Frankly my dear

The Harris/Walz campaign just sent this media advisory out on Trump’s upcoming press conference pic.twitter.com/tofDHnslta

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) August 15, 2024

H/t Steven … Read the rest

Taiwan tries to force everyone to pretend the guy is not a guy.

Taiwanese authorities are attempting to censor leading UK women’s rights campaigners from raising concerns about the Olympics gender furore. Nicola Williams, director of Fair Play For Women, has alerted the Foreign Secretary after being asked by the state to delete posts on social media.

London-based officials from the Taiwan embassy also wrote to The Telegraph to claim reporting “wrongly” referred to their nation’s boxer Lin Yu-ting, along with Algerian Imane Khelif, as “biologically male fighters”.

Since when do countries try to micromanage other countries’ journalism on matters of sport? The Telegraph is not a government body and not answerable to Taiwan. Taiwan has no jurisdiction over UK … Read the rest

Speaking of the BBC…

Ceri Dupree’s decades of divas, frocks and cabaret

At the bottom of a back garden in south Wales lies something quite unexpected – a treasure trove of more than 600 dazzling stage costumes.

Weird. There’s some back garden in South Wales that has a pile of stage costumes lying there getting mildewed? Why is that more unexpected than literally anything that’s not grass or plants?

This is the home of Ceri Dupree, who for the past 42 years has been making a living impersonating some of the world’s most iconic women. His repertoire features everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Tina Turner and Queen Camilla to Shirley Bassey, with some colourful costumes costing more than £6,000.

What … Read the rest

Oh goody, another schism. You’re far right no you’re far right.

I’m definitely not far right nor am I a fan of Tommy Robinson, but I’m not going to pretend that Islam is good for women and/or that Islam can’t be criticized lest we encourage Tommy Robinson.

I’ve been to this rodeo before. I heard a whole lot about it when Does God Hate Women? was published. I even got to defend it in a BBC Radio 4 panel discussion this one time. No, Muslims should not be persecuted; yes, Islam is hostile to women. Both those claims can be true or reasonable or fair or all those.

This letter lends credence to the idea that women fighting for their

Hatred of women chapter 11 billion:

Holding candles, hundreds of thousands of women marched through the night in cities across India, to protest the brutal rape and murder of a young female doctor in a hospital that has fueled anger over a lack of safety for women despite tough new laws.

A 31-year old trainee doctor was raped and murdered inside the medical college in Kolkata where she worked on Friday, triggering nationwide protests among doctors and drawing parallels to the notorious gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi in 2012.

She’d gone to sleep in a seminar room after working 36 hours straight.

She was found dead on Friday. Police

Sometimes Human Rights Watch does know what a woman is.

Under the Taliban, Afghanistan is the only country where girls are banned from education beyond the sixth grade. The Taliban have also violated women’s right to freedom of movement, banned them from many forms of employment, dismantled protections for women and girls experiencing gender-based violence, created barriers to them accessing health care, and barred them from playing sports and even visiting parks. The United Nations special rapporteur on Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, has described the situation as “an institutionalized system of discrimination, segregation, disrespect for human dignity, and exclusion of women and girls.”

Actual women and girls, here – the kind the Taliban knows to bully and limit and confine.… Read the rest

Also there’s this guy.

Trump’s people seem to be confusing him with someone else.

Allies of Trump see his conspiratorial messages and insults based on race as anything but productive. They want him to focus his attacks on policy issues, such as immigration and the economy, rather than personal attacks against Harris.

But personal attacks are the fun part for him. Talking about policy issues is work, and talking smack about people is sheer play. He’s not a spinach before dessert kind of guy.… Read the rest

This by Mireia Garcés de Marcilla in the LRB is what used to be known as “too clever by half”:

All the same, those of us who are concerned about the reactionary weaponisation of gender might do better to rethink rather than cement our commitment to the category of womanhood. We should ask what being a woman means, how womanhood is defined, and against what (and whom) womanhood is ‘defended’. Instead of insisting that Khelif is a ‘real’ woman, we should ask how dichotomous ideas of gender have been solidified in the discourse that is being mobilised against her. We should interrogate the colonial roots of medical accounts of female and male embodiment, and the construction of femininity through (and

U.C.L.A. Can’t Let Protesters Block Jewish Students From Campus, Judge Says

What is this, Nazi Germany? Of course it can’t.

A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily barred the University of California, Los Angeles, from allowing protesters to block Jewish students from having access to the campus and facilities such as libraries, classrooms and gathering places.

You mean like…

Judge Mark C. Scarsi’s preliminary injunction order came after three Jewish students sued the university over protests in the spring concerning Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The demonstrations roiled the campus, and more than 200 people were arrested after pro-Palestinian protests and pro-Israel counterprotests turned violent.

During those demonstrations, pro-Palestinian protesters set up an encampment with plywood and metal barricades in

Trump has become boring.

(Of course, he’s been boring all along, but also morbidly interesting the way a fire or an earthquake is interesting.)

It began with 40 minutes of technical difficulties and only got worse. In more than two hours of aimless ranting and ego-stroking with Elon Musk, former President Donald Trump garbled through the greatest hits of his grievances, praised strongmen like Vladimir Putin, and painted his opponent Kamala Harris as an existential threat to America: “If she’s going to be our president, very quickly, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” he said to Musk—whose X campaign launch for Ron DeSantis last year was beset by similar technical issues. Absent from the proceedings? Anything coherent

The workers retort.

U.A.W. Files Labor Charges Against Trump and Musk Over Interview

It won’t succeed, but it’s a good poke in the eye.

The United Automobile Workers union filed charges with federal labor regulators on Tuesday accusing former President Donald J. Trump and Elon Musk of threatening workers during a livestreamed conversation a day earlier.

The union, which has backed Vice President Kamala Harris, accused Mr. Trump of violating the law by voicing support for the practice of firing workers when they go on strike, an approach the former president suggested Mr. Musk had embraced.

In the glitch-delayed conversation on X, Mr. Trump described Mr. Musk as the “greatest cutter” of workers. He claimed Mr. Musk has responded to

Refugee Olympic Team’s historic first medalist Cindy Ngamba hopes to inspire millions

The story of Cindy Winner Djankeu Ngamba is one of resilience. Living up to her middle name, she became the first-ever athlete to win a medal for the Refugee Olympic Team, claiming bronze in the women’s boxing 75kg class at the Summer Olympics in Paris.

Born in Cameroon, Ngamba faced many challenges growing up. At the age of 11, she moved to the United Kingdom in search of a better future. After arriving, she struggled to gain citizenship and was sent to a detention camp over paperwork issues.

Around the age of 15, she discovered her passion for boxing. “Every day is a learning day in boxing. You have your

Brilliant news.

All sympathy must always be for the male. No exceptions.

Nobody should be “it”. Pet owners are offended if a beloved dog or cat is called “it”. Yet that’s how Khelif would have returned to Algeria, had a significant number of public voices had their way. As an “it”. Dehumanised, dispossessed.

Except that nobody advocated for Khelif to be called “it”.

Yet no thought appears to have been given to Khelif’s existence outside the boxing ring. No discussion of how a person might conceivably exist going forward has been inspired by this story.

A person? No. You mean a man. Your empathy is all for the man; the women who were battered and cheated by the man don’t intrude … Read the rest

The Guardian July 12:

The Teamsters International president, Sean O’Brien, has been accused by senior members of the union of disgracing it by agreeing to an unprecedented appearance at next week’s Republican national convention.

Wtf. Trump is not a friend to the workers. The Republican party is not a friend to the workers.

O’Brien’s decision was branded “unconscionable” by John Palmer, vice-president at large at the Teamsters, who accused him of lending support to the “most anti-union party and president” in a generation.

Or perhaps in our entire history.

Earlier this year James Curbeam, national chairman of the Teamsters National Black caucus, warned members that Trump was a “scab masquerading as a pro-union advocate” in a letter, reported by

“Get the tits out” has a whole new meaning.

A report from the Manhattan Institute this week revealed that “gender-affirming” mastectomies for patients under 18 are more common than previously believed.

While cross-sex genital surgeries are rare in the US for both adults and minors, mastectomies — also known as “top surgery” in the context of transgender medicine — are widely available to minors and are the most common transgender surgery for this population. Around 5,000 to 6,000 girls underwent “gender affirming” double mastectomies in the US from 2017 to 2023, according to the Manhattan Institute, and at least 50 of those patients were younger than 12-and-a-half years old.

…

The actual prevalence of these surgeries is likely considerably

Trump’s brilliant new wheeze is to talk about firing workers who go on strike.

The hours-long live-streamed conversation between Trump and Mr Musk featured a wide array of topics, including the attempted assassination attempt against the former president, government regulations and worker strikes.

Trump praised Mr Musk for firing workers who went on strike. Trump said that if workers strike, “you say ‘that’s okay, you’re all gone. You’re all gone.’ So everyone is gone.”

Spoken like a boss.

But federal law says companies cannot fire striking employees.

On Tuesday, the UAW filed Unfair Labor Practices charges with the National Labor Relations Board. “When we say Donald Trump is a scab, this is what we mean. When we say Trump stands

Take deep breaths before reading.

Autism school signed up to LGBT charter pushing ‘pseudoscientific’ trans ideology

The commas are in the wrong place. Headline should be:

Autism “school” signed up to “LGBT” charter pushing pseudoscientific trans ideology

A school for severely autistic children has signed up to a controversial LGBT charter pushing “pseudoscientific” transgender ideology.

Experts accused Kaimes School in Edinburgh, which takes children from age five, of “breathtaking” recklessness over how it teaches concepts of biological sex and gender to vulnerable pupils.

The pupils are vulnerable specifically in the sense that autistic children don’t do skepticism. They’re sitting ducks.

Studies suggest “transgender and gender-diverse individuals” are up to six times more likely to be autistic, as reported in

J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk Named in Cyberbullying Lawsuit Filed by Algerian Boxer Imane Khelif After Olympic Win

J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk have both been named in a criminal complaint filed to French authorities over alleged “acts of aggravated cyber harassment” against Algerian boxer and newly crowned Olympic champion Imane Khelif.

Is it harassment to point out that a man is cheating by competing against women and/or that he is putting women in danger by competing against them? What are we supposed to do, just silently watch him do it?

Khelif — who on Saturday won the Olympic gold medal in the women’s 66 kilogram boxing competition — spent much of the 2024 Olympics in Paris at the center