More from Team Women May Not Have Anything Just For Women:

Councillors in Edinburgh are considering whether to remove funding from a service that does not support trans women.

What kind of service, you evasive schmucks?

Alex Staniforth, a Scottish Greens councillor, has lodged a motion calling for a review of how the local authority allocates funds to domestic abuse services.

Oh that kind. Well guess what: sometimes women-only services are necessary for women who have experienced domestic abuse. Sometimes that need matters more than the frivolous desire to play Let’s Pretend on the part of selfish demanding entitled doods.

The move is a reaction to an announcement from Edinburgh Women’s Aid (EWA), one of Scotland’s largest domestic abuse

Ralph Nader on the steadily worsening horror:

There are reasons why influential or knowledgeable Americans are staying silent as the worsening fascist dictatorship of the Trumpsters and Musketeers gets more entrenched by the day. Most of these reasons are simple cover for cowardice.

Start with the once-powerful Bush family dynasty. They despise Trump as he does them. Rich and comfortable George W. Bush is very proud of his Administration’s funding of AIDS medicines saving lives in Africa and elsewhere. Trump, driven by vengeance and megalomania, moved immediately to dismantle this program. Immediate harm commenced to millions of victims in Africa and elsewhere who are reliant on this U.S. assistance (including programs to lessen the health toll on people afflicted

National Review reports [because The Nation won’t]:

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 locker room and bathroom, Georgas said. 

There’s this one thing that doesn’t get as much attention as it should, no doubt because there’s so much else to pay attention to. Trump repeats everything. He comes up with what he considers a zinger and he repeats it and repeats it, because he thinks it’s so brilliant. It’s a trivial point, and yet…why has no one told him? Why have none of his offspring said “Dad we got it the first time, the more you repeat it the less funny it is, just say it ONCE ffs.”

It’s such a tell of out of control vanity, to repeat your own eloquence all the time.… Read the rest

Danger danger.

The White House has denied an accusation from rights groups that it flouted due process by defying a judge’s order while carrying out deportations at the weekend.

A group of 238 alleged Venezuelan gang members, plus 23 alleged members of the international MS-13 gang, were sent from the US to a prison in El Salvador. Some were removed from the country under a law not used since World War Two.

The move came despite a temporary block issued by a judge. The White House said the judge’s order itself was not lawful and was issued after the group was deported.

Neither the US government nor El Salvador has identified the detainees, or provided details of their alleged

Originally a comment by Enzyme on No YOU decolonize.

My tuppence-worth on the “whitness” of Shakespeare:

Let’s allow, for the sake of the argument, that there is racism in his plays. Well, OK; but that’s not enough. We need to know more about whether that putative racism maps on to today’s definition of racism; and I don’t think it does. And I take Othello as my case-in-point.

Here’s a trivial starting-point: Othello is a tragedy. This means that, in Shakespeare’s handling of the form, the titular character is brought down by a flaw in his own character. For Macbeth it’s ambition; for Hamlet it’s over-thinking; for Othello it’s jealousy. But the titular characters of a tragedy are all high-status … Read the rest

The threats to Canada seemed to be too absurd to be real, but it turns out that plenty of people think it’s all too real.

After President Trump imposed tariffs on Canada on Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an extraordinary statement that was largely lost in the fray of the moment.

“The excuse that he’s giving for these tariffs today of fentanyl is completely bogus, completely unjustified, completely false,” Mr. Trudeau told the news media in Ottawa. “What he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that’ll make it easier to annex us,” he added.

This is the story of how Mr. Trudeau went from thinking Mr. Trump was joking when he referred

Met Police hate women, love men who playact being women.

A Met Police training officer called anti-transgender women a “bunch of lesbians”, a tribunal has heard.

Sgt Karl Eccott, an LGBT+ training officer, allegedly made the comments in a session with trainee Melanie Newman, who is now bringing harassment and direct discrimination claims against the Met.

Ms Newman claimed in her witness statement to the tribunal, held in Croydon, south London, that the Met Police was a “hostile environment” for anyone with gender-critical opinions.

In other words the police=a hostile environment who know that men are not women.

How is that a tenable situation?

Ms Newman is now a detective constable with the Met, based in the child

Originally a comment by YNnB on Not far from how it started in Donetsk.

This is a sign of madness and a policy objective at the same time. The repeated utterance of the “51st State” bullshit by yet another official is an indication that this is something Trump is serious about. This is 25th Ammendment level insanity. It amazes me that this is a cabinet-level official behaving like this. It is as clear an indication as any that Trump has surrounded himself with empty-headed sycophants whose only talent is fellating his ego. America is now threatened by its own government. Not only by the erosion of its democratic institutions, and Trump’s accelerating authoritarianism, but also by the installation of … Read the rest

Now from the other main branch of looney tunes – the people running the Shakespeare Trust announce that Shakespeare wasn’t all that and besides he was white so let’s all stop paying any attention to his stupid old plays and poetry.

William Shakespeare’s birthplace is being “decolonised” following concerns about the playwright being used to promote “white supremacy”.

Shakespeare’s Birthplace Trust owns buildings linked to the Bard in his home town of Stratford-upon-Avon. The trust also owns archival material including parish records of the playwright’s birth and baptism.

It is now “decolonising” its vast collection to “create a more inclusive museum experience”.

Hang on. Wait just a second. I have a better idea. How about the people doing … Read the rest

No Voice of America for you.

All full-time staffers at the Voice of America and the Office for Cuba Broadcasting, which runs Radio and Television Martí, were affected — more than 1,000 employees. The move followed a late Friday night edict from President Trump that its parent agency, called the U.S. Agency for Global Media, must eliminate all activities that are not required by law.

In addition, under the leadership of Trump appointees, the agency has severed all contracts for the privately incorporated international broadcasters it funds, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.

Gosh it seems like only yesterday that Republicans were enthusiastic about broadcasting pro-US content all around the … Read the rest

I missed Kristi Noem’s stunt last week.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently toured a library that straddled the United States-Canada border, and one remark she made repeatedly is angering both Americans and Canadians.

The Boston Globe reported that Noem made the remark during an appearance at the Haskell Free Library and Opera House in Stanstead, Quebec and Derby Line, Vermont. The library has both American and Canadian flags and a line of black electrical tape on the floor that marks the international border for visitors.

During her visit, the Globe reported that Noem stood on the American side of the library and said “USA number one,” before stepping to the Canadian side and saying: “The 51st state.” 

What … Read the rest

So so so so so so sorry.

A BBC radio presenter apologised for “misgendering” Eddie Izzard on air – despite the comedian not caring about pronouns and gender labels.

Anita Anand said she was “very very sorry” after referring to Izzard as “the man” while presenting Radio 4’s PM programme on Friday.

Yet Izzard, 63, who identifies as gender fluid and uses she/her pronouns, has previously confessed an indifference to such labels, telling The Telegraph last year: “He, she – it doesn’t matter.”

In any case it doesn’t matter what pronouns he “uses”; accuracy trumps faddish luxuries. Izzard is a man, so BBC Radio 4 shouldn’t pretend he isn’t. It’s not the BBC’s job to lie to us.

Izzard

Another consignment of ugly:

Arlington National Cemetery has scrubbed information about prominent Black, Hispanic and female service members and topics such as the Civil War from its website, part of a broader effort across the Defense Department to remove all references to diversity, equity and inclusion from its online presence.

Well…all references that the Trump people at the Defense Department consider “references to diversity, equity and inclusion.” There are other ways of naming information about women and non-white people.

A cemetery spokesperson confirmed Friday that it removed internal links directing users to webpages listing the dozens of “Notable Graves” of Black, Hispanic and female veterans and their spouses.

On these pages, users could read short biographies about the people

It’s a great pity that the UK doesn’t have separation of church and state.

A religious school leader has been appointed as chairman of Ofsted for what is believed to be the first time.

Sir Hamid Patel will take up the interim role until a successor is found for Dame Christine Ryan at the schools regulator.

He is the chief executive of Star Academies Trust, which runs nearly 40 primaries and secondaries, including several Islamic schools.

Ah, Islamic schools. So girls have to wear hijab? So girls are called sluts if they don’t wear hijab? And the people who make these appointments are ok with that?

Sir Hamid has been on the board of Ofsted since 2019 and

Gender-critical documentary makers take UCU to tribunal

Two academic filmmakers are taking their union to an employment tribunal, arguing that it treated them unfairly because of their gender-critical beliefs.

Deirdre O’Neill and Michael Wayne faced a backlash from campaigners amid claims that their 2022 film Adult Human Female was “transphobic”. It defines sex as being determined by biology and claims that women’s rights have been damaged by the trans movement.

Reporting on this subject is always such a mush of fact and opinion. It’s not a “belief” that sex is determined by biology, it’s just a fact. The words are human creations but the facts themselves are not.

O’Neill and Wayne, who are academics at the University of Hertfordshire and Brunel

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Nice LGBT+ training, Karl.

A Met Police training officer called anti-transgender women a “bunch of lesbians”, a tribunal has heard. Sgt Karl Eccott, an LGBT+ training officer, allegedly made the comments in a session with trainee Melanie Newman, who is now bringing harassment and direct discrimination claims against the Met.

Wait. This is, supposedly an LGT+ training officer, using “lesbian” in a way that can only be considered as pejorative? Hello, lesbians are supposed to be part of the “community” you’re allegedly doing training for and about. Remember the L? (Hint: it’s right there in front.) And what if they were all lesbians? What would be wrong with … Read the rest

Do read Mike B’s article.

In a kindergarten classroom in the mid-1960s, a kid named Mikey steered clear of the boys stacking large toy blocks on top of one another and knocking them down again–so obnoxious—and instead went and sat at the table of girls making beads out of salt dough and stringing them together on a thread. These girls were not averse to tasting the salt dough and smacking their lips in disgust. The teacher had wisely settled on salt dough because she knew it wouldn’t poison the students should they eat it. At least the girls were smart and funny and didn’t continually knock each other to the floor.

Mikey preferred these sober, artsy

Wait, how does that work?

Vatican News:

Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin celebrates Mass for members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, recalling the anniversary of Pope Francis’ pontificate and inviting everyone to continue praying for his health.

What’s the point of praying for his health? Especially for those guys to pray for his health? It’s an inside job. They’re all supposed to be on the same page. What’s the agency they’re praying to? The Big Kahuna, obviously – Mister God himself. They’re servants of Mister God. They bow to Mister God. They recognize Mister God as the big boss, and they flatter him and tell others to flatter him every chance they get. So … Read the rest

A second ruling saying “Not so fast” to Trump:

A second federal judge has ordered the mass reinstatement of fired federal workers, reversing the Trump administration’s terminations of probationary employees at 18 major agencies.

The agencies covered by U.S. District Judge James Bredar’s sweeping order, issued Thursday night, include the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Labor, State, Transportation and Treasury, among others.

Bredar’s order sweeps even more broadly than a ruling earlier in the day from a different federal judge, who directed six Cabinet departments to immediately rehire probationary employees who were fired under President Donald Trump’s plan to cut the federal workforce.

Both judges concluded that the Trump administration used