Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug on Muppet applauds like a seal.

Time for a re-read of your own books.

Sure, let’s do that. One recurring theme throughout the Harry Potter series is people being falsely accused of things they haven’t done:

• The Chamber of Secrets: Hagrid accused of releasing Slytherin’s monster into Hogwarts, Harry accused of being the heir of Slytherin.

• The Prisoner of Azkaban: Sirius Black spending years in prison for Wormtail’s crimes.

• The Goblet of Fire: Harry accused of cheating his way into the Tri-Wizzard Cup.

• The Order of the Phoenix: Harry accused of lying about Voldemort’s return.

• Etc. etc.

In all these cases, the lack of conclusive evidence* is not … Read the rest

The Grand Inquisitor returns:

The Trump administration has ordered State Department employees to report on any instances of coworkers displaying “anti-Christian bias” as part of its effort to implement a sweeping new executive order on supporting employees of Christian faith working in the federal government.

I wonder how they are defining “anti-Christian” and “bias.”

The department, according to a copy of an internal cable obtained by POLITICO, will work with an administration-wide task force to collect information “involving anti-religious bias during the last presidential administration” and will collect examples of anti-Christian bias through anonymous employee report forms.

Well those are two very different things. Religious believers can be extremely hostile to rival religions, far more hostile than the relaxed … Read the rest

It’s about farking time!!!

Judges have been warned against using preferred pronouns for transgender offenders who commit violent or sex crimes.

Inappropriate use of preferred pronouns in such cases raises the risk of appearing “biased” or having “predetermined” the outcome, the Judicial Office warned in an alert to all judges and magistrates.

Well yes but surely it also risks confusing the people who decide the outcome. That’s the whole point of the luxury pronouns – to condition people to think the person with the luxury pronouns really is the Other Gender.

Campaigners have expressed concern that transgender defendants who are biologically male and have committed sex attacks against women are being referred to as “she” in court.

For a slew … Read the rest

I see. Research is bad because it tells us about climate change, so the thing to do is get rid of research. Problem solved.

The Trump administration is proposing deep cuts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to a draft budget proposal viewed by NPR.

The agency’s budget for 2026 would be slashed by more than 25% overall from its current level of roughly $6 billion under the proposal, which would need to be approved by Congress. The draft cuts to NOAA’s research operations and fisheries services are particularly severe.

If enacted, the cuts would “take us back to the 1950s in terms of our scientific footing and the American people,” says Craig McLean, a former director

Politico reports:

The Education Department launched the process for pulling Maine’s federal K-12 funding citing the state’s refusal to bar [male] transgender students from girls’ sports.

…

In March, the Education Department’s probe found the Maine Department of Education’s sports participation policy violated Title IX. But the proposed agreement given to the state to sign to avoid losing its funding went beyond just addressing sports.

The requirements of the agreement would have forced the state to say the Trump administration’s interpretation of Title IX outweighs Maine’s Human Rights Act, which provides protection for transgender people.

Wait wait wait. Explain what you mean by “protection.” Protection is not letting males play in female sports. Keeping males out of female sports does not … Read the rest

The one and only thing the Trump administration is right about:

Today, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) referred its Title IX investigation into the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for further enforcement action. Simultaneously, ED will initiate an administrative proceeding to adjudicate termination of MDOE’s federal K-12 education funding, including formula and discretionary grants.

These actions are a direct result of MDOE’s continued refusal to comply with Title IX. ED issued a noncompliance finding on March 19, and sent a final warning letter to the state on March 31. 

Title IX – the one that says don’t treat women like shit.

Following a directed investigation of MDOE, ED’s Office for Civil

Trump and co are blowing off the courts.

The Trump administration on Friday defied a federal judge’s order to provide an explanation for how it intended to bring back to the United States a Maryland man who was unlawfully deported to El Salvador last month.

In an aggressive two-page filing, Justice Department lawyers told the judge, Paula Xinis, that she had not given them enough time to figure out what they planned to do about the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, after the Supreme Court ordered the administration on Thursday to “facilitate” his return to U.S. soil.

“Defendants are unable to provide the information requested by the court on the impracticable deadline set by the court hours after

Sigh. We’re still doing this?

HHS will review guidance on the addition of fluoride to drinking water

The Department of Health and Human Services is directing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make new recommendations on the addition of fluoride to U.S. water sources. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has blamed the fluoridation of water for a number of health problems.

The agency is directing the CDC to reconvene an independent panel of 15 health experts to examine the role fluoride plays in water sources and whether it can be detrimental to public health, Kennedy told The Associated Press earlier this week, and NPR has confirmed.

…

Kennedy has erroneously called fluoride “an industrial waste” and

Zero gloves worn, zero fucks given.

I’m not the one who needs to reread her own books, muppet. A totalitarian movement infiltrates the establishment, persecutes all who oppose it, threatens rape and violence, strips rights from the vulnerable, and you decide those are the good guys and applaud like a seal. pic.twitter.com/bjgbyxZ11K

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 9, 2025

… Read the rest

Hmm. This looks libelous to me.

Standing back, families are left with unenviable choices. Trans people are taking their own lives in numbers and Wes Streeting is suppressing the evidence.

There remain private providers based outside the UK who can offer both PBs and blood tests – to those who can afford them.

— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) April 10, 2025

What is “in numbers” supposed to mean? 2 is a number; if he means large numbers why not say that? To avoid a libel case perhaps? … Read the rest

Gosh, ya think?

Competence questions pose risk to Trump’s political image

Oh that’s what we’re calling it: competence questions. Polite for “complete driveling idiot who can’t find his own ass in the dark.”

2½ months in, agencies such as the Social Security Administration have struggled to provide basic services. Trump’s team issues edicts, then reverses them. A leaked Signal chat suggests top security officials were unfamiliar with the basics of protecting military secrets.

Crucial government workers have been fired, then rehired. A much-ballyhooed immigration detention center at Guantánamo Bay has faced logistical problems. Trump’s team told laid-off workers at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to contact a particular individual if they felt they were

Punish the woman.

The U.S. military announced on Thursday that it had removed the commander of its Pituffik base in Greenland, adding that it would not tolerate any actions that go against President Trump’s agenda.

The decision to remove Col. Susannah Meyers was announced in a statement by the U.S. Space Force that was posted on social media by Sean Parnell, the chief spokesman for the Pentagon.

While the statement didn’t cite a specific reason for her removal, Mr. Parnell said that “actions to undermine the chain of command or to subvert President Trump’s agenda will not be tolerated.”

That’s disturbing. I get that the military is all about the chain of command and unquestioning obedience and all that, … Read the rest

Trump lost. The Central Park 5 defamation case is going ahead.

Trump has failed to persuade a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing him of making defamatory statements about five Black and Hispanic men who were wrongly convicted and imprisoned for the 1989 rape of a white jogger in New York’s Central Park.

Philadelphia-based U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone ruled on Thursday that the men had presented enough evidence for now to pursue their lawsuit accusing Trump of defaming them in comments he made during the 2024 presidential campaign. The judge narrowed the lawsuit, however, by dismissing a claim by the plaintiffs of intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Can we get him on being too evil and self-regarding … Read the rest

Eyes on the important stuff.

Donald Trump is going to “make America’s showers great again” by easing rules restricting water flow, the White House says.

The US president is ordering the energy secretary to rescind a change introduced by Barack Obama that restricted multi-nozzle showers from discharging over 2.5 gallons of water per minute overall. This served “a radical green agenda that made life worse for Americans”, the White House said, as Trump criticised the “ridiculous” amount of time he says it takes to wet his hair in the shower.

Suuuure it does, because he has such manly thick strong turgid hair it takes 10 times longer to soak it than it takes for average inferior people like the … Read the rest

Republicans are excited about disenfranchising women.

Republicans in the House of Representatives blocked an amendment to the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act which would protect married women’s ability to register to vote.

…

The SAVE Act has come under intense scrutiny for how it would require US citizens to register to vote in person with their ID and a birth certificate, passport, or other ID that proves citizenship—something that is difficult for the 69 million married women whose current legal last name does not match their birth certificate.

Republicans have said the SAVE Act is necessary to prevent noncitizen voting. However, recent audits of voter rolls have found instances of noncitizen voting to be “vanishingly rare.”

Vanishingly rare, … Read the rest

Look at this guy putting it right out there. “You don’t have the power,” he gloats.

Tell a “tranzwoman” he’s a man, and watch how fast the man shows up. pic.twitter.com/CZHHpZ7aH4

— EstroGenny (@XxtraEstroGenny) April 8, 2025

You don’t have the power to tell me where I belong; that was the freedom I won for myself.

Pause for gloating smirk.

Rears back while lifting upper lip in the manner of an agitated horse; takes deep breath and blows it out.

I’m not a man, I’m a transgender woman. And uh…I don’t know how to break this to you [pause for smirk] but I’ve got the tits to prove it. [more smirking and face-making] Why don’t you fuck yourself sideways, how’s

Ok who knew there was such a thing as “enby feminine”???

I certainly didn’t.

BH is one Blair Hamilton.

SC – your 1st academic post
BH – was lecturer at Brighton
SC – you identify as NB
BH – I am NB feminine, use she hers they them
J – what pronouns
BH – any of those four
SC – you do research in transgender medicine

— Tribunal Tweets (@tribunaltweets) April 10, 2025

WHAT IS ENBY FEMININE?

What possible meaning can that have?

Enby=non-binary=neither female nor male.

Pick a story, bro.

BH who idennifies as enby-feminine has a page at the University of Brighton (not to be confused with the University of Sussex). It is eloquent and excitable.

Introducing Blair

Is it ok for Trump to manipulate the stock market right out in the open? Oh sure. Where’s the harm?

When Donald Trump offered some financial advice Wednesday morning, stocks were wavering between gains and losses.

But that was about to change.

“THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT,” he wrote on his social media platform Truth Social at 9:37 a.m.

Less than four hours later, Trump announced a 90-day pause on nearly all his tariffs. Stocks soared on the news, closing up 9.5% by the end of trading. The market, measured by the S&P 500, gained back about $4 trillion, or 70%, of the value it had lost over the previous four trading days.

So he did people … Read the rest

When infant-tech goes wrong:

A woman in Australia has unknowingly given birth to a stranger’s baby, after her fertility clinic accidentally implanted another woman’s embryos into her.

Oops! Was her fertility clinic drunk at the time or what?

The mix-up at Monash IVF in Brisbane, Queensland has been blamed on human error, Australian media reports. “On behalf of Monash IVF, I want to say how truly sorry I am for what has happened,” CEO Michael Knaap said, adding that everyone at the fertility clinic was “devastated” at the mistake.

Last year, the same clinic paid a A$56m (£26.8m) settlement to hundreds of patients whose embryos were destroyed despite them being viable.

So you can see why they were devastated … Read the rest

Is market manipulation legal? Is it mostly illegal but legal when Trump does it? Asking for a friend psycho.

Trump posts THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!—then caves on tariffs hours later. Market surges. Middle-class investors who sold during the chaos lose big. Insiders win again. This is market manipulation to help his base profit. How is this legal or OK? pic.twitter.com/iXs92TRzS5

— Rep. Mike Levin (@RepMikeLevin) April 9, 2025

… Read the rest