So now the Supreme Court might reverse Brown, too? Seriously?

Since April 2018, more than two dozen executive and judicial nominees have declined to endorse the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education. This week — one that marks the 65th anniversary of the landmark ruling that struck down legal apartheid in this country — the Senate is poised to confirm three of those judicial nominees to lifetime seats on the federal bench.

That is simply unacceptable.

I’ll say. It’s horrifying.

For nearly 65 years, the legal consensus around Brown was unequivocal. With its transformational opinion eviscerating segregation and codifying the modern contours of equal justice, Brown remained above partisanship, ideology and everything else.

Even

Pakistani authorities have a word with Twitter.

https://twitter.com/MaajidNawaz/status/1127685318386290688

You know, the US, or Mississippi, or Little Rock could pass a law saying nobody is allowed to criticize the US. Such a law would not pass judicial review, but supposing for the sake of argument that it did – would that mean that people in Pakistan or Mexico or Somalia have to obey that law? Of course not. There’s such a thing as jurisdiction. The laws of one country don’t extend to the people of all other countries. In other words, who cares that some goons in Pakistan claim that that friendly panel of Jesus and Mo saying howdy “is in violation of Pakistan law”? Why does Twitter bother passing that … Read the rest

This crap again.

Scarlett Moffatt and Jodie Whitaker lead worst dressed on #BAFTATV red carpet https://t.co/NuFa4jdkXE pic.twitter.com/edfFYRFOND

— Mirror Celeb (@MirrorCeleb) May 12, 2019

The article is just a string of photos like that and the “reporter,” James Brinsford, saying why he doesn’t like each dress.

Note the ratio.

The replies are uniformly hostile.

People are so weird – sitting down in cold blood to put together a thing like this that is nothing but  bullying intended to make people feel bad – women, specifically. They go to an event, they dress up the way they have to, they pose obligingly for photos, wearing their biggest smiles – and along comes ratbag to say they all look like crap. Meanness … Read the rest

Whoa, top class DARVO from the Trump gang!

The White House on Sunday decried Democratic-led congressional investigations, saying Democrats are refusing to abide by “rules and norms” that govern oversight authority as they issue subpoenas for documents the Trump administration refuses to hand over.

We’re not refusing to abide by “rules and norms,” you’re refusing to abide by “rules and norms.” So there!

“There are rules and norms governing congressional oversight of the executive branch, and the Democrats simply refuse to abide by them,” White House deputy press secretary Steve Groves said in a statement. “Democrats are demanding documents they know they have no legal right to see — including confidential communications between the President and foreign leaders and grand

Jesse Singal on the Ban Scholars move:

2/ less faith that, as a journalist who often writes about science, I will be able to continue using Twitter without getting punished for communicating scientifiically accurate infromation. Twitter is making a terrible and embarrassing error here that it should fix.

— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) May 12, 2019

4/This is how you get the most important outlet in the world running an extremely misleading column on testosterone, the ACLU arguing women can compete w/and beat men in competitive sports. etc.

We're approaching a Soviet/fundamentalist/take your pick level of science denialism. pic.twitter.com/SJ6ia3NvLe

— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) May 12, 2019

6/ In conclusion , Twitter, PLEASE suspend me for accurately citing the DSM. I am

Ok let’s talk about that.

Transgenderism is an actual thing. Transethnicism, as far as we know, isn’t.

— Mitch Benn (@MitchBenn) May 11, 2019

What does it mean to say “transgenderism is an actual thing”?

It’s an actual thing in the sense that people talk about it a lot, but that’s not what Benn means, because he contrasts it with “transethnicism” which as far as we know, according to him, is not an actual thing.

So what does he mean? Presumably something like “an actual condition, not just a fashion or fad or subject of conversation.” But then how does he know it really is an actual condition, not just a fashion or fad or subject of conversation? Is his … Read the rest

Nick Cohen writes that Britain is too fond of “characters” to call a far-right politician a far-right politician.

If you want to deceive the French public, you pose as an intellectual. In England, you pose as a character. Like a criminal on a witness protection programme, the ham actor who plays upper-class roles avoids the accountability that prevents democratic life degenerating into the feast of fools we see around us.

In the US you pose as a nice guy. (Women of course don’t get to play this game.) Joe Biden is recycling himself yet again because of all those cozy photos of him with Obama. Joe Biden is not a nice guy.

They get away with it because the

They have got to be kidding.

https://twitter.com/HJJoyceEcon/status/1127476326603079680… Read the rest

Andrew Gilligan in the Sunday Times:

People warned by the police over comments they made about transgender issues are launching a pressure group and legal action next week, challenging “Big Brother interference” with their free speech rights.

The Fair Cop campaign is headed by Harry Miller, 54, from Lincolnshire, who was visited at work in January by Humberside police for retweeting a limerick that said trans women had silicone breasts. The force admitted there was no crime, but described it as a “hate incident” and said it would be monitoring Miller’s and his wife’s social media accounts.

Others involved include the Father Ted writer Graham Linehan, who was given a police warning after getting into a row with a

They don’t think these things through at all, do they.

Temporary provisional acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney did an interview for CBS news the other day.

Of particular interest, though, was the exchange that began at the 23:12 mark of the conversation.

The host noted that the Treasury Department has refused a congressional order to turn over Donald Trump’s tax returns, and Garrett asked why. This was the exchange that followed:

MULVANEY: Because they are not entitled to see them by law. By the way, they know, especially on this one, they know they’re never going to get these documents. This is a pure show-pony-type of situation. They know the legal reasons they can get those

Not for the squeamish.

https://twitter.com/museofwoolwich/status/1126634702822084608

Mandatory school sex ed that will include teaching the students how to masturbate. Er…really?

Really.

Teachers who have specialist training will do it

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) May 10, 2019

Listen, you’re supposed to get that kind of sex ed on the street, behind the bike shed, from your first (or second or tenth) sex partner…anywhere but school.

Also, Tatchell has been known to defend “adult-child sexual relationships”, and people with expertise in the subject say that adults “teaching” children how to masturbate is grooming. Tatchell appears to be promoting mandatory, can’t opt out sex ed in school that will include grooming. Not his best idea.… Read the rest

Meanwhile Carl Benjamin is on the outs with YouTube.

YouTube has demonetised Carl Benjamin’s Sargon of Akkad video channel after the political commentator turned UKIP candidate made comments about raping a woman MP.

Earlier this week, West Midlands police announced an investigation into Benjamin’s remarks made in a YouTube video about Labour MP Jess Phillips, where the UKIP European election candidate questioned whether he’d rape her before concluding “nobody’s got that much beer”.

I was just objecting to Twitter’s permanent banning of a woman who told a boy he is not a lesbian. Should I also, to be consistent, object to YouTube’s demonitization (you should forgive the word) of Carl Benjamin’s YouTube?

There are two (or more) ways of … Read the rest

One of the better headlines:

UKIP candidate Carl Benjamin in Truro milkshake melee

Not a Truro milkshake melee!? The horror.

Two protesters have thrown milkshake at UKIP European election candidate Carl Benjamin at a rally.

Mr Benjamin was holding a gathering on Lemon Quay in Truro, Cornwall, with British activist Milo Yiannopoulos.

It is understood a man and a woman tried to target Mr Benjamin with the milkshake but missed.

So not really much of a melee then. Fortunately, by way of consolation, the Beeb provided a photo of blobs of what could be bird shit or puke or melting snow or a vanilla milkshake, helpfully captioned “Milkshake could be seen on the ground after the incident.”

It gets better … Read the rest

Remember this from a few days ago?

https://twitter.com/anyabyke/status/1125481180168708097

Now Twitter has made the ban permanent.

https://twitter.com/boodleoops/status/1126937220370268160

Twitter is calling it “hateful conduct” to tell that boy he is not a lesbian. Twitter is saying that to tell that boy he is not a lesbian is “to promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people.”

Meanwhile relentless harassment and verbal abuse of women goes on unabated.… Read the rest

Sometimes…

Huge increase in UK same-sex couples seeking IVF and surrogates https://t.co/S7p16EdCMx

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) May 10, 2019

That is, huge increase in gay male couples seeking to rent women’s bodies to make them their very own bespoke baby. Lesbian couples don’t need to rent women to make a baby; men think they’re entitled to rent women to get whatever they want. Isn’t it funny how men don’t recognize or acknowledge the exploitation of renting women’s bodies, yet do manage to remember to disguise what they’re doing by talking about “same-sex couples” in the headline and the tweet?… Read the rest