The dogma is solemnly recited.

JKR replies:

The fringe idea that we all have a ‘gender identity’ that may or may not match our biological sex is the whole point of this discussion. Trans activists act as though the existence of ‘gender identity’ is a settled, self-evident point, when to the vast majority of the world it’s unevidenced, quasi-religious, pseudoscientific nonsense, which has been imposed top down on our society with serious consequences for vulnerable women and troubled youth in particular.

Meaningful discussion about competing needs and rights cannot happen inside an elitist ideological bubble where everyone is forced to adopt gender ideology’s approved jargon, accept its self-contradicting slogans as fact and pretend fact-light assertions and feeble sophistry are critical thinking.

You tell us to ‘educate’ ourselves, by which you mean, ‘adopt our beliefs unquestioningly,’ but at this point, most of us know your arguments off by heart. These include, but are not limited to: feelings trump facts and unless we agree we’re ‘erasing people from existence’; women and girls aren’t definable entities, so why should they be entitled to their own sports and single-sex spaces; clownfish and people with DSDs mean sex is ‘on a spectrum’ and ‘woman’ is a set of stereotypes associated with the female sex class, so it doesn’t matter if you’ve got a penis, if you identify with those stereotypes you’re ‘valid’.

The reason we haven’t been won over by these talking points and remain so tragically ‘uneducated’ isn’t that we’ve failed to grasp the sophistication of your world view. It’s that we think you’re talking unadulterated bullshit and making fools of yourselves.

And that you’re violating women’s rights all over the shop.

Letter to Dim Don:

https://twitter.com/rshereme/status/1896628969174335519

https://twitter.com/rshereme/status/1896628987180523908

https://twitter.com/rshereme/status/1896628992343683458

Signed, Lech Wałęsa, former political prisoner, Solidarity leader, President of Poland

National Organization for Women:

ACTION ALERT: Urge your Senators to vote against the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act

Yes hello we are the national organization for women and we are telling you to vote against keeping men and boys out of women’s and girls’ sports. We are telling you to campaign not to exclude men and boys from sports for women and girls. We are, in short, telling you to ruin sports for women and girls. Are we progressive or what.

This bill prohibits school athletic programs from allowing trans women, or individuals not assigned female at birth, to participate in school athletic programs. This endangers all players on women and girls’ sports teams no matter their age, sport, or level of competition.

Wrong, you horrible fools. Allowing boys to participate in school athletic programs for girls is what endangers girls. As you must know, even as stupid as you are.

“All the land,” he exclaims in dramatic shock-horror. Yes all the land that Putin invaded – what’s the shock-horror about? If somebody breaks into your house do you feel obliged to give up the living room and kitchen before calling the cops?

It’s terrifying how captured these people are.

The Guardian puts it more strongly.

The Trump administration announced it will take control of the White House press pool, stripping the independent White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) of its longstanding role in deciding which journalists have access to the president in intimate settings. The move has immediately triggered an impassioned response from members of the media – including a Fox News correspondent who called it a “short-sighted decision”.

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, made the announcement during Tuesday’s press briefing, framing the move as democratizing access to the president.

“A group of DC-based journalists, the White House Correspondents’ Association, has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the president of the United States,” Leavitt said. “Not any more. Today, I was proud to announce that we are giving the power back to the people.”

And by “the people” she means Trump and his trumponians.

The announcement upended more than 70 years of protocol of journalists – not government officials – determining which rotating reporters travel with the president on Air Force One and cover events in the Oval Office or Roosevelt Room.

It’s quite similar to the protocols that keep corporations and lobbyists and clerics and military brass from deciding who gets to report on them.

As the media reeled from the attack on the press pool, the three main wire services that routinely report on the US presidency released a joint statement protesting Donald Trump’s decision to bar the Associated Press from official events.

Reuters and Bloomberg News joined AP in decrying Trump’s move to restrict AP’s access to the president. The top editors of each of the wires said the unprecedented action had threatened the principle of open reporting and would harm the spread of reliable information to individuals, communities, businesses and global financial markets.

And labor unions, environmental scientists, watchdogs.

The standoff between Trump and AP began on 14 February when the White House announced it was indefinitely barring AP reporters from the Oval Office and Air Force One. Officials said the step had been taken to punish AP for refusing to amend its style guide to change the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”, as Trump had dictated.

Are we stupid enough yet?

Now the dictator is deciding who can report on his dictatorship.

On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced the White House would determine which media outlets would cover the president in smaller spaces such as the Oval Office.

The White House Correspondents’ Association has traditionally coordinated the rotation of the presidential press pool. Reuters, an international wire service, has participated in the pool for decades.

This is all wrong. Administrations should not be deciding who can cover them, for reasons that are blindingly obvious.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that while traditional media organizations would still be permitted to cover Trump on a day-to-day basis, the administration plans to change who participates in smaller spaces. The pool system, administered by the WHCA, allowed select television, radio, wire, print and photojournalists to cover events and share their reporting with the broader media.

It should not be the administration’s call who participates in smaller spaces. The administration should not have the power to manipulate the reporting on itself.

The three wire services that have traditionally served as permanent members of the White House pool, the AP, Bloomberg and Reuters, on Wednesday released a statement, opens new tab in response to the new policy.

The services “have long worked to ensure that accurate, fair and timely information about the presidency is communicated to a broad audience of all political persuasions, both in the United States and globally. Much of the White House coverage people see in their local news outlets, wherever they are in the world, comes from the wires,” the statement from the three organizations said.

“It is essential in a democracy for the public to have access to news about their government from an independent, free press.”

Independent and free – not chosen and managed by the people they’re reporting on.

Huff Post called the White House decision a violation of the First Amendment right to freedom of the press…On Tuesday, the WHCA also issued a statement protesting the new White House policy.

The move follows the Trump administration’s decision to bar the Associated Press from being in the pool because it has declined to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, the name Trump has assigned the body of water, or update its widely followed stylebook to reflect such a change.

They’re moving fast and breaking the tools we need to keep track of them.

National Organization for Men spits on women yet again.

They order us to vote AGAINST defending women’s sports. Against it, I tell you.

I can’t read the cartoonist’s name (on the back of Zelenskyy’s chair) and can’t find it otherwise but I like the cartoon.

ZEZVOZ?

H/t tigger_the_wing

Please, insult us some more.

An Australian ‘Woman of the Year’ award has become the subject of furious backlash because the winner was not born female.

No, that’s not accurate. The fury is because the winner is male and thus cannot be any kind of “woman of the year.” The fury is because it’s wildly insulting to give an award for women to a man. The fury is because of the contempt for women behind calling a man “woman of the year.”

Transgender woman Brianna Skinner was named the 2025 Sydney Local Woman of the Year this week.

A NSW government initiative, the annual awards give MPs the opportunity to celebrate the contribution of women in their electorate.

By giving an award for women to a man. That’s not a subtle new way of celebrating the contribution of women: it’s a direct open explicit insult to women. It says no woman in Sydney is good enough for this award so we gave it to a man even though it’s designated for women.

Because there’s not enough bad news yet – How Trump is Crushing US Climate Policy:

In a few short weeks, President Trump has severely damaged the government’s ability to fight climate change, upending American environmental policy with moves that could have lasting implications for the country, and the planet.

With a flurry of actions that have stretched the limits of presidential power, Mr. Trump has gutted federal climate efforts, rolled back regulations aimed at limiting pollution and given a major boost to the fossil fuel industry.

…

To achieve such a wholesale overhaul of the country’s climate policies in such a short time, the Trump administration has reneged on federal grants, fired workers en masse and attacked longstanding environmental regulations.

…

He has fired thousands of federal workers, dismantled programs aimed at helping polluted communities and scrubbed references to climate change from numerous federal websites.

He has waged a multipronged assault at regulations designed to curb pollution, immediately sweeping some rules to the side and circumventing the normally lengthy rule-making processes. At the same time, Mr. Trump has declared an energy emergency, giving himself the authority to fast-track the construction of oil and gas projects as he works to stoke supply as well as demand for fossil fuels.

…

Many of Mr. Trump’s moves may have a lasting effect on the country’s ability to confront climate change.

Thousands of federal jobs that are eliminated now may be hard to restore. Clean energy projects that were relying on federal funding may not proceed without the expected investments. A sudden stop to scientific work could create gaps in data collection that are impossible to fill. And environmental regulations that are stripped away could be difficult to revive.

…

John Podesta, a senior climate adviser in the Biden administration, called many of the Trump administration actions illegal. “We followed the law, and they’re breaking the law,” Mr. Podesta said. “It remains to be seen whether they’ll be allowed to get away with it.”

In the past few weeks Mr. Trump has fired thousands of employees at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Interior Department, the Department of Energy, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the government’s premiere climate science agency. On Thursday, a federal judge said directives that led to mass firings were illegal.

…

The effective dissolution of the United States Agency for International Development has led to the immediate termination of long-running projects in the developing world aimed at helping vulnerable countries adapt to a hotter planet.

It’s interesting how little Trump cares about his grandchildren and their future children.

Originally a comment by YNnB on Soz.

How would “trans people” not feel safe sitting near her? For that matter how would they know they were sitting near her? How would they have the faintest idea they were sitting near her? Or who she was or what she had said?

It’s not as if she was infected with a disease, or radioactive. The fact that trans people claim that being in an online meeting with alleged TERFS and transphobes makes them feel “unsafe”, means it can’t be simple physical proximity that concerns them. Online meetings and fora are not, as far as I know, covered by the inverse square law. What is being policed is not “safety” but disbelief. You will believe in Tinkerbell, or her death is on your hands. Doubt or questioning is not allowed. People who harbour doubts or questions, even if they are not expressed, are not allowed. Evidence or history of skepticism renders you an Unperson. Just exactly whose right to exist is being questioned here?

Trans activists are alarmed by the fact that people who do not bow to the gender religion are allowed to wander around at all. Capturing the police was supposed to fix that. They were supposed to enforce belief, or at least punish displays of resistance. Strange how “policing” thought doesn’t really work. The thoughts still happen, and given the apparent propensity for bullying, intolerance, and violence exhibited by trans activism, the “arrow of concern” would be pointing in the other direction. This is confirmed by her harrassment by the police.

Let’s look at an actual example of a real threat to safety. Calling the authorities because a man is in women’s spaces is quite different from calling the authorities because a woman calls you a man. A man in female facilities has already violated boundaries. Calling a man “a man” does not. Thinking a man is a man does not. A man in women’s spaces is a threat. It is a harm to women whether he does anything else or not. Having an idea is not a threat. The two are incommensurate; men are afraid that women will laugh at them: women are afraid that men will kill them. Until “thoughts” can kill, a stadium full of trans activists is safe from Ms. Smith.

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Upside down.

Donald Trump has been under constant political persecution since the beginning of his first term.

Donald Trump has been under criminal prosecution since before his first term. He’s a fraud, a charlatan, a sexual predator, and violated the Emoluments Clause in the Constitution he swore to protect. Going after him for these offences is not “persecution”; it is the normal course of justice. Being a celebrity, or rich, or President of the United States, doesn’t (or shouldn’t) put you beyond the reach of the law when you have broken it. Also, people pointing out that you are a raging narcissist, bully, autocrat, and all-’round asshole is not “persecution.”

Over time, he has learned to be patient and calculated.

HAHAHAHA! Oh, that’s a good one. Trump learning! Susan Collins is still waiting. Patience? I’ve seen toddlers with better impulse control than he has.

So what you witnessed tonight was a setup. Trump and JD Vance knew that the only way to achieve peace was to strategically align, at least on the surface, with Russia.

One of the reasons it was both Trump and Vance was that Trump couldn’t have handled this on his own. He needed Vance there to interrupt Zelensky and stall while Trump tried to find the next stupid words to say. And siding with Russia isn’t happening “on the surface”, it goes all the way down.

Zelenskyy’s real intent was clear—he would not agree to peace unless security guarantees were in place.

Well, would you? He knows he can’t trust Putin (he tried to point out all of the agreements, treaties, cease-fires etc. which Putin has broken or violated, but Trump and Vance cut him off). Now he knows he can’t trust the United States, and Trump specifically.

I can’t be bothered to kill more electrons in taking this twaddle apart, but suffice it to say, a man incapable of recognizing the implications of a cognitive test is not playing four dimensional chess with Vladimir Putin. He’s not ten moves ahead of anyone. He hasn’t played both sides against each other, he’s taken Putin’s side. He’s handed Putin a huge victory without Putin having to fire a shot (at least not against the US directly). Just because Russia is no longer communist, that doesn’t mean it’s not a threat. Ask the Baltic Republics, which Putin would like to see returned to Russian control, like Ukraine. Trump is helping him achieve just that. Trump is helping to weaken NATO for him. Who knew that the United States would be happy with the Russian re-occupation of Eastern Europe so long as it wasn’t under the hammer and sicle? Like I said previously, it’s mob bosses dividing up territories between themselves. It’s simple gangsterism that is needlessly dignified by calling it “geopolitics.” Whether Europe can or will step in to fill even part of the void created by American abandonment and abdication remains to be seen.

And as for the sane-washing of Trump’s tirade as “genius”, get real. Trump really is as shallow, thin-skinned, and venal as he appears. He’s not acting. This is who he is. This is all he will ever be. “Chad Smith” sounds like a Trump regime sock puppet, or someone plumping for Hitler Youth Barbie’s Karoline Leavitt’s job.

They’re floundering. They’re backtracking. They’re seeking any port in a storm. They’re resorting to deepities. They’re contradicting themselves.

First of all, when they say “trans women are women” yes they damn well are saying they’re the same as women (what they call “cis” women). That’s the whole entire point and always has been. Rejecting it has been and is the basis of labeling people transphobic and hounding them out of jobs and circles of friends. Of course that’s what they’re saying; if it weren’t, we wouldn’t have disputed their claims!

Second, blah blah blah – yes every person is different, it’s all so special and magical, holy personality is holy, yadda yadda, thanks for the profound insight into human whatsits. But that’s not what you mean by trans, and it never has been.

If it’s not what you mean, what does “trans women are valid” mean? Valid in what sense? They’ve paid the right sum into their accounts? Their photos match their faces? Their fingerprints check out? What?

It means what it’s meant all along, the same old gibberish: “trans women are women.” If that doesn’t mean trans women are [the same as] women, you’ve waited a hell of a long time to clarify.

In short, you’re just bullshitting.

They have better manners across the pond.

Rattled European leaders gathered in London on Sunday, scrambling to salvage any U.S. backing for Ukraine — and to map a way through disintegrating transatlantic security relations — after the televised Oval Office blowup between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

European heads of state continued to rally around Zelensky, who was greeted with cheers outside 10 Downing Street and a warm hug from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer when he arrived Saturday. European Union and NATO leaders met later Sunday in London, where Ukraine was at the forefront of discussions, and Zelensky attended. Starmer, in brief remarks before the leaders walked in for talks, said recent events had brought Europe to “a once in a generation” moment.

It’s a bit as if they’re gathering to figure out what to do about Grendel.

European leaders continued their chorus of support for Ukraine that began after Friday’s fireworks, praising the country’s efforts to resist the Russian invasion even as they took care not to directly criticize Trump.

Because he’s Grendel. If you criticize him he might eat you or step on your house or burn your city to the ground.

Starmer and Macron made clear they would continue their campaign to rescue something of American backing for Ukraine, even as they confronted the growing evidence that Trump’s pivot toward Russian President Vladimir Putin could be genuine and lasting. And that Europe would be forced to take on more of Ukraine’s — and possibly its own — defense if Trump shrinks the U.S. role.

Or if Trump just plain invades Europe. It wouldn’t surprise me.

Starmer had called the London summit as a follow-up to two gatherings of European heads of state, which struggled to respond to Trump’s upending of long-entrenched security and trade norms.

The British leader has tried to place London at the forefront of Europe’s response to the Trump upheavals. Starmer fast-tracked a surge in U.K. defense spending Saturday and pledged British troops as a main part of a potential future European security force in Ukraine. On Sunday, he called on other European governments to grow their militaries and to join a “coalition of the willing” in taking up the slack in Ukraine.

In defiance of the coalition of the assholes.

Police admit they probably maybe should not have terrorized a woman for saying men are not women.

Police have apologised over an investigation they mounted into a Newcastle United fan banned by the football club after expressing gender-critical views on social media.

Northumbria Police have told Linzi Smith that crucial elements of their investigation into claims she had committed a hate crime were not acceptable.

Yeah, “crucial elements” like the fact that what she said is simple obvious truth that everyone over the age of 3 is well aware of.

Ms Smith, 34, was accused of being transphobic by a complainant who told Newcastle United that trans people would not feel safe sitting near her.

Because what, she would pull a machete out of her pocket and carve them up? No – a machete is too big to fit in a pocket. So what then? How would “trans people” not feel safe sitting near her? For that matter how would they know they were sitting near her? How would they have the faintest idea they were sitting near her? Or who she was or what she had said?

Ms Smith added that she felt “embarrassed and humiliated” at having to explain and justify her biological sex and sexual orientation to officers during the investigation.

What else do we have to explain and justify to the cops? That water is wet? That cats are not dogs? That peaches are not lobsters? Is there a list somewhere? Couldn’t someone just give the cops a handbook?

Lord Young, general secretary of the Free Speech Union, which has been helping Ms Smith, said: “Linzi should never have been investigated for a hate crime for saying trans women aren’t women, any more than she should have been banned from Newcastle games.

“I’m delighted that Northumbria Police have now admitted their error and apologised and I look forward to Newcastle now lifting its ban.

“No one should be punished by a football club for expressing a point of view that is perfectly legitimate, not remotely hateful and which 99 per cent of the club’s fans agree with.”

What the hell is wrong with the 1%?

Originally a comment by maddog1129 on Differences.

What’s this “cis women” business? There’s no reason for “cis” to describe what we used to call “women” until very recently. Your forced labeling of women as “cis” women doesn’t even apply to many women you are trying to shove into that category. To the extent gender ideologists have provided a definition, “cis” as a descriptor of women is a “gender identity,” not a sex. Some women (sex) “identify with” or, more incoherently, “identify as,” or are comfortable with the bundle of gender stereotypes arbitrarily ascribed to women in some culture. News flash: since at least the 1970s, many feminist women have been pointing out that the social constructs of gender roles and stereotypes imposed on women are trappings and shackles of subordination, with no necessary application to any individual woman. Many feminists reject the notion of “gender” out of hand, and specifically do not “identify” with or as the bonds of oppression created for them. There is therefore a large swath of women (sex) who don’t have a gender identity at all. We are not “cis.” It’s not for you gender ideologists to impose a label onto others against their will.

The word “women” refers to adult humans who are female. It’s a word for the sex of the people spoken of.

BY DEFINITION, only a man (sex) can be a trans woman. That’s what the term “trans” signifies: he is a man and not a member of the sex class of women.

You WISH that the words “women” and “men” had “evolved” to slough off any connection to sex, but they haven’t, despite your fervent and desperate efforts to force such a change.

Sex is real. Sex matters. There are distinct differences between women and men, and these differences have profound effects on women (the sex), including SEXual assault, male pattern violence against women and girls, the SEXual risk of pregnancy, as well as needs peculiar to women, for women’s privacy, dignity, and safety. That’s why many facilities, spaces, services, etc., are segregated by sex, not by “gender identity.”

As much as you WISH there weren’t significant differences between women, and trans-identified men, where segregation is by sex, the differences are profound.

Men may conduct themselves so as to appear feminine. They are free to do so to their hearts’ content. They might be able in time to establish that adopting the trappings of femininity is a “valid” way for a man to live. In that sense, they might be “valid,” but it’s got nothing to do with women, or with what it is to be a member of the sex class called women. No matter what the man does to himself, he cannot change his sex. He will never be a woman. Being a woman is not a performative activity. It is a biological fact. A trans woman might “deserve” some recognition for creating a different way for men to be men, but no amount of effort, performance, wishing, sacrifice, or hardship will ever mean that a man “deserves” to be “recognized” as the sex he is not. To this, women say “No.”

“Trans women are men.”

That’s the truth. Your mantra is a lie. Trans women are NOT women. Not ever. Repeating a lie a million times doesn’t make it true. It’s still a lie.

Interesting. A Guardian writer, Edward Helmore, thinks Trump’s disgusting bullying yesterday is Zelenskyy’s fault.

One television star turned president visits another far more powerful one on a stage set and attempts to introduce a plot twist of sorts. What could go wrong?

The high-stakes White House showdown that unfolded on Friday after the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, demanded US security guarantees was deemed a damaging setback to Donald Trump’s goal of forging a peace deal – and a win for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin – by some US political commentators.

Zelenskyy didn’t “demand” security guarantees out of the blue; he sought them in exchange for the highly valuable mineral rights Trump was demanding.

The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, revealed after the showdown that his meeting with Zelenskyy in Kviv days earlier resulted in a similar outburst. After Friday’s meltdown, Bessent called Zelenskyy’s approach “one of the great diplomatic own goals in history”.

“Outburst”?? It was Zelenskyy doing the outbursting?!

“Clearly it very difficult to do an economic deal with a leader that doesn’t want to do a peace deal,” Bessent told Bloomberg.

“I’m not sure what he was thinking,” Bessent said of Zelenskyy, who was ultimately asked to leave the White House by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, after Ukrainian diplomatic aides texted that they were prepared to sign the agreed economic rare earth minerals deal.

Et tu Guardian?

One of the NOAA people Trump abruptly fired yesterday:

Until Thursday afternoon, Hanna Miller focused on protecting whales from oil spills, ship strikes, and fishing gear.

Miller was a natural resource specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the science-heavy federal agency that forecasts weather, tsunamis, and hurricanes, regulates fisheries, studies the climate, and protects salmon, orcas, and other endangered species that swim.

In 2022, she helped a multiagency team make sure endangered orcas didn’t swim into the diesel fuel belching out of the sunken Aleutian Isle fishing boat off Washington’s San Juan Island. “I was on call for 42 days, tracking them every second that I was awake to make sure that they didn’t go through [the oil spill],” Miller said.

In 2023, Miller was awarded employee of the year for NOAA Fisheries in the western United States, and in March 2024, she was promoted. On Thursday afternoon, while on vacation in Hawaii, the federal biologist opened her work email on her personal phone to find she no longer had a job.

“The Agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and/or skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs,” the email from Vice Admiral Nancy Hann, Deputy Under Secretary for Operations, reads.

“[I] just read it and had enough time to read it and share it with my personal email before I got locked out of my work account,” Miller said. “I was just really devastated,” she added.

Hundreds of scientists and policy specialists received similar emails on Thursday as the Trump administration began downsizing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Purely to “save” money, regardless of how useful or necessary or vital the work being canceled is. It’s about as sensible as terminating the fire department just as your house bursts into flames.

Deep thoughts.

Other than that, of course they’re not “the same”; what they are however is the same sex. The word “sex” doesn’t mean your temperament or personality or likes and dislikes; it just means your sex. No two humans are the same, either, but they’re still both humans. The word “human” doesn’t mean your temperament or education or history or location, it just means your species. Words have meaning.

“Concepts” of which people are women and which are men don’t “evolve across times, place and culture” – if they did, there wouldn’t be so many of us. Of course concepts of how women and men should behave evolve across all the things, but that’s a different matter. It’s useful to have a grasp on differences of that kind.

You can’t fix stupid, and the result is that stupid can kill you.

In her hometown of Lubbock, Texas, Leah, a pregnant mother, has been avoiding stores and other public spaces for the last two weeks.

On Wednesday, the city saw a six-year-old child who was not vaccinated against the virus die – the first US death from the measles in nearly a decade.

With a baby on the way, Leah could be putting her foetus at risk of health complications if she contracted the virus, despite her own vaccination. Her paediatrician also advised her to move up her older son’s second shot of the vaccine – the full course for the immunisation – as the risk to his health grows.

Measles ffs. We thought measles was a thing of the past, thanks to the miracle of vaccination.

The US declared measles “eliminated” from the country in 2000, but in recent years, as anti-vaccine sentiments rose, the country has seen several outbreaks of the virus.

Because it’s so much fun to be all quirky and original and interesting by promoting anti-vaccine “sentiments” instead of vaccinating your kids.

On Wednesday, Robert F Kennedy Jr, the nation’s newly confirmed top health official, called the Texas outbreak “not unusual”, a claim disputed by doctors and local residents.

Public health experts and Lubbock residents said the health secretary’s past remarks about childhood vaccines – as well as actions he’s taken related to them since entering office – could fuel an outbreak that is worrying parents across Texas and nearby states.

The “health secretary” is actively promoting disease and death.