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 (@FadicalNem) 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

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie points out that the abuse of JK Rowling is classic sexism. One way we can tell is that men don’t get targeted the way she is.

“I think that she’s been treated abominably. And, I think a lot of that treatment is because she’s a woman,” she said. “I think that a man who aired his views, reasonable views, would not be treated in that way.”

Is Graham Linehan perhaps a counter-example? He’s certainly been a target, but JKR gets a lot of specifically sexual/sexist abuse. I don’t think that happens to men the same way.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Adichie told journalist Emma Barnett she thought it was “very dangerous” that people were “refusing

Originally a comment by tigger_the_wing on What the future implications might be.

It sounds bloody awful, to be honest. It’s the ‘no co-morbidities part which has hitherto kept people alive long enough to survive the waiting list, get appropriate treatment, and go on to have a healthy life.

If you are suicidally miserable because you are in severe, intractable, possibly increasing pain from a condition which will imminently kill you, and want to die because facing further pain is pointless, then euthanasia is obviously a lot less cruel than making you wait for natural death.

However, if you are suicidally miserable solely due to a treatable mental illness or disorder, then it is the failure to treat which is … Read the rest

Not that SciAm article again. How many biologists have to point out how many times that it’s woo-woo crap?

Chart by Amanda Montañez @unamandita, from this Scientific American piece. https://t.co/3x6DScDOIL

— Sean Carroll (@seanmcarroll) November 14, 2022

What exactly do you think this chart shows?

— Emma Hilton (@FondOfBeetles) November 14, 2022

I'd be happy to talk with you about this either publicly or privately if you'd like. I know you're interested in educating the public about science, so it concerns me to see prominent figures like you unknowingly promote fashionable pseudoscience like the "sex spectrum."

— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) November 14, 2022

… Read the rest

Is it medically assisted death or is it disposal of people with mental illness and no resources? The Globe and Mail:

Canada will have one of the most liberal euthanasia laws in the world, joining only a few other countries that allow assisted dying for mental illness.

It will be the most controversial expansion of MAID since a Supreme Court ruling led the federal government to legalize euthanasia in 2016. At that time, MAID was only for patients with a foreseeable death, but Parliament – with Bill C-7 – removed that requirement in 2021.

The original version of the bill did not allow assisted death for patients with mental disorders as a sole condition because, the government said at

Another snip from the Times article:

The first trans patient treated with blockers, from age 13 to 18, moved on to testosterone, the male sex hormone. Halting female puberty had offered emotional relief and helped him look more masculine. As the Dutch clinicians prescribed blockers, followed by hormones, to a half-dozen other patients in those early years, the medical team found that their mental health and well-being improved.

“They were usually coming in very miserable, feeling like an outsider in school, depressed or anxious,” recalled Dr. Peggy Cohen-Kettenis, a retired psychologist at the clinic. “And then you start to do this treatment, and a few years later, you see them blossoming.”

Wait. Wait just a minute. Think about this. … Read the rest

The New York Times rows back just a little:

As the number of adolescents who identify as transgender grows, drugs known as puberty blockers have become the first line of intervention for the youngest ones seeking medical treatment.

Which is a very worrying observation all by itself. The number of adolescents who identify as transgender is growing…so the medical system is stepping in to block their puberties. The medical system is treating something that’s obviously a trend, a fashion, an idea-based cool kids thing to do, as a reason to interfere with a crucial stage of development. It’s batshit crazy.

But as an increasing number of adolescents identify as transgender — in the United States, an estimated 300,000 ages

Ah yes the old “My beliefs are not an ideology!!!” gambit.

there is no transgender ideology – it is an invention of the contemporary gender critical movement. They need to say we have an ideology in order to attack us – otherwise they would have continued ‘pitying’ you & me. But pity did not keep you or me in our teaching jobs https://t.co/2t6YY52u3Q

— Prof. Stephen Whittle OBE, PhD, DLaws, FAcSS, (@stephenwhittle) November 13, 2022

Really. There is no transgender ideology. Then what does “transgender” mean? What does “cis” mean? What does “transphobia” mean? What does “terf” mean? What are “trans rights”? What do we talk about when we talk about trans people and trans rights and transphobia?

The ideology … Read the rest

No you can’t say men are not women. If you try there will be blood.

Due to credible threats of extreme violence, the Sovereign Women Speak event with Kara Dansky in Olympia has been cancelled by the organizers. This is disappointing. #LetWomenSpeak pic.twitter.com/Mk22lGlk0n

— Candace Mercer ⚔ FTW (@candiomercer) November 13, 2022

Sorry, sovereign women don’t speak after all, because the “activists” won’t let them.

No confirmation if there will still be free transgender burritos! #FoodNotBombs pic.twitter.com/PkWxQrVGSm

— Candace Mercer ⚔ FTW (@candiomercer) November 13, 2022

“Trans-Exterminationists.” As if feminist women who point out that men are not women are thereby exterminating men who claim to be women. Exterminating them, like with Zyklon-B. We’re not exterminating anyone, we’re telling … Read the rest

Paris 25 August 1944 Kherson 11 November 2022

Jubilation in Kherson where Ukrainians have poured into the newly liberated streets after almost nine months of Russian occupation. pic.twitter.com/WoVIPQZBVp

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) November 12, 2022

https://twitter.com/docsane/status/1591821692715737088 … Read the rest