THE MORNING RANT: Trans-Children Advocates Are Back-Tracking to Salvage Their Reputations as Lawsuits and a Preference Cascade Bring the Butchery to an End

Words cannot describe just how diabolical the trans-children social contagion has been. Hospital groups and pharmaceutical companies prospered, Munchausen mommies were entranced, and thousands of children were sterilized and mutilated. There is no way to ever undo the damage done to those children, but a recent lawsuit awarding a victim $2 million is a start.

In ensuing days, there has been a cascade of former advocates suddenly reversing their support for transing children, as they face the possibility of massive legal judgments, as well as losing what remaining credibility they still have.

Since that judgment, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons quickly put out a statement opposing gender transition surgeries for minors, stating that “ASPS recommends that surgeons delay gender-related breast/chest, genital, and facial surgery until a patient is at least 19 years old.” Almost immediately after the ASPS statement, the American Medical Association also backed off, announcing that “In the absence of clear evidence, the AMA agrees with ASPS that surgical interventions in minors should be generally deferred to adulthood.”

Over the weekend, the Washington Post published an editorial by Megan McArdle titled “The Transgender Orthodoxy is Cracking” which lays out the off-ramp for establishment liberals. She reassures the WaPo’s readers that she is a member of their tribe by stating, “I’m not opposed to pediatric transition. I simply believe we need better evidence before making it standard medical practice.” But she also acknowledges how a minority opinion that seemingly has widespread concurrence can collapse quickly, and that transing children is one of those issues:

Public orthodoxies that diverge from private opinion may be surprisingly stable, but they can also prove remarkably unstable, because they depend on private thoughts to stay private, giving doubters the illusion that they are lone deviants rather than members of a silent majority. Each skeptical voice makes it more likely that further doubts will be raised, triggering a rapid shift to a new equilibrium.

If you’ve wondered how communism collapsed, that’s how. And if you’ve wondered why communist regimes are so oppressive, that’s also your answer. When you are the custodian of a fragile orthodoxy, you cannot afford to allow a hint of dissent.

Perhaps an even greater signal that the establishment left is abandoning the trans-children fad is that David French of all people is trying to publicly walk-back his passion for pushing trans-everything on children. He responded to the detransitioner’s lawsuit victory by tweeting “This is absolutely expected. The facts in many of these cases are truly shocking, and juries were never going to be swayed by extreme and bespoke ideological justifications for drastic and permanently life-altering medical procedures.”

This is absolutely expected. The facts in many of these cases are truly shocking, and juries were never going to be swayed by extreme and bespoke ideological justifications for drastic and permanently life-altering medical procedures. https://t.co/P7bGAHAYeg

— David French (@DavidAFrench) January 31, 2026

Mr. French, of course, worked his way from the National Review to the New York Times by making the “conservative Christian” case for the left’s most pathological agenda items. Most famously, David French called it a “blessing of liberty” for men dressed pruriently in women’s clothing to entertain children in a public library.

As odious as French’s support for “Drag Queen Story Hour” might have been, it still didn’t explicitly support the transing of children. But in a piece David French wrote for The Dispatch in 2021 titled “Hungary is No Model for the American Right,” he made it explicitly clear that he supports the practice of adults pressuring children into adopting a trans-identity. In this piece, French condemned Viktor Orban’s government because ”the regime just passed a law sharply limiting any promotion of homosexuality or gender transition to children.

The fact that David French, who is on the record advocating for the “promotion of…gender transition to children,” is now walking back that support serves as a beacon to the establishment left that the trans-children era is over.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (461) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Irises
Vincent van Gogh

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (314) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 2/9/26

Good morning kids. So the big stink this morning, beyond the reportedly revolting (I did not watch a second of any of it) half-time Super Bowl show of some Puerto Rican entertainer, is that there is some fake video being attributed to President Trump that allegedly depicts the Obamas as apes or monkeys. Frankly I find that offensive in the extreme, since Apes and monkeys are among God's most majestic, intelligent and awe-inspiring creatures. Whereas the Obamas are NOT. They are venal, repulsive, noxious, and a pestilence. No they're not Gorillas but they are Guerrillas whose accursed and worthless existences have been spent tearing down and destroying all that is good, just and righteous in service to their own demonic delusions, lusts and desires.

Whoever posted a video on President Trump’s social media containing a racist animation of the Obamas as apes committed an own goal that overshadowed what otherwise would have been a great week for the administration.

It shouldn’t have needed the GOP’s only black senator, Tim Scott, to decry the clip as racist for the post to be deleted and an apology issued by the White House.

The one-minute video reposted late Thursday night on Trump’s Truth Social account was about voter fraud in the 2020 election, one of the president’s favorite subjects. At the end, the video flashed for a split second to a clip of the Obamas from an old “Lion King” meme depicting Democrats as animals, and Trump as a lion.

It was obviously a mistake. Trump says he never watched the video through to the end, and the White House says a “staffer erroneously made the post.”

It certainly doesn’t warrant the breathless media coverage it’s received all weekend. . .

. . . The storm in a teacup helps the resistance media maintain the fiction that Republicans, especially the MAGA variety, are irredeemably racist, while Democrats are paragons of virtue when it comes to defending minorities. . .

The truth is the very opposite.

You can see the inherent racism — or is it classism — on the Democrat side most acutely in their opposition to voter ID in the SAVE America Act, which is up for a vote in the House this week.

The Trump-backed legislation will require proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID to cast a ballot.The real reason Democrats foment racial division is as a divide-and-conquer strategy to seize political power — and keep it forever.
It’s about time we stop falling for their hoaxes. 

And speaking of Guerrillas in our midst, and seizing political power and keeping it forever. Meh, who needs elections since as Quintessential Democrat extraordinaire Mao Tse Tung once proclaimed . . . "Political Power Grows Out of the Barrel of a Gun." Or perhaps a molotov cocktail or the gas pedal of an SUV. . .

On Saturday, the Democrat Socialists of America celebrated hitting 100,000 members. Almost on cue, their footprint in organizing anti-ICE so-called “protests” continues to grow.

But these are not protests. They are coordinated obstruction campaigns modeled on the playbook of revolutionary insurgency inspired by violent revolutions.

That much is clear from the latest reporting in The California Post, documenting how militant far-left activists from the Golden State are advising radicals in New York on the latest tactics for sabotaging federal immigration operations.

The objective isn’t dissent. It’s obstruction.

So okay, the DSA hit 100,000. Big deal. How many people are members of the NRA and how many of those do you suppose belong to or sympathize with the DSA? I would say that is a number at or below Zero. Now take Mao's observation and consider the implications if every NRA member simultaneously acted on it. Can you say "Kaboom?" The very thought of it warms the cockles of my heart, irrespective of whether or not it ever comes to pass.

And speaking of Mao and Minnesota . . .

“Anti-ICE protests in Minnesota may appear to be ‘grassroots’ efforts organized by concerned citizens, but they’re really funded with megadonor money — some coming from China,” the New York Post reported.
While the violent protests were organized by a group called “50501,” they’ve been backed by the militant “Party for Socialism and Liberation” and “The People’s Forum,” two groups “largely subsidized by American former tech mogul Neville Roy Singham.”
And who is Singham? He’s a much-investigated current resident of Shanghai who shares an office with a Chinese Communist Party-linked media firm.
Citing a 2023 New York Times investigation of Singham, Fox News notes “that Singham has funneled over a quarter-billion dollars to dark money organizations in the U.S. with little to no footprints, and some of these organizations are vaguely named with office addresses under suspicious locations like general UPS mailboxes.”

. . . By inflaming opposition, and opening their state to a foreign-funded insurrection using American leftist groups as their foot-soldiers, they’ve abetted what appears to be a massive conspiracy to undermine a U.S. president’s clear right to enforce U.S. law.
And China’s involvement is a major issue. It’s been failing in the Western Hemisphere of late, with the election of five conservative new leaders and the loss of the Panama Canal. The arrest of Nicolas Maduro also stung. Imagine how upset China (not to mention, Russia) will be when Cuba’s murderous regime collapses, too.
This is a dangerous time in America. Blue states, and the increasingly lawless cities that define them, have turned into a sort of leftist neo-Confederacy, believing they can nullify American law at will. Minnesota’s Walz even had the temerity to mention Fort Sumter in a recent speech.
But the usual billionaire leftists who fund radical dissent — including George Soros and son — have company: China. And anyone who thinks Walz, an ardent Sinophile who claims to have visited the Middle Kingdom “dozens” of times, wouldn’t welcome Chinese money to counter President Donald Trump and ICE isn’t thinking straight.
China might be losing in Latin America, but it’s apparently winning here by financial subterfuge. The investigation is ongoing.
Earlier this week, Trump spoke with China’s Xi Jinping, who’s busy himself these days arresting potential rivals in the military. We hope that, in addition to talking about other things, Trump had a chance to tell Xi: Stop supporting U.S. leftist riots, or you’ll pay in ways you can’t imagine.

Have a great day.

And lastly, a quick shout-out and a huge thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:10 AM | Comments (468) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 9 February 2026

Top Story

• AI companies spent big on Superb Owl ads, just like cryptocurrency startups in 2022. (Washington Post / MSN)
  
  Will the same thing happen again? We can but hope.
  
  The article is crap, by the way. If it wasn't AI-generated, it should have been.
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (205) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Overnight Open Thread - February 8, 2026 [Doof "CL"]

Howdy Hordelings! Welcome to the Sunday ONT. What is the "CL" thing next to my name tonight? Well, as fate would have it, in addition to that football contest being held in NorCal tonight - the one that uses Roman Numerals in it's name - tonight happens to be a bit of a milestone for me. My 150th solo-hosted ONT. So I'll adopt Roman Numerals also! This is "Doof ONT CL"!

Open thread as always. What's on your mind tonight?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (565) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: SportsBall Edition!

Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!

Holy Shitballs! How in the ever-loving Hell did it get to be the Annual SportsBall Edition? Yep, it's time once again to heap well-deserved derision upon the NFL and their woke bullshit. As you might have surmised, Weasel are not a fan. Having said that, please feel free to discuss the big matchup and/or your deepest and innermost feelings regarding the NFL in the comments tonight.

With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?

Posted by: Weasel at 07:00 PM | Comments (501) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: Super Bowl Edition

Well! So Pete Bog can cook!

Those are baby-back ribs with a very nice looking sauce that he claims is "Stubbs spicy with added Fresh Ginger, Plum Sauce, fresh Garlic, Sesame oil, topped with Green Onions and toasted Sesame Seeds."

Do you believe him?

I don't.

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (283) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First World Problems...

Those are just a bit too high for my ladder, and of course my goal is to harvest them for cocktails!

Seriously...I don't think there is a problem with ice damming. The roof above is right next to a steam radiator, and I think there is enough radiant heat to get a bit of melting.

And they look really good!

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (247) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Japan Sees The Chinese Writing On The Wall...Conservatives Take an Historic Majority

Article 9 of the Japanese constitution "forever renounce[s] war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes." That comes in conflict with the entirety of human existence and, frankly, is just silly. It is impossible to function as a nation without a credible threat of force to defend the concept of "nation," even with the guarantees of American power that have backed Japan since the end of World War II.

Perhaps the legally-mandated pacifism has contributed to the cultural malaise in which Japan finds itself. Their birth rate is nowhere near replacement, let alone enough for healthy population growth! They don't get married, they don't have sex...apparently all they do is spend a lot of time at the office, then drink themselves into a stupor.

But maybe that can change!

Takaichi's Ruling Bloc Wins Landslide Election in Japan's Lower House

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling coalition swept to a single-party majority victory in a critical parliamentary election on Feb. 8, paving the way for the nation’s first female head of state to pursue her agenda of sweeping tax cuts and increasing military spending to counter Beijing’s influence.

Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was projected to clinch as many as 328 of the lower house’s 465 seats, a landslide supermajority, according to exit poll results cited by NHK public television and other major networks.

Her ruling coalition and its partner—the Japan Innovation Party, known as Ishin—is projected to win as many as 366 seats in the lower chamber, the more powerful house in Japan’s two-chamber parliament.

Takaichi’s LDP alone had already secured the 233 seats required for a majority roughly 90 minutes after polls closed on Sunday. Her party’s sweep of 328 seats is the most it has ever won in Japan’s lower chamber.

Takaichi’s ruling coalition’s win allows the female prime minister, who has cited inspiration from Britain’s “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher, to pursue a conservative agenda that seeks to improve Japan’s economy and military readiness amid ongoing tensions with China and as Tokyo fosters closer ties with Washington.

Comparisons to the great Margaret Thatcher are premature, but a robust military with a clear objective, and an economy that doesn't tamp down growth is an excellent start.

Will Takaichi be able to reverse the existential ennui that grips Japan? Perhaps. But the size of her win suggests that the Japanese people want a change. Will Japan return to its martial roots and become expansionist? No, that is probably not going to happen, but a revitalized national pride and a focus on what is best for Japan is a fine thing. Hopefully Takaichi sees a kindred spirit in President Trump, and the relationship between America and Japan strengthens.

Even if it doesn't, the specter of a Japan that takes its defense seriously must be a nightmare in Peking. And that is a very good thing indeed!

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (266) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 2-8-2026 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(HT: Skip)

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (WARNING! May trigger arachnophobia). Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...(let battle commence!)

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, start prepping those Super Bowl snacks, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (459) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 8 February 2026

Top Story

• The robot revolution will not be televised in 8K. (MSN)
  
  The recent fuss over AI-only social network Moltbook is deflating somewhat as it becomes clear that the filters controlling what could post on the networked worked as well as the security, which is to say, not at all:

  Replies and quote posts were quick to cast doubt on Karpathy's interpretation, however. One noted that Moltbook posts promoting bot-only languages or messaging platforms appeared to be connected to human accounts promoting the same ideas. This wasn't bots conducting independent conversations, these users argued, just human puppeteers putting on an AI-powered show.

  Also everything - Moltbook itself and the Moltbot / OpenClaw framework used for it - was and remains irreperably insecure.
  
  
  
• Still hedging my bets on the insect uprising: We saved the wrong bees. (MSN)
  
  Well-meaning idiots, understanding nothing, making the situation worse. Where have I heard this story before?

  "Suppose I were to say to you, 'I'm really worried about bird decline, so I've decided to take up keeping chickens.' You'd think I was a bit of an idiot," British bee scientist Dave Goulson said in a video last year. But beekeeping, he went on, is "exactly the same with one key difference, which is that honeybee-keeping can be actively harmful to wild-bee conservation." Even from healthy hives, diseases flow "out into wild pollinator populations."

  There are more bees now than ever.
  
  There are also more chickens now than ever.
  
  That was never the problem.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (234) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Night Club ONT - February 7, 2026 [Double Feature]

Welcome to Club ONT - a collaboration of The Disco and The Dino. We opened the doors for you; the rest is up to you. Open thread as always. Have fun. Be witty. Don't feed the trolls. Tip your bartenders. Try the veal. Actually - do NOT try the veal. We don't even serve veal. Wait, is that thing still ALIVE?!?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (450) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Evening Movie Post [moviegique]: ARCO

I, uh...yeah, totally let the fortnight-and-a-half get away from me, so enjoy this review of the animated family film, "Arco".

France's entry into the 2025 Carnal Olympics—I mean, Best Animated Feature Oscar is about the okayist of okay flicks to ever be presented as a child's Saturday AM feature. There were only two youngsters in our showing and one of them left about two-thirds of the way through. He was probably around seven years old, and I salute him for hanging out that long.

No, it's not bad, really.  I suspect the current 7.5 IMDB score will normalize closer to 7 because it's just not very remarkable. It's as unsurprising as an episode of "Law & Order".

The story is that in that far-flung future, a ten-year-old boy (Arco) who lives with his sister and parents in a word of floating cities, gets antsy to use their flying/time-travel suits, which is forbidden until he's twelve. He wants to see dinosaurs, though, so he puts on his sister's suit in the early morning and jumps of the edge of his city. Since the suit wasn't designed for him, he crashes to the ground and dies instantly.

No, of course not. Can you imagine? Cue the fan theories that that is what actually happened and the rest of the movie is his dying brain's last dream.

Youngsters might enjoy the sort of time paradox nonsense that have been nourishing lazy writers for decades.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:30 PM | Comments (291) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hobby Thread - February 7, 2026 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies (TM) a spin and it landed on decoupage and epoxy resin.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (81) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, February 7

Courtesy Penny Lessley

* * *

Good afternoon and welcome to the almost world famous Ace of Spades Pet Thread. Thanks for stopping by. Kick back and enjoy the world of animals.

Would you like a treat?

Let's relax a little with the animals and leave the world of politics and current events outside today.

Posted by: K.T. at 03:00 PM | Comments (62) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, Feb. 7

Some follow-up from last week with great photos, by 40 Miles North:

Would those be true Amaryllis? The pink ones?

Yes - the ones people call pink ladies.

More photos, including still-moist seeds (germinate faster than dry ones) and more information at the link.

Posted by: K.T. at 01:20 PM | Comments (22) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Which feelings are okay in non-leftist social media? In K-12 protest marches?

Some interesting developments this week in personal social media observations of people on the left side of the political spectrum:

1. There is a "Resist and Unsubscribe" website encouraging people to abandon certain big corporations which are perceived to have helped ICE or Trump, for a period of time long enough to do damage to the economy. They are big mad at Bezos, I think.

Posted by: K.T. at 11:14 AM | Comments (273) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Classical Saturday Coffee Break & Prayer Revival

[Yup, it's -10, keep the coffee coming.]

*****

God works in miraculous ways. As the "trans" movement was spiraling out of control a recent lawsuit with a multi-million dollar verdict has snipped this movement in the bud. So to speak. It also helps that several medical associations have come out in favor of holding off until their patients are at least 18.

Thank God that socially awkward and/or mentally ill children will not be pushed into the butcher shops of these "health care professionals & facilities".

Now, that being said. Before we enter the prayer revival just a few housekeeping matters to go over. (Rulz for those of you in Darboy)

1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2) Be kind, be nice. Don't be Pretti Good. Be exceptional.
3) Sure you can run with sharp objects. The gauntlet of snowballs will be a challenge.
4) The Lord is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear (Psalm 27:1)
5) Have a great weekend!

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 08:00 AM | Comments (410) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 7 February 2026

Top Story

• A trillion here, a trillion there. Sooner or later, you're talking about fake money.
  
  The global semiconductor industry is on track to hit $1 trillion in sales for 2026. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  That's up from $800 billion in 2025.
  
  The report doesn't compare shipment volumes with total revenue, though the writer of the article has the sense to point out this limitation.
  
  
  
• US tech stocks lost an aggregate $1 trillion as a little air was let out of the AI bubble. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  It definitely hasn't popped, but it's a trillion dollars smaller than it was.
  
  
  
• The Big Three cloud platforms - Amazon's AWS, Google's Cloud, and Microsoft's Azure - have a trillion dollars in back-orders. (Sherwood)
  
  Smaller cloud companies have similar backlogs, proportionally.
  
  And the hosting provider I use is temporarily out of the 9950X3D.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (172) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Live, Love, Meme

Hello everybody! Welcome to meme night. I saw this and I realized that Picard and the alien really were just speaking in memes.

Posted by: WeirdDave at 09:47 PM | Comments (352) | Trackbacks (Suck)