Morgane Oger continues to peak trans anyone who is paying attention.

The Cost Of Prejudice:

Vancouver Rape Relief would need 9000 donors giving $10 per month each to replace their $1.1 million annual income that relies on govt contracts and a charitable status – both incompatible with discrimination against women on any basis whatsoever.

— Morgane Oger M.S.M. (@MorganeOgerBC) March 18, 2019

The replies are universally hostile.

Wait, not quite, one trans woman is on Team Oger.

Are there any inclusive organizations in the area that this funding might be better suited for? This seems like a great opportunity for a more inclusive service provider to grow and become the primary care center in Vancouver.

— Julie Rei Goldstein (@JulieRei)

This one in particular…

The Fake News Media is working overtime to blame me for the horrible attack in New Zealand. They will have to work very hard to prove that one. So Ridiculous!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2019

What a filthy human being he is. He couldn’t possibly care less, could he. All he cares about is what people say about him.

It’s not ridiculous. Race hatred is race hatred; xenophobia is xenophobia. Trump holds frequent rallies at which he spews both at a screaming audience, and that stuff is not inert. Trump absolutely is encouraging and fostering racist xenophobic rage, and that has effects. That doesn’t make the Christchurch slaughter all his fault, of course, … Read the rest

Oh my I bet Trump is really jealous of Volodya now.

This week, Russian lawmakers advanced a package of new legislation aimed at curtailing internet freedom. Among the laws awaiting the president’s eventual signature is a measure that would allow authorities to jail individuals for insulting government officials online.

Yeah. That’s what Trump would like to see.

Russia is not China, and the country still has a relatively boisterous online culture. But the proposed laws would widen the definition of restricted speech, calling for penalties of up to 15 days in administrative detention for those found guilty of posting information that shows “disrespect for society, the state, (and) state symbols of the Russian Federation,” — including, presumably,

The UN Women’s Conference is on.

The Trump administration is lining up with less liberal nations such as Saudi Arabia and Malaysia at a major United Nations conference on women this month to roll back international consensus on climate change and migration, while seeking to prevent the expansion of rights for girls, women, and LGBT people.

…

The U.N. women’s conference, focused on empowering women and girls through social protection programs and promoting access to public services, runs from March 11 to March 22. Negotiations on the final outcome document are expected to resume on Thursday.

The U.S. delegation, which includes anti-abortion conservatives in line with the Trump administration’s broad policy stances, is seeking to weaken international support for

Mostly Science on Facebook:

32,000 yrs ago an Arctic ground squirrel cached some fruit in its burrow, which was later sealed by sediment & frozen.

In the 2000s scientists unearthed the fruit & cultivated its tissue. It grew into this: a Pleistocene ancestor of the narrow-leafed campion (Silene stenophylla)

Wow. Thirty two thousand years ago. Pretty damn amazing.

Some of the excavated squirrel burrows contained hundreds of thousands of ancient fruit & seeds. All that genetic information the ungerminated generations, the apparitions of Ice Age Earth frozen in time & place, preserving the possibility of resurrection.

H/t Vanina… Read the rest

Representative Steve King is such a jokester.

Rep. Steve King of Iowa posted a meme on Saturday to an official Facebook account that seemed to revel in the idea of people in more conservative states killing those in more liberal states in an armed conflict.

“Folks keep talking about another civil war,” the meme said. “One side has about 8 trillion bullets, while the other side doesn’t know which bathroom to use.”

King captioned the image with a smirking emoji. “Wonder who would win….” he wrote.

Hurr hurr. So funny. The last civil war was hilarious too – killed 620,000 people.

He deleted it but of course there are screenshots.

Just an elected official joking on his verified Facebook

George Conway makes a point.

Don’t assume that the things he says and does are part of a rational plan or strategy, because they seldom are. Consider them as a product of his pathologies, and they make perfect sense. https://t.co/k9rAK3tGFT

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) March 18, 2019

I always do. Not that I can brag about it; he’s nothing if not obvious. The Twitter blurts are so nuts they can’t possibly be part of a rational strategy.

pic.twitter.com/sDGW8nrEft

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) March 18, 2019

Ah, okay, we’re going there.

pic.twitter.com/k40Z2oJR2P

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) March 18, 2019

1, check, 2, check, 3, check, 4, check, 5, check, 6, check.

pic.twitter.com/54ffIL0zcg

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) March 18, 2019

1 through … Read the rest

Chris Cillizza at CNN is also amazed at Trump’s prolific crazy on Twitter yesterday.

He summarizes:

1. The Federal Communications Commission or Federal Election Commission should investigate whether “Saturday Night Live” and late-night talk shows are in collusion with Democrats and/or Russia because they attack him so consistently.

3. Urged Fox News Channel to reinstate host Jeanine Pirro after she was suspended for questioning the patriotism of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who is Muslim.

4. Urged FNC to stand up for host Tucker Carlson, who has seen some advertisers pull out of his show following the release of a series of caustic and offensive remarks he made on a radio show between 2006 and 2011.

6. Attacked

On and on it goes.

https://twitter.com/SurvivorsnetBtn/status/1106539921060319234

Survivors’ Network Brighton used to be a feminist organization, for women – until they woke. Their what we stand for page hasn’t bothered to acknowledge the contradiction:

Feminism

We live in a patriarchal society and believe that sexual violence should be challenged from a feminist perspective. Because sexual violence is a gendered crime, we are a women-led organisation committed to offering women-only spaces and services. However, we recognise that sexual violence impacts on people of all genders in unique ways and work to build our services accordingly. We consider a trans inclusive feminism to be key to our values and central to our service. We consider the lack of services and funding for people

Roy Greenslade reports on Iran’s persecution of journalists who work for the BBC:

Too little attention has been paid to an insidious long-run campaign of persecution by the Iranian authorities against the staff of the BBC Persian service. It is marked by cowardice and a lack of humanity.

Concerned at the lack of publicity about the situation, the BBC recently staged a special press conference chaired by its world affairs editor, John Simpson. It highlighted what its lawyers regard as “an unprecedented collective targeting and punishment of journalists”. Result? Few, if any, headlines in mainstream media.

Doubtless that failure to heed what Simpson called Iran’s “contemptible behaviour” did not go unnoticed by the tyrants in Tehran. So, they will

Kellyanne Conway says journalists should shut up and pray.

Kellyanne Conway has a message for media covering last week’s New Zealand mosque shootings: dial back the scope of coverage.

During a Fox News appearance on Saturday, the White House counselor chided reporters for what she said she viewed as a politicization of the Christchurch massacre in which at least 50 people were killed by an alleged attacker who appears to have shared a manifesto online about his hatred for Muslim immigrants.

“They insert themselves ― ‘I must speak! I must say something!’” she said of journalists. “No, you don’t. You can actually shut up and pray for people and wait for the authorities to make their judgments.”

She says, … Read the rest

Of course she did.

If we are now equating possession of natal vagina to being lesbian then there's a deep irony there.

— Priyamvada Gopal (@PriyamvadaGopal) July 7, 2018

… Read the rest

Vancouver Rape Relief has a statement on the city council’s defunding:

1. On March 14, 2019, at the end of a flawed and unfair process, Vancouver City Council voted to terminate the yearly grant given to us in support of our public education work.

2. Vancouver City Council’s decision is intended to coerce us to change our position and practice of offering some of our core services only to women who are born female. Our organization’s status as an equality-seeking group and our entitlement to serve women who are born female was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court of British Columbia in 2003, by the British Columbia Court of Appeal in 2005 and by the Supreme Court of Canada in

But free speech, choice, choosing, freedom, liberty, choice!

From the Guardian:

McDonald’s has been accused of launching a “grotesque marketing strategy” that endangers public health by encouraging customers to eat more fast food in exchange for prizes such as fries, desserts and fizzy drinks.

Tom Watson, the shadow culture, media and sport secretary, has urged the company to ditch its Monopoly at McDonald’s promotion in light of the childhood obesity crisis in the UK, branding the competition “a danger to public health”. His demand comes as the government tries to tackle childhood obesity with a plan to reduce the amount of advertising for foods high in fat, sugar and salt seen by children. Options being examined include a

The SPLC has booted Morris Dees.

The center, which is based in Montgomery, gave no clear indication as to why it had let Mr. Dees go, but the president of the group, Richard Cohen, said in a statement that “a comprehensive assessment of our internal climate and workplace practices” was imminent, suggesting the dismissal was tied to conflict among the staff.

On Thursday, the same day the S.P.L.C. announced that Mr. Dees had been fired, employees sent a letter to the center’s leaders citing claims of mistreatment of staff, sexual harassment, gender discrimination and racism.

So that sounds as if the two were coordinated, with the letter being documentation of the reasons.

The letter, cited in the Los Angeles