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The epic length 

Size is not everything.

Sometimes more is less.

Donald Trump himself forecast the epic length of the State of the Union address that he planned to deliver to Congress on Tuesday evening. “It’s gonna be a long speech because we have so much to talk about,” he had said beforehand.

No, it was gonna be long because he loves the sound of his own voice.

Trump is all about superlatives. Everything he does has to be the biggest, the strongest, the mostest. Who cares that he managed to say almost nothing with all those words?

Quantity over quality; that’s Trump in a nutshell. There’s lots of it and it’s all shit.

The problem for Trump at such a moment is

… Read the rest

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Dig 

Banning transgender women from lesbian group could ‘undermine their dignity’, court hears

How fascinating. Now let’s think about the dignity of the women in the lesbian group.

Think think thinky think

Done that?

Here’s what I come up with: what about the dignity of the women in the lesbian group? Eh? What about them? Eh? Why is the “dignity” of men who want to force themselves on lesbian groups more important than the dignity of the women who don’t want them to?

Why does the purported dignity of men who pretend to be women so vastly more important than the dignity of actual women? Why do men get to hog the camera while women are pushed out into the shadows … Read the rest

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Expanding hole in the dam 

More on the possible small or medium size hole in the dam:

These statements were released days after a woman named Fox Varian became the first person to win a malpractice case after undergoing gender transition care and later regretting it. Ms. Varian and her lawyer argued that her psychologist and plastic surgeon in suburban New York, despite her serious mental health problems and apparent ambivalence over her transgender identity, failed to safeguard her by going forward with a double mastectomy when she was 16.

That last clause should be “went ahead with a double mastectomy when she was 16, thus failing to safeguard her despite her serious mental health problems and apparent ambivalence over her transgender identity.”

In … Read the rest

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A tiny hole in the dam? 

Jesse Singal in the NY Times:

Medical Associations Trusted Belief Over Science on Youth Gender Care

What even is “gender care”? I know what they mean by it, of course, but it’s so silly.

American advocates for youth gender medicine have insisted for years that overwhelming evidence favors providing gender dysphoric youth with puberty blockers, hormones and, in the case of biological females, surgery to remove their breasts.

It didn’t matter that the number of kids showing up at gender clinics had soared and were more likely to have complex mental health conditions than those who had come to clinics in years earlier, complicating diagnosis.

And there’s another thing: these younger kids grew up in a culture that was increasingly … Read the rest

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Guest post: A post-analytical world 

Originally a comment by Mike Haubrich on After everything collapsed.

We are living in a post-analytical world on many issues and this leads to social ills that can’t be sustained for long. I fear that rising nationalism in the US and the UK is a symptom of a lack of trust in our institutions and the presumption that “someone must be held to account.” The rise of transgenderism is a result of the backlash against feminism, but once removed, as males who do not want to fit in with the toxic masculinity that prizes “alphas” over people are being led to believe that women have it easier because they don’t have to participate in that garbage (but of course … Read the rest

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Deceptive headline strikes again 

Birdwatching group disbands after new members made shooting birds for target practice a priority.

In other news –

Manchester Women’s Institute to fold after members quit over new transgender ban

Really? Transgender ban? Or ban on men who claim to be trans?

Manchester Women’s Institute is to fold after a ‘majority’ of its members quit over new rules which exclude transgender women. 

Ah. There you go. It’s about men who claim to be women, not a “transgender ban”.

When you don’t have good reasons, lies come to the rescue.… Read the rest

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Guest post: More complex and more ambiguous 

Originally a comment by What a Maroon on Use them or else.

Pronouns are like waiters: done right, they’re efficient but unobtrusive, showing up when needed, helping things flow smoothly, rarely drawing attention to themselves. English has a pretty good pronoun system, but with an obvious gap in the second person–the loss of “thou” in most English dialects has led to awkward, attention-grabbing workarounds like “y’all”, “youse”, “yinz”, “you guys”. Those are the waiters that loudly announce their names when they first approach the table, interrupt the flow of conversation, spill the pizza on your lap, and disappear when you most need them (which is to say, typical American waiters)*.

The whole pronoun movement is simultaneously attempting to make … Read the rest

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What dignity? 

The grotesquerie is off the charts. Every word of this is drivel.

Transgender women could have their dignity “undermined” and be made to feel “inferior” if a lesbian group is allowed to ban them from events, a court has heard.

That makes no sense. How can men’s “dignity” depend on permission to join lesbian groups? It’s the other way around in fact. It’s grotesquely undignified for men to slap on some lipstick and demand to join lesbian groups.

The Lesbian Action Group (LAG) has been in the Federal Court this week, appealing a decision by the Human Rights Commission (HRC) that ruled the group could not legally exclude transgender women from its public events.

Which amounts to ruling lesbians … Read the rest

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Removed or withheld 

I’m sure it’s just random.

Millions of pages of Epstein files have been released to the public, but an NPR investigation reveals a gap: The Justice Department has removed or withheld dozens of pages related to allegations that President Trump sexually abused a minor decades ago. The Justice Department declined to answer NPR’s questions on the record about these specific files, what’s in them, and why they are not published.

Well they would, wouldn’t they. Trump has power over them, and he’s not the principled type who would take great care not to meddle with the Justice Department’s files on him. He’s the opposite of that. He’s the type who would cut all their throats before letting them investigate … Read the rest

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Let’s not rush it 

The Daily Mail [sorry]:

More than half of local authorities are still failing to comply with the ‘crystal clear’ Supreme Court ruling on biological sex almost a year after the landmark judgment.

Some 159 of the 317 councils in England are still ‘waiting for guidance’, despite the Equalities Minister saying that the ruling was ‘crystal, crystal clear’.

Well we can’t expect them to give up the chance to make life worse for women overnight, now can we.

Astonishingly, some councils even ‘made it clear they did not agree with the Supreme Court judgment’ and have maintained trans-inclusive policies, it adds.

It comes as Bridget Phillipson said on Sunday that the landmark ruling ‘set out very, very clearly what sex

… Read the rest

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Guest post: After everything’s collapsed 

Originally a comment by Artymorty on Use them or else.

I have to wonder if at some level, some of this madness is a symptom of the executives and those in power not caring enough about “the gender thing”, rather than them being utterly preoccupied with it.

The heads of these institutions don’t believe in gender nonsense. Rather, they consider their actions: they do an ad-hoc cost/benefit analysis in their heads, comparing the cost of taking one side over the other. If they side with the gender critics, the actions required to put a stop to gender lunacy signal immediate cost to themselves — unrest and pushback from within the institution; headaches from activists. The appearance of being “anti-LGBTQ”, … Read the rest

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Ignore the man behind the curtain 

It seems Trump thinks he can overrule the Supreme Court. One wonders what he thinks “Supreme” means.

Trump on Monday threatened countries around the world to abide by any tariff deals they agreed to, despite the U.S. Supreme Court striking down many of his far-reaching taxes on imports.

Any country that wants to “play games” with the Supreme Court decision, Trump posted, will be met with “a much higher Tariff, and worse, than that which they just recently agreed to.”

So it’s playing games to heed the Supreme Court, but it’s not playing games for Trump to pretend he can ignore the Supreme Court?

He really doesn’t get the separation of powers thing, does he.

Trump has already signed

… Read the rest

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Use them or else 

Oh goody, pronouns guidance.

An NHS trust has said the pronouns “Xey/Xem” can be used by staff at work.

King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in south London also urged staff to apologise if they used the “wrong” pronouns for colleagues.

Well don’t stop there. What about Mey/Mem? Zey/Zem? Key/Kem? Is the NHS trust being alphabetically exclusionaryist?

A training document called Pronouns and the LGBTQ+ Community lists several examples of pronouns, including I/me, She/her, He/him, They/them, Ze/Zir, Xey/Xem or It/Its.

The trust said it was “up to each individual to identify what their pronouns are”, stressing it was a great way “to create an inclusive environment and demonstrate inclusion in the workplace”.

But, as I’ve said a billion times, … Read the rest

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Speaking of no talent or skills 

Trump is busy micromanaging…uh…Netflix?

Trump on Sunday threatened Netflix, suggesting it would “pay the consequences” if it didn’t “immediately” fire Susan Rice, who served as ambassador to the United Nations under the Obama administration.

I don’t think he’s the president of Netflix. I don’t think government bosses are supposed to order businesses to fire people the government bosses don’t like.

On Sunday, the president posted on Truth Social that Netflix should “fire racist, Trump Deranged Susan Rice, IMMEDIATELY, or pay the consequences.”

• “She’s got no talent or skills – Purely a political hack! HER POWER IS GONE, AND WILL NEVER BE BACK. How much is she being paid, and for what???” he added.
• The president’s words came in response

… Read the rest

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Basic notions 

The fix is in.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon permanently barred the Justice Department from releasing special counsel Jack Smith’s final report describing President Donald Trump’s stockpiling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and allegations that he obstructed government efforts to reclaim them.

Of course she did. She’s the underqualified judge who owes her promotion to Trump, so of course she’s going to reward him when she gets the chance.

The Trump-appointed judge said releasing the report now would “contravene basic notions of fairness and justice” and amount to a “manifest injustice” because the case never reached a jury. It could also risk revealing information protected by attorney-client privilege and grand jury secrecy, she said.

Speaking of basic notions of … Read the rest

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This is very normal and fine 

A new crazy.

Trump just shared a bizarre AI video of himself as a hockey player winning Olympic gold for Team USA.

His numbers are sinking like a rock, so now he’s gotta insert himself into other people’s wins. Beyond pathetic pic.twitter.com/bjcObgFMk5

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) February 23, 2026

… Read the rest

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The hospital boat is in his bathtub 

Greenland to Trump: No thanks.

Greenland has said it does not need medical assistance from other countries, after Donald Trump said he was sending a hospital ship to the autonomous Danish territory he wants to acquire.

The US president said he would dispatch the vessel in a social media post on Saturday, claiming that Greenlanders were not getting the healthcare they needed.

“Working with the fantastic Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, we are going to send a great hospital boat to Greenland to take care of the many people who are sick, and not being taken care of there,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“It’s on the way!!!” he added.

That’s so funny because here lots of … Read the rest

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Department of living comfortably and fully in their truths 

Hmm. An article in the Nation assumes matters not in evidence.

Rather than do something, anything, about the abysmal state of healthcare in the United States, the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services has doubled down on its attacks against trans youth, their families, and the web of providers who work to ensure young people can live comfortably and fully in their truths.

Their whats? What does “in their truths” mean?

Aw come on, we know what it means. It means their fantasies about themselves. It seems to me that people’s fantasies about themselves are not something anyone else has to do anything at all to assist or affirm or publicize. They’re personal and individual; they’re the opposite… Read the rest

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Public or political speech can too so be punished 

Daaaamn this is nuts. I can’t look away.

The Human Rights Tribunal affirms that hateful statements or publications are not shielded from the Human Rights Code because they are part of public or political discourse, re: BCTF v. Neufeld. To read the full statement please visit: https://t.co/VVQbTr93go pic.twitter.com/LTnShBfGtv

— BC's Office of the Human Rights Commissioner (@humanrights4BC) February 19, 2026

I’m visiting to read the full statement. It’s stark raving mad.

Commissioner welcomes decision protecting LGBTQ people from hate speech

For the millionth time: what on earth are LGBTQ people? There are no such people, because it’s not possible to be both a lesbian and a gay man, let alone be lesbian and gay and bi and trans and whatever … Read the rest

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Either way, send cash 

Jolyon still grifting.

Good Law Project fundraising without having a case….?

Have @Girlguiding or @WomensInstitute authorised this fundraising for them to breach their charitable objects ? pic.twitter.com/vC4TWP8o0q

— Maya Forstater (@MForstater) February 21, 2026

What does that even mean, “they don’t want to”? How does he know? Who are “they”? Is he claiming that every single woman in the Women’s Institute longs to have men in flouncy dresses take it over? What business is it of his anyway?… Read the rest

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