JK Rowling may have shot the sheriff, but she did not shoot the deputy

I enjoy a good, and ideally, polite debate.  Now that I use Bluesky more than Twitter, it can be harder to find one.  But there are some topics where I disagree with others, notably my views on gender and JK Rowling.  

While I used to defend her against allegations of transphobia, I no longer do so since she has misgendered people who have not attacked her on Twitter. While I understand why she did that to India Willoughby, I think that she was wrong to do so. 

What I do find interesting are the arguments that she is racist or that she is right wing.  Yes, there have been issues with the name of Cho Chang for example, others have complained about the name of Kingsley Shacklebolt a character described as highly efficient and "gets through twice the work of the rest of them" in the series.  JK Rowling defended the casting of Noma Dumezweni as Hermione Granger and her books included British people of colour in positive roles.  

As for JK Rowling being right wing, people forget the money she gave to Labour before the defeat of 2010.  In the UK the issue of gender identity is debated across the political divide.  Yes, more of the right are critical, but the MP Rosie Duffield is more left wing than many of her peers, and she is someone who is considered transphobic for her views.  

In summary, I understand why many consider JK Rowling to be transphobic.  I do not accept the allegations that she is racist or right wing.  

Romania and Bulgaria contributed to the invasion of Ukraine thanks to NATO expansion

In the UK, it is VE day today.  It will be celebrated in Russia tomorrow, and it will be interesting to see if the parade is disrupted or not.  

I was to make a post about NATO expansion and the promise not to do so, and I still will, but before I get onto that, Putin has said that Romania and Bulgaria are partly to blame for his invasion of Ukraine.  This is in part linked to the issue of NATO expansion.  Apparently, there was a verbal agreement made that NATO would not expand after the unification of Germany.  As you can see from the video's below, there is a lot of evidence to back this up.

But after that verbal agreement was made, Russia invaded Moldova to liberate Transnistria in 1992 and the following year, invaded Georgia to liberate Abkhazia.  To be fair, to Russia, violence had erupted before the two invasions, that in Abkhazia being especially brutal.  The invasions did bring about peace, but they also in effect have expanded Russian territory to include areas with Russian speaking people.    

NATO expansion did not take place until after the two invasions, Poland calling for it in 1993, but not being admitted until 1999 when Hungary and the Czech Republic also joined the alliance. 

So yes, Russia did think it had an agreement that NATO would not expand. Russia then caused nations to want to join NATO by invading (and still occupying) parts of Georgia and Moldova.  

Hopefully we will finish in second place

Am sad at our loss tonight.  I had watched the highlights for the other semi-final and while I had been confident that we could beat Inter if we faced them after we had beaten Real Madrid, I was not sure after watching the thrilling match against Barcelona.  But it was not to be, we were beaten, but we went down fighting.

I am just hoping that the team that rhymes with City does not pip us to second place as they are only three points behind us.  

Twitter vs Bluesky

Thanks to Elon Musk, I have moved to Bluesky, mostly.  I still visit Twitter, but tend to see what a few people have tweeted, including JK Rowling.  As more and more people make the switch, it has left a huge number of people there who I consider toxic.

Bluesky has very few right wingers on it, most of the time, I do not encounter posts that I disagree with.  But using it is a much calmer experience than Twitter. The downsides have been that I have had more issues accessing it, that there are some accounts on Twitter who have not moved over and that there are still lots more people on Twitter.

What has been interesting is to read the comments on two identical posts from Fesshole.  The Bluesky one has polite responses to it, but on Twitter, the comments there are full of bile and hatred. If you are interested, click on the links to read them, and if you want, you can leave a comment on this post below. 

Another Simple Favor

Another Simple Favour was overrated at three out of five by The Guardian. I have to be honest, I cannot remember too much about the first film, but I am sure it was better than this. 

This is a poor attempt at a comedy and a whodunnit. The plus side is that we all watched it as a family, though as you may guess, I was the one who liked it the least. The film was set in Capri. With the stunning scenery, it is a great advert for the island. Not sure how this film would have been made if it been produced in a way to appease Trump and his film tariffs, as it would require major changes to the plot.

Would I watch it again? No. Would I have been happy if I had paid to watch it in the cinema? No. I would rate this as two out of five, but I must have missed whatever it is that means that others consider this to be an average film. I suspect that the other star was given for the scenery.  

Happy Star Wars Day to you all

I joke about how The Empire were not that bad, but we are in danger of seeing this happen in the Republic that the USA is, for now. Comparisons have been made to Bush and Episode Three of the Star Wars franchise in the past, and even with Trump in his first term. We will get more of an idea if democracy is threatened after the midterms in the USA. While freedom of speech is being nudged in the USA, repeatedly, no laws forbidding improper thought for American citizens have been passed. Yet. 

Anyway, back to the enjoyable parts of Star Wars. I hope that any who have not seen this video like it.

Taking on Reform UK

Reform UK have done really well in the local elections. I think that they are there because they have not been challenged in the correct manner. Some arguments are valid, notably the scrapping of winter fuel payments which have driven people away from Labour. Other methods, notably calling Reform voters racist and thick, are wrong. 

Labour have taken decisions that I think are wrong, another example being the rise in National Insurance which will harm the economic growth our nation needs. Labour has also alienated core supporters with some actions, such as cuts to foreign aid and the rising number of people being removed from the country. An example of how supporters are losing faith with Labour is with the recent changes to immigration. Labour have a hard time getting the publicity they need to make people aware of this, but one way to get that spotlight is to debate such matters with those who are more left wing. Doing so on channels like Novara Media will mean that more mainstream news channels might be willing to debate the issues. 

Brexit has failed our nation. We need to remind people of that. The best way of doing so is giving ownership of it to Farage. Farage wants a free trade deal with the USA which will harm UK farming. He needs to be challenged on that. Farage wants to alienate France by dumping migrants back on French soil. That will have consequences and Farage needs to be asked how he would deal with them. There is the NHS and how Farage wants to change it so that poorer people get worse care. Again, he should be challenged on that. Finally are his policies on the economy. “Today was the best Conservative budget since 1986.” That was what he tweeted to describe the disastrous budget of Liz Truss. 

In summary, Labour need to debate some issues with the left in a public forum, they need to point out the further harm Farage will cause to our great nation if he takes power and Labour needs to shout out about how things like NHS waiting lists are falling and how potholes are being repaired nationwide.