Grame Wood at the Atlantic tries to figure out That Photo from El Paso – the one in which Trump is grinning and thumbs-upping.

First there are the smiles, so chipper in the aftermath of mass murder. For some reason, this Trump smile calls to mind the one in his famous tweeted portrait in which he’s eating a taco bowl (“I love Hispanics!”) served by Trump Tower Grill. Then there is the thumbs-up, also present to signal approval of the taco bowl, and in this case to signal approval of what, exactly? The narrow survival of the infant? The heroism of the hospital staff and first responders who cared for the wounded? Somehow neither of these possibilities seems quite right,

Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star Tribune… Read the rest

Two years ago Taylor Dumpson was elected student government president of American University –

the first black woman president in the school’s history. The day she took office, several bananas with racist messages were found hanging from nooses.

The nooses drew headlines, which got the attention of white supremacist Andrew Anglin, the founder and publisher of the neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer.

Four days after the bananas were found on the American University campus, Anglin encouraged his followers to troll Dumpson in a Daily Stormer post.

Alongside her picture, Anglin posted links to Dumpson’s personal Facebook page and the AU student government Twitter account, encouraging his readers to “let her know you fully support her fight against bananas.”

So they … Read the rest

Lindsay Shepherd tweeted a video clip of Jonathan “Jessica” Yaniv in the act of planning a new way to harass minority women in service jobs.

What Yaniv says in the clip:

I was just at the Pacific Center, Mall, and I went to New York Fries, and this is going to be on my next human rights complaint, but I asked for some fries, and they literally said
“Not for you, sir, you’re, uh, you’re trans gender” – they put it like that.

Notice the stumble at “you’re” – is that a tell that he’s making it up? Did he stumble because he forgot what he’d planned to make “them” say?

Shepherd’s commentary:

I just called the manager of New

Maaaaybe we can begin to see the problem now?

No, of course not, that’s just silly.

Guy walks into a Walmart carrying an assault rifle and wearing body armor. April Fool! In August! 6 days after another guy murdered 20 people in a Walmart with an assault rifle while in body armor. It was a test. That’s all, just a test. What’s everybody so riled up about? He was testing Walmart’s loyalty to the sacred right to carry assault rifles everywhere.

“I wanted to know if that Walmart honoured the second amendment,” the 20-year-old told police after his arrest.

Prosecutors have charged him with making a terrorist threat.

If found guilty, the charge could result in a four-year prison sentence

CNN reported yesterday:

The Environmental Protection Agency told staff scientists that it was no longer opposing a controversial Alaska mining project that could devastate one of the world’s most valuable wild salmon fisheries just one day after President Trump met with Alaska’s governor, CNN has learned.

It’s not really “could,” from what I’ve been reading. It’s will. It’s there is no way it won’t.

The EPA publicly announced the reversal July 30, but EPA staff sources tell CNN that they were informed of the decision a month earlier, during a hastily arranged video conference after Trump’s meeting with Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The governor, a supporter of the project, emerged from that meeting saying the president assured him that

So there won’t be testimony from Jeffrey Epstein. He hanged himself again, and this time he succeeded.

Following news of his death, his alleged victims condemned his suicide and what they described as a lack of justice for them and other accusers.

“I am extremely mad and hurt thinking he once again thought he was above us and took the easy way out … I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that’s really true,” Jena-Lisa Jones, 30, an alleged victim of Epstein when she was 14 in Florida, said in a statement. “God will have his judgement now.”

Jennifer Araoz, 32, who claimed that Epstein raped her when she was 14, called on authorities to “pursue and

There’s a feeling that maybe maybe maybe just possibly when you go to visit people injured in a mass shooting you shouldn’t pose for photos grinning broadly and making “yeeeha!” gestures. Maybe.

A backlash is building over a picture posted by Melania Trump on Twitter that showed her and Donald Trump smiling broadly while holding a baby who was orphaned in the mass shooting in El Paso.

On a visit to El Paso this week, the president flashed a thumbs-up when posing with the two-month-old, whose parents Andre and Jordan Anchondo were shot dead last Saturday. When the picture was posted on the first lady’s Twitter account on Thursday, it prompted outrage.

What, because it was crass and tasteless … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Bruce Gorton on “Cis lesbians…aren’t always into that”.

I have never encountered a CIS woman who thought she was entitled to sex. I have never read an article by a CIS woman who thought that having a vagina meant that lesbians should be attracted to her, nor have I seen any articles by women claiming that having a vagina means that men should automatically find her attractive.

You know who does think that there is some magical formula which obliges women to have to have sex with them? Douchebags.

Common, garden variety and very male douchebags, who women can’t leave alone with their drink.

It doesn’t matter why someone doesn’t want to date you, it … Read the rest

About those ICE raids on Wednesday…

US immigration officials say they have temporarily released about 300 people who were arrested in a massive raid in Mississippi on Wednesday.

Democrats and rights groups have condemned the arrests as “cruel”.

Nearly 700 workers from seven agricultural processing plants were arrested for allegedly not having proper documentation to be in the US.

Pictures emerged of children crying after being separated from their parents.

The thing about illegal immigration is…it’s not the kind of crime that is powered by greed or malice or aggression…the kind of crime that Trump, for one, commits regularly and without turning a gilded hair. It’s not a real “crime” (as we generally use the word) despite the illegality.… Read the rest

Another sport buckles to the pressure.

Cricket Australia entered the fraught debate about gender identity and sport yesterday, releasing­ separate policies for the inclusion of transgender players in elite and community cricket.

The policy for elite cricket, consistent with the approach taken by the International Cricket Council, requires transgender players to keep their testosterone levels below a prescribed concentration for a 12-month period, sign a statutory declaration committing to their gender identity and to have their cases assessed by an expert panel.

The policy provides a pathway for a transgender woman to one day represent Australia in an Ashes series or World Cup.

That is, the policy provides a pathway for a man who identifies as a woman to … Read the rest

During his visit to El Paso Trump babbled to people in a hospital about…

…

…his crowd size.

And the visit is now a campaign ad featuring grinning Trump and his nightmare thumb.

… Read the rest

Not just any old logic but exciting new trans logic.

Particularly stupid is the “What? Like, they won’t date you just because you’re trans?”

No, fool. Not “just because you’re trans”; because you’re male, with a male body. “Cis lesbians” i.e. lesbians “aren’t always into that” because lesbians are into women, with female bodies. Bullying lesbians for being attracted to women is just plain old homophobia.

If Aisha wants to “date” how about Aisha dates other “trans lesbians”?

Also Pheobe’s final panel is rich. “To turn around and hate trans girls just for being trans, and for loving who they love?” Not wanting to “date” i.e. have sex with male bodies is not hatred. It’s a sexual orientation, which … Read the rest

Interesting. William Barr thinks two old movies that glorify vigilante “justice” aka revenge are emblematic of the human desire for justice.

“I believe a sense of justice is hardwired into human beings,” Barr recalled during an interview with Crime Story podcast host Kary Antholis. “Don’t ask me why, but it is there and it’s satisfying to see justice done.”

Why not ask him why? You’d expect lawyers to be interested, and it’s not a particularly arcane subject. There’s been research into a sense of fairness in chimpanzees, for instance, and I’m sure that’s just one item of many.

But hey, why read up on such things when there are crappy old movies to watch.

Barr elaborated on his theory of