… Read the restThe devastating fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris led to an immediate outpouring of donations and an ambitious pledge by the French president to rebuild within five years. But a continent away, the blaze also spurred more than $1.8 million in donations to rebuild three historically black churches burned in suspected hate crimes in Louisiana.
The fires at the three churches in St. Landry Parish occurred over 10 days beginning at the end of March. Authorities said they were deliberately set and have arrested a suspect.
As of [last] Sunday, a GoFundMe campaign seeking donations for the churches had raised only about $50,000. By Thursday morning, donations had soared to more than $1.8
Rebuilding
Apr 21st, 2019 12:23 pm | By Ophelia BensonIgnore the man behind the curtain
Apr 21st, 2019 11:59 am | By Ophelia BensonMorgane Oger continues to assert that it’s feminist women’s fault that Jessica (formerly Jonathan) Yaniv predated on young girls.
Amy hamm incites hatred against trans women because of who we are. Maybe she didn't get the memo, so I'll say it more explicitly: She and @FeministCurrent enabled Yaniv, creating social cover by inciting repulsive hatred instead of researching the facts and reporting. #DoYourJob https://t.co/orpUBQrLve
— Morgane Oger M.S.M. (@MorganeOgerBC) April 20, 2019
The reason Yaniv had cover was the methods used by TERFs
— Morgane Oger M.S.M. (@MorganeOgerBC) April 21, 2019
… Read the restTwo Feminist Current authors have been banned from Twitter over their anti-transgender campaigns.
There is no place on social media for supremacists.
— Morgane Oger M.S.M. (@MorganeOgerBC) April 21,
Never happier
Apr 21st, 2019 11:19 am | By Ophelia BensonTrump today.
Happy Easter! I have never been happier or more content because your Country is doing so well, with an Economy that is the talk of the World and may be stronger than it has ever been before. Have a great day!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2019
Never happier or more content? Really? Then why all the tantruming?
Friday it was one tantrum after another.
… Read the restPresident Donald Trump lashed out Friday at current and former aides who cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, insisting the deeply unflattering picture they painted of him and the White House was “total bullshit.”
In a series of angry tweets from rainy Palm Beach, Florida, Trump laced into those
Always deflect
Apr 20th, 2019 4:56 pm | By Ophelia BensonI remain fascinated by Sarah Sanders’s intransigence. There is something morbidly fascinating, at least to me, in that kind of determination to continue being evil and never relent.
After admitting to investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, that she delivered a false statement from the White House podium, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, defended herself in Trumpian fashion on Friday morning. She counterattacked.
It’s like Morgane Oger, blaming Meghan Murphy and other feminists for the predatory acts of Jonathan Yaniv. “I’m not the shameless liar, you’re the shameless liar!”
… Read the restAsked on “Good Morning America” if the report had damaged her credibility, Ms. Sanders responded that she had made the statement in the
Skies
Apr 20th, 2019 4:19 pm | By Ophelia BensonSeattle on a bright spring afternoon.
https://twitter.com/NWSSeattle/status/1119706794840948736… Read the rest
Oger drops a dime on Yaniv
Apr 20th, 2019 10:45 am | By Ophelia BensonJust a month ago, when the Vancouver City Council voted to withdraw future funding from Vancouver Rape Relief, Morgane Oger was one of those leading the charge.
… Read the restThe defunding is the latest flashpoint in an ongoing struggle between transgender activists and feminist organizations who maintain that female-born and male-born women should remain distinct groups.
One of the figures leading the defunding charge against Vancouver Rape Relief was Morgane Oger, a longstanding transgender advocate and vice president of the B.C. NDP.
In comments before a March 13 city committee meeting, Oger called Vancouver Rape Relief “noncompliant with Canadian law” and guilty of “systematic, consistent misbehaviour.” She also said that it is the last B.C. women’s shelter to continue denying
A fraction of the wit and insight
Apr 20th, 2019 9:30 am | By Ophelia BensonThe event was billed as “the debate of the century”, “The Rumble in the Realm of the Mind”, and it did have the feel of a heavyweight boxing match: Jordan Peterson, local boy, against the slapdash Slovenian Slavoj Žižek, considering “Happiness: Capitalism vs Marxism” in Toronto.
In other words the event was hyped, so as to bring in more gullible punters and thus more cash. Woopeedoo.
… Read the restThe great surprise of this debate turned out to be how much in common the old-school Marxist and the Canadian identity politics refusenik had.
One hated communism. The other hated communism but thought that capitalism possessed inherent contradictions. The first one agreed that capitalism possessed inherent contradictions. And that
Lying³
Apr 20th, 2019 9:04 am | By Ophelia Benson"She lied about her lie to people who knew she was lying." https://t.co/hCEzAi57OE
— David Frum (@davidfrum) April 20, 2019
“She lied about her lie to people who knew she was lying. That, truly, is pathological lying.”
Among you taking notes
Apr 19th, 2019 5:06 pm | By Ophelia BensonTrump is tantruming because people took notes and the notes make him look bad and it’s all just so unfair.
… Read the restBut the fact that some of those notes became primary source material for Mueller to paint a vivid portrait of Trump’s efforts to derail the investigation angered the president, who was stewing over the media coverage as he decamped to Florida for the holiday weekend, according to people familiar with his thinking.
“Statements are made about me by certain people in the Crazy Mueller Report, in itself written by 18 Angry Democrat Trump Haters, which are fabricated & totally untrue,” the president tweeted Friday morning from his Mar-a-Lago Club. “Watch out for people that take so-called ‘notes,’ when the
As long as pimps, priests, and politicians know what a female body is
Apr 19th, 2019 4:25 pm | By Ophelia BensonJonah Mix has an absolute stemwinder of a piece on the hot fashion of guys lolling around on Twitter explaining how complicated biology is. I stashed a couple of sentences to remember and then I gave up because it was all that good.
It’s so easy to get sucked into this debate, to get that hot indignation in your stomach that comes when a foolish claim is so proudly asserted. And I don’t even have skin in the game — binary or not, my sex will still land me squarely in the “paid more, raped less” category.
That’s the first one I stashed, that second sentence.
The point is, debating “what is a woman, really?” is a luxury, given … Read the rest
Fire Sarah Sanders is trending
Apr 19th, 2019 12:23 pm | By Ophelia BensonGood grief. She’s still at it. She announces in this that Comey is “a dirty cop.” I despise the way Comey handled the emails issue, but needless to say that’s not what Sanders is talking about.
Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation notes several instances where Pres. Trump pressured his top aides to lie or mislead. One day after the president fired FBI Director James Comey, @PressSec told reporters Comey no longer had the confidence of Trump and other people. pic.twitter.com/8EiLL2Dn5E
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) April 19, 2019
I suppose I shouldn’t bother being surprised. Stephanopoulos explained it this morning: she was under oath when she admitted lying to Mueller’s people (admitted to Mueller’s people that she lied); she’s not … Read the rest
Shameless
Apr 19th, 2019 9:08 am | By Ophelia BensonNow that takes gall.
Pressed repeatedly on her comments on FBI agents, Sarah Sanders tells @GStephanopoulos, "It was the heat of the moment, meaning that it wasn't a scripted talking point. I'm sorry that I wasn't a robot like the Democratic Party" was about Mueller probe. https://t.co/mOQZNKl1wy pic.twitter.com/y3xcNwVYHg
— ABC News (@ABC) April 19, 2019
Ain’t no mountain high enough
Apr 19th, 2019 7:49 am | By Ophelia BensonWhat do we mean by “above the law”?
I’m reading an Atlantic piece on the Mueller report as impeachment referral, and I stop at this paragraph:
… Read the restBut there is another, simpler way to understand Mueller’s report. A footnote spells out that a criminal investigation could ultimately result in charges being brought either after a president has been removed from office by the process of impeachment or after he has left office. Mueller explicitly rejected the argument of Trump’s lawyers that a president could not be guilty of obstruction of justice for the conduct in question: “The protection of the criminal justice system from corrupt acts by any person—including the President—accords with the fundamental principle of our government that ‘[n]o
A lot of great lawyers
Apr 19th, 2019 7:33 am | By Ophelia BensonInformational interlude: tell us more about Trump’s favorite lawyer, Roy Cohn:
Roy Cohn, who served as chief counsel to disgraced Senator Joseph McCarthy, was disbarred in 1986 by a five-judge panel in New York for misappropriating client funds, compelling a client to change his will (and name him a beneficiary), and lying on his bar application. pic.twitter.com/u0Cna9ssBe
— Joshua Zeitz (@JoshuaMZeitz) April 19, 2019
List of symptoms
Apr 19th, 2019 6:56 am | By Ophelia BensonA slide from a talk at a recent European Professional Association for Transgender Health conference in Rome:
Notice anything?
It’s…everything. It’s a long list of feelings and behaviors that most people experience or perform at least occasionally (diagnosed conditions apart). Feeling lonely, feeling guilty, feeling of not fitting in – all could be gender dysphoria! Or, could be normal ups and downs of life. It’s like saying having two feet could be a sign of gender dysphoria.
This is not about helping people who feel acute discomfort with their gender or their sex, it’s about recruiting more people into a Movement. It’s about promoting and encouraging and bigging up a fashion. It’s a branch of advertising – got … Read the rest
Infused by a culture of dishonesty
Apr 19th, 2019 6:18 am | By Ophelia BensonThe report paints an ugly picture.
… Read the restThe White House that emerges from more than 400 pages of Mr. Mueller’s report is a hotbed of conflict infused by a culture of dishonesty — defined by a president who lies to the public and his own staff, then tries to get his aides to lie for him. Mr. Trump repeatedly threatened to fire lieutenants who did not carry out his wishes while they repeatedly threatened to resign rather than cross lines of propriety or law.
At one juncture after another, Mr. Trump made his troubles worse, giving in to anger and grievance and lashing out in ways that turned advisers into witnesses against him. He was saved from an accusation of
Trump says it’s total bullshit
Apr 19th, 2019 5:36 am | By Ophelia BensonTrump right now.
Statements are made about me by certain people in the Crazy Mueller Report, in itself written by 18 Angry Democrat Trump Haters, which are fabricated & totally untrue. Watch out for people that take so-called “notes,” when the notes never existed until needed. Because I never….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 19, 2019
…agreed to testify, it was not necessary for me to respond to statements made in the “Report” about me, some of which are total bullshit & only given to make the other person look good (or me to look bad). This was an Illegally Started Hoax that never should have happened, a…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 19, 2019
That second one … Read the rest
Sanders should resign immediately
Apr 18th, 2019 3:30 pm | By Ophelia BensonSarah Sanders has not come out of this looking good.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told the special counsel that she did not actually hear from "countless members of the FBI" praising Trump's decision to fire James Comey.
And she made up her statement about the FBI losing confidence in Comey "in the heat of the moment." pic.twitter.com/3tXLH2efw6
— Brad Heath (@bradheath) April 18, 2019
Mueller report says Sarah Sanders acknowledged to investigators her claim that countless FBI agents lost confidence in Comey was "not founded on anything." & Trump told Comey in late January people liked him and there's no evidence suggesting he heard otherwise before firing him. pic.twitter.com/Al05Wm28Ck
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) April 18, 2019
In other words … Read the rest
One trans man’s pioneering quest
Apr 18th, 2019 3:16 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe Guardian is excited about a new movie.
Watch the trailer for Seahorse, a new feature-length documentary produced in association with the Guardian, about one trans man’s pioneering quest to start his own family. This is the story of the dad who gave birth.
Freddy is 30 and yearns to start a family but for him this ordinary desire comes with unique challenges. He is a gay transgender man. Deciding to carry his own baby took years of soul searching, but nothing could prepare him for the reality of pregnancy, as both a physical experience and one that challenges society’s fundamental understanding of gender, parenthood and family.
In other words, a woman had a baby. Stop the presses!… Read the rest
Guest post: Can the Internet Tell Me How I am Supposed to Think About the Bad Shit in the World?
Apr 18th, 2019 2:44 pm | By Ophelia BensonGuest post by Claire Ramsey.
I have not been able to reconcile the competing ideas, feelings, and pieces of knowledge in my mind since the fire at Notre Dame in Paris was in the news.
In 2012 an act of white terrorism drove me to engage in anti-racism learning and action, when Trayvon Martin was murdered in cold blood by a domestic terrorist merely because he was Black. I could not go on living with the hatred and violence generated by white supremacy. Studying, reading, and learning have all offered compelling evidence that white people in the US, and particularly white women, are the only ones who can dismantle racism. We need to listen to Black voices, we need … Read the rest