How is this ok?

This is the world women experience. This kind of sexualized & sex-based harassment happens in full view of an audience. But we shouldn’t even blink at demands to allow boys & men into our school bathrooms, change rooms, sports teams, gym locker rooms, prison cells, rape shelters. https://t.co/UEbanYKtIf

— Candice Jackson (@CEJacksonLaw) November 5, 2021

It’s what male people say to gender critical feminists, too – suck my dick. Remember that sign at the FiLiA conference?

But please, tell us again how men who say they are women are the most oppressed Of All.… Read the rest

Trumpian hack refuses to answer.

Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark stonewalled the House Select Committee investigating January 6, responding to a subpoena demanding he appear for an interview with the panel, but not answering questions posed to him, sources familiar with his appearance told CNN.

He should be locked up then.

Instead, Clark provided a letter from his attorney Harry MacDougald that claimed he could not provide testimony until a court declares that his interactions with former President Donald Trump are not protected under attorney-client privilege or executive privilege.

Attorney-client privilege!!!

He worked for the country, not Trump. He was a DoJ official, not Trump’s lawyer. He never worked for Trump. Trump was never his client.… Read the rest

It does, doesn’t it.

The word ‘victim’ seems awfully misplaced here… pic.twitter.com/PpRtnYcyXN

— James Dreyfus (@DreyfusJames) November 5, 2021

That’s Kathleen Stock he’s calling calling a cretinous vile excuse for a human being.

Gregor Murray, in case you’ve forgotten, has a habit of verbally abusing women, so much so that he was suspended from his job as a councillor for it in 2019.

Scotland’s only openly transgender councillor has been suspended for two months over derogatory online remarks.

Derogatory remarks, eh? Like calling a woman philosopher who is both smarter and more humane than he is “a cretinous vile excuse for a human being”? Seems to be a hard habit to break in his case.

The standards commission said the

It’s an insurrection and price-gouging! Multi-tasking taken to a new level.

On December 19, Trump tweeted, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” Almost overnight, the cheapest room in his D.C. hotel on that January evening surged from $476 to $1,999. Just over a week later, prices hit $3,600, before eventually climbing to $8,000.

Makes it sound like the weather, something that just happens, as opposed to a greedy human being jacking up the prices because he can. Treason with one hand, grabbing all the dollars with the other.

Guests included insiders working to overturn the election from the “war room” down the block at the Willard hotel—as well as the president’s two eldest

The Financial Times on this mess we’re in:

Just over a week ago, Kathleen Stock resigned from her post as professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex, following a relentless three-year campaign of bullying, harassment and character assassination.

…

“I can’t keep working somewhere where . . . there’s such toxicity,” she had told me the previous week, when I’d gone to speak to her at the home she shares with her pregnant wife and two children. The strain Stock was under was palpable — she broke down in tears twice during our conversation; several days earlier, she had been signed off work by her doctor because of stress. At one point, we were interrupted by the delivery

A comrade responds to Grant Buttars:

God help any woman who works in Scottish higher education who says that sex is immutable and is relying on University and College Union (UCU) Scotland Executive member and Branch President (UCU Edinburgh) Grant Buttars to defend her if some students demand she should be sacked.

In the post-Trotskyist version of a witch trial Buttars produces some of the most appalling arguments ever adduced by a man to justify the sacking of a woman. After a long set up referencing a case of a racist advocate of paedophilia in “When is it right for a union to support dismissal?”, Buttars explains it is OK when the target is a racist, an advocate of

What are unions for? Holding workers up for the mob to stone, is it?

‘I don’t feel the need to back anybody’, says Jo Grady head of the of UCU when asked whether she backed @Docstockk against the harassment she has suffered. Why would anyone belong to such a union? @BBCr4today

— David Aaronovitch (@DAaronovitch) November 5, 2021

That is just extraordinary.

— Dr Mike Ward – @Schroedinger99@social.anoxinon.de (@Schroedinger99) November 5, 2021

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Djolaman on What legal rights?

There’s a distinction between a ‘right’ in the sense of something you are entitled to do within the law and a ‘right’ in the sense of something that may not legitimately be denied to you.

For instance married couples in the uk can have their income tax liabilty evaluated so that some of the money earned by the higher earner is considered for tax purposes to have been earned by the lower earner, which often means it’s exempt from income tax as it falls below the tax threshold. This is a right in the sense that married people are perfectly entitled to claim this tax deduction. However, if the rules were … Read the rest

I’ve watched this twice today, and I think it will probably be a good idea to watch it at least daily from now on. Via Cameron Larios.

Info:

This quirky short film by Iqaluit filmmaker Becky Qilavvaq has caught a wave of viewers around YouTube recently. Feel the Inukness stars actor Anguti Johnston step dancing around Iqaluit to a Celtic jig, which is said to be similar to the footwork at Inuit celebrations. The work was well received by youth in the town, and Qilavvaq was awarded Ajjitt Media’s emerging filmmaker of the year.In an interview with Nunatsiaq Online, Qilavvaq spoke of a deeper message in the work: “It’s about being ourselves and embracing who we are … The

Joan Smith talks to Jo Phoenix:

Jo Phoenix is a widely respected academic. Since 2016, she has been professor of criminology at the Open University, where her focus is on vulnerable women in the criminal justice system. Phoenix does not think of herself as vulnerable and she certainly never expected to be where she is now – diagnosed with acute PTSD and suing her employer for failing to protect her after what she describes as two years of harassment from colleagues. “I’m exhausted,” she tells me – and she sounds it.

…

Her voice breaks at some points in our conversation, as she describes how she became a hate figure, metaphorically put in the stocks by colleagues who accuse

I asked OJ what he meant an hour or two ago. It’s a futile exercise, because he has too many followers to answer questions, but I did it anyway.

What exactly are "trans legal rights"? What legal rights are specific to trans people and no one else?

— Ophelia Benson (@OpheliaBenson) November 4, 2021

OJ and people like OJ want to insist (and do insist) that it’s about bad women wanting to “abolish” the legal rights of trans people, while feminist women counter-insist that we’re seeking to protect our rights, and that some claimed “rights” of trans people are not actually rights.

As far as I can tell the issue is that [some] trans people want it to be a … Read the rest

Cutting edge political analysis.

A lot of British culture war discourse is comfortably off middle-aged "centrists" who see themselves as progressive, who have been driven to incandescent rage by younger people who very loudly don't think they are at all.

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) November 3, 2021

So…it’s the young who get everything right, and the middle-aged and older who are the smug comfortable clueless Wrong people who stifle all the youthful rightness and ruin everything.

I wonder if OJ can see a downside to that way of looking at it. What downside? The fact that if that’s true then we might as well all give up, because nothing can ever improve. Why? Because young people become middle-aged people (OJ … Read the rest

Our new overlords let us know what we’re allowed to think.

But how is he defining “transphobia”? And “anti-trans behaviours”? And “being transphobic”? What does it mean to say that all are “prohibited from being transphobic”? Is it even true? I don’t think so. I don’t think laws are formulated that way, not least because they would be unenforceable. The law deals with acts, including speech acts; it can’t deal with being. The first Queen Elizabeth said “I have no desire to make windows into men’s souls.” The people who tried to make such windows in the 16th century did it via torture, which is not a very reliable method.

It wouldn’t matter except that Breslow is an … Read the rest

And there’s this:

Anne-Marie Angelo has (of course) now protected her account. Fucking Stalinist.… Read the rest

Julie Bindel also interviewed Doc Stock today, but they’re friends, so it’s different. (I thought Emma Barnett was ok though. I expected her to be a little disapproving, but I don’t think she did.)

I have known Kathleen since 2018, when I discovered her research on gender identity and women’s sex-based rights. We have remained close since then, and I have looked on with horror at the abhorrent treatment she has been forced to endure in recent months.

…

[T]o implement self-identification without question is to ignore a key safeguarding problem. As Kathleen puts it, “Self  ID policies trade on a fantasy that suddenly putting on a dress or saying ‘I’m a woman’ will change your basic nature. But,

Speaking of that disgusting article by Grant Buttars, Kathleen shared her view of it hours ago.

Now it’s discrimination in banking. No bank account for you, bitches! Get back in the kitchen!

We are strong advocates of human rights and are committed to equal treatment, equal opportunities and equal rights for all people. We believe in the power of diversity and do not tolerate any discrimination. 1/3

— bunq (@bunq) November 3, 2021

Your organisation does not stand behind these values, which is in contrast with what bunq is and represents. In light of this and due to complaints we’ve received concerning your activities, we’ve reserved our right to terminate the contractual agreement with you. 2/3

— bunq (@bunq) November 3, 2021

We’ll be happy to support feminist organisations, but do not tolerate discrimination against trans

Yet more poisonous bullying from people who fancy themselves comrades:

He’s president of Edinburgh UCU. His “little something” explains why it’s good for a union to throw a member to the wolves.

When is it right for a union to support dismissal?

Transphobic philosophy professor Kathleen Stock recently resigned from her position at the University of Sussex, shortly after tweeting that the Sussex branch of UCU ‘effectively ended’ her career by releasing a statement in solidarity with trans and nonbinary communities at the university. Stock has not been a UCU member for some time. Before her resignation there would have been a clear case for the union to support her dismissal even if she were a member.

First word … Read the rest

It was only a month ago that Liam Hackett verbally abused Kathleen Stock on Twitter.

So deeply disappointing that @SussexUni are still enabling this dangerous extremist. I remember warning them quite clearly that the lives of queer/trans students would be deeply affected by this lecturer. Appalling and tragic. Listen to your students #ShameOnSussexUni https://t.co/MJizlw5vSD

— Dr Liam Hackett MBE (@DiageoLiam) October 7, 2021

Hi @SussexUni, if you doubt the experiences of your trans/queer students when they tell you how toxic your lecturer is, check the responses to my last tweet to you, where you’ll see the toxicity a mear suggestion of her attracts from her radicalised followers. #ShameOnSussexUni

— Dr Liam Hackett MBE (@DiageoLiam) October 7, 2021

This barely … Read the rest

Interesting development.

Dramatic stuff on @BBCWorldatOne where veteran Tory @PBottomleyMP interrupts his own interview on another matter to issue impassioned support for @Docstockk, who has made the main headlines after her interview with @Emmabarnett…

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) November 3, 2021

What a difference it makes when @BBCWomansHour gives an issue the coverage it has so long been crying out for

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) November 3, 2021

Sir Peter Bottomley seems to have been talking about Liam Hackett, the youngest person to hold an honorary doctorate from @SussexUni and who did indeed use those words about @Docstockk. So, @SussexUni, what do you say? pic.twitter.com/oNVY2WGXhg

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) November 3, 2021

… Read the rest