Sen. Mike Lee finally deleted some of his 'jokes' about the assassination

(As background, I wrote: What the Political Assassin in Minnesota Believes: He was influenced by the New Apostolic Reformation. June 17, 2025.)

A Republican Senator has been essentially cheering on the assassination. He waited three days to delete some (not all) of his posts.

"Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) directly confronted Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) on Monday over a series of disturbing social media posts he shared in response to the shootings of two Minnesota lawmakers and their partners.

After a gunman killed state Rep. Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband, Mark Hortman, and severely wounded state Sen. John Hoffman (D) and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, Lee wrote a post on X (formerly Twitter) baselessly claiming that “this is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way.” He then followed that post with a joke about the situation and an apparent reference to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D)."

— Li Zhou, Sen. Tina Smith Confronts Sen. Mike Lee Over His Appalling Minnesota Posts: Lee has faced immense backlash for social media posts making light of the attacks on two Minnesota lawmakers. HuffPost, Jun 17, 2025

Trump's plan for Day 1, and how it's going

I've been hanging on to this draft post since a few days after the November election, when "Trump's plan for Day 1" was still only a plan. This draft post seemed to have been a catch-all for things I didn't put in other posts. ::shrug:: We have less time now than we did in November, so I'll publish this collection of notes for whatever it may be worth to someone else.

"Donald Trump has said he wouldn’t be a dictator — “except for Day 1.” According to his own statements, he’s got a lot to do on that first day in the White House.

His list includes starting up the mass deportation of migrants, rolling back Biden administration policies on education, reshaping the federal government by firing potentially thousands of federal employees he believes are secretly working against him, and pardoning people who were arrested for their role in the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“I want to close the border, and I want to drill, drill, drill,” he said of his Day 1 plans."

— Colleen Long and Dan Merica, Trump on Day 1: Begin deportation push, pardon Jan. 6 rioters and make his criminal cases vanish, AP News, November 12, 2024

Donald Trump confirmed this morning that he plans to declare a national emergency and use military assets for a mass deportation program.

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— Matthew Gertz (@mattgertz.bsky.social) November 18, 2024 at 8:52 AM

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For a while, Matt Gaetz was going to be a thing. He was supposed to become Attorney General. Yeah, no, he had to withdraw himself from consideration.

"...don’t believe that these unfit nominees for Trump’s cabinet represent some lofty idea of making America great again. Despite all his effusive language about the supposed statesmanship of Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Tulsi Gabbard, these picks are meant to do two things: show his iron-grip control over the Senate; and sow chaos and despair in the non-MAGA members of the American public."

— As Trump's plans become clearer, reject these four dangerous ideas: Debunking and, I hope, clarifying some of the spin and lies. Margaret Sullivan. American Crisis, Nov 17, 2024

"Matt Gaetz isn’t just a degenerate backbench MAGA loyalist, he’s credibly accused of child-sex trafficking, and may soon carry out vendettas against his accusers and others as the nation’s top law-enforcement officer. Tulsi Gabbard isn’t just a wild-eyed reactionary who makes bonkers claims on foreign propaganda networks, she’s in line to lead the United States’s intelligence community. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. isn’t just a brain-wormed sex pest, he wants to mainstream an anti-vaccine culture that has left a trail of dead children in its wake."
— Brian Beutler, No, Trump's Cabinet Is Not A "Distraction": They're cabinet secretaries, ffs! Off Message, Nov 18, 2024

"Matt Gaetz, an arrested-development adolescent with the swagger of a sequined guitarist in a low-rent casino, will not be confirmed. His grotesqueness, however, makes three other nominees seem what they are not: acceptable. Considering only competence — leaving aside character blemishes — nothing in their resumes qualifies Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the policy and administrative challenges of running the Defense Department, the intelligence community and the Department of Health and Human Services, respectively."
— George F. Will. The Senate's Madisonian opportunity on those nominations: A good thing about Trump's ghastly nominees: They could jolt the Senate into reclaiming its independence. Washington Post, November 17, 2024.

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1) The term “Judeo-Christian” first appeared in the 19th century, in the context of trying to convert Jews to Christianity. 2) It’s Islamaphobic 3) most Jewish advances (Talmud, law, etc) developed under not-Christian rule, that’s usually sucked for us 4) the Crusaders mass-murdered Jews. 1/x

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— Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg (@theradr.bsky.social) November 15, 2024 at 9:06 AM

i keep saying these people hate the american system of government because it is true. “sovereign over the executive branch?” get the fuck outta here. he is a servant of the constitution and those “rogue judges” are doing their jobs!

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— jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) January 29, 2025 at 9:17 AM

'A 5 Alarm F-ing Fire': Trump's Federal Funding Freeze Is Jolting Some Dems Into Fight Mode: "The Senate must not be business as usual," warned Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as nearly two dozen Democrats cast a protest vote on a Trump nominee. Jennifer Bendery, HuffPost, Jan 28, 2025

It's all just Calvinball.

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— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona.bsky.social) January 29, 2025 at 1:59 PM

The Trump White House Wants A Court Challenge Over Frozen Funds: An internal OMB document shows that it is official administration policy to block funding to provoke a constitutional challenge. Paul Blumenthal, HuffPost, Jan 29, 2025

Lutheran Social Services is one of the largest employers in South Dakota, operating senior living facilities across the state. Republicans are shutting it down Perhaps more concerning is Mike Flynn, known foreign asset, having access to this data?

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— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog.lol) February 2, 2025 at 9:10 AM

Exclusive: Musk aides lock workers out of OPM computer systems, Tim Reid, Reuters, February 2, 2025

Judge Who Blocked Trump's Funding Freeze Is Concerned He Isn't Following The Order: The federal judge noted that organizations had informed the court as recently as last night that they still could not reach their funds., Brandi Buchman, HuffPost, Feb 3, 2025

NEW: DOGE has requested and is being granted “access to all SBA systems,” per an email sent to Small Business Admin employees today. Edward Coristine, a DOGE official, held a call with SBA staff detailing level of access they wanted, including HR, contract and payment systems

— Laura Barrón-López (@lbarronlopez.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 2:25 PM

Employees were told this access was cleared, but weren’t told by whom, and that access needed to granted in a very short time frame to Coristine and Donald Park, who appears to be an adviser to DOGE

— Laura Barrón-López (@lbarronlopez.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 2:48 PM

This is a crucial program that helps women and racial minorities build up businesses, and helps create the infrastructure of our communities, from your pet sitters to your book store.

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— Amanda Marcotte (@amandamarcotte.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 4:00 PM

As of February 2025, it's apparent that DOGE is making up numbers.

Larry Diamond has studied "over the last half-century...how democracies rise and fall," and over the "last two decades...tracking and unpacking the global democratic recession." He argues: "First, the crisis of American democracy is now squarely upon us. ... Second, it is going to get a lot worse. ... Third, democratic backsliding is moving quickly now in part because of the lack of resistance. ...the longer and further Trump and his acolytes proceed with their authoritarian ambitions, the harder it will be to resist, and the greater will be the risk not just to our democratic process but to our basic liberties. The key is to unite in defense of our democratic checks and balances, rather than to argue that every one of Trump’s policy initiatives is illegitimate." Though any "open defiance of federal court orders by the Trump administration...would be an obvious impeachable offense," we must remember "that in his first term, Trump committed other impeachable offenses for which he was not held accountable."
— Larry Diamond, Trump's America Is in a Free Fall—Not a Slippery Slope—to Tyranny: He is instilling fear not just among lawmakers but every sector of society that dares to criticize him or hold him accountable. The UnPopulist, Feb 20, 2025

Various court rulings about what he's trying to do: CNN, Feb 22, 2025

In fact, this is money appropriated by Congress & Republican lawmakers have pushed government subsidies & grants to religious organizations for years. Lutheran Social Services is one of the largest employers in South Dakota, where it operates senior living facilities. Musk wants to fuck it all up.

— Jimi’s Plectrum (@jw1958.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 2:46 AM

The GOP admin has been using the bully pulpit to extort, menace, and otherwise obstruct justice against anyone his admin perceives to be an enemy. One firm the GOP admin targeted, Paul Weiss, folded to protect their bottom line. Now, EVERY lawyer has a target on their back. Niemöller weeps.

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— Hypatia L.A. Seneschale ↙️↙️↙️ (she/her) 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (@femiyahtzee.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 7:42 AM

“I just think that the law firms have to behave themselves, and we’ve proven that – we have others that want to make a settlement, also having to do with the election and other things. They behaved very badly, very wrongly, and I appreciate the one — you know, these are the biggest firms, and they all came back realizing that they did wrong. That’s why they’re doing this. So, I just think they have to behave.” — Donald Trump (CNN, March 24, 2025)

The next step is to strip the nonprofit status of the ACLU and any other civil rights orgs that challenge the Trump administration. There won't be any lawyers left to bring the kinds of litigation necessary to stop the attack on the rule of law. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

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— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) March 25, 2025 at 12:07 PM

There are law school legal clinics working on these cases as well. I fully expect the Trump administration to threaten federal funding to any law school that has clinics bringing challenges to the administration's lawless actions. We are well and truly into fascism.

— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) March 25, 2025 at 12:09 PM

Trump Is Building a Global Gulag for Immigrants Captured by ICE: The U.S. is in talks with 19 nations, including Libya, Kosovo, Rwanda, and Moldova, to accept deportees from other countries. Nick Turse, Jonah Valdez, The Intercept, May 15 2025

“The plain message that they are conveying is: If you even think about, talk about or claim to be in favor of diversity, of equity, of inclusion, of accessibility, you will be targeted,” said Maya Wiley, the president and chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

“They’re conveying that white men are the most discriminated against people in American society,” she added, “and therefore entitled to affirmative action.”

* * *

Catherine E. Lhamon, who previously served as the head of the Office for Civil Rights at the Education Department, said the investigations showed a pattern of “performative misapplication of federal civil rights law.”

“The Trump administration’s transparently vendetta-driven investigations categorically do not focus on fulfilling Congress’s guarantee that federal nondiscrimination protections apply equally,” Ms. Lhamon said. “Civil rights, properly understood, do not pit one group against another but protect all of us.”

— Erica L. Green, For Trump, Civil Rights Protections Should Help White Men: Administration officials pick and choose which civil rights protections they want to enforce, and for whom. New York Times, May 25, 2025

“The reason they’re doing [this] is to try to create an environment of fear, to try to get people like myself... to shut the fuck up,” Piker said on a stream recounting the details of the incident. www.usermag.co/p/hasan-pike...

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— On the Media (@onthemedia.bsky.social) May 12, 2025 at 2:47 PM

"At 10:19 last night, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posted on social media: “Stand with ICE. Pass the B[ig] B[eautiful] B[ill].”

And there it is. The Republicans’ “One Big, Beautiful Bill” is the MAGA regime’s attempt to replace the American government we’ve had since the 1930s with one that reflects the antidemocratic values of Project 2025."

* * *

"Maanvi Singh of The Guardian put the right lens on events in Los Angeles today, noting “Trump’s dramatic escalation” and his vow “to crush opposition to his immigration raids.” Singh identified the administration’s escalation as the trigger for “a roaring backlash.”

Singh noted federal agents carried out arrests in L.A. without judicial warrants and that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been holding families in the basements of federal buildings, refusing them access to lawyers and family members. Agents in riot gear attacked protesters with tear gas and flash-bang grenades, turning peaceful protests into clashes."

— Heather Cox Richardson, June 9, 2025, Letters from an American, Jun 10, 2025

Minnesota assassinations

June 14, 2025: assassination reported. The local newspaper, the Star Tribune, removed its paywall for this coverage: Live: Rep. Melissa Hortman assassinated, others shot in ‘targeted’ attack

Here's that HuffPost coverage.

U.S. judges feel threatened

Recently:

Amid rising tensions between the Trump administration and the judiciary, some federal judges are beginning to discuss the idea of managing their own armed security force.

The notion came up in a series of closed-door meetings in early March, when a group of roughly 50 judges met in Washington for a semiannual meeting of the Judicial Conference, a policymaking body for the federal judiciary. There, members of a security committee spoke about threats emerging as President Trump stepped up criticism of those who rule against his policies.

Dozens of judges and their relatives have received anonymous pizza deliveries to their homes—which they perceived as a “we know where you live” message. In March, five days after the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that the administration must pay USAID contractors, Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s sister was targeted with a bomb threat, according to police records. Another judge had a SWAT team called on him after he overturned an executive order restricting birthright citizenship.

Judges Weigh Taking Control of Their Own Security Amid Threats U.S. marshals, sworn to protect federal judges, ultimately answer to President Trump, who has ramped up criticism of the judiciary. By Katherine Long, James Fanelli, C. Ryan Barber. Wall Street Journal, May 24, 2025

Now:

The White House deepened its attacks on the judiciary on Wednesday [May 28] as it hit back at a federal court decision striking down President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs.

“[Trade] deficits have created a national emergency that has decimated American communities,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai told HuffPost in a statement. “It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency.”

And White House senior adviser Stephen Miller went even further, claiming in a post on X that “the judicial coup is out of control.”

White House Lashes Out At Judges After Court Blocks Trump's Tariffs A senior adviser alleged a "judicial coup" in renewed broadsides against the courts. By Li Zhou, HuffPost, May 28, 2025

Relatedly: Trump's circle, says Maggie Haberman, saw Elon Musk as "a source of tension, and he commanded this social media presence where he could intimidate any of them as well. And so I think, you know, they are happy to see this chapter end." (HuffPost, June 2, 2025)

Also:

"President Donald Trump has privately complained that the Supreme Court justices he appointed have not sufficiently stood behind his agenda, according to multiple sources familiar with the conversations. But he has directed particular ire at Justice Amy Coney Barrett, his most recent appointee, one of the sources said.

The behind-closed-doors grievances have been wide-ranging, and while many have been about Barrett, Trump has also expressed frustration about Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, the sources familiar with the matter said. The complaints have gone on for at least a year, the sources said.

The president’s anger, sources said, has been fueled by allies on the right, who have told Trump privately that Barrett is “weak” and that her rulings have not been in line with how she presented herself in an interview before Trump nominated her to the bench in 2020.

* * *

Last week, as Trump raged over a three-judge panel’s decision against his tariff plan, he took aim at Federalist Society leader Leonard Leo, who played a major role in helping Trump identify judges to put on the federal bench.

In a Truth Social post, Trump called Leo a “real ‘sleazebag’ … a bad person, who in his own way, probably hates America.”"

— Trump privately complains about Amy Coney Barrett and other Supreme Court justices he nominated, Kristen Holmes and John Fritze, CNN, June 3, 2025

Trump fears Musk:

"On Tuesday [June 3], MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell suggested why the typically “explosively rageful” president has not yet said a thing.

It boils down to Trump actually being afraid of Musk and the way he could weaponize his vast wealth against him, said “The Last Word” anchor.

“That is how you know who Donald Trump fears in this world,” he said. “If you attack Donald Trump and Donald Trump says nothing, Donald Trump’s silence is the biggest expression of fear that he has.”

— Lee Moran, Lawrence O’Donnell Reveals Why Donald Trump Hasn’t Dared To Clap Back At Elon Musk Yet: The “explosively rageful” president hasn’t said a thing, and the MSNBC anchor suggested why. HuffPost, June 4, 2025

Race and gender are different constructs

Tyra is on Instagram too

The Gender/Sexuality Journal by Tyra Blizzard

I wrote: "Why Did Richard Dawkins Tweet About Rachel Dolezal? (April 27, 2021)

ChatGPT as a search engine

Kids are taught to look things up, right? That basic recommendation assumed that available sources would contain facts. But now, there are LLMs, which are "nonsense machines." So looking things up is bad advice, or at least incomplete advice, given the widespread availability of a tool that lies to you. Otherwise kids are going to use the nonsense lying tool and believe they've learned something from it.

"They 'looked it up'! they got it from somewhere! ... it's something they think they LEARNED"

Well this is grim

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— Pavel (@spavel.bsky.social) July 6, 2024 at 5:15 PM

Schools were unprepared for this:

"at least in the early days, a total crapshoot: Some states claimed that they had not thought about ChatGPT at all, while other state departments of education brought in consulting firms to give trainings to teachers and principals about how to use ChatGPT in the classroom. Some of the trainings were given by explicitly pro-AI organizations and authors, and organizations backed by tech companies. The documents, taken in their totality, show that American public schools were wildly unprepared for students’ widespread adoption of ChatGPT, which has since become one of the biggest struggles in American education."
— American Schools Were Deeply Unprepared for ChatGPT, Public Records Show, Jason Koebler, 404 Media, May 15, 2025

No, Trump hasn't banned abortion yet. But he's ended health research for trans people

There was widespread concern in 2024 — based on the positions of many people in Trump’s orbit — that his administration might start enforcing the centuries-old Comstock Act or have the Food and Drug Administration pull approval for abortion drugs.

Didn't happen, but, as Alanna Vagianos tells us:

"In his first week as president, Trump reinstated the 'global gag rule'...[and] signed an executive order to enforce the Hyde Amendment...

And those were just the policy decisions generally expected of a Republican administration. Others have been more extraordinary — undermining decades of political precedent and quietly targeting abortion as well as basic reproductive health care like birth control and sexually transmitted infection prevention and testing."

Vagianos has put together this incredible list for HuffPost today: "Trump Still Has An Anti-Abortion Agenda, It’s Just Sneakier Than Before."

These policy decisions of Trump's first 100 days include (the numbering is mine):

1. "...entertaining pro-natalist policy ideas...[like] awarding the 'National Medal of Motherhood' to any woman who has six or more children. In Nazi Germany, women were awarded a bronze medal for having four children, silver for six and gold for eight children."
2. "he limited enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act — a federal law created to safeguard abortion clinics, patients and providers. He dismissed a handful of current ongoing investigations and pardoned 23 people for FACE convictions, effectively declaring open season on already vulnerable abortion clinics, patients and workers."
3. "He also rejoined the Geneva Consensus, an extreme global anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQIA pact created during the first Trump administration that aligns the U.S. with socially conservative countries, some of which have been accused of rampant human rights violations."
4. DOGE "dismantled the Department of Health and Human Services," disrupting or ending work by those who "monitored in vitro fertilization, tracked national maternal and infant health outcomes, as well as published key contraceptive guidelines for physicians," or "tracked maternal complications like gestational diabetes and preeclampsia," thus "losing the only source of data about the health and behavior of women before, during and shortly after pregnancy." Funding was pulled from "gender-based research, including one study grant meant to protect pregnant women from domestic violence."
5. He "cut $65.8 million in family planning grants under Title X," which had "helped fund around 4,000 health clinics, supplying nearly 3 million low-income Americans in 2023 with reproductive health care including birth control, STI testing and cancer screenings" — never abortions (by law). Some Planned Parenthood clinics closed due to the loss of funding.
6. The government "joined a Supreme Court case alongside South Carolina, arguing that states should be allowed to exclude Planned Parenthood from their Medicaid programs, even for health care services outside of abortion care." This would "effectively defund Planned Parenthood."
7. "...attacks on the trans community and attacks on reproductive justice are inherently linked. Trump’s [first] anti-trans executive order ["Defending Women"] contained 'personhood' language, used often by extremist anti-abortion groups that believe life begins at conception and fetuses should have the same legal rights as born children..."
8. "Trump has also lined his cabinet with abortion opponents, creating one of the most extreme anti-choice administrations in history."
9. "Attorney General Pam Bondi instructed the Department of Justice to dismiss a high-profile federal lawsuit over the right to emergency abortion care in Idaho — sending a clear message that the administration would rather pregnant women continue dying than offer safe abortion and miscarriage care...The person in Trump’s administration in charge of enforcing that law is Dr. Mehmet Oz, a former TV personality who is openly anti-abortion...Now that the lawsuit is dismissed, the Trump administration has the ability to rewrite federal EMTALA guidance, which would follow the far-right Project 2025 playbook perfectly."
10. "Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is responsible for gutting several HHS agencies as well as cutting Title X funding. Trump tasked him with studying the safety of mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortion...Many of the HHS agencies Kennedy decimated were also the ones that would have studied mifepristone. Kennedy himself could pull FDA approval of mifepristone, or FDA Commissioner Martin Makary could. The former Fox News contributor routinely spread anti-abortion misinformation before Trump made him head of the FDA. During Makary’s confirmation hearing, he refused to answer questions about his plans for mifepristone."
11. "John Sauer, well-known for his dogged opposition to abortion and birth control access, was recently confirmed as solicitor general, a position sometimes referred to as the 'tenth justice' [i.e., in addition to the nine on the Supreme Court]."

How Trump's HHS Cuts Are Another Attack On Trans People: Research on HIV prevention among trans people was already scarce, but Trump's restructuring of the health agency decimates future studies. Lil Kalish, HuffPost, Apr 29, 2025

Update: Republicans Move A Step Closer To Repealing Protections For Abortion Clinics: A bill to repeal a 30-year-old federal law that safeguards reproductive health clinics passed out of committee on Tuesday and now heads to the full House for consideration. Alanna Vagianos, HuffPost, June 11, 2025

Regarding FACE: Publishing Doctors’ Names is a Threat The Nuremberg Files was 1990s anti-abortion doxxing. Tucker Lieberman, Medium, Dec 2, 2021

HIV funding

Also today in the HuffPost, Lil Kalish writes:

"The Trump administration’s cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services make the dream of ending the HIV epidemic more unattainable than it has been in years, and public health experts warn it also marks an escalation of the president’s attacks on trans people."

"Medicaid is the largest insurer of people living with HIV, and roughly 276,000 trans people access health care through that system.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed a rule last month that would make it more difficult for low-income people to get insurance from plans covered by the Affordable Care Act — and proposed that gender-affirming care would no longer be covered as an essential health benefit, a move that could drive up medical costs for hundreds of thousands of trans Americans."

* * *

Some of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS programs, which provide direct support for people living with HIV, are completely eliminated in the draft HHS budget for next year.

* * *

'It means that free testing events, or opportunities to get PrEP ... all those different tools that we have are going to be minimized and eliminated depending on where you are in the country and what levels of access and transportation needs you have,' said Tori Cooper, director of strategic outreach and training at Human Rights Campaign."

And:

"Research on the specific challenges to HIV prevention among trans women, trans men and gender nonconforming people has only started in the last five years...and his administration has wiped dozens of web pages, studies and data sets that make any mention of gender.

... Nearly 29% of terminated grants involved research into HIV and AIDS, according to an unofficial database kept by academics tracking the cuts.

A new study from the University of Michigan shed light on the effectiveness of trans-inclusive HIV research. It found that when trans people had access to gender-affirming hormone therapy in the form of primary care, they had a 37% lower chance of getting HIV and a 44% lower chance of having the virus detectable in blood samples."

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Harvard University sues the White House

Politico explains:

"In a 51-page filing, Harvard’s lawyers argue that the funding freeze violates the First Amendment by amounting to government interference “with private actors’ speech” in order “to advance its own vision of ideological balance.” The suit further claims the Trump administration “has not — and cannot — identify any rational connection between antisemitism concerns and the medical, scientific, technological, and other research it has frozen.” The judge assigned the case is an appointee of Barack Obama, per POLITICO’s legal ace Josh Gerstein. More from The Harvard Crimson’s Dhruv Patel and Grace Yoon."

Harvard President Says University Had No 'Choice' But To Sue The Trump Administration: Donald Trump on Thursday called the elite school a "threat to Democracy." Marita Vlachou, HuffPost, Apr 24, 2025

The UK Supreme court April 16, 2025 ruling will make everything worse for trans people

Trans people in the UK are in real trouble.

“I think this will be the kicking-off point for a very enhanced push for overt restrictions on the rights of trans people,” said Victoria McCloud, who changed her legal sex more than two decades ago.

The UK’s first trans judge, she applied to intervene in the supreme court appeal but was refused. Last year she quit her job as a judge, saying her position had become “untenable” because her trans identity was viewed as a “lifestyle choice or an ideology”. She now lives in the Republic of Ireland.

McCloud said the supreme court ruling came in the midst of “a scary time” for trans people in the UK and would mark the start of a more intense fight for rights. “The rest has been phoney war. The real issues now start,” she said.

“If I was a trans person in the UK today, I would steer clear of using any loo in a public space unless it was a combined-sex loo, because I personally cannot, as of this moment, judge whether I should use the male loo or the female loo,” she said.

“I haven’t got my head around the complexities of the judgment and its repercussions will be ongoing for some time. But I’m happy I live in the Republic of Ireland, where this problem is not an issue. They know where I’m allowed to pee here.”

— Jessica Murray, ‘A huge reset’: gender-critical activists and trans rights campaigners react to supreme court ruling, The Guardian, April 16, 2025

See also:

"...they assert that no trans people will be disadvantaged by this ruling. Funny that. For, the torrent of tears in my online feed yesterday, and the long line of trans folk turning up to declare themselves in despair, in pieces, and otherwise broken by this, suggests an entire community would beg to differ."
— 'Trans People Woke Up To A Bleak New World Today. How Did We Get Here?': Campaigner jane fae examines the Supreme Court's landmark decision on how to define a woman for HuffPost UK. By TransActual director and chair of Trans Media Watch, jane fae. April 17, 2025.

Where will organized anti-trans go next?

"Scottish Greens MSP Maggie Chapman, a prominent supporter of trans rights ... said: "The response by For Women Scotland and other associated groups was very, very clear - they are taking this as a victory and that is potentially dangerous about where they go next."
— "We've already heard people say they want to repeal the gender recognition act 2004, and trans people are worried that people are coming after their right to exist.": Supreme Court ruling has dire consequences for trans people, campaigners warn. Paul O'Hare and Jonathan Geddes, BBC Scotland News, April 17, 2025

For more on the ruling, see: So Sorry About Our Coach and Horses: The UK Observer says “neigh” to trans rights, as we came too close to driving and smashing right through equalities law (9-min read), on Medium

"What Groups Were Behind The 16th April Gender Identity/Sexual Orientation Court Hearing?" Alice Snow, Medium, April 22

Shevchenko: 'Oh bury me, then rise ye up'

"A St Petersburg court has sentenced a 19-year-old woman to nearly three years in a penal colony after she was accused of repeatedly 'discrediting' the Russian army, including by gluing a quotation on a statue of a Ukrainian poet. ... Kozyreva was arrested on February 24, 2024, after she glued a verse by Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko onto his monument in St Petersburg... The verse from Shevchenko’s My Testament read, 'Oh bury me, then rise ye up / And break your heavy chains / And water with the tyrants’ blood / The freedom you have gained'..."

— Russia sentences 19-year-old woman to nearly three years in a penal colony after poetic anti-war protest, Mariya Knight and Caitlin Danaher, CNN, April 18, 2025

ICE does not care about birth certificates

Since 2008, Donald Trump has insisted that Barack Obama's birth certificate was fake.

That sort of racist nonsense has led us here today.

Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez was born in Georgia, yet he's been arrested and detained by ICE.

Read the story on HuffPost

'Free fall' in the 'whirlwind': Where we are now

"During the most unprecedented, illegal, and unconstitutional first three months in office, this regime has managed to tear down not only storied institutions and long-standing safeguards but our entire collective confidence in our government.

We are in the unknown, floating between disbelief and horror, fear and anger, unsure where to place our next dollar, what to tell our children, and how we’re supposed to proceed.

We are in total free fall."

— Melissa Corrigan, If Your Skin Is White, This Is Your Fight.: We're over the cliff. What now? Counterstory Media, Apr 16, 2025

Brian Klaas says: "Like it or not, the whirlwind is back. My unsolicited advice is this: make a deliberate plan to escape its vortex so you have the energy to push back more effectively. And remember, above all, that digital engagement matters only if it provokes real-world action."

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"The first one hundred days of this bullshit has gone exactly how this regime wanted it to. Steve Bannon calls it “flooding the zone”. Political communication expert Dannagal Young calls it a “tidal wave”. A symposium of journalists call it “weaponizing chaos and overwhelming media”."
— Who I Am, And Who I'm Not: Adjusting to this "new normal", and redefining who I can be in it. Melissa Corrigan, May 6, 2025

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We are speechless (Naomi Klein, Doppelganger) before the wreck (Jia Tolentino, Trick Mirror).

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"In a dumpster-fire world, I choose over and over again to act treasonously, which is to say, to reach. What does your treason look like? I hope this week, it looks like carrying a plant around for a day, inciting joy in strangers."
— Sara Sadek in Folkweaver, May 6, 2025

I want to remind everyone that I have a free newsletter to help U.S. people through this time. It's called Streetlights, and it's on Ghost. You just need an email address to sign up. Or you can read for free on the website without signing up for emails.

Massachusetts anti-trans law to keep kids out of sports?

My essay - April 10

I wrote: An Anti-Trans Sports Ban May Be Coming in Massachusetts (April 10, 5-min read)

Erin Reed has more info - April 11

Please also read and subscribe to Erin Reed: Massachusetts House Dems Pass Bill That Could Ban Trans Students From Sports; Senate Next. Democrats used a procedural motion to water the sports ban down rather than kill it outright out of fear of taking a vote and putting members on record. Apr 11, 2025

Reed explains that on April 9:

"...the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a $1.3 billion budget bill that included a transgender sports ban—the first such measure to pass any legislative chamber in a blue state. Rather than voting to strike down the provision, Democrats advanced an amendment allowing the ban to go into effect only after its impacts are studied."

Further, on April 10:

"...Democratic Representative Mike Connolly...was pressed on the lack of a vote to strike the sports ban. Connolly initially stated that taking such a vote “would not have advanced the interests of trans people,” and noted that Democrats did not want to proceed without “coordinating strategy with swing district Reps,” suggesting the decision to pass the sports ban language was made to protect vulnerable Democrats. When pressed further, Connolly revealed that the amendment did not receive a vote because of concerns about taking a vote “where the final tally — and the implications of that tally — are unknown,” implying that Democrats may have supported the sports ban outright had it come to a vote.

This outcome is deeply troubling. Sports bans have been introduced in nearly every state, and across the country—even in deep-red legislatures—Democrats have consistently voted in unified opposition. Earlier this year, every single Democrat in Montana, a state with a Republican trifecta, stood against such a ban and were unafraid of taking that vote. In contrast, Massachusetts Democrats, rather than taking a public vote to defend transgender youth, chose to shield their vulnerable members by advancing a study provision that leaves the door open to future enforcement."

Also

High School Runner Slams 'Bully' GOP Lawmaker For Attacking Race's Trans Winner: “I feel like a happy day was turned ugly by a bully who is using children to make political points,” Anelise Feldman, who finished second in the race, wrote of state Rep. Laurel Libby. Nina Golgowski, HuffPost, May 16, 2025

Many people want to destroy everything rather than share it

I've blogged a bit about U.S. fascism (2024, 2019)

Christina Greer says this now ("Black Americans Are Not Surprised", New York Times, April 7):

"...this moment, the one that was explicitly promised by Project 2025 and Donald Trump when he was a candidate, looks a lot like what my grandmother experienced every day for much of her life. It is frightening and disappointing but not surprising if one knows anything about the Black experience in America. And not the sanitized just-so version of the Black experience in which America skips from slavery, Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass to civil rights, Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks and somehow ends with a postracial America and Barack Obama."

Some people are eager "to burn this country to the ground before they share it with those deemed other and unworthy," and this threatens everyone. Everyone has to reckon with this. Otherwise we won't survive, let alone learn and move forward.

"I find myself reminding those who are surprised by this moment that my still very spry mother attended legally mandated segregated schools her entire life. The past has somehow turned into prologue, and the head-scratching of many tells me there is a fundamental lack of understanding of this country and what Americans are capable of."

Black women warned everyone:

"People like Stacey Abrams, Vice President Kamala Harris and Representative Maxine Waters walked all of us through the political, social and economic ramifications of a second Trump term. Higher Heights for America mobilized for candidates across the country to help energize and educate the electorate."

Greer's books:

Black ethnics: race, immigration, and the pursuit of the American dream is at the Brooklyn Public Library.

Mahmoud v. Taylor (SCOTUS case): Whether parents can opt out kids from LGBTQ stories

"Mahmoud v. Taylor is a pending United States Supreme Court case about parents who wish to opt their children out of LGBTQ-themed storybooks in public schools." (Wikipedia)

"In a country where Muslims and LGBTQI+ students alike are being targeted simply for being who they are, it is more important than ever that our taxpayer-funded public schools are learning environments that are safe and respectful of all students no matter who they are or what they believe. But right now, a few Maryland parents, with the backing of the federal government under Trump, are asking the Supreme Court to give them the power to shield their children from any acknowledgment of LGBTQI+ existence in public school.

That’s why A4TE filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Mahmoud v Taylor on Wednesday [April 9] on behalf of eight organizations including Queer Crescent, Al-Wāsi’ Collective, Atlanta Unity Mosque, Queer Muslims of Boston (QMOB), and other groups with LGBTQI+ Muslims among their members in support of Montgomery County Public Schools’ decision to include LGBTQI+-inclusive storybooks in elementary language arts classes. In it, we share a vision of real religious liberty—one that supports and includes trans and queer children and families.

— Gabriel Arkles, A4TE Co-Interim Legal Director, A4TE email, April 11, 2025

Georgia HB 177: Family judges could include pets in protective orders from abuse

A proposed law in Georgia:

"Fear of losing the pets kept Heatherland in the relationship longer than they otherwise would have stayed, they said. But the General Assembly recently approved legislation that could have made it easier for Heatherland and others to leave abusive partners.

If Gov. Brian Kemp signs House Bill 177, people who’ve experienced domestic violence could ask judges to include family pets in temporary protective orders. The bill passed both chambers with overwhelming support.

House Public and Community Health Chairwoman Sharon Cooper, a Marietta Republican, said she sponsored the bill because it has become more common for abusers to threaten the pets as a way to keep victims from leaving. Abusers know how important pets have become, she said.

* * *

If HB 177 becomes law, it would create a space on the form to allow those petitioning for a temporary protective order to indicate they would like to include a pet. HB 177 would then allow a judge to determine plans for a pet when deciding to grant a temporary protective order. Judges would not be required to include a pet in their order."

— "Georgia judges could include family pets in domestic violence restraining orders under new bill: Victims sometimes stay in abusive relationships to remain with a beloved pet, advocates say." Maya T. Prabhu, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 9, 2025

Learn about your options if you're seeking child custody with a concern about domestic abuse in Georgia.

Arkansas already allows a judge to give an abuser's pet to someone who seeks an order of protection.

Jesse Watters: Using a computer turns a man into a woman

So, you see, women who work in offices emit estrogen like a pheromone, and it's contagious to men, and they can catch it and turn into women.

But, you also see, people who take hormones for gender-affirming reasons do not succeed in affirming their gender if they're trans. Cross-sex only works if you're a man "sitting behind a screen all day" and suffering the undesired effects. It doesn't work if you want it to work and try to make it work.

This Fox News Host Just Dropped Another Mind-Boggling Take On Masculinity And It's Getting Weird: The Fox News host seems to have gender issues when he’s talking about gender issues. Ron Dicker, BuzzFeed, April 8, 2025

He's staying in the news: Jesse Watters Defends Birther Conspiracy Theory: 'We Didn't Want To Kill Barack Obama': The Fox News host argued Wednesday that conservatives have more empathy than leftists and cited a racist theory against his former president as an example. Marco Margaritoff, HuffPost, Apr 10, 2025

The tariffs are sanctions, but you still have to pay for them

Arthur Delaney reports for HuffPost:

“They didn’t actually calculate tariff rates + non-tariff barriers, as they say they did,” Surowiecki wrote. “Instead, for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country’s exports to us.”

In other words, the supposedly reciprocal tariffs, which are supposed to combat arbitrary foreign barriers to U.S. goods, are themselves based on an arbitrary formula.

White House Used 'Embarrassing' Formula To Come Up With Tariffs: Economists mocked the Trump administration's methods for calculating taxes on imports from abroad. Arthur Delaney, HuffPost, Apr 3, 2025

These tariffs are meant as sanctions.

They’re Not Tariffs, They’re Sanctions: Stop trying to place coherence on a policy that’s really just a mob boss breaking legs and asking for protection money. David Dayen | The American Prospect | April 3, 2025

Trump’s Tariffs Give Him a New Way to Dole Out Reward and Punishment: The president’s latest power grab will devastate America’s economy—and its democracy. Pama Levy| Mother Jones | April 3, 2025

NEW: There's no reason to act like Trump is pursuing a trade policy or an industrial revitalization strategy. These are just sanctions, imposed to intimidate countries and companies into submission like they're universities or law firms. They're what a mob boss would do. prospect.org/economy/2025...

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— David Dayen (@ddayen.bsky.social) April 3, 2025 at 11:00 AM

But they're still taxes because you still have to pay for them.

We all share the same Earth, so when you sanction others, you sanction yourself.

Nothing makes sense:

I'm sorry, but isn't this just the Cultural Revolution 2.0? Why on earth would fired aid workers and NIH medical researchers go to work on assembly lines for worse salaries in jobs they don't know how to do? Why are they getting their economic policy from Mao?

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— Patrick Meyers (@pmeyers7.bsky.social) April 7, 2025 at 11:23 AM

"A significant number of Trump’s appointees come from finance, not manufacturing or technology. They didn’t make their money providing real services; they made it by buying during the dips and plundering every last crevice of American life. The last major recession, in 2008, was devastating for ordinary Americans and the petty bourgeoisie. For billionaires, it was the greatest wealth accumulation opportunity in thirty years. This time, there won’t be a moderate Democratic president in charge to check their worst impulses. This time, they’ll be fully in control, free to buy up as much of the economy as they want, a feeding frenzy without end.

This is why the billionaire class went all in on Trump. They know his proposed economic policies will lead to another recession. In fact, they’re banking on it."

— Anthony Reimer. Elon Musk's DOGE Is Following A Familiar — And Horrifying — Playbook. Bad Faith Times. April 9, 2025.

Martin Edic, quoting Politico Playbook:

“Part of the problem … is that there’s little sign of movement so far on the dozens of trade deals Trump promised to sign to alleviate the impact of his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs. It’s now been 11 days since White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told us it was perfectly possible to sign 90 different trade deals during the 90-day reciprocal tariff pause — and so far, there has not been a single one.”
~ from Politico Playbook, April, 22, 2025

Today, JD Vance is in India, primarily to make a deal on tariffs, a deal the Trump administration desperately needs to show progress on their Liberation Day plan to extort trade deals from any country that will bite. But so far only India is taking the bait and even that is not a given.

Remember, only a few weeks ago Trump claimed the phones were ringing off the hook with countries and business interests ‘begging’ for deals, yet we have not seen a single one. What we have seen is scary as hell.

— Martin Edic, The Witness Chronicles, 4/22/25: No deals, and the weeping of DefSec Hegseth. Apr 22, 2025

Trump Claims He’s Personally Made 200 Trade Deals Even Though Zero Have Been Announced, Sara Boboltz, HuffPost, Apr 25, 2025

Truly bonkers that it's not a bigger deal that Trump straight up lied about Xi calling him. And it wasn't a misunderstanding. Look at the transcript! He's just straight up lying about top-level diplomatic efforts affecting every corner of our economy and millions of people's jobs.

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— D Lavoie (@djlavoie.bsky.social) April 27, 2025 at 3:07 PM

This isn't real! I know what I know! (like, Invasion of the Body Snatchers)

An anecdote:

"Mr. C, an elegant retired art dealer, was hospitalized overnight with a small stroke. The next morning, he felt well and was discharged. Within moments of returning home, he phoned my office in a panic. He was certain that his favorite antique desk had been replaced by a cheap Levitz reproduction. * * * "Yes, I admit that it is physically impossible that the desk has been replaced. But it has. You have to take my word for it. I know real when I see real, and this desk isn't real." He ran his hand along the grain, repeatedly fingering a couple of prominent wormholes. "It's funny," he said with a puzzled expression. "These are exact replicas of the holes in my desk. But they don't feel the least bit familiar. No," he announced emphatically, "someone must have replaced it." He then delivered the cognitive checkmate: "After all, I know what I know."
— Robert A. Burton. On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2008. pp. 16-17.

This anecdote reminded me of this story:

What We Fear From the ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’. In 1954, it was a novel. Now it’s a handful of films. Still scary? (4 min read) Tucker Lieberman, The Shadow, Feb 2, 2021

They always planned Trump's installation. Our power lies in organizing.

"2023 was one of the worst years of my life. I had anticipatory grief for my father, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer that spring (this is mentioned briefly in the book, so I can mention it here, I suppose). I had anticipatory grief for my homeland, because officials do not let a seditionist run, unpunished, for president, unless the plan is reinstallation."
— "Someday, This Will Only Be a Memory" On my new book, and cold and warm comforts. Sarah Kendzior, Apr 1, 2025

Trump always plans to win before the die is cast. He plans to win arguments before going to court.

The fake presidency is all about revenge..... 'Message was clear': DC insider slams Trump plan to 'win before anyone sets foot in court' www.rawstory.com/message-was-...

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— skippyoz (@skippyoz.bsky.social) March 22, 2025 at 5:43 PM

"I can sum up the Trump/Musk/Vance theory of power in five words: "We have power; you don't." Alternative version in six words: "we can do anything we want." They seem to believe that nothing is really connected to anything else and nothing should be. This is why they're hacking away at the US government and international alliances and good relationships with everything and everyone from the European Union to Canada and Mexico to a whole lot of the American people. They think they can go it alone.

* * *

These isolationists confuse coercion with power and cooperation with weakness, when in truth it is more or less the other way around. Coercion and violence are what you resort to when you have failed at convincing and allying and negotiating. Meanwhile our power lies in cooperation and connection, those of us who are still striving toward a more perfect union. We now must do it by opposing and obstructing the attempt to shatter and corrupt that union. We have power, and our power arises when we connect, when we join organizations like Indivisible (whose very name proclaims this truth), when we come together as civil society, when we act together to protect the vulnerable, to defend what we love."

— Rebecca Solnit, "No One Knows How This Will End (But I Do Not Think It Will End Well for Them)," Meditations in an Emergency, 16 Feb 2025

Solnit recommends these books:

Charlie Angus: 'We see Kristi Noem doing this really disgusting video'

In January 2025, Kristi Noem was confirmed as Homeland Security Secretary.

And in March, here we are:

"This video, posted by Kristi Noem, provoked in me a visceral reaction. I hesitate to post this image because as a student of Holocaust studies, I know how even gazing on images like this can further the dehumanization of prisoners subjected to these conditions. But I also know that those who have the power to do something also have the obligation not to look away.

The juxtaposition of Noem, with her hair and makeup done in the latest Republican style, with earrings dangling and sporting a (reportedly) $60,000 Rolex, against the backdrop of men seized and detained without due process..." (Kristin Du Mez, Mar 27, 2025)

On March 28, Canadian lawmaker Charlie Angus said Canadians are paying attention as they are "watching our nearest neighbor slip into totalitarianism." He said, reported by HuffPost:

“When we see people being pulled off the streets, when we see people at universities being grabbed, detained, rendered and kidnapped, and when we see Kristi Noem doing this really disgusting video in front of half-naked men in an overcrowded El Salvadoran prison cell...We’re looking at a nation that we don’t understand anymore and we don’t want to be like that nation and we’re thinking, ‘If we go down the road with this regime, we’re talking about the disappearance of the rule of law.’”

She shot her dog

My poem: Cricket’s Still Alive: Out of the gravel pit, up into the light. Tucker Lieberman, May 7, 2024

And this happened:

The governor of South Dakota is forbidden from setting foot on 20% of South Dakota. I'm sorry, but that's just hysterical. Maybe if she had spent more time building trust and connections at home instead of slathering herself with Trumpish obsequience to the maga cult she wouldn't have this problem.

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— Kelly Barnhill (@kellybarnhill.bsky.social) May 15, 2024 at 11:32 AM