I’m seeing people saying Reich is contradicting himself here, but I say he’s not.

The first is just pointing out a fact: the First Amendment limits what government can do, it’s not about everyone else. The second is talking about how the free market works, it’s not about government.

What am I missing?… Read the rest

I think I know this one.

What ever happened to "I respect every trans person's right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them"?

Targeting somebody who identifies as a trans woman on the basis they choose to maintain facial hair seems somewhat the antipathy of that. pic.twitter.com/r7stC317M4

— Josh Woolcott (@joshwoolcott) April 25, 2022

I think I know what happened to it, because it happened to me and to lots of other people.

It’s because it was never enough. It was never ever ever enough. More was always required.

It’s almost as if living whatever way felt comfortable was never actually the point. The point turned out to be demanding endless attention and love and hugs … Read the rest

Trump is in contempt of court.

A New York judge is holding Donald Trump in civil contempt after the state’s attorney general’s office said he did not comply with a subpoena for documents as part of its investigation into the former President’s company.

Judge Arthur Engoron said Trump failed to abide by his order to comply with the subpoena, and that his attorneys failed to show how a search of materials held by Trump was conducted. Engoron said Trump would be fined $10,000 a day until he complies.

He won’t care. He’ll just send more “gimme money”s to his adoring fans and they’ll empty their savings accounts to help him defy the law.

Andrew Amer, with the attorney general’s

One for the “humans are a mistake” file:

Forensic doctors carrying out postmortem examinations on bodies in mass graves north of Kyiv say they have found evidence some women were raped before being killed by Russian forces.

Naturally. When you invade a country you obviously have to torture the women before you kill them.

Following the withdrawal of Russian troops from towns and suburbs around the capital, dozens of women have told police, the media and human rights organisations about atrocities they say they suffered suffered at the hands of Russian soldiers. Investigators have heard testimony of gang-rapes, assaults taking place at gunpoint and rapes committed in front of children.

Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, Lyudmila Denisova, has officially documented

How sweet.

Wow! I certainly did not create #LesbianVisibilityWeek so that people like @jk_rowling could use it as a vehicle to stir up more hate within our community. This is a perfect example of #HowNotToBeAnAlly #IStandWithStonewall –#LWithTheT https://t.co/yrUEKIPHrf

— Linda Riley (@LindaRiley8) April 25, 2022

So how is sharing a photo of Allison Bailey marching for LGB rights in San Francisco in 1991 “a vehicle for stirring up hate”? Let alone “more hate”? Let alone “in our community”?

Why doesn’t Linda Riley consider lesbians “our community”? Why doesn’t she consider women “our community”? Why is she spitting bile at JKR for being a fan of Allison Bailey?

Well, we know why: it’s because Bailey doesn’t see men who call … Read the rest

I learned a new thing about Jolyon Maugham’s bullying of the LGB Alliance via an article by Julie Bindel:

Eventually, activists found a way to get to the LGBA. The story is this: LGBA applied for funding to the Arts Council England’s, ‘Let’s Create Jubilee Fund’ for a film about gay men’s lives through the period of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. Queens would have been an important record of the history of the fight for liberation from bigotry, prejudice and legal discrimination, and a celebration of gay culture.

In March the Alliance was notified that the application was successful, but then the sharks circled. LGBA was informed by the Arts Council that its charitable status had been under scrutiny

BBC Live:

The results: Macron beats Le Pen in presidential election

Projections show that Emmanuel Macron has secured a clear victory over far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

Macron sweeps away far-right rival

This is a dramatic victory for the sitting president, and a historic one at that.

Make no mistake, this was Marine Le Pen’s best chance of victory and yet it didn’t happen. Her campaign was slick, her focus on the cost of living chimed with the voters, and she performed well in the big TV duel days ago.

Macron didn’t even enter the election until eight days before the first round, prompting accusations of arrogance. But when he did take part, the voters clearly listened. Even though

Oh thank fuck.

2022 French presidential election: Emmanuel #Macron was reelected with 58.2% of the votes compared to 41.8% for far-right candidate Marine #LePen, according to projections by Ipsos-Sopra Steria for France Télévisions and Radio France. https://t.co/bxZwm5KXV2

— Le Monde in English (@LeMonde_EN) April 24, 2022

… Read the rest

Brendan O’Neill is not a huge fan of Grace Lavery’s book.

I have never liked the term male privilege, but it’s hard to know what other term to use to describe a man writing a book about his ‘bellend’ – he uses that word – while fully expecting that everyone will acknowledge his ‘womanhood’ – he uses that word, too. His womanhood is his most ‘cherished’ thing, he says, which I found shocking because I had assumed it was his knob. If male privilege means anything, surely it is the fact that a dude can publish a book whose front cover features a photo of him with a five o’clock shadow and an iffy wig and still demand that

Kathleen Stock on the importance of being “queer”:

And what else is a a female-led theatre company fronted by a white woman and founded in a middle-class Cambridge Sixth Form to do these days, except announce itself as “queer”? Unlike being black or disabled, saying you are queer or do queer work is a completely unverifiable proposition. It’s entirely compatible with being straight and conventional in practice – but at the same time, it apparently gives you endless cultural clout. So it would be kind of stupid not to, no? I’m not saying that anyone deliberately sets out to mislead people here. I’m saying that you probably come round to thinking of yourself that way, little by little, and

This is very performative, very self-refuting, very watch this backfire, very corroborative of the thing it claims to deny. This is Trump telling a crowd he’s not stupid, and demonstrating how stupid he is by doing so.

Trump: I said.., I don’t like being called stupid. Is there a test I can take to prove to these radical left maniacs that I’m much smarter than them? And he said “Sir, there is a test. It’s called an X test” pic.twitter.com/JGVklls9ci

— Acyn (@Acyn) April 23, 2022

I think it’s diagnostic, that inability to talk in complete sentences, the helpless self-interrupting whenever a new thought intrudes. Isn’t it? That’s not normal cognitive functioning, surely. He’s trying to tell the adoring crowd … Read the rest

Dang, humanism has really gone to the dogs lately; I hadn’t realized.

You're literally obsessed with trans people and it's pathetic. Get a fucking hobby, you transphobic bigot.

— Mike Figueredo (@HumanistReport) April 22, 2022

That’s humanism? I’m shocked. It looks like ignorance, aggression, sexism, and a desperately impoverished vocabulary.

Besides, she has a hobby.

I hear she's taken your advice and joined a book club.

— Billy Bragg in a Billion (@CroneInAMillion) April 23, 2022

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on The bottom rung of the ladder.

Felker-Martin’s work is highly disturbing for reasons that go much further than the characters and plot, which centres on two transgender women hunting down and killing ‘TERFs’ in a battle for survival.

N.B. Much, if not most, of the following, is speculative, as I have not read Manhunt and have no intention of doing so. I have no qualms about trashing or maligning it sight unseen. I have no qualms about taking feminist critiques of it at face value. I have not been given any reason whatsoever to doubt their presentation of the facts of the matter in this conflict. The trans activist side … Read the rest

Ah manly men. Afraid of nothing, they are. Women on the other hand – they’re afraid of everything, like for instance being killed or raped or beaten up or all three.

It's funny that @jk_rowling will put trans women with 20 followers on blast like it's nothing but she's too chicken to say "boo" about MANHUNT. In which she dies. Fictionally.

— Gretchen Felker-Martin (@scumbelievable) April 21, 2022

JKR is “too chicken” to mention the stupid violent bloodthirsty woman-hating fantasy porn this revolting goon wrote. He on the other hand is so non-“chicken” that he included his fantasy about her dying violently in his filthy book. Takes a lot of courage, that does.… Read the rest

This was fun to watch happen:

Wait for it.

I was just thinking, 'I really fancy dropping in on a random book group that might not even be in my city , of which I don't know the time or date, yet is maybe called something like JKR's Barmy Book Army.' You know how these random thoughts occur sometimes, mid-chapter. https://t.co/1akAcq1WNI

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 23, 2022

There has been a sign. I can't ignore the promptings of fate. To the Barmy Book Army I shall go.

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 23, 2022

I wonder how many of the members of that earlier book group are gnawing their fingers with rage and envy.… Read the rest

The NY Times tries to figure out what’s so wrong with some math textbooks that Florida officialdom didn’t want:

After the Florida Department of Education rejected dozens of math textbooks last week, the big question was, Why?

The department said some of the books “contained prohibited topics” from social-emotional learning or critical race theory — but it has released only four specific textbook pages showing content to which it objects.

That’s a bizarre pairing – social-emotional learning or critical race theory. Really? Both of those? Were they in combination? If so, how? Color me skeptical.

The Times looked at some publishers’ samples to try to get a sense of the reasons, while saying that it’s necessarily guesswork because … Read the rest

Julie Bindel on that “novel”:

Most of you, I suspect, will be unfamiliar with the work of self-professed ‘horror author’ and trans woman Gretchen Felker-Martin.

Latterly a little-known film and culture writer, Felker-Martin’s name reached wider circulation this week following the recent release of a debut novel — although not, it must be said, for the quality of the writing.

…

Felker-Martin’s work is highly disturbing for reasons that go much further than the characters and plot, which centres on two transgender women hunting down and killing ‘TERFs’ in a battle for survival.

Hunting down and killing radical feminist women, as one does.

Felker-Martin has apparently seen fit to exact a deeply unpleasant fictional revenge, depicting the successful writer’s

Another snapshot of the ship slowly slowly changing course.

The chairwoman of the equalities watchdog has warned there is a “slow-burn toxicity” around trans rights as she urged campaign groups to co-operate with her.

…

Baroness Falkner of Margravine, chairwoman of the EHRC, said she had been surprised “by the saliency of the issue of sex and gender, and the balance of rights issues”.

…

She said it was “deeply unfortunate” that Stonewall and other LGBT groups had asked the UN to review the EHRC’s accreditation, noting that the attempt had been dismissed.

Her remarks come after publication of the EHRC’s guidance that organisations such as refuges and gyms can legally exclude transgender people from single-sex services in certain

Maybe just maybe people should slow down and think a little harder about this. Maybe it’s not the best idea in the world to halt or swap puberties the instant a child expresses dismay or confusion.

Vulnerable children are wrongly being given gender hormone treatment by the NHS, Sajid Javid believes, as he prepares to launch an urgent inquiry.

The health secretary thinks the system is “failing children” and is planning an overhaul of how health service staff deal with under-18s who question their gender identity.

Step one: understand that “gender identity” is a novel concept, that its meanings are disputed, that it’s subjective and malleable at best, and that it’s not nearly clear or sharp-edged enough to justify something … Read the rest

Majorie Taylor Greene says she doesn’t remember and besides lots of people used her Facebook account to say things so it could have been anyone.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia insisted under oath that she does not remember expressing support for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s execution in 2019.

She’s busy. She can’t remember every little thing.

Lawyers from Free Speech for the People, the group challenging Greene’s candidacy, presented the congresswoman with a print-out of a CNN article that documented Greene’s prior support for political violence against some Democrats.

“She’s a traitor to our country, she’s guilty of treason,” Greene said of Pelosi in a 2019 Facebook video, according to CNN. “She took an oath to protect