Lauren Smith at Spiked:

Elizabeth Pitt was employed as a social worker by Cambridgeshire County Council. In January 2023, Pitt, who is a lesbian, attended a meeting of the council’s LGBT employee group. A colleague piped up to say that his dog is ‘genderfluid’.

What would that even mean? Dogs aren’t gendersolid so how can they be genderfluid? Dogs don’t know from gender. Dogs don’t know from ideology; dogs know what they smell.

Pitt decided to call this out as nonsense. This then sparked a heated debate about gender identity more broadly, during which Pitt and another co-worker shared their gender-critical views, criticising things like transwomen being allowed to compete in women’s sports or to enter female bathrooms.

For

Hmm. What’s the chain of reasoning here?

[Trump] accused President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of inviting assassins to target him when they warn that he is a threat to democracy.

He told Fox News Digital on Monday without evidence that the alleged would-be shooter “believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it.” Trump went on: “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out.”

…

Trump’s running mate advanced an even blunter argument.

“The big difference between conservatives and liberals is that … no

More on the delicate flower “Karla Marx” –

Jennifer Johnson is a transphobe and does not have the support of the queer and trans community! She still refuses to acknowledge that trans women are women @ABDanielleSmith @TheBreakdownAB #ableg #abpoli pic.twitter.com/lRMb6Uy2oC

— Karla Marx (@KarlaMarx1917) September 16, 2024

No no, child, she declined to say that trans women aka men are women. This is because men are not women. She’s not a phobe for knowing that men are not women. You’re a buffoon and a bully for demanding that she say they are, and volubly scolding her when she declines.

Want to debate me on this? Or going to duck me again Blaine? Denying my reality as a woman because I’m

The essence of trans “activism” in under three minutes – actually in the first minute. Man asks woman if she will say men are women, woman says she wants to think about it, man proceeds to berate her non-stop for the next two minutes.

Man is big, man is tall, man has loud deep confident domineering voice, man does not hesitate to take advantage of all his male tools while upbraiding a woman for not instantly agreeing that men like him are women.

This disgusting struggle session of Jennifer Johnson makes me sick to watch. "Karla Marx," you are a man to your very bones. No one needs you for their "pink washing." You do not speak for our "community."

Now there’s a fun way to co-opt “progressive” language about affirmation and being ourselves and solidarity and acceptance and pride.

Last week, I was alarmed & disgusted to learn there was going to be a gathering of pedophiles in Vermont: "MAP Camp 2024," a "first of its kind" event. This week, their website is down & they're scrambling for cover. As they should be. pic.twitter.com/mFtJ6ADq4S

— brainsturbator (@brainsturbator) September 16, 2024

… Read the rest

What went wrong?

Parent affirmed 14 year old, testosterone, surgery. Now young person expressing regret. pic.twitter.com/N0mZRRfDPG

— Jamie Reed Whistleblower (@JamieWhistle) September 16, 2024

“We fully supported from day one,” parent says. “That was never in question. My job is to love and support my child no matter what.”

No it isn’t. To love, yes. To support no matter what, no. It does depend on what the “what” is. If the child tortures animals to death, no, the parent’s job is not to support that. Support the child qua child, get help for the child, do your best to make the child understand, but support the child’s actions, no.

If the child wants to go rock-climbing with no training and … Read the rest

Musk is very very dangerous.

This is exactly what is happening
pic.twitter.com/qeNBu3Szcd

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 14, 2024

Judd Legum at Popular Information:

There are 49 days until Election Day in the United States. Although the presidential race remains extremely close, Donald Trump and his allies have escalated their efforts to undermine the results. 

In a post to Truth Social on Sunday morning, Trump falsely claimed that the United States Postal Service (USPS) “has admitted that it is a poorly run mess that is experiencing mail loss and delays at a level never seen before.” Trump asked, “how can we possibly be expected to allow or trust the U.S. Postal Service to run the 2024 Presidential Election?” 

How … Read the rest

Great god almighty.

From the email to Joe Fitzpatrick MSP on 26 October 2022, sent by the rape survivors who met Sandy Brindley to discuss their fears around self-ID. pic.twitter.com/nLzEa8IT0w

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 16, 2024

Rape survivors met with Sandy Brindley to talk about their fears around self-identified trans “women” at the [Edinburgh] Rape Crisis Centre. After the meeting got going it became clear that Brindley had brought along an activist academic (who, we know from what we read yesterday, was Brindley’s girlfriend), without asking or warning the rape survivors, or even saying who she was or explaining why she was there. The way I understand it is that the rape survivors had asked to meet with Brindley. … Read the rest

There was a lesbian march in Leeds Saturday.

Some pictures from our rally today #LesbianStrength #LesbianVisibility pic.twitter.com/FCPaA75J8e

— LesbianStrength (@StrengthLesbian) September 14, 2024

Lesbians hold a march to stand up for their community and protest against biological men identifying as ‘lesbians.’

pic.twitter.com/ImNJkhUk0w

— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) September 15, 2024

Well we can’t have that, can we.

I don't know if @dhothersall is trying to organise a pile on. But my point is:
Whatever it is. It's a march for lesbians, by lesbians, with lesbians and you have a bunch of males protesting them. Why? Give me one good reason why lesbians cannot meet without males harassing them. pic.twitter.com/GQdvwrl6ox

— TheVikingDane (@TheVikingDane) September 15, 2024

No, we can’t have that. We … Read the rest

What a fool.

Does the movement support women?

In my view, harassment of Imane Khelif and Anna Harrold for the crime of winning at sports while not seeming girly enough shows the GC movement is not about women's rights but about enforcing an archaic stereotype of femininity.

— Sam Fowles (@SamFowles) September 15, 2024

“while not seeming girly enough”

What a fool, and a tool, and a liar.… Read the rest

Sandy Brindley needs to gtfo.

The head of Scotland’s leading sexual assault support service is facing growing demands to stand down amid the fallout of a damning report into the running of a centre in Edinburgh.

Mridul Wadhwa, a trans woman, resigned as chief executive of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre after an independent review commissioned by Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS) concluded that she had failed to behave professionally while in charge of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC).

A number of women’s groups have joined the Harry Potter author JK Rowling in now calling for the head of RCS, Sandy Brindley, to resign as well.

Why? Because she carries on as if men who pretend to be women 1. are … Read the rest

Dialing the misogyny up to 11.

The issue about Mridul Wadhwa as CEO of the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre is not that it’s a “crime” but that it’s wrong. They’re not identical. There’s a hell of a lot of wrong in the world that is entirely legal.

It’s wrong for Wadwha to put himself forward as head of a rape crisis centre because he’s a man. The very fact that he’s insensitive and brutal enough to do so…or, more likely, that he’s malevolent and sadistic enough to do so. Anyway the point is that it’s bad, not that it’s against the law. We can talk about things that are bad even if they’re not criminal.

It’s not that Wadwha … Read the rest

Holeeeee shit.

Take a deep breath before reading.

I've been aware of one of the incidents described in this thread for a long time, because I know people involved. I'm posting this in response to the head of Rape Crisis Scotland's attempts to use rape survivors as human shields for her own career. 1/9 https://t.co/izYb8FEYkE

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 15, 2024

Specifically, the survivors wanted Rape Crisis Scotland to support a woman's right to request a female medical practitioner. They went to the meeting well aware that they'd be reliving and possibly discussing their own highly traumatic experiences . 3/9

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 15, 2024

They were mistaken. The woman in question was @sharoncowan22, Sandy Brindley's

Vance cheerily admits he’s just making shit up.

In a stunning admission, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, said he was willing “to create stories” on the campaign trail while defending his spreading false, racist rumors of pets being abducted and eaten in a town in his home state of Ohio.

Vance’s remarks came during an appearance on Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, where he said he felt the need “to create stories so that the … media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people”.

Asked by the CNN host Dana Bash whether the false rumors centering on Springfield, Ohio, were “a story that you created”, Vance replied, “Yes!” He then said the

Originally a comment by Artymorty on The naughty apparatchiks.

The sheer number of “GC twitter” people on board with Trump’s (and the Manhattan Institute bros’) racist bullshit makes me sick.

A lesson I learned from the New Atheist movement comes to mind, a little line I started mentally sneering at people as I began to sour on the skeptic bros who flooded the meetups-in-the-pub and the comment threads on the blogs: Dude, it’s not a great feat of intellectual prowess that you figured out god doesn’t exist. The debate about religion is far more complex and interesting and important and relevant for what it reveals about the flaws in humans’ ability to think — the fact that highly intelligent … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Biden exercised his parole authority.

What’s not to like about a greedy, self-serving, self-centered, misogynistic, racist, thin-skinned, shallow-minded, easily-played, abusive, boorish, ignorant, hubristically over-confident, braggadocios, felonious, dishonest, twice-impeached, dayglow-orange, Dunning-Krueger poster-boy, and aspiring dictator? Why should anyone have second thoughts about handing over the Presidency of the United States to such a man for a second time? The United States is just lucky that his desire to remain in office unconstitutionally at the end of his term, and the amplification of that desire by his deluded supporters, was exceeded by their collective stupidity. There may not be such luck if it comes to a second round if those around him … Read the rest

Laughing at JD Vance:

Republican vice-presidential candidate Senator JD Vance continues to stoke outrage against foreign-born members of his own constituency, sharing video footage with his 1.9 million social media followers that he claimed showed African migrants in Dayton, Ohio “eating cats” — but instead appears to show nothing more than poultry cooking on an outdoor grill.

“Kamala Harris and her media apparatchiks should be ashamed of themselves,” Vance posted Saturday on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. “Another ‘debunked’ story that turned out to have merit.”

What kind of dang hillbilly doesn’t know a plucked chicken when he sees one?

The video was originally posted by the right-wing Manhattan Institute’s Christopher Rufo, who offered a $5,000

Today in Leeds:

Today's the day for our #LesbianMarch and Rally!
Let's stand together in solidarity, and strength to celebrate our community, our history, and our future. Bring your flags, your voices, and your energy. See you there.#LesbianStrength #LesbianVisibility" pic.twitter.com/LNoXfzGmYg

— LesbianStrength (@StrengthLesbian) September 14, 2024

Apparently it went well.

#LesbianStrength march and rally in #Leeds today. A really good event with good turnout and lovely weather. Full article on its way. ⁦@StrengthLesbian⁩ #LesbianNotQueer pic.twitter.com/HHa7AkCyWf

— Belstaffie (@Belstaffie) September 14, 2024

#LesbianStrength #LesbianVisibility pic.twitter.com/AFUJObIqTo

— LesbianStrength (@StrengthLesbian) September 14, 2024

But.

Of course there’s a but.

"We're the fucking trannies" Counter-protest against @StrengthLesbian pic.twitter.com/mTd4lJDyd3

— News Now Yorkshire (@NewsNowYorks) September 14, 2024

Must say no … Read the rest

Of course he did.

Court finds Trump Tower violated environmental laws and endangered fish in the Chicago River

After several years of litigation, a Cook County judge has found operations at Trump Tower violated state and federal environmental laws that protect the fish in the Chicago River, the Illinois attorney general’s office announced Wednesday.

…

Cook County Circuit Judge Thaddeus L. Wilson on Monday granted summary judgment to the plaintiffs, finding Trump International Hotel & Tower at 401 N. Wabash Ave. liable on all counts. This means there will be no trial. Raoul’s office is seeking civil penalties and injunctive relief, to be determined by the court at a future hearing, which has not yet been scheduled.

“Effectively, what was

How Trump got sidetracked:

Donald Trump wanted to spend this week attacking one of Democratic rival Kamala Harris’ biggest political vulnerabilities. Instead, he spent most of the week falsely claiming that migrants are eating pets in a small town in Ohio and defending his embrace of a far-right agitator whose presence is causing concern among his allies.

Trump’s repeated parroting of unfounded social media rumors about Haitian migrants in Ohio eating pets stole headlines during a trip West, including stops in Arizona and Nevada, late this week. The promotion of the claims overshadowed a series of speeches aimed at the economy and blaming Harris for border security failures.

Well, you can see why though. Which is more fun, the economy or personalities? Exactly.… Read the rest