Alabama Republicans are still battling Reconstruction.

Just a few months ago, the US supreme court issued one of its most surprising rulings in recent memory.

In a 5-4 decision in Allen v Milligan, the court said Alabama’s congressional map violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act because it diluted the influence of Black voters, who make up about a quarter of the state’s population, but comprise a majority in just one of Alabama’s congressional districts. The justices upheld a lower court’s decision ordering Alabama to redraw its map “to include two districts in which Black voters either comprise a voting-age majority or something quite close to it”.

It was widely seen as a major win for the Voting Rights Act, a statute that the US supreme court has significantly hollowed out over the last decade. It was a victory that was supposed to give the Black belt, a historically Black region in the state that is among the poorest in the US, better representation in Washington.

In sharp contrast to the Shelby ruling, which was supposed to give Black voters worse representation.

But when Alabama’s Republican-controlled legislature convened just a few weeks later, they ignored the mandate. Their new map still included just one majority Black district. It increased the percentage of Black voters in a second district to be around 41% Black, but continued to crack the Black belt, a historically Black region that stretches across the middle of Alabama, into multiple districts. Now, it is asking a federal court to approve that map and, if they don’t, the case will probably return to the supreme court.

Alabama Republicans would restore slavery if they could.

Hmmmmmmmmmmno.

No gender idenniny isn’t “real” any more than the “soul” is real. Feelings about what sex one is can be real. Intense unhappiness about what sex one is can be real. Unhappiness of that kind can be both real and as it were manufactured – it can be a product of social manipulation or contagion, while still being an intense feeling. But our feelings don’t necessarily mirror reality – in fact they very often don’t. It’s even possible to change one’s feelings by tweaking one’s description of them. We can talk ourselves out of feeling angry or miserable, and we can also talk ourselves into feeling angry or miserable. The feelings can be real but they can be based on very mistaken ideas, interpretations, beliefs. Trans ideology is strikingly prone to whipping up desperate feelings on the basis of total bullshit.

Sex is real: it’s a given, it’s something we’re born with and can’t change. Our feelings about what sex we are are real in the sense that we feel them (those of us who do), but they’re not real in the way sex is real. It’s like a lot of things that way. We can feel we are pretty much anything, but that doesn’t mean we can be whatever we can imagine ourselves being.

Then of course Tatchell cheats in the way this ideology always does, by changing the wording. “Real” suddenly switches to “valid,” without explanation or justification. The two are not the same.

Hm. Interesting.

An unsafe environment, Comerford says. So unsafe that there is no choice: it is imperative that such an environment be prevented by canceling the entire gig in every case.

This is a big part of the pathology of this kind of “politics.” It’s pathological to be so extremely fragile that merely being in the presence of people who don’t share your delusions is “unsafe.”

But they’re not actually that fragile, are they. Hardly anyone is. It’s the ideology that’s fragile, and it’s the ideology that’s pathological.

It’s stupid and bad to keep telling people, over and over and in all-caps, that they are as fragile as a spider web, so fragile that they will drop dead or commit suicide if they even share a large space with people who don’t endorse their luxury false “identities.”

This is not a thing. We don’t do this. We don’t tell children their fantasies are real and anyone who doesn’t agree that their fantasies are real is a lethal threat.

Yet here is Comerford saying the opposite. It’s grotesque.

Sigh.

The Telegraph:

Cricket is facing mounting criticism for failing to follow other sports in tightening women’s sport protections after it emerged a transgender player will make her international debut.

Danielle McGahey, an Australian-born player, is set to become the first transgender cricketer to play an official Twenty20 international, representing Canada.

That is, the first man to play on a women’s team.

Sharron Davies, the Olympic medallist swimmer who has been at the forefront of campaigns to protect the integrity of women’s sport, says the situation is “outrageously irresponsible”.

“We’ve been pushing the England and Wales Cricket Board for years to protect females from male biological advantage,” she told Telegraph Sport of campaigns in England to toughen rules. “There are trans-identifying males in the English game right now that have caused damage to young female cricketers. Canada is particularly discriminatory toward their female athletes by allowing males into sports like rugby even against international governing bodies’ safety-first policies.”

And safety of course is not the only issue. Fairness is another.

McGahey detailed how she had undergone the required medical transition in order to meet existing ICC eligibility regulations.

“I am absolutely honoured,” McGahey told the BBC. “To be able to represent my community is something I never dreamt I would be able to do.

He shouldn’t be. He should be absolutely embarrassed and ashamed and crawling with remorse.

An ICC statement said: “We can confirm that Danielle went through the process as required under the ICC’s player eligibility regulations and as a result has been deemed eligible to participate in international women’s cricket on the basis that she satisfies the MTF transgender eligibility criteria.”

Oh go soak your head. Fuck “eligibility regulations” and fuck “deemed eligible” and fuck “she satisfies the male to female criteria.” Fuck all of it. It’s insulting theft of women’s sports so stop pretending it’s anything else.

Why would any college, let alone a women’s college, give money to Dylan Mulvaney to talk about women’s rights and women’s empowerment? When there are plenty of women who would do a much better job of it and have the added value of being women?

Dylan Mulvaney is a stunt, an act, a joke, a living cartoon. Why would any educational institution go near him? What is the purpose?

He won an award. He whined about tranzfobeea.

Victoria Smith on the surprising absence of embarrassment:

It has just been announced that Danielle McGahey, a biological male, will represent Canada as the first trans cricketer in an official international women’s match. What’s more, McGahey isn’t remotely ashamed to be stealing the place of an elite female cricketer. All the rules have been followed: blood tests, declarations of gender identity, and all the rest. As long as a series of arbitrary hoops — none of which turn males into females — can be jumped through, McGahey assumes the right to pose as the injured party should anyone object. 

The cricketer follows Lia Thomas, Veronica Ivy, Laurel Hubbard, Lindsay Hecox, Hannah Mouncey and CeCé Telfer. Objection to any exclusion of male people from female categories has been recast as trans people not being allowed to play at all. In tandem, it has transpired that women themselves are to be considered petty and selfish for complaining. Turns out we sceptics had a lot to learn. 

It’s funny because it was only about fifteen minutes ago that women were finally allowed to participate in sports. Blink and you missed it!

Recently, World Athletics, International Rugby League, Fina and British Cycling have been among those finally making moves to protect female categories. Given the historical exclusion of women from top-level sports, it’s a disgrace that these battles had to be fought at all, let alone that any wins for women continue to be framed as “bans” on trans people. 

…

When you have a male body and compete against women, any prizes you win are for shamelessness, not sporting prowess. You show who you really are. The trouble — for women, at least — is how many people don’t care, just so long as the same sex gets to win.

We’ll always have the knitting.

Jo Bartosch on the sudden cancellation of Róisín Murphy:

Murphy’s crime was to have been forthright about her views on the use of experimental puberty-blocking drugs on children who are confused about their gender.

…

Murphy’s views are certainly not unfounded. Medical opinion across the world is now shifting against the use of puberty blockers to treat childhood gender distress. And yet Murphy could not have put a larger target on her own back had she announced her engagement to President Putin, with Andrew Tate as celebrant.

…

This week, it was reported that Ninja Tune, the record label behind Murphy’s long-awaited upcoming album, Hit Parade, has halted all marketing and promotion of her work. It has also committed to sharing proceeds from the new album with pro-trans groups. Today it was announced that two of her London gigs have been cancelled.

Punish punish punish the non-compliant woman. Keep punishing her until there is no punishment left.

It is a symptom of a profound social sickness that expressing concern over the safety of children leads to such hostility and public shaming. The real opprobrium should be reserved for those ghoulish medics and influencers who promote the myth of the transgender child, and who are harming countless numbers of children in the process.

Oh but it’s all fully reversible, they keep assuring us of that.

This guy is a medical doctor – it says so on the tin. And yet, he thinks a single word can change people’s sex.

He’s been trying to bully Martina.

Peak argumentative skills: put quotation marks on things people never said. Martina doesn’t bully anyone for being “too butch.” What a ridiculous claim. She doesn’t talk in terms of “normal women,” either.

I wouldn’t want to get a flu shot from that guy.

Proud dude sentenced to 17 years.

A leader of the far-right Proud Boys has been sentenced to 17 years in prison, one of the longest terms yet handed out over the US Capitol riot. US Army veteran Joe Biggs, 38, was an instigator of the storming of Congress on 6 January 2021, prosecutors said.

Another Proud Boys member, Zachary Rehl, was sentenced on Thursday to 15 years, also on a charge of seditious conspiracy. Rehl, a former US Marine and leader of the Philadelphia branch of the Proud Boys, was seen on video spraying a chemical irritant at officers outside the Capitol during the riot.

Biggs was convicted of a slew of charges in May, including seditious conspiracy, intimidation or threats to prevent officials from discharging their duties, and interference with law enforcement during civil disorder.

…

In court, federal prosecutor Jason McCullough said the crimes were “very serious” and that a stiff sentence would send a message ahead of next year’s presidential election. “There is a reason why we will hold our collective breaths as we approach future elections… They pushed this to the edge of a constitutional crisis,” he said.

Prosecutors used text messages, social media posts and videos to show that the Proud Boys were involved in a co-ordinated effort to stop the certification of the 2020 election at the Capitol.

It wasn’t just playacting, it wasn’t just boys getting a little overexcited, it was the real thing. It could happen again. It could succeed this time.

He’s absolutely right.

But see women don’t get to cite aggravated contempt. We’re not eligible. Racial minorities are eligible, LGB people are eligible, god-botherers are eligible, trans people are super eligible, but women are not. Some women are of course included in racial minorities and religions, some of course are lesbians, but women qua women are not entitled to claim that misogynist abuse is aggravated anything. We’re too privileged for that.

Preposterous and sick indeed.

I wish Seattle would do the same.

Paris says au revoir to rental e-scooters

They’re a menace. It’s like allowing people to drive their cars on the sidewalks.

A ban on rental electric scooters has come into effect in Paris in response to a rising number of people being injured and killed in the French capital.

…

Paris is now one of the first capitals to have outlawed the rented electric vehicles, just five years after being one of the first to adopt them.

Come on, Seattle, do the same.

As a cyclist of the traditional variety, I am more than a little peeved by the way electric “personal vehicles” like e-scooters are crowding out our space. Forty years campaigning for cycle paths, only to be squeezed to the side by a new kind of motorised transport – that gets one’s goat.

Nor do I take kindly to what – as a father of young children – I have in recent years witnessed all too regularly: scooters powering down the pavement and requiring urgent avoidance. A good friend of mine broke a rib when he was knocked over by an e-scooter in Paris. This was last year, and it still hurts when he coughs.

Pedestrians on the sidewalk. Everyone else – including people riding bicycles – on the street.

Keith Olbermann really is a piece of dung.

I guess that whole revival of feminism thing was a hallucination. It’s still 1960 and women are still a joke and a punching bag.

The BBC account of Baker’s girlish prank:

A transgender activist who told a crowd to “punch a terf” has been cleared of intentionally encouraging the commission of an offence.

Because telling a crowd to punch feminist women in the face is not encouraging the commission of an offence. It’s…something else. Crocheting, or rock climbing, or tennis. Something.

The court heard that during the arrest, which Baker live-streamed on to social media, she said “don’t punch terfs, I’m really sorry I said that”. The court was told she accepted she had said the words but denied any intent to incite violence.

See that’s the special kind of trans activist urging people to stab or choke or punch feminist women – the kind that has absolutely no intent to incite violence. This applies especially to Baker, who was in prison for…er…extreme violence.

Baker is the subject of a life sentence for the attempted murder of a fellow inmate she attacked when in prison serving a sentence for kidnapping and torturing her stepmother’s 19-year-old brother.

See? With that kind of history it’s obvious that he didn’t mean to incite violence. Right?

Baker told the court: “The only people suffering more than us is migrants – thank God I’m not a transgender migrant.”

She added: “We’re living in dark times and this anti-trans rhetoric is being actively encouraged by our government.”

But anti-female rhetoric about punching women is an entirely different kind of thing and clearly not intended to incite violence.

When Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram found Baker not guilty, the public gallery applauded.

Yay! He sounds like such a great guy, doesn’t he?

Of course it’s not.

Of course. Of course. Of course. Racial minorities matter. Religious people matter. People with non-conformist sexual orientations matter. People who have swapped gender matter. But women? Pffff. Women don’t matter. Who cares about women? They can just take their lumps. Stupid cows.

(Bit of a fuckup that lesbians apparently matter, but no doubt that’s discreetly managed by just looking the other way when a lesbian is assaulted.)

8- accordingly, neither an assault on a woman for being a woman, or for being a gender critical woman, is an aggravated crime. A report of such could be dealt with by police warning, or not prosecuted by the PF, under the discretions mentioned above.

— Roddy Dunlop KC (@RoddyQC) August 30, 2023

Why? Because women don’t matter. Never forget that.

Final tweet:

10- what this means is a breach of the peace involving verbal abuse of certain minorities must be prosecuted; but the assault of a woman does not have to be. Whether this is desirable or advisable I leave to others. But it’s where the law stands right now.

It’s not desirable.

From the Toronto Star:

Róisín Murphy’s record label ceases promotion of her new record following transphobic social media comments

Subhead:

The Irish singer-songwriter is facing heavy backlash following inflammatory social comments about the trans community.

Nice neutral reporting you got there – her comments are “transphobic” and “inflammatory” right out of the gate.

For the billionth time I have to point out that the news media have never reported on misogyny in this way. Femalephobic inflammatory comments and indeed whole articles are commonplace, and journalists don’t even notice, let alone shriek about phobia and inflammation.

Róisín Murphy’s record label is ceasing all marketing and promotion of “Hit Parade,” the Irish singer’s highly anticipated album just days before the project’s release date, a source told the Star.

That is outrageous and disgusting, especially since what she said isn’t even “transphobic.” She didn’t say she hates trans people, she didn’t even say men are not women, she said “puberty blockers are FUCKED” and “little mixed up kids are vulnerable and need to be protected.” None of that=hatred of trans people.

Last week, a screenshot began circulating online that appeared to show comments made on Murphy’s personal Facebook account calling young trans people “little mixed up kids,” and criticizing puberty blockers.

She didn’t “call young trans people ‘little mixed up kids,'” she could perfectly well have meant that little kids who think they’re trans are mixed up. The reporter who is busily exaggerating and hyperbolizing her putative crimes has no business tweaking what she said.

The comments quickly drew criticism from Murphy’s fans and members of the LGBTQ+ community, who called the singer’s words harmful to the trans community. 

Just as the “reporter” is doing in this venomous article. The reporter is named Richie Assaly.

Ninja Tune, an independent record label based in London, U.K., will release Murphy’s album on Sept. 8, but it is ceasing all marketing and promotion activities, a source familiar with the matter told the Star on background.

Because she thinks puberty blockers are bad and kids who take them are being harmed.

Last two paragraphs of this loathsome piece:

Hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community — and specifically the trans community — have risen sharply in Canada and the U.S. in recent years.

A recent study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found trans youth are at five times the risk of suicidal ideation as straight kids, and 7.6 times the risk of attempting suicide. The Canadian Trans and Non-Binary Youth Health Survey found that 64 per cent of trans youth have seriously considered suicide.

HINT HINT

It’s contemptible.

Watch what you say in public. Actually, to be safe, watch what you say, period.

A performer says he was ‘shocked’ to hear an alleged transphobic conversation at the hotel hosting Manchester Pride’s media accreditation suite.

Dev Mistry was staying at the Malmaison Hotel in the city centre on Friday (August 25) for Pride weekend, where he was performing burlesque. The 30-year-old says he was having a coffee while wearing headphones in the hotel lobby when he overheard the alleged conversation.

“I picked something up and I took my headphones out to confirm that I could understand what I heard over the music,” Dev told the Manchester Evening News.

As one does. It’s a public duty to monitor other people’s conversations.

“It was [a staff member] talking to others about trans people. It was not necessarily malicious but it was that ‘men are men’ and ‘women are women’ and there’s no in between.”

Well we can’t have that. People saying that women are women! In public! Would you believe it?!

“It felt like a one sided conversation with the others. It was in the coffee shop, that’s shocking.”

In the coffee shop is shocking? I don’t quite follow.

Dev says he complained to a receptionist, and the individual who allegedly made the comments spoke to him. Dev went on: “[They] said I misheard the conversation and apologised for any offence.”

But don’t you worry, Dev wasn’t letting it go that easily. Not Dev!

“They said it was about everything changing and they/them. It felt like an apology to get out of jail scot-free.

“It made me uncomfortable having that conversation. Even if I got it out of context then it should not be in public.”

Since then, Dev says he contacted the hotel’s head office. They said the hotel has ‘launched an HR investigation’ and ‘agreed they needed more formal training around LGBTQ+ issues.’

What a disgusting little morality play.

Oh well that’s fine then.

A transgender activist who told the crowd at a London Pride event to “punch a Terf” has been cleared of encouraging violence after telling a court it was a stunt for publicity.

Sarah Baker, 54, was filmed addressing the crowd at the Trans+ Pride rally on July 8, and shouted into the microphone: “If you see a Terf, punch them in the f***ing face.”

But she told City of London magistrates court her words was not intended to incite violence, but rather to grab a front page newspaper headline.

Well he would say that, wouldn’t he.

I wonder if the same claim would work if the word “terf” were replaced with “nigger” or “muzzie” or “Paki.”

I seriously doubt it.

Paula Scanlan on being shoved aside by Lia Thomas:

In a recent congressional hearing, I beseeched lawmakers to keep women’s physical safety in mind when considering policies that affect women-only spaces like locker rooms. The issue is close to my heart: I was a swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania alongside my transgender teammate Lia Thomas, whose participation on the women’s team raised serious questions about the eligibility of athletes who identify as a different sex to the one they were born as.

…

The politics of womanhood has become increasingly bizarre in the aftermath of the #MeToo revolution. In 2020, the otherwise left-leaning British author JK Rowling fired the tweet heard around the world when she mildly criticised the excesses of the transgender rights movement. Like me, Rowling is a victim of sexual violence, and felt that the admission of male bodies into women-only spaces could pose a risk.

See I don’t accept the implication of “otherwise left-leaning” that knowing men are not women is right-leaning. You can’t have any kind of women’s rights or liberation or equality or “inclusion” if you don’t know what women are, which includes knowing that they’re not men. More curtly, feminism is not right-leaning.

There is very little that’s genuinely leftish about trans ideology. Carving out weird exceptions for the more powerful class is not leftish. A sense of entitlement that could power Chicago is not leftish. Calling women misogynist names is not leftish. Misogyny itself is not leftish (although the left has all too often been infected with it).

While sports is the most high-profile example, there are many sex-segregated arenas that have, in recent years, exchanged their sex-based eligibility for one based on “gender identity.” Most Americans are likely unaware that, due to a quiet administrative change, the federal Violence Against Women law is now being misused to violate the privacy rights of women in the most vulnerable of situations: domestic violence shelters.

…

Given today’s shift, a man – perhaps a domestic abuser with no history of gender dysphoria – could potentially follow his female victim to a women-only shelter, and those tasked with safeguarding would be powerless to deny him entry to what once was a sacred safe space. After-all, he only need tell them that he identifies as a woman to gain entry.

A safe space at any rate. I don’t think there’s any need to call it sacred.

Talk about chutzpah…

Riley Gaines “sucks at swimming” because she can’t swim faster than a man twice her size.

Trans ideology=an amusement park for men who hate women.

BBC “reporting”:

Danielle McGahey: Transgender cricketer set to play in women’s T20 international for Canada

That is, male cricketer set to play in women’s T20 international for Canada.

Canada’s Danielle McGahey is set to become the first transgender cricketer to play in an official international match.

That is, Canada’s Danielle McGahey is set to become the first male cricketer to play in an official international women’s match.

The 29-year-old opening batter has fulfilled all of the eligibility criteria the International Cricket Council (ICC) has for male-to-female transgender players before the event in Los Angeles from 4-11 September.

Which doesn’t change the fact that he’s a man playing on a women’s team.

McGahey’s participation comes despite other sports – including athletics, cycling, swimming and both codes of rugby – banning transgender women from taking part in elite women’s competition.

That is, cricket is still letting men who claim to be women cheat, while other sports have stopped doing that.

A spokeswoman for the Women’s Rights Network (WRN) – a group which says it seeks to “defend the sex-based rights of women” – said transgender women had a “significant advantage” over athletes whose sex is recorded as female at birth, and called the ICC’s policy “unfair and unsafe”.

BBC carefully avoids admitting McGahey is a man while sneering that the WRN “says” it seeks to defend women’s rights. Skepticism for us, ValiDation for them.

McGahey emigrated from Australia to Canada in February 2020, socially transitioned to a woman in November 2020 and started medically transitioning in May 2021.

McGahey emigrated from Australia to Canada in February 2020, socially transitioned to a horse in November 2020, and started medically transitioning in May 2021.

McGahey told BBC Sport: “I am absolutely honoured. To be able to represent my community is something I never dreamed I would be able to do.”

Did he ever dream he would be able to intrude on women’s sport? I bet he did. I bet it was one of his favorite fantasies.