Things That I’ve Noticed Once I Transitioned

I started this list over twenty years ago, when I first transitioned. I thought I would discover endless differences between men and women. Instead, after all these years, I only have two things that really stand out.

First and for most: My god they talk in the bathrooms!

Second. Men are macho. I've noticed that many men seem to communicate through competition, confidence, and posturing. “Me Caveman! Ugh!”

Women, on the other hand, often seem more cerebral and relational in the way they interact.

One way I've come to think about it is that men often compete to win a mate, while women are more likely to present or "preen" themselves.  Women are nurturing, men are competitive.

But you  know what else it says… in over twenty years I haven’t seen that much difference between the genders. I think that is the amazing part! We are more alike than different.

t is how far you are on the spectrum that matters. Super macho men can go too far, as we see with Hegseth. When everything becomes a competition, that is when it crosses the line.

The Parallels

You are starting to see articles about.

Or a paragraph or two in a news story.

The hints are there... Trump's War

The Vietnam War... the endless war.

He promised it. In 10 days after the initial U.S. strikes on February 28—Trump said the war was "very complete, pretty much" we won!

A 132 days later Trump's announces that... overnight U.S. planes completed an eighth consecutive night of airstrikes against Iran, targeting Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) bases, coastal air defenses, and drone storage sites. The overnight escalation followed an Iranian drone and missile attack in Jordan that killed two U.S. service members.

The endless war parallels are there,

Spot The Differences!

[Essay]

The color of their skin.

A wheelchair.

A white cane.

Some differences are immediately visible, and because we can see them, we rarely question whether they exist. Yet many aspects of a person's identity leave no obvious physical clue. Because there is no visible marker, some people assume that being transgender is simply a choice rather than a natural part of who someone is.

And like all forms of discrimination it separates them into “the others” they are “not like us” once people are seen as "the others"—different, unfamiliar, or somehow less authentic. The result is the same: distance replaces empathy, suspicion replaces understanding, and prejudice becomes easier to justify.

During the 1930s in Germany… the Jews, the Roma, the disabled, the gays and us, the trans people were all persecuted because they were different.

Now we are, many of the same laws passed back in the 30s are now being passed against the trans community. History shows that discrimination rarely begins with violence. It begins with language, with suspicion, with laws that single out one group as different, and with the belief that some people deserve fewer rights than others. Trump has used 'transgender insanity,' 'men masquerading as women,' and other terms meant to dehumanize us.

The problem lies in the people. In their prejudices. Those prejudices can be encouraged, exploited, and molded by those seeking power. Once fear takes hold, it becomes easier to convince ordinary people that "the others" are responsible for society's problems, and easier still to accept discrimination against them.

But the problem with all this, is that it is easily recognized. People are against undocumented immigrants. But now they are seeing the brutality they are saying, “Wait not so fast? What’s going on here?”

The same thing is happening with trans people. In Kansas they took back all the trans drivers licenses out of ~2,024,000 there were only ~1,700 trans people. And people stopped and thought, “Why is this a problem.” When people in Connecticut learned that only about dozen out of ~100,000 high school student-athletes in Connecticut who participate in sports each year about a dozen are trans.

People are starting to question all these anti-trans laws.

Look at all the times we came to a vote on referendums… in the Massachusetts 2018 referendum (Question 3) we won! And in Anchorage, Alaska (2018) we won! But now a new crop of questions is showing up on ballots. In Arizona, Colorado, and in Washington we are once again on the ballot… will prejudices win out? Or will the voters see it for what it is, an attempt to marginalize an already marginalized community?

[/Essay]

Cuckoo Award: A Trifecta

Can you believe it, the Republicans are racking up the Cuckoo Awards this month. The newest is for butting into the affairs of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

GOP rep Ben Cline introduces bill to bar biological men from joining Daughters of the American Revolution

Virginia Republican says DAR abandoned founding principles by rejecting motion to bar transgender applicants

By Rachel del Guidice 

Fox News

July 15, 2026

A House Republican is introducing legislation that would require the Daughters of the American Revolution to limit membership to biological women, saying the historic organization's congressional charter should reflect its original mission after the group adopted a policy interpreted as allowing transgender applicants.

Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., introduced the Daughters of the American Revolution Membership Integrity Act on Wednesday.

"The DAR has a longstanding tradition of celebrating and empowering women who represent the exceptional heritage of the birth of our Nation," Cline said in a statement provided exclusively to Fox News Digital.

Not the economy. Not the Iran war. Not the cost of food. Not the cost of gas. But trans people in the DAR is the #1 issue in the United States today. So with that in mind, Congressman Cline is hereby awarded the coveted Cuckoo Award.

 

Not All Religions Are The Same

Said this over and over, don't paint all religions with a broad brush. There are those who have our backs.

United Methodist conference to move meeting out of Idaho, citing LGBTQ+, immigrant safety concerns

Oregon-Idaho Conference will either move to Oregon or be held virtually in 2027 after members’ vote

Idaho Capital Sun

By Micah Yip

July 16, 2026

Citing dangers to LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities, the Oregon-Idaho Conference of the United Methodist Church voted last month to move next year’s annual conference out of Idaho.

At this year’s annual conference — a meeting where representatives from Oregon and southern Idaho United Methodist churches gather to vote on and make decisions — held at the Cathedral of the Rockies in Boise, the Rev. Heather Riggs of Montavilla United Methodist in Portland brought a motion to the floor to change the location of next year’s conference.

Dozens of clergy and laity gave public comment, arguing why they believed the event should remain in Idaho or move to Oregon in 2027. The vote was close, but the end result was that the conference would either move to Oregon or be held virtually.

This is the result of Idaho's bigoty, I hope other organizations shy away from states that are non-affirming. 

Captain Queeg

Who remembers the USS Caine? Who remembers Captain Queeg? Who remembers the "strawberries" incident?

A relatively minor theft—the disappearance of strawberries intended for the officers' dessert—became the focus of an exhaustive investigation. Captain Queeg grew convinced that the crew was lying and conspiring against him, turning a small matter into a major inquiry. In The Caine Mutiny, that episode foreshadows larger questions about his judgment and leadership.

Now consider the episode involving Trump's repeated claims about a long "gash" in the White House reflecting pool—described at various times as 150 feet, then 200 feet, then 300 feet, allegedly made with a box cutter.

Is there possible any similarities there?

---

I am not the only one drawing parrillas;

Trump Makes Bonkers Claim About Reflecting Pool Damage

The president keeps complaining about alleged vandals destroying the pool. But the evidence suggests a different cause.

Sarah Ewall-Wice

The Daily Beast

Jul. 17 2026 

President Donald Trump returned to ranting about alleged vandals destroying the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Friday, despite the mounting evidence that the issues were caused by errors made during his renovation attempt.

Hot off his rambling primetime address about “election integrity,” the president, 80, took to Truth Social on Friday morning to complain about the botched Reflecting Pool with further unsubstantiated claims.

“The Reflecting Pool, so badly damaged by Deranged Vandals, has been emptied as the massive slash gets repaired,” Trump wrote. “We got it through the great July Fourth Weekend. What kind of animals would do such a thing? We are looking for a Vandal Proof material, but such a thing should not have been necessary.”

The president went on to declare, “The Scum in Court will hopefully be prosecuted to the MAX.”

Captain Queeg?

Another Cuckoo Award!

Oh... this is a good one! He wants to sanction Canada smoke.

GOP senator to introduce bill to sanction Canada over wildfire smoke

The Hill

by Alexander Bolton

07/16/26

Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), a close Trump ally, announced Thursday that he will introduce legislation to sanction Canada and Canadian officials over the huge wildfires that have poured smoke and haze across the United States, creating hazardous air-quality conditions.

“I’ll be introducing a bill next week to sanction Canada and the responsible Canadian government officials for this atrocity,” Moreno posted on social media.

Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo!

And he is not alone!

Four Republican members of the House wrote an angry letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, blasting his government for not doing more to prevent the crisis.

The Cuckoo Award is given to the four of them... for this hairbrained bill! 

Saturday 9!

Saturday 9: Kung Fu Fighting (1974)

On Saturdays I take a break from the heavy stuff and have some fun…

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here. 

1) Have you ever taken a martial arts class? 

Nope, and I never had a desire to learn.

2) In this song, Carl Edwards sings about funky Chinatown. Many cities – including San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Vancouver, London and Antwerp – have a Chinatown. Have you ever visited Chinatown?

New York when I was knee high to a grasshopper. And drove through Chinatown in San Francisco.

3) Many Chinese restaurants give out fortune cookies. Can you recall one of your fortunes?

No, I was probably around ten when I to New York’s Chinatown.

4) This week's featured artist, Carl Edwards, was born in Jamaica, spent his childhood in the US, and relocated to England. Have you ever lived abroad? 

Nope, I don’t care to.

5) In 1974 he became the first Jamaican to have a #1 hit in the US with this song. Have you been to Jamaica?

Nope. (A lot of “Nope’s” in today’s answers )

6) When this week's song was on the charts, ABC TV had a hit with the show Kung Fu. Today it's available to stream. Were you a fan?

Yeah… sadly. It was a really dumb show. And racism. Why didn't they use an Asian, the show was popular when Bruce Lee was making all of his moives.

7) Also in 1974, the FIFA World Cup was played in West Germany. Have you been following the FIFA World Cup this year?

No, but my niece and nephews went to one in New Jersey.

8) Two of 1974's most popular toys were popular with adults, too. Would you prefer a Rubik's Cube or a Magic 8 Ball?

The Magic 8 Ball, I could never do the Rubik’s Cube, it was so frustrating!

9) Random question: Have you ever cut someone else's hair?

Nope… like I said a lot of “nope” today.

---

I am up at the cottage and as usual the first time opening up for the season is always an adventure.

First… my cottage was inhabited when I got there. By squirrels. I know the guy. I bet you that it is the same squirrel that was eyeing the vent last fall.

The work I had done over the winter looks good. But there is one minor problem, the kitchen lights don’t work. Could Mr. Squirrel be the culprit?

I forgot to prop open the refrigerator doors and it got molding inside, it two hours to clean it.

The four hour drive did my back in. So my car is still packed. I am unloading the wicker basket and boxes a little at a time. But I did get my beach and dump pass. I went to the wrong window to pick it up and the guy was very gruff when he told me the other window… didn’t I see the sign “Pass Pick-Up”

Um, no. there were three women outside there talking and I can’t see any signs.

Has The Groundwork Been Laid?

Was last night's speech the groundwork for claims in November—acting as a pretext to justify using federal force, the military, or law enforcement to interfere with the upcoming 2026 midterm elections?

I am not the only one to question that. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware said:

“Tonight’s address from President Trump was a tantrum of sinister innuendo, conspiracy theories, and misdirection. Americans who tuned in tonight heard no new concrete or proven claims about foreign interference in our elections. There is unanimous agreement within the intelligence community that foreign adversaries did not succeed in interfering with the vote in the 2020 election. President Trump and his allies have filed dozens of lawsuits, launched countless investigations, and even sparked an insurrection to try to find voter fraud in the 2020 election. They have failed to do so every single time because none exists.

“Unfortunately, these lies are no longer about one election President Trump lost six years ago. Since retaking the White House, President Trump has moved National Guard troops into our cities, repeatedly floated the possibility of deploying ICE agents at polling locations, and said the Postal Service won’t deliver mail-in ballots in states that don’t turn over sensitive information to his administration. Tonight’s speech is his latest effort to exert partisan control over the 2026 elections because he knows Republicans can’t win on their own record. 

“Should President Trump try to interfere in November’s election through illegal, un-American means, I believe he will fail. I will support every effort to defend our democracy, and I will not stop working to ensure every eligible vote will be counted.”

Congressman García said about the speech;

“Tonight’s unhinged speech is the beginning of Trump’s attempt to overthrow the 2026 midterm election and to smear and criminalize noncitizens. This is what our insecure, delusional President does: if he doesn’t like the outcome of an election, he does everything in his power to subvert it. While these debunked claims by Trump and his cronies may seem laughable, they are a dire threat to democracy in America. The January 6th insurrection showed the country and the world that Republicans in Congress lack the spine to stand up to Trump’s authoritarianism. Now is the time for communities nationwide to mobilize against a federal takeover of elections, ICE at polling sites, and Trump’s pathetic lies. Whether through filing lawsuits, educating voters, volunteering at polling sites, holding the media accountable, or other tactics, we all have a role to play in preserving our right to vote in the face of Trump’s ongoing assault on democracy.”

The BBC News wrote;

Democrats, meanwhile, accused Trump of attempting to sow doubts about the security of the upcoming November midterms which will decide control of Congress for the remainder of his presidency.

"Let's be clear - in America, voters choose their leaders, not the other way around," top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer posted on social media after the speech.

"Democrats will fight like hell to make sure every American voter can cast their ballot freely, without obstruction or interference from Donald Trump," he added.

Looking at Trump’s track record, I think they may be right... He is laying the groundwork for calling out the troops, even though doing so is strictly against the law.

• Federal Criminal Statutes (Title 18), 18 U.S.C. § 592 (Troops at Polls): This statute makes it a federal crime—punishable by up to five years in prison—for any civil, military, or naval officer of the United States to order, bring, or keep troops or "armed men" at any polling place during an election.
• 18 U.S.C. § 593 (Interference by Armed Forces): This statute makes it a federal crime for any member of the U.S. military to use force, threats, intimidation, or advice to prevent any qualified voter from casting their ballot, or to interfere with an election officer performing their duties.
• 18 U.S.C. § 595 (Interference by Administrative Employees): This law prohibits any person employed in an administrative position by the federal government (which includes federal law enforcement agencies like ICE, the FBI, or DHS) from using their official authority to interfere with or affect a federal election.

But as we have seen in the past, Trump is willing to act and ignore the law. We also have the Posse Comitatus Act, which expressly limits the federal government's ability to use military personnel for domestic law enforcement.

In an Ipsos/Reuters poll, 69% of respondents said they were "very or somewhat concerned" about attempts to overturn official election results. Notice that it doesn’t say people are worried about standard election interference, but rather about overturning the election itself!

Fraud isn’t the only concern that Americans have about elections, though. In fact, all three polls found that more people are worried about disenfranchisement than fraud. In the Ipsos/Reuters poll, 57% said they were very or somewhat concerned about eligible voters being prevented from voting, and 44% of respondents to the YouGov/CBS News poll identified that as a major problem. And according to Marist, 58% of adults think it’s likely that many people will show up to vote in 2026 and be told they’re not eligible.

If nothing else, the consensus among political analysts, election experts, and lawmakers is that Trump’s speech last night has only served to increase anxiety and deepen divisions regarding the security and integrity of the upcoming elections.

[/Editorial]

Is Big Brother Now A Private Company

I'm heading up to the Cape today... so it is prewritten blogs today!

---

So, have the feds handed over their "Big Brother" surveillance to private companies?

Silent Watchers: The rise of Connecticut’s police camera network

Insider Investigator

Katherine Revello

July 12, 2026

Connecticut has the highest per capita rate of automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras in New England and across other northeastern states, including New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.

According to DeFlock, Connecticut ranks twenty-fifth overall for the number of per capita cameras in the state, averaging roughly 1.78 cameras per 10,000 residents. 

Those cameras are maintained by a variety of police departments and private businesses and use artificial intelligence to take pictures of and ‘read’ the license plate and make and model characteristics of every vehicle that goes past. The cameras can be either mounted to roadside infrastructure, like a pole or traffic light, or in the dashboard of a police car.

Every plate read is dumped into a massive database law enforcement can search and check against various crime hotlists. The majority of the data collected and stored is not connected to a crime and is never searched for or viewed by police before it’s purged from the system, often after a 30-day retention period.

That database involves the entire Flock network. As the quote notes, "Every plate read is dumped into a massive database law enforcement can search and check against various crime hotlists." But the problem is that there are errors in this database. Basically, these are warrantless searches!

The Electronic Freedom Foundation writes;

Imagine driving to get your nails done with your family and all of a sudden, you are pulled over by police officers for allegedly driving a stolen car. You are dragged out of the car and detained at gun point. So are your daughter, sister, and nieces. The police handcuff your family, even the children, and force everyone to lie face-down on the pavement, before eventually realizing that they made a mistake. This happened to Brittney Gilliam and her family on a warm Sunday in Aurora, Colorado, in August 2020.

And the error? The police officers who pulled them over were relying on information generated by automated license plate readers (ALPRs). These are high-speed, computer-controlled camera systems that automatically capture all license plate numbers that come into view, upload them to a central server, and compare them to a “hot list” of vehicles sought by police. The ALPR system told the police that Gilliam’s car had the same license plate number as a stolen vehicle. But the stolen vehicle was a motorcycle with Montana plates, while Gilliam’s vehicle was an SUV with Colorado plates.

Couple that with gun-happy ICE agents, and it spells disaster!

Police over-reliance on ALPR systems is also a problem. Detroit police knew that the vehicle used in a shooting was a Dodge Charger. Officers then used ALPR cameras to find the license plate numbers of all Dodge Chargers in the area around the time. One such car, observed fully two miles away from the shooting, was owned by Isoke Robinson.  Police arrived at her house and handcuffed her, placed her 2-year old son in the back of their patrol car, and impounded her car for three weeks. None of the officers even bothered to check her car’s fog lights, though the vehicle used for the  shooting had a missing fog light.

Officers have also abused ALPR databases to obtain information for their own personal gain, for example, to stalk an ex-wife. Sadly, officer abuse of police databases is a recurring problem.

In my town there are twelve reported cameras.

The Institute for Justice also found problems with the data.

But those machine errors account for about one-third of the mistakes in the cases IJ identified. The rest involved human error, with officers entering wrong information into the system or misinterpreting what the ALPR data says.

Last year in San Diego, for instance, officers were searching for a red Alfa Romeo connected to an attempted carjacking. The officers didn’t have a plate and were instead relying on Flock’s “vehicle signature” technology, which captures detailed characteristics of individual cars like make, model, and color. 

The Flock system gave them a positive hit on a superficially matching car—but it was a totally different red Alfa Romeo, located five miles away from the crime at the time it occurred. Officers nevertheless arrested all three of the car’s occupants. One passenger spent nearly a month behind bars during the holidays before officers realized their error and set him free. 

People lives are at stake... there can be no false reporting!

People's lives are at stake—there can be no false reporting!

Also, there have been a number of cases where the police used the data to track ex-girlfriends. The Institute for Justice in another article reported;

An ongoing review of media reports and public records by the Institute for Justice has identified at least 24 cases nationwide of officers allegedly abusing ALPR data this way, with the bulk of those incidents happening since 2024. Nearly all of these officers were criminally charged and lost their jobs, either by resigning or getting fired. 

Flock Safety and other ALPR providers emphasize that they have internal safeguards to prevent this kind of misuse. But only a few of the 24 analyzed cases were initially discovered through internal investigations, according to media reports. Most incidents came to light only after victims reported the officers’ behavior to the police, typically in the context of a broader stalking allegation. 

“The fundamental problem with these systems is that they place private information about people’s movements over time in the hands of every officer,” said Michael Soyfer, an Institute for Justice attorney who is representing residents of San Jose and Norfolk in lawsuits challenging their cities’ ALPR surveillance networks. “Without the constitutional safeguard of a warrant requirement, that predictably allows officers to abuse their access to these systems for things like stalking romantic partners.” 

In an article in the Courthouse News they write;

In a lawsuit, two California drivers have accused tech company Flock Safety of violating state law by allowing out-of-state and federal agencies to access information captured by its automated license-plate recognition (ALPR) cameras.

“Flock has created an Orwellian mass-surveillance infrastructure that is practically impossible to avoid, particularly for anyone operating a vehicle in the towns and cities across this country where Flock has installed its cameras,” the drivers say in their complaint, filed Thursday in state court in San Francisco.

“Flock attempts to evade responsibility and shift liability for its violations by pointing fingers at its own customers,” they claim. “But Flock cannot rely on weaponized incompetence when its obligations under California law are crystal clear.”

They go on to write that various police agencies go around the law by search the databases at the request of ICE and CPB.

The Mountain View Police Department, the plaintiffs say, discovered only recently that federal agencies accessed its cameras’ data through a nationwide search tool. They say this feature was enabled without the police department’s permission or knowledge.

In recent months, the cities of Santa Cruz, Richmond, Mountain View and Los Altos Hills all shut down Flock cameras or terminated their contracts, according to the drivers.

Last October, California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the city of El Cajon over its refusal to comply with state law prohibiting the sharing of license plate data with federal and out-of-state law enforcement agencies.

Here in Connecticut they tried to pass a law but it never made it to the floor of the legislature last session. In the bill HB 5449: AN ACT CONCERNING AUTOMATED LICENSE PLATE READER SYSTEMS, and it states...

108 (5) Unless authorized pursuant to section 29-6d of the general

109 statutes, collect automated license plate reader data on the premises or

110 within a distance established by the Police Officer Standards and

111 Training Council pursuant to section 2 of this act, of a reproductive or

112 sexual health facility, as defined in section 42-515 of the general statutes,

113 that primarily provides gender-affirming health care services or a

114 nonprofit or community organization that primarily serves immigrant

115 communities, excluding any property under federal jurisdiction,

116 provided such facility or organization notified the Police Officer

117 Standards and Training Council of such facility's or organization's

118 location;

You have to wonder if this is ultimately just a clever way to bypass the Fourth Amendment. After all, it is no longer the government directly collecting your personal data—it is a private company doing the legwork, which then sells access right back to government agencies. When private corporations build massive, unregulated tracking databases that police departments simply "subscribe" to, it creates a dangerous constitutional gray area.

These are, indeed, the new shades of Big Brother.