Now the Republicans are trying to pretend Fauci created the pandemic on purpose for [insert reason here].

For much of the past year, Republicans have decried lead government coronavirus expert Anthony S. Fauci’s prescriptions for mitigating the pandemic — including masks, social distancing and keeping society shut down.

Yeah, boy, masks – have you ever heard of anything so UnAmerican? Masks. I ask you.

But increasingly in the past week, the effort has taken on a new flavor — with suggestions that Fauci might be personally to blame for the advent of the virus itself.

…

With Fauci set to testify before the Senate on Tuesday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson teed things up the night before. In a

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Idaho has made it illegal to teach about slavery in schools and universities.

Idaho’s governor, Brad Little, has a bill signed into law that aims to restrict critical race theory from being taught as a subject in schools and universities.

We know there’s some dumb critical race theory out there, such as the Robin DiAngelo version for instance, but Idaho apparently interprets it very broadly.

The bill, H 377, prevents teachers from “indoctrinating” students into belief systems that claim that members of any race, sex, religion, ethnicity or national origin are inferior or superior to other groups. Signed into law last week, H 377 also makes it illegal to make students “affirm, adopt or adhere to” beliefs that members

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Originally a comment by Arty Morty on Those drugs can’t possibly be legal.

I’ve been thinking more and more about this issue as though it’s a battle of stories. To some people, the Story of Trans absolutely must be a happy story, as uplifting and life-affirming as a lost-dog-reunited viral video. They genuinely think that being a good LGBT ally means simply making sure you fix in your mind a happy story about LGBT people whenever the topic arises.

Isn’t it incredible that there are two kinds of trans “allies”, two groups who actually hold completely opposing views about trans issues, but who remain united in their shared opposition to criticism of gender ideology, because they see anything with … Read the rest

So creepy Gegi is a lawyer now?

Sometimes schools are unsure of what they need to in order to prevent and respond to #GenderExpression or #GenderIdentity discrimination, including how these are different. This is why @gegi_ca exists in the world!

Learn more at https://t.co/Gcu9NMB8TU.#OntEd pic.twitter.com/bHMVuyFARz

— Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity (@CCGSD_CCDGS) May 10, 2021

What does that mean? Is it a human rights violation to say that a skirt doesn’t turn a man into a woman?

Did you know that Ontario schools have a legal duty to offer a climate free from gender identity AND gender expression discrimination? Visit https://t.co/XWAdne7kG8 for information and resources to help support students and teachers in Ontario schools. #EducationWeek #OntED

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The trumpist takeover proceeds.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) is poised this week to become the highest ranking elected Republican woman in the House of Representatives, as the beneficiary of the GOP mutiny against Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). Cheney, the chair of the House Republican conference, dared to acknowledge reality: Donald Trump lost the election and then incited the seditious attack on the US Capitol. For that sin, the House Republican wing of the Trump cult will give Cheney the boot and replace her with Stefanik, who is in her fourth term representing a district in upstate New York.

Remember when the Republicans were the law and order party? It still seems odd that now they’re the insurrection party.

Stefanik’s

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It’s all part of growing up…

The man never enters the frame, but we can tell he is older, and he must be much bigger than she is: the girl, still seated, cranes her face to look up at him. The calm confidence behind her large glasses snuffs out; her shoulders tense up, rising toward her ears….“I see your hesitancy,” he says…“I’m just doing a live and talking to some people,” she says, and glances towards her phone. That’s when he finally leaves her alone: not when he notices that she’s uncomfortable, but when he realizes that he is being watched.

The video (in two parts), posted to TikTok by the teenage user @maassassin_, immediately goes viral. Women,

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Confirmation that we saw what we thought we saw – that what we saw is what we thought it was.

https://twitter.com/peter_daly/status/1392037574898851840… Read the rest

Allison Bailey says a thing, and guess who comes along to say “Nuh-uh.”

Regrettably the 'guidance' is, IMHO, partisan, incomplete and misleading, and if followed would cause schools to act unlawfully towards trans children. And who 'recognises' TT as education experts? Themselves?

— Robin Moira White (she/her) (@moira_robin) May 9, 2021

The trouble with that is, Robin Moira White is opposing counsel in Allison’s case against Stonewall. White should not be messing with Allison on social media.

I have in trans cases from different perspectives, which requires grounding in what the law IS, not what folk would LIKE it to be. Regrettably this 'guidance' is not.

You didnt answer my question about the recognition of TT?

— Robin Moira White

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It’s so bad that people don’t even believe it when you tell them.

Institutional capture in action, methinks.

— James Barry (@JamesBarry1789) May 10, 2021

It was difficult to explain that the lawsuits are about RESTRICTING these drugs being given to children.

— James Barry (@JamesBarry1789) May 10, 2021

I then told my interlocutor “most kids on puberty blockers go on to take cross sex hormones”. The response: “well, where else are they gonna go, the poor hoors?”

— James Barry (@JamesBarry1789) May 10, 2021

But let’s be clear: puberty blockers are undeniably awful. Perhaps even actually evil. They are the definition of stopping growth and progress in its tracks.

— James Barry (@JamesBarry1789) May 10, 2021

And people don’t … Read the rest

In cheerier news – Randy Rainbow has outdone himself.

https://twitter.com/RandyRainbow/status/1391753010200682498… Read the rest

Happy…Confederate Memorial Day?

South Carolina state government offices are closed Monday to mark Confederate Memorial Day.

Really. State government is on holiday to commemorate treason in defense of slavery. Cool that it’s the same state that is denying its citizens federal unemployment benefits because the state wants to force them to work in hotels and restaurants for shit pay in shit conditions…which is not as unlike slavery as it might be. It likely affects the same category of people, too.

South Carolina is among a handful of states in the South with such an official holiday. State offices in Alabama and Mississippi closed for their Confederate Memorial Days late last month.

Aka the Deep South aka the cotton belt.… Read the rest

Now let’s talk about girls and shared public spaces.

to embark the train?? The young man who pushed her in does not immediately run off, like his mates. He seems shocked. He is the one walking over, hands to head, peering over. Not the employee, who is frozen. All of this could have been prevented instead it was let play out…/3

— The Countess (@TheCountessIE) May 10, 2021

bc in this country "a girl is a half-formed thing." Not worthy of her full humanity. Evidentially, its ok for girls to get threatened & assaulted while boarding a train. No one intervenes. It is only a news story because this time, 1normalised harassment ends in catastrophe. 5/

— The Countess (@TheCountessIE)

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I’ve watched this clip multiple times since yesterday – there’s a lot going on and it’s not possible to take in all of it in one viewing.

IRELAND: Where young men assault young women with impunity. We had been hearing reports of gangs of boys throwing coffee/water over female joggers. Now this. This young woman could have been killed. These girls are being forced to run the gauntlet to access public transport. 1/ https://t.co/BairBNWT3d

— The Countess (@TheCountessIE) May 10, 2021

One boy kicks a girl as she runs past, one spits on a girl as she runs past, they all spread out over the platform so that they’re in the way of anyone who is trying to get on … Read the rest

Catherine Belton, Nick Cohen tells us, has written a book about Russian plutocrats and their ways, and they are flocking to London courts to sue her into oblivion.

The former Moscow correspondent for the Financial Times now faces a pile-on from Russian billionaires on a scale this country has never witnessed. Rosneft, the Kremlin-dominated oil producer (market capitalisation circa $75bn) whose chief executive, president and chairman, Igor Sechin, began his rise to power as Vladimir Putin’s secretary in the 1990s, has lodged an action for libel. No further details were available at the court at the time of going to press.

Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea football boss (estimated net worth $15.3bn) is suing because of what

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But have we been paying enough attention to the nons? People who aren’t a thing are people too you know! The BBC helps out by paying deep solemn reverent attention to those thrilling misunderstood long-neglected insufficiently advertised people the Aze.

In the UK, our awareness of asexuality – the experience of not feeling sexual attraction towards others – is still low.

Well it would be, wouldn’t it. It’s not generally something we need to know about other people, nor is it generally something other people need to know about us. Not feeling X towards other people is mostly just a personal [whatever] and thus not of general interest.

I really can’t stress enough how important it is to grasp … Read the rest

A senior Sun reporter has died and tributes are pouring in.

https://twitter.com/ian_tolfts/status/1391168071075762177 https://twitter.com/whagerty/status/1391005008028741634

That’s so sad John. Had many memorable lunches with him at the Gay Hussar.

— Andy Gardner (@AndyGcrime) May 8, 2021

https://twitter.com/AndrewJEwart/status/1391008084282290177 https://twitter.com/TomJHarper/status/1390992746517831683

There’s just this one tiny thing they’re forgetting to mention.

He murdered his wife.… Read the rest

Sharron Davies isn’t fooled.

Sharron Davies has hit out at [criticized] the decision to allow transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard to compete in the Olympics, describing it as ‘another kick in the teeth for female athletes’.

Parenthetically: I hate that UK metaphor of “hitting out at” for criticizing, and I think journalistic outlets should never use it, seeing as how it thoroughly poisons the well.

‘Sport is for all but it must be fair,’ said Davies, who won a silver medal in the 400 metres medley at the 1980 Moscow Games. ‘I am pro everyone doing sport but I feel sex, not self-identified gender, should be how we compete.’

And that’s not just a feeling, it’s a thought based … Read the rest

The Times reports that employers punish employees who fail to parrot the dogma about trans people, which means that employers are punishing their employees for failing to tell stupid lies. That’s not a fair or reasonable setup.

Dozens of women have faced disciplinary action at work for offences such as saying JK Rowling is not transphobic, asking a question during equality training or requesting female-only lavatories, according to 40 campaigners on free speech.

In a letter to The Sunday Times, the campaigners say that the employers of a quarter of UK workers have signed up to a Diversity Champions scheme run by the LGBT charity Stonewall. It means if people question what the campaigners refer to as “Stonewall law”

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The rise and fall (or fall and rise? or rise and fall and rise?) of an “influencer.”

Like cult-leaders, Instagram influencers must navigate a complex symbiosis with their followers to remain popular. Unlike cult-leaders, their lives are often funded by a commercial system of sponsored posts, a practice which Caroline abstains from. Instead, in March, as the world shut down, she started making money from selling topless photos on the platform ‘Only-Fans’.

So, photos with the tops cut off so that you get trees lopped in half or people whose faces stop at their nostrils? Doesn’t sound all that lucrative.

I tell her the way she uses Instagram reminds me of how Sylvia Plath wrote poems: art as an act

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Your instructions:

https://twitter.com/teaberryblue/status/1390688407609819138

In other words it’s about women. Women are women. It saves a lot of trouble. Women who call themselves “trans men” or “nonbinary” are still women. Intersex women are women. The word “women” is all that’s required, and trying to delete it from the language is not a good idea, given the subordinate status women have had imposed on us.

https://twitter.com/teaberryblue/status/1390689010264195074

You mean women planning “to hand a baby off” – which itself is a description that should get more careful thought than how to justify deleting the words “women” and “mother” from the language.

https://twitter.com/teaberryblue/status/1390706967878979589

No. I’ll go on calling women “women,” thanks, and you don’t get to tell any of us not to.… Read the rest