From a comment by iknklast on How to threaten power.

There is a battle between faculty and administration right now, both of whom claim to support high standards, but who identify that differently. High standards to the faculty means that you actually educate the students in what they came to learn; high standards to the administration means they are happy. They are doing battle right now with English and Math because they are trying to remove basic competencies in reading and mathematics that we currently require for graduation; the administration says that held up several students from getting their degree on time. Yeah. It’s more important that they graduate than that they learn anything.

They’ve also made it possible … Read the rest

From a comment by Rob on Systemic v individual.

I’m not going to enumerate all the examples of serious cultural, institutional and systemic racism in western society. Any reasonable person just needs to open their eyes to see the ocean we swim in. CRT was initially adopted by law schools as a tool for analysing the effect of laws (past and present) and the way their application affected people coming into contact with the legal system (police, courts and prisons). Remember this isn’t just kumbaya-singing hippies at universities, but hard headed lawyers from a wide ranging political and social spectrum. You can find plenty of non-academic lawyers and prosecutors online who give meaningful and specific examples of current systemic … Read the rest

Well. That takes some nerve.

Really?!

No.

Stefanik’s claim is that the Capitol police raised concerns about security and that Pelosi “prioritized her partisan political optics over their safety.” But there’s a catch: their safety is not Pelosi’s jurisdiction.

It should go without saying that the main person who bears responsibility for the violence that occurred on Jan. 6 is former President Donald Trump, whose lies about the election being stolen are what inspired a militant set of protesters to gather in Washington. He then directed that very group he convened to head to the Capitol and told them to “show strength.”

But as far as who was responsible for security vulnerabilities that day [is concerned], Pelosi again

Speaking of shorts on the men and tiny tiny underpants on the women, Gail Dines points out something I think of every time I see those damn photos and clips –

No discussion in mainstream media about the need for women athletes to have a full Brazilian wax to wear the hypersexualized, pornified skimpy outfits. Aside from the very painful procedure, women often bleed during the wax, get infections, and it hurts when the hair grows back. Could you imagine men having to wax their pubic area in order to compete in sports? And the mostly male coaches get to have a bird’s eye view of the women’s crotches, and we know that Larry Nassar is not just one bad

CNN on the treason hearings:

The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack at the Capitol held its first hearing on Tuesday with harrowing testimony from four officers who shared their stories of being attacked by the rioters.

…

One by one, the four officers who testified Tuesday — DC Metropolitan Police Officers Daniel Hodges and Michael Fanone, and Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell — recounted their gut-wrenching stories about how they were attacked and their lives were threatened on January 6.

Witnesses and committee members were verklempt at times.

H[odg]es described how he was forced to scream out in agony as he was pressed between the rioters and a metal doorframe. Fanone

Aaron Rupar is following the January 6 hearing for us.

Sgt. Gonell gets emotional recalling how when he returned home early on the morning on Jan 7, he had to push his wife away because of all the chemicals he had on his clothes pic.twitter.com/91LBpd1LVi

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 27, 2021

Fanone: "I was aware enough to recognize I was at risk of being stripped of and killed with my own firearm. I was electrocuted again and again and again with a taser. I'm sure I was screaming, but I don't think I could even hear my own voice." pic.twitter.com/2qgmASp6n1

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 27, 2021

Fanone pounds the table as he says, "the indifference shown to my

As the man said – powerful.

Officer Dunn: "There was an attack carried out on January 6, and a hit man sent them. I want you to get to the bottom of that." pic.twitter.com/mIOtjxKpI7

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 27, 2021

… Read the rest

Labour is not supporting Rosie Duffield, Labour is instead doing what the trans “activists” and “allies” ordered them to do, and “investigating” her.

LGBT+ Labour said its demand “comes after a pattern of LGBT-phobic behaviour culminating in the endorsement of tweet from a person arrested on terrorism charges which accuses members of the LGBT+ community of being ‘cosplayers’”.

And? Is LGBT+ Labour seriously pretending zero such “members of the community” are cosplayers? Many such members go on at great length about their cosplaying.

Never mind that, heads they win tails we lose.

Update, 6.50pm: A Labour spokesperson said: “The Labour Party takes all complaints of homophobia or transphobia extremely seriously. This complaint will be fully investigated in line

Oh the confidence of a man who knows nothing at all about it.

People saying stupid things like this know they're talking about predatory cis men and not trans women, right? Right? Hello, is this thing on?https://t.co/s8z7ywBB1s

— Mike (@Mike_P_Williams) July 26, 2021

But how do women keep predatory men out of women’s change rooms when we’re not allowed to keep men out of women’s change rooms? They don’t show up with labels on you know.

Good fucking grief, if this is the sort of vile abuse I receive, what must it be like for trans people? My advice: let them exist and stop trying to police safe spaces and blaming trans women for the behaviours of predatory men.

You have GOT to be kidding.

Inbox: “Reps. Gaetz, Gohmert, Gosar, and Greene to Hold Press Conference at DOJ Demanding Answers on Treatment of January 6th Prisoners” pic.twitter.com/OjN2LVh1kG

— Grace Panetta (@grace_panetta) July 26, 2021

All of a sudden the ugliest most right-wing Republicans care about treatment of prisoners – when the prisoners in question are white guys who did absolutely nothing wrong apart from invading the Capitol, assaulting cops, trying to assassinate members of Congress, and making an energetic attempt to overthrow the government and install a dictator.

It’s enough to make you projectile-vomit.… Read the rest

Speaking of female v male sport clothes…

The sexism and misogyny reflected in sports uniforms is indeed a global problem. https://t.co/R7UwWk402i

— Black Together Again (@KProtein19) July 26, 2021

It’s almost as if the whole point is to…… Read the rest

Check out this complete fuckwit answering demands for specifics and evidence with a tweet of his own which is just another string of assertions. “Show me some evidence!” “Ok here’s me saying things!” Doing this over and over again. The conceit plus stupidity is quite something. Complete fuckwit inexplicably has 248 thousand followers.

https://t.co/040ztvZvt4

— George Aylett (@GeorgeAylett) July 26, 2021

https://t.co/040ztvZvt4

— George Aylett (@GeorgeAylett) July 26, 2021

https://t.co/KXz5A5sfUY

— George Aylett (@GeorgeAylett) July 26, 2021

https://t.co/040ztvZvt4

— George Aylett (@GeorgeAylett) July 26, 2021

People are either being purposefully ignorant or they genuinely don’t know about Duffield’s transphobia. To everybody saying ‘what has she done?!’ have a look: https://t.co/040ztvZvt4

— George Aylett (@GeorgeAylett) July 26, 2021

“But why should … Read the rest

Scene: a sporting goods store in Montana. A guy spots Tucker Carlson and gets in his face.

In a confrontation that swiftly went viral, a Montana man told Fox News host Tucker Carlson: “You are the worst human being known to mankind.”

The man, identified on Instagram as Dan Bailey, posted the video of the encounter in a sporting goods store on 23 July.

…

Fox News’s most-watched host, a key influence on rightwing politics and invective, has recently come under fire for questioning vaccines against Covid-19 while refusing to say if he has had one, and for stoking racial division.

“Questioning vaccines” is putting it politely. Really what he’s doing is encouraging people not to get them, … Read the rest

Pink News is trying hard to punish a woman MP who says that only women are women.

LGBT+ Labour are calling for Rosie Duffield to lose the whip and be suspended from the party after an alleged “pattern of LGBT-phobic behaviour” from the Canterbury MP.

Yes the pattern is “alleged” all right, and the allegation is false.

LGBT+ Labour’s statement comes after Duffield liked a tweet by Kurtis Lemaster yesterday (25 July) that stated the word “queer” is being reclaimed by “heterosexuals cosplaying as the opposite sex and as ‘gay’”.

Why would that be a reason to remove the whip and suspend her from the party? They don’t say.

Rosie Duffield’s history of anti-trans activity

That is, her history of … Read the rest

Shall we read a little of that oh so edgy paper?

This paper suggests that a purposeful political embodiment of threat opens up and revisits a trans* politics of monstrosity and virality that not only questions but threatens power. Taking seriously the transphobic notion of transness as an endemic threat to feminism, gender, and rights, I present ‘trans* endemics’ as a political and scholarly strategy that asks, what does an embodiment of threat, indeed, being a threat, do as a possible site of survival and resistance for trans* bodies?

With a hey nonnie nonnie and a hotchacha.

But picking our way through the obligatory theory-speak, we find that he’s saying it’s cool for trans people (male ones, he means … Read the rest

Gender studies=threats of violence against women? Who knew?!

“If TERFs think trans* is an endemic threat to feminism, let us be the threat to feminism…

Picture this: I hold a knife to your throat and spit my transness into your ear. Does that turn you on? Are you scared? I sure fucking hope so.”

Matt Thompson, LSE GENDER STUDIES MSc STUDENT

He’s a student taking the MSc in Gender (Sexuality) at the London School of Economics and Political Science, aka LSE.

The quote comes at the end of his paper entitled “Trans* Endemics: Embodying Viral and Monstrous Threat in Times of Pandemic”, presented at a conference (held in April 2021) for the course on Transnational Sexual Politics,

The campaign to bully women out of Labour and feminism and LGB rights continues.

We’ve been made aware that Rosie Duffield MP has once again endorsed homophobic & transphobic content online. We will be raising this with the party today.

We continue to urge them to take strong & decisive action against anyone who seeks to discriminate against LGBT+ people.

— LGBT+ Labour (@LGBTLabour) July 26, 2021

It’s a lie, of course. She didn’t “endorse homophobic & transphobic content online.” She liked a tweet by a gay man on the subject of the word “queer,” which he dislikes. Disliking the word “queer” is hardly homophobic (and has nothing to do with trans anything). Liking a tweet by a gay man … Read the rest

Another anti-vaxxer dies of Covid:

A California man who mocked Covid-19 vaccines on social media has died after a month-long battle with the virus.

Stephen Harmon, a member of the Hillsong megachurch, had been a vocal opponent of vaccines, making a series of jokes about not having the vaccine.

“Got 99 problems but a vax ain’t one,” the 34-year-old tweeted to his 7,000 followers in June.

But the virus was, and he died of it last Wednesday.

In the days leading up to his death, Mr Harmon documented his fight to stay alive, posting pictures of himself in his hospital bed.

“Please pray y’all, they really want to intubate me and put me on a ventilator,” he said.

In

Read with one set of assumptions this is a story of a woman bravely fighting to help her trans son. Read with the opposite set it’s the story of a woman hell-bent on having her daughter mutilated.

In terms of the real, material world that we know something about…the first set of assumptions is fantasy-based.

For over half an hour on a March afternoon, Arkansas legislators, activists and pediatricians outlined reasons why they considered gender-affirming health care dangerous, arguing in support of a bill that would ban transgender minors from accessing that care.

Notice the careful and misleading way CNN frames it (as always) – as “gender-affirming health care.” In reality it’s sex-denying medical malpractice.

The mother from Bauxite

Meanwhile another anti-vax propagandist learns the hard way:

A conservative radio host in Tennessee, who repeatedly spread misinformation about coronavirus and mocked vaccines but changed his tune after falling seriously ill, was still fighting for his life on Saturday, weeks after contracting the virus.

Phil Valentine, who hosts a talk radio show on 99.7 WWTN-FM in Nashville, is hospitalized and is receiving supplemental oxygen while in critical care battling COVID pneumonia, his family said in a statement Friday.

I wonder if, while fighting for his life, he’s thinking at all about the people who listened to his misinformation about coronavirus and mockery of vaccines. I wonder if he’s feeling any shame at all about people he put in the … Read the rest