Edward Lucas suggests some background reading:

The first book on anyone’s reading list should be Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. This revisionist history, which explores the overlap between Nazi and Soviet atrocities in the “bloodlands” of Poland, Ukraine and Belarus, shows that between 1930 and 1945 14 million people were shot, gassed or starved. The book is the best rebuttal to Putin’s Soviet-centred, cod-imperialist approach to the past displayed in his rambling essay last summer and his even more incoherent speech on Monday. It is also a corrective to the simplistic western-focused approach to history, which involves neat starting and finishing dates to the Second World War, and frames it as a simple contest between

Yes we need to have an endless dialogue about “what is a woman” because we still after all these thousands of years just can’t seem to figure it out.

Tate Modern has become engulfed in a transgender rights row after promoting a short film about the definition of “woman”.

The gallery screened What is a Woman? by Norwegian director Marin Håskjold on Friday evening as part of an evening focused on female artists.

In it, a trans woman is drawn into an argument in a women’s changing room over whether she should be there.

Over whether he should be there. These “arguments” and “discussions” and “debates” are always distorted from the outset by the fact that the trans “woman” is … Read the rest

Surprising.

With the tragedy and destruction unfolding so distressingly in Ukraine, we should remember the values and hard won freedoms that distinguish us from Putin, none more than LGBT+ rights. So let’s resume our series of tweets to mark #LGBTHM2022

— Richard Moore (@ChiefMI6) February 25, 2022

What? Why single out “LGBT+”? Why them and not women, immigrants, refugees, disabled people, workers, unemployed people, people with no money?

Oh that’s why.

pic.twitter.com/BYQ1CGlcPS

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) February 26, 2022

… Read the rest

We’re not the conspiracy theorists, you’re the conspiracy theorists! Aaron Rabinowitz in (ironically) The Skeptic:

As conspiracy communities continue to interconnect and produce complex conspiracism ecosystems, it’s worth keeping track of the common themes that facilitate the slide from one conspiracy to another. This month, I want to look at conspiracies centered around creeping transhumanism, a theme with a rich history that unsurprisingly involves accusations of malevolent Jewish influence, and seems to be gaining market share in conspiracism communities.

You’ll never guess whose conspiracism is in his sights. Never. It’s all been covered up too carefully.

This month though I want to focus on the way that anti-transhumanism conspiracies with clear antisemitic roots have been laundered and mainstreamed in 

The ACLU obsessing over trans issues again/still/always:

Using people’s names and pronouns is a matter of respect.

We all want to be respected and seen for who we are. When a young person’s name and pronouns are respected, they do better in school, have more confidence, and have lower rates of suicide.

There’s no such thing as “a person’s pronouns.” The ACLU doesn’t give any source for the claim about doing better in school and having more confidence and lower rates of suicide.

“Cisgender women should be concerned whenever an alleged concern for ‘protecting’ our well-being is invoked to justify exclusion.”

There’s no such thing as “cisgender” women. There’s no need for a special word to distinguish women from men … Read the rest

Erm……..what?

Shahrar Ali didn’t mention trans women, and what he said is not about trans women.

Imagine using violence against women to say “fuck feminism.”… Read the rest

How kind: Putin is “offering talks.”

A little earlier we told you the Kremlin had signalled Russia was willing to hold talks with Ukraine.

Blamblamblam ready to hold talks yet?

But as the Russian military pounds targets across Ukraine, it’s hardly an olive branch.

In fact, the Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, insisted the Ukrainian army would have to lay down its arms first and surrender. And his boss, Vladimir Putin, called on Ukrainian troops to overthrow their leader, President Zelensky.

Ya that’s not offering talks, it’s ordering surrender.

Meanwhile, also from BBC Live, Russia is unimpressed by UK “sanctions.”

The BBC understands that this will take the form of an asset freeze, but not a travel ban – which

Who is labeling which what?

Texas’ crackdown on gender affirming care for kids follows the chilling strategy the state used last year to limit abortion access, gay rights advocates warn.

Though Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Attorney General Ken Paxton’s (R) announcement that gender-affirming care for transgender children is abuse that must be reported and investigated may not survive legal scrutiny, it will likely prevent at-risk children from seeking necessary medical treatment, advocates said. Similar to Texas’s recent abortion law (SB 8), the goal is to scare medical providers from offering certain services.

Ok wait just a damn minute here. Remind us what “gender-affirming care” is? Oh right, it’s surgeries and/or puberty blockers and/or cross-sex hormones – i.e. permanent changes … Read the rest

Horrible.

As Russian forces advance on the Ukrainian capital, the authorities are calling on the population to do everything they can to resist the invading troops.

Both the Ministry of Defence and the Interior Ministry are appealing to Kyiv residents to “inform us of troop movements, to make Molotov cocktails and neutralise the enemy”.

A leaflet with step-by step instructions of how to make petrol bombs has been posted on the Ministry of the Interior’s social media.

Interior Ministry adviser Vadym Denysenko says 18,000 machine guns “have been handed out in Kyiv to all volunteers, all those who want to defend our capital with weapons in their arms”.

They’ll be massacred.

A BBC team encounters some of the home guard.… Read the rest

Don’t even bother trying.

A former NHS chief executive has been told not to apply to work with a transgender clinic because she believes that a person cannot change sex.

Kate Grimes, who has a history of transforming troubled hospitals, was told not to waste her time applying for the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust as her belief in biological sex was “not a viewpoint” they want.

What next? People have to believe in god, or witchcraft, or reincarnation, or homeopathy to work for the NHS? Belief in obvious well-established facts shouldn’t be a disqualifier for a medical institution.

The Tavistock has now been accused of breaking equality law by discriminating against those with gender-critical beliefs, just months after

Well this is great. Putin is actually off his rocker, and he’s promising to use the nukes if we don’t do everything he says.

Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch a catastrophic new European war, combined with the sheer weirdness of his recent public appearances, has raised questions in western capitals about the mental stability of the leader of a country with 6,000 nuclear warheads.

That is, has revealed that Putin is crazy as a bedbug, which is unfortunate since he has the capacity to destroy the planet.

Following Putin’s speech on Monday, an Elysée official made an unusually bold assessment that the speech was “paranoid”. Bernard Guetta, a member of the European parliament for Macron’s grouping, told France Inter

They’re in the northern suburbs.

Fighting has reached the northern suburbs of Kyiv after a night of missile attacks on the Ukrainian capital to prepare for a major Russian assault, as president Volodymyr Zelenskiy pleaded for more international help and tougher sanctions.

First ya gotta do us a little favor though.

Air raid sirens wailed over the city of 3 million people and heavy gunfire and explosions were heard in a residential district on Friday morning. Ukrainian officials warned that Russian military vehicles were approaching the city from the north-west.

…

“Horrific Russian rocket strikes on Kyiv,” Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, tweeted. “Last time our capital experienced anything like this was in 1941 when it was attacked by

Republicans admire Putin.

Pompeo has a great deal of respect for the man who has ordered the invasion. Those are his words, not mine: “I have enormous respect for him.” Even though Pompeo says he saw the attack coming, he’s spent the lead-up lavishing praise on Vladimir Putin. In an interview last week, he called the Russian president “very savvy” and “very shrewd,” adding, “I consider him an elegantly sophisticated counterpart and one who is not reckless but has always done the math.” In January, he said, “He is a very talented statesman. He has lots of gifts … He knows how to use power. We should respect that.”

That’s held up well. Not reckless. Elegantly sophisticated. Very … Read the rest

Via a Facebook friend (a public post):

Tapestry. Ukrainian artist Olga Pilyuhina

Russians protest.

Thousands of people protested President Vladimir Putin’s attacks on Ukraine in cities across Russia on Thursday, a striking show of anger in a nation where spontaneous mass demonstrations are illegal and protesters can face fines and jail.

More than 1,700 people were arrested in at least 47 cities across the nation, according to rights group OVD-Info. The group was declared a foreign agent last year, when Putin launched a sweeping crackdown on activists, rights groups and opposition figures.

The protests came with an outpouring of horror from liberal Russians, social media influencers, athletes, actors, television presenters and others.

Brave people.

The breathtaking bravery of the Russians who know they’ll be arrested for protesting this war and do

What I’m wondering though is what on earth is in this for Putin? I could see what’s in it for him when it’s the slow creeping whittling away, but a full-on invasion? Isn’t that awfully risky? Doesn’t it remind him at all of Hitler’s big mistake going in the other direction?

Looking to see who is explaining, I find again Anne Applebaum three weeks ago.

But of all the questions that repeatedly arise about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, the one that gets the least satisfactory answers is this one: Why?

Why would Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, attack a neighboring country that has not provoked him? Why would he risk the blood of his own soldiers? Why would

I’ll never understand why people can’t (or refuse to) think clearly about this. It’s not as if it’s subtle or obscure. From the Guardian Australia:

Liberal MP Bridget Archer has blasted fellow Tasmanian senator Claire Chandler’s controversial legislation allowing sporting groups to exclude transgender people from single-sex sports as “a vanity bill” and “not government policy”.

Why is it even “controversial”? Obviously men need to be kept out of women’s sports. Everybody knows perfectly well why. If women’s sports aren’t limited to women then there are no women’s sports. Why shouldn’t women have sports?

Archer – who crossed the floor in an effort to secure protections for transgender children during the recent parliamentary debate about religious discrimination – characterised

The malice and spite know no bounds. Ever.

Rachel Rooney alerted us.

Imagine running a literary agency & thinking that it's fine to remove a muslim woman author from the shortlisted image, circulate it & then boast about this on twitter.
Grow up. pic.twitter.com/2QYLVFMSvJ

— Rachel Rooney (@RooneyRachel) February 24, 2022

Did what?? So I had to go searching.

And here’s her work:

Congrats to @kereengetten on the MANGOES shortlisting for the Phoenix Book Award! @LambethPhoenix #phoenixbookaward pic.twitter.com/4CnDKad1cl

— ASH Literary (@ashliterary) February 24, 2022

Just looks normal, right? But the actual list has four writers.

The four shortlisted books for the 2022 #PhoenixBookAward are:

– Boy in the Tower by Polly Ho-Yen
– When Life Gives You Mangoes

The ACLU might be right about this.

Dylan is one of the many children who has had to take legal action to stop his government from taking away his right to accessing gender-affirming care.

Like Dylan, we will never stop fighting for trans youth. pic.twitter.com/EkKM0gBj9j

— ACLU (@ACLU) February 24, 2022

It might be, but it might not.

It’s not a slam-dunk that it’s right though. It’s not just obvious that it’s right to allow and even encourage teenagers to do irreversible things to their bodies because they believe there’s a mismatch between their bodies and what sex they are. It’s not just obvious that it’s better to let a teenager take puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones years before her … Read the rest