All entries by this author

And girls are the Gestapo

Jan 13th, 2026 5:32 am | By

Sigh. An act of resistance ffs.

The trans youth athletes in the US fighting for their rights: ‘Playing is an act of resistance’

Yeah right. Boys invading girls’ sports is the maquis itself. Women and girls, obviously, are the Nazis.

As the US supreme court weighs bans on trans athletes, five students speak about the joy of sports and toll of exclusion

Ah yes, the joy for boys of destroying girls’ sports, and the dreadful toll of not being allowed to destroy girls’ sports. Girls, naturally, were not asked for their opinions on this matter.

The US supreme court on Tuesday is considering state laws banning transgender athletes from school sports.

The cases were brought by trans students who challenged

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Heat rising?

Jan 12th, 2026 4:48 pm | By

Heather Cox Richardson tells us some things about the timing. She starts with the Epstein files, then

the Supreme Court on December 23, 2025, rejected the Trump administration’s argument that it had the power to deploy federalized National Guard troops in and around Chicago, a decision that seemed to limit Trump’s power to use military forces within the United States.

Oh so that’s why he stepped up the non-military bullying to such dramatic effect.

Yet another part of the backstory is that on New Year’s Eve, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee released a 255-page transcript of former special counsel Jack Smith’s December 17 closed-door testimony before the committee. In that testimony—under oath—Smith said that his office had “developed proof

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Different rules

Jan 12th, 2026 10:22 am | By

Bash Free Speech

Trans activists have hacked into the website of the Free Speech Union (FSU) and published a list of its donors online.

A direct action group calling itself Bash Back said it had breached the FSU’s online security and was revealing the names of all those who had donated more than £50 over the past two years. Hours after the list of names appeared online, the FSU obtained an emergency injunction from the High Court, forcing the group to remove the donor details.

What was the point? Just random intimidation, I suppose, because what else could it be?

Bash Back, which describes itself as a direct action group “focused on total transgender liberation”, recently made headlines after allegedly

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Seeking to change the rules

Jan 12th, 2026 9:33 am | By

The coup continues.

Five years ago, President Donald Trump pressured Republican county election officials, state lawmakers and members of Congress to find him votes after he lost his reelection bid. Now, he’s seeking to change the rules before ballots are cast.

Trump, openly fearful that a Congress controlled by Democrats could investigate him, impeach him and stymie his agenda, is using every tool he can find to try to influence the 2026 midterm elections and, if his party loses, sow doubt in their validity. Many of these endeavors go far beyond typical political persuasion, challenging long-established democratic norms.

Of course they do. Everything he does goes far beyond typical anything.

They include unprecedented demands that Republican state lawmakers redraw

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Of people

Jan 12th, 2026 9:11 am | By

Ofcom v Musk

Ofcom has launched an investigation into Elon Musk’s X over concerns its AI tool Grok is being used to create sexualised images.

In a statement, the UK watchdog said there had been “deeply concerning reports” of the chatbot being used to create and share undressed images of people, as well as “sexualised images of children”.

Note the careful avoidance of the word “women”. Note how unlikely it is that all this “undressing” is equally distributed between women and men. Note the BBC’s staunch determination to erase women even from stories that affect them far more than they affect men.

The BBC has seen several examples of digitally altered images on X, in which women were undressed and

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Guest post: Of course he’s looking to hurt people

Jan 11th, 2026 4:35 pm | By

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? at Miscellany Room.

Today I wrote to Pierre Poilievre, Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, and Leader of the Opposition.

Mr. Poilievre;

I’m writing you today to express my anger and dismay at your congratulating Donald Trump on his kidnapping of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. In your misplaced and hasty enthusiasm at the misfortune of a bad guy you don’t like, you have forgotten or ignored Trump’s trampling of much more important principals, those of national sovereignty, and the standards and norms of international law. If you were reading the room, you would see that that is the case, and would not have pressed “enter” on this poorly thought-through message. … Read the rest



Too far north?

Jan 11th, 2026 10:53 am | By

Trump says he doesn’t know what Norway has to do with the Nobel Peace Prize.

https://twitter.com/i/status/2009458609277817329

Does he know what Sweden has to do with it?

Does he know what Nobel had to do with it?

Does he know anything?

Editing to add: Not to mention the complete absurdity of thinking that possession of the physical object=winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Of thinking it means anything.… Read the rest



The “put her in a bikini” trend

Jan 11th, 2026 10:21 am | By

So this is what technology is for.

Evie, a 22-year-old photographer from Lincolnshire, woke up on New Year’s Day, looked at her phone and was alarmed to see that fully clothed photographs of her had been digitally manipulated by Elon Musk’s AI tool, Grok, to show her in just a bikini.

The “put her in a bikini” trend began quietly at the end of last year before exploding at the start of 2026. Within days, hundreds of thousands of requests were being made to the Grok chatbot, asking it to strip the clothes from photographs of women. The fake, sexualised images were posted publicly on X, freely available for millions of people to inspect.

Relatively tame requests by X

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Deliberately

Jan 11th, 2026 9:12 am | By

The LA Times way back in 2014:

Border Patrol agents have deliberately stepped in the path of cars apparently to justify shooting at the drivers and have fired in frustration at people throwing rocks from the Mexican side of the border, according to an independent review of 67 cases that resulted in 19 deaths.

Oh really. Stepped in front of cars have they. To justify shooting the drivers. How very interesting.

The report by law enforcement experts criticized the Border Patrol for “lack of diligence” in investigating U.S. agents who had fired their weapons. It also said it was unclear whether the agency “consistently and thoroughly reviews” use-of-deadly-force incidents.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which had commissioned the review,

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It’s a domestic

Jan 11th, 2026 6:03 am | By

Al Jazeera on the “domestic terrorism” label:

Kristi Noem has described the actions of Renee Nicole Good, a Minneapolis woman killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer on Wednesday, as “domestic terrorism”.

Noem said Good refused to obey orders to get out of her car, “weaponise[d] her vehicle” and “attempted to run” over an officer. Minnesota officials disputed Noem’s account, citing videos showing Good trying to drive away.

There were no “orders to get out of her car” – there was one guy who shouted at her to get out of her car but there was a whole lot of shouting going on, and it must have been very difficult to know which shouts were official … Read the rest



Brushing aside international law

Jan 10th, 2026 3:37 pm | By

Trump informs us that he doesn’t have to pay any attention to laws or treaties or precedent or anything else that might prevent him from doing whatever he wants all the time.

President Trump declared on Wednesday evening that his power as commander in chief is constrained only by his “own morality,” brushing aside international law and other checks on his ability to use military might to strike, invade or coerce nations around the world.

Asked in a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times if there were any limits on his global powers, Mr. Trump said: “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

“I don’t need international

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You can’t clarify mud

Jan 10th, 2026 9:41 am | By

Yet more news on Scotland’s war on women:

First Minister John Swinney has been asked for clarification amid reports his government is attempting to challenge the Supreme Court ruling on sex and gender. 

At First Minister’s Questions, SNP MSP Michelle Thomson asked about a report in The Times that in November the Scottish Government wrote to the Advocate General for Scotland, Baroness Smith of Cluny KC, who advises the UK Government. 

[For more see Unlawfully trample]

The government informed her that it would seek a legal ruling declaring that implementing the Supreme Court’s judgment would unlawfully infringe on the human rights of transgender criminals, if its other legal arguments against the Supreme Court‘s ruling fail.  

This

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Doing something

Jan 10th, 2026 9:14 am | By

It’s a very rapey thing to say.

Greenlanders “don’t want to be Americans” and must decide the future of the Arctic island themselves, politicians in the self-governing Danish territory have said, after Donald Trump warned the US would “do something whether they like it or not”.

All it needs is replacing “they” with “the bitches”.

Trump of course actively loves doing things to people that they don’t “like”. It’s his happy place, his meaning of life, his Valhalla.

At a meeting with oil and gas executives at the White House earlier on Friday, Trump had said Greenland was crucial for US national security. “We’re not going to have Russia or China occupy Greenland. That’s what they’re going to do

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In a chaotic couple of seconds

Jan 9th, 2026 4:49 pm | By

The BBC reports:

A video filmed by the US immigration agent who fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday has emerged, showing the moments before gunfire rang out.

The gunfire didn’t “ring out”. Quite the contrary. There’s nothing bell-like about gunshots. End all stupid journalistic clichés.

The 47-second footage, obtained by Minnesota-based outlet Alpha News, shows Renee Nicole Good sitting behind the wheel of her car and speaking to the officer.

US Vice-President JD Vance shared the clip on social media, commenting that the agent had acted in self-defence. 

US VP lied, not for the first time.

The Trump administration says Good was blocking the road and impeding the work of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

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Explanation

Jan 9th, 2026 4:27 pm | By

A different clip is being shared today.

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Direct action

Jan 9th, 2026 11:12 am | By
Direct action

Guess who.

Did you guess?

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Add two more

Jan 9th, 2026 9:56 am | By

Portland doesn’t want to be left out of the shooting civilians fun.

On Thursday, January 8, 2026, at 2:18 p.m., Portland Police Officers responded to the 10200 block of Southeast Main Street on a report of a shooting. Officers confirmed that federal agents had been involved in a shooting. Portland Police were not involved in the incident.

At 2:24 p.m., officers received information that a man who had been shot was calling and requesting help in the area of Northeast 146th Avenue and East Burnside. Officers responded and found a male and female with apparent gunshot wounds. Officers applied a tourniquet and summoned emergency medical personnel. The patients were transported to the hospital. Their conditions are unknown. Officers have

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The fix is in

Jan 9th, 2026 9:42 am | By

The Feds are barring the Minnesota investigators, because the Feds don’t trust the state people to do whatever Trump tells them to do. Now there’s a surprise.

Mutual distrust between federal and state authorities derailed plans for a joint FBI and state criminal investigation into Wednesday’s shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE officer, leading to the highly unusual move by the Justice Department to block state investigators from participating in the probe.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said Thursday that after an initial agreement for the FBI to work with the state agency, as well as prosecutors from the US Attorney’s office in Minneapolis and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, to investigate the shooting, federal authorities

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Delaying by demanding

Jan 9th, 2026 6:32 am | By

On and on it goes, the obstinate refusal to obey the law because it’s only women who are harmed.

Bridget Phillipson is delaying the release of guidance which would bar transgender women from single-sex spaces by demanding the equalities regulator calculates how much it will cost businesses.

Is that a rule for all such guidance? No.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) submitted the guidance, which sets out how organisations should interpret a Supreme Court ruling from April on the definition of a woman, to Phillipson four months ago but she has yet to approve it.

The equalities minister has told the EHRC it must assess the financial impact of its guidance before it can be approved,

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Leave the SUV at home

Jan 8th, 2026 5:15 pm | By

More on the shooting:

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis on Jan. 7 is Jonathan Ross, the same officer who was dragged and injured by a fleeing driver in a separate incident last year, according to a person with knowledge of the case and verified by court documents.

“He acted according to his training,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, told the Minnesota Star Tribune in an email, noting that this specific agent was selected for ICE’s Special Response Team, is an expert marksman and “has been serving his country his entire life.”

His training told him that trying to leave is the same thing as … Read the rest