Category: Notes and Comment Blog

  • Bringing out the worst

    What an unpleasant person.

    It’s not “being a bigot” for a woman to object to a man competing in women’s races. It is being a bully and a cheat for a man to compete in women’s races. It’s bizarre for a woman who claims to be a radical to abuse women for objecting to men destroying their chances.
    Ok that’s not just bizarre, that’s abusive. “Tenured radical” she calls herself, but she tells feminist women we have pathetic diseased minds.
    Is she drunk?

    Are mean rude bullies now tenured academics?

  • A few questions

    But sir…

    From the Scottish Daily Express:

    Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has claimed that banning trans women from using female bathrooms is a “dangerous road to go down” as he raised concerns about how this would be policed. He also insisted that he didn’t regret voting for Nicola Sturgeon’s controversial gender reforms, despite the issues they have raised now.

    But sir. But sir. You say “dangerous” but what about the danger to women if men who claim to be trans are not banned from using female bathrooms? Why do you worry about the danger to men while ignoring the danger to women? You are aware that male violence to women is a good deal more common than female violence to men, right? You are aware that men are significantly bigger and stronger than women, aren’t you? Why are you fretting about potential danger to men while ignoring potential danger to women? I suppose it’s because you’re a man yourself, is that it? Could you possibly try to do better?

  • Poor William

    Aw, diddums.

    Lia Thomas left feeling ‘devastated’ and ‘grief’

    Is he now the poor wee mite?

    Is anyone telling him to think about how girls have been left feeling because of him?

    Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas has revealed she felt “devastated” and experienced “grief” after being banned from competing against biological women.

    Thomas made these comments whilst serving as a keynote speaker at HiTOPS’ annual Trans Youth Forum at the weekend.

    Makes sense. Trans ideology doesn’t work unless everyone is rigorously trained to be indifferent to the harms to women and girls.

  • The lie is in the headline

    This time I’m not the only one saying it, there’s a flood of people saying it. No, you lying shits: the nurses don’t object to trans nurse using their changing room; they object to MALE nurse using their changing room. Stop lying about it.

  • Before you find yourself throwing up your hands in a tizzy

    Ok let’s see if I can stomach this. Dreadful pompous smug fencing coach in August 2023 telling women and girls why they should take a back seat and like it.

    So perhaps, before you dive in, it’s best to call out my beliefs up front before you waste your time reading this and find yourself throwing up your hands in a tizzy.

    He means women there. It’s only women who “throw up their hands in a tizzy.” It’s so womany – stupid, weak, emotional, futile. Already we know where we are.

    • Trasngender women are women and gender is not sex.
    • Transgender fencers deserve the right to compete with the gender they identify with, and those of adult age should comply with the competition guidelines and regulations outlined by USA Fencing and the IOC—even if the science those IOC guidelines might be imperfect.
    • A separate division denies them their truth to compete as their authentic selves and is antithetical to USA Fencing’s Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) vision.
    • There is a possibility that transgender women have a physical advantage over their cisgender opponents after transitioning. There is also a possibility they do not. In Fencing, there is no data to support either viewpoint.
    • Giving athletes a sense of belonging and a will to live is more powerful than medals and competitive glory.

    Transgender women are men. If they were women they would just be called women.

    Males who claim to be transgender have zero right to “compete with the gender they identify with” (presumably meaning as the gender they identify with), because males have physical advantages over females. It’s perfectly simple and obvious.

    Talk of “their truth” and “their authentic selves” is just cloying silly rhetoric, and in no way a reason to trash women’s sports.

    Of course men have an advantage over women before and after and during transitioning. There’s no “there is a possibility” about it.

    If giving athletes a sense of belonging and a will to live is so important why isn’t it as important for women as it is for men???

    What a horrible man.

    There’s a lot more. Basta.

  • His staunch position

    The rot is deep.

    A director on the USA Fencing board once published an opus in support of trans athletes — less than two years before the athletic organization disqualified a female fencer from a tournament because she refused to compete against a trans opponent.

    Damien Lehfeldt, the board’s elected at-large director, outlined his staunch position in a long-winded Aug. 30, 2023, blog post, in which he defended the right of trans fencers to compete against women, despite conceding they may have “a physical advantage.” 

    Can confirm. I started reading it but had to stop – it’s too enraging. I might go back to it later to gather some excerpts. It is indeed long-winded, and of course self-admiring, and smug as the smuggest thing that ever smugged. There are few things more annoying than reading a smug self-admiring long-winded asshole explain why it’s fine for men to ruin women’s sports.

    “There is a possibility that transgender women have a physical advantage over their cisgender opponents after transitioning,” the board member wrote. “There is also a possibility they do not. In Fencing, there is no data to support either viewpoint. Giving athletes a sense of belonging and a will to live is more powerful than medals and competitive glory,” [he] continued.

    Oh shut up. Of course there is not a possibility that men don’t have a physical advantage over women. And fuck off with your breezy giving away of women’s medals and competitive glory for the sake of men in skirts. Men like this guy just can’t believe their luck in finding a way to mess up women’s lives while pretending to be the good guys and getting away with it.

    Lehfeldt was part of the board that expelled Stephanie Turner from the Cherry Blossom Open in Maryland over the weekend because the 31-year-old opted to take a knee rather than compete against trans fencer Redmond Sullivan — a move that critics have ripped as unjust. 

    It’s unjust all right.

  • How can she possibly tell?

    From the tribunal:

    Not to mention at work as a doctor or nurse or similar.

    Well that is quite the admission, bro. He can’t get his head around the very idea that a woman would be startled and alarmed at the very least to see a man bounce into a women’s changing room. He’s confessing to having absolutely no clue what life is like for women.

    Every right to be there? Like hell. The only right he has to be there is the fanciful dangerous one bestowed on him by men like Grant Buttars.

  • Pronouns in Haworth

    Et tu Brontë Parsonage Museum?

    Meet the Senior Leadership Team:

    Our Senior Leadership Team steers the Brontë Parsonage Museum towards achieving our goals, and ensures we continue to work with our core values at heart.

    Contact list of staff members

    • Rebecca Yorke Pronouns She/her Role Director
    • Mhairi Tomlinson Pronouns She/her Role Head of Finance
    • Gail Price Pronouns She/her Role HR and Operations Manager
    • Ann Dinsdale Pronouns She/her Role Principal Curator

    Let’s see…does the Shakespeare Trust do that?

    Nope. Not a pronoun in sight.

    Dickens Museum?

    Nope. The staff seems to be all or mostly women – the real kind.

  • Proud of it

    Reduxx back in 2023 on men taking over women’s fencing.

    In November of 2022, USA Fencing adopted a Transgender and Nonbinary Athlete Policy which stated that division placement would be determined based on self-declared “gender identity” or “gender expression” rather than on biological sex.

    Now let’s pause for a second to think about who benefits from such a policy and who does not.

    Could it be that men benefit at the expense of women? And thus necessarily women are cheated for the pleasure of men?

    Yes, it could. It couldn’t be any other way. Everybody knows this.

    “USA Fencing will not discriminate on the basis of gender identity, regardless of sex assigned at birth, or any other form of gender expression for participation in any division,” read the policy. “As such, athletes will be permitted to participate in USA Fencing sanctioned events in a manner consistent with their gender identity/ expression, regardless of the gender associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.”

    And, more to the point, regardless of HOW FUCKING UNFAIR TO WOMEN such a policy is. So there, nyah.

    Rylie Rueda, previously known as Mateo, had a lackluster career in men’s fencing prior to identifying into the women’s category.

    From 2016 to 2017, Rueda finished 38th at the New England Intercollegiate Fencing Association Fall Invitational in the men’s division. According to a report on the Boston College (BC) website, Rueda continued to compete on the BC men’s fencing team in 2018, which ranked last overall following three matches against Harvard, Brandeis, and MIT.

    In 2019, after switching to the women’s category, he was awarded the gold medal and title of Champion in the Women’s Epee at Boston College. In 2022, Rueda took first place at the NCAA Regionals in the women’s category.

    Gosh, what fun for him. From nowhere to the top spot, just by pretending to idennify as a laydee.

    Dawn Wilson, another man who identifies as transgender, was recently profiled positively by USA Fencing for Pride Month on their official Instagram account, and claims he was involved in the creation of the formal “inclusivity” policy for USA Fencing.

    Wilson is currently rated 7th in the country in the Over 50 Women’s Division. According to his profile, Wilson is a two-time Women’s Veteran World Saber Champion, having received the title in both 2014 and 2015. He was also a US Veteran World Championship Team Member in 2017 and 2018 and has reached a world ranking of 14th on several occasions.

    A vocal trans activist, Wilson has expressed disapproval over a bill in his home state that would prevent the medical transitioning of minors. Kentucky’s Senate Bill 150, which was blocked by a federal judge at the end of June at the behest of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), would prohibit health care providers in the state from administering puberty-halting drugs and performing “gender-affirming” surgeries on children.

    Doctors have a Civil Liberty to maim confused children who say they’re the opposite sex.

    He currently sits on the board of the United States Fencing Association where he has served as the Kentucky Division Chair since 2013. Speaking with local outlet Spectrum News 1 in June, Wilson said he was involved in the creation of the transgender policy put in place last fall by USA Fencing.

    “One of the things with USA Fencing, especially with belonging, we take that very seriously,” Wilson said. “Because if you don’t feel like you belong, if you feel like you don’t have any agency there, you’re not going to do well in the sport.”

    Ahhh yes belonging. What a good thing belonging is. What a good thing a feeling of agency is. How sad that women don’t get to have either of those feelings, thanks to men like “Dawn” Wilson.

  • She brought a booklet of papers

    When babies fall out.

    Donald Trump fired six national security council staffers after a fraught meeting in the Oval Office where the far-right activist Laura Loomer presented opposition research against a number of staffers that she said showed they were disloyal to the US president, according to two people familiar with the matter.

    The firings encompassed four staffers who were fired overnight, after the meeting, and two who were removed over the weekend. It created the extraordinary situation where Loomer appeared to have more influence than the national security adviser, Mike Waltz, over the NSC and undercut Waltz in having aides axed under him.

    And when the Guardian says “Loomer” it means a completely random person off the street with no work history or expertise or learning or anything else that qualifies her to tell a head of state to fire her little list of people. Mind you the head of state is as unqualified as she is, but two wrongs don’t make a soufflé.

    Loomer brought a booklet of papers laying out the perceived disloyalty of about a dozen staffers, including Waltz’s principal deputy, Alex Wong, to the meeting, which was also attended by JD Vance, the chief of staff Susie Wiles, the commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and Waltz himself.

    While the firings appeared arbitrary, one of the people said that the White House looked through Loomer’s opposition research and verified parts of it. Ultimately, it found that one NSC official had recently criticized Trump on social media and others had ties to Republican establishment figures like the senators John McCain and Mitch McConnell, whom Trump despises.

    Rock solid proof that these are people we don’t like and don’t want at our lunch table so there!

    Loomer sat directly across from Trump in the Oval Office as she made her pitch to him directly to remove the people she was targeting. The New York Times reported that the Republican representative Scott Perry, who had his own concerns about staffers in the administration, was also trying to meet with Trump at the same time.

    Well yes but he’s just some random amateur outsider so obviously he’s not going to get time with the big kahuna.

  • A wider purge

    This all seems very reasonable and carefully thought through.

    The Trump administration has fired the head of both the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command, the BBC’s US partner CBS has reported. The removal of General Timothy Haugh comes amid what appears to be a wider purge of top security officials at the agency and at the White House.

    Democrats have said they are “deeply disturbed” by the move and say it jeopardises national security.

    It is not clear why Gen Haugh was removed, but it comes after a meeting between President Donald Trump and far-right activist Laura Loomer on Wednesday.

    Between Trump and who the hell is Laura Loomer?

    She’s an…internet personality. Ah. That’s definitely who should be making these decisions. She ran for Congress in 2020 but lost. She’s an “activist” and a conspiracy theorist. That’s it, that’s her credential for supervising the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command.

    Ms Loomer reportedly urged Trump to fire specific employees whom she suspected lacked support for his agenda. She posted on X that Gen Haugh and his deputy Wendy Noble, who US media reported was also sacked, “have been disloyal to President Trump. That is why they have been fired.”

    Before their firings were reported, Trump told reporters he would get rid of any staff deemed to be disloyal. “We’re always going to let go of people – people we don’t like or people that take advantage of, or people that may have loyalties to someone else,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One.

    Trump made the comments as reports emerged of the firings of at least three other officials at the White House National Security Council (NSC), following the reported meeting with Ms Loomer. The president did not confirm names.

    Did the president confirm why he had a “meeting” with some random flake and then fired a bunch of key people on her say-so?

    Aboard Air Force One en route to Miami, Florida, on Thursday, Trump praised Ms Loomer and confirmed he had met with her, calling her a “great patriot” and a “very strong person”.

    “She makes recommendations… sometimes I listen to those recommendations,” he said. “I listen to everybody and then I make a decision.”

    Make no mistake, peasants! He makes a decision! No one else! He’s the boss! But he does take very good excellent professional informed advice from random people he found on the internetz.

    [Loomer] texted a statement that said: “It was an honor to meet with President Trump and present him with my research findings. I will continue working hard to support his agenda, and I will continue reiterating the importance of STRONG VETTING, for the sake of protecting the President of the United States of America and our national security.”

    Oh good. Whew. She has research findings. That’s ok then! I thought it was just her personal brain work, but no, she found research findings. That’s a huge relief.

  • No it isn’t no it doesn’t

    USA Fencing tells lie after lie after lie.

    It’s not the least bit “committed to fostering an inclusive, respectful community for everyone” in their sport. It’s committed to the exact opposite – it’s committed to fostering a community that forcibly excludes women who decline to compete against men in women’s competitions. That policy is not inclusive of women and it’s not respectful to women. It excludes women from their own competitions, it insults them, it punishes them, it bullies them.

    They don’t believe in the principle of creating safe communities, either. Forcing women to fence with men is not safe. They don’t believe in creating communities where all athletes have a place, either: they took a woman’s place in their “community” away because she refused to compete against a man.

    Telling us to “keep the conversation respectful” just adds insult to injury.

  • Not a whistle

    Oh, gee, thanks; good to know.

    Stickers saying “I Love JK Rowling” are not a “dog whistle” for transphobia, a university professor has told an employment tribunal.

    Academics Deirdre O’Neill and Michael Wayne are suing the University and College Union (UCU) after its Edinburgh branch said their film Adult Human Female was an attack on transgender identity.

    How are we defining “attack”? “Identity”? “Transgender”?

    People who talk about and believe in and aggressively defend “transgender identity” believe that sex is swappable and that “transgender identity” is vastly more important than mere bodies. It’s all a bit church-like, really – never mind the vile body, it’s the soul that matters.

    The film challenged trans rights claims and provoked protests when they tried to show it at the University of Edinburgh, the tribunal heard. The academics say this was unlawful discrimination by the UCU against their belief that there are only two sexes.

    It’s not a belief. Everyone knows there are “only” two sexes (how many do you want ffs?) so the act of believing it is superfluous.

  • Any other minority group

    From the Telegraph’s coverage of the tribunal:

    Naomi Cunningham, for the academics, said: “The conduct of the union in encouraging protest against these screenings and calling for [the] venue to be withdrawn was a completely consistent part of a wider course of conduct.” She said that Dr Wanggren, Grant Buttars, UCU Edinburgh branch president, and the union had sought to create “a hostile environment for anyone who held a gender critical view”.

    Ms Cunningham added: “You were trying to create an environment, both at Edinburgh University and in the union as a whole, in which it was simply impossible to discuss gender critical ideas or arguments at all because you regarded those ideas as inherently transphobic.” She went on to say: “The branches conduct in response to the two proposed screenings was for the specific purpose of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for any member of the union with gender critical views, whether at Edinburgh or elsewhere, wasn’t it?”

    Dr Wanggren replied: “Absolutely not.”

    Ms Cunningham suggested that large numbers of gender-critical members of the union have now left.

    Dr Wanggren said that was “not to my knowledge” but that she is aware that some people had left, and said a comparable film with different or opposing views would likely have been treated the same way. She said: “I am telling the tribunal that if a comparable film against any other minority group that used the kind of language, the broad brush strokes that harm that minoritised community, UCU would in line with our policies [have] acted in a similar way.”

    She said the union has a policy on a range of equality issues including those affecting trans, race and LGBTQ communities.

    But not, of course, women. Never women. Never ever women.

    Why is that, exactly?

    Is it because women are not strictly speaking a “minority”?

    And yet women are treated like a minority, and arguably viewed as a minority. Women are the Other. Women are the mistake, the exception, the where things went wrong, the defective. Proper people are male, with the big muscles and the beards and above all no nasty stinky hole Down There. Men are the real people and women are the sly plotting treacherous feeble mistakes.

    That’s why UCU and Dr Wanggren wouldn’t dream of protecting women’s right to speak and protest. Women don’t deserve it. The only good woman is a male woman.

  • The clash

    Another front in the Shut Up About Women wars.

    Two academics behind a gender-critical film have taken legal action against their union, accusing it of discrimination and harassment after it campaigned on social media to stop the documentary being screened.

    Deirdre O’Neill, a senior lecturer in film studies at the University of Hertfordshire, and Michael Wayne, a professor of media and film studies at Brunel University, describe Adult Human Female as the first UK documentary to look at the “clash between women’s rights and gender ideology/trans rights”.

    When a screening was arranged at the University of Edinburgh in 2022, documents before the tribunal said the local branch of the University and College Union (UCU) wrote to the university calling on it to cancel the event, describing it as a “clear attack on trans people’s identities” and denouncing it as “transphobic” on Twitter.

    But what about the women’s rights part? Does that not matter at all?

    Don’t be silly; of course it doesn’t. Fans of trans ideology succeeded in preventing the film from being shown on two occasions.

    Adult Human Female is regarded by trans rights groups as inflammatory, transphobic and inaccurate. Documents before the Watford tribunal said the film examined claims made by trans rights activists that “trans women are women” and should be treated as women in all legal and social contexts.

    Can you imagine? Actually examining claims that men are women and should be treated as women in all legal and social contexts? Whatever next? Examining claims that dogs are trees?

    O’Neill and Wayne, who describe themselves as gender critical, believe sex is a matter of biology, that it is impossible for a human to change sex, and that sex is important in a range of different political and social contexts.

    Or rather they are aware that sex is a matter of biology and that it is impossible for a human to change sex. It’s a reality more than a belief. It is a belief in a sense but it muddies the water to call it that. We don’t burble about “belief” when it’s a matter of speeding cars crashing into objects or bodies jumping off tall buildings. We’re aware of certain realities and we act accordingly.

    The union – or respondent – denies it has discriminated against O’Neill and Wayne. Documents before the tribunal said: “The respondent’s conduct was proportionate and necessary in the interests of advocating the rights of others. Accordingly, the reason for any less favourable treatment was not the claimants’ gender-critical belief or lack of a belief in gender identity theory.”

    Is that right? What if the film had been about racism? What if the protesters had been brandishing placards raging at immigration and Pakis and replacement?

    Denying harassment, the union’s defence stated: “The conduct of the respondent was to highlight its commitment to supporting its members that identify as trans or non-binary. The respondent’s conduct was proportionate and in line with its current support for its trans, non-binary and LGBT+ members.”

    But what about women?

    We know the answer to that. The answer is nothing. Nothing about women.

  • Even the Telegraph repeats the lie

    Round up the usual manipulations.

    Fencer disqualified for refusing to compete against transgender opponent

    No. Female fencer disqualified for refusing to compete against male opponent. The problem is not that he’s transgender, the problem is that he’s male.

    USA Fencing has backed a transgender athlete after a female opponent refused to compete in their match and instead took a knee in protest.

    No. Again. USA Fencing has backed a male athlete after a female opponent refused to compete in their match. Issue not transgender; issue male.

    Sullivan transferred to Wagner College’s women’s team, having previously competed in the men’s division. On Wednesday, USA Fencing came out in support of Sullivan after footage of the protest went viral.

    The statement read: “USA Fencing enacted our current transgender and non-binary athlete policy in 2023. The policy was designed to expand access to the sport of fencing and create inclusive, safe spaces. The policy is based on the principle that everyone should have the ability to participate in sports and was based upon the research available of the day.”

    But of course a policy of allowing men to compete against women does not create inclusive, safe spaces. It does the exact opposite of that. It forces women to compete against men. That’s not safe for women and it’s not inclusive of women.

    “We understand that the conversation on equity and inclusion pertaining to transgender participation in sport is evolving. USA Fencing will always err on the side of inclusion…”

    No no no no. No pats on your own back. You are not erring on the side of inclusion. You are erring on the side of excluding women. You might as well call it “inclusive” to let adult male gorillas compete in wrestling matches.

  • She SOLD the TESLA???

    Musk’s hobby:

    Ashley St. Clair, who says she is the mother of one of Elon Musk’s children, has accused the billionaire of withdrawing child support payments to punish her for “disobedience.” It comes after St. Clair said she sold her Tesla car on Saturday to make up for Musk’s alleged 60 percent cut to payments, according to the The Daily Mail.

    …

    Responding to St. Clair’s claims on Monday, Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “I don’t know if the child is mine or not, but am not against finding out. No court order is needed.

    “Despite not knowing for sure, I have given Ashley $2.5M and am sending her $500k/year.”

    Not a huge amount of child support for such a rich gangster.

    Ashley St. Clair wrote on X on Monday: “It’s ironic that your last effort in court was to try to gag me while you use a social media channel you literally own to distribute derogatory messages about me and our child to the entire world. It’s all about control with you, and everyone can see it.

    “America needs you to grow up, you petulant man-child.”

    Yeah well that’s not happening.

  • Would look good on a WANTED poster

    The Dems are suing.

    The Democratic Party on Monday asked a U.S. court to block Republican President Donald Trump‘s executive order overhauling the election system, arguing the changes risked denying eligible U.S. citizens the right to vote.

    In a lawsuit against the Trump administration filed in Washington, D.C. federal court, the Democratic National Committee said Trump exceeded his authority in the March 25 order by requiring voters to prove they are U.S. citizens, preventing states from counting mail-in ballots received after Election Day, and threatening to take federal funding away from states that do not comply.

    “The Executive Order seeks to impose radical changes on how Americans register to vote, cast a ballot, and participate in our democracy—all of which threaten to disenfranchise lawful voters and none of which is legal,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed by longtime Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias and other lawyers at his firm.

    U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and U.S. Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the leaders of the Democratic minorities in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, respectively, are also plaintiffs in the case.

    …

    Trump has long questioned the U.S. electoral system and continues to falsely claim that his 2020 loss to Democratic President Joe Biden was the result of widespread fraud. The president and his Republican allies also have made baseless claims about widespread voting by non-citizens, which is illegal and rarely occurs.

    In their lawsuit, the Democrats said the U.S. Constitution empowers individual states and Congress – not the president – to control how federal elections are conducted. They said this was critical to making sure presidents do not seek to change election rules to favor themselves.

    “The Framers of our federal Constitution foresaw that self-interested and self- aggrandizing leaders might seek to corrupt our democratic system of government to expand and preserve their own power,” the lawsuit read.

    What kind of leaders? Can we see that again?

    …self-interested and self- aggrandizing leaders might seek to corrupt our democratic system of government…

    Why, that describes Trump himself. What a coincidence.

  • Just ignore those stupid Karens

    It seems that a Netflix drama about male violence against girls and women can get attention but actual real world male violence against girls and women not so much.

    When real women talk about it it’s just boring and shrill. When Netflix does a male-focused drama about it Keir Starmer sits up and takes notice.

  • Musk endured a wave of gloating

    Wisconsin steps up.

    Democrats were tasting unfamiliar triumphalism on Wednesday after the election for a vacant Wisconsin supreme court seat turned into an emphatic repudiation of Elon Musk, Donald Trump’s richest supporter and key ally.

    Musk endured a wave of gloating on Twitter/X, his own social media platform, after Brad Schimel, a Trump-endorsed judge that he spent $25m supporting, lost by 10 percentage points to Susan Crawford, whose victory sustained a 4-3 liberal majority on the court.

    On a day that Trump has earmarked as “liberation day” to mark his long-awaited roll out of trade tariffs, Democrats seized on the result as a referendum on Musk – who has spearheaded the president’s slashing of federal government workers and spending programmes – while casting it as a platform for a recovery in next year’s congressional midterm elections.

    …

    The result is politically significant because the court is due to issue abortion rulings while also deciding on electoral redistricting questions which now have the potential to help Democrats in future elections in a state where contests are traditionally close.

    Let’s not get carried away here. Expect nothing, avoid disappointment.