Author: Ophelia Benson

  • Greetings comrades

    Sorry for the radio silence – something went awry with the mechanics and I didn’t want to pester the very kind webmaster during the week.

    Looks elegant now, doesn’t it!

    Ok so Trump. He has clearly gone from creeping dementia to very much speeded up dementia, i.e. he’s fallen off a cliff. He can’t talk clearly, and he can’t make sense when he talks. I’m now thinking he’ll make haste to drop all the nukes out of spite, because if he’s going to crash out so is everyone else.

    I’ll catch up tomorrow.

  • Get the guy to do it

    The Times reports:

    A female novelist has criticised the appointment of a trans woman to represent an endometriosis charity, comparing it to a white person claiming to speak for black people.

    Incomplete. It’s more comparable to a white person representing a sickle cell anemia charity, only more so, because men can never have endometriosis.

    Amanda Craig, who has published nine novels and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2021, spoke out after Steph Richards was named as the parliamentary engagement officer for Endometriosis South Coast.

    Endometriosis is a chronic and painful gynaecological condition in which cells similar to those in the lining of the uterus grow in other parts of the body. It affects one in ten women in the UK.

    And no men in the UK, because they don’t have the uterus to have a lining that can grow in other parts of the body.

    Rosie Duffield, a gender-critical independent MP, said she felt “uncomfortable” when invited to an event in parliament by Richards and described the appointment as “inappropriate”.

    She said: “I am really uncomfortable that of all of the tens of thousands of women affected, someone who is biologically male is coming to speak about this in parliament who can have no possible lived experience of this condition.

    “There are lots of women that would need this kind of support out there who would be able to talk about the lived experience in a much better way than someone who’s never menstruated in their life.

    “This is a senior spokesperson’s role, so it’s somebody speaking on behalf of an awful lot of sufferers and you can’t, in my opinion, do that if you can have no possible awareness of what women’s bodies go through.”

    And it makes no sense because there are plenty of women who could do that senior spokesperson’s role so why go out of your way to give the role to a man? What is even the point? Other than taunting women?

    Richards, who has a background in medical research, has previously characterised criticism of her job leading Endometriosis South Coast as “transphobic”.

    Fuck him. A decent man would be horrified to be asked and turn it down flat.

    In response to the fresh criticism of her position, Endometriosis South Coast insisted that it was “scientifically inaccurate” to suggest endometriosis was a condition that only affected women.

    A spokesperson for the charity said: “It affects people of all genders, including trans men, non-binary, and intersex individuals.”

    Oh come on. The issue is sex, not fantasy genders. It affects women, including women who claim to be trans men or non-binary.

    The spokesperson added: “She was appointed on the basis of her skills and commitment to advancing awareness of endometriosis at a policy level.

    “The ability to advocate meaningfully for a condition does not require personally having that condition; this standard is applied consistently across healthcare, policy, and the voluntary sector, and we apply it here, too.”

    It may not require it, but surely the calculated insult is too obvious to ignore.

  • Visit

    Solidarity.

    JD Vance will visit Hungary in early April ahead of what could be right-wing ​Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s toughest election since taking power ‌in a 2010 landslide, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Friday.

    Two sources familiar with the planning told Reuters on Wednesday that Vance was planning ​to visit Hungary in a show of support for ​Orban, who trails his centre-right challenger Peter Magyar ahead ⁠of an April 12 election based on most surveys.

    Gotta line up with all those right-wing tough guys.

    Orban, one of U.S. President Donald Trump’s closest allies ​in Europe, has ​long been ⁠at loggerheads with the EU over a range of issues, including Ukraine. Defying Brussels, he has ​maintained cordial ties with Moscow, refuses to ​send weapons ⁠to Ukraine, and says Kyiv can never join the European Union.

    Nice chap. How dare Ukraine be attacked by Moscow, and then even resist the attack. It’s outrageous. Invaders of the world unite.

  • Spree

    The Daily Beast on Trump’s casual declaration of war on half the country:

    President Donald Trump went on an unhinged early morning posting spree, declaring Democrats as enemies of the state and fantasizing about serving an illegal third term.

    The 79-year-old president posted and reshared 13 times on Sunday morning on his social media platform, Truth Social, 13 times from his Mar-a-Lago base. He implied that his next target after Iran was the Democratic Party in one post.

    “Now with the death of Iran, the greatest enemy America has is the Radical Left, Highly Incompetent, Democrat Party!” he wrote.

    He’s branded half the population enemies of the state.

    The commander-in-chief also reshared a post from a MAGA fan account suggesting he should serve a third term and amplifying stolen election conspiracies. Trump, 79, has repeatedly threatened to circumvent the 22nd Amendment, which sets presidential term limits to two terms.

    He’s not allowed to do that. He’s advertising his determination to be a lawless dictator. Not surprising, but necessary to underscore.

    H/t Dave Ricks

  • Slaves for eternity

    What’s wrong with this picture?

    “I’ve never seen a more materialistic and carnal religion.”

    There is that part, but there’s also the part that has “heaven” stocked with slaves.

    Slaves. In heaven. Come on now. Heaven means heaven – a magical place that’s magically good in every possible way. There is no suffering in heaven, no pain, no sorrow, no boredom, no fatigue, no prison, no punishment, no force, no oppression.

    So how can there possibly be slaves?

    They really haven’t thought this through.

  • Celebrating

    Another angry misogynist man steps up.

    Yeah right, we want men to stop taking our prizes and jobs and sports therefore we’re trying to genocide them.

    But also at our expense.

  • A splinter group

    Some people just won’t take no for an answer.

    The Girl Guides have become embroiled in infighting over a ban on boys who identify as girls.

    A splinter group has formed in an effort to force the organisation to reverse the trans ban, introduced last year following a Supreme Court ruling on the meaning of sex under equality law.

    But it’s Girl Guides. Because it’s Girl Guides, it should be girls, not girls and some boys. Just girls. That’s ok. That’s allowed.

    Calling itself Guiders Against Trans Exclusion (Gate), the group encourages Guide leaders to oppose the policy through activism, including writing to politicians and attending protests.

    It encourages members to show opposition to the ban by wearing the Guide’s promise badge upside down, changing profile pictures on social media to show support for trans allies, and wearing a trans pride necker scarf.

    But why should Guide leaders oppose the policy? Why can’t there be a Girl Guides?

    One Brownie leader, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “It’s an increasingly hostile environment. Communications from Girlguiding HQ seem to assume everyone is devastated by the rule change. I haven’t had a single parent ask me about it.

    “The online briefings after the policy change focused on how sorry they were and how they could continue to support trans girls. The idea that some parents or volunteers might welcome the change seems beyond them.”

    Bad theory of mind strikes again. “I think the right way, therefore everyone else must think the way I do, apart from a few warped people who are why we right-thinkers are having to fight them.”

    A social media video published by Thatcham Rangers, a Girlguiding group in Thatcham, in Berkshire, shows girls holding slogans such as “trans girls are girls” and “our story includes trans girls”, while the Girlguiding promise is read over the footage.

    In separate correspondence seen by The Telegraph, the group leader said she had been working with a local trans activist linked to a Pride organisation.

    Girls must be made to submit. No other outcome is acceptable.

    In the briefing video, organisers say they plan to “put pressure” on Girlguiding, MPs and other public bodies, and claim to have received support from organisations including the Scottish Green Party.

    Individuals linked to Gate are understood to be represented on a Girlguiding taskforce – a panel of 16 set up to explore how trans girls and women can be supported by the organisation. Newbury Pride is also understood to be represented on the panel, according to correspondence seen by The Telegraph.

    Girls must not be allowed to have anything just for girls. That would be treason. Female people are inferior, and most of them are sluts; they must be under discipline at all times.

  • No you’re not

    But if politicians did create more opportunities for women and girls in sports, men who pretend to be women would just steal those too.

    It’s like nailing an envelope with $10,000 in it to your front door so that nobody will break in. People who want to break in will just take the 10 k and then break down your front door.

    Also the ACLU is lying about the working to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity bit. The ACLU is doing the opposite of that. The ACLU is working to insure that girls and women won’t have an equal opportunity to compete and thrive.

  • Ugly man

    Now let’s think about all the innocent people Trump has hurt.

    My goodness, that’s hard to do, isn’t it! It would be much easier and faster to think about the few people Trump hasn’t hurt.

  • Tributes pour in

    Suzanne Moore on Jenni Murray:

    As the tributes pour in for this legendary broadcaster, let’s just say some are more fitting than others. I would love to see that expression that was hers alone as she peered over the top of her glasses at her interviewee. That look, both withering and bemused, could stop lesser mortals – however famous they were – in their tracks. That voice, deceptively soothing, was the voice of a woman who championed women’s rights for more than three decades. She spoke with the knowledge of someone who listened intently to the personal details of all kinds of women – and fought publicly for our political rights.

    Make no mistake, Dame Jenni was Woman’s Hour and she left after 33 years at its helm because the BBC would not let her discuss one of the issues of the day. “I was roundly ticked off publicly and informed that I would not be allowed to chair any discussions on the trans question or the proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act,” she wrote in the Daily Mail in 2020 of the BBC’s actions towards her. She’d left Woman’s Hour earlier that year.

    In the name of “impartiality”, the BBC chose not to stand by one of its most beloved journalists because she had written that women’s rights were based on biological sex.

    Very partial indeed, in more than one sense.

    Safeguarding children, single-sex spaces, women’s ability to define themselves: these were things that mattered to her and despite the many death threats and the loss of her beloved job she would not shut up.

    “And yet I am not prepared to stop talking about this. It’s an issue that needs to be discussed without anyone fearing losing their livelihood or their life.” Brava Jenni.

    Her defenestration was possibly meant to be an example to junior women at the BBC, an attempt at silencing. Woman’s Hour is now an unlistenable mishmash of awed, whispering presenters kowtowing to men. Last week, for instance, in a discussion about misogyny and the manosphere, a man who had not transitioned into “womanhood” until his sixties was interviewed as an expert on the subject. Impartiality? No, this is a closing down of exactly the debate Jenni wanted to have.

    Her views on the trans issue were an intrinsic part of her feminism, but we had to listen to Harriet Harman on the Today programme on Saturday patronisingly explain that they didn’t “detract” from it. This is a travesty. Murray thought as she did because she was a feminist to her fingertips. She never regretted what she said and felt that the 2025 Supreme Court ruling on the matter had proved her right: that the legal definition of women is based on biological sex. She never backed down. She was never afraid to ask the difficult questions. She was magnificent, she had class.

    She was a contender.

  • They made a point of it

    More on Jenni Murray.

    And gender rubbish is inherently inimical to women and our interests, yet here we are.

  • Beeb v women

    The Beeb is on the hot seat.

    It was a huge loss, which is now irrevocable.

  • No you can’t

    Reuters:

    A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration’s restrictive Pentagon press access policy, which threatens journalists with being branded security risks ​if they seek information not authorized for public release.

    The lawsuit by the New York Times in Washington, D.C., federal court alleged that policy changes ‌by the Defense Department last year gave it free rein to freeze out reporters and news outlets over coverage the department did not like, in violation of the Constitution’s protections for free speech and due process. The government disputed that characterization and said the policy is reasonable and necessary for national security.

    U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said in his ruling that he recognized the importance of protecting troops and ​war plans but that it was “more important than ever that the public have access to information from a variety of perspectives about what its government is ​doing” in light of President Donald Trump’s recent “incursion” into Venezuela and war with Iran.

    Also in light of Trump’s lies, impulsive actions, lack of brain function, self-dealing, indifference to everyone and everything but himself.

  • Guest post: That’s where it blows up

    Originally a comment by Dave Ricks at Miscellany Room.

    Yesterday (March 19, 2026), the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) reported on the military “exercise” called “Arctic Endurance” in Greenland that started in January 2026, and will continue at a lower level for the rest of the year. I used Google Translate to read these two articles:

    The battle for Greenland

    Denmark prepared for possible attack from the US: Flew bags of blood to Greenland and prepared to blow up runways

    Key sources in Denmark and Europe are now telling for the first time what happened in the most critical days when Donald Trump threatened to take Greenland “the hard way”.

    The battle for Greenland

    ANALYSIS Behind the word ‘exercise’ in Greenland [, hidden blood and explosives,] and the most serious situation since April 9, 1940

    It’s one thing to have a marital breakdown, it’s quite another to file for divorce. That’s why “Arctic Endurance” was carefully described as an ‘exercise’.

    My quotes are from the first article, which is long and detailed:

    • DR explains their sources [italics mine] — “The story is based on 12 central sources at the top of the Danish government, the Armed Forces and central sources in our closest allied countries in Europe, whom DR has spoken to since Donald Trump’s statements about Greenland in December 2024. The information is confirmed by at least two, but typically significantly more, independent sources. The sources assess that the situation around Greenland remains so tense and sensitive that they can only speak anonymously. DR has also verified the information with other sources who have had insight into parts of the process.”

    • DR explains the timing [italics mine] — “Eight of DR’s sources describe one triggering factor in particular: the morning of January 3, 2026, when they woke up to the news that the United States had attacked Venezuela and removed the country’s president. That’s where it blows up, says a high-ranking source in the Danish security apparatus. … When Trump keeps saying he wants to take over Greenland, and then what happened in Venezuela happened, we had to take all scenarios seriously, says the source. The source also says that the assessment of the threat of a takeover of Greenland included “the fact that the official US is not functioning as usual”: Trump doesn’t have the same level of people around him as before who would talk him out of it. It’s super dangerous.”

    • DR lists five countries involved — “With little delay, an advance command with Danish, French, German, Norwegian and Swedish soldiers was first flown to Nuuk and Kangerlussuaq. Immediately after, a main force followed, including soldiers from the Dragoon Regiment in Holstebro, elite soldiers from the Jægerkorps and French alpine hunters trained for war in cold, mountainous areas. At the same time, Danish fighter planes and a French naval vessel were sent towards the North Atlantic.”

    • DR explains the point [italics mine] — “The goal of having soldiers on land in Greenland — with as many different flags on their shoulders as possible — was, according to six of the sources, so that the Americans would be forced to take a major hostile action if Donald Trump actually wanted to occupy Greenland militarily. That should deter the US from even trying. … All this even though none of DR’s sources had any illusions that it would be possible to hold out against an American attack. “The cost to the US would have to be raised. The US would have to carry out a hostile act to get Greenland,” says a high-ranking Danish defense source about the historic defense plan that could have plunged Denmark into conflict with our most important ally since World War II.”

    • DR explains their article subtitles about blood and explosives — “For regular military exercises, where the purpose is to train with allies, blood and explosives are not packed, defense sources say. On the contrary, it is part of the procedure when preparing for a possible attack. Several other sources confirm to DR that the dispatch of soldiers to Greenland was about preparing a real defense of the Commonwealth.”

  • It’s yer attitude

    This guy.

    That’s the summary. The word for word is worse.

    Reporter: Mr President, why wait for Congress to release the Epstein files, why not just do it now?

    Trump: You know, it’s not the question that I mind, it’s yer attitude. I think you are a terrible reporter. It’s the way you ask these questions, you start off with a man who’s highly respected, asking him a harrible and insubordinate and and just a terrible question and you could even ask that same exact question nicely – yer all psyched uh somebody psychs you over at ABC they’re gunna [grimaces] psycha – [long pause while he rears back trying to shake loose a thought] – yer a terrible person and a terrible reporter – uh – as far as the Epstein files is – I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein, I threw him out of my club many years ago cuz I thought he was a sick pervert –

    [skipping some dull ranting]

    …and yer not after the radical left cuz yer a radical left network, and I think the way you ask a question, [his face distorts with rage] with the anger and the meanness – is terrible, yawta go backn learn how da bea reporter – [jabs finger] no more questions from you.

  • More than the sum of the parts

    The thing is…

    The thing is, it’s bad enough to have a man on to tell women about misogyny on a program called Woman’s Hour – but it’s way over the top bad to have a man who claims to be a woman on to tell women about misogyny on a program called Woman’s Hour. It’s exponential.

    Why is the BBC determined to share exponential insults to women?

  • Get off the sidewalk

    Well it’s about goddam time.

    Lime scooters in Seattle will soon be equipped with artificial intelligence and cameras that, it’s hoped, will shame people into not riding on the sidewalk.

    The technology has been tested in town in recent months leading up to the rollout, and it’s coming to Seattle before any other cities, said Parker Dawson, who runs regional government relations for Lime.

    Lime Vision will be installed on half the scooter fleet, about 3,500 vehicles, by June 1 and all of the fleet by year’s end. New and retrofitted scooters with the technology will begin showing up in mid-April.

    Without sharing many details, Dawson said the technology was developed by Lime specifically to deter sidewalk scooter riding, which by city law is barred but certainly not adhered to. Dawson wouldn’t say why the scooters won’t just slow down when on the sidewalk, as they do on the waterfront, where geofencing limits speeds to 8 mph down from the typical 15 mph.

    They’re a god damn menace and the rule against riding on the sidewalk should have been enforced from the outset.

    While Lime has faced criticism for safety concerns, notably the danger of riding a scooter without a helmet, many people can attest to the annoyance of being “buzzed” by a scooter while simply walking on a sidewalk, Scholes said later in an interview.

    Yeah no it’s not a mere annoyance, it’s terror. It’s the awareness that you could at any moment veer from a straight line just as one of those scooters or a bike or any other heavy swift mode of transport is zipping up behind you. You can’t hear them. They’re not like cars; they don’t make a noise; you could accidentally walk right in front of one because you’re on the sidewalk, which is where people walk. You’d be dead or horribly smashed up. It would not be fun.

    “The person riding on the sidewalk and ringing their bell to get out of their way. That’s really rich,” Scholes said. “It’s become a constant nuisance and it’s more than a nuisance, it’s a safety issue.”

    Scholes pointed to the number of visitors the city gets, and the urban senior living facilities in the city core, as reason enough for the technology.

    “We all have to uphold and protect the great walkability we have here because it’s such a fundamental asset,” he said. But, he added, Lime felt pressure to respond to criticism in Seattle and get off the sidewalk because the city is one of its biggest markets in North America.

    How about because the damn scooters and bikes are dangerous?

    Some of the blame for sidewalk scofflaws rests with the city, Dawson said, noting that people often ride on sidewalks when they don’t feel safe riding in the street.

    Yeah now think about how we peasants who use our feet to get places feel. We don’t feel safe walking on the sidewalk, and that makes sense, because we’re not.

  • The infinite trolling loop

    Every time you think you can’t despise the BBC any more profoundly, they step up to say hold my beer.

    “on the basis of her academic work” – but it’s not “her” academic work you evil shits. And no we don’t believe he was the only sociologist who has done academic work on the subject of the social theory of masculinity.

    And he didn’t share “her academic expertise,” he shared his academic expertise, which is the very issue we’re yelling about. Repeating the same stupid insulting lie over and over and over again is not going to persuade us, it’s only going to make us hate you more.

    How is it possible for you to ignore the obvious fact that a man’s experience of, take on, opinion about misogyny is not going to be the same as women’s because of the existential differences between them? Men are not vulnerable to male hatred and contempt the way women are because men are stronger. This is a lifelong fact about the two sexes. It’s a fact that does make a difference. Pretending there’s some need to bring men in to chat about it for the sake of variety is just one more calculated insult.

  • Diplomacy

    Sir that was 85 years ago.

  • Mental age 34 months and falling

    It’s worth watching all 7 plus minutes of his slobbery crazed babble. Notice the contrast with Vance, who is evil but not bereft of a brain.