This is such terrible reporting.

NHS Fife nurse allowed to call trans doctor a man during employment tribunal

Trans doctor? So this is someone with no medical training who idennifies as a doctor?

Subhead: Kirkcaldy nurse Sandie Peggie was suspended by the health board when she complained about sharing a changing room with Dr Beth Upton.

Let me guess – this “trans doctor” is a man pretending to be a woman and his name hasn’t always been “Beth” – am I right?

Note to journalists: it’s malpractice to tell all these lies. Stop doing it.

A nurse suing NHS Fife will be allowed to refer to the transgender doctor at the centre of the row as a man during an upcoming employment tribunal.

Still refusing to be clear – still refusing to say this is a male doctor pretending to be a woman. Clarity is the job.

Sandie Peggie is taking legal action after she was suspended for complaining about sharing a changing room with Dr Beth Upton, who identifies as a woman.

Still not clear. People not familiar with this long con will be puzzled by a Beth who “identifies as” a woman.

Dr Upton’s legal team claim this is disrespectful and warn the medic is deeply hurt at being misgendered.

Liar. He’s not “deeply hurt” at all. He’s not shallowly hurt, either. He’s having fun, making trouble for an actual woman.

Judge Kemp says it would be difficult for Ms Peggie to give evidence during the tribunal if she has to use terminology she sees as “inaccurate”.

But he warns the tribunal, being held in Edinburgh, will not hesitate to intervene if male pronouns are “used gratuitously and offensively on a repeated basis with no good reason to do so”.

So the fact that he is a man is not a good enough reason to refer to him as a man?

I wonder if we’ll ever be allowed to stop playing this stupid game.

New head of state shuts down the branch of government that works to protect public health. Good plan.

Health officials and experts said this week they are reeling after the new Trump administration on Tuesday abruptly halted external communication at the Department of Health and Human Services and its agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. The pause extends through Feb. 1, according to a memo obtained by The Washington Post. The Trump administration also issued a second order indefinitely halting the travel of HHS personnel, according to a second memo obtained by The Post.

Sure because who needs health? Or disease control? Or disease prevention? Those are just liberal frivolities. What we need is more disease and more contagion: it weeds out the feeble and useless, and makes the survivors tougher.

The decisions to pause communications and travel, which were not publicly announced — and which extended to reporters’ inquiries, with HHS media offices not responding to requests for comment for two days — trickled out as agency staff members and health-care workers across the country have tried to make sense of suddenly canceled briefings, updates and events.

These people are so spoiled, with their briefings and updates and events. Who needs all that? If they’re not handing out aspirin what use are they? Fire them all! Eat some spinach and you’ll be fine.

The CDC canceled a monthly call scheduled for this coming Monday with the entire clinical laboratory community — lab leaders, pathologists and laboratory scientists across the country, including at large health systems and hospitals — that had been intended to share updates about emerging threats and testing changes.

“It is hard to imagine a worse time to prohibit federal officials from communicating directly with the clinical laboratory community and the public health workforce,” one laboratory leader said, noting the slew of winter viruses and increasing risk of avian flu. “Viruses don’t care who the CDC director or HHS secretary is, or what spin newly appointed political leadership want to put on their agencies’ efforts.”

Well if viruses don’t care Trump is damn well going to make them care.

The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which provides clinical updates to health-care personnel and had published at its regular cadence after Trump’s first inauguration, did not appear at its regular time Thursday. This week’s edition was set to include updates on avian flu.

The list of postponed meetings has continued to grow, such as a planned meeting next week of the president’s council on how to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Federal researchers contacted by The Post on Thursday said they were still seeking answers about whether their workshops and discussions with external experts could proceed.

I have to say, I didn’t have this on my bingo card. I didn’t expect him to start killing us off the minute he returned. To start punishing us, yes, but just plain killing us, no.

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? at Miscellany Room.

Ontario’s Conservatives have called an early election, more than a year sooner than would be expected of a party with a majority in the legislature. The reason? Trump’s tariffs, which will have a serious impact on the Canadian economy as a whole, along with Ontario. Here’s Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli talking about the reasoning behind the call, and the importance of Canadian trade for the US economy:

At one point in this clip, Fideli recounts a meeting he had with Newt Gingrich, who explained that what one has to do when dealing with Trump is to find out what he really wants, and give him something that will make him happy. Way to encourage future bullying, Newt.

If this behaviour is how Trump thinks “negotiating” or “diplomacy”, or even just normal human interaction is supposed to work, he’s a sociopath. You don’t start from an “initial position” of threatening to burn down your neighbour’s house when what you’re really after is a cup of sugar, or to borrow their lawn mower. Is that kind of approach likely to encourage friendly relations? Are the neighbours supposed to be so relieved when you don’t actually burn down their houses that they give you more than you originally wanted out of gratitude? In the normal course of events, these neighbours would have you arrested. This is harder to do when the person threatening you with immolation is the chief of police.

What happens when what Trump really wants is Greenland, or the Panama Canal, or Canada?* How do you make him happy then? Better yet, why would you want to? Why should anyone reward such behaviour?

This is not what a normal, adult head of state of a democratic nation does. This is how a tyrant or mob boss acts. Or a child who’s figured out that nobody really cares if he does hold his breath until he turns blue, and has graduated to threatening others, rather than himself, to try to get his way. I imagine Saddam Hussein “mused” about, or “suggested” making Kuwait another province of Iraq before he invaded it. Likewise Putin with Ukraine. For most of the rest of the world, neighbouring states aren’t treated as if they are a cake or pie that you can take at will if you can get away with it.

At some point I hope one of his team sits Trump down and explains to him that ruining the Canadian economy will take the American economy with it. Otherwise trying to keep Trump “happy” is going to end up being very costly. But then he can use the destruction of his own country and our “withholding” of all those things we used to sell to the US that he claims they “don’t need” from us as a pretext for even more drastic action. We’re just more pie, cake, and ice cream to him, and that he deserves all of it.

*Trump has said that as the 51st state, Canada would avoid the tariffs he’s going to impose, recieve a huge tax cut and, laughably, get improved health care. Does he really think that we’re all so jealous and envious of the US that we would jump at the chance to join? No thank you. What an absolute idiot.

Dana Milbank at the Post assures us that it’s much worse than we think.

The crush of vindictive, cruel, unconstitutional and just plain bonkers orders and actions coming from the restored Trump administration in its first week makes even the worst-case predictions look conservative.

…

NBC News’s Peter Alexander asked Trump about why he had just pardoned D.J. Rodriguez, who shocked a police officer with a stun gun at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and later boasted that he “tazzzzed the f— out of the blue.” The judge who sentenced Rodriguez to more than 12 years called him a “one-man army of hate, attacking police.”

“Well, I don’t know,” Trump replied. “Was it a pardon?”

Alexander reiterated that it was.

“Okay. Well, we’ll take a look at everything,” Trump said, though his pardons of this and other cop-beaters are irrevocable.

We’ll take a look at everything after acting on it? Why not before? Sir, sir, why didn’t you take a look at it before you did it? Do you walk down the stairs that way? If so, please continue.

Trump soon moved on to demanding that California “turn the valve” to allow more water to reach Los Angeles, where, he said, residents of Beverly Hills have been limited to 38 gallons of water per day. “When you’re a rich person, you like to take a shower. Thirty-eight gallons doesn’t last very long.”

The valve is in Santa Barbara, a stone’s throw from Harry and Meg. They use it to hose down the kids.

Most ominous of all is that Trump is already back to making life-and-death decisions based on his whims. He had said he would pardon those who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, on a “case by case” basis, and Vice President JD Vance had said that “if you committed violence that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.” Yet Trump issued a blanket pardon, including to many of those who assaulted police. Why? A Trump adviser told Axios that, as Trump’s team was debating the issue, “Trump just said: ‘F— it: Release ’em all.’”

Because he’s not just stupid and mean, he’s also lazy and incompetent.

The most unwelcome feature of Trump’s return this week, more than any individual action, is his abiding ignorance, even after all these years. This is what allows unscrupulous figures such as Stephen Miller to run amok. It’s also the source of the constant chaos that is Trump’s trademark.

This week alone, Trump botched — either out of ignorance or mendacity — claims about World Health Organization funding, the trade deficit, opioid deaths, inflation, birthright citizenship, Biden’s pardons, illegal immigration, the Jan. 6 committee and more. In a typical pronouncement, Trump alleged that no president imposed tariffs on China “until I came along.” George Washington would beg to differ.

It’s only day 4.

Trump has a great new plan: let’s just get rid of disaster relief altogether! Real Ummairikkns don’t need any help with anything, so just let them get on with it while we eat peanuts and watch.

President Donald Trump, on a tour of two states reeling in recent months from hurricanes and wildfires, pledged on Friday to upend how the country has responded for decades to natural disasters, saying that he wants to eliminate FEMA and threatening to withhold federal assistance to California unless it passes a new voter ID law.

Also: new rule: if you get sick, you can’t have medical attention. Incentive to make you stay healthy, see? Also saves $$, which will go into Trump’s pocket because the saving was his idea.

“I’d like to see the states take care of disasters,” he said. “Let the state take care of tornadoes and hurricanes and all the other things that happen. I think you’re going to find it a lot less expense. You’ll do it for less than half and you’re going to get a lot quicker response.”

How will you do it for less than half? By waiting until at least half the victims are dead. That’s how they did it with Katrina; worked like a charm.

At a time when disasters are becoming more frequent and less predictable, Trump’s rhetoric thrust a new element of volatility into federal responses during times of disaster. And disregarding attempts to avoid politicizing disaster responses, he said that Michael Whatley, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, would help lead recovery efforts in his native North Carolina.

Well duh. You expect trumpians to put politics aside just because people are dying? You sweet summer child.

After finishing his trip to Western North Carolina, in an area of the state that largely supports him, Trump boarded Air Force One to California to tour wildfire damage in the Los Angeles area. In his remarks starting the day, however, he threatened to withhold federal assistance to California if the state doesn’t change its voting laws.

“In California I have a condition. In California we want them to have voter ID so the people have a voice … And we also want them to release the water.”

Trump has often complained about the blue state’s water policies, but water experts have said his suggestion that California could turn on a valve to let water flow from the north is incorrect.

Wait what? It is? You mean there’s no giant spigot the size of a 747? Somebody needs to get on that.

Cathy Young on Trump and DEI:

Trump’s DEI and affirmative action ban has received at least partially positive reviews not only from the MAGA right and the anti-woke commentariat but from liberal centrists like Matt Yglesias and Noah Smith (“an idea whose time has probably come”) and even some leftists who regard DEI as feelgood corporate flimflam.

These reactions reflect the fact that diversity programs in the workplace and on campus have come under intensive criticism in recent years, both for enforcing progressive groupthink and for substituting pseudo-progressive verbiage for meaningful change.

That’s an interesting point. Verbiage is such a convenient alternative to actually doing something. It’s also a necessary first step, but still – there is a lot of all talk and no action, aka all hat and no cattle, in political controversies. (I doubt that applies solely to the left.)

The New York Times, which the Trumpian right regards as the Pravda of the Democratic left, reported a year ago that many companies were backing away from more controversial DEI initiatives such as mandatory anti-bias trainings that can turn into hectoring and struggle sessions. More recently, the Times also ran a long investigative article on the polarizing and demoralizing effects of an aggressive DEI initiative at the University of Michigan.

Adds to reading list

Academic, writer, and podcaster John McWhorter, a longtime critic of the progressive antiracism model who has also been scathingly critical of Trump, told me by email, “With reluctance, I find myself agreeing with Trump on this one, including the idea that imposing it on the government will set a model/mood for the rest of the country including private institutions to follow.”

While McWhorter once believed that race and gender preferences in the corporate world (though not in academia) had value as a way to offset traditional biases, he now thinks that in practice, DEI amounts to lowering standards and overfocusing on skin color: “It’s the way it comes out too often to be ignored.” He also thinks that “general awareness of the value of looking beyond white men has settled in over the past thirty years enough that we need not fear that the end of DEI programs will return us to Mad Men.”

Ah, Mad Men. I only saw a few episodes of that, but I think I get the drift. Sometime last year I watched The Apartment for the first time in decades, and yeah – the race thing simply staggered me. It’s not a surprise in Gone With the Wind, but The Apartment is not 1939, it’s 1960.

What race thing? This: there are precisely two Black characters in the entire movie. The first one we see is a man crouching on the floor shining a white boss’s shoes while the boss has an important conversation. At the end of the chat the boss (Fred McMurray) throws a coin at the guy crouching on the floor. The second one we see is a janitor pushing a cart; a white-collar white guy who has just quit (Jack Lemmon) takes off his office-drudge fedora and puts it on the janitor’s head, yanking it down hard.

In short both appearances are absolutely cringe territory, and there are no others.

It’s a Billy Wilder film. Wilder of course fled the Nazis, and yet…

It was a salutary wake-up call, I guess.

Back to Cathy Young’s piece later.

H/t Sackbut

Oh really?

Anyone can’t. It isn’t possible.

Trump is going to California to turn the water on.

It will be Trump’s first presidential trip since his return to office, and it will be to a state with Democratic leaders he has repeatedly blamed for persistent blazes, arguing that wildlife protections have impeded access to water.

Speaking to reporters before departing the White House on Friday, Trump said the fires “could have been put out,” but “they still haven’t for whatever reason.”

“It would be fine if they turned the water on,” Trump said. 

Those California hippies are so silly, not turning the water on. Maybe they’re too stoned to find the tap.

Trump spent much of an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday railing against a response that he said makes the country look “helpless” and “weak.”

He suggested federal aid to California could be withheld over state efforts to protect the Delta smelt, a small fish that has become a fixation of Trump’s and even the subject of a Day One memorandum. The directive, which calls for “putting people over fish,” would upend the state’s water policy.

Trump has blamed water shortages in the Los Angeles region on policies meant to preserve the endangered fish, arguing more water needs to flow from Northern California to Southern California.

Very true, and more water needs to flow from the oceans to the deserts, because the oceans have way more than they need and the deserts have hardly any. Once we get that imbalance straightened out everything will be fine. You’ll have your golf condos stretching to the horizon north south east and west.

“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let the water run down,” he said in the Fox News interview.

Damn right. Let it burn.

At the university just a few miles from me the other evening:

Over 200 counter-protesters gathered Jan. 21 on King Lane Northeast outside Thomson Hall to rally against Turning Point USA (TPUSA) guest speaker Olivia Krolczyk.

TPUSA cancelled the scheduled event after unknown individuals pulled Thomson Hall’s fire alarm and threw noisemakers into the building’s entryway. After the building was evacuated and reentered, unknown organizers broke a window in the lecture hall and threw noisemakers into the lecture hall via the broken window. 

The police shut the whole thing down. This has been another evening of Protest Theater, please remember to take all your belongings with you as you leave the scene.

“The University of Washington is committed to free exchange of ideas and the principles of academic freedom, in accordance with the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, including some whose views may be considered controversial,” UW spokesperson Victor Balta said in an email Jan. 22. 

…

Balta concluded that these disruptions may have been an attempt to access overly-dramatized content.  

“Informed discussion and debate are encouraged on our campus, however, it is clear that presenters and disruptors are, in some cases, seeking to antagonize one another in ways that provide dramatic content for their social media feeds,” Balta said in an email. “Tuesday’s scheduled speaker told the student newspaper that she was ‘excited‘ the event was shut down.”   

Or to put it another way, Team Fake Women Are Women took the bait.

H/t J.A.

Trump says Zelenskyy should have submitted.

President Donald Trump suggested in an interview that aired Thursday night that Ukraine should not have fought when Russia invaded it.

No he didn’t. He didn’t “suggest” it; he said it, entirely bluntly. Why does journalism do this? Why does it euphemize everything? Especially Trump? A big part of what makes Trump so loathsome is his pea-brained assertiveness. It’s not the job of reporters to dress that up as making “suggestions.”

“Zelenskyy was fighting a much bigger entity, much bigger, much more powerful,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “He shouldn’t have done that, because we could have made a deal.”

Yeah. Same with Britain in 1940, am I right? It shouldn’t have done that. It should have surrendered to Hitler, so that the US could make a deal. That obviously would have been much better.

“I could have made that deal so easily, and Zelenskyy decided that ‘I want to fight,'” Trump said.

How odd of Zelenskyy not to prefer to let Trump team up with Putin to squash Ukraine.

The quoted assertion is from the trial of Axel Rudakubana.

And what’s the purpose of terrorizing women? Dominance.

Not so fast, Big Guy.

A federal judge said Thursday that President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship was “blatantly unconstitutional” and issued a temporary restraining order to block it.

Judge John Coughenour, a Ronald Reagan appointee who sits in Seattle, granted the request by Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and three other Democratic-led states for the emergency order halting implementation of the policy for the next 14 days while there are more briefings in the legal challenge.

“I have been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case whether the question presented was as clear,” Coughenour said.

“Where were the lawyers” when the decision to sign the executive order was made, the judge asked. He said that it “boggled” his mind that a member of the bar would claim the order was constitutional.

Because, you see, it’s in the Constitution – the 14th Amendment to be exact. Pinhead can’t just waltz up and throw out bits of the Constitution he doesn’t like.

They’re going ahead with it.

Karla Sofía Gascón made Oscar history on Thursday, becoming the first openly trans actress to be nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as the title character in “Emilia Pérez.”

Awww isn’t that nice. He made history by stealing a best actress nomination from a woman. Women notoriously struggle to get any parts at all in movies, because most movies are 80 or 90 or 110% peopled by men, and now here’s this sweet guy taking a woman’s part and a woman’s nomination from an actual woman. He made part of the history of Misogyny in Hollywood; congratulations.

In the Netflix musical directed by Jacques Audiard, Gascón plays a cartel boss who tries to atone for her past after transitioning in secret. She previously received best-actress nominations from the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards for the role.

Oh sweet. Two more nominations stolen from women. Bitches might as well just retire from the business, amirite?

Disinformation experts blast Trump’s executive order on government censorship

One of President Donald Trump’s first actions as he returned to the Oval Office on Monday was signing an executive order aimed at “restoring freedom of speech and ending federal censorship” of US citizens.

The order bans federal officials from any conduct that “would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen” and instructs the attorney general to investigate if the Biden administration engaged in efforts to censor Americans.

“Under the guise of combatting ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation,’ the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the Government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate,” the order states.

Right-wing media figures and some Republicans in Congress have for years decried what they claim are efforts by Democrats and technology platforms to censor their speech online, especially around the Covid-19 pandemic and elections. The Supreme Court ruled last year the US government can contact social media companies about mis- and disinformation swirling on their platforms, handing the Biden administration a major victory.

Are lies protected free speech? Or are they just lies?

Is perjury a crime? Or is it just free speech?

Is libel a thing? Or is it just free speech the target doesn’t like?

Oh no we saw him with her and them today.

Ed Sheeran has hit back at [disputed] a report that claimed he attended a New Year’s Eve party at J.K. Rowling’s Scottish residence.

Denying a claim about oneself is not hitting, back or forward or any direction.

This isn’t just random, you know, this constant resort to claims of “hitting out at” and “hitting back at” and “gouging out the eyeballs of” in reference to people saying things. It’s of a piece with the frenzied rhetoric about putting trans people at risk by not endorsing every word any trans person says. Nobody is punching anybody; we are disputing claims. The two are not the same.

The “Shape Of You” singer took to his Instagram Stories last night (Jan. 21) to contest the original report by The Sun newspaper.

There you go. To contest. Not to hit back at; to contest. Skip the pretend violence in future. Metaphors are dangerous in journalism, especially when the journalists are hacks.

The story claimed that Sheeran was rumoured to have attended the event at Killiechassie House in Perth and Kinross, Scotland alongside other celebrities such as actor Daniel Craig and musicians U2 and The Pretenders.

Yo. The story was of a rumor. Level 2 from the beginning, see? When the story is about a rumor in the first place, it’s silly to pretend it’s about a fact.

Writing on his Instagram Stories, Sheeran responded to a post by broadcaster India Willoughby: “Respectfully, India Willoughby, and any other journalist who has reported both these stories, neither are true. I spent New Years with my friends and family”.

…

India Willoughby responded on X/Twitter writing: “Hi @edsheeran- this is great to hear. I used the word ‘reportedly’ about JK Rowling’s NYE party, because it was widely reported by UK and international media at the time. I also reached out directly to you in the first wk [sic] of Jan via Twitter to ask if the story was correct – but no reply. Delighted to hear you didn’t go!”

So India Willoughby is in charge of who goes where?

I did not know that.

Maximize the disruption.

Trump’s return to the White House is already having a big impact at the $47.4 billion U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), with the new administration imposing a wide range of restrictions, including the abrupt cancellation of meetings including grant review panels. Officials have also ordered a communications pause, a freeze on hiring, and an indefinite ban on travel.

The moves have generated extensive confusion and uncertainty at the nation’s largest research agency, which has become a target for Trump’s political allies. “The impact of the collective executive orders and directives appears devastating,” one senior NIH employee says.

Well, it’s only health. This would be bad if it were about something important, but health doesn’t matter.

The hiring freeze is governmentwide, whereas a pause on communications and travel appears to be limited to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), NIH’s parent agency. Such pauses are not unprecedented when a new administration comes in. But some NIH staff suggested these measures, which include pulling job ads and rescinding offers, are more extreme than any previously.

I suppose we can see the thinking. It’s health and human services. What good is that to Trump? How does it make him richer? Plus also, Fauci.

Hiring is also affected. No staff vacancies can be filled; in fact, before Trump’s first day in office was over, NIH’s Office of Human Resources had rescinded existing job offers to anyone whose start date was slated for 8 February or later. It also pulled down currently posted job vacancies on USA Jobs. “Please note, these tasks had to be completed in under 90 minutes and we were unable to notify you in advance,” the 21 January email noted, asking NIH’s institutes and centers to pull down any job vacancies remaining on their own websites.

The various directives have shaken the vast community of extramural scientists NIH supports. “[We] have not seen anything concrete from NIH yet,” said one scientist at a major academic medical center. “But just like about everyone in science, we are worried and waiting.”

Listen, these health people are dangerous. You gotta use caution.

H/t What a Maroon

This is interesting.

Anyway. Only three days in. Bad moon rising.

Unbelievable.

Hannity: …people that were violent with police – why did they get a pardon?

Trump: Number of reasons, number one they were in there for three and a half years, a long time

Oh yes? And Trump pardons everyone who’s been in prison for 3.5 years? He has a rule that 3.5 years is a long time and definitely enough punishment? Trump doesn’t want to lock up people he dislikes and throw away the key?

On the contrary, Trump has a long long record of slavering to lock people up, starting with the Central Park Five. He loves to see bad things done to people he hates. 3.5 years is not objectively a long time for assaulting cops, it’s subjectively a long time to Donald Narcissist Trump.

Many in solitary confinement, treated [heightened emotion] like no one’s ever been treated – so badly – they were treated like the worst criminals in history

He says, poking his lips out as far as they will go. He says, as if attacking cops in an effort to invade the Capitol building and overturn the elected government were the equivalent of jaywalking.

And you know what they were there for? They were protesting the vote.

No, Captain Liar, they were trying to stop the certification of the vote in order to force Captain Liar into office. They weren’t protesting anything, they were trying to overturn an election and install a dictator.

Now the dictator is there legally.

This country is officially broken. It’s a failed state.

Because they knew the election was rigged and they were protesting the vote.

The election wasn’t rigged, they weren’t protesting.

Only a couple of days in and already I feel coated in filth.

Originally a comment by Bruce Gorton on Vacations for all.

The thing I think a lot of people miss, is if you look at Project 2025, the whole plan is for a crony government.

Sure we can argue about the social justice aspect of all of this, but we aren’t arguing between a merit based system and a DEI one.

We’re talking about Donald “Put his idiot son-in-law in charge of handling a pandemic” Trump here. Donald “Wants a drunken misogynist to run the military” Trump. Donald “Putting an antivax brain worm infested roadkill bear eater in change of health” Trump.

The only merit Trump appears to care about is loyalty to Trump.

What Trump is doing is eliminating the checks and balances that could get in the way of him stealing. Sure, it may mean that the best person isn’t getting the job, I honestly don’t know, but it is likely also getting in the way of Trump picking some of the worst.

Originally a comment by Rev David Brindley on Buzzing nonstop.

iknklast is partially right about “victims being losers”, but there is a bigger issue in play here.

These people were not losers, they were winners. Winners because they stood firm against a Trump inspired attempted coup. Winners because they put themselves on the line to protect Senators and staff from a violent insurrection.

And that, in Trump’s eyes, makes them traitors who must be punished, and as the law doesn’t currently allow him to punish them, he will let loose his dogs of war.

When America is no longer “The shining light on the hill” (if it ever was), don’t blame Trump and the GOP or those like ikinklast’s family members, put the blame squarely where it belongs on the lily livered weak kneed Democrats who put their own sinecures before country. They failed in their one job, to protect the Republic.

Biden could have, but chose not to, grant a Presidential Medal of Freedom to any of those brave souls, instead he chose to reward a Pope, a Transactivist, and a dead tech entrepreneur.

Why, he could have even followed the British Example when as a recognition of sacrifice during WW2, the George Cross was awarded to Malta, and for recognition of their standing between the Orange and the Green, it was awarded to the Royal Ulster Constabulary in 1999.