More of the same, or no?

The National Gallery will display John Constable’s famous painting ‘The Hay Wain’ as a “contested landscape” at an upcoming exhibition.

The 1821 painting is a British classic, depicting a rural landscape near Constable’s native Suffolk. The idyllic scene shows a cart and horse travelling through the tranquil River Stour.

But some critics say the painting conceals a dark secret. Not present in the scene are the poorer workers of the time, many of whom were suffering from hunger and poverty.

…

The new exhibition will attempt to explain the full social context of the painting. It will be displayed alongside satirical images from the period which give another perspective on the politics of the time.

I think I would find that interesting, at least if it were done well. It doesn’t seem quite as much pointing out the obvious as the “Oh no the Albert Memorial is reactionary” item does.

Maybe that’s because I tend to react to idyllic rural scenes the same way myself. If they’re too idyllic I tend to want some mucky pigs somewhere in the picture.

19th century monument reflects 19th century views, exclaims pack of fools. Well duh, what would you expect it to reflect? Your views?

Prince Albert’s memorial in Kensington is “problematic” and “highly offensive”, drawing on “racial stereotypes” that reflect a “Victorian view of the world that differs from mainstream views held today”, its presentist custodians at The Royal Parks charity say (Evening Standard, GB News, Telegraph).

That’s because it was created by people who had the views that people had then as opposed to the views that people have now. I think you’ll find that’s a general pattern. It’s difficult to adopt the views of people a century or two in the future because you don’t know what they are going to be. Do you see what I mean? That’s a closed box to us. If we knew what they were, and we agreed with them, they would be our views. We don’t know what they will be, so we can neither agree nor disagree with them, because of the not knowing.

The Royal Parks have now offered a presentist critique of the monument, with the four statues that represent Asia, Africa, America and Europe described as reflective of a “Victorian view of European supremacy”.

“Representations of certain continents draws on racial stereotypes that are now considered offensive,” updated information about the plinth now reads on the Royal Parks website.

The page continues: “Though the Empire has traditionally been celebrated as a symbol of British supremacy, many today consider this view as problematic because colonialism often relied on the oppression and exploitation of people, resources and cultures.”

Please, point out the obvious some more.

News media continue to lie about men who commit crimes of violence. Brighton and Hove News for example:

Brighton woman, 70, appears before court charged with murdering husband

Brighton woman, 70, is of course not a woman.

A 70-year-old Brighton woman has appeared in court by video link charged with murdering her husband in their Kemp Town flat. Joanna Rowland-Stuart was aided by a British Sign Language interpreter at Lewes Crown Court this morning (Wednesday 24 July).

Rowland-Stuart, formerly known as John Stuart, appeared by video link from Downview prison, in Surrey, but did not enter a plea over the death of her husband Andrew Rowland-Stuart.

Mr Rowland-Stuart was a former lorry driver previously known as Angie or Angela Rowland, Angie or Angela Rowland-Stuart and Andy or Andrew Rowland.

Oops, they slipped up there – a stray “Mr” spoils the game.

The emergency services were called to the couple’s 15th-floor home in Lavender Street, Brighton, shortly after 7.30pm on Monday 27 May. Despite paramedics’ efforts to save 70-year-old Mr Rowland-Stuart, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police arrested Joanna Rowland-Stuart, a former transgender rep and a former director of the LGBT Community Safety Forum, on suspicion of murder.

So much for the LGBT Community Safety Forum, eh?

The B&H Gazette may have a mole in its ranks, because it goes on to provide what looks like a very sarcastic pair of photos, first this one captioned Andrew

and then this one captioned Joanna:

Rowland-Stuart remains in custody, awaiting trial.

Update: Andrew is one person and “Joanna” is another, so the photos aren’t all that sarcastic. Thanks to John Reed for catching my dopy error.

Originally a comment by Screechy Monkey on It’s not a gold star.

I think you’re all being really harsh here.

First, Biden just did an incredibly hard thing. Yes, it was the right thing to do, for his party and the country. Yes, you could say that he was morally obligated to do it. But there are a lot of things that people should do that are really hard to do on a personal level, and a lot of people fail that test. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for one.

Joe Biden spent decades of his life dreaming of being president one day. He gets there, and does a good job, and now he’s being asked to do something that no incumbent president has done since LBJ? And unlike LBJ, who had a mixed record as president — many great accomplishments, but also the escalation in Vietnam — Biden’s actual record as president is quite good and he doesn’t get enough credit for it. It probably doesn’t seem fair to him, and you know what, it probably isn’t in some sense. It wasn’t fair that his first wife and his daughter died in a car crash and he was a single father as a young senator. It wasn’t fair that his son Beau died young. I’ll leave out Hunter because we can argue what responsibility Joe has for how he turned out, but suffice it to say he’s had his share of personal tragedy.

And now you all want to begrudge him a bit of pride in a gracious speech confirming a pretty grand gesture of statemanship? It just strikes me as so, so petty.

Second, bragging about his record and how ordinarily that would merit a second term isn’t just personal pride. Joe Biden bragging about his record is good for Kamala Harris, and therefore the Democratic Party and the country. Harris is going to spend this campaign bragging about Biden’s presidency and running on his record.

Sigh. This is just dense. Thick. Dumb. Uncomprehending. Point-missing. Reality-ignoring.

Biden says:

President Joe Biden on Wednesday said abandoning his reelection campaign and endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris, as the Democratic candidate was the best way to unite the country and save democracy, despite his ambition to win a second term.

Biden’s announcement to end his presidential bid on Sunday followed a disastrous June debate with Donald Trump, which exacerbated questions about his ability to defeat the Republican candidate, or to serve another four years if he succeeded.

In his address to the nation from the Oval Office, the 81-year-old president said he believed he deserved to be reelected based on his record during his first term.

!!!

Dude. The whole problem is that you are progressively losing your faculties. It’s a time thing. Your first term is wholly beside the point because it’s over, and time is continuing to pass, and you’re not as sharp as you were four years ago, or three, or two, or one. I’m sorry to say that but it’s true. It can happen to anyone. First term was then and this is now. It’s not about what you “deserve”; it’s about what everyone needs.

The vanity is not attractive. Sorry.

A drag queen and another man do the Olympics torch thing, and now this.

Women don’t exist or if they do exist they don’t matter, and by the way, if they’re running for high office be sure to tell them how to dress.

A piece of advice. Don’t go for a hike in extremely hot weather. If you do, take as much water as you can carry and don’t go far. If you don’t take much water and you do go far…well, you won’t come back.

A 56-year-old woman died while hiking near a state park in southwestern Utah over the weekend after running out of water on a sweltering day, police said.

Emergency crews responded near Quail Creek State Park on Sunday to a report of a hiker “in distress due to not having enough water and the temperature being 106 degrees,” the Hurricane City Police Department said in a statement.

Too hot. If you don’t have enough water, turn back after 10 minutes.

Three hikers died in state and national parks in Utah over the previous weekend, including a father and daughter from Wisconsin who got lost on a strenuous hike in Canyonlands National Park in triple-digit temperatures.

Don’t do strenuous hikes in triple-digit temperatures.

Use your brain.

Prosecutor v felon:

Vice President Harris vowed to reprise her role as a prosecutor on the campaign trail while running against former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee and a convicted felon.

Those are all one person. Clumsy writing makes it look as if Harris is running against three people, but no, Trump is the nominee and the convicted felon.

Harris, too, quickly pivoted to the kind of rhetoric she said to expect from her on the campaign trail — that of a seasoned attorney, who before she was elected as vice president and a United States senator from California served as that state’s elected attorney general and before that, a courtroom prosecutor.

“In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds. Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump’s type,” she said.

Hardened criminal v experienced prosecutor. I’m getting more optimistic.

Gov. Andy Beshear, D-Ky., seen as a potential contender, told MSNBC Monday morning that he was endorsing her candidacy. “The vice president is smart and strong which will make her a good president,” he said.

Fellow Democratic Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania also quickly endorsed Harris, eliminating speculation that they might try to challenge her at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in four weeks.

…

While some Democrats are advocating for an “open process” in Chicago, there seems to be little appetite for a contentious battle for the nomination to take on former President Donald Trump, and any potential challenge seemed likely to be nominal.

Also good.

Could it be that the nightmare will end?

Goddy terrorism in the news:

The Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary has been found guilty of directing the terrorist group al-Muhajiroun (ALM) and drumming up cross-border support for the banned organisation online.

After a trial at Woolwich crown court in south London, Choudary was convicted of having a “caretaker role” in directing ALM.

Choudary came as close to becoming a household name as an extremist can get in the UK through his media appearances and controversial actions such as protesting at UK soldiers’ funerals. Security experts have claimed Choudary influenced dozens of British jihadists.

But the trained solicitor’s apparent ability to act just within the bounds of the law ended in 2016 when he was convicted of supporting Islamic State and he served half of a six-month prison sentence before being released on licence.

Well if you believe in a terrorist god you’re bound to think terrorism is goddy and thus mandatory.

Two men.

Zero women.

Women erased again.

Women barely exist. Women are at home mopping the floor. Women are passive blobs who don’t do anything. Men are the people who matter; women are the machines for making more men.

Oh good, the struggling royals get to have more money. That’s a relief.

The monarchy is to get an extra £45m due to soaring profits from the Crown Estate. The income boost comes from a surge in profits from the estate, due to six new offshore wind farms.

Profits from the Crown Estate have increased to £1.1bn, which in turn will lead to a rise in the Sovereign Grant, which pays for the Royal Family’s running costs. The grant will rise from £86.3m in 2024/25 to to £132m in 2025/2026 – which will help pay for the last stages of renovating Buckingham Palace, officials said.

How lovely for them. Might be able to afford an occasional night out, as well.

The annual accounts – delayed for a month because of the general election – revealed the household would get two new helicopters over the coming year, to replace existing 15-year-old aircraft. The report said they were “a key component” in enabling the King and wider Royal Family to carry out engagements, allowing them to get to remote regions of the UK.

Graham Smith, chief executive of anti-monarchy group Republic, said: “We do not owe the royals a living, we do not owe them palatial homes, private helicopter travel or lives of leisure and luxury.” Mr Smith added: “They abuse the taxpayer’s trust day in, day out, taking our money to spend on their own private lifestyles.”

Yes but it brings the tourists in.

Drat.

“DOES in fact generate legal liability for Stonewall. This is a hollow victory for them.”

Drat.

Use your damn brain, will you?

Biologically male competitors should be allowed to take part alongside women, says Labour’s Lisa Nandy

Of course they shouldn’t, because they have physical advantages. It’s not fair to women to let men invade their sports. Don’t be unfair to women. Don’t be stupid. Don’t fall for the manipulation and bullying. Act like a grownup.

Lisa Nandy said it should be up to individual sports to decide whether to let biological males compete against women in their respective fields, arguing “most” sports had got the balance right.

Balance shmalance! What balance?! Never mind balance, just don’t let men ruin women’s sports. It’s not that complicated.

I don’t know who made this, but good job whoever you are.

Via Gnu Atheism

Dude longs to punish women for not wanting him in their sports.

The [male] transgender athlete said “My dreams were taken away from me once again, so I plan on going back to New England, hitting up all the indoor competitions, and taking all the names, all the records, and everything.”

Taking them from women, he means. Punishing women for not wanting him to trash their sport, by trashing their sport. What a nice reasonable not at all misogynist man.

Originally a comment by Rev David Brindley on A national emergency.

Remind me again of the number of abusers and murderers of UK women who were/are UK Police.

Unfortunately, here in the Great Land Downunder, we don’t fare much better. Male violence against women and girls is rising and too much leniency is still shown.

Narsen Moffat, 31, was jailed for three years for several brutal attacks on unsuspecting people, including one where he told a female employee he wasn’t afraid to hit a woman.

During sentencing on Thursday, the Adelaide Magistrates Court heard Moffat collected Irene McHugh from her home in April 2023.

Moffat then punched her multiple times to the head before locking the car doors.

“She pleaded with you to let her go so she could return to her children but you kept punching her, telling her she would never see her kids again,” Magistrate Lynette Duncan said.

Irene McHugh isn’t Moffat’s only victim, just the one unlucky enough to have a near death experience at his hands. In addition, he threatened other women during robberies, assaulted a male pedestrian, stole cars, drove dangerously and had an extensive criminal history of assault and theft charges, including previously being jailed for punching a man after he didn’t like the advice he gave him in the courthouse.

So, here are three cheers to him spending 20 years locked up. Oh, wait.

Ms Duncan sentenced Moffat to three years and 29 days jail, with a non-parole period of two years.

The sentence was backdated to May 6.

Men take top three prizes in women’s race:

Transgender athletes swept the board in a 1-2-3 at a prestigious women’s cycle race over the weekend, infuriating fans and leaving female competitors in the shade.

Male transgender athletes that is. I wish journalism would learn to be clear about this, because confusion is one of the ways trans ideology has managed to steal so much from women already.

Every medalist in the elite women’s Madison at Washington’s Marymore Grand Prix on Friday had a trans athlete on the two–person team, marking the first time trans women are known to have had a place on every podium spot in a race.

Race venue the Jerry Baker Memorial Velodrome in Redmond warns it will not tolerate ‘bullying or derogatory comments especially related to race, creed, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, physical or mental disability’.

It’s Marymoor, not Marymore. It’s one of my favorite parks – the one where you can walk along Samammish Slough all the way to where it empties into Lake Washington. Takes a few buses to get there, but worth it.

Anyway, nice to know the velodrome will tolerate the bullying of female athletes but not the mentioning of male athletes doing the bullying.

Trump calls Harris what now?

Vice President Kamala Harris framed her likely upcoming fight against Donald Trump as one between a prosecutor and a criminal — describing, from her new campaign headquarters Monday, her experience taking on “predators,” “fraudsters” and “cheaters.”

Trump around the same time, meanwhile, took to Truth Social to call Harris “Dumb as a Rock.”

Hmm. I’d have thought the rockish quality would be more with Trump. Granted he has plenty of feral cunning, but he’s not overall intelligent in the way Harris is.

Trump, who during a rally in Michigan Saturday night called Harris “crazy,” “nuts,” and “Laughing Kamala,” is likely to turn to ad hominem attacks against her, while Harris is expected to lean into her experience as a prosecutor — and Trump’s status as a felon with wide-ranging legal problems.

Which kind of sums up their different levels and types of intelligence all by itself. Trump is good at insults, Harris is good at substance.

Speaking to campaign staff in Wilmington, Delaware on Monday, Harris distilled her case against Trump.

“I was a courtroom prosecutor. In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds,” Harris said. “Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type.”

Quite an intelligent thing to say.

Aw, sad, Trump is having second thoughts about picking the dangerous crazy guy.

Much of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, including the decision to tap Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate, was structured around attacks on President Joe Biden. But then Biden announced Sunday that he was withdrawing from the presidential race altogether.

Haha! Fakeout!

Trump campaign officials acknowledged that Trump selected the inexperienced Vance, charged with all his techno-authoritarian ideas, to boost support among their own base, not extend a hand to swing voters, according to The Atlantic. Vance was a symbol of the Trump team’s assuredness that they would win in 2024. Come Sunday, that assuredness appears to be shrinking.

“Most striking thing I heard from Trump allies yesterday was the second-guessing of JD Vance—a selection, they acknowledged, that was [born] of cockiness, meant to run up margins with the base in a blowout rather than persuade swing voters in a nail-biter,” Atlantic staff writer Tim Alberta, who had written the piece about the panicking Trump campaign, posted on Twitter.

Anything about who would be best for the country? Hahahahaha of course not, don’t be stupid.

Trump decried Biden’s decision to drop out in a post on Truth Social, writing that his team would have to “start all over again” and asking to be reimbursed for the cost.

Interesting. I wonder just how long the list is of people who would like to be reimbursed by Trump, like for instance the many contractors he stiffed.

Violence against women a ‘national emergency’ in England and Wales, police say

Two million women are estimated to be victims of violence perpetrated by men each year in an epidemic so serious it amounts to a “national emergency”, police chiefs have warned.

Crimes including stalking, harassment, sexual assault and domestic violence affect one in 12 women in England and Wales, with the number of recorded offences growing by 37% in the past five years and the perpetrators getting younger.

Really? Oh well, never mind. Now let’s talk about the persecution of our trans sisters.

The NPCC report, which analysed official data, said:

•  One in six homicides in England and Wales are linked to domestic abuse, or 100 out of the 590 homicides in the year to March 2023.
•  20% of all police-recorded crimes – more than 1m offences a year – count as VAWG. These include sexual assault, stalking, harassment, domestic violence, and controlling and coercive behaviour. The true total is estimated in the report to be twice as high.
•  Recorded cases of VAWG increased by 37% between 2018 and 2023, now running at 3,000 offences a day.
•  Perpetrators are getting younger, dashing hopes that violence against women may reduce markedly as time passes.

Things have become much worse for women and girls over the past five years. I wonder why. I wonder if it could be partly because of the obsessive attention paid to men who pretend to be women, and/or the flagrant loathing and contempt directed at women who refuse to pretend that men can be women.

The Guardian talks about Andrew Tate-style “influencers” but says nothing about the bullying and abuse of women by the trans communinny and its fans.