Political discourse today, state of.

good morning @the_point_mag i do not appreciate criticism of my work being put in the same category as the deplatforming of a full blown card carrying terf!!!!! whose “comments on sex and gender identity” you do not even bother to describe!!!! pic.twitter.com/LzjDNro67m

— wife of the mind (@andrealongchu) May 25, 2019

There’s a card you can carry? An official card, with your name on it, issued by the head office? Why wasn’t I told?

deplatforming isn’t predicated on some elitist notion of “protecting” the public from “threatening” ideas, it’s about taking money and resources away from our OBVIOUS ENEMIES, milo’s deplatforming was literally about bankrupting him AND IT WORKED

— wife of the mind (@andrealongchu)

Originally a comment by cluecat on We are talking about identity here.

How people cannot see that this is a male-supremacist idea/movement is beyond me, I’m afraid.

If it was really about Identitay, and everyone being able to force others to see them as they see themselves, women & girls would be able to make everyone see us (and therefore treat us) as Real People. This would mean much less sexual violence committed by males against us, the obvious fact that bodily autonomy trumps anyone else’s wants regarding using us as brood mares, the pay gaps/work gaps would vanish (the Second Shift would be a thing of the past), and so on.

What we get instead is this deliberate … Read the rest

Facebook isn’t helping.

Facebook says it will continue to host a video of Nancy Pelosi that has been edited to give the impression that the Democratic House speaker is drunk or unwell, in the latest incident highlighting its struggle to deal with disinformation.

What struggle? Saying “no” isn’t a struggle. Saying “no” is dead easy.

The viral clip shows Pelosi – who has publicly angered Donald Trump in recent days – speaking at an event, but it has been slowed down to give the impression she is slurring her words. Several versions of the clip appeared to be circulating.

The president’s personal lawyer, the former mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani, was among the Trump supporters who promoted the

Naomi Wolf has a new book out. In it she says that a teenage boy was executed for sodomy in 1859, but in fact he was paroled two years after he was convicted.

Silver, who was 14 when he was convicted, is just one of several cases cited in the book but, according to the writer and broadcaster Matthew Sweet, the error stems from a simple misreading of a historical record and raises wider questions about the argument Wolf puts forward.

In Outrages, which was published by Virago, Wolf examines the effect of 19th-century legal changes on the lives of Victorian poets such as John Addington Symonds and argues that the Obscene Publications Act of 1857 marked a turning

Seen on Facebook:

How to strangle a woman during sex SAFELY. (Funny how it’s the woman getting strangled, isn’t it.)

Nah, I say forget strangling people SAFELY, don’t strangle them at all.… Read the rest

What is a doula? Ask the Google.

dou·la
/ˈdo͞olə/
noun
a woman, typically without formal obstetric training, who is employed to provide guidance and support to a pregnant woman during labor.
“from admission through delivery, a doula stayed at her assigned patient’s side”
a woman employed to provide guidance and support to the mother of a newborn baby.
“my mother-in-law hired a postpartum doula to help me for a couple of weeks”

So what do we find?

That Doula Guy

That’s not a “taboo,” it’s a fact. Men can’t give birth; just a fact, ma’am.

Tell us about yourself, Mac Brydum.

“That Doula Guy” is Mac Brydum.

Specializing in comprehensive doula support, including labor support, postpartum care, infant sleep

Meanwhile Trump is also abusing his power by trying to muscle the Army Corps of Engineers to buy its new border wall from a company he favors because he’s a corrupt mob boss.

The Post reports:

In phone calls, White House meetings and conversations aboard Air Force One during the past several months, Trump has aggressively pushed Dickinson, N.D.-based Fisher Industries to Department of Homeland Security leaders and Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, the commanding general of the Army Corps, according to the administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal discussions.

It may be a not-very-subtle sign of the frustration in the Army that the news leaked to the Post the same day that

Oh, really?

https://twitter.com/Docstockk/status/1131964691746574336

Edward Lord is the boss of the move to take women-only spaces away from women in London. Edward Lord has also blocked every single obstreperous woman on Twitter whether he’s ever interacted with them or not, in other words he uses a sweeping block list. Women who object to having women-only spaces taken away may not tell Edward Lord of their objections; he won’t allow it. Lord indeed.

https://twitter.com/Docstockk/status/1131966804778213376

So I’m reading the Telegraph article.

The architect of a gender identity drive who campaigns for transgender rights has been forced to defend their membership of the Freemasons amid accusations of hypocrisy.

Edward Lord chairs the City of London’s establishment committee, which has launched a consultation on

Quinta Jurecic on why Trump has to be impeached:

Here are the facts: The president is unsuited to his office. That should have been obvious well before the release of the special counsel’s report, but the text of the report, even with a smattering of redactions, makes his unfitness brutally clear. He shows no understanding of the responsibilities of the presidency. He delights in the abuse of his power. As Memorial Day approaches, he is reportedly planning to celebrate the holiday by pardoning, among other service members accused of war crimes, a Navy SEAL scheduled to stand trial for the murder of multiple unarmed Iraqi civilians.

Because hooray for murdering unarmed civilians in foreign countries; that’s what we stand … Read the rest

Hmmm.

WATCH: Is biological sex binary?@JoanMcAlpine MSP says women are discriminated against because of their biological sex. @MaggieChapman argues that the issue of reforming the Gender Recognition Act, is about identity not sex. See the full #scotnight debate at 10.40pm tonight. pic.twitter.com/NEgOU0mHhh

— ScotlandTonight (@ScotlandTonight) May 23, 2019

JM: Women are discriminated against because of their biological sex, and we can’t erase that because if we erase that we’re erasing women.

MC: But we know that biological sex is not binary…Biological sex is not binary. We are talking about identity here Joan…

What is identity then? What are people using it to mean? It’s become a magic word that means whatever you need it to mean in the moment … Read the rest

Oh, Pakistan tells WordPress to block Jesus and Mo, does it?

Pakistan authorities ask WordPress to block posts showing J&M strips, and WordPress says "sure" https://t.co/9uZOAgCfTA

— AuthorJ&M (@JandMo) May 23, 2019

Okay then.

… Read the rest

The purge begins.

….during the 2016 Presidential election. The Attorney General has also been delegated full and complete authority to declassify information pertaining to this investigation, in accordance with the long-established standards for handling classified information….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2019

….Today’s action will help ensure that all Americans learn the truth about the events that occurred, and the actions that were taken, during the last Presidential election and will restore confidence in our public institutions.” @PressSec

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2019

Show trials. Executions at dawn. Reprisals.

Whoa. So Barr has the sole authority to declassify info related to the Trump investigation over the objections of the original classifying authority – CIA, NSA,

Oy.

Trump is unbelievably egotistical pic.twitter.com/eKm38oyjRZ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 23, 2019

Oyy.

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1131672516622209024… Read the rest

Also

https://twitter.com/HadleyFreeman/status/1131523362415624193

An associate editor of @VICE wants to milkshake me, @HadleyFreeman and @helenlewis, women journalists who disagree with her views on gender. Right. I’d quite like to see the rules on who deserves physical assault and why. Seems only fair. https://t.co/7oososR3ud

— Janice Turner (@VictoriaPeckham) May 23, 2019

Is Emma Garland embarrassed? Hahaha don’t be silly.

https://twitter.com/emmaggarland/status/1131527830817443840… Read the rest

The Guardian reports a policy change:

Transgender women have had their right to use Hampstead Heath ponds formalised in a new policy.

The City of London Corporation (CoLC), which manages Hampstead Heath and its ponds, announced that it had adopted a new gender identity policy to make sure services in the area “are fully compliant with the Equality Act 2010, and do not discriminate against trans people”.

In January, the City of London, confirmed that the ladies’ pond – which counts people such as the actor Helena Bonham Carter and novelist Esther Freud among its swimmers – was open to transgender women. That was formalised in an announcement on Thursday that the new rules would “ensure a robust

Hmmmm, really?

Morning @Womans_Place_UK . Being transgender is an innate part of the human condition. The only debate to be had about that is how best to deliver trans rights and healthcare.

You can have a thousand sweaty meetings in secret locations, and that will never change.

— Aidan Comerford (@AidanCTweets) May 23, 2019

Being transgender is an innate part of the human condition? So everybody is trans – which is pretty much the same as saying nobody is trans. If everybody is trans we just carry on as before.

But if that is true, why were we never told it before? Why in all this time, when humans were inventing agriculture and trade and alphabets and yoga and the … Read the rest

Men who have nothing but contempt for women have a gold mine in trans activism.

Oh wow @NewStatesman went full TERF. This article is one of the most bad faith hateful pieces of writing I've read in a while.https://t.co/ApphkebBf3 pic.twitter.com/1VjUx7f7SP

— Ryan Broderick (@broderick) May 22, 2019

He must not read anything at all, then, because it isn’t.

But never mind. He knows how to put women in their place.

the only upside to being astroturfed by radicalized mumsnet users is they think I'm actually capable of growing a beard https://t.co/phStWFAC0U

— Ryan Broderick (@broderick) May 22, 2019

Ooooooh radicalized mumsnet users – a tactful way of saying “stupid bitches.” Stupid women with their “babies” and “children,” what can … Read the rest