I always wonder how Jolyon Maugham QC can be so confident about the wack things he says. I don’t wonder it so much about Adrian Harrop and Owen Jones, because they’re rather childish and undisciplined and silly, but I have this idea that QCs have to do better than that. (To be sure, Harrop is a medical doctor and you’d hope that would apply to him too, but he’s just so goony that it seems futile to wonder further.)

Like this thing for instance.

If a transgender child cannot access provision, the choice is (in reality) made for them. They get (2).

Constraining supply is a truly terrible way to distinguish between children who have a settled wish to transition

Vanity Fair has a big new article on how Prince Jared made himself the boss of the administration’s coronavirus testing plan, and how that plan just disappeared because they’re all fools and hacks.

By early April, some who worked on the plan were given the strong impression that it would soon be shared with President Trump and announced by the White House. The plan, though imperfect, was a starting point. Simply working together as a nation on it “would have put us in a fundamentally different place,” said the participant.

But the White House said Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaah we don’t need to do that.

Trusting his vaunted political instincts, President Trump had been downplaying concerns about the virus and spreading misinformation

So let’s read this piece about violence against women in Turkey.

Feminists in Turkey have called on the rest of the world not to forget the original context of Instagram’s #challengeaccepted trend, which was supposed to draw attention to skyrocketing rates of gender-based violence in the country before it was co-opted by western celebrities.

Femicide, violence against women and so-called “honour” killings are deeply rooted issues in Turkey. Last week, the country was rocked by the brutal killing of Pınar Gültekin, a 27-year-old student, who was allegedly killed by an ex-boyfriend.

Why would that be? Funnily enough, the Guardian story doesn’t mention the word “Islam” or the word “religion.”

Campaigners are also deeply worried about fresh efforts by 

Sometimes the juxtapositions on Twitter can be…I dunno, striking, ironic, poignant, something like that.

One:

CNN is not using the word WOMEN anymore.
We are “Individuals with a cervix.”

Can’t find the words to express how i feel about #femaleErasure. It is a full blown #WarOnWomen

https://t.co/n0K60PS4Ky

— Caroline (@CoachCaroline) July 31, 2020

Two:

Challenge accepted: Turkish feminists spell out real meaning of hashtaghttps://t.co/cwBglGaUXc

— Cátia Freitas (@Mocha_Soul) July 31, 2020

Violence against women in Turkey. Not “individuals with a cervix,” not generalized “people,” not “non-men”; women.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Tim Harris on A woman is whoever wants to be a woman.

‘Childhood pretending’ – I am reminded of doing mask-work while doing acting training (which can be alarming – some odd things come out, and the emotions called forth can be overwhelming), and of the way a Noh actor (the shite – which is pronounced, roughly, ‘shte’ and not the way you might suppose, though it may be there are some real shites among Noh actors, as there are among all actors), having put on his mask, looks into a mirror to allow the spirit of the character to enter him. And I feel that when you are acting well, it is as though … Read the rest

Did you know that women menstruate? How gross is that? Let’s never mention it again.

Offensive, crude, vulgar, unnecessary, embarrassing and grotesque. That’s Tampax’s current television ad – now banned – according to complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland.

The advertisement features the host of a talkshow called Tampons & Tea asking her studio audience how many of them ever feel their tampon. When her guest, a young woman, raises her hand to indicate that she does, the host tells her that she shouldn’t and that it might mean her tampon is not in far enough. “You gotta get ’em up there, girls!” the host says. The ad then shows how to insert a tampon correctly –

Interesting observation.

Just imagine Trump there. Trump who was sued along with his father for racial discrimination in housing.

The Justice Department sued Donald Trump, his father, Fred, and Trump Management in order to obtain a settlement in which Trump and his father would promise not to discriminate. The case eventually was settled two years later after Trump tried to countersue the Justice Department for $100 million for making false statements. Those allegations were dismissed by the court.

…

The lawsuit was based on evidence gathered by testers for the New York City Human Rights Division, which alleged that black people who went to Trump buildings were told there were no apartments available, while white people were offered

What has happened to people? What have they done with their brains?

@suzanne_moore, a woman is whoever wants to be a woman. Why police other people’s gender choices? Who cares? What does it matter? Honestly. Being a good person matters. But one’s identification is a personal choice that no one else should police.

— Dr Naomi Wolf (@naomirwolf) July 30, 2020

Why do people – especially women, especially feminist women, but really any people – say things like that? When they’re so obviously absurd? So like baby talk? It’s just not true that a woman is whoever wants to be a woman, any more than it’s true that a tree is whoever wants to be a tree or … Read the rest

Trump last week on John Lewis:

Saddened to hear the news of civil rights hero John Lewis passing. Melania and I send our prayers to he and his family.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2020

Trump today on Herman Cain:

…the phone with his amazing wife Gloria, daughter, Melanie, and son Vincent to express my deepest condolences to the entire family. @FLOTUS Melania and I loved Herman Cain, a great man. Herman, Rest In Peace! pic.twitter.com/GNUf5jHjX0

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020

… Read the rest

Flynn case not over yet.

The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit says it has scheduled oral arguments in the case of former national security adviser Michael Flynn on Aug. 11.

A smaller panel of judges within the D.C. Circuit ruled earlier that a lower-court judge must terminate the case against Flynn, as requested both by his attorneys and — in an unusual wrinkle — the Justice Department.

That lower-court judge, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, said he wanted to probe the reasons for the government’s move, but the smaller appellate panel ordered him to stop that work and simply end the matter.

Sullivan asked for the full appeals court to consider the case,

Murderous.

PLAYBOOK PM: After we reported that @replouiegohmert was positive, we got an email from a Gohmert aide. pic.twitter.com/x31CSOdkLf

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 29, 2020

Vanity Fair says that’s just a fraction of it.

After Congressman Louie Gohmert tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, Capitol Hill staffers sounded off on the apparent public health nightmare that is working for Republican lawmakers. Responding to reporting on Gohmert’s diagnosis, an aide told Politico’s Jake Sherman that the far-right representative hadn’t just refused to don a mask himself—he’d also “berated” the staff he required to work in the office for wearing them, seeking to, in his words, “be an example to America on how to open up safely.”

Other Republican aides soon 

Pompeo is talking to the Senate foreign relations committee.

Mike Pompeo has been questioned on the decision announced yesterday to pull nearly 12,000 US troops out of Germany, bringing 6,400 of them back to the US, and how that squared with Pompeo’s claims to be leading a tough policy towards Russia. He confirmed the state department was “very involved at the strategic level” but argued that bringing the troops home did not mean they were “off the field.”

Uh…that’s exactly what it means.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen asked him whether the impact on relations with Germany had been taken into account, to which Pompeo replied: “This is personal for me I fought on the border of East Germany when I

Rape is basically not a crime except in very rare cases.

The number of people prosecuted and convicted for rape has fallen to the lowest level since records began, prompting outrage and concern from campaigners, who say the crime is being decriminalised.

People? They mean men. Women can’t rape. It’s men who are being allowed to rape with impunity, not people.

Prosecutions and convictions more than halved in three years while rapes increased. Fewer rape cases were referred by police and in turn the Crown Prosecution Service took an even smaller number of those cases to court.

Police recorded 55,130 rapes but there were only 2,102 prosecutions and 1,439 convictions in England and Wales in 2019-20. Three years earlier,

Maybe now they will pay attention?

Herman Cain, a onetime Republican presidential candidate and former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, has died from coronavirus, according to an obituary sent from his verified Twitter account and Newsmax, where he was launching a television show.

I wonder how he caught it.

As a co-chair of Black Voices for Trump, Cain was one of the surrogates at President Donald Trump’s June 20 rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma — which saw at least eight Trump advance team staffers in attendance test positive for coronavirus. Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh has told CNN that Cain did not meet with Trump at the Tulsa rally.

Trump was out face to facing with people in Texas yesterday, not … Read the rest

Oh no, it turns out Kamala Harris is too ambitious to be Vice President. So unlike Biden, who thinks he’s just the right guy to be president even though he’s 78 years old and has a scary shiny facelift.

… reporting on deliberations inside the campaign suggests their decision-making is being shaped by the same sexist concerns about women in leadership that helped keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House four years ago. While it’s unclear if the accounts are accurate or present a complete picture, the story they tell is deflating, familiar, and harmful—that the campaign is distrustful of women who are ambitious or who otherwise display leadership traits that somehow don’t seem to bother people when exhibited

Chase Strangio is not an honest interlocutor.

Not clear why people are so upset that I point out that TERFs don't want trans people to exist. That is the literal objective.

TERFs: There is a crisis of too many trans people, we must stop it.

Us: TERFs want us to die or disappear.

TERFs: ACLU lawyer hates free speech.

— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) July 29, 2020

That’s not honest. He’s telling a lie. (Sue me, Chase!) We don’t want trans people to die, and what would be the point of wanting them to “disappear”? People don’t “disappear.” We want trans people to stop trying to force us to share or agree with or endorse or celebrate or act in accordance … Read the rest

More on Trump’s “you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood” tweet.

So, this is the AFFH, Affirmative Furthering Fair Housing Rule which has its roots in the Fair Housing Act (1968). It, among other things, allows for rezoning so apartments can be built in areas that may not currently allow them. The goal is to prevent housing discrimination. https://t.co/qkiKofCSsj

— Reggie Aqui He/Him (@reggieaqui) July 29, 2020

https://twitter.com/RyanPQ/status/1288559741757784065

Because he didn’t want to bother his tenants by making them live among people who were not white.

Let’s be clear: the President is using racist fear-mongering to say he’s happy to dismantle civil rights in search of a political advantage.

All those perfectly good babies going to waste in a Kyiv hotel because the borders are closed.

In a cash-strapped economy however, where the average wage is £300 a month and the war with Russia and its proxies continues, many impoverished women, especially in small towns and rural areas, are still lining up to carry babies for money, even if they are paying a heavy health and psychological price, as campaigners believe.

And people who want babies are lining up to pay those impoverished women to do it.

There are no official statistics, but it is estimated that several thousand children are born to surrogate mothers in Ukraine each year. Eighty per cent of these babies are for foreign couples,

Them that’s got shall get, them that’s not shall lose.

…Your housing prices will go up based on the market, and crime will go down. I have rescinded the Obama-Biden AFFH Rule. Enjoy!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2020

… Read the rest

Sometimes it can seem as if Trump almost gets it…is sort of kind of paying attention…is managing to look as if he’s doing his job for a few minutes – but then he always talks to someone else and it all falls apart again.

Midday [on Monday], Fauci and others gathered in the Oval Office to update Trump on the 30,000-person Phase 3 trial launched by Moderna. Trump later told reporters it was a “great meeting” and participants walked away believing the President was sincere in his efforts to convey more leadership on the outbreak.

“We had a lot of our wonderful doctors and researchers with me,” Trump said. “I think the meeting went really well.”

While the meeting focused