I went for an explore this afternoon, and on the way home I experienced the following:

• On the return leg of the trip I transferred to a different bus downtown, and as it arrived and I made for it there was a woman lying on the sidewalk seizing. People were approaching her so I didn’t stop, and anyway there’s always a heavy police presence in the area because it’s an open air drug den. A block away is the McDonalds where there was a mass shooting a few years ago.
• I sat on the first front-facing seat and a woman sat in front of me in the side-facing seat. She had a paper bag from which she took some fired

They’re not taking it lying down.

We are astonished that @Eventbrite has cancelled our book launch for @K_IngalaSmith's Defending Women's Spaces due to take place on 24 Nov with @bindelj, unbelievably citing violation of their policy on Hateful, Dangerous, or Violent Content! #DefendingWomensSpaces pic.twitter.com/vASyDNXJ7j

— Woman’s Place UK (@Womans_Place_UK) November 16, 2022

All donations (including fees) have been refunded to donors by Eventbrite. Anyone who wishes to donate to @Womans_Place_UK can do so directly here -> https://t.co/v3X9UO70zE #DefendingWomensSpaces

— Woman’s Place UK (@Womans_Place_UK) November 16, 2022

You can also pre-order a copy for yourself here #DefendingWomensSpaces https://t.co/3ITh1pkkkK

— Woman’s Place UK (@Womans_Place_UK) November 16, 2022

… Read the rest

Anthony Zurcher at the Beeb tells us some ways Trump won’t find it such a doddle this time. There’s all the legal jeopardy for instance.

The former president is currently defending himself against a criminal election-tampering inquiry in Georgia, a civil fraud case targeting his business empire in New York, a defamation lawsuit involving a sexual assault allegation, and federal probes into his role in the Capitol attack and his post-presidential handling of classified material.

That’s five separate items. Bit of a drawback in a chief exec, maybe.

Also Ron DeSantis, unfortunately, is not Jeb Bush.

Above all…they don’t love him any more.

According to exit polls from the recently concluded midterm elections, Mr Trump is simply not very

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Stripes.

It makes one wonder how many other officials and officers with the Scottish government feel it is incumbent upon them to police women in this way. How much of the machinery of government has been reprogrammed to automatically, unquestioningly defend the gender virus that has invaded it? Some Americans are concerned with courts “legislating from the bench.” Well in Scotland, they’ve skipped all that; trans-activism’s extra-legal infiltration has reached down to the committee level, so we have “legislation from the security guard.” How much of this shit has gone on that we don’t know about, that has not been commented upon publicly? If they get away with it, it … Read the rest

There are no women – women don’t exist – it’s all been a misunderstanding. There are people, and there are men, and there are trans women – but there are no women.

The word “woman” could be erased from specialist NHS clinics dealing with female health issues under proposed new transgender inclusivity rules.

That should improve health care for women (for what?) out of all recognition.

A report proposing new NHS treatment guidelines in Scotland suggests “a general move away from gendered healthcare” and warns that trans people are put off attending services if they are targeted at a certain sex.

Are women put off if services are not targeted at a specific sex? Could such a policy mislead … Read the rest

Here we go again.

An event later this month:

https://t.co/lsE1OFfxkx https://t.co/lsE1OFfxkx

— Woman’s Place UK (@Womans_Place_UK) November 14, 2022

But wait. Before you pencil it in on your calendar –

@bindelj

— Anya Palmer (@anyabike) November 16, 2022

This book launch has just been cancelled by Eventbright because it goes against their 'community standards' or some such bollox. I hope they don't think they are going to get away with it?https://t.co/pqX6bpqJyB

— Julie Bindel (@bindelj) November 16, 2022

What do I find when I click on the event?

The wonders of social media:

Andrew Tate says women belong in the home, can’t drive, and are a man’s property.

He also thinks rape victims must “bear responsibility” for their attacks and dates women aged 18–19 because he can “make an imprint” on them, according to videos posted online.

In other clips, the British-American kickboxer – who poses with fast cars, guns and portrays himself as a cigar-smoking playboy – talks about hitting and choking women, trashing their belongings and stopping them from going out.

“It’s bang out the machete, boom in her face and grip her by the neck. Shut up bitch,” he says in one video, acting out how he’d attack a woman if she accused him

Has Trump started to bore even The Base?

In the least surprising news of the year, a low-energy Donald Trump announced that he is running for president again last night. The speech itself was also predictable, hitting the traditional authoritarian and nativist favorites. We heard about the “invasion” at the border and “radical Democrats” in the White House, all spiced up with the usual combination of self-complimenting anecdotes and self-serving lies that we have come to expect from the former president.

In other words we’ve seen this movie before. Seeing as how it’s not exactly Casablanca or Doctor Strangelove, we’re not particularly excited about seeing it again.

What was much more interesting was the almost complete absence of prominent Republicans

Martina has a finely honed sense of humor.

All true… ROFLMAO pic.twitter.com/2tLSs3Ipp9

— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) November 16, 2022

The photo is courtesy of Princess Ivanka’s Instagram, and there’s widespread hilarity at the fact that she cropped out Junior’s Fox News Lady who was on Princess’s left wearing black.

But the family values joke is interesting as well as funny. It’s sort of a family photo from King Don’s harem. Having them pose together is…odd, isn’t it? I don’t get out much so I don’t really know, but is it usual for wedding photos to have that harem vibe? Is it usual to put the current sex toy in the photo along with the previous one? If Ivana hadn’t fallen … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Screechy Monkey on For months.

It’s possible that the GOP is in a bit of a box here — Trump is popular enough with their base that they can’t afford to abandon him (and couldn’t if they wanted to), but toxic enough with everyone else that he screws up their chances of winning elections.

I mean, really, what’s the argument for Trump’s appeal to the general electorate, as opposed to Republican primary voters? It seems to boil down to:

1. He eked out an Electoral College victory in 2016.

2. He didn’t get utterly blown out in 2020.

But (1) isn’t really that impressive an accomplishment. It’s actually pretty rare for a party to win … Read the rest

The Beeb reports on the suffragette scarf exclusion zone:

The Scottish Parliament’s presiding officer has apologised after a woman was ejected from a committee meeting for refusing to remove a scarf in suffragette colours.

The woman was asked to leave a session of the equalities committee, which was discussing proposed reforms to Scotland’s gender recognition laws.

Sorry sorry sorry it was all a mistake. We haven’t yet made it illegal to mention the suffrage campaign.

The colours have been associated with the suffragette movement, which campaigned for women to be given the right to vote in the early 20th century. More recently, they have also become associated with those opposed to changes to gender recognition laws.

You mean those … Read the rest

Via chainring, more bullying nonsense from the gruesome narcissist Sandy O’Sullivan:

An Australian professor recently said that he ‘misgenders’ students when they choose not to use a preferred pronoun in class. 

There’s no such thing as a “preferred pronoun,” in class or anywhere else. It’s an idiotic concept. People can’t swap sex, and issuing commands on “preferred pronouns” isn’t going to change that. People can pretend to swap sex in some circumstances, mostly personal and private, but they can’t force anyone else to play along. They don’t get to change the language for everyone to humor their stupid childish insistence on playing let’s pretend 24/7 in all company.

“I do suggest if you’re teaching online, you ask students

Originally a comment by latsot on Poking with a stick.

“Y’all” is very often used, at least by gender identity ideologues, for the purposes of reverse no-true-Scotsmaning.

It’s used to imply that a large group of people hold some ludicrous caricature of an already crazy view, then as an increasing number of counter-examples are presented, the target of the y’all switches to smaller and smaller groups, right down to some girl who goes to a different school, who you wouldn’t know.

It’s both more socially acceptable and more slippery by nature than “you people” because of implausible deniability (“oh, I didn’t mean all feminists are in favour of eating babies, how could you possibly have thought that?”) and because … Read the rest

Trump skipping:

The special US House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack is weighing whether to issue a contempt of Congress referral for Donald Trump after the former president skipped a closed-door deposition with the panel that was scheduled for Monday.

He didn’t “skip” it. He flouted it, he snapped his fingers at it, he pissed on it.

The committee’s Democratic chair, Bennie Thompson, said that the contempt of Congress referral targeting Trump “could be an option” – though the Mississippi congressman added that the panel would have to first address a lawsuit filed against it by Trump’s lawyers on Friday. The suit challenged the subpoena ordering Trump to appear at the deposition as a violation of executive

Some Republicans worry that maybe possibly Trump has some bad qualities. This is the first they’ve heard of it and they’re concerned.

The Republicans’ failure to deliver the must promised “red wave” in the midterms was a significant blow to Trump’s claim to be the voice of his party’s voters, not least because of the defeat of key candidates endorsed by him. But backing from the grass roots, which gave him a tight grip on the Republicans for years and kept its hostile leadership at bay, has been eroding for months.

Months. Not years, months. Up until a few months ago he was a reasonable compassionate intelligent guy, then suddenly something went wrong.

Republican county chairs and activists say

A Labour MP.

More of this kind of thing please.

Dictating our clothing, removing us from the public sphere and our resistance to such diktat has a long history in the women’s movement. Still shocking in 2022. https://t.co/Ir7x4emwuQ

— Karin Smyth MP (@karinsmyth) November 15, 2022

… Read the rest

Soz about the purple green and white scarf:

The presiding officer of the Scottish parliament has been forced to clarify that suffragette colours “are not, and never have been” banned on the Holyrood estate after a woman wearing a purple, green and white scarf was removed from a meeting of the equalities committee.

It’s scarves that have been banned on the Holyrood estate. Yes?

Alison Johnstone – the Holyrood equivalent of the Commons speaker – issued a statement later in the day describing the action by security staff on Tuesday morning as “an error” and apologising on behalf of the Scottish parliament.

The member of the public, who was observing a discussion of amendments to the Scottish government’s controversial

The Glorious Cause.

What’s the rallying cry?

“FUCK YOU BITCH” over and over and over.

Who would like to identify this man calling women fighting for their sex-based rights “bitches.” It’s almost like this is a men’s rights movement. @StandingforXX #LetWomenSpeakUSA #LetWomenSpeak #WomenWontWeesht pic.twitter.com/Cr9a9mxteT

— Fadical Nemesist (@CruelRider) November 14, 2022

… Read the rest

Monster egotist promises to continue monster egotistical plans. Now there’s a surprise.

Donald Trump is expected to announce his 2024 presidential campaign on Tuesday night as planned, according to multiple sources close to the former US president, inserting himself into the center of national politics as he attempts to box out potential rivals seeking the Republican nomination.

Of course he is. He’s bored.

Trump’s remarks were being finalized late into the night with a pair of speechwriters and his political team, the sources said, with aides keen for the former president to convey a degree of seriousness as he seeks voters to elevate him to a second term in the White House

You mean a degree of sounding like … Read the rest

Ah yes, so very progressive.

Topless transgender activists argue with and threaten rally goers

“Ima beat your ass .. these hands do not discriminate” pic.twitter.com/F48jBBdEtS

— Timcast News (@TimcastNews) November 14, 2022

That’s “Ima beat yo’ ass, bitch.” From a very very very white guy.… Read the rest