Just saw video of Trumpy's Big Birthday Blowout. I was completely stunned to see the soldiers marching. Because they weren't marching. They were out for a stroll. No one was walking in step, half of them didn't even do a basic eyes left move when they passed the review stand. That's one of the most simple drill evolutions there is, you literally just *turn your head* and keep marching. I know, I'm not US military, but drill is drill. It's been the way it is for about 300 years, since the evolution of firearms as a major weapon of war, for old reasons that don't really matter, having to do with the accuracy of those early firearms. It's retained for its ability to build cohesion, discipline, and quick instinctive response to orders. And drill has a look to it. This was not that. For me, that was a signal: "We don't want to be here either. We're not with him. We're here because we're good troops, and we do what we're ordered when it's a legal order. But he can't make us respect him." Just to interpret what you can see for yourselves on the video. A good half of those troops are *not* on Trump's side. Any vets out there want to chime in?

Question for y'all computer-toucher types. I bought a couple of nice, relatively inexpensive curved monitors for my desktop PC. About six months ago. About two weeks ago, the stand for one of them basically exploded. The plastic shredded, and the monitor toppled (thankfully, forward onto the desk, undamaged). Anyway, stands were cheap. Monitors are fine. I want to get a better solution. I thought about those arms you can get to mount on the wall. The way my desk is situated, the wall is at my back. I prefer it this way, for several reasons that aren't relevant. So, there is no wall behind my desk from my seated point of view. Well, there is, but it's three metres across the room. So I need a mount that will attach to the desk itself. There is no lip on that side of the desk, so there is no way to attach a c-clamp mount. The only solution I can see is a plate mount like used for a wall. What I can't find is a plate mount that can be used *backwards*. *Facing* the surface that will be the opposite direction from the monitors. Right? I need something that will screw into the back of my desk, and support two arms that hold the monitors above my desktop. I cannot find such a thing. Does anyone know of a wall-mounted solution that might allow for a creative use of the mounting plate backward? Or the proper search term to find such a thing? "wall mount" has been useless, "desk mount" worse, and "plate mount" got me a bunch of horizontal plates supporting ordinary columns. I found one solution that would involve drilling through the desktop rather than the back of the desk, but it wouldn't be rotatable. Does such a thing exist? Am I bound to just use a flat-plate dual arm through the desktop? Or individual (and metal) columns? I'm worried about the amount of desktop real estate I'd be losing if they were that far forward. Help me, Fedi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!

FYI: Calling a protest "a riot" is fascist behaviour. Protesters have a right to protest. It is in our Constitutions. The police do *not* have the right to stop them. That is blatantly the government restricting the right to free expression and the right to peaceably assemble. So when the protesters are there, chanting and waving signs and otherwise doing what protesters do, IT IS THE POLICE WHO ARE IN THE WRONG. Their job is *not* to decide the demonstration is no longer "permitted". The right isn't something you can take away. So when those police begin lobbing and shooting weapons at the protesters, THEY ARE THE ONES ACTING ILLEGALLY. They are literally the government not allowing people their rights. They are the redcoats here. They represent the King's tyrannical authority. So never, ever call it a riot. A riot is an unreasoning mob, using violence to achieve their aims. A protest that is attacked by police is "citizens taking up their right to self-defence when someone tries to violate their rights illegally." Language matters here, folks. Don't accept their language. Call things what they are, not what they want you to think they are. Also, "violence" against property is not violence. It is tortious, not criminal. Violence is what happens to *people*.

If you're more bothered by the fact that some tiny amount of corporate property has been set ablaze than you are by the fact that the police you pay for are being sent to attack unarmed and peaceful protesters with chemical weapons, backed up by federally-mandated US troops fully armed for battle... ...You're just as fascist as they are. No, the protesters are *not* instigating violence. They are being assaulted by police without authority to do so, having committed no criminal act, trampled by police horses, hit by police cars, shot by police bullets, and blinded and deafened by police grenades. Arrested without warrants for exercising long-established First Amendment-protected rights. The media aren't showing you what's happening. They're showing you what will *excite you*. Enrage you. Bring you back to watch more. They are incentivised to maximise their profit by doing so. The police are incentivised to attack you. They get to make splashy arrests and get big numbers, which makes police budgets Line Go Up. They are the ones being paid to be there. They are the ones starting the violence. So who, exactly, are the paid instigators here? Please trust that your neighbours have not lost their minds. They see what is happening, and they're doing the only thing that can be done. They're standing up and saying "No. Not in my name." That's not a crime. It's a civic duty.

I made the suggestion of #TransGEM and #GEM yesterday for a very good set of reasons, which i would like to make explicit. 1. I want trans people (meaning in this case "anyone not vibing with their canonical sex") to be seen as people seeking joy, rather than people seeking relief from misery. While i think the latter can be a common initial motivation, it frequently changes to joy-seeking once we discover what gender euphoria is. 2. I want cis people to see how ubiquitous and idiosyncratic trans expressions of gender euphoria are. How small they can be, and how large. 3. I want trans people who are hiding bc they don't see themselves as refugees from misery, to know they are as valid as any other trans person. 4. I want cis people to begin to recognise gender euphoria they.experience, so they can relate to us better. 5. I want everyone to see that trans lives, when supported and and being given space to just be, can be places of joy, so that families will no longer feel so much grief and/or fear when their trans loved ones reveal themselves. So i strongly encourage my fellow trans and nonbinary and gendered-or-not-in-other-ways people to post to the hashtag. I encourage even more strongly that cis people follow it, and maybe even boost those that speak to you so your other cis friends will see them. We know from long human history that the other is easy to demonize. That the best counter to this is humanization of that other. That is the goal of sharing our GEMs with each other.

I've decided that instead of "deadname", which I like but has sort of negative connotations that I feel like I want to avoid, I'm going to refer to that name I once bore as an "appellation d'origine contrôlée", or "appcon" as I'll use it. It means "a name for a thing that comes from a specific region", like champagne, or burgundy, or bologna. Mine was a name that, thankfully, no one has ever claimed as a feminine name, nor has there ever been a movement to use it for girls. So if I define the region as "masculinity", it works perfectly. It wasn't right for me - I'm not from there. I don't have the right to call myself by that appellation controllée. Somehow, it lets me hate my appcon a little less. It's a good enough name, I guess, for those who come from Masculinia. But I'm not from there. #TransJoy

If you'd told me when I was 14 that in 44 years, I'd be living a life where most of my friends are the smokingest hottest women I've ever known (and some are the most attractive men!), with whom I get to flirt and have fun and enjoy my life as a girl...I'd have cried my eyes out with sheer happiness. So here I am, appreciating y'all, and shaking my head in wonder at the joy that is my life, lo these many years later. #TransJoy #TransLife #Trans