” but he invoked it with “state demonisation and stripping of rights.” Sleazy dirty creepy deniability.

Why isn’t it more obvious to more people that this kind of ludicrous and wildly offensive appropriation of actual genocide is a massive red flag? Why is the deranged hyperbole of trans activism embraced with such enthusiasm by people who only a few short years ago appeared to be adults?… Read the rest

He doesn’t want to use the both sexes gym, he wants to use the women’s gym. There’s no thrill in using the both sexes one, it’s only the women’s that provides the creepy invasive threatening you don’t get to say no to me vibe.

A transgender woman in Parksville is speaking out after she was allowed to sign up for a women-only gym, then later told she would only be allowed to access the co-ed gym due to the fact that she is trans.

No, due to the fact that he is male.

Brigid Klyne-Simpson says she previously had a rocky relationship with exercise because she didn’t feel comfortable going to gyms and working out with mostly men.

So … Read the rest

The Chronicle of Higher Education discussed the Hamline issue last week.

Hamline administrators, who have previously shared information mostly through written statements, granted an interview to The Chronicle. In it they defended their handling of the controversy, in which Erika López Prater, the lecturer, saw her contract go unrenewed after the course ended.

The CHE is reminding us that non-renewal of an adjunct’s contract is different from firing, because adjuncts are always subject to non-renewal of contract – they don’t have tenure. It’s a well known academic scandal that colleges and universities take advantage of that difference more and more, because it’s so much cheaper and more convenient for them.

Hamline administrators told The Chronicle on Friday that what happened

The Washington Post tells us Erika López Prater is suing Hamline.

On Tuesday, attorneys for the professor, Erika López Prater, served Hamline with a lawsuit that, among other claims, alleges religious discrimination and defamation by the school. López Prater, through her lawyer, and Hamline University declined to comment on the lawsuit Wednesday.

The religious discrimination issue is interesting. It is religious discrimination to punish people for not obeying the orders or rules of a religion. It’s religious discrimination to act as if one’s own religion is binding on everyone else.

At a news conference on Jan. 11, CAIR’s local Minnesota chapter described the incident at Hamline as Islamophobic.

The chapter’s executive director, Jaylani Hussein, said that showing images of the