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Kate Birrell

@kamabi.bsky.social

Born one of Scotland’s many creative engineers. R Feynman is a hero and an inspiration. Not always obvious.

created October 6, 2023

266 followers 538 following 782 posts

view profile on Bluesky

Posts

Profile picture Mueller, She Wrote (@muellershewrote.com) reposted

Trump threatening members of Congress not to sign the Epstein files discharge petition saying it would be a “hostile act” against him is definitely something an innocent person would do. And scheduling a military flyover in the middle of the survivor press conference is also totally normal behavior.

3/9/2025, 4:44:37 AM | 5430 1809 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Eliot Higgins (@eliothiggins.bsky.social) reposted reply parent

Social media algorithms prioritise engagement, not accuracy. That means the most aggravating and divisive content dominates public discourse. Politics is filtered through this distorted lens, not through truth.

3/9/2025, 8:46:06 AM | 63 20 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

Stitcher?

31/8/2025, 9:15:39 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

You’re absolutely right - it’s Anshu’s world, and we should just be grateful he graciously allows us to draw breath in it

31/8/2025, 6:00:21 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

Put the kettle on (or the Teasmade, or whatever…)

31/8/2025, 5:10:58 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

How about ‘Sparkle’? bsky.app/profile/josh...

31/8/2025, 5:09:31 PM | 10 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

Oh mate - I think you should just go and have a quiet cup of tea, or other hot beverage of your choice. Just let this one go, you’re not going to be able to top it bsky.app/profile/ansh...

31/8/2025, 5:06:24 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

C’mon now - he could be an homage to Lewis Carroll ‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’

31/8/2025, 4:58:11 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride

31/8/2025, 4:50:56 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

Given that it has not been repealed, yes, there is a right. And you are incorrect to say there is not, as you seem to know. Just because you would LIKE to live in your version of reality, does not make it so bsky.app/profile/ansh...

31/8/2025, 4:44:08 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

In the UK, there is a right for women to have single-sex spaces, where appropriate, as part of their protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. There is also a right, under the Workplace Regulations 1992, for employees to have separate facilities by sex. So, you’re wrong there, sunshine

31/8/2025, 4:38:16 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Martin 🎶💻🤓🐱 (@martinldnuk1977.bsky.social) reposted reply parent

Slight tangent here, but have you seen this YouTuber with this channel "Xing's World"? He has built a subway, cinema, mini home and a shopping parade for his cats. All fully functional. This is the subway and, like everything, it's extraordinary! 👀🙀🚝 youtu.be/KRtyMCeDw8o

31/8/2025, 9:54:37 AM | 6 3 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

And, it is surely just as legitimate for women to care about women’s rights as it is for trans people to care about about trans rights. Fine, let’s have a debate, But the LEFT’s position was ‘no debate’. Shut up, women. Remind me how that was progressive, again?

31/8/2025, 12:45:25 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

As I said earlier, I’m not right wing. And I find this assumed split curious. TRA arguments prioritise trans women (ie males) over women - this is patriarchy, revisited. Which is normally the position of the right. And one might assume (maybe) that the left would be pro women’s rights. But, no 🤯

31/8/2025, 12:40:47 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

I get it that the only women you think matter are trans women. Fortunately, the Supreme Court judged that ALL the protected characteristics in the Equality Act were deserving of equal consideration; and that trans people’s rights did not (and never have, in law), trump the rights of women.

31/8/2025, 12:05:40 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

There are women currently in Scottish prisons sharing shower blocks with biological males. That you don’t think this matters shows, very clearly, your priorities. Which is why the trans rights campaign can be described as a Men’s Rights Campaign. Name-calling is no argument - shows you lack one.

31/8/2025, 11:55:02 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

Irrelevant, ignored and dismissed

31/8/2025, 11:27:58 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

That women’s safety, women’s rights are irrelevant, ignored in pro-trans arguments is one of the things that distinguishes the trans rights campaign from previous gay rights, anti-racism campaigns

31/8/2025, 11:26:28 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

Not at all. Once acceptable for any males to enter female single sex spaces, you reduce the ability to challenge. (Not to mention that quite a few men charged with rape, then decide they’re trans, get to serve their sentence in a women’s prison. Win/win for them, lose/lose for women) Gatekeeping???

31/8/2025, 11:20:17 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

No. When transwomen enter women’s single-sex spaces, whether prisons, shelters, sport, or changing-rooms, women lose their rights, also safeguarding. This is UNLIKE gay rights, etc. You’ve bought into this canard - it’s all part of ‘no debate’, aka ‘shut up women’.

31/8/2025, 9:08:51 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

(It’s not particularly, necessarily a left/right debate - I have never been right-wing, but am a woman)

31/8/2025, 8:23:58 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

The trouble with this argument, tho, is that when trans rights got to be a thing, nobody cared that they took rights away from women. (No debate, right?) So, nobody cared about women’s rights then, nobody cares now. ‘Ok, we got rid of women’s rights, but let’s not even mention that. Right on!’

31/8/2025, 8:20:37 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Journal of Art in Society (@artinsociety.bsky.social) reposted

Just enjoying the dynamism of English modernist Cyril Power’s linocut ‘The Tube Station’ (1932)

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31/8/2025, 6:03:00 AM | 1914 254 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 (@gtconway.bsky.social) reposted

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30/8/2025, 11:59:41 AM | 15957 3096 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Adam Parkhomenko (@adamparkhomenko.bsky.social) reposted

Who did this?

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26/8/2025, 10:38:10 PM | 14787 3569 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Will Stancil (@whstancil.bsky.social) reposted

If Obama or Biden had said this, it would be rightfully understood as them arrogating dictatorial authority to themselves, it would be the only thing anyone in the media or opposition would talk about for a year, and it would probably end their presidency. For Trump, it’s literally just Tuesday.

26/8/2025, 8:09:17 PM | 4107 1098 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Marc Elias (@marcelias.bsky.social) reposted

Washington Post vs Democracy Docket. Support independent media. hubs.ly/Q03jcjqP0

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22/8/2025, 9:45:51 PM | 1045 312 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture emptywheel (@emptywheel.bsky.social) reposted

Four out of five sex traffickers surveyed recommend Donald Trump for President.

22/8/2025, 9:42:12 PM | 1032 286 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mrs. Betty Bowers (@mrsbettybowers.bsky.social) reposted

If only John Bolton had had the Epstein Files, his house never would have been raided.

22/8/2025, 7:29:27 PM | 15121 2884 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

A great selection of stationary WHAT? (Still waiting for the noun.) Pedantic? Moi? Perish the thought…

22/8/2025, 9:05:38 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Matthew Cortland (they) (@matthewcort.land) reposted

Biomedical research isn't a YouTube video, you cannot hit pause for an indefinite period of time and then hit play whenever the regime wants. Samples are destroyed, labs dismantled, scientists leave...

21/8/2025, 10:00:34 PM | 1122 393 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Alison Fisk (@alisonfisk.bsky.social) reposted

Some 3,300 years ago, an ancient Egyptian artist painted this humorous illustration of a cat herding geese on a flake of limestone. From Deir el-Medina, Thebes, Egypt. 📷 Egyptian Museum, Cairo. #Archaeology

Photo of a flake of limestone with a painted illustration of a cat herding geese. The limestone flake is displayed against a black background. On the left of the scene, a tabby cat (brown with black line markings)stands on its hind legs, facing right, holding a wooden staff in its left paw to keep the geese in order. In the other paw it holds the end of a long crook which rests on its shoulder. A bag hangs from the end of the crook behind the cat. In front of the cat are six geese all facing right, arranged in two rows, three in each row. The geese all have brown legs. Body plummage is white with black details, and three geese have black painted heads and necks; top left and right, and bottom middle geese. Above the geese at top right, is a nest filled with four white eggs. Dimensions: H 11 cm x W 11 cm.
19/8/2025, 4:39:59 PM | 464 144 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

I sort of got the feeling that lo, there had been sent forth an edict, that all houses shall be individually metered. And then the poor sods tasked with doing it have to deal with reality…

19/8/2025, 4:43:56 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

They did that to my ENTIRE ROAD one time - we all had scheduled times when they were going to come (it’s a long old road, terraced houses built one flat downstairs, one upstairs) and then they discovered at the first one that they couldn’t meter the flats separately…)

19/8/2025, 4:02:38 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

Also, lots and lots of v nice sandy beaches, so maybe in this instance you should be saying ‘English beaches’?

A sandy beach at Red Point last December, with bits of Skye in the distance.
17/8/2025, 3:04:07 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Starbird (@katestarbird.bsky.social) reposted reply parent

Jordan showed up for 10 minutes of my six hour interview and asked one question... about my research team's funding from the National Science Foundation. Two years later and this machine didn't just defund me and my team, they defunded our whole field and everyone peripherally related.

16/8/2025, 8:33:03 PM | 158 37 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Starbird (@katestarbird.bsky.social) reposted reply parent

Echoing Renee here, me and my team were FOIA'ed by the MO AG office, sued by America First Legal, and then hauled in front of Jim Jordan's committee in DC, where, at the table interviewing me (for SIX HOURS) sat a lawyer who shifted from America First to Jordan's staff. This is MACHINE.

16/8/2025, 8:31:49 PM | 207 65 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social)

Sound up!

16/8/2025, 9:01:53 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rachel Deering (@racheldeering.bsky.social) reposted

A crow, watching a mosquito, Jan Mankes.

Woodcut, crow depicted looking upwards with its beak open, seemingly observing a small mosquito flying above it.
16/8/2025, 7:02:54 AM | 541 105 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Seth Cotlar (@sethcotlar.bsky.social) reposted

I find myself thinking about historian Robert Paxton’s 2004 definition of fascism far too often than I’d like these days. Note that these sentences were written back when Donald Trump was a NYC playboy libertine who donated to Democrats.

Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victim-hood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legalrestraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.
29/6/2025, 5:45:10 PM | 1695 646 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

One good one every six years is a bit rough 🙁

15/8/2025, 11:38:13 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Auschwitz Memorial (@auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social) reposted

14 August 1920 | A German Jewish woman, Ilse Scharff, was born in Karlsruhe. In August 1942 she was deported from Drancy to #Auschwitz. She did not survive.

Vintage black and white photo of a smiling girl wearing a beret and a coat with a lapel bow.
14/8/2025, 8:03:30 PM | 545 130 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Shatner's bassoon (@whosthedadaist.bsky.social) reposted

Da iawn chi

14/8/2025, 8:07:18 PM | 1 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

I have fond memories of Stansted Airport when it had a Spar - since replaced by a WHSmith and and M&S, you will be unsurprised to hear

14/8/2025, 11:12:46 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture womblingweka.bsky.social (@womblingweka.bsky.social) reposted

"These deals are not about outcomes — improving the economy or saving Ukrainians’ (much less Palestinians’) lives. They’re about about Trump’s need to feel powerful, his need to coerce tribute. And he’s willing to destroy America in that pursuit."

13/8/2025, 9:08:18 PM | 96 32 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Pete Fraser (@petefrasermusic.bsky.social) reposted

Feels almost too unbearably student politics to write down, but imagine a human race that could become as angry and proactive about this - a genuinely important and serious issue - as they could about hating people from other countries. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

13/8/2025, 8:40:18 AM | 205 73 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

So, they are never going to change the world, because what they do (by definition) is to reflect it. It is (still) up to us to change the world. And the error will be to give them too much weight, aka power, which will obviate change. Thought-provoking. (Non-expert here)

13/8/2025, 7:26:20 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

bsky.app/profile/kama...

12/8/2025, 3:43:04 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

Whatever Liz Truss’s usp might be, it doesn’t appear to include consistency or indeed coherence of thought… Cosplaying Margaret Thatcher, on the other hand 👍🏻

12/8/2025, 11:11:35 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD (@elizabethjacobs.bsky.social) reposted

RFK Jr. doesn’t like that a study of every child born in Denmark from 1997-2018 showed no link between aluminum in vaccines and 50 adverse health outcomes. This study included more than a million kids. RFK Jr. wants the study retracted. The journal, which is a very prestigious one, refused.

11/8/2025, 8:36:17 PM | 4332 1446 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 (@gtconway.bsky.social) reposted

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11/8/2025, 10:15:46 PM | 2970 872 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture dag (@davidallengreen.bsky.social) reposted reply parent

It is only sentimental American exceptionalism that makes what Trump is doing any different from "increasingly dictatorial president uses military to assert power in capital city".

11/8/2025, 7:33:02 PM | 187 44 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

Why can’t they just say ‘anecdotally’? (Seeing as that’s what they mean…)

11/8/2025, 10:56:17 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Anonymous (@youranonjd.bsky.social) reposted

At 26, Polish ballerina Franceska Mann, pulled into the Hotel Polski Affair and sent to Auschwitz, fought back. She disarmed a guard, killed Nazi officer Joseph Schillinger, wounded another, and incited fellow prisoners to riot. She died a hero that day - a fighter who met tyranny with defiance.

Ms. Mann
10/8/2025, 1:09:10 AM | 97 33 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

Today’s distraction. But it ain’t gonna go away… bsky.app/profile/mays...

10/8/2025, 5:55:14 PM | 4 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

Sure. (Apart from the time when doing my own research to understand the meaning of the terms in my diagnosis letter saved me from a botched operation and 18 months of grief, obvs)

10/8/2025, 5:47:33 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) reposted

All we need is one reporter to ask the president about the rumors that the Cabinet is discussing invoking the 25th Amendment

10/8/2025, 5:20:40 PM | 4161 772 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Sunder Katwala (sundersays) (@sundersays.bsky.social) reposted

Calls for a "huge nationwide wave" of protests in last 48 hours saw about 300 people attend one locally-organised protest in Nuneaton (serious charges in local case) + 19 protests range from 6 peoole (Wolverhampton) with about four more reaching 100-200 people (Altrincham,Canary Wharf) Total < 2000

10/8/2025, 8:17:29 AM | 582 219 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 (@gtconway.bsky.social) reposted

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7/8/2025, 9:03:31 PM | 17342 6245 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones.bsky.social) reposted

In case you were wondering, here's a list of how much money each of these 16 congress members who wrote a letter to pressure Ireland to abandon its Occupied Territories Bill received from AIPAC. Data via TrackAIPAC #gazagenocide

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10/8/2025, 10:54:18 AM | 81 47 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Gretch (@gretch4all.bsky.social) reposted

Please, someone put this on donny’s site … and all social media, for that matter. It ain’t gonna go away!!!

9/8/2025, 9:31:42 PM | 1 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture dag (@davidallengreen.bsky.social) reposted

Of all areas of law, patent law should be boring and not exciting.

9/8/2025, 7:56:41 PM | 78 19 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Zaid, Esq (@markzaidesq.bsky.social) reposted

My firm represents FBI Special Agent in Charge of Las Vegas Field Office Spencer Evans, a decorated 21 year veteran, who was just summarily fired by Dir #KashPatel. No due process. Fired because he followed COVID protocol instructions issued by Justice Dept back in 2021-22.

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8/8/2025, 9:34:55 PM | 12083 4289 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture dag (@davidallengreen.bsky.social) reposted

Planning law is perhaps the UK’s most formidable single weapon in geo-politics. More than Trident.

7/8/2025, 9:09:03 AM | 349 90 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Steve Peers (@stevepeers.bsky.social) reposted

I am the very model of a modern coast guard general I've information migratory, nautical yet mythical I know the fash in England and I invent facts hysterical From migrant boats to climate too, in manner unforgivable

Rupert Lowe, absurdly mistaking charity rowers for
8/8/2025, 11:46:33 AM | 781 206 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Auschwitz Memorial (@auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social) reposted

6 August 1900 | An Italian Jewish woman, Anna Ventura, was born in Rome. She was deported to #Auschwitz. She did not survive.

Vintage portrait of a woman with bobbed hair, wearing a dark coat with a fur collar, providing a classic representation of early 20th-century fashion.
6/8/2025, 2:01:47 PM | 392 75 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Anil Kalhan (@akalhan.bsky.social) reposted

timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine...

6/8/2025, 11:19:17 AM | 3919 1923 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Best for Britain (@bestforbritain.org) reposted

On the 80th anniversary of Hiroshima, it's worth reflecting on the past and on where we are now. The UN, EU, & ECHR were set up after WW2 to bring lasting peace, & to protect people. It's on all of us to remember that - and challenge those seeking to tear them down

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6/8/2025, 11:18:38 AM | 84 37 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture dag (@davidallengreen.bsky.social) reposted reply parent

Ongoing trade and commercial negotiations and deal-making should not be exciting, they should be dull.

6/8/2025, 10:08:08 AM | 37 4 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

And this arises(!) from the male body’s reaction to young, fertile female bodies. Can we now accuse males who do not get a boner looking at trans women of transphobia? Seems just as valid…

6/8/2025, 8:33:27 AM | 6 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

The experience of the vast majority of the women on this planet is that as a teenager they got creeped on by (at least one) adult male stranger - just a great ‘welcome to the adult world’. To not know/care about this is one massive self-own. Being female involves much more than ‘feeling’ like one

6/8/2025, 8:09:03 AM | 13 5 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

This was the post that started this thread, about sexual offenders and protecting women. And I have work to do now, so feel free to find somebody else to have a go at… bsky.app/profile/barr...

5/8/2025, 12:56:20 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

I’m glad you’ve said that (even if you did initially accuse me of making it up). Unfortunately, changing name by saying they’re trans does give CSOs a free pass to escape the consequences of their past convictions - so they’ll keep doing it. What solution do you suggest?

5/8/2025, 12:47:35 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

You’ve created this world, where any long-time child molester who says he’s now trans gets a free pass to carry on abusing. You clearly think this to be unimportant/just fine. But most sentient people don’t, y’know.

5/8/2025, 12:40:06 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

Thanks for confirming that for you, harm to girls just doesn’t count, compared to the importance of trans women getting what they want. As to making stuff up, full chapter and verse here (his 20+yr history, inc how he now says online he’s 20F, when he’s actually 47) reduxx.info/exclusive-co...

5/8/2025, 12:35:24 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

I don’t believe you’re arguing in good faith. What you’re arguing for creates the circumstance where this 👇🏻can (and clearly does) happen. In what universe is this not a problem?

By Anna Slatz August 4, 2025 A repeat child sex offender was allowed to compete against teenage girls in tennis after successfully concealing his identity by identifying as transgender. Cari Sutton, also known as Cary Sutton, was able to avoid US Tennis Association scrutiny for years thanks to his gender identity change.
5/8/2025, 12:12:24 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

And, is this person really and truly trans, or just finding it convenient to say they are? How to tell? (But lets not do safeguarding any more, might cause offence)

(2 photographs, first in female mode, second in male mode) By Anna Slatz August 4, 2025 A repeat child sex offender was allowed to compete against teenage girls in tennis after successfully concealing his identity by identifying as transgender. Cari Sutton, also known as Cary Sutton, was able to avoid US Tennis Association scrutiny for years thanks to his gender identity change.
5/8/2025, 3:53:00 AM | 3 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

You are setting trans women up as ‘better’, less of a risk than other males. And that leads to problems, cf priests. If you can’t see that, then you are blind to anybody else’s issues other than the ones you care about. And that disqualifies you as a useful commentator, cos you just don’t care.

4/8/2025, 10:19:48 PM | 3 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

bsky.app/profile/kama...

4/8/2025, 10:03:44 PM | 2 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

Just finished writing my follow-up post - you could try reading it…

4/8/2025, 10:01:21 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

(And I’m not saying all trans women are abusers, not at all - but the setting up of a caste WHO CANNOT BE CHALLENGED is an open invitation to men of ill-intent to clamber aboard. And who could possibly challenge them?)

4/8/2025, 9:59:38 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

Anytime we create a caste who are above suspicion (and it’s clearly happened with priests, but others too), then we eventually discover it to be filled with unchallengeable abusers. You sound like you want to create a new above-suspicion caste of trans women. Why should it be different this time?

4/8/2025, 9:54:56 PM | 3 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Jake Scott, MD (@jakescottmd.bsky.social) reposted

When the FDA Commissioner goes on TV to elevate an unverified anecdote about a "friend's parent" dying from a COVID vaccine—while ignoring safety data from 1M+ people published 48 hours earlier—we have an institutional problem. This misleading rhetoric is deeply irresponsible. 🧵

31/7/2025, 3:32:55 AM | 876 244 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture e.w. niedermeyer (@niedermeyer.online) reposted reply parent

I've started quizzing everyone I know who works in technology about this particular historical episode, and for the most part they've never even heard of it, let alone put any kind of thought into it. Seems problematic! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA_e...

1/8/2025, 4:25:18 PM | 173 46 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

Gouda way with you…

1/8/2025, 10:57:54 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

Yeah, you have to be the right sort of tolerant, it’s quite a narrow window, in my lived experience

1/8/2025, 10:18:53 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

Well, that’s unlikely to happen here, n’est-ce pas?

1/8/2025, 10:03:13 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Tim Bale (@timbale.bsky.social) reposted

Apparently, they've said that Trump's case for tariffs is full of holes.

1/8/2025, 8:22:33 AM | 35 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

Just clocked what you said there…

1/8/2025, 9:40:11 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Eugene Lim (@tukohbin.bsky.social) reposted

1 in 4 of all UK Nobel Prize winners were born overseas.

1/8/2025, 8:23:51 AM | 422 137 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

Shortly before being blocked, earlier today…

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1/8/2025, 9:35:33 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Ben Ansell (@benansell.bsky.social) reposted

Others have noted that this means foreign-born people are LESS likely than UK-born people to be in prison. What I want to note is that The Times is now referring to foreign-born UK citizens as ‘foreigners’. This includes Boris Johnson, Sir Mo Farah, Emma Watson, Rory Stewart and little old me.

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1/8/2025, 7:59:17 AM | 1233 451 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Dave Vetter (@davidrvetter.bsky.social) reposted

If the BBC was doing its job, it would note in its coverage of Reform that 92% of the party's donations come from the fossil fuel industry.

1/8/2025, 7:09:41 AM | 1196 531 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

Anyway, I’m off for a swim. Bye

1/8/2025, 7:46:03 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

I’m doing no such thing, I’m dissecting your argument. And putting words they never said in others mouths is VERY unimpressive

1/8/2025, 7:45:00 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

How has saying ‘you have the same rights as everyone else, just not more’ turned into ‘they want to erase us all cos we’re different’ in your brain?

1/8/2025, 7:42:31 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent

Ah, ‘erasing people who’re different’. Such a bad thing to do, right? Like by calling anyone who disagrees with you a ‘regressive piece of shit’, or a ‘regressive irrational bully’. Get a mirror, sunshine

1/8/2025, 7:39:44 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view