A rather sad account of transgender life:

Am I a woman? I used to believe I was. I used to have stars in my eyes. My role model was the Bond girl (and self-described “Transsexual Supermodel”) Caroline Cossey. She was gorgeous and glamorous. If she could do it, couldn’t I? Me, a socially awkward boy who struggled to find brotherhood in the company of boys, who more easily made friends with girls. Why not?

I have a lot of sympathy for that struggling to find brotherhood in the company of boys. I had friends who were boys who struggled that way. It wasn’t that they “felt like girls,” as far as I remember, so much as it … Read the rest

This one however is brilliant.

Your campaign was so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. pic.twitter.com/cfAAkGLttH

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) June 22, 2020

… Read the rest

Trump’s niece really doesn’t like him.

“I think he’s freaking out,” said Michael D’Antonio, author of Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success. “He will treat her savagely.”

On Sunday, Axios reported that Trump insists Mary Trump is “not allowed” to write her book, because doing so would violate a non-disclosure agreement she signed.

Trump told Axios: “She’s not allowed to write a book. When we settled with her and her brother, who I do have a good relationship with – she’s got a brother, Fred, who I do have a good relationship with, but when we settled, she has a total … signed a nondisclosure.”

It’s interesting how he extorts NDAs from people. I guess he … Read the rest

So now Don is furious at Brad and so are Jared and Princess, but Brad is furious at the news media and the news media are…reporting the news.

The Tulsa fire department said 6,200 people attended. The Trump campaign claimed 12,000. The arena holds 19,000.

Who ya gonna believe, the fire department or the Trump campaign? Hahaha just kidding.

Trump’s demeanour on returning to Washington was widely scrutinised. He was initially quiet on Twitter on Sunday but the president was reported to be “furious” at the “underwhelming” event, which followed a week of controversy about whether it should even be held. According to NBC, Trump was “particularly angry that before he even left DC, aides made public that six

Oh that’s gotta hurt.

Four authors represented by JK Rowling’s literary agency have resigned after accusing the company of declining to issue a public statement of support for transgender rights.

Ouch. Four! Resigned! Will the agency even survive?

Fox Fisher, Drew Davies and Ugla Stefanía Kristjönudóttir Jónsdóttir said they could no longer work with the Blair Partnership, the London-based agency that represents all aspects of the Harry Potter author’s work, because they were not convinced the company “supports our rights at all avenues”. One other author is understood to have also quit the agency but wishes to remain anonymous.

Who?

In a joint statement, Fisher, Davies and Jónsdóttir said that following Rowling’s recent intervention on transgender rights, they had

Life in the USofA:

Right-wing extremists are turning cars into weapons, with reports of at least 50 vehicle-ramming incidents since protests against police violence erupted nationwide in late May.

At least 18 are categorized as deliberate attacks; another two dozen are unclear as to motivation or are still under investigation, according to a count released Friday by Ari Weil, a terrorism researcher at the University of Chicago’s Chicago Project on Security and Threats. Weil has tracked vehicle-ramming attacks, or VRAs, since protests began.

The 20 people facing prosecution in the rammings include a state leader of the Virginia Ku Klux Klan, as well as a California man who was charged with attempted murder after antagonizing protesters and

Remember that awful, sloppy, book-length post by Laurie Penny last week?

Inexplicably, the original commissioner didn't want her "giant" essay, so she was begging for another, paid, home. As duff, unreadable, woke diatribes against JKR have been run by every rag going, it must be a tad embarrassing not to have found one willing to take this nonsense. pic.twitter.com/fxqx874wbi

— forwomen.scot (@ForwomenScot) June 21, 2020

Lies. All lies. Laurie didn’t have a commission at all, but desperately wanted it on a platform that wasn’t her own blog. It’s continued bullying and harassment of a socialist feminist who has given millions away to important causes. Unlike Laurie who just promotes her own ego.

— Julie Bindel (@bindelj) June 21, 2020

… Read the rest

Oh. Well ok then.

"What you heard from the president was frustration," says @DHS_Wolf of Pres Trump's rally comment last night that he told aides to "slow the testing down" for Coronavirus. On @FaceTheNation, Wolf says Trump is frustrated by press focus on increasing numbers of Coronavirus cases.

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 21, 2020

Yes well you can see how that would be frustrating, having the press focus on a highly contagious virus that has killed 122,000 Americans in the past four months when it could be focusing on the awesomeness of

Wait a minute. He’s frustrated because the press is focusing on a lethal disease that is burning through the population when it should be focusing on … Read the rest

This is quite a good campaign video…until the end.

This is art. pic.twitter.com/ZPJxHu20TV

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) June 21, 2020

What’s at the end?

Har har. Let’s shit on women. Har har.… Read the rest

Careful, the thought police are watching.

These students would have fit right in Mao's China. pic.twitter.com/qvXGSj2tfH

— Asteroid (@AlessandraAster) June 21, 2020

… Read the rest

The bit where he says we have to test for the virus less, so that we won’t know how bad it is.

"Here's the bad part: When you do testing to that extent, you're gonna find more people, you're gonna find more cases. So I said to my people, 'slow the testing down please!'" — Trump pic.twitter.com/m5MOV9je70

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 21, 2020

The crowd cheers this murderous claim.

2.19 minutes on his Adventure Going Down the Ramp – and he’s only begun.

"The stage was higher than this one … I'm weather leather-bottom shoes … it was like an ice-skating rink" — Trump whines at length about the media pointing out the obvious and noting that he had

Richard Wolffe at the Guardian observes the humiliation.

…nothing truly comes close to the embarrassment of his so-called comeback rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday.

It was so toe-curlingly cringeworthy, such a crushing humiliation. There are 80s pop bands who have enjoyed greater comebacks than Donald Trump.

Ok the smaller than expected crowd was humiliating but at least the rally itself was good, right? Trump on top form? Feeding off the energy of the [smaller than expected] crowd?

Trump told the crowd at great length why he couldn’t possibly walk down a ramp unaided. He even re-enacted his walk down the deadly incline. He also treated them to a long excuse about why he couldn’t hold a glass

Look at this maniac.

"Don't you understand, you dumb son of a bitch" — I challenge you to try and make sense of this Trump rant pic.twitter.com/LJnS4W9oVn

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 21, 2020

What he really wants to be is a stand-up comic. He gets so high on his own performance…it makes my skin crawl.… Read the rest

The Tulsa tweets are interesting.

It's official: Trump's Tulsa rally is an embarrassing disaster.

1⃣ The outdoor event has been cancelled.
2⃣ The overflow accommodations are unneeded.
3⃣ TV shows a half-empty arena.
4⃣ Trump is late—and angry.
5⃣ 6 members of his team already got coronavirus because of all this. https://t.co/vXP6VvdaiT

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) June 20, 2020

WATCH: Due to lack of attendance, workers have begun to dismantle an outdoor stage that had been setup in an overflow area for a speech by President Trump near the arena in Tulsa tonight.

The president will speak soon in the arena. pic.twitter.com/SekDGR2f2Z

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 20, 2020

UPDATE: At his rally in Tulsa just now, President Trump referred to

Charming.

As you can see, that’s Facebook and it’s public, so I found it. This is the nice lady who wants to murder Rowling:… Read the rest

Barr is every bit as evil as anyone thought but not as fiendishly clever. Not so clever at all really.

President Donald Trump on Saturday denied involvement in firing Geoffrey Berman, the powerful prosecutor atop the Manhattan US Attorney’s office, shortly after Trump’s attorney general sent Berman a letter saying the President had done so.

Who, me? Nah I didn’t. Pass the burgers.

Attorney General William Barr told Berman, whose office has led prosecutions and investigations of Trump’s allies, that Trump had agreed to remove him after he refused Barr’s effort a day prior to oust him.

“Unfortunately, with your statement of last night, you have chosen public spectacle over public service,” Barr wrote in his letter to Berman.

Hahahahahahaha

This is what overflow looks like at the Trump rally in Tulsa right now. Pence is scheduled to speak out here in about 10 minutes. People still streaming in but not nearly the number the campaign said they were expecting. pic.twitter.com/hbypfviOxv

— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) June 20, 2020

The overflow where there is no overflow.

Sir sir where are all the people sir?… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug at the Miscellany Room.

People have always noticed that human beings have different innate physical traits. Furthermore, the distribution of these differences is not entirely random. Some of the most obvious (let’s call them “sex differences”) seem to cluster into two sets of traits that tend to go together far more often than expected by chance. One of these sets (let’s call it the set of “male” traits) is clearly more representative of fathers than mothers while the opposite is true of the second set (let’s call it the set of “female” traits). Roughly half the people on the planet have a strong preponderance of traits from the first set, and roughly the other … Read the rest

Apparently it’s a crime to attend Trump’s rally if you’re not a fan of Trump? Or if you’re wearing an “I can’t breathe” T-shirt?

This is Trump’s America: a woman with an “I can’t breathe” T-shirt was pulled from the line to Trump’s Tulsa event – which she said she had a ticket for- and arrested pic.twitter.com/aTB4nl8gcJ

— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) June 20, 2020

So…they arrested her because shirt?… Read the rest

How murderous is this Tulsa rally exactly?

Three items:

An indoor event. Instead of holding the event outdoors, it is being held indoors in a center that regularly crowds people together for concerts and sporting events.

No physical distancing. The president has touted that his campaign has already received more than one million requests for seats. And he has mentioned that only 22,000 people (or even up to 40,000 if he can get the adjacent convention hall) will be allowed to attend. Someone needs to check that math because 22,000 — already 2,800 people above capacity — signifies there will be no physical distancing in place.

No masks. Trump has also reported that those attending the rally will