The new wave of JKR-bullying continues to break over our heads.

Children's gender identity charity Mermaids has accused JK Rowling of being 'despicable' for revealing she has received rape and death threats for defending women's rights. They've condemned not those threats she received, but threats that trans people "will" receive as a result pic.twitter.com/qzSh4oaCIn

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) July 20, 2021

They really said that? They really did.

This is a good day for allies to tweet in support of their trans siblings. #TransLove

— Mermaids (@Mermaids_Gender) July 20, 2021

They don’t know how to spell “despicable.” … Read the rest

And speaking of bona fide qualifications – an item I just saw on Facebook.

Yes it does.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by maddog on Lesbians with penises.

it’s denying the reality of the existence of trans-women, in fact all trans-people

Wait, what? Recognizing that women don’t have penises, and that woman/woman sexual orientation is penis-exclusive is “denying reality” now? WHAT f”ing “reality of the existence of trans women” makes them at all relevant to a group that is exclusively women/women related, and has no connection to, interest in, or reason to consider penis-people at all?

Trans-women are women. Full stop.

That’s just flatly not true. By definition, only men can be “trans women.” Trans women are men. The penis is sort of a giveaway about that.

It’s baffling that (LGB Alliance) don’t accept that …

It’s not … Read the rest

Via Charles Pierce in Esquire, a doctor in Arkansas says what it’s like there:

The last day I worked wasn’t too bad. Had several people come in with symptoms or just to be tested. Mostly younger than 40. Of course zero vaccinations, and when I asked why, I don’t get the “cause the internet, cause screw the libs, I think it’s dangerous” excuses. I don’t get any excuses at all. They just shrug their shoulders and say they didn’t need it. It’s just part of their psyche now. Sun rises in the east, Jesus will return to judge the quick and the dead, you just don’t get vaccinated.

They didn’t need it, but now they have symptoms. shrug.

The

Doocy: 99% of people who are dying are unvaccinated

Kilmeade: That's their choice!

Doocy: They don't want to die. The admin and gov't says mask mandates are to protect the unvaccinated

Kilmeade: That's not their job, it's not their job to protect anybody! pic.twitter.com/NsP2IcMnCX

— Lis Power (@LisPower1) July 19, 2021

It’s not? It’s not the government’s job to protect people?

I kind of think it is.… Read the rest

The sly way they distort the reporting on this…

Headline: J.K. Rowling Responds to Pipebomb Death Threat, Hits Out at Trans Activists

No she doesn’t “hit out” – she tweets words. See also: the American Booksellers Association claiming to have committed “violence” by including a gender critical book in a promotion.

Ryan Smith writes:

J. K. Rowling has hit out at a Twitter user on Monday, after she was sent a “pipebomb” threat amid a series of attacks over her previous statements about trans women.

She didn’t “hit out” at anyone.

The Harry Potter author shared a screenshot of the offending tweet, which was directed at her on Sunday, as she slammed the efforts of some trans activists to get

Graham Linehan calls out the coward celebrities who are ignoring the abuse aimed at JK Rowling:

David O’Doherty? The ‘trans ally’ who gave my wife shit over the phone because he didn’t have the guts to confront me? Let’s see what he’s talking about.

Jokes about Birkenstocks, it turns out.

Aisling Bea what do you think of the pipe bomb threat? You were full of talk of nuance when you wrote this disgraceful, patronising tweet to a survivor of domestic violence.

Jon Ronson, author of ‘So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed’, anything to say about this public shaming, certainly more ambitious in scope and significance than what Justine Sacco went through? Not even a trace of journalistic interest in it?

Now there’s a headline.

Bid to exclude ‘people with penises’ from lesbian events ‘unlawful’

But lesbian events are for lesbians, and “people with penises” are men and men can’t be lesbians because lesbians are same-sex attracted women.

Lesbians will be breaking the law if they exclude biological males who are transgender from social events, after a controversial discrimination ruling set to become a national test case. Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination commissioner Sarah Bolt has ruled lesbian events that exclude trans-women carry a “significant risk” of breaching legislation.

And lesbian events that are forced to include men are guaranteed to be no longer lesbian events.

Men can be trans all they like, knock yourselves out guys, but they’re still men and they’re … Read the rest

Yes so this is clearly a very healthy and progressive movement for social change.

Yes, but now hundreds of trans activists have threatened to beat, rape, assassinate and bomb me I’ve realised that this movement poses no risk to women whatsoever. pic.twitter.com/qb1RrCFqy0

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 19, 2021

https://twitter.com/DoorEmby/status/1417112429666783234 … Read the rest

The battle continues.

I guess it’s good you no longer pretend to be a journalist anymore. Be well.

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) July 17, 2021

In reality Cardona doesn’t meddle with curriculum decisions.

Peppered with questions Thursday about whether he supports “critical race theory,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said that his department will leave curriculum decisions to state and local officials.

“It’s important that I reiterate at every opportunity I have that the federal government doesn’t get involved in curriculum,” he said during a hearing before the House education committee Thursday.

But he didn’t completely sidestep the issue of how racism should figure into classroom discussions, a question that has engulfed state legislatures and local school boards across

It’s Put People Off the Vax day again.

Trump giving the base the exact message they want of being against the COVID vaccine because if the election was stolen, clearly you can't trust the Biden administration to administer the COVID vaccine that Trump himself is taking credit for creating.

Yeah, my head hurts too. pic.twitter.com/clNAnEqxZp

— The Darkest Timeline Numbersmuncher (@NumbersMuncher) July 18, 2021

I can’t find a link to the statement itself, including on Trump’s website, only to people citing it, so that’s irritating. Mediaite reports on it but doesn’t link to it. Maybe someone has taken it down.

Donald Trump stirred up vaccine opposition on Sunday, even linking it to his false claims about the 2020 election.

There

Work it out for yourselves.

So the prime minister says that with the removal of Covid restrictions we will now be able to make our own “informed decisions” about what we will and will not do. Generally, we might feel it’s a sign of a good government and a good society that it allows and enables its members to make their own informed decisions about how they want to live their lives.

Generally, yes. All things being equal, yes. In normal circumstances, yes. Obviously. Of course. We can figure out for ourselves when to go out and when to stay home, what to wear and where to live, how much to sleep and what toothpaste to use. But when … Read the rest

Sisters!

Why we can’t have nice things.

Imagine being an ICU nurse in an area of Covid deniers.

Conspiracy theories about the pandemic and lies recited on social media — or at White House news conferences — had penetrated deep into their community. When refrigerated trailers were brought in to relieve local hospitals’ overflowing morgues, people said they were stage props. Agitated and unmasked relatives stood outside the ICU insisting that their intubated relatives only had the flu. Many believed the doctors and nurses hailed elsewhere for their sacrifices were conspiring to make money by falsifying covid-19 diagnoses.

[Emily] Boucher and her colleagues were pained by those attacks — and infuriated by them. Unlike their exhaustion, that anger rarely showed on their faces, but it was

Is it news that Trump is a reckless imbecile? Hardly.

This week, the Guardian reported that what are assessed to be leaked Kremlin documents describe Donald Trump as an “impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual”. Vladimir Putin, the documents say, therefore decided to assist Trump’s rise to power in 2016 as a way to weaken America. Five years on, as America digests a string of bombshell revelations about the last days of Trump’s presidency pulled from a string of new books, Russia’s judgment seems born out.

Well of course it does, but it wasn’t in doubt anyway. We’ve always known that Trump is impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced, along with greedy, cruel, stupid, lazy, corrupt, empty, and trashy.

In Landslide

Ivermectin study withdrawn:

The efficacy of a drug being promoted by rightwing figures worldwide for treating Covid-19 is in serious doubt after a major study suggesting the treatment is effective against the virus was withdrawn due to “ethical concerns”.

As in, ethical concerns over possible fakery.

[T]he drug’s promise as a treatment for the virus is in serious doubt after the Elgazzar study was pulled from the Research Square website on Thursday “due to ethical concerns”. Research Square did not outline what those concerns were.

…

“The main error is that at least 79 of the patient records are obvious clones of other records,” Brown told the Guardian. “It’s certainly the hardest to explain away as innocent error, especially

The ABA has a Diversity and Inclusion section. There it has a Diversity Statement.

ABA exists to help member bookstores grow and succeed, and we work to do that in a way that is committed to anti white supremacy, antiracism, representation, and equity. We believe that listening to many different perspectives and empowering underrepresented voices deepens our understanding and enriches everyone’s experience. We are committed to equity, dignity, and diversity for all Peoples. 

It promises to

– Implement best practices to ensure more diverse hiring and more opportunities for promotion into senior and decision-making positions at all levels of the organization for diverse employees

– Make sure ABA policies and procedures are antiracist, create opportunities for everyone, and demonstrate

There was a follow-up tweet from the ABA that I missed because they locked their account; it contains yet more frantic self-flagellating histrionics.

The American Booksellers Association has issued a second apology for showcasing research into the growth of children who ID as transgender. The first said it had been a 'violent incident' but this wasn't enough so its CEO has said she'd 'endangered members of the trans community' pic.twitter.com/bsClGQY7dc

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) July 17, 2021

A serious, violent incident; inexcusable; terrible incident; pain we caused; apologies are not enough; harm we caused.

It’s as if they have a literal gun to their literal heads.

Meanwhile, in the Advocacy section of the ABA website, we can see:

The American

Some of the people Fox News is killing:

The hospital is now busier than at any previous point during the pandemic. In just five weeks, it took in as many COVID-19 patients as it did over five months last year. Ten minutes away, another big hospital, Cox Medical Center South, has been inundated just as quickly. “We only get beds available when someone dies, which happens several times a day,” Terrence Coulter, the critical-care medical director at CoxHealth, told me.

Last week, Katie Towns, the acting director of the Springfield–Greene County Health Department, was concerned that the county’s daily cases were topping 250. On Wednesday, the daily count hit 405. This dramatic surge is the work of the super-contagious