Mick Hartley

Politics and Culture

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  • A demeaning and harassing assertion

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  • Ukrainian modernist architecture

    A look at some of Ukraine's mid-20th-century architecture, threatened by development, but most obviously of course by Russian bombs and missiles. From Kiev-based Dmytro Soloviov's book Ukrainian Modernism:

    Ukraine’s modernist buildings are an extraordinary blend of function, avant-garde aesthetics and ingenious design, but despite these qualities, they remain largely unrecognised. This is a result of several factors, including the stigma of belonging to the Soviet era, corruption, neglect, as well as the ongoing threat of destruction from both unscrupulous developers and war. Photographer Dmytro Soloviov has crossed Ukraine documenting them to form the most comprehensive publication available on the subject.

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    [Photos: Dmytro Soloviov]

    On Instagram.

  • Angry men

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  • Putting the “ass” in “astronaut”

    Jawad Iqbal in the Spectator:

    Ray Bradbury, the great science fiction author, had this to say about space exploration: ‘Space travel is life-enhancing, and anything that’s life-enhancing is worth doing. It makes you want to live forever.’ I’d hazard a guess that Bradbury might want to think again if he’d lived to witness what must surely go down in history – if at all – as the most self-indulgent and pointless trip into space. Ever.

    Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-31 mission has attracted huge attention because it featured an all-female crew, including Lauren Sanchez (the soon-to-be wife of Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos). The others on board were pop star Katy Perry, TV presenter Gayle King, film-maker Kerianne Flynn, Amanda Nguyen (a civil rights activist and astrophysicist), and Aisha Bowe, an aerospace engineer who worked for Nasa. The rocket launched from Blue Origin’s site in the West Texas Desert and flew the crew over the Karman Line – the internationally recognised boundary of space – at an altitude of 100km (62 miles).

    ‘It’s not just about going to space, it’s about what all these women bring back and the stories they’re going to be be able to tell, the lives they’re going to be able to touch,’ said Sanchez before the flight. ‘I get to go with five incredible women explorers – storytellers – to inspire new generations to be interested in space exploration,’ she cooed.

    Far be it from me to spoil the party, but this is not space exploration. Sanchez is a former TV presenter, about to get married to one of the world’s richest men who just happens to own the space rocket.

    Katy Perry has also been drinking from the same fountain of delusional self-indulgence: ‘I’m really excited…We are all made of stardust and it’ll be exciting to see them twinkle from that site and have such an appreciation for Mother Earth when we see it that way’. She went on to suggest the trip would encourage young girls to go into space in the future with ‘no limitations’. Really? Previous passenger trips with Blue Origin have cost more than $1 million (£760,000) a seat. Only for rich girls, then.

    It has been reported that the crew trained for all of two days ahead of the trip. Rather depressingly, much of the coverage of their journey into space featured talk of flared jump suits and other fashion accessories. The female crew appeared more than happy with this agenda, saying that lipstick, eyelash extensions and hair styles matter. The bible of female empowerment, according to Katy Perry, goes like this: ‘Space is finally going to be glam…We are going to put the “ass” in “astronaut”’.

    Meanwhile:

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  • The adult baby diaper lover

    A grim tale from up north – Soiled nappies dumped at South Tyneside nurseries by woman who climbed in bins for 'comfort'. "Abbi Taylor, of South Shields, admitted depositing controlled waste at three nurseries in South Tyneside":

    Soiled adult nappies were dumped at Tyneside nurseries by a defendant who climbed into clinical waste bins to find "comfort".

    A court heard staff and parents at the nurseries were left horrified by the actions of Abbi Taylor, who also smeared excrement on milk bottles and on a fire escape of one of the nurseries.

    Well, you know what's coming.

    Taylor, who was born male but identifies as female and was referred to in court as a woman, pleaded guilty to three counts of depositing controlled waste at the South Tyneside nurseries.

    Yes, of course. He's a man.

    The 46-year-old, from Newmarket Walk, South Shields, formerly known as Martin Tarling, also admitted stealing clinical waste bags from one of the businesses and breaching a criminal behaviour order previously imposed by Nottinghamshire Magistrates' Court which banned her from going near nurseries.

    Newcastle Crown Court heard Taylor's Facebook profile featured her as a cartoon character wearing a nappy and referred to being an "adult baby diaper lover".

    A man with a diaper fetish. But the reporters and the court still use feminine pronouns. They still refer to him as a woman. Why? Can they please stop doing this? These aren't a woman's crimes.

    Added: and the Mirror.

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  • Starting a war

    Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.

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    Also:

    The FBI should investigate who is spreading Russian propaganda in the White House, a senior Ukrainian MP has said, after President Trump described a Russian ballistic missile strike which killed at least 34 people as a “mistake”.

    I think it's that Donald Trump.

  • The case of the disappearing mouse pointer

    Meet North Korea's exciting new smart phone, the Samtaesung 8. Not of course in any way a rip-off of South Korea's Samsung range. This latest model now has a screenshot function – “Take a screenshot by swiping downward with three fingers on the screen you want". But there are issues.

    Yet the function doesn’t work universally. For instance, in the “Collected Works” app—which contains the works and revolutionary history of North Korea’s supreme leaders—screenshots don’t function on the starting screen or with saved documents. This appears to be intentional, as authorities may consider using a downward swipe on content related to the supreme leader disrespectful.

    This restriction parallels how the mouse pointer disappears when hovering over Kim Jong Un’s face in photos on North Korean media websites like the Rodong Sinmun newspaper or KCNA. This prevents the pointer from obscuring the leader’s face—a measure tied to North Korea’s leader idolization policies.

  • “Wait until it’s safe to say it”

    We're perhaps all too familiar with those who say they support the gender-critical arguments in private, but really would rather not say anything at the moment as the debate is just too toxic. That seems to have been the position not just of individuals but of quite a few organisations too – including, as Victoria Smith at UnHerd argues, the Labour Party.

    The trouble with a “wait until it’s safe to say it” approach is that the world moves on while you’re sitting it out. Just a decade or so ago, it might have been possible to think that trans women were a tiny minority with a very serious, mysterious condition called “gender dysphoria”, and that there would be no real impact on the definition of “woman” from indulging a legal fiction. It is not possible to think this now.

    The failure of politicians and rights organisations to engage with what women were saying, and act accordingly, has allowed a culture of male entitlement to female spaces to flourish. Women’s rights can only be clawed back now by being absolutely clear that sex, not gender, matters at all times. It is not enough to “differentiate” if we still insist that both things can signify “woman” all the same.

    Women cannot count on behind-the-curve politicians for this. It’s still grassroots women’s organisations, such as For Women Scotland in its current case against the Scottish Government, which are focusing on the here and now. It’s better than nothing, but Labour has a lot of catching up to do.

    I'm not sure that there were many in the Labour Party – Rosie Duffield aside – who saw the dangers of embracing the new Stonewall-led trans push. While gender ideology was the latest progressive fad Labour were happy to jump on board, claiming that women could have a penis and men could grow a cervix. Now the tide is turning they're singing a different tune. It says little for their courage or their principles.

    But yes, it was always the grassroots women’s organisations, the Terfs, who led the fight.

  • The 20th century expulsion of Jews from Egypt

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    Full text:

    A new report shows that Egypt stole $59 billion worth of assets from its Jewish citizens—people who had lived there for thousands of years. Homes. Businesses. Synagogues. Entire communities—erased.

    And the world said nothing.

    These were Jews who built Egypt’s economy, spoke its languages, and contributed to every sector of society—until the Muslim Brotherhood made Jewish life in Egypt impossible.

    This wasn’t some ancient tragedy—it happened in the goddamn 20th century. And you wonder where Hamas came from? The Muslim Brotherhood—the same fascist, Jew-hating ideology that turned Egypt Judenfrei.

    Egypt didn’t just erase its Jews — it robbed them, lied about it, and hoped we’d forget. We didn’t.

    Report here:

    A newly released report by the organization Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC) sheds light on the rich cultural legacy and the eventual persecution and expulsion of Egypt’s Jewish community during the 20th century. The report also estimates that the Egyptian government unlawfully confiscated assets from these expelled Jews, with the current value of those assets reaching approximately $59 billion.

    Jewish presence in Egypt stretches back to biblical times, with the Exodus from slavery in ancient Egypt to freedom in the Land of Israel remembered annually during the Passover holiday. The JJAC report serves as a reminder of that ancient connection while drawing attention to a more recent chapter of suffering and displacement endured by Egyptian Jewry.

    "Unlike its ancient counterpart, the modern-day uprooting of Egyptian Jewry is not a tale of triumph but of tragedy," the report stated, noting that the 1930s marked the beginning of the end for Egyptian Jewry with the rise of the antisemitic Muslim Brotherhood, which blended militant Islamism with European-influenced fascism.

    “From this point on, things began spiraling downward for Egyptian Jews,” the JJAC report noted. “Violence, arrests, bombings, blood libels, and the virus of Jew-hatred had spread like a biblical plague throughout Egypt.”…

  • Darts cheat

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