Hmmm. What are we saying here?

I think we have to have a serious discussion about what's more important – your right to feel comfortable, or your right to be safe. These rules are supposed to ensure EVERYONE is safe, not just you. Trans women are not safe in male changing rooms.

— Jacob (@wellhat) July 2, 2019

Trans women are not safe in male changing rooms, so women and girls have to share changing rooms with them.

But women and girls are not safe in male changing rooms either, so why do they have to make their changing rooms less safe for them in order to make them more safe for trans women? Why does the obligation always … Read the rest

Trump is putting on the full fascist display for the 4th of July, at least as close to it as he can get.

Donald Trump said on Monday that a display of US military tanks would be part of a special event he is headlining on the Fourth of July in Washington.

As if that were just normal, but it isn’t.

Trump had wanted a military parade of tanks and other equipment in the District of Columbia after he witnessed a similar parade on Bastille Day in Paris in 2017. That plan eventually was scuttled, partly because of cost, though Trump apparently held on to the idea.

Want tanks! Want tanks n planes n sojers n noise! Am big … Read the rest

Some House Democrats went to inspect two border prisons yesterday. The news is not good.

They described horrific circumstances at facilities on the same day the investigative news organization ProPublica revealed a closed Facebook group in which current and former Border Patrol agents reportedly share jokes about migrant deaths, derogatory comments about Latina lawmakers and a lewd meme involving at least one of them. The posts have been turned over to the Department of Homeland Security inspector general, said US Border Patrol Chief of Operations Brian Hastings.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was among the Democratic lawmakers who toured a facility here Monday following reports of squalid conditions for detained migrants at the border, overcrowded facilities and thinly stretched resources. She

Large generalization department.

Unlike liberals, leftists & progressives who claim to care about minorities, gays, blacks, women, immigrants, et al. don't. Witness the assault on @MrAndyNgo who is gay, Asian, son of immigrants & the response ("but he films Antifa so deserved it")https://t.co/escJDKJvFU

— Michael Shermer (@michaelshermer) July 1, 2019

All leftists and progressives (as opposed to “liberals” by which Shermer means libertarians) respond to the assault on Andy Ngo by saying he deserved it.

Really?

No. Of course not. Some do, but everyone to the left of Shermer? Don’t be ridiculous.

He also embarrassed himself by saying that Nazism was anti-capitalist. He deleted that one.… Read the rest

Uh oh. Again. It was the Canadian Arctic, it was the Himalayas, now it’s the Antarctic. All the ice that we thought was so locked up is melting much faster than expected.

The vast expanse of sea ice around Antarctica has suffered a “precipitous” fall since 2014, satellite data shows, and fell at a faster rate than seen in the Arctic.

The plunge in the average annual extent means Antarctica lost as much sea ice in four years as the Arctic lost in 34 years. The cause of the sharp Antarctic losses is as yet unknown and only time will tell whether the ice recovers or continues to decline.

But researchers said it showed ice could disappear

Hey, here’s an idea, let’s put women back into corsets. People who can’t breathe properly can’t rebel.

Kim Kardashian West is perched on a chair. She’s not quite sitting; instead, she’s pushing her hands into the armrests then leaning against the cushion. Her figure is grotesque: above her generous hips rests an already small waist, tightened beyond belief thanks to a flesh-coloured corset. She addresses the camera. “Anna, if I don’t sit down for dinner, now you know why. I’ll be walking around mingling, talking, but I can hardly sit …” – she tries to sit, she can’t – “I can only half-sit.”

…Perhaps she was right not to sit; a few weeks later, actor Elle Fanning attended a

Pro Publica reports:

Members of a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents joked about the deaths of migrants, discussed throwing burritos at Latino members of Congress visiting a detention facility in Texas on Monday and posted a vulgar illustration depicting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engaged in oral sex with a detained migrant, according to screenshots of their postings.

In one exchange, group members responded with indifference and wisecracks to the post of a news story about a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant who died in May while in custody at a Border Patrol station in Weslaco, Texas. One member posted a GIF of Elmo with the quote, “Oh well.” Another responded with an image and the words “If

More.

https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1145431713222397953

https://twitter.com/thor_benson/status/1145433455435628547

https://twitter.com/Rschooley/status/1145567832458948608

Nice one, because that’s Trump’s “mentor” and hero Roy Cohn there next to McCarthy.

https://twitter.com/brewmasterbones/status/1145469303271100422

#unwantedivanka
Despite what you may think, I have nothing against y'all.
    
I know. I know you probably believe that. pic.twitter.com/K2M3nO5THM

— Andrew Long (@andrewlong166) June 30, 2019

… Read the rest

Pressed on why he won't say MBS was responsible for Khashoggi's murder even though his intelligence community has, Trump says "I cannot comment on intelligence" and goes on to commend Saudi Arabia for doing "a great job from the standpoint of women." pic.twitter.com/LvqECtdMm8

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 29, 2019

Yes, he really does say that.… Read the rest

Donald Ayer, who was Deputy Attorney General under George H. W. Bush before William Barr, says it’s been Barr’s lifetime goal to make the powers of the president all but infinite.

[I]n securing his confirmation as attorney general, Barr successfully used his prior service as attorney general in the by-the-book, norm-following administration of George H. W. Bush to present himself as a mature adult dedicated to the rule of law who could be expected to hold the Trump administration to established legal rules. Having known Barr for four decades, including preceding him as deputy attorney general in the Bush administration, I knew him to be a fierce advocate of unchecked presidential power…

And not so much the rule of … Read the rest

She was there why, again?

The abiding image from this year’s G20 summit will not be Donald Trump sharing another chuckle with Vladimir Putin. It is the clip of his daughter, Ivanka, inserting herself into an awkward circle of world leaders. The video, released by the French government, shows varying expressions of tortured politeness as Ms Trump intrudes on a discussion between France’s Emmanuel Macron, Britain’s Theresa May, Canada’s Justin Trudeau and Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF. Ms Lagarde, in particular, was unable to conceal her irritation.

It’s not as if they’re gathered in Trump’s personal living room and Ivanka is an adorable toddler who has escaped from Nanny for a moment.

What they were discussing is secondary. Mr

And speaking of censorship – the San Francisco school board has decided to go ahead and destroy a mural in a high school because some people don’t understand it.

The fresco was painted in 1936 by Russian emigre Victor Arnautoff, a Communist artist who also painted some of the murals in Coit Tower and other locations in San Francisco.

I’ve seen the Coit Tower ones, and loved them. Think Diego Rivera type of thing.

The “Life of Washington” 1,600-square-foot mural at the high school, part of the federal Works Progress Administration’s art commissions, features scenes from the first president’s life, including images of slavery and white settlers stepping over a dead Native American.

Supporters of the mural say it’s a

Freedom of the press? Don’t be silly.

A cartoonist says he has been dropped from a series of newspapers after his image depicting Donald Trump ignoring dead migrants to play golf went viral.

Michael de Adder, a freelance political cartoonist in Canada, says he was let go by all major newspapers in the southeastern Canadian province of New Brunswick after his cartoon was shared by thousands on Twitter and Facebook.

This is the cartoon in question. I think it’s brilliant. Harsh, obviously, but that’s the point, and isn’t harsh called for?

Cartoon for June 26, 2019 on #trump #BorderCrisis #BORDER #TrumpCamps #TrumpConcentrationCamps pic.twitter.com/Gui8DHsebl

— Michael de Adder (@deAdder) June 26, 2019

On Friday, Mr de Adder said on

What’s the difference between saying “Biden gropes little girls” and “Biden’s behavior is creepy”?

Is there any real difference?

If you search Google images for “Biden gropes little girls” you get no shortage of results. The behavior the pictures show is indeed creepy, but is it creepy in some way that has nothing to do with being sexual?

Not that I can see. They look creepy precisely in the sense of lecherous elderly dude copping a feel. Normal adult men do not stick their hands all over little girls that way.

See that tilt of her body? See that pained expression? See that wrap-around clutch on her arm? That’s not creepy as in he’s wearing a Halloween monster outfit. That’s … Read the rest