All entries by this author
Jul 3rd, 2019 12:15 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Pink News issues a correction and apology:
Last week we published and tweeted a story claiming Joanna Cherry QC the MP For Edinburgh South West and the SNP Justice and Home Affairs Spokesperson was being investigated for homophobia. The claim was untrue and we would like to apologise unreservedly to Ms Cherry.
It is well known that Ms Cherry is a human rights lawyer. She came out as a lesbian over 30 years ago and campaigned against section 28. She has spent a lifetime marching and campaigning for the rights of the LGBT+ community and as a politician regularly speaks up for their rights in parliament and beyond.
It was not our intention nor is it in our interest
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2 comments
Jul 3rd, 2019 11:14 am |
By Ophelia Benson
The Washington Post editorial board is not a fan of Trump’s plans for July 4.
It was bad enough that Mr. Trump sought to make the holiday about himself with plans to deliver a nationally televised address from the Lincoln Memorial, thus eliminating what many consider the hands-down best spot in Washington for fellowship and fireworks on the Fourth of July. But Mr. Trump now plans to cordon off an area in front of the memorial reserved just for dignitaries, family and friends. Nothing about reserved seating says “We the people.”
Equally, if not more troubling, is his insistence on a display of military might that will include a flyover of warplanes and the stationing of tanks or other
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Jul 3rd, 2019 10:36 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Won’t somebody please think of the rapist?
Again.
A judge suggested that a teenage boy accused of raping a drunk girl at a party should be treated leniently because he came from “a good family”, and cast doubt on whether such an attack amounted to rape at all.
Judge James Troiano in New Jersey made the remarks while ruling that the boy, who was identified only as “GMC”, should not face trial as an adult for allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl while recording the incident on his mobile phone.
“This young man comes from a good family who put him into an excellent school where he was doing extremely well,” Troiano said. “He is clearly a candidate for not just
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14 comments
Tags: Rape
Jul 2nd, 2019 5:00 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
The BBC raises a skeptical eyebrow at Donnie Two-scoops’s wannabe-Mussolini parade.
“We’re going to have planes going overhead – the best fighter jets in the world and other planes too,” the Republican president told reporters at the White House on Monday.
“And we’re going to have some tanks stationed outside.”
He said the event will “be like no other, it’ll be special”.
You can hear them sniggering from all the way over here.
City leaders have spoken out against the idea.
“We have said it before, and we’ll say it again: Tanks, but no tanks,” the District of Columbia council tweeted on Monday.
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
6 comments
Tags: Trump
Jul 2nd, 2019 4:37 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Hmmm. What are we saying here?
Trans women are not safe in male changing rooms, so women and girls have to share changing rooms with them.
But women and girls are not safe in male changing rooms either, so why do they have to make their changing rooms less safe for them in order to make them more safe for trans women? Why does the obligation always … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
18 comments
Jul 2nd, 2019 10:56 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Trump is putting on the full fascist display for the 4th of July, at least as close to it as he can get.
Donald Trump said on Monday that a display of US military tanks would be part of a special event he is headlining on the Fourth of July in Washington.
As if that were just normal, but it isn’t.
Trump had wanted a military parade of tanks and other equipment in the District of Columbia after he witnessed a similar parade on Bastille Day in Paris in 2017. That plan eventually was scuttled, partly because of cost, though Trump apparently held on to the idea.
Want tanks! Want tanks n planes n sojers n noise! Am big … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
11 comments
Jul 2nd, 2019 9:15 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Some House Democrats went to inspect two border prisons yesterday. The news is not good.
They described horrific circumstances at facilities on the same day the investigative news organization ProPublica revealed a closed Facebook group in which current and former Border Patrol agents reportedly share jokes about migrant deaths, derogatory comments about Latina lawmakers and a lewd meme involving at least one of them. The posts have been turned over to the Department of Homeland Security inspector general, said US Border Patrol Chief of Operations Brian Hastings.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was among the Democratic lawmakers who toured a facility here Monday following reports of squalid conditions for detained migrants at the border, overcrowded facilities and thinly stretched resources. She
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7 comments
Jul 2nd, 2019 8:19 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Large generalization department.
All leftists and progressives (as opposed to “liberals” by which Shermer means libertarians) respond to the assault on Andy Ngo by saying he deserved it.
Really?
No. Of course not. Some do, but everyone to the left of Shermer? Don’t be ridiculous.
He also embarrassed himself by saying that Nazism was anti-capitalist. He deleted that one.… Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
10 comments
Jul 1st, 2019 5:06 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Still more.
https://twitter.com/Stutheeditor/status/1145684020904308737
https://twitter.com/OmnomnomPretzel/status/1145708738474577921
https://twitter.com/brianfraga/status/1145706626005045249
https://twitter.com/somekindahippie/status/1145715986143883264
https://twitter.com/DevonKiwi/status/1145745745942913031… Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
6 comments
Tags: Princess Ivanka
Jul 1st, 2019 4:39 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Uh oh. Again. It was the Canadian Arctic, it was the Himalayas, now it’s the Antarctic. All the ice that we thought was so locked up is melting much faster than expected.
The vast expanse of sea ice around Antarctica has suffered a “precipitous” fall since 2014, satellite data shows, and fell at a faster rate than seen in the Arctic.
The plunge in the average annual extent means Antarctica lost as much sea ice in four years as the Arctic lost in 34 years. The cause of the sharp Antarctic losses is as yet unknown and only time will tell whether the ice recovers or continues to decline.
But researchers said it showed ice could disappear
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1 Comment »
Jul 1st, 2019 4:03 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Hey, here’s an idea, let’s put women back into corsets. People who can’t breathe properly can’t rebel.
Kim Kardashian West is perched on a chair. She’s not quite sitting; instead, she’s pushing her hands into the armrests then leaning against the cushion. Her figure is grotesque: above her generous hips rests an already small waist, tightened beyond belief thanks to a flesh-coloured corset. She addresses the camera. “Anna, if I don’t sit down for dinner, now you know why. I’ll be walking around mingling, talking, but I can hardly sit …” – she tries to sit, she can’t – “I can only half-sit.”
…Perhaps she was right not to sit; a few weeks later, actor Elle Fanning attended a
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5 comments
Jul 1st, 2019 10:59 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Pro Publica reports:
Members of a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents joked about the deaths of migrants, discussed throwing burritos at Latino members of Congress visiting a detention facility in Texas on Monday and posted a vulgar illustration depicting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engaged in oral sex with a detained migrant, according to screenshots of their postings.
In one exchange, group members responded with indifference and wisecracks to the post of a news story about a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant who died in May while in custody at a Border Patrol station in Weslaco, Texas. One member posted a GIF of Elmo with the quote, “Oh well.” Another responded with an image and the words “If
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20 comments
Jul 1st, 2019 9:37 am |
By Ophelia Benson
More.
https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1145431713222397953
https://twitter.com/thor_benson/status/1145433455435628547
https://twitter.com/Rschooley/status/1145567832458948608
Nice one, because that’s Trump’s “mentor” and hero Roy Cohn there next to McCarthy.
https://twitter.com/brewmasterbones/status/1145469303271100422
… Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
7 comments