How does that work?

A transgender actress has pulled out of a new play in protest after a cisgender actor was cast as a trans character.

Kate O’Donnell was set to appear in a new stage musical adaptation of Patrick McCabe’s novel Breakfast on Pluto.

O’Donnell was due to play the mother of the main character, Patrick/Pussy Braden, but withdrew after that role was given to Irish actor Fra Fee.

The producers said they tried to find a trans performer for the role. O’Donnell said they didn’t try hard enough.

But…O’Donnell was supposed to play a character who’s not trans, right?

O’Donnell was due to have played Ma Braden, who is not a trans character.

So…it’s ok for a man … Read the rest

Matt Gaetz may have passed COVID-19 on to Trump, and now this:

Health minister and Conservative MP Nadine Dorries says she has tested positive for coronavirus.

Ms Dorries said in a statement she took “all the advised precautions” as soon as she was informed of her diagnosis.

She added: “Public Health England has started detailed contact tracing and the department and my parliamentary office are closely following their advice.”

I won’t say it. It wouldn’t be appropriate.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug on Uh oh, there’s a range of views here.

I strongly suspect that cognitive dissonance is a big part of the explanation as well. I’m sure we’re all familiar with the pyramid metaphor from Mistakes were made (but not by me) by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson, but anyway, imagine two people standing right next to each other on the top of a big pyramid and trying to decide which way to go down. At this stage no option may appear obviously better than any other, and neither of our two testpersons may feel all that confident about the way to proceed. Even if they eventually end up picking opposite routes, it … Read the rest

Even the National Review can see this one.

So far in this crisis, Donald Trump himself has obviously failed to rise to the challenge of leadership, and it does no one any favors to pretend otherwise…

The failures of leadership at the top, however, show no sign of being corrected. In a serious public-health crisis, the public has the right to expect the government’s chief executive to lead in a number of crucial ways: by prioritizing the problem properly, by deferring to subject-matter experts when appropriate while making key decisions in informed and sensible ways, by providing honest and careful information to the country, by calming fears and setting expectations, and by addressing mistakes and setbacks.

Trump so far

One of the London Bi Pandas wrote a blog post about last night’s heroic women-bullying escapade:

Yesterday, we held a peaceful rally protesting and picketing an event held by Labour Women’s Declaration.

It wasn’t peaceful, but leaving that aside – they held a rally to protest and picket women having a meeting. They did that, and they find it so normal that they announce it as if it were going to the shop for some Heinz tinned beans. I guess we’re not supposed to meet and talk at all.

The event’s purpose was to force the Labour Party into enforcing “sex-based rights” and “challenge extremist gender ideology and say that sex matters”. The event hosted speakers from the Anti-Trans

Apparently a group called London Bi Pandas organized the smoke-bomb “protest” last night, or at least they participated in it and are now talking about it as their project.

We need to hold our hands up and apologise for the smoke bombs in our protest. We realised too late the insensitivity of using them in close proximity to Grenfell.

— London Bi Pandas (@LondonBiPandas) March 10, 2020

What is this “no TERFs on our turf” supposed to mean, anyway? How is it “their turf”? Is the whole world their “turf” that we pesky women are trespassing on? How about no egomaniacal bullies on women’s “turf”? That seems closer to fair.

The “apology” for the smoke bombs impressed no one.

So

Trump is doing a best of both worlds thing on the virus – telling us to relax and ignore all the warnings and instructions, while telling the Secret Service to keep the sickies away from him.

Stories about Trump’s coronavirus fears have spread through the White House. Last week Trump told aides he’s afraid journalists will try to purposefully contract coronavirus to give it to him on Air Force One, a person close to the administration told me. The source also said Trump has asked the Secret Service to set up a screening program and bar anyone who has a cough from the White House grounds. “He’s definitely melting down over this,” the source said.

But thus far Trump’s private

Sometimes they do take my breath away. This is one of those times. The Miami Herald reports:

Immigration court staff nationwide were ordered by the Trump administration to take down all coronavirus posters from courtrooms and waiting areas.

The Executive Office for Immigration Review, which falls under the Department of Justice, told all judges and staff members in an email Monday that all coronavirus posters, which explain in English and Spanish how to prevent catching and spreading the virus, had to be removed immediately.

So that immigrants will have a better shot at catching the virus, I guess. Which is breathtaking even for them.

“This is just a reminder that immigration judges do not have the authority to post,

That “protest” outside the women’s meeting last night was even more vile than the contemporaneous tweets indicated.

Oh look (closely) A protester at a meeting of LP members last night discussing women's rights. Trans activists yelling at women "we dont care about your disgusting genitals". Letting off smoke bombs in the shadow of Grenfell. Silence from @lisanandy @AngelaRayner @RLong_Bailey pic.twitter.com/ALyAEUv5BW

— Ruth Serwotka (@ruthserwotka) March 10, 2020

It takes a little effort to puzzle out the image. It’s a guy in a hoody with a mask over his face, with a zipper where his mouth would be, and a pink-wrapped phallus.

The leather mask worn by Cook had a zipper where his mouth was – look at the mask worn

More on the smoke bombers near Grenfell Tower trying to bully women out of speaking for women’s rights.

There is now smoke outside… Can smell it in here. We are next door to grenfell and those fucking narcissistic wankers are letting off smoke bombs. #ExpelMe

— charlotte Delaney (@charmalotta) March 9, 2020

Trans activist have just let off smoke bombs outside Grenfell Tower

Utterly disgraceful

When confronted by a local residence about how disrespectful they were being to the community, an activist shouted “we don’t give a f**k”

Yet the @UKLabour says we are the hateful ones

— luluchops (@luluchops1) March 9, 2020

We're meeting within yards of #GrenfellTower and the man's rights mafia bullies outside have just set

I haven’t found any non-Twitter reporting on this yet. I hope there will be some.

The trans rights protestors outside the @LabWomenDec rally have let off smoke bombs. @jonronson this pathetic action took place not 200 yards from #GrenfellTower. Tell me again how women are just as bad when seeking to discuss issues. @UKLabour will you condemn this? #ExpelMe

— Ediebelle (@IvanaOpinion) March 9, 2020

abuse from the protesters, had their photos taken by them & were generally subjected to intimidating behaviour. At the end of the meeting they set off smoke bombs right outside. The meeting was close to the Grenfell Tower site. The last speaker was @luluchops1 – 2/

— Rachel Corry (@rjcorry) March 9, 2020

Smoke … Read the rest

Wait wait wait hold the phone.

So Trump is going to have to be quarantined?

Thoughts and prayers, people, thoughts and prayers.… Read the rest

It’s the turn of the NY Times to run a think piece by a trans woman full of empty slogans and bereft of argument.

A contentious row began last month, when the Labour Campaign for Trans Rights announced itself with 12 pledges, which ranged from recognizing trans people’s oppression — at risk of hate crime and denied equal access to public services, health care, housing and employment — to supporting the expulsion of members who express transphobic views.

Some people had the gall to object, especially to the threat to expel members who commit a crime with no definition or examples offered.

To many, the sight of a center-left party failing to support trans rights without equivocation must be

Laurie Penny is at it again.

The question is not ‘are trans women women?’
The question is ‘are trans women people?’
Do you believe that trans people are human beings, people like who deserve safety, dignity and protection from violence just like anyone else? Or are trans lives an abstract concept to you?

— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 8, 2020

Will you look at that. ” The question is ‘are trans women people?’” No it isn’t! Nobody says trans women are not people. Skeptics of trans dogma say trans women are men, and correct me if I’m wrong but I’m pretty sure men count as people.

Laurie, this is a ridiculous question. Of course we all (apart from total scumbag

Originally a comment by Tim Harris on The patriarchy that oppresses us all.

I refuse to be defined by MY biology. That’s what more than a century of feminism has been fighting for.I will be defined by MY values, MY ambitions, the company I keep, the work I do, the mistakes I make, the entertainment I enjoy and the people who love me.

At least she appears to admit she has a ‘biology’, though she appears to prefer to be without it. One notices that it is first of all by ‘MY values, MY ambitions’ that she would be defined, and then by a few things that ‘I’ do or enjoy, and in last place by ‘the people who … Read the rest

David Remnick on the horror of having Trump in charge during a potential epidemic:

Donald Trump is incapable of truth, heedless of science, and hostage to the demands of his insatiable ego.

Recall, since the start of the coronavirus crisis, the litany of bogus assurances, “hunches,” misinformation, magical thinking, drive-by political shootings, and self-stroking:

“We have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”

“By April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.”

“The Obama Administration made a decision on testing that turned out to be detrimental to what we’re doing . . . ”

“We’re going very substantially down, not up. . . . We have it so well under control.

What is wrong with these people?

As Congress worked to pass an $8.3 billion emergency funding to address the mounting coronavirus outbreak on Wednesday, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida wore a large gas mask on the House floor.

Gaetz posted an image of himself wearing the mask on Twitter Wednesday, later tweeting that he had ultimately decided to back the funding bill, but “didn’t feel good” about its cost.

Reviewing the coronavirus supplemental appropriation and preparing to go vote. pic.twitter.com/wjJ4YY4VZz

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) March 4, 2020

Hurr hurr. Nothing funnier than a disease outbreak that kills people.

Just two days later, Florida announced that two people had died after contracting the virus, including one of Gaetz’s own