Sure, why not?

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law on Saturday requiring California to house transgender inmates in prisons based on their gender identity — but only if the state does not have “management or security concerns.”

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation houses men and women in separate facilities. Transgender inmates are often housed based on their sex assigned at birth. Advocates say this is dangerous, particularly for transgender women housed in facilities for men.

That’s so interesting, because you know what’s even more dangerous? Housing women in facilities for men. Which is a pity, because that’s exactly what California is doing here. Women who identify as trans aren’t going to ask to be housed with men, are … Read the rest

The US health department is throwing away $300 million on a Don’t Worry Be Happy campaign due to run in the weeks leading up to (purely coincidentally) the election. Or to put it slightly less combatively:

The health department is moving quickly on a highly unusual advertising campaign to “defeat despair” about the coronavirus, a $300 million-plus effort that was shaped by a political appointee close to President Donald Trump and executed in part by close allies of the official, using taxpayer funds.

The ad blitz, described in some budget documents as the “Covid-19 immediate surge public advertising and awareness campaign,” is expected to lean heavily on video interviews between administration officials and celebrities…

Because what is more urgent and … Read the rest

The suspect confirms the motive.

A man suspected of stabbing two people with a meat cleaver in Paris has admitted to deliberately targeting the former offices of the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine, French media report.

The man, an 18-year-old born in Pakistan, reportedly linked his actions to the magazine’s recent republication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

I never can understand why religious fanatics don’t just let their god deal with it. Their god is supposed to be all-powerful and perfect, so why does it need their help?

Thinking their god needs human help to eliminate enemies betrays a certain feebleness in the belief department, if you ask me. The goddy murderers might as well be atheists.

The suspect,

… Read the rest

Disquieting.

President Donald Trump this week said he wants to immediately fill the new Supreme Court vacancy because he expects the panel to decide the 2020 presidential election. 

Which is bizarre all by itself because normally the election does that. But wait, there’s more.

On Friday, multiple news outlets reported that Trump intends to nominate Amy Coney Barrett, who would be the third justice on the court to have worked for Republicans directly on the Bush v. Gore case that handed the 2000 election to the GOP. She would be the second installed on the court by Trump.

And working “for Republicans directly on the Bush v. Gore case that handed the 2000 election to the GOP” means working … Read the rest

But nobody ever claimed that. Not ever. We were solemnly assured of it only yesterday. Nobody ever said trans people were “born in the wrong body.”

From the age of two and a half, Sasha has insisted she’ll grow up a girl. She was born in a boy’s body. In his tender observational documentary, film-maker Sébastien Lifshitz’s (Les Invisibles, Bambi, Adolescentes) spends a year following seven-year-old Sasha and her family as they struggle to navigate her gender dysphoria in their provincial French home town.

Maybe it’s a French thing? Everybody knows how zany the French are.

Cinematographer Paul Guilhaume captures Sasha in widescreen, his camera watchful as she pads delicately across the room in ballet

… Read the rest

Uh oh uh oh The Graun has fallen behind the trend.

Little Girl review – tender film about a girl born in a boy’s body https://t.co/BiXBDs2VO5

— The Guardian (@guardian) September 26, 2020

… Read the rest

Trump’s pick to fill RBG’s seat is a religious fanatic. Awesome.

A current Notre Dame law school professor, 48-year-old Barrett is a devout Catholic and mother of seven children, two of whom were adopted from Haiti and one who is a child with Down syndrome—all attributes that conservatives see as evidence that she will help overturn Roe v. Wade if confirmed. But Barrett brings another resume entry to the table that, while possibly enhancing her appeal to evangelicals, makes her an unusual candidate for the job.

She’s a member of People of Praise, a charismatic covenant community in South Bend, Indiana, that has been criticized by former members for being a religious cult. Though most of its members are

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Screechy Monkey on Barr seems eager.

Old conventional wisdom: Biden needs to win the popular vote by ~ 3 points to avoid an Electoral College loss

New conventional wisdom: Biden needs to win the popular vote by ~ 5-6 points to avoid it being close enough for Trump to steal.

Welcome to America, everyone. The shining city on a hill. (gag) A beacon of democracy. (eye roll)

On a related note, David Frum had a good Twitter thread recently where he called out the utter nonsense that gets babbled every Inauguration Day, when television talking heads marvel at the “peaceful transfer of power” that occurs, even between rival political factions. Such a uniquely American tradition! … Read the rest

It all boils down to the Senate. Trump and Republican legislators are openly planning ways to steal the election.

So now a dark question arises. What will the US’s increasingly progressive majority do if Republican state officials reinstall Trump in the White House, in defiance of the voters? What will they do if that 6-3 court overturns Roe v Wade and bans abortion across the entire country?

Think for a second how that latter situation will have arisen: it is because the Senate picks the judges, and the Senate enshrines minority rule. With two senators per state, tiny Wyoming (population: 600,000) has the same representation as gargantuan California (40 million). On current trends, 70% of Americans will soon

… Read the rest

A week ago.

https://twitter.com/OkBiology/status/1306635799765676032

Bev Jackson: Now there are people who believe that they were born in the wrong body. We personally don’t believe that anybody can be born in the wrong body –

Benjamin Butterworth: Hunhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

Bev Jackson: ……You find that shocking – but we don’t believe that someone can –

Benjamin Butterworth: I find that bigotry!

Today:

https://twitter.com/AdrianHarrop/status/1309461546528104449

Hunhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! … Read the rest

Charlie Hebdo again:

Two people have been stabbed and seriously hurt in Paris near the former offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Two suspects have been arrested. One of them was seized in the nearby Bastille area with blood on his clothing, police told the BBC.

…

A blade – described as a machete or a meat cleaver – was recovered at the scene of the attack near the Boulevard Richard-Lenoir.

The people stabbed worked at a tv company in the area.

“Two colleagues were smoking a cigarette outside the building, in the street. I heard shouting. I went to the window and saw one of my colleagues, covered in blood, being chased by a man with a

… Read the rest

Barr plans to steal the election for Trump.

Donald Trump’s astonishing suggestion at a campaign rally last weekend that the US president will deploy government lawyers to try to hit the brakes on the counting of ballots on election night relies on the complicity of one federal official more than any other.

It’s Barr, the boss of all those lawyers who could stop the count.

Conveniently for Trump’s stated plan, Barr appears not only ready to acquiesce, he seems eager to bring the lawsuits, having laid groundwork for challenging the election with weeks of misleading statements about the integrity of mail-in voting.

It also looks as if he’ll be willing to sic the military on us.

In order for

… Read the rest

The NHS instructs trans women on how to do a “bum swish”:

https://twitter.com/harryoakey/status/1309432631071838208

In case the image isn’t legible – the underlined bit says: “As a trans woman with a more masculine appearance, you may need to compensate with other “elements” that convey that you are female.”

Trans women are women, but they have to jink around with their appearance so as to “compensate.” Compensate for what? They just are women, so why is there any need to compensate?

Sorry to interrupt; the rest of it is: “The “feminine walk” may help. If you place each foot across yourself each time you take a step this creates the “bum swish.””

And what else does it do? It slows down your … Read the rest

In action.

https://twitter.com/JammersMinde/status/1280548088403439616… Read the rest

Less than a month ago, though, Mermaids was energetically blaming JK Rowling for suicidal thoughts among trans youth and for sharing her non-expert opinions on what it is to be a woman.

Today, J.K.Rowling re-stated her position on transgender lives. We have previously reached out to her both publicly and privately, offering a calm conversation around the issues she has raised and today, we sent a further email to her team, renewing that offer. We are yet to receive a response…. Without giving personal detail, without betraying confidences, we must represent the seriousness of the situation. We are aware through our work with families that there have been cases of self-harm and even attempted suicide following J.K.Rowling’s statements and the

… Read the rest

It seems that Mermaids, in light of the new guidance, is…erm…trying to hide the bodies.

Watch @Mermaids_Gender. Watch their reverse ferret. It's happening right now. pic.twitter.com/2LsSXmldjk

— Jack (@j4ppleby) September 24, 2020

But … But … pic.twitter.com/vB9Q1GYb9Z

— Rachel Rooney (@RooneyRachel) September 24, 2020

Creeeeeak…shiver…crack…shudder…will the great shambolic edifice topple?… Read the rest

David Smith at the Guardian on Trump’s prelude to dictatorship performance yesterday:

Trump careered from touting miracle vaccines to building supreme court suspense, from insulting a female member of the British royal family to abruptly departing for a mysterious “emergency” phone call. But first, there was the small matter of kneecapping American democracy.

Perhaps it was not chance that the president, ever eager to generate media outrage, gave the first question to Brian Karem, who describes himself on Twitter as a “Loud Mouth” senior White House reporter at Playboy. “Will you commit to make sure there’s a peaceful transferral of power after the election?” Karem asked.

And the answer was no, not unless I win.

“Get rid of the

… Read the rest

There there, they say, don’t worry, they say, he didn’t really mean he’s going to steal the election. It’s an uphill battle though seeing as how he said what he said.

Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, the sole Republican to vote to remove Trump from office at his impeachment trial earlier this year, drew comparisons with a crisis in Europe, tweeting: “Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power; without that, there is Belarus. Any suggestion that a president might not respect this Constitutional guarantee is both unthinkable and unacceptable.”

Right, but he did suggest it, so there we are.

But there were alarming signs of dissent on the Republican side. Thomas Massie, a member of the conservative

… Read the rest

Failing state:

US President Donald Trump has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses November’s election.

“Well, we’ll have to see what happens,” the president told a news conference at the White House. “You know that.”

No. Nobody knows that. It isn’t true.

“I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots,” Mr Trump, a Republican, said. “And the ballots are a disaster.”

When the journalist countered that “people are rioting”, Mr Trump interjected: “Get rid of the ballots, and you’ll have a very – you’ll have a very peaceful – there won’t be a transfer, frankly, there’ll be a continuation.”

Well yes, if we get rid of the ballots, there won’t be a transfer, … Read the rest

Any pretext will do.

In an interview with France Bleu Alsace radio, Elisabeth said she was walking home when one of the three men said: “Look at that whore in a skirt.”

Two of the three men then held her while the third hit her in the face, leaving her with a black eye, she told the station. The men then fled.

They hate women, and they’re stronger than women. No deeper reason needed. She’s in a skirt! She’s in jeans! She’s a slut! She’s a bitch! There is no Acceptable State for a woman.

She said more than a dozen people witnessed the incident, but no-one intervened.

On Wednesday, junior interior minister Marlene Schiappa – who is

… Read the rest