Ah yes, convicted rapist Trump is the hero of the women-hating evangelicals.

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, recently shared a video in which several pastors say women should no longer be allowed to vote, prompting one progressive evangelical organization to express concern.

Hegseth reposted a CNN segment on X on Thursday that focuses on pastor Doug Wilson, a Christian nationalist who co-founded the Idaho-based Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), In the segment, he raises the idea of women not voting.

Another pastor interview by CNN for its segment, Toby Sumpter, said: “In my ideal society, we would vote as households. I would ordinarily be the one to cast the vote, but I would cast the vote having discussed it with my household.”

A congregant interviewed for the segment remarked that she considers her husband as the head their household, and added: “I do submit to him.”

Hegseth reposted the nearly seven-minute report with the caption: “All of Christ for All of Life.”

Men have households, you see, and women are part of the staff of those households. Men are the owners and women are the servants. That’s how Mister God arranged it so who are you to do it some other blasphemous way?

Hoooo boy I cannot wait to read this.

Trump does a particularly showy version of the “Now I know this is not politically correct” move in his Monday briefing about the DC takeover.

“It’s becoming a situation of complete and total lawlessness, and we’re getting rid of the slums, too. We have slums here,” Trump added, without providing details. “I know it’s not politically correct. You’ll say, ‘Oh, so terrible.’ No, we’re getting rid of the slums where they live.”

Ah. So not not politically correct, but entirely politically correct, because we’re getting rid of where they live. What could be more politically correct than that?

Who on EARTH is dumb enough to say this in public? To, in fact, put it in writing, in a BOOK?

Who wrote that?

I rather think it was Nicola Sturgeon in her memoir.

It’s hilarious that she thinks it might make her sound “daft” as opposed to grandiose and narcissistic beyond belief.

Tantrums win again.

The Guardian:

Ten authors nominated for this year’s Polari prizes, a set of UK awards celebrating LGBTQ+ literature, have withdrawn from the awards over the longlisting of John Boyne, who has described himself as a “Terf” – the acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist.

Two judges have also withdrawn from the prize process, and more than 800 writers and publishing industry workers have signed a statement calling on Polari to formally remove Boyne from the longlist. Boyne, who was longlisted for the main Polari book prize for his novella Earth, is best known for his 2006 novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.

Author Nicola Dinan, who won the Polari first book prize last year for her novel Bellies, resigned from this year’s jury for the debut prize. Guardian journalist Jason Okundaye asked for his book Revolutionary Acts to be removed from this year’s first book prize longlist, while Andrew McMillan withdrew his book Pity from the longlist for the overall Polari book prize for non-debuts.

Heartstopper author Alice Oseman along with the writers Nikesh Shukla, Julia Armfield, Naoise Dolan, Seán Hewitt and Kirsty Logan are among the hundreds to have signed the statement.

“We are profoundly disappointed by the Polari prize’s decision to include John Boyne on the longlist for this year’s Polari book prize,” it reads. Boyne “has publicly and unequivocally associated himself with trans exclusionary sentiments”, it continues, citing an Irish Independent article in which Boyne expresses support for JK Rowling and describes himself as a “fellow Terf”. Boyne declined to comment.

Boyne doesn’t believe that men can be women or vice versa, and for that all these people are campaigning hard to block him from being eligible for a prize?

It’s such shameless bullying for such a contemptible reason I can hardly believe what I’m reading. He knows that people can’t change sex, therefore we inquisitors are going to make sure he cannot win this prize, and what’s more we’re going to do it in public! We think we’re fabulous!

Boyne’s “public statements on trans rights and identity are incompatible with the LGBTQ+ community’s most basic standards of inclusion”, the statement continues. “In any year, the decision to include Mr Boyne on the longlist would be, in our view, inappropriate and hurtful to the wider community of LGBTQ+ readers and writers. That the decision has been made this year – in the context of rising anti-trans hatred and systematic exclusion of trans people from public life in the UK and across the world – is inexcusable.”

What’s so special about this year? Nothing; they’re just making shit up in an attempt to sound less crazy and mean than they obviously are.

While Trump is busy harassing cities like New York and Washington, let’s read up on murder stats in states like Mississippi and Alabama.

House Republicans held three field hearings on violent crime last year in New York City, Chicago, and Washington DC. These hearings should have been held in the murder-plagued states of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama. In 2023, Speaker Johnson’s hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana had a murder rate 8 times higher (41.1) than Minority Leader Jeffries’ hometown of Brooklyn, New York (5.0), 6 times higher than Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco, California (6.6), and more than 7 times higher than the national average (5.5). Our 2023 report in the Red State Murder Problem series found that murder rates were significantly higher in red states than blue states every year from 2000 to 2020. Over these 21 years, the red state murder rate was 23% higher than the blue state murder rate. Our analysis of the latest CDC data found that 2021 and 2022 were no exception.

…

We found that murder rates were down 5% nationwide in 2022, but a red state murder gap still persists. Murder rates in red states were 33% higher than in blue states in both 2021 and 2022. As in 2019 and 2020, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama hold the first, second, and third highest murder rates in the country, respectively. 

Gee, what might those three states have in common?

Could it possibly be that they were and are the three deepest Deep South states, with the most profound entanglement with slavery and Jim Crow and murderous resistance to the Civil Rights movement? Could it be that the murders of Emmett Till and James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner still hang over the region like a miasma?

What happens when a child is head of state.

During the news conference, Trump spoke at length about his upcoming meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

He says he finds it “very respectful” that the Russian president is meeting him on US soil, and he thinks the pair will have “constructive conversations” on Friday.

By finding it very respectful he of course means flattering to him personally. Not the transactional courtesy of international diplomacy but dude to dude flattery and submission. He thinks Putin is kneeling to him as opposed to dragging him around by the balls. That’s how stupid he is.

But his comments on a possible “land swap” with Ukraine might not please President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has insisted his country will not give up any land as part of a peace agreement.

Trump says there will be “some land swapping” and “some changes in land” as part of a deal. He knows this “through Russia and through conversations with everybody”.

This “land swap” will be “for the good of Ukraine”, he says. “Good stuff, not bad stuff.”

But then, perhaps less reassuringly: “Also, some bad stuff for both.”

Asked if Zelensky was invited to Friday’s meeting, Trump says Ukraine’s president “wasn’t a part of it” but that he “could go” if he wanted to.

Yes sure. Trump cuddles up to the aggressor and breezily tells us the aggressed can tag along if he wants to.

What business does Trump have meeting with Putin to decide the fate of Ukraine while excluding Ukraine?

“Probably in the first two minutes I’ll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made,” he adds. A reporter asks how he will know.

“Because that’s what I do, I make deals,” he says.

He makes real estate deals. Those are not comparable to “deals” with an aggressor head of state who invades another country with the goal of absorbing it.

Well whaddya know – it turns out you can forfeit the right to be the gender of your choice. No less an authority than Nicola Sturgeon says so!

He’s going completely batshit. He’s demoting the entire FBI to beat cops. Sir, sir, that’s not what they’re there for.

The FBI has begun dispatching agents in overnight shifts to help local law enforcement prevent carjackings and violent crime in Washington, according to two people familiar with the matter, as President Donald Trump threatens a federal takeover of the nation’s capital and considers calling up the National Guard.

…

Trump on Sunday compared forthcoming action against D.C. crime to his administration’s aggressive crackdown against illegal immigration at the southern border, saying that he plans to “immediately clear out the city’s homeless population and take swift action against crime.”

“Be prepared! There will be no ‘MR. NICE GUY.’ We want our Capital BACK,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social social media platform.

Why does he write his diary in public?

A White House official said in a statement that “we won’t get ahead of the President on any potential announcements, but the President has been clear that all options are on the table when it comes to making DC safe again.”

In other words, “We have no idea what he’s going to do next and we’re terrified so shut up.”

In recent days, the administration has authorized up to 120 agents, largely from the FBI’s Washington Field Office, to work overnight shifts for at least one week alongside D.C. police and other federal law enforcement officers in the nation’s capital…

The deployment of FBI agents to deal with local crime puts agents from the bureau’s counterintelligence, public corruption and other divisions with minimal training in traffic stops out on the streets in potentially dangerous encounters, diverting them from their typical jobs at the bureau.

It’s like drafting some senators to do his laundry.

The reassignment of FBI agents has further demoralized some agents in the Washington Field Office, who believe they have little expertise or training in thwarting carjackers and were already angered by a spate of firings inside the agency that they deemed unwarranted. Last week, the Trump administration ousted with no explanation FBI personnel across the country, including the head of the Washington Field Office.

He seems to want another Operation Valkyrie.

Impulsive golfer threatens mass arrests and deportations:

In a social media post on Sunday, Donald Trump has demanded homeless residents of Washington DC leave the country’s capital or face eviction, and again promised to use federal officers to jail criminals, even though violent crime in the city was at a 30-year low when he took office in January.

“The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Sunday morning, shortly after being driven from the White House to his golf club in Virginia. “We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital.”

The post was illustrated with four photographs, all apparently taken from the president’s motorcade along the route from the White House to his golf course. Two of the images showed a total of 10 tents pitched on the grass along a highway on-ramp just over a mile from the White House.

Dude sees tents from his limo, dude pitches fit.

Trump’s post promoted a previously announced news conference on Monday, which he has promised, “will, essentially, stop violent crime” in the capital district, without explaining how. In a subsequent post, he said that the news conference at 10am Monday, “will not only involve ending the Crime, Murder, and Death in our Nation’s Capital, but will also be about Cleanliness”.

Ok there’s an idea. Can we put him in charge of washing things? That would keep him busy.

Asked by Reuters, the White House declined to explain what legal authority Trump would use to evict people from Washington. The president controls only federal land and buildings in the city.

Well yes but we know that doesn’t actually matter. He does whatever he wants.

Yes, he’s reckless and ignorant and corrupt and greedy, but on the other hand he’s also spiteful and malicious and destructive.

Once a dramatic feature of the White House entryway, the official portrait of former President Barack Obama has been moved to a decidedly less prominent position, underscoring the yearslong tensions between the 44th and 47th presidents.

Portraits of other recent predecessors with whom President Donald Trump has a contentious relationship, former President George W. Bush and his father, George H. W. Bush, have also been moved.

Trump directed staff to move the Obama portrait to the top of the Grand Staircase, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN, where it will now be out of view from thousands of visitors who tour the White House each day. One of the sources added that the portraits of both Bushes are also now in the staircase area.

He might as well throw himself down on the floor and yell and scream that Obama is still smarter and better looking than he is and it’s just not fair.

Multiple sources have said that the president is directly involved with nearly everything that is done to the aesthetic of the White House, big or small.

CNN obtained a photo of the Obama portrait hanging at the top of the stairwell in a corner, at the landing of the entrance to the private residence. That area is heavily restricted to members of the first family, US Secret Service agents, and a limited number of White House and executive residence staff. It is firmly out of view for any visitor hoping to see the photorealistic Robert McCurdy painting of the former president, a source familiar with the matter confirmed.

So there! Nyah!

White House protocol and precedent calls for portraits of the most recent American presidents to be given the most prominent placement, in the entrance of the executive mansion, visible to guests during official events and visitors on tours.

Yeah but protocol and precedent have to give way to the jealousy and stupidity of the current “president.”

Oddly enough, people who work at the CDC are not best pleased.

The day after a lone gunman opened fire on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, killing a police officer and shattering windows across the agency’s campus, employees were reeling from shock, fear and rage.

“We’re mad this has happened,” Dr. Debra Houry, the C.D.C.’s chief medical officer, said in a large group call Saturday morning with Susan Monarez, the agency’s newly confirmed director, who tried to reassure them. Another employee on the call, a recording of which was obtained by The New York Times, asked Dr. Monarez: “Are you able to speak to the misinformation, the disinformation that caused this issue? And what your plan forward is to ensure this doesn’t happen again?”

Like, for starters, can you get Evil Kennedy fired and replaced by someone actually qualified as well as not evil?

Inside the C.D.C., the shooting was viewed as part of a pattern in which health workers have been targets of political, verbal and physical assaults on them and their workplaces.

Yeah no kidding; because of Trump and all that flows from his plane crash administration.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who oversees the C.D.C., did not make a statement on Friday. Late Saturday morning, more than 30 minutes after posting photos of his fishing with his family on social media, Mr. Kennedy posted condolences on his official X account and pledged to support C.D.C. employees.

Like that. Silence, then smug selfies, then insultingly late “condolences.” The man is a monstrosity.

Mr. Kennedy has previously called the C.D.C. a “cesspool of corruption” and a fascist enterprise. He has accused the agency’s scientists of ignoring vaccine harms to children, comparing it to the Catholic Church’s coverup of child sex abuse. He has also disparaged the Covid-19 vaccine, calling it the “deadliest” vaccine ever made.

We have seen the cesspool and it is you, Mr. Kennedy.

Dr. Fiona Havers, who resigned from her position as a senior C.D.C. adviser on vaccine policy earlier this year, was on lockdown at Emory University Hospital while visiting a colleague. She heard the sirens, and stayed in close contact with her friends and former colleagues, including in a 900-person chat group where C.D.C. employees shared terrifying details of the shooting.

“I am feeling very angry and very sad for my colleagues that are still at C.D.C.,” said Dr. Havers, who quit after Mr. Kennedy fired all 17 members of a committee that makes recommendations on which shots Americans should take and when.

Evil evil man.

Lies and bullshit have consequences.

A shooting at the Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention killed a police officer and rattled the community of public health workers, who said the attack was a manifestation of rampant misinformation surrounding vaccines.

A 30-year-old man who believed the Covid-19 vaccine had made him ill opened fire at C.D.C. buildings on Friday, according to the police. A young DeKalb County police officer was killed in the attack, and the gunman also died. On Saturday, investigators from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies were working to piece together the details and the circumstances that precipitated the attack.

The shooting came after years of conspiracy theories about vaccines and escalating political hostility toward the C.D.C., which some federal officials have sought to blame for lockdowns and vaccine mandates during the coronavirus pandemic.

Because how dare the government act to control a lethal disease. Much better to let it spread and pick off all the people weak and feeble enough to catch it.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, lamented the attack in a statement on Saturday. “No one should face violence while working to protect the health of others,” he said.

Says the guy who has been fomenting hatred of the CDC in his role as hhs secretary.

Some scientists and public health experts said Friday’s attack was the latest in a pattern of threats and violence against health care workers. Inside the C.D.C., which is widely considered a global leader in public health, some employees expressed frustration and distress on a call on Saturday, according to a recording of the call obtained by The Times.

On the call, one C.D.C. employee asked the agency’s director, Susan Monarez, “Are you able to speak to the misinformation, the disinformation that caused this issue?”

The misinformation and conspiracy theories about vaccines have circulated despite research that has proved that Covid-19 vaccines are safe for most Americans. Side effects are rare, and the vaccinations are believed to have prevented millions of deaths and hospitalizations.

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, some vaccine skeptics, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now the health and human services secretary, have sought to blame the C.D.C. for a botched response to the outbreak of the virus.

Before joining the Trump administration, Mr. Kennedy described the C.D.C. as a “cesspool of corruption” and accused the agency of covering up harmful side effects of vaccines, particularly in children. In 2021, he called Covid shots the “deadliest vaccine ever made.”

Last week, Mr. Kennedy canceled nearly $500 million in grants and contracts for developing mRNA vaccines, which many scientists see as the best way to protect people during a pandemic.

“Public health is being vilified by the current administration,” said Dr. Ina Park, a n expert in sexually transmitted diseases at the University of California, San Francisco.

This is hell, nor are we out of it.

The Times July 19 2020:

John Boyne has expressed gratitude after a comedian apologised publicly for the “relentless harassment” that caused the novelist great distress.

In a statement published on Twitter last week, Aidan Comerford issued an apology and retraction for suggesting Boyne “has engaged in transphobia [and] implying that he is transphobic, on a number of occasions”.

Comerford, the author of Corn Flakes for Dinner, a comedy about family life, said he had wrongly tweeted that no transgender person would appear with Boyne on an RTE radio interview with Ryan Tubridy in 2019. “I have been informed that, in fact, no transgender person was invited to appear; therefore, I retract and apologise,” he said.

Comerford also admitted falsely accusing Boyne of creating a “sock puppet” or fake account to tweet himself supportively. The comedian concluded that it was never his intention to harass Boyne and he was sorry for doing so. “I have deleted these tweets about John, and I will not tweet about him, or his work, in the future.”

But will he continue to harass people he perceives as being insufficiently deferential to trans ideology? Yes indeed, he will do that very thing. Today for instance…

He certainly does think he’s the boss of everyone.

And righteous.

Oh good, another fuss. There can never be enough fussing.

The Polari Prize, the UK’s literary award celebrating LGBTQ+ writing, has come under fire following the release of its 2025 longlist, with critics accusing the organisers of platforming a writer labelled by some as a “TERF”.

The horror!!

The controversy centres around the inclusion of John Boyne, author of Earth, on the main Polari Book Prize longlist. Boyne has previously faced criticism for his portrayal of trans characters, particularly in his 2019 novel My Brother’s Name is Jessica.

And mere criticism is not enough, there must be shunning.

The novel, which follows a cisgender boy struggling to accept his sibling’s transition, was widely condemned by trans activists and readers. Critics argued that the story centres cis discomfort rather than trans experience, perpetuating harmful tropes. The title itself was seen as misgendering the protagonist, with one activist stating, “He misgendered the trans person in the title… that reflects a lot on what’s going to be in the book.”

Blah blah blah everything must be written according to our specifications or there will be fuss and shunning and punishment and above all noise.

Social media erupted shortly after the longlist was announced on 6 August, with one user saying: “Trans and nonbinary readers are not going to be safe if you continue to platform TERF authors. That’s it. That’s the bottom line.” 

It may be the bottom line, but is it true? Are hordes of people going to make haste to throw heavy objects at trans people because this book is up for a prize?

In a statement published on social media, Polari Prize wrote: “The Polari Prize was founded on the core principles of diversity and inclusion. We are committed to supporting trans rights and amplifying trans voices, as demonstrated both in the history of the prize and the Polari salon, where trans and non-binary writers and performers have featured regularly as valued members of the LGBTQ+ writing community. 

Ssssshhhhh – doesn’t matter. You have been Condemned; game over.

BBC tells us:

A former police community support officer who was “obsessed with weapons” has been jailed after she tried to make a gun using a 3D printer.

Zoe Watts, 39, of St Helen’s Avenue, Lincoln, was found with weapons, including knives and a crossbow, alongside parts for 3D printed guns during a raid on her home on 11 December. Watts denied a charge of attempting to manufacture a prohibited weapon, and claimed she was making a “fidget” toy gun as a Christmas present.

Watts, of course, is a large hulking man. This crime is not the crime of a woman; this sentence was not handed down to a woman.

Two days before the raid on her home, Watts had done an online search for “Has anybody been killed by a 3D printed gun?”

The court was told on behalf of Watts – who was appearing by videolink – that she “apologised to the jury, to her family and her friends for putting them through this”.

It also heard that she “expressed her sorrow that it may have an impact on how the gay and lesbian community may be viewed”.

No sorrow for the trans communniny?

Judge Hirst said he realised custody would be more difficult for Watts because of her neurodivergence, her previous police career and her transgender identity.

That’s the next to last sentence of the longish article – only at the very end does the BBC admit that Watts has a “transgender idenniny” i.e. is a man. If you heard the story on the radio as opposed to reading it and thus seeing the photo at the top, you would have no idea the perp was a man until the very end. Most people stop reading before the very end. It’s journalistic malpractice on steroids.

Updating to add: Lincolnshire Police are even worse.

Originally a comment by Dave Ricks on A Harvard professor.

The Harvard prof Sarah Richardson concluded her book review:

Reprising the anti-biological determinist tradition, Fuentes respectfully explains science in plain language to a wider public, presents biological knowledge as one among many sources of sense-making about the world, and recognises biomedical scientists’ responsibility to respond to harmful deployments of inaccurate, overly simplistic, and reductionist science by those attempting to naturalise and depoliticise their hateful views.

This interdisciplinary, scientist-humanist voice is vital in our time. As the Lancet Commission makes clarion, gender is an essential concept for improving health and wellbeing for everyone. Defending research and clinical practice in gender-related areas must be a priority in the face of perilous new attacks on science and academic freedom.

I bolded the word harmful because Carole Hooven highlighted that one word in yellow in her post of the image file here. That one word highlighted yellow stands out and makes me think. Richardson sees herself as an arbiter of which views are harmful. But would she ever judge her own views are harmful? And how did she become an arbiter? Evidently, Harvard has been cultivating this culture over many years. I will quote Hooven saying this, so it’s not just me:

The Lancet review goes well beyond disagreement about the facts, and exemplifies one of the main reasons Harvard is being targeted by the government.

By the way, considered harmful is a fun trope, known especially in computer science from the short paper Goto Statement Considered Harmful (Edsger Dijkstra, 1968). Of course, that led to a reply ‘GOTO Considered Harmful’ Considered Harmful (Frank Rubin, 1987), and so on.

I will never, ever, ever understand how lawyers and legislators can convince themselves that all this is true and good.

Originally a comment by Artymorty on Badgey MaBadgerson.

It’s the most ridiculous thing, a safety rating system where everyone rates themselves.

Restaurants in Toronto are inspected by the health commission or whatever it’s called, same as in any other normal city. Here, the inspectors issue a “grade” to the restaurant, a Red, Yellow, or Green Card, which must be prominently displayed at the business entrance.

But imagine if restaurants all just issued their own cards. Each restaurant could just post a big yellow “You’re safe eating with me!” badge on its front door if it chooses to.

It’s so fucking stupid, it’s not even worth imagining. It’s not even funny. It’s just plainly, obviously so dumb, it’s tedious to even try and entertain the idea.

And now imagine that kids are the ones doing the evaluating of what’s safe and what’s not!

This is a perfect example of how the gender cult activates the primitive parts of the brain that are fixated on signalling virtue to protect their status among their tribal peers, while at the same time completely deactivating the brain’s entire critical thinking parts when doing so. There is not just a lack of critical thinking behind the badge thing, there’s an active, glaring, explicit, and frankly shocking suppression of people’s mental faculties going on here.

And whoever introduced the clumsy neologism “trans+” has just cranked up the purity spiral another notch. As sure as April rain, we’ll see it soon pretty much everywhere.

Argh, people are so stupid!

Oh come on. Much too easy.

Of course they can. It’s because trans women are men! That’s it, that’s all you need.