Why though?

RFK Jr. is now a wellness guru for Republicans

Why? Why him? Why not someone with actual medical training who is nevertheless a “wellness” crank? That would at least improve your odds. Bad Kennedy is just so random.

The GOP’s embrace of nutrition and wellness stands in sharp contrast to its position less than 15 years ago, when Republicans sharply criticized then-first lady Michelle Obama’s push for healthier meals and more exercise as nanny state nonsense.

That’s a sharp contrast all right. White man crank attacking vaccination versus Black woman pushing for healthy food and exercise.

Oh gawd they’re talking about “Islamophobia” again.

For the billionth time: Islam is a religion, and we are allowed to dispute religions. Theocracy is bad, and making one particular religion immune from dissent is a bad form of theocracy.

Islam treats women like shit, and we do get to say that.

A proposed new definition of Islamophobia is being considered by the Government, with the intention of helping combat hostility and discrimination to Muslims.

However, representatives of Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs have written to Steve Reed, the Communities Secretary, urging him not to place one group above others.

They have also warned that the proposed definition was so vague that it could have a “chilling” effect on matters of public debate such as criticism of halal slaughter, gender segregation or face coverings.

That’s putting it very politely, not to say terrifiedly. Let’s talk about “criticism of” treating women as dangerous filthy whores who are always one glance away from letting men fuck them on the street.

Maureen Dowd reviews that Melanie movie:

Some theaters showing “Melania” were so empty that wags suggested that undocumented immigrants should hide out there. Reviews are brutal: The Independent said the first lady came across as “a preening, scowling void of pure nothingness in this ghastly bit of propaganda.” The Guardian dismissed the movie as “gilded trash,” and Variety asked, “Why would Amazon spend $75 million on a movie this boring?” (I think we all know the answer to that.)

Can you say “baksheesh”?

We knew everything we needed to know about her in the wake of Jan. 6. In the memoir of Stephanie Grisham, Melania’s former aide and confidante, Grisham told a chilling story about the chilly first lady. When the rioters broke through the barricades outside the Capitol, Grisham sent Melania a text: “Do you want to tweet that peaceful protests are the right of every American, but there is no place for lawlessness and violence?” Melania texted back simply “No.” She was busy getting ready for a photo shoot of a rug she had chosen for the White House.

Eyes on the prize, people.

Melania is where she wants to be, in the bosom of a corrupt family that is prostituting the People’s House. Following up her shady ventures into NFTs and a meme coin, the first lady got a windfall from Jeff Bezos, who certainly wanted to curry favor with her husband. Bezos’ Amazon MGM studio made her movie, providing a whopping $40 million for the film and another $35 million for marketing. The Wall Street Journal reported that Melania’s cut of the $40 million was at least $28 million.

She can buy a lot of Barbie shoes with that kind of cash.

This is particularly gross given that Amazon is engaged in mass layoffs and Bezos seems intent on starving his Washington Post of money and talent. The split screen of Bezos and his spendthrift wife, Lauren Sánchez, frolicking everywhere — including Paris fashion week — while the tech mogul defiles the crown jewel nurtured by Ben Bradlee and Kay Graham, is sickening.

What does the Washington Post matter compared to Melania’s shoes?

Well, they’re still doing it.

The local police chief, in Saint Peter, zoomed up to intervene and prevent her arrest.

The National Review tells us:

The first gender “detransitioner” medical-malpractice case to go to trial resulted in a $2 million dollar verdict against the medical professionals who approved a double mastectomy for the plaintiff, Fox Varian, in 2019 when she was only 16.

…

Fox Varian, now 22 and no longer identifying as transgender, was awarded $2 million in damages, with $1.6 million for past and future pain and suffering, and another $400,000 for future medical expenses.

The jury found that in many respects the surgeon and psychologist had skipped important steps when evaluating whether she should go forward with the surgery and had not adequately communicated with each other. These missteps were a “departure from the standard of care,” they decided.

This is one reason the normalization of all this gender-adjusting nonsense is so destructive. Saying no becomes more and more difficult because jeeeez mommmmm all the other kids are doing it. The fact that it’s a desperate measure at best disappears over the horizon.

This verdict is an important development in the great cause of protecting gender-confused minors from being subjected to irreversible procedures from which they can never be made whole. Why? Trial lawyers! I know this community well. Hell, I was one! Most are liberal politically, but if they smell money in the water, they will sue the “gender-affirming” care industry into the ground just as they do other business sectors with deep pockets.

There you go – the one thing that can out-compete the jeeeez mommmm factor: money.

H/t Mostly Cloudy

On the one hand, great news. On the other hand, the word “women” doesn’t appear even once.

Rape Crisis Scotland chief executive steps down after 24 years 

Rape Crisis Scotland chief executive Sandy Brindley is stepping down after 24 years at the organisation.

Sandy has been part of the Rape Crisis movement for more than three decades, starting as a volunteer support worker in Glasgow in 1994 before leaving to set up Rape Crisis Scotland in 2002.

Under Sandy’s leadership, and through her passionate advocacy, Rape Crisis Scotland has become a national voice for and with survivors of rape and sexual violence.

She has worked tirelessly to raise awareness, challenge public attitudes around rape and sexual violence, and ensure that the needs and concerns of survivors are respected and represented when laws and policies change. 

Yeah, she has worked tirelessly to challenge public attitudes like the one that says women should have access to rape crisis services for women only. She has worked tirelessly to be inclooosive of men in Rape Crisis Scotland whether women like it or not.

Chair of Rape Crisis Scotland’s board Lindsey Millen said: “Sandy has been with Rape Crisis Scotland since the organisation’s inception, and she has been supporting survivors of rape and sexual violence for more than 30 years.

“Sandy’s unwavering commitment to improving support and justice services for survivors has always been at the very heart of her work.”

Unless they insist on women-only services.

Sandy said: “The Rape Crisis movement in Scotland is full of wonderful, dedicated and passionate staff and volunteers – it has been such a privilege to work alongside them to stand with survivors, and to transform how Scotland responds to sexual violence.

Oh you’ve transformed it all right – but not in a good way.

Melania movie not wowing the critics.

“The golden age of America begins right now!” Trump bleats in his inaugural address, while Melania sits behind him, her face twitching unnervingly between pout and smile. Woven through the documentary’s depiction of the events in the run-up to the Trumps’ return to the White House are signs of the film’s strange genesis. Melania’s chief of staff denies a request from Matt Belloni, the entertainment journalist, to hear more about her mysterious Amazon deal. At the banquet dinner on inauguration eve (where guests are served a gold egg and caviar, because, as a sycophantic designer tells the first lady, “white and gold is you!”) viewers will repeatedly spy Amazon proprietor Jeff Bezos alongside other oligarchs like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook. For the rights to tell this “story”, Amazon paid around $40m, including $28m directly to Mrs Trump. An expensive seat at an expensive table.

…

To call Melania vapid would do a disservice to the plumes of florid vape smoke that linger around British teenagers. She calls herself a “mother, wife, daughter, friend”, yet is only depicted preening and scowling. Figures like Brigitte Macron and Queen Rania of Jordan appear to bolster Melania’s geopolitical credentials, yet time and again she returns to banal aphorisms. “Cherish your family and loved ones,” she implores audiences, who were, up until then, neglecting their family and despising their loved ones. Trump himself is an instantly more charismatic presence on screen. His scenes offer a relief from Melania’s mask of pure nothingness. Hitting cinemas as the streets of America remain filled with the angry and grieving – with the country on the verge of an irreparable schism – the vulgar, gilded lifestyle of the Trumps makes them look like Marie Antoinette skulking in her cake-filled chateau, or Hermann Göring staring up at his looted Monet.

Maybe we should all be replaced by pods. It would certainly be simpler.

This guy saw the Melania movie and he tells us about it. He’s not a fan.

Piglet pointed out in comments this excruciating exercise in Not Saying the W Word, and it’s so excruciating I have to point out every excrutiation.

Fear of ICE is keeping pregnant immigrants in Minnesota from critical care

All euphemisms for woman/women bolded from here on.

Health care providers said pregnant patients are having more complications linked to stress. But fear of immigration agents is keeping them from prenatal care.

Pregnant patients increasingly aren’t showing up for prenatal visits. Those who are are asking if they can have fewer. 

…

Across the country, health care providers have said that people are increasingly skipping prenatal visits, citing concerns about raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

…

Some patients, afraid of encountering law enforcement officials, are changing their delivery plans to opt for home births — sometimes without communicating it to providers. 

“We are seeing significant no-show rates for prenatal care visits in our clinics,” said Dr. Chelsea Thibodeau, a Minneapolis-based family physician who provides prenatal care and delivers babies at one of the hospitals. “We’ve certainly heard from patients in my clinic where they don’t feel safe coming in.” 

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that pregnant patients get regular prenatal care…

“Many, many conditions in pregnancy — whether it is anemia or high blood pressure or gestational diabetes or a growth restrictions — identifying those early and addressing them early, that can make a profound difference in fetal development and in the health of both a pregnant person and the fetus,” Thibodeau said. 

Another obstetrics provider, who asked that her name be withheld because she worries her clinic will become a target of immigration raids, said that since the start of the federal campaign, patients have been less likely to show up for visits, or to answer their phones. Those who do come in for care have expressed nervousness about coming back, or want to reduce their number of visits. 

Many, she said, are running out of food, which is particularly concerning in pregnancy, when doctors recommend patients consume an extra 300 calories per day. And when patients do come in, she said, she is seeing many at higher risk of gestational diabetes and high blood pressure, conditions that are most effectively treated when caught early in a pregnancy. 

One nurse-midwife, who works in the Twin CIties and predominantly treats Latinx patients, has seen three cases of preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) — a rare complication in which someone’s water breaks early — since the start of the federal blitz, with two of those three resulting in miscarriage…

…

Her patients are also consistently registering symptoms of depression, she said, a concern echoed by other providers across the area. Depression during or after pregnancy not only threatens the health of a pregnant person, but can harm a newborn, making it more difficult to breastfeed and undercutting the bonding between parent and infant.

Some obstetrics and gynecology providers are pivoting to in-home visits and mailing medications. But that isn’t possible to provide on scale, said Dr. Erin Stevens, an OB-GYN in Minnesota. Patients are increasingly requesting home births, including those with high-risk pregnancies that may require complex interventions.

Some patients are requesting doctors’ notes stating they are pregnant, said Dr. Kendra Harris, an OB-GYN in St. Paul whose no-show rate has also increased. The idea, she said, is that a physician’s endorsement might encourage ICE agents to treat them more gently. 

…

…

And with patients less likely to attend key visits, physicians said they worry they are missing chances to intervene. 

“That’s the reason we see people for prenatal care is to make sure things are healthy and well to make sure we can catch complications,” Stevens said. “We’re going to have a lot of people showing up when it’s time to have their baby with complications we don’t know about.”

Thibodeau recalled one recent patient with a history of previable delivery, putting her at higher risk of losing her pregnancy.

That’s a LOT of anxious erasure of women. To be fair, saying patient/patients some of the time would not necessarily be bullshit, but in a context in which the word women is banned entirely then yes, “patients” is just more of the same bullshit.

Shut up and move over, bitches.

Regime Movie Night.

On Thursday afternoon, in the lobby of the Trump Kennedy Center, reporters whispered in hushed voices to each other to see which journalists, if any, would be allowed entry to a screening of Melania Trump’s documentary “Melania.”

In the hours before the film screened (press check-in began at 2 p.m. for the 6 p.m. carpet), there was slight optimism from veteran reporters, accustomed to slipping their way into Trump World, that they’d be able to network their way into a seat. But by 6:30 p.m., when members of the administration began walking the carpet, it became clear that most of the mainstream press would be blocked from attending the Amazon MGM Studios film.

Well duh. If you’re mainstream press you’re probably not going to heap flattery on a movie about a woman sleazy enough to marry Donald Trump.

Reporters from The New York Times, The Washington Post, AP and Vanity Fair, among dozens of other outlets on the carpet, were not granted tickets to the invit[ation]-only screening in the Opera House, located one floor above the carpet. The only press from the carpet allowed into the screening (not counting those separately invited) were One America News anchor Dan Ball and his wife Peyton Drew, a producer for the far-right news channel.

Regime media only. Bow to the pretty lady.

The film opens on Friday, Jan. 30 against a backdrop of political unrest, with ICE raids in Minneapolis and other parts of the country causing increased backlash against the administration’s glitzy White House screening earlier this week (with Apple CEO Tim Cook in attendance) and tonight’s premiere.

When asked about the exorbitant amount of money Amazon spent on the film — Amazon MGM paid $40 million for rights to the doc, and reportedly another $35 million on marketing — Trump said he “wasn’t involved with that.”

And it was in no way a barely disguised bribe. Good heavens no.

The flames are getting higher.

The former CNN anchor Don Lemon and three other people have been arrested on charges that they violated federal law during a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minn., this month, lawyers and Justice Department officials said on Friday, reviving a case that was rejected last week by a magistrate judge.

The arrests of Mr. Lemon, a second journalist and two protesters came a little more than a week after three other demonstrators who took part in the action at the Cities Church on Jan. 18 were taken into custody. The prosecution is likely to face pushback from defense lawyers on First Amendment grounds, given that political protest sits at the center of the charges and that Mr. Lemon and the other journalist, Georgia Fort, have said they entered the church to cover a demonstration against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the area.

In other words Trump is actively tearing up the Bill of Rights.

The protesters interrupted a service at the church, where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as a pastor, and chanted “ICE out.” Afterward, the Justice Department drafted a criminal complaint to charge a total of eight people, including Mr. Lemon, over of the episode, citing a law that protects people seeking to participate in a service in a house of worship.

But the federal magistrate judge who reviewed the evidence approved charges against only three of the people — Nekima Levy Armstrong, Chauntyll Allen and William Kelly. He refused to sign arrest warrants for Mr. Lemon and the others, citing insufficient evidence. The Justice Department then petitioned a federal appeals court to force the chief judge in Federal District Court in Minneapolis to issue the additional warrants, only to be denied.

Because reporting on a protest is not the same thing as being part of the protest. It’s not a massively subtle distinction. It remains a distinction even if the reporters are in sympathy with the protesters. It is in fact very often the case that reporters are in sympathy with the people or cause they are reporting on. Labor reporters report on strikes, and they may be in sympathy with the strikes they report on; they are still reporters and protected by the First Amendment.

The arrests come as the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis is in deep turmoil. At a tense meeting earlier this week, a number of prosecutors challenged the head of the office about the administration’s decision not to pursue investigations of the shootings by federal agents, according to people familiar with the internal discussions. At least a half dozen prosecutors have resigned, and more departures are expected.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has called on other federal prosecutors’ offices in the Midwest to send temporary reinforcements to help investigate and prosecute cases.

It’s all getting much too Weimar.

Now Trump is hooking up with separatists in Alberta.

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta’s premier say the US should respect Canadian sovereignty after reports emerged that Alberta separatists had talked to the Trump administration about the province possibly leaving Canada. Carney said they “expect the US administration to respect Canadian sovereignty – I’m always clear with President Trump to that effect”.

Similarly, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she expected US officials to leave discussions about the province’s “democratic process” to Albertans and Canadians.

No, see, other people have to stay out of US affairs but Trump gets to do whatever he wants. That’s the rule.

Currently, Alberta separatists are collecting signatures for a petition process that could lead to a referendum on leaving Canada. The Financial Times has reported they had meetings with US officials, which drew criticism from some Canadians premiers.

British Columbia Premier David Eby said that “to go to a country and ask for assistance in breaking up Canada – there’s an old-fashioned word for that, and that word is ‘treason'”.

Unless Trump, in which case all the rules are different.

Good good good. All as it should be. Move along.

Trump hangs picture of himself with Putin in White House

As one does.

Elizabeth Landers, the White House correspondent for PBS News Hour, who shared an image of the photograph on X, said it was hung in a vestibule area connecting the West Wing to the residence.

Kirill Dmitriev, Russia’s key negotiator, welcomed the news, saying: “Good. A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Russia views the meeting between Putin and Trump in Anchorage, the first time the Russian leader had visited a western nation since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as an important moment in their modern history.

The Kremlin announced this week that the summit would appear in an updated version of school history textbooks from the beginning of the next academic year.

Great. Fabulous. Is there a photo of Hitler on his bedside table?

Editing to add: I missed the fact that this tantrum is from May 16 last year.

Making sure we all know just how stupid he is, again.

“to speak badly about” – he means slam or attack or bash or go after or even criticize. “Speak badly” means stutter or mumble or squeak or any other version of unskilled talking. It means doing the act of speaking in a bad, talentless way. It does not mean speaking of one too-powerful man in a way said man doesn’t like. This is in fact, tidily, an example of Trump…wait for it…speaking badly. He always speaks badly because he has a tiny vocabulary and he’s dumb as a stump. Springsteen, not so much.

Also, “importantly” is not a synonym for “what’s important is that”. I will use it correctly so that you can see what I mean: Trump tries hard to say things importantly but he always fails.

It’s hilarious to see Trump call anyone else on the planet “pushy”.

He said “If I wasn’t elected” when he meant “If I hadn’t been elected”. He can’t follow the most basic humdrum rules of grammar. He understands neither the subjunctive nor the past conditional. He is dumb as a stump.

He thinks it’s necessary or perhaps stylish to put quotation marks on the most banal of phrases, like “dumb as a rock”. Who ya quotin’ there Donny? Was it Henry James? Proust?

Springsteen’s skin is “all atrophied”??

No but Trump’s brain is.

Aha. So that’s what Trump wants, is it. Well he’s not getting it.

“Hey! He’s theee HeadofaCountry, and I mean he’s the strong head, don’t let anyone think anything different, he speaks and his people sit up at attention, I want my people to do the same.”

We’re not your people, you worm, we’re our own people, and your longing to make us sit up at attention instead of explaining in detail what a sick fuck you are is exactly why you should have a job emptying the bins in Central Park.

The “erring on the side of” bit seems all wrong in this Atlantic piece on “trans athletes” by sports columnist Sally Jenkins.

Transgender participation in women’s athletics is the single most difficult issue I’ve seen in 40 years of covering sports. It makes gambling, performance-enhancing drugs, and regulation of collegiate athletics look like tidy challenges.

What’s difficult about it? Just say no. No, men can’t play in women’s sports.

Two groups—trans women and cisgender women—both argue that they need equal protection from discrimination. But if they can’t have it at the same time in the often zero-sum realm of sports, who wins?

Oh please. It’s often the case that two groups argue that X. Deal with it.

At the core of the matter is whether trans-women athletes have a lingering testosterone advantage…

Is it? I think the core is that males have a whole array of physical advantages and that’s why women’s sports exist.

It’s unclear how many people are directly affected by the issue of trans competitors in women’s sports—according to the NCAA, fewer than 10 trans students competed among 500,000 collegiate athletes in 2024. But to high-school and collegiate girls and women who fight tooth and nail for every scholarship, decent athletic facility, and ounce of confidence in what remains a man’s world, no number seems small. At the same time, few groups must fight harder for acceptance in a hostile world than trans women.

Well, you could say the same about serial killers, or arsonists, or men who rape babies. “Acceptance” is not something that’s automatically owed to everyone in all circumstances no matter what. Women are not under any obligation to “accept” men who call themselves trans in all places and circumstances without exception.

It’s just not that difficult.

Jolyon Maugham gloating that for now men can continue to force themselves on women at the women’s pond on Hampstead Heath.

The High Court just refused Sex Matters’ permission to ban trans women from the Hampstead ponds. We’re relieved that the ponds can remain a place where trans people have always belonged.

Notice that he resorts to the usual lie. Sex Matters is not seeking to “ban trans women from the Hampstead ponds”. Sex Matters is seeking to ban men from the women’s pond. Note that if they succeed the men’s pond will still be there and trans women aka men will still be able to splash about in it.

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Choose one.

Norfolk Constabulary confirmed that “in most cases” the force recorded the self-identified gender of suspects.

Do they also note their astrological sign and favourite flavour of ice cream? They’re just as useful and relevent as “gender identity.”

If that’s far as it went, there’d be little problem, but what the police are doing is letting these suspects lie about their sex.. Once they’re in the system, this putative “gender” is used in place of sex because the system is built around seeing a suspect or prisoner’s sex.

“Gender identity” wasn’t a thing when women’s prisons (or women’s anything for that matter) were established. They were intended to account for the physiological differences between men and women. To put it bluntly, women need protection from men. Female vulnerability to rape and pregnancy requires protection from men’s greater physical strength. Letting men circumvent this basic, humane, sensible safety requirement by means of some conveniently self-proclaimed, imagined, invisible, untestable, unquestioned, “identity” is brutally sadistic.

The police and courts cannot not know this. Do they place a suspect in the police stables if he dresses as a pantomime horse? Do they set him free if he “identifies” as innocent?

“Identifying as a woman” does not change the material body of the males being arrested and imprisoned. It does not change their guilt or innocence. His “identity” does not make him a victim, and treating him as the male he is and always will be is not in any way victimization. It should not let them be imprisoned with unwilling female inmates who are forced to accept his presence. Even if they’re receiving “gender affirming treatment”, they remain male. And even psychologically, such identification will not change male-pattern offending.

This dishonest bait and switch is exactly what genderists chide critics for, but precisely what these opportunistic, predatory men are counting on to escape the male estate and gain access to a target-rich environment.

Oh gee, what a good idea.

Police force lets suspects choose their gender

So rape suspects get to choose to “be” women? Men who assault women get to choose the women label? Domestic violence perps get to say they are women? All men who commit crimes against women are allowed to tell the police they are women?

Why would the police do that?

Norfolk Constabulary confirmed that “in most cases” the force recorded the self-identified gender of suspects. The policy has been criticised by women’s rights groups, who fear that it skews crime statistics and obscures focus on the safety of women and girls.

They don’t just fear that it does, they know it does. How could it not? If you let men lie about their sex then of course you’re skewing the statistics.

When even the police can’t see it…