For some reason the US has something called “the national motto.” Since when does a country need a “national motto”? What else does it need? A national joke, a national friendship ring, a national slogan, a national pet, a national keychain, a national ring tone? Why do we need laws imposing such things? You may think “oh it’s not an actual law, it’s just some custom-type item” but you’d be wrong, there’s an actual law.

Wikipedia:

The modern motto of the United States of America, as established in a 1956 law signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, is “In God we trust“.

That is so stupid. We don’t need a “national motto” and … Read the rest

Lucy Bannerman at the Times:

Jacob has just turned 16 and for the past four years the teenager’s body has been put on pause. He has been on hormone blockers to stop puberty while he decides how far he is willing to go to become a transgender man.

He claims that taking blockers was “the worst decision I’ve ever made”.

Jacob was born a girl but felt unhappy with his gender. “I always felt so weak and pathetic and inferior to the men.” He started using the male pronoun and imagined himself growing up and “dating a woman”.

It’s not as if that feeling is entirely unknown to girls in general. There are different degrees of it, but few … Read the rest

Sweden is not impressed by Trump’s attempt to tell them what to do in the matter of a US citizen accused of assault in Stockholm.

“The rule of the law applies to everyone equally and is exercised by an independent judiciary,” tweeted former prime minister Carl Bildt. “That’s the way it is in the US, and that’s certainly the way it is in Sweden. Political interference in the process is distinctly off limits. Clear?”

Clear to everyone except Donnie Two Scoops. He thinks he’s the emperor of the world.

Trump said on Thursday he was very disappointed in Stefan Löfven for being unable to act. He said “Sweden has let our African American community down in the United States.

…What took place was completely unacceptable, and will not be tolerated. Bill de Blasio should act immediately!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2019

A mere three hours later –

Very disappointed in Prime Minister Stefan Löfven for being unable to act. Sweden has let our African American Community down in the United States. I watched the tapes of A$AP Rocky, and he was being followed and harassed by troublemakers. Treat Americans fairly! #FreeRocky

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2019

Give A$AP Rocky his FREEDOM. We do so much for Sweden but it doesn’t seem to work the other way around. Sweden should focus on its real crime problem! #FreeRocky

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25,

Always seeking to do the worst thing.

The U.S. government is poised to carry out the death penalty for the first time in nearly two decades, the Justice Department announced Thursday.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr has instructed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to change the federal execution protocol to include capital punishment, the Justice Department said.

Barr also asked the prisons bureau to schedule the executions of five inmates who have been found guilty of murder. According to the DOJ, the victims in each case included children and the elderly. In some of the cases, the convicted murderers also tortured and raped their victims.

“The Justice Department upholds the rule of law — and we owe it to

No election security for you! Next question?

Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi on Wednesday blocked the advancement of a trio of bills aimed at strengthening election security just hours after former special counsel Robert Mueller warned of the continued threat that foreign powers interfering in US elections.

…

Two of those bills would require campaigns to report to federal authorities any attempts by foreign entities to interfere in US elections, and the third is aimed at protecting from hackers the personal accounts and devices of senators and some staffers.

So the Republicans want foreign entities to interfere in US elections. That’s interesting.

Hyde-Smith’s move is in line with past action from Republicans in the Senate. McConnell is refusing

From Hindustan Times:

At a time when the Central government has been aggressively promoting its ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ scheme, sex ratio at birth data from 132 villages in Uttarkashi district reveal that no girl child was born in these areas in the last three months.

According to official data, 216 children were born in 132 villages of the district in the last three months. However, not a single girl was among the newborns which has left the district administration baffled.

Well not really “baffled.” Frustrated maybe, but not baffled.

Speaking to ANI, social worker Kalpana Thakur alleged that zero girl child birth clearly indicated the prevalence of female foeticide. “No girl child was born for three months in

From the Guardian’s live coverage:

Representative Mike Quigley, a Democrat of Illinois, documented the many instances of Trump applauding the website after it leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 campaign.

Note that “Democratic National Committee.” You hardly ever see the UK press say “Democratic” in its reporting. I guess they can’t very well call it the Democrat National Committee since it’s an organization and that’s not its name, but when it’s simply a descriptor they adopt the deliberately obnoxious Republican usage: Schiff is a Democrat member of Congress, Warren is a Democrat candidate, and so on. It’s a solecism and it’s rude but they do it anyway. I don’t understand why.

That’s an aside though. … Read the rest

Okaaay so that’s noteworthy.

WATCH: Mueller on Russian interference in the 2016 election:

“It wasn’t a single attempt. They’re doing it as we sit here. And they expect to do it during the next campaign.”https://t.co/m9KGQtGMJ7 pic.twitter.com/s1Aa1nyLsU

— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 24, 2019

And it could work! Again! We could be stuck with this malevolent ignorant sack of shit for another four years thanks to Putin!… Read the rest

The degradation continues:

Republicans seeking to run cover for Donald Trump are using Robert Mueller’s refusal to stray from his report as a weapon to bludgeon his credibility. The president’s allies on the House Judiciary Committee used their allotted time during Wednesday’s hearing to float wild conspiracy theories about his integrity and the Russia probe, suggesting that Mueller is biased against Trump and that his investigation was corrupt. Mueller, his hands tied by his wish not to appear politically-motivated, largely declined to fight back.

Representatives Jim Jordan, Louie Gohmert, and Matt Gaetz are among the Republicans who used Mueller’s reticence to their advantage. Jordan, sporting his signature shirtsleeves, pressed the former special counsel on a conspiracy theory about the

The Guardian has more on the murder of Yelena Grigoryeva:

Russian campaigners have said that a woman found murdered with multiple stab wounds in the city of Saint Petersburg was a well-known activist who had received threats over her protests for LGBT rights and opposition causes.

Authorities said they had found the body of a 41-year-old woman with multiple knife wounds in St Petersburg on Sunday, but did not identify her.

Activists and media reports in the city named the victim as local campaigner Yelena Grigoryeva, who was a regular participant in rallies supporting a range of unpopular causes in modern Russia, including LGBT rights and freedom for Ukrainian political prisoners.

In Putin’s Russia, activists for unpopular causes get … Read the rest

Ah, Pink News.

Critics say that Newsnight presented being transgender as something that children should be encouraged out of. https://t.co/4ElI96Wi2o

— PinkNews (@PinkNews) July 23, 2019

Shock horror!

Wait. Is it? Is it bad to present being transgender as something that children should be encouraged out of? At least when the issue is “being transgender” in the sense of getting medical interventions,  hormone blockers or surgery or both? Should children be encouraged to make irreversible changes to their bodies on the grounds that they “feel” like the other sex? Should children be encouraged to do that in this climate in which “being transgender” has become a craze like sitting on flag poles or accusing daycare workers of Satanic ritual abuse?… Read the rest

What happens when you put a target on people:

A Russian LGBTQ activist, Yelena Grigoryeva, was fatally stabbed in St. Petersburg Sunday night after her name was listed on a website that encourages people to “hunt” LGBTQ activists, inspired by the torture-themed film “Saw.”

Reports in the Russian newspaper Fontanka said that a suspect, a “40-year-old resident of Bashkortostan,” had been detained by police.

Grigoryeva, 41, was active with Russia’s Alliance of Heterosexuals and LGBT for Equality and other activist causes, according to the Russian LGBT Network.

According to friends’ and colleagues’ online posts, Grigoryeva was worried about her safety after she found her name and personal information listed on the snuff site.

“I learned today that Lena asked

Oddly enough, Afghanistan has not reacted with pleasure to Donald Trump’s brainless exclamations that he could wipe the country off the map.

Afghanistan has demanded the United States clarify remarks made by President Donald Trump, who said the country “would be wiped off the face of the Earth” if he wanted to win the war in Afghanistan.

“The Afghan nation has not and will never allow any foreign power to determine its fate,” Sediq Sediqqi, the spokesman for the President of Afghanistan, said in a statement. “Given the multifaceted relationship between Afghanistan and the United States, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan calls for clarification on the US President’s statements.”

Trump on Monday had suggested that he could

This just in: Vancouver’s Pride Society has told the Vancouver Public Library it can’t participate in the Pride Parade.

The Pride Society says the Vancouver Public Library is no longer permitted to take part because it allowed “transphobic and anti-sex worker” speaker, Meghan Murphy, to book space for an event in January.

Meghan is not “transphobic” and she is not “anti-sex worker” unless you restrict the meaning of “sex-worker” to pimps.

“VPS asserts that the conduct reflected both at this event, and in past public comments by these speakers, are discriminatory in a way that violates the British Columbia Human Rights Code,” the society says in a statement.

It can assert all it likes, but that doesn’t make it … Read the rest

The Trump administration wants to make more poor people starve.

The Trump administration wants to change the way states determine who qualifies for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits, also known as food stamps. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 3 million people would lose their food assistance as a result.

The administration says it wants to close what it calls a “loophole” that allows states to give benefits to those would not otherwise be eligible by raising or eliminating income and asset limits. Forty states and the Washington, D.C., now take advantage of this option, and have done so for many years.

“This proposal will not only save money, but more importantly it preserves the integrity