Dave 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇩🇰 🇬🇱 🇲🇽

@TheLancashireman@hostux.social
82 Followers
77 Following
5.4K Posts

Linux (devuan unstable)/Blackbox user, amateur genealogist, amateur software and electronics hacker.

Plays bass guitar, guitar, mandolin, ukulele for fun.

Originally from Lancashire, now living in Franken where there are far too many breweries to be good for my health.

If I boost a toot, it doesn't mean that I like it or even agree with it. It just means that I think it should be more widely known. I tend not to boost toots if there's an image without alt text.

See pinned toots for more.

Websitehttps://thelancashireman.org/
Bloghttps://thelancashireman.org/blog
Codeberghttps://codeberg.org/TheLancashireman
Gitlabhttps://gitlab.com/TheLancashireman
Low Traffic Neighbourhoods are saving lives. 🚶🚴

Trump is working on regime change in Europe — fact, not conspiracy theory

The US State Department published a memo urging Washington to back far-right parties in EU elections to build obedient “civilizational allies,” branding mainstream Europe as anti-democratic and making threats against governments that resist—effectively exporting Trump’s culture war to erode European sovereignty.

https://euobserver.com/eu-and-the-world/ar0ec480cc

(https://archive.ph/bYVVj)

Trump is working on regime change in Europe — fact, not conspiracy theory

On 27 May, an official document, The Need for Civilizational Allies in Europe, calling for regime change in European countries was published, written by a senior adviser for the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor in the US State Department, writes Caroline de Gruyter.

EUobserver
Please enjoy my 4yo's crocodile.
Get your own domain name!

Michael Kjörling
@ChrisMayLA6 He’s indefensible, because he and the party flat out lied to everyone. Voted for in slim numbers because a great many people already saw through Starmer, and those that did now feel very betrayed. His articles in media like The Sun, his recent Enoch Powell speech, his reversal of all environmental policies, the parties acceptance of millions in ‘donations’ is sickening. As for his complete betrayal of human rights - that really is the bridge too far. Whether he’s cancelling the very existence of trans people, or pronouncing peaceful action as terrorism - it’s the opposite of everything Labour ever stood for. That’s before we even look at taking money from pensioners, keeping families in a two-child cap, and being unimaginably cruel to those disabled and to carers.
And then there’s his alignment with Donald Trump and understanding his ‘family values’. Starmer makes me sick and very angry.

Especially for the #Labour administration in the UK; the Supreme Court in the UK, all the #TERF and Terf adjacent people out there, the media, especially the #Guardian.
#Rights #HumanRights #ProChoice #Autonomy #Biology #Facts

Once again, for those still quoting primary school level science:

Rebecca Helm, a biologist and an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Asheville US writes:

"Friendly neighborhood biologist here. I see a lot of people are talking about biological sexes and gender right now. Lots of folks make biological sex sex seem really simple. Well, since it’s so simple, let’s find the biological roots, shall we? Let’s talk about sex...[a thread]

If you know a bit about biology you will probably say that biological sex is caused by chromosomes, XX and you’re female, XY and you’re male. This is “chromosomal sex” but is it “biological sex”? Well...

Turns out there is only ONE GENE on the Y chromosome that really matters to sex. It’s called the SRY gene. During human embryonic development the SRY protein turns on male-associated genes. Having an SRY gene makes you “genetically male”. But is this “biological sex”?

Sometimes that SRY gene pops off the Y chromosome and over to an X chromosome. Surprise! So now you’ve got an X with an SRY and a Y without an SRY. What does this mean?

A Y with no SRY means physically you’re female, chromosomally you’re male (XY) and genetically you’re female (no SRY). An X with an SRY means you’re physically male, chromsomally female (XX) and genetically male (SRY). But biological sex is simple! There must be another answer...

Sex-related genes ultimately turn on hormones in specifics areas on the body, and reception of those hormones by cells throughout the body. Is this the root of “biological sex”??

“Hormonal male” means you produce ‘normal’ levels of male-associated hormones. Except some percentage of females will have higher levels of ‘male’ hormones than some percentage of males. Ditto ditto ‘female’ hormones. And...

...if you’re developing, your body may not produce enough hormones for your genetic sex. Leading you to be genetically male or female, chromosomally male or female, hormonally non-binary, and physically non-binary. Well, except cells have something to say about this...

Maybe cells are the answer to “biological sex”?? Right?? Cells have receptors that “hear” the signal from sex hormones. But sometimes those receptors don’t work. Like a mobile phone that’s on “do not disturb’. Call and cell, they will not answer.

What does this all mean?

It means you may be genetically male or female, chromosomally male or female, hormonally male/female/non-binary, with cells that may or may not hear the male/female/non-binary call, and all this leading to a body that can be male/non-binary/female.

Try out some combinations for yourself. Notice how confusing it gets? Can you point to what the absolute cause of biological sex is? Is it fair to judge people by it?

Of course you could try appealing to the numbers. “Most people are either male or female” you say. Except that as a biologist professor I will tell you...

The reason I don’t have my students look at their own chromosome in class is because people could learn that their chromosomal sex doesn’t match their physical sex, and learning that in the middle of a 10-point assignment is JUST NOT THE TIME.

Biological sex is complicated. Before you discriminate against someone on the basis of “biological sex” & identity, ask yourself: have you seen YOUR chromosomes? Do you know the genes of the people you love? The hormones of the people you work with? The state of their cells?

Since the answer will obviously be no, please be kind, respect people’s right to tell you who they are, and remember that you don’t have all the answers. Again: biology is complicated. Kindness and respect don’t have to be.

Note: Biological classifications exist. XX, XY, XXY XXYY and all manner of variation which is why sex isn't classified as binary. You can't have a binary classification system with more than two configurations even if two of those configurations are more common than others.

Biology is a shitshow. Be kind to people."

Many thanks to Traci Drake for finding this.

@Nonilex his ignorance knows no bounds.
We Also Broke Into an Airbase to Stop War Crimes. Thankfully, We Were Two Nice White Boys

In 2017, we broke into a BAE Systems airfield to stop jets from going to bomb Yemen, write Sam Walton and Daniel Woodhouse. Our lenient treatment exposes the Palestine Action ban for what it is: racist and politically motivated.

Novara Media

If the United States saw what the United States is doing in the United States, the United States would invade the United States to liberate the United States from the tyranny of the United States.

#USPolitics #USA

Meanwhile the Green Party is electing a new leader (or leadership team)... whoever wins (and the choice is between a parliamentary approach & a more mass-movement perspective), lets hope they start being a bit more like the Scottish Greens who are really playing a lot better political game that the GPEW (at least as it looks from outside Scotland).

#Greens #GreenParty #politics

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jul/02/green-party-leadership-race-between-joint-mp-ticket-deputys-eco-populism-bid

Green party leadership race is between joint-MP ticket and deputy’s ‘eco-populism’ bid

Ellie Chowns and Adrian Ramsay offer election-led approach, while Zack Polanski wants radical, mass-membership movement

The Guardian