Heather Cox Richardson writes:

It seems as if the Trump administration is rushing to tear apart as much as it can as opponents of its wholesale destruction of the United States government organize to stop them.

Today, members of the “Department of Government Efficiency” team showed up at the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which helps to fund libraries and museums across the country and whose elimination Trump called for in an executive order last week. They sent employees home, swore in a new acting director in the lobby, and proceeded to cancel contracts and grants.

So we can’t have libraries and museums? Why not?

Even as this dismantling was going on, District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander was

… Read the rest

I found a nice paperback The Best American Travel Writing 2010 in a Little Free Library a few days ago, and opened it yesterday evening all eager for the treat. Until I read the contents page.

Twenty one articles.

Twenty of them written by men.

One whole entire article out of 21 was by a woman.

Really dude? One?

Because women don’t travel? Because women can’t write? Because you forget that women exist? What? What’s the problem here?

The editor for this one was Bill Buford; the series editor is Jason Wilson. Wouldn’t you think one of them would have noticed? I would.

So I’ll be putting that book back in the LFB, or perhaps the recycle bin, unread.… Read the rest

From last week:

The Trump administration delivered an ultimatum to leaders of Columbia University on Thursday, threatening to end a portion of its federal funding unless the school implements strong controls over an international studies department and makes significant changes to student discipline standards and other university policies.

In a letter obtained by NPR dated March 13, federal officials from the U.S. Education Department, Department of Health and Human Services and General Services Administration demanded Columbia place its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department under “academic receivership for a minimum of five years,” requiring them to create a full plan to do so by March 20. The letter didn’t explain why this department was targeted for

… Read the rest

So “DEI” includes discussion of the Holocaust? I did not know that.

Articles about the Holocaust, September 11, cancer awareness, sexual assault and suicide prevention are among the tens of thousands either removed or flagged for removal from Pentagon websites as the department has scrambled to comply with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s order to scrub “diversity” content from all its platforms.

A database obtained by CNN shows that more than 24,000 articles could be purged, with many gone already. The scrub goes well beyond just the removal of images from the Pentagon’s visual database, known as DVIDS, and includes articles from across more than 1,000 websites hosted by the department.

The Pentagon previously said in a memo last

… Read the rest

I sometimes burble about the jaw-dropping beauties of Seattle and its suburbs, so maybe it’s time for a look at the other side.

A black metal fence, topped with coils of razor wire, surrounds Lam’s Seafood Asian Market in Seattle’s Little Saigon neighborhood.

The fencing, which cost $50,000, went up in summer 2023 to stop people from pitching tents and building fires in the parking lot after-hours and breaking into the grocery store and warehouse next door. Security cameras are mounted inside and out, so far costing $15,000 as more are added to cover every checkout lane and newly discovered blind spot.

 “This is the last thing we wanted to do,” said Teizi Mersai, Lam’s business operations manager, gesturing

… Read the rest

Terrorism. Knowing men are not women is terrorism if you go public with this dangerous knowledge.

"Gender-critical activists tracked by terrorism unit"
I'm not surprised, as the police seem to think their primary duty these days is to cheerlead for genderwoowoo, but interesting to see it in writing. pic.twitter.com/CKAB1hbee5

— Lily Maynard (@LilyLilyMaynard) March 17, 2025

H/t Mostly Cloudy… Read the rest

Institute of Peace violently invaded by the dictator.

Officials at an independent institute dedicated to promoting peace will ask a federal judge on Wednesday to block Trump administration officials and Elon Musk’s government cost-cutting team from mounting what they called a “lawless assault” against it.

The organization, the U.S. Institute of Peace, sued President Trump and others on Tuesday, asking the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia to intervene against what it said was an illegal “takeover by force.”

A standoff on Monday between the institute and Mr. Musk’s team ended when police officers helped evict staff members from the institute’s headquarters in Washington. That came after the White House has in recent days gutted the institute’s

… Read the rest

So many people having so much fun bullying women.

Terrible, pointless interview. And you *know* where all the bodies are buried, when Khelif is finally asked about actual – you know – *eligibility* tests, and just feigns ignorance.

As if the thought had never crossed Khelif's mind.

Unserious, *incurious* journalism.

— Jon Pike (@runthinkwrite) March 19, 2025

From men who are happy to see women pushed out.… Read the rest

That’s quite the broad sweeping incloosive lie.

This is true. The one goal of the Gender Critical movement is to exterminate trans people in the US and UK pic.twitter.com/mD5BdEgkGw

— India Willoughby (@IndiaWilloughby) March 19, 2025

Not deprogram, not persuade, not silence, not rebuke, not contradict, not reason with, not quarrel with, not shout at, not remonstrate with, not convince, not turn around – but exterminate.

Jonathan Willoughby is a disgusting human being.… Read the rest

Athel Cornish-Bowden alerted us to this gem.… Read the rest

Headline and subhead:

Police and courts allowing criminals to choose their gender

Fears that allowing criminals to self-identify without legally changing sex is skewing crime statistics

Fears that? Of course allowing criminals to self-identify their sex is skewing statistics – how could it not?

Police forces and the courts are allowing criminals to self-identify their gender if they have not legally changed sex.

Surely the Telegraph means even if they have not legally changed sex. Surely the Telegraph doesn’t mean cops and courts are forbidding criminals to self-id if they have legally changed sex.

Nitpick nitpick nitpick, I know, but honestly, this subject is so full of obfuscation and lying all by itself, journalism ought to be careful not to … Read the rest

There’s a private Facebook group called UK Women’s March. Its “About this group” is public.

We are a women’s organisation dedicated to empowering women and girls, advocating for their rights, and championing their autonomy. We stand in solidarity with women globally, recognising the strength they show in the face of daily challenges. Our movement is inclusive, supporting the rights of all women, including trans women, in the fight for equality. We are committed to tackling all forms of violence against women, including domestic abuse, sexual violence, and femicide, while pushing for stronger laws and better support for survivors.

We focus on closing the gender pay gap, ensuring fair pay, and promoting equal opportunities for women in the workplace. Our advocacy

… Read the rest

Which twin is the real minstrel show?

Dylan, this is some tough love. Trans gal to trans gal.

In the 20s, a genre of deeply racist minstrel films emerged with wildly offensive Black stereotypes. You are producing the modern equivalent with women.

I was willing to overlook your cringe and frankly sexist TikToks.… pic.twitter.com/Xz5FS1PG7F

— Brianna Wu (@BriannaWu) March 18, 2025

I was willing to overlook your cringe and frankly sexist TikToks. You were a child. You’re not a child anymore. You have talent. Please channel it in another way.

Dude. You’re the slightly more intellectualized minstrel show. That’s all the difference there is. You’re both insulting women.… Read the rest

Luxury idenniny seems to have a nasty side effect of extreme fragility.

Staff working in Holyrood “do not feel safe” because of the “often disrespectful tones of discussion,” a Green MSP has claimed.

Ariane Burgess is to use a question on Thursday to ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) to “offer support” to any LGBTQ+ staff “whose welfare may be negatively impacted by any increase in the use of language in the Chamber and committees that may be perceived as trans-exclusionary.”

“Negatively impacted” ffs – of course the luxury idenniny crowd also resorts to luxury jargon like “negatively impacted” instead of the crude plebian “harmed” or “damaged.” Bad thinking begets more bad thinking. No, Ms Burgess, we won’t … Read the rest

I wish they would notice the contradiction. They never notice the contradiction.

Illinois public school administrators tried to force a 13-year-old girl to change clothes in front of a biological male, in accordance with the district’s “inclusive” bathroom policy that allows transgender students to use whichever locker room corresponds with their chosen gender, the mother of the girl said at a Deerfield School District 109 School Board meeting on Thursday evening.

When Nicole Georgas’s 13-year-old daughter came home from Shepard Middle School on February 5, she was frightened and upset: A boy had been in the girl’s bathroom.

Georgas’s daughter was told by Deerfield administrators that because the male student identified as a female, he could use the girl’s

… Read the rest

Willoughby plunges to a new disgusting low.

We can ignore him, but I think it’s worth noting and keeping track of how low some lifeforms will plunge.

Your first husband denies your version of events. He admits he slapped you – which is obviously totally unacceptable. But he says there was no sustained abuse. He also denies your claims he threatened to burn your Harry Potter manuscript. Only you two know what actually happened… pic.twitter.com/JV0VQHuy16

— India Willoughby (@IndiaWilloughby) March 18, 2025

… Read the rest

Roberts says no that’s not how this works.

In an extraordinary display of conflict between the executive and judiciary branches, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts rejected calls for impeaching federal judges shortly after President Donald Trump demanded the removal of a judge who ruled against his deportation plans.

“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in a rare statement. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”

But of course Trump has no truck with “normal.” Trump despises normal unless it’s his own very particular brand of normal. Trump considers himself the arbiter of what’s normal and what’s an outrage … Read the rest

Wait what?

NY Times subhead:

In an echo of the Yalta Conference in 1945, the American and Russian leaders will talk on Tuesday about who gets what in the process of ending the war in Ukraine.

How is that an echo of the Yalta Conference???

At the Yalta Conference, the three heads of state were allies, however uncomfortably. At Yalta, the other team was the aggressor.

Here’s a shocker: Russia is not a US ally. I know Trump doesn’t get that, but the Times certainly should. Here’s another shocker: Russia is the aggressor in this war.

Trump handing Ukraine bound and gagged over to Putin does not resemble the Yalta Conference.

But talking to reporters on Air Force

… Read the rest

Ah well we may not like what Trump is doing, but Chinese state media think he’s fabulous.

Chinese state media has welcomed Donald Trump’s move to cut public funding for news outlets Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, which have long reported on authoritarian regimes.

The decison affects thousands of employees – some 1,300 staff have been put on paid leave at Voice Of America (VOA) alone since Friday’s executive order.

Critics have called the move a setback for democracy but Beijing’s state newspaper Global Times denounced VOA for its “appalling track record” in reporting on China and said it has “now been discarded by its own government like a dirty rag”.

That settles it then. “Nothing about … Read the rest

This Alex Staniforth fella really wants to punish women.

https://twitter.com/JournalistJill/status/1901917782586872187 https://twitter.com/serialsockthief/status/1901973081658212441

This Thursday @EdinburghCC will debate a spiteful motion, proposed by SGP councillor Alex Staniforth, intended to coerce Edinburgh Women's Aid into abandoning any single-sex provision for women. Comment piece by @DalgetySusan, motion in next tweet. 1/3https://t.co/KZbxnimeV0

— Scottish Labour Women's Declaration (@LWDScotland) March 17, 2025

https://twitter.com/DalgetySusan/status/1901697170878644720 … Read the rest