Category: Notes and Comment Blog

Hadley Freeman in The Times:

The process is the punishment. This is the conclusion every woman will draw from the experience of the Darlington Memorial Hospital nurses who were humiliated and degraded by their employer just because they didn’t want a man, known as “Rose” Henderson, to use the women’s changing room, where he could watch them undress.

On Friday an employment tribunal upheld the nurses’ complaints of discrimination and harassment, which is a victory and should be celebrated. But it is obscene this tribunal was necessary, and future generations will look upon cases like this with the same horrified bewilderment with which we look back on witch trials.

Or perhaps not quite the same because even more so because this is now. This is not the fucking 17th century when people believed a lot of wacko things, this is the 21st century when we know how to put an exploratory tool on Mars and how to put people on a space station that orbits the earth, to name just a couple of examples of humans knowing more now than they did 5 centuries ago. To put it another way: how dare they? How dare they not only pretend to believe that a man who says he’s a woman is therefore a woman, but also punish real women for saying a man is not a woman? How dare they stick this ludicrous reality-denying ideology in the middle of a human world that knows better?

Mind you, the US is just as bad, to judge from a senate committee hearing about abortion medication last week, in which an obstetrician-gynaecologist, Dr Nisha Verma, was asked if men could get pregnant and refused to answer what she described as a “polarising” question. It would be very interesting to learn how and why this anti-science lunacy took such hold in the UK and US medical establishment, and whether biology is even taught in medical schools any more, or if it is deemed just too polarising these days.

What exactly, one wonders, did Dr Nisha Verma learn in the process of becoming an obstetrician-gynaecologist? I mean, were there classes on how to make a man look pregnant? Were their classes on how to deliver a baby born to a man? What??? What can the content have been?

When another nurse, Bethany Hutchison, was interviewed on Woman’s Hour in 2024, she was scolded by the presenter for referring to Rose as a man: “You use the word ‘male’ but what you mean is a trans woman colleague.”

The presenter of Woman’s Hour. That presenter rebuked a woman for referring to a man as a man. Women must bend the knee one way or another. If feminism gets in the way it must be turned inside out so that it becomes all about men.

The Darlington nurses won their tribunal, but it took a 16-day hearing, almost 4,500 pages of evidence and years of being bullied. How many other women will take the risk to stand up for themselves, especially when the outcome is still far from guaranteed? The NHS nurse — yes, another nurse — Jennifer Melle is still waiting to hear if she can work again after she was suspended from St Helier Hospital in Surrey because she refused to refer to, and I swear I’m not making this up, a convicted male paedophile as “she”. The convicted paedophile attacked her and racially abused her, and somehow Melle was seen as the one in the wrong.

A witchfinder-general would be an improvement at this point.

Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug on Hand it over or else.

I remember from history classes that during hard times in absolutist monarchies, it was common, for those petitioning for the redress of grievances, to blame harmful conditions and bad policies on a rotten apple or two among the king’s counsellors, rather than the king himself, as complaining about the former was, sometimes, somewhat less dangerous than the latter.

Same in Mao’s China where the disastrous effects of things like the “Great Leap Forward” were always blamed on unfaithful underlings who abused the chairman’s trust and good intentions for their own self-serving ends. The more people were made to suffer as a direct consequence of the chairman’s policies, the more that very same suffering would be blamed on a failure to realize those very same policies fully enough. On the same note, when several leading members of the People’s Temple defected, a few years before the infamous Jonestown massacre, most of them still couldn’t bring themselves to identify Jim Jones himself as the main source of the horrific abuses going on inside the cult, but blamed everything on the self-serving actions of unfaithful, mostly female, staff-members who were actually among the saddest victims of Jones’ reign of terror.

As we can read In Peter Pomerantsev’s biography of British propagandist Sefton Delmer, Joseph Goebbels’ main rival during WW2, there are some practical lessons to be learned from all this. Delmer dismissed the prevailing approach of trying to appeal to the better angels of the German people’s nature as preaching to the choir and a waste of time. Rather than seeing the Nazis as innocent victims brainwashed by propaganda, Delmer thought propaganda was effective because people actually enjoyed it and wanted it – because it gave them permission to be their worst selves as well as (you know what’s coming), an identity (ugh!), a community (double-ugh!) to belong to etc. Instead of appealing to any higher ideals, Delmer’s focus was on driving a wedge between the Nazi party (“Die Parteikommune”) and the individual (especially in the military). While “Der Führer” himself was already treated as a sacred figure and pretty much untouchable at this point, the local party officials, the SS, the Gestapo etc., could be attacked and portrayed as corrupt and decadent traitors engaging in a life of luxury and outrageous sexual depravity while the heroic soldiers were fighting and dying for the Fatherland on the front. To make the attacks appear to come from the inside the German army, Delmer created the character known as “Der Chef” (supposedly a disgruntled military officer; in reality a pre-internet “sock-puppet” and a “troll”) who was hosting one of Germany’s most popular radio stations (actually broadcast from London) at the time.

Interestingly, Delmer’s goal was not to make Germans outraged by the corruption but to encourage them to be corrupt themselves, neglect their duties, sabotage military equipment, feign illness to escape combat etc. People were supposed to think “If our leaders can be that corrupt and self-serving, why not me?”. Incidentally, Russian corruption has been exceptionally useful to the Ukrainians in the current war, diverting vast amounts of money and resources away from the War effort and into the pockets of unfaithful servants.

To bring it back to Trump, it has been suggested that Marjorie Taylor Green’s defection has been more devastating to the MAGA movement than anything Democrats could possibly have said or done, precisely because she was able to attack Trump in MAGA terms, as not being MAGA enough. Realistically though, hardcore MAGA-supporters are probably not going to start abandoning Trump in droves for any reason at this point. Like Hitler, he is already close to untouchable. But Trump is not going to live forever, and Vance, Miller, Hegseth, Bondi etc. may still be vulnerable. Sefton Delmer may have a thing or two teach us in this respect.

Originally a comment by Your name’s not Bruce? on Hand it over or else.

This is a nightmare. How much farther into madness must Trump (and America) plunge before somebody calls for the invocation of the 25th Amendment? I wonder if Putin has the Epstein files, and this is what he’s been holding over Trump all of this time? Putin is the biggest beneficiary if Trump immolates NATO from within. It says nothing good about the United States (or our species) that the fate of billions of people hinges on the psychopathology of one man and his handlers, both American and foreign.

I remember from history classes that during hard times in absolutist monarchies, it was common, for those petitioning for the redress of grievances, to blame harmful conditions and bad policies on a rotten apple or two among the king’s counsellors, rather than the king himself, as complaining about the former was, sometimes, somewhat less dangerous than the latter. I think there’s more than enough rotten to go ’round, but who’s really driving this bus of lunacy?

I really don’t understand what’s going on. I know that I’m probably hopelessly naive about all of this. I can’t truly believe that it is all clumsy, blind, blundering, that there’s nobody guiding and controlling it, even if that guidance and control is malevolent and foreign. It actually makes a perverse kind of sense, more so than if this is the result of pure stupidity and toxic narcissism. How does anyone in Trump’s inner circle benefit from encouraging this kind of brinksmanship and extortion of America’s allies? Are some of them in Putin’s pocket as well? How can none of them see that this plays into the hands of both Russia and China? I know that Trump has surrounded himself with talentless sycophants who know fuck all about anything, but Jesus fucking Christ Almighty, doesn’t anyone know how to tell him “No”? Trump is so easily goaded, manipulated, and fickle, it’s not beyond the admittedly limited capabilities of those around him. Can’t they see that they’re going to go down with him if he crashes everything? Are there no adults in the room? If there actually are individuals or “forces” in his cabinet reining him in, they’re doing a piss-poor job of it.

I know that Vance is probably waiting until he can serve two full terms himself before he pulls the plug on Trump. Vance can only do that if he serves less than two years as Trump’s replacement, so he might sit tight and wait for another year and a bit before finally organizing an internal coup because Trump has “gone too far.” But at this rate, with the combination of internal and external chaos, there might not be much more left for Vance to be president of.

Where did the adults go?

A professor was suspended after defending a gender-critical academic from accusations of “transphobia”.

Prof David Gordon said it was in the “interests” of staff and students at the University of Bristol to hear from Prof Alice Sullivan after he invited her to give a talk in November 2024. The Russell Group university’s LGBTQ+ Staff Network had claimed Prof Sullivan, of University College London, was guilty of “transphobia” and would cause “real and enduring harm” if allowed to speak.

But when Prof Gordon, Bristol’s professor of social justice, responded to their concerns via email, he was suspended because his manager had told him not to do so. An investigation concluded in March 2025 that he had failed to “follow reasonable management instructions” and nine months on he remains suspended.

Well that’s what universities are for, right? Sorting through which ideas we get to discuss and which we don’t?

Gordon is considering suing the university.

“I’d like them to apologise for violating my right to freedom of speech and academic freedom, and not protecting me from discrimination,” he told The Telegraph. “I think you should obey reasonable management instructions, such as marking. But being told to not discuss academic issues is just not reasonable.”

It’s like telling a grocery store not to talk about food.

Prof Gordon first invited Prof Sullivan to speak at Bristol in July 2024, which prompted the university’s LGBTQ+ Staff Network to object, saying: “We would like to raise an objection to this event, which is giving a platform at our university to a member of the academic community who has been noted for her transphobia views and statements. This kind of speaker and event causes real and enduring harm to our community.”

In the same way laws cause real and enduring harm to criminals, and fire departments cause real and enduring harm to arsonists.

The Committee for Academic Freedom (CAF) is writing to the University of Bristol to seek clarification on Prof Gordon’s suspension and its implications for academic freedom.

“The length of Professor Gordon’s ongoing suspension is hard to square with a proportionate response,” said Freddie Attenborough, its research manager. “And when it arises in the context of his attempt to address complaints from the university’s LGBTQ+ staff network about supposedly ‘harmful’ gender-critical views being heard on campus, the message to other academics is obvious: steer clear of controversy – and leave the hard questions to those least interested in evidence.”

Well, you have to admit, it simplifies things.

Prof Sullivan said: “Activists make accusations of ‘transphobia’ against anyone who acknowledges the material reality of sex. Universities should treat this tactic with the derision it deserves. The idea that a highly respected senior professor cannot reach out to colleagues to discuss a contentious issue without management reprimand speaks volumes.”

And not the good kind of volumes.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think tariffs are supposed to be used as aids to extortion.

Trump said Saturday that he would impose a new 10% tariff on Denmark and seven other European countries until “a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland.”

The other countries affected would be Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland.

Trump said the duties would increase to 25% if a deal is not reached by June 1.

That seems like not so much a tariff as like a bunch of guys with baseball bats and guns holding up a 7-11.

“We will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed,” said Sweden’s prime minister Ulf Kristersson in a statement. “Only Denmark and Greenland decide on issues concerning Denmark and Greenland.”

Blackmailed or bullied or beaten up.

So what do Norwegians think?

Norwegian lawmakers reacted with shock and dismay over Venezuela opposition leader María Corina Machado’s decision to present U.S. President Donald Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize medal.

“It’s completely unheard of,” Janne Haaland Matlary, a professor of international politics at the University of Oslo and former state secretary in the foreign affairs ministry, told public broadcaster NRK on Friday. She called Machado’s gesture “disrespectful” and “pathetic,” saying it undermined the value of the prize, which the Norwegian Nobel Committee awards annually.

It does rather. It’s just so silly. The object is merely an object; the fact that the award was to Machado and not in any way to Trump makes the object irrelevant.

Only someone as childishly literal-minded as Trump could think the object=the prize.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Norwegian Nobel Institute had previously said: “The facts are clear and well established. Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others. The decision is final and stands for all time.”

Unless Trump.

There is no power on earth more powerish than the power of Trump.

From the Department of Weird Manipulative Headlines:

Emma Watson up for national award after JK Rowling comments

Weird because “after” anything and everything. Time is what it is, so pretty much everything is “after” any given X. Emma Watson up for national award after brushing her teeth, after lunch, after someone in China eats lunch, after everyone in China eats lunch – you get the idea.

It’s sly and sneaky, is what it is. They don’t want to say “despite” or similar, because it might make trouble, so they fall back on the neutral “after” and thus say something absurdly devoid of meaning.

Beware of “after”.

Poor Euan Weddell. He’s just not very bright.

0 days without trunes comparing black women to men. Maugham must be so proud of his pet victim. pic.twitter.com/yl6HilhqmR

— Stuart Macintosh (@stueymaco) January 17, 2026

Pointless question, bro. Knowing that men are not women is not comparable to racism. Even if you disagree with that knowing, even if you think it’s mean and harsh to act on that knowing, it’s still not comparable to racism.

And to look at it from the other angle, campaigning to force women to agree that men can be women is not comparable to campaigning to force segregationists to stop segregating people by race.

Random comparisons of non-comparable things are not a clever way to make a point.

War fever heightens.

The Trump administration has opened a criminal investigation into elected Democrats in Minnesota, according to a senior law enforcement official familiar with the matter, a major escalation in the fight between the federal government and local officials over the aggressive immigration crackdown underway in the city.

Or to put it another way, Trump and his administration are treating a disagreement about immigration policy as a criminal matter. We know that Trump thinks it’s a crime to dispute his assertions, but we get a little edgy when he says it out loud.

The investigation would focus on allegations that Gov. Tim Walz and Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis, had conspired to impede thousands of federal agents who have been sent to the city since last month. Last week, one of those agents killed a 37-year-old woman, Renee Good.

Or to put it another way, Trump and his hirelings have conspired to violate the human rights of thousands of immigrants and their neighbors since last month.

“Weaponizing the justice system and threatening political opponents is a dangerous, authoritarian tactic,” Mr. Walz said in a statement released by his office, which said it had not yet received notice of an investigation. “The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her.”

Mr. Frey described the investigation as an “obvious attempt to intimidate” him, but vowed it would not work.

Unless Trump and co make it work, by whatever means they can find. We know they’re not going to fret about laws or constitutionality.

News of the investigation, which was reported earlier by CBS News, came only two days after Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, posted an incendiary message on social media, accusing Mr. Walz and Mr. Frey of “encouraging violence against law enforcement” and referring to their actions as “terrorism.”

While both the governor and the mayor have criticized agents involved in the immigration crackdown and have at times urged local residents to document their actions, there is no public evidence that either man has explicitly encouraged violence — let alone engaged in acts of terrorism. Both have urged protesters to remain peaceful.

Yes but all Trump and co have to do is interpret criticism of agents as terrorism, and there’s your explicit encouragement of terrorism.

Federal officials have already signaled that they are not likely to bring criminal charges against Jonathan Ross, the agent who killed Ms. Good. At the same time, the officials have said that law enforcement would most likely investigate Ms. Good’s partner, Becca Good, and any possible connections the women might have had to local activists.

That decision prompted at least six federal prosecutors to resign this week from the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis.

Federal officials are only as good as the Big Boss lets them be.

The BBC takes a detailed look at the Darlington ruling.

Hospital bosses never considered ‘female discrimination’, ruling says

When talking to the nurses, NHS managers did discuss “discrimination”, the tribunal found.

But they only ever referred to it in relation to Rose, they added.

Ah. That’s quite the punchline. It’s only the man who claims to be a woman who suffers discrimination. Women who don’t want him leering at them are the lords of the manor spitting on the peasantry.

Tribunal says ruling shouldn’t detract from transgender vulnerability

In its judgement, the panel said the purpose of the Trust’s Transitioning in the Workplace policy was “to create an environment that gave transgender employees comfort and reassurance that they would be accepted and supported in the workplace”.

“This is an admirable and noble purpose,” the panel said, adding: “All good employers will look to ensure that all its staff are treated with respect. We are only too aware that transgender people are vulnerable to exclusion, abuse, mistreatment, lack of respect and misunderstanding in society. Nothing we say in this judgement should detract from that or be seen as diminishing the values that the Trust espouses in supporting its transgender staff.”

Ok but all that applies to women too you know. It’s not the case that feminism has simply shut all that kind of thing down. Furthermore many men who call themselves trans are themselves very hostile to women. We’ve been documenting this fact for years. The purported vulnerability of trans people [meaning mostly trans women i.e. men] does not cancel the vulnerability of women.

Mmmmmmno.

No, see, because the Jews in question were not being told they were not Jews, they were being genocided for being Jews.

That’s a very big difference.

They didn’t “identify” into being Jewish and they couldn’t “identify” their way out. They couldn’t identify their way out of Auschwitz. They couldn’t identify their way out of the six million.

Sophie Molly’s pretending to be comparable to Jews in the Holocaust is about as disgusting as it gets.

And now for the cringe.

Political leaders in Norway have condemned the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado’s “absurd” decision to present her Nobel peace prize medal to Donald Trump, accusing the US president of being a “classic showoff” who takes credit for other people’s work.

Good. It is absurd, of course. That’s not how this works. The whole point of it is recognition of Person X. Giving a physical emblem of the recognition to someone else entirely is dividing zero by zero. It’s like children pretending to be royalty or astronauts or moovee starrz.

Kirsti Bergstø, the leader of Norway’s Socialist Left party and its foreign policy spokesperson, said: “This is, above all, absurd. The peace prize cannot be given away.”

Absurd, pathetic, contemptible, embarrassing, childish, delusional, did I mention pathetic?

Trump’s recent threats to invade Greenland, she said, demonstrated why he was not a worthy recipient. “Trump will no doubt claim that he has now received it, but it cannot be transferred, and Trump’s repeated threats toward Greenland clearly demonstrate why it would have been madness to award him the prize,” Bergstø said.

Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, the leader of the Centre party, said: “Whoever has received the prize has received the prize. The fact that Trump accepted the medal says something about him as a type of person: a classic showoff who wants to adorn himself with other people’s honours and work.”

And a damn fool.

Flatterers!

Hmm.

Ah it’s only the KCs “with an axe to grind” who know that men are not women. What’s the axe? Knowing that men are not women, of course.

Yet another that’s not how it works.

Trump said Friday he may impose tariffs on countries “if they don’t go along with Greenland.”

Tariffs aren’t about forcing other countries to accept one rogue nation’s aggression.

Also wtf is “go along with Greenland” supposed to mean? They are “going along with Greenland”; it’s Trump’s plan to annex Greenland that they’re not going along with, for obvious reasons. Saying “Greenland” when he means “my determination to attack and absorb Greenland” is typical of his mind-blind sloppy way of assuming everyone sees what he sees, even when our refusal to see things the way he sees them is the very thing he’s talking about.

The Trump administration has previously said it is weighing multiple options, including utilizing the U.S. military, in order to take over the Danish territory.

Sir, sir, Denmark is an ally; you’re not supposed to take over territory that belongs to an ally.

Oh good god.

Darlington nurses win

A group of nurses who complained about a trans colleague using single-sex changing rooms at work suffered harassment, an employment tribunal judge has ruled.

The judge found the nurses’ dignity was violated and they encountered “a hostile, intimidating, humiliating and degrading environment” at work.

The seven female nurses, who work at Darlington Memorial hospital, brought a claim against their employer, County Durham and Darlington NHS foundation trust. It stemmed from their objection to another nurse, Rose Henderson, a trans woman, being allowed to use the women’s changing facilities.

It stemmed from their objection to a man, who calls himself Rose Henderson and claims to be “trans”, being allowed to use their changing facilities.

In a judgment handed down to the parties on Friday, Judge Sweeney said: “The trust subjected the claimants to harassment related to sex and gender reassignment by permitting the claimants’ biological male, trans woman colleague to use the female changing room and requiring the claimants to share that changing room without providing suitable alternative facilities.”

The ruling said the trust also subjected the nurses to harassment by not taking their concerns seriously. “This included referring to the need for the claimants to be educated on trans rights and to broaden their mindsets, the later provision of inadequate and unsuitable changing facilities for those who objected to sharing the female changing room with that colleague.”

Sweeney said: “The above conduct had the effect of violating the dignity of the claimants and creating a hostile, intimidating, humiliating and degrading environment for them.”

All because they’re women who don’t want a man watching them change their clothes at work.

In a judgment handed down to the parties on Friday, Judge Sweeney said: “The trust subjected the claimants to harassment related to sex and gender reassignment by permitting the claimants’ biological male, trans woman colleague to use the female changing room and requiring the claimants to share that changing room without providing suitable alternative facilities.”

The ruling said the trust also subjected the nurses to harassment by not taking their concerns seriously. “This included referring to the need for the claimants to be educated on trans rights and to broaden their mindsets, the later provision of inadequate and unsuitable changing facilities for those who objected to sharing the female changing room with that colleague.”

Sweeney said: “The above conduct had the effect of violating the dignity of the claimants and creating a hostile, intimidating, humiliating and degrading environment for them.”

Which is part of the point, isn’t it. It’s part of the fun of being a “trans woman”. It doesn’t work that way for women who claim to be men, but for men who dislike women it’s a gift.

The tribunal also upheld the nurses’ complaint of indirect sex discrimination in that women were more likely than men to experience fear, distress or humiliation if they were required to change in front of a member of the opposite sex.

Exactly so. Good to see someone finally notice.

The Darlington nurses win.

NHS bosses discriminated against a group of female nurses by allowing a trans colleague into their changing room, a tribunal ruled on Friday.

In what the eight nurses’ legal team described as a “landmark judgment”, a specialist employment law judge also said the women were harassed by managers at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, who unlawfully required them to share the female-only facilities with Rose Henderson, who was born a man but identifies as a woman.

It shouldn’t take any kind of specialist to know that.

Judge Seamus Sweeney said that trust managers had “engaged in unwanted conduct”, that the policy had the effect of “violating the dignity” of the nurses and that it created “a hostile, humiliating and degrading environment”.

And all this on behalf of a grotesque, unfair, women-hating dogma that men’s pretend-gender gets to cancel women’s rights to safety, privacy, dignity.

The judge, who was part of a three-strong panel, said the trust had behaved unlawfully “by not taking seriously and declining to address” the nurses’ concerns, which had been raised in 2023 and 2024.

And why did the trust do that?

Don’t look at me for an answer; I’ll never understand it. It’s just a silly greedy whim on the part of men who like to dress up as women, while for women it’s the most basic and necessary right to safety from men in general.

Rallying.

Several European NATO countries are deploying small numbers of military personnel to Greenland to participate in joint exercises with Denmark as US President Donald Trump ramps up his threats to forcibly annex the Arctic island.

Trump’s declarations have thrown Europe’s decades-old, US-led security alliance into crisis, raising the prospect of NATO’s largest and most powerful member annexing the territory of another.

And that another is very far from being NATO’s next largest and most powerful.

Denmark, which is responsible for Greenland’s defense, has warned an attack on Greenland would all but end NATO, and announced on Wednesday that it was expanding its military presence “in close cooperation with NATO allies.”

Germany, Sweden, France, Norway, the Netherlands and Finland have all since confirmed they are sending military personnel to Greenland this week.

Canada and France have also said they plan to open consulates in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, in the coming weeks.

The Magnificent Seven for bureaucrats.

News of European deployments to Greenland came as Danish and Greenlandic officials met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance Wednesday, hours after Trump said on Truth Social “anything less” than US control of Greenland is “unacceptable.”

“NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES,” Trump wrote early Wednesday, arguing US control of Greenland would also benefit NATO.

With Trump at the helm? I think not.

France will open a consulate in Greenland on February 6, a move that has been in the works since last year, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on RTL radio Wednesday, according to Reuters news agency.

Barrot urged the US to stop threatening Greenland, Reuters reported.

“Attacking another NATO member would make no sense, it would even be contrary to the interests of the United States … and so this blackmail must obviously stop,” Barrot said on RTL.

But it won’t. Once Stupid starts a fight, Stupid keeps going.

Oh ffs.

Maria Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader, has “presented” Donald Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize as she attempted to woo the US president. 

Sigh. Look. That’s not how this works. The object is not the point. It takes someone pathetically literal-minded and obtuse to think it is. In fact, if you think about it for five seconds, it becomes obvious that being in possession of someone else’s prize is more a disgrace than an honor. It’s like being a toddler whining about not getting any presents at another toddler’s birthday party.

Mr Trump has made no secret of his desire to be awarded the honour, which has been bestowed on several former presidents including Barack Obama.

Yes, he’s made no secret of his infantile greed, in other words he’s made a public fool of himself many times by whining about it.

Ms Machado, whose liberal Vente Venezuela party is widely believed to have won the 2024 election, was given the award for “promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela”.  

Which is not a reason anyone is ever going to cite for giving an award to Donald Trump.

Days earlier the Nobel Institute had ruled against Ms Machado’s previous suggestion of transferring last year’s peace prize to Mr Trump. Earlier in the day the Nobel organisers posted on X: “A medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot.”

Last week, Mr Trump said he could not think of “anybody in history that should get the Nobel Peace Prize more than me”.

Well no shit, he can’t think of anybody in history period.

Trump is spoiling for a fight.

Trump threatened on Thursday to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy military forces in Minnesota after days of angry protests over a surge in immigration agents on the streets of Minneapolis.

Confrontations between residents and federal officers have become increasingly tense after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a U.S. citizen, Renee Good, in a car eight days ago in Minneapolis, and the protests have spread to other cities. Trump’s latest threat came a few hours after an immigration officer shot a Venezuelan man the government said was fleeing after agents tried to stop his vehicle in Minneapolis.

Rumor has it that immigration officers aren’t empowered to shoot people who are fleeing. They’re not cops.

“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT,” Trump wrote on social media. Trump, a Republican, has for weeks derided the state’s Democratic leaders and called the Somali community in the area “garbage” who should be “thrown out” of the country.

That’s interesting, because lots of people think that a guy who calls groups of people “garbage” is himself quite garbage-like.

The Insurrection Act of 1807 is a law allowing the president to deploy the military or federalize soldiers in a state’s National Guard to quell rebellion, an exception to laws that prohibit soldiers being used in civil or criminal law enforcement.

Well this isn’t that. Rebellion is what the Southern states tried to do; this is not that.

If Trump sends soldiers to Minnesota, he would almost certainly face legal challenges by the state. The Minnesota attorney general’s office has already sued the Trump administration this week, saying the ICE surge was violating Minnesotans’ rights, and on Wednesday asked U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez to issue a temporary order restraining it.

Brian Carter, a lawyer for Minnesota, told the judge that Trump’s agents were engaged in a “pattern of unlawful, violent conduct,” including racial profiling and forced entry into residents’ homes without warrants. “They are foisting this crisis onto us,” Carter said.

In a social media post on Thursday morning, Trump said incorrectly that the judge had “declined to block” the ICE surge. In the hearing, Judge Menendez ordered the Trump administration to respond by Monday to Minnesota’s complaints, saying she would rule after that, calling the issues raised by Minnesota’s lawsuit “enormously important.”

Telling the truth is for lesser mortals.