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.

Two days later, President Trump claimed—contrary to the available evidence—that “the people of Greenland would love to become a state of the United States of America.” And if Denmark “doesn’t like it,” he added ominously, “maybe things have to happen with respect to Denmark having to do with tariffs.”

You have to give me your stuff or I will hurt you and take your stuff.

[PM Mette] Frederiksen tried to appease Trump. In a phone call on January 15, she offered to work with him on American military concerns and on access to Greenland’s minerals. But she explained that the island wasn’t for sale, especially because its residents—who didn’t want to belong to Denmark or the United States, according to Greenland’s prime minister—should be allowed to choose their own future. Trump, unsatisfied, threatened her with tariffs.

Trump threatened an ally because she told him Greenlanders don’t want to be owned by the US or Denmark.

On January 25, when details of the phone call became public, reporters asked Trump about Frederiksen’s response. “She told you Greenland is not for sale,” said one reporter. “Will you take no for an answer on that?” Trump made it clear that he wouldn’t. “I think we’re going to have it,” he said of Greenland. As to Denmark, he warned: “It would be a very unfriendly act if they didn’t allow that to happen.”

Very unfriendly. Yes. If I demanded Trump’s apartment overlooking Central Park and he refused to give it to me that would be a very unfriendly act. Friendly=giving people whatever they demand.

Trump’s threats prompted European leaders to speak up in Denmark’s defense. “The inviolability of borders is a fundamental principle of international law,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “Russia has broken this principle with its invasion of Ukraine,” Scholz noted. And in an obvious reference to Trump, he added: “This principle must apply to everyone.”

At that point, Vice President JD Vance stepped in. In a February 2 interview on Fox News, he scoffed that Trump “doesn’t care about what the Europeans scream at us. He cares about putting the interest of America’s citizens first.” 

And what Vance means by “putting the interest of America’s citizens first” is demanding territory that belongs to other people and promising war if the answer is no. Does that work for everyone? Should Denmark be putting the interest of Denmark’s citizens first by demanding Maine and Massachusetts and Manhattan?

Replies pending.

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

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 inclusion of our chosen day instead of the announced one? Who is deciding all this? Where is the highly secretive junta that is issuing these rules, and what is their native language?

What exactly are we supposed to do to observe this day? Go outside and find the most asexual-looking person we can and brandish a fist in the air as a token of our solidarity? Carry a black and grey and white and purple flag around? Wear our sloppiest clothes? What?

I don’t know, but Thomas Willett is very agitated about the whole thing.

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” in relevant course materials.

That’s not so much a policy as a lunacy. “You must burble about trans lives and how glorious and enlightened they are.” No I don’t need to be doing that, thanks.

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

“Rachel” Saunders trying to convince onlookers that he’s a deep thinker:

My contention is that the history of gender critical discourse is rooted in a reaction against third wave feminist approaches to trans inclusive feminism…

So his contention is that gender critical discourse is rooted in criticism of gender bullshit. Well ya don’t say, Sherlock. How long did it take you to work that one out?

The history of feminist discourse is littered with ascendent ideas which wane as society moves on…

Hahahaha got enough mangled incompatible metaphors in there? How can history be littered with something? How high can ideas ascend? What are the signs of a waning idea? Where does society move on to?

Raymond’s book spurred anti-trans backlash during the 1980s which saw the closure of trans healthcare and the rolling back of trans normative rights movements. However, as the queer libationary movements emerged…

Oops. Too many libations while writing this epic consignment of geriatric shoe manufacturers?

At law countries across Europe and individual US states began to roll out tentative trans rights which blossomed into a normative framing of trans identities around the turn of the millennia. 

At law? Did he mean at last? And how does one “roll out” rights? And what are tentative trans rights? And how do tentative rights blossom? And how does anything at all blossom into a normative framing? And it’s turn of the millennium, not millennia.

From 2000 to 2015 trans people saw their lives shift from the shadows…

How do lives shift from the shadows?

This is what you get when stupid people try to do Fine Writing. Mr Saunders should skip the attempt and buckle down to fixing his thought process.

The return of measles:

The measles crisis in West Texas has claimed the life of another child, the second death in an outbreak that has burned through the region and infected dozens of residents in bordering states.

The 8-year-old girl died early Thursday morning of “measles pulmonary failure” at a hospital in Lubbock, Texas, according to records obtained by The New York Times. It is the second confirmed measles death in a decade in the United States.

We’re energetically going backwards. Hey team, let’s bring back lethal epidemics!

If the virus continues to spread at this pace, the country risks losing its measles elimination status, a hard-fought victory earned in 2000. Public health officials in West Texas have predicted the outbreak will continue for a year.

Robert F. Kennedy, the nation’s health secretary, has faced intense criticism for his handling of the outbreak. A prominent vaccine skeptic, he has offered muted support for vaccination and has emphasized untested treatments for measles, like cod liver oil.

According to doctors in Texas, Mr. Kennedy’s endorsement of alternative treatments has contributed to patients delaying critical care and ingesting toxic levels of vitamin A.

Yes but on the upside we have a complete amateur in charge of the federal health department. Exciting!

Hemant Mehta – remember him? – has written a snotty abusive post about Jerry Coyne and his failure to subscribe to trans ideology. It’s not an intellectually respectable attempt.

In an essay published in print yesterday, on the Trans Day of Visibility, biologist Jerry Coyne wrote in the Wall Street Journal (archived link) about his recent self-own against the Freedom From Religion Foundation. 

Weeds already. They do dash into them, the gender-worshippers. The sanctimonious “on the Trans Day of Visibility” is downright childish. Wtf is “the Trans Day of Visibility” and why should anyone care and above all why should anyone consider it a sanctified day on which it is unacceptable to say that trans ideology is bullshit? Hey, heads up, today is Listen to Gender Critical Women and Shut Up Day, and so is every other day. Sauce for the cis goose sauce for the cis gander.

And then the “self-own” – who says it was a self-own? Why, Mr Friendly, of course. It’s just so silly to say anything remotely skeptical about trans ideology, which is so obviously both true and beneficial.

The article predictably paints Coyne as the arbiter of good science, leaving out all the lies he told along the way.

There are journalists who have been sued for calling people liars without evidence. Just saying.

If you’re wondering what this is all about, you can read the whole backstory here. But in short, Coyne wrote an article in December that briefly appeared on FFRF’s website titled “Biology is not bigotry.” In it, Coyne wrongly insisted that sex is binary, lied about trans women, and pushed for discrimination against trans people.

Crude stuff. Wasn’t Mehta supposed to be a thoughtful intelligent guy? That seemed to be his reputation, as far as I knew, though I never paid much attention to him – I’m not a huge fan of people who attach hooray-words to their own names. I’ll decide for myself if you’re friendly or not, thank you, and judging by the above I would say you’re not even close.

Nowhere in the piece did he describe the countless ways the trans community is under attack, largely by people making similar misguided arguments.

Oh shut up. People declining to believe in trans ideology does not equal the trans communninny being under attack. If you say you’re a turnip and I say you’re not, you’re not under attack from me.

The article was so devoid of facts and empathy that FFRF soon took down the piece and posted their own statement explicitly backing LGBTQIA-plus rights and saying that publishing Coyne’s article “was an error of judgment [that] does not reflect our values or principles.”

Oh rilly? Well if it was that devoid of facts and empathy why did FFRF publish it? Why did they take it down only when some of its gender-addled younger staff pitched a fit? Why wasn’t its horrid nasty bad meanness obvious from the beginning?

Mehta quotes a bit of Coyne’s essay and then comments

Written like someone who’s still never had a single conversation with a trans person but pretends to be an expert on the subject anyway…

I’m less interested in explaining biology to him—he’s obviously not interested

Well no, there’s something else he’s even more obviously. A biologist.

I stopped reading at that point. It’s not good writing or thinking.

Originally a comment by maddog at Before you find yourself throwing up your hands in a tizzy.

A separate division denies them their truth to compete as their authentic selves and is antithetical to USA Fencing’s Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) vision.

I call BS. Why is creating separate divisions* for transgender athletes not a proper solution?

One advantage to creating a separate division for trans women athletes is that there would be no need for artificial T suppression, as there would be no need to pretend that the trans woman was an actual woman.

Creating a division for trans women would not “deny them their truth.” “Their truth” consists solely of an internal, unexaminable feeling (or claim of a feeling) that they feel more comfortable with the social stereotypes of femininity than those of masculinity. Athletes do not compete by means of their feelings. They can continue to have “their truth” — their internal feelings — as much as they want. However, they can only compete using their physical, sexed, bodies. Anything beyond an interior feeling of affinity with femininity, or a wish to have been born the other sex, is not a “truth;” it is a lie. The claim, based solely on wishful thinking, to be the sex you’re not is a lie. It is absolutely inauthentic.

“Authenticity” cannot be based on lies. If they compete in the division for the sex that they are not, that’s the exact opposite of “competing as their authentic selves.” It’s competing as their lying, cheating, fraudulent selves.

What’s “antithetical” to a ” diversity and inclusion” policy, is a policy that deliberately excludes women athletes from their own, sex-based, division, in favor of the same-old, same-old men, who have already had, and continue to have, the lion’s share of athletic opportunities throughout history. USA Fencing’s statements are pathetic.

*Of course, there would probably have to be TWO transgender divisions, rather than only one. The trans women would typically be far bigger and stronger, and have more musculature (including fast-twitch muscles), than trans men. Trans men who had double mastectomies may have damaged their natural pectoral muscles. Some of the potential results of mastectomy are muscle atrophy and loss of upper body strength and function. Having only one “transgender” division would once again favor the men (trans women) over the women (trans men), just as sex differences favor men over women in general. Quelle surprise.

What an unpleasant person.

Are mean rude bullies now tenured academics?

But sir…

From the Scottish Daily Express:

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has claimed that banning trans women from using female bathrooms is a “dangerous road to go down” as he raised concerns about how this would be policed. He also insisted that he didn’t regret voting for Nicola Sturgeon’s controversial gender reforms, despite the issues they have raised now.

But sir. But sir. You say “dangerous” but what about the danger to women if men who claim to be trans are not banned from using female bathrooms? Why do you worry about the danger to men while ignoring the danger to women? You are aware that male violence to women is a good deal more common than female violence to men, right? You are aware that men are significantly bigger and stronger than women, aren’t you? Why are you fretting about potential danger to men while ignoring potential danger to women? I suppose it’s because you’re a man yourself, is that it? Could you possibly try to do better?

Aw, diddums.

Lia Thomas left feeling ‘devastated’ and ‘grief’

Is he now the poor wee mite?

Is anyone telling him to think about how girls have been left feeling because of him?

Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas has revealed she felt “devastated” and experienced “grief” after being banned from competing against biological women.

Thomas made these comments whilst serving as a keynote speaker at HiTOPS’ annual Trans Youth Forum at the weekend.

Makes sense. Trans ideology doesn’t work unless everyone is rigorously trained to be indifferent to the harms to women and girls.

This time I’m not the only one saying it, there’s a flood of people saying it. No, you lying shits: the nurses don’t object to trans nurse using their changing room; they object to MALE nurse using their changing room. Stop lying about it.

Ok let’s see if I can stomach this. Dreadful pompous smug fencing coach in August 2023 telling women and girls why they should take a back seat and like it.

So perhaps, before you dive in, it’s best to call out my beliefs up front before you waste your time reading this and find yourself throwing up your hands in a tizzy.

He means women there. It’s only women who “throw up their hands in a tizzy.” It’s so womany – stupid, weak, emotional, futile. Already we know where we are.

• Trasngender women are women and gender is not sex.
• Transgender fencers deserve the right to compete with the gender they identify with, and those of adult age should comply with the competition guidelines and regulations outlined by USA Fencing and the IOC—even if the science those IOC guidelines might be imperfect.
• A separate division denies them their truth to compete as their authentic selves and is antithetical to USA Fencing’s Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) vision.
• There is a possibility that transgender women have a physical advantage over their cisgender opponents after transitioning. There is also a possibility they do not. In Fencing, there is no data to support either viewpoint.
• Giving athletes a sense of belonging and a will to live is more powerful than medals and competitive glory.

Transgender women are men. If they were women they would just be called women.

Males who claim to be transgender have zero right to “compete with the gender they identify with” (presumably meaning as the gender they identify with), because males have physical advantages over females. It’s perfectly simple and obvious.

Talk of “their truth” and “their authentic selves” is just cloying silly rhetoric, and in no way a reason to trash women’s sports.

Of course men have an advantage over women before and after and during transitioning. There’s no “there is a possibility” about it.

If giving athletes a sense of belonging and a will to live is so important why isn’t it as important for women as it is for men???

What a horrible man.

There’s a lot more. Basta.

The rot is deep.

A director on the USA Fencing board once published an opus in support of trans athletes — less than two years before the athletic organization disqualified a female fencer from a tournament because she refused to compete against a trans opponent.

Damien Lehfeldt, the board’s elected at-large director, outlined his staunch position in a long-winded Aug. 30, 2023, blog post, in which he defended the right of trans fencers to compete against women, despite conceding they may have “a physical advantage.” 

Can confirm. I started reading it but had to stop – it’s too enraging. I might go back to it later to gather some excerpts. It is indeed long-winded, and of course self-admiring, and smug as the smuggest thing that ever smugged. There are few things more annoying than reading a smug self-admiring long-winded asshole explain why it’s fine for men to ruin women’s sports.

“There is a possibility that transgender women have a physical advantage over their cisgender opponents after transitioning,” the board member wrote. “There is also a possibility they do not. In Fencing, there is no data to support either viewpoint. Giving athletes a sense of belonging and a will to live is more powerful than medals and competitive glory,” [he] continued.

Oh shut up. Of course there is not a possibility that men don’t have a physical advantage over women. And fuck off with your breezy giving away of women’s medals and competitive glory for the sake of men in skirts. Men like this guy just can’t believe their luck in finding a way to mess up women’s lives while pretending to be the good guys and getting away with it.

Lehfeldt was part of the board that expelled Stephanie Turner from the Cherry Blossom Open in Maryland over the weekend because the 31-year-old opted to take a knee rather than compete against trans fencer Redmond Sullivan — a move that critics have ripped as unjust. 

It’s unjust all right.

From the tribunal:

Not to mention at work as a doctor or nurse or similar.

Well that is quite the admission, bro. He can’t get his head around the very idea that a woman would be startled and alarmed at the very least to see a man bounce into a women’s changing room. He’s confessing to having absolutely no clue what life is like for women.

Every right to be there? Like hell. The only right he has to be there is the fanciful dangerous one bestowed on him by men like Grant Buttars.

Et tu Brontë Parsonage Museum?

Meet the Senior Leadership Team:

Our Senior Leadership Team steers the Brontë Parsonage Museum towards achieving our goals, and ensures we continue to work with our core values at heart.

Contact list of staff members

• Rebecca Yorke Pronouns She/her Role Director
• Mhairi Tomlinson Pronouns She/her Role Head of Finance
• Gail Price Pronouns She/her Role HR and Operations Manager
• Ann Dinsdale Pronouns She/her Role Principal Curator

Let’s see…does the Shakespeare Trust do that?

Nope. Not a pronoun in sight.

Dickens Museum?

Nope. The staff seems to be all or mostly women – the real kind.

Reduxx back in 2023 on men taking over women’s fencing.

In November of 2022, USA Fencing adopted a Transgender and Nonbinary Athlete Policy which stated that division placement would be determined based on self-declared “gender identity” or “gender expression” rather than on biological sex.

Now let’s pause for a second to think about who benefits from such a policy and who does not.

Could it be that men benefit at the expense of women? And thus necessarily women are cheated for the pleasure of men?

Yes, it could. It couldn’t be any other way. Everybody knows this.

“USA Fencing will not discriminate on the basis of gender identity, regardless of sex assigned at birth, or any other form of gender expression for participation in any division,” read the policy. “As such, athletes will be permitted to participate in USA Fencing sanctioned events in a manner consistent with their gender identity/ expression, regardless of the gender associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.”

And, more to the point, regardless of HOW FUCKING UNFAIR TO WOMEN such a policy is. So there, nyah.

Rylie Rueda, previously known as Mateo, had a lackluster career in men’s fencing prior to identifying into the women’s category.

From 2016 to 2017, Rueda finished 38th at the New England Intercollegiate Fencing Association Fall Invitational in the men’s division. According to a report on the Boston College (BC) website, Rueda continued to compete on the BC men’s fencing team in 2018, which ranked last overall following three matches against Harvard, Brandeis, and MIT.

In 2019, after switching to the women’s category, he was awarded the gold medal and title of Champion in the Women’s Epee at Boston College. In 2022, Rueda took first place at the NCAA Regionals in the women’s category.

Gosh, what fun for him. From nowhere to the top spot, just by pretending to idennify as a laydee.

Dawn Wilson, another man who identifies as transgender, was recently profiled positively by USA Fencing for Pride Month on their official Instagram account, and claims he was involved in the creation of the formal “inclusivity” policy for USA Fencing.

Wilson is currently rated 7th in the country in the Over 50 Women’s Division. According to his profile, Wilson is a two-time Women’s Veteran World Saber Champion, having received the title in both 2014 and 2015. He was also a US Veteran World Championship Team Member in 2017 and 2018 and has reached a world ranking of 14th on several occasions.

A vocal trans activist, Wilson has expressed disapproval over a bill in his home state that would prevent the medical transitioning of minors. Kentucky’s Senate Bill 150, which was blocked by a federal judge at the end of June at the behest of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), would prohibit health care providers in the state from administering puberty-halting drugs and performing “gender-affirming” surgeries on children.

Doctors have a Civil Liberty to maim confused children who say they’re the opposite sex.

He currently sits on the board of the United States Fencing Association where he has served as the Kentucky Division Chair since 2013. Speaking with local outlet Spectrum News 1 in June, Wilson said he was involved in the creation of the transgender policy put in place last fall by USA Fencing.

“One of the things with USA Fencing, especially with belonging, we take that very seriously,” Wilson said. “Because if you don’t feel like you belong, if you feel like you don’t have any agency there, you’re not going to do well in the sport.”

Ahhh yes belonging. What a good thing belonging is. What a good thing a feeling of agency is. How sad that women don’t get to have either of those feelings, thanks to men like “Dawn” Wilson.

When babies fall out.

Donald Trump fired six national security council staffers after a fraught meeting in the Oval Office where the far-right activist Laura Loomer presented opposition research against a number of staffers that she said showed they were disloyal to the US president, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The firings encompassed four staffers who were fired overnight, after the meeting, and two who were removed over the weekend. It created the extraordinary situation where Loomer appeared to have more influence than the national security adviser, Mike Waltz, over the NSC and undercut Waltz in having aides axed under him.

And when the Guardian says “Loomer” it means a completely random person off the street with no work history or expertise or learning or anything else that qualifies her to tell a head of state to fire her little list of people. Mind you the head of state is as unqualified as she is, but two wrongs don’t make a soufflé.

Loomer brought a booklet of papers laying out the perceived disloyalty of about a dozen staffers, including Waltz’s principal deputy, Alex Wong, to the meeting, which was also attended by JD Vance, the chief of staff Susie Wiles, the commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and Waltz himself.

While the firings appeared arbitrary, one of the people said that the White House looked through Loomer’s opposition research and verified parts of it. Ultimately, it found that one NSC official had recently criticized Trump on social media and others had ties to Republican establishment figures like the senators John McCain and Mitch McConnell, whom Trump despises.

Rock solid proof that these are people we don’t like and don’t want at our lunch table so there!

Loomer sat directly across from Trump in the Oval Office as she made her pitch to him directly to remove the people she was targeting. The New York Times reported that the Republican representative Scott Perry, who had his own concerns about staffers in the administration, was also trying to meet with Trump at the same time.

Well yes but he’s just some random amateur outsider so obviously he’s not going to get time with the big kahuna.

This all seems very reasonable and carefully thought through.

The Trump administration has fired the head of both the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command, the BBC’s US partner CBS has reported. The removal of General Timothy Haugh comes amid what appears to be a wider purge of top security officials at the agency and at the White House.

Democrats have said they are “deeply disturbed” by the move and say it jeopardises national security.

It is not clear why Gen Haugh was removed, but it comes after a meeting between President Donald Trump and far-right activist Laura Loomer on Wednesday.

Between Trump and who the hell is Laura Loomer?

She’s an…internet personality. Ah. That’s definitely who should be making these decisions. She ran for Congress in 2020 but lost. She’s an “activist” and a conspiracy theorist. That’s it, that’s her credential for supervising the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command.

Ms Loomer reportedly urged Trump to fire specific employees whom she suspected lacked support for his agenda. She posted on X that Gen Haugh and his deputy Wendy Noble, who US media reported was also sacked, “have been disloyal to President Trump. That is why they have been fired.”

Before their firings were reported, Trump told reporters he would get rid of any staff deemed to be disloyal. “We’re always going to let go of people – people we don’t like or people that take advantage of, or people that may have loyalties to someone else,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Trump made the comments as reports emerged of the firings of at least three other officials at the White House National Security Council (NSC), following the reported meeting with Ms Loomer. The president did not confirm names.

Did the president confirm why he had a “meeting” with some random flake and then fired a bunch of key people on her say-so?

Aboard Air Force One en route to Miami, Florida, on Thursday, Trump praised Ms Loomer and confirmed he had met with her, calling her a “great patriot” and a “very strong person”.

“She makes recommendations… sometimes I listen to those recommendations,” he said. “I listen to everybody and then I make a decision.”

Make no mistake, peasants! He makes a decision! No one else! He’s the boss! But he does take very good excellent professional informed advice from random people he found on the internetz.

[Loomer] texted a statement that said: “It was an honor to meet with President Trump and present him with my research findings. I will continue working hard to support his agenda, and I will continue reiterating the importance of STRONG VETTING, for the sake of protecting the President of the United States of America and our national security.”

Oh good. Whew. She has research findings. That’s ok then! I thought it was just her personal brain work, but no, she found research findings. That’s a huge relief.

USA Fencing tells lie after lie after lie.

It’s not the least bit “committed to fostering an inclusive, respectful community for everyone” in their sport. It’s committed to the exact opposite – it’s committed to fostering a community that forcibly excludes women who decline to compete against men in women’s competitions. That policy is not inclusive of women and it’s not respectful to women. It excludes women from their own competitions, it insults them, it punishes them, it bullies them.

They don’t believe in the principle of creating safe communities, either. Forcing women to fence with men is not safe. They don’t believe in creating communities where all athletes have a place, either: they took a woman’s place in their “community” away because she refused to compete against a man.

Telling us to “keep the conversation respectful” just adds insult to injury.