Stewart at Gnu Atheism:

… Read the rest

The Daily Dot tells us, with great indignation, that trans activists are getting Twitter suspensions or bans merely for threatening women they dislike. What is the world coming to when people aren’t free to threaten women on social media?

Trans Twitter has witnessed a spike in transgender users having their accounts suspended or banned on Twitter, and people are searching for answers. Given the apparently related manner in which these suspensions are happening, the community suspects a targeted effort against them. But who?

Some think it has to do with the word “TERF” while others think it takes more than that.

One trans Twitter user, who wished to remain anonymous, shared her evidence with the Daily Dot for TERF

Tasneem Khalil reports:

*Appeal for urgent medical attention for Dr Shahidul Alam*

Dhaka, Wednesday 22 August 2018.

Today, as Eid-ul-Azha is being celebrated across the country, we went to Keraniganj Central Jail in the morning to meet Dr Shahidul Alam. He has been imprisoned there for 10 days now, since 12 August, when he was taken there after being produced before the magistrate, and following 6 days in remand in the custody of the Detective Branch of the Police.

Dr Alam informed us that he is suffering from breathing difficulties, has pain in the jaw and gums and is facing eyesight problems. Shahidul did not have any such health-related complaints before he was taken into police custody on

The CREW guys and another lawyer explain some things about the Manfort convictions.

The conviction conclusively and publicly demonstrates what many of us have said since the start of the investigation: This is no “witch hunt.” It instead is one of the most successful special counsel investigations in history. Coming alongside the guilty plea by Michael Cohen, the president’s former lawyer, implicating the president in campaign finance violations, it was a very bad day for Mr. Trump.

Mr. Manafort’s conviction cannot be diminished by arguing, as Mr. Trump and his coterie are fond of doing, that the misconduct was unrelated to the Trump campaign or Russian “collusion.” On the contrary, the trial evidence included Mr. Manafort’s close ties to

Uh oh.

The oldest and thickest sea ice in the Arctic has started to break up, opening waters north of Greenland that are normally frozen, even in summer.

This phenomenon – which has never been recorded before – has occurred twice this year due to warm winds and a climate-change driven heatwave in the northern hemisphere.

One meteorologist described the loss of ice as “scary”. Others said it could force scientists to revise their theories about which part of the Arctic will withstand warming the longest.

In other words it’s happening much faster than the most pessimistic predictions.

The sea off the north coast of Greenland is normally so frozen that it was referred to, until recently, as “the

Bill Donohue, president and sole member of what he hilariously calls “The Catholic League,” has written a “they do it too!!!” piece to explain why it’s no big deal for priests to rape children and the church to cover it up.

No one is calling for an investigation of Hollywood perverts, even though over 400 Hollywood executives and employees have been named for sexual misconduct in the past year-and-a-half. That’s over 100 more than the number of Pennsylvania priests implicated in sexual abuse over the past 70 years.

But many people are calling for investigations of Hollywood rapists, plus some investigations are already in print, like those of Ronan Farrow in the New Yorker and Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey … Read the rest

Meanwhile, in Indonesia:

An Indonesian court has sentenced a Buddhist woman to 18 months in prison for blasphemy after she was accused of insulting Islam.

Meiliana, a 44-year-old ethnic Chinese woman, had complained the Muslim call to prayer, which is repeated five times a day, was being played too loudly at the mosque near her house in North Sumatra.

She burst into tears as the presiding judge, Wahyu Prasetyo Wibowo announced her sentence on Tuesday and she was taken from the court in handcuffs.

Damn I hate religion sometimes. This is one of those times. People shouldn’t be persecuted by any “call to prayer” in the first place, much less one that’s electronically amplified, much less five … Read the rest

Well well well. How about that.

A jury has found former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort guilty on tax and bank fraud charges — a major if not complete victory for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III as he continues to investigate the president’s associates.

The jury convicted Manafort on eight of the 18 counts against him and said it was deadlocked on the other 10. U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis declared a mistrial on those charges.

What do you know.

President Trump reacted to the verdict by denouncing Mueller’s investigation.

“It doesn’t involve me … it’s a very sad thing,” the president said after arriving in West Virginia for a political rally, adding that the Manafort case

Wait a minute.

The premier of Alberta:

Eid Mubarak!
Wishing all Albertans who celebrate Eid al-Adha tonight peace and joy, and many blessings for the year ahead.#EidAlAdha #ableg #abpoli pic.twitter.com/LSA47PDUrz

— Rachel Notley (@RachelNotley) August 20, 2018

I’m all for politicians being welcoming and affirming and all that, especially of groups who are targets of hatred and scorn…but putting on hijab to do it? Women are targets of hatred and scorn, and one version of that is forcing them to wear uncomfortable stifling concealing layers of cloth, often on pain of violence or even death. I don’t see why Notley couldn’t send a friendly Eid Mubarak without putting on a Modesty Garment to do it.

– OK, why you

Mark Joseph Stern has a very useful backgrounder at Slate on the move to stifle the black vote in Georgia.

Because of its history of racist voting laws, Randolph County was once required to seek federal permission before altering its election procedures. But after the Supreme Court gutted this oversight in 2013, the county was freed to crack down on the franchise. It is no coincidence that its election board chose this moment to shutter most of its polls: In November, the popular Democrat Stacey Abrams will compete for the governorship against Republican Brian Kemp, the current Georgia secretary of state. Kemp, who has devoted his time in office to a ruthless campaign of voter suppression, called upon

Trump at his most graceful:

Speaking before agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection officers, Trump lashed out at opponents of ICE and CBP (which Trump repeatedly referred to as CBC) who have blocked access to ICE offices and called for abolition of the agency over the administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents and strict enforcement of immigration laws.

“The vast majority, they’re all with you,” Trump said, calling opponents a small group that gets a lot of publicity.

“They have no courage, they have no guts, just big loudmouths. We don’t want to put up with that.”

Ah that reminds me of someone, who can it be. Oh yes, chickenshit  big … Read the rest

That Georgia county that’s planning to close 7 of its 9 polling places is getting a lot of attention from civil rights groups.

The closures would come just before a high-stakes midterm election in which Stacey Abrams, a black woman, is the Democratic nominee for governor.

“This is nothing more than a racially motivated, voter suppression scheme that aims to lock Black voters out of a historic election cycle,” Kristen Clarke, who leads the Lawyers’ Committee on Civil Rights Under Law, tweeted on Sunday. The Lawyers’ Committee, representing three Georgia civil rights groups, sent a letter to the Randolph County Board of Elections and Registration threatening legal action if the plan moves forward.

It’s a rural county, with no public … Read the rest

Oh good god.

This is spectacular. pic.twitter.com/rGybFAAva4

— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) August 20, 2018

Staggered by the malevolent stupidity of that opening I rushed to find the source: “The ‘Nanette’ Problem.”

It took me a while to write a critique of Nanette, the Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby’s universally praised one-woman Netflix special that premiered in June, because I couldn’t quite figure out what I hated about it.

But when my cis, straight, liberal parents told me how much they loved it, the reason for my dislike coalesced: In order to make straight, cis viewers feel comfortably woke, Gadsby shits on an entire language of comedy developed over decades largely by Jews and queers. The greatest trick Gadsby pulls is