Oops! She thought she was writing in her private secret diary…how embarrassing.

Huh, I wonder why some knobhead in The Times gave me a bad review for a book where I criticise their paper's coverage of working class people, their obsession with demonising trans women, the dominance of privately educated people in journalism, the stranglehold rightwing…

— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) February 27, 2025

Huh, I wonder why some knobhead in The Times gave me a bad review for a book where I criticise their paper’s coverage of working class people, their obsession with demonising trans women, the dominance of privately educated people in journalism, the stranglehold rightwing billionaires have on the media, and the cosy relationship between lobby journos and

And then there’s good ol’ Bob.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was slammed Wednesday for downplaying a measles outbreak that has led to the country’s first child death from the disease in decades.

Donald Trump’s health secretary waved off the active Texas outbreak—where pediatricians on the ground have reported children being accepted into care unable to properly breathe—as a normal thing that happens every year.

Scores of physicians have rung alarm bells that the latest outbreak, impacting over 100 people in West Texas and neighboring New Mexico, is a “crisis” that is far from normal—especially for a disease that was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000.

The Texas Department of State Health Services said Wednesday the child who died

But don’t worry. They’re not breaking anything that actually matters. They say so themselves.

“We’re cutting down the size of government. We have to,” Trump said earlier on Wednesday during the first cabinet meeting of his second term. “We’re bloated. We’re sloppy. We have a lot of people that aren’t doing their job.”

The administration already moved to fire thousands of probationary employees who were not yet entitled to civil service protections. The president on Wednesday said that the Environmental Protection Agency plans to cut up to 65% of its employees. Employees at the labor department and the Social Security Administration are also reportedly bracing for dramatic downsizings.

See? Stupid shit. Frivolous. Unnecessary. Who needs an environment? What good … Read the rest

At least they tell us a joke now and then.

Trump’s top aides are struggling to contain disputes at the White House and across the administration following billionaire Elon Musk’s ultimatum to federal workers to list their accomplishments or lose their jobs, said three government officials familiar with the tensions.

Before the weekend, the White House felt confident that coordination had been improving between senior staffers and Musk, two of those people said. In the first weeks of Trump’s new administration , some White House officials had expressed concerns over the tactics of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, as Reuters previously reported.

Chief of staff Susie Wiles had pulled Musk aside to ask him to loop her in on

Yet another bad thing.

A new map and data from The Wilderness Society illustrate the potential reach of executive and secretarial orders issued to fulfill President Trump’s fossil fuel-centric “energy dominance” vision. 

Places at risk include Bears Ears National Monument, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the watershed of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Trump’s day-one executive orders and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s secretarial orders from two weeks later positioned drilling and mining interests as the favored users of America’s public lands and threatened to scrap existing land protections and conservation measures. Following those orders, assistant secretaries were supposed to have submitted action plans to Secretary Burgum on Feb. 18 with steps to review, revise and rescind protections

Of course he did.

Federal agencies must develop plans to eliminate employee positions, according to a memo distributed Wednesday by President Donald Trump ‘s administration that sets in motion what could become a sweeping realignment of American government.

The memo expands the Republican president’s effort to downsize the federal workforce, which he has described as an impediment to his agenda. Thousands of probationary employees have already been fired, and now his administration is turning its attention to career officials with civil service protection.

…

“The federal government is costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt. At the same time, it is not producing results for the American public,” said the memo from Russell Vought, director of the White House’s

Male First Minister says he’s fine with men invading women’s spaces. It’s always inspiring to see people cheerfully giving away other people’s rights.

Scotland’s First Minister has backed the right of trans people who self-identify as women to use female toilets and changing rooms.

Do note the carefully confusing and euphemistic wording. Asshole has backed “the right” of MEN to use female toilets and changing rooms. Men. Not people, not trans people, not trans people who self-identify; MEN. The word is “men.” MEN.

John Swinney, the leader of the SNP, said he supported Scottish Government guidance for its trans employees, which states they “should choose to use the facilities they feel most comfortable with”.

Except women of course. … Read the rest

A throwaway line from the BBC’s live reporting of the Musk-Trump cabinet meeting:

After a prayer led by former NFL player and US housing secretary Scott Turner, Donald Trump starts addressing the cabinet once more.

Hahaha that’s funny – former football player turned housing secretary – and he “leads a prayer” at a secular meeting of a secular government.

Here, let me lead a prayer. Dear Easter Bunny: please make Musk and Trump disappear, amen.

In another part of the forest:

The Doge congressional subcommittee in the Republican-led House of Representatives is meeting today to discuss the sweeping cuts to the federal government, and to defend them as necessary in order to stop wasting taxpayer money. The hearing is

How did Musk get so rich, anyway?

The Feds lavished money on him.

Over the years, Musk and his businesses have received at least $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits, often at critical moments, a Washington Post analysis has found, helping seed the growth that has made him the world’s richest person.

The payments stretch back more than 20 years. Shortly after becoming CEO of a cash-strapped Tesla in 2008, Musk fought hard to secure a low-interest loan from the Energy Department, according to two people directly involved with the process,holding daily briefings with company executives about the paperwork and spending hours with a government loan officer.

…

DOGE, which stands for Department of

Erm…whose tits are those?

Every 63 year woman I know goes on chat shows dressed like this. pic.twitter.com/jmRDfH8PIA

— Gay Not Queer (@Gaynotqueer1) February 24, 2025

He looks as if the tits are anchors pulling him forward, so that he can’t for the life of him stand up straight. He’s tilted awkwardly forward, and struggling not to topple. His shoulders are hunched, his arms look as if they don’t belong to him, it’s obvious his bum is sticking out, the skirt is wrinkled, his legs and feet look even more as if they don’t belong to him. The bangs are ridiculous. The jacket is too tight, and wrinkled like the skirt. The nail polish looks stupid and ugly. The lipstick … Read the rest

BBC “LGBT & Identity Reporter” reports:

An American who wanted to be formally recognised as non-binary in the UK has been told by the Court of Appeal their gender identity does not legally exist in this country.

So much drivel in that one sentence. What is it to be “formally recognized”? What is “non-binary”? What is genner idenniny? What kind of damn fool goes to court to demand to be “recognized” as something nonsensical?

The Beeb includes a winsome photo of him. Wannabe winsome anyway. Pronounced head tilt, so that we’ll perceive his Special Idenniny instantly. He has head-tilt genner, aka broken neck genner.

Ryan Castellucci previously lost a High Court challenge to have their gender recorded as non-binary

Nope.

More than 20 civil service employees resigned Tuesday from billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, saying they were refusing to use their technical expertise to “dismantle critical public services.”

“We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations,” the 21 staffers wrote in a joint resignation letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press. “However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments.”

The employees also warned that many of those enlisted by Musk to help him slash the size of the federal government under President Donald Trump’s administration were political ideologues who did not have the necessary skills or

Trump regime people are quarreling over who can be most absurd.

Donald Trump has stepped in to defend Elon Musk from a mounting backlash in his own administration after some cabinet members told US federal workers to ignore the billionaire entrepreneur’s demand that they write an email justifying their work.

…

Newly confirmed cabinet officials, including the FBI director, Kash Patel, and Tulsi Gabbard, the national intelligence director, told underlings not to comply with a weekend order from Musk for all staff to send an email detailing their past week’s work by midnight on Monday or face termination.

Uh oh uh oh – if underlings can just disobey Musk then what’s next?

With his wealthiest and most high-profile lieutenant threatened

Never mind, at least Russia is happy. (Same article; part 2.)

Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, acknowledged what he said were “constructive changes” in the US position on the conflict. US allies in Europe on the 15-member council – France, Britain, Denmark, Greece and Slovenia – abstained from the vote.

Ya “constructive changes” to side with Russia instead of Ukraine and most of Europe.

The UK’s ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, said after the vote that while London shared the “ambition to find a lasting end to this war”, there should be “no equivalence between Russia and Ukraine in how this council refers to this war”.

She added the UK regretted “our proposals making these points clear were

Yeah sometimes you don’t want “balance.” Some things are worse than other things, and there’s no need to take a more “balanced” view of the matter.

Kremlin welcomes ‘more balanced’ US stance on Ukraine after UN vote

Or to put it more honestly, Kremlin welcomes pro-Kremlin stance on Ukraine after UN vote. What the invaders call “balance” is in fact pro-invasion. No doubt the Nazis would have welcomed a more “balanced” stance on genocide; no doubt slaveowners in Georgia and Alabama would have welcome a more “balanced” stance on enslavement.

Moscow praises Washington for siding with it at UN, as European countries abstain in sign of deepening rift with US.

Good Washington [pat pat pat] Good boy [pat pat pat]… Read the rest

Well, they’re getting one thing right. Only one, but it’s That one.

Stonewall could be forced to cut up to half of its staff after President Trump’s decision to freeze foreign aid, The Times understands. Workers at the LGBTQ+ charity were told on Thursday that restructuring would take place, and that only roles with dedicated funding would be safe.

Simon Blake, the chief executive of Stonewall, made the announcement in an office-wide Teams call, which was said to have left its 114 staff “shellshocked”.

Sources said they believed up to half of the workforce could be made redundant in the move, which they were told would “secure the future of Stonewall for the long term as a significant LGBTQ+

There aren’t enough planks in the world to measure how thick Ash Sarkar is.

Feeling like a queen this morning ngl pic.twitter.com/zujEOnt44G

— Venice Allan (@roseveniceallan) February 23, 2025

And I’ll tell you the sort of classic example of this, which I’ll go into some detail, you know that whole can a woman have a penis thing. [compliant host says yes] Right [hands up in dramatic gesture] fuuuucckkkin hell, can a woman have a penis – overnight it became theeeee preferred line of questioning for basically every political interviewer on British television – and I wondered where had this come from – like where had this line of questioning emerged from.

Golly gee, yes, where on earth could such a … Read the rest

The scorching shame of it.

The United States voted with Russia, North Korea, Belarus and 14 other Moscow-friendly countries Monday on a resolution condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine and calling for its occupied territory to be returned that passed overwhelmingly in the U.N. General Assembly.

The stench will never go away.

The U.S. delegation also abstained on its own separate resolution that called simply for a negotiated end to the war after European-sponsored amendments inserting new anti-Russian language also passed the 193-member body by a wide margin.

No anti-Russian language for us, no sirree. We love our Vlad.

… Read the rest

Mike Bendzela asks:

I’m toying with a semi-autobiographical piece that I would like to publish at 3 Quarks Daily. It’s a “what-if” look at a kinda-effeminate boy (me) who grew up in the 1960s and what would happen if he were transplanted into the present with its trans mania: Would he be allowed to grow up to be a normal gay male adult?

I suspect many of these young “trans girls” are effeminate gay boys so full of internalized homophobia that they would do anything (with the support of parents and churches, of course) to avoid the dreaded fate of growing up to be gay.

I’m wondering if there are any clear, citable instances of young gay boys who were … Read the rest

Doc Stock is on fire here:

When a doctor announces to colleagues that he wishes henceforth to be known as the opposite sex, it seems he is offered a new GMC number to go with the new name and pronouns, wiping out his past. Wes Streeting has raised concerns that this could be hiding the adverse findings of any previous disciplinaries from the public, supposed to be traceable via the same number.

In other words that’s part of the purpose of the GMC number, so it should be obvious that it should stay the same throughout a doctor’s career regardless of adjectival changes.

The health secretary’s point about safeguarding is so blindingly obvious you’d think it might have been