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Saturday, May 11, 2024

Links - 11th May 2024 (1 - Feminism)

Richard Hanania on X - "Korea got western ideas without any of the antibodies. Western men can brush aside the rants of deranged feminists. As an Arab I have to work hard to take women seriously at all, but I'm making progress all the time. Korean men seem to get genuinely hurt by them."
Elections reveal a growing gender divide across South Korea - "They grew up seeing girls in their class enjoying equal opportunity and getting better grades than them, he says.  "Men feel they are falling behind in competitions. And they also have to serve in the military at an important time of their life. But the Democratic Party and the liberal side were only talking about discrimination against women," Jeong says.  He found in a 2019 survey that nearly 70% of men in their 20s think discrimination against men is serious. Many point to mandatory conscription as an example. All able-bodied men must serve for at least 18 months, but not women... Young men see efforts for gender parity as unfair, she adds, because of the zero-sum thinking that women's gains come at men's expense... During his election campaign, in a bid to attract young male voters, President Yoon Suk Yeol said structural sexism no longer exists in South Korea and pledged to abolish the ministry for gender equality.  He has failed to implement the pledge due to resistance from the main opposition Democratic Party, which holds majority control. But in February, two months before the parliamentary elections, he accepted the resignation from the gender equality minister that he had sat on for five months. He did not appoint a replacement.  Meanwhile, the distance between men and women is growing, not just politically but also emotionally.  In a 2021 survey conducted by South Korean news magazine Sisa IN, over 66% of men in their 20s said they cannot accept feminists as neighbors, colleagues, friends or family.  Pollster Jeong Han-wool, who participated in designing and analyzing the survey, found that anti-feminist sentiment is increasingly determining 20-something men's voting behaviors. Their view has even spread to men in their 30s and 40s."
Clearly, if 50% of management roles are filled by females through a quota, this is not at men's expense because feminism and "equality" are good

Matt Walsh on X - "The WNBA salary discourse is the dumbest thing I've seen on this website so far this year. The league has been in existence for 30 years and has never once turned a profit. None of the idiots complaining about the salaries actually consume the product. The league is a charity case, kept afloat by the NBA which generates well over 100 times the revenue and gives some of it to the WNBA so that we can all feel good about the fact that a women's basketball league exists, even though none of us have any interest in watching it.
What is a "fair share" of zero dollars in profit? Someone go ahead and do the math for Biden here."

Sydney Sweeney slams claims she was objectified in Rolling Stones video - "Sydney Sweeney is clapping back at critics who claim she was objectified in the Rolling Stones' "Angry" music video...   In a new interview with Glamour UK, the Anyone But You star said of her starring role in the video: “I felt hot. I picked my own outfit out of racks and racks of clothes. I felt so good in it.”"

Meme Woman 1: "OMG, GET LOST DWEEBLE. YOU'RE SUCH A DWEEB" *nice neighbourhood*
Nerd: "DEAAAUUGHHH"
Nerd: "I'M JUST SO UNLUCKY WITH THE LADIES. MAYBE IF I TOOK MORE INTEREST IN WOMAN'S ISSUES... THEY'LL TAKE MORE INTEREST IN ME"
*votes for feminism*
Woman 1: "THANKS FOR WALKING US HOME DWEEBLE" *rough neighbourhood*
Woman 2: "YEA, THIS PLACE SUCKS ASS"

A new type of feminism doesn't turn back the clock but insists on common sense - "A new movement of young British and American women is challenging liberal feminist orthodoxy, exposing its inconsistencies, contradictions, and downright harms. Two prominent members of the movement, Mary Harrington and Louise Perry, published books in the last year and a half, each different in focus but with similar themes. In Harrington’s Feminism Against Progress and Perry’s The Case Against the Sexual Revolution, both authors—one a Gen Xer, one a Millennial—explore the challenges with being a woman in the early 21st century, from the failures of consent-based sexual ethics to the commodification of female bodies (or the erasure of them)... any feminism for which the goal is to deny sex difference, whether in dating, the workplace, or parenthood, fundamentally fails women...  in general, women neither want to have sex like men, nor benefit from it.  Perry’s focus on hook-up culture, the harmful impact of pornography, and the inadequacy of consent for sorting out the appropriateness and potential harm of a given sexual encounter are uncomfortable to confront. For women raised to be good liberal feminists, freedom trumps everything. We’re supposed to think of women involved in prostitution and pornography as empowered. To question their choices (or coerced “choices”) is to question their personal autonomy.  But Perry deftly confronts the reader’s discomfort, drawing on powerful research to show that real, meaningful differences between most men and women—their preferences, their physical attributes, and the power dynamic that results—make the harms caused by a libertarian approach deeply unethical. Perry’s response is not mass vows of chastity, but a practical (if rarely heard) call to women to get to know men before having sex with them and to seek out loving marriages... Harrington aims her critique at capitalism and the commodification of the female body. She pulls no punches, calling out companies offering employees egg freezing, the exploitative treatment of many birth surrogates, the proliferation of daycare for all, and the medicalization of so-called “gender-affirming care.” In her view, the aim of liberal feminism is to extract labour and money from female bodies, with no concern for the interests of women themselves. This despite the clear desire many women have to prioritize motherhood, even if they choose to work. Harrington attacks these trends, blaming technology and classism, explaining that wealthier women perpetuate liberal feminism because they have the means to avoid its downsides while lower-income women suffer its dehumanization... Evocative examples of the hypocrisy we live with, which champions women’s rights but stands idly by while female bodies are sold for sex, which calls out #MeToo-style sexual harassment but allows natal male violent offenders in women’s prisons, and which champions #girlboss feminism but seeks to split women off from pregnancy and mothering, treating children and motherhood as inconvenient inefficiencies... no reader will put these books down thinking the old orthodoxy, that women should just behave more like men, and that if we try hard enough, we can erase problematic sex differences and set women free, isn’t sorely lacking."

Gina Bontempo on X - "I was talking to an OBGYN today who said that, as uncomfortable as it is to admit it, when he has to deliver teenagers and women in their early 20s, they usually have a much easier time with birth, never tear, and tend to fly through labor. Their bodies are just equipped to handle birth so much better.  He also said one of the reasons there are so many C-sections now (of course in addition to many doctors just scheduling them or prematurely performing them) is because women are simply having babies much later than ever before. This has an impact on how they labor.  It was a fascinating conversation. Biology is not politically correct.
I also interviewed a midwife recently who has been delivering babies for 20+ years, and she said the women who are giving birth later in life generally perform much better during birth and recover much better if they started having children at a younger age, like early 20s. She said in her observation, the earlier you start, the easier it is. Another midwife she knows posted this same sentiment once on social media and lost work because of the rabid backlash. She said even the crunchiest midwives aren’t allowed to share their most honest observations without getting mauled by the online mob. Fascinating."
Patriarchy is so powerful, it affects biology

Shay 🌈🌸✨ on X - "I’d love for Nike to explain why male and female athletes can’t wear the same kit but adjusted for size. Why do the female runners cheeks and genitals need to be half out?"
"They tried to sell the women and men the same stuff, and the men and women said no. Girls want to look pretty, men want to look strong."
"The difference is we got dicks and balls, since apparently you don’t know about anatomy let me tell you, we have these things that protrude from a body while you guys lack that specific part of genitalia so the clothes and the form fitting that you wear are completely different."
"Do you like running with a wedgie? I don’t know about you but I have thigh fat and a shapely rear end, when I run it’s going up my cheeks regardless. Just say you’re shaped like SpongeBob and move on."
Katie Moon on X - "Hey! Athlete that wears the kit here! Totally understand your frustration and love you defending women, but actually we do have the option to wear just that if we want to 🤗 with all the top and bottoms they send us we have at least 20 different combinations! For reference please look at what Laulauga Tausaga wore when she won the discus 🤗"
Anatomy and athlete preferences are sexist

Wilfred Reilly on X - "For everyone ranting about "sexism" and - for some reason - "porn," these uniforms are usually designed by/in consultation with the athletes."

Richard Hanania on X - "Major happiness study finds that women enjoy taking care of children more than working. Media reports this as people are miserable when taking care of children, ignoring that work does worse."

Alex Contreras 🍉 on X - "Men who mock women for enjoying astrology are gross. Men who mock women for enjoying various things are gross. Let people live.
The people who are QTing this are mostly men mocking women for enjoying astrology. Once again, mocking women for enjoying things is an entry point to misogyny and gross. If you're a man and your first reaction is to mock women as a whole for enjoying astrology, that's a problem."
julzzz says ceasefire now🚰 on X - "not gonna lie, as a woman and longtime hater of astrology, I deeply resent astrology’s contemporary rebrand as this special space of sanctity and reprieve for women and queer people, which inevitably has the effect of putting it above criticism"
Of course, the fact that men get mocked all the time doesn't mean misandry is a thing, because power relations means never having to say you're sorry

US astrology influencer worried about eclipse killed partner, baby: report - "A US astrology influencer worried about the recent solar eclipse stabbed her partner to death, then pushed her two children out of her moving car before fatally slamming the vehicle into a tree, a report said Wednesday.  Danielle Johnson, who peddled weekly “aura cleanses” on her website and offered online zodiac readings, told followers that Monday’s total solar eclipse in North America was “the epitome of spiritual warfare.”  “Get your protection on and your heart in the right place,” she wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on April 4 under her online pseudonym Danielle Ayoka."
Damn misogyny!

Christina Hoff Sommers on X - "Want to close wage gap? Step one: Change your major from feminist dance therapy to electrical engineering. #NationalOffendACollegeStudentDay"

Jack On All Trades on X - "Women really saw their husbands come back from 12 hours of work, tired and miserable, and thought gee I want to do that too."

Meme - "Say women belong in the kitchen and feminists lose their minds. Say men are better chefs than women and feminists lose their minds."
Feminists always lose their mind, so

The Feminist Rediscovery of Artemisia Gentileschi - The Atlantic - "historians have found that such trials were common in early-17th-century Rome, and Gentileschi’s experience “strongly follows a sort of formula.” (She maintained a relationship with Tassi for several months after the assault, and to the court, his offense was refusing to marry her, rather than the rape.) In other words, we should not impose modern ideas about sexual consent onto the situation in order to turn Gentileschi into a modern feminist heroine. “She was probably in love with her rapist,” Germaine Greer wrote of Gentileschi in her book on female artists, The Obstacle Race. “He was a dashing figure, handsome and black-bearded, often to be seen on horseback and sporting a golden chain.”... allowing an artist’s biography to dominate her critical reception—finding the Judith paintings more interesting as an expression of revenge than as a work of art—concerns Treves. “There is no question that her personal experiences, like any artist’s personal experience, shape the making of their art,” she said. “But I also think just to look at these paintings in that vein, it’s not particularly helpful. It diminishes her artistic achievement.”  So when does feminist celebration become patronizing, an implicit silver medal? (Isn’t she good—for a woman?) As rarities and exceptions, women are often defined by their biography. Never mind the talent—how do we feel about her? Feminist rediscovery risks saving women from obscurity only to conscript them into a reductive triumphal narrative. Gentileschi is such a striking example of this debate that we could name the dilemma after her: the Artemisia Problem. Is she good—for a woman? Or good enough to deserve a place in the canon, regardless of her sex? The danger of “rediscovery” is an implicit demand that women must be good people, inspirations, role models, trailblazers—people worth rescuing—something that is not asked of lecherous Picasso; violent Caravaggio; or Francis Bacon, the sadomasochist. A related version of the argument insists that women who reach high office are worth celebrating only if we agree with their politics. At its worst, well-meaning feminist rehabilitation can create a new prison to replace the old one. The quest to reverse our condescension toward muses, the novelist Zadie Smith has argued, resulted in off-putting biographies that were often “unhinged in tone, by turns furious, defensive, melancholy, and tragic.” These underdog narratives “kept the muse in her place, orbiting the great man.”"

Derailing Australia’s Campus Rape Panic - "new regulations were introduced by a number of universities to establish committees and secretive processes to investigate and adjudicate sexual assault. These reversed the burden of proof, denied the accused normal legal rights, and required only a “balance of probabilities” to secure conviction. Many other universities have apparently made plans to proceed down the same path.  This followed a campaign orchestrated by activists who have spent the last decade successfully convincing the media that young women are unsafe on our campuses. As a result of their lobbying, the Australian Human Rights Commission spent a million dollars on a survey intended to uncover evidence of this alleged rape crisis. However, the survey found that only tiny numbers experienced sexual assault (an average of 0.8 percent over each of the two years studied), even when a broad definition of sexual assault was applied that included touching by a stranger on public transport to campus. The main finding was low-grade sexual harassment (mainly unwanted staring) which the universities then promoted as alarming levels of “sexual violence.” Despite this setback, the higher education sector continued to toe the feminist line, setting up new measures to respond to the perceived crisis. Our university regulator—the Tertiary Education, Quality, and Standards Agency (TEQSA)—swiftly issued a “guidance note” advising universities to provide evidence of how they respond to sexual assault. This was widely interpreted by universities as a requirement to get involved in the criminal law business.  The kowtowing of key players to activist demands has been extraordinary... A video shows bureaucrats squirming as Stoker points out that the resulting university regulations contain barely a word about ensuring proper legal rights for accused young men...  a university administrator admitted in private correspondence with a student representative that his university had assumed they might still proceed with a misconduct hearing to determine the guilt of the perpetrator even if the accused had been found not guilty in criminal court. The reason? The university had a lower standard of proof, he said. That’s the point of this whole exercise—to use “victim-centred” justice to ensure more rape convictions... That was widely acknowledged as the goal in 2011 when President Obama required all publicly funded universities to establish tribunals to adjudicate rape on campus. This led to over 200 successful lawsuits against universities for failing to protect the due process rights of the accused —rights the Trump administration is now seeking to restore. Given that recent history, it is extraordinary that our higher education sector has allowed itself to be led down the same path. Universities Australia has just commissioned a new survey on sexual assault intended to cook up more impressive rape statistics after the failure of the AHRC to produce the desired results... I’d made a complaint to the university about key organisers of the Sydney protest, providing hours of video evidence and numerous witnesses to show they were breaching the university’s bullying and harassment regulations. After an investigation that lasted over 8 months, the university finally took action, suspending the key organiser, Maddy Ward, for a semester. Ward is a serial troublemaker who already had a strike against her following a notorious protest at which she exposed her breasts to an anti-abortion group. Ward proudly took ownership of the protest against me but was outraged that I had succeeded in “weaponising the university codes of conduct” against her. It was the authoritarian Left that insisted on regulating behaviour on campus, but they do not, it seems, like being held to the standards they impose on others."
From 2019

Meeting The Enemy: A Feminist Comes to Terms with the Men's Rights Movement by Cassie Jaye (Transcript) - "In 2013, I decided to meet my enemies. I was a 27-year-old, award-winning documentary filmmaker and a proud feminist. And I was determined to expose the dark underbelly of the men’s rights movement. At that point, all I knew of the men’s rights movement was from what I’d read online, that it’s a misogynistic hate group actively working against women’s equality... when I learned that no one had ever documented the men’s rights movement in a film before, I saw it as an opportunity to continue fighting for women’s equality by exposing those preventing it.  So for one year, I traveled North America meeting the leaders and followers of the men’s rights movement. I spent anywhere from two hours up to eight hours, interviewing each individual men’s rights activist, also known as MRA, and I filmed 44 people total. And there is an important rule in documentary filmmaking. As an interviewer, you do not interrupt. So I’m asking questions, and I’m getting their full life story. And in the moment, I didn’t realize it, but now looking back I can see, that while I was conducting my interviews, I wasn’t actually listening. I was hearing them speak, and I knew the cameras were recording, but in those moments of sitting across from my enemy, I wasn’t listening. What was I doing? I was anticipating. I was waiting to hear a sentence, or even just a couple of words in succession that proved what I wanted to believe: that I had found the misogynist. The ground zero of the war on women...  I was typing out every word meticulously, and through that process, I began to realize that my initial knee-jerk reactions to certain statements weren’t really warranted, and my feeling offended did not hold up to intense scrutiny. Was that statement about men having built the skyscrapers and the bridges anti-women? I thought, well, what would be the gender-reverse scenario? Maybe a feminist saying: Just look around, everyone you see was birthed by a woman. Wow! That’s a powerful statement. And it’s true. Is it anti-male? I don’t think so. I think it’s acknowledging our unique and valued contributions to our society. Well, luckily, while I was making The Red Pill movie, I kept a video diary which ended up tracking my evolving views, and in looking back on the 37 diaries I recorded that year, there was a common theme. I would often hear an innocent, valid point that a men’s rights activist would make, but in my head, I would add on to their statements, a sexist or anti-woman spin, assuming that’s what they wanted to say but didn’t... I couldn’t keep denying the points they were making... It’s not a contest. But I kept making it into one. Why couldn’t I simply learn about men’s issues and have compassion for male victims without jumping at the opportunity to insist that women are the real victims.  Well, after years of researching and fact-checking, what the men’s rights activists were telling me, there is no denying that there are many human rights issues that disproportionately or uniquely affect men... most people can’t name one because they think, “Well, men have all their rights; they have all the power and privilege.” But these issues deserve to be acknowledged.  They deserve care, attention, and motivation for solutions. Before making The Red Pill movie, I was a feminist of about ten years, and I thought I was well-versed on gender equality issues. But it wasn’t until I met men’s rights activists that I finally started to consider the other side of the gender equality equation. It doesn’t mean I agree with all that they’ve said. But I saw the immense value in listening to them and trying to see the world through their eyes. I thought if I could get my audience to also listen to them, it could serve as a rung on the ladder, bringing us all up to a higher consciousness about gender equality. So in October 2016, the film was released in theaters, and articles and critic reviews started to roll in. And that’s when I experienced how engaged the media is in group think around gender politics. And I learned a difficult lesson. When you start to humanize your enemy, you, in turn, may be dehumanized by your community. And that’s what happened to me. Rather than debating the merit of the issues addressed in the film, I became the target of a smear campaign, and people who had never seen the movie protested outside the theater doors, chanting that it was harmful to women. It certainly is not. But I understand their mindset.  If I never made this movie, and I heard that there was a documentary screening about men’s rights activists that didn’t show them as monsters, I too would have protested the screenings or at least sign the petitions to ban the film because I was told that they were my enemy.  I was told that men’s rights activists were against women’s equality. But all the men’s rights activists I met support women’s rights and are simply asking the question: “Why doesn’t our society care about men’s rights?” Well, the greatest challenge I faced through this whole process, it wasn’t the protests against my film, and it wasn’t how I was treated by the mainstream media – even though it got pretty disgusting at times. The greatest challenge I faced was peeling back the layers of my own bias. It turns out I did meet my enemy while filming. It was my ego saying that I was right, and they were subhuman. It’s no secret now that I no longer call myself a feminist... if we want to honestly discuss gender equality, we need to invite all voices to the table. Yet, this is not what is happening. Men’s groups are continually vilified, falsely referred to as hate groups, and their voices are systematically silenced.  Do I think either movement has all the answers? No. Men’s rights activists are not without flaws, neither are feminists. But if one group is being silenced, that’s a problem for all of us. If I could give advice to anyone in our society at large, we have to stop expecting to be offended, and we have to start truly, openly, and sincerely listening. That would lead to a greater understanding of ourselves and others, having compassion for one another, working together towards solutions because we all are in this together."

The Distracted Boyfriend Who Took Over the Internet Is Deemed Sexist in Sweden - The New York Times
When the demand for sexism is higher than its suppl

Lucas Lynch - "Some self-professed radicals want Billie Eilish to stop trying to look traditionally sexy, because this is somehow vaguely 'harmful'?  Why not force her to put on hijab then, honestly? Coming from a different angle, the motivation is the same.  This faction would find it less objectionable that she were cast in a violent movie where she cuts men and women's heads off than she dare consent to display her body in a traditionally sexy way. The Puritain's lament may not repeat itself, but it rhymes down through the ages, always wrong for the same reasons.   Those arguing that the sight of the female body is harmful - and even worse, somehow responsible for the harm that comes to others that have one - are inevitably on the wrong side of the debate, and on the wrong side of history. At some point, in some enlightened society in the future, men and women will stop penalizing women for simply existing. The Saudi clerics would have it be otherwise, and this is exactly the reason why anyone who professes to give a damn about freedom and an enlightened society should choose otherwise.   'My body, my choice' seems to come to a screeching halt when that choice involves choosing to be traditionally sexy. This contradiction should be obvious to anyone intelligent and well-educated, and yet it is often the intelligent and well-educated who choose to intersect with the clerics on this very mistaken point."

Meme - "Women: Schrodinger's little victim and empowered adults at the same time!  Reddit(and the Left tbh):  "16 Year olds are adult enough to vote!"  also  "20 year old women are CHILDREN!""

Urban Dictionary: Schrödinger’s Feminist - "A woman is simultaneously a victim and empowered, until something happens. Then she chooses which state benefits her the most…"

Meme - "Chennai. Vellore Institute of Technology
MINI MARATHON
RUN FOR GENDER EQUALTIY
MEN 10 KM
WOMEN : 5 KM"

Why the Life Expectancy Gap between Men and Women Is Growing - "In 2010 women were projected to live 4.8 years longer than men. By 2021 this gap widened to 5.8 years, the largest disparity since 1996. During the 20th century, heart disease was the main cause of death that created the difference in life expectancy among women and men. But now COVID fatalities and a growing number of drug overdoses among men are to blame"

Meme - "r/sexworkers. want to hear what leftist "ally" guys really think of you? read how they describe Melania.
there are plenty of ways to say that she sucks, or that Trump sucks, without bringing up her former modeling/escorting career. but for some reason that's the first thing they reach for. every dumb joke, cliche, crude stereotype and insult gets trotted out, but it's okay because she's married to Trump.  look I can't stand this woman either. that has nothing to do with her being an escort. I'm just tired of men who make an effort to be "socially conscious" good guys dropping the mask when they get a chance to make a funnee whore joke"
"I'm quite liberal politically, and I hate it when people denigrate Melania for her nude modeling. I even hate it when people make fun of Trump for being fat. There are endless legitimate reasons to criticize them both. No one should need to resort to superficial attacks."
"It is the same way they talk about MTG and her appearance where they mock her for looking like a man or something. And they justify saying shit like that by saying she deserves it for her politics, but there's tons of things you could say negatively about her without mentioning her looks. It just shows that all these values they supposedly espouse are hollow."
How about (female) feminists? (if you believe men can't be feminists - only allies)

Friday, May 10, 2024

Links - 10th May 2024 (2 - Hamas Attack Oct 2023: College Campuses)

I was treated like a criminal for being Jewish. The Met chief must go - "At Aldwych, we came across the pro-Palestine protest and we started to cross the road as the front of the march got to us. Suddenly I felt hands on me. I looked around to see a police officer who was shoving me onto the pavement. He said: “You are quite openly Jewish, this is a pro-Palestinian march. I’m not accusing you of anything but I’m worried about the reaction to your presence.” The march came towards us and after a few minutes the crowd got thicker, people stopping and shouting abuse at us: “Disgusting”, “lock them up”, “Nazis”, “scum”. There were people there, right there, who were expressing as loudly as they could how much they hated me for looking Jewish, and not a single person was saying: “You shouldn’t do that”, or “I disapprove”. Instead the police officers said that I would be escorted out of the area or, if I chose to remain, I would be “causing a breach of peace” and arrested. They added that my presence at the march was “antagonising”. I didn’t understand. I didn’t have a flag or a placard or anything that would in any way mark me out from any other normal Londoner except for the fact that I was wearing a skullcap. I was so indignant. How dare he pick me out because I’m Jewish — and tell me where I’m allowed to walk? There were people around me, with their faces covered, shouting repeatedly: “Scum, scum, scum, scum, scum.” Why wasn’t there any problem with their behaviour? Why don’t they have a crowd of police around them, or even one officer telling them to move on? By the actions of the Metropolitan Police, it’s not just that central London is a “no-go zone” for Jews, as has been said previously, but a police-enforced Jew-free zone... a protester stood right next to me and a police officer and said: “I’m not afraid of your effing people. Wherever you go, I’m going to monitor and record your movements, not because I support you, but because I’m against you.”... In the months since the marches started — since October 7 — we have just seen the police making excuse after excuse, telling us that there is some kind of context in which calls for jihad do not mean violence, where swastikas on a placard can be somehow contextualised, where people waving the flags of terrorist organisations haven’t had any action taken against them. What happened to me is the inevitable outcome of an approach to policing that sacrifices the rights of law-abiding Londoners to appease lawless mobs. The incident itself was disgraceful. But what is an absolute stain on the reputation of the Met is the way the force has handled it since I complained... Someone said to me recently, is it really the end of the world if Jews just have to stay out of central London for a few months on weekends? Yes. It is the end of a world that has existed since the Battle of Cable Street in 1936, when British Jews and their allies saw off the British Union of Fascists, and ever since we have been able to live and thrive as equals in this city. If we just accept that we are no longer welcome on the streets of London, it is the end of that world."
Weird how the protesters didn't get the memo that they were "anti-Zionist", not anti-Semitic

Met chief backs officer in Gideon Falter row as protesters arrested - "a clip emerged that appeared to show a Metropolitan Police officer threatening Gideon Falter, a prominent antisemitism campaigner, with arrest after claiming that his “openly Jewish” presence at a pro-Palestinian march was “antagonistic”. The standoff, after months of protests in which antisemitic placards and support for Hamas have been evident, prompted Falter to call for the resignation or removal of Sir Mark Rowley, the Met commissioner. Falter argued in The Sunday Times that Britain’s most senior police officer had “lost control of the streets”, as well as the confidence of Jewish Londoners. His call for Rowley to go was echoed by Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, who has previously described pro-Palestinian protests as “hate marches”. A week later, however, Rowley remains firmly in post and, it can be revealed, has spoken directly to the sergeant involved in the standoff with Falter, 40, to offer his personal support. Not only has the commissioner praised the officer’s “professionalism”, but has told him he is free to return to public order duties... Stephen Kapos, 87, a Holocaust survivor from Hungary who lost 15 relatives at Auschwitz, appeared at the head of the protest, running from Parliament Square to Hyde Park. Kapos said: “The right wing has been claiming that these marches create no-go areas for Jews. But the opposite is true. It’s not dangerous for Jewish people to be associated with these protests.”... the Met had confirmed two arrests. They included a man seen carrying a placard with an image of a swastika and another man who had “shouted a racist remark” in the direction of the pro-Israel counter-protest. The alleged victim of the abuse, Hayley Ace, a Christian priest from north London, believes she was targeted because she was wearing a baseball cap with a Star of David. Ace, 43, said: “The man shouted at me ‘Where are you from?’ F*** off, Jew. F*** off back to Poland.”... A plan by Falter’s organisation, the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), calling on supporters to descend on the pro-Palestinian march and “walk where they please” was called off on Friday after the charity said the Met had not done enough to guarantee participants’ safety... Falter’s tense exchange with the Met sergeant who referred to him as “openly Jewish” came at an earlier protest on April 13. Snippets of the incident were originally released by the CAA as part of an eight-minute film in which Falter said Jews were no longer able to go about their normal lives, declaring “enough is enough”... In the CAA footage, Falter, who was wearing a kippah skullcap and carrying his prayer shawl in a bag marked with a Star of David, tells the officer he wants to cross the road at Aldwych, which would involve stepping into the path of the fast-flowing protest... The Met subsequently apologised for the officer’s comments, but said opponents of such protests “must know that their presence is provocative”. This poured fuel on the row and led to the force having to retract the statement and issuing a second apology, in which it said “being Jewish is not a provocation”."
Of course, only the "right wing" can "weaponise" "token" "minorities" by using them as "mouthpieces". When "pro-Palestinian" marchers are violent towards Jews, it's the fault of the "right wing"
Yet another example of a Jew who is anti-Israel

Initial story about ‘openly Jewish’ incident not full picture, says ex-senior Met officer - "a longer version of the same exchange has since emerged on Sky News, showing the officer explaining that his concern was that he had seen Falter acting in a way that led him to believe he was trying to provoke a confrontation with marchers... “Personally, if I was policing that march, I would have been inclined to have arrested [Falter] for assault on a police officer and breach of the peace.”... Addressing Babu’s comments, Falter said: “A former chief superintendent has even outrageously suggested that I assaulted a police officer and should have been arrested. This has now gone far beyond victim-blaming. These tactics are desperate, but they reveal the Met’s priorities.”"
Good luck to a police officer who tries to prevent a scantily clad woman from walking into a crowd of drunk, rowdy men, or who suggests that she shouldn't do so for her own safety. And if a Muslim is in danger from provoking participants in a "far right" protest, no prizes for guessing who will be arrested
Weird how, in contrast, those who protest the "far right" are not in danger, since we know the "far right" are super violent and dangerous

Jewish Londoners are afraid, Baroness Casey tells Metropolitan Police - "Jewish Londoners are afraid, according to Baroness Casey of Blackstock as she criticised Scotland Yard’s “absolutely horrific” handling of a row sparked at a pro-Palestinian rally... Casey, who led an independent review of the Met after a serving firearms officer kidnapped, raped and murdered Sarah Everard in south London in March 2021, said her “heart sank” when she watched footage of the incident... During her 45-minute session, Casey compared the Met’s clumsy approach with how the force handled the vigil held in Everard’s memory on Clapham Common — days after the 33-year-old’s body was found in woodland near Ashford, Kent. Officers were seen dragging away dozens of mourners as they sought to clear the bandstand."
Time to keep Jews safe by locking up the "far right" without trial

Meme - mirax @miraxpath: "Same people will deny that there are no-go zones in London."
Nula Suchet @nulasuchet: "I'd like to ask Gideon Falter and friends why they needed to walk through a pro-Palestine march when there must have been any number of alternative routes."
StillJill 🇮🇱 on X - "I’d like to ask Nula why she thinks that any streets in London or indeed anywhere in OUR country should be off limits to anyone that doesn’t encourage the Jew haters to pollute our streets."
Michael de Monte on X - "I'd like to ask Rosa Parks why she got on the bus, when she could just as easily walked or cycled"
Tim Skellett on X - "I'd like to ask Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. why he felt forced to walk through Birmingham, Alabama, @nulasuchet. Same energy. Justify racism much, do you?"
Lakesman on X - "Why do Hamas supporters need to lock down London every week when the war is thousands of miles away? They are not looking for a peaceful solution."
Joo🎗️ on X - "To prove a point that was subsequently proved."
Dont Be Fooled 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧 on X - "I would like to ask the pro-Hamas supporters why seeing a Jewish person should enrage them so much? I thought they just wanted peace for people on the Gaza Strip and by that count surely everyone - is there something else at play here ?"
AVE☕️💜💙🗽😎🥳 on X - "Why it is an issue, when there is apparently no antisemitism 🤔London’s streets are for EVERY religion, culture & skin colour…"
Jim Bob Levy on X - "Because these disgusting “marches” -aka Nazi rallies - are full of screaming criminal Jewhaters who call for the genocide of millions of Jews. They must be banned."
Suzi Cointreau 💜🤍💚 on X - "If those weren’t antisemitic hate marches, why would Gideon have been in any danger from the crowd? I’d like Jewish people on these marches to say whether they are welcome wearing the Star of David or a yarmulke."
OutsideTheVillage on X - "Why is the presence of a Jewish person a provocation with a peaceful protest?"
Chade Fallstar - 🇬🇧 Free & Sovereign on X - "Down this road leads to asking young women why they needed to wear a short skirt when they could have chosen a long skirt or trousers. This is nothing but victim shaming Nula. Do better!"
Melindi Scott on X - "You mean Jews. You'd like to ask Jews how very dare they walk with the same freedoms as everyone else."
DOTSM. Standing with ✡️ on X - "Nula sounds nice, doesn’t she? How dare those pesky Jews want to be free to do what they want!"
Rachel on X - "Why should being Jewish restrict your right to go anywhere, at any time? Those that threaten violence are the problem, not those that highlight the violent threat."
Inc.Monocle on X - "My word what a profoundly arrogant person you are. Where free citizens decide to walk (as long as they’re breaking no law) has zero to do with you."
Theorised on X - "Hi Nula - We live in a place called the UK, where we are free to walk where we may in the public space and not be subject to harassment and intimidation. This forms one of the cornerstones of our liberal democracy. Hope that helps."

‘Openly’ doing all Jews a disservice - "The matter is quite simple. If the police believed that the sight of a clearly identifiable Jewish man would cause the marchers to harm him, or to create a disturbance, then the march should not have been permitted."
"Growing up one of the very few Asians in a seaside town in the 1970s and 1980s, even as a child I knew to avoid the seafront on a summer bank holiday, as I would be targeted by the hordes of skinheads and punk rockers intent on carnage. This act of self-preservation was made in the full knowledge that the police were unlikely to be sympathetic to a non-Caucasian."
There was a Jew criticising Falter. Presumably he would've criticised an Asian who insisted on "provoking" racist skinheads and punk rockers too

It's time to stop giving the pro-Palestine protestors the benefit of the doubt - "At a scrum on Monday morning, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was asked about the protests on Parliament Hill over the weekend where pro-Palestine protestors chanted “Long live October 7” and “October 7 is proof that we are almost free.” As Jews were preparing to celebrate our liberation from slavery at the Seder table, and with over 130 hostages snatched by Hamas still unaccounted for, Freeland could not muster a clear condemnation of those who would celebrate their murder, torture, rape, and kidnapping... A few hours later, after gathering her talking points, Freeland issued a statement expressing “shock and disgust” at the protests. But the fact that she needed time to consult with her comms staff before doing so is evocative of a much bigger problem. Imagine a crowd cheering in approval of the lynchings of Black people. Can there be any doubt that Freeland wouldn’t have found herself similarly muzzled in her response?  As protestors were jubilantly celebrating the October 7 pogroms as proof of their imminent freedom in Ottawa, campuses in the United States have been similarly roiled with increasingly tense pro-Palestine encampments... erstwhile defenders of the youth simply expressing noble, if somewhat naive, pacificism, are missing the clear lust for violence on display at these protests. As much as I support free expression, the level of support for terrorist tactics like October 7 at these protests is a threat to liberal democracies that cannot be dismissed as mere peaceful protests by naïve youth.  There were cut-and-dry legal wrongs being committed: assault, including where Jewish students and faculty who merely committed the sin of being visibly Jewish were encircled with human chains and physically blocked. There was a young masked blonde woman who carried a sign menacing a group of pro-Israel counter-protestors as “AL-QASM’s NEXT TARGETS,” referring to the armed wing of Hamas that led the October 7th attacks and arguably a direct incitement to violence and clear grounds for expulsion under Columbia’s code of conduct. A Jewish woman, Sahar Tartak, was poked in the eye with a Palestinian flag and had to go to hospital.   But the most loathsome aspect of the weekend’s horror shows on both sides of the border was the unanimity with which pro-war, pro-eradication of Jewish and Israeli life, and pro-terror slogans were embraced by the crowds. The whole crowd joined in on chants of “Go back to Poland,” and “Burn Tel Aviv to the ground.”   Two weeks ago in downtown Toronto, a “ceasefire now” pro-Palestine protest let its mask slip when, upon hearing a loudspeaker announcement that the Islamic Republic of Iran had sent 300 drones and missiles to Israel, virtually all those present, including children, hooted and cheered in delight.   And, of course, in Ottawa, practically the whole crowd went along with gleeful chants in support of October 7.   These protestors are not for peace, they are for violence— seemingly even beyond the borders of Israel and Palestine. When they say death to America and death to Israel, I believe they mean it.  This truth which is apparent to anybody with eyes and 30 seconds to watch a social media clip is frequently being downplayed as a few bad apples. Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia Amira Elghawaby tweeted that the “problematic speech” of a “few individual protesters” is unacceptable and contrary to our shared values but then added she was concerned about “deliberate efforts to smear all protesters with one brush. It’s difficult to square Elghawaby’s assertion that it was only a “few individual protestors” when clearly the hateful chants were coming from the whole crowd on Parliament Hill. Moreover, the pro-Palestine movement has repeatedly failed to purge itself from its continually prominent hateful elements. Not every Columbia student might have been onside with marking Jewish students as the Hamas Al-Qassam Brigade’s next targets, but there has been no public disavowal of this conduct, nor of violence against Jews and Israelis generally. As Bret Stephens noted in the New York Times a few weeks ago, “The mark of a morally serious movement lies in its determination to weed out its worst members and stamp out its worst ideas. What we’ve too often seen from the ‘Free Palestine’ crowd is precisely the opposite.” This is no accident. It follows from the ideological foundations of the movement which are plain for anyone to see... In the settler-colonialism ideology, which was spoon-fed to the students at the same elite institutions now scrambling to contain its fruits, any critical assessment of the colonized’s means of resistance—apparently, up to and including rape and torture, and slaughter of innocents—is an unacceptable imposition of white colonizer standards.  Alarmingly, this ideological framework also extends to rejecting the basic premises of a free society governed by laws. Yesterday, Students for Justice in Palestine tweeted out “WE REFUSE TO BE SUBSUMED INTO A LIBERAL FIRST AMENDMENT FRAMEWORK!”  What they mean is that they don’t want to be accommodated within a liberal society, they want to burn it to the ground. We’d best listen and act accordingly."

Moroccan asylum seeker guilty of murdering stranger in rampage told officers it was 'for the people of Gaza' - "Ahmed Ali Alid, 45, attempted to kill his housemate, a Christian convert, stabbing him in his bed as he slept.  He then prowled the streets of Hartlepool until he came across Terence Carney, 70, who was out for a morning walk, attacking him and stabbing him to death.  He told police the attack, a week after the Hamas attacks on Israel, was "for the people of Gaza" and he had wanted to kill more victims. At the end of his police interview, Alid attacked two female officers, yelling "Palestine" and "Allahu Akbar" - meaning "God is great" - as he grabbed one of them and wrestled her to the ground, causing his solicitor to dial 999. The court heard Alid, a former pastry chef, had travelled from Morocco to Spain in 2007 and spent time in 13 different European countries before arriving in Britain.  He spent 13 years living in Italy, Germany - where he was denied asylum - and Spain, before arriving in Middlesborough by ferry from the Netherlands in 2020.  He claimed asylum and spent the next three years living in a hotel in Hull and then state-funded accommodation in a terraced house in Hartlepool, waiting for his claim to be processed. Alid's housemate had alerted police that he was an "extreme Muslim" and said that he would sit in the kitchen with a knife and give him "bad looks" after realising he had converted to Christianity.  Javid Nouri, an Iranian asylum seeker, described how he found Alid laughing and "watching terrorist news" on his phone in the kitchen following the 7 October attacks by Hamas. Nouri told the managers of the hostel he believed Alid was a "terrorist" and went to police on 13 October, but was told there was nothing they could do unless Alid was carrying the knife around the house or using it to threaten his housemates.  Two days later, Nouri was woken around 5am when Alid broke into his bedroom, brandishing two kitchen knives and stabbed him in the chest.  Nouri, a former bodybuilder, described Alid shouting "Allahu Akbar". He managed to kick Alid away and run for the door but was then attacked from behind and stabbed in the face, before grappling with Alid and getting him into a headlock.  One of his housemates, another Christian convert from Iran, helped bundle Alid out of the room and sat with their backs against the door as Alid kicked at it, attempting to get back in... As he was taken to the police station on suspicion of terrorism offences, Alid was shown on bodyworn footage talking in Arabic, translated for the jury, in which he said: "For the people of Gaza inshallah [god willing].  "Inshallah Gaza will return to our country. I am Arab, I am Arab, I am Arab, it will return to Arab country. I am the son of Arabs, in the name of Allah." During his police interview, Alid, a fitness fanatic and fan of mixed martial arts, told the officers through an Arabic translator: "The whole issue is for the independence of Palestine. To have two dead victims is better than more.  "It is between the Zionist entity and Hamas movement. They set a specific time for shooting and if this Zionist occupation does not leave, here in Britain there will be [a] flood, unrest." Asked if he intended to kill more people, Alid said: "I swear by Allah if I had a machine gun and I had more weapons that they would be in thousands.  "I was going to contact someone to get me a machine gun and I would have done more and then that person told me to carry on with the knife."... In court, Alid withdrew his confession and claimed he had acted in self-defence after going into Nouri's room to confront him about arguments in the house and getting attacked himself.  He claimed that he had then walked the streets shouting "free Palestine!" in a "loud voice" when he came across Mr Carney who told him to "go back to your country and stay there"."
If this gives you any concerns about migrants, you're racist and xenophobic
The only way to stop this is to destroy Israel, since knowing they would invade Gaza in the future forced the migrant to kill people

Sky News: Moroccan asylum seeker guilty of murdering stranger in rampage told officers it was 'for the people of Gaza' : r/unitedkingdom - "The thing that people said wouldn’t happen, happened"
"Quick blame brexit"
"Austerity and Britains lack of youth centres radicalized him even in Morroco"
Sky News: Moroccan asylum seeker guilty of murdering stranger in rampage told officers it was 'for the people of Gaza' : r/unitedkingdom - "Our asylum system is actively dangerous to public safety. The far right couldn't come up with stories like this in their wildest dreams. This is a man who hails from Morroco which is a destination for european tourists, not a disaster zone. His asylum claims are rejected in numerous european countries. He finally enters Britain in 2020 and since lived in tax payer funded accomodation for years before commiting a horrendous Islamist murder.  What on Earth are we doing?"
Sky News: Moroccan asylum seeker guilty of murdering stranger in rampage told officers it was 'for the people of Gaza' : r/unitedkingdom - "Probably still some lefty numbskull will try and stop the deportation plane.  Our broken immigration policies once again is the reason a British citizen has been murdered."

Military veteran Michael von Berg slams Victorian group Teachers 4 Palestine's vow to 'dismantle' Anzac Day as a 'slap in the face' - "An Australian Defence Force hero has hit back at a group of teachers who want to 'dismantle the Anzac legacy'.   Pippa Tandy, a spokesperson for Victorian group Teachers 4 Palestine, said she wants to change how Australia's history is taught in schools because she is 'sick of having to do ideological work for arms companies and the government'.  But veteran Michael von Berg MC OAM told Daily Mail Australia it was a 'slap in the face' to those who had defended the nation and that 'if the Education Minister had any guts, he would come down on this'... Teachers and School Staff for Palestine Victoria said this week it won't be 'glorifying Australia's military history this Anzac Day'. Mr von Berg said the day is about commemoration of the tens of thousands of Australian and New Zealand troops who were lost, injured or gave their lives on the battlefield to protect the nation and those who returned mentally scarred.  'It is a sacrosanct day in the Australian calendar.  'The ignorant and apathetic position taken by Teachers4Palestine in boycotting Anzac Day is a slap in the face of all who have served and a total disrespect for those who have spilled blood.'... The Teachers for Palestine Victoria group, which has connections with hundreds of schools across Australia, has linked Anzac Day to the plight of Palestinians including Israel's violent retaliation to terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on October 7.  It has released a teaching booklet focusing on 'the frontier wars, mistreatment of returned soldiers, Australian war crimes in Afghanistan, and the perspectives of Palestinian academics and advocates'... 'These woke teachers want to redesign a syllabus to suit their own bias.'... 'The Middle East situation is a result of empires carving up territories. Just as the scramble for Africa was,' she told the 3AW host.  'Anzac Day is being used for ideological purposes, it's not simply remembering sacrifices.'  Mr Elliott fired back, asking Ms Tandy whether, in her view, countries dragged into those wars had a choice.  'Are you saying in WWII we shouldn't have opposed imperialist Japan or Nazi Germany?' he asked.  'If you study Anzac Day it's anti-war, it's not saying war is wonderful, it's saying it's terrible but sometimes it's necessary... 'The vast majority of Australians believe Anzac Day is worth commemorating. You're in the minority here.'  Ms Tandy said she knew of hundreds of teachers who had the same views as her.  'We are sick of having to do this ideological work for arms companies and the government.'"
Weird how they are against "ideological work", but want to push ideology themselves

'Some staff' suspended after Jewish father applying for a UK passport for his five-month-old daughter had his birth certificate returned 'defaced' and with his birthplace of 'Israel' scribbled out - "Some staff have been suspended after a Jewish baby's birth certificate was returned ripped and 'defaced' with her father's birthplace of Israel scribbled out.  Israel, the father of five-month-old baby Ronnie, was horrified when he discovered his daughter's birth certificate had been returned from the Passport Office defaced.  The engineer, 32, and his wife Dorin, 29, said they felt as though they were living in '1930's Germany' after the incident occurred... the father-of-three, who lives in Edgware, North London,  said the incident had left his family no longer feeling safe within the UK."
More suppression of "pro-Palestinian" speech!

Jewish group calls for end to funding for Edmonton Pride centre - "The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs argues that the Pride centre, which received $138,000 from the federal government in January, should have its funding revoked. It argues that the non-profit has violated the federal anti-racism strategy, praised attacks by listed terrorist entities and “issued written support for the sexual violence waged against Jews.”  On Oct. 21, three weeks after 1,200 people were killed in a surprise raid carried out by Hamas and other terror organizations, the Edmonton Pride centre’s volunteer-run Instagram page posted, “We at PCE stand against apartheid, genocide, colonization and state violence.”... Kravetsky found that her views on Israel had ruptured some of her relationships within the broader LGBTQ community.  “I was accused of hate speech, perpetuating hate speech, because I said, like, don’t use genocide as a word to describe what is happening because it’s harming people in our community,” Kravetsky said. Hamas, in its founding charter in 1988, calls for the destruction of Israel and is nakedly antisemitic... The centre, along with dozens of researchers, academics and other organizations, was a signatory to the controversial Nov. 30 open letter that urged “Canadian political leaders to end their complicity in the ongoing massacres and genocide in Gaza.” The letter, which alluded to “the unverified accusation that Palestinians were guilty of sexual violence” during the October 7 attack created a firestorm of controversy in Edmonton and led to the firing of the University of Alberta’s Sexual Assault Centre director, who was a signatory to the letter... For Kravetsky, who says she’s Edmonton’s only Jewish drag performer, it’s tough to say if the relationships within the LGBTQ community can be healed.  “I removed myself from all of the drag community here in the city to protect myself…. I’m a social pariah at this point,” she said. “If there’s going to be reparation, I think it’s going to be a long process…. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to feel safe in a queer space again.”"

Coddled affluent professional on X - "It’s only a couple years later and >90% of people don’t care COVID escaped from an NIH funded lab, killing 1 million Americans. So if you think the war in Gaza is anything more than a meaningless social media spectacle that will be instantaneously forgotten you’re delusional."

Conor Friedersdorf on X - "A challenging hypothetical question for progressives who oppose ever calling the police on nonviolent protesters: The year is 2026. Abortion is the hot-button issue of the moment. One night, in a coordinated action, pro-life student groups at Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, UC Berkeley, and UCLA break into administrative buildings and establish an occupation. Their demand: citing complicity in mass death, they won't leave until their respective medical schools stop teaching how to perform abortions. Attempts at negotiation fail. They won't budge even after being warned of potential disciplinary and legal consequences. They aren't doing any damage to the building or threatening anyone's safety, but their presence is a significant disruption to administrators and a minor disruption to students and faculty. In that case, do you still believe that administrators ought *never* call the police in order to clear the building, no matter how long the occupation lasts?"

Andrew Fox on X - "It’s almost as if there are two wars being fought over Gaza, that bear almost no relation to one another. First there’s the actual war and the serious debate and commentary surrounding it. Then there’s the insane, childish, performative, American culture war-style bollocks where they shriek “genocide” and “apartheid” and wear keffiyahs and generally make fools of themselves. For the left, Gaza is just another way to cosplay and virtue signal in total ignorance of what’s actually happening there."

Oli London on X - "Princeton students dressed in Islamic attire announce they are going on HUNGER STRIKE. “We will abstain from all food and drink except water until the following demands are met.”
Demands:
• Divest from Israel
• Cultural Boycott
• Complete Amnesty from all criminal charges"
Isn't it cultural appropriation to put on not just the keffiyeh but other Arabic garb?

More on Single Fathers vs Single Mothers

Someone posted this image in a debate group:


"For those of you who prefer "statistics."
Imaginary Billionaire, JD @realtoddbillion: "Stats show that two parent homes produce better outcomes in kids than single mother homes but that single father homes produce the same outcomes as two parent homes."
(the original tweet has since been deleted)

I said that the literature did not support this claim and he challenged me to "prove it" (ironically, the tweet did not cite any statistics)

Naturally, he kept quiet after I posted some sources, the more extensive of which was:

Single‐Father Families: A Review of the Literature - Coles - 2015 - Journal of Family Theory & Review

"As is often the case, the first studies in the 1970s and 1980s were understandably small (16–80 respondents), qualitative, and exploratory, and they were chiefly descriptive and atheoretical. They also largely focused on White, divorced (occasionally widowed), single fathers, who accounted for the majority of single dads in those years. If they included fathers of color, the analysis still often did not address race (this is still largely true today)...

The few studies of this period that included a comparison group of single mothers similarly concluded that single-father respondents were doing pretty well—in fact, similar to (DeFrain & Eirick, 1981) or better than (Ambert, 1982) many single mothers...

Since then, the field has been increasingly dominated by quantitative studies using national, more representative data sets...

In her 1987 study of 55 single fathers, 73 single mothers, and 155 married couples, Risman measured role priority, household tasks, child self-disclosure, physical affection, and parent-child intimacy. Single mothers and fathers were similar on most measures, but single mothers reported more physical affection and intimacy with their children than did single fathers...

Hawkins et al. (2006) analyzed adolescent reports... single fathers were no more involved overall than nonresident mothers, and unpartnered single mothers rated higher on involvement than single dads on all 10 measures...

Single fathers are less close to and less involved with their children’s friends and school, and monitor and supervise their children less than single mothers do...

Single custodial-father families with a coresident partner had the lowest levels of family routines; adolescents in such families are least likely to participate in regular family activities such as eating dinner together. Single-father households with a partner also exhibited lower levels of closeness and awareness of their children’s friends and activities than all other parent types, which may lower social capital for the child...

Using data from the 1982 NSFG, McLanahan and Bumpass (1988) found no differences in the likelihood of teen marriage, teen birth, premarital birth, or marital disruption between youths in single-mother households and youths in single-father households. Adult children from both single-father and single-mother households had equivalently higher rates of these outcomes than those in two-parent households.

Most more recent studies have concentrated on adolescent respondents and have distinguished between internalizing behaviors (e.g., depression, anxiety, low self-esteem) and externalizing behaviors (e.g., antisocial or violent behavior) and substance use. Current evidence from these studies indicates that for internalizing behaviors (Buchanan et al., 1996; Downey et al., 1998) and academic performance (Downey, 1994; McLanahan & Sandefur, 1997; Mulkey, Crain, & Harrington, 1992), outcomes for children from single-father and single-mother households are similar. Again these conclusions support a microstructural approach.

However, turning the lens to externalizing behavior (e.g., antisocial and violent behavior) and substance use (e.g., cigarette smoking, alcohol, drugs), parental gender effects become more salient, with children of single fathers consistently showing higher levels of both (Buchanan et al., 1996; Cookston, 1999; Demuth & Brown, 2004; Downey & Powell, 1993: Hoffmann & Johnson, 1998) over children of single mothers. (Although this review is of US studies, I note that Breivik and Olweus’s (2006) study of Norwegian single fathers came to the same conclusions.)

For instance, Eitle’s own findings from the 2006 study using data from the Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey, an annual survey of middle and high school students, found that living with a single father increased the risk of alcohol use among boys and girls, the risk of delinquent behavior among daughters, and the risk of marijuana use among Latino students (the study included Whites and African Americans as well). Parental gender didn’t matter for other illicit drug use. The inconsistent nature of the findings led Eitle (2006) to conclude that both the microstructural and the maternal hypotheses were somewhat supported, but not the paternal hypothesis.

Hoffmann and Johnson (1998) focused on drug use among adolescents ages 12–17, using 3 years of NHSDA data. They compared family structures that included two parents, single parents, and stepparents, and they concluded that the risk of drug use, including problem use, was greatest for adolescents in single-father households (see also Cooksey & Fondell, 1996). Similarly, Cookston (1999) used 1995 NLSAH data (adolescent reports) to measure involvement (parental supervision) and outcomes. He found that alcohol and drug behaviors, as well as delinquency rates, were highest in single-father homes. Using the same data, Demuth and Brown (2004) likewise found that family process scores (measures of closeness, supervision, and monitoring) were consistently higher in single-mother families, and this was reflected in lower delinquency rates among children of single mothers versus those of single fathers. However, once they controlled for family process variables—that is, once they compared single mothers and fathers with similar levels of closeness, attachment, supervision, and monitoring—they concluded that gender was of no importance.

One of the few exceptions was a study conducted by Downey, Ainsworth-Darnell, and Dufur (1998)...

Related to outcomes and within-group variation, Buchanan et al.’s (1996) Stanford Custody Project found that having a cohabiting partner in the household, which as stated earlier is more common among single fathers than single mothers, was associated with higher levels of virtually every problematic outcome they measured: poorer conflict resolution skills, substance use, school deviance, anti-social behavior, and lower grades and effort at school. Not surprisingly, the authors concluded that the association between having an unmarried partner in the household and poor adjustment, especially for boys, was strong and consistent.

Several studies related to outcomes for children have gone one step further than asking whether children are better off with single fathers or single mothers; rather, they have asked whether the consequences for children’s outcomes are a result of an interaction between the gender of the parent and of the child. For the most part, these studies ask whether children will fare better when they are raised by a parent of the same sex. Remember that single fathers tend to raise more sons than daughters, which can be attributed to both a greater propensity of fathers to seek custody of their sons and to mothers’ and courts’ willingness to grant those requests, in part because the parties assume that fathers will be more effective parents for sons than for daughters. Underlying this is Freud’s classic psychoanalytic theory, which emphasizes the importance of a child’s ability to identify with the same-sex parent as a prerequisite for his or her healthy emotional development (Downey & Powell, 1993). Similarly, social learning theory stresses the importance of the child modeling the behavior of the parent more similar to her- or himself, as well as the reinforcement received from others for doing so (Bussey & Bandura, 1984). In addition, others have suggested that parents may better understand the needs of their same-sex children (Thompson, 1983), or researchers have highlighted concerns that custodial heterosexual parents may seek emotional fulfillment from their opposite-sex children in the absence of an adult partner (Weiss, 1979).

Among the first studies to support the same-sex theory was the Texas Custody Research Project (Santrock & Warshak, 1979)...

However, subsequent studies have not reached the same conclusions...

Using a sample of 187 children from 160 divorced families in Southern California, with roughly equal numbers of children in same-sex and opposite-sex custodial arrangements, Clarke-Stewart and Hayward (1996) tested the maternal versus paternal theory, hypothesizing that children would do better in the custody of their same-sex parent. Although they found that children were generally emotionally better off in father custody, none of the interactions by gender matching of child and parent was significant for any measure of psychological well-being (e.g., divorce adjustment, self-esteem, depression, anxiety). (A 1998 study in Israel by Guttman and Lazar came to similar conclusions...

With a few possible exceptions, the children of single fathers do about as well in terms of internalizing behavior and academic performance (sometimes better), which again provides support for microstructural theories. However, the children of single fathers appear to be more likely to participate in externalizing behavior and substance use (do not confuse with “abuse”), perhaps a reflection of the already-mentioned style differences, which indicates that resources play a lesser role than parental processes in these outcomes and provides some support for maternal theories. As of yet, the few studies of young adults (as opposed to adolescents) do not seem to indicate significant long-term differences, as related to marriage, teen birth, and divorce, between those reared in single-father versus single-mother homes (Downey & Powell, 1993; McLanahan & Bumpass, 1988)."

Also:

A Comparison of Children Living in Single-Mother and Single-Father Families: Journal of Divorce: Vol 12, No 2-3 - "The measures employed were The Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC; Harter, 1985) and The Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1983). One-way MANCOVA and ANCOVA procedures were performed and it was found that the overall scores of children from single-father families (SFFs) did not differ significantly from children in single-mother families (SMFs) on the SPPC and the CBCL"

The School Performance of ChildreFor instance, Eitle’s own findings from the 2006 study using data from the Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey, an annual survey of middle and high school students, found that liv- ing with a single father increased the risk of alcohol use among boys and girls, the risk of delinquent behavior among daughters, and the risk of marijuana use among Latino students (the study included Whites and African Americans as well). Parental gender didn’t matter for other illicit drug use. The inconsistent nature of the findings led Eitle (2006) to conclude that both the microstructural and the maternal hypotheses were somewhat supported, but not the paternal hypothesis.n From Single-Mother and Single-Father Families:: Economic or Interpersonal Deprivation? - DOUGLAS B. DOWNEY, 1994 - "Children from single-father and single-mother families perform roughly the same in school, but both are outperformed by children from two-parent families"

Reexamining the Effects of Family Structure on Children's Access to Care: The Single-Father Family - PMC - "Children who reside in single-father families exhibit poorer access to health care than children in other family structures"

A National Portrait of Family Structure and Adolescent Drug Use on JSTOR - "Hoffmann and Johnson (1998) focused on drug use among adolescents ages 12-17, using 3 years of NHSDA data. They compared family structures that included two parents, single parents, and stepparents, and they concluded that the risk of drug use, including problem use, was greatest for adolescents in single-father households (see also Cooksey & Fondell, 1996). Similarly, Cookston (1999) used 1995 NLSAH data (adolescent reports) to measure involvement (parental supervision) and outcomes. He found that alcohol and drug behaviors, as well as delinquency rates, were highest in single-father homes. Using the same data, Demuth and Brown (2004) likewise found that family process scores (measures of closeness, supervision, were consistently higher in single-mother families, and this was reflected in lower delinquency rates among children of single mothers versus those of single fathers."

American Single Father Homes: A Growing Public Health Priority - PMC - "Compared with other family heads (e.g., single mothers, married couples, or cohabiting caregivers), single fathers tend to utilize health and behavioral health services for their children at lower rates. Children of single fathers have the lowest percentage (59%) of annual well-child visits to a consistent pediatrician compared with children of other family heads (e.g., 72% for married couples, 71% for single mothers, and 69% for cohabitating families) and are less likely to adhere to medical advice"

Related: Balderdash: Single Fathers vs Single Mothers

Links - 10th May 2024 (1 - Climate Change)

Dutch farmers back Wilders as centrist nightmares come true - "Geert Wilders is everything European centrists loathe. Now, the far-right Dutch firebrand is winning over the farmers Brussels has spent decades trying to placate... a constant voice has been backing him to become one of the most extreme right-wing leaders in Europe's postwar history: the head of the Farmer–Citizen Movement (BBB) party, Caroline van der Plas...   Her party has become a key channel for rural discontent since its 2019 formation, even coming first in provincial elections in March 2023.  Beyond the Netherlands, farmer protests have spread across in Europe in recent months, including to Brussels where on Monday tractor-driving agriculturalists clashed with police and left mounds of tires burning on the streets of the European Quarter. Meanwhile, amid angry scenes at a Paris agricultural fair on Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron vented about the “political manipulation” of farmer concerns; the remarks were seen as aimed at the far-right National Rally.   Macron and other centrists fear farmers in their countries will also be tempted by far-right promises to fight EU green laws. Seeking to prevent traditionally conservative rural areas from backing the far right in June's EU election, center-right parties have swung back hard against new environmental policies in recent months.  Animus toward the EU's green policies form the basis of the deal between the BBB and PVV. In particular they have targeted a plan by the current caretaker Dutch government to reduce cattle numbers and force farmers to sell their farms to meet pollution targets. "There is great despair within the sector," said van der Plas. "There is almost no financial space left within farms."... Both Wilders and van der Plas have said they would scrap the pollution reduction plan, even though political opponents and experts say ignoring the EU’s nitrogen limits would be illegal... “Luckily, we have international agreements,” Dutch climate minister Rob Jetten said in an interview with POLITICO. “European policies that narrow the opportunity for a Geert Wilders government to fully stop climate action.”"
If you oppose globalism, you must be "far right". Time to abolish voting to save "democracy"

Gad Saad on X - "Please watch.  The Deputy PM of Canada is questioning whether capitalism and democracy are still viable systems when dealing with climate change.  If you are going to save the trees, you need an authoritarian regime that tells you what you can eat, how you should dress, how many kids you can have because carbon emissions."
Wide Awake Media on X - ""Does capitalist democracy still work?"  Deputy PM of Canada and WEF Board of Trustees member, Chrystia Freeland, takes aim at the concept of democracy, in the name of tackling "climate change".  "Our shrinking glaciers, and our warming oceans, are asking us wordlessly but emphatically, if democratic societies can rise to the existential challenge of climate change.""
Why elites love to obsess about climate change so much

Meme - "I'm here interviewing Planet Earth today. Hi there!"
"Hello"
"Apparently you've been Greening a lot recently. How come?"
"Yes, it's all this extra CO2"
"CO2?! But, but that's bad surely?"
"No! It's food for all my veg! I love CO2!"
"CUT! CUT! WE CAN'T USE THIS!! #@!?"
"But I thought you wanted a greener planet..."

Scientists secretly believe we're all going to die soon - retired professor - "We're all going to die - that's a fact.  But even Millennials should be preparing to meet their maker, if American scientist Guy McPherson is to be believed.  The retired biology and ecology professor says runaway climate change is going to kill us all by the year 2026. And if we somehow make it off the planet before then, unlike the inhabitants of the starliner Axiom in apocalyptic Pixar classic WALL-E, we might not be able come back... In late 2016, he appeared on Three's Paul Henry to say humanity would be wiped out in 10 years. He's sticking by that timetable - even suggesting he might have overestimated how long we have left.  "For most of us, we'll be going sooner than that 2026 timeline I presented a couple of years ago."...   Prof McPherson says other scientists agree with him - they're just too scared to say so."
From 2018

Climate Change—Assessing the Worst Case Scenario - "At the extreme, worst-case or precautionary thinking is analogous to Pascal’s wager and subject to similar objections. If we should pull out all the stops to prevent climate catastrophe no matter how improbable it might be, why not some other, equally improbable disaster? As long we have finite resources to devote to preventing disasters and a virtually unlimited ability to imagine them, this creates impossible dilemmas. Fortunately, there has been some realistic exploration of worst cases among climate scientists and others recently. They can supplement the IPCC reports which, though far from perfect, have the advantage (at their best) of summarizing the available evidence, avoiding the “single study syndrome.”  Alarmist claims come in two flavors: one vague and ambiguous, the other exaggerated and misleading... just about any negative prediction can be amplified by imagining that it will cause “social breakdown” and trigger conflict, even war. This has long been common among environmental alarmists. Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 predictions were particularly grim, even suggesting global nuclear war. Few actual climate scientists would go to that level of doomsaying. But the tendency to fantasize about societal impacts is evident. One recent study suggests that sea level may (in the worst case) rise up to 2 meters by 2100... A “very senior member” (scientist? bureaucrat?) of the IPCC is supposed to have claimed that exposed populations in low-lying nations “will die.” Bjørn Lomborg’s dissection of this claim is instructive. First, he points out that they will not stay and drown. This is so self-evident that you may wonder how both the “very senior member” and the scientist quoting him can believe they will. Nor is it even likely that they will have to move. Lomborg points out that the study in question concludes that adaptation is feasible and that the actual number of displaced individuals will be far lower (around 300,000 or less). Still, let us for a moment indulge the notion that all those people will have to move in the 80 years left until 2100. Will it cause “social breakdown on scales that are pretty unimaginable”? Looking back at the past 80 years, we can see that at least 150 million people were permanently displaced. So although 187 million certainly represents enormous disruption, it is hardly unimaginable, having basically happened before. One currently fashionable worst-case scenario is from a recent scientific publication discussing a “Hothouse Earth” scenario. Climate scientist Richard Betts points out that much of the coverage of this study has exaggerated the alarm... the question “what is the worst case?”—unless it’s purely academic—has to come with a time frame. We cannot even begin to imagine what technology and society will be like thousands of years from now. In fact, do we even have knowledge that could enable us to help our descendants much past 2100? Similarly, should—or even could—our ancestors have done anything to prevent today’s problems? Michael Crichton explored this question in 2003:
'Let’s think back to people in 1900 in, say, New York. If they worried about people in 2000, what would they worry about? Probably: Where would people get enough horses? And what would they do about all the horseshit? Horse pollution was bad in 1900, think how much worse it would be a century later, with so many more people riding horses?'...
the other currently popular worst-case narrative. It is based on the IPCC’s scenario known as RCP 8.5... RCP 8.5 assumes a departure from multiple current trends. It appears to require a “return to coal,” which is contrary to forecasts, and even more contrary to the most recent trends... Much alarmist material is premised on the idea that climate change has already caused all sorts of extreme weather hazards to grow significantly. By extrapolation into the future, this feeds apocalyptic visions of weather gone berserk. But contrary to what the media tend to report, this notion has very little empirical support. Roger Pielke Jr has treated this subject in detail in his book The Rightful Place of Science: Disasters & Climate Change:
'The analysis of twenty-two disaster loss studies shows that economic losses from various weather-related natural hazards, such as storms, tropical cyclones, floods, and small-scale weather events such as wildfires and hailstorms, have increased around the globe. The studies show no trends in losses, corrected for changes (increases) in population and capital at risk, that could be attributed to anthropogenic climate change.'...
much of alarmist thinking can be described as reducing the future to climate: reasoning as if nothing else will happen except climate change, thus discounting economic growth, technological development and adaptation to changing environmental conditions. If we also ignore the fact that climate change will also have beneficial effects, there is no way the future could be anything but worse than the present. By contrast, the IPCC expects the current trends of economic growth and falling mortality to continue. In fact, the negative economic impacts of climate change are expected to be small compared to overall economic growth... for the time being, I see no justification for describing climate change in terms of “crisis,” “emergency,” “catastrophe,” or “existential threat” rather than simply “threat,” “challenge,” or “problem.” At the very least, anyone claiming that millions of people are going to die, or that civilization will collapse, should be required to specify which impacts of climate change are going to cause this and how."

Drake Landing, a solar energy community south of Calgary, loses its sizzle as system starts to fail - "Drake Landing, once the leading solar heating community of its kind in North America, may have to rely on fossil fuels as the aging system is breaking down and may be too expensive or impossible to fix. The 52 homeowners in the small, tight-knit community in Okotoks, south of Calgary, at one point welcomed guests from around the world to show off the groundbreaking technology. The international visitors wanted to see first-hand how energy from the hot summer sun could be collected and stored and then released in a harsh Canadian winter to heat the community's houses. By all accounts, Drake Landing, established in 2006, exceeded the expectations and objectives set by the project's financial backers — which included the provincial and federal governments. Showcase a large-scale, seasonal, solar storage system capable of supplying over 90 per cent of the space heating requirements in a residential community? Check. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional houses? Check. Create a model that could represent the future of sustainable residential heating systems? Check. Win multiple national and international building, environment and sustainability awards? Check. Check. But now, the system is starting to fail, and it could be decommissioned — it's one outcome the community faces... Corboy said the company has been working hard over the past year and a half to find "affordable and reliable solutions to the growing system performance issues." He said this includes trying to find parts and experts to service the 20-year-old technology. He said a number of components have reached their end of life, including the air handler unit, the solar collectors, custom-made fittings that connect the entire system together and other unnamed replacement parts... Corboy said decommissioning would not mean the project was a failure. "It's important to note that we do not see this project as a failure at all. At the time, this system was revolutionary and caught attention from around the world. Much has been learned because of this community," he said. It's disappointing for some of the owners who expected to get at least 25-30 years out of the groundbreaking system... It was well-known among the owners that the system put in place in Okotoks was groundbreaking — that it had the potential to represent the future of sustainable residential heating."
Too bad climate change hystericists won't learn the right lessons

Meme - "Me In 2050 patiently waiting for the electric cop car's battery to die *car chase*"

Trudeau will force a business case for EVs whether we like it or not - "“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is the oldest rule of investment diversification. Really shrewd investors go one step further and don’t put all their baskets on the same truck... Do you get the sense that the federal government is practising even naive, eggs-in-different-baskets diversification regarding its favoured industrial policy? Or that it has any inkling that the future can surprise? Or is the government, as it would appear to be, all-in on batteries and electric vehicles? Lately, it’s as if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, finding himself of a morning in a mid-sized Ontario or Quebec town, looks around (as one could imagine, in another era, Louis XIV looking around) and says, “This is a fine looking place with, in our opinion, all the makings for an electric vehicle/battery manufactory. Here, my good people, is several billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money. Take it and build such a factory.”... These days Canada’s GDP is running at almost $3 trillion a year; the $43.6 billion Ottawa is spending on just the first three big EV/battery deals is about 1.5 per cent of GDP. That’s real money with real consequences. Especially when the government backs it up with rules and prohibitions. The prime minister, who has no background in business, is nevertheless fond of talking about “the business case” for things. There is no business case for exporting liquefied natural gas (though it’s an established thing), he told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who came asking for help just after Russia invaded Ukraine. But there is a business case, apparently, for exporting hydrogen (though it’s not yet an established thing). Whether there’s a business case for electric vehicles is a question that most of the rest of the world currently seems to be asking. If you’re the head of a car company that has made big bets on EVs, you must be seriously worried that demand for them is falling. You may even be scaling back production because dealer lots are filling up with unsold cars. But in Canada, there is no such self-doubt. Doubt be damned, the government powers ahead. First there’s the torrent of money it is pouring into the industry. And then there’s the banning of competing technologies: no new gasoline-powered cars after 2035, no matter how wonderfully efficient this technology, now well into its second century, has become. Plus a hard cap on oil and gas emissions, which pretty much means a hard cap on oil and gas output. Economists would say: tax carbon at a price reflecting the damage it does and then see what happens. If there’s an energy transition, fine. If there’s no energy transition, that means the damage done by burning carbon-based fuels is less than the benefit they produce. But this government says: There must be a transition. We insist on a transition. And to make sure it happens we need to get businesses to stop teetering and fall off the fence into the transition. So we create the business case by forcing the issue with subsidies firms can’t say no to and rules that knock any competition out of business."

Thread by @BjornLomborg on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Gasoline, not electric cars:  Two-thirds of American's want their next car to be fossil fuel driven, with just 6% battery-electric  Deloitte new 2024 Global Automotive Consumer Study  Key trend: "Slowing EV (electric car) momentum"
Electric cars: Consumers worry  They worry about charging time, range anxiety, cost, battery safety, and availability of charging infrastructure
We're being told that electric cars will take over the US  But Biden's Energy Information Administration estimates that by 2050, 84% of all cars will still run on fossil fuels
We're being told that electric cars are just about to take over  But remember, most governments (except Norway) can't afford to lavishly subsidize all these cars  Biden's EIA estimates that by 2050, most cars globally will still run on fossil fuels"

The environmental costs of EV batteries that politicians don't tend to talk about - ""The rules are non-existent," said Mark Winfield, a professor at York University in Toronto and co-chair of the school's Sustainable Energy Initiative. "There is nothing as we talk to agencies on both sides of the border, the federal, provincial, state levels... Winfield said the fact there is no public policy on the disposal of EV batteries is concerning because a number of the chemicals and components used to make EV batteries, such as cadmium, arsenic and nickel, are listed as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) and simply can't be thrown into a landfill... The environmental costs of a greener future in transportation don't stop at dead batteries. If the country carries through on its plan to build a home-grown supply chain for the critical minerals needed to make EV batteries, it could mean the development of a vast tract of unspoiled nature in Ontario's north... "There happens to be tremendous interest in the critical mineral potential in the Ring of Fire region to fuel the electric vehicle revolution," Moore told CBC News. The region happens to be in the middle of an environmentally significant area called the Hudson's Bay Lowlands. "We're talking about a huge wetland," said Dayna Scott, a professor with the Osgoode Law School at York University and the school's research chair in environmental law and justice in the green economy. "The largest intact boreal forest remaining in the world and also a massive carbon storehouse." In the Hudson's Bay Lowlands, there are an estimated 35 billion tonnes of carbon, with the area acting as a major stopover for billions of migratory birds and is home to wolverines, caribou and lake sturgeon — all considered endangered or species at risk by the federal government. For years, Scott has studied the social, environmental and legal implications of bringing development to the Hudson's Bay Lowlands, and its effect on the rights and interests of remote Indigenous communities there... While it's impossible to tell who's right, Scott said governments need buy-in from every First Nation in the Treaty 9 area or any development would be open to litigation — some rarely mentioned at news conferences or funding announcements about the upcoming switch to Canadian-made EV batteries. "A lot of people who are interested in buying an electric vehicle don't want to see themselves as caught up in an ongoing process of Indigenous dispossession," Scott said. "If people did have to confront at what cost we are going to get these minerals, do we want to do it over Indigenous People's objections? "I think that would give a lot of people in southern Ontario pause, probably.""

Energy company pulls the plug on two major offshore wind projects on East Coast - "Danish wind developer Orsted is halting the development of two massive New Jersey offshore wind projects due to cascading economic pressures, including skyrocketing interest rates and a supply chain crunch – two factors that have dogged wind energy projects up and down the East Coast. The decision is ominous news for a nascent sector that could play a key role in solving the climate crisis, and one that is still trying to find its wings in the US, even as other major economies steam forward. It also deals a blow to President Joe Biden’s clean energy goals, which hinge in part on the massive potential for electricity generated from offshore wind."
How ignorant. They don't know that wind is the future!

NDP leader not saying if ‘fair’ carbon price includes levy on gasoline - "Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh did not answer on Monday when asked by reporters whether his party’s climate policy would include a carbon price on gasoline after saying he wants a more "fair" deal for working people... Singh was asked at least nine times by reporters if his vision of a fairer plan includes a carbon price on gasoline. Singh did not clearly answer. When pressed by reporters, Singh said to look at the NDP’s voting record on the issue... NDP environment critic Laurel Collins said that the Liberals are treating the carbon price as the “be-all-end-all” of climate policy. At a Thursday speech at the Broadbent Progress Summit, Singh said that they cannot rely on free market mechanisms like the carbon price to be the main driver in combatting climate change, adding that the impacts of it are also drivers of affordability challenges. Singh included issues like drought driving up food prices and the high cost of fixing infrastructure like bridges and roads after floods in his speech."
Climate change hysteria is about making life harder and more expensive, after all
We are told that a carbon tax is the most efficient and effective way of reducing emissions, but left wingers are not satisfied by it and keep pushing for more to be done. So much for that
When climate change hysteria drives up food prices, consumers will not notice the incremental effect of droughts. Or they'll blame higher food prices on climate change rather than the policies supposedly fighting it

Economists' letter misses the point about the carbon tax revolt - "An open letter is circulating online among my economist colleagues aiming to promote sound thinking on carbon taxes... it’s conspicuously selective in its focus, to the point of ignoring the main problems with Canadian climate policy as a whole. There’s a massive pile of boulders blocking the road to efficient policy, including: clean fuel regulations, the oil-and-gas-sector emissions cap, the electricity sector coal phase-out, strict energy efficiency rules for new and existing buildings, new performance mandates for natural gas-fired generation plants, the regulatory blockade against liquified natural gas export facilities, new motor vehicle fuel economy standards, caps on fertilizer use on farms, provincial ethanol production subsidies, electric vehicle mandates and subsidies, provincial renewable electricity mandates, grid-scale battery storage experiments, the Green Infrastructure Fund, carbon capture and underground storage mandates and subsidies for electric buses and emergency vehicles in Canadian cities, new aviation and rail sector emission limits, and many more. Not one of these occasioned a letter of protest from Canadian economists... To my well-meaning colleagues I say: the pile of regulatory boulders long ago made the economic case for carbon pricing irrelevant. Layering a carbon tax on top of current and planned command-and-control regulations does not yield an efficient outcome, it just raises the overall cost to consumers. Which is why I can’t get excited about and certainly won’t sign the carbon-pricing letter. That’s not where the heavy lifting is needed. My colleagues object to exaggerated claims about the cost of carbon taxes. Fair enough. But far worse are exaggerated claims about both the benefits of reducing carbon dioxide emissions and the economic opportunities associated with the so-called “energy transition.” Exaggeration about the benefits of emission reduction is traceable to poor-quality academic research, such as continued use of climate models known to have large, persistent warming biases and of the RCP8.5 emissions scenario, long since shown in the academic literature to be grossly exaggerated. But a lot of it is simply groundless rhetoric. Climate activists, politicians and journalists have spent years blaming Canadians’ fossil fuel use for every bad weather event that comes along and shutting down rational debate with polemical cudgels such as “climate emergency” declarations. Again, none of this occasioned a cautionary letter from economists. There’s another big issue on which the letter was silent. Suppose we did clear all the regulatory boulders along with the carbon-pricing-costs-too-much twig. How high should the carbon tax be? A few of the letter’s signatories are former students of mine so I expect they remember the formula for an optimal emissions tax in the presence of an existing tax system. If not, they can take their copy of Economic Analysis of Environmental Policy by Prof. McKitrick off the shelf, blow off the thick layer of dust and look it up. Or they can consult any of the half-dozen or so journal articles published since the 1970s that derive it. But I suspect most of the other signatories have never seen the formula and don’t even know it exists. To be technical for a moment, the optimal carbon tax rate varies inversely with the marginal cost of the overall tax system. The higher the tax burden — and with our heavy reliance on income taxes our burden is high — the costlier it is at the margin to provide any public good, including emissions reductions. Economists call this a “second-best problem”: inefficiencies in one place, like the tax system, cause inefficiencies in other policy areas, yielding in this case a higher optimal level of emissions and a lower optimal carbon tax rate. Based on reasonable estimates of the social cost of carbon and the marginal costs of our tax system, our carbon price is already high enough. In fact, it may well be too high. I say this as one of the only Canadian economists who has published on all aspects of the question. Believing in mainstream climate science and economics, as I do, does not oblige you to dismiss public complaints that the carbon tax is too costly. Which raises my final point: the age of mass academic letter-writing has long since passed. Academia has become too politically one-sided. Universities don’t get to spend years filling their ranks with staff drawn from one side of the political spectrum and then expect to be viewed as neutral arbiters of public policy issues. The more signatories there are on a letter like this, the less impact it will have. People nowadays will make up their own minds, thank you very much, and a well-argued essay by an individual willing to stand alone may even carry more weight. Online conversations today are about rising living costs, stagnant real wages and deindustrialization. Even if carbon pricing isn’t the main cause of all this, climate policy is playing a growing role and people can be excused for lumping it all together. The public would welcome insight from economists about how to deal with these challenges. A mass letter enthusing about carbon taxes doesn’t provide it."

Opinion: The carbon tax is almost dead, and NDP leaders are helping to kill it - The Globe and Mail - "Mr. Singh will be following in the footsteps of Mr. Kinew, who cancelled a provincial gas tax shortly after becoming Manitoba’s new NDP Premier."

After the carbon tax, axe Ottawa's tree plan - "the carbon tax had no measurable impact on GHG emissions, for several good reasons. First came the March 2020 COVID-19 lockdown that knocked five per cent off Canada’s GDP and sent millions of workers home. Then the world price of oil, fuelled by loose monetary policy and government debt, doubled to $100 a barrel by 2022... As the price of gasoline jumped to between $1.50 and $2 a litre, Canada’s gasoline consumption dropped 15 per cent in 2020. The carbon tax pennies were proportionately insignificant (see graph). Now it may be that the total impact of all climate policies drove down emissions more significantly than the economic slowdown and the oil price turmoil, but the reports issued by the Canadian Climate Institute (successor to the Ecofiscal Commission) are short on plausible evidence. Explain the modelling, please... Now we turn to the Trudeau government’s 2019 2 Billion Trees program (known as 2BT), another climate effort that lacks supporting economic logic and/or modelling. At an announced cost of $3 billion, the objective of 2BT is to produce billions of seeds, find land and plant two billion carbon-absorbing trees over the next decade. Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson claims the 2BT mission is a “significant step forward in Canada’s approach to tackle the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.” But even the CBC has taken to exposing the many uncertainties buried in the babbling brooks of Wilkinson’s promotional jargon. In an Easter weekend special on CBC Radio’s The House with Catherine Cullen, titled “The real dirt on the Liberals’ two-billion-tree pledge,” a CBC crew interviewed experts and arborists and visited facilities where seeds are grown and baby trees are planted. The result is a documentary that exposed the improbability of the project. All guests argued that more trees are good for Canada, good for biodiversity and as shades and air filters in cities. But everyone cast doubt on the impact and viability of the plan. The project will require the unprecedented production of billions of seeds in special facilities before planting as seedlings until they are ready for transfer to the wild — assuming enough land can be found across the country. Will planting two billion trees help Canada achieve GHG targets? “The flat answer is no,” said Akaash Maharaj, policy director with Nature Canada. He cited a study that found the government had “miscalculated” and that the program will actually be a “net emitter” of carbon until 2031. Another problem is funding. A nursery manager said the plan needs long-term financial commitment from Ottawa, sort of like the EV industry. Only $3 billion won’t get the job done. He said trees take years to grow from seeds to seedling to plantable saplings that will survive. The tree industry, like the electric vehicle industry, needs to know that once it ramps up production, the demand and the subsidies will keep flowing for years to come."

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