The trade union UCU Edinburgh says: “A reminder of UCU’s strong position in support of trans inclusion…Liberation cannot be built on exclusion.”

A union says liberation cannot be built on exclusion. Really? So unions have to include bosses and owners? Black liberation movements have to include white people? Free speech organizations have to include censors? Atheist groups have to include believers? Consumer groups have to include advertisers and PR firms? Democrats have to include Republicans and vice versa?

Horse shit. We get to organize, and campaign, and agitate, via particular parties and groups and institutions, which necessarily exclude people who don’t match the “particular” bit. Socialists don’t have to be inclusive of capitalists, and vice versa.

What does “trans … Read the rest

Says Jolyon Maugham, who never stops giving away women’s rights.

Such an important point – and so easy to miss. It's not for you to concede that which is not yours to give. https://t.co/AsimKxOFkb

— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) October 9, 2021

… Read the rest

Laurie Penny had a brief moment of partial spine and said in a tweet that the bullying of Kathleen Stock was a little over the top. Then she deleted the tweet.

She left a reply up though.

Even if it’s ‘just’ a smoke flare and a giant sign, it’s unnecessarily intimidating.
FYI, I think trans women are women, I can’t stand the moral panic over ‘cancel culture’, and I do think there are some cases where no-platforming is appropriate.
This is still extremely yikes.

— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) October 9, 2021

Do tell feminist women they’re wrong wrong wrong but don’t use smoke flairs and giant signs.

>and I found the final chapter surprisingly measured in its call for compromise

… Read the rest

The Telegraph reports:

Women prisoners who call transgender inmates by the wrong pronoun could face extra time in jail under equality rules, says a justice minister.

Female inmates who deliberately call a transgender woman “he” or “him” could be punished under rules barring “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour”.

So…in that scenario why is it the woman who is being “threatening” or “abusive”? Why isn’t it the man? Why are women being treated as a threat to men when the reality is the other way around?

That’s before we even get to “are you fucking kidding me, women will be punished for not repeating a lie?”

This summer, the High Court rejected a legal challenge to prevent transgender

… Read the rest

Finally.

President Joe Biden will restore the boundaries of three American nature reserves, known as national monuments, that were reduced in size by former President Donald Trump to allow commercial activity, the White House said on Thursday.

The restoration will protect more than 3.2 million acres (1.3 million hectares) in Southern Utah known as the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, as well as the nearly 5,000 square mile (8,000 sq km) Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New England.

This is good.… Read the rest

Ix-nay on the executive privilege ploy. Dude you don’t even go to this school.

Joe Biden has blocked an attempt by former US president Donald Trump to withhold documents from Congress related to the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol.

There’s no “executive privilege” that lets you try to overthrow the government and then hide your homework.

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said Biden authorized the National Archives, a government agency that holds records from Trump’s time in office, to turn over an initial batch of documents requested by a House of Representatives select committee investigating the riot.

“The president’s dedicated to ensuring that something like that could never happen again, which is why the administration

… Read the rest

Is it possible?

Can pigs fly? Is it possible?

Yes, it's possible for pigs to fly. In fact, it's probably a lot more common than you might think. In order to explain, we'll need to breakdown some common misconceptions about how we understand the term "pigs." pic.twitter.com/uGmNxap4bj

— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) October 8, 2021

The healthline item is from 2018. I think I’ve seen it before, and probably written about it here, but I haven’t been able to find anything here. Apologies if I repeat myself.

The trick turns out to be easy.

Yes, it’s possible for men to become pregnant and give birth to children of their own. In fact, it’s probably a lot more common than you

… Read the rest

Another disaster:

There’s never a good time for an oil spill. But the most recent ones — in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Ida last month, and then this past weekend, in the ocean off Huntington Beach, Calif. — have come right in the heart of the fall migration of hundreds of millions of birds.

…

These journeys are perilous, even in the best of times. Flying thousands of miles requires vast amounts of food and protected habitats. But more and more of the wetlands, marshes, forests and fields needed to support migrating birds have been filled in, cut down and paved over. As a result, the remaining refuges are few and far between, overcrowded and vulnerable to

… Read the rest

Trump identifies as not broke, but…

Former President Donald Trump provided “misleading information about the financial situation” of his hotel in Washington while he was in office, according to the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

The committee, which recently obtained documents from the General Services Administration, found that Trump reported his hotel in downtown D.C. brought in $150 million in income while he served in the White House, but the hotel actually incurred more than $70 million in losses.

It depends on who’s asking. If it’s the IRS, losses losses losses. If it’s potential dupes, profits profits profits.

“By filing these misleading public disclosures, President Trump grossly exaggerated the financial health of the Trump Hotel,” the committee said Friday

… Read the rest

Now there’s an easy challenge.

Yes I believe that men who identify as women are "not really" women.

Women means adult human female.

Organisations that try to get people fired, or make work life hostile for people saying this have no place advising employers in the UK. pic.twitter.com/E9p2TUqVO5

— Maya Forstater (@MForstater) October 8, 2021

Yes, of course I believe that trans women are not really women, because that’s what “trans women” means. I’ve been coming out and saying it for years. This is not “like” lesbians and women of other marginalized groups, because those women are all women, but trans women are (by definition) men.

There’s no need to beg, no need to say please, I’m perfectly happy … Read the rest

As another citizen of Twitter said, well done those women.

Walking to Labour HQ#HearMeRoar pic.twitter.com/ujLrMNGsHd

— Let Women Speak Official (@StandingforXX) October 8, 2021

… Read the rest

Also in Trans Activists Hell Bent On Expelling Everyone Who Fails To Endorse The Dogma:

Dave Chappelle’s latest Netflix special is facing a wave of intense backlash after the comedian once again made jokes directed toward the LGBTQ+ community and defended the author JK Rowling, who has been previously accused of transphobia.

“Who has been previously accused,” says Maya Yang sanctimoniously.

Journalism needs to do a better job on this. Lots of people have been “previously accused of transphobia,” because journalists and others don’t hold these accusers to account. They don’t insist on a clear and exact definition of “transphobia,” so what they get is just 17 trillion venomous accusations which don’t mean anything. We’re all accused of “transphobia” as … Read the rest

Oh yes, of course there’s another aspect to this business of Trump’s determination to stop people testifying and producing evidence now that he’s out of office. What is that aspect? Four little words.

that would be obstruction

— Jen "get knocked down, get back up " Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) October 7, 2021

Ohhh right! Obstruction of justice! That’s what he’s doing, and it’s a no-no. Witness tampering: no no, not allowed, put the phone down.

Of course that means nothing if the Justice Department looks the other way out of politeness or some such shit.… Read the rest

Dennis Kavanagh says the tide has turned.

https://twitter.com/Jebadoo2/status/1446155798657310722

Note the “empathy, compassion.” Not for the likes of Kathleen Stock of course.

3/ Francesco here this morning posted a three tweet thread explicitly NOT calling for Professor Stock's sacking in the same way the Kray twins aren't explicitly saying they will burn your shop down when they say "Nice business you got here, shame if anything were to happen to it"

— Dennis Noel Kavanagh (@Jebadoo2) October 7, 2021

But it didn’t work out the way he expected.

9/ He must have wondered at that point how he had come to misjudge this so badly. Surely beardy pronoun thugs just need to attack prominent lesbians and they go through hell while

… Read the rest

Some “women’s officer.”

So for anyone who doesn't know… I'm the Women's Officer at Uni of Sussex Student's Union. I do not stand by this statement made by the University in response to the actions on campus. #shameonsussex https://t.co/1QhRENVjzQ

— Lucy Evans @biolucy@mas.to (@lucy_evzz) October 7, 2021

… Read the rest

Trump’s goons plan to ignore the subpoenas, because he told them to. Telling them to equals telling them to invite prosecution and conviction and a sentence, but whatevs, that’s their problem.

All four Trump aides targeted by the select committee – [Mark] Meadows, deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, strategist Steve Bannon and defense department aide Kash Patel – are expected to resist the orders because Trump is preparing to direct them to do so, the source said.

It’s not clear how Trump can “direct” them to do anything. He’s not their boss and he’s not god of the universe. They don’t have to do what he tells them to do.

But increasingly concerned with the far-reaching nature of

… Read the rest

Brighton and Hove News reports:

A targeted campaign against a philosophy professor accused of transphobia has been condemned as harassment by the University of Sussex.

Posters demanding the university fire Kathleen Stock appeared on campus this morning, and smoke bombs were set off as a masked protester held a banner saying Stock Out at the entrance to campus.

The protesters say Professor Stock seeks to exclude and endanger trans people by, for example, supporting female-only spaces and sport and questioning the safety of puberty blocking drugs prescribed to minors.

In other words she seeks to support the safety of women and of minors who want to harm themselves by halting puberty. She doesn’t seek to endanger anyone, and she … Read the rest

yatakalam has been reading the ruling so that we don’t have to. It’s quite remarkable.

https://twitter.com/yatakalam/status/1445876701649686533

Nelson says she gets “misgendered” when she gets coffee or goes to the grocery store. Nonsense. Commercial transactions don’t work that way. The only pronoun likely to come up is “you.” Nelson seems to be a bit of a liar on top of everything else.

https://twitter.com/yatakalam/status/1445882128533647360

These clips are sickening to read.… Read the rest

More pronoun gibberish from the BC human rights tribunal:

A former server at a Gibsons, B.C. restaurant has been awarded $30,000 after a B.C. Human Rights Tribunal decision found they were unfairly terminated for asking managers and co-workers to call them by their proper pronouns.

That’s the lede and already we’re in the woods. Who were unfairly terminated? The tribunal? The restaurant? One of the advantages of non-customized pronouns is that they convey information – that’s what they’re for. They don’t always convey all the necessary information, for instance when there is more than one she or he involved, but they’re better than a vague “they” that could refer to anything, including a group of objects.

The whole article … Read the rest

No, “preferred pronouns” are not a human right. A Canadian human rights tribunal thinks they are though.

The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal ruled in favor of Jessie Nelson, a British Columbia restaurant server who is biologically female but identifies as nonbinary. Nelson, who asked colleagues to use “they” and “them” pronouns, was repeatedly called “she” and “her” by former colleague Brian Gobelle, who also called Nelson nicknames such as “sweetheart,” “honey,” and “pinky,” the tribunal’s ruling said. After Nelson unsuccessfully asked Gobelle to stop, the employee went to management, who declined to intervene right away, the court said. Nelson and Gobelle then got into a heated discussion about the issue, and Nelson was fired four days later for

… Read the rest