“Oh but you mustn’t talk about that” – they say, about the very things we have to talk about.

Horrible women-hating coercive demanding religions for instance. Which religion does that conjure up? Shhhhhhhhhh – it doesn’t do to say so.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has been accused of conducting secretive talks to establish a government-wide definition of Islamophobia that critics say could hamper discussions about grooming gangs.

Don’t. We’re allowed to hate religions. Islam is a harsh system of control of humans, triply harsh toward women and not too fond of atheists or Jews. We’re allowed to criticize it and we’re allowed to resist it.

The MP has established a working group to develop the definition, but Conservative

Theocracy: right side of history or no?

Khamenei fans on a walk in London today to tell people that they're on the "right side of history". Do they mean the far right side of history? pic.twitter.com/0qjQQtIL6S

— Stop The Hate UK (@StopTheHate_UK) June 21, 2025

Mullahs in charge, all women in public wrapped in bandages. What’s not to like? … Read the rest

Victoria Smith starts with a wry joke.

My youngest son has audio versions of all of the Harry Potter books. Given the public pronouncements of a certain artist, I’ve started to find this problematic. True, one can separate the art from the creator, but sometimes the latter’s hateful beliefs infect the former. This is the case when actor Stephen Fry reads the works of brilliant, principled writer J.K. Rowling.

Gotcha! It’s not JKR who is “problematic”; it’s the Problematic-sniffing Policers of Discourse who are problemyish.

There’s something in the way he voices each female character, from Hermoine Grainger to Dolores Umbridge, which reeks of misogyny. The way to sound like a woman, in Fry’s view, is to make yourself

The New Republic underlines the obvious, which is that Trump will say anything and do anything to get his way and we can’t stop him unless we stop him, which we’re obviously not doing.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump scored a temporary victory after an appeals court ruled that he can continue deploying the National Guard as part of his watch-me-play-fascist-on-TV response to anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles. The decision accepted Trump’s premise that conditions in L.A. permit him to take control of the guard—but it rejected his claim that such decisions should be entirely unreviewable by courts.

That latter part of the ruling is important. It’s potentially something of an obstacle to his ongoing effort to assume quasi-dictatorial

Oliver Brown on Simone Biles and her show of contempt for women:

For Biles, the provocation, if you could call it that, was Gaines’ highlighting of the fact that a Minnesota girls’ softball team won a state title this month despite their dominant pitcher being male. “Your star player is a boy,” she said, prompting Biles, until that point a mute figure in the ferocious battle to compel sports to respect the reality of sex, to go off the deep end.

“You’re truly sick,” she raged at Gaines, who was infamously denied a United States collegiate trophy in 2022 by transgender opponent Lia Thomas. “Straight-up sore loser. You should be uplifting the trans community and perhaps finding a way to

Originally a comment by Arcadia on Stephen Fry is a rat.

This bit is the bit that genuinely infuriates me:

‘Sir Stephen said: “She has been radicalised, I fear, and it may be she has been radicalised by terfs, but also by the vitriol that is thrown at her. It is unhelpful and only hardens her and will only continue to harden her, I am afraid. I am not saying that she [should] not be called out when she says things that are really cruel, wrong and mocking. She seems to be a lost cause for us.”’

This double standard. This quote makes clear he knows full well what Rowling has been subjected to, and he knows it constitutes … Read the rest

Laura Webster, the editor of a newspaper called The National is annoyed that JK Rowling called the paper “anti-woman.”

She made this claim because we ran an article, and have run many articles previously, describing groups like Sex Matters as “anti-trans”.

I would like to take the opportunity to defend this newspaper against Rowling’s frankly ridiculous description, and explain why “anti-trans” is indeed suitable language for these activists. 

In the social copy for the article, we stated: “An anti-trans campaign group is threatening further legal action against the Scottish Government, saying ministers are failing to implement the recent Supreme Court judgment on biological sex in equalities law.”

On Wednesday night, Rowling tweeted: “For Women Scotland is a feminist campaigning

Vance is going to Los Angeles to rub their noses in it.

The vice-president will meet with law enforcement and military leadership deployed by Donald Trump in the city to help control violent protests.

“Vice-president JD Vance will travel to Los Angeles, California, where he will tour a multi-agency federal joint operations centre, a federal mobile command centre, meet with leadership and Marines, and deliver brief remarks,” according to a readout.

The visit risks inflaming the already tense relationship between Gavin Newsom, the state’s governor, and the White House.

It doesn’t so much risk inflaming it as make a point of inflaming it.

An appeals court on Thursday allowed Mr Trump to keep control of National Guard troops he

This is such a key point for the resistance to trans ideology and blurghy thinking generally.

“Hallmark soundtrack” is an excellent label for it.

I hate it, not in a calm all in the head way but viscerally – I hate slushy elevated pompous look at me wording the way I hate fat buzzing flies anywhere near me, or noisy crowded shouty spaces, or cigarette smoke. I hate self-conscious posturing look at me writing. I hate the substitution of manipulative drool for actual arguments and reasons. And of course trans ideology is riddled with it, for the obvious reason that it has nothing else.

Beware the Hallmark Effect.… Read the rest

Extras for everyone except women. Women are the privileged class you know. Bitches and Karens all of them.

An amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that would introduce tougher sentences for hate crimes committed against LGBT people and people with disabilities is being backed by East Thanet MP Polly Billington.

The new law, if passed by MPs, would make serious crimes motivated by prejudice against anyone because of their disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity “aggravated” offenses – as is currently the case for hate crimes motivated by race or religion. Aggravated offenses carry tougher sentences for perpetrators.

Got that?

Disability, sexual orientation, genner idenniny, race, religion.

But not sex. No extras for women: women don’t need extras … Read the rest

Originally a comment by iknklast on Break everything.

As for how [anti-vaxxers] can live with themselves, they are sure they are doing the opposite of killing people. They believe they are saving people. (I don’t think that’s the case with Trump; I think he doesn’t think at all, and doesn’t give a damn about anyone but himself.)

I met a lot of anti-vaxxers in the years I was part of the environmental science program in my doctoral program. For the most part, they were the youngsters, those born after we managed to solve so many problems of diseases. They had been raised on a media drumbeat of the evils of big Pharma, big Medicine, and science denialism, but they … Read the rest

The BBC does a surprisingly good job of letting Martina Navratilova state her views on trans ideology without interrupting to throw rocks at her. The article is about her views on Trump (briefly: not what she emigrated to the US for).

There is, however, one extremely divisive subject on which she has previously said she agrees with President Trump – transgender women’s participation in sport. Navratilova is firm in her belief that the inclusion of trans women in women’s tennis is “wrong”.

She says she doesn’t agree with current World Tennis Association (WTA) rules, which state transgender women can participate in women’s games if they provide a written and signed declaration that they are female or non-binary, that their testosterone

It’s so very blatant. Instead of saying the true thing, say this manipulative lie.

The email goes on to advise MPs to avoid saying they accept the SC ruling. Here is what they advise LD MPs to say: pic.twitter.com/RZKgafCAzg

— Liberal Voice for Women (@LibVoice4Women) June 18, 2025

I especially like the ones where they just delete “women” and substitute something completely different. Yes we know, thanks for documenting.… Read the rest

If you’re a sleb you have to stand up in public and tell abusive lies about JK Rowling or you won’t be a luvvie any more. Stephen Fry energetically complies.

Speaking on the Show People podcast, Sir Stephen said: “She has been radicalised, I fear, and it may be she has been radicalised by terfs, but also by the vitriol that is thrown at her. It is unhelpful and only hardens her and will only continue to harden her, I am afraid. I am not saying that she [should] not be called out when she says things that are really cruel, wrong and mocking. She seems to be a lost cause for us.”

Yo, Sir Stephen, take a … Read the rest

Cool cool. Something for women for a change.

We are delighted to launch the first West Cheshire Women in Leadership programme, in partnership with women leaders at Chester Racecourse, Cheshire West and Chester Council, the Countess of Chester Hospital, Lloyds Banking Group and the University of Chester.

The programme grew out of a panel discussion at the 2024 Storyhouse Women festival, entitled The Future of Chester is Female. With so many of Chester’s key organisations now run by women, we asked ourselves ‘how can we use this to benefit other women?’

That question led to the development of this programme. We are not representative of all women, but we have come together to share our lived experience with others,

Rolling Stone on The Ugly:

Among the weighty roles and responsibilities placed on the American president’s shoulders, the least controversial is the practice of calling other politicians, in the face of personal or public tragedy, to make sure that they have everything they need. If a president wants to go above and beyond that lowest of bars, they offer condolences, and act like a human instead of a partisan hack. 

This week, after a spree shooter killed former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman [and] her husband, and severely injured state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, President Donald Trump hasn’t bothered to pick up the phone to speak with Minnesota’s head of state. 

…

By Tuesday morning, it appeared

This is disgusting. You have to lean in to hear what he says – and what he says is nausea-inducing.

Days after a Minnesota state lawmaker was killed and another was injured in a “politically motivated assassination,” President Donald Trump said Tuesday he would not call the state’s governor, eschewing a traditional presidential response to tragedies.

“Why would I call him? I could call and say, ‘Hi, how you doing?’ The guy doesn’t have a clue,” Trump said, referring to Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who was the vice presidential contender facing off against Trump’s ticket last year. “He’s a mess. So I could be nice and call, but why waste time?”

He does actually say that.… Read the rest

The Associated Press is staffed by teenagers.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors, a stunning setback to transgender rights.

Stunning shmunning. There is no “right” to be mutilated or prescribed harmful drugs or both. The whole idea of “gender-affirming care” is both absurd and malign.

Imagine if people started claiming to idennify as trees, and doctors rushed to provide transarborial rights. Yes, certainly, we will encase you in bark and replace your head with foliage, and behold, you are affirmed as a tree.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for a conservative majority that the law does not violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause, which requires the government to treat similarly situated

Brilliant work, Bob.

In 13 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Fiona Havers crafted guidance for contending with Zika virus, helped China respond to outbreaks of bird flu and guided safe burial practices for Ebola deaths in Liberia.

More recently, she was a senior adviser on vaccine policy, leading a team that produced data on hospitalizations related to Covid-19 and respiratory syncytial virus. To the select group of scientists, federal officials and advocates who study who should get immunizations and when, Dr. Havers is well known, an embodiment of the C.D.C.’s intensive data-gathering operations.

On Monday, Dr. Havers resigned, saying she could no longer continue while the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., dismantled the

Originally a comment by Nullius in Verba on Veering.

I recently joined the local YMCA because it’s the only gym within anything like reasonable driving distance. When filling out the application online, there was a gender identity field that was marked mandatory. Since I don’t play that game, I went the next day to ask about it in person. My mother went with me, as she was also incensed about it. The girls at the front desk weren’t even aware of the field, since it isn’t on the paper app. (They also were clearly unaware of the significance of the language.) In any case, they said they’d contact their CEO about the issue and have him get back to … Read the rest