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Guest post: Accusations from a groupuscule

Guest post by Jonathan Gallant

Below: an excerpt from an article  in the Democratic Socialists of America website:

We should support an immediate cease fire, large-scale humanitarian aid, global support for rebuilding Ukraine, and negotiations to  achieve a compromise settlement of what is an underlying conflict between the United States and Russian  imperialist interests.   In a future socialist world there should be no role for spheres of interest for large  countries. However, in the capitalist world we live in,  a viable settlement of this conflict  would have to accept Russia’s right to have security guarantees in its neighborhood. A Ukraine  settlement that includes neutrality for Ukraine along with U.S. and Russian guarantees of  Ukraine’s independence and security could avert further

… Read the rest

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Guest post: Accusations from a groupuscule
By Ophelia Benson, February 4, 2026

Guest post by Jonathan Gallant

Below: an excerpt from an article  in the Democratic Socialists of America website:

We should support an immediate cease fire, large-scale humanitarian aid, global support for rebuilding Ukraine, and negotiations to  achieve a compromise settlement of what is an underlying conflict between the United States and Russian  imperialist interests.   In a future socialist world there should be no role for spheres of interest for large  countries. However, in the capitalist world we live in,  a viable settlement of this conflict  would have to accept Russia’s right to have security guarantees in its neighborhood. A Ukraine  settlement that includes neutrality for Ukraine along with U.S. and Russian guarantees of  Ukraine’s independence and security could avert further

… Read the rest

Archives
Bad Moves
Articles
Flashback
In Focus
Latest News
Letters
Notes and Comment Blog

Guest post: Accusations from a groupuscule 

Guest post by Jonathan Gallant

Below: an excerpt from an article  in the Democratic Socialists of America website:

We should support an immediate cease fire, large-scale humanitarian aid, global support for rebuilding Ukraine, and negotiations to  achieve a compromise settlement of what is an underlying conflict between the United States and Russian  imperialist interests.   In a future socialist world there should be no role for spheres of interest for large  countries. However, in the capitalist world we live in,  a viable settlement of this conflict  would have to accept Russia’s right to have security guarantees in its neighborhood. A Ukraine  settlement that includes neutrality for Ukraine along with U.S. and Russian guarantees of  Ukraine’s independence and security could avert further

… Read the rest
Why her fellow journalists 

The big question:

… Read the rest

Back to the mudsill 

Heather Cox Richardson January 31:

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posted on social media this morning:

“Plenty of countries in history have experimented with importing a foreign labor class. The West is the first and only civilization to import a foreign labor class that is granted full political rights, including welfare & the right to vote. All visas are a bridge to citizenship. In America, for generations now, the policy has been that anyone who would economically benefit from moving to the US can do so, exercise the franchise in the US and their children, the moment they are born, will be full American citizens with all the rights and benefits therein.”

After his call for

… Read the rest
So disgusted 

Helen Rumbelow on what it’s like to read the Epstein files:

As the hours of my time on the site turned into days I started to see these files themselves as a Rosetta Stone through which women might understand male power.

Powerful men often have their identities, in the email and messages chains, redacted. Powerless girls have their faces, in photos, blacked out. Yes, there are the publicised emails, such as Epstein’s draft alleging that Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, acquired an STD from “having sex with Russian girls”, or Richard Branson advising Epstein on how to recover from his little sex-offending public relations problem. Branson requests Epstein visit his Caribbean island again “as long as you bring your

… Read the rest
As more have sought gender transition 

The mountain begins to stir?

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons has issued a broad recommendation against gender transition surgeries for youths, becoming the first major medical association in the United States to narrow its guidance on pediatric gender care amid a crackdown by the Trump administration.

Yessssss!

Never mind the Trump admin. It’s the only thing they’re right about.

A statement sent Tuesday to the group’s 11,000 members and obtained by The Washington Post recommends surgeons delay gender-related chest, genital and facial surgery until a patient is at least 19 years old. Fewer than 1,000 minors in the United States receive such surgeries every year, according to research published in JAMA, the American Medical Association’s journal, and the vast

… Read the rest
Deepity du jour 

I dropped into PCC Market this afternoon to get a loaf of bread and saw they had some sort of motto board in the little cafe area. I was curious to see what the current deepity was so I looked. It goes like this:

The future is coming this way.

Let us go out to meet it.

And then the author’s name, which I didn’t write down and don’t remember.

But: what??? That’s such wisdom it’s worth finding the alphabet blocks and pinning them on the board?

The future is the future; you don’t say!

Let’s go out to meet it??? I don’t want to be harsh but there’s no need to summon or advise us to meet it, because … Read the rest

Perfectly normal 

There it is – there’s that giveaway. He tells Kaitlan Collins to go ahead then interrupts himself to shout insults at her.

“You are the worst reporter – no wonder CN – CNN has no ratings because of people like you – [looks to his left] you know she’s a young woman – [looks to his right] I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile, I’ve known you for [grimaces] ten years, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a smile on your face.” [Collins tries to speak, he shouts over her.] You know why yerr not smiling? Coz ya know yer not tellin the trueth.”

He can launch the nukes.

… Read the rest
Purge 

I somehow missed this at the time, but Trump got very busy erasing women from all the things too. I knew about the big picture “get rid of all DEI blah blah blah” but I’m not sure I knew women were included in the purge.

As President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI agenda comes to bear on NASA, we’re getting a revealing look at what his administration considers to be too woke: women.

In a directive sent out just days after Trump’s inauguration, NASA personnel were commanded to excise all mentions of anything “specifically targeting” women on the space agency’s public websites, 404 Media reports.

And by “targeting” they don’t mean harassing or mocking, they mean mentioning.

“Per NASA HQ

… Read the rest
Whitewash in every sense 

Take down that information!

A week after taking down signs at Independence National Historical Park referencing George Washington’s ownership of slaves, the National Park Service has been ordered to remove signs and displays pertaining to climate change and Native Americans at a handful of national parks in the West.

“The moves are the latest actions by the Trump administration to whitewash and sanitize history at National Park Service sites by removing or changing signage about slavery, climate change, Native Americans, transgender rights, and other issues,” the Sierra Club said Tuesday in a statement.

[How did “transgender rights” get in there? What can such undefined rights have to do with national parks?]

“The Trump administration continues to politicize our national parks

… Read the rest
Likely to raise new worries 

In Rush Toward Dictatorship news, Trump is pushing the Steal All the Elections effort as hard as he can.

Trump called in a new interview for the Republican Party to “nationalize” voting in the United States, an aggressive rhetorical step that was likely to raise new worries about his administration’s efforts to involve itself in election matters.

During an extended monologue about immigration on a podcast released on Monday by Dan Bongino, his former deputy F.B.I. director, Mr. Trump called for Republican officials to “take over” voting procedures in 15 states, though he did not name them.

“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over,’” he said. “We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many

… Read the rest
Ok then itemize them 

She does say that.

https://twitter.com/OkayBiology/status/2018434359292756071

She helps herself to take that passionate stand by not saying what she means by “the rights of trans people.” Her passionate stand sounds generous and righteous if you have no idea what purported “rights of trans people” actually are.

If she spelled them out, it would be obvious what a joke it is for her to claim to be a feminist. Trans activists claim the right to be in women’s spaces, steal women’s prizes, compete in women’s sports, take women’s jobs, demolish real feminism.

She sounds as if she’s talking about human rights for trans people, but she’s not, she’s talking about special new creative “rights” to take everything women have and punish women … Read the rest

Never heard of him, he sucks 

Imagine voting for obsessive illiterate rants about media celebrities. People are weird.

https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/2018209054758506630

I love the part where he says how bad Trevor Noah is immediately after claiming to have no idea who Trevor Noah is. That is truly joined-up thinking right there.

There are only crumbs of his brain left.… Read the rest

Guest post: Risk assessment 

Originally a comment by iknklast on How do we know?

I think to make a moral, rational decision, the ‘is’ column would need to include a few things about what difference this makes to other groups; in short, a risk assessment. We know that men are larger than women (on average). We know that men have held most of the power through the ages, and only recently deigned to share with women (and only after women put in a lot of time, money, and pan to get that). We know that there have been abuses by TiMs in women’s spaces. We know that TiMs on women’s sports teams create a huge advantage for one side over the other. We know … Read the rest

Some interesting things 

Trump intends to take over the elections.

Trump urged Republicans to seize control of elections and place voting under national authority Monday — one of his most explicit signals yet that he plans to interfere with the workings of democracy. 

In a radio interview on The Dan Bongino Show, Trump framed voting itself as corrupt, claimed elections were stolen from him and argued that Republicans should take over how ballots are cast and counted.

…

Trump went on to reassert his long-standing false claim that he won the 2020 election, attacking states by name.

“We have states that I won that show I didn’t win,” he said. “Now, you’re going to see something in Georgia where they were

… Read the rest
Agents 

Yes but let’s be clear about this.

It’s not that “the Kennedy Center is (or isn’t) closing.” It’s that Trump is closing the Kennedy Center. It’s not a thing the Kennedy Center is doing, it’s a thing that Trump is doing to the Kennedy Center, and to all of us.

It’s really important never to lose track of the direction of causality here.… Read the rest

Guest post: Is and ought 

Originally a comment by Artymorty on How do we know.

Sometimes I like to imagine the moral-philosophical questions surrounding transgender as a debate between Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk.

We’d ask each of them to break all the variables down into that great moral philosopher David Hume’s two columns: what “is” and what “ought”. Everything in the “is” column is a morally neutral statement of fact, or what’s close enough to fact based on the evidence. Everything in the “ought” column is a prescription for behaviour that rests on value premises and moral sentiments.

The primary difference between the gender criticals and the gender zealots is the order in which the table gets filled in. Do you start by … Read the rest

Changes 

Oof. Watch this.

He’s so different it’s startling. Not better, of course, but very different. Fast, sharp, New Yawk energy type different. He doesn’t come across as stupid. Evil, yes, but stupid, no.… Read the rest

East wing all the things 

So anyway. This business of grabbing the Kennedy Center only to shut it down.

What about that, eh? What next? Is he going to grab the Metropolitan Museum of Art so that he can shut it down? The Art Institute of Chicago? The National Gallery of Art right there in DC?

It was revolting and vomit-inducing enough when he slapped his name on the Kennedy Center, but now that he’s admitted (aka bragged) that he did it in order to demolish it, we have to wonder how many items of this kind will be turned to rubble over the next three years.

Litigators also wonder.

… Read the rest
Time for distractions 

Sounds like a fun evening.

In a frenetic presidency that has been marked by jarring contrasts, he added another Saturday night: suiting up in black-tie regalia and telling jokes about invading Greenland and bombing Iran even as demonstrators assembled across the nation to rebuke his aggressive roundups of noncitizens in Minneapolis.

In one sense, Trump’s appearance put him inside one of official Washington’s longtime traditions: the annual dinner of the Alfalfa Club, an exclusive organization of CEOs, politicians, and other Washington luminaries. But it was done in characteristic Trumpian fashion, at once unapologetic and awkward, with barbs aimed at political adversaries, grievances over perceived slights and punch lines that at times fell flat before a bipartisan audience.

Ah yes, … Read the rest

Booby wrote a Nessay 

Oh gawd.

The writing. It gets worse every day.

“many Highly Respected Experts”

Just go back to kindergarten. Go. They will give you milk and cookies.… Read the rest