Originally a comment by iknklast on Prolonged drought aka desert.

States like Arizona, Utah, and Nevada are among the highest per capita water users in the US. People move to states without much water, then use water like there is a huge supply. The states with the lowest per capita usage are mostly in New England, where there is a better supply of water. I don’t have too much sympathy with people who move to the desert and then consume water they are usually stealing from somewhere else. And there is a water fountain in Phoenix that shoots water up to 560 feet (though the average is 300 feet). Most of that will evaporate in the desert air.

Also, … Read the rest

Again – infuriating.

"This is not a victory to treat trans people any differently."

Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission @KishwerFalkner says they support a tribunal judgement that views on gender are protected as a philosophical belief, but it's not a licence to discriminate. #R4Today pic.twitter.com/wtDevlnkxQ

— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) June 11, 2021

Why put it that way? Why not put it the more obvious way: this is a victory to treat women as having rights themselves? Why put all the emphasis on trans people and what they want and by doing that, imply that women are 1. the enemy and 2. vicious bullies? WHY DO THAT?

Why the hemming, the apologizing, the anxious propitiation, the … Read the rest

Uh oh.

[Water] Levels in Lake Mead – the largest US reservoir by volume – fell to historic lows on Thursday, as the region continues to face the effects of a devastating prolonged drought.

Stationed on the main stem of the Colorado River in the Mojave [desert] along the Arizona-Nevada border, Lake Mead was formed with the construction of the Hoover dam, which generates electricity for areas in Arizona, California and Nevada. It provides water for urban, rural and tribal lands across the south-west.

It’s approaching its lowest level ever and it will get lower over the summer.

In normal years, the dam produces enough electricity for 8 million people, but the water shortage will slow energy output while

… Read the rest

Suzanne Moore on that ruling:

What a huge amount of time, money and, for Maya Forstater, unimaginable anxiety it has taken to establish that she should not be sacked for believing simply that biology is real.

For knowing what we all knew until 5 minutes ago, when we received strict orders to stop believing it.

At a time when the scales are falling from people’s eyes about just how campaigners such as Stonewall operate, Fortstater’s win is cheering for all of us. I was never sacked for my gender critical beliefs but I was certainly made to feel that my workplace had become a hostile environment. How many people are labouring under the same pressure?

Approximately way too many.… Read the rest

Death threats.

https://twitter.com/georgeprbenson/status/1403127620338782208

Metro Vancouver says yeah!

https://twitter.com/TransLink/status/1403132576722735105

Our “pronouns” will be was/were.

Much progressive.

Updating to add screenshot:… Read the rest

Well…

Assuming “1940s Germany” is meant to suggest Germany 1940-45 as opposed to Germany 1945-50, I have to say well but what about the fact that Germany 1940-45 was engaged in genocide as well as global total war with casualties in the millions? What about that part? I’m not seeing that happen to trans people, or anything resembling it, or anything that looks as if it could possibly if left alone over a long time end up resembling that.

To put it more crisply, I’m not seeing the persecution.

Not seeing you as you see yourself is not persecution. It’s the universal human condition, and it’s not persecution, it’s just how things are. We all look different from the inside … Read the rest

H/t Dave Ricks… Read the rest

All these BBC reporters saying "these views", like they're wearing rubber gloves. Most listeners won't realise they're talking about essential truths supported by 99.9% of biologists. Imagine calling a belief the earth is round "these views" and pretending it's contentious.

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) June 10, 2021

Maybe it’s nature’s desperate last gasp effort to get us to stop destroying the planet – convince enough of us that we don’t know the difference between female and male and surely the birth rate will plummet.… Read the rest

Holding on to it like an exposed lie, you mean.… Read the rest

Sarcasm makes the point better.

https://twitter.com/oliverburkeman/status/1402977223863308290 https://twitter.com/toriajayne/status/1402981127120322569… Read the rest

The Guardian does a better job than the BBC of giving Maya space comparable to the space it gives a dissenter.

Forstater said of the judgment: “It doesn’t mean the freedom to harass others. That was never what my case was about. Gender-critical beliefs and gender identity beliefs are both protected under the Equality Act and so, too, is lack of belief. No one can be forced to profess a belief that they do not hold, like trans women are women, trans men are men, and [be] punished if they refuse. The judgment means that organisations now need to consider whether their policies, encouraged by trans rights organisations, discriminate against people with gender-critical views.”

Louise Rea, a solicitor at the

… Read the rest

Even the god damn chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission is doing it.

“Some may see the beliefs of others as questionable or controversial, but people must be free to hold them. This is why this case is so important.” @EHRCChair on the ruling in Maya Forstater’s appeal.

See our case summary and full statement: https://t.co/6JrIH7179T pic.twitter.com/H57K26EIJ9

— EHRC (@EHRC) June 10, 2021

In other words…Maya’s beliefs are evil but she has the right to hold them.

Thanks a lot.

Leaves an opening for the misogynist trans women.

https://twitter.com/KatyMontgomerie/status/1402938615026569216

The way so many trans activists campaign against women’s rights and freedoms?… Read the rest

Also the TUC. The TUC ffs! As if there were no women in trade unions!

Everyone should be treated with dignity and respect at work.

Employers must keep all their workers safe from discrimination and harassment – including trans and non-binary workers.

Today’s Forstater judgement does not change this.

— Trades Union Congress (@The_TUC) June 10, 2021

Also including WOMEN – but the TUC implies that women are the enemy here. Not the bosses, women.

If you’re worried about harassment at work, ask your union for help.https://t.co/EJWBfdmnoV

— Trades Union Congress (@The_TUC) June 10, 2021

Any resources on misogyny and sexism at work? Anything at all? Hello?

It's incredibly sad, tragic even that you seem so unable to

… Read the rest

Glosswitch says it.

"Men often react to women’s words—speaking and writing—as if they were acts of violence; sometimes men react to women’s words with violence" (Dworkin, Intercourse). One for all those equating women seeking not to be discriminated against with women seeking to discriminate.

— Victoria Smith (@glosswitch) June 10, 2021

Take a bow, BBC.

"Reassurances" that feminists having the right to speak doesn't mean they have the right to harass aren't intended to reassure, but to reposition feminists as aggressors rather than victims of age-old policing of women's speech about their lives & embodied experiences

— Victoria Smith (@glosswitch) June 10, 2021

Nailed it.

https://twitter.com/boodleoops/status/1402975831924826114

Just look at the TUC doing exactly the thing Glosswitch said – repositioning feminists … Read the rest

What, all of them? My bathroom is TINY.

But more seriously – oh fuck off. Ok not so much seriously as angrily. Bathrooms/toilets/restrooms are separated by sex because women don’t want to take their knickers down in the presence of men. It’s not safe. If David Paisely doesn’t know this at his age there is something badly amiss with the inside of his head.

Besides, I don’t say I “love” LGBT+ people. Of course I don’t. I don’t know them all, so how could I say that? Rights and equality have nothing to do with “love.” Rights and equality are general, not personal; they’re universal, not particular. Love is to do with people who know each other.… Read the rest

The BBC is very grudging. Of course it is.

In the initial tribunal employment judge James Tayler concluded that Ms Forstater was “absolutist” in her view and said she was not entitled to ignore the rights of a transgender person and the “enormous pain that can be caused by misgendering”.

The usual shit – accusing us of planning or trying or wanting to ignore the rights of trans people.

Also, “misgendering” is a novel word and concept, and one with some sinister implications.

Ms Forstater said she was “delighted to have been vindicated” but [her former employer] CGD said the decision was a “step backwards for inclusivity and equality for all”.

Amanda Glassman, executive vice president of CGD, said:

… Read the rest

Well THAT’S a massive relief.

https://t.co/hB4XQv9oBM

— Maya Forstater (@MForstater) June 10, 2021

Gender critical beliefs are protected under the equality act.

The previous judgement was overturned.

We have to tackle institutional capture.… Read the rest

It went from a day to a month to now a whole fucking season?

https://twitter.com/freetobeme_ca/status/1400162933720719360

What is the 2 in LGBTQ2? Last I saw it was + but now it’s 2?

Anyway…this is a government thing. Not some hopped-up “gender fluid” loony but a government Something, complete with Twitter account that tells people to be respectful or else.

Women have never had a month, let alone a season. All women do is create all human beings, so they don’t matter enough to have more than one day.

Oh sweet jesus it's a whole season now. I don't have any more jokes in me. https://t.co/MxtpoCnSmX

— Arty Morty (@artymortyarty) June 10, 2021

… Read the rest

Alison Phipps wrote a blog post a month ago to air her smug misogynist shite about “white women’s tears” again. Nothing novel, just the same trendy smearing and hissing, not to mention victim-blaming.

She starts with the murder of George Floyd and Amy Cooper’s calling the cops on Chris Cooper in Central Park, then announces that they’re connected.

These incidents are linked by more than just a moment in time. White women are deeply, and often deliberately, complicit with white supremacist violence, and our complicity usually takes the form of victimhood that appeals to the punitive power of the state. And although her allegation against Christian Cooper was false, Amy Cooper has something in common with mainstream feminist movements that

… Read the rest

EXCUSE me?

An Oxfam staff training document says “privileged white women” are supporting the root causes of sexual violence by wanting “bad men” imprisoned.

Sexual violence is…the fault of women?

It seems to me we’ve been here before.

In the wake of sex scandals that have rocked the charity, Oxfam has produced guidance which states that: “Mainstream feminism centres on privileged white women and demands that ‘bad men’ be fired or imprisoned”.

Uh huh. It’s all rich bitches forcing men to rape them so that they can complain to the manager.

Accompanied by a cartoon of a crying white woman, it adds that this “legitimises criminal punishment, harming black and other marginalised people”.

Jesus. I’ve run out of sarcasm.… Read the rest