Originally a comment by maddog1129 on Differences.

What’s this “cis women” business? There’s no reason for “cis” to describe what we used to call “women” until very recently. Your forced labeling of women as “cis” women doesn’t even apply to many women you are trying to shove into that category. To the extent gender ideologists have provided a definition, “cis” as a descriptor of women is a “gender identity,” not a sex. Some women (sex) “identify with” or, more incoherently, “identify as,” or are comfortable with the bundle of gender stereotypes arbitrarily ascribed to women in some culture. News flash: since at least the 1970s, many feminist women have been pointing out that the social constructs of gender roles … Read the rest

Interesting. A Guardian writer, Edward Helmore, thinks Trump’s disgusting bullying yesterday is Zelenskyy’s fault.

One television star turned president visits another far more powerful one on a stage set and attempts to introduce a plot twist of sorts. What could go wrong?

The high-stakes White House showdown that unfolded on Friday after the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, demanded US security guarantees was deemed a damaging setback to Donald Trump’s goal of forging a peace deal – and a win for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin – by some US political commentators.

Zelenskyy didn’t “demand” security guarantees out of the blue; he sought them in exchange for the highly valuable mineral rights Trump was demanding.

The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent,

One of the NOAA people Trump abruptly fired yesterday:

Until Thursday afternoon, Hanna Miller focused on protecting whales from oil spills, ship strikes, and fishing gear.

Miller was a natural resource specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the science-heavy federal agency that forecasts weather, tsunamis, and hurricanes, regulates fisheries, studies the climate, and protects salmon, orcas, and other endangered species that swim.

In 2022, she helped a multiagency team make sure endangered orcas didn’t swim into the diesel fuel belching out of the sunken Aleutian Isle fishing boat off Washington’s San Juan Island. “I was on call for 42 days, tracking them every second that I was awake to make sure that they didn’t go through [the oil

Deep thoughts.

When we say “trans women are women”, we’re not saying that they’re the same as cís women.
No two women or men are the same. Concepts of womanhood & manhood evolve across times, place & culture. What we mean is that trans women are valid & deserving of recognition as women. https://t.co/f6x4FO6r2h

— Thomas Willett (@ThomasWillett9) March 1, 2025

Actually some two women or men are the same: identical twins.

Other than that, of course they’re not “the same”; what they are however is the same sex. The word “sex” doesn’t mean your temperament or personality or likes and dislikes; it just means your sex. No two humans are the same, either, but they’re still both … Read the rest

You can’t fix stupid, and the result is that stupid can kill you.

In her hometown of Lubbock, Texas, Leah, a pregnant mother, has been avoiding stores and other public spaces for the last two weeks.

On Wednesday, the city saw a six-year-old child who was not vaccinated against the virus die – the first US death from the measles in nearly a decade.

With a baby on the way, Leah could be putting her foetus at risk of health complications if she contracted the virus, despite her own vaccination. Her paediatrician also advised her to move up her older son’s second shot of the vaccine – the full course for the immunisation – as the risk to his

Dude we can see where your makeup ends. We can always see where your makeup ends. You have a shoepolish-brown face and pink ears: we can see that: we do see that every day. You look ridiculous.

Here was where the first insult came.

“Oh look, he’s all dressed up today!”

Premeditated and a pre planned attack. pic.twitter.com/WjOzW2bkQN

— Shaun Pinner (@olddog100ua) March 1, 2025

… Read the rest

Tom Nichols on the horror of today:

The president of the United States ambushed a loyal ally, presumably so that he can soon make a deal with the dictator of Russia to sell out a European nation fighting for its very existence.

Trump’s advisers have already declared the meeting a win for “putting America first,” and his apologists will likely spin and rationalize this shameful moment as just a heated conversation—the kind of thing that in Washington-speak used to be called a “frank and candid exchange.” But this meeting reeked of a planned attack, with Trump unloading Russian talking points on Zelensky (such as blaming Ukraine for risking global war), all of it designed to humiliate the Ukrainian leader

The reviews roll in.

Reagan: Tear down this wall

JFK: Ask not what your country can do for you…

Trump/Vance: HE DIDN’T SAY THANK YOU !! https://t.co/uyGbNfl6f6

— Jonathan Kay (@jonkay) February 28, 2025

https://twitter.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1895579654662316158

Updating to add

Generations of American patriots, from our revolution onward, have fought for the principles Zelenskyy is risking his life to defend. But today, Donald Trump and JD Vance attacked Zelenskyy and pressured him to surrender the freedom of his people to the KGB war criminal who… https://t.co/oMoWZ7FmBL

— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) February 28, 2025

… Read the rest

And even more bullying and insulting of Zelenskyy for having the nerve to resist invasion by a dictator.

Brian Glenn: Why don’t you wear a suit?!? Do you own a suit? pic.twitter.com/p1gdffSPkJ

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 28, 2025

Here is a picture of Sir Winston Churchill visiting the White House during the Second World War. I wonder if @brianglenntv would have dared to criticise him? pic.twitter.com/brb24KmdKq

— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) February 28, 2025

47 more months of this. … Read the rest

Also very bad:

The Trump administration has begun firing employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, one of the world’s premier centers for climate science.

The firings are expected to cost more than 800 people their jobs, out of a total of about 13,000 staff members, according to two people familiar with the situation who declined to be identified for fear of retribution. The notifications went out on Thursday afternoon.

Because weather isn’t important. Nobody needs to know about the weather.

“This loss of talent at NOAA is going to set the agency back years and compromise the integrity of missions that directly support human health and safety, economic prosperity and national security,” the analyst said, speaking on

Shame of a nation.

Appalling behaviour and yet these are the bullies the British PM kowtowed to yesterday. Shameful https://t.co/mvuKO5rxAS

— Joanna Cherry KC (@joannaccherry) February 28, 2025

Trump wants 'respect' like a mafia boss. He means sycophancy and submission. Now he's president again, he isn't even hiding the fact that he's a loud-mouthed bully.

Now European leaders need to stand up and support @ZelenskyyUa.

— Joan Smith (@polblonde) February 28, 2025

A shameful day for America https://t.co/7eKsRoZBIA

— Hadley Freeman (@HadleyFreeman) February 28, 2025

… Read the rest

Now Trump, like any furious teenager, has gone to his social media to whine and yell and threaten.

In a Truth Social post following a heated exchange between Trump, Vance and Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, Trump called the meeting “meaningful,” but added, “I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved.”

“We had a very meaningful meeting in the White House today. Much was learned that could never be understood without conversation under such fire and pressure,” the president wrote in the post. “It’s amazing what comes out through emotion, and I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him

Oh my god oh my god oh my god… Read the rest

As you may recall, Trump issued an executive order on February 7 that said

Washington “shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation.”

He ordered the Departments of State and Homeland Security “to prioritize humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Program, for Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination.”

…

On X this month, South African native Elon Musk, Trump’s top adviser, accused his home country of pushing “openly racist ownership laws.” South Africa rejected a license for his Starlink internet company because it did not meet BEE requirements.

Ebrahim Rasool, the South African ambassador to Washington, said Trump’s order

I thought being a mayor, especially of one of the world’s biggest cities, was a secular kind of job.

Silly me.

London’s stunning Ramadan Lights have returned to the West End!

For the next month, this dazzling display will illuminate the vibrant heart of our city, celebrating the holy month of Ramadan and showcasing London's rich diversity. ☪️✨ pic.twitter.com/wwdV7iJcz3

— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) February 26, 2025

Also, he makes it sound like a party, like the secularized commercialized Xmas we’re so used to, but Ramadan is a month of fasting. The fasting is dawn to dusk, and it’s not just eating it’s also drinking, so it’s unhealthy at best and risky at worst.

It’s not something to pretty up … Read the rest

But it’s a blanket problem.

The president of the International Paralympic Committee says he is opposed to “blanket solutions” for transgender participation policies.

Andrew Parsons was speaking after United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order that prevents transgender women from competing in female categories of sports.

Sigh. I hate that journalistic caution that obscures the journalist’s meaning. The word “after” renders the rest of the sentence empty. Was Parsons disputing Trump’s executive order, or no? Mere chronology is not helpful.

Last week, International Olympic Committee (IOC) presidential candidate Seb Coe backed the move, and has also suggested he would consider introducing a blanket ban if elected next month.

“One thing that is important to us of course

Heather Cox Richardson yesterday:

This morning, Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought and Office of Personnel Management acting director Charles Ezell sent a memo to the heads of departments and agencies. The memo began: “The federal government is costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt. At the same time, it is not producing results for the American public. Instead, tax dollars are being siphoned off to fund unproductive and unnecessary programs that benefit radical interest groups while hurting hardworking American citizens. The American people registered their verdict on the bloated, corrupt federal bureaucracy on November 5, 2024 by voting for President Trump and his promises to sweepingly reform the federal government.”

Vought was a key author of Project

Huh. It turns out Musk and Trump can’t just fire probationary employees just by saying yer fiyered.

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Office of Personnel Management to rescind earlier instructions telling federal agencies to “promptly determine whether these employees should be retained at the agency.”

The directions, communicated in a Jan. 20 memo and Feb. 14 internal email, are “illegal” and “should be stopped, rescinded,” Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California said from the bench.

The ruling does not reinstate dismissed employees.

“The Office of Personnel Management does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe, to hire and fire employees within another agency,” Alsup said Thursday night. “It

The fix is in. The Tate bros are out.

Manoshpere bigot Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan—who still face rape and human trafficking charges in Romania, among others—are on their way to the United States after the Trump administration strong-armed Romania into lifting travel restrictions.

The Tate brothers have been ardent Trump supporters for years, and it seems to have paid off. A Trump official mentioned the Tates in a call with Romania earlier this month, according to the Financial Times. Trump’s special envoy Ric Grenell brought up the brothers again to Romania’s foreign minister on his trip to Munich.

And “brought up” is apparently cravenspeak for “demanded the immediate release of.”

“I have never heard of a

Trying to square the circle.

In interviews with Mother Jones, queer and trans workers who hold wide-ranging roles in the federal government, some with more than a decade of public service, say they have been living and working in fear since Trump regained office—afraid of being targeted or even fired for their gender identity, sexual orientation, or past efforts to support other LGBTQ employees. All eight federal workers interviewed for this story requested anonymity to protect themselves or their colleagues from workplace retaliation. 

Transgender workers, in particular, tell Mother Jones they’re afraid of being fired every day simply for being who they are. 

Hang on. Hang on. It’s not for “being who they are.” It’s the very … Read the rest