Perhaps the most misunderstood word in contemporary queer theory really isn’t that complicated—cisgender is the opposite of transgender.

“An Associated Press analysis of fundraising reports filed with federal regulators through Friday found that nearly 60 donations of a million dollars or more accounted for about a third of the more than $380 million brought in so far for the 2016 presidential election,” Julie Bykowicz and Jack Gillum write.

Richard Orange writes about the word snippa. In my opinion, the best Swedish-language inventions since the word ombudsman.

“16-year-old Shira Banki was critically wounded after being stabbed by Yishai Shlissel three days ago,” Rotem Elisera and Roi Yanovsky of Ynetnews report.

A notoriously homophobic couple in Oklahoma invest heavenly in anti-gay billbords to give car folks a moment of sudden and great revelation.

The Economist gives the best explanation of the EU I have read in long while.

This story is two weeks old, but the horror is eternal. It’s like something from an average B-film!

“Kravitz performed to an audience of thousands of cheering fans at Stockholm’s biggest theme park—Gröna Lund—on Monday night,” The Local writes. “And the rock legend, who is not known for pulling any punches on stage, went all in to offer his Swedish audience the whole package. Yes, the whole package.”

Magnus Goethe tweeted a NSFW-picture.

This should be a reminder to all that underpants should be used—always! Even when wearing leather trousers!

The jockeying to win a ticket to the first Republican presidential debate in Cleveland ended a few hours ago when Fox News announced the the candidates who will be on the stage tomorrow evening. Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Chris Christie, and John Kasich are in. Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, Jim Gilmore, and George Pataki are out. Steven Shepard of Politico predicts that Donald Trump will be centre stage. I think he’s right. When it comes to attention-grabbing stupidity, few can challenge Trump.

This week, Malmö celebrates Pride. This year’s event has been cleverly marketed with the help of professionals. If you’re in town, take a look at Malmö Pride’s website.

An investigation team has revealed that one employer in tolerant Sweden prefers a lazy unqualified, and straight applicant to an eager, qualified, but gay one. It’s important to have these things documented as many people nowadays think anti-gay bigotry does no longer exist in this country.

I’ve downloaded a new blog app and is trying it now. Don’t pay any attention to this entry.

“More incidents than ever before were reported last year, according to fresh figures from a Swedish crime statistics agency,” The Local reports.

Who needs expensive gym membership when all you need to build a great body is, well, you body? The Art of Manliness has an article on the prisoner workout.

The second republican presidential debate will begin in an hour. I’m very into politics and have a fondness for American ditto, but I wonder if I or anyone else will be able to maintain interest in the year to come.

From a European perspective, a fascinating thing with the Republican debate on Fox News so far is how well the argument against big-government federalism corresponds to the EU debate.

It’s so very disturbing to watch ten men triumphing each other on who is the most anti-choice for women. They talk about unborn babies being killed, but what about all the poor women who die as a direct result of abortion bans? What about their lives?

On 5 August, I wrote about a video showing anti-gay discrimination in Sweden. The boss who preferred a lazy unqualified, and straight applicant to an eager, qualified, but gay one has now posted an apology. There’s hope for humankind!

“Republican frontrunner starts off showdown by refusing to make a pledge not to run third-party campaign and fending off accusations of misogyny,” Dan Roberts of the Guardian writes.

I reacted on this, too. It is astonishing that a candidate in the first televised debate cannot rule out an independent run.

“Attacks against EU migrants and their habitats are increasing, but few lead to prosecutions, according to police and voluntary organisations,” The Local reports.

I hate the terminology. “EU migrant” has in Swedish political discourse become a synonym for poor Roma beggars from Rumania. The vast majority of migrants from other EU member states are not beggars and never referred to as EU migrants. Besides, the whole debate about the problems with beggars is based on ancient antiziganism and contempt for people living in poverty.

“Greek unemployment fell to 25% in May, down from 27% in May 2014,” EU Observer reports.

25%!!!

“Germany does not believe that a deal on a third bailout for Greece can reached on time for Athens to make its next repayment to the European Central Bank,” EU Observer reports.

A problem with these constant alarms about Greece’s inability to pay its debts is that no one really has the strength to care. Greece has been the main worry for so long that fatigue is setting in. There are other subjects, beside Greece, that deserve some attention from European politicians.

Europe must take a decisive step towards light federalism and collective bonds for the Eurozone.

“Tonnes of pork tossed into incinerators, truckloads of cheese bulldozed into the ground, and an orchard’s worth of apples buried in a shallow grave,” Shaun Walker of the Guardian reports. “The visuals of Russia’s stepped-up fight against sanctioned foodstuffs have been dramatic, and left many Russians wondering why so much is being destroyed in a country where millions of people live below the poverty line.”

This is simply ridiculous, but Putin, with his Soviet complex, feels he has to do this since Europe and America don’t recognise his bullying of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. What Europe needs to do is to stop buying his gas and oil. Hopefully, Russian people will soon realise that their leader is a crook and topple him from his throne.

“According to a statement by Israeli security services Shin Bet, the man has allegedly admitted to working for Hezbollah, providing ‘evidence that Hezbollah is planning a new war against Israel’,” The Local reports.

On the same story, Yoav Zitun of Ynetnews writes:

Hassan Khalil Hizran, 55, was arrested at Ben Gurion International Airport on July 21 on his way to Israel. Swedish authorities were updated about the arrest.

According to the indictment, Hizran joined Hezbollah in the summer of 2009 as an intelligence source. He was tasked with recruiting Israeli Arab assets with social ties to Jewish Israelis, army officials and government officials, which he refrained from doing despite pressure from his handlers.

He was also tasked with collecting any useful and relevant information about Israel, including places in which there are large concentrations of IDF troops, arms, tanks and military bases.

To that end he visited Israel several times, and then met with his Hezbollah handlers in Beirut to provide them with the information he collected, according to the indictment.

And:

Hizran also provided Shin Bet investigators with information about a group called “The Lebanese House” that operates in Malmö, Sweden. The members of the group are Shiites who are involved in social and cultural Shiite activity, mark Hezbollah anniversaries, watch speech of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, and more.

I woke up early and couldn’t sleep, so I have spent the past few hours going through old diary entries in search for broken links. Amongst other things, I have changed about a hundred video links and replaced the old code with new one that works.

“Britain enforced a new law,” The Economist reports. “It will help the country deal with illegally parked horses.”

From NASA:

The six astronauts currently living on the International Space Station (ISS) have become the first people to eat food grown in space. The fresh red romaine lettuce that accompanied the crew’s usual freeze-dried fare, however, is far from the first crop grown on a space station. For decades, NASA and other agencies have experimented with plants in space, but the results were always sent to Earth for examination, rather than eaten.

Image: Orbital Technologies and NASA.

“Just days before the statute of limitations is due to expire on some of the sexual offences Assange is being investigated for, Ecuador rubbished claims by Swedish officials that prosecutors had travelled to its London embassy in June to question him” The Local reports. “The 44-year-old Australian has been holed up inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden on allegations of rape and sexual assault—accusations by two women that he vehemently denies.”

This has to be one of the biggest farce in history. Not only does the suspected rapist hide in a room smaller than a prison cell for a time much longer than had he been convicted for the crime he is allegedly committed, he has managed to waste millions of British and Swedish money by behaving that a lunatic hunted by conspiracy theories. What bothers me the most, however, is the many people who without question backs this man on the unfounded assumption that the women who say he raped them are lying. Far too many people seem to buy his ramblings about Sweden being hijacked by radical feminism and prejudice against men like him. This is nuts.

What some people don’t seem to realise is that most rapists are nice and attractive men who do good in other areas. Only a few are genuinely bad men who do nothing good whatsoever. The fact that Assange has done some really good work with WikiLeaks does not mean he did not rape these women. The only way to determine what happened is to have his case tried, which he has effectively made impossible by pretending to be a victim.

Image: David Silvers (Flickr).

I missed the Pride parade through Malmö on Saturday. I never march myself, but normally I’m a spectator who takes a few pictures. This year, I slept through the whole thing. An afternoon nap that became an hours-long sleep.

Anyhow, QX has published photos of the parade and the police and press report of a bigger-than-ever event.

“Disgust is designed by evolution to keep us away from parasites that may make us sick, so people pick up on, and are most disgusted by, visual representations of a parasite invasion, such an open, festering wound,” says Valerie Curtis, the Director of the Hygiene Center at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

She and a team of researchers presented twenty images of things perceived as repulsive to more than 80,000 individuals from 172 countries in a survey. The images included pictures of skin abrasions and bugs such as wasps, lice, and worms. The photo that most people found gross was of a person’s gums infested with live fly larvae.

Image: Paul Venter (Wikimedia Commons).

“Two childhood friends of Stieg Larsson have accused David Lagercrantz—the writer behind the controversial fourth book in the Swedish author’s Millennium series—of ‘grave robbing’ and ‘mockery’, ahead of its release this month,” The Local writes.

People should be free to write what they want. Using other artists’ work has always been done. But yes, it is a bit too obvious that this is done solely for the purpose of making money. Larsson’s Millennium trilogy is one of the world’s greatest sellers ever, with more than 48 million copies sold internationally.

I missed the World Elephant Day, which was yesterday. Thankfully, The Atlantic reminded me and a got to see these wonderful images of cute elephants.

This has to be one hell of shock, but why do this on Jeremy Kyle’s slimy talk show? What is it about people that make so many go on television with the most private of problems?

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From the Irish Examiner:

Researchers have found a new map of the octopus genetic code that is so strange that it could be actually be an “alien”.

The first whole cephalopod genome sequence shows a striking level of complexity with 33,000 protein-coding genes identified—more than in a human.

“In a nation where, thank heavens, racism and extremism are now regarded as beyond the pale, it is little short of astonishing that a man who chooses to associate with racists and extremists is about to become leader of one of our two main parties and could conceivably become Prime Minister,” the Jewish Chronicle writes.

In 1820, 94.4% of humans were living in extreme poverty. Only a tiny fraction of the world enjoyed standards of living that were remotely bearable. Progress was initially slow. By 1910, the share had only gotten down to 82.4%—a 12-point drop over 90 years. But things picked up after the Second World War, and 89 years after 1910, only 28.9% of people were in extreme poverty. In 2011, the most recent year represented in the chart, the extreme poverty rate had been cut to half its 1999 level—14.4%.

World Poverty Even though a countless number of socialists and conservative pessimists want you to think otherwise, globalisation and capitalism work!

Image: Chart from Our World in Data.

America’s ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, has told reporters that the meeting will focus on gay people who find themselves in territory controlled by the terror group Islamic State, Pink News reports. The meeting will be hosted by the US and Chile, and all member states interested in gay rights will be able to attend, which means that none of the countries oppressing gay people will be there. I wouldn’t be surprised if Russia soon hosts a meeting for those opposing gay rights.

“The asylum centre in Arboga, where the man suspected of the Ikea murders lived, was evacuated early Saturday morning when two bags of flammable liquid were found nearby” The Local reports. “The same night a centre for unaccompanied refugee children and young people in Värnamo was the target of an arson attack.”

This is a result of the current political debate and the normalisation of racism we are seeing in Sweden and throughout Europe. People who are mainstream Europeans are never held collectively responsible for the wrongdoings of some, whereas minorities and non-Europeans are judged not by what they as individuals are doing but by the group of people of which they are members. That’s how racism and all other forms of xenophobia works.

“The controversial law, published in the government’s official gazette, sets a minimum fine of 200,000 Egyptian pounds (about $25,000) and a maximum of 500,000 pounds for anyone who strays from government statements in publishing or spreading ‘false’ reports on attacks or security operations against militants,” the Guardian reports.

Arab winter?

“Men outnumber women for the first time in Swedish history this year, as the total population edges towards ten million,” The Local reports.

Today it’s the seventieth anniversary of the publication of George Orwell’s masterpiece, Animal Farm. The New York Review of Books has an article on the great novelist’s intention with the fable.

Top ten freest countries according to the Human Freedom Index:

1. Hong Kong
2. Switzerland
3. Finland
4. Denmark
5. New Zealand
6. Canada
7. Australia
8. Ireland
9. Britain
10. Sweden

“News media reported on Sunday that the appearance of the US reggae singer Matisyahu, who is Jewish, was canceled by the organisers of the Rototom Sunsplash festival, which will take place next weekend in Benicàssim, in eastern Spain, following pressure from the anti-Israel BDS movement,” the World Jewish Congress reports.

Racistas!

“Rototom Sunsplash rejects anti-Semitism and any form of discrimination towards the Jewish community; we respect both their culture as religious beliefs and we sincerely apologise for what has occurred,” the organisers say in a statement.

Denis MacShane explains the potential leader of the Labour Party to his friends outside Britain:

Jeremy Corbyn is the ghost of Labor’s past periods of working through the eternal question of the democratic left—power or faith?

The tragedy of the European left is that it does opposition well and office badly. Why not then stay in the comfort zone of opposition and continue to denounce all the many ills in the world?

That has been the story of Jeremy Corbyn’s adult life. He a socialist Candide, always is looking beyond the official wisdom to ask why things cannot be different.

“More people support Jimmie Åkesson’s Sweden Democrats than any other political group in Sweden,” The Local reports.

The Sweden Democrats was a neo-Nazi party until very recently but has done its best to reshape itself to respectability. The fact that it has succeed is worrying to everyone opposed to rasism and homophobia.

“Seven months after he was elected on a promise to overturn austerity, the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, has announced he is stepping down to pave the way for snap elections next month,” the Guardian reports.

“Following a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation, Yishai Schlissel—who killed a teenage girl and seriously wounded five others in a stabbing rampage at Jerusalem’s annual Gay Pride Parade last month—was deemed fit to stand trial,” Jerusalem Post reports.

“Shlissel spoke defiantly during Thursday's hearing, saying: ‘Despite the great sorrow, you need to know that anyone marching in the Jerusalem pride parade fights against the Almighty. Anyone who fights against the Almighty cannot complain’,” Ynetnews reports.

I posted my first blog entry on this date a decade ago.

“Complaints have been filed about sex on or near nude beaches in Sweden and authorities are considering what to do about it,” The Local reports.

Do we really need the authorities to do something about a thing as harmless as sex?

“We have talked about something Sweden and Britain have in common—we are not part of the eurozone,” George Osborne said at a press conference in Stockholm yesterday. He added that it is important to make sure that the interests of European countries not in eurozone are protected.

I’m not big on football, but I saw the game between Malmö and Celtic just now and feel some strange pride in the win for my city—Malmö is now ready for Champions League.

Vice President Joe Biden has a higher favourability rating and polls better nationally against the leading three Republican candidates than Hillary Clinton, Arit John of Bloomberg reports.

Clinton is boring, but Biden makes me fall asleep.

“A woman in Stockholm has been banned from renting out her apartment via the home-sharing website Airbnb after a rent tribunal likened the letting with running a ‘hotel business’ on the premises,” The Local reports.

“Vassiliki Thanou, president of the country’s supreme court, will head the caretaker government until the elections, expected next month,” the Guardian reports.

Blue is the warmest colour.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.

The headline is the definition of cultural relativism from the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. In contemporary Swedish debate, the term has somehow become synonymous to indifference to honour killings and culturally motivated oppression of women. I don’t know when and how this happened, but I first saw it on racist websites alongside condemnations of “multiculturalism”, “identity politics”, and “political correctness”; but now it appears in mainstream Swedish tabloids as a derogatory term. I think the misuse of the term is unfortunate. If we don't see oppression of women and gay people as a result of culture, we are left with the disturbing idea that some possess inheritable evil.

“The idea is a long shot but campaigners assert that the countries were closely integrated until the US separated them against their will,” Ashifa Kassam of the Guardian reports.

And yes, I do feel sorry for these sad, sad, sad people. The cute guy in the picture even use the worn-out I-have-gay-friends excuse for being a homophobic dick—that’s how sad this is.

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I learned a new word today. According to the Oxford Dictionary, fattism is prejudice or discrimination against people who are fat.