Category: Notes and Comment Blog

Biting off one’s foot to spite one’s hairdo.

Trump on Friday ordered the interior department to display signs in front of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History that accuse the institution of inaccuracy.

That’s fetch’em or I don’t know Arkansas!

The order escalates the Trump’s attacks against the Smithsonian, which he and his allies accuse of politicizing the institution by focusing too much on injustices in American history, instead of more triumphant moments such as the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Who decides how much is too much? Who decides how little is little enough?

Trump wouldn’t really know, would he. He has no experience of being any kind of underdog, and he doesn’t have enough intelligence, let alone empathy, to figure out for himself that other people have experiences that are different from his. Where the rest of us see the fortunate and the unfortunate, he sees winners and losers.

Yes, the Declaration of Independence is a stirring document, but it doesn’t erase or mollify other aspects of US history, in particular slavery and genocide. It’s not as if those items are tiny little pimples on a vast and healthy bum. If it’s “politicizing” to mention them it’s also politicizing to conceal them.

The order directs interior secretary Doug Burgum to huddle with the National Park Service and assistant to the president for domestic policy Vince Haley to come up with some temporary signs to install along the National Parks Service-maintained sidewalks and walkways leading into the museum.

The signs will read “These poopyheads are all wrong and the US is perfect and fabulous in every way!!!”

But…why doesn’t NHS Fife want to make it public?

NHS Fife ordered to publish trans guidance

If it has trans guidance why not publish it? Why does guidance have to be secret?

The Information Commissioner in Scotland, David Hamilton, has told NHS Fife to make its 2024 Trans Policy available to the public under the Freedom of Information Act. NHS Fife has thus far refused to release the document, citing a number of exemptions, all of which have been rejected by the Commissioner.

Why? Why resist, why refuse? If it has a good policy, why not publish it? Presumably they think it is a good policy, so why are they swathing it in secrecy?

Could it be because they know it’s incompatible with some rights of women?

But this is a very healthy, beneficent, progressive, lovely, not at all sick ideology.

It’s incitement. Never mind “offensive”; the issue is that it’s inciting genocide.

Geddit? Women who don’t comply should be gassed.

This one strikes me with disbelief with every update.

Women’s Rights Campaigner Guilty of ‘Vilification’ for Calling Trans-Identified Male Athletes ‘Men’ Loses Appeal, Ordered to Pay $95,000

How. is. this. possible???? Men remain men no matter how many god damn times they say they are women, and it should not cost a woman one god damn penny for saying so.

The Supreme Court of New South Wales has ruled on appeal that a woman convicted of ‘vilification’ for referring to two trans-identified male athletes as men must pay a collective $95,000 to them, in addition to court costs, despite documented evidence of one player having injured at least one female athlete on the pitch.

The pathetic circularity of it. They’re not women, but they like pretending to be women, so the state decides their enjoyment of pretending to be women is some sort of sacred right and therefore any woman who fails to humor their pretending has to pay a grotesquely inflated fine. How does it make any kind of sense?

The decision, handed down today, argues that by referring to the trans-identified males by their sex constitutes “serious contempt” and “severe ridicule,” and orders women’s rights campaigner Kirralie Smith and the publication Binary Australia to publish a statement provided by the court, to remain as a pinned and featured post on her social media for a period of three months.

Who is on this Supreme Court? Are they all 16 years old and not very bright?

In November 2023, Justin “Riley” Dennis and Nicholas “Stephanie” Blanch lodged criminal complaints against Smith for raising public awareness of their inclusion in women’s football. Smith, a spokeswoman with Binary Australia, a campaign group dedicated to advocating for single-sex sports in Australia, had been raising public awareness of their inclusion in women’s sports after learning of injuries sustained by female players.

And therefore she has to give them a very large amount of money.

In addition to punitive damages, Smith and Binary Australia have been ordered to publish a public statement “on all social media pages and websites over which they have control,” stating that they violated the Non-Discrimination Act. The statement, according to the ruling, must be “designated as a feature post,” “pinned to the top of the Defendants’ profiles,” and “published prominently on the front page” of the Binary Australia website.

Labeled as Annexure A in court documents, the statement forces Smith and Binary Australia to publicly announce that, by opposing male athletes in women’s sports, they have “contravened section 38S of the Anti-Discrimination Act,” and have “incited hatreds towards, serious contempt for, or severe ridicule of” the two trans-identified male players in posts they made identifying them as men. If the announcement is not made public, Smith risks a $40,000 penalty.

It’s just monstrous. It’s more like the Inquisition than like contemporary law and human rights.

Justice Belinda Rigg’s ruling demands that the statement “should remain visible for a period of three months,” and that the purpose of the public statement is “not to stigmatise or shame” Smith, contrary to its implications. Justice Rigg argued that by ordering the statement, she intends for others who are critical of the situation to see the announcement of guilt.

Does it not occur to Rigg that this will have the opposite effect from the one she intends? Oh yes we see all right; we just don’t see what you’re trying to force us to see. MEN STILL ARE NOT WOMEN.

Man shrugs off that which harms women but not men. Easy for some.

Hey it really upsets him that some people pay attention to policies that harm women and girls. He promises women and girls will be ok despite these policies that harm them.

First US City Could Run Out Of Water

A coastal city in Texas with more than 300,000 residents is facing a severe water shortage and could become the first modern US city to run out of water.

…Corpus Christi, a coastal city in Texas with more than 300,000 residents, is struggling with falling water supplies after years of drought, rising demand and delays in developing new sources of water.

The city’s water shortage has been made worse by rapid industrial growth. Large petrochemical facilities in the region require huge amounts of water, adding pressure on supplies already affected by extreme weather conditions.

A plastics chemical plant built in 2022 reportedly uses as much water for cooling every day as all residents of Corpus Christi combined.

Hmm. Maybe not such a great choice to build the plastics chemical plant there, eh?

Experts say the crisis highlights a growing global challenge as cities struggle to balance rising demand, climate change and shrinking water resources.

Oh well. Just keep saying climate change is a hoax, and it will all work out somehow.

Trump persists in thinking he’s a funny guy.

Trump bombed at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Friday night. He knew he was bombing, too, and he even tried to meta-joke his way out of it.

But no. Even the president’s jokes about his bad jokes fell flat, and he was widely ridiculed for the comedy routine afterward.

To the surprise of no one. You need a sharp mind to be funny. Trump’s mind is about as sharp as a pile of wet laundry.

“Nobody gives a damn about anybody else,” he said, and proceeded to count how many stories on The New York Times front page are about him.

Hmmyeah. Trump griping about an absence of empathy is way too much irony in one spot.

Trump also gave shoutouts to media executives whom he views as allies, namely Larry and David Ellison, who took control of Paramount last year and are now trying to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company. Paramount suffered a major setback earlier on Friday when it agreed to accept a months-long delay to the merger while legal challenges are resolved.

Invoking the fact that Paramount owns CBS News, Trump said David Ellison is “going to make, I think, fantastic changes and keep some of the great stuff going.”

Trump also made a convoluted joke about the controversial changes implemented by Ellison’s handpicked editor-in-chief of CBS News, Bari Weiss: “Under my administration, a once-feared and powerful regime that relentlessly attacked America has finally been toppled. Their former leaders have been removed, and they’re now being run by a gay dictator facing internal divisions. But I, for one, wish Bari Weiss all the best at CBS News. She’s a wonderful woman.”

Toward the end of the speech, the president donned a red “Trump 2028” hat. 

Ha ha. He’s so funny.

The outgoing president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, Weijia Jiang, introduced Trump after discussing the importance of press freedom. Jiang drafted her remarks knowing the president would be sitting next to her and listening.

Jiang said there is “an existential difference between criticizing the press and trying to undermine it. One is healthy, and it makes all of us better. The other is exactly what the founders hoped to prevent.”

The CBS correspondent also addressed Trump directly: “When we ask questions, you push back. You give us answers, and we push back. You have always been a deal guy. Well, that’s the deal. And the First Amendment is a done deal. And that’s what we toast tonight.”

He’ll still think they’re toasting him.

Bolton News:

Two Bolton community champions who have transformed the lives of hundreds of local people are set to be honoured at the Palace of Westminster later this month.

Tunde Olasupo and Khadija Patel have been named among 28 recipients of the prestigious British Citizen Award (BCA), which recognises people making an outstanding contribution to communities across the UK.

…

Also being recognised is Khadija Patel, founder of KRIMMZ Girls Youth Club, whose work has empowered hundreds of young women across Bolton through sport and physical activity.

Under that paragraph is a photo of Khadija Patel.

We know they mean well, but this is an absolutely poisonous message to girls.

Stick a fork in him, he’s done.

Donald Trump against Sleepy Joe Biden. Nobody could watch it because the wind wasn’t blowing. Remember that?

Nope.

Awww, they’re disappointed – how sad.

Awwwwww, they’re disappointed; that’s so sad. Of course if they hadn’t cancelled an event organised by the Women’s Rights Network group then the WRN would have had no reason to file any papers, but awwwww anyway you poor shmucks.

The west Belfast festival organisers posted a public statement on social media saying the Respect, Rights & Reality event, which was part of the Féile programme, had been withdrawn as it was “promoting campaigns against rights for the transgender community”.

Liars. Of course it wasn’t.

However, the Women’s Rights Network issued a statement saying they were “shocked and deeply disappointed” by the decision.

Now JK Rowling has waded into the row, replying on X to the Women’s Rights Network that she “will help with legal costs”.

Fuck around and find out, eh?

Stella Creasy throws women overboard for the umpteenth time.

Hur hur hur, so funny. She is one, but she also thinks (or pretends to think) men too can be women by the simple act of saying so.

She doesn’t say the hallowed “trans women are women” in this particular tweet, but that of course is what she means by “trans rights”. That’s what they all mean, the legions of true believers. Men have a right to be women on their own say-so, and no one has a right to contradict them.

And there’s also the ever-popular obfuscating “trans rights” declaration, as always without any specifics about what “trans rights” are. There is in fact no such thing as a “right” to force the world to agree that a man is a woman or a woman is a man. From that follows the rest. People who claim to be trans have no rights that entail forced agreement that they are what they are not. Theodore Upton has no right to force people to agree that he is a woman, because he is not a woman. Nobody has any right to force people to agree that “God” exists and that we can find his (definitely not her) instructions in this book here. Forcing people to agree that fictions are facts is not a right. It is, in fact, a violation of rights.

So Trump makes it very clear that he imposes tariffs not for some sort of credible economic reason but for his personal jollies. He imposes tariffs because he likes to.

On the day the Supreme Court ruled against a broad swath of President Trump’s tariffs, he was visibly angry — and determined to enact more tariffs anyway.

“Other alternatives will now be used to replace the ones that the court incorrectly rejected,” he said at a White House press briefing on Feb. 20. “We have alternatives, great alternatives.”

Tariffs are fun, dammit! They’re a perk of the job, like riding around in the presidenty car and flying around in Air Force One and knocking down buildings.

But regardless of the politics, the president is fond of tariffs — he regularly calls tariff his favorite word in stump speeches. Indeed, the president’s criticism of free trade deals such as NAFTA and willingness to entertain protectionist policies instead was part of the populist pitch that initially got him elected in 2016.

Since then, he has shown that he likes the policy in part because it helps him strong-arm other countries into giving concessions on trade deals.

That sentence could have ended at “other countries”. He likes bullying. He loves bullying. He loves bullying individuals, and getting to bully whole countries is his happy place. Bullies love their work.

Merched Cymru on Facebook:

The Charity Commission has now confirmed it’s speaking directly to Amnesty UK’s trustees as part of its formal compliance case, moving well past the “internal review” stage Amnesty itself keeps citing. JK Rowling cuts straight through Amnesty’s own defence: if the report was withdrawn because of its “language,” why did Amnesty express the exact same beliefs, in the same language, months earlier in the report The Times uncovered?

Beira’s Place staff have received threats and abuse since publication, and the service saw a 600% spike in traffic from people entirely outside its intended remit. This is the practical cost of being publicly branded “anti-rights” by a body with Amnesty’s reach, regardless of how quickly the report came down afterwards.

Also, charities didn’t need to wait for a code of practice to start complying with a Supreme Court ruling that’s been settled law for over a year, as For Women Scotland make clear. The Charity Commission has now said that exactly, in writing, to the whole sector – which includes Amnesty.

It’s almost as if trans ideology is all about taking away the rights women have fought for since always.

Actual literal Members of Parliament talking this childish let’s pretend drivel.

What are trans rights? Trans people have human rights; no one says otherwise. What rights are specific to trans people? Kindly spell them out so that we can see how ridiculous the claim is – and, more seriously, so that we can indeed “debate” whether or not they are rights, and why. If you think men have a right to take over women’s organizations and prizes and jobs and spaces by saying “I am a woman” then kindly explain why you think that, and how the hell you ever got elected to Parliament.

Jolyon Maugham is again using other people’s money to bully women who defend women’s rights.

We’ve made a formal complaint to the Charity Commission and the government, citing 46 examples of offensive transphobia

Ahhh “offensive” – but offensive to whom, my dear chap? It’s not offensive to everyone. Are you quite sure it’s offensive to more than a handful of misinformed or deranged people?

Content warning: transphobic hate

According to Jolyon, that is. Other onlookers think the “hate” is coming more from Jolyon than from his targets.

The anti-trans charity Sex Matters are spreading hate – so we’ve sent a formal complaint to the Charity Commission and raised our concerns with the government.

Using social media and the rightwing press, Sex Matters, their staff, and their trustees keep pumping out hateful, dehumanising narratives about trans people. Charities should work in the public interest, and in return they benefit from tax breaks. But there’s nothing charitable about transphobia. 

No they don’t. He’s just lying. He has a very distorted idea of what trans ideology is and an even more distorted idea of the views of people who reject trans ideology. It’s in no way “dehumanising” to say that men cannot be women. You know why? Because women are human and so are men, despite the fact that they are what they are and not something else.

Our complaint includes 46 incidents of inappropriate and offensive conduct – which we’ve presented to the regulator. Taken together, we believe these amount to misconduct and mismanagement of the charity. This simply isn’t how charities should behave.

We know from long and tedious experience that none of it is misconduct. We know that Maugham thinks non-adherence to trans dogma is wicked, but we also know that trans dogma is idiotic and not worth the attention of sane adults.

We think Sex Matters are breaking charity law, going beyond anything that could be deemed charitable. They target individuals, offensively conflate trans people with predators and fetishists, and seem set on dehumanising an already vulnerable minority.

Oops. What? They “seem” set on blah blah blah? Dude that’s just admitting that you’re making it all up. You can’t use the judicial system to punish people because they “seem” (according to you) to be doing blah blah blah. Pro tip: they don’t “seem” it to the rest of us. The rest of us=everyone minus about 50 irritable fools.

We also found evidence of Sex Matters insinuating that trans people are dangerous predators and fetishists. In a 2024 speech, director of advocacy Helen Joyce said that trans women being allowed to use women’s communal changing rooms was “a state-sanctioned sex crime – voyeurism and indecent exposure”.

Because it is. You can’t allow men to get naked in women’s changing rooms without its being a crime against women. See also: squaring the circle.

How is this so mainstreamed? Why is Yahoo Sports on Team Men Can Be Women?

Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham has decided to use her platform to speak out on a hot-button political issue, and predictably, it has sparked widespread outrage from fans.

During a recent interview with ESPN, Cunningham spoke out against transgender women competing in women’s sport, eliciting quite a strong response from fans and media.

And by “quite a strong response” this clumsy male writer means a disapproving response.

During a recent interview with ESPN, Cunningham was asked about the “MAGA Barbie” nickname she has recently been given. While Cunningham says that label is a projection, given that she is a white girl from Missouri, she did go on to speak out on how to “protect women’s sports.”

Why the scare-quotes, clumsy male writer? Why shouldn’t she go on to talk about protecting women’s sports? Do women just obviously not deserve to have women’s sports?

Needless to say, this is a pretty strong stand from Cunningham, but she received a lot of criticism as a result.

No actually it’s not needless to say. It’s also not needless to explain your ardent though inarticulate disapproval.

His effort to explain is demonstrated by quoting a few stupid cliche-riddled jibes from random people and leaving it at that. Playground whispers for putative adults.

A “campaign”…

The Good Law Project (GLP) has started a campaign against Sex Matters, saying that it has identified “46 examples” of Sex Matters “spewing hate”, including “harassment and discrimination”, which it says “breaks charity law”. It says it has submitted a formal complaint to the Charity Commission.

Or it could just go after them with hammers.

Sex Matters was founded as a human-rights charity to create space for debate and understanding of laws and rights concerning sex and gender identity. We think that there are conflicts of rights and that it should be possible to talk about them openly and freely. We believe that this is how everyone’s rights can be protected, and institutions can be held to account.

…

GLP has not published its complaint or shared its 46 examples with us but it has published a selection of quotes and links on its website. When we looked at what it had identified as “inappropriate and offensive” conduct it was simply a set of examples of us pointing out the serious harms done by those promoting gender identity.

They include a powerful and insightful speech given by Sex Matters’ director of advocacy, Helen Joyce, at the Genspect Bigger Picture conference in September 2024, where she argued that the new belief system based on gender self-ID has co-opted and corrupted the language of rights  and is harming women, children and vulnerable people, and breaking medical and scientific thinking.

True, true, and true. Let’s hope the Charity Commission knows truth when it sees it.

It gets even worse.