Open Democracy wrings its open democratic hands over the tragedy of a man who identifies as a woman being deselected as a candidate for office.

Kathryn Bristow was named on 8 March as a Green Party candidate for the UK’s 2021 local government elections – the first openly trans woman to be put forward by a political party in Bristol City. But less than two weeks later the party formally suspended her and selected another candidate, who was not trans, to run in her place.

Here’s the thing: political parties should not be putting trans women forward for political office, because trans women are simply men (who call themselves women), and its women who need more representation, not men, no … Read the rest

Joan Smith has a must-read piece at the Guardian about the often overlooked connection between violence against women and terrorist violence.

Five years ago, I began to notice that the perpetrators of some of the worst terrorist attacks had something in common. A high proportion shared a history of assaulting wives, girlfriends and other female relatives, sometimes involving a whole series of victims, long before they attacked total strangers.

It’s so obvious once she points it out, isn’t it. Of course they do. What do we so often see in angry men? That they love to turn their anger in the direction of women. But it needs to be spelled out explicitly so that law enforcement gets it and acts … Read the rest

A new scam, not radically different from the old scams.

On August 4, two emails regarding “OFFICIAL TRUMP CARDS” were sent by Save America, a joint fundraising committee of Save America and the Make America Great Again PAC.

Each showed four designs and spoke of Trump’s desire for recipients to decide which one should be chosen.

But what are Trump cards? What do they get you?

I think the answer is that they’re just pieces of cardboard with some words on them. They don’t get you anything.

One included a direct message from former President Trump, in which he said: “We are launching our OFFICIAL TRUMP CARDS soon, and my team asked me to select the design. I’ve always

… Read the rest

Woe that too late repents.

Governor Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday expressed regret for signing Act 1002 into Arkansas law. The new law bans the state and local officials from enacting any mask mandates.

Any other laws like that on the books in Arkansas? Bans on calling the fire department when the house goes up in flames? Bans on vaccinating children? Bans on teaching toddlers not to run across the street? Bans on ducking when someone throws a brick?

During a press conference, Hutchinson answered questions about why he signed the proposal into law. He said that when he initially approved it a few months ago, both COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations were at a “low point” in Arkansas and were

… Read the rest

How romantic.

Chris Chan, the male who IDs as a woman, who has a long history of predatory behaviour towards women and who has now been arrested for raping Chan's own 80 year old mother, is set to be placed in a women's prison, after the police recorded Chan as 'female'https://t.co/v1MROUfOZg

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) August 4, 2021

… Read the rest

He asked WHAT????

Are you a member of the nation in question?

It's my understanding that like all groups facing oppression, many in First Nations loathe performative allyship.

I recognize there is disagreement. I also recognize it is an internal matter that needs to be addressed by members.

— Morgane Oger (@MorganeOgerBC) August 4, 2021

Are you a member of the nation in question, asks Morgane Oger, a man who pretends to be a woman. Yo, “Morgane,” are YOU a member of the nation of women? No, you’re not, so you should stop trying to bully us into saying you are.

Guess what: like all groups facing oppression, we – women – loathe performative allyship, to say nothing of actually … Read the rest

Chapter 47 million of Women Are Fair Game (as long as you can pin some other label on them like “white” or “cis” or “gender critical” or “Jewish” – the list is long):

https://twitter.com/jessesingal/status/1422977840157532160

Ohhhh they shed white women tears – well let’s wipe them all out then. First let’s nod vehemently in agreement, that they do indeed shed white women tears, and then let’s all jump on top of them until they stop breathing.

These Jewish women knowingly play the role of summoning white mobs to lynch black and brown women’s voices.

In other words Noah Strauss hates women.

Singal’s dry “mazel tov” refers to the fact that Herzog isn’t Jewish. I know, I know, how can that be … Read the rest

The resistance begins!

On Friday, the Justice Department ordered the Internal Revenue Service to hand over former president Donald Trump’s tax returns to Congress. On Monday, Ronald Fischetti, a lawyer for Trump, said that Trump intends to fight the order.

“There is no evidence of any wrongdoing here and I object to the release of the returns not only on behalf of my client but on behalf of all future holders of the office of the president of the United States,” Fischetti said in statement. He added that “this politicization and harassment of Mr. Trump is uncalled for and outrageous” and that he had “never seen anything like this.”

He doesn’t really object on behalf of all … Read the rest

Would the pardon have been forthcoming if the roles had been reversed?

A US couple who gained nationwide notoriety after they pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters last year have been pardoned.

Mark and Patricia McCloskey were filmed holding weapons outside their home in St Louis, Missouri. They were fined after pleading guilty to misdemeanour charges this year.

But Missouri’s Republican Governor Mike Parson has now pardoned them, something he had promised after US conservatives began to support the couple.

They weren’t filmed just “holding their weapons,” they were filmed (as the first paragraph says) pointing them at protesters who were marching past. Pointing them. That’s threatening. I’d be petrified if someone pointed a gun at me.

“When the

… Read the rest

Very even-tempered.

I'm an infamously even-tempered man, but if you take Terry Pratchett's name in vain for some small-minded bigoted fuckwittery I will push you down a set of fucking stairs and laugh at the bounce.

— John Rogers (@jonrog1) July 31, 2021

The small-minded bigoted fuckwittery of course is skepticism about a magical ability to change sex.

https://twitter.com/And4women/status/1422694329026441219

I don't much care for grave-robbing plagiarists, regardless of gender or intent.

— John Rogers (@jonrog1) August 3, 2021

There are a lot of things I don’t care for, but I don’t threaten to push people down a set of stairs and laugh at the bounce because of them.

https://twitter.com/Lungbarrow1/status/1422862592700305408

It’s all in the bounce.… Read the rest

Originally two comments by Seth on Fair and includey.

If you believe that he really does have gender dysphoria

See, this was the first step on the road to getting where we are now, this notion that someone having “gender dysphoria” makes them “really trans”, as opposed to a faker. But in its own terms, “gender dysphoria” is a mental illness, a delusion, either very starkly akin to or actually the same as the body dysmorphia which afflicts anorexics or compulsive exercisers.

The proper treatment for the latter two expressions of body dysmorphia, you’ll note, is not to completely reform society to give the stick-thin girl the “validation” that she is “in the wrong (obese) body” and is a … Read the rest

The Telegraph:

Male-born sex offenders who self-identify as women can be placed on female-only NHS wards, hospital trusts have said in guidance.

Devon, Oxford and Nottinghamshire hospitals all tell staff that a criminal history should be part of a risk assessment when placing male-born people on female-only wards, but do not say it is a bar to admission.

There’s a funny thing going on here…Men can be placed on women-only wards, but women can’t. Men can request women-only but women have to put up with women and men who claim to be trans.

I’m not sure that’s entirely fair.

It comes as The Telegraph has found that NHS Trusts across the country have issued guidance that says patients should

… Read the rest

I wrote a column for The Freethinker about stupidity that’s not genuine involuntary stupidity but chosen stupidity, deliberate stupidity, stupidity in aid of ideology or tribe or hatred. That’s what much of the anti-vax bullshit is: not really about the vax and not really a mistake, but just a kind of point-scoring.

It’s incredibly cut off your nose to spite your face, but it seems millions of people find it entirely worth it for the sake of irritating the libbruls.

Some of them stop finding it worth it once they’re gasping for breath though.… Read the rest

Here we are again.

Covid-19 hospitalizations are surging across the US and stretched hospitals are warning that the overwhelming majority of coronavirus patients are unvaccinated and their serious sickness preventable.

Preventable, yes, but then you turn into a Democrat and your dick falls off. (Applies to both sexes.)

Health officials are especially concerned about Florida, where cases are the highest they have been since the pandemic began.

On Monday, there were more Covid-19 hospitalizations in Florida than at any time in the pandemic. The chief executive of the Florida Hospital Association, Mary Mayhew, told MSNBC that about 95% of those hospitalized were unvaccinated.

Look, it’s Florida. Trump country. DeSantisland. Collapsing condo towers built on sand as sea level … Read the rest

What do you know, it turns out there’s a price to pay for disvaluing female people.

Men are set to dramatically outnumber women in coming decades, new global modelling of birth sex ratios has found.

Of course they are. Now that technology can tell people what sex the baby is, girls can be Prevented. Amartya Sen famously pointed this out decades ago.

Researchers warn that global long-term stability could be at risk due to the “cultural preferences” for boys in certain countries. Nations with skewed sex ratio at birth are set to “lose” another 4.7 million girls by 2030 — a figure that could reach 22 million by 2100.

The study, published in the journal BMJ Global Health,

… Read the rest

Janice Turner is doing her best to get Owen Jones to listen though.

What about women's rights? As you said to Piers Morgan on your own programme "Sport is a difficult one". You acknowledge there is a conflict of rights. Why not debate with women? You'll talk to men with gender critical views. Why not feminists?

— Janice Turner (@VictoriaPeckham) August 3, 2021

But men who hold the same views, even eg Rees Mogg, who is outright hostile to LGBT issues, are fine. But not feminists. I see. You block women who disagree with you & caricature their views on Twitter. But you aren't prepared to have an honest debate with women. Why?

— Janice Turner (@VictoriaPeckham) August 3, 2021

… Read the rest

What Owen Jones always ignores:

The British media is indeed a cosy club, in which transphobia is rife and acceptable, and the whole "Owen is a Twitter bully" meme was invented by anti-trans activists who object to a LGBTQ commentator using his platform to support LGBTQ rights.

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) August 3, 2021

I think the very major problem in this whole "debate" is anti-trans opinions dominate the British media, but anti-trans activists position themselves as marginalised victims which they deploy as a central weapon against the very few commentators to openly support trans rights.

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) August 3, 2021

What? What is it that Owen Jones always ignores? What are these tweets examples of Owen Jones … Read the rest

Originally a comment by latsot on Define “hate”.

The BBC ran a piece on Hubbard yesterday, which I overheard from another room. NOTE: distance from source does not mute rage. They were doing the usual dance around all of this to avoid screaming, wide-eyed into the camera “IT’S A BLOKE!!!! WE CAN ALL SEE IT’S A BLOKE!!!!! IT’S OBVIOUSLY A GADGIE!!!* HE’S JUST CHEATING!!!!!”

Then they seemed to change the subject and had a correspondent phoning in to talk about something else and they asked him what they thought of the whole men cheating in women’s sports thing. The correspondent was very careful to explain that he didn’t know anything about the subject and couldn’t possibly comment but that … Read the rest

Oh it’s all so complex.

As the first openly transgender female athlete to compete at the Olympics, Laurel Hubbard was making history and huge controversy in the Tokyo International Forum. It certainly looked like the weight of the world was on her shoulders.

If you believe that he really does have gender dysphoria. If you believe he’s just cheating, it looks a bit different.

Hubbard had met all the requirements set by the International Weightlifting Federation, though those rules — requiring athletes to demonstrate their total testosterone level in serum has been below 10 nanomoles per litre for at least 12 months before their first competition — are regarded as wholly inadequate by a battery of sports scientists. At

… Read the rest

How about a little feel-good item for a change.… Read the rest