Rebecca Solnit addresses this constant puzzle of the politicization of death-avoidance in a pandemic:

Some of the most powerful conservatives in the United States have, since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, chosen to sow disinformation along with mockery and distrust of proven methods of combating the disease, from masks to vaccines to social distancing. Their actions have afflicted the nation as a whole with more disease and death and economic crisis than good leadership aligned with science might have, and, in spite of hundreds of thousands of well-documented deaths and a new surge, they continue. Their malice has become so normal that its real nature is rarely addressed. Call it biological warfare by propaganda.

It’s true and I … Read the rest

Marjorie Taylor Greene urges her fans to murder more federal workers.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., suggested at a recent Republican fundraiser in Alabama that Southerners could threaten President Joe Biden’s “police state friends” with guns if they show up at their homes asking about their coronavirus vaccination status.

The late-July event in Dothan was closed to the media, but a video clip of some of her comments leaked, according to the Alabama Political Reporter.

What’s the world coming to when a pro-fascist member of the House can’t foment insurrection in private?

“You lucky people here in Alabama might get a knock on your door, because I hear Alabama might be one of the most unvaccinated states,” Greene

… Read the rest

The guy dressed as a baby at the “trans rights” protest is very indignant that people noticed he was dressed as a baby.

This photo was posted online by an extreme far right bigot.

But joke is on them, it's a great photo.#TransRightsProtest pic.twitter.com/oPkc2Nm7SB

— Felix F Fern – Writing 'Steel & Embers' (@Felix_F_Fern) August 6, 2021

Is it?

I don’t know; maybe. For a day at the beach or a pool party it may be. For other purposes? I would think not. Mostly, adults don’t want to be seen as pretending to be children, or dressing up to look like children, for a whole host of reasons. Maybe that’s unfair, maybe we should be more relaxed about the … Read the rest

Oops.

https://twitter.com/CarolynEast2/status/1423734721276571654… Read the rest

Oh how special: Fox News rodent Tucker Carlson is on a jaunt to Hungary to hang out with good ol’ boy Viktor Orban.

US guest of honour and Fox News host Tucker Carlson was granted a lightning visit by military helicopter to Hungary’s 175km (109-mile) high-tech, high-cost razor-wire border fence with Serbia this week.

Border wall! To keep the Untermenschen out! Makes a proud boy proud!

He liked what he saw. After praising the fence for being so “clean and orderly”, in contrast to the “chaos” on the US-Mexican border, he told his viewers: “It doesn’t require a GDP the size of the US, it doesn’t require high-tech walls, guns, or surveillance equipment. All it requires is the will to

… Read the rest

Sorry to cite Andy Ngô but sometimes it can’t be helped.

The recital of the creed:

https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1423634909986443271

I think the guy in the pastel play clothes identifies as a baby. For real.

https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1423679216181207042

There’s the trans baby again. I wonder what his demands are.… Read the rest

Oh the irony when even Woman’s Hour avoids the word.

WOMAN’S HOUR FFS.

A drug that has been used to treat critically ill Covid patients may also help people who struggle with heavy periods. A trial has found that the steroid Dexamethasone could help reduce heavy menstrual bleeding. Dr Pamela Warner joins us to discuss https://t.co/YmXvJ8C4Gg pic.twitter.com/JMLfc2BcFq

— BBC Woman's Hour (@BBCWomansHour) August 6, 2021

… Read the rest

Douglas Murray does an OJ-tease:

Does male privilege really exist? I did not used to think so. But in recent years, I’ve come to realise that not only might it exist, but that, at least in one respect, I may also benefit from it. That is, I have the privilege of being able to write about certain contentious issues without being singled out and demonised for doing so.

Quite.

On gender, for instance, as he goes on to say. He can be critical, women not so much.

After all, countless female authors have written articles expressing scepticism towards the transgender movement — many of them more moderate than my own. Yet almost every time, I have watched in horror as

… Read the rest

What can these crazy evil feminist women possibly mean?

If someone felt that they didn’t fit within the categories of ‘male’ or ‘female’, what would be the best way for them to live their lives- in the better world that ‘gender critical’ feminists imagine?

— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) August 6, 2021

So this is a thing, is it? People feeling that they “don’t fit” within some category or other, and thus needing to move to a different one, and thus having a right to order the rest of the world to “validate” them as being in that category as opposed to the one they were “assigned” to at birth? It works across all categories, does it?

Well, no, it doesn’t. … Read the rest

Ron DeSantis seems to want to kill off most of the people who vote for him.

With the highly contagious Delta variant spreading, a state comprising little more than 6% of the US population was accounting for one in five of the country’s new cases, recording 50,997 in the three days to Tuesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

DeSantis says the spike is “seasonal” and opposes lockdowns or new restrictions. The Republican governor followed up his executive order banning mask mandates in schools by dismissed the burgeoning crisis in Florida’s hospitals as “media hysteria”.

So it’s hysteria to report the stats?

“Our hospitals are open for business. We’re not shutting down. We’re

… Read the rest

This is scary: Scientists spot warning signs of Gulf Stream collapse

That won’t be good at all.

It’s one of the main potential tipping points.

The research found “an almost complete loss of stability over the last century” of the currents that researchers call the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). The currents are already at their slowest point in at least 1,600 years, but the new analysis shows they may be nearing a shutdown.

Such an event would have catastrophic consequences around the world, severely disrupting the rains that billions of people depend on for food in India, South America and West Africa; increasing storms and lowering temperatures in Europe; and pushing up the sea level in the

… Read the rest

Open Democracy wrings its open democratic hands over the tragedy of a man who identifies as a woman being deselected as a candidate for office.

Kathryn Bristow was named on 8 March as a Green Party candidate for the UK’s 2021 local government elections – the first openly trans woman to be put forward by a political party in Bristol City. But less than two weeks later the party formally suspended her and selected another candidate, who was not trans, to run in her place.

Here’s the thing: political parties should not be putting trans women forward for political office, because trans women are simply men (who call themselves women), and its women who need more representation, not men, no … Read the rest

Joan Smith has a must-read piece at the Guardian about the often overlooked connection between violence against women and terrorist violence.

Five years ago, I began to notice that the perpetrators of some of the worst terrorist attacks had something in common. A high proportion shared a history of assaulting wives, girlfriends and other female relatives, sometimes involving a whole series of victims, long before they attacked total strangers.

It’s so obvious once she points it out, isn’t it. Of course they do. What do we so often see in angry men? That they love to turn their anger in the direction of women. But it needs to be spelled out explicitly so that law enforcement gets it and acts … Read the rest

A new scam, not radically different from the old scams.

On August 4, two emails regarding “OFFICIAL TRUMP CARDS” were sent by Save America, a joint fundraising committee of Save America and the Make America Great Again PAC.

Each showed four designs and spoke of Trump’s desire for recipients to decide which one should be chosen.

But what are Trump cards? What do they get you?

I think the answer is that they’re just pieces of cardboard with some words on them. They don’t get you anything.

One included a direct message from former President Trump, in which he said: “We are launching our OFFICIAL TRUMP CARDS soon, and my team asked me to select the design. I’ve always

… Read the rest

Woe that too late repents.

Governor Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday expressed regret for signing Act 1002 into Arkansas law. The new law bans the state and local officials from enacting any mask mandates.

Any other laws like that on the books in Arkansas? Bans on calling the fire department when the house goes up in flames? Bans on vaccinating children? Bans on teaching toddlers not to run across the street? Bans on ducking when someone throws a brick?

During a press conference, Hutchinson answered questions about why he signed the proposal into law. He said that when he initially approved it a few months ago, both COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations were at a “low point” in Arkansas and were

… Read the rest

How romantic.

Chris Chan, the male who IDs as a woman, who has a long history of predatory behaviour towards women and who has now been arrested for raping Chan's own 80 year old mother, is set to be placed in a women's prison, after the police recorded Chan as 'female'https://t.co/v1MROUfOZg

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) August 4, 2021

… Read the rest

He asked WHAT????

Are you a member of the nation in question?

It's my understanding that like all groups facing oppression, many in First Nations loathe performative allyship.

I recognize there is disagreement. I also recognize it is an internal matter that needs to be addressed by members.

— Morgane Oger (@MorganeOgerBC) August 4, 2021

Are you a member of the nation in question, asks Morgane Oger, a man who pretends to be a woman. Yo, “Morgane,” are YOU a member of the nation of women? No, you’re not, so you should stop trying to bully us into saying you are.

Guess what: like all groups facing oppression, we – women – loathe performative allyship, to say nothing of actually … Read the rest

Chapter 47 million of Women Are Fair Game (as long as you can pin some other label on them like “white” or “cis” or “gender critical” or “Jewish” – the list is long):

https://twitter.com/jessesingal/status/1422977840157532160

Ohhhh they shed white women tears – well let’s wipe them all out then. First let’s nod vehemently in agreement, that they do indeed shed white women tears, and then let’s all jump on top of them until they stop breathing.

These Jewish women knowingly play the role of summoning white mobs to lynch black and brown women’s voices.

In other words Noah Strauss hates women.

Singal’s dry “mazel tov” refers to the fact that Herzog isn’t Jewish. I know, I know, how can that be … Read the rest

The resistance begins!

On Friday, the Justice Department ordered the Internal Revenue Service to hand over former president Donald Trump’s tax returns to Congress. On Monday, Ronald Fischetti, a lawyer for Trump, said that Trump intends to fight the order.

“There is no evidence of any wrongdoing here and I object to the release of the returns not only on behalf of my client but on behalf of all future holders of the office of the president of the United States,” Fischetti said in statement. He added that “this politicization and harassment of Mr. Trump is uncalled for and outrageous” and that he had “never seen anything like this.”

He doesn’t really object on behalf of all … Read the rest

Would the pardon have been forthcoming if the roles had been reversed?

A US couple who gained nationwide notoriety after they pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters last year have been pardoned.

Mark and Patricia McCloskey were filmed holding weapons outside their home in St Louis, Missouri. They were fined after pleading guilty to misdemeanour charges this year.

But Missouri’s Republican Governor Mike Parson has now pardoned them, something he had promised after US conservatives began to support the couple.

They weren’t filmed just “holding their weapons,” they were filmed (as the first paragraph says) pointing them at protesters who were marching past. Pointing them. That’s threatening. I’d be petrified if someone pointed a gun at me.

“When the

… Read the rest