Point entirely missed.

I'm putting this brief thread together because it's been impossible for me to respond to all the questions that have been directed at me today by people concerned about my support for the view that trans rights are human rights 1/4

— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) March 11, 2020

No. That is not what people are concerned about. Of course trans rights are human rights, and of course no one is saying trans people shouldn’t have rights. The issue is special new and frankly peculiar rights, that conflict with other people’s rights at many points. Trans rights can mean the human rights that all people, including trans people, have, or it can mean new invented “rights” that no … Read the rest

One man… immune to information.

PANDUMBIC pic.twitter.com/gZUPZJBmwV

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) March 10, 2020

… Read the rest

Trump doesn’t want to declare an emergency because that would make it too obvious that he has his head up his ass.

President Donald Trump is reluctant to declare an expansive emergency to combat the escalating coronavirus outbreak, fearful of stoking panic with such a dramatic step, according to three people familiar with the situation. Instead, the president is expected to sign within days a more limited designation to allow the federal government to cover small business loans, paychecks for hourly workers and delay tax bills, the White House said Wednesday. An emergency declaration would go significantly beyond that move, bringing in the Federal Emergency Management Agency and freeing up funding and resources for states struggling to contain the

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When it comes to pay, we are told that women athletes are worth less because men are better. When it comes to men athletes who claim to be women so that they can compete against women, we are told that men are not better at all and who ever said they were?

On International Women’s Day in 2019, all 28 players on the top-ranked U.S. women’s national soccer team filed a lawsuit against the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) alleging gender-based discrimination and arguing for equal pay. Now, eye-opening court documents filed Tuesday in Los Angeles reveal the grounds on which the USSF is arguing the lawsuit should be thrown out.

One of its arguments is headlined: “WNT

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It’s on.

The COVID-19 viral disease that has swept into at least 114 countries and killed more than 4,000 people is now officially a pandemic, the World Health Organization announced Wednesday.

“This is the first pandemic caused by coronavirus,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

As he announced the ratcheting up of a health emergency to its highest level, Tedros also said there is hope that COVID-19 can still be curtailed. And he urged countries to act now to stop the disease.

“WHO has been in full response mode since we were notified of the first cases,” Tedros said. “And we have called every day for countries to take urgent and aggressive action. We have rung the alarm bell

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So about that dopy Zoe Williams piece telling feminists to be more embracey…

I have written nothing on trans issues for seven years. A now-familiar row had broken out in the feminist movement back then, and I assumed that feminism would soon re-orient itself away from which body parts define a woman and whether or not the word “womxn” signified an assault on our sense of selves, and towards what I thought was obviously the more fundamental question of the movement: who has it worse? Feminism, in my life’s experience of it, takes the side of the oppressed. That is our raison d’etre.

You see what I mean by “dopy.” Of course that’s not feminism’s raison d’être – why … Read the rest

The latest captive:

"The fact is, in every backlash against every civil rights movement, there have been people saying: your emancipation is not possible for operational reasons." Powerful defense of trans rights from @zoesqwilliams https://t.co/ccWLwlmNUT

— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) March 10, 2020

I find your lack of compassion towards the trans community troubling. You seem to have no concern about what might happen to a self-IDing woman in a male prison and have a discriminatory attitude to their participation in sport. Such negative stereotyping doesn't help the debate

— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) March 10, 2020

Lots of people are finding Billy Bragg’s lack of compassion for the female community troubling. He seems to have no concern about what might happen … Read the rest

How does that work?

A transgender actress has pulled out of a new play in protest after a cisgender actor was cast as a trans character.

Kate O’Donnell was set to appear in a new stage musical adaptation of Patrick McCabe’s novel Breakfast on Pluto.

O’Donnell was due to play the mother of the main character, Patrick/Pussy Braden, but withdrew after that role was given to Irish actor Fra Fee.

The producers said they tried to find a trans performer for the role. O’Donnell said they didn’t try hard enough.

But…O’Donnell was supposed to play a character who’s not trans, right?

O’Donnell was due to have played Ma Braden, who is not a trans character.

So…it’s ok for a man … Read the rest

Matt Gaetz may have passed COVID-19 on to Trump, and now this:

Health minister and Conservative MP Nadine Dorries says she has tested positive for coronavirus.

Ms Dorries said in a statement she took “all the advised precautions” as soon as she was informed of her diagnosis.

She added: “Public Health England has started detailed contact tracing and the department and my parliamentary office are closely following their advice.”

I won’t say it. It wouldn’t be appropriate.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug on Uh oh, there’s a range of views here.

I strongly suspect that cognitive dissonance is a big part of the explanation as well. I’m sure we’re all familiar with the pyramid metaphor from Mistakes were made (but not by me) by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson, but anyway, imagine two people standing right next to each other on the top of a big pyramid and trying to decide which way to go down. At this stage no option may appear obviously better than any other, and neither of our two testpersons may feel all that confident about the way to proceed. Even if they eventually end up picking opposite routes, it … Read the rest

Even the National Review can see this one.

So far in this crisis, Donald Trump himself has obviously failed to rise to the challenge of leadership, and it does no one any favors to pretend otherwise…

The failures of leadership at the top, however, show no sign of being corrected. In a serious public-health crisis, the public has the right to expect the government’s chief executive to lead in a number of crucial ways: by prioritizing the problem properly, by deferring to subject-matter experts when appropriate while making key decisions in informed and sensible ways, by providing honest and careful information to the country, by calming fears and setting expectations, and by addressing mistakes and setbacks.

Trump so far

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One of the London Bi Pandas wrote a blog post about last night’s heroic women-bullying escapade:

Yesterday, we held a peaceful rally protesting and picketing an event held by Labour Women’s Declaration.

It wasn’t peaceful, but leaving that aside – they held a rally to protest and picket women having a meeting. They did that, and they find it so normal that they announce it as if it were going to the shop for some Heinz tinned beans. I guess we’re not supposed to meet and talk at all.

The event’s purpose was to force the Labour Party into enforcing “sex-based rights” and “challenge extremist gender ideology and say that sex matters”. The event hosted speakers from the Anti-Trans

… Read the rest

Apparently a group called London Bi Pandas organized the smoke-bomb “protest” last night, or at least they participated in it and are now talking about it as their project.

https://twitter.com/LondonBiPandas/status/1237168110026833920

What is this “no TERFs on our turf” supposed to mean, anyway? How is it “their turf”? Is the whole world their “turf” that we pesky women are trespassing on? How about no egomaniacal bullies on women’s “turf”? That seems closer to fair.

The “apology” for the smoke bombs impressed no one.

https://twitter.com/boodleoops/status/1237319337528229888 https://twitter.com/aniobrien/status/1237308147326320640 https://twitter.com/Slipstream60/status/1237324423520292865… Read the rest

Trump is doing a best of both worlds thing on the virus – telling us to relax and ignore all the warnings and instructions, while telling the Secret Service to keep the sickies away from him.

Stories about Trump’s coronavirus fears have spread through the White House. Last week Trump told aides he’s afraid journalists will try to purposefully contract coronavirus to give it to him on Air Force One, a person close to the administration told me. The source also said Trump has asked the Secret Service to set up a screening program and bar anyone who has a cough from the White House grounds. “He’s definitely melting down over this,” the source said.

But thus far Trump’s private

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Sometimes they do take my breath away. This is one of those times. The Miami Herald reports:

Immigration court staff nationwide were ordered by the Trump administration to take down all coronavirus posters from courtrooms and waiting areas.

The Executive Office for Immigration Review, which falls under the Department of Justice, told all judges and staff members in an email Monday that all coronavirus posters, which explain in English and Spanish how to prevent catching and spreading the virus, had to be removed immediately.

So that immigrants will have a better shot at catching the virus, I guess. Which is breathtaking even for them.

“This is just a reminder that immigration judges do not have the authority to post,

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That “protest” outside the women’s meeting last night was even more vile than the contemporaneous tweets indicated.

https://twitter.com/ruthserwotka/status/1237316952491806721

It takes a little effort to puzzle out the image. It’s a guy in a hoody with a mask over his face, with a zipper where his mouth would be, and a pink-wrapped phallus.

The leather mask worn by Cook had a zipper where his mouth was – look at the mask worn by the person in the picture from last night and it is exactly the same – so someone was dressed as a notorious rapist outside a meeting of women. Absolutely horrific.

— James Martin (@Jim_Lancashire) March 10, 2020

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More on the smoke bombers near Grenfell Tower trying to bully women out of speaking for women’s rights.

https://twitter.com/Docstockk/status/1237151327555371009 https://twitter.com/charmalotta/status/1237123375455186945 https://twitter.com/luluchops1/status/1237143797944987651

We're meeting within yards of #GrenfellTower and the man's rights mafia bullies outside have just set off smoke bombs. Hey, @lisanandy @Keir_Starmer @RLong_Bailey do you still stand up for this spiteful, willful, Orwellian crap? #ExpelMe

— Bessie Smith (@BeeeWonderful) March 9, 2020

https://twitter.com/VPointon/status/1237123712501121033 … Read the rest

I haven’t found any non-Twitter reporting on this yet. I hope there will be some.

https://twitter.com/IvanaOpinion/status/1237124051933507589

abuse from the protesters, had their photos taken by them & were generally subjected to intimidating behaviour. At the end of the meeting they set off smoke bombs right outside. The meeting was close to the Grenfell Tower site. The last speaker was @luluchops1 – 2/

— Rachel Corry (@rjcorry) March 9, 2020

Smoke bombs. Near Grenfell Tower. Because women meet to defend women’s rights.… Read the rest

Wait wait wait hold the phone.

https://twitter.com/Amy_Siskind/status/1237135871721308165

So Trump is going to have to be quarantined?

Thoughts and prayers, people, thoughts and prayers.… Read the rest