Uh, no they can’t.

https://twitter.com/ianshutters/status/1694067379095966023… Read the rest

Ah good, they’re all safe.

Pakistan’s interior ministry says the remaining three people have been rescued from the cable car, meaning the operation has now concluded.

Life is precarious in mountainous regions with weak infrastructure. Homemade cable cars are abundant in north-western Pakistan.… Read the rest

The National (Scotland) publishes a sack of drivel by one Emma Grae about Graham Linehan the Heretic:

After I tweeted in defence of trans women following the jailing of convicted trans rapist Isla Byrson earlier this year, stating that painting all trans women with the same brush as her is equivalent comparing all cisgender women to Myra Hindley, he called me a “vichy feminist” and challenged me to name “a few more Myra Hindleys”.

What the hell is a trans rapist? Bryson is a real rapist. He’s a trans woman but he’s not a trans rapist. And that comparison is ridiculous. All women=half the people on the planet; all trans women=a tiny fraction of people on the planet.

Also it’s … Read the rest

All the other Pythons went to the Imperial.… Read the rest

The sack of Rome – the Black Death – crossing the Atlantic – the Hindenburg – trans people were front and center on all occasions.

https://twitter.com/simonjedge/status/1693964935955390802… Read the rest

And at the same time everyone is pointing and laughing at the eleventy seventh idenniny crisis of Mx Knox.

His child and partner came out as transgender. Now @RowanJetteKnox writes on confronting trauma and the freedom of coming out as trans himself. His new memoir is out this September.

Until then, read his exclusive essay: https://t.co/U7zZXIX7wu

— Toronto Star (@TorontoStar) August 21, 2023

Oooooooooooh does he? Despite having done so before, and before that, and…? How exciting!

The Star hastily closed comments, but not before one speedy responder had time to say “No one cares.”… Read the rest

This is so pathetically stupid and destructive.

https://twitter.com/Amandycat/status/1693644818205872168

That’s the first tweet of…I don’t know, forty? Fifty? Way too many. The point of it all, of course, is that terfs are evil and it’s all their fault.

https://twitter.com/Amandycat/status/1693645655632138489

Only the third tweet of this enormous thread, and already we see the all too familiar problem: she thinks it’s “trans-hostile” to know that people can’t change sex and that trans ideology obliterates women’s rights. She confuses rejection of trans ideology with hatred of her “niece.”

Many tweets later –

https://twitter.com/Amandycat/status/1693652141796188626

That’s nice, that’s reasonable, that’s level-headed. People who know that boys are not girls are Nazis determined to destroy people.

https://twitter.com/Amandycat/status/1693653686256337185

Yep, she really is saying that we’re working up to … Read the rest

Trump uses racist tropes in his verbal attacks on prosecutors and similar.

Donald Trump’s aggressive response to his fourth criminal indictment in five months follows a strategy he has long used against legal and political opponents: relentless attacks, often infused with language that is either overtly racist or is coded in ways that appeal to racists.

The early Republican presidential front-runner has used terms such as “animal” and “rabid” to describe Black district attorneys. He has accused Black prosecutors of being “racist.” He has made unsupported claims about their personal lives. And on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump has deployed terms that rhyme with racial slurs as some of his supporters post racist screeds about the same targets.

… Read the rest

But…

https://twitter.com/Gillian_Philip/status/1693710803277332567

But Joanne Harris is herself white middle-class. She’s also female, which I assume “vulnerable” is code for. She’s playing the Karen card, because……………I have no idea why she’s doing that.… Read the rest

Trump was trash-talking about Brian Kemp and Fani Willis just this morning.

Governor Kemp of Georgia is fighting hard against the Impeachment of the crooked, incompetent, & highly partisan D.A. of Fulton County, Fani Willis, who has allowed Murder and other Violent Crime to MASSIVELY ESCALATE. Crime in Atlanta is WORST IN NATION. She should be impeached for many reasons, not just the Witch Hunt (I did nothing wrong!). Willis should focus on out of control Murder, not “I will get TRUMP” over a Perfect Phone Call. Georgia does not deserve this GIANT MURDER WAVE!

He won’t stop just because he’s required to.… Read the rest

The BBC on Trump’s out on bailitude:

A judge in Georgia overseeing former US President Donald Trump’s election interference case has set a bail bond of $200,000 (£157,000).

Mr Trump and his 18 co-defendants have until midday Friday to surrender to a court in Atlanta.

The bail filing says Mr Trump can remain free pending trial so long as he does not attempt to threaten or intimidate witnesses.

But he will. He won’t be able to do otherwise. He doesn’t take orders from anyone.

Mr Trump is also banned from committing any crimes, and can only have contact with the other co-defendants in the case with lawyers present.

He’ll probably do both of those things too.… Read the rest

Out on bail.

Former President Donald J. Trump’s bail was set at $200,000 on Monday in a sprawling racketeering case charging Mr. Trump and 18 associates with election interference in Georgia.

The move came as it became clear that Mr. Trump and the other defendants will be required to pay cash upon being booked in Atlanta, unlike in the three other criminal cases involving the former president.

Under the conditions of his bond agreement, Mr. Trump cannot violate state or federal laws or communicate with any co-defendants in the case except through his lawyers. He was told not to intimidate witnesses or co-defendants, or “otherwise obstruct the administration of justice,” by threatening them or 30 unindicted co-conspirators in the

… Read the rest

No. Get out.

Ecuadorians voted against drilling for oil in a protected area of the Amazon, an important decision that will require the state oil company to end its operations in a region that’s home to two uncontacted tribes and is a hotspot of biodiversity.

Yasuni National Park is inhabited by the Tagaeri and Taromenani, who live in self-isolation. In 1989, it was designated a world biosphere reserve by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, also known as UNESCO. Encompassing a surface area of over 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres), it boasts 610 species of birds, 139 species of amphibians, and 121 species of reptiles. At least three species are endemic.

Rock on birds and amphibians … Read the rest

Big weekend for cheating!

Trans-identified male cyclists took home women's titles at races in Zurich, Switzerland and Richmond, Washington this week.

At one of the races, the male participant beat out two teenage girls for the women's championship.https://t.co/N2Vet9tFXy

— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) August 20, 2023

… Read the rest

The NY Times reports:

A federal judge in Georgia has temporarily blocked part of a state law that prohibits hormone replacement therapy for transgender minors. 

But is “hormone replacement” actually therapy? Or is it medical malpractice? Or something in between?

Calling it therapy puts a big thumb on the scale in this contested issue. What if it’s quackery rather than therapy? What if it’s the new thalidomide, driven by trendy but magical ideas about people “born in the wrong body”?

Judge Geraghty, who was appointed by President Biden, said in her ruling that the ban “is substantially likely to violate the Equal Protection Clause.”

But maybe the equal protection needed is protection from quack medicine sparked by wack ideas … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Mike Haubrich on From Joe Hill to Rich Men North of Richmond.

The Republicans of today are benefiting from the abortion and gay rights strategy of the Moral Majority. Before they embarked on that, most Catholics were Democrats due to the social justice aspect of being Catholic. It also picked up on many of the blue collar workers who didn’t want rampant gay sex and loose women getting welfare checks during the Reagan era. These are now Trump Republicans who sincerely believe that he is going to drain the swamp and end child trafficking.

Our Billy Bragg has written a responsorial to this song (I know, I know!) Rich Men North of Earning North of … Read the rest

This fool should be a dictionary entry for narcissism. “So whenever someone looks at me, and they can’t tell what I was born as – [thumb up] – that’s perfect to me.”

https://twitter.com/FunkGodArtist/status/1693633141653598317

Perfection to this fool is strangers looking at xir and not being able to tell what xir “was born as.” Not a fiery sunset, or a walk in the forest, or making a baby laugh, or helping someone, or learning something, or laughing xirself breathless – but causing a stranger to pay xir extra attention.

What a pathetic, witless, empty, futile, claustrophobic form of “perfection.”… Read the rest

Interesting. Innnnnnnteresting. It’s fine to have a Trans Pride event, but it is not permitted to have a lesbian/gay/bi event. No LGB without the T but definitely T without the LGB.

Why is that exactly?

Straight woman, MSP Maggie Chapman, tells gays & lesbians that they have to align with homophobic ideology and are not allowed to organise separately from the "T". Even as she joins a march which is explicitly T without the LGB. Different rules, eh Maggie? https://t.co/EfY4RUCaR3

— For Women Scotland (@ForWomenScot) August 21, 2023

I guess Maggie Chapman must be really quite thick? Not to have noticed? That she was promoting a trans event and in the same breath saying no lesbian gay bisexual without the … Read the rest

Sigh. Yes it is. Of course it is. Men don’t need to shed the endometrium every month. Men don’t have any endometrium, because they don’t have any uterus.

Menstruation isn’t just a women’s issue, say Lib Dems

But it is, just as pregnancy is “just” a women’s issue. Women aren’t being selfish and mean by hogging all the menstruation – they’re stuck with it because of being women. It’s idiotic, insulting, frivolous, fatuous, rude, absurd, grotesque, for adult political parties to start whining that men get to bleed out their uterine linings every month too.

Sir Ed Davey’s party will vote on a policy proposal that insists period poverty is an issue that affects “some trans and non-binary people”

… Read the rest

Kenan Malik on a trumpy version of a folk song:

A jobbing country singer from Virginia, [Oliver] Anthony’s video of his song Rich Men North of Richmond has gone viral over the past week, clocking up more than 20m views on YouTube, rising to the top of the streaming charts and becoming an anthem for conservatives from Marjorie Taylor Green, the reactionary Republican congresswoman from Georgia, to the rightwing political commentator Matt Walsh, all viewing Anthony as a righteous figure, whose “rawness” and “authenticity” speak to real Americans.

The kind who just love them a criminal billionaire who wouldn’t give them a sandwich if they turned up starving at one of his golf resorts.

Kenan compares Anthony … Read the rest