Trump, Putin, Tate... I'm fed up with these putrid men who seem to be in control of the world
Happy International Men's Day! Today and every other day! Men don't actually need a special day because they own every day anyway. So, excuse me if I didn't celebrate International Women's Day, which is now little more than a corporate, careerist and tokenistic endeavour to say that the majority of the population count.
There was a time when I did. I would be invited to events to speak about domestic abuse, male violence, abortion rights and equal pay and all that kind of boring stuff. But that was before I turned into the wrong kind of woman.
I am not a bepenised individual who can speak with any great knowledge about girlhood, such as Dylan Mulvaney, who became a trans star while still a biological male, and is pushing a memoir entitled Paper Doll: Notes from a Late Bloomer, 'which reflects on her rise to fame'.
This is actually an insult to women. As are his TikTok videos about tampons. But the likes of him are as nothing to the ranks of putrid men who seem to be fully in control of the world.
Everywhere I look there are round tables of men dictating the future with barely a token woman among them. There at the head is, of course, Trump and his bunch of incredibly camp capos. There is Musk who seems to see women mainly as incubators. There are the ceasefire meetings in Saudi, where, of course, no women can attend – and this is regarded as acceptable.
There are men playing football alongside players accused of rape. There are cricketers for whom the sport is more important than the fate of women in Afghanistan.
Putin is surrounded by yes men. The few women who do get into power, both in Russia and the USA, are fembots, groomed to within an inch of their lives, experts in 'alternative facts' and certainly never advocate for their own sex. Such women are the exception that proves the rule and therefore the rules don't change.
Globally, women's rights are going backwards. The cutting off of US aid will affect women and girls badly because we know that programmes working on education and contraception are the two things that lift the poorest women out of poverty. Russia has decriminalised domestic violence. The stories of systematic rape of women in the Congo are living hell. In Goma at least 165 women prisoners were assaulted and then set on fire.
Here, and particularly in Scotland, women in their purple outfits (one of the symbolic colours of International Women's Day) were shouted down by activists who do not want women to speak unless those women are actually men claiming ludicrously to be 'biological women'. Lesbians cannot meet without men who have transitioned being present. Women are being suspended from their jobs for not going along with these basic lies. All of this is being fought out in the courts as we speak.
So forgive my yawns about toxic masculinity, a debate that has been going on for decades. Either we say masculinity is toxic or we say there are positive versions of masculinity for men to follow. There are good men. Indeed it takes very little to be one. I am at an age where I can happily poke a sullen teenage boy to give up his seat for a person with a walking stick. I think it is incumbent on us to tell all men that if they are walking behind a woman in the dark, simply cross over the street so she doesn't feel threatened.
Sex education cannot counter the influx of porn but it could tell boys that most girls do not want to be strangled half to death. They could speak of female sexual pleasure. We could also let it be known that while the Tate brothers' simulation of machismo men may impress 13-year-olds, most of us are appalled by their vile rhetoric. Also, what is going on with Andrew Tate's head? It appears to be shrinking. These jumped-up pimps are laughable, they are liars, they are accused of rape, they should be extradited.
It is hard to tell boys not to behave like hate-filled jerks when several hate-filled jerks rule the world, but I am hopeful.
I have three daughters and so have had teenage boys in my house for as long as I can remember. I have seen their sweetness and their insecurities. I have seen them get involved in gangs, become addicts, and get shot in the back. And you know what? I could have nearly always picked out who was going to get into trouble from a young age. Early intervention is not a luxury, it is a necessity.
Why? Because feminists, far from being man haters, have to believe that men can change and that noxious stereotypes of masculinity are imprisoning men. But guys, you need to step up. You must see it when other guys hassle women, you must see bullying.
Instead of the cowards with their secret service protection that run the world, we could do with some decent men, who are unafraid. What we have now is only men who protect each other. Women and children first? Not any more.
All this talk of strong men. Do you think we don't see through it? The 'don't disrespect me' from Trump… I see it from silly idiots on the street every day.
The answer is simply 'no'. We do not respect you. You may scare us but we have no respect. None. Real men earn it. No respect. None. Real men earn it.
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Hamilton Spectator
an hour ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Trump authorizes additional 2,000 National Guard members to Los Angeles, US officials say
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Another 2,000 National Guard troops along with 700 Marines are headed to Los Angeles on orders Monday from President Donald Trump, escalating a military presence local officials and Gov. Gavin Newsom don't want and the police chief says creates logistical challenges for safely handling protests. An initial 2,000 Guard troops ordered by Trump started arriving Sunday , which saw the most violence during three days of protests driven by anger over Trump's stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws that critics say are breaking apart migrant families. Monday's demonstrations were far less raucous, with thousands peacefully attending a rally at City Hall and hundreds protesting outside a federal complex that includes a detention center where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids across the city. Trump has described Los Angeles in dire terms that Mayor Karen Bass and Newsom say are nowhere close to the truth. They say he is putting public safety at risk by adding military personnel even though police say they don't need the help. Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said in a statement he was confident in the police department's ability to handle large-scale demonstrations and that the Marines' arrival without coordinating with the police department would present a 'significant logistical and operational challenge' for them. Newsom called the deployments reckless and 'disrespectful to our troops' in a post on the social platform X. 'This isn't about public safety,' Newsom said. 'It's about stroking a dangerous President's ego.' The protests began Friday in downtown Los Angeles after federal immigration authorities arrested more than 40 people across the city. The smell of smoke hung in the air downtown Monday, one day after crowds blocked a major freeway and set self-driving cars on fire as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades. Additional protests against immigration raids continued into the evening on Monday in several other cities including San Francisco and Santa Ana in California and Dallas and Austin in Texas. In Austin, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a post on X that more than a dozen protesters were arrested, while in Santa Ana, a spokesperson for the city's police department said the National Guard had arrived in the city to secure federal buildings. California pushes back against presence of federal troops California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit over the use of National Guard troops following the first deployment, telling reporters in his announcement Monday that Trump had 'trampled' the state's sovereignty. 'We don't take lightly to the president abusing his authority and unlawfully mobilizing California National Guard troops,' Bonta said. He sought a court order declaring Trump's use of the Guard unlawful and asking for a restraining order to halt the deployment. Trump said Monday that the city would have been 'completely obliterated' if he had not deployed the Guard. U.S. officials said the Marine troops were deployed to protect federal property and personnel, including federal immigration agents. Trump's Monday order put more National Guard members on active duty, but one U.S. official warned that the order was just signed and it could take a day or two to get troops moving. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements. Despite their presence, there has been limited engagement so far between the Guard and protesters while local law enforcement implements crowd control. Bass criticized the deployment of National Guard troops and Marines as a 'deliberate attempt' by the Trump administration to 'create disorder and chaos in our city.' She made a plea to the federal government: 'Stop the raids.' Early protests remained peaceful On Monday, thousands flooded the streets around City Hall for a union rally ahead of a hearing for arrested labor leader David Huerta , who was freed a few hours later on a $50,000 bond. Huerta's arrest on Friday while protesting immigration raids has become a rallying cry for people angry over the administration's crackdown. He is the president of the Service Employees International Union California, which represents thousands of the state's janitors, security officers and other workers. Early protests had a calm and even joyful atmosphere at times, with people dancing to live music and buoyed by Huerta's release. Protesters linked hands in front of a line of police officers outside the downtown federal detention center where Huerta was being held. Religious leaders joined the protesters, working with organizers at times to de-escalate moments of tension. There was a heavy law enforcement presence in the few square blocks including the federal detention facility, while most in the immense city of some 4 million people went about their normal business on peaceful streets. Chanting against a line of National Guard troops with Homeland Security officers behind them surrounding the federal buildings ramped up in the afternoon as people yelled, 'Free them all!' and 'National Guard go away.' As the crowd thinned, police began pushing protesters away from the area, firing crowd-control munitions as people chanted, 'Peaceful protest.' Officers became more aggressive in their tactics in the evening, occasionally surging forward to arrest protesters that got too close. At least a dozen people remaining in the busy Little Tokyo neighborhood were surrounded by police and detained. Other protests took shape Monday across LA County. Outside a Los Angeles clothing warehouse, relatives of detained workers demanded at a news conference in the morning that their loved ones be released. The family of Jacob Vasquez, 35, who was detained Friday at the warehouse, where he worked, said they had yet to receive any information about him. 'Jacob is a family man and the sole breadwinner of his household,' Vasquez's brother, Gabriel, told the crowd. He asked that his last name not be used, fearing being targeted by authorities. Several dozen people were arrested in protests throughout the weekend. Authorities say one was detained Sunday for throwing a Molotov cocktail at police and another for ramming a motorcycle into a line of officers. Guard deployment is a nearly unprecedented escalation The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state's National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration's mass deportation efforts. The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor's permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. In a directive Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is 'a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.' ___ Sullivan reported from Minneapolis. Associated Press writers Dorany Pineda in Los Angeles, Amy Taxin in Orange County, California, Lolita C. Baldor in Washington, Hallie Golden in Seattle and Jake Offenhartz in New York contributed to this report. 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San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump authorizes additional 2,000 National Guard members to Los Angeles, US officials say
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Another 2,000 National Guard troops along with 700 Marines are headed to Los Angeles on orders Monday from President Donald Trump, escalating a military presence local officials and Gov. Gavin Newsom don't want and the police chief says creates logistical challenges for safely handling protests. An initial 2,000 Guard troops ordered by Trump started arriving Sunday, which saw the most violence during three days of protests driven by anger over Trump's stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws that critics say are breaking apart migrant families. Monday's demonstrations were far less raucous, with thousands peacefully attending a rally at City Hall and hundreds protesting outside a federal complex that includes a detention center where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids across the city. Trump has described Los Angeles in dire terms that Mayor Karen Bass and Newsom say are nowhere close to the truth. They say he is putting public safety at risk by adding military personnel even though police say they don't need the help. Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said in a statement he was confident in the police department's ability to handle large-scale demonstrations and that the Marines' arrival without coordinating with the police department would present a 'significant logistical and operational challenge' for them. Newsom called the deployments reckless and 'disrespectful to our troops' in a post on the social platform X. 'This isn't about public safety,' Newsom said. 'It's about stroking a dangerous President's ego.' The protests began Friday in downtown Los Angeles after federal immigration authorities arrested more than 40 people across the city. The smell of smoke hung in the air downtown Monday, one day after crowds blocked a major freeway and set self-driving cars on fire as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades. Additional protests against immigration raids continued into the evening on Monday in several other cities including San Francisco and Santa Ana in California and Dallas and Austin in Texas. In Austin, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a post on X that more than a dozen protesters were arrested, while in Santa Ana, a spokesperson for the city's police department said the National Guard had arrived in the city to secure federal buildings. California pushes back against presence of federal troops California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit over the use of National Guard troops following the first deployment, telling reporters in his announcement Monday that Trump had 'trampled' the state's sovereignty. 'We don't take lightly to the president abusing his authority and unlawfully mobilizing California National Guard troops,' Bonta said. He sought a court order declaring Trump's use of the Guard unlawful and asking for a restraining order to halt the deployment. Trump said Monday that the city would have been 'completely obliterated' if he had not deployed the Guard. U.S. officials said the Marine troops were deployed to protect federal property and personnel, including federal immigration agents. Trump's Monday order put more National Guard members on active duty, but one U.S. official warned that the order was just signed and it could take a day or two to get troops moving. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements. Despite their presence, there has been limited engagement so far between the Guard and protesters while local law enforcement implements crowd control. Bass criticized the deployment of National Guard troops and Marines as a 'deliberate attempt' by the Trump administration to 'create disorder and chaos in our city.' She made a plea to the federal government: 'Stop the raids.' Early protests remained peaceful On Monday, thousands flooded the streets around City Hall for a union rally ahead of a hearing for arrested labor leader David Huerta, who was freed a few hours later on a $50,000 bond. Huerta's arrest on Friday while protesting immigration raids has become a rallying cry for people angry over the administration's crackdown. He is the president of the Service Employees International Union California, which represents thousands of the state's janitors, security officers and other workers. Early protests had a calm and even joyful atmosphere at times, with people dancing to live music and buoyed by Huerta's release. Protesters linked hands in front of a line of police officers outside the downtown federal detention center where Huerta was being held. Religious leaders joined the protesters, working with organizers at times to de-escalate moments of tension. There was a heavy law enforcement presence in the few square blocks including the federal detention facility, while most in the immense city of some 4 million people went about their normal business on peaceful streets. Chanting against a line of National Guard troops with Homeland Security officers behind them surrounding the federal buildings ramped up in the afternoon as people yelled, 'Free them all!' and 'National Guard go away.' As the crowd thinned, police began pushing protesters away from the area, firing crowd-control munitions as people chanted, "Peaceful protest.' Officers became more aggressive in their tactics in the evening, occasionally surging forward to arrest protesters that got too close. At least a dozen people remaining in the busy Little Tokyo neighborhood were surrounded by police and detained. Other protests took shape Monday across LA County. Outside a Los Angeles clothing warehouse, relatives of detained workers demanded at a news conference in the morning that their loved ones be released. The family of Jacob Vasquez, 35, who was detained Friday at the warehouse, where he worked, said they had yet to receive any information about him. 'Jacob is a family man and the sole breadwinner of his household,' Vasquez's brother, Gabriel, told the crowd. He asked that his last name not be used, fearing being targeted by authorities. Several dozen people were arrested in protests throughout the weekend. Authorities say one was detained Sunday for throwing a Molotov cocktail at police and another for ramming a motorcycle into a line of officers. Guard deployment is a nearly unprecedented escalation The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state's National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration's mass deportation efforts. The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor's permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. In a directive Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is 'a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.' ___ Sullivan reported from Minneapolis. Associated Press writers Dorany Pineda in Los Angeles, Amy Taxin in Orange County, California, Lolita C. Baldor in Washington, Hallie Golden in Seattle and Jake Offenhartz in New York contributed to this report.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Doechii Calls Out Trump Administration for ‘Creating Fear and Chaos' at L.A. Protests in BET Awards Speech
Doechii made the most of her first BET Award win on Monday night, telling an audience of honorees and attendees at the Peacock Theater that she felt a 'responsibility as an artist' to address the immigration protests and raids in Los Angeles. 'I do want to address what's happening right now, outside the building,' said Doechii, referring to the protests happening in Downtown Los Angeles, home of the Peacock Theater. 'These are ruthless attacks that are creating fear and chaos in our communities. In the name of law and order, Trump is using military forces to stop a protest, and I want you all to consider what kind of government it appears to be — when every time we exercise our democratic right to protest, the military is deployed against us.' More from Variety BET Awards Winners 2025 (Updating Live) Kendrick Lamar, Doechii and Drake Lead 2025 BET Award Nominations Kevin Hart to Host 2025 BET Awards California National Guard troops arrived in the city on Sunday in a show of force following division between immigration agents and protesters and amid a burgeoning fight between California and the Trump administration. Protests started on Friday after Immigration Customs Enforcement officers carried out raids in three locations across Los Angeles, where dozens of people were taken into custody, per NBC News. Doechii said she would use her voice to stand up for 'all oppressed people, for Black people, for Latino people, for trans people, for the people in Gaza.' She continued, 'What type of government is that? People are being swept up and torn from their families? We all deserve to live in hope and not in fear. And I hope we stand together my brothers and my sisters against hate and we protest against it.' Doechii won the award for best female hip-hop artist, a category that also recognized Cardi B, Doja Cat, Glorilla, Latto, Megan Thee Stallion, Nicki Minaj, Rapsody and Sexyy Red as nominees. Best of Variety 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? 25 Hollywood Legends Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week