Malazan Empire: Lady Bliss - Viewing Profile - Malazan Empire

Above.

Strikes.

Boycotts, hit their wallets.

We are digressing, this is back into US pantomime thread territory.

A friendly mod can shift my diateibes over if they want.

Short version those no kings marches are more like Macys day parades now than a protest

8 million people took the streets at the last no kings protest. That’s 2.4% of the population and obviously they represent an even larger group. The problem isn’t people not screaming that Trump is a disaster it’s that the average citizen or even 8 million average citizens together no longer can move the needle.

The mechanism that transforms the will of the people into action is experiencing massive axle loss.

The next significant moment is the midterm November election. Otherwise
People are screaming into the wind.


Edit: lol Amphibian, they say great minds think alike but they also say fools never differ. Let’s agree to the former.

QuickTidal, on 07 April 2026 - 02:54 PM, said:

They either support him, or else don't have the guts (Democrats) or resources (everyone else) to do anything about him. And by 'him' i mean the government writ large, there's an entire structure behind trump that rises or falls on him staying in power and a whole other structure who simply rides the wave to profit, and both will do everything and anything to keep themselves there and could not care less who gets trampled or bombed along the way. Trump is just the loudest most organgey part of the problem.

QuickTidal, on 01 April 2026 - 12:40 PM, said:

This is getting very off-topic, so I'll post any future replies in the old Is JK Rowling Satan, Or Just a Demon? Hogwarts Legacy thread where we were discussing Rowling's transphobia before:

https://forum.malaza...cy-controversy/

In terms of testosterone levels, Khelif went through the hormonal equivalent of male puberty and had male levels of testosterone through much of her adult life, including years of weightlifting and other physical training as an elite athlete. If Khelif were not taking testosterone suppressants then she would most likely have an advantage comparable to that of male elite athletes.

The main argument for Khelif not having an advantage seems to rest on studies which found no statistically significant difference in functional strength between trans women and ciswomen. One problem with those studies is that they're very low quality, with extremely small sample sizes and non-rigorous methodologies. In particular, while it is possible to measure voluntary exertion, they fail to do so; and yet they rely on voluntary exertion in their tests of functional strength. The trans test subjects also almost certainly realized that the test results would be used as evidence to determine whether trans women should be allowed to compete in women's sports.

https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/60/3/198

And more rigorous studies indicate that testosterone suppression only results in a small reduction in lean muscle mass after one year (about 5%). Large, rigorous studies have demonstrated that lean muscle mass correlates with functional strength. Taken together, this stronger evidence seems to contradict the extremely low quality studies which found no statistically significant difference in functional strength.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm...les/PMC7846503/

However, there is also low quality evidence suggesting that after several years the percentage of lean muscle mass relative to total weight has no statistically significant difference from that of ciswomen. (The phrase "statistically significant" can be misleading in this context: the experimental design is not strong enough to rule out large statistical differences.) This can be reconciled with a small decrease in absolute lean muscle mass by an increase in fat. And since boxing has weight classes, this does provide weak evidence for Khelif not having an advantage. However, none of these studies were done on elite athletes, who tend to work to have extremely low levels of body fat, particularly in sports with weight classes.

So the evidence ultimately isn't definitive, but it's plausible that she has a significant advantage. I stand by my initial assertion that she may have a biological advantage.

https://www.sciencem...isgender-women/

On the roots of JKR's transphobia:

https://secularhuman...athroom-debate/

TL;DR trauma from sexual assault leading to misdirected fear for others.