I neither watched nor listened. I’m not a masochist.

Let us read.

My fellow Americans: Tonight, I am speaking to you because there is a growing humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border.

Every day, Customs and Border Patrol agents encounter thousands of illegal immigrants trying to enter our country.  We are out of space to hold them, and we have no way to promptly return them back home to their country.

Big lie right there. Many or most of them are not “illegal immigrants” but asylum seekers. It is fully legal and a human right to seek asylum. Trump doesn’t like that, but Trump’s dislike doesn’t make something not true.

Over the years, thousands of Americans have

Ed Pilkington at the Guardian reports a very bad thing:

The Trump administration has stopped cooperating with UN investigators over potential human rights violations occurring inside America, in a move that delivers a major blow to vulnerable US communities and sends a dangerous signal to authoritarian regimes around the world.

Quietly and unnoticed, the state department has ceased to respond to official complaints from UN special rapporteurs, the network of independent experts who act as global watchdogs on fundamental issues such as poverty, migration, freedom of expression and justice. There has been no response to any such formal query since 7 May 2018, with at least 13 requests going unanswered.

Nor has the Trump administration extended any invitation

A sobering thread:

If you are currently working without pay during the shutdown, or are furloughed and willing to share please comment and let people know what you do. I think it is important for everyone to understand the families and services that are currently impacted. It is VAST.

— Amanda Deibert at Comic Con Revolution #E2 (@amandadeibert) January 6, 2019

I am an attorney in the Division of Enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission. I am currently NOT investigating violations of the securities laws (meaning they are not currently being enforced). I would really like to review the subpoenaed docs on my desk right now.

— Hocca McFendel (@HoccaMcFendel) January 6, 2019

https://twitter.com/BonnieKRobinson/status/1081930516469899264

https://twitter.com/LRow15/status/1082065241993891840

You don’t even have … Read the rest

James Gheerbrant wrote a profile of a trans woman, Sandra Forgues, which is getting some attention on Twitter, not all of it warmly complimentary.

Beneath the surface, she was fighting currents unseen. The face that periodically appeared in local newspaper articles, the name proudly emblazoned on lacquered clubhouse boards, were pieces of an identity that did not match the self she felt deep in her soul.

“At the core of my being, I have always felt like a woman,” she says. “I have a woman’s mind, but I did not have the body of a woman.”

I have to wonder if anyone would feel like that in a world where sex differences were not so exaggerated and value-laden and … Read the rest

Huh, guess who is “required” to work without pay during the government shutdown. (I put scare quotes on “required” because that’s slavery and as Katha Pollitt pointed out on Twitter the other day, slavery is a violation of the 13th Amendment.) The Secret Service, that’s who.

Secret Service agents are growing increasingly anxious and angry about the shutdown, according to several current and former agents. The Secret Service protects 42 people associated with the Trump White House, 11 more than were given details during the Obama administration. In August 2017, the agency’s new director, Randolph D. Alles, told an interviewer that the sprawling Trump entourage was putting unprecedented strains on his agents, in terms of staffing and budgeting.

DOCTOR Rachel McKinnon wrote a piece explaining what people should do when they annoy DOCTOR Rachel McKinnon, with particular reference to Martina Navratilova.

Last month, tennis legend Martina Navratilova wrote some now-deleted, unfortunate tweets about trans-women athletes.

Her initial tweet was about trans women athletes competing as women while having a penis. It read:

Clearly that can’t be right. You can’t just proclaim yourself a female and be able to compete against women. There must be some standards, and having a penis and competing as a woman would not fit that standard…

Two days later, I weighed in by retweeting the offending tweet: “Welp, guess Navratilova is transphobic.” I also said, “No, you are not ‘pro- trans people’

Jacob Mchangama and Sarah McLaughlin at Foreign Policy also argue that Europe is going backward on free speech and free thought.

But despite the unanimous rhetorical support for free speech after Charlie Hebdo, blasphemy bans have become more firmly anchored in some parts of the continent in recent years. In a recent case, the European Court of Human Rights even reaffirmed that European human rights law recognizes a right not to have one’s religious feelings hurt. The court based its decision on the deeply flawed assumption that religious peace and tolerance may require the policing rather than the protection of “gratuitously offensive” speech. Accordingly, it found that Austria had not violated freedom of expression by convicting a

Charlie Hebdo, four years ago today.

Four years after Charlie Hebdo attacks, satirists bemoan the loss of reason #JeSuisCharliehttps://t.co/vrkNQyUwiW

— Ex-Muslims of North America (@ExmuslimsOrg) January 7, 2019

‘Respect for religion’ has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion.’ – Salman Rushdie #JeSuisCharlie pic.twitter.com/C2DaT8ZVTc

— Ex-Muslims of North America (@ExmuslimsOrg) January 7, 2019

“I am not afraid of retaliation. I have no kids, no wife, no car, no credit. It perhaps sounds a bit pompous, but I prefer to die standing than living on my knees.” Charb – Chief Editor at Charlie Hebdo #JeSuisCharlie pic.twitter.com/rSmHMZ0nnF

— Ex-Muslims of North America (@ExmuslimsOrg) January 7, 2019

It’s four years ago today that the Charlie Hebdo attack took place. This is

Now Trump wants to take over the airwaves to tell us lies.

President Trump wants to address the nation about the government shutdown on Tuesday night, and later in the week plans to travel to the southern border as part of his effort to persuade Americans of the need for a border wall — the sticking point in negotiations with Democrats who are eager to reopen shuttered agencies.

The White House did not immediately respond to questions about a request to television networks to carve out time for an Oval Office address. A person familiar with the request said the White House had asked to interrupt prime time programming on Tuesday.

So that he can lie to us about … Read the rest

And at the same time, I saw Julie tweet.

YES!!!!!!!! https://t.co/0n85rQObVe

— Julie Bindel (@bindelj) January 7, 2019

… Read the rest

Rahaf tweeted her barricade.

https://twitter.com/rahaf84427714/status/1082212804549959687

Help was on the way.

https://twitter.com/melissarfleming/status/1082212629148565504

Australia director of Human Rights Watch urges Australia to step up.

Australian senator calls on the government to issue emergency travel documents to allow young Saudi woman @rahaf84427714 trapped at Bangkok airport to travel to Australia. Do it, Australia! https://t.co/mLH4RELi8s

— Elaine Pearson (@PearsonElaine) January 7, 2019

ABC News Middle East correspondent on the scene.

UN has arrived. They are interviewing Rahaf. They gave their word that she would remain in their custody & that she is now safe. This is what they promised @UNHCRThailand @Reaproy @melissarfleming

— Sophie McNeill (@Sophiemcneill) January 7, 2019

https://twitter.com/rahaf84427714/status/1082275701330345989

Sophie McNeill joined her in the barricaded room.

https://twitter.com/rahaf84427714/status/1082297101239836672

Human Rights Watch is still … Read the rest