Mate …YOU have nothing to be ashamed of ! And so cool your daughter helping. And the others who stopped. I thank you. We ALL need to action this. And stop the plastic pollution. At its source !
This sounds potentially dodgy?
And then…theres this.
“On several occasions here at The Watch, we’ve noted that while police body cameras are an important step toward transparency and accountability in law enforcement, they’re only as good as the policies that govern their use.”
For others, the company’s drone announcement prior to a formal report by the board broke with practice, said member Ryan Calo, a University of Washington law professor.
“I’m not going to stay on an advisory board for a company that departs so far from expectation and protocol or, frankly, who believes ubiquitous surveillance coupled with remote non-lethal weapons is a viable response to school shootings,” he said.
Barry Friedman, the board chairman, resigned as well.
Haven't said much on the Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, largely because it has been impossible to work is going on in the Donbass attrition battles. The reason for that is that both sides are more or less completely silent on combat losses. That impacts any attempt to know what is happening because of what is known as the "Lanchester square law". Put simply, this attempts to predict the combat interaction between two sides in an attrition engagement. At it's most simple, it is the "snowball effect". For example, if one side has ten battleships and the other has seven then in a battle the result won't be the the side with ten ships wins with three remaining ships. Rather, the Lanchester law predicts that everything else being equal, the superior numbers of the winning side means they will lose three ships in destroying all ten of the enemy. Now, that doesn't mean at the beginning of the fight both sides give as good as they get. But of course, the three ship overlap means that four can engage one, then once successful the surviving four aid a friend and it becomes five engage one, etc etc in a snowball.
It seems to be becoming clearer that the Russian attacks in the Donbass have completely stalled. The front hasn't moved much for weeks. Reliable reports say the Russians have been pulling in troops from other sectors and is still getting nowhere. I have seen reports many Russian battalions are down to 10-15% of their infantry component and the LNR/Wagener forces have also been bled white. The Russians are throwing hastily formed actual Nazi ultra-nationalist units into the fight (with reports of wannabe Dirlewanger behaviour) and men in their fifties are being forcibly conscripted into the LNR. The Ukrainians revealed they are losing 1000-1500 men a day KIA, MIA, WIA and POW – 365,000 – 600,000 men per year which may sound a lot but the Ukraine has a population of 44 million people which is the same as the UK had in 1914 and has fully mobilised so manpower won't be a problem for at least 2-3 years (I did see a report in the Atlantic of a wounded Ukrainian volunteer who was sixty, perhaps speaking to their trained manpower issues).
What I think can be discerned from the fragmentary nature of the reports of both sides losses is the Ukraine has burned through it's pre-war army and has lost most of it's qualititive edge and both sides are now effectively militias reliant on artillery.
So I think that is the context we should put the offer of the British to train 2,500 men every month – it would restore a significant qualitative edge to the Ukrainian army, especially as this training would most likely happen safely in Poland.
Which brings us to the role of Poland. it has become vital to Ukraine war effort, quietly repairing damaged equipment and offering a safe haven for weapons and equipment depots, training etc as well as supplying the Ukrainians with huge amounts of ammunition and equipment. The longer the war goes on the more the likelihood of it escalating to include Poland and the Baltic states. How long will Russia tolerate Poland's role in arming and supporting the Ukraine before lashing out with missiles? And that leads us to Lithuanian's transit ban (effective yesterday) on Russian rail traffic to the Kalingrad Russian exclave. Fully 50% of all the requirements of the exclave come by rail. With the closing of airspace to Russia as well the Russians will now have to move everything by sea. Expect lot's of sabre rattling. Russia may attempt to establish an airbridge in defiance of the air ban, with the violation of NATO airspace offering a clear potential for serious escalation.
Thank you for this. Believe it or not I have some regard for your opinion, because while it is sometimes different from mine you do put real consideration and effort into forming it. Reality check so to speak.
Your assessment feels as accurate – and sobering. Given the fog of war there is not much to quibble with.
"Leftist coalition New Ecological and Social People's Union (NUPES), led by far-left figure Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is set to come in second place and is projected to win 30.34% of the votes, according to the interior ministry's partial results.
NUPES would then become the main opposition force in the country, but the coalition is expected to be divided on some issues once in parliament.
"It is a totally unexpected situation, absolutely unheard of," said Mélenchon shortly after partial results were released.
"The collapse of the presidential party is total, and no majority is presented. We have achieved the political objective that we had set ourselves, in less than a month, to bring down the one who, with such arrogance, had twisted the arm of the whole country, who had been elected without knowing what for," he said."
Great to see the broad left being able to cooperate to clear electoral effect.
That's hard enough at local government level here.
transphobia connects the entire fascist movement, it is its living tissue, and you have to defend trans people without caveat if you want to fight fascism in earnest
Not sure if that tweet has imbedded, so I will copy and paste some of the thread too (from Jewish granddaughter of holocaust victims who; concerned by the rise of fascism in the USA, literally wrote the book on Cultural Warlords):
transphobia connects the entire fascist movement, it is its living tissue, and you have to defend trans people without caveat if you want to fight fascism in earnest…
the idea that people could be happy outside the Procrustean bed of rigid roles stratified by gender, religion and race is a core threat to fascists and the rationale for their absolutely genocidal sentiment against trans people..
if you've ever wondered at the vehemence of transphobia it is because of this: trans people who are happy show the viability of a different future, and the worthlessness of the calcified norms whose obsessive upkeep is the spine of the right and far right…
also there is no historic inevitability in progress. the people who want to destroy the rights of lgbtq people and women & POC are winning. there's no sitting back, dismissing it and letting it float by. it's a devouring darkness fueled by zealotry. it demands an equal challenge.
While onsite with the Tauranga election and possibly related events, I have noticed that there has been a bit of recycling of US "grooming" talking points about people in drag reading to children. So this from last week came to mind:
Christina Pushaw, DeSantis’s press secretary, evidently well suited for her job because she never met a lie she couldn’t spread with shameless chutzpah. She’s the woman who re-popularized the lie that LGBTQ people “groom” children for sexual abuse, a tactic Americans thought died out with scaremongering orange juice spokesmodel Anita Bryant back in the 1970s…
LGBTQ Nation reporter John Russell emailed Pushaw and asked for comment on Gov. DeSantis’s call for CPS to investigate parents who take kids to family-friendly drag shows like in Dallas…
“Unfortunately for churnalists, people have eyes,” she tweeted publicly, with a copy of the LGBTQ Nation question on the left and a photo of a nearly naked woman on the right, with a little girl stuffing money into what looks like the woman’s gold lamé bikini bottom.
I don’t know about you, but if I saw that tweet, I’d presume it was a photo of the Dallas event, or at least a photo of a drag queen with a child.
But, no. Pushaw was lying. Baldly, knowingly, and for political gain. She manipulated a photo of a straight woman at a burlesque (strip) show and tweeted it out as if the woman were a drag queen.
Of course drag performers aren't necessarily trans, though there'd be some overlap in a Venn diagram of the two groups. However trans people and drag artists do generally support one another within the wider struggle for; LGBTQ+, and other human; rights – even if we might not understand, or even like, each other all that much. It's not like the fascists, or their useful idiots, are inclined to make such fine-grained distinctions anyway. We are all deviant chaff to be stripped away from the pure seed in their eyes.
Drag artists: Fighting fascists from the present day, back through the Stonewall uprising (the genesis of Pride month), through the Holocaust and opposition to Nazi Germany, and back, and back through time:
British Soldiers (interrupted during drag show rehearsals by a German raid) manning a BL 6-inch Mk VII naval gun at Shornemead Fort, England in 1940 pic.twitter.com/RWmUWVO5TW
I'm seeing gingham, puffed sleeves and flounces….not fishnet stockings, platform shoes and high cut sequinned bodysuits.
Believe it or not there is a difference.
. It shouldn't be necessary to state, yet again, that it is not appropriate to expose children to what is most definitely adult entertainment of a highly sexualised nature.
That is a ridiculously narrow view of what drag is and can be. It's a lot more diverse than that these days and ranges from vanilla pantomime stuff to stand up comedy to raunchy cabaret acts.
Sigh. "…these days…" That's a ridiculous stretch…drag equals pantomime. wtf?
Being up with the latest Pouluxe1…you will be aware that there is growing concern from some transgender people that pedophilia is becoming normalised too?
And drag equals paedophilia isn't an even bigger stretch? Well, if your expertise in any given area is second hand from agenda-driven YouTube videos the tone of paranoid delusion makes more sense.
Do you think it's just that there is a knee-jerk reaction to any concerns raised about children, Rosemary? (You know, when it comes from 'unkind' women)
You would think that raising concerns about:
Age appropriate sex education;
Requirement for clinical evidence before medical intervention that results in sterility and loss of sexual function;
Promotion of suicide and family estrangement for young people,
Exposure to inappropriate sexual entertainment;
etc…
– would mean that people would stop and think, and at the very least, let's make sure there is no issue here.
But, No.
It's both horrifying and fascinating to read the responses given.
You see, what I observe on your part is massive mission creep from a couple of quite reasonable gender critical concerns to a whole batsh*t raft of conspiracies, half-truths, cognitive bias, logical fallacies, and cherrypicked propaganda that it doesn't seem to occur to you has been largely manufactured in bad faith to be consumed by (I presume) well-meaning people like you to generate clicks for the sort of people who regard The Handmaid's Tale as aspirational. Paedos under every bed. Dildos being handed out at primary school. That sort of nonsense.
"You see, what I observe on your part is massive mission creep from a couple of quite reasonable gender critical concerns to a whole batsh*t raft of conspiracies, half-truths, cognitive bias, logical fallacies, and cherrypicked propaganda that it doesn't seem to occur to you has been largely manufactured in bad faith to be consumed by (I presume) well-meaning people like you to generate clicks for the sort of people who regard The Handmaid's Tale as aspirational. Paedos under every bed. Dildos being handed out at primary school. That sort of nonsense."
It's funny how some folks who are obsessed with what is (or was) in other people's pants (or what they do with them) ignore the obvious character of their philosophical bedfellows.
Oh, McFlock – resorting to the "obsessed with what is other people's pants" trope?
Women share one universal factor, the occupation of a female body. How that is experienced for an individual female, is predicated in terms of culture, race, and class. The reality is, not matter where women live, their biological sex will play a significant role in how they are expected to behave, and treated within their society. The oppression of women is inextricably linked to their material bodies, which includes the reproductive role whether they reproduce or not.
Single-sex spaces have value for women. Whether it is recognised or not, it is not justified to break those single-sex boundaries without considering the impact.
The language women use to describe themselves, also should not be appropriated, to accommodate the feelings of others.
And yet you really don't quite know what to do with all the women who think you're overreacting. And how exactly do we get from perfectly reasonable concerns like some of the more egregious silliness of inclusive language as applied to women's bodies, the right to association, and the issue of women's sports, to the ridiculous notion that a secret cabal of transgender illuminati are campaigning to be allowed to molest children and god knows what else?
Why would I have to do anything with other women, who hold a different view?
Once again, mostly burble, but I will answer this:
"…to the ridiculous notion that a secret cabal of transgender illuminati are campaigning to be allowed to molest children and god knows what else?"
When raising basic safeguarding concerns is conflated with this accusation, instead of reviewing actions, I consider it an attempt to shame people into not raising such concerns.
There are – unfortunately – within all demographics, including women – and minorities – including disabled – adults who are adept at bypassing safeguarding practices for children and identifying and abusing them when opportunities arise.
Some safeguarding practices are about identification of such individuals by basic checking procedures. Other safeguarding practices are about reducing opportunities, ie. not putting children in places where they are not protected or supervised by trusted adults. Safeguarding practices also include not familiarising children with adult sexual practices before it is age appropriate, or requiring them to participate in such, blurring the boundaries so that children cannot rely on their own unease, and are more easily manipulated.
You not agreeing with something, or not understanding something, or even completely getting the wrong end of the stick about something that is not in fact happening outside of your most surreal feverdream, does not, ipso facto, mean that these things are not under review, by people with considerably greater expertise than yourself, or indeed even exist.
Not being able or willing to respond to a criticism does not make it burble.
"…massive mission creep from a couple of quite reasonable gender critical concerns to a whole batsh*t raft of conspiracies, half-truths, cognitive bias, logical fallacies, and cherrypicked propaganda that it doesn't seem to occur to you has been largely manufactured in bad faith to be consumed by (I presume) well-meaning people like you to generate clicks for the sort of people who regard The Handmaid's Tale as aspirational. Paedos under every bed. Dildos being handed out at primary school. "
One wonders if the #MeToo movement made the slightest dent in your cocksure skepticism. Women are repeatedly saying their boundaries are under assault. Just because some other women prefer to turn a blind eye (an easier/safer option) does't make the problem (eg.eg.eg. …) go away. There is plenty of disgusting/ unbelievable stuff going on if you scratch the surface. Happy delusions are generally preferable.
Sure. Drag in #MeToo as well. Why not? Let's conflate multiple different issues into a single spurious conspiracy. The glare from your white armour is blinding.
What you haven't provided is an indication that you understand that your trope is neither true, nor relevant, but rather a tedious accusation with no merit.
OK. Person walks into a changing room. You think they shouldn't be there. What, to you, is the conclusive evidence that they shouldn't be in that room?
If single-sex spaces were recognised as single-sex spaces, then the onus is on the adult who uses them to use the one that relates to their sex.
That is a social contract, that is not often broken.
However, if we blur the sex category, then we also break the understanding of that existing social contract.
This means that some individuals will attribute to themselves the distinction of being outside of that contract. As that happens more and more, the consistency of single-sex spaces will diminish. For women, this means that some will be excluded from those spaces.
Women have for many years accommodated without concern, transsexual women in their single-sex spaces. This accommodation for most part, was due to the recognition of the level of distress that those individuals could only alleviate by GRS.
This compassionate accommodation, is now being used to justify a huge expansion of such accommodations in women's single-sex spaces, services, sports and support groups.
The majority of transwomen (85-93%) do not have GRS. So the accommodation of those transsexual women, is expected to now expand tenfold to include those with intact male genitalia. Self-id means that men do not even have to present in a different way to break the boundaries of single-sex spaces.
One of the reasons many women found it easier to accommodate transsexuals is the knowledge that most would have had a significant amount of time with therapists treating their distress, and GRS would have been a solution determined after much care.
It's deliberate that the term transsexual is not used anymore. If it is brought up in conversations current activists will refer to transsexuals using derogatory terms such as "truscum". A practice I find quite disrespectful, but that is by the by.
So, we cannot assume a clinical presentation of gender dsyphoria for the other 85 – 93% of transwomen that may wish to use the single-sex spaces of the opposite sex.
Once again, research on this topic (if you care to look) identifies differences in reasons for gender identities divided by biological sex.
Quite a few to do with men presenting as women, have a connection to sexual paraphilias, as well as/or instead of being purely an identification issue.
Some of the paraphilias include: voyeurism, exhibitionism, and autogynephilia.
This reality should not be ignored when discussing the impact on single-sex spaces.
Recognising it, should also not be conflating with accusing all transgender people of being predators. The exclusion of men from single sex spaces did not assume all men were predators, it was the result of a combination of risk assessment AND a recognition of the different needs of biological females.
As you can imagine, self-id, also has provided opportunities for non-transgender men to identify their way into single-sex spaces for women.
Misogynistic and predatory heterosexual men, will not pass the opportunity by, just because people want them not to.
I'm off to have dinner now. But there is more to this issue than "genital inspections". In fact, I have never heard a women referring to this, even in jest.
"If single-sex spaces were recognised as single-sex spaces, then the onus is on the adult who uses them to use the one that relates to their sex."
Right at the beginning. I included the rest as further considerations, in the hope that you may fully engage, and give some thought to wider perspectives.
But the question was about someone whom you think has not bothered with that onus.
A person walks into a changing room and you think they shouldn't be there.
How do you, or the establishment, or the police, challenge their presence if it's not about the contents of their pants rather than the nature of their character?
The number of incidents where this would be necessary, would be greatly reduced, if not eliminated by clear guidance around the protection of single-sex spaces.
Given the large majority of transwomen have had no GRS, and will be relying mostly on the feminisation effects of hormones only, most people will be able to distinguish their sex if they break such boundaries.
Women – like myself – who are not necessarily the most feminine of women may be challenged, but even I was, it doesn't bother me.
Photos are sometimes hard to judge, but most people indicate their sex IRL by look, movement, voice and other “non-genital” methods and signals.
I don’t understand why people pretend this is no longer true.
"This would be necessary"? What would be necessary? Because you still haven't actually said what you would regard as evidence that the person has indeed chosen the correct room.
Although you offer little in regards to perspective yourself, you are constantly demanding more and more. This is as always, a one-sided conversation, in terms of give and take.
Anyway,
"… but most people indicate their sex IRL by look, movement, voice and other “non-genital” methods and signals."
I'm off to play cards.
I don't believe you are taking the time to read the responses.
I do believe, you are trying to create a "gotcha" scenario, which ignores any other consideration in favour of your intention.
I read the waffle, and we both know it all comes down to the genital inspection (or certified paperwork thereof) of anyone who doesn't meet surface expectations of "sex".
That's not a gotcha. If you read the thread, it's legislation in some places.
… and so it continues. You ask how I would determine the sex of someone without using your suggested method of genital inspection.
I responded, and now that response is completely ignored, and the original assumption repeated.
Now the legal angle. I don't know what the legal impact in NZ is because the politicians and legislators that were asked to clarify this refused to answer. Instead they adopted a #NoDebate approach, and said there was no impact on women.
If that final statement is true, then women will legally retain their single-sex spaces, sports, support services, prison estates, accurate statistics to do with sex etc…
But I suspect, those politicians and legislators lied.
You may be happy about the result of that approach, and think that excuses it.
I think that approach is dishonest and disrespectful, and believe the result is harmful.
So if it works with "most", that's all fine then. And the women (trans or otherwise) who don't move in a feminine-enough manner by your estimation, well, who cares what happens to them.
I'd have a lot more respect for her if she just said "they have a penis on view", which is at least a position one could argue from.
I think it's perfectly understandable that a lot of women have good reason to not want to have to deal with that.
It's where it turns into an ideological hot mess of accusations and ideology that I bridle.
1/ Following my previous thread, outlining the basics of safeguarding, some responses spoke of the vulnerability of TiMs in men's single-sex spaces – and excused the breaking of single-sex spaces for females.
None provided any data regarding this assumed vulnerability.
… In terms of genital obsessions bollocks (- see what I did there? )
Interesting and familiar complaint "obsessing over genitals". How did we get here?
1. People have an awareness of their body. 2. This awareness includes individual experiences of their biological sex and what that means for them. 3. Most people are aware of societal ..
And lastly for now, but not in terms of the comprehensive list of the value of single-SEX spaces for women and girls:
1/ Designer Toilets
Many people when talking about single-sex spaces, put forward a design or accommodation that they have used that works, as a blueprint for a universal solution.
Nailing your bed fellows point with “Frankly, I think what a lot of people know is versions of the right’s talking points because they’re very loud. They’re very consistent, and they’re relentless.”
Well, she also provides absolutely no justification for ignoring the realities of biological sex differentials in performance.
Just inclusion.
Might be sufficient evidence for you, but not convincing to those who still recognise reality.
I can paste many more such links in this regard, from other sportswomen, but the follow similar patterns in terms of evidence and of understanding of the impacts for women in sports.
A contributor provided a long comment with a scattershot pattern of accusations that could be ignored, or addressed.
I addressed them, requiring a necessarily long comment with accompanying links. Not something I'd do usually, but appropriate here, given the random and diverse nature of the original comment.
You imply I should refrain from using links to support my contribution. Scroll on.
If I imply anything it's I absolutely disagree agree with your position, think your opinions are frequently ugly and that you post them so often you're basically stealing site oxygen.
I find you repeatedly offensive and gross. There is no debate to be had with you. For me it's them and us, and you've chosen them.
"One of the reasons many women found it easier to accommodate transsexuals is the knowledge that most would have had a significant amount of time with therapists treating their distress"
Can't pray away the gay but we can victimize transgender kids and psycho logic it out of them and fuck the consequences. Fuck you.
"I find you repeatedly offensive and gross. There is no debate to be has with you. For me it's them and us, and you've chosen them."
Regardless of how frustrated I get, I have not resorted to no debate, name calling, or tribalism. In fact, with the slightest encouragement I will respectfully engage. And I have spent a lot of time reading and researching, so I will offer comprehensive answers and try to put forward my perspective.
I don't even know who "them" is, but do know that the use of an othering term, provides many with permission to ignore, deride and abuse.
""One of the reasons many women found it easier to accommodate transsexuals is the knowledge that most would have had a significant amount of time with therapists treating their distress"
Can't pray away the gay but we can victimize transgender kids and psycho logic it out of them and fuck the consequences. Fuck you."
These two sentences do not relate. The conflation continues. As does the abuse, I see.
"I'm out until the site fixes itself."
If the site moderators ask me to desist, I will.
I understand the use of this site is a courtesy, and I have – and will continue – to abide by the site rules.
But until that happens, I will engage, as respectfully and with as much information on this topic as possible, mainly because it is one of the few NZ sites where this topic is allowed to be discussed.
There's no links because there's no debate to be had.
I think you're a nasty old cunt with an offensive position and I'm turning around, walking away, thinking you're a nasty old cunt with an offensive position and I’m happy I don’t have to read your bitter astroterfing anymore.
Ta TS, but do better.
[six month instant ban. Don’t call women cunts, and don’t use misogynistic slurs. Feminists have as much right to be on this site as anyone else. The site Policy says this,
We encourage robust debate and we’re tolerant of dissenting views. But this site run for reasonably rational debate between dissenting viewpoints and we intend to keep it operating that way.
What we’re not prepared to accept are pointless personal attacks, or tone or language that has the effect of excluding others. We are intolerant of people starting or continuing flamewars where there is little discussion or debate.
And you’ve been here long enough to know this.
I will protect trans people (or anyone) the same way (anyone can reply to any comment of mine to link me to problem comments).
Argue the politics, and if you can’t, stay away – weka]
Also calling bullshit on this. You treat the site like shit and then tell us what to do? If you want good things to happen here, then put the mahi in and add the kind of conversations you want. But all I can see is you willing to call women cunts when you don't like what they say and fuck the site or the politics.
This applies to anyone else using 'do better' about TS as well.
Funnily enough, interesting thread popped up in my twitter feed:
Cis people: I need you to understand (and help others understand) that “the trans debate” is NOT relevant “to only a small number of people” but to everyone. Thread below for why:
(This is focused on cis women, but cis dudes I need you to listen too. You are also in danger.)
I mean we’ve got multiple state governments super hyped to give kids internal and external genital exams because there might be one trans girl in Ohio playing softball. What’s the purpose of that beyond telling girls their bodies belong to the state?
That's a Twitter thread, McFlock, one similar to many I've seen, and have responded to online.
Easily addressed point by point, but for the moment, I'm reluctant to do so here, as it requires a lot of time and effort. Your exchanges in the past, have been light on good faith discussion, and really heavy on accusations of bigotry.
How much effort would you put in to answering this for someone who did that to you repeatedly?
Have you seen the tweets about the "transphobic" meeting of a dozen feminists in a pub that sparked riots from "trans rights activists" in Bristol. This is not your Mum's civil rights movement.
It's disgraceful misogyny, not even bothering to dress in drag anymore.
Thanks for the link McFlock, I did look at it on Monday night (am not the best at navigating Twitter myself).
Should have replied to this thread before, but mobile commenting on TS wasn't working for some reason and I have not had desktop time for the last couple of days. Probably better to save responses for future discussions now.
Megan Rapinoe's words may be 'passionate', but not particularly rational.
"So we need to start from inclusion, period."
We already do. Women's sports teams are for biological women. That is inclusive of all biological women. That we're even discussing this is a sign the world is going nuts.
Drag is "womanface". Blackface, brownface and yellowface – cultural appropriation based on offensive stereotypes are all un-acceptable – but womanface is lauded as entertainment.
Really? Because I'm pretty sure the vast majority of women don't dress like that on a regular basis and those that do are sufficiently comfortable in their femininity not to worry about it. Maybe just focus on your own performance of gender and let everyone else get on with theirs.
The idea of "gender" as something separate from biological sex is a novel use of the word, but fairly widely understood in the last couple of years. Until recently it was interchangeable with "sex" but a more politely descriptive term. The other use of the word "gender" was in reference to parts of speech, particularly in foreign languages where all sorts of objects have a seemingly randomly assigned gendered preposition (der, die, das).
Gender identity as separate from one's body is a descriptive term for dysphoria, which was (until recently) correctly viewed as a mental health issue, similar to anorexia, where one’s perceptions are not in congruence with reality. Affirming these cognitive errors is not compassionate or kind, it is throwing vulnerable people down a rabbit hole and giving them no way out. A terrible failure of gender medicine, and a gross injustice.
By having teens and children transition, we are not helping them. We take away their opportunity to overcome their suffering and truly accept themselves for how they were born. We set them up to be lifelong patients, for which they can't possibly consent.
I'm with rob on this. For most of my life the word gender was just a stuffy way of saying sex. Now it has been given a wholly new life of it's own – and like most new kids on the block is causing more grief than good.
It's been that way since the 1970s and there are certainly valid criticisms for some of it. It's the blanket panic, baseless accusations and the effortless jumping into bed with conservative right wing factions that are clearly no friend of women either that I object to.
John Money (NZ born) introduced the new definition of gender – as in gender identity in the late 60s/early 70s.. It doesn't mean this use was valid, standardised or universal.
His research supporting his theory was both flawed and abusive.
He's worth independently researching to get full story, but here's a link to something I'm currently reading that provides a summary – bottom of Pg 2: We Are All Hermaphrodites
It appears that Talia Lavin, like many, repeats an assumption of the gender critical movement that actually has nothing to do with what they articulate about sex, gender stereotypes and gender identity. Par for course.
What surprises me is that you think there is substance in the tweet itself.
Let's see what your reference shows:
1. Required purity and unchallengeable authority test. Which when you look at it, holds little value apart from background. Author of book on white supremacy, that is useful to know, determines whether she will focus on the whole, or concentrate on a part:
(from Jewish granddaughter of holocaust victims who; concerned by the rise of fascism in the USA, literally wrote the book on Cultural Warlords):
"transphobia connects the entire fascist movement, it is its living tissue, and you have to defend trans people without caveat if you want to fight fascism in earnest…"
2. Surmise, poetic analogy, a demand, and a declaration.
"the idea that people could be happy outside the Procrustean bed of rigid roles stratified by gender, religion and race is a core threat to fascists and the rationale for their absolutely genocidal sentiment against trans people.."
3. Theory, and conclusion (but no testing of theory or evidence).
if you've ever wondered at the vehemence of transphobia it is because of this: trans people who are happy show the viability of a different future, and the worthlessness of the calcified norms whose obsessive upkeep is the spine of the right and far right…
4. Hasn't actually defined transphobia. Also, hasn't described the 'different future', or the 'calcified norms' so hard to determine whether the right and far right are 'obsessively upkeeping' the norms and how they are doing so.
also there is no historic inevitability in progress. the people who want to destroy the rights of lgbtq people and women & POC are winning. there's no sitting back, dismissing it and letting it float by. it's a devouring darkness fueled by zealotry. it demands an equal challenge.
5. Apart from the fact "historic inevitability" is a bit of a contradiction, when did the thread move on to include the LGBQ, women and people of colour? (and I hate to point this out but surely these groups are intersected in real life, and separate in terms of political advocacy, goals and agency?).
Once again, how are rights of all these groups being 'destroyed'? What is meant by sitting back, dismissing it and letting it float by – there is no idea what actions she is criticising. Once more with the poetic turn of phrase, which I myself am fond of, but link to a concrete idea or evidence. Then the final sentence – which reads like pre-emptive justification for any behaviour.
Now, before I make further comment, I will address the rise of the right-wing rhetoric on this issue. I'm not right-wing, or far right, but I acknowledge there is significant pushback against minority rights from that sector. That has to be addressed, and dealt with, but to conflate all minorities as one amorphous group denies them the means and voices to represent those groups.
In the same way, conflating any concerns as right-wing rhetoric is poor justification for #NoDebate.
Many woman (gender critical or not), gays, lesbians, transgender people have included their concern for the impact of gender ideology on the wider transgender community. Demanding people ignore the facts of biological reality, the impact of legislative change, the medicalisation and indoctrination of children etc.. will lead to pushback not only from the right, but also across the political spectrum – and this should be recognised.
Many who have declared support for transwomen, while raising concerns are denied both their language, and their agency by such rhetoric as above.
…But, no. Pushaw was lying. Baldly, knowingly, and for political gain. She manipulated a photo of a straight woman at a burlesque (strip) show and tweeted it out as if the woman were a drag queen.
These are two different issues – can't you see?
It doesn't matter here if the women was trans-identified or straight, it was still inappropriate to have a child present, let alone participating.
Of course drag performers aren't necessarily trans, though there'd be some overlap in a Venn diagram of the two groups. However trans people and drag artists do generally support one another within the wider struggle for; LGBTQ+, and other human; rights – even if we might not understand, or even like, each other all that much. It's not like the fascists, or their useful idiots, are inclined to make such fine-grained distinctions anyway. We are all deviant chaff to be stripped away from the pure seed in their eyes.
Just a lot of nothing specific.
People do lie online, and post contrived messaging, misinterpretations and false accusations, which is why I will always link to source, or avoid posting if I have any concerns about validity. I note many others on TS do this as standard practice. So, your example does not surprise, and I do not support such tactics at all.
However, that does not mean that I have not seen a multitude of videos showing inappropriate drag queen entertainment while children are present. I just haven't posted them.
Here are a couple from just the last week, which seem legitimate.
(I want to reiterate, it is not related to the sexual orientation or the gender identity of those performing. It is the degree of nudity, and sexual nature of the adult entertainment that makes it inappropriate to have children present):
A ‘Pride in the Park’ Festival dancer's genitals were reportedly exposed on the main stage with children viewing the ‘dance’…
Without forgetting that the same de-platforming is happening here, with women's rights groups, and currently with a therapists convention discussing the treatment of minors identifying as transgender.
Time for direct action. Please email Alexander Siebentritt, the GM of Rutherford Hotel Nelson, on [email protected] with your very best and most cogent reasons why they should not hold an anti-trans conference on the 5th August. Feel free to DM me for ideas. https://t.co/PAgP2qzCde
Shaneel Lee – unlikely to disappoint in this regard – has also started a petition. I particularly like the first response to this tweet and Shaneel's response:
The Children and Adolescent Therapists Association is holding an anti-trans conference on the 5th of August at the Rutherford Hotel in Nelson. Sign the petition to cancel it. https://t.co/SEuiMqHVjb
— Shaneel Lal 🧚🏻 (They/Them) (@shaneellall) June 8, 2022
At least the petition can advise what the conference is about, what the concerns are, whether they offer an alternative. Or just accept that this is mostly slurs, waffle, threats and demands. So far, 6,796 have signed without needing to know those details.
"The Children and Adolescent Therapists Association is holding a conference on the 5th of August at the Rutherford Hotel in Nelson, New Zealand. This event is geared towards demonizing trans people and further alienating children from their parents. It includes speakers from Speak Up for Women, a notedly transphobic organization that has previously been protested in Nelson. The Rutherford Hotel is a classic local venue that is beloved by many Nelsonians. It is a massive letdown to the community for the Rutherford to be supporting and hosting the blatant transphobia of CATA. We call upon the Rutherford Hotel to withdraw from their arrangement with CATA and no longer allow them to host their event. "
But let's finish off with a demonstration of the progressive left on the weekend in action in the UK, a familiar and apparently (unavoidable) presence at gatherings for women:
— ♀️🦖The Women Coventry💚🤍💜 (@thewomencov) June 19, 2022
Feel free to find and post any demonstration of women's rights groups attending a meeting or workshop arranged by another minority, so we can see and compare.
Oh yes the Conference that the trans activists are trying to shut down. Enclosed is a link from the sub committee on the Conversion Therapy Bill . click on it and scroll down. There you will find the key not speaker for the conference making a submission on the Bill. This is Stella O'Malley, an International author and psychotherapists. This delightful women who works with de-transistioners and was. gender non conforming (with gender dysphoria) as a child, has the sub committee listening to her very valid points. That includes Louisa Wall.
This is the health professional the trans activists want to cancel. If you have signed the petition against the conference at least have the decency to listen to the key note speaker who you are wanting to cancel
Them/they Lal also abused Niccole Duval for not being the "right kind of Trans". Niccole was one of the original entertainers at Carmen's and worked with various other revues etc and was part of Alfie's night club in Auckland.
Do you mean that you have to go along with the phrase trans women are women, if not your transphobic?
Do you mean you have to accept the statement that women can have penises, otherwise you are transphobie?
Do you mean if you are a lesbian that you have to date and have sex with trans women (who are in fact male bodied) else you are transphobic?
Because if these are the definitions of transphobia and according to Talia you have to defend without caveat trans people from transphobia, then what she is requesting is that you have to suspend biological reality i.e science in order not to be a facist.
BTW the requiring of one set of views about transgenderism and shutting down debate ("no debate") is one of the few experiences of a fascist like mentality I have experienced in my life time. Shutting down SUFWs meetings and advertising is just the political censorship that authoritarian regimes require.
As for transgender people being happy. Well I hope they are and I wish them well.
We do not that to date there are 35,000 detransitioners on Redit and climbing. These are young people with irreversible damage to their bodies that they regret. But the ideological purist movement that is gender ideology, doesn't want to acknowledge or hear about them
There have always been people who cross-dressed – mostly for very good reasons. When sex between men was likely to get you the cell, the scaffold, or the stake – being able to pass as a woman was lifesaving. Women took on male identities to do things that women were not allowed to do, like join the military, go to university, marry other women. Even something as simple as the ability to travel in relative safety.
In more recent times when sex between men was still unlawful, some gay men internalised their homophobia and risked their lives to have "sex change" surgery and have spent the rest of their lives on artificial hormones.
What we have now is something completely different. Most of those reasons are gone in Western society.
There are some people with genuine bodily dysphoria who are unhappy in their sexed bodies, but the loudest voices these days in the Trans "Rights" movement are those of the autogynephiliacs. These are men who are sexually aroused by the thought of themselves as women. Most have little or no surgery and retain their male genitalia. They are engaged in a constant search for more and more validation that they are a woman. There is nothing that women do that they will not require to be part of, and will require to centre them. Everything from Rape Crisis services to knitting groups.
And we now have the new religion of Gender Ideology. This says that you have a gendered "soul" which over rides biological reality. It requires other people to constantly express their belief in your gendered soul and to educate their children in its existence. It requires the medical system to change its language "pregnant people" for example to ensure that gendered souls take precedence.
10 years ago – practically none of this was happening. Now it is everywhere.
Just been to the chemist for a routine prescription refill.
No stock over the weekend. No stock today (anywhere in NZ, apparently). No idea on when there will be stock.
They offered me a 'replacement' at triple strength – no idea how I'd safely determine the dosage….
Have an urgent call in to my GP to discuss what we can do in the interim (going cold turkey off medication is usually contra-indicated!)
Chemist is blaming Covid disrupted shipping (which we're experiencing in my work-life). But it's a bit different waiting an extra week or two for an overseas parcel (or cancelling the order, if shipping proves impossible); to a whole country running out of a fairly commonly used prescription-only medicine.
Again my daughter the courier driver has been mentioning this kind of disruption for several months now. It's across many sectors at a subcritical level.
When dreamy old Hippies/Greenies imagine a deindustrialised world this is what you get.
So, presumably air freight (unless you've got some form of teleportation).
Which still works, though the prices are massively through the roof, and you pay a further premium to get on one of the few planes actually coming to NZ.
However, shipping (which is the bulk of the transport, internationally) is still massively disrupted, and our procurement staff are telling us that it's not going to improve in the next 18 months.
We’re seeing booked shipping routes being cancelled: when the NZ leg was so delayed, by loading issues ‘upstream’ that it was a better solution to just cancel the NZ leg, and go straight to the next one. We’ve had cargo off-loaded in Singapore, waiting for the next scheduled ship to have space (good luck with that). And NZ shippers are also missing their export windows.
Bloody hell, Belladonna. Do you have much left of your current prescription?
Due to coating on tablets – if that is what you take – cutting or dividing is ill-advised as well, as you interfere with the assumed absorption rate.
Not that I am advising this, but I did notice that women unable to get the HRT because of the UK, were posting and sharing solutions online. You are unlikely to be the only one in this position.
Pharmaceutical manufacturing is one of the industries we need here in NZ for resilience purposes.
The pharmacist was massively apologetic (and I didn't blast him for something that's clearly completely outside his control).
And said that I was the 20th person that he'd had to have this conversation with over the last couple of days (not all over the same prescription)
Have an emergency appointment with my GP tomorrow to discuss alternatives.
And am right down to the dregs on the current prescription – since it's so routine, I never thought about building in a fortnight buffer (my bad, I'll know better next time).
Owning my privilege here. I can afford an emergency GP consult. I can afford an off-prescription alternative (if that's the best solution). I can even afford to take a fortnight's sick leave (if I need to – though that wouldn't be my preferred option – nor would my boss be over the moon). I can afford to take Ubers, if I can't drive (though, again, not my preferred alternative).
Thinking about the people who can't and for whom this would be a disaster.
Supply chains just need to be a heck of a lot more robust in this Covid world. And 'just in time' needs to change to 'just in case'
"Supply chains just need to be a heck of a lot more robust in this Covid world. And 'just in time' needs to change to 'just in case'"
The supply chain issue is a big one. Part of the solution needs to be identifying where we can manufacture or produce high-priority items domestically.
IIRC, we manufactured drugs here in the past. Not sure if we do now. Someone else might have a better recall. (I seem to remember Smith, Kline and French manufacturing in Pah Road in the '80s but maybe they were just distributors.)
Oh yes the Conference that the trans activists are trying to shut down. Enclosed is a link from the sub committee on the Conversion Therapy Bill . click on it and scroll down. There you will find the key not speaker for the conference making a submission on the Bill. This is Stella O'Malley, an International author and psychotherapist. This delightful women who works with de-transistioners and was. gender non conforming (with gender dysphoria) as a child, has the sub committee her very valtaking note of her very valid points. That includes Louisa Wall.
This is the health professional the trans activists want to cancel. If you have signed the petition against the conference at least have the decency to listen to the key note speaker who you are wanting to cancel
Some interesting debate here. You have to give it to Western society: we have been so successful we can navel gaze to our hearts content. Unlike people in the Ukraine and Africa.
I would like to send these twats there to show them that ''feeling safe'' is not an option…and bullets don't discriminate against any gender.
When everything has been deconstructed by postmodern lies, the kids lose the ability to understand what truth even is. Everything is a made up narrative in their heads. They don't absorb education, they just pass mediocre tests.
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Rays of white light come flooding into my lounge, into my face from over the top of my neighbour’s hedge. I have to look away as the window of the conservatory is awash in light, as if you were driving towards the sun after a rain shower and suddenly blinded. ...
The columnists in Private Eye take pen names, so I have not the least idea who any of them are. But I greatly appreciate their expert insight, especially MD, who writes the medical column, offering informed and often damning critique of the UK health system and the politicians who keep ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Mar 12, 2023 thru Sat, Mar 18, 2023. Story of the Week Guest post: What 13,500 citations reveal about the IPCC’s climate science report IPCC WG1 AR6 SPM Report Cover - Changing ...
Buzz from the Beehive The building of financial capability was brought into our considerations when Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced she had dipped into the government’s coffers for $3 million for “providers” to help people and families access community-based Building Financial Capability services. That wording suggests some ...
Do you ever come across something that makes you go Hmmmm?You mean like the song?No, I wasn’t thinking of the song, but I am now - thanks for that. I was thinking of things you read or hear that make you stop and go Hmmmm.Yeah, I know what you mean, ...
By the end of the week, the dramas over Stuart Nash overshadowed Hipkins’ policy bonfire. File photo: Lynn GrieveasonTLDR: This week’s news in geopolitics and the political economy covered on The Kākā included:PM Chris Hipkins’ announcement of the rest of a policy bonfire to save a combined $1.7 billion, but ...
In response to Newshub and Amelia Wade’s obvious and ham-fisted attempt at a typical and predicted political hit job. As any politically aware reporter would know, any Cabinet subcommittee has a duty and obligation as a part of any government to respond to any UN declaration, in this case ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for the invitation to speak with you today and in your busy lives turning up to this meeting. Forty five years ago, in Howick, often described as racist, and where few Maori lived because it had been a ‘Fencible’ settlement at the time of the Anglo-Maori ...
The Green Party has marked the National Party’s new education policy and given it a fail, especially for its failure to address the underlying drivers of school performance. ...
You will never truly understand, from the pictures you’ve seen in the newspapers or on the six o-clock news, the sheer scale of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised in their State of the Planet speech today. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party after the election must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised today. ...
We’re boosting incomes and helping ease cost of living pressures on Kiwis through a range of bread and butter support measures that will see pensioners, students, families, and those on main benefits better off from the start of next month. ...
The error Labour Ministers made by stopping work on a beverage container return scheme will be reversed by the Greens at the earliest opportunity as part of the next Government. ...
“Cabinet needs to do better - and today has shown exactly why we need Green Ministers in cabinet, so we can prioritise action to cut climate pollution and support people to make ends meet,” says Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson. ...
Biggest increase in food prices for over three decades shows the need for an excess profit tax on corporations to help people put food on the table. ...
The Green Party has today launched a submission guide to help Aucklanders give crucial input and prevent potentially disastrous Auckland Council budget proposals. ...
With calls growing for inquiries and action on bank profits, the Greens say the Government has all the information it needs to act now and put a levy on banks. ...
As large parts of Aotearoa recover from two of the worst climate disasters we have ever experienced, it would be a huge mistake for the Government to deprioritise climate action from future transport investments, the Green Party says. ...
Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Andrew Little has delivered the Crown apology to Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua for its historic breaches of Te Tiriti of Waitangi today. The ceremony was held at Queen Elizabeth Park in Masterton, hosted by Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua, with several hundred ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta has concluded her visit to China, the first by a New Zealand Foreign Minister since 2018. The Minister met her counterpart, newly appointed State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Qin Gang, who also hosted a working dinner. This was the first engagement between the two ...
World-class satellite positioning services that will support much safer search and rescue, boost precision farming, and help safety on construction sites through greater accuracy are a significant step closer today, says Land Information Minister Damien O’Connor. Damien O’Connor marked the start of construction on New Zealand’s first uplink centre for ...
Attorney-General David Parker has announced the appointment of Christopher John Dellabarca of Wellington, Dr Katie Jane Elkin of Wellington, Caroline Mary Hickman of Napier, Ngaroma Tahana of Rotorua, Tania Rose Williams Blyth of Hamilton and Nicola Jan Wills of Wellington as District Court Judges. Chris Dellabarca Mr Dellabarca commenced his ...
A new Government-backed project will help ocean-related businesses in the Nelson Tasman region to accelerate their growth and boost jobs. “The Nelson Tasman region is home to more than 400 blue economy businesses, accounting for more than 30 percent of New Zealand’s economic activity in fishing, aquaculture, and seafood processing,” ...
After three years of COVID-19 disruptions schools are finally settling down and National want to throw that all in the air with major disruption to learning and underinvestment. “National’s education policy lacks the very thing teachers, parents and students need after a tough couple of years, certainty and stability,” Education ...
People aged over 50 with innovative business ideas will now be able to receive support to advance their ideas to the next stage of development, Minister for Seniors Ginny Andersen said today. “Seniors have some great entrepreneurial ideas, and this programme will give them the support to take that next ...
A cross government target for relevant government procurement contracts for goods and services to be awarded to Māori businesses annually will increase to 8%, after the initial 5% target was exceeded. The progressive procurement policy was introduced in 2020 to increase supplier diversity, starting with Māori businesses, for the estimated ...
77,000 fewer children living in low income households on the after-housing-costs primary measure since Labour took office Eight of the nine child poverty measures have seen a statistically significant reduction since 2018. All nine have reduced 28,700 fewer children experiencing material hardship since 2018 Measures taken by the Government during ...
Deputy Prime Minister Kamikamica; distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Tēnā koutou katoa, ni sa bula vinaka saka, namaste. Deputy Prime Minister, a very warm welcome to Aotearoa. I trust you have been enjoying your time here and thank you for joining us here today. To all delegates who have travelled to be ...
$2.9 million convertible loan for Scapegrace Distillery to meet growing national and international demand $4.5m underwrite to support Silverlight Studios’ project to establish a film studio in Wanaka Gore’s James Cumming Community Centre and Library to be official opened tomorrow with support of $3m from the COVID-19 Response and Recovery ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood has today launched the first national EV (electric vehicle) charging strategy, Charging Our Future, which includes plans to provide EV charging stations in almost every town in New Zealand. “Our vision is for Aotearoa New Zealand to have world-class EV charging infrastructure that is accessible, affordable, ...
Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment Priyanca Radhakrishnan has today launched the Love Better campaign in a world-leading approach to family harm prevention. Love Better will initially support young people through their experience of break-ups, developing positive and life-long attitudes to dealing with hurt. “Over 1,200 young kiwis told ...
Hon Rino Tirikatene, Minister for Courts, welcomes the Ministry of Justice’s appointment of Dr Garry Clearwater as New Zealand’s first Chief Clinical Advisor working with the Coroners Court. “This appointment is significant for the Coroners Court and New Zealand’s wider coronial system.” Minister Tirikatene said. Through Budget 2022, the Government ...
The Government via the Cyclone Taskforce is working with local government and insurance companies to build a picture of high-risk areas following Cyclone Gabrielle and January floods. “The Taskforce, led by Sir Brian Roche, has been working with insurance companies to undertake an assessment of high-risk areas so we can ...
E te huia kaimanawa, ko Ngāpuhi e whakahari ana i tau aupikinga ki te tihi o te maunga. Ko te Ao Māori hoki e whakanui ana i a koe te whakaihu waka o te reo Māori i roto i te Ao Ture. (To the prized treasure, it is Ngāpuhi who ...
113,400 exits into work in the year to June 2022 Young people are moving off Benefit faster than after the Global Financial Crisis Two reports released today by the Ministry of Social Development show the Government’s investment in the COVID-19 response helped drive record numbers of people off Benefits and ...
The Government’s priority to keep New Zealand at the cutting edge of food production and lift our sustainability credentials continues by backing the next steps of a hi-tech vertical farming venture that uses up to 95 per cent less water, is climate resilient, and pesticide-free. Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visited ...
E nga mana, e nga iwi, e nga reo, e nga hau e wha, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou kātoa. Warm Pacific greetings to all. It is an honour to host the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers here in Tāmaki Makaurau. Aotearoa is delighted to be hosting you ...
The new renal unit at Taranaki Base Hospital has been officially opened by the Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall this afternoon. Te Huhi Raupō received around $13 million in government funding as part of Project Maunga Stage 2, the redevelopment of the Taranaki Base Hospital campus. “It’s an honour ...
Defence Minister Andrew Little has marked the arrival of the country’s second P-8A Poseidon aircraft alongside personnel at the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s Base at Ohakea today. “With two of the four P-8A Poseidons now on home soil this marks another significant milestone in the Government’s historic investment in ...
Aotearoa New Zealand will provide further humanitarian support to those seriously affected by last month’s deadly earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, says Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta. “The 6 February earthquakes have had devastating consequences, with almost 18 million people affected. More than 53,000 people have died and tens of thousands more ...
Migrant communities across New Zealand are represented in the new Migrant Community Reference Group that will help shape immigration policy going forward, Immigration Minister Michael Wood announced today. “Since becoming Minister, a reoccurring message I have heard from migrants is the feeling their voice has often been missing around policy ...
Construction has begun on major works that will deliver significant safety improvements on State Highway 3 from Waitara to Bell Block, Associate Minister of Transport Kiri Allan announced today. “This is an important route for communities, freight and visitors to Taranaki but too many people have lost their lives or ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has today appointed Ginny Andersen as Minister of Police. “Ginny Andersen has a strong and relevant background in this important portfolio,” Chris Hipkins said. “Ginny Andersen worked for the Police as a non-sworn staff member for around 10 years and has more recently been chair of ...
Six further bailey bridge sites confirmed Four additional bridge sites under consideration 91 per cent of damaged state highways reopened Recovery Dashboards for impacted regions released The Government has responded quickly to restore lifeline routes after Cyclone Gabrielle and can today confirm that an additional six bailey bridges will ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta departs for China tomorrow, where she will meet with her counterpart, State Councillor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang, in Beijing. This will be the first visit by a New Zealand Minister to China since 2019, and follows the easing of COVID-19 travel restrictions between New Zealand and China. ...
Education Ministers from across the Pacific will gather in Tāmaki Makaurau this week to share their collective knowledge and strategic vision, for the benefit of ākonga across the region. New Zealand Education Minister Jan Tinetti will host the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers (CPEM) for three days from today, ...
A vital transport link for communities and local businesses has been restored following Cyclone Gabrielle with the reopening of State Highway 5 (SH5) between Napier and Taupō, Associate Minister of Transport Kiri Allan says. SH5 reopened to all traffic between 7am and 7pm from today, with closure points at SH2 (Kaimata ...
Internal Affairs Minister Barbara Edmonds has thanked generous New Zealanders who took part in the special Lotto draw for communities affected by Cyclone Gabrielle. Held on Saturday night, the draw raised $11.7 million with half of all ticket sales going towards recovery efforts. “In a time of need, New Zealanders ...
The Government has announced funding of $3 million for providers to help people, and whānau access community-based Building Financial Capability services. “Demand for Financial Capability Services is growing as people face cost of living pressures. Those pressures are increasing further in areas affected by flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle,” Minister for ...
Minister of Education, Hon Jan Tinetti, has announced appointments to the Board of Education New Zealand | Manapou ki te Ao. Tracey Bridges is joining the Board as the new Chair and Dr Therese Arseneau will be a new member. Current members Dr Linda Sissons CNZM and Daniel Wilson have ...
Fifteen ākonga Māori from across Aotearoa have been awarded the prestigious Ngarimu VC and 28th (Māori) Battalion Memorial Scholarships and Awards for 2023, Associate Education Minister and Ngarimu Board Chair, Kelvin Davis announced today. The recipients include doctoral, masters’ and undergraduate students. Three vocational training students and five wharekura students, ...
High Court Judge Jillian Maree Mallon has been appointed a Judge of the Court of Appeal, and District Court Judge Andrew John Becroft QSO has been appointed a Judge of the High Court, Attorney‑General David Parker announced today. Justice Mallon graduated from Otago University in 1988 with an LLB (Hons), and with ...
The economy has continued to show its resilience despite today’s GDP figures showing a modest decline in the December quarter, leaving the Government well positioned to help New Zealanders face cost of living pressures in a challenging global environment. “The economy had grown strongly in the two quarters before this ...
Aucklanders now have more ways to get around as Transport Minister Michael Wood opened the direct State Highway 1 (SH1) to State Highway 18 (SH18) underpass today, marking the completion of the 48-kilometre Western Ring Route (WRR). “The Government is upgrading New Zealand’s transport system to make it safer, more ...
This section contains briefings received by incoming ministers following changes to Cabinet in January. Some information may have been withheld in accordance with the Official Information Act 1982. Where information has been withheld that is indicated within the document. ...
Aotearoa New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta reaffirmed her commitment to working together with the new Government of Fiji on issues of shared importance, including on the prioritisation of climate change and sustainability, at a meeting today, in Nadi. Fiji and Aotearoa New Zealand’s close relationship is underpinned by the Duavata ...
The Government is delivering a coastal shipping lifeline for businesses, residents and the primary sector in the cyclone-stricken regions of Hawkes Bay and Tairāwhiti, Regional Development Minister Kiri Allan announced today. The Rangitata vessel has been chartered for an emergency coastal shipping route between Gisborne and Napier, with potential for ...
The Government will progress to the next stage of the NZ Battery Project, looking at the viability of pumped hydro as well as an alternative, multi-technology approach as part of the Government’s long term-plan to build a resilient, affordable, secure and decarbonised energy system in New Zealand, Energy and Resources ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff (right) is now the only non-Labor leader at federal or state level.Mick Tsikas/AAP When Dominic Perrottet gave a gracious concession speech after ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Dean Lewins/AAPThis article was updated March 26. With 36% of enrolled voters counted in today’s New South Wales ...
Coated in two spices and ready in five minutes. Easy as.I first heard of marsala chicken when I moved to New Zealand as a 15-year-old. The dish confused me as it didn’t have any spices in it except for garlic. In my head I had confused it with the ...
Author Marty Smith writes from her home, the flood-damaged region of Hawke’s Bay, excavating the extraordinary facets of life amid a disaster.Wednesday 22 February 22, eight days after the flood.It’s easy to drive down Puketitiri Rd: diggers cleared silt and slips on the second day. Looters slide at ...
My trainer said she was happier than she’d ever been. I wanted that.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Illustrations by Note: This essay discusses and describes disordered eating. Please take care.Just 10 burpees to go.I threw myself against the carpet. ...
Bard Billot on the bumbling BaronRace for the Polls Baron Luxon speeds across the polar wastes aboard his electric blue jet sled “Titanic.” The sky is cloudless and the way is clear and the Baron is well in the lead. In his toasty warm fine mink cossack hat ...
Māori women are the backbone of the Warriors and always have been, writes Briar Pomana.Since before I can remember, my mum has been a Warriors fan. Her and other wāhine Māori I know are some of the staunchest supporters out and, in my opinion, are the true face of ...
Reports have described the protest held at Albert Park on Saturday as angry, chaotic and ugly. This attendee found it to be joyful, life-affirming and full of love.Climbing the stairs up to Saturday’s counter-rally where anti-trans activist Posie Parker was meant to speak, my husband and I were hit ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Dean Lewins/AAP With 36% of enrolled voters counted in today’s New South Wales state election, the Poll Bludger’s results currently ...
A former entertainment mecca in the middle of Auckland is up for grabs. The problem? It’s been run into the ground. Have you got spare cash sitting around? Do you want to buy something grand, something special? How does a nine-storey complex covering 3,486 square metres in the middle of ...
Posey Parker appeared in Auckland today for a brief few moments, but it was clear that she was going to have a hard time being heard above thousands of people exercising their own right to free speech The streets of Auckland’s city centre were thick today with the noise of tubas, ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson was knocked to the ground by a motorcyclist who appeared to fail to stop at a pedestrian crossing after today's counter-protest against Posie Parker. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson was struck by a passing motorcycle this morning as she protested Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s rally event at Albert Park. Davidson was standing on Princes St holding a sign reading “trans solidarity” when a band of motorcyclists, there in support of Brian and Hannah Tamaki’s Vision NZ, ...
By Krishneel Nair in Suva“The most important thing from my perspective is a strategic partnership — a partnership where the media should not be seen as the enemy or a nuisance.” This was the view of the Communications Fiji Ltd news director and Fijian Media Association executive Vijay Narayan ...
The noise began long before Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (AKA Posie Parker) arrived. Despite an 11am scheduled start time to her planned rally to “speak for women”, the Albert Park rotunda was surrounded by 10.30. But the crowd was not there to see or hear her. A truck parked at the entrance ...
Chris Schulz on the nearly three-hours of joy Keanu Reeves’ latest non-stop orgy of violence brings. This is an excerpt from our pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up to have it delivered to your inbox every Friday here. Keanu Reeves has annihilated the place. In what appears to be ...
Teacher unions have criticised National's curriculum plan, but the party was targeting concerned parents and his political opponent, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins. ...
Don’t underestimate the significance of TVNZ’s new documentary series about Kai Kara-France, a fighter acclaimed on the world stage but still criminally underrated at home, writes Don Rowe. In 2015, when I first profiled Kai Kara-France for the now-defunct Mana magazine, he told me he’d never wanted to sign with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Justin Lloyd/AAP The New South Wales state election is today. Polls close at 6pm AEDT. Votes cast on election day ...
If current trends continue, by 2053 half of retirement-age New Zealanders will be renters. Right now, options for over-65s who don’t own their own home are limited.This story was first published on Stuff. What’s life like when you reach retirement age, but don’t own a home of your own? Most ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Feigin, Postdoctoral Fellow in Genomics and Evolution, The University of Melbourne Anom Harya/ShutterstockShoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land on the next tree. Many groups of mammals seem to have taken this evolutionary advice to ...
When a big corporate is alarmed about possible law changes, it asks its well-connected lobbyist to intervene. A text message exchange between a Cabinet Minister and his lobbyist "mate" follows. ...
"He imagines the rattling windows of his bach": a sad seaside saga by Majella Cullinane Màiri watches him as he walks down the hill next to her house. The man appears gradually – first his head covered in a tweed cap and earphones, then the unkempt hair and beard, ...
"He imagines the rattling windows of his bach": a sad seaside saga by Majella Cullinane Màiri watches him as he walks down the hill next to her house. The man appears gradually – first his head covered in a tweed cap and earphones, then the unkempt hair and beard, ...
Every weekday, The Detail makes sense of the big news stories. This week, we looked at how our top authors make a living writing books, the sky-high fares coming from independent taxi drivers, how the people of Muriwai are putting their lives back together post-Cyclone Gabrielle, why a Levin chocolate maker is ...
Every weekday, The Detail makes sense of the big news stories. This week, we looked at how our top authors make a living writing books, the sky-high fares coming from independent taxi drivers, how the people of Muriwai are putting their lives back together post-Cyclone Gabrielle, why a Levin chocolate maker is ...
The popularity of stories about unhappy rich people says more about our need to view them that way than it does about how they experience their livesOpinion:Succession is returning to Aotearoa’s television screens. It joins other portrayals of the emotional traumas that come from having far, far too ...
The popularity of stories about unhappy rich people says more about our need to view them that way than it does about how they experience their livesOpinion:Succession is returning to Aotearoa’s television screens. It joins other portrayals of the emotional traumas that come from having far, far too ...
This is The Detail's Long Read - one in-depth story read by us every weekend This week, it's What's Up With ADHD?, written by Mirjam Guesgen and published in North & South's April 2023 issue. You can find the full article, with illustrations by Rachel Salazar, in this month’s issue of North & South. Once a condition ...
This is The Detail's Long Read - one in-depth story read by us every weekend This week, it's What's Up With ADHD?, written by Mirjam Guesgen and published in North & South's April 2023 issue. You can find the full article, with illustrations by Rachel Salazar, in this month’s issue of North & South. Once a condition ...
Not content with transforming KiwiSaver, Simplicity is now planning to out-build Kāinga Ora. Duncan Greive meets a pair of of unlikely revolutionaries trying to fix housing – a task which seems impossible, even for the state itself.In September of 2020, a builder named Shane Brealey sat down and typed ...
The Auckland Writers Festival has just launched its 23rd programme, the first since Covid to include its signature line-up of visiting international writers. With 160 events to choose from, here’s books editor Claire Mabey’s top 10 to help you navigate your way through the lit fest universe.Straight Up: Ruby ...
Taking her her young family around the world as she rows is a key factor in Emma Twigg's decision to defend her Olympic single sculls title at next year's Paris Olympics. And, Andy Hay writes, the next Emma Twigg could be waiting in the wings at the Maadi Cup next week. ...
The Fijian Drua will need to start and finish well, while Moana Pasifika’s coach wants to see a full 80-minute performance this weekend as the two regional teams continue their Super Rugby Pacific campaigns. The Drua tackle the Highlanders in Dunedin today and Pasifika face the Hurricanes at Mt Smart ...
By Todagia Kelola in Port Moresby A number of small contractors in Papua New Guinea are still waiting for positive feedback for money owed to them by government agencies after 12 years. A 2015 Post-Courier front page picture showed a man, David Goli, who chained himself at the then headquarters ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Beryl Exley, Professor, Griffith Institute for Educational Research, Griffith University, Griffith University Shutterstock Last August, the federal government set up an expert panel to look at the continuous improvement agenda in teacher education in Australia. The panel, led by ...
The New Zealand First leader took to the altar of an East Auckland church today to set out his 2023 election agenda. It was, as Stewart Sowman-Lund found out, pretty much what you’d expect. Winston Peters rolled into Howick today with a state of the nation speech that, he claimed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jon Wardle, Professor of Public Health, Southern Cross University Shutterstock Earlier this week, Australian retail giant Woolworths announced a move into health-care delivery via development of its subsidiary HealthyLife’s online portal. Through this portal, Australians can book a same-day ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters - eyeing a political comeback - has used a scene-setting speech in Auckland warning against a "conceited, conniving, cultural cabal". ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By William Peterson, Adjunct Associate Professor, Auckland University of Technology The Sheep Song.Tim Standing/Daylight Breaks/Adelaide Festival Few Adelaideans remember a time before the Adelaide Festival. Formed in 1960 as a civic enterprise and financed against loss by prominent Adelaide businessmen, the ...
Analysis - The Greens lay down a challenge as the minor parties approach an election in which both National and Labour are going to need coalition partners to form a government, writes Peter Wilson. ...
By Arieta Vakasukawaqa in Suva Communications Fiji Ltd (CFL) chair William Parkinson has called for a repeal of Fiji’s Media Industry Development Act 2010 and more discussion on the proposed Media Ownership and Registration Bill 2023. He said this during a public consultation on the review of MIDA Act 2010 ...
High Court Justice David Gendall regretfully allows anti-trans activist to enter New Zealand, but warns the expression of her views may be harmful to our vulnerable rainbow community. Jonathan Milne does his best to be civil.Opinion: Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull calls herself Posie Parker. And that's what I'm going to call her. Because she is ...
It’s about time somebody made a wacky TV show about how bonkers spelling is. Enter comedian Guy Montgomery and his Guy Mont Spelling Bee. The three years since Covid-19 began have been pretty rocky, but one of the best things to come out of the chaos was Guy Montgomery’s Guy ...
Te Rōpū Mātai Hinengaro o Aotearoa, The New Zealand Psychological Society (NZPsS) stands beside LGBTQIA+ and Takatāpui communities rallying against anti-trans rhetoric in light of the impending visit of Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (Posie Parker). We are ...
Earlier this month, everybody’s favourite Monster of the Week series Married at First Sight Australia toppled 1News to become the highest rating television show for New Zealand viewers aged 25-54. The controversial reality series garnered an average audience of 137,000, or 6.7% audience share from March 5 until March 11. ...
It’s the most wonderful time of the year for feijoa lovers – here’s how to make the most of it.Fragrant and sweet, with a delicate jelly centre surrounded by gritty, tangy flesh, all encased in a green sour skin. My parents’ feijoa tree has just dropped its first fruit, ...
A new poem by poet and novelist Maggie Rainey-Smith. Bang a Drum We’ve hit Gentle Annie passed the pub at Okaramio and on the left, at Wakapuaka there’s Sunnybank where parents left their children An oddly named orphanage manned (ha) by Nuns childless women in black habits, scapula, cowls and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cathy Buntting, Director, Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research, University of Waikato Getty Images Less than a fortnight after teachers staged a national strike, education was back in the headlines with the National Party’s release of its curriculum policy – ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)Number one in both ...
The Free Speech Union welcomes the decision of the High Court to reject the application to overrule the decision of the Minister of Immigration to allow Kellie-Jay entry into New Zealand. This was the only right result for a nation that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fan Yang, Research Associate at RMIT and Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin University Baidu’s ERNIE Bot was launched to considerable disappointment.Ng Han Guan / AP On March 16, Baidu unveiled China’s latest rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT – ERNIE Bot (short for “Enhanced ...
By Meri Radinibaravi in Suva Former attorney-general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has told The Fiji Times to ask the Republic of Fiji Military Forces about claims that his bodyguards were allowed to take guns on to Fiji Link flights without proper authorisation. “I understand that there’s some enquiries going on regarding that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sasha Grishin, Adjunct Professor of Art History, Australian National University Installation view of Troy Emery’s work Mountain climber 2022 on display as part of the Melbourne Now exhibition at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne from 24 March – 20 August ...
National’s education policy reinforces an old-fashioned and hierarchical curriculum that does lasting harm to many students, writes educational specialist Dr Sarah Aiono. Announcing the National Party’s new education policy this week, leader Christopher Luxon cited a recent NCEA pilot in which two-thirds of students were unable to meet the minimum ...
Attempts by rainbow groups to stop an anti-trans campaigner entering the country have failed. The High Court has dismissed a judicial review application from Gender Minorities Aotearoa, InsideOUT Kōara and Auckland Pride, aimed at the immigration minister for allowing Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull into New Zealand. As part of the application, the ...
The High Court is this morning considering an interim order that would prevent an anti-trans campaigner from making it into New Zealand. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull is expected to arrive on our shores today ahead of two planned rallies in Auckland and Wellington over the weekend. After immigration officials deemed her safe ...
I was disappointed to see yesterday afternoon’s announcement that Auckland has chosen to leave Local Government NZ (LGNZ). Hamilton’s membership of LGNZ is one of collaboration and sharing. Being a member gives us important views from other ...
It’s the most talked about local opera production in years – but does it live up to the chatter?The lowdownYou’ve probably heard of the “unruly tourists”, the British family who created a media firestorm as they toured around the country leaving trash and turmoil in their wake. You’ve ...
As reported by Newsroom’s Marc Daalder this morning, correspondence released under the Official Information Act shows advice about puberty blockers was removed from the Ministry of Health website “in the hopes it creates fewer queries” from anti-trans campaigners. The line that was removed from the site said puberty blockers “are ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards. Political Roundup: NZ needs to distance itself from Australia’s anti-China nuclear submarines The New Zealand Government has been silent about Australia’s decision to commit up to $400bn acquiring nuclear submarines, even though this is a significant threat to peace and stability in the Asia Pacific. The ...
Secondary teachers will strike again next week after an agreement on improved pay and working conditions was not reached. The strike will take place on Wednesday, less than two weeks after thousands of educators took to the streets across the country. “PPTA Te Wehengarua members have shown they are serious ...
Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission is encouraging organisations and individuals to share their views on human rights in Aotearoa New Zealand for the government’s upcoming report to the United Nations. The report informs a process ...
Secondary and area school teachers around the country have voted overwhelmingly in favour of more industrial action, including a one day national strike next Wednesday, in support of their collective agreement negotiations. “PPTA Te Wehengarua members ...
At a time when our need for collective action is stronger than ever, Auckland Council has opted out to save each of its residents just 25c a year, writes former Dunedin mayor Aaron Hawkins.I grew up in rural Southland, in the shadows of the Cut The Cable movement. In ...
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For over a decade, Manurewa Cosmopolitan Club has come under fire for denying entry to people wearing religious headwear. Despite the Human Rights Commission getting involved, it seems the rule remains unchanged.One of the definitions given by the Oxford dictionary for the word cosmopolitan is: “including people from many ...
Chris Hipkins’ dump of Ardern-era policy has potentially jeopardised a major part of the government’s climate change response. In this week’s episode of When the Facts Change, Bernard Hickey talks to climate policy expert Christina Hood from Climate Compass to find out why this month’s Emissions Trading Scheme auction failed and ...
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Mate …YOU have nothing to be ashamed of ! And so cool your daughter helping. And the others who stopped. I thank you. We ALL need to action this. And stop the plastic pollution. At its source !
This sounds potentially dodgy?
And then…theres this.
“On several occasions here at The Watch, we’ve noted that while police body cameras are an important step toward transparency and accountability in law enforcement, they’re only as good as the policies that govern their use.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2017/05/11/taser-now-known-as-axon-claims-part-ownership-of-the-footage-generated-by-its-police-body-cameras-thats-a-huge-problem/
And this !
For others, the company’s drone announcement prior to a formal report by the board broke with practice, said member Ryan Calo, a University of Washington law professor.
“I’m not going to stay on an advisory board for a company that departs so far from expectation and protocol or, frankly, who believes ubiquitous surveillance coupled with remote non-lethal weapons is a viable response to school shootings,” he said.
Barry Friedman, the board chairman, resigned as well.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-axon-halts-taser-drone-work-some-ethics-panel-said-resign-2022-06-06/
Haven't said much on the Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, largely because it has been impossible to work is going on in the Donbass attrition battles. The reason for that is that both sides are more or less completely silent on combat losses. That impacts any attempt to know what is happening because of what is known as the "Lanchester square law". Put simply, this attempts to predict the combat interaction between two sides in an attrition engagement. At it's most simple, it is the "snowball effect". For example, if one side has ten battleships and the other has seven then in a battle the result won't be the the side with ten ships wins with three remaining ships. Rather, the Lanchester law predicts that everything else being equal, the superior numbers of the winning side means they will lose three ships in destroying all ten of the enemy. Now, that doesn't mean at the beginning of the fight both sides give as good as they get. But of course, the three ship overlap means that four can engage one, then once successful the surviving four aid a friend and it becomes five engage one, etc etc in a snowball.
It seems to be becoming clearer that the Russian attacks in the Donbass have completely stalled. The front hasn't moved much for weeks. Reliable reports say the Russians have been pulling in troops from other sectors and is still getting nowhere. I have seen reports many Russian battalions are down to 10-15% of their infantry component and the LNR/Wagener forces have also been bled white. The Russians are throwing hastily formed actual Nazi ultra-nationalist units into the fight (with reports of wannabe Dirlewanger behaviour) and men in their fifties are being forcibly conscripted into the LNR. The Ukrainians revealed they are losing 1000-1500 men a day KIA, MIA, WIA and POW – 365,000 – 600,000 men per year which may sound a lot but the Ukraine has a population of 44 million people which is the same as the UK had in 1914 and has fully mobilised so manpower won't be a problem for at least 2-3 years (I did see a report in the Atlantic of a wounded Ukrainian volunteer who was sixty, perhaps speaking to their trained manpower issues).
What I think can be discerned from the fragmentary nature of the reports of both sides losses is the Ukraine has burned through it's pre-war army and has lost most of it's qualititive edge and both sides are now effectively militias reliant on artillery.
So I think that is the context we should put the offer of the British to train 2,500 men every month – it would restore a significant qualitative edge to the Ukrainian army, especially as this training would most likely happen safely in Poland.
Which brings us to the role of Poland. it has become vital to Ukraine war effort, quietly repairing damaged equipment and offering a safe haven for weapons and equipment depots, training etc as well as supplying the Ukrainians with huge amounts of ammunition and equipment. The longer the war goes on the more the likelihood of it escalating to include Poland and the Baltic states. How long will Russia tolerate Poland's role in arming and supporting the Ukraine before lashing out with missiles? And that leads us to Lithuanian's transit ban (effective yesterday) on Russian rail traffic to the Kalingrad Russian exclave. Fully 50% of all the requirements of the exclave come by rail. With the closing of airspace to Russia as well the Russians will now have to move everything by sea. Expect lot's of sabre rattling. Russia may attempt to establish an airbridge in defiance of the air ban, with the violation of NATO airspace offering a clear potential for serious escalation.
Thank you for this. Believe it or not I have some regard for your opinion, because while it is sometimes different from mine you do put real consideration and effort into forming it. Reality check so to speak.
Your assessment feels as accurate – and sobering. Given the fog of war there is not much to quibble with.
I also had too google Dirlewanger.
PS. 1000 per day is very much a recent surge – and neither side will likely sustain this intensity for more than a few weeks.
Hadn't seen that Lithuanian rail ban. Big move.
Notably Lithuania has the big fat floating gas port so it's not reliant on Russian gas pipeline flows.
It's a very dark horizon.
Something like our old Alliance has done fine electoral work in France against President Macron's majority.
France votes, with Macron facing tough battle for control of parliament – CNN
"Leftist coalition New Ecological and Social People's Union (NUPES), led by far-left figure Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is set to come in second place and is projected to win 30.34% of the votes, according to the interior ministry's partial results.
NUPES would then become the main opposition force in the country, but the coalition is expected to be divided on some issues once in parliament.
"It is a totally unexpected situation, absolutely unheard of," said Mélenchon shortly after partial results were released.
"The collapse of the presidential party is total, and no majority is presented. We have achieved the political objective that we had set ourselves, in less than a month, to bring down the one who, with such arrogance, had twisted the arm of the whole country, who had been elected without knowing what for," he said."
Great to see the broad left being able to cooperate to clear electoral effect.
That's hard enough at local government level here.
Not sure if that tweet has imbedded, so I will copy and paste some of the thread too (from Jewish granddaughter of holocaust victims who; concerned by the rise of fascism in the USA, literally wrote the book on Cultural Warlords):
While onsite with the Tauranga election and possibly related events, I have noticed that there has been a bit of recycling of US "grooming" talking points about people in drag reading to children. So this from last week came to mind:
https://www.losangelesblade.com/2022/06/09/fl-presssec-lies-about-family-drag-show-uses-photo-of-straight-stripper/
Of course drag performers aren't necessarily trans, though there'd be some overlap in a Venn diagram of the two groups. However trans people and drag artists do generally support one another within the wider struggle for; LGBTQ+, and other human; rights – even if we might not understand, or even like, each other all that much. It's not like the fascists, or their useful idiots, are inclined to make such fine-grained distinctions anyway. We are all deviant chaff to be stripped away from the pure seed in their eyes.
Drag artists: Fighting fascists from the present day, back through the Stonewall uprising (the genesis of Pride month), through the Holocaust and opposition to Nazi Germany, and back, and back through time:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/british-soldiers-in-drag-nazis/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1655491929-1
Drag show for the troops?
I'm seeing gingham, puffed sleeves and flounces….not fishnet stockings, platform shoes and high cut sequinned bodysuits.
Believe it or not there is a difference.
. It shouldn't be necessary to state, yet again, that it is not appropriate to expose children to what is most definitely adult entertainment of a highly sexualised nature.
That is a ridiculously narrow view of what drag is and can be. It's a lot more diverse than that these days and ranges from vanilla pantomime stuff to stand up comedy to raunchy cabaret acts.
Sigh. "…these days…" That's a ridiculous stretch…drag equals pantomime. wtf?
Being up with the latest Pouluxe1…you will be aware that there is growing concern from some transgender people that pedophilia is becoming normalised too?
The future…
And drag equals paedophilia isn't an even bigger stretch? Well, if your expertise in any given area is second hand from agenda-driven YouTube videos the tone of paranoid delusion makes more sense.
Do you think it's just that there is a knee-jerk reaction to any concerns raised about children, Rosemary? (You know, when it comes from 'unkind' women)
You would think that raising concerns about:
etc…
– would mean that people would stop and think, and at the very least, let's make sure there is no issue here.
But, No.
It's both horrifying and fascinating to read the responses given.
You see, what I observe on your part is massive mission creep from a couple of quite reasonable gender critical concerns to a whole batsh*t raft of conspiracies, half-truths, cognitive bias, logical fallacies, and cherrypicked propaganda that it doesn't seem to occur to you has been largely manufactured in bad faith to be consumed by (I presume) well-meaning people like you to generate clicks for the sort of people who regard The Handmaid's Tale as aspirational. Paedos under every bed. Dildos being handed out at primary school. That sort of nonsense.
All this burble, and not one salient point.
Like I said, both horrific and fascinating.
Ditto, I'm sure
Pretty much.
It's funny how some folks who are obsessed with what is (or was) in other people's pants (or what they do with them) ignore the obvious character of their philosophical bedfellows.
Oh, McFlock – resorting to the "obsessed with what is other people's pants" trope?
Women share one universal factor, the occupation of a female body. How that is experienced for an individual female, is predicated in terms of culture, race, and class. The reality is, not matter where women live, their biological sex will play a significant role in how they are expected to behave, and treated within their society. The oppression of women is inextricably linked to their material bodies, which includes the reproductive role whether they reproduce or not.
Single-sex spaces have value for women. Whether it is recognised or not, it is not justified to break those single-sex boundaries without considering the impact.
The language women use to describe themselves, also should not be appropriated, to accommodate the feelings of others.
And yet you really don't quite know what to do with all the women who think you're overreacting. And how exactly do we get from perfectly reasonable concerns like some of the more egregious silliness of inclusive language as applied to women's bodies, the right to association, and the issue of women's sports, to the ridiculous notion that a secret cabal of transgender illuminati are campaigning to be allowed to molest children and god knows what else?
Why would I have to do anything with other women, who hold a different view?
Once again, mostly burble, but I will answer this:
"…to the ridiculous notion that a secret cabal of transgender illuminati are campaigning to be allowed to molest children and god knows what else?"
When raising basic safeguarding concerns is conflated with this accusation, instead of reviewing actions, I consider it an attempt to shame people into not raising such concerns.
There are – unfortunately – within all demographics, including women – and minorities – including disabled – adults who are adept at bypassing safeguarding practices for children and identifying and abusing them when opportunities arise.
Some safeguarding practices are about identification of such individuals by basic checking procedures. Other safeguarding practices are about reducing opportunities, ie. not putting children in places where they are not protected or supervised by trusted adults. Safeguarding practices also include not familiarising children with adult sexual practices before it is age appropriate, or requiring them to participate in such, blurring the boundaries so that children cannot rely on their own unease, and are more easily manipulated.
You not agreeing with something, or not understanding something, or even completely getting the wrong end of the stick about something that is not in fact happening outside of your most surreal feverdream, does not, ipso facto, mean that these things are not under review, by people with considerably greater expertise than yourself, or indeed even exist.
Not being able or willing to respond to a criticism does not make it burble.
No, populuxe, nothing to do with me. This –
… is what makes it burble…
Then I suggest you get a dictionary
One wonders if the #MeToo movement made the slightest dent in your cocksure skepticism. Women are repeatedly saying their boundaries are under assault. Just because some other women prefer to turn a blind eye (an easier/safer option) does't make the problem (eg. eg. eg. …) go away. There is plenty of disgusting/ unbelievable stuff going on if you scratch the surface. Happy delusions are generally preferable.
Sure. Drag in #MeToo as well. Why not? Let's conflate multiple different issues into a single spurious conspiracy. The glare from your white armour is blinding.
It might be a trope, but it's true.
A couple more lines and you'll have a limerick.
What you haven't provided is an indication that you understand that your trope is neither true, nor relevant, but rather a tedious accusation with no merit.
OK. Person walks into a changing room. You think they shouldn't be there. What, to you, is the conclusive evidence that they shouldn't be in that room?
If single-sex spaces were recognised as single-sex spaces, then the onus is on the adult who uses them to use the one that relates to their sex.
That is a social contract, that is not often broken.
However, if we blur the sex category, then we also break the understanding of that existing social contract.
This means that some individuals will attribute to themselves the distinction of being outside of that contract. As that happens more and more, the consistency of single-sex spaces will diminish. For women, this means that some will be excluded from those spaces.
Women have for many years accommodated without concern, transsexual women in their single-sex spaces. This accommodation for most part, was due to the recognition of the level of distress that those individuals could only alleviate by GRS.
This compassionate accommodation, is now being used to justify a huge expansion of such accommodations in women's single-sex spaces, services, sports and support groups.
The majority of transwomen (85-93%) do not have GRS. So the accommodation of those transsexual women, is expected to now expand tenfold to include those with intact male genitalia. Self-id means that men do not even have to present in a different way to break the boundaries of single-sex spaces.
One of the reasons many women found it easier to accommodate transsexuals is the knowledge that most would have had a significant amount of time with therapists treating their distress, and GRS would have been a solution determined after much care.
It's deliberate that the term transsexual is not used anymore. If it is brought up in conversations current activists will refer to transsexuals using derogatory terms such as "truscum". A practice I find quite disrespectful, but that is by the by.
So, we cannot assume a clinical presentation of gender dsyphoria for the other 85 – 93% of transwomen that may wish to use the single-sex spaces of the opposite sex.
Once again, research on this topic (if you care to look) identifies differences in reasons for gender identities divided by biological sex.
Quite a few to do with men presenting as women, have a connection to sexual paraphilias, as well as/or instead of being purely an identification issue.
Some of the paraphilias include: voyeurism, exhibitionism, and autogynephilia.
This reality should not be ignored when discussing the impact on single-sex spaces.
Recognising it, should also not be conflating with accusing all transgender people of being predators. The exclusion of men from single sex spaces did not assume all men were predators, it was the result of a combination of risk assessment AND a recognition of the different needs of biological females.
As you can imagine, self-id, also has provided opportunities for non-transgender men to identify their way into single-sex spaces for women.
Misogynistic and predatory heterosexual men, will not pass the opportunity by, just because people want them not to.
I'm off to have dinner now. But there is more to this issue than "genital inspections". In fact, I have never heard a women referring to this, even in jest.
None of that answered the simple question.
"If single-sex spaces were recognised as single-sex spaces, then the onus is on the adult who uses them to use the one that relates to their sex."
Right at the beginning. I included the rest as further considerations, in the hope that you may fully engage, and give some thought to wider perspectives.
I see I was mistaken.
But the question was about someone whom you think has not bothered with that onus.
A person walks into a changing room and you think they shouldn't be there.
How do you, or the establishment, or the police, challenge their presence if it's not about the contents of their pants rather than the nature of their character?
@McFlock
The number of incidents where this would be necessary, would be greatly reduced, if not eliminated by clear guidance around the protection of single-sex spaces.
Given the large majority of transwomen have had no GRS, and will be relying mostly on the feminisation effects of hormones only, most people will be able to distinguish their sex if they break such boundaries.
Women – like myself – who are not necessarily the most feminine of women may be challenged, but even I was, it doesn't bother me.
Photos are sometimes hard to judge, but most people indicate their sex IRL by look, movement, voice and other “non-genital” methods and signals.
I don’t understand why people pretend this is no longer true.
"This would be necessary"? What would be necessary? Because you still haven't actually said what you would regard as evidence that the person has indeed chosen the correct room.
@McFlock
Although you offer little in regards to perspective yourself, you are constantly demanding more and more. This is as always, a one-sided conversation, in terms of give and take.
Anyway,
"… but most people indicate their sex IRL by look, movement, voice and other “non-genital” methods and signals."
I'm off to play cards.
I don't believe you are taking the time to read the responses.
I do believe, you are trying to create a "gotcha" scenario, which ignores any other consideration in favour of your intention.
I read the waffle, and we both know it all comes down to the genital inspection (or certified paperwork thereof) of anyone who doesn't meet surface expectations of "sex".
That's not a gotcha. If you read the thread, it's legislation in some places.
@McFlock
… and so it continues. You ask how I would determine the sex of someone without using your suggested method of genital inspection.
I responded, and now that response is completely ignored, and the original assumption repeated.
Now the legal angle. I don't know what the legal impact in NZ is because the politicians and legislators that were asked to clarify this refused to answer. Instead they adopted a #NoDebate approach, and said there was no impact on women.
If that final statement is true, then women will legally retain their single-sex spaces, sports, support services, prison estates, accurate statistics to do with sex etc…
But I suspect, those politicians and legislators lied.
You may be happy about the result of that approach, and think that excuses it.
I think that approach is dishonest and disrespectful, and believe the result is harmful.
So if it works with "most", that's all fine then. And the women (trans or otherwise) who don't move in a feminine-enough manner by your estimation, well, who cares what happens to them.
An erect penis would be a clue
Besides the entire "offense behaviour rather than trespass is the problem" issue, apparently you're just repeating a trope.
A trope? Wow you would make a great police officer. Treat the traumatised victim as the problem and join the side of the offender.
Hey, I didn't come up with the term.
I'd have a lot more respect for her if she just said "they have a penis on view", which is at least a position one could argue from.
I think it's perfectly understandable that a lot of women have good reason to not want to have to deal with that.
It's where it turns into an ideological hot mess of accusations and ideology that I bridle.
"I'd have a lot more respect for her if she just said "they have a penis on view", which is at least a position one could argue from.'
So, you want me to lie, and hold out your "respect" as a prize?
Hard pass.
You may be hampered by your inability to determine sex in other ways, but stop assuming all share it.
Begging the question. If single-gender spaces are recognised as single-gender spaces then your whole argument falls apart.
Better to put energy into addressing the source of your fears. I doubt it is transwomen sharing a changing room with you.
And no, I have no intention of another long discussion about this.
"And no, I have no intention of another long discussion about this."
Yes. Here's my pointless rebuttal…. now be quiet.
I'm familiar with this argument.
Bugger… I'm not being quiet…..
What else, you (don't) say?
… oh, and this….
Interpreting the social contract to suit yourself is not a basis for good faith argument.
… In terms of genital obsessions bollocks (- see what I did there?
)
And lastly for now, but not in terms of the comprehensive list of the value of single-SEX spaces for women and girls:
@Sacha
On this we agree.
But I do not pretend that we share the same interpretation of this statement.
Better to put energy into addressing the source of your fears.
That old tactic, eh Sacha? Shame on you for making this about our uteruses.
It saddens me if you think your fear comes from an organ.
That's a funny organ to be doing your thinking with.
@ McFlock – Megan Rapinoe has a sensible, rational position on transwomen in sport
United States star Megan Rapinoe has made it clear she is "100% supportive" of trans inclusion in women's sports, suggesting those debating the matter have been looking at it the wrong way.
Nailing your bed fellows point with “Frankly, I think what a lot of people know is versions of the right’s talking points because they’re very loud. They’re very consistent, and they’re relentless.”
Well, she also provides absolutely no justification for ignoring the realities of biological sex differentials in performance.
Just inclusion.
Might be sufficient evidence for you, but not convincing to those who still recognise reality.
I can paste many more such links in this regard, from other sportswomen, but the follow similar patterns in terms of evidence and of understanding of the impacts for women in sports.
"I can paste many more such links":
I'm sure you can, and will, probably multiple times a day.
Well, that's an example of a contribution that's of little merit, but oft repeated.
Snap, except I find yours much uglier.
I know you do.
Such allegations continue to be the main (and only) point of your responses.
And no doubt mercifully for other readers, thanks to heavy doses of self moderation and restraint, without your frequency or venom.
A contributor provided a long comment with a scattershot pattern of accusations that could be ignored, or addressed.
I addressed them, requiring a necessarily long comment with accompanying links. Not something I'd do usually, but appropriate here, given the random and diverse nature of the original comment.
You imply I should refrain from using links to support my contribution. Scroll on.
As for: "…venom".
I look forward to a link to an example of this.
If I imply anything it's I absolutely disagree agree with your position, think your opinions are frequently ugly and that you post them so often you're basically stealing site oxygen.
I find you repeatedly offensive and gross. There is no debate to be had with you. For me it's them and us, and you've chosen them.
"One of the reasons many women found it easier to accommodate transsexuals is the knowledge that most would have had a significant amount of time with therapists treating their distress"
Can't pray away the gay but we can victimize transgender kids and psycho logic it out of them and fuck the consequences. Fuck you.
I'm out until the site fixes itself.
Good, that's one less misogynist defending the indefensible.
Misogynist, me? You’re not a fuckwit, you’re a lackwit.
@Al1en
No link then.
Regardless of how frustrated I get, I have not resorted to no debate, name calling, or tribalism. In fact, with the slightest encouragement I will respectfully engage. And I have spent a lot of time reading and researching, so I will offer comprehensive answers and try to put forward my perspective.
I don't even know who "them" is, but do know that the use of an othering term, provides many with permission to ignore, deride and abuse.
""One of the reasons many women found it easier to accommodate transsexuals is the knowledge that most would have had a significant amount of time with therapists treating their distress"
Can't pray away the gay but we can victimize transgender kids and psycho logic it out of them and fuck the consequences. Fuck you."
These two sentences do not relate. The conflation continues. As does the abuse, I see.
"I'm out until the site fixes itself."
If the site moderators ask me to desist, I will.
I understand the use of this site is a courtesy, and I have – and will continue – to abide by the site rules.
But until that happens, I will engage, as respectfully and with as much information on this topic as possible, mainly because it is one of the few NZ sites where this topic is allowed to be discussed.
I appreciate that this is the case.
There's no links because there's no debate to be had.
I think you're a nasty old cunt with an offensive position and I'm turning around, walking away, thinking you're a nasty old cunt with an offensive position and I’m happy I don’t have to read your bitter astroterfing anymore.
Ta TS, but do better.
[six month instant ban. Don’t call women cunts, and don’t use misogynistic slurs. Feminists have as much right to be on this site as anyone else. The site Policy says this,
And you’ve been here long enough to know this.
I will protect trans people (or anyone) the same way (anyone can reply to any comment of mine to link me to problem comments).
Argue the politics, and if you can’t, stay away – weka]
@The Al1en
Still here….Not a man of your word then?
But apparently a man who knows what a women is when he feels the need to throw around some sex-based insults.
What a surprise.
Also calling bullshit on this. You treat the site like shit and then tell us what to do? If you want good things to happen here, then put the mahi in and add the kind of conversations you want. But all I can see is you willing to call women cunts when you don't like what they say and fuck the site or the politics.
This applies to anyone else using 'do better' about TS as well.
Funnily enough, interesting thread popped up in my twitter feed:
Includes the line:
Charming.
That's a Twitter thread, McFlock, one similar to many I've seen, and have responded to online.
Easily addressed point by point, but for the moment, I'm reluctant to do so here, as it requires a lot of time and effort. Your exchanges in the past, have been light on good faith discussion, and really heavy on accusations of bigotry.
How much effort would you put in to answering this for someone who did that to you repeatedly?
What does super hyped mean Mc Flock and what is actually happening there?"
Republicans backing russia, feminists using alt right attack lines, and they thought twin peaks was weird.
Have you seen the tweets about the "transphobic" meeting of a dozen feminists in a pub that sparked riots from "trans rights activists" in Bristol. This is not your Mum's civil rights movement.
It's disgraceful misogyny, not even bothering to dress in drag anymore.
Nah, didn't see that.
Ever wonder why the anti-trans "debate" in NZ is full of UK tweets?
No. I have several explanations for why.
But you need to do some independent thinking.
I view it as a warning of the insanity that is just as likely to occur here, when the apathetic hobbits get annoyed enough
Thanks for the link McFlock, I did look at it on Monday night (am not the best at navigating Twitter myself).
Should have replied to this thread before, but mobile commenting on TS wasn't working for some reason and I have not had desktop time for the last couple of days. Probably better to save responses for future discussions now.
Megan Rapinoe's words may be 'passionate', but not particularly rational.
"So we need to start from inclusion, period."
We already do. Women's sports teams are for biological women. That is inclusive of all biological women. That we're even discussing this is a sign the world is going nuts.
Drag is "womanface". Blackface, brownface and yellowface – cultural appropriation based on offensive stereotypes are all un-acceptable – but womanface is lauded as entertainment.
Really? Because I'm pretty sure the vast majority of women don't dress like that on a regular basis and those that do are sufficiently comfortable in their femininity not to worry about it. Maybe just focus on your own performance of gender and let everyone else get on with theirs.
I don't need to "perform my gender", I don't have one. I have a sex and a personality. Neither of those is a performance.
You seem to be putting on one now.
The idea of "gender" as something separate from biological sex is a novel use of the word, but fairly widely understood in the last couple of years. Until recently it was interchangeable with "sex" but a more politely descriptive term. The other use of the word "gender" was in reference to parts of speech, particularly in foreign languages where all sorts of objects have a seemingly randomly assigned gendered preposition (der, die, das).
Gender identity as separate from one's body is a descriptive term for dysphoria, which was (until recently) correctly viewed as a mental health issue, similar to anorexia, where one’s perceptions are not in congruence with reality. Affirming these cognitive errors is not compassionate or kind, it is throwing vulnerable people down a rabbit hole and giving them no way out. A terrible failure of gender medicine, and a gross injustice.
At this point all you need is a fedora and a t-shirt that says "pick me m'lady"
At least I don't follow an emperor with no clothes
How else will you know if the Emperor should be allowed into the changing rooms then?
I'm with rob on this. For most of my life the word gender was just a stuffy way of saying sex. Now it has been given a wholly new life of it's own – and like most new kids on the block is causing more grief than good.
It's been that way since the 1970s and there are certainly valid criticisms for some of it. It's the blanket panic, baseless accusations and the effortless jumping into bed with conservative right wing factions that are clearly no friend of women either that I object to.
John Money (NZ born) introduced the new definition of gender – as in gender identity in the late 60s/early 70s.. It doesn't mean this use was valid, standardised or universal.
His research supporting his theory was both flawed and abusive.
He's worth independently researching to get full story, but here's a link to something I'm currently reading that provides a summary – bottom of Pg 2: We Are All Hermaphrodites
https://59bf6006-affc-4040-b0dd-44cbf31fa7fe.usrfiles.com/ugd/59bf60_f081488a4574466db89cc0a3439fa8ea.pdf
Not too fussed about 'womanface', but prefer 'manface' – hear them roar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-gender_acting
Well I don't expect to see them demanding the heads of Linda and Jools Topp any time soon.
It appears that Talia Lavin, like many, repeats an assumption of the gender critical movement that actually has nothing to do with what they articulate about sex, gender stereotypes and gender identity. Par for course.
What surprises me is that you think there is substance in the tweet itself.
Let's see what your reference shows:
1. Required purity and unchallengeable authority test. Which when you look at it, holds little value apart from background. Author of book on white supremacy, that is useful to know, determines whether she will focus on the whole, or concentrate on a part:
(from Jewish granddaughter of holocaust victims who; concerned by the rise of fascism in the USA, literally wrote the book on Cultural Warlords):
2. Surmise, poetic analogy, a demand, and a declaration.
3. Theory, and conclusion (but no testing of theory or evidence).
4. Hasn't actually defined transphobia. Also, hasn't described the 'different future', or the 'calcified norms' so hard to determine whether the right and far right are 'obsessively upkeeping' the norms and how they are doing so.
5. Apart from the fact "historic inevitability" is a bit of a contradiction, when did the thread move on to include the LGBQ, women and people of colour? (and I hate to point this out but surely these groups are intersected in real life, and separate in terms of political advocacy, goals and agency?).
Once again, how are rights of all these groups being 'destroyed'? What is meant by sitting back, dismissing it and letting it float by – there is no idea what actions she is criticising. Once more with the poetic turn of phrase, which I myself am fond of, but link to a concrete idea or evidence. Then the final sentence – which reads like pre-emptive justification for any behaviour.
Now, before I make further comment, I will address the rise of the right-wing rhetoric on this issue. I'm not right-wing, or far right, but I acknowledge there is significant pushback against minority rights from that sector. That has to be addressed, and dealt with, but to conflate all minorities as one amorphous group denies them the means and voices to represent those groups.
In the same way, conflating any concerns as right-wing rhetoric is poor justification for #NoDebate.
Many woman (gender critical or not), gays, lesbians, transgender people have included their concern for the impact of gender ideology on the wider transgender community. Demanding people ignore the facts of biological reality, the impact of legislative change, the medicalisation and indoctrination of children etc.. will lead to pushback not only from the right, but also across the political spectrum – and this should be recognised.
Many who have declared support for transwomen, while raising concerns are denied both their language, and their agency by such rhetoric as above.
These are two different issues – can't you see?
It doesn't matter here if the women was trans-identified or straight, it was still inappropriate to have a child present, let alone participating.
Just a lot of nothing specific.
People do lie online, and post contrived messaging, misinterpretations and false accusations, which is why I will always link to source, or avoid posting if I have any concerns about validity. I note many others on TS do this as standard practice. So, your example does not surprise, and I do not support such tactics at all.
However, that does not mean that I have not seen a multitude of videos showing inappropriate drag queen entertainment while children are present. I just haven't posted them.
Here are a couple from just the last week, which seem legitimate.
(I want to reiterate, it is not related to the sexual orientation or the gender identity of those performing. It is the degree of nudity, and sexual nature of the adult entertainment that makes it inappropriate to have children present):
Rosemary, has dealt with the last item as much as it needs.
Let's have a look at the actions of a serving police officer in Leicester, UK.
Without forgetting that the same de-platforming is happening here, with women's rights groups, and currently with a therapists convention discussing the treatment of minors identifying as transgender.
Shaneel Lee – unlikely to disappoint in this regard – has also started a petition. I particularly like the first response to this tweet and Shaneel's response:
At least the petition can advise what the conference is about, what the concerns are, whether they offer an alternative. Or just accept that this is mostly slurs, waffle, threats and demands. So far, 6,796 have signed without needing to know those details.
But let's finish off with a demonstration of the progressive left on the weekend in action in the UK, a familiar and apparently (unavoidable) presence at gatherings for women:
Feel free to find and post any demonstration of women's rights groups attending a meeting or workshop arranged by another minority, so we can see and compare.
https://genspect.org/stella-omalley-testifies-about-new-zealand-conversion-therapy-bill/
Oh yes the Conference that the trans activists are trying to shut down. Enclosed is a link from the sub committee on the Conversion Therapy Bill . click on it and scroll down. There you will find the key not speaker for the conference making a submission on the Bill. This is Stella O'Malley, an International author and psychotherapists. This delightful women who works with de-transistioners and was. gender non conforming (with gender dysphoria) as a child, has the sub committee listening to her very valid points. That includes Louisa Wall.
This is the health professional the trans activists want to cancel. If you have signed the petition against the conference at least have the decency to listen to the key note speaker who you are wanting to cancel
Link to a significant body of information, co-created by Stella O'Malley and Sasha Ayad. Many experts interviewed:
https://gender-a-wider-lens.captivate.fm/
This is a video of Stella O'Malley interacting with young transgender people, so you can see her manner and approach:
https://vimeo.com/304866757
Them/they Lal also abused Niccole Duval for not being the "right kind of Trans". Niccole was one of the original entertainers at Carmen's and worked with various other revues etc and was part of Alfie's night club in Auckland.
Bunch of "Pound Shop Ninjas". And who are they – mostly straight white chaps gagging for the excuse to beat up on women
Nails it as usual.
https://suzannemoore.substack.com/p/male-violence-or-the-right-side-of?fbclid=IwAR34oTtPtIbXlAzUigUcgeWYQMXyv4Z_hbNnip_VXhtSfEI5GfStLFigLxk
Thanks, Visubversa.
Another good read from Suzanne Moore.
Temp @ 5
Do you mean that you have to go along with the phrase trans women are women, if not your transphobic?
Do you mean you have to accept the statement that women can have penises, otherwise you are transphobie?
Do you mean if you are a lesbian that you have to date and have sex with trans women (who are in fact male bodied) else you are transphobic?
Because if these are the definitions of transphobia and according to Talia you have to defend without caveat trans people from transphobia, then what she is requesting is that you have to suspend biological reality i.e science in order not to be a facist.
BTW the requiring of one set of views about transgenderism and shutting down debate ("no debate") is one of the few experiences of a fascist like mentality I have experienced in my life time. Shutting down SUFWs meetings and advertising is just the political censorship that authoritarian regimes require.
As for transgender people being happy. Well I hope they are and I wish them well.
We do not that to date there are 35,000 detransitioners on Redit and climbing. These are young people with irreversible damage to their bodies that they regret. But the ideological purist movement that is gender ideology, doesn't want to acknowledge or hear about them
There have always been people who cross-dressed – mostly for very good reasons. When sex between men was likely to get you the cell, the scaffold, or the stake – being able to pass as a woman was lifesaving. Women took on male identities to do things that women were not allowed to do, like join the military, go to university, marry other women. Even something as simple as the ability to travel in relative safety.
In more recent times when sex between men was still unlawful, some gay men internalised their homophobia and risked their lives to have "sex change" surgery and have spent the rest of their lives on artificial hormones.
What we have now is something completely different. Most of those reasons are gone in Western society.
There are some people with genuine bodily dysphoria who are unhappy in their sexed bodies, but the loudest voices these days in the Trans "Rights" movement are those of the autogynephiliacs. These are men who are sexually aroused by the thought of themselves as women. Most have little or no surgery and retain their male genitalia. They are engaged in a constant search for more and more validation that they are a woman. There is nothing that women do that they will not require to be part of, and will require to centre them. Everything from Rape Crisis services to knitting groups.
And we now have the new religion of Gender Ideology. This says that you have a gendered "soul" which over rides biological reality. It requires other people to constantly express their belief in your gendered soul and to educate their children in its existence. It requires the medical system to change its language "pregnant people" for example to ensure that gendered souls take precedence.
10 years ago – practically none of this was happening. Now it is everywhere.
These are men who are sexually aroused by the thought of themselves as women.
I have scrolled through this very long thread determined not to comment – but to my mind it is 99% summed up in this single line of yours above.
Just been to the chemist for a routine prescription refill.
No stock over the weekend. No stock today (anywhere in NZ, apparently). No idea on when there will be stock.
They offered me a 'replacement' at triple strength – no idea how I'd safely determine the dosage….
Have an urgent call in to my GP to discuss what we can do in the interim (going cold turkey off medication is usually contra-indicated!)
Chemist is blaming Covid disrupted shipping (which we're experiencing in my work-life). But it's a bit different waiting an extra week or two for an overseas parcel (or cancelling the order, if shipping proves impossible); to a whole country running out of a fairly commonly used prescription-only medicine.
Again my daughter the courier driver has been mentioning this kind of disruption for several months now. It's across many sectors at a subcritical level.
When dreamy old Hippies/Greenies imagine a deindustrialised world this is what you get.
Don't know what you are talking about. I regularly have equipment arrive from New York in 3 or 4 days.
So, presumably air freight (unless you've got some form of teleportation).
Which still works, though the prices are massively through the roof, and you pay a further premium to get on one of the few planes actually coming to NZ.
However, shipping (which is the bulk of the transport, internationally) is still massively disrupted, and our procurement staff are telling us that it's not going to improve in the next 18 months.
https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/shippers-to-see-no-relief-in-2022/619697/
https://www.marineinsight.com/maritime-law/6-major-trends-in-container-shipping-in-2022/
We’re seeing booked shipping routes being cancelled: when the NZ leg was so delayed, by loading issues ‘upstream’ that it was a better solution to just cancel the NZ leg, and go straight to the next one. We’ve had cargo off-loaded in Singapore, waiting for the next scheduled ship to have space (good luck with that). And NZ shippers are also missing their export windows.
Bloody hell, Belladonna. Do you have much left of your current prescription?
Due to coating on tablets – if that is what you take – cutting or dividing is ill-advised as well, as you interfere with the assumed absorption rate.
Not that I am advising this, but I did notice that women unable to get the HRT because of the UK, were posting and sharing solutions online. You are unlikely to be the only one in this position.
Pharmaceutical manufacturing is one of the industries we need here in NZ for resilience purposes.
Agree that I'm not the only one.
The pharmacist was massively apologetic (and I didn't blast him for something that's clearly completely outside his control).
And said that I was the 20th person that he'd had to have this conversation with over the last couple of days (not all over the same prescription)
Have an emergency appointment with my GP tomorrow to discuss alternatives.
And am right down to the dregs on the current prescription – since it's so routine, I never thought about building in a fortnight buffer (my bad, I'll know better next time).
Owning my privilege here. I can afford an emergency GP consult. I can afford an off-prescription alternative (if that's the best solution). I can even afford to take a fortnight's sick leave (if I need to – though that wouldn't be my preferred option – nor would my boss be over the moon). I can afford to take Ubers, if I can't drive (though, again, not my preferred alternative).
Thinking about the people who can't and for whom this would be a disaster.
Supply chains just need to be a heck of a lot more robust in this Covid world. And 'just in time' needs to change to 'just in case'
"Supply chains just need to be a heck of a lot more robust in this Covid world. And 'just in time' needs to change to 'just in case'"
The supply chain issue is a big one. Part of the solution needs to be identifying where we can manufacture or produce high-priority items domestically.
IIRC, we manufactured drugs here in the past. Not sure if we do now. Someone else might have a better recall. (I seem to remember Smith, Kline and French manufacturing in Pah Road in the '80s but maybe they were just distributors.)
https://genspect.org/stella-omalley-testifies-about-new-zealand-conversion-therapy-bill/
Oh yes the Conference that the trans activists are trying to shut down. Enclosed is a link from the sub committee on the Conversion Therapy Bill . click on it and scroll down. There you will find the key not speaker for the conference making a submission on the Bill. This is Stella O'Malley, an International author and psychotherapist. This delightful women who works with de-transistioners and was. gender non conforming (with gender dysphoria) as a child, has the sub committee her very valtaking note of her very valid points. That includes Louisa Wall.
This is the health professional the trans activists want to cancel. If you have signed the petition against the conference at least have the decency to listen to the key note speaker who you are wanting to cancel
Some interesting debate here. You have to give it to Western society: we have been so successful we can navel gaze to our hearts content. Unlike people in the Ukraine and Africa.
I would like to send these twats there to show them that ''feeling safe'' is not an option…and bullets don't discriminate against any gender.
When everything has been deconstructed by postmodern lies, the kids lose the ability to understand what truth even is. Everything is a made up narrative in their heads. They don't absorb education, they just pass mediocre tests.
In a nutshell.
Similar topic, but much more entertainment value… 😂