Grim:

Canada is warming on average at a rate twice as fast as the rest of the world, a new scientific report indicates.

The federal government climate report also warns that changes are already evident in many parts of the country and are projected to intensify.

Canada’s Arctic has seen the deepest impact and will continue to warm at more than double the global rate.

The report suggests that many of the effects already seen are probably irreversible.

…

Hotter temperatures could mean more heat waves and a higher risk of wildfires and droughts in some parts of the country.

Oceans are expected to become more acidic and less oxygenated, which could harm marine life.

Parts of Canada’s Arctic

Trump’s America:

An employee at a South San Jose, Calif., gas station was fired after ranting against a customer who was speaking Spanish in the store and demanding the customer prove she was a U.S. citizen.

According to ABC 7, San Jose resident Grecya Moran was speaking Spanish with an employee who, she said, had greeted her initially in Spanish. The two carried on a conversation in Spanish until another employee demanded that the two speak English, the outlet reported Tuesday.

In the video, Moran can be heard telling the employee, who is white, that she is allowed to speak Spanish before the employee asks for proof that Moran is a U.S. citizen.

It’s not the job … Read the rest

Meanwhile Trump is spraying racist venom at Puerto Rico and Carmen Yulín Cruz.

Trump, who has reportedly said in private that he doesn’t want “another single dollar” going to Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria, again complained about funding for the island and called San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, a frequent critic, “crazed and incompetent.”

“The Democrats today killed a Bill that would have provided great relief to Farmers and yet more money to Puerto Rico despite the fact that Puerto Rico has already been scheduled to receive more hurricane relief funding than any ‘place’ in history,” Trump tweeted around 11 p.m.

What’s with “place”? What are we supposed to think? That places are only for … Read the rest

The Trump administration has decided it wants less information about domestic terrorism, because hey, who needs to know anything about a trivial thing like that?

Pittsburgh, Charleston, Santa Barbara – no big deal, right?

The Department of Homeland Security has disbanded a group of intelligence analysts who focused on domestic terrorism, The Daily Beast has learned. Numerous current and former DHS officials say they find the development concerning, as the threat of homegrown terrorism—including white supremacist terrorism—is growing.

In the wake of this move, officials said the number of analytic reports produced by DHS about domestic terrorism, including the threat from white supremacists, has dropped significantly. People in and close to the department said this has generated significant concern

Rachel ratchets.

Check it out!! I opened up a listing on @teespring teespring_shop for my #sportisahumanright gear!!

Help show your support for trans and gender non-conforming athletes' right to compete,… https://t.co/rjDxgtFGLL

— Dr. Rachel McKinnon (@rachelvmckinnon) April 1, 2019

Again: nobody says trans people shouldn’t compete or denies their right to compete. The issue is people with male bodies competing against women. Funny how McKinnon consistently avoids mentioning that in these slogans and T shirt logos.

So what is the merch like?

Whatcha think?#ThrowBricksAtTransphobia" stickers, t-shirts, hoodies, etc etc? pic.twitter.com/U1y8s3fo2Q

— Dr. Rachel McKinnon (@rachelvmckinnon) April 2, 2019

There’s a second one, I guess for emphasis.

And once again, I said *transphobia* not *transphobes*

— Dr. Rachel

Via quixote in a comment, Alessandra Asteriti on the very material reasons women need legal protections:

Selective abortions and female infanticide. There are an estimated 126 million missing women in the world (United Nations Population Fund). Trans women do not suffer this form of discrimination. (2/n)

— Alessandra Asteriti (@AlessandraAster) March 29, 2019

'Child Brides'. There are an estimated 650 million women who married when they were children (Girls Not Brides). Trans women do not suffer this form of discrimination. (4/n)

— Alessandra Asteriti (@AlessandraAster) March 29, 2019

Pregnancy discrimination. 11% of women are dismissed from work and 20% are harassed because of pregnancy status (Equality and Human Rights Commission). UK is one of the 'good countries'. Trans women

Originally a comment by iknklast on Thanks I guess?

If there is no right way to be a woman – or to be a man – then how in the world can anyone know that they “feel like a woman”? That is the main question we are asking. We are not the ones assuming there is a “right” way to be something, and therefore the idea that one who doesn’t “feel” right needs to be the other…CAN THEY NOT EVEN SEE THE ILLOGIC? (sorry, I know the answer to that).

Who counts as a woman black? Is there some set of core experiences distinctive of womanhood blackness, some shared set of adventures and exploits that every woman black person will

Soooo this is horrifying:

A whistle-blower working inside the White House has told a House committee that senior Trump administration officials granted security clearances to at least 25 individuals whose applications had been denied by career employees, the committee’s Democratic staff said Monday.

The whistle-blower, Tricia Newbold, a manager in the White House’s Personnel Security Office, told the House Oversight and Reform Committee in a private interview last month that the 25 individuals included two current senior White House officials, in addition to contractors and other employees working for the office of the president, the staff said in a memo it released publicly.

…

Ms. Newbold told the committee’s staff members that the clearance applications had been denied

If you look at it as a test of faith / proud defiance of reason in favor of faith, it all fits.

Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Trans rights are human rights. This is not up for debate. #TransDayOfVisibility pic.twitter.com/CaYu0iprpt

— National NOW (@NationalNOW) March 31, 2019

That claim doesn't pass any epistemic test. The only other claims that fail every epistemic test but which institutions of power enforce anyway are religious: the exitence of gods & our duty of obediece to them. Do these sorts of new non-debatable claims fill in a secular gap?

— MarinaS (@marstrina) April 1, 2019

In a world where saying "I believe God can be Three and One, simultaneously & without

A day late for #transdayofvisibility, here's some TERF-bashing I just published in the @nytimes. https://t.co/RRIENvwr9E

— Carol Hay (@DrCarolHay) April 1, 2019

Oh. Ok. Always fun to read more about bashing feminist women.

Who counts as a woman? Is there some set of core experiences distinctive of womanhood, some shared set of adventures and exploits that every woman will encounter on her journey from diapers to the grave?

That’s the wrong question. It’s a leading question, set up to bash “TERFs” for claims they don’t make. The point isn’t about adventures and exploits, and it isn’t about who “counts” as a woman – it’s not a contest or an exam, it’s just a brute material fact.

It’s … Read the rest

Isn’t there some norm about how appropriation is a bad thing? I could have sworn there was.

Designed this poster yesterday to help Our Community Bikes in #Vancouver celebrate #TransDayOfVisibility . pic.twitter.com/8WnzL54YMQ

— ⚡Ultrans Instinct Bria⚡ (@LifeofBria) March 31, 2019

… Read the rest