Originally a comment by Coel on Brought to you by.

Since climate change matters and since the science of climate change is important:

Whenever there is a cold snap or a snow storm some will inevitably quip “so much for global warming” and use one weather event as an excuse to ignore the settled opinion about climate change. They are very wrong to do so.

It is equally wrong to point to a drought event, a drought-caused fire, or indeed a hurricane, and suggest that it is due to climate change, or even to suggest that climate change has made those events much more likely. We don’t know enough to know that. After all, California is a semi-desert and … Read the rest

I was reading someone burbling about trans women menstruating and blah blah blah and a thought suddenly occurred to me (weirdly late, I think) – we’ve heard a lot about gender dysphoria, and especially a lot about men who have it, but what about other kinds of dysphoria? Specifically what about gay men who have to tell people they’re gay? You know what I mean? Gay men who appear straight – not necessarily football playerish, not necessarily muscular or domineering or anything else in particular, but just not clockable as gay.

(I don’t think it works the same way with lesbians. Lots are not clockable. Let me know if I’m wrong.)

I wonder if that can cause a form of … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Francis Boyle on Making everything worse.

The climate catastrophe deniers have long given up on any attempt to argue a case. They tried that long and hard but there’s only so many times you can use sleight of hand* as an argumentative technique. The Trump technique of more or less random abuse of anyone perceived to be less than 100% supportive of your grift is just so much more effective so everyone is doing it now.

*Favourite sleight of hand techniques that I have personally encountered, in most cases multiple times:

1. cite a scientific paper as demonstrating your point when the paper does no such thing. Indeed in many cases the paper is only … Read the rest

News from Sussex:

A mental health nurse has been struck off after asking a Polish colleague whether he was “some sort of Nazi” while out on a Christmas do.

Rachel Hole was also accused of using the N-word while out with work colleagues amid a string of racist incidents spanning a number of years while working as a ward manager on The Hazel Ward, a Low Secure Mental Health Ward at The Chichester Centre in Chichester.

Ms Hole also scared a BAME colleague by putting a white sheet over her head in a Halloween prank but later defended herself by saying she was “hardly one of the Ku Klux Klan”.

And so on and so on – it continues for … Read the rest

The libbruls are burning down Los Angeles, it seems.

Don’t you hate it when climate change appoints a DEI hire to run the fire dept, gives away fire equipment to Ukraine, stops critical controlled burns, defunds the fire dept, refuses to build more water reservoirs and store water, cancels fire insurance, mismanages forests and…

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 9, 2025

…mismanages forests and brush, and fires firefighters for refusing an experimental vaccine?”

President Musk steps right up.

Aren’t they just hilarious?… Read the rest

From the Guardian’s live updating:

[A]mid nightmarish images eerily evocative of Cormac McCarthy’s dark post-apocalyptic novel, The Road, a political firestorm has sparked from Donald Trump and his supporters that seems as scorched earth in its characteristics as the blazes ravaging neighborhoods across Los Angeles.

Far from calling a temporary truce, the president-elect and his Maga (make America great again) acolytes have used the fires to attack the Democratic political ruling establishment in Los Angeles and California – possibly foretelling power struggles ahead over a range of issues after Trump assumes office this month.

The attacks have used disinformation, wild claims, conspiracy theories and extremist culture war tropes. But absent from their critique has been any acknowledgement that climate

Sports matter; women do not matter.

England’s men’s cricket team should play against Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy, despite calls for a boycott in response to the Taliban regime’s assault on women’s rights, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy says.

Female participation in sport has effectively been outlawed since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.

A cross-party letter, signed by nearly 200 UK politicians, has been sent to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) calling for England to refuse to play in the Champions Trophy match in Lahore on 26 February.

But Nandy thinks the match should go ahead, because sports.

“I am instinctively very cautious about boycotts in sport, partly because I think they are counterproductive. I think

I’m so tired of this filth.

The Supreme Court didn’t help Donald Trump … this time. The court’s 5-4 decision Thursday to deny the president-elect’s last-minute effort to delay sentencing in his New York hush money case sets up a stunning moment – a Friday court date just 10 days before Trump is sworn in for a second term.

Judge Juan Merchan has already said he won’t impose a jail term. But the sentencing hearing will nevertheless mean that Trump will be the first president to take office with a criminal conviction written into his official record.

Isn’t that just fabulous? Behold: President Convicted Felon.

Behold the US, a failed state.

The proximity of the sentencing to Trump’s inauguration

Be careful what you wish for and campaign for and talk nonsense for, eh James Woods?

God at Letters from God has the details:

James Woods, a man who hath spent his years spouting MAGA rhetoric and raging against reality, a man who blocked God back when it was still Twitter, now tragically reaps the literal whirlwind of his own climate change denial.

His house burned up. It’s gone.

I took this last night from our beautiful little home in the Palisades. Now all the fire alarms are going off at once remotely.

It tests your soul, losing everything at once, I must say. pic.twitter.com/nH0mLpxz5C

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) January 8, 2025

It’s a very pretty clip. He pans … Read the rest

Pink News is overjoyed.

Awards season is well and truly here, and with it often comes the premise of historical firsts. This year, Karla Sofia Gascón has made history as the first out trans performer to be nominated at the 2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards in a solo category.

The Spanish actress has been nominated at the SAG Awards for Best Female Actor in a Leading Role for her work in Emilia Pérez, making her the first out trans performer to be nominated in a solo category, as per Out Magazine.

In other words, a man has won [been nominated for] an award for best female actor.

As if women don’t have enough trouble getting work … Read the rest

The world’s first humorless comedy festival. Should be a real blast.

Hope everyone's up to date on all the rules for watching a bit of comedy in Glasgow – Glasgow! – these days. pic.twitter.com/Uyo8f0mzW0

— Wings Over Scotland (@WingsScotland) January 9, 2025

… Read the rest

Allllllll genders.

The national police leader on child protection and abuse investigations has urged officers not to be “distracted” by media coverage of grooming gangs, emphasising it is one element of a wider threat.

Becky Riggs, an assistant chief constable, said analysis of child sex crimes reported to police made it clear that “group-based offending occurs in various forms, in diverse settings, and across different ethnicities”.

She urged a “balanced approach to addressing the threat in all its forms”, adding that “children are at risk from perpetrators of all races, ethnicities and genders”.

Excuse me?

Perps of “all genders” go after children? Really? Women sexually abuse children just as much as men do?

There is nothing in the article … Read the rest

Not all that liberal…

The Liberal Democrats have been ordered to pay £14,000 to a former parliamentary candidate who says she was driven out of the party and barred from standing as an MP over her gender-critical views.

Natalie Bird was removed as a prospective parliamentary candidate for Wakefield after she wore a top bearing the slogan “Woman: Adult Human Female” to a party meeting.

It’s like removing people as prospective parliamentary candidates for wearing tops that say “Rain is wet” or “Fire burns” or “Lions are not frogs” or “Jumping off a tall building is dangerous” or an infinite number of other obvious factual assertions.

Ms Bird had been critical of the party’s policies online but Judge Jane

It’s not the future any more. Big chunks of Los Angeles are on fire.

Firefighters in Los Angeles are battling a number of blazes in city suburbs, as tens of thousands of residents are forced to flee.

The rapidly changing situation is compounded by Santa Ana winds and extremely dry conditions. Currently authorities say there is no possibility of bringing the fires under control.

The Palisades fire, which is closest to the coast and also the largest, has ripped through picturesque suburbs which are home to many Hollywood stars. More than 1,000 buildings have already been destroyed.

Picturesque and very very very expensive.

LA has always been a mistake. It’s in a desert, and it’s way too big for … Read the rest

“Sophie Molly” tries his hand at argument.

Once again, a festival capitulates to the demands of transphobes. By hosting not one but two notable TERFs. The festival in question is the Oxford Literary Festival.

It’s not clear what the demands are. Did the terfs demand that the Oxford Lit Fest host them? Or did the Oxford Lit Fest simply invite a couple of feminists?

By far, the worst of them is Helen Joyce. Her book Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality can only be described as anti-trans propaganda. This book and its author should not be featured at a mainstream literary festival.

But even if it’s true that the book can only be described as anti-trans-[ideology], how is that … Read the rest

No, sir, you can’t sue people for getting it wrong.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, an organization most recognized for its work bolstering conservatives on the nation’s campuses, announced on Tuesday it would represent the pollster J. Ann Selzer, at no charge, against Donald J. Trump’s lawsuit accusing her of consumer fraud for a poll that predicted he would lose Iowa. “Punishing someone for their political prediction is about as unconstitutional as it gets,” said Bob Corn-Revere, the group’s chief counsel. “This is America. No one should be afraid to predict the outcome of an election.”

Trump accusing someone else of consumer fraud is hilarious. Remember Trump University? All those gilded tchotchkes in his … Read the rest

Yet again the respectable mainstream news media pretend Trump may be just messing with us.

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday suggested he would consider using military force to gain control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, and “economic force” to acquire Canada.

During a free-wheeling news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump was asked by a reporter if he could assure the public that he would not use military coercion against Panama or Greenland, a goal he has floated in recent weeks. “No, I can’t assure you on either of those two, but I can say this, we need them for economic security,” Trump said. He said later that he would not use military force

Anschluss time.

Trump on Tuesday refused to rule out invading Greenland or Panama when asked if the U.S. could use military force to acquire the Arctic island or the Central American canal.

Asked if he would rule out economic or military coercion to gain control of Greenland and the Panama Canal, Trump said, “I’m not gonna commit to that. No. It might be that you’ll have to do something.”

“I can’t assure you — you’re talking about Panama and Greenland — no, I can’t assure you on either of those two,” Trump said in response to the question at a press conference. “But I can say this: We need them for economic security.”

And what we need we help … Read the rest