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Ca. 1901. "Near Franklin, New Jersey." The Detroit Photographic Special – William Henry Jackson's traveling photographic studio-salon – being pulled by a Delaware, Lackawanna & Western locomotive.

[Photo: Shorpy/William Henry Jackson]

o implement’ because of their own fringe belief system should resign and stop collecting a public salary.”

Well quite. It's the law. Even civil servants – especially civil servants – can't defy the law.

single-issue cissexists whose reactionary brand has long been hegemonic in the UK. This camp has long promoted itself as profoundly un-American. But, increasingly, its hatred of the Black, abolitionist, gender-abundant, utopian international left supersedes its patriotism, leading it to align itself with MAGA (unlikely inheritor of the “true” feminism the left abandoned) without shame….

Preferring the term “gender-critical,” 21st-century TERFs have protested for years that TERF is a misogynistic slur; still, the more of British society they’ve captured, the more they’ve grown content with the moniker. “Welcome to Team TERF,” gloats UnHerd every time an A-lister turns transphobe. “2023 is the year of the TERF,” declares the far-right rally Let Women Speak. “We will fight,” jokes Rowling in another revealing effort to claim Churchillian glory for her cause, “on the beaches of TERF Island.” The copious “strong borders” imagery readily reveals TERFism to be a female cultural nationalism or sexual nationalism, premised—Brexit-style—on the securitization of the tacitly white and innocent body politic against dysgenic gender “refugees.”

The pogrom-inciting tenor of what has been called “the trans debate” was normalized from the get-go by feminism’s moral alibi and the nepotism of Britain’s commentariat class. The hyper-respectability of many of its ringleaders surely didn’t hurt, either. Helen Joyce, one of the most influential trans-annihilationists currently heralding the Supreme Court decision as a personal win, is a former editor at The Economist. Her buddy the celebrity anti-trans philosopher Kathleen Stock is a royally honored academic. Rowling, of course, is a national treasure. Meanwhile, the publishing industry has glutted itself on trans-“skeptic” books just asking questions—not just by Joyce and Stock—and these all receive rave reviews in the UK Guardian. (Back in 2018, the US office of that newspaper was even moved to denounce its British counterpart over its participation in the self-styled “feminist” moral panic.)

The riddle of “TERF Island” continues to intrigue those international onlookers who intuit feminism and transphobia to be opposites. Unlike the supposedly very different—crassly “polarized” and “partisan”—makeup of the American fight for trans rights, in Britain it’s a point of pride that genteelly genocidal anti-gender-ism cuts across Conservative, Labour, and feminist milieus.

Phew. "A ghoulish culmination of fascistic “family values” agitation"; "trans-annihilationists"; "pogrom-inducing"; "genteelly genocidal". I think we get the point.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest that people who think defining women as female equals 'enforcing the idea that all women need to conform to a singular, racialised and ableist model of femininity' probably shouldn't be teaching anything in university, let alone feminism.

— Dr. Jane Clare Jones (@janeclarejones) May 3, 2025

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Here's the letter: Not In Our Name – Feminist Academics and Educators Speak Out.

We unequivocally reject the idea that women can be defined by their biology, a claim which is neither feminist nor scientific. For centuries, women have fought for the right to do, wear and be what they want to be. It is essentialist and patriarchal to assert that body, genes, chromosomes and reproductive capacity make women (or men).

Feminism teaches us that our body does not determine our destiny, and nor should legislation, policies, or society's expectations.

Trans people are being used as scapegoats and a distraction from the problems that we actually face in society. This is an attack on trans people and will further inflame transphobia. When the Supreme Court ‘clarifies’ (cf. Supreme Court, 2025, pg. 76) what a woman ‘is’ they enforce the idea that all women need to conform to a singular, racialised and ableist model of femininity.

They can't quite get their heads around the idea that woman can be – are – defined by their biology, but that this in no way defines how women present themselves, or dress, or behave, or think. Years of Gender Studies, Queer Theory, and reading Judith Butler can do that to you.

ef=”https://mickhartley.typepad.com/blog/2024/05/the-new-face-of-the-green-party.html”>amongst others…

The Green Party faces a showdown with Lord Mann, the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, over the conduct of councillors newly elected under its banner.

One who shouted Allahu akbar (God is greatest) and described getting a seat on Leeds city council as a “win for the people of Gaza” had previously been involved in the harassment of a Jewish university chaplain driven from his home.

Two who won seats in Bristol had been involved in social media posts which led the city’s Labour Party to fear that the Greens were becoming a haven for antisemitism.

A Peterborough Green councillor has also been shown by the Jewish press to have made insulting anti-Israel comments….

The new face of the Green Party, which has traditionally been involved in campaigning to save hedgerows and improve air quality, came as a surprise to observers of last week’s local elections.

Three of the four councillors whose activities have raised cause for concern were previously Labour supporters or activists, raising the likelihood that Jeremy Corbyn fans have been migrating to the Greens and changing their culture.

Mothin Ali, wearing a keffiyeh, the scarf symbolic of Palestinian resistance, celebrated his victory in Leeds by raising his arm in the air and saying: “We will not be silenced. We will raise the voice of Gaza. We will raise the voice of Palestine. Allahu akbar!”

The Greens have, sadly, become a haven for nutters.

Laundry soap that doesn’t clean, toothpaste lacking flavor, toothbrushes too stiff. It's a losing battle. 

North Korean authorities are restricting the distribution of foreign products in markets while encouraging the sale of domestically produced items. However, people are responding coldly to these locally made goods.

A source in South Pyongan province recently informed Daily NK that Pyongsong’s commerce department issues monthly directives requiring vendors to prioritize domestic products. The source explained that earlier this month, local market management offices were instructed to restrict the promotion and widespread distribution of foreign goods, while requiring domestic products to be prominently displayed for customers.

This move appears to be an attempt to counter the widespread preference for foreign goods among North Koreans by promoting a “our things are best” sentiment….

Despite these efforts, consumers remain unimpressed with domestic products. Local residents generally recognize that many so-called domestic items primarily consist of imported components repackaged as North Korean goods. Many dismiss the government’s “our things are best” campaign as unrealistic propaganda that ignores quality issues.

Citizens also complain about the few decent domestic products being prohibitively expensive and limited in quantity. North Korean instant noodles, for example, are priced similarly to Chinese versions but are less popular due to inferior taste and texture. Recently produced necessities like soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, and conditioner from local factories are also widely rejected for their poor quality.

The source reported that laundry soap doesn’t clean effectively, toothpaste lacks flavor, and toothbrushes are too stiff—all contributing to the negative reputation of domestic goods.

Furthermore, people criticize the corruption surrounding these directives, as merchants routinely bribe market supervisors to avoid compliance. Vendors often display domestic products for show while secretly selling foreign goods behind the counter.

"You've never seen a more grassroots movement in your life"

This is a really important point by @HJoyceGender and we can't repeat it often enough in the face of constant lies about how we supposedly have all the money, all the power, bla bla bla…

This legal victory was won… pic.twitter.com/cjFTWhl10A

— MrMenno 🏳️‍🌈🎶 (@MrMennoTweets) May 2, 2025

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In full:

This legal victory was won by small grassroots organisations taking on the Scottish government, the Equalities watchdog and a huge NGO from their living rooms – one while running a farm!

Reminds me of this quote:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has" – Margaret Mead

Well now….bring out the cliches. "You couldn't make it up"; "sounds like a comedy sketch"; "it beggars belief"; "what's the world coming to?" Licence to Offend exhibition cancelled in case it causes offence. 

An exhibition of work by political cartoonists including The Times’s Morten Morland has been cancelled because of fears it could cause offence.

Hours before a private viewing on Wednesday, organisers of Licence to Offend told guests not to go after a last-minute decision by the venue, the TownSq co-working space in Kingston upon Thames, southwest London.

ootball’s abrupt about-turn from any need to make a stand on their own.

Even on this long-awaited day, with three major sports accepting the imperative to exclude males from the female category from the grass roots to the elite, the language was pitifully lily-livered.

“Complex”, the FA called it. What exactly is complex about banning males – forget the label “biological males” in this instance, given the Supreme Court’s clarity that there is no other kind – from competing against females in a contact sport?

The only reason it was ever presented as some fiendish dilemma is because the FA, in common with many supine governing bodies, was more interested in pandering to Stonewall lobbyists and militant trans activists than in defending the truth. While the 2010 Equality Act was crystal clear in declaring that sports should be single-sex wherever a physical advantage existed, it has taken until 2025 for the FA to recognise what was staring it in the face. It is unforgivable.

For sports read the overwhelming majority of the establishment – the NHS, the BBC, the Civil Service, schools and universities – who all bent the knee to Stonewall. It's a long walk back…

t-ethical-trump-backed-review/?msockid=2a3a40f74e44607c0fe6558c4fdb6147″>sometimes:

An NHS puberty blocker trial is “not ethical”, according to a Donald Trump-ordered review of children’s gender medicine.

The US federal review goes even further than Britain’s Cass Review by raising “serious concerns about medical interventions” of any form in children and teenagers.

Its Department of Health and Human Services concluded that “the overall quality of evidence is very low” to justify giving puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to adolescents, including in trials such as the Pathways research planned by the NHS.

The highly critical review likens the trial of puberty blockers by the health service to trying to test the harms of jumping out of a plane without a parachute.

It was ordered by Mr Trump within days of taking office, having made gender ideology a central theme of his campaign in the run-up to the election.