Dictators should not make jokes about doing dictatorial things.

President Trump on Friday said he would blame Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis if he lost the potentially pivotal battleground state in the presidential election and quipped about firing him – a statement that raised eyebrows due to Trump’s history of accusing Democratic governors of working to tilt the election against him.

Yeah quip shmip – it’s not a “quip” when it’s exactly the kind of thing you do in fact do whenever you feel like it and have the ability. He doesn’t have the ability to fire Santis, of course, but if he did? He would if he decided he wanted to.

“Hey Ron, are we gonna win the state

Gee, you’d expect the weather professionals to know better than this.

The clocks are falling back by 1 hour at 2AM, November 1st! This means fewer daylight hours. Tell us! Are you a fan of the short winter days, or long summer days? Personally, I'm a fan of those seemingly endless summer days! #wawx pic.twitter.com/uawQYE9NA2

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) October 17, 2020

Snerk… Read the rest

À tous les enseignants de France. pic.twitter.com/YLlIVILTaN

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 16, 2020

Ils ne passeront pas.

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 16, 2020

That’s the Spanish Civil War slogan No pasarán in French. It originated with Dolores Ibárruri.

Ce soir, c’est la République qui est attaquée avec l’assassinat ignoble de l’un de ses serviteurs, un professeur.
Je pense ce soir à lui, à sa famille.
Notre unité et notre fermeté sont les seules réponses face à la monstruosité du terrorisme islamiste.
Nous ferons face .

— Jean-Michel Blanquer (@jmblanquer) October 16, 2020

… Read the rest

I’ve said it before but

A god who wants people to MURDER other people for disputing or laughing at or drawing cartoons of or sharing cartoons of that god or any of that god’s children or holy spirits or prophets or hairdressers or chauffeurs or button-polishers

is an EVIL god and not anything to be worshiped.

Today in Paris:

… a man who decapitated a teacher with a large kitchen knife near a school in a Paris suburb after he showed his class caricatures of the prophet Muhammad from the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

For some reason the Guardian decided to lead with the fact that the police shot the man, but fuck that, the core fact is that … Read the rest

Julie Bindel on Rosie Duffield:

Despite having seen the punishment inflicted on women like me who speak out about our sex-based rights, Duffield nevertheless braved the shark-infested waters this summer by daring to agree with Piers Morgan on Twitter that only women have cervixes. Had anyone told me a decade ago it would be seen as either risky or brave to point out the realities of female biology I would have laughed. Since then Duffield has continued to receive endless attacks and threats against her life.

It’s so bizarre, isn’t it. Eagles have wings; bears don’t. Flowers have petals; horses don’t. Trees have roots; butterflies don’t. Women have cervixes; men don’t. Men have testicles; women don’t. None of that … Read the rest

Former WH COS John Kelly has told friends, about Trump: “The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it's more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life." pic.twitter.com/IUdT2KgSGr

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 16, 2020

Half of Twitter is replying that that’s all very well but Kelly is pretty terrible himself; Representative Frederica Wilson gets mentioned a lot.

True, but the point isn’t so much “these are great people with integrity” as it is “even the shittiest people are saying he’s the worst.”

Kelly doesn’t get any medals or praise or parties for saying it, but if he’s saying … Read the rest

You’d think they have more important things to worry about.

Inclusivity matters.

If you're not sure, just ask a person: 'What's your preferred pronoun?'#PronounsDay pic.twitter.com/Aoe6scMDQF

— UN Women (@UN_Women) October 16, 2020

What does that have to do with women? What does it have to do with women’s needs, women’s rights, women’s equality?

Nothing. Not one thing. It’s a pseudo-concern from a pseudo-rights movement that is hell bent on taking rights away from women as opposed to supporting or strengthening or expanding them.… Read the rest

So far I can’t get a read on how abnormal it is to deny federal disaster aid in the wake of an enormous disaster. The Post is playing it close to the vest:

Fueled by extreme heat and tinder-dry conditions, wildfires exploded across California in September, blazing through almost 1.9 million acres, destroying nearly 1,000 homes and killing at least three people. One wildfire, the Creek Fire, became the largest single blaze in California history and grew so fierce it spun up fire tornadoes with 125-mph winds.

But the Trump administration this week refused to grant an emergency declaration that would open up hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for areas devastated in those fires, California

It’s not even ten a.m. yet and I’m already out of words.

Trump says NO to federal disaster relief for California.

Because of course he does. Too many Democrats in that state. Never mind that it’s the biggest state in the country by population, that it has more people than most countries, that it’s an agricultural giant and a tech giant and a movie industry giant and a forest products giant and a shipping giant and a tourism giant – it’s not going to vote for him and its people don’t bow down before him.

It’s true about the world population by the way. It would go between Iraq and Afghanistan, with 40 million and 38 million respectively. … Read the rest

Owen joins the kicking. As usual.

I'd like to publicly apologise for organising a mass canvass in support of Rosie Duffield in the 2019 general election. Genuinely mortified. https://t.co/ieHv82lIzz

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) October 15, 2020

… Read the rest

Pro Publica has a big piece on what Trump & co have done to the CDC.

Back in May a team at the CDC was working furiously on guidance for how to not get the virus.

Butler’s team rushed to finalize the guidance for churches, synagogues and mosques that Trump’s aides had shelved in April after battling the CDC over the language. In reviewing a raft of last-minute edits from the White House, Butler’s team rejected those that conflicted with CDC research, including a worrisome suggestion to delete a line that urged congregations to “consider suspending or at least decreasing” the use of choirs.

Why do Trump’s aides get to “shelve” informed medical advice during a pandemic? Why do … Read the rest

The Guardian shares the front page of the Trump website:

I want to say just this one thing.

Why would anyone want to do that? Why would anyone want an image of self with a different and better body? A fake image like that just underlines what a soft flabby weak puffy unhealthy body Donnie Two Scoops has.

That’s the one thing. Never mind that like hell he has – that one’s too obvious.… Read the rest

This filthy man…

President Donald Trump continued his attacks on Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday, calling the Democratic lawmaker a “dictator” as authorities announced charges against a 14th suspect in the thwarted plot to kidnap her and violently overthrow the government.

“Michigan, she has to open up. [Whitmer] wants to be a dictator in Michigan and the people can’t stand her,” Trump said Thursday in a FOX Business interview. Blasting Whitmer’s COVID-19 policies, he insisted people “want to get back to work.”

Do they also want to catch the virus?

The president has repeatedly attacked Whitmer even after authorities announced last week charges against more than a dozen individuals who allegedly conspired to kidnap the state leader and

He’s campaigning again.

Trump uses the logic of death squads to praise US Marshals for killing an antifa sympathizer who was suspected of murdering someone in Portland pic.twitter.com/JognCty6qf

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 15, 2020

That is, Trump tells the cheering crowd that “we sent in US Marshals” and they murdered a suspect.

Trump brings up Fauci, prompting boos at his rally. Trump then lies about Fauci's statements, suggested he once said "do not wear a mask under any circumstances," which he never did.

"He's a nice guy, so I keep him around," Trump says, dismissively pic.twitter.com/8zBv1E9qVk

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 15, 2020

Trump points at journalists and says: "Look how innocent they look, and they're not innocent. They're

But nobody is claiming trans women don’t have a right to play – the issue is whether trans women (people with male bodies) have a right to play against women, in defiance of the danger to the women and the unfairness to the women.… Read the rest

And there’s this.

Their “motion” is protracted filthy bullying.

I had to Google to find out what the GMB is – it’s a huge general union, the product of amalgamations over time. GMB=General, Municipal, Boilermakers but it’s lots of other things too. This branch is for people who work for MPs, if I’ve understood correctly. Anyway they’re joining the bullying of Rosie Duffield. Here’s the whole thing:

It’s interesting that they say they “condemn all harassment towards anyone within a protected characteristic” while in the act of harassing Rosie Duffield. It’s annoying that they chummily call her “Rosie” while in the act of harassing her.… Read the rest

Another lawyer bails out of Barr’s Justice Department:

Barr has never actually investigated, charged or tried a case. He’s a well-trained bureaucrat but has no actual experience as a prosecutor.

Unfortunately, over the last year, Barr’s resentment toward rule-of-law prosecutors became increasingly difficult to ignore, as did his slavish obedience to Donald Trump’s will in his selective meddling with the criminal justice system in the Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and Roger Stone cases. In each of these cases, Barr overruled career prosecutors in order to assist the president’s associates and/or friends, who potentially harbor incriminating information. This career bureaucrat seems determined to turn our democracy into an autocracy.

…

It took federal Judge Reggie Walton (who sharply criticized Barr

This is why I oppose gender identity ideology. It's not just logically unsound; it's dangerous because it coerces people to lie and normalizes the recognition of subjective individuality over collective, objective knowledge. https://t.co/B9FFeCy9Wb

— Lavender Blume (@Lavender_Blume) October 15, 2020

Yes but it’s even worse than that. It mandates the recognition of other people’s subjective individuality. How the hell are we supposed to be able to do that? How can we recognize something internal to someone else? We can’t; it’s literally impossible, impossible by definition.

We try to do that up to a point with people we have some connection to – with friends, family, colleagues. We take their word for it that they feel X, in general, unless we … Read the rest

Summons a lot of memories, this does.

https://t.co/QlXiZwszHM
Sad that it has come to this :(
Each time we thought we had made progress with Rosie by explaining why the tweets were transphobic and the hurt caused, we would find our efforts were in vain with Rosie putting out another tweet or article.

— Heather Peto (@heatherisone) October 15, 2020

Heather Peto is a man who identifies as a woman. It’s classic the way men who identify as women tip their hands by being so comfortable and at home with bullying women. Heather here takes it for granted that he gets to tell Rosie Duffield MP what to do and even – and especially – WHAT TO THINK. That’s the … Read the rest

Mother Jones on the Giuliani/New York Post “bombshell”:

On Wednesday, the New York Post released what it hailed as a bombshell: an unidentified computer repair store owner in Delaware had come to possess a laptop that contained Hunter Biden emails (and purportedly a sex tape), the hard drive and computer was seized by the FBI, the store owner at some point passed a copy of the hard drive to Rudy Giuliani, and one of the emails suggested that Hunter, who served on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, may have in 2015 introduced a Burisma official to his dad, Vice President Joe Biden. The story depicts this as a big scandal, and Guiliani tweeted, “Much more to come.”