Nobody disinvites the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

LA Pride has pulled out of an annual Pride Night hosted by the Dodgers after the team disinvited a non-profit drag group from the event.

Earlier this week, the Los Angeles Dodgers rescinded an invitation to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a well-known San Francisco order of queer and trans ‘nuns’ that has existed since the 1970s, amid opposition from conservative Catholics. The group, which does does charitable and protest work in addition to its street drag show performances, was set to receive an award during a ceremony before a 16 June game against the San Francisco Giants.

Conservative Catholics can go soak their heads. The Catholic church is an evil institution that has done harm to vast numbers of people over the past couple of millennia. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence? Not so much.

The controversy took off when Senator Marco Rubio, who[m] the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign has described as “one of the most anti-LGBTQ+ politicians in America”, wrote to the MLB commissioner earlier this week criticizing the team’s decision to honor the order, which he claims mocks Christians. Leaders of conservative Catholic groups also contacted the MLB arguing that it was “rewarding anti-Catholicism”.

So? Anti-Catholicism exists for good reasons.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence first appeared in San Francisco in 1979 in the Castro District in the form of three men wearing nun outfits. The group formed in response to the Aids crisis and was among the first to raise money to help care for people with the disease, it said in a statement. Today they fundraise hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for underserved grassroots organizations, which in 2020 included grants to legal aid clinics serving LGBTQ+ asylum seekers and an alliance empowering deaf queer people, among others.

The group’s mission statement says the non-profit is devoted “to community service, ministry and outreach to those on the edges, and to promoting human rights, respect for diversity and spiritual enlightenment”.

“We use humor and irreverent wit to expose the forces of bigotry, complacency and guilt that chain the human spirit,” according to the group’s website.

Humor and irreverent wit as opposed to endless genuflection to luxury identities. Long may they wear the rosary beads.

Willoughby. Such a nice guy.

The Guardian on Jankowicz v Fox part 2:

Her aim she said was partly to show that individuals could also confront the powerful, not just businesses like Dominion and Smartmatic. “These companies have venture capital firms behind them, they can afford fancy lawyers and years-long trials to hold Fox to account. For individuals like me, it’s much harder – and I don’t believe that is something that our system can sustain.”

By bringing the lawsuit, she runs the risk of potentially opening herself up to a renewed wave of criticism that she is attempting to limit free speech protected under the first amendment. The Guardian asked her whether suing for defamation was the best way to counter Fox’s alleged disinformation.

Jankowicz stressed that she didn’t pursue the lawsuit lightly. “I don’t think anybody should pursue a lawsuit just because someone said something mean about them – I have a thick skin. But I believe Fox’s continued lies about individuals are a greater threat to free speech and democracy than a carefully considered, narrow lawsuit like mine.”

She said her main aim was to force Fox to answer for what she called its false statements of facts. “That sort of coverage is not protected speech,” she said. “If Fox isn’t brought to account, they will not stop.”

Mean is one thing and lie is another.

Oddly familiar.

Nina Jankowicz sued Fox News and its parent company Fox Corporation for allegedly damaging her reputation as a specialist in conspiracy theories and disinformation campaigns. The lawsuit was lodged in a Delaware state court exactly a year after she resigned as executive director of a new Department of Homeland Security unit combatting online disinformation.

The Disinformation Governance Board was abruptly shut down in the wake of a storm of virulent rightwing criticism, allegedly fueled by Fox News. Jankowicz and the new DHS division she led were attacked as being part of a conspiracy to censor rightwing comment spearheaded by Joe Biden.

Shutting down disinformation is translated to stifling politically incorrect opinion. We’ve been seeing that translation around here lately. Freedom of speech is not the same as freedom of disinformation.

Jankowicz resigned from the federal post on 18 May 2022, barely three weeks into the job.

In an interview with the Guardian, she said her motive in suing Fox was to ensure accountability for what she alleged was a campaign of lies against her that undermined American democracy. “There need to be consequences,” she said. “It was lies, very personal and very vitriolic lies. And I don’t think that is democratic.” She added that what she claimed was Fox’s reckless disregard for the truth had implications for the future of the country. “If we can’t agree on statements of fact, how can you live in a democracy?”

But of course Fox doesn’t see it that way.

Jankowicz was announced as the head of the new disinformation board on 27 April last year and was instantly engulfed in a tempest of rightwing anger. In the lawsuit, Jankowicz’s lawyers allege that the attacks skyrocketed the following day, after Fox News hosts began fuelling the hatred with unfounded claims about her desire to censor rightwing voices.

One of the most vociferous critics, the complaint says, was Tucker Carlson, the news channel’s then primetime star who was fired by Fox last month in the wake of the Dominion settlement. In his opening monologue on 28 April, Carlson called Jankowicz a “moron”, said that what she was doing amounted to a “full-scale attack on free speech” and dubbed the disinformation board “the new Soviet America”.

But of course Tucker Carlson specializes in disinformation; it’s what he does. He wants Freedom of Lying to be a right, and he’ll probably get what he wants.

Is that steam?

Temperatures in the world’s oceans have broken fresh records, testing new highs for more than a month in an “unprecedented” run that has led to scientists stating the Earth has reached “uncharted territory” in the climate crisis.

The rapid acceleration of ocean temperatures in the last month is an anomaly that scientists have yet to explain. Data collated by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), known as the Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature (OISST) series, gathered by satellites and buoys, has shown temperatures higher than in any previous year, in a series stretching back to 1981, continuously over the past 42 days.

…

Prof Mike Meredith of the British Antarctic Survey said: “This has got scientists scratching their heads. The fact that it is warming as much as it has been is a real surprise, and very concerning. It could be a short-lived extreme high, or it could be the start of something much more serious.”

Yeah that’s not good. “We didn’t expect this, and it’s bad” is not what we want to hear.

Warming oceans are a concern for many reasons. Seawater takes up more space at higher temperatures, accelerating sea level rise, and warmer water at the poles accelerates the melting of the ice caps. Hotter temperatures can also be dire for marine ecosystems, as it can be difficult or impossible for species to adapt. Corals in particular can suffer devastating bleaching.

But it’s all worth it because we can take cruises.

Some scientists fear that the rapid warming could be a sign of the climate crisis progressing at a faster rate than predicted.

What I mean – we really don’t want to hear that. It was already horrific. Now it’s even worse. One gets the feeling it’s never going to be “Hey folks it’s not as bad as we thought, whew!”

Mark Maslin, professor of Earth system science at University College London, said the climate crisis was taking hold before our eyes. “Climate scientists were shocked by the extreme weather events in 2021,” he said. “Many hoped this was just an extreme year. But they continued into 2022 and now they are occurring in 2023. It seems we have moved to a warmer climate system with frequent extreme climate events and record-breaking temperatures that are the new normal. It is difficult to see how anyone can deny climate change is happening and having devastating effects around the world.”

I think it’s pretty easy, really. Denial is a lot pleasanter than the alternative.

Originally a comment by Mike Haubrich on All the rivers.

Quite honestly, the most frightening aspect is that the heating is affecting access to resources, especially water. Flooding does have its benefits when it’s part of a natural cycle, as in the Red River Valley of the North, or the Nile Delta, where the floods leave behind nutrients on agricultural land that would otherwise be overused and end up not being arable. But the floods, such as in Italy, in Pakistan last year, and in England before that, do not do much to restore the natural water table as the water rushes down towards the sea. And the water that’s flooding there is not falling in places that also need it, such as Syria and Jordan and other areas of the Levant that are arable.

War is fundamentally a struggle over resources. And the conflicts over resources are going to escalate. The Russian invasion of the Ukraine is just one of the wars that will be sending missiles and rockets into the cities and towns. And war manufacturing feeds the economic cycle, so all the Net Zero goals of the governments trying to comply (or pretending to comply) with the IPCC goals will be obliterated by conflict. This will further exacerbate the movement of people seeking a safe place, where they can work and feed themselves. And the movements to restrict refugees are based on resource conflict as well. What we see at the US Southern border and on the shores of Dover is a trickle of the flood of people that will be seeking some sort of promised land that doesn’t exist, or won’t for long.

So, yes, James, we can try to greenify as much as we want. But as long as Raytheon stands to profit from the resource conflicts, you may as well drive that big diesel truck you’ve been eyeing with the lifts and the bull balls on the trailer hitch.

I listen to a lot of music to avoid having to think about this all the time. I can recommend some tunes if you’d like.

More inclusive inclusiony huggy kissy embracey inclusion (but not for you though):

Kinetic has made its commitment to diversity and inclusion spectacularly clear with one of its iconic SkyBus red double decker buses transformed with a rainbow-coloured design.

Ooooooh has it??? It painted a bus in colors??????? That’s the most diverse and inclusiony thing I’ve ever heard of!! I can hardly breathe from the diversity and inclusion.

The ‘Pride Bus’ will adorn freeways and arterial roads connecting SkyBus passengers between the city centre and Melbourne’s two major airports at Tullamarine and Avalon. 

It will adorn them? So it won’t go to and fro carrying passengers in the usual way of buses, but instead it will adorn freeways and arterial roads? Like bunting and banners and stuff?

Kinetic says the initiative serves as both a welcome to visitors landing in Victoria and a permanent reminder to the broader community that everyone should feel safe, respected and welcomed in Melbourne. 

Why should everyone feel that? I mean, sure, you don’t want people feeling unsafe or insulted, but does that mean you need to paint buses in order to make people feel actively respected? And even if it does, how will that work? If I saw that bus it wouldn’t make me feel respected, and the odds are slim that I would see it because it’s just the one bus.

In other words what a load of meaningless PR drivel. Painting a commercial bus doesn’t make anyone feel anything.

Also look at the stupid bus.

Come on. “You are loved.” What, because the words appear on a bus? Give me a break.

And when has anyone ever done this kind of thing to send a friendly message to women? Never. Not ever. Women are just a nuisance.

Mike Lewis, Inclusion and Equity Manager at Kinetic, said the initiative was a very visible celebration and recognition of LGBTIQ+ communities.   

“We wanted to unveil the design in the lead up to IDAHOBIT (International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia) and beyond, demonstrating our support for LGBTQI+ communities every day of the year,” he said.

Hey, Mike, is there a comparable day for women? Mike? Mike? Where’d you go?

The vehicle features the Progress Pride Flag with an emphasis on inclusion and progression, with the words “You are Loved” in bold font on either side. 

Where’s the emphasis on inclusion and progression? I’m not seeing it. Is it the wavy bit in the rainbow? Does that stand for inclusion and progression? To me it just looks like a wavy bit.

I wonder what Mike does with the rest of his time. It can’t take all that much time to get a bus decorated and tell the press about it.

Different moves, different grooves. Stands to reason, don’t it.

Planned Parenthood tells women to be quiet.

Climate crisis in Italy:

More than 20 rivers have burst their banks in Italy, leaving 13 people dead and forcing thousands from their homes after six months’ rainfall fell in a day and a half.

More bodies were found on Thursday after almost every river flooded between Bologna and the north-east coast 115km (70 miles) away. Some 280 landslides have taken place.

…

Many factors contribute to flooding, but a warming atmosphere caused by climate change makes extreme rainfall more likely. Already, the world has warmed about 1.1C since the industrial era began, and temperatures will continue to rise unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.

Which they’re not going to do.

“We wouldn’t do this to any other community” – yes we would. Of course we would. We would and we do.

Reporter: Ms Robison, do you still stand by what you said in Parliament, there’s no evidence that predatory men have ever had to pretend to be anything else to carry out abusive behavior – we’ve just had the case today of Andrew Miller, do you still stand by what you said last year?

Robison: Well the vast majority of trans people are just wanting to get on with their lives. Of course what we’re talking about here are people who’ve committed very serious crimes – now I wouldn’t want to talk about the case because it’s still ongoing, but clearly anybody –

Reporter: He’s admitted the offenses.

Robison: Well anyone who’s admitted an offense is an offender and should be treated as such, but we should not – we wouldn’t do this to any other community – take those cases of offenders and imply that somehow that is an issue for the rest of the trans community.

Me: Yes we should, in exactly the same way we “imply that that is an issue for the rest of the male community.” Which is: we don’t “imply” that all men will assault and rape women if given the opportunity, but we do know that some will, and that they are bigger and stronger than women, and that’s why we don’t force women to get naked in the presence of men. It works exactly the same way with “the trans community,” or to put it less dishonestly, with male members of “the trans community.”

Robison of course continues to refuse to grasp the point, and the reporter thanks her and moves on.

But what is “your gender identity”? What is a “gender identity”? What does that mean? How do we know? What is the impersonal evidence for it? How is it different from a “soul”?

“You know it feels better when your body, mind and hormone profile matches your soul. Why wouldn’t it?”

Updating to add Mr Menno’s response.

Bad reporting. Really shockingly bad, inaccurate, misleading, dishonest reporting.

A woman who hopes to become the first transgender driver to compete in the British Touring Cars Championship (BTCC) has praised her “wonderful” welcome to motorsport.

Deborah Stokes, from Kettering, made her debut at Snetterton Circuit, in Norfolk, on Saturday, finishing third in a saloon series race.

The 55-year-old said she wants to encourage diversity in motorsport.

He’s not a woman. The BBC should not lie this way in a news story. It’s deliberate. The BBC chose to say “A woman who” instead of “A trans woman who” at the very beginning. It’s insulting, of course, as always, but in addition to that it’s outright deceptive and confusing. It’s not responsible reporting.

It’s also, as always, nonsensical.

Speaking to BBC Radio Northampton, she said: “Hopefully while I’m doing that I can bring more diversity into motorsport and some natural females into motorsport, because there are hardly any female racers out there.

“It’s basically just men enjoying the weekend.”

And it still is. Adding a man who calls himself a woman changes nothing in that scenario. He’s one more man enjoying the weekend.

Hotter.

The world is almost certain to experience new record temperatures in the next five years, and temperatures are likely to rise by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, scientists have warned.

The breaching of the crucial 1.5C threshold, which scientists have warned could have dire consequences, should be only temporary, according to research from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

However, it would represent a marked acceleration of human impacts on the global climate system, and send the world into “uncharted territory”, the UN agency warned.

Bad uncharted territory.

New record temperatures have been set in many areas around the world in the heatwaves of the past year, but those highs may only be the beginning, according to the report, as climate breakdown and the impact of a developing El Niño weather system combine to create heatwaves across the globe.

El Niño is part of an oscillating weather system that develops in the Pacific. For the past three years, the world has been in the opposing phase, known as La Niña, which has had a dampening effect on temperature increases around the world.

As La Niña ends and a new El Niño develops, there is a 98% likelihood that at least one of the next five years will be the hottest on record, the scientists found.

There’s more. It’s all grim.

This seems ominous.

Oh well. We can always escape the heat by taking a cruise to Alaska.

Originally a comment by Rev David Brindley on The customer shouted negatively.

Is there a pattern here?

Non-binary social media influencer Deni Todorovic has detailed the moment a baggage issue at Melbourne airport led to an encounter with Australian Federal Police (AFP), causing them to miss their initial flight to Sydney for Australian Fashion Week.

The 34-year-old, who goes by they/them pronouns, claims they were checking in their luggage to a Jetstar flight on Monday when the weight of one of their bags triggered an alleged verbal dispute with airline staff.

Todorovic, who was accompanied by their mother at the time, said their bag was an extra 10.5kg in weight which they said came with a surcharge of $100.

“I started yelling, yelling, yelling, yelling,” they told The Daily Telegraph after landing in Sydney the following day for Fashion Week’s Erik Yvon show.

So, the airline staff did their jobs, requested payment for the overweight luggage, and instead of either paying or calmly trying to negotiate a lower fee, “I started yelling, yelling”. I’m not sure that has ever worked as a negotiating tactic post kindergarten.

The model last made headlines a few weeks ago when they rallied against labels and brands they previously worked with including Bonds and gin brand Tanqueray.

Prior to this, the model copped backlash for their statement “some women have penises” after responding to criticism regarding a photo featuring Todorovic in lime green Seafolly bikini bottoms.

I’ve seen this movie before, and it doesn’t get any better on subsequent viewings. But, here is a new one.

Queer activist Deni Todorovic’s Australian Fashion Week woes have continued, with the social media influencer being denied entry to an event by someone they “thought was a friend”.

The non-binary 34-year-old, who goes by they/them pronouns, was forced to spend Wednesday night in their Sydney hotel room after security guards said they weren’t invited to a fashion show on day three of the event.

“I was just refused entry to a fashion show by someone I thought was a friend,” Todorovic shared in an Instagram story on their backup account @hellodarlingsmedia.

Who knew that gatecrashing a major event wasn’t socially acceptable? Not only ill-informed about how sex works, but Todi is also unsure about who his friends are and who invited him. Was it the security guard, as it seems from his above quote? No, it was former WAG and drug snorter turned fashionista, Nadia Bartell.

It’s understood Todorovic was making their way to Nadia Bartel’s offsite Henne runway at St Barnabas in Ultimo when they were turned away from the venue.

(…)

According to The Daily Telegraph’s Confidential, Todorovic never received an invitation to the event with sources telling the paper they weren’t a friend of the designer.

As we say in this Great Land Down Under – What a fucking wanker!

A Madison, Wisconsin tv station claims there have been “anti-transgender” graffiti and stickers showing up around town, but tells us nothing more detailed about them – that is, it doesn’t tell us what they say. So how do we know they really were “anti-transgender”?

We don’t.

Were they perhaps simply the definition of “woman”?

If so, the Madison tv station should pause to think.

Anti-transgender graffiti and stickers appear to be showing up in public places across Madison, leaving many in the community frustrated and some worried for their safety.

Several members of the LGBTQ+ community on the isthmus are raising the alarm because they want people to know how pervasive the anti-trans messages have been.

But not what they say.

Transgender woman Jade, who asked to only be identified by her nickname citing concerns over safety, is mapping their appearance.

She and others are taking the messages down almost as quickly as they go up, but she said it’s important to recognize they were once there.

“It’s kind of a threat,” she said. “It’s a little bit of like you might be accepted generally but there’s still a pocket, of women mostly, who just hate my guts.”

Well, Jade, do you think that could possibly be because you accuse them of hate crimes for knowing who is a woman and who isn’t?

Ben Hunte, former LGBTQXYZ correspondent for the BBC, talks to the former Starbucks worker who screamed at a customer to GET OUT because she “misgendered” him.

Exclusive: Luna Spain lost her manager’s job after an interaction with a customer was covered by right-wing media. She told VICE News she is being treated as a criminal despite being the victim of transphobia.

Define “transphobia.”

Luna Spain said the customer called her and another trans colleague “trannies” and shouted negatively about gender in the packed Starbucks store. 

What does “shouted negatively about gender” mean?

After two years as a manager, Spain said she was fired without even having a meeting with her bosses at work. 

Police have told us they are investigating the incident, which took place in April, as a potential transphobic hate crime, and Spain said she was considering legal action against the customers as well as her former employer. 

Why aren’t the police investigating the incident as a potential misogynist hate crime? Maybe they are, but if so Ben Hunte didn’t see fit to mention it. He’s not the most reliable journalist I’ve ever read.

It’s also interesting that Hunte seems to agree with the fired starbucky that being “negative” about trans ideology is a good and justifiable reason to shout at a customer to GET OUT!!!, including when the customer is at a physical disadvantage compared to the shouting starbucky. I differ with Hunte on this pointe.

Spain, 28, said that her name, address and contact details were published online after the video went viral, and that “transphobes have started knocking” at her home and her family’s homes. 

Not in the reporting I saw they weren’t.

Footage taken at the Starbucks in Southampton, in southern England, showed Spain arguing with a woman, identified as Vanessa Thomas, while a man, understood to be the woman’s partner Mark Andrews, filmed the incident. 

So Ben Hunte sees fit to publish the customer’s name? I take it he’s hoping people will knock on her door?

The video also features Spain asking the customer to leave the store while clapping in her face, and calling her “Karen.” The video ends with Spain walking up to the man filming the incident and apparently knocking the phone out of his hand. 

Yes, so how is Spain the victim here?

But in an interview, Spain told VICE News that the video only showed the end of the incident, and was not reflective of what really happened.

“The viral video doesn’t show the customer calling us trannies and going on a rant about gender. It doesn’t show how it started with her screaming about why we don’t accept cash, and demanding that we do. The internet’s been filled with lies,” she said.

That’s his case? It’s pathetic. Maybe she was a rude customer, maybe she was a rude and demanding customer. That’s certainly possible. Such customers do exist. But is it Starbucks policy for employees to respond to rudeness with orders to GET OUT and name-calling and face-clapping? I doubt it. I think the policy in customer-facing jobs is generally to be as calm and non-confrontational as possible with angry and/or rude customers, to de-escalate as far as possible, complete the transaction, and move on.

“I’m the victim of a transphobic hate crime, but I’m being treated like a criminal,” Spain said – visibly shaken.

Oh fuck off. Take your pity party somewhere else. He towered over her, so no, I don’t believe he’s “visibly shaken” a week later. Visibly in a misogynist rage, yes, but shaken, no.

“The woman in the video was rude and abusive all the way through us trying to serve her,” she said. “She was furious about not being able to pay cash, but it’s quite a common reaction from some older customers in our store, so I was ready with a response. But she just wouldn’t accept it.”

So he called her a Karen and screamed in her face and told her to GET OUT, GET OUT.

Nope. Not acceptable.

Spain said the customer started “losing her mind after she deliberately misgendered my colleague standing next to me and I corrected her pronouns,” adding that “it was deliberate and spiteful, not a mistake like she seems to be claiming online.”

Surely it is not part of Bozo’s job description that he needs to “correct” what pronouns customers use to refer to other employees. Especially when what he means by “correct” is the opposite of ordinary usage. Starbucks customers don’t need to be educated on the magic gender specialty pronouns of the baristas. They’re there to buy a caffeinated drink, not get the exciting details of the identity of the guy who hands out the chocolate peanut butter toffee espresso.

“She said, ‘what is it with you trannies and all this gender stuff’ and ‘with you trannies it’s always all about gender’ – I cut her off and told her she’s not getting served. I asked her to come to the till and get a refund. But instead, she started getting louder and louder. She was calling me ‘a man’ as much as she could, and calling my colleague who is a trans man ‘a woman’ in front of a full store of customers and colleagues.”

I don’t care. Nobody cares. Give her her drink and shut up. Move on with your day.

Asked why she grabbed the customer’s partner’s phone, Spain said: “I wanted the video to be deleted. I didn’t want to be online and shamed like so many other trans people have been. When I didn’t get it, I grabbed the other customer by the bag and escorted her out of the store, then immediately closed the door – which unfortunately cracked the glass.”

Hahahahahaha how unfortunate – and nothing to do with how he closed the door of course.

Asked what is happening next with the incident, Spain told VICE News she has reported the female customer to the police. Spain said, “she very clearly committed a hate crime against me – and my colleague – just for being trans.”

Did she clap her hands in his face?

Oooooh I saw her talking to them about those yesterday ooooooooh somebody call the authorities ooooooooooh did you ever?

More Silence the Woman at Oxford:

More than 40 academics – including Prof Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist, and Prof Nigel Biggar, the theologian – have intervened in support of a planned appearance at the Oxford Union by Prof Kathleen Stock, a leading feminist, in a letter to The Telegraph.

In the biggest row to erupt at the university since Rhodes Must Fall, students have tried to cancel Prof Stock’s talk – claiming that she is transphobic for her view that it is fiction to claim “transwomen are women”.

It’s a funny thing that none of the other movements for justice or rights or equality or whatever you want to call them have been fiction-based. Workers’ movements were about workers, racial justice movements were about black and brown people, women’s movements were about women, lesbian and gay movements were about lesbians and gay men. Nobody was pretending. None of it was based on “You have to validate my fantasy about myself.”

The letter from the Oxford dons is one of the most significant interventions by academics in recent controversies over free speech on campus.

They say they possess “a range of different political beliefs, Left and Right”, but are united in their belief that “universities exist, among other things, to promote free inquiry and the disinterested pursuit of the truth by means of reasoned argument”.

The letter adds: “Professor Stock believes that biological sex in humans is real and socially salient, a view which until recently would have been so commonplace as to hardly merit asserting.”

They could have skipped the “hardly.” Until very recently everyone simply took it for granted that biological sex in humans is real and socially salient.