Mkay this is scary. Everything is scary these days. This is very scary.

As former Republican senator Rick Santorum addressed Republican lawmakers gathered in San Diego at the American Legislative Exchange Council policy summit, he detailed a plan to fundamentally remake the United States. 

By making a new constitution! A new far-right constitution! Oh boy, kids, won’t that be fun?!

The December 2021 ALEC meeting represents a flashpoint in a movement spearheaded by powerful conservative interests, some of whom are tied to Trumpworld and share many of Trump’s goals, to alter the nation’s bedrock legal text since 1788. It’s an effort that has largely taken place out of public view. 

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During an extraordinary few weeks in June, the

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Communalism strikes again.

A private school in Vadodara, which had planned a field trip for kindergarten children to a mosque in the city, called off the visit after protests from Bajrang Dal on Tuesday. Volunteers of the Bajrang Dal, who claimed to have “received complaints” from parents, arrived at the school and threatened the school management with dire consequences if children were taken to the mosque.

I don’t really think schools should be taking students to mosques or temples or churches, but I much more definitely think other people shouldn’t make threats over it.

The Delhi Public School in Kalali in Vadodara, which had earlier also taken children to visit a temple in the city, had planned to take

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Ahhh what a lovely man – he buried the ex on his golf course because tax break. The sentimental old fool.

When Ivana Trump, Donald Trump’s first wife, was buried last month near the first hole of Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, few immediately guessed that her grave’s location might also serve her ex-husband’s long-held tax planning purposes.

Well at least near the first hole is special. Could have been the fifth, or behind the pro shop.

Tax code in New Jersey exempts cemetery land from all taxes, rates, and assessments – and her grave, as such, potentially has advantageous tax implications for a Trump family trust that owns the golf business, in a state

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Obviously I had to follow that link.

There is 'nonsense', and there is 'outrageous nonsense':

"If working to bar TW athletes from competing in elite sport actively benefits a current competitor’s rankings or opportunities, that woman can be seen as acting from jealousy, fear, or ignorance." https://t.co/3wrX4Wzq7C

— Miroslav Imbrisevic (@Miroandrej) August 2, 2022

So let’s read the abstract:

Throughout 2019, retired athletes Martina Navratilova (tennis), Sharron Davies (swimming), Kelly Holmes (athletics) and Paula Radcliffe (marathon) all spoke publically about what they perceive to be the unfairness of trans women competing in women’s elite sport.

What they “perceive to be” the unfairness of men competing in women’s sport (elite or otherwise) – ah yes it’s wholly subjective, and downright … Read the rest

Ok connectivity issues persist, so I’ll be scarce today and much of tomorrow, SO I thought I would post a kind of miscellany room away from miscellany room, where you can talk about whatever you feel like talking about. Report interesting news or gossip or brawling if you see any.… Read the rest

Kathleen Stock points out a drastic conflict at the Tavistock GIDS between storytelling and actual real world drugs and surgeries.

A crucial yet underappreciated part of the story is the clinic’s strong emphasis on psychoanalysis and psychodynamic approaches to mental health. The founder of the Tavistock, Hugh Crichton-Miller, was explicitly influenced by Freud and Jung. And when Domenico Di Ceglie founded the Gender Identity Service for children in 1989, later commissioned nationally as the only English NHS provider, he too was heavily influenced by psychoanalytic methods.

And the thing about those is, they’re much closer to the storytelling end of the spectrum than they are to the medical end.

In a 2018 article describing his process, Di Ceglie quotes

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Climate change in action:

Wildfires in California and Montana exploded in size amid windy, hot conditions, forcing evacuation orders as they quickly encroached on neighborhoods.

In California’s Klamath national forest, the fast-moving McKinney fire, which started Friday, went from charring just over 1 sq mile (1 sq km) to scorching as much as 62 sq miles (160 sqkm) by Saturday in a largely rural area near the Oregon state line, according to fire officials.

Meanwhile in Montana, the Elmo wildfire nearly tripled in size to more than 11 sq miles within a few miles of the town of Elmo. And roughly 200 miles to the south, Idaho residents remained under evacuation orders as the Moose fire in the

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Oh so Keir Starmer isn’t terminally confused about what women are? Whaddyaknow.

The @Lionesses, you have inspired a generation of women and girls.

My daughter and her friends have strong, successful role models in sport because of you.

The entire nation is so proud. #WEuro2022Final

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) July 31, 2022

In case like me you haven’t been following – Carrie Dunn at the Guardian reports:

Sarina Wiegman’s team have done just what Gareth Southgate’s men did last summer – they’ve captured the imagination of the entire country with their determination, happiness and outrageous skill. Not only that, they went one better – although they went to extra time, Chloe Kelly scored to make England the champions

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Sorry sorry sorry!

I was worried that y’all might worry, because when I know I won’t be posting I let you know.

The internet in the big house went out (and mine is parasitic on it so mine went out too). This was yesterday morning, and as soon as it was almost 10 I hustled over to the library so that I could at least say why I was silent, but oh ha guess what, it was CLOSED because of the heat. Old Carnegie branch, you see, very elegant but no AC. Closed until Monday.

Sorry!… Read the rest

That’s not representation.

A record number of trans and nonbinary candidates are running for public office. Representation is so important! https://t.co/kGqk4R0VKv

— National NOW (@NationalNOW) July 29, 2022

Representation of women is so important, especially, one would hope, if you’re the National Organization for Women.

The reporting on this is so moronic, and so dishonest, it doesn’t qualify as reporting at all – it’s more like lying to the readers. The Post drivels like any barely adult “trans ally” squealing about pronouns.

In 2017, former journalist Danica Roem made history when she was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, making her the first out transgender state legislator in the United States. 

A man was elected to the Virginia House … Read the rest

Times reporter on Magistrates’ Court news:

I'm at Westminster Mags Court where three Metropolitan police officers are accused of sending grossly offensive messages in which they joked about sexually assaulting domestic violence victims and much more. This will be a thread.

— Fiona Hamilton (@Fhamiltontimes) July 28, 2022

Ah yes that’s what you want in cops who deal with domestic violence.

Jonathan Cobban, charged officer: That's alright, DV victims love it. That's why they are repeat victims"

— Fiona Hamilton (@Fhamiltontimes) July 28, 2022

Met PC William Neville: "3 domestics back to back today"
Borders: "I bet they all had one thing in common
Women that don’t listen"

— Fiona Hamilton (@Fhamiltontimes) July 28, 2022

Court told that Neville acted

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Janice Turner on the closing down of the Tavistock Gender Identity clinic:

Writing on this topic, I’ve often encountered facts so dangerous and beliefs so bizarre, so beyond science or reason, it’s been hard to convey their existence.

Listen, you say, British doctors are prescribing a drug used to chemically castrate rapists to halt puberty in children as young as 11. The drug isn’t even approved for child gender dysphoria. It reduces growth and bone density, sterilises and kills future libido. And, get this, we don’t know what it does to teenagers’ developing brains, or even if it works and they become happy, fulfilled trans adults. Because there’s no data, no long-term research.

Well when you put it like … Read the rest

Originally two comments by Bjarte Foshaug on These two loudmouth mammals.

I’m not at all a cult expert, but as an interested lay person who has read both Lifton, Singer, Ross, and Hassan, I think the importance of “saving face” can hardly be overestimated. How cult members respond to a major crisis depends heavily on how easy or difficult it is backpedal without too much public humiliation and loss of face. Those who haven’t made too much of a public commitment tend to just slip away quietly and pretend nothing ever happened. The people you really need to worry about are the ones who have made a strong commitment in public, invested everything they have in the cause, burned … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Comparisons are odious.

…more blunt than the Guardian.

The Guardian left that bit out. It’s rather important.

The Guardian left that bit out too.

It’s impossible to view this editorial decision making as anything but ideological. Newspapers aren’t usually in the business of “being kind,” but in this case they’re soft pedaling the story (perhaps for their own sake as much as for anyone else’s). It’s like the unspoken agreement between the press and JFK in regards to his infidelity and womanizing. But this isn’t about turning a blind eye to a politician’s extramarital affairs, it’s a story about the health and safety of children. It’s not just word … Read the rest

Pink News is eager to see men taking over women’s sports.

A women’s rugby union team has explained why it is passionate about including trans women as the RFU votes on banning them from the sport.

No the RFU doesn’t vote on banning them from the sport. As usual.

The York RI Ladies team took to Twitter ahead of a Rugby Football Union (RFU) vote on an outright ban on trans women and girls, taking place on Friday (29 July).

No it’s not an outright ban on women and girls. That’s the usual lie. It’s a ban on men in women’s rugby.

The RFU, which governs rugby union in England, will vote on a recommendation for a “policy change

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The jargon always distorts the “journalism.” Haroon Siddique at the Guardian doing a legal analysis of the Allison Bailey ruling:

The most significant ruling came in the Forstater case when, in June last year a panel led by the president of the employment appeal tribunal (EAT) held that gender-critical views were a protected philosophical belief under the Equality Act.

The decision paved the way not just for Forstater winning her case, which was then sent back to an employment tribunal to be heard in full, but also Bailey’s victory against her chambers, Garden Court.

Lucy Lewis, employment partner at Lewis Silkin, said: “If you want to engage in public debate, if you are clear you are doing that

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The NY Times tries hard to minimize the bad news:

The National Health Service in England announced on Thursday that it was shutting down the country’s only youth gender clinic in favor of a more distributed and comprehensive network of medical care for adolescents seeking hormones and other gender treatments.

“Seeking hormones” as they might seek a new phone or beans on toast. Hormones aren’t like vitamins, you don’t seek them as if they were harmless and benign. People don’t seek diabetes medication or cancer drugs, they get prescribed them if they have diabetes or cancer.

The closure followed an external review of the Tavistock clinic in London, which has served thousands of transgender patients since the 1990s. The review

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Dennis raises an interesting point at about 29 minutes into The Mess We’re In: he says he used to do some family law work and that meant some work with Munchausen’s parents. Funny thing about that: it seems to have dried up. He asked someone else who said Oh yes that’s all gone.

Hmmmm.

Parents who like the limelight just a little too much, he said.… Read the rest

https://twitter.com/TwisterFilm/status/1552720563772293120 https://twitter.com/TwisterFilm/status/1552720569853935616

5./ It's gender identity fanatics who argue it's unethical to run a human trial where a control group of gender dysphoric kids are NOT given blockers. That's why Glasgow University partnered with Norway's biggest gender identity clinic to devise an animal trial. So why sheep?

— Malcolm Clark (@TwisterFilm) July 28, 2022

7./ Also, if you want to study the impact of a chemical on the human body, mice are so different in body mass from us it's hard to get the dose right. Sheep are much closer (average mass 55kg) to humans. And there are less moral concerns than using monkeys.

— Malcolm Clark (@TwisterFilm) July 28, 2022

9./ The young sheep that weren't given blockers, when

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The Telegraph is, to the surprise of no one, more blunt than the Guardian.

The Tavistock transgender clinic is to be shut down by the NHS after a review found it is “not safe” for children.

NHS England will move young people who believe that they are trans into regional centres which will take a more “holistic” approach to treatment and look at other mental health or medical issues they may have.

Emphasis mine. The Guardian of course wouldn’t dream of putting it that way. Yet.

The decision is a response to the interim Cass Review, which warned that medics in the Tavistock had felt “under pressure to adopt an unquestioning affirmative approach” to gender identity rather than going through

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