Alison Phipps says we’re “stalking” her “profile,” which apparently means seeing one of her tweets. How very dare we.

Reading the Definition of Political Whiteness from Her Book does not, oddly enough, convince me that her way of deploying it is clever and enlightened.

Nope. Not convincing. Why “whiteness”? Why that word instead of another? Why not maleness or richness or powerfulness?

I haven’t read her book so I don’t know, but I suspect it’s because it sounds good. It sounds hip and knowing and like what the cool kids say. It’s sort of like jazz or blues or hip hop, ya know? But academic. Academicish.

So, does that help her make the case that we nasty … Read the rest

I thought Chase Strangio couldn’t get any worse. Silly me.

Cis folks, especially cis women, today would be a good day to affirm your support for full inclusion of trans people, your love for trans people, and the fact that the presence and existence of trans people does not hurt cis people.

— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) February 2, 2021

There’s a lot to fume at in that tweet, but I especially bristle at that “especially.” Why especially? Why women especially? WHY WOMEN ESPECIALLY?… Read the rest

Moira Donegan on AOC and what she told us:

On Monday night, after making several public allusions to the gravity of her experience, AOC used Instagram Live to describe her experience of the Capitol attack on 6 January. She spoke of hiding in her office as the mob breached the Capitol; she hid behind the door in a bathroom as she heard people ransacking the rooms outside. Someone came into the bathroom where she was hiding, their face on the other side of the door that she hid behind. At one point, a voice yelled, “Where is she? Where is she?” That turned out to be a Capitol police officer, but he did not identify himself; Ocasio-Cortez describes feeling

The question is answered: yes Trump’s new “legal team” is willing to repeat his lies.

Donald Trump’s legal team for his second impeachment trial has filed a 14-page brief defending his actions on January 6, when the then-president incited a violent insurrection at the US Capitol.

On January 6, Trump repeated his baseless claims that Joe Biden won the presidential election because of widespread fraud, and he encouraged his supporters to march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol as Congress certified Biden’s victory.

He encouraged them to do more than march to the Capitol.

“Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness,” he said. “You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”

The president’s

Putin is still Putin.

A Moscow court has sentenced Alexei Navalny to two years and eight months in a prison colony in a landmark decision for Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on the country’s leading opposition figure.

Calling it a “crackdown” makes it sound legitimate. The right word would be “suppression.”

Navalny, who has accused the Russian president and his allies of stealing billions, was jailed for violating parole from a 2014 sentence for embezzlement in a case he has said was politically motivated.

…

After a judge read the verdict, subtracting the 10 months he had spent under house arrest from his original three-and-a-half-year sentence, Navalny and his wife Yulia stared at each other across the court room. She took

Originally a comment by Vila Restal on The war on cis women.

As someone who works in the VAWG sector it’s interesting to note that the helpline number given at the end of the article is for Galop. Ostensibly for LBGT survivors, it’s focus is on male victims, and they’ve been given a lot of support and training by the women’s organisations.

You see women working in VAWG jobs do recognise that men can be victims – for example young gay men involved in the chemsex scene are vulnerable to abuse while under the influence of drugs and are reluctant to approach the police because of the illicit nature of the drugs involved. While male victims can’t be accommodated … Read the rest

Sarah Ditum on the “be kind” bullshit:

Setting yourself up as an opponent of kindness would be extravagantly poor taste, especially now the hashtag #bekind is irrevocably associated with suicide prevention. This is unfortunate for me, because I am not a kind person; or at least, I don’t think of kindness as the quality I would like to be defined by or measured against in public life. I’m a critic, which makes it my job to say critical things.

That’s a crucial distinction. I make some effort not to be actively unkind, which I haven’t always been brilliant at, but like Sarah I don’t want that to be the thing that jumps out at you. (Fortunately it never … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Screechy Monkey on Still scrambling.

Trump knows that the Senate isn’t going to convict him no matter what defense he mounts. He can ignore the trial entirely, or hire competent counsel and heed their advice, or show up personally and moon Chuck Schumer and call the GOP Senators “my obedient little bitches, especially Ted Cruz who has an ugly wife,” and the outcome will be the same.

So Trump’s goal isn’t to mount a “good defense,” or even any defense at all, except in the sense of “the best defense is a good offense.” What he really wants to do is indulge his own emotional needs and put on a good show for his supporters. … Read the rest

Another scorching exposé of those selfish bitches who support women who have survived sexual violence when they should be supporting trans women instead:

It was at the tail end of 2017 when Cora*, a frontline worker for a south London organisation supporting women who have survived sexual violence, realised that undercurrents of transmisogyny had become a new precedent for her workplace. 

“I just remember there being far more comments like ‘Yeah we only support real women’,” Cora says. 

How dare they!!! How dare they support women who have survived sexual violence instead of men who have a fantasy that they are women? Have you ever heard of anything so selfish?

Both visibility and hostility were on the rise for trans

Another “guide to transgender healthcare” bites the dust.

The Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) has removed a recently published guide to transgender healthcare from its website following questioning of the report by Gript. The report “Guide for Providing Care for Transgender Patients in Primary Care – Quick Reference Guide” had been written in conjunction with the Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI).

Why would a professional medical organization write any medical guidance in conjunction with a political network? And that goes double or triple for a political network promoting the claim that people can be born the wrong sex.

Following publication of the document Gript reached out to ICGP’s press office and, when no response was received, directly to

Huh. It turns out there are drawbacks to basing your defense on an obvious lie. What drawbacks are those? The lawyers who refuse to take your case.

With mere hours left before a deadline for Donald Trump to officially answer the impeachment charge against him, the former president was still scrambling to assemble a legal defense, announcing that he had hired two new lawyers after a five-person team abruptly quit their roles.

Trump has until noon on Tuesday to reply to a charge of incitement of insurrection, for encouraging the assault on the US Capitol on 6 January in which five people died. His trial in the Senate is scheduled to begin on 9 February.

Let’s pause for a … Read the rest

Another military takeover:

Myanmar’s military has seized power after detaining Aung San Suu Kyi and other democratically elected leaders. Communications are limited, troops are patrolling the streets and a one-year state of emergency has been declared.

…

The army’s move follows a landslide election win for Ms Suu Kyi’s party in November. She has urged her supporters to “protest against the coup”. In a letter written in preparation for her impending detention, she said the military’s actions would put the country back under a dictatorship.

The military has already announced replacements for a number of ministers.

They gave civilian government nine whole years.… Read the rest

Despite hard work, results & a strong reputation I’ve been sacked today from @theSNP front bench. My constituents & fellow party members who gave me a resounding mandate in recent NEC elections should rest assured that I will continue to work hard for them.

— Joanna Cherry KC (@joannaccherry) February 1, 2021

Too feminist, apparently.… Read the rest

With allies like these…

I've tolerated this TERF on my feed for a long time because she's a literary agent who may have some helpful industry insight for me. But anyone who tweets with this much arrogant ignorance and bigotry ain't got shit worth listening to.

*Blocked* pic.twitter.com/lTrSRGNZDK

— Mark (@MGreenWriting) January 29, 2021

He’s “tolerated” this woman he calls a rude name because he thinks she might be of use to him, but now the time has come for him to denounce her in public, because he just can’t deny himself the fun a moment longer.

Women are so horrible. He’s so sick of seeing them “use” the abuse they have suffered, when they could be talking about … Read the rest

The guy in the antlers wants to testify in Trump’s trial. I’m sure that would be a big help.

The lawyer for an Arizona man who took part in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol while sporting face paint, no shirt and a furry hat with horns is offering to have his client testify at former President Donald Trump’s upcoming impeachment trial.

Lawyer Albert Watkins said he hasn’t spoken to any member in the Senate since announcing his offer to have Jacob Chansley testify at Trump’s trial, which is scheduled to begin the week of Feb. 8. Watkins said it’s important for senators to hear the voice of someone who was incited by Trump.

Watkins said his client was

Not something to celebrate.

So you… purchased a human baby? That's fucked up dude. pic.twitter.com/WW9FvrejHo

— Amy Eileen Hamm (@preta_6) January 30, 2021

Single men, adopt by all means. Deliberately set out to take an infant from its mother so that you can have it for yourself, no.

I’m depressed to see what comes up when I google “single dad by choice via surrogacy” – part of the headline in Amy’s tweet.… Read the rest

The Observer’s architecture critic does a little swerve into medical critic in response to the Tavistock ruling:

To be transgender is not a lifestyle choice. It is not a fad or a craze. It is not easy, but requires courage and commitment. It is a part of who you are, like being gay, and, as such, denial of it can be annihilating. Denial of the medical treatments that can help trans people can also be devastating.

Well that’s a bold first paragraph. How does he know? How does he know that to be transgender is never a lifestyle choice? How can he tell? How can he reconcile that claim with the endlessly-repeated mantra “people are who they say they are”? … Read the rest

Well said.

I just couldn't take the constant requests for funding anymore. FFS pic.twitter.com/an3dOBm8En

— Petra (@breakwaterwink) January 30, 2021

… Read the rest

Remember Lauren Boebert’s insulting tweet to David Hogg?

She got a lot of heat for it. No doubt she will transform the heat into energy for her vampire evil.

Boebert faced widespread outrage and calls to resign following her tweet. Many pointed out her role in promoting baseless election fraud rhetoric that incited supporters of former President Donald Trump to storm the U.S. Capitol.

That incited supporters of Trump to smash their way into the Capitol in order to “execute” selected Democrats and install Trump as absolute ruler. This wasn’t a group of over-excited college kids, it was a mob of heavily armed adults intent on violent insurrection in aid of a lawless conscienceless wannabe dictator.

Hogg attributed

Some uppity women responded to Edinburgh University’s “guidance” a couple of weeks ago.

We have become aware of an article on the University of Edinburgh’s official website in the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion section titled “What is transphobia?”. The article presents itself as an authoritative resource for students, and gives the impression that it is the settled, agreed position of the University. In fact it is a political piece, promoting highly contested ideological arguments as though they are undisputed facts. Many students and staff within the university do not share the views of the author and are concerned that one side of an ongoing public debate is being endorsed by the university.

Quite naturally, since it looks exactly … Read the rest