But also

Ah, good. Now we know how he’s working the magic.

Jesus—Trump just said that he will be looking at exempting certain US companies from tariffs.

Reporter asks: “How will you determine that”

Trump: “Instinctively”.

Sounds like whoever will bend the knee and kiss the ring. pic.twitter.com/WmfZlRaOzE

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) April 9, 2025

… Read the rest

Oh good god.

Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately. At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off…

— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) April 9, 2025

At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable. Conversely, and based on the fact that more than 75 Countries have called Representatives of the United States, including the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, and the

Jamelle Bouie asks probing questions about Trump’s hypothetical “reasons” for the tariff war.

…How do you revitalize American manufacturing if manufacturers can’t reasonably import the materials they need to build factories and produce goods? Where is capital supposed to come from? How do you reset the nation’s relationship with its trading partners if those partners are forced to treat you as a bad force that can’t be trusted?…

There is a hypothetical president with a hypothetically similar agenda who could answer these questions. This actual president cannot. He did not reason himself into his preoccupation with tariffs and can neither reason nor speak coherently about them. There is no grand plan or strategic vision, no matter what his advisers claim

Manipulate much?

The New York Times tells us of a man who deliberately went into a women’s toilet and brags about it to adoring journalists. The Times of course presents his intrusion rather differently.

A transgender woman was arrested at the Florida State Capitol last month after she used a bathroom there to protest a state law that blocks transgender people from using a rest room that aligns with their gender identity.

Or to put it another way, a man who claims to be a “transgender woman” used a women’s bathroom to protest a state law that forbids men to use women’s rest rooms. It doesn’t sound quite so right-on-ish put that way, does it.

It almost doesn’t matter how … Read the rest

Oliver Brown at the Telegraph is not impressed by John Oliver’s sneers at women who don’t want men taking over their sports.

John Oliver, the British comedian whose viral rants have made him an unlikely standard-bearer for liberal America, broadcast his latest sophomoric skit on transgender athletes late on Sunday night. It was full of his usual fallacies: that biological males depriving women of sporting glory was somehow analogous to taller basketball players competing against shorter ones, or to Michael Phelps dominating swimming despite being “half-dolphin”. And yet the timing could not have been worse. For at the very moment this segment dropped, portraying sport’s trans scandal as somehow a niche issue, a women’s pool final in Wigan was being

Trump and his gang are firing thousands of federal employees who do vital work, but they apparently think it’s totally justifiable to spend millions to throw a birthday party for Dum Don.

President Donald Trump is making plans for a military parade in Washington, D.C., on his 79th birthday, according to a report. A source in the capital told the Washington City Paper that Trump has earmarked June 14—which is the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army—for the event.

The display of military might will march around four miles from the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, to the White House, the D.C. source told the publication.

That shit’s expensive. It’s not a matter of just summoning a few people … Read the rest

Celebrity hillbilly calls Chinese factory workers “peasants.”

Speaking to Fox News last Thursday, Vance defended President Donald Trump’s market-hammering tariffs and railed against the “globalist economy.”

“What has the globalist economy gotten the United States of America? And the answer is, fundamentally, it’s based on two principles – incurring a huge amount of debt to buy things that other countries make for us,” Vance told news show “Fox & Friends.”

“To make it a little more crystal clear, we borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture.”

To underline the obvious: if they’re manufacturing they are not peasants.

To underline the equally obvious: don’t forget yer raisin.

A hashtag on Vance’s remarks became the top

Bad Kennedy fires key official to make room for his own lethal crankery:

The former top vaccine official at the Food and Drug Administration says he was forced out of his job for trying to protect vaccine data from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Dr. Peter Marks told The Associated Press Sunday he refused to hand over unrestricted access to a vaccine safety database to the Health and Human Services secretary and his team, fearing that the information might be misused, manipulated, or deleted altogether.

Initially, Marks said that he tried to be on good terms with his vaccine-skeptic new boss regarding vaccine safety, making plans to develop a “vaccine transparency action plan.” Marks also gave Kennedy and his team the

Infuriating.

In the same venue, the Sheldonian. He's sharing that platform with Sophie Grace Chappell. I hope their moderator provides some pushback. But I'll note that the moderator is, like both panellists, a man, so this is a manel talking about a subject that largely affects women 2/9

— Helen Joyce (@HJoyceGender) April 6, 2025

A man and a man and a man in a flouncy skirt (“Sophie Grace” likes to wear very retro 1950s-ish girly costumes) – getting together to cheer on the continued erasure of women.

I would have shared a platform with Constantine – it was he who said No, and if you want to hear a manel on his "Cis Defence of Trans Realities" you can

The fix is in.

The Supreme Court has granted a request by the Trump administration to temporarily block a lower court order requiring that a deported Salvadorian man be returned to the US.

Chief Justice John Roberts agreed to pause a ruling that Kilmar Abrego Garcia should be brought back from El Salvador by midnight on Monday.

The government has said Mr Garcia was deported on 15 March due to an “administrative error”, although they also allege he is a member of the MS-13 gang, which his lawyer denies.

They admit it was an error but they insist on leaving him there anyway.

US Attorney General Pamela Bondi welcomed Justice Roberts’ stay, and said the administration will “continue to

Whine whine whine. But we caaan’t, it’s too hard, we don’t have enough time, we don’t want to, we have to go potty, we want more ice cream.

The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court for emergency intervention in the case of a Maryland man the government — by its own admission — removed to El Salvador by mistake and now must return by 11:59 p.m. on Monday under a lower court’s order.

Yes we sent him to El Salvador by mistake but it WASN’T OUR FAULT and anyway we can’t get him back right this second because we’re giant babies and we don’t know how.

Abrego Garcia, despite having protected legal status, was sent to the notorious

We get to do it but you don’t. Don’t you dare do to us what we just did to you. WE GET TO DO IT AND YOU DO NOT.

Donald Trump has rebuked China for not heeding his warning not to retaliate over tariffs.

Honestly, where do they get the nerve?! We get to impose tariffs on them. Not the other way around!!

… Read the rest

All the headlines say “transgender” players instead of “male” players. Every damn one.

Women’s Pool Final Played by Two Transgender Athletes

Two male transgender players. The male bit is important and should be in the headline and the lede. It’s the women’s final and two men played it.

Two transgender players faced-off in the final of a women’s championship pool match on Sunday—adding fuel to the fiery social debate surrounding trans athletes’ participation in women’s sports.

Harriet Haynes and Lucy Smith, who were both assigned male at birth, fought for the title at the Ultimate Pool Women’s Pro Series Event 2 in Wigan in the UK this weekend.

Harriet Haynes and Lucy Smith, who are both men, fought for the … Read the rest

I have a great idea – let’s stop talking about “asexuality” and instead go back to what it used to be called: low libido.

Funny thing: if you ask Google if “asexuality” is a sexual orientation it says yes and provides a shower of links to politicalish sites, but if you ask about low libido you get medical sites.

Hmmmmm.

Should we just start making all medical issues a matter of idenninny instead of physical realities? Or are we already halfway down that road?

Here’s the Cleveland Clinic on low libido:

Low libido (low sex drive) is a decrease in sexual desire. It’s common and can be temporary or long-term. Libido naturally varies from person to person and can

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Happy Asexuality Day to those who celebrate.

If you’re not announcing your “asexuality” to the world, how does anyone know to oppress you on the basis of this supposed asexuality? It’s completely invisible, or at least it is until you wave the flag and/or wear the Approved Colours, and having looked them up in the appropriate volume of the Official Licorice All-Sorts Field Guide to Gender Identity Vexillology and Hair Dye Selection (or nearest British Rail Inclusivity Poster), innocent bystanders now know that they probably should be oppressing you in order for them to do their bit, so that you can earn your LGBTQIA%$?@√π Community Martyrdom Merit Badge. It’s the … Read the rest

Notes on Trump and Denmark and Greenland:

In a Newsmax interview, Trump Jr. accused Denmark of mistreating Greenland. When he was asked about the idea of making Greenland an American territory, he bragged about his father’s prowess: “My father understands how to wield America’s economic might. He understands how to wield America’s military might. He knows how to do these things.”

As to his father’s talk of absorbing Canada and the Panama Canal, Trump Jr. gloated that Americans were “starting to again assert their dominance—not taking a back seat to, you know, little countries that don’t have, again, our economic might.”

All very upfront: we are bullies and we want your stuff and we’re going to take it.… Read the rest

Oh but they’re so sweet in their Corporate Memphis.

Happy International Fake Oppression Day to everyone who wants complete strangers to know they don't fancy a shag. pic.twitter.com/xkBhbWqP5z

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 6, 2025

Ok, maybe there is such a thing, but why does it need a day? Why does it need an international day? What is the point of these “days” anyway? They’re not holidays, so what are they for? If you tell me it’s international paper bag day, what are you expecting me to do about it? Who is deciding which days are what, and why haven’t I been consulted? Is there any place where we can lodge a dissent, and demand a different day, or the … Read the rest

Oops, it appears they made a booboo.

English universities are scrambling to review policies related to transgender students and staff amid “anxiety” over whether they comply with free speech duties after the University of Sussex was hit with a record fine.

Several institutions appear to have removed documents from their websites in the wake of the Office for Students’ ruling last week, which found that Sussex failed to uphold its academic freedom obligations when its former professor, Kathleen Stock, was forced to resign because of protests over her gender-critical views.

The case – which saw Sussex fined £585,000 – centred on Sussex’s trans and non-binary equality policy that required academics to “positively represent trans people and trans lives”

So there you go, two men competing for the top prize for women.