Originally a comment by Bruce Gorton on Appearance counts.

This whole sorry saga reminds me heavily of Nhlanhla Nene.

Siyabonga Nene, Nhlanhla’s son, and his business partner Muhammad Amir Mirza had approached the Public Investment Corporation for a business loan when Nhlanhla was in charge there.

The plan was that their company, Indiafrec Trade and Invest would use the money to buy a 50% stake in S&S Refinery LDA in Mozambique.

The thing is – Nhlanhla was in fact furious with his son for the attempted use of him as a connection, and it was only after Siyabonga resigned from Indiafrec Trade and Invest that eventually the loan went through.

Siyabonga so far as anyone is aware, never saw … Read the rest

Trump is terribly worried about his dear friend the Saudi king.

When a Saudi Air Force officer opened fire on his classmates at a naval base in Pensacola, Fla., on Friday, he killed three, wounded eight and exposed anew the strange dynamic between President Trump and the Saudi leadership: The president’s first instinct was to tamp down any suggestion that the Saudi government needed to be held to account.

Hours later, Mr. Trump announced on Twitter that he had received a condolence call from King Salman of Saudi Arabia, who clearly sought to ensure that the episode did not further fracture their relationship. On Saturday, leaving the White House for a trip here for a Republican fund-raiser and a

… Read the rest

News from India:

An Indian woman who was set on fire on her way to testify against her alleged rapists has died of her injuries.

The 23-year-old died late on Friday after suffering cardiac arrest at a Delhi hospital. She had 90% burns.

She was attacked on Thursday as she was walking to a hearing in the rape case she filed against two men in March in Unnao, in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

Cis privilege.

H/t Holms… Read the rest

Biden continues to be a jerk.

Joe Biden vehemently defended how he handles criticisms of his son Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine Friday night, one day after he got into a heated exchange with a man who asked him about his role in his son’s work at a campaign event.

“Every time I’ve been asked about it, my response has been, ‘This is about Donald Trump, period, period, period,” the former vice president told reporters aboard his campaign bus in Iowa Friday night, when asked about his answers to questions about his son.

That’s not for him to say. He did nothing when his son accepted a lavishly compensated job that he would never have been offered if he … Read the rest

The Sunday Times reports:

A woman who asked for her NHS breast-screening to be carried out by a female-born clinician was pilloried as a transphobe by a hospital trust.

Clare Dimyon, 54, who was raped as a teenager and is a lesbian, wrote formal letters asking to be seen by a “natal female” when she went for a mammogram on Christmas Eve last year.

She made clear that after being violated by a man when she was “little more than a child” she did not consent to intimate procedures being carried out by people born as boys.

Hey you know what, we shouldn’t have to cite traumatic experiences to want a woman doing that job. I’ll tell you why: … Read the rest

The Seattle Public Library is (of course) being flooded with how dare yous.

Due to the very high volume of response we are receiving about a Feb. 1 Women's Liberation Front private event, we are unable to respond to every comment. Each is being tracked and taken seriously. For more, please see our Chief Librarian's statement:https://t.co/cQwhRtcAv4

— Seattle Public Library (@SPLBuzz) December 7, 2019

One source of the very high volume of response is on reddit:

The Seattle Public Library is hosting a TERF event on February 1st. If you have time, please call and leave a complaint, (206) 386-4636

What group is this? r/MtF. Not an umbrella group for trans people but a group specifically for men … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Artymorty on We can’t tell.

Trans activists have insisted their goal is to remove all distinctions between transwomen and women, but they have an unspoken secondary objective: the removal of all distinctions between transwomen and men. And when your group is literally indistinguishable from men, you don’t get to simultaneously argue that your group is distinguishable from them. If these people insist they aren’t men, why the hell are they working so hard to dismantle every possible metric, every check and balance that could be used to separate “genuine” transwomen from ordinary men?

It’s trans activists who insisted on removing all material distinctions between transwomen and men, complaining that womanhood was being guarded by … Read the rest

So why did Essex cancel the seminar? Well it’s like this…

https://twitter.com/mattlodder/status/1202724292892536834

Oh no, clearly it’s something else altogether. Mice in the walls, perhaps?

https://twitter.com/moose_malloy/status/1202892890202087424

Ohhhhh, concerns were raised about the speaker. Say no more. In that case what could the university possibly do but cancel the seminar? Concerns. [shudder] It doesn’t bear thinking about.

https://twitter.com/moose_malloy/status/1202952629820760067

They literally just raised concerns! That’s all! There is nothing sinister about that at all whatsoever, and it is never a herald of glass-shattering levels of outrage and protest and shrieking and threats.

Let us all pray that no one ever Raises Concerns about us.… Read the rest

A story in three tweets.

Prof Jo Phoenix, The Open University, will give a talk on "#Trans rights and justice: complicated contours in contemporary sex, gender and sexualities politics when thinking about issues of justice and punishment".

Join us at @Uni_of_Essex on Dec 5! pic.twitter.com/E0CEcUQpPN

— Criminology @ Essex (@UoECrim) December 2, 2019

Happening tomorrow!#transrights #genderpolitics https://t.co/ysE4f95qDv

— Criminology @ Essex (@UoECrim) December 4, 2019

This afternoon’s seminar was cancelled as we were concerned open debate and discussion might be obstructed

— Criminology @ Essex (@UoECrim) December 5, 2019

Well, that takes care of that.… Read the rest

Really this Wollaston confusion is central to the whole mess. It’s the conflation of “men will take advantage of the new rules to prey on women” and “trans women will take advantage of the new rules to prey on women.” The second is not what gender critical feminists are saying! What we are saying is that we have no way of knowing who is which and that it’s neither fair nor safe to put the burden of figuring it out on women.… Read the rest

The US has always had a massive anti-intellectual streak, but as with everything else, Republicans have been energetically making it worse since McCarthy, or the New Deal, or Coolidge.

Some argue that this worldview has become even more prevalent in the era of Trump, who while campaigning for the presidency appeared to dismiss the expertise often found at institutions of higher education.

“I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain, and I’ve said a lot of things,” Trump said in March 2016 on MSNBC, when asked who he consults on foreign policy issues. “My primary consultant is myself, and I have a good instinct for this stuff.”

He doesn’t though.

That certainly seemed to be

… Read the rest

… Read the rest

“The idea these people are a threat to other women is an assumption we should challenge”.

Dr Sarah Wollaston comments on the Lib Dems’ plans to reform the Gender Recognition Act#Newsnight | @sarahwollaston pic.twitter.com/ou6ZYgcD1D

— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) December 4, 2019

“The point is of course that there will be a very tiny number of individuals who will seek to exploit this”

But that isn’t what the point is, because she can’t possibly know that the number will be “very tiny,” and the reality is that it almost certainly won’t be tiny, because once it becomes possible and legal and respectable for men to be in women’s spaces then more than a “tiny number” of men will rush to … Read the rest

This is every bit as weird as it seems, and weirder.

"We have a situation where we're looking very strongly at sinks and showers, and other elements of bathrooms," Trump says.

"People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once." pic.twitter.com/asDjGxuFts

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 6, 2019

… Read the rest

Oh here we go.

This is happening next February 1:

So of course yells of rage are rolling in. The chief librarian writes:

Dear patrons, I wanted to share some information about a private event scheduled at the Central Library this February 1, 2020 that is already generating a lot of attention, questions and concern.

A nonprofit group called the Women’s Liberation Front made a booking last month for space at the Central Library to hold a private event labeled as a women’s rights talk and presentation. It appeared to be a very simple booking request that was processed like any other. Our Event Services staff followed Library protocol, as always. Per our Intellectual Freedom and Meeting Room Booking

… Read the rest

Oy, another “someone said it therefore it’s true and you’re wrong to question it” from a philosopher. Yes, that one, of course.

It’s McKinnon by the way, he’s moved to a new account blah blah who cares.

https://twitter.com/SportIsARight/status/1202218662368817152

The fact that the International Olympic Committee said it doesn’t make it true. The NRA says it’s a sacred right to have an unlimited number of guns of unlimited fire power, but that doesn’t make it true. People say things, organizations say things; the saying doesn’t magically make the said things true.

McKinnon himself would be the first to agree when it’s feminist women who don’t believe men can become women saying something. When women say we have a right to … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug on Misogyny forever for the union makes us feeble.

When gender apologists speak of “inclusion” and fighting for the liberation of “all women” (as opposed to “only ‘cis’ women”), clearly what we are meant to envision is taking the circle that already includes the ‘cis’ women and expanding it to also include the ‘trans’ women. As always when it comes to alt-left slogans (Not arguments. As we all know, the alt-left isn’t in the argumentation business), we’re supposed to hear it, let it resonate just long enough to have some warm fuzzy gut reaction and then think about it no more.

If you do think about it (and are therefore guilty of … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Bruce Gorton on Fiery, what fiery?

That, I think is the real problem with the Democrats, its as Machiavelli put it:

A prince is also much respected but he is either a true friend or a downright enemy. In other words, when he declares himself without any reservation in favour of one party against the other. This will always be more favourable than remaining neutral.

Or to put it another way – the Democratic Party has pushed so hard towards this sort of centrist “we can appeal to the other side” thing that they’ve lost a lot of what appeal they once had. It is often better to pick a side.

The line I thought that … Read the rest

Why would anyone need regulations on dangerous chemicals? We all have sense enough to stay away from dangerous chemicals without any damn government bureaucrat telling us to, don’t we?

A few days ago in Texas:

Early Wednesday morning, inside a chemical manufacturing complex just southeast of Beaumont, a building erupted in a ball of flames, injuring eight people and sending acrid smoke wafting over southeast Texas. The explosion and subsequent fires at the Texas Petroleum Chemicals (TPC) Group plant, located near a residential area in Port Neches, knocked out the windows and damaged roofs of surrounding homes. The day before Thanksgiving, residents within the four-mile radius of the plant were ordered to evacuate.

Ok…well…so don’t live four miles from … Read the rest

The Guardian reports:

Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer who has become a key figure in the impeachment inquiry, is now proposing a joint US-Ukrainian probe to investigate potential corruption by officials from both countries.

In reviewing my notes, it seems to me that a large scale joint investigation into Ukraine and the US would uncover and recover billions stolen by crooks, from both countries, at the highest levels.

This would be the most effective way to bring our two countries together.

— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) December 6, 2019

He says that as if we were eagerly awaiting his thoughts on how to bring the US and Ukraine together, when in fact he’s almost the very last person … Read the rest