Why though?

RFK Jr. is now a wellness guru for Republicans

Why? Why him? Why not someone with actual medical training who is nevertheless a “wellness” crank? That would at least improve your odds. Bad Kennedy is just so random.

The GOP’s embrace of nutrition and wellness stands in sharp contrast to its position less than 15 years ago, when Republicans sharply criticized then-first lady Michelle Obama’s push for healthier meals and more exercise as nanny state nonsense.

That’s a sharp contrast all right. White man crank attacking vaccination versus Black woman pushing for healthy food and exercise.… Read the rest

Oh gawd they’re talking about “Islamophobia” again.

For the billionth time: Islam is a religion, and we are allowed to dispute religions. Theocracy is bad, and making one particular religion immune from dissent is a bad form of theocracy.

Islam treats women like shit, and we do get to say that.

A proposed new definition of Islamophobia is being considered by the Government, with the intention of helping combat hostility and discrimination to Muslims.

However, representatives of Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs have written to Steve Reed, the Communities Secretary, urging him not to place one group above others.

They have also warned that the proposed definition was so vague that it could have a “chilling” effect on

Maureen Dowd reviews that Melanie movie:

Some theaters showing “Melania” were so empty that wags suggested that undocumented immigrants should hide out there. Reviews are brutal: The Independent said the first lady came across as “a preening, scowling void of pure nothingness in this ghastly bit of propaganda.” The Guardian dismissed the movie as “gilded trash,” and Variety asked, “Why would Amazon spend $75 million on a movie this boring?” (I think we all know the answer to that.)

Can you say “baksheesh”?

We knew everything we needed to know about her in the wake of Jan. 6. In the memoir of Stephanie Grisham, Melania’s former aide and confidante, Grisham told a chilling story about the chilly first

Well, they’re still doing it.

DHS agents in MN swerved in front of an unarmed woman who was recording them, once again WALK IN FRONT OF A CAR with guns drawn. The only thing they've learned from Renee Good is how to get away with killing people. A local cop intervened to stop the illegal arrest! pic.twitter.com/hzND9dyzUS

— David J. Bier (@David_J_Bier) January 31, 2026

They walk in front of her car WITH GUNS DRAWN.

The local police chief, in Saint Peter, zoomed up to intervene and prevent her arrest.… Read the rest

The National Review tells us:

The first gender “detransitioner” medical-malpractice case to go to trial resulted in a $2 million dollar verdict against the medical professionals who approved a double mastectomy for the plaintiff, Fox Varian, in 2019 when she was only 16.

…

Fox Varian, now 22 and no longer identifying as transgender, was awarded $2 million in damages, with $1.6 million for past and future pain and suffering, and another $400,000 for future medical expenses.

The jury found that in many respects the surgeon and psychologist had skipped important steps when evaluating whether she should go forward with the surgery and had not adequately communicated with each other. These missteps were a “departure from the standard of

On the one hand, great news. On the other hand, the word “women” doesn’t appear even once.

Rape Crisis Scotland chief executive steps down after 24 years 

Rape Crisis Scotland chief executive Sandy Brindley is stepping down after 24 years at the organisation.

Sandy has been part of the Rape Crisis movement for more than three decades, starting as a volunteer support worker in Glasgow in 1994 before leaving to set up Rape Crisis Scotland in 2002.

Under Sandy’s leadership, and through her passionate advocacy, Rape Crisis Scotland has become a national voice for and with survivors of rape and sexual violence.

She has worked tirelessly to raise awareness, challenge public attitudes around rape and sexual violence, and ensure that the needs and concerns of survivors are respected and represented when laws and policies

Melania movie not wowing the critics.

“The golden age of America begins right now!” Trump bleats in his inaugural address, while Melania sits behind him, her face twitching unnervingly between pout and smile. Woven through the documentary’s depiction of the events in the run-up to the Trumps’ return to the White House are signs of the film’s strange genesis. Melania’s chief of staff denies a request from Matt Belloni, the entertainment journalist, to hear more about her mysterious Amazon deal. At the banquet dinner on inauguration eve (where guests are served a gold egg and caviar, because, as a sycophantic designer tells the first lady, “white and gold is you!”) viewers will repeatedly spy Amazon proprietor Jeff

This guy saw the Melania movie and he tells us about it. He’s not a fan.

Melania is an absolute, all-time stinker.

It's a bad film made by bad people about bad people. pic.twitter.com/u6LENPUTxN

— Mikey Smith (@mikeysmith) January 30, 2026

She sounds like a store dummy who can walk and not quite talk. … Read the rest

Piglet pointed out in comments this excruciating exercise in Not Saying the W Word, and it’s so excruciating I have to point out every excrutiation.

Fear of ICE is keeping pregnant immigrants in Minnesota from critical care

All euphemisms for woman/women bolded from here on.

Health care providers said pregnant patients are having more complications linked to stress. But fear of immigration agents is keeping them from prenatal care.

Pregnant patients increasingly aren’t showing up for prenatal visits. Those who are are asking if they can have fewer. 

…

Across the country, health care providers have said that people are increasingly skipping prenatal visits, citing concerns about raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

…

Some patients,

Shut up and move over, bitches.

International Women’s Day celebration for and by men. pic.twitter.com/1duxjsBfeh

— Sall Grover (@salltweets) January 30, 2026

… Read the rest

Regime Movie Night.

On Thursday afternoon, in the lobby of the Trump Kennedy Center, reporters whispered in hushed voices to each other to see which journalists, if any, would be allowed entry to a screening of Melania Trump’s documentary “Melania.”

In the hours before the film screened (press check-in began at 2 p.m. for the 6 p.m. carpet), there was slight optimism from veteran reporters, accustomed to slipping their way into Trump World, that they’d be able to network their way into a seat. But by 6:30 p.m., when members of the administration began walking the carpet, it became clear that most of the mainstream press would be blocked from attending the Amazon MGM Studios film.

Well duh. If you’re mainstream press you’re probably not going … Read the rest

The flames are getting higher.

The former CNN anchor Don Lemon and three other people have been arrested on charges that they violated federal law during a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minn., this month, lawyers and Justice Department officials said on Friday, reviving a case that was rejected last week by a magistrate judge.

The arrests of Mr. Lemon, a second journalist and two protesters came a little more than a week after three other demonstrators who took part in the action at the Cities Church on Jan. 18 were taken into custody. The prosecution is likely to face pushback from defense lawyers on First Amendment grounds, given that political protest sits at the center of

Now Trump is hooking up with separatists in Alberta.

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta’s premier say the US should respect Canadian sovereignty after reports emerged that Alberta separatists had talked to the Trump administration about the province possibly leaving Canada. Carney said they “expect the US administration to respect Canadian sovereignty – I’m always clear with President Trump to that effect”.

Similarly, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she expected US officials to leave discussions about the province’s “democratic process” to Albertans and Canadians.

No, see, other people have to stay out of US affairs but Trump gets to do whatever he wants. That’s the rule.

Currently, Alberta separatists are collecting signatures for a petition process that could lead

Good good good. All as it should be. Move along.

Trump hangs picture of himself with Putin in White House

As one does.

Elizabeth Landers, the White House correspondent for PBS News Hour, who shared an image of the photograph on X, said it was hung in a vestibule area connecting the West Wing to the residence.

Kirill Dmitriev, Russia’s key negotiator, welcomed the news, saying: “Good. A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Russia views the meeting between Putin and Trump in Anchorage, the first time the Russian leader had visited a western nation since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as an important moment in their modern history.

The Kremlin announced this week that the summit

Editing to add: I missed the fact that this tantrum is from May 16 last year.

Making sure we all know just how stupid he is, again.

“to speak badly about” – he means slam or attack or bash or go after or even criticize. “Speak badly” means stutter or mumble or squeak or any other version of unskilled talking. It means doing the act of speaking in a bad, talentless way. It does not mean speaking of one too-powerful man in a way said man doesn’t like. This is in fact, tidily, an example of Trump…wait for it…speaking badly. He always speaks badly because he has a tiny vocabulary and he’s dumb as a stump. Springsteen, not so much.… Read the rest

Aha. So that’s what Trump wants, is it. Well he’s not getting it.

“Hey! He’s theee HeadofaCountry, and I mean he’s the strong head, don’t let anyone think anything different, he speaks and his people sit up at attention, I want my people to do the same.”

We’re not your people, you worm, we’re our own people, and your longing to make us sit up at attention instead of explaining in detail what a sick fuck you are is exactly why you should have a job emptying the bins in Central Park.

The “erring on the side of” bit seems all wrong in this Atlantic piece on “trans athletes” by sports columnist Sally Jenkins.

Transgender participation in women’s athletics is the single most difficult issue I’ve seen in 40 years of covering sports. It makes gambling, performance-enhancing drugs, and regulation of collegiate athletics look like tidy challenges.

What’s difficult about it? Just say no. No, men can’t play in women’s sports.

Two groups—trans women and cisgender women—both argue that they need equal protection from discrimination. But if they can’t have it at the same time in the often zero-sum realm of sports, who wins?

Oh please. It’s often the case that two groups argue that X. Deal with it.

At the

Jolyon Maugham gloating that for now men can continue to force themselves on women at the women’s pond on Hampstead Heath.

The High Court just refused Sex Matters’ permission to ban trans women from the Hampstead ponds. We’re relieved that the ponds can remain a place where trans people have always belonged.

Notice that he resorts to the usual lie. Sex Matters is not seeking to “ban trans women from the Hampstead ponds”. Sex Matters is seeking to ban men from the women’s pond. Note that if they succeed the men’s pond will still be there and trans women aka men will still be able to splash about in it.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Choose one.

Norfolk Constabulary confirmed that “in most cases” the force recorded the self-identified gender of suspects.

Do they also note their astrological sign and favourite flavour of ice cream? They’re just as useful and relevent as “gender identity.”

If that’s far as it went, there’d be little problem, but what the police are doing is letting these suspects lie about their sex.. Once they’re in the system, this putative “gender” is used in place of sex because the system is built around seeing a suspect or prisoner’s sex.

“Gender identity” wasn’t a thing when women’s prisons (or women’s anything for that matter) were established. They were intended to … Read the rest

Oh gee, what a good idea.

Police force lets suspects choose their gender

So rape suspects get to choose to “be” women? Men who assault women get to choose the women label? Domestic violence perps get to say they are women? All men who commit crimes against women are allowed to tell the police they are women?

Why would the police do that?

Norfolk Constabulary confirmed that “in most cases” the force recorded the self-identified gender of suspects. The policy has been criticised by women’s rights groups, who fear that it skews crime statistics and obscures focus on the safety of women and girls.

They don’t just fear that it does, they know it does. How could it not? If … Read the rest