Tell you what, we can say that was genocide and you can say that was and is systemic racism.

Joe Biden has become the first US president to issue a statement formally describing the 1915 massacre of Armenians as a genocide.

The killings took place in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, the forerunner of modern-day Turkey.

But the issue is highly sensitive, with Turkey acknowledging atrocities but rejecting the term “genocide”.

Just as many people in the US reject the term “systemic racism.” But the racism wasn’t and isn’t random or accidental, and the Turkish atrocities happened to a particular set of people, a geno.

Armenia says 1.5 million people were killed in 1915-16 in an effort to

… Read the rest

There’s just no fixing stupid.

Trump has defended his close personal relationship with the leaders of Russia and North Korea, telling Fox News that his ties with them as president were “a good thing and not a bad thing.”

Last week the Biden administration released intelligence suggesting that Russia obtained Trump campaign data in 2016, raising further questions about ties between Trump, his associates, and Moscow.

The White House this week also threatened sanctions against Russia if opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was poisoned with Novichok last year, dies in prison.

However, the former president used an hour-long interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News to dismiss all criticisms of his closeness to Russia and its leader.

Because that’s … Read the rest

A couple of months ago:

A retired teacher said it was “ridiculous” that a smoothie company had unfollowed her on Twitter amid accusations of transphobia. Innocent Drinks unfollowed Margaret Nelson, 76, from Hadleigh, Suffolk, after another Twitter user suggested it should not be “endorsing her”.

The firm acknowledged the move had made “some people on Twitter quite cross”. But it said Ms Nelson’s Twitter content was not in line with its “values of inclusivity and respect”.

It’s not the unfollowing that’s ridiculous, it’s the making a public display of it. I suspect that’s what Maggie said or meant, and the BBC muddled it in a pretty typical way – the same way it always ascribes “offense” to people whether … Read the rest

Won’t someone please think of the man who wants to get a job around abused women?

https://twitter.com/eveiswurzig/status/1385362991441395713

Wight is Isle of Wight and DASH is domestic abuse support hub. Women are more vulnerable to domestic abuse than men are, so abused women are not invariably going to want to be around stranger men who identify as women when they (the abused women) are seeking help.

Ordinary people with ordinary understanding and empathy understand that. Narcissistic men and their deluded female allies either don’t understand that or think it’s trivial compared to a narcissistic man’s desire to act out his fantasies in the presence of women.

The latter group needs to grow the fuck up.… Read the rest

Why do people insist on being so stupid? (And destructive and reckless and neighbor-teasing?)

A New Hampshire family’s gender reveal party was such a blast that it set off reports of an earthquake, and could be heard from across the state line, police said.

Police in Kingston, a town not far from the Massachusetts border, received reports of a loud explosion Tuesday evening. They responded to Torromeo quarry where they found people who acknowledged holding a gender reveal party with explosives.

Stop with the farking “gender reveal” parties. Or have friends over for dinner if you like, but leave it at that.

One “gender reveal party” set off a wildfire during wildfire season near LA last summer. Smart move.… Read the rest

That’s not good.

While an average of nearly 1.9 million people a day came in to get their first dose of the vaccine during the week of April 11, the average for the week of April 16 was around 1.47 million. The total doses the U.S. has administered nationwide since vaccines were first authorized has also flattened out over the past few days, CDC data show, interrupting the exponential growth of the last few months.

And on Wednesday, a daily update from the Department of Health and Human Services showed numbers were down this week to an average of just over 3 million shots administered a day, when on Friday, the country was averaging about 3.35 million a day.

… Read the rest

Caitlyn Jenner says he is running for governor of California.

Why? Based on what? What relevant experience or education does he have? He appears to be woefully ignorant, plus he’s part of that whole nightmare Kardashian famous-for-nothing circus, plus he killed a woman with his car. What on earth makes him think he would be even a minimally competent governor of a state that’s bigger than many countries?

Olympic hero, reality TV personality and transgender rights activist Caitlyn Jenner announced Friday that she has filed paperwork to enter the race to become California’s next governor.

He’s not a hero. He’s a good swimmer athlete. That doesn’t make you a hero. Being a reality tv “personality” is a reason not… Read the rest

India is in trouble.

India’s healthcare system is buckling as a record surge in Covid-19 cases puts pressure on hospital beds and drains oxygen supplies.

Families are left pleading for their relatives who are desperately ill, with some patients left untreated for hours.

Crematoriums are organising mass funeral pyres.

On Friday India reported 332,730 new cases of coronavirus, setting a world record for a second day running. Deaths were numbered at 2,263 in 24 hours.

Not a per capita record though, I think.

This wave is worse than the first one.

On 10 February, at the start of the second wave, India confirmed 11,000 cases – and in the next 50 days, the daily average was around 22,000

… Read the rest

The shock, the outrage, the scandal – a gymnast actually wore clothing at a competition.

She did not break any rules, but Sarah Voss’s full-body suit at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Switzerland defied convention.

What convention is that exactly? Is there a convention that gymnasts compete naked?

Until now women and girls have only covered their legs in international competition for religious reasons.

Ohhhhh that convention – the one where men wear clothes and women wear bathing suits. Let’s not just rush ahead, let’s talk about that. Why is that a convention? Why does the same convention apply in figure skating competitions? Why do men wear clothes while women wear bathing suits? What the hell is that? … Read the rest

Mark Joseph Stern at Slate on the horrible ruling in Jones v Mississippi:

In an appalling 6–3 decision on Thursday, the Supreme Court effectively reinstated juvenile life without parole by shredding precedents that had sharply limited the sentence in every state. Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s majority opinion in Jones v. Mississippi is one of the most dishonest and cynical decisions in recent memory: While pretending to follow precedent, Kavanaugh tore down judicial restrictions on JLWOP, ensuring that fully rehabilitated individuals who committed their crimes as children will die behind bars. Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, pulls no punches in its biting rebuke of Kavanaugh’s duplicity and inhumanity. It doubles as an ominous warning

… Read the rest

https://twitter.com/LaborProject/status/1383879008899670028

And not only without the shame and stigma, but also with the confidence and sense of entitlement. Men are not raised (by the culture as well as parents) to be apologetic or assume their rights are secondary. Women are.

But, of course that couldn’t be allowed.

https://twitter.com/sadydoyle/status/1384145600455737350

No, men have not had miscarriages. You need a uterus to miscarry. You need a uterus with a fetus in it to miscarry. Men don’t have those. Women do. Men don’t.

In case anyone is following along and concerned: I report the misgendering, respond once, and mute transphobes. I have no desire to debate my existence, and hate isn't interesting. But I'm fine; this is an everyday sort of thing, and I

… Read the rest

Jones v Mississippi:

Holding: The Eighth Amendment does not require a finding that a juvenile is permanently incorrigible before imposing a sentence of life without parole.

Judgment: Affirmed, 6-3, in an opinion by Justice Kavanaugh on April 22, 2021. Justice Thomas filed an opinion concurring in the judgment. Justice Sotomayor filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justices Breyer and Kagan joined.

https://twitter.com/AdrienneLaw/status/1385234470865833989

Today's decision is a huge blow against the movement to end juvenile life without parole. As Sotomayor correctly notes in her dissent, the court "guts" precedents that had strictly limit JLWOP. This is a major defeat for JLWOP reform. https://t.co/XS5CPsa2In pic.twitter.com/fTczLRlYqN

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) April 22, 2021

This will be an extremely

… Read the rest

This happened:

Letter to the @AmericanHumanist Association from myself (AHA Humanist of the Year 2006) and Rebecca Goldstein (AHA Humanist of the Year 2011) @platobooktour protesting its withdrawal of Humanist of the Year award to @richarddawkins #richarddawkins pic.twitter.com/IVNjbmswHT

— Steven Pinker (@sapinker) April 21, 2021

I think there are some complications skipped over in the letter. I think “reason requires that a diverse range of ideas be expressed and debated openly, including ones that some people find unfamiliar or uncomfortable” is true in its way but it steps around some of those complications. I don’t think that reason requires diverse ideas such as “women are stupid” “Jews should be eradicated” “black people should be enslaved” “lesbians and gays are an … Read the rest

A giant of the House.

She just admitted that she hasn't read the bill she's been complaining about…forever. "All 14 pages" pic.twitter.com/Wn2YetyydM

— @fionataylor@writing.exchange (@fionaleslie) April 22, 2021

All 14 pages. My god the sacrifices people are expected to make just to do their jobs as legislators. They’re actually expected to read the bills before voting on them. It’s inhuman.

(Actually, they’re not, at least not by themselves and their higher ups, not all the time, because we’ve seen those genuinely massive (i.e. more than 14 pages) bills whiz from introduction to passage in a few hours when McConnell is cracking the whip.)

Thoughts and prayers to Rep. Greene in these trying hours.… Read the rest

News from Hartlepool:

A registered sex offender has been confirmed as a candidate in the upcoming Hartlepool by-elections.

Christopher Killick, who is on the ballot for the May 6 vote, was sentenced for voyeurism last year for filming a naked woman in a hotel room while she was asleep.

“Sex offender” doesn’t even cover it. That offends privacy, safety, women’s ability to leave the house and exist in public space, the ability to feel like a person among other persons – it turns a woman into a masturbation prop for men, a thing, an object, a tool. It’s funny how the purported feelings of men who say they are women are all-important while the unavoidable feelings of violated women … Read the rest

Leya makes a point I wish people would make more often, and much louder.

https://twitter.com/Leyanelle/status/1384819420413968384

See, identities are so much more fun than wages and benefits and hours. So much more sexy, so much more ersatz-clever, so much more about dressing up and haircuts.

Leya goes on:

It is a politics of privilege. It is wholly lacking any reality based analysis re changes that would make a difference to the lives of those facing real hardships & injustices.

The only structural changes arising from woke politics is that institutions can ignore addressing the hard issues in practical & informed ways, & instead perform the right language & forms of signalling & pretend this is making progress.

It is how we

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Bruce Gorton on In understanding and analyzing any claim.

I think TRAs have kind of weaponised a lot of the shortcut memes which the rest of the left didn’t realise were bad ideas at the time.

I mean “JAQing off”, was originally a criticism of anti-feminists wasting everyone’s time, by asking questions which were unproductive and which had been answered repeatedly over a course of decades.

I think what we didn’t realise was that we had created an ideology which had this neat out from having to answer those questions at all, where asking those questions was an immediate marker of an enemy.

To JAQ off should be to ask questions without reading the basic … Read the rest

Another one.

https://twitter.com/womeninitawards/status/1384066092117598209

They say “to view the full category criteria” but they don’t mean it – if you follow the link you don’t find the full category criteria. You have to ask – if you ask they admit it: they don’t mean women.

They haven’t specified any criteria. I emailed to ask an this is the response. pic.twitter.com/fWvfWSF5qU

— wringthonk (@BeavyBee) April 21, 2021

So not an award for women after all.… Read the rest

One of my very good friends who is from the United States has just messaged me to ask if I wish the soap off dishes after washing them, because apparently Americans think that British people don't do that.

I knew about the bad teeth thing, but do they really think we eat soap?

— Hannah Al-Othman (@HannahAlOthman) April 21, 2021

But apparently many do.

Do YOU eat soap?!https://t.co/FmQhTqfpRp

— Hannah Al-Othman (@HannahAlOthman) April 21, 2021

https://twitter.com/HannahAlOthman/status/1384928453129027588

Ew. You hafta rinse them.

You don't rinse them under the tap after they come out of the bowl?

— Hannah Al-Othman (@HannahAlOthman) April 21, 2021

pic.twitter.com/Z3OJLoSrrP

— indefatigable (margaret) (@Indefatigabl_) April 21, 2021

Ew.… Read the rest

Darkly interesting.

I think of that grim relationship between Trump and sickness as I read the latest stories about how so many Republicans continue to refuse COVID vaccines. 2/xhttps://t.co/Lg7kVsAuwh pic.twitter.com/kKbgvUnbp6

— David Frum (@davidfrum) April 21, 2021

… there's an issue of personal responsibility here too. A heroic scientific effort – achieved at huge cost – has delivered vaccines that are astonishingly effective at protecting life from COVID. So effective that we may not need to worry about herd immunity. If so … 5/x

— David Frum (@davidfrum) April 21, 2021

Trump and the Fox leadership have vaccinated themselves of course. But they have a different message for their followers. They have persuaded them that it's a test of

… Read the rest