Steve Benen at MSNBC:

Donald Trump has an unusually ugly record when it comes to separating those he perceives as fools from their money. As we’ve discussed before, the Republican ran a fraudulent charitable foundation and created a fraudulent “university” that was designed to do little more than rip off its “students.”

Not to mention all those overvalued condos he sold.

But his new trick is really breathtaking.

The New York Times reported over the weekend on Trump’s 2020 political operation and the brazenly underhanded tactics it employed to swindle its unsuspecting donors. The article began by featuring a financially unstable cancer patient in Kansas City, who chipped in $500 last September after hearing Rush Limbaugh talk about

… Read the rest

Leila Miller at the LA Times tells us:

Kelly Blackwell longs to escape her life as a transgender woman in a California men’s prison, where she struggles every day to avoid being seen in her bra and panties and says she once faced discipline after fighting back when an inmate in her cell asked for oral sex.

If Blackwell doesn’t want to be seen in his bra and “panties” why does he wear them? Skip the bra and wear underpants with no frills; problem solved.

After more than 30 years, and two decades since Blackwell began hormone therapy, her chance to leave arrived last fall when groundbreaking legislation gave transgender, intersex and nonbinary inmates the right, regardless of anatomy,

… Read the rest

I’m curious about something.

I randomly saw this painting in a book and the name of the painter popped up in my brain (and I checked and it really was the painter), and the thing about that is that I don’t know why. I don’t know how I knew and I don’t know why it was so quick and automatic. I “recognized” the painter but I don’t know why I did. We’ll talk about who it is eventually but for now I’m curious to see if anyone else recognizes the painter, with or without knowing how.

There are other paintings by this painter that are what’s called “iconic” – instantly recognizable, and no surprise about it. But to me … Read the rest

“Grace” Lavery is a fake woman but by god he’s a genuine troll.

Just realized: someone alive today will become the first trans woman to get an abortion. <3

— Prof. Grace Lavery (@graceelavery) April 5, 2021

So adorable. Teehee. Only a man could think that would be funny.

No, no one will ever become the first trans woman to need an abortion, let alone to have one.

In any other context Lavery would probably make erudite fun of the idea that technological progress is so relentless and inevitable that some time in the next 40 years or so men will be able to get pregnant. In any other context Lavery would probably realize that by then climate change will … Read the rest

In baseball news –

Texas governor Greg Abbott said on Monday that he won’t throw the ceremonial first pitch as planned at the Texas Rangers’ home opener, the latest jab in a fight that is pushing corporate America into the political battle over voting rights.

I suppose “home opener” means the first game of the season which is being played in the home town of the Texas Rangers. I guess we’re all supposed to be fluent in Baseball.

The Republican governor informed the Rangers via a letter, citing Major League Baseball’s decision to move the MLB All-Star Game from Atlanta in response to Georgia’s sweeping new voting laws, which include new restrictions on voting by mail and greater legislative control

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by latsot on To be seen.

It’s not difficult to train face recognition to work with black people. If you trained the machine learning systems with plenty of black and white faces, it would be fine with both.

However, most facial recognition software has historically been trained on mostly white people, so has a problem reacting to dark skin. It presumably didn’t occur to the people who trained the systems that some faces are not white.

There are lots of other examples of software that has taken on the racism of its trainers. For example, many police forces in the US (and some in the UK) use software to predict where crime is likely to happen … Read the rest

The war on epidemiology continues.

Buck, it’s all about control. Simple as that. This never had anything to do with science. It has everything to do with the government being in control of our lives.

— Erik Larson (@erik_larson13) April 5, 2021

Why? Why is it? How do we know it is? Why would the government want to “control” us in the sense of forcing us to wear masks for no reason? What does it gain from doing that? Cui bono? What does Fauci gain from it? Why hasn’t Fauci been telling us to wear masks for the past 40 years, pandemic or no pandemic? What is it for?… Read the rest

So many levels of meta that you can’t figure out what is being said:

I awoke this morning as I do every morning with a burning, unquenchable lust to be seen. Thankfully, what with it being Transgender Day of Visibility and all, I might finally have that need met.

You see what I mean. That sounds like self-mockery, but would the Guardian be publishing genuine self-mockery by a trans person? Does any trans person ever self-mock? Especially for wanting to be seen every god damn second?

I, personally, began my morning with a mantra: “I am seen. I am visible. I am here to represent.” I repeated this into my phone screen, its front-facing camera reflecting my face back to

… Read the rest

None so blind as those who will not see.

https://twitter.com/Henriettaspoon/status/1379039388999507974

Yes, fgm and female infanticide are things done to female people because of “gendered ideas” but those ideas are about female people as opposed to male people. They are rooted in the sex of both. Female “purity” and male ownership of that “purity” exist because the female people gestate the babies.

In a different world, where girls and women were bigger and stronger than boys and men, the ownership of the gestational person wouldn’t work the same way. It would have to be a consensual form of ownership, which wouldn’t be ownership but loyalty or devotion. But we don’t live in that world, sadly, so girls and women are subject … Read the rest

Trump must be chewing the carpet with rage that he never managed to do this: Putin passes law that benefits Putin.

Vladimir Putin has signed a law that will allow him to run for the presidency twice more in his lifetime, potentially keeping him in office until 2036.

I wish news outlets would stop saying stupidly redundant things like “in his lifetime.” Obviously in his lifetime; he’s not going to pass a law saying he can run for office after his lifetime, now is he.

But the point is: behold the man, making laws that grant him more power.

The Russian president signed the legislation on Monday, ending a year-long process to “reset” his presidential terms by rewriting the

… Read the rest

Sometimes trans allies are so relentless in their allyship that they end up having to apologize to people for telling smelly lies about them.

He’s still at it though.

One of the criticisms is that you cited yourselves as sources without disclosing it. Wouldn't an effective way to deal with that criticism be to address it head on, and either deny that you did that, or explain why you did it and how that was actually ethical in this case? https://t.co/lnh37dvhaY pic.twitter.com/cy4jQqzRfQ

— Aidan Comerford (@AidanCTweets) April 3, 2021

… Read the rest

Another random set of tweets! But they’re too hilarious to pass up.

https://twitter.com/MxComan/status/1378757035941101569

You’re thinking it’s parody. I looked him up, and he’s an art student and he’s written in this vein elsewhere so nope, he’s not joking.

https://twitter.com/MxComan/status/1378757039128723456 https://twitter.com/MxComan/status/1378757043729928195

There’s more; it’s all funny.

Here’s a wild idea: maybe it’s not that Jeezus wuz tranz but that the idea of being trans is rooted in the magical thinking of Christianity. God is ONE and also THREE but definitely ONE. God in three persons, blessed triniteeee. Plus there’s a pigeon in there somewhere. If God is God and also his son and also The Holy Ghost/a pigeon, then men becoming women by saying so is a doddle. … Read the rest

Moira Donegan at the Guardian has more on Sonmez and the Post.

When Sonmez tweeted a link to a Daily Beast story about the 2003 rape allegation against Bryant, with no commentary of her own, she received a torrent of abuse and threats from his fans.

They were angry at what they saw as Sonmez besmirching Bryant’s memory by acknowledging the accusation that he had been sexually violent towards a Colorado woman; they were willing to avenge this disrespect, or so they claimed, with more violence against women. The name-calling escalated into threats, and some of those threats seemed credible. Her home address was published online. For her own safety, Sonmez went briefly into hiding.

The Post did not … Read the rest

Yes it’s just a bed of roses being a woman in journalism or any other bit of public life.

It was supposed to be an upbeat town hall to rally the newsroom, as Washington Post leaders highlighted their moves to defend reporter SEUNG MIN KIM from internet trolls. But sources tell us the March 16 Zoom meeting with hundreds of staffers went off the rails briefly when FELICIA SONMEZ, a breaking news reporter who has spoken openly about her experience as a sexual assault survivor, typed a pointed comment in the chat box: “I wish editors had publicly supported me in the same way.”

Sonmez was referring to an incident that occurred the day KOBE BRYANT died in January 2020.

… Read the rest

Yes indeed, if you’re a man and you want a baby or six, there’s just one slight obstacle.

I am very jealous Caspar, I wanna be a dad!!!

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) April 1, 2021

hunting for broody lesbian couples pic.twitter.com/sCyaOvSext

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) April 1, 2021

Lesbian couples! Perfect! You can get two babies at once!

https://twitter.com/yatakalam/status/1378285204536762374

That's a bad look.

You're not entitled to use women to have children for you.

I don't even know where to start with that one.

— ♫ ♪ ♫ ღ(¯`◕‿◕´¯) ♫ ♪ ♫ (@noxiousjellyfis) April 3, 2021

A broody woman is unlikely to willingly give away her newborn baby. The damage caused to women by surrogacy both physically and emotionally is

… Read the rest

Huh, the Suez backlog is cleared. That’s good, because reports were saying it could take weeks.

The last ships stranded by the grounding of a giant container vessel in the Suez canal passed through the waterway on Saturday, according to the Suez Canal Authority (SCA).

…

Osama Rabie, the chairman of the SCA, said 85 ships were expected to pass through the canal from both sides on Saturday. They included the last 61 of the 422 ships that were queuing when the container vessel was dislodged, thus ending the backlog of shipping that built up during the crisis.

Good job. The port city of Seattle sends a fist-bump.… Read the rest

The one-guy insurrection in DC yesterday:

Early in the afternoon, a man rammed his vehicle into two Capitol police officers standing in front of a barricade. Exiting the vehicle, the suspect then lunged at officers with a knife. He was shot dead.

Yogananda Pittman, acting chief of Capitol police, told reporters two officers were taken to hospital after the attack. One, William “Billy” Evans, an 18-year department veteran and the father of two young children, died from his injuries.

It’s Trump who planted this particular seed.

Police did not immediately name the suspect and the motive remained unclear. Multiple news outlets, however, named the attacker as Noah Green, who was 25 and from Indiana.

Friends and family members told

… Read the rest

The title is perfect:

How Do I Define My Gender if No One Is Watching Me?

How indeed? But we mustn’t point out that the whole idea of “defining” one’s “gender” is entirely about who is watching the Precious Self.

By Alex Marzano-Lesnevich

Mx. Marzano-Lesnevich writes extensively on transgender issues and is working on a memoir about nonbinary identities.

In other words Mx. Marzano-Lesnevich has nothing in her his their head other than this fiction of trans and non-binary idennninies.

When the lockdown started he she they thought it would be a nice rest from taking the idenniny out on parade.

Alone in my apartment, I imagined that all my difficulties in being seen and recognized as transgender-nonbinary would evaporate.

… Read the rest

As an apology to all the people who (quite reasonably) are not entirely fond of posts based on random tweets from random people, a completely random tweet from someone I don’t know that is its own justification.

https://twitter.com/johnlundin/status/1378148444926324737… Read the rest

The governor of Florida is a “my sacred right to do whatever I want regardless of the harm to others” jackass.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis on Friday announced an executive order banning “vaccine passports” in the state, which like the rest of the US continues to suffer under the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Suffer” as in die a horrible gasping death or have friends or family die such a death or be an intensive care nurse or doctor and watch patients die gasping. That kind of suffer. It’s absolute hell.

Companies around the world are working to develop such “passports”, secure records of vaccination against Covid-19 that might be used to help society and businesses return to full operation by managing

… Read the rest