Hmm. What’s the chain of reasoning here?

[Trump] accused President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of inviting assassins to target him when they warn that he is a threat to democracy.

He told Fox News Digital on Monday without evidence that the alleged would-be shooter “believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it.” Trump went on: “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out.”

…

Trump’s running mate advanced an even blunter argument.

“The big difference between conservatives and liberals is that … no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months, and two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months,” Ohio Sen. JD Vance said. “I’d say that’s pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric and needs to cut this crap out.”

Is it though? Two examples out of millions of Dem voters isn’t really strong evidence that anything. If two people out of millions get a headache after eating a banana, medical researchers aren’t going to get all excited about a new avenue of investigation. Two out of millions of anything is just…not not random.

Would I be making similar inferences if two people had tried to shoot Biden or Harris? Probably. I’d be wrong.

But if Democrats are to blame for sometimes going over the top, Trump has made a political brand out of the most outlandish rhetoric uttered by a president or ex-president in the modern history of the United States. The scale and intensity of his invective dwarf anything that the Democrats have flung at him. He calls Harris a “fascist” in almost every public appearance — for instance, he said on August 26 in Virginia that “we have a fascist person running who’s incompetent.” He used similar rhetoric on August 23, August 17, and August 3 in campaign appearances.

Oh he’s just joking.

More on the delicate flower “Karla Marx” –

No no, child, she declined to say that trans women aka men are women. This is because men are not women. She’s not a phobe for knowing that men are not women. You’re a buffoon and a bully for demanding that she say they are, and volubly scolding her when she declines.

Classic.

The essence of trans “activism” in under three minutes – actually in the first minute. Man asks woman if she will say men are women, woman says she wants to think about it, man proceeds to berate her non-stop for the next two minutes.

Man is big, man is tall, man has loud deep confident domineering voice, man does not hesitate to take advantage of all his male tools while upbraiding a woman for not instantly agreeing that men like him are women.

Now there’s a fun way to co-opt “progressive” language about affirmation and being ourselves and solidarity and acceptance and pride.

What went wrong?

“We fully supported from day one,” parent says. “That was never in question. My job is to love and support my child no matter what.”

No it isn’t. To love, yes. To support no matter what, no. It does depend on what the “what” is. If the child tortures animals to death, no, the parent’s job is not to support that. Support the child qua child, get help for the child, do your best to make the child understand, but support the child’s actions, no.

If the child wants to go rock-climbing with no training and no gear, you don’t support that. You veto it.

If the child refuses to eat, you don’t support that. You get help, but you don’t support it.

And that’s how it is with the fad for pretending sex is switchable. Don’t support it. Apply the brakes. Gross the kid out with information about oozing surgery scars and freak the kid out with stories of regret. Do not support the lunatic idea that the kid can switch sex.

The last sentence of that paragraph – “And I will continue to do that while there is a breath in my body” – gives away the fact that she’s exercising her vanity here. “I am a fabulous committed dedicated Parent, and you have to admire me.” No, we really don’t.

Notice how the parent goes on to use the word “support” and its cognates about 90 times, sort of like a godbotherer calling on Jesus or Mo. People are weirdly obsessed with being “supportive” at all times no matter what. Screw that. Some things should not be supported.

Musk is very very dangerous.

Judd Legum at Popular Information:

There are 49 days until Election Day in the United States. Although the presidential race remains extremely close, Donald Trump and his allies have escalated their efforts to undermine the results. 

In a post to Truth Social on Sunday morning, Trump falsely claimed that the United States Postal Service (USPS) “has admitted that it is a poorly run mess that is experiencing mail loss and delays at a level never seen before.” Trump asked, “how can we possibly be expected to allow or trust the U.S. Postal Service to run the 2024 Presidential Election?” 

How can we possibly expect Trump to stop lying?

In addition to attacking mail-in voting, Trump has advanced broader claims that Democrats “want to cheat” in the 2024 election. In a September 7 Truth Social post, Trump pledged to prosecute and jail Democrats who repeat “the rampant Cheating and Skullduggery that has taken place by the Democrats in the 2020 Presidential Election.” (In nearly 4 years since the 2020 election, Trump has produced no evidence of cheating.) Trump claimed that prosecuting “Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials” was the only way to ensure “this Depravity of Justice does not happen again.”

“Depravity” is not the right word there – he means “betrayal” or similar – but never mind.

Trump’s efforts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2024 election are nothing new. He did the same thing in advance of the 2020 election. The difference is that, this time, he has the public support of wealthy tech billionaires. 

Appearing on the All In podcast, billionaire investor Peter Theil asserted that if the presidential election “is going to be close,” then “I’m pretty sure [Vice President] Kamala [Harris] will win because they will cheat.” Theil claimed, without any evidence, that Democrats will “steal the ballots” to assure a Harris victory. 

Of course Trump is the one who tried to steal the last election by force, but never mind.

H/t Tim Harris

Great god almighty.

Rape survivors met with Sandy Brindley to talk about their fears around self-identified trans “women” at the [Edinburgh] Rape Crisis Centre. After the meeting got going it became clear that Brindley had brought along an activist academic (who, we know from what we read yesterday, was Brindley’s girlfriend), without asking or warning the rape survivors, or even saying who she was or explaining why she was there. The way I understand it is that the rape survivors had asked to meet with Brindley. Not random other people, and sure as fuck not her squeeze who is a trans-ideologue. Brindley simply imposed that situation on them, without asking, without mentioning, without explaining. It would be bad behavior even if the uninvited guest had been a warm ally of the rape survivors. Since she was very much not that, it’s completely outrageous.

And what this terrible person told them is, of course, even worse.

Survivors of rape have no rights in law to expect a female-only service. Picture it to yourself: a woman, uninvited, tells a group of rape survivors they have no right in law to expect men to be excluded from the service they sought at the RAPE CRISIS CENTRE. A woman they never asked to meet with, dumped on them by the woman they did ask to meet with, who is the boss of the rape crisis centre in question. It’s Trump-level insult and sadism.

And there’s all the rest of what this pair of fiends told the women.

It’s like putting a rabbi in charge of Nazi pogroms.

There was a lesbian march in Leeds Saturday.

Well we can’t have that, can we.

No, we can’t have that. We must change the subject to men who call themselves women, and berate the lesbians who marched for not being inclooosive of men. Women must never be allowed to exclude men from anything. Women are dangerous subtle enemies, and can never be trusted.

What a fool.

What a fool, and a tool, and a liar.

Sandy Brindley needs to gtfo.

The head of Scotland’s leading sexual assault support service is facing growing demands to stand down amid the fallout of a damning report into the running of a centre in Edinburgh.

Mridul Wadhwa, a trans woman, resigned as chief executive of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre after an independent review commissioned by Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS) concluded that she had failed to behave professionally while in charge of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC).

A number of women’s groups have joined the Harry Potter author JK Rowling in now calling for the head of RCS, Sandy Brindley, to resign as well.

Why? Because she carries on as if men who pretend to be women 1. are women and 2. matter more than women.

Clare Blom, of the grassroots campaign group Women Won’t Wheesht, said: “It is unforgivable that, even now, she is unwilling to be accountable for her own conduct, or the conduct of others she enabled by her lack of judgment.

“The women of Scotland need and deserve better and she should do the right thing and resign to allow someone to take over who is willing and able to prioritise vulnerable women over the desires of entitled men.”

Instead of the other way around, which is, unbelievably, what she’s been doing.

On Sunday Brindley was attacked by Rowling after being accused of canvassing sexual assault survivors for testimonials in a bid to save her job.

“Attacked” is the wrong word in this context – a context in which women are constantly called foul names for defending women’s rights. Rowling didn’t punch Brindley in the face.

Brindley had told the Sunday Mail she had no knowledge of calls for her to quit and has been backed by some survivors.

But Rowling wrote on X: “Asking rape survivors to get you out of massive self-inflicted PR problem is unfortunately right on brand for the head of Rape Crisis Scotland.

“What are these women there for if not to protect the careers of those running the service?”

Won’t somebody please think of the brindleys?

Dialing the misogyny up to 11.

The issue about Mridul Wadhwa as CEO of the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre is not that it’s a “crime” but that it’s wrong. They’re not identical. There’s a hell of a lot of wrong in the world that is entirely legal.

It’s wrong for Wadwha to put himself forward as head of a rape crisis centre because he’s a man. The very fact that he’s insensitive and brutal enough to do so…or, more likely, that he’s malevolent and sadistic enough to do so. Anyway the point is that it’s bad, not that it’s against the law. We can talk about things that are bad even if they’re not criminal.

It’s not that Wadwha “caught the eye” of gender critical feminism, it’s that gc feminism is determined not to hand women’s rights and institutions over to men just because men like Wadwha want them. It’s not the fault of feminists that Wadhwa did what he did, and we have every right to object to his doing it.

We don’t “scream” women’s rights; we try to defend women’s rights. Sneering jeering fleering men like Willoughby are always on hand to accuse us of whining or flirting or screaming or giggling, but that’s because men like Willoughby, and Willoughby himself, have contempt for women and enjoy airing it in public.

Wadwha, who is A MAN, went for and got the job that should obviously be a woman’s job. He got it because he “identified” as a woman (as opposed to being one) and too many people are way too gullible about “trans rights” and “trans activism” and “trans women.” Willoughby is another man who claims to be a woman, and he’s keen to talk angry smack about women who resist the male takeover.

I’m tired of it.

Holeeeee shit.

Take a deep breath before reading.

Complete horror show.

Vance cheerily admits he’s just making shit up.

In a stunning admission, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, said he was willing “to create stories” on the campaign trail while defending his spreading false, racist rumors of pets being abducted and eaten in a town in his home state of Ohio.

Vance’s remarks came during an appearance on Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, where he said he felt the need “to create stories so that the … media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people”.

Asked by the CNN host Dana Bash whether the false rumors centering on Springfield, Ohio, were “a story that you created”, Vance replied, “Yes!” He then said the claims were rooted in “accounts from … constituents” and that he as well as the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, had spoken publicly about them to draw attention to Springfield’s relatively large Haitian population.

Yunh-uh like the way Hitler created stories to draw attention to Europe’s relatively large Jewish population. No problem, nothing to see here.

Vance ultimately defended his endorsement of the lies about Springfield as calling attention to the immigration policies at the White House while Harris has served as vice-president to Joe Biden.

That’s what lies about despised groups of people do, they call attention. Then once the attention is called, the next steps can be anything from insults to genocide.

Be careful what you call attention to.

Originally a comment by Artymorty on The naughty apparatchiks.

The sheer number of “GC twitter” people on board with Trump’s (and the Manhattan Institute bros’) racist bullshit makes me sick.

A lesson I learned from the New Atheist movement comes to mind, a little line I started mentally sneering at people as I began to sour on the skeptic bros who flooded the meetups-in-the-pub and the comment threads on the blogs: Dude, it’s not a great feat of intellectual prowess that you figured out god doesn’t exist. The debate about religion is far more complex and interesting and important and relevant for what it reveals about the flaws in humans’ ability to think — the fact that highly intelligent people can fall under the spell of god-bothering, and the impact it’s having on society.

The people who never got past “Hurr durr, Christians are so dumb” always seemed, quite frankly, less pleasant to be around than many of the well-intentioned, thoughtful theists with whom I passionately disagreed about religion.

Not that there was anything necessarily wrong with people openly mocking the stupidity of Christianity. I didn’t disagree with what the “hurr durr” lot were saying. It’s just that by itself, they weren’t saying much, and in their lack of interest in the deeper ideas that swirled around the religion-atheism debate — the impacts it had on politics and social progress and justice and all that — they were revealing to me that they weren’t really my kind of people.

So it is with the “GC” movement, for lack of a better term. “Hurr durr look how dumb the libs are acting with all this troony nonsense” is a fair criticism. Liberals are indeed acting incredibly dumb about crossdressers and gender benders. But by itself it doesn’t offer anything but condescension, and without the broader context (well-intentioned people thinking they’re doing good by gays and women, but being misguided, for example) it can very quickly turn into a sour, anti-humanist right-wing self-serving attitude.

I’ve frankly had it with a lot of the people in the gender-critical twittersphere. My gender atheism hasn’t waned one bit, but I’m far less interested in socializing among the GC folks than I was a couple years ago, given that it’s turning into a right wing “hurr durr” fest. The Libs-of-TikTok-ification of the gender discourse is fucking tedious.

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Biden exercised his parole authority.

What’s not to like about a greedy, self-serving, self-centered, misogynistic, racist, thin-skinned, shallow-minded, easily-played, abusive, boorish, ignorant, hubristically over-confident, braggadocios, felonious, dishonest, twice-impeached, dayglow-orange, Dunning-Krueger poster-boy, and aspiring dictator? Why should anyone have second thoughts about handing over the Presidency of the United States to such a man for a second time? The United States is just lucky that his desire to remain in office unconstitutionally at the end of his term, and the amplification of that desire by his deluded supporters, was exceeded by their collective stupidity. There may not be such luck if it comes to a second round if those around him have learned from the mistakes of the first attempted coup.

Seriously, “dislike” has very little to do with it. It’s not just that he’s “uncouth” or that he “rubs me the wrong way.” He doesn’t just flout norms, and “tell it like it is.” He is fundamentally unfit for public office, and manifests multiple traits that run counter to the continued survival of the political foundations of the country he seeks to take control of. He’s a menace to the Constitution, being both ignorant of its provisions, and contemptuous of the limitations it places upon the power he craves. These character traits of his were obvious for years befor he ran for office, and in any other candidate, would have instantly destroyed their political career. That Trump managed to be win power despite them demonstrates a fightening support for dictatorship amongst his supporters, and shows that the United States is in deep trouble. They can’t see, or accept the fact that the desire to hurt their putative enemies comes at the price of self-immolation. Trump is a wrecking ball. The only thing that matters to Trump is Trump, and if retaining his throne and crown means the destruction of the Republic, that’s a price he’s willing to let others pay. But don’t send him the bill; he’ll stiff you.

Laughing at JD Vance:

Republican vice-presidential candidate Senator JD Vance continues to stoke outrage against foreign-born members of his own constituency, sharing video footage with his 1.9 million social media followers that he claimed showed African migrants in Dayton, Ohio “eating cats” — but instead appears to show nothing more than poultry cooking on an outdoor grill.

“Kamala Harris and her media apparatchiks should be ashamed of themselves,” Vance posted Saturday on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. “Another ‘debunked’ story that turned out to have merit.”

What kind of dang hillbilly doesn’t know a plucked chicken when he sees one?

The video was originally posted by the right-wing Manhattan Institute’s Christopher Rufo, who offered a $5,000 bounty to anyone that could provide “proof” of cat-eating immigrants in Ohio. 

Why? Why the hell would anyone waste 5 grand on such a fatuous project?

See? See the puddy tats??

Backlash was swift, with replies ranging from, “I find it strange that a self-professed ‘hillbilly’ doesn’t know what whole chickens look like,” to, “HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT CHICKENS LOOK LIKE WITH THEIR LEGS ATTACHED YOU F****ING DIPSHIT.” Oliver Alexander, an open-source intelligence analyst, weighed in, sharing images of plucked chickens looking remarkably similar to whatever was being grilled in the video. “Clearly chicken you weirdo. Dude’s never seen chicken that wasn’t dino-nugget shaped,” he wrote.

Rufo did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday. The Vance campaign declined to comment on the record. An expert at the National Chicken Council did not reply to inquiries.

Those poopyheads at the National Chicken Council are such snobs.

Today in Leeds:

But.

Of course there’s a but.

Must say no to the women. Must not allow the women to speak up.

Of course he did.

Court finds Trump Tower violated environmental laws and endangered fish in the Chicago River

After several years of litigation, a Cook County judge has found operations at Trump Tower violated state and federal environmental laws that protect the fish in the Chicago River, the Illinois attorney general’s office announced Wednesday.

…

Cook County Circuit Judge Thaddeus L. Wilson on Monday granted summary judgment to the plaintiffs, finding Trump International Hotel & Tower at 401 N. Wabash Ave. liable on all counts. This means there will be no trial. Raoul’s office is seeking civil penalties and injunctive relief, to be determined by the court at a future hearing, which has not yet been scheduled.

“Effectively, what was found is, there’s no question that they have done all the things that they were accused of doing,” Margaret Frisbie, executive director of Friends of the Chicago River, told the Tribune.

A lawsuit filed in 2018 by then-Attorney General Lisa Madigan alleged the cooling system intake structure at Trump Tower siphoned water from the river so powerfully that it sucked in fish and trapped them against its screens, resulting in the death of thousands of aquatic organisms. Because of the system’s capability to pull in more than 20 million gallons of water from the river per day, federal law required extensive studies of its environmental impact and of fish populations in the river. The building also pumps water back into the river that is up to 35 degrees hotter.

Advocates say the Chicago River is healthier now than it has been the past 150 years. It is home to all kinds of animals, including migratory birds, beavers and turtles, as well as 80 species of fish — up from fewer than 10 in the 1970s. The system has become a natural resource for local businesses and recreation.

Count on Trump to do the opposite of all that.

A Tribune investigation in 2018 found that none of the other buildings holding cooling intake permits — nearly a dozen high-rises along the river — had similarly violated applicable rules. Most other downtown buildings, including many on the river, rely on different methods to keep cool, such as cooling towers connected to the public water system or an underground network of pipes that deliver chilled water from a handful of “ice batteries.”

But not Trump. Trump is a maverick. Trump does whatever Trump wants. Trump is a gleaming bronze symbol of doing whatever the fuck he wants all the time no matter what.

How Trump got sidetracked:

Donald Trump wanted to spend this week attacking one of Democratic rival Kamala Harris’ biggest political vulnerabilities. Instead, he spent most of the week falsely claiming that migrants are eating pets in a small town in Ohio and defending his embrace of a far-right agitator whose presence is causing concern among his allies.

Trump’s repeated parroting of unfounded social media rumors about Haitian migrants in Ohio eating pets stole headlines during a trip West, including stops in Arizona and Nevada, late this week. The promotion of the claims overshadowed a series of speeches aimed at the economy and blaming Harris for border security failures.

Well, you can see why though. Which is more fun, the economy or personalities? Exactly.

Trump, in a news conference in California on Friday, promised “large deportations” from Springfield, Ohio — the town that has become a political flashpoint as Republicans, including Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, spread false claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets.

The city of Springfield notes on its website that approximately 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants live in Clark County, and that Haitian immigrants are there legally as part of a parole program that allows citizens and lawful residents to apply to have their family members from Haiti come to the United States.

With or without pets.

He also pointed to a Venezuelan gang in Aurora, Colorado. Continuing to use dehumanizing language to describe undocumented immigrants, Trump said “nests of bad people” are being emptied into the United States. “It’s like an invasion from within and we’re going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country. And we’re going to start with Springfield and Aurora.”

“The people of Ohio are scared,” he said. “It’s going to get worse. It’s going to get so bad. You know what we’re experiencing now is they’re just getting settled in.”

Trump reiterated the same themes later Friday at a rally in Las Vegas. “We are under invasion just like it was an army, except in many ways it’s more difficult because they don’t wear a uniform, you don’t know who the hell to go after,” he said.

To go after. He’s such a lovely lovely man.

About those naughty immigrants in Springfield, Ohio…

In addition to Tuesday’s debate, Trump held a news conference Friday in which he rambled without evidence about how Haitians had descended on Springfield “and destroyed the place”.

When Haitian immigrants began trickling into Springfield to work in local produce packaging and machining factories in 2017, some thought the new residents could help the city regain its former vigor as a once-thriving manufacturing hub. Once home to major agricultural machinery companies in the mid-20th century, Springfield has lost a quarter of its population since the 1960s.

That helps explain how they were able to find places to live: there must have been a fair amount of vacant housing.

“They came to us for one reason: they were looking for ways to find out how to work,” Casey Rollins, executive director of the St Vincent de Paul Society’s Springfield chapter, said of those who came to the Ohio city from Haiti.

“So we got together immigration lawyers and interpreters to figure out how to help them work. We are getting them online and getting them to apply [for work permits]. We wanted workers here [in Springfield] – they want to work.”

It’s the Rust Belt. It’s been losing people and jobs for decades. Some places, I think it’s safe to assume, are more short on housing and some are more short on jobs, while some are short on both.

Haitians and immigrants from Central American countries have been in high demand at Springfield’s Dole Fresh Vegetables – where they’ve been hired to clean and package produce – and at automotive machining plants whose owners were desperate for workers due to a labor shortage in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Labor shortage. Immigrants in high demand. Trump’s vicious questions answered.

New Caribbean restaurants and food trucks have opened across south Springfield where once abandoned neighborhoods are now bustling with residents. A popular Haitian radio station has been broadcasting for several years. And every May, thousands turn out for Haitian Flag Day that’s celebrated at a local park.

And the phrase “abandoned neighborhoods” is not some journalistic fantasy – it’s a thing that happens, and it’s bad. Detroit, for instance, is just plain rotting away in some nabes.

But there’s a but.

But the glut of new arrivals has also stretched hospitals and schools in the area, angering many locals who resented their presence. The outrage reached a crescendo last August, when an 11-year-old boy was thrown from a school bus and killed after its driver swerved to avoid an oncoming car driven by a Haitian immigrant who didn’t have an Ohio driver’s license.

The child’s death fueled anger and racism on Facebook and at Springfield city commission meetings, where public comments about immigration have often run for more than an hour. Locals upset by the growing immigrant community wondered if they were being taken over – if Springfield had become ground zero for the baseless “great replacement theory”.

Soon, rightwing extremists seized on Springfield’s unrest.

Aaand we’re off to the races.