Trump displays his profound understanding of how life is for people who are not rich.

Trump says he can relate to those affected by the government shutdown, telling reporters, "I'm sure that the people that are on the receiving end will make adjustment. They always do." pic.twitter.com/ChRTFL4NDU

— Steven Portnoy (@stevenportnoy) January 6, 2019

It’s totally fine to have your salary suddenly cut off, all you have to do is make an adjustment. It’s easy. Student loans? Rent? Mortgage payment? Childcare? Debt for that stay in the hospital? Food? Car payment? Relatives you help support? Don’t worry about any of that, all you have to do is adjust it. There’s a little dial somewhere, just give it a small twist … Read the rest

Oh hey, Trump and the Trumplings didn’t realize that the government shutdown would actually do harm, and now they’re scrambling to figure out how they’re supposed to be doing their jobs.

Food stamps for 38 million low-income Americans would face severe reductions and more than $140 billion in tax refunds are at risk of being frozen or delayed if the government shutdown stretches into February, widespread disruptions that threaten to hurt the economy.

The Trump administration, which had not anticipated a long-term shutdown, recognized only this week the breadth of the potential impact, several senior administration officials said. The officials said they were focused now on understanding the scope of the consequences and determining whether there is anything they

Here again – trans people can absolutely say what it’s like to have gender dysphoria, but no one else can. Trans people and trans people only know what gender dysphoria is and what gender nonconformity is and that they are different and exactly how they are different.

Let's be absolutely clear, cis women claiming they had "gender dysphoria" as kids because they were tomboys are lying. They are deliberately conflating gender nonconformity with gender dysphoria, not because they believe it, but because it is useful to muddy the waters.

— Casey Explosion (@CaseyExplosion) January 5, 2019

Let’s be absolutely clear, cis women claiming they had “gender dysphoria” as kids because they were tomboys are lying. They are deliberately conflating

Okay now I just don’t know what to believe.

Adrian Harrop tells a woman what her experience is.

https://twitter.com/DrAdrianHarrop/status/1081360068879241222

But we are always told it’s Forbidden to deny anyone’s Lived Experience. That’s a big no-no. Subjective experience trumps mere physical facts, we are told over and over and over. So why do the rules suddenly change when it’s someone who doesn’t claim to be trans or to be literally the other sex?

Also, what in fact is the difference? How can we tell when the difference is present when all it seems to be is “but more so”? Gender nonconformity is totally different from gender dysphoria because gender dysphoria is like gender nonconformity but waaaaaay more so. Oh? So, how … Read the rest

I read the opening of a piece by Elizabeth Goitein at the Atlantic on Trump and emergency powers the other day, and found it so alarming I stopped reading. Now it appears we’re being dragged over that threshold…which could be game over. It was for Germany, and it could be for us.

Trump has long signaled his disdain for the concepts of limited presidential power and democratic rule. During his 2016 campaign, he praised murderous dictators. He declared that his opponent, Hillary Clinton, would be in jail if he were president, goading crowds into frenzied chants of “Lock her up.” He hinted that he might not accept an electoral loss. As democracies around the world slide into autocracy, and nationalism

The airport pat-down patrol has been calling in sick.

Hundreds of Transportation Security Administration officers, who are required to work without paychecks through the partial government shutdown, have called out from work this week from at least four major airports, according to two senior agency officials and three TSA employee union officials.

Did you miss it? I’ll repeat.

Hundreds of Transportation Security Administration officers, who are required to work without paychecks through the partial government shutdown

Who are required to work for no pay. That’s what we call “slavery,” and it’s not allowed.

“This problem of call outs is really going to explode over the next week or two when employees miss their first paycheck,” a union official at

Speaking of girls and princesses – do children need drag queens?

An event at which a drag artist will read stories to children has sparked outrage on social media.

Alyssa Van Delle has been invited to Taunton Library in February as part of LGBTQ+ History Month.

The performer will read from children’s books that cover LGBT themes or challenge traditional fairy tales.

But what are “LGBT themes”? They’re a grab-bag, aren’t they, and drag queens don’t exactly represent all such themes. They don’t speak much to the L part, for instance, and by some lights they just plain insult it. Lesbians and gay men share some interests but not all; lesbians are women and gay men are men and there … Read the rest

News from Brazil:

The new Minister of Women, the Family and Human Rights, pastor Damares Alves, created more controversy by saying that “a new era has started in Brazil” and that “boys wear blue and girls wear pink.” The remarks were caught on a video that also shows her chanting the sentence and being applauded.

On Wednesday (2nd), she was sworn in, among cries from the audience  of “Hallelujah” and “Praise the Lord,” she made an emotional speech saying there there will be no more “ideological indoctrination” of children and teenagers, and that “girls will be princesses and boys will be princes,” and criticized unnamed media outlets.

Meaning, boys will be dominant and girls will be submissive. Yay?

Alves,

Yesterday some spiteful anonymous fool on Twitter tried to discredit Ocasio-Cortez. The Times reports:

“Here is America’s favorite commie know-it-all acting like the clueless nitwit she is,” read the tweet from AnonymousQ1776, which incorrectly described it as a video from her high school days. The account has since been deleted.

Only, nobody saw the clueless nitwit part, probably because it’s not there.

If the video showing her dancing and twirling barefoot on a rooftop was meant to be an embarrassing leak, it backfired badly.

The dance video — a mash-up of 1980s dance moves from the movie “The Breakfast Club” and the music of “Lisztomania,” by the French band Phoenix — proved to be too endearing to many

Wait, Trump did what now?

Bringing active federal law enforcement agents to the WH podium like this for a political press conference is a gross abuse of power and does immeasurable harm to the agencies they represent.

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) January 3, 2019

opens Google news

Oy.

It was after 4 in the afternoon and the briefing room was half empty.

Minutes after 4:00 p.m., a voice came on the overhead speaker announcing that press secretary Sarah Sanders would hold a briefing in “five minutes.”
The scramble was on.
For a White House that has held increasingly rare briefings, the short notice was unusual yet not surprising. And as the press appearances have shrunk, the importance of each

Siiiiiiiiiiigh

In 2015, Ryan's pink tie didn't make the tweet. pic.twitter.com/Ampg5NfvJH

— Philip Bump (@pbump) January 3, 2019

… Read the rest