Not actually new; just tweaking the date.

Time for a new one.

An item or two I want to look into further.

https://twitter.com/Susan_Hennessey/status/1064565119101865989

https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1064556378054905856

We have never in American history seen an administration with such contempt for the Constitution, from Trump's launch with blatant violations like emoluments & the first Muslim Ban, to this continuing assault on @acosta & @cnn — and so the First Amendment. https://t.co/7TNdfpVirH

— Norm Eisen (@NormEisen) November 19, 2018

Okay four. We live in interesting times.… Read the rest

Ladies-only public pool in London made fully accessible to trans women. A GOOD MOVE. https://t.co/4HHkALmsrV

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) May 28, 2019

A GOOD MOVE, shouts Peter Tatchell about a move that takes a women-only pool away from women, because Peter Tatchell doesn’t think women should have any right to get away from men in public places.

OH OK, IF YOU PUT IT IN CAPS I SUPPOSE YOU MUST BE RIGHT. (Phew! Dunno what just happened to my brain there, I saw the caps and I just found myself agreeing robotically).

— Kathleen Stock (@Docstockk) May 28, 2019

Peter, this is so sad. Do you not see that women's rights to protection on the basis of their sex is important?

Huh. Jon Ronson’s squalid betrayal of Graham Linehan to the trans army yesterday wasn’t his first rodeo.

In case you were in any doubt about Jon ronson here he is yucking it up with transphobes underneath the women's march defending inclusivity pic.twitter.com/YUjXZgRis9

— ACAB Rees-Mogg (@jelly_pack) January 21, 2019

“yucking it up with transphobes”=joking with Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman. How very dare he. He must have told “@jelly_pack” to fuck off, right?

Uh – I am not transphobic and the only stuff I have ever written about trans people has been extremely positive, like this: https://t.co/MhpThlbX2G

— jon ronson (@jonronson) January 21, 2019

Hadley who? Never heard of her.

Another Twitter cop wasn’t going to let him get away with … Read the rest

Brief philosophy.

#letuspee pic.twitter.com/lFvkXuzsCf

— Dr. Rachel McKinnon (@rachelvmckinnon) May 27, 2019

Remember, McKinnon teaches philosophy.

What does the poster communicate? “A person of a type claimed to be a potential threat was here at this toilet and nothing bad happened.” What does McKinnon want us to think it communicates? “A person of a type claimed to be a potential threat was here at this toilet and nothing bad happened, therefore nothing bad ever will happen when any person of that type is at any toilet anywhere.” I think that makes the problem reasonably clear? You can’t get from “this one incident involving one person at one place” to “all incidents involving all similar people at all places.”

It’s the … Read the rest

None of the literal, physical, natal women were good enough. They never are, are they.

I think I can now announce that I have accepted the position of Director of Women's Studies at Rutgers University – Newark. Relatedly, we can finally answer the age-old question "how do I know when my transition is over?"

— Cat Fitzpatrick (@intermittentcat) May 21, 2019

… Read the rest

Remember that story about the private Facebook group of male students at Warwick University that featured a lot of rape threats (virtual rape threats, since they were confined to the private group) against fellow students of the female persuasion? The BBC has a new documentary on it.

Early last year, Anna, then 19, was sitting on the sofa in her student house when a stream of explicit messages began popping up on her friend’s laptop.

As more came through, she asked him what they were about, and he laughed.

“He said: ‘Well, if you think that’s bad you might want to see our lads’ chat’,” Anna says. “That’s when he took me through a year and a half’s worth

I can’t help it, it made me laugh. I tried to scowl but I couldn’t sustain it – his solemnity, his toddler-careful word-saying, his little across-the-abdomen gesture, his use of the word “happy” – I crumbled and laughed helplessly.

To anyone unsure if Donald Trump was the dumbest human being alive…

He just wished a Happy Memorial Day to the JAPANESE Military pic.twitter.com/u5AIoL0Y2t

— Danny Ocean (@The_UnSilent_) May 28, 2019

… Read the rest

One bit of good news though: UKIP did very badly in the elections and Tommy Robinson and (wait for it) yes Carl Benjamin got hosed.

Ukip candidate Carl Benjamin, also known as his YouTube name Sargon of Akkad, was also hit with milkshakes (and fish) on the campaign trail.

His policies were overshadowed by controversy over rape “jokes” he directed at Labour MP Jess Phillips, for which he refused to apologise.

Mr Benjamin appeared with right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, who has been condemned for his remarks on subjects including feminism, paedophilia, trans people, race and religion, and has called for journalists to be shot.

He failed to win a seat in South West England, where Ukip won just

Eleven people have died on Everest so far this year.

Mountaineers have suggested difficult weather conditions, a lack of experience and the growing commercialization of expeditions as contributing factors to the backlog.

British climber Robin Haynes Fisher was one of those who had warned of the dangers of overcrowding.

“With a single route to the summit, delays caused by overcrowding could prove fatal so I am hopeful my decision to go for the 25th will mean fewer people. Unless of course everyone else plays the same waiting game,” he wrote in a captioned Instagram post on May 19.

He’s one of the eleven; he died on the way down.

During the week beginning May 20, crowds of climbers became

What happens if the forced birth lunatics do prevail and Brett Kavanaugh & co do overturn Roe v Wade and all those state laws banning abortion become law?

None of the restrictions have gone into effect, either because of delays built into the legislation itself or legal challenges. If they do, they’ll spark an unintentional, vast experiment in public health. Already, states with the most restrictions on access to abortions are also those with the highest rates of maternal and infant mortality. The connection isn’t direct—abortion access can be a kind of proxy for access to all sorts of pre- and postnatal health care, not to mention correlating roughly with better-funded education systems, lower poverty rates, and tighter environmental regulation.

A ratchet in the stupid:

If you only ask someone’s pronouns if they ‘look trans’, you are expressing transphobia – EVERYONE looks transgender.

Tomorrow’s ratchet will be something about how transphobic it is to ask anyone’s pronouns.… Read the rest

Today’s blowup:

Apparently it’s ‘incendiary’ and ‘unpleasant’ to publicise the fact that males in women’s prisons commit sexual assault, and males in women’s sports dominate with the unfair advantage of male puberty. Thanks a bunch mate. Glad to know who our friends aren’t https://t.co/oY8mZnU4EG

— Helen Joyce (@HJJoyceEcon) May 27, 2019

What’s that? Jon Ronson? Surely not.

But yes.

Whether it's female people being excluded from sport or female people experiencing male violence, we're always told every single specific example is an "isolated story" hence it's unfair to subject it to the political analysis that might prevent it. Every single time. pic.twitter.com/AR4d4M1Yig

— Glosswitch (@glosswitch) May 27, 2019

… Read the rest

A tragic headline:

Mumbai: Protests held over suicide of Dr Payal Tadvi who killed self due to abuse from seniors

Abuse why? Caste.

Payal committed suicide due to alleged casteist abuse in a Mumbai hospital and demanded stringent action against the culprits here on Monday.

The Students Federation of India (SFI) and other student organisations staged vociferous protests against the recent suicide of a post-graduate woman medical student due to alleged casteist abuse in a Mumbai hospital and demanded stringent action against the culprits here on Monday.

“This is the first time in Maharashtra that any post-graduate medico has taken the extreme step of ending her life after alleged harassment on grounds of her caste background,” Maharashtra Association of Resident

Councillor Sarah Field at Leeds Civic Hall yesterday:

Our brilliant panel of academics will be speaking today about the Declaration of Sex Based Rights. But by way of introduction I am going to talk a little bit about Leeds and why I’m here.

So, I just want to start off by thanking the many women on the Mumsnet Feminism boards. You are a constant strength and inspiration.

About three years ago, not long after I was first elected, I was contacted by a woman in Leeds, for advice. Her six year old daughter had been verbally attacked and then subjected to a violent outburst by a 17 year old male who had been allowed to join a local girls group … Read the rest

The Biden speeches write themselves, don't they.

"I've never claimed to be a very stable genius. But I know enough not to trust Kim Jong Un to keep a promise – and if I ever meet him, I won't leave him smiling at me or anybody else"

— David Frum (@davidfrum) May 25, 2019

(Yes, I’m clearly going to be beating this to death today. It’s that astounding.)

It’s not just knowing enough not to trust Kim Jong Un to keep a promise – it’s another level of stupid even from that. It’s knowing enough not to be bounced into trusting Kim Jong Un because he flatters me.

How dumb and incompetent and undeveloped and practically fetus-level immature … Read the rest