It’s the turn of the NY Times to run a think piece by a trans woman full of empty slogans and bereft of argument.

A contentious row began last month, when the Labour Campaign for Trans Rights announced itself with 12 pledges, which ranged from recognizing trans people’s oppression — at risk of hate crime and denied equal access to public services, health care, housing and employment — to supporting the expulsion of members who express transphobic views.

Some people had the gall to object, especially to the threat to expel members who commit a crime with no definition or examples offered.

To many, the sight of a center-left party failing to support trans rights without equivocation must be

Laurie Penny is at it again.

The question is not ‘are trans women women?’
The question is ‘are trans women people?’
Do you believe that trans people are human beings, people like who deserve safety, dignity and protection from violence just like anyone else? Or are trans lives an abstract concept to you?

— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 8, 2020

Will you look at that. ” The question is ‘are trans women people?’” No it isn’t! Nobody says trans women are not people. Skeptics of trans dogma say trans women are men, and correct me if I’m wrong but I’m pretty sure men count as people.

Laurie, this is a ridiculous question. Of course we all (apart from total scumbag

Originally a comment by Tim Harris on The patriarchy that oppresses us all.

I refuse to be defined by MY biology. That’s what more than a century of feminism has been fighting for.I will be defined by MY values, MY ambitions, the company I keep, the work I do, the mistakes I make, the entertainment I enjoy and the people who love me.

At least she appears to admit she has a ‘biology’, though she appears to prefer to be without it. One notices that it is first of all by ‘MY values, MY ambitions’ that she would be defined, and then by a few things that ‘I’ do or enjoy, and in last place by ‘the people who … Read the rest

David Remnick on the horror of having Trump in charge during a potential epidemic:

Donald Trump is incapable of truth, heedless of science, and hostage to the demands of his insatiable ego.

Recall, since the start of the coronavirus crisis, the litany of bogus assurances, “hunches,” misinformation, magical thinking, drive-by political shootings, and self-stroking:

“We have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”

“By April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.”

“The Obama Administration made a decision on testing that turned out to be detrimental to what we’re doing . . . ”

“We’re going very substantially down, not up. . . . We have it so well under control.

What is wrong with these people?

As Congress worked to pass an $8.3 billion emergency funding to address the mounting coronavirus outbreak on Wednesday, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida wore a large gas mask on the House floor.

Gaetz posted an image of himself wearing the mask on Twitter Wednesday, later tweeting that he had ultimately decided to back the funding bill, but “didn’t feel good” about its cost.

Reviewing the coronavirus supplemental appropriation and preparing to go vote. pic.twitter.com/wjJ4YY4VZz

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) March 4, 2020

Hurr hurr. Nothing funnier than a disease outbreak that kills people.

Just two days later, Florida announced that two people had died after contracting the virus, including one of Gaetz’s own

Philosopher Jennifer Saul jumps on the “bash Suzanne Moore train:

Suzanne Moore, a columnist at the Guardian, says she identifies as “a woman who won’t go down quietly.” But to many, she’s a trans-exclusionary radical feminist — a TERF. Some say TERF is a slur. It isn’t. But it is a misleading term for anti-trans activists like Moore.

So Suzanne Moore doesn’t get to identify as a woman who won’t go quietly, but men do get to identify as women. Moore is to be doubted and called names, but men who say they are women are to be shielded from those nasty women (like Moore for instance) at all costs. Meet the new feminism, the opposite … Read the rest

Alex Massie at the Spectator wonders why so many people who work at the Guardian appear to hate journalism.

That is the first and most glaring conclusion to be drawn from the extraordinary letter signed by 338 Guardian and Observer employees lamenting the paper’s willingness to run a column written by the great Suzanne Moore earlier this week, in which Moore argued that “we have gone through the looking-glass and are being told that sex is a construct” and that “you either protect women’s rights as sex-based or you don’t protect them at all”.

The signatories to the letter sent to Kath Viner, the paper’s editor, deplore what they deem the Guardian’s “pattern of publishing transphobic content” though, vexingly,

Trump isn’t going to like this.

The government’s top infectious disease expert on Sunday said that the coronavirus outbreak is getting worse and warned elderly and sick people to think twice before traveling or circulating in crowds.

The remarks from Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, signaled a change in tone from health officials representing the Trump administration, making it clear that the outbreak is past the point where it can be prevented from spreading or easily tracked. That contrasted with the more measured language from some Trump officials including Vice President Mike Pence.

“Measured” is a flattering word for it. I would call it recklessly minimizing.

“If you get infected, the

Even the UN.

Not in the other languages, mind – those other women get to keep their name. But Anglophone women? Nah, they’re too second wave and privileged and phobic.

Womxn
Trans
Genderqueer
Femme
Mujer
女人
Mulher
женщина
Donna
Mwanamke
女性
Frau
Kadın
Γυναίκα
Կինը
Femina
महिला
Mulher
নারী
Vrouw
여자
Babae
Manਰਤ
النساء

Today we celebrate every woman who resists patriarchy, insists on equality and persists for a better future. #IWD2020

— UN Women (@UN_Women) March 8, 2020

… Read the rest

News:

The American Conservative Union announced on Saturday that one of the attendees at last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, has tested positive for coronavirus.

President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and other administration officials attended the conference, though the ACU says the attendee did not come into contact with the president or vice president, nor did they attend events in the main hall.

Ah but the attendee is not necessarily the only attendee carrying the virus. Maybe several people there, or many people there, would test positive if anyone tested them. You never know.

Do I hope Trump is pissing himself right now? Oh you bet I do.

The White House confirmed

Susan Dalgety in The Scotsman on why women have a right to call ourselves women:

For all the hard-won successes of the first and second waves of feminism, from the right to vote to the right to choose, women and girls are still second-class citizens.

From unequal pay to the US Supreme Court seriously considering whether or not to limit abortion rights, the battle for equality grinds on. Indeed, 50 years after the first Women’s Liberation event held in Oxford, it seems to be getting harder to argue against the patriarchy, especially when it is disguised in high heels and a blonde wig.

I could not have been the only woman of certain age who was aghast on Wednesday

Oh now what.

This is spinning out into a bigger, wider employment problem. More than 330 Guardian employees – one fifth of the workforce – have signed a letter to editor Kath Viner expressing concerns about the recent pieces on trans issues. https://t.co/MCcmq2iNyw

— Mark Di Stefano (@MarkDiStef) March 7, 2020

What concerns?

Patrick Strudwick at Buzzfeed presents a typically opaque version of events:

Hundreds of staff and contractors at the Guardian have signed a strongly worded letter to the editor in protest of the newspaper’s “pattern of publishing transphobic content”.

Careful, and unhelpful. His use of quotation marks hints that he doesn’t want to defend or even spell out what this “transphobic content” actually is, but he … Read the rest

The Guardian too was unimpressed by Trump’s performance yesterday.

Donald Trump used a freewheeling press conference on Friday, intended to provide updates on the coronavirus, as an opportunity to attack Democrats, praise his own intelligence, lash out at CNN and spread false and misleading information about the status of the outbreak, as a slew of new cases were confirmed aboard a cruise ship off the California coast.

Speaking at the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) main campus in Atlanta, Georgia, while wearing his red “Keep America Great” re-election campaign hat, the president went on a rant criticizing Washington state’s governor, Jay Inslee, as a “snake” and saying he disagreed with his vice-president’s complimentary remarks toward the Democrat. Inslee, who

Trump has a new chief of staff: Tea Party birther Mark Meadows.

With his choice, Trump tapped a lawmaker who was first elected in the post-Tea Party wave of 2012 and served as chairman of the Freedom Caucus. Meadows has been a key Trump ally since 2016 and the two reportedly talk frequently. During the impeachment battle, Trump and Meadows, who was instrumental in designing the president’s defense, talked several times a day.

Meadows also shares something else with the president, a past questioning of former President Barack Obama’s nationality. While campaigning in 2012, Meadows was asked if he would pursue an investigation to find out if Obama really is a citizen. “Yes,” Meadows responded. “If we do our

Here’s the bit where he starts babbling about his uncle and about him him him him him. He’s there to talk about a disease outbreak and instead he talks about his alternative career.

How much of this are we going to allow?
“I like this stuff! You know my uncle was a great person. He was over at MIT for like a record number of years. He was like a super genius. Dr.John Trump. I have a natural ability for this stuff”
It’s time #Trump is INSANE. #CORONAVIRUS pic.twitter.com/fKPIbIdMrp

— Bernie Connor (@BernieConnor9) March 6, 2020

Also…that collar.… Read the rest