God hates people.

RIYADH/MINA, June 18 (Reuters) – Hundreds of visitors have died during the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca amid scorching heat, according to press reports and foreign ministries.

At least 550 people have died on haj, diplomats told French outlet Agence France Presse (AFP) on Tuesday. Three hundred and twenty-three of the dead were Egyptians, most of whom perished due to heat-related illness, AFP reported, citing two Arab diplomats.

Wouldn’t you think a loving all-powerful god would either change the weather during the haj or issue an update saying it’s forbidden to go on the haj when it’s too hot?

Saudi state TV said temperatures rose on Monday as high as 51.8 degrees Celsius (125.2 Fahrenheit) in

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Trump is trying to use Republicans in Congress to get rid of his guilty verdicts. The act of a dictator determined to destroy the institutions that get in the way of his peremptory commands.

It’s a campaign he orchestrated in the days after his May 31 conviction on 34 felony counts in New York, starting with a phone call to the man he wanted to lead it: Speaker Mike Johnson.

Trump was still angry when he made the call, according to those who have heard accounts of it from Johnson, dropping frequent F-bombs as he spoke with the soft-spoken and pious GOP leader.

“We have to overturn this,” Trump insisted.

Who’s “we” Kemosabe?

The speaker didn’t really need to

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Now they’re doing it to the Brontes, because of course they are. The Bronte Parsonage Museum announces:

It’s week three of our series celebrating Pride at the Museum! This time, we’re exploring gender identity and the Brontës.

Well don’t. Explore how the Brontes (Branwell apart) dealt with being female by all means, but leave genner idennniny out of it.

Throughout their lives, the sisters never settled for society’s expectations for women, and – as scholars discuss – the female (and male) characters in their novels explore what life beyond gendered barriers could be like…

Bollocks. Did Rochester “explore what life beyond gendered barriers could be like”? Give me a break.

Oh SHUT up.… Read the rest

The Telegraph on the Deep Rifts:

It was an inauspicious start to Britain’s biggest LGBT celebration.

In a social media post featuring the rainbow flag and entitled “Can men get ovarian cancer?”, the charity Ovarian Cancer Action said it was marking the start of Pride Month by reminding its followers that “anyone with ovaries, regardless of gender identity, can be at risk for ovarian cancer”.

…

Last year, Oxfam was forced to apologise after posting an animation for Pride Month featuring a character who many said resembled JK Rowling, depicted with red eyes and wearing a badge bearing the word “Terf”…

Such disputes may on the surface appear minor, but there are worries among those who were there

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Michael Cashman admits that his brief vague pseudo-apology to Rosie Duffield was not even an attempt at an apology but merely an attempt to get away with being a woman-hating pig.

https://twitter.com/mcashmanCBE/status/1803005132772102184

There you go. He wasn’t apologizing at all; he thinks he’s the one who’s been wronged. He thinks he deserves “support” for rudely publicly insulting Rosie Duffield. What a horrible man.… Read the rest

Urgent news from the BBC:

Fire boss says he was abused over Pride image

Seriously? With all the horrors there are in the world, the BBC finds time and space to report on public reactions to a “Pride” image?

A senior fire service official says he was sent “reprehensible and homophobic” messages after he posted a picture of Pride-themed epaulettes.

Simon Tuhill, Northamptonshire’s deputy chief fire officer posted the image on X, formally known as Twitter, last week. He said he was “appalled and shocked” at the overwhelmingly negative messages he received. He said the fire service remains committed to supporting diversity.

Nonsense. It’s not “supporting diversity” to focus on one purported marginalized communinny while ignoring all the others. … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? at Miscellany Room.

Vignettes of corporate capture; neighbourhood incursions.

Last week I recounted some of my feelings around a local Pride event. Here are some thoughts around neighbourhood examples of corporate Pride “celebrations.”

Our neighbourhood bank has its windows decorated for its nationwide Pride Month campaign, featuring the LGB rainbow + trans colours. One of the windows is filled with the slogan “Nothing beats the feeling of being accepted for who you really are.” That’s all well and good, but what they’re promoting, and enforcing through said promotion, is forcing everyone to accept a very small, specific subset of people for who they are not, to be precise, Trans … Read the rest

If you do a Google news search for Rosie Duffield Michael Cashman you find headline after headline after headline on Cashman’s delayed punishment. It’s all so familiar, isn’t it – the endless bullying bullying bullying, and the impunity of the bullies. Cashman got away with it for days; it’s only because a lot of people screamed themselves hoarse that Starmer finally realized the poisonous sneer wasn’t just going to fade out of the collective memory.

So here’s some happier news.

Trans-Identified Male Who Exposed His Breasts At The White House Now Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Another Transgender Person

Ok so not better exactly, but…a little different.

The trans activist who received criticism for exposing his augmented breasts at the White

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The Beeb:

Labour peer suspended for ‘frit or lazy’ post

A Labour peer has been suspended from the parliamentary party after calling a candidate “frit or lazy” for withdrawing from local husting events over safety concerns. Lord Cashman had made the comment on social media after Rosie Duffield, who is standing to be reelected as Labour MP for Canterbury, said “constant trolling” made her attendance at hustings “impossible”.

The former EastEnders actor and Labour MEP apologised “unreservedly” for the post on Sunday.

Well he did and he didn’t. He did apologize and he did say it was unreservedly, but he also did fail to mention Rosie Duffield, so it wasn’t in fact a full or “unreserved” apology.

Labour leader Sir

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I tried to watch it but couldn’t; too annoying. But in case you want to, here it is:

The US "Skeptics" break their silence on Cass with Rebecca Watson coming out to bat for batshit. What an excellent example of motivated reasoning in this 15 minute YouTube video. https://t.co/IAqsRTvMOI

— Andy (@lecanardnoir) June 17, 2024

… Read the rest

Trump has this pattern of trying or hoping to get people executed. He did it to the Central Park 5, and now we learn he did it to staffers.

Former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin has disclosed that Donald Trump repeatedly mused out loud about executing people at several meetings while she worked for him during his presidency.

…

The former communications director for the Trump administration told the outlet she had been at a meeting at which he “straight up said a staffer who leaked … should be executed”, referring to an anonymously sourced report that the former president had gone into a secure bunker at the White House at the height of the racial justice

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Even the headline gets it wrong.

Labour peer says sorry for calling Rosie Duffield too ‘frit or lazy’ to go to hustings

No, he doesn’t, you fucking fools. That’s exactly what he didn’t do. He’s such a rude abusive man that he conspicuously failed i.e. refused to do that. He did the “sorry you’re so offended” thing instead. He said “I apologize” but didn’t say for what.

The lede is accurate. (Editors write the headlines. I wish they would manage to make them accurate.)

A Labour peer has apologised after accusing the party’s Canterbury candidate, Rosie Duffield, of being too “frit or lazy” to attend hustings.

Exactly: after rather than for. It should have been for.

The

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Good news:

The Hobart City Council's discrimination towards me has finally been resolved. The depth of the lying, scheming, gaslighting, privacy breaches, and frustration of processes has been astounding.

The culture that facilitated this appalling conduct has radiated from the top. I'm… pic.twitter.com/CpqjGXCRJ6

— Louise Elliot (@LouiseElliotM) June 16, 2024

The Hobart City Council’s discrimination towards me has finally been resolved. The depth of the lying, scheming, gaslighting, privacy breaches, and frustration of processes has been astounding.

The culture that facilitated this appalling conduct has radiated from the top. I’m pleased that the extent of the discrimination has finally been admitted and owned. I’m optimistic that there will be change; there has to be as what happened was illegal and

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Originally a comment by Artymorty on Next phase.

The “whatever genitals Alex was born with is not common knowledge” part conflates identities with biological sexes, and that’s the most dangerous part.

It’s one thing for a young person to imagine in her own mind a suite of gender-role personas, like characters in a story, and then to declare which of these imaginary gender-role characters she has cast herself to play. So far, so foolish.

But to then cross over into declaring that these different characters have different biological sex characteristics… that’s where the irreversible harm comes in. Harm to herself, because she’s likely to develop psychological distress over the mismatch between her imaginary character’s body and her real-life body, … Read the rest

Wouldn’t you think if you’re the police looking for a missing person you’d want to put out the most accurate information possible in order to…you know…find the missing person?

Bromley Metropolitan Police Service thinks not.

#MISSING | Sarah is missing from #Bromley. She was last seen on 13/04/2024, and we are concerned for her.

She is 5ft6 and of a slim build. Possible links to #Bexley.

If you see her, please call 101 quoting 01/215336/24 pic.twitter.com/0fj9FxBGDO

— Bromley MPS (@MPSBromley) June 13, 2024

People mocked, and also pointed out that searching for a missing person does depend on accurate description. Bromley Police got in a huff. No progress in finding missing person was recorded.

pic.twitter.com/Nm7PIXpQeV

— Bromley MPS

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Victoria Smith on Starmer’s refusal to defend Rosie Duffield:

This week Duffield announced that she would not be attending local hustings due to threats of violence. To anyone who has witnessed the escalating abuse she has received for defending sex-based rights, this was not surprising. Then again, nor was it surprising to fellow MPs such as Jess Phillips, who has also faced threats to her own and her family’s safety, simply for doing her job.

…

Many of those who threaten MPs are paranoid, mentally unwell, in thrall to conspiracy theories, and/or egged on by extremist groups. They must be held responsible for their actions, but we also cannot ignore those who have encouraged them.

The truth is

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Keir Starmer has time to blather about football but not time to say a word for Rosie Duffield.

There is no feeling like the build up to the first England game of an international tournament.

To Gareth and the team – we will be with you for every twist, turn and VAR decision. England is behind you. Let's make this a summer to remember.

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) June 16, 2024

We will be with you; England is behind you. That pesky female colleague? Not so much.

https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1802412249627132088 Pesky women who speak up? Not so much.… Read the rest

Your brain on gender ideology:

“Are you transgender?” Participating in a study for their public-health class, neither Alex nor Luna knew how to answer. Alex uses they/them pronouns and identifies as agender. They are also among a growing number of young people who have been raised in a gender-neutral manner: their parents did not refer to them as a boy or a girl until they were old enough to choose for themselves. Whatever genitals Alex was born with is not common knowledge. If you are agender and were never assigned a gender, does that make you transgender?

If you were raised by deranged parents, does that make you deranged or just tragically confused?

As for Luna, today she identifies

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The special subtle luxury notpology in which the apology is there but the recipient is carefully not named.

I suggest you

1) Name @RosieDuffield1.
2) Write to her.
3) Publish your letter.
4) Arrange to meet Rosie, @LabWomenDec and other women in the party, and listen to their concerns.
5) Commit, publicly, to undergoing training on misogyny and violence against women.

(Please)

— Jon Pike (@runthinkwrite) June 16, 2024

Cashman claims to be apologizing unreservedly yet he carefully does not name Rosie Duffield. I call that reservedly. Very, absurdly, childishly reservedly.

The “readers added context” note tell us:

Michael Cashman CBE fails to provide a lot of important context. MP he mocked is Rosie Duffield. He accused Duffield of

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Originally a comment by Arcadia on Erring on the side of ruining kids’ lives.

I am not sure why this is apparently so difficult to understand. Everybody (I think) can come up with a description of a gender non conforming child in their mind. The likely options are that the kid will grow up to be gay, and keep not conforming; straight and non conforming; straight and more conforming (because for some kids it is a stage they go through); or lately, “trans”. Out of those four likely options, three will want their bodies intact and fully functional, and some of the fourth category will too. But all those kids are likely to be treated as the subset of … Read the rest