Uncensored Free Speech Platform

Sarah Ingham: The NHS’s problem with women
Who's accountable for the results?

Dr Sarah Ingham is the author of The Military Covenant: its impact on civil-military relations in Britain.

A spate of cases involving female staff has revealed how far trans ideology has captured NHS management.

Nurses Sandie Peggie, the Darlington Eight and Jennifer Melle are all victims of the transgender cult which denigrates women and privileges men. The tenacious 10 have somehow withstood the unjust slings and arrows launched at them by their very own “horrible bosses”.

On Tuesday, Jennifer Melle won the first round in her battle with Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust. Senior Nurse Melle’s crime? Misgendering Patient X who was attending St Helier hospital in Surrey’s Carshalton from a high-security prison. The convicted paedophile now identifies as a woman.

When Patient X overheard Melle refer to “he”, the self-styled “she” became racially abusive and tried physically to attack her. The Trust subsequently backed the bloke. Management not only suspended Melle but accused her of a “data breach” when she spoke to the media.

Melle is now set to pursue an employment tribunal claim against the Trust. Christian Concern and Shadow Equalities Minister Claire Coutinho, who rallied allies, are among those who have supported Melle. The nurse, with an exemplary 12-year service record, describes the months with the threat of dismissal hanging over her as “the darkest of my life”.

Last week, an employment tribunal found the Darlington nurses not only suffered harassment, but County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust created “a hostile, intimidating and degrading environment”.

The Trust expected the nurses to share their single sex changing room at Darlington Memorial Hospital with a biological man, who identifies as a woman and calls himself Rose Henderson. As the Tribunal noted, “The use of the changing room by Rose Henderson is at the heart of these proceedings …  it was simply accepted by management that Rose would use the changing room of Rose’s choice as Rose was transgender.”

In other words, a man would use the changing room of his choice as he was a man – and his female colleagues would just have to lump it.

The women’s discomfort at sharing their space was heightened with the realisation, that, as the Tribunal states, Rose Henderson was actually “a sexually active biological male, who had stopped taking hormones, had a female partner, and had made no secret of this or of plans to have a baby.”

Sandie Peggie is appealing against last month’s Tribunal ruling which found partially in her favour in action against the Fife Health Board. Central to the case was the issue of a biological male – the six ft tall Dr Beth Upton – using female facilities at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.

Further complicating matters, Tribunal …

How Trump Solved the Mess Obama and Biden Left Behind
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.

President Donald Trump has delivered a sharp policy reversal from the Obama-Biden era during his first year back in office, solving problems from border security to the economy to foreign conflicts, The Daily Signal’s Rob Bluey said on Fox Business Network.

“It sure is a different time in America,” Bluey told host Liz MacDonald on “The Evening Edit.” “We could probably extend or double or triple that list for all of the problems that Donald Trump has helped solve, and he was left a mess, as you indicated, from Barack Obama and Joe Biden.”

Bluey pointed to improvements across multiple policy areas. He’s not alone in noting the stark difference from his Democrat predecessors. Axios’ Mike Allen called Trump the “Eraser-in-Chief” for undoing the policies of former President Joe Biden.

“As Trump approaches this one-year anniversary on Jan. 20, I think the United States is much better off with him as the leader,” Bluey said. “Our country—certainly both from a domestic standpoint and foreign standpoint—is in a much better spot today than it was when Joe Biden left office.”

Border Crisis: Fixed

When MacDonald raised the contrast between the “far-left madness” of the Biden years and the relative stability under Trump, Bluey focused on border security as a prime example of policy sabotage.

“Joe Biden had the tools at his disposal to close the U.S.-Mexico border,” Bluey said, noting that federal law gave the president the authority Trump had successfully used in his first term. “On Day One, Biden wiped away all of those policies and left us with the situation we’re in now.”

Bluey also criticized Democrat governors for refusing to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.

“If you want to talk about anybody who’s responsible for the chaos in our country, it’s people like [Gov.] Tim Walz in Minnesota, who, if they just cooperated with Donald Trump and enforced the law, maybe we wouldn’t have these out-of-control protests happening in Minneapolis,” he said.

Anti-Trump Media Bias

MacDonald asked Bluey about the media’s role in downplaying Trump’s achievements.

“They share a ton of blame, because Donald Trump doesn’t get the credit that he deserves,” Bluey responded, pointing to consistently negative headlines despite policy successes.

Today, Trump marks the one-year anniversary of his return to the White House on Jan. 20, 2025, the first president since Grover Cleveland to serve two nonconsecutive terms as president. Cleveland, the first Democrat elected after the Civil War, served from 1885 to 1889 and again from 1893 to 1897.

The post How Trump Solved the Mess Obama and Biden Left Behind appeared first on The Daily Signal.

February Social Security direct payment worth $994 goes out in six days
This feels like a quiet policy shift.

February 2026 Supplemental Security Income payments, worth up to $994, will be issued to recipients in six days.

SSI payments are typically issued on the first day of a month. However, February’s payment will go out on Jan. 30. When the first of a month falls on a weekend or holiday, SSI payments are issued on the last business day of the previous month. This year, Feb. 1 falls on a Sunday.

Beneficiaries are people with limited income who are either blind, aged 65 and older, or have a qualifying disability.

The amount beneficiaries receive varies based on several factors, including the number of people filing. For example, individual filers can receive up to $994, couples filing jointly can receive $1,491, and those providing essential care to SSI recipients can receive up to $498.

In addition to the previous prerequisites for receiving SSI payments, recipients must also be U.S. citizens or noncitizens in one of the alien classifications granted by the Department of Homeland Security.

WHO WAS INVITED TO BE ON TRUMP’S ‘BOARD OF PEACE’?

Additionally, recipients must live in one of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, or the Northern Mariana Islands, and must not be absent from the United States for a full calendar month or 30 consecutive days.

A full calendar for the Social Security Administration payments can be viewed on the agency’s website.

A Black Teen Died Over a $12 Shoplifting Attempt. 13 Years Later, Two Men Plead Guilty in His Killing.
Who's accountable for the results?

A judge in Milwaukee brought a 13-year quest for justice by a grieving father to a close on Thursday, accepting a plea deal for two men charged criminally for their role in the killing of his teenaged son.

Robert W. Beringer and Jesse R. Cole pleaded guilty to felony murder under a deferred prosecution agreement that allows them to avoid jail time yet publicly stand accountable for their actions leading to the 2012 death of Corey Stingley. The men helped restrain the 16-year-old inside a convenience store after an attempted shoplifting incident involving $12 worth of alcohol.

“What happened to Corey Stingley should have never happened. His death was unnecessary, brutal and devastating,” Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne told the judge in a letter filed with the court.

Both of Stingley’s parents spoke directly to the judge in an hourlong hearing in a courtroom filled with family members, community activists, spiritual leaders and some of the teen’s former classmates.

“Corey was my baby. A mother is not supposed to bury her child,” Alicia Stingley told the judge. She spoke of the grace of forgiveness, and after the hearing she hugged Beringer. The Stingleys’ surviving son, Cameron, shook both men’s hands.

The agreement requires Cole and Beringer to make a one-time $500 donation each to a charitable organization of the Stingley family’s choosing in honor of Corey. After six months, if the two men comply with the terms and do not commit any crimes, the prosecution will dismiss the case, according to documents filed with the court.

ProPublica, in a 2023 story, reexamined the incident, the legal presumptions, the background of the men and Stingley’s father’s relentless legal campaign to bring the men into court. The three men previously had defended their actions as justified and necessary to deal with an emergency as they held Stingley while waiting for police to arrive.

Ozanne, who was appointed in 2022 to review the case, recommended the agreement after the two men and the Stingley family engaged in an extensive restorative justice process, in which they sat face to face, under the supervision of a retired judge, and shared their thoughts and feelings. Ozanne said in the letter that the process “appears to have been healing for all involved.”

From the bench, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Laura Crivello said she found the agreement to be fair and just and commended the work of all the parties to come to a resolution.

“Maybe this is the spark that makes other people see similarities in each other and not differences,” she said. “Maybe this is the spark that makes them think about restorative justice and how do we come together. And maybe this is part of the spark that decreases the violence in our community and leads us to finding the paths to have those circles to sit down and have the dialogue and to have that conversation. So maybe there’s some good that comes out of it.”

Craig Stingley, Corey’s father, said during the hearing that his 13-year struggle “has turned into triumph.”

Earlier, the Stingley family filed a statement with the court affirming its support for the agreement and the restorative justice …

Trump warns Canada of 100% tariffs if it becomes China's 'drop off port' with new potential trade deal
This affects the entire country.

President Donald Trump threatened on Saturday that he would implement 100% tariffs on Canada if it strikes a deal to become a "drop off port" for China.
"If Governor Carney thinks he is going to make Canada a "drop off port" for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken. China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric, and general way of life," Trump wrote earlier on Truth Social.
"If Canada makes a deal with China, it will immediately be hit with a 100% tariff against all Canadian goods and products coming into the U.S.A.," the president added.
Trump referred to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney as a "governor," echoing comments he made while campaigning for a second term about annexing America’s northern neighbor. He previously used the same term when speaking about Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau.
US TRADE REP SHRUGS OFF WORLD LEADERS’ SWIPES AT TRUMP AMID DAVOS BACKLASH
In a follow-up post, Trump asserted, "The last thing the World needs is to have China take over Canada. It’s NOT going to happen, or even come close to happening! Thank you for your attention to this matter."
Carney made his first official visit to China earlier this month as he and Chinese President Xi Jinping work together to forge an improved bond between their countries. 
During the Jan. 14-17 visit, the leaders of the two nations reached an agreement that would allow up to 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles to enter the Canadian market at a lower tariff rate of 6.1%, Carney's office announced. 
"At its best, the Canada-China relationship has created massive opportunities for both our peoples. By leveraging our strengths and focusing on trade, energy, agri-food, and areas where we can make huge gains, we are forging a new strategic partnership that builds on the best of our past, reflects the world as it is today, and benefits the people of both our nations," Carney said in the statement.
Additionally, by March 1, China is expected to drop its tariff on Canadian canola seed to a combined rate of 15%. Carney's office said that Canada expects that its canola meal, lobsters, crabs and peas will not be subject to relevant anti-discrimination tariffs beginning March 1 "until at least the end of this year."
CANADIAN PM CARNEY FIRES BACK AT TRUMP OVER CLAIM THAT ‘CANADA LIVES BECAUSE OF THE UNITED STATES’
It is unclear what deal would trigger a response from Trump in the wake of the ones made during Carney's trip to China.
Tensions between Carney and Trump have flared in recent …

Vouchers, Patriotism and Prayer: The Trump Administration’s Plan to Remake Public Education
Is this competence or optics?

Linda McMahon, the nation’s secretary of education, says public schools are failing.

In November, she promised a “hard reset” of the system in which more than 80% of U.S. children learn. But rather than invest in public education, she has been working to dismantle the Department of Education and enact wholesale changes to how public schools operate.

“Our final mission as a department is to fully empower states to carry the torch of our educational renaissance,” she said at a November press conference.

To help her carry out these and other goals, McMahon has brought at least 20 advisers from ultraconservative think tanks and advocacy groups who share her skepticism of the value of public education and seek deep changes, including instilling Christian values into public schools.

ProPublica reporters Jennifer Smith Richards and Megan O’Matz spent months reporting and reviewing dozens of hours of video to understand the ideals and ambitions of those pulling the levers of power in federal education policy. They found a concerted push to shrink public school systems by steering taxpayer dollars to private, religious and charter schools, as well as options like homeschooling. The Education Department did not respond to a detailed list of questions from ProPublica.

They also found top officials expressing a vision for the remaining public schools that rejects the separation of church and state and promotes a pro-America vision of history, an “uplifting portrayal of the nation’s founding ideals.” Critics argue the “patriotic” curricula downplay the legacy of slavery and paper over episodes of discrimination.

Since its establishment in 1979, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has served as an enforcer of anti-discrimination laws in schools and colleges around the country. It’s the place parents turn to when they believe their schools failed to protect children from discrimination or to provide access to an equal education under the law.

The Trump administration laid off much of the office’s staff in its first months and prioritized investigations into schools that allegedly discriminated against white and Jewish students and accommodated transgender students. McMahon and the department have framed this as a course correction in line with efforts to be more efficient and curb diversity, equity and inclusion policies from prior administrations. It has left little recourse for those seeking to defend the rights of students with disabilities, students of color and those facing sex discrimination.

In this video, Smith Richards and O’Matz explain how McMahon and her advisers are reenvisioning the nation’s educational system and what that could mean for the future.

Watch the video here.

The post Vouchers, Patriotism and Prayer: The Trump Administration’s Plan to Remake Public Education appeared first on ProPublica.

Trump pushes ‘Trump-a-palooza’ midterm convention as GOP braces for tough elections
This is performative politics again.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) is taking a big step toward holding its first-ever midterm convention.
The RNC on Friday approved a change to the party's rules that would allow Chair Joe Gruters to convene a convention during a midterm election year.
National political conventions, where party delegates from around the country formally nominate their party's presidential candidates, normally take place during presidential election years.
But with Republicans aiming to protect their narrow control of the Senate and their razor-thin House majority in this year's elections, President Donald Trump announced in September that the GOP would hold a convention ahead of the midterms "in order to show the great things we have done" since recapturing the White House.
FIRST ON FOX: GOP TAKES BIG STEP TOWARDS HOLDING MIDTERM CONVENTION
As first reported by Fox News Digital, the rule change was adopted Thursday evening by the RNC's Rules Committee during the party's winter meeting in Santa Barbara, California.
The full RNC membership, meeting Friday during the confab's general session, approved the rule change in a unanimous vote.
RNC CHAIR BETS ON ‘SECRET WEAPON’ TO DEFY MIDTERM HISTORY, PROTECT GOP MAJORITIES
A memo obtained by Fox News Digital highlighted "the possibility of an America First midterm convention-style gathering aligned with President Trump’s vision for energizing the party this fall."
And speaking with reporters on Friday, Gruters called the convention a "Trump-a-palooza" where "we can really highlight all the incredible things that this president has done."
But the president's approval ratings remain well underwater, with many Americans giving him a big thumbs down on the job he's doing with the economy and the issue of affordability.
"Trump has historically low approval ratings because he has put America last, sold out working families to hand out favors to billionaires, and made life unaffordable," Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin told Fox News Digital in a statement.
The party in power, in this case the Republicans, normally faces stiff political headwinds in the midterms. And the hope among Trump and top Republicans is that a midterm convention would give the GOP a high-profile platform to showcase the president's record and their congressional candidates running in the midterms.
Gruters, in a statement to Fox News Digital, touted that the RNC's winter meeting "shows how completely united Republicans are behind President Trump and our efforts to win the midterms. The RNC has been aggressively focused on expanding our …

‘What Goes Around Comes Around’: Kavanaugh Raises Red Flag in Trump Fed Firing Case
This looks less like justice and more like strategy.

Conservative-leaning justices had tough questions for whether President Donald Trump can fire a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, in a Supreme Court case that could have a major impact on monetary policy and the economy.

Trump had attempted to oust Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook based on alleged misstatements she made on mortgage documents. Cook has denied any wrongdoing.

The question in Trump v. Cook is whether a president can fire a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, or whether the institution created in 1913 has independence from the executive branch.

At oral arguments in the case on Wednesday, Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked if the court should consider the severity of an accusation in determining whether a firing is justified.

“If she were accused of murder or something like that, if we’re talking about something that was really an infamous crime, should we take the nature of the crime into account?” Barrett asked.

Solicitor General John Sauer said the court should consider the “sweeping, powerful authority over the entire United States economy” that a Federal Reserve governor has to set interest rates. He said the court should also consider how the board member’s objectionable conduct looks to “ordinary Americans.”

“There’s the appearance of having played fast and loose, or at least been grossly negligent, in getting favorable interest rates for herself,” Sauer said.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, currently the subject of a criminal investigation by Trump’s Justice Department over allegations of misspending, was present in the chamber on Wednesday for oral arguments.

Members of the Federal Reserve board are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, but Trump’s ouster of Cook marked the first time a president removed a board member.

The Federal Reserve, which sets monetary policy, has a heightened role for perceived independence. It is also funded primarily by private financial institutions, and not Congress.

Cook contested her firing, saying a board member can only be removed “for cause” under the Federal Reserve Act, and that the act includes due process.

The administration argues the president has broad discretion to remove a member of the board of governors and contends the allegations of Cook’s mortgage misstatements meet the “for cause” standard.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh was concerned that a “law bar” for the firing would weaken, if not “shatter, the independence of the Federal Reserve.”

Sauer said the administration is not arguing that Fed board members can be fired without cause.

“In a sense, it’s a very high bar,” Sauer said. “It does protect them from the one thing that Congress was apparently most worried about, which is removal for policy disagreement.”

Kavanaugh replied that Cook’s firing could set a political precedent: “What goes around comes around.”

“A current president’s appointees would likely be removed for cause on Jan. 20, 2029, if there’s a Democratic president or January 20, 2033,” Kavanaugh said. “Once these tools are unleashed, they’re used by both sides.”

Sauer replied that “the president has always had this tool to remove …

It Might Surprise You, But Here’s How Harry Reid Helped End Roe
Are they actually going to vote on something real?

Roe v. Wade would have turned 53 years old on Jan. 22 had the Supreme Court not overturned the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

The Supreme Court justices, and the presidents who nominated them, deserve many thanks. But perhaps another unlikely figure deserves some thanks, too: the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for his decision to nuke the filibuster on certain presidential nominees.

Long before the Dobbs v. Jackson decision was handed down in 2022, Reid laid the groundwork through the changes he made to Senate rules. Reid opened Pandora’s box, and the pro-life movement took advantage of it.

Reid, who, like many other Democrats, became increasingly pro-choice over the course of his Senate career, supported nuking the filibuster on some presidential nominees in 2013.

Frustrated with impediments to confirming then-President Barack Obama’s nominees, Reid convinced enough of his fellow Democrats to invoke the nuclear option so that breaking a filibuster to confirm Cabinet officials and certain judicial nominees could be done by a simple majority, rather than the 60 votes typically required to end debate before the final confirmation vote.

It was a narrow vote of 48-52 in the Senate on Nov. 21, 2013, that sealed the fate of Roe almost a decade later.

No Republicans voted to nuke the filibuster that November day. They were joined by three Democrats—Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.

Following the vote, then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., issued his memorable reply: “I say to my friends on the other side of the aisle, you will regret this, and you may regret it a lot sooner than you think.”

McConnell’s prophetic words came to fruition. Less than four years later, President Donald Trump was in office for his first term and looking to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court left by the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

The Republican-controlled Senate blocked Obama from filling Scalia’s seat. Obama had nominated Merrick Garland—who would later become former President Joe Biden’s infamous attorney general—for the high court.

Neil Gorsuch was announced as the nominee on Jan. 31, 2017. On April 6, McConnell expanded Reid’s scrapping of the Senate filibuster to allow the nuclear option for Supreme Court nominees.

Gorsuch was confirmed by a vote of 54-46, with no Democratic support.

Still, more needed to happen before Dobbs.

Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett would be nominated and confirmed to the court after the retirement of former Justice Anthony Kennedy in 2018 and the death of late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020.

The justices nominated by Trump, and reviled and vilified by Democrats, would almost certainly not have gotten confirmed without the nuclear option.

On May 17, 2021, after numerous delays, the justices finally decided that they would hear the Dobbs case, centered around Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban.

On July 22, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch asked the justices to overturn Roe v. Wade, once thought unthinkable. Oral arguments were on Dec. 1.

While the decision wasn’t officially handed down until June 24, …

Virginia Democrats look to decimate GOP seats in redistricting effort
Trust is earned, not demanded.

Virginia Democrats are launching their last big campaign in the redistricting wars this week — but big questions loom about whether they can agree on how to maximize benefits to their party and whether they can convince voters to support their power grab.

On Wednesday, the Virginia Legislature kicks off its first session since Democrats won unified control of the commonwealth in last November’s elections. A persistent divide has emerged however, between Democrats who hope to draw an aggressive gerrymander that could deliver them 10 of the state’s 11 congressional seats — a four-seat grab for their side that would wipe out all but one GOP congressional district — and those who want to take a more subtle approach to offsetting GOP gerrymanders elsewhere.

“It will be a real debate. I mean, we want to get as much as we can, but we also want the referendum to pass,” Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) told POLITICO Tuesday afternoon, adding that an expected Supreme Court decision this year on the Voting Rights Act could ultimately give Republicans more seats.

“[Democrats] basically have voting rights act seats in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana,” he said. “They could all be gone, right? So that's a great concern. So it's essential in Virginia that we look at the fairness argument from a national perspective, not just the Commonwealth.”

Virginia’s current congressional delegation has six Democrats and five Republicans, so under the new maps Democrats would likely pick up three or four seats.

Democrats are worried that some of their members won’t be as eager to take on so much in such a truncated period of time. The party will need to be unified if they stand any chance of selling voters on the urgency of empowering legislators to draw new Congressional lines within a matter of weeks.

“I haven’t heard a lot of people talking about how much work it’s going to be to pass it,” said one Virginia Democrat granted anonymity to discuss internal party discussions. The person added that some in the party are underestimating the amount of time and political capital it will take to prop up a statewide campaign for what is expected to be a special election in April.

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee, the party’s group leading the charge on redistricting, confirmed to POLITICO it has presented two new maps to Virginia lawmakers. One remakes the map into a 9-2 configuration that only provides cover for districts held by Republican Reps. Ben Cline and Morgan Griffith from being eliminated. Another proposed map largely leaves intact Griffiths’ seat and, if approved, could deliver a 10-1 map, a development first reported by Punchbowl News.

John Bisognano, the NDRC president, argues that aggressive changes to the current Virginia …