Welcome to the tail end o’ the month: it’s August 31, 2026 and We Love Memoirs Day. Well, I love biographies more, as they’re not distorted by the self-image issue of a memoir, and yesterday I posted a short list of my favorite biographies, inviting readers to name their choices.
It’s also Eat Outside Day, National Diatomaceous Earth Day, National Trail Mix Day, and National Matchmaker Day.
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the August 31 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz: Lots about the Middle East toeday.
*The NYT has an article about Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey (D) called “Most Democrats don’t want to talk about transgender athletes. He’s leaning in” (article archived here).
Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts might be the only high-profile Democrat in America eagerly campaigning as a supporter of transgender rights.
Even as many other top Democrats have grown cagey on the issue, Mr. Markey is offering a passionate defense of transgender athletes as he runs in a primary contest on Tuesday against Representative Seth Moulton, a more moderate challenger.
Mr. Markey has argued in particular that Mr. Moulton “threw trans kids under the bus” when, shortly after the 2024 election, the congressman attributed Democrats’ defeat in part to their position on transgender issues. Mr. Moulton long defended his remarks but expressed some contrition for them this month.
“Trans athletes should be able to play,” Mr. Markey said in an interview this past week. “That reflects Massachusetts and who we are. And Seth Moulton does not.”
Mr. Markey, 80, has staked out his ardent pro-trans rights position at a moment when the rest of his party is grappling with the issue, which President Trump and other Republicans have used as a cultural wedge. Ambitious younger Democrats who are likely to run for president — including Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and Pete Buttigieg, the former transportation secretary — have edged away from defending the participation of transgender athletes in women’s and girls’ sports.
Other prominent Democrats have sought to defuse the issue by not talking about it or punting responsibility while trying to pivot to more favorable issues like the economy.
Mr. Markey has leaned in. He is, according to Charlotte Clymer, a liberal activist and strategist who is transgender and supports the senator, “the only one who is really talking about this front and center.”
Markey, while presumably expressing his moral conviction, is not only out of step with most Americans on transgender “right” in sports (see below), but I think is also pushing a policy that is palpably unfair to biological women in sports. While most Americans, like me, favor banning discrimination against trans people in jobs, housing, and other public accommodations (56%, to be precise), most Americans don’t favor transgender athletes competing on sports teams that don’t match their natal sex.
From a 2025 Pew Survey:
- 73% of Americans were uncomfortable with transgender athletes competing on sports teams that do not match their sex at birth.
- 66% of adults favored a law or policy that would require trans athletes to compete on teams that match their sex at birth.
*After more Israeli violence against Palestinians in the West Bank Saturday, PM Netanyahu finally condemned it (article archived here).
Dozens of Israeli settlers burst into a Palestinian man’s house in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, trapping and attacking people inside, the Israeli military and Palestinian witnesses said. It was the latest in a series of assaults by Israeli extremists that have drawn international condemnation.
The attack took place near the Palestinian town of Qusra in the northern West Bank, where groups of Israeli settlers recently besieged the homes of several other Palestinians, including an American citizen. Violence has snowballed in the Israeli-occupied territory over the past several months, with Palestinians saying the Israeli authorities frequently look the other way.
But the intensity of Saturday’s assault drew a rare condemnation from Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, who has largely played down the attacks as the actions of a small minority.
The Israeli military said soldiers were sent to both Qusra and nearby Jalud after reports of violent clashes and Israeli rioters hurling stones toward Palestinians. Dozens of rioters had “barricaded themselves” inside a Palestinian house, the military said, leading Israeli forces to remove the attackers and confiscate their vehicles. It was not clear whether any Israelis were arrested.
The house’s owner, Luay Beyrouti, 29, said that around noon on Saturday, a handful of settlers had approached the structure, throwing stones. Mr. Beyrouti’s family does not live in the house at the moment; he had gone there along with several other Palestinians to renovate it.
. . . A separate attack unfolded about four miles away in the Palestinian town of Jalud. A group of masked Israeli settlers attacked and injured reporters with NBC News who were interviewing a Palestinian woman driven out of her home, the outlet said. Settlers in a car approached the group as they were walking down a hill, hitting them with sticks and throwing rocks, according to NBC, which said three of its staff and the woman were hurt.
Members of Israel’s right-wing, pro-settler government have frequently argued that concerns about settler violence are overblown, and officials have sometimes signaled their support for Israelis accused of attacks.
But on Saturday, Mr. Netanyahu said the attackers were not only “breaking the law” but also harming Israel’s reputation abroad, causing “immense harm to the law-abiding settler community” and damaging “Israel’s standing in the world.”
“I expect law enforcement authorities to arrest the rioters and bring them to justice as soon as possible,” Mr. Netanyahu said.
Netantyahu is of course right here: nobody should be inflicting violence on somebody else or intimidating them, and those who do should be punished. (He seems more fixated on Israel’s reputation than on the attacked Palestinians.) However, I think it’s debatable whether Israelis who settle in area C of the West Bank should be called “settlers”, as there’s a credible case to be made that their presence in this area is not illegal (many think that “settling” is illegal under international law).
*Over at It’s Noon in Israel, Amit Segal has a piece called, “‘Not as Naive as you think’: America’s Gaza Gamble.” The statement refers to the U.S. who, according to Segal, is giving away the store in Gaza.
t’s Sunday, August 30, and over the past year the Americans have talked with almost every lowlife in the Middle East. The Iranians are like the don of the crime family. Hamas is his debt collector, way down at the end of the chain, on some street in New Jersey.
While everyone fixates on the dons, the Americans are once again talking to the debt collectors. On the face of it, Hamas got a big prize: Jared Kushner met with senior figures of the murderous terror organization that murdered and kidnapped dozens of Americans on October 7. The Americans have an answer: last year we met with them to extract 56 hostages; now—the kidnapped Gaza Strip itself.
We’re not as naive as you think, they keep repeating. Time and again we said Hamas will have no weapons and no control over the Strip. The means matter less to us than the end. People forget the meetings with senior Hamas figures, they say. And in the same breath they note that a very, very senior figure in the defense establishment spoke directly, by phone, with the heads of the Nazi organization during the negotiations to free hostages. Why is it permitted for you and not for us, they say.
In Israel people are appalled at the thought of Qatar and Turkey being involved in the Strip. Contrary to what the opposition says, the two hostile states won’t send soldiers into the Strip. But their very presence on the oversight council—the body meant to determine whether Israel is meeting the agreement or not—is untenable, practically and morally.
Most of Israel’s concerns were laid to rest after some back-and-forth with the Americans. What remains is the fear that the international body, instead of demilitarizing Hamas, will separate the IDF from Hamas and effectively constrain Israel’s movements in the Strip.
At the White House they’re angry with Benjamin Netanyahu, but they’ve fallen in line with most of his demands. Trump himself has, for months now, pointedly refrained from declaring support for him in the election. But his people are preparing a victory image for Likud: a handover of weapons in the Strip, into American hands, before the elections. The payment, in the form of a partial withdrawal, will be on credit—after the ballot boxes close.
Agreed: first Hamas must completely disarm, and then the IDF will withdraw. Why? Because Hamas has proven itself untrustworthy, because they are sworn to destroy Israel and its Jews, and because if Israel agrees to withdraw if Hamas scrupulously meet the conditions of the agreement, then Israel will indeed withdraw.
*The Jerusalem Post reports that Finland has discontinued funding to UNRWA , making it one of only three countries (including the U.S. and Sweden) to stop funding an organization that is not only ridden with Hamas terrorists, but also promotes terrorism in its schools.
Finland has chosen not to renew its multi-year funding agreement with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) after it expires this year, Finnish Foreign Trade Minister Ville Tavio announced on Thursday. The multi-year agreement, which was signed in March 2023, included Finland contributing a total of 20 million euros to UNRWA. It followed a previous 2019-2022 agreement, throughout which Finland provided 5 million euros to the agency each year. In a post on X/Twitter, Tavio clarified that his country will not reduce its funding for humanitarian efforts in Palestinian territories and will instead contribute to organizations like the World Food Programme.
Tavio previously ordered Finland to suspend its contributions to the agency in 2024 over allegations that UNRWA employees participated in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacre against Israel. In a January 2024 press release, Tavio asserted that his country “must make sure that not a single euro of Finland’s money goes to Hamas or other terrorists” and urged that the allegations be seriously investigated.
. . . Since the 2024 allegations, UNRWA has been plagued by additional accusations and investigations, with multiple employees being found to have participated in the October 7 massacre and maintained ties to terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
Grok adds this via UN Watch:
In late January 2024, roughly 16–18 countries plus the EU temporarily paused or delayed new funding pending investigations. These included Germany, the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, and others. Almost all of those that paused later resumed contributions in 2024 after UNRWA fired accused staff, launched probes, and pledged reforms. The Netherlands briefly planned a phase-out but restored full annual funding (€19 million) in 2026.
Funding for UNRWA should be suspended not just because it’s a refuge for Palestinian terrorism, but also because it is the only UN agency for refugees that is designated for a specific group of people. All the rest of the world’s refugees are dealt with by a single agency, the The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which works in more than 130 countries.
*The battle between the U.S. and Canada continues about what Lake Ontario is supposed to be called. As you remember, in a move of his unusual stupidity, even for Trump, our “President” decided to change the name of “Lake Ontario” to “Lake America,” even though only American agencies have to use the new name. But Canada is fighting back!
Donald Trump and Canada continued a verbal duel on Saturday over the US government’s administrative renaming of Lake Ontario, with the country erecting a giant sign saying “Lake Ontario. Now and Always” – and the American president posting a video of him tearing down an avatar of that sign, erecting a replacement saying Lake America, and dancing to YMCA.
Rhetoric over the naming of Lake Ontario is the public face of an escalating trade dispute between the US and its northern neighbor involving a 50% US tariff on Canadian steel and retaliatory tariffs from Ottawa.
Trump’s order for the US government to refer to Lake Ontario as Lake America by Sunday had at least one prominent impact. Google Maps had changed Lake Ontario’s name to Lake America for US users to reflect the president’s executive renaming order.
Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney has flat-out rejected the renaming, explaining that Lake Ontario derives from an Indigenous Wendat word meaning “the lake is beautiful, the lake is great” that dates back more than 400 years.
. . . In a statement explaining why it was acquiescing to Trump’s desired name for Lake Ontario, Google said its practice is to “reflect name changes in official government sources”. Trump’s order affects the US’s federal Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), “which sets the standard for official US maps”, the tech company said.
. . .Meanwhile, on Saturday, the US president raised the volume again by resorting to the kind of AI-generated imagery for which he has shown a penchant.
He posted one such video of an army of Canada geese with Trump-like blond hair firing rifles in protection of Lake America. He published another of himself kicking over a Lake Ontario sign and replacing it with Lake America while he danced in his distinctive to a soundtrack of the Village People hit YMCA, which he has implemented into his public appearances for years.
Across the US’s northern border, Ontario premier Doug Ford replied with a two-stories high billboard declaring “Lake Ontario. Now and Always,” near Grimsby, Ontario. Ford said Trump was trying to rename the lake because Ontario and Canada were “standing up for ourselves”, and he argued the name would outlast the president.
“Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario,” Ford said in a video posted on social media.
You go, Canada! Here’s a video of Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, unveiling the sign.
And a short spoof video of the name change with an original song. I quite like this one:
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili objects to one part of science:
Hili: What is science?
Andrzej: A method of systematically seeking the truth, combined with the ability to admit when one is wrong.
Hili: Not for me.
In Polish:
Hili: Co to jest nauka?
Ja: Metoda systematycznego dociekania prawdy, połączona ze zdolnością przyznania się do błędu.
Hili: To nie dla mnie.
*******************
Talking about things with faces, reader Colin sent me a photo he took of a “rather sad banana, who had just heard about Dolly Parton’s death.”:
From The Language Nerds:
From CinEmma:
From Masih: a condemned protestor in Iran tells his family, in a last message, not to believe anything the regime says about him:
Before the Islamic Republic of Iran hanged Majid Adineh, they gave him one last chance to speak to his family and his final message to his mother, he exposed the“confession” broadcast by the regime.
Majid was arrested during Iran’s January uprising and accused of killing… pic.twitter.com/pgZMNDB6UO
— Masih Alinejad (@AlinejadMasih) August 29, 2026
From Luana. Do you notice anything bizarre about this ad?
assumed this was slide thread bs, but no… it is real, it’s live right now you can go check (archive refusing to archive) pic.twitter.com/7rNIPtOXgg
— KEQUE🫘🆙 (@KequeMage) August 29, 2026
From Simon; clearly AI but funny:
Canadian will now be known as Donald Ducks! 🤣 pic.twitter.com/Fnd6IojTza
— Joe G (@EastEndJoe) August 29, 2026
From J. K. Rowling, whose daughter will be signing her mom’s autographs:
My signature and my youngest daughter’s first attempt at forging my signature. I’ve seen enough bogus ‘signed’ Potters to know she’s a real criminal talent. Very proud. pic.twitter.com/EPkxbLNICb
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) August 29, 2026
Two from my feed; first, a hungry donkey:
The donkey clearly asked nicely. Before he came in hot pic.twitter.com/nPud2I6Pvd
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) August 30, 2026
Birds of Paradise have awesome courtship. Here’s a male of one species:
Courtship dance of the the rare King Bird of Paradise pic.twitter.com/XP770Ux0fQ
— Science girl (@sciencegirl) August 30, 2026
One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:
This French Jewish girl was gassed to death as soon as she arrived in Auschwitz. She would be 88 today had she lived. https://t.co/gNBtXlOXW0
— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) August 31, 2026
From Matthew, who loves sprites. Translation from the Russian:
“Red sprites near Sayre, Oklahoma, on August 15. I specifically planned my trip from Arizona to catch this show!”
🔭 «Красные спрайты возле города Сэйр, Оклахома, 15 августа. Cпециально спланировал свою поездку из Аризоны так, чтобы попасть на это шоу!» – делится Джим Тан
— Старый Ворон/Old Raven (@oldvalravn.bsky.social) 2026-08-30T09:18:43.412Z
I see a white man and I want him painted black.
(with thanks to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards)
Haha!
The bizarre thing I see in the photos is that the woman is wearing a swimsuit in the shower.
The showerheads and rails changed colour too. Maybe chrome is more expensive?
If I were Canada, and Trump said it was now Lake America, I’d say, No, it isn’t, and go about my business. What Trump did was silly; they met him halfway.
If around 3/4 of the US population is against biological men competing in women’s sports, it seems a bit odd expect them to vote for you when you tell them they are not only wrong, but also bad people. The need to signal virtue must be dreadfully strong.
Against this strong tide of public opinion, the senator may be one who is a True Believer and is sticking to their convictions. There are those who will agree with the senator.
True Believers wouldn’t care if 95% of the American public was against male transgender athletes in women’s sports teams because they see the situation as equivalent to a century ago when 95% of the American public was against black athletes in major sports teams. They genuinely think the arc of expanding human rights is going in their direction and they will end up on the enlightened, victorious side.
Strident self-righteousness is the stock in trade of gender ideologues. How many times have we seen vile, unhinged attacks on anyone who dares disagree with their ideology? Even if you support trans rights in all cases except where the extension of such rights would infringe someone else’s rights (e.g., the right of females to compete in sports only against other females), the exception makes you a “monster” trying to “erase” trans people.
Markey is a politician and therefore not engaging in such vitriol, but I have a hard time thinking that he is right that the majority of Massachusetts residents favor trans participation in women’s sports. I no longer live in Massachusetts, but if I did Moulton would get my vote.
Moulton has since backtracked on his opposition to men in women’s sports.
Conspicuously absent from the Jewish settler violence story about the settlers holed up in a Palestinian’s house is:
1) context (Palestinian Arab violence against Jews in the West Bank is at least ten times higher than the reverse; Jewish violence rates against any group of people in the West Bank is statistically-equivalent to safe American cities)
2) What was the Jewish settler’s side of the story? Why were they doing what they were doing?
The town of Qusra is half in Area B (Palestinian jurisdiction, but with Israeli security, where Palestinians are allowed to settle, and Jews are not) and half is in Area C (Israeli jurisdiction and security, where Jews are allowed to settle, but Palestinians are not).
It is known that some Palestinians in the West Bank are paid provocateurs, who do everything they can to instigate trouble with Jewish settlers for propaganda purposes.
Exactly where was this house in relation to the Area boundary? Is Luay Beyrouti a provocateur? The story mentions that the Jewish settlers said that Luay Beyrouti was not allowed to build there – is that true or false?
The blowing up of –any– settler violence in the western media is an effort to “balance” a situation (Arab violence against Jews) which is out of control and stick to the current narrative.
Why?
Answered herein Roger: (from my column, posted perviously here at WEIT)
https://democracychronicles.org/why-is-the-media-and-mob-so-anti-israel/
best,
D.A.
NYC
The delegitimization of Israel and dehumanization of Jews requires that every sin of the Palestinians themselves (Naziism, genocide, apartheid, expansionist colonialism, even starvation [the Arabs deliberately starved Jerusalem in 1948-1949]) be projected onto Israel.
Indeed! Google quite correctly calls it Lake America. But looking up ‘Lake America’ takes me to Lake America Family Physicians in Orlando. I expect it to improve soon. Renaming is fun 🙂
While Israeli settler violence against Palestinians may not be commonplace (and violence against Israelis may be more prevalent), I think it’s good that Prime Minister Netanyahu (finally) spoke out against it. World opinion matters, and Israel doesn’t need another excuse for world opprobrium.
Yes, as Roger Lambert says, the West Bank is a Swiss cheese of jurisdictions that makes this whole thing a muddy mess.
Three things, actually.
(1) Wayfair has been so ideologically-captured that it has un-self-consciously resorted to using black-face (and body)! If this observation goes viral, Wayfair will be toast.
(2) What woman would shower in her bra?
(3) Wayfair must think their customers are easy marks, the way they mark up this product.
βPer
What’s in a name? It turns out some things should remain as they are for no other reason than . . . tradition! Well, I’ll be. Blue bodies matter.
What’s in a label? That’s more important. But a label doesn’t conjure reality. If I believed there were such a thing as “trans kids,” then I would have more sympathy with Markey. After all, who’s against kids and letting them be themselves? Kids know who they are and what they want to be: dinosaurs, daddy, bunnies, not potty trained.
“But surely there are trans kids, which are just the juvenile version of transmen and transwomen. And we know what they are.” Uh huh. Transmen are women; transwomen are men. They all used to be boys and girls. Nor is there evidence that any of them have some sexed inner soul constitutive of a so-called “gender identity.” And even if there were, it would be irrelevant to male versus female feats on the athletic field.
Let’s let the kids be. And maybe take them for a weekend at the lake, preferably screen-free.
Intersex people really exist. That they are assigned a sex at birth does not change this reality. Where athletic intersex people should compete is an open question.
Yes, that has been discussed at length on this site. They are exceedingly rare: around 0.02 %.
Very few trans-identifying people are intersex. I stand by my rejection of the gender metaphysics, while freely granting the biological reality of the exceedingly rare edge cases.
People with intersex medical conditions are still male or female. They should compete with their own sex like everyone should.
In sports it’s important to remember that people play with their bodies and not their identities. A male body belongs in male sports. So simple and it is not complicated.
Sen. Markey reflects the Democratic party (in his state) and where he is at (geographically). Seth Moulton (D-MA) (who I would vote for) does not.
He stated ‘I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that’.
Sadly, the reaction to his very tame remarks shows what is wrong with the Democrats and how deeply entrenched it is. He was widely accused of ‘transphobia’ (the worst possible crime) and ‘hate’. His campaign manager (Matt Chilliak) resigned. He was denounced by the mayor of Salem and the governor of Massachusetts. There were public demonstrations against him. Conversely the change dot org petition against him only has 127 signatures. Trans is a religion on the left. He attacked (not really) what they regard as god.
I have noticed a tendency for adherents of ‘gender ideology’ to call everyone else a ‘Nazi’. For a notably bad example, see the comments of Alejandra Caraballo. It (not clear if it is a she or he) has accused JKR of ‘Holocaust denial’. For another bad example, Liz Bradt (head of the Salem Democratic party) called (in writing) Seth Moulton (D-MA) a ‘Nazi cooperator’.
Moulton has since backtracked his opposition to men in women’s sports.
“Trans athletes should be able to play,” Mr. Markey said in an interview this past week.
Of course they should be able to play; the issue is who do they play against. Most of us take the biological reality-based view that, for reasons of fairness (and privacy in locker rooms and showers), trans-“women” (i.e., men) should compete against other men, not against women.
Regarding the settler issue, Melanie Philips made a good point in one of her recent comments: If Israel can be 20% Arab/Muslim, why can’t “Palestine” be 20% Jewish? Why must “Palestine” be Judenrein?
Today is the anniversary of my late beloved kitteh Daphne Lucky Squeaky. She was very ill, so I had her euthanized on this day in 2017. Little Daphne — she was the runt of the litter according to my vet — was all black with a white spot on her chest. I rescued her, her twin sister Lucy, and an unrelated itteh bitteh kitteh from death row at the pound. Daphne was a very sweet and shy little girl. She loved breakfast cereal. Her favorite was Special K original. RIP baby Daphne. I miss you.
Ah, Charlotte Clymer. The man who once tweeted “Lord, grant me the confidence of a mediocre white man”, while simultaneously being a mediocre white man.
That tweet is in my #TRAsDontDoIrony set of memes.
My favorite memoir – “West With the Night” by Beryl Markham, similar to “Out of Africa” in the same area and time. Yes there are some things that seem a bit beyond belief but it is so beautifully written that you want to read it slowly because you don’t want it to end.