Christina Dalcher on what people don’t know about Islamist countries:

Indeed it is.

I lived and worked in one of those countries.

I watched housemaids forced to ‘accompany’ the men they worked when those men went to drink with their buddies.

I watched expats plan ‘midnight runs’ when a local with enough ‘wasta’ made threats.

I was there when a… https://t.co/ab486BqsdJ

— Christina Dalcher (@CV_Dalcher) August 20, 2024

I was there when a group of academics who dared to criticize the government for not being democratic were removed from their homes in the wee hours and not heard from afterwards.

I was pressured into putting a religion on my visa because ‘atheist’ would be problematic.

I heard women speak of

Frustrating. I can’t find the source of the quoted passage, Google says it’s never heard of it, SEEN hasn’t so far answered my question. There’s an answer but I haven’t been able to find it yet.

Meanwhile – somebody said this:

Following last week's Bookbrunch interview with a senior editor @Hachette, our legal adviser has asked for evidence from @Bookbrunch, @LittleBrownUK that SEEN in Publishing has denied anyone's 'basic humanity' or done anything to make anyone feel 'unsafe or unwelcome'. pic.twitter.com/kg85f5CJ0q

— SEEN in Publishing (@SEENPublishing) August 20, 2024

“It can make them feel unsafe and unwelcome in an industry where I don’t think that’s the case. There’s a very small minority that speaks loudly about these topics, … Read the rest

She’s just not that into you.

Taylor Swift has yet to endorse any presidential candidate this election cycle. But former President Donald Trump says he accepts the superstar’s non-existent endorsement.

Trump posted “I accept!” on his Truth Social account, along with a carousel of (Swift) images – at least some of which appear to be AI-generated.

One of the AI-manipulated photos depicts Swift as Uncle Sam with the text, “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.”

Also on Team Trump: Al Capone, Amelia Earhart, Rachel Maddow, David Beckham.

Swift’s fans – known as Swifties – have gotten political this election cycle. Immediately after President Joe Biden stepped aside and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, a large group of Swift’s fans formed a community called

A long string of clips from last night at the DNC. I haven’t watched most of them yet; just the tweets make me tear up. You may notice a theme.

I did watch the kids singing the anthem one. And the Maxine Waters one. She said “Fannie Lou” and I was a goner. Fannie Lou always makes me tear up. Always.

I did manage to stay dry-eyed for the one about snacks.

I'm going to put together a thread covering night 1 of the 2024 DNC in Chicago, featuring a headlining speech from President Biden. Follow along for clips and commentary. pic.twitter.com/yOxFrG3j9e

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 19, 2024

… Read the rest

More on Smyth Harper:

The UK's Independent Office for Police Conduct has revealed that its head of communications, Smyth Harper, a trans activist who repeatedly posted online abuse aimed at women, including calling them Nazis if they don't believe men are women, is no longer an employee pic.twitter.com/jp79JILyAX

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) August 19, 2024

Looks like all we know is that he's left the organisationhttps://t.co/YydNDwwOuj

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) August 19, 2024

Yes – a trustee. Notice that they don't use the full names for their trustees. Something Pride in Surrey was also doing, before password protecting the pagehttps://t.co/YJ8ie3YmAX

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) August 19, 2024

Seems a very odd choice for head of communications for the police a non-departmental … Read the rest

Conservative judge just says no to Trump.

Retired federal appeals court Judge J. Michael Luttig, a prominent conservative legal scholar put on the bench by President George H.W. Bush, is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump, whose candidacy he describes as an existential threat to American democracy.

Harris is a former prosecutor. Trump is a convicted felon. You do the math.

“In the presidential election of 2024 there is only one political party and one candidate for the presidency that can claim the mantle of defender and protector of America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law,” Luttig wrote in a statement obtained exclusively by CNN. “As a result, I will unhesitatingly vote for

“You don’t know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump. You just don’t.” https://t.co/hIYIymDhZo

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 19, 2024

The quotation marks indicate a quotation, so I looked for it. Apparently it’s Fran Lebowitz who said it.

Anyway it’s true. It’s weirdly bizarrely shamingly true. I don’t know anyone as blatantly obviously shamelessly as stupid as Trump. It’s possible that I know some people who are approximately that stupid but if so they don’t flaunt it the way he does…which means they are less stupid than he is.

You can object that this unsurpassed stupidity of his got him elected president, but on the other hand it made billions of people aware of how profoundly stupid he is when … Read the rest

In other parts of the world:

"Taliban sentence woman to stone in Balkh"

"The primary court of the Taliban in Shulgarh district, Balkh province, has issued a sentence of stoning to death of a woman on the charge of extramarital affair."

(retweet of article in Persian, Google translation in screenshots) https://t.co/0Npn8T4Y2R pic.twitter.com/je9G557VnD

— Lily Maynard (@LilyLilyMaynard) August 18, 2024

… Read the rest

Police in Iran shoot a woman in the spine, paralyzing her, because they don’t like her hair.

The family of Arezou Badri, a 31-year-old woman shot by Iran’s police on July 22 for allegedly violating mandatory hijab laws, is under intense government pressure to withdraw their complaint.

Badri, a mother of two, was left paralyzed after the shooting, an incident that has ignited outrage both within Iran and on the international stage.

The family’s complaint regarding Badri, who suffered severe spinal cord injuries and remains hospitalized at Valiasr Hospital in Tehran, was heard in a court this week. However, the family remains dissatisfied with the outcome and the judicial process.

This is because she has hair on her head. … Read the rest

Hmm that’s a stupid title.

Tentative deal could allow transgender girls to keep playing on girls’ sports teams in N.H.

If boys play on girls’ sports teams then those sports teams are no longer girls’ sports teams. By definition. These boys who long to play on girls’ teams are yearning for the impossible, because by getting their wish they fail to get their wish. “Ok George and Fred and Bill you can play on the girls’ team, whoops now it’s a mixed team.”

Two transgender girls in New Hampshire whose families filed a federal lawsuit challenging the enforcement of a new state law that bars them from girls’ school sports may get a temporary reprieve.

Two boys, that is. … Read the rest

Julie Bindel on another cheating male athlete:

Valentina Petrillo, a 50-year-old biological male, is set to be the first transgender Paralympian. The International Paralympic Committee allows governing bodies to set their own policies, and World Para Athletics permits anyone legally recognised as a woman to compete in the women’s events.

Why stop there? Why not legally recognize cheetahs as human and let them compete in races? Why not recognize dolphins as human and let them compete in swimming competitions?

Petrillo is being lauded not because he is a brilliant sprinter, but because he is the first transgender person to compete in the World Paralympic Games. Supporters of transgender ideology will approve of how inclusive the sporting world is

Let’s add insult to injury, shall we?

[O]utspoken Scottish golfer Hailey Davidson – born male but who transitioned to female – has shared her perspective on why athletes should look within when faced with defeat by transgender competitors.

There it is again – as pretty much always. The issue isn’t “transgender competitors”; it’s men intruding on women’s sports. When it’s the other way around it’s pretty much never a problem for the men. The news media flat-out refuse to cover this honestly.

Davidson was recently excluded from NXXT golf events due to the policy changes following her transition. She took to Instagram to express her views: “I will never understand athletes who blame a transgender competitor on their

Wait what?

Robert A. Bridy, 64, a laborer from Shamokin, Pennsylvania, traveled on Saturday to the rally to show support for Trump. He said the election feels tight in this state and added that his union and a close friend are trying to convince him to vote for Harris and other Democrats, but he has voted for Trump since 2016.

Bridy called Trump a “working class guy like us.” Trump is a billionaire who built his fortune in real estate.

How do people manage to think that?

The only explanation I can think of is insulting to the people in question.

Trump has never been in any sense working class. He was landlord class from the beginning.

What he can … Read the rest

This is effective.

The contrast between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump around children is just…wow…

You have to see it for yourself pic.twitter.com/wiccPU66Wt

— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) August 18, 2024

Now you can say “Well sure but those are carefully selected clips, you could find other clips that would show the opposite” – but the reality is that you could not. Not in a million years could you find clips of Donald Trump talking to little girls the way Harris does. The reality is that Trump does think that “value” in women means “sexually appealing to Donald Trump.” The reality is that Trump thinks that’s the only kind of value women can have.

And the reality of course is that you … Read the rest

Michael Tomasky at The New Republic notes that Harris is good at fighting back, something the Dems are often not very good at.

And Donald Trump is freaked out in ways he never imagined were possible. He has faced a lot of opponents—from 1980s New York Mayor Ed Koch to all his many creditors to the 16 dwarves he ran against in 2016 to a Clinton campaign that thought the race was over to prosecutors he has known for years how to slow down, especially with corrupt hack judges having his back. But Trump has never had an opponent that made him go: “Oh fuck, these people mean business.”

Now he does. And that it’s a Black woman who

The BBC is just a tiny bit evasive as it reports on misogyny and “extremism”…

Extreme misogyny will be treated as a form of extremism under new government plans, the Home Office has said.

Tautology, dear BBC. Extremism will be treated as a form of extremism.

Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has ordered a review of the UK’s counter-extremism strategy to determine how best to tackle threats posed by harmful ideologies. The analysis will look at hatred of women as one of the ideological trends that the government says is gaining traction. Ms Cooper said there has been a rise in extremism “both online and on our streets” that “frays the very fabric of our communities and our democracy”.

It’s … Read the rest

Well there’s a surprise.

Extreme misogyny to be treated as terrorism

Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, has ordered a review of Britain’s counter-extremism strategy to urgently address gaps in the Government’s stance, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

It will look at tackling violence against women and girls in the same way as Islamist and far-Right extremism, amid fears that current Home Office guidance is too narrow.

It’s nice that they’ve at least noticed finally. I’m so sick of seeing the lists of persecuted groups that always always always leave women out. I saw another one just this morning.

The move comes after Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said that violence against women and girls should be

The fragrant candidate from Queens:

Trump: "I use the term, often time in closing, 'We are a nation in decline. We are a failed nation.' And I think it's a beautiful phrase." pic.twitter.com/7FzRcG2gEy

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 17, 2024

… Read the rest

A comment by a woman on Jo Phoenix’s post Talking about Asian grooming gangs:

An interesting and thought provoking article. One thing I find missing is the observation that not all cultures and religions are the same regarding attitudes towards women and girls. All are bad in their own way, but men of Muslim heritage and Muslim countries do have particularly oppressive and offensive attitudes about women and girls. Just because a subject raises unpleasant issues and is difficult to discuss doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be discussed.

I would put that more cautiously by saying that countries where Islam is more or less mandatory train men (and plenty of women) to be suspicious and contemptuous of women. Some men … Read the rest

It seems Trump has finally said something that angers even the maga types.

Former President Donald Trump received an immediate backlash Thursday when he said the Presidential Medal of Freedom he awarded to Dr. Miriam Adelson, the widow of Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, was “equivalent” and “much better” than the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for bravery in combat. 

What was that Captain Bonespurs? You’re dissing combat veterans now?

Speaking from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, during an event on fighting antisemitism, Trump praised the late Las Vegas casino magnate as “one of the greatest businessmen in the world,” before addressing Sheldon Adelson’s widow to make a comparison between the Medal of Honor and